ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 79 



in consequence under the necessity of absconding. He has now 

 joined the party of his hereditary foes, and is prepared to fight 

 against his own people and kindred. He is a fine, warlike 

 looking fellow, and although he takes part in all the war-songs, 

 and sham-battles of his adopted brothers, and whoops, and howls 

 as loud as the best of them, yet it is plain to perceive that he is 

 distrusted and disliked. All men, whether, civilized or savage, 

 honorable, or otherwise, detest and scorn a traitor ! 



We were joined at the rendezvous by a Captain Stewart, an 

 English gentleman of noble family, who is ti-avelling for amuse- 

 ment, and in search of adventure. He has already been a year 

 in the mountains, and is now desii'ous of visiting the lower coun- 

 try, from which he may probably take passage to England by 

 sea. Another Englishman, a young man, named Ashworth, 

 also attached himself to our party, for the same purpose. 



Our course lay along the bank of Ham's fork, through a 

 hilly and stony, but not a rocky country ; the willow flourished 

 on the margin of the stream, and occasionally the eye was re- 

 lieved, on scanning the plain, by a pretty clump of cottonwood 

 or poplar trees. The cock of the plains is very abundant hei'e, 

 and our pretty little summer yellow bird, (Sylvia cestiva,) one of 

 our most common birds at home, is our constant companion. 

 How natural sounds his little monotonous stave, and how it seems 

 to carry us back to the dear scenes for which we have exchanged 

 the wild and pathless wilderness ! 



4<7j. — We left Ham's fork this morning, — now diminished to 

 a little purling brook, — and passed across the hills in a north-west- 

 erly direction for about twenty miles, when we struck Muddy 

 creek. This is a branch of Bear river, which empties into the Salt 

 lake, or "lake Bonneville," as it has been lately named, for what 

 reason I know not. Our camp here, is a beautiful and most de- 

 lightful one. A large plain, like a meadow, of rich, waving 



