208 



A BROKEN COMPANY. 



place to friendship, and the' two parties negotiated an immediate union. 

 tSince then they have been considered as one nation. 



What is most singular in this occurrence, neither the Gros Ventres nor 

 Chyennes could trace any previous connection or intercourse with each 

 other, or knowledge of their individual existence. 



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

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

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

 ken for their improvement. 



They are generally accounted friendly to the whites, but friendship 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 Chabonard'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 the variety of its flowers. 



A ride of four or five miles took us across the dry bed of a large sand- 

 creek, four or five hundred yards wide, known as the Kuyaw^a. The banks 

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

 beautiful bottom lands with occasional groves of cotton wood. At tliis sea- 

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



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

 of Platte, 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 

 Crow creek, trace their way 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 the Platte and its affluents, as the 

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

 ering aridity so characteristic of the grand prairie. 



Twelve miles below Fort Lancaster we passed Fort George, a large 

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

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

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

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

 of Mr. Marsalina St. Vrain. 



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

 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 various 

 kinds ; — he stated, that, in May last, their entire " cavalliard," consisting ot 

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

 States, the urgent demands of creditors, &,c., had caused tliem to evacuate 

 their poat and quit the country. 



