SOS A BBOK£N COMPACT. 



dbce to frienckhip, and the two partios negotiated an immediate anion 

 Since then they have beeu considered as one nation. 



What ia most singular in this occurrence, neither the Gros Ventres nof 

 Chyennee could trace any previous connection or intercourae with each 

 other, or knowledge of their individual existence. 



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

 make none for many years to come. Their roving and unsettled babiti 

 prove an obstacle, almost insuperable, to any efforts that may be undertap 

 ken for tlieir improvemeut. 



They are generally accounted friendly to the whites, but friendshio 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 tweuty-six days, during which we liad 

 travelled not far from seven hundred and twenty miles. 



Our route from Chabonard's camp to this point, for the most part, led 

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

 its fields and the variety of its flowers, 



A ride of four or five miles took us across the drj* bed •>{ a large sand* 

 creek, four or five hundred yards wide, known as the Kuyawa. The banks 

 of this arvvyo are very steep and high, disclosing, now and tlien, spreads of 

 beautiful bottom lands with occasional groves of cott in.vix>d. At this seap 

 son of the year its waters are lost in the quicksand aj>d gravel. 



We also passed the mouths of tiiree large affluents of the right bank 

 of Platte, sevemlly known as Crow creek, Cache a la Poudre, and Thomp* 

 eon's Fork. 



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

 Crow creek, trace their way witli clear and rapid currents, from two to 

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

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



Timber increases in quantity, upon the Platte and its affluents, as the 

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

 ering aridity so characteristic of the grand prairie. 



Tw eive miles below Fort Lancaster we passed Fort George, a large 

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

 Fort Platte, preriously described; it is built, however, after the same 

 faiiiuon, — as, in fact, are all the regiilar trading posts in the country. At 

 this time, fifteen or twenty men were stationed there, under the command 

 of Mr. Marsaiina St. Vrain. 



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

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

 dolph. 



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

 principals' becoming bankrupt, through mismanagement and losses of varioua 

 kinds; — he stated, 5iat, in May last, their entire " cavalliard," consisting ol 

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

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

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

 States, the urgent demands of creditors, &c., had caused them to evaciutt 

 their post and quit the country. 



