14 THE DUTCH PEDDLER. 
party who crossed the plains directly from 
Chihuahua. 
We cas never considered ourselves as per- 
fectly en chemin till after crossing the Arkan- 
sas river; and as our little party experienced 
no further change, ] may now be permitted 
to introduce them collectively to the reader. 
It consisted of thirty-four men, including my 
brother John Gregg and myself. These men 
had all been hired by us except three, two of 
whom were Eastern-bred boys—a tailor and 
a silversmith—good-natured, clever little fel- 
lows, who had thought themselves at the 
‘jumping-off place’ when they reached Van 
uren, but now seemed nothing loth to ex- 
tend their peregrinations a thousand miles or 
so further, in the hope of ‘doing’ the ‘Span- 
iards,’ as the Mexicans are generally styled in 
the West, out of a little surplus of specie. 
The other was a German peddler, who some- 
what resembled the Dutchman’s horse, “ put 
him as you vant, and he ish alvays tere ;’ 
for he did nothing during the whole journey 
but descant on the value of a chest of trum- 
peries which he carried, and with which he 
calculated, as he expressed it, to “py a plenty 
of te Shpanish tollar.” The trip across the 
Prairies cost these men absolutely nothing, 
inasmuch as we furnished them with all the 
necessaries for the journey, in consideration | 
of the additional strength they brought to our 
company 
It is seldors that such a variety of ingredi- 
ents are found mixed up in so small a com- 
od 
