﻿336 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



the boat was " fired up," our crew and passengers' names were 

 called over, the fastenings were unloosed, and our craft quietly floated 

 away down the river, being saluted by a volley from the fort, and 

 that never-to-be-forgotten yell of the assembled multitude of Indians 

 on shore. I must say that I was glad to get on our voyage down 

 stream, and yet I left many things with real regret. It had been, at 

 any rate, an interesting home to me, and I had learned and seen 

 many characteristics of the Indians, which to me were valuable, 

 and worth much, toil and privation. I had learned to look upon 

 the cruelties of the ignorant savages with considerable more chanty 

 than disdain, to remember the amount of light which has been shed 

 into their homes and haunts, and to compare their religion with that 

 of the white men. I can now value, as I never valued before be- 

 cause I could never realize their true dispositions before I say, I can 

 now value the advantages of civilization, which fall so profusely 

 among the youth of the United States ; and they ought to be thank- 

 ful that it was their lot to be born in a civilized land. 



I will not tire my readers with a description of our voyage home, 

 inasmuch as everything seemed to be exactly as it appeared on my 

 trip up, one year previous. Almost every bend in the river was 

 remembered, and I found I could tell the names of most of the rivers 

 that emptied into the Missouri, as we passed their mouths. 



Nothing of a serious nature happened to our boat during the 

 whole voyage, and at the end of five weeks we arrived at St. Louis. 

 There we took another boat, and in a few days reached home, after 

 an absence of nearly a year and a half. 



