gust and astonishment. They seemed by no means to relish this
foretaste of what was before them. Mine, in particular, had conceived a
moral aversion to the prairie life. One of them, christened Hendrick,
an animal whose strength and hardihood were his only merits, and who
yielded to nothing but the cogent arguments of the whip, looked toward
us with an indignant countenance, as if he meditated avenging his
wrongs with a kick. The other, Pontiac, a good horse, though of plebeian
lineage, stood with his head drooping and his mane hanging about his
eyes, with the grieved and sulky air of a lubberly boy sent off to
school. Poor Pontiac! his forebodings were but too just; for when I last
heard from him, he was under the lash of an Ogallalla brave, on a war
party against the Crows.

As it grew dark, and the voices of the whip-poor-wills succeeded the
whistle of the quails, we removed our saddles to the tent, to serve as
pillows, spread our blankets upon the ground, and prepared to bivouac
for the first time that season. Each man selected the place in the
tent which he was to occupy for the journey. To Delorier, however, was
assigned the cart, into which he could creep in wet weather, and find a
much better shelter than his bourgeois enjoyed in the tent.

The river Kansas at this point forms the boundary line between the
country of the Shawanoes and that of the Delawares. We crossed it on
the following day, rafting over our horses and equipage with much
difficulty, and unloading our cart in order to make our way up the steep
ascent on the farther bank. It was a Sunday morning; warm, tranquil and
bright; and a perfect stillness reigned over the rough inclosures
and neglected fields of the Delawares, except the ceaseless hum and
chirruping of myriads of insects. Now and then, an Indian rode past on
his way to the meeting-house, or through the dilapidated entrance of
some shattered log-house an old woman might be discerned, enjoying all
the luxury of idleness. There was no village bell, for the Delawares
have none; and yet upon that forlorn and rude settlement was the same
spirit of Sabbath repose and tranquillity as in some little New England
village among the mountains of New Hampshire or the Vermont woods.

Having at present no leisure for such reflections, we pursued our
journey. A military road led from this point to Fort Leavenworth, and
for many miles the farms and cabins of the Delawares were scattered
at short interval