EIvDORADO 257 



themselves, as the Eustice party afterwards did, with 

 their dead mules and baggage. Here they made a 

 brave fight, but were at last compelled to succumb to 

 the same enemy that afterwards vanquished Eustice, 

 and packing all their money upon their backs they 

 stole out of camp during the night, and retreated to- 

 wards the Arkansas river. 



When this was reached, they found that they were 

 unable to carry their money any further, and they 

 cached it on the west bank of the river, where it was 

 recovered the next year intact, not a single dollar 

 missing. A brawny Englishman carried, to the last, 

 his share of the money, some seventeen hundred silver 

 dollars — in weight, about a hundred pounds. He de- 

 clared that he'd just as lief be dead, as to be without 

 ready money, and that while he lived he would carry 

 it. Most of the company became exhausted from 

 famine. Two of the most hardy hastened forward for 

 succor. 



These were Thomas Ellison, of Cooper countv, and 

 Bryant of Boone countv, IVTissouri. At Council Grove, 

 Kansas — then in the wilderness — they managed to kill 

 a bird, either a crow or a buzzard, and, after a feast 

 upon this obscene fowl, they were able to push on to 

 the settlements on the border, where they obtained 

 aid for their dying comrades.. All of these were in 

 a pitiable plight, when rescued. One of them named 

 Harriman. a resident of Chariton countv, Missouri, 

 had become perfectly blind and when found was Iving 

 upon his back endeavoring to beat ofif, with a stick, 

 the swarming covotes. which from his cadaverous ap- 

 pearance, and their determined attacks, seemed to 

 17 fancy him already legitimate prey. 



