ANTICIPATIONS. 3 



America, could tell me not a jot more than I knew 

 myself as to what I should do or have to do. They said 

 that " there were buffaloes on the plains, wildfowl in the 

 lakes and rivers, and feathered game upon the lands," 

 and that these " could be killed by pulling triggers ; " 

 but how they could be reached, and at what cost, never 

 came within the scope of their information. . In my thirst 

 for intelligence of this sort I found a work, wherein the 

 author assured his readers that he had passed a delightful, 

 romantic, and even graceful life with a tribe of Indians 

 rejoicing in the name of Pawnees, and partaken with 

 satisfaction of the delicacies of reeking livers torn raw 

 from the bosoms of buffaloes ; on reading which (with 

 the exception of having no desire for the food alluded to) 

 I had dreams of attaching myself to the Pawnee tribe, 

 and of falling in love with the chief's daughter, and 

 wedding her for a time by the religious and august cere 

 mony of tying a mule up to her father's hut. I say that 

 I had dreams of this, but not the slightest desire that 

 those dreams should be fulfilled. How I read of these 

 Pawnees, and what I found the Pawnees really to be, 

 must remain to be told in other portions of my narrative. 

 Some gentlemen said they had killed the grizzly bear by 

 " stalking him ; " others cried " that shooting buffalo 

 was nothing better nor more wild than walking up to 

 and shooting oxen in a farmyard." Whether I found 

 this bovine assertion to be correct or not my readers will 

 ascertain when the buffalo or bison hunt comes before 

 them, in its double view of the " still hunt" or stalk, and 

 " the run on horseback." In short, I found many gentle 

 men who, having, according to their account of the 

 matter, done everything, had forgotten to take notice of 

 the method, cost, and practice, the all in all as to future 



