, striking the St. Joseph's trail, we turned our horses'
heads toward Fort Laramie, then about seven hundred miles to the
westward.

CHAPTER V

"THE BIG BLUE"

The great medley of Oregon and California emigrants, at their camps
around Independence, had heard reports that several additional parties
were on the point of setting out from St. Joseph's farther to the
northward. The prevailing impression was that these were Mormons,
twenty-three hundred in number; and a great alarm was excited in
consequence. The people of Illinois and Missouri, who composed by far
the greater part of the emigrants, have never been on the best terms
with the "Latter Day Saints"; and it is notorious throughout the country
how much blood has been spilt in their feuds, even far within the limits
of the settlements. No one could predict what would be the result, when
large armed bodies of these fanatics should encounter the most impetuous
and reckless of their old enemies on the broad prairie, far beyond the
reach of law or military force. The women and children at Independence
raised a great outcry; the men themselves were seriously alarmed; and,
as I learned, they sent to Colonel Kearny, requesting an escort of
dragoons as far as the Platte. This was refused; and as the sequel
proved, there was no occasion for it. The St. Joseph's emigrants were as
good Christians and as zealous Mormon-haters as the rest; and the very
few families of the "Saints" who passed out this season by the route of
the Platte remained behind until the great tide of emigration had gone
by; standing in quite as much awe of the "gentiles" as the latter did of
them.

We were now, as I before mentioned, upon this St. Joseph's trail. It was
evident, by the traces, that large parties were a few days in advance of
us; and as we too supposed them to be Mormons, we had some apprehension
of interruption.

The journey was somewhat monotonous. One day we rode on for hours,
without seeing a tree or a bush; before, behind, and on either side,
stretched the vast expanse, rolling in a succession of graceful swells,
covered with the unbroken carpet of fresh green grass. Here and there a
crow, or a raven, or a turkey-buzzard, relieved the uniformity.

"What shall we do to-night for wood and water?" we began to ask of each
other; for the sun was within an hour of setting. At length a dark green
speck appeared, far off on the right; it was the top of a tree, peering
over a swel