as 
CHAPTER VIII. 
a oe returning Home—Breaking out cf the Small- 
—The 
tart-—Our C Manuel t 
hee pane e Prairie on fire—Danger to be apprehended 
from these Shaan gi es man ee -chase— 
Skirmish with the Pawnees—An intrepid Mexican—The 
‘Wounded— tabs of a thick Skutt-thetrent of the acy and 
their Failure—A bleak Northwester—Loss of our Sheep—The 
Llano Estacado and Sources of Red River—The Canadian 
Ri : 
3 
a—Enter our former Trail—Character of the 
pos Ad over which we had pags tg val at Van Buren 
—The two Rontes to Santa Fé—So e Advantages of that 
from re eho Sestieishons of Prairie Travellers in Juhgaed 
ed life, and Propensity for returning to the Wild Dese 
Axsovut the nike zs February, 1840, 
and just as [ was making preparations to re- 
turn e the United States, tie small-pox broke 
out among my men in a manner, which at first 
occasioned at least as much astonishment as 
alarm. One of them, who had travelled ina 
neighboring district, where there were some 
cases of small-pox, complained of a little 
fever, which was followed by slight eruptions, 
but so unlike true variolous pustules, that I 
treated the matter very lightly ; ; not € even sus- 
pecting a varioloid. slight sympto 
