78 LOST ON THE DESERT. 



to attack them, when they turned out to he a 

 band of squaws, with merely a few men as 

 gallants — all of whom were summarily turned 

 adrift, without waiting to speculate upon the 

 objects of their visit. The next morning a 

 few others made their appearance, which we 

 treated in precisely the same manner, as a 

 horse was missing, which it was presumed 

 the Indians had stolen. 



We continued our march southward in 

 search of the ' lost river.' After a few miles' 

 travel we encoimtered a ledge of sand-hills, 

 which obstructed our course, and forced us to 

 turn westward and follow their border for the 

 rest of the day. Finding but httle water that 

 night, and none at all the next day, we began 

 by noon to be sadly frightened ; for nothing is 

 more alarming to the prairie traveller tlian 

 a ' water-scrape.* The impression soon be- 

 came general that we were lost — lost on that 

 inhospitable desert, which had been the thea- 

 tre of so many former scenes of suffering ! 

 and our course impeded by sand-hills! A 

 council of the veteran travellers was called to 

 take our emergency into consideration. It 

 was at once resolved to strike in a northwest- 

 erly dire ction in search of the ' diy ravine' we 

 had left behind us, wliich was now supposed 

 to have been the Cimarron. 



We had just set out, when a couple of Li- 

 dians approached us, bringing the horse we 

 had lost the night before ; an apparent demon- 

 stration of good faith which could hardly have 

 been anticipated. It was evidently an effort 



