PLATTE RITER AND ITS VICINITT. W 



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

 track naught save a blackened waste of smoking ruins ! 



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

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

 eensations of wonder and admiration, it tended to impress the behclder with 

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

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

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

 view! 



How sudden, how aw ful, how marked tlio change ! and yet. how mag- 

 nificent in its career, though doleful its sequel ! 



Wc were speedily under way, with as much earnestnesg 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 ua, 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 boro 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 withon„ halting. 



Tiie 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. Tliis 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 immmera- 

 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 Plalte, (shallow,) which it received from the 

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

 ing to Washington Irving, calling it Nebraska,] a term synonymous with 

 that of the French and Americans, — iiowever, I am ignorant m reference 

 to the latter. 



• The great peril of our situation, and the pressing necessity of a hurried 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 bravo or present-minded as 

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

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

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

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

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

 we stand comparison with a lieutenant of the Mexican army, at Santa Fe, who, on 

 opening a keg of powder, made tise of a rkd-iiot iron in lieu of an auger, for tliat 

 purpose. It 18 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 (Jommandcr-in-chief, in conaideration of hij 

 mdomitahle couragf. ! 



t The Sioux have bestowed the appellation of Duck nver upon the North FoA Ol 

 Pktt*. 



