TVI 



. . Ex. Doc. No. 41. "^29 



♦ 



„.vhin the last eight months. The ravenous waives had already 

 been at work on the grave, but the frozen ground had proved too 



much for them. 



Near sundown an Arapahoe chief arrived, named by the whites 



"Long Beard." He paid me a visit, and in the evening I went to 

 return the compliment. His lodge was the most luxuriou? habi- 

 tation i had seen for a long timej there was no place where ^the 

 cold winds could find entrance, and a few pieces of bark in the 

 middle of the lodge kept it perfectly warm. "Long Beard," find- 

 ing out that I belonged to the "soldiers," produced a gilded epau- 

 lette which had been presented to him at Bent's Fort;_ he also 

 ■showed me a scrip of paper, signed by Mr. Wm. Bent, which paper 

 mentioned "Long Beard" in the highest terms of commendation. 



This chief spoke a great many Spanish words, which enabled him 



to make himself understood. He told us the snow was so deep 



that our mules could only nip the heads of the tallest grass, and 



begged us not to attempt to proceed, as there was no grass and 



ao buffaloes in the direction we were going, and that the scarcity 



-of the necessaries of life had forced him to leave that portion^ of 



the country, where his children and his horses had been starving 



-for some time past, and that he was now in search of meat for his 



•people and grass lor his animals. While we were here we saw the 



«quawskill a fat puppy, and having singed the hair, they put it into 



•the pot for supper. Dogs are considered a " bon bouche, only 



to be served on festal occasions, but rather than starve, poor "Long 



:Beard" was obliged to be thus extravagant. It was well he kept 



his fat dogs under his eye, or some of my party might have been 



tempted to commit similar extravagances. 



This evening we had some target shooting; although it was very 

 ■windy, there were some excellent shots made. 



January 28 —The sun now burst forth with- some power, and, 

 ragsisted by a western wind, caused the snow to thaw rapidly. 



We made a march of twelve miles and encamped near a grove 

 flf cotton wood trees, and not far from a village of Cheyennes. The 

 Indians immediately flocked round us in great numbers; they said 

 that they had had nothing to cat for three days, as the snow hat 

 covered the country had driven the buffalo off to find pasture 



^rnv'of them offered me presents, hoping that I would give pr#- 

 Tisions in return, but I could not receive their presents, as I had 

 no provisions to spare. They then begged me to give hem whiskey, 

 ^nd annoyed us with their pertinacity, so that I would have driven 

 out of camp, had I not been obliged to let my mules run loose all 

 night which circumstance they w6uld have profited by to retaliate 

 if we'had given these people any offence. , *v, Th.vPnnes 



January 29.^ks we were preparing to ^^P;.*' *J^. ^Ky^^^^ 

 gathered around us in g^eat numbers. ^ ^^ny. the principal mea 

 brought his whole family, which consisted of J'^ ^|;*;'/^"^ ^^^^^ 

 sons and as many daughters, and desired me to give tHem some 

 thin Ao ea He said that they had been without any meat for the 

 iasJ'three d;ys As all our provisions were packed aw.y, I refused 



