SOS A BROKEN COMPAlVT. 



|lace to friendship, and the two parties negotiated an immodiate anion 

 Sinee then they have been considered as one nation. 



What is most singular in tliis occurrence, neitlier the Groe Ventres nor 

 Chyennes could trace any previous connection or intercourse with each 

 Other, or knowledge of their individual existence. 



This tribe has made no advances in civilization, and most probably will 

 m&ke none for many years to come. Their roving and unsettled habits 

 Drove an obstacle, almost insuperable, to any efibrts tliat may be underta- 

 ken for their improvement. 



They are generally accourited friendly to the whites, but friendshin like 

 this is essentially of a dangerous character. 



Continuing our journey, the evening of Sept. 2d brought us to Fort 

 Lancaster, after an interval of twenty-six days, during which we had 

 travelled not far from seven hundred and twenty miles. 



Our route from Ciia-bvHiard's camp to this point, for the most part, led 

 along the valley of the Platte, which resembled a garden in the splendor of 

 its fields and die variety of its flowers. 



A ride of four or five miles took us across the dry bed of a largo land- 

 creek, four or five hnndred yards wide, known as tlie Kuyawa. The banks 

 of tills arroyo are very steep and high, disclosing, now and then, spreads of 

 beautiful bottom lands with occasional groves of cottonwwid. At this 8ea« 

 son of the year its watery are lost in the quicksand and gravel. 



We also passed the mout^is of three large affluents of the right bank 

 of Plattej severally known as Crow creek, Cache a la Poudre, and Thomp- 

 son's Fork. 



These creeks rise in the adjoining mountains, and, with the exception of 

 Crov,' creek; trace their v/ay with clear and rapid currents, from two to 

 three feet deep and sixty feet wide, over beds of sand and pebbles. Their 

 valleys are broad, rich, and for the most part well timbered. 



Timber increases in quantity, upon tlie Platte and its aiHuents, as the 

 traveller approaches the mountains, and the soil gradually loses that with 

 ering aridity so characteristic of tfie grand pmirie. 



Tv.elve miles below Fort Lancaster we passed Fori George, a large 

 trading post kept up by Bent and St. Vrain. Its size rather exceeds that of 

 JFort Platte, previously described; it is built, however, after tlie same 

 fasUion,-— as, in fact, are all the regular trading posts in the country. At 

 thi» time, fifteen or twenty men were stationed there, under tlie command 

 of Mr. Marsalina St. Vrain. 



Six miles further on, we came to a recently deserted post, which bad 

 been occupied the previous winter and summer by Messrs Lock and Ran- 

 dolph. 



One of our party, a whilom engage of tliis company, informed me of its 

 principals' becoming bankrupt, through mismanagement and losses of various 

 kinds; — he stated, Siat. in May last, their entire "cavalUard," consistmgol 

 forty-five head of horses and mules, had been stolen by the Sioux Indians j 

 this, in connection with otlier bad luck — together with the depreciated value 

 of furs and peltries, the failure of a boat-load of robes to reach the 

 States, the urgent demands of creditors, &lc.; had caused them to evacuate 

 their post and quit the country. 



