298 THE ARAPAHO AMERICAN. 



Another attempt to reach the village the day following was unsuccess- 

 ful, and each repeated effort proved equally unavailing. 



At length, weakened by hunger and suffering, he laid himself down to 

 die, in a grass plat by the creek side. 



Seven days of continued fasting which followed, left him so debilitated 

 he could scarcely stand. His mind began to wander ; he thought himself a 

 dweller of the Spirit Land and a ranger of the hunting ground of happy 

 souls. 



His bewildered vision pictured the joyous chase, bounding along the 

 celestial plains. Strange voices greeted his ear, and sounds broke upon 

 the stillness of solitude. He gazes around, and sights still stranger close 

 in upon him, — not visionary, but real. 



" It must be so," said he. " Here are the horses for me to ride, and 

 there is the game for me to chase. But, what singular buffalo ! How 

 long their horns, and how white ! — What strange colors, too ! — white, red, 

 black, and mixed ! And, who are they ? — Ah ! the pale-faces ! They ap- 

 proach ! What do they here ? — I cannot escape them !" Thereupon he 

 found himself in the firm grasp of two white men, who cut short his solilo- 

 quy by bearing him to their camp. 



His fancy, though illusive in its inception, had ended in sober reality. 

 The strange voices greeting his ear were those of his captors, who had 

 just encamped near him ; the horses and singular buffalo exciting his won- 

 der, were the horses and cattle of a caravan of Santa Fe traders ; and the 

 pale-faces were two of the company, by the names of Fitzpatrick and Soub- 

 let, by whom he was taken. 



They were on their return to the States, and, noticing a strange object in 

 the vicinity of camp soon after their noon halt, approached to learn its 

 character and found the little sufferer as above related. 



He had never before seen the whites, and, knowing them only from the 

 representations of his people, they were associated in his boyish fancy with 

 all that was hateful and wicked. But, instead of the cruel death he had 

 supposed would be his certain allotment at their hands, they administered to 

 his wants and plied him with kindnesses. Everything about him was so 

 strange, he could scarcely be convinced it was not a picture of the imagina- 

 tion — that he was not yet dreaming of the happy country, or actually initi- 

 ated into its delightful mysteries. 



From the date of this event he was ushered into a new state of exist- 

 ence, and soon acquired the language and habits of the whites. Taken to 

 St. Louis, he remained there for some five years, and received a partial ed- 

 ucation during the interval. So complete was the transformation, he even 

 forgot the name and language of his nation, and became an adept in the 

 customs of civilized life. 



About the year 1832, Capt. Grant succeeded in effecting a treaty with 

 the Arapahos, and pending its negotiation mention was made of a boy, said 

 to have been lost upon the Cimarone several years previous, who was sup- 

 posed to have fallen into the hands of a trading company, and for whose 

 ransom a large number of horses was offered. 



It is needless to say our hero was the subject of this request, and, in or- 

 der to conciliate their good will and place the new-formed treaty upon a 



