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COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES. 
< SCRATTER I. 
A Return to Prairie neta akan of the regular Route 
—The Start—A Suicide—Arrest of a Mulatto for Debt— 
Cherokee ‘Bankrupt Law’—C “Chaly, the oe ‘acpi 
Olla 
Holmes, and the Road—A Visit from a Party of Comanches 
— Tabba-quena, a noted Chief—His Coo ae a pal 
cal Talent—Indians set out for the ‘Capitan Grande,’ and w 
through an Unexplored Region—Rejoined by Tuke-apiee 
and his ‘suite’—Spring Valley—The Buffalo Fever—The 
Chase-—-A Green-horn ecmane uate Fuel. 
Aw unconquerable propensity to return to 
prairie life inclined me to embark in a fresh 
enterprise. The blockade of the Mexican 
ports by the French also offered strong in- 
ts for ing such an expedition 
in the spring of 1839; for as Chihuahua is 
supplied principally throug h the sea-ports, it 
was now evident that the} place must be suf- 
fering from great scarcity of goods. ing 
anxious to reach the market before the ports 
of the Gulf were reopened, we deemed it 
expedient to abandon the regular route from 
