IN THE OLD WEST 323 



kansa, at a point previously fixed upon for their 

 first camp. Here the oxen were unyoked, and 

 the wagons drawn up so as to form three sides 

 of a small square. The women then descended 

 from their seats, and prepared the evening meal. 

 A huge fire was kindled before the wagons, and 

 round this the whole party collected; whilst large 

 kettles of coffee boiled on it, and hoe-cakes baked 

 upon the embers. 



The women were sadly down-hearted, as well 

 they might be, with the dreary prospect before 

 them ; and poor Mary, when she saw the Mormon 

 encampment shut out from her sight by the roll- 

 ing bluffs, and nothing before her but the bleak 

 barren prairie, could not divest herself of the 

 idea that she had looked for the last time on civil- 

 ized fellow-creatures, and fairly burst into tears. 



In the morning the heavy wagons rolled on 

 again across the upland prairies, to strike the trail 

 used by the traders in passing from the south fork 

 of the Platte to the Arkansa. They had for 

 guide a Canadian voyageur, who had been in the 

 service of the Indian traders, and knew the route 

 well, and who had agreed to pilot them to Fort 

 Lancaster, on the north fork of the Platte. Their 

 course led for about thirty miles up the Boiling 

 Spring River, whence they pursued a north- 

 easterly course to the dividing ridge which sepa- 

 rates the waters of the Platte and Arkansa. Their 

 progress was slow, for the ground was saturated 



