INDIAN AGENTS. 295 



and what he now wanted was, that I should allow him to go 

 with me till a chance occurred of sending him to Butte City, 

 where he said he had friends. One more or less in camp 

 could make no difference, so I bought him a pony and saddle 

 and bridle, and we started together on the second day, Major 

 Reed going with us, driving his waggon and taking my things. 

 My companion had nothing to carry but a mackintosh sheet and 

 what he stood up in. I should have mentioned that his name 

 was Symonds. 



We had about forty miles to do, expecting to find Colonel 



P camped at the entrance to the Judith Basin. The first 



day out we saw no game larger than grouse, the country being 

 rolling prairie with wooded hills every few miles, and we had 

 to camp early as there was no water for some distance ahead ; 

 and after supper Major Reed gave us his experiences, which were 

 very varied, as he had begun life as a shop-boy, then enlisted 

 and fought through the war, and at the end of it, when he was 

 a lieutenant, he had been made an Indian agent, and hence the 

 brevet rank of major, this being what agents are always 

 called. He certainly opened my eyes to the way in which 

 Indians were treated, telling us that though an agent's pay was 

 only three hundred a year, yet he must be a fool (or an honest 

 man, which terms he considered synonymous) if he did not 

 make twenty thousand pounds during the five years for which 

 he held his appointment. He told us that he had often landed 

 one half of a steamboat load of flour on the bank of the river, 

 bringing on the other half and giving it to the Indians as all 

 that had been sent, and then had returned and fetched the second 

 half, and sold it as his own, always selling as well half of the 

 coats, blankets, socks, &c., which were forwarded for them. 



