t resources, self-dependence, and fearlessness of spirit. In
fact, no one can cope with him as a stark tramper of the wilderness."

Beside the two classes of trappers just mentioned, Captain Bonneville
had enlisted several Delaware Indians in his employ, on whose hunting
qualifications he placed great reliance.

On the 6th of May the travellers passed the last border habitation,
and bade a long farewell to the ease and security of civilization. The
buoyant and clamorous spirits with which they had commenced their march
gradually subsided as they entered upon its difficulties. They found
the prairies saturated with the heavy cold rains, prevalent in certain
seasons of the year in this part of the country, the wagon wheels sank
deep in the mire, the horses were often to the fetlock, and both steed
and rider were completely jaded by the evening of the 12th, when they
reached the Kansas River; a fine stream about three hundred yards wide,
entering the Missouri from the south. Though fordable in almost every
part at the end of summer and during the autumn, yet it was necessary to
construct a raft for the transportation of the wagons and effects. All
this was done in the course of the following day, and by evening, the
whole party arrived at the agency of the Kansas tribe. This was under
the superintendence of General Clarke, brother of the celebrated
traveller of the same name, who, with Lewis, made the first expedition
down the waters of the Columbia. He was living like a patriarch,
surrounded by laborers and interpreters, all snugly housed, and provided
with excellent farms. The functionary next in consequence to the
agent was the blacksmith, a most important, and, indeed, indispensable
personage in a frontier community. The Kansas resemble the Osages in
features, dress, and language; they raise corn and hunt the buffalo,
ranging the Kansas River, and its tributary streams; at the time of the
captain's visit, they were at war with the Pawnees of the Nebraska, or
Platte River.

The unusual sight of a train of wagons caused quite a sensation among
these savages; who thronged about the caravan, examining everything
minutely, and asking a thousand questions: exhibiting a degree of
excitability, and a lively curiosity totally opposite to that apathy
with which their race is so often reproached.

The personage who most attracted the captain's attention at this place
was "White Plume," the Kansas chief, and they soon became go