were afraid of the smallpox. We passed a
spot where there was a board put up, & this information upon it, that a
man was found here on the 17th, horribly murdered, with wounds of a
knife, & buckshot, his shirt was lying there, with the blood & wounds
upon it, he was buried near by, it stated by whom &c. I have never
learned any more, but I hope the murderer may meet his reward, sooner or
later. [May 24--41st day] The day being clear & still, as we passed over
the 16 mile desert, to the head waters of the L. Blue[41]; we saw a
mirage, at first we thought we were near a pond of water which we saw
just over the ridge, & remarked that the guide had said there was no
water here; but when we came near, it was gone, and then suspecting what
it was, we looked around (for here you can see any distance in all
directions) we saw beautiful streams, bordered with trees, small lakes,
with islands, & once on looking back, we saw several men in the road,
who looked to be 15 ft tall, & once or twice we saw what appeared to be
large & stately buildings. Met a company of fur traders with 16 waggons
loaded with buffalo robes, they were very singular in appearence looking
like so many huge elephants, & the men, except 2, were half breeds; &
indians, & a rougher looking set, I never saw; & their teams which were
cattle, looked about used up; quite warm to day, crossed the last branch
of the Little Blue, it was dry and good crossing, we went on some 3
miles, and encamped near some small ponds of water, no wood, only what
we could find at old camping places; we had brought a little water in
our kegs, made some coffe[e], & just as we were done supper, the sun was
declining in the west, making thing[s] appear very distinctly on the
horizon, when there was an animal discovered, feeding on the plain, not
far distant. 2 of our men went in persuit, and after some time, returned
with a quarter of fresh meat, which they said was antelope; but asking
them why they did not bring more, & they making rather a vague reply,
and not being anyways anxious to have any of it cooked, & from certain
sly looks which they exchanged, I began to think something was wrong
about it, at length one went out in the morning [May 25--42nd day] and
found it to be an old sheep left from some drove, which was probably
unable to travel, but the sport was that they thinking it was an
antelope, and it being so dark that they could not see distinctly, &
knowing that they were hard t