PLATTE RIVER AND ITS VICINITY. 35 



of an invading army, swept onward its desolating course, leaving in its 

 track naught save a blackened waste of smoking ruins ! 



Altogether, it was a sublime spectacle, a stupendous scene, grand and 

 imposing beyond description, and terrible in its beauty ! Commingled with 

 sensations of wonder and admiration, it tended to impress the beholder with 

 feelings of painful melancholy. The broad expanse, but a few moments 

 since arrayed in all the mourning grandeur of fading autumn, was now a 

 naked desert, and every vestige of loveliness in an instant snatched from 

 view! 



How sudden, how awful, how marked the change ! and yet, how mag- 

 nificent in its career, though doleful its sequel ! 



We were speedily under way, with as much earnestness of advance as 

 that of righteous Lot, in his escape from burning Sodom.* For a while 

 the pursuing enemy kept even pace, and threatened to overtake us, till, 

 headed by the strong wind, which meanwhile had changed its course, it 

 began to slacken its speed and abate its greediness. 



About sunrise we crossed the regular Pawnee trails, (leading to and from 

 their hunting grounds, which bore the appearance of being much fre- 

 quented,) and at 10 o'clock, A. M., reached the Platte river, having trav- 

 elled a distance of thirty miles without halting. 



The mountain road strikes the above stream at lat. 40° 41' 06" north, 

 long. 99'^ 17'' 47"' west from Greenwich, some twenty miles below the 

 head of Grand Island. This island is densely wooded and broad, and extends 

 for fifty or sixty miles in length. The river banks are very sparsely tim- 

 bered, a deficiency we had occasion to remark during the remainder of our 

 journey. 



The valley of the Platte at this place is six or seven miles wide, and the 

 river itself between one and two miles from bank to bank. Its waters are 

 very shallow, and are scattered over their broad bed in almost innumera- 

 ble channels, nearly obscured by the naked sand-bars that bechequer its 

 entire course through the grand prairie. Its peculiarity in this respect 

 gave birth to the name of Platte, (shallow.) which it received from the 

 French, and Chartre, (surface,) from the Mexicans, — the Indians, accord- 

 ing to Washington Irving, calling it Nehraska,\ a term synonymous with 

 that of the French and Americans, — however, I am ignorant in reference 

 to the latter. 



* The great peril of our situation, and the pressing necessity of a Imrried flight, 

 may be readily inferred from the fact, that one waggon was freighted with a 

 large quantity of gunpowder. None of us were quite so brave or present-minded as 

 several Mexicans, in the employ of Messrs. Bent & St. Vrain, on an occasion some- 

 what similar. While journeying across the grand prairies, the powder-waggon acci- 

 dentally caught fire, which was noticed immediately by the Mexican attendants, who 

 hurriedly clasped it upon all sides, to prevent the vehicle from being blown to pieces, 

 while one of them proceeded deliberately to extinguish the flames ! Neither could 

 we stand comparison w-ith a lieutenant of the Mexican army, at Santa Fe, who, on 

 opening a keg of powder, made use of a red-hot irox in lieu of an auger, for that 

 purpose. It is needless to say, a tremendous explosion followed. Several of the by- 

 standers were killed, but the lieutenant miraculously escaped. He soon after receiv- 

 ed a Captain's commission from the Commander-in-chief, in consideration of hia 

 indomitable courage ! 



t The Sioux have bestowed the appellation of Duck river upon the North Fork of 

 Platte. 



