A STRANGE BODY-GUARD, 311 



pened to be with the caravan, Tliough this 

 cruel act met with the decided reprobation of 

 the traders generally, yet they were of course 

 held responsible for it by the Indians. 



On our passage this time across the ^ prairie 

 ocean' which lay before us, we ran no risk of 

 getting bewildered or lost, for there was now a 

 plain wagon trail across the entire stretch of 

 our route, from the Cimarron to Arkansas 

 river. 



This track, which has since remained per- 



made in the vear 1834. O 



o 



to continuous rains during the passage of 

 the caravan of that year, a plain trail 

 was then cut in the softened turf, on the 

 most direct route across this arid desert, leav- 

 ing the Arkansas about twenty miles above 

 tlie * Caches.' This has ever since been the 

 regular route of the caravans ; and thus a re- 

 currence of those distressing sufferingrs from 



frequently 



t) --^"---^--o 



ellers in that inhospitable region, has been 

 prevented. 



A¥e forded the Arkansas without difficulty, 

 and pursued our journey to the Missouri bor- 

 der with comparative ease ; being only now 

 and then disturbed at night by the hideous 

 howhngs of Avolves, a pack of wliich had 

 constituted themselves into a kind of ' guard 

 of honor,' and foUoAved in our wake for several 

 hundred miles — ^in fact to the very border of 

 the settlements. They were at first attracted 

 no doubt by the remains of buffalo which 



were kiUed by us upon the high plains, and 



