276 THE GOLD REGION. 



VII. 



To me thrice welcome then, ye prairies wild ! 



Midnight, and gloom, and solitude, ye please 

 My restless fancy ! Welcome then your child ! — 



For here's my home. And so, with mind at ease, 

 I will embrace my mother earth, and court 



The soothing power of sleep. The clear blue sky 



My canopy, the ground my bed, I lie 

 Encurtain'd by the pale moon-beams, which sport 



Beside my lowly couch, and light the dew 

 With mimic diamonds' glow — while flowers around 



My pillow'd head their willing incense strew. 

 And the sweet dreaming bird anon doth sound 



Some isolated note of melody ! — 



Thus chamber'd here, may not kings envy me ? 



My return to camp the next day served to quiet the apprehensions that 

 had been experienced on my account during the interim. 



This excursion took me some fifteen miles eastward, to the head waters 

 of the Kansas river. The country in that neighborhood wore a barren 

 aspect, and was generally sandy and undulating. 



I noticed a kind of mineral substance, of a jetty lustrous appearance, 

 which I took to be black-lead. I also remarked certain indications of gold, 

 but whether this metal actually exists here I am unable to say ; yet true it 

 is, the surface affords large quantities of " gold blossom," and it is said 

 also, that gold has been found in these parts. 



The region lying upon the head branches of the Kansas river is con- 

 sidered very dangerous, — it being the war-ground of the Pawnees, Caws, 

 Chyennes, Sioux, and Arapahos, — and hence comparatively little is known 

 of its character and resources. It is represented as quite sandy and 

 sterile back from the watercourses, and in many other places but little 

 better than a desert waste. The gold story alluded to in the preceding 

 paragraph came to me from various sources, in the following shape : 



Some tvv'etity years since, while the Arapahos were at hostilities with 

 the whites, a war-party of that tribe advanced against the Pav/nees, led on 

 by a noted chief, called " Whirlwind," Three only of them had guns, and 

 they soon expended their stock of bullets in shooting small game, there be- 

 ing no buftalo upon the route. Finally, left without any thing to ear, they 

 became discouraged, and a council was held to discuss the expediency of 

 relinquishing the expedition. 



Having seated themselves upon a small eminence, the question of return 

 was debated with great earnestness, — a majority being in the affirmative. 

 But the head chiel, " Whirlwind," bringing all liis eloquence to bear upon 

 the opposite side, at last obtained their consent to proceed. 



During the conference, several small pieces of a glittering yellow sub- 

 stance were discovered upon the surface, which proved soft and easily 

 worked into any shape. From those a supply of bullets was procured, 

 and, resuming their course, they soon after m.-t the Pawnees, with whom 



