546 Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



Mr. Hoffman's party; they had been almost starving for the last 

 two days, and were travelling rapidly, in hopes of soon reaching 

 some Indian hamlets where they might procure food; they soon 

 reached a house, the first they had seen for a long while, and the\ 

 then asked for food for themselves, and fodder for their animals. 

 The Indians who lived here told them that it would be wrong to 

 sell anything, as it was Sunday. But they soon found other Indian's 

 who were not so scrupulous. 



When we reached the Kansas river, we found it full of ice, 

 which was so packed together that it stood up edgewise, and seemed 

 to offer an impenetrable i«irrier to our progress. We halloed to 

 the Indian ferrymen who were on the opposite side of the river; 

 they jumped into a flat boat and started to reach us; but, finding 

 they could not get through the ice, they returned; we were, hov.-- 

 ever, determined to cross if it were possible; and, getting into a 

 flat boat which happened to be on this side of the river, we pushed 

 off from the shore; soon our boat became wedged in the ice; we 

 then pushed it back far enough to acquire impetus to rush forward; 

 by innumerable repetitions of this manoeuvre, we forced our way 

 clear into the rapid current of the stream; the long poles that we 

 were using could not touch the river bottom. But we fortunately 

 had " sweeps" on board; with them we rowed our boat, and man- 

 aged to land on the opposite side. Our men now jumped ashore 

 and " cordelled" our craft up t*he stream to the proper landing 

 place. Our successful passage over was entirely due to the perse- 

 verance and good management of the wagonmaster, Mr. Smith. 



We encamped on thi river bank, where there is no scarcity of 

 all the varieties of timber that the heart of man can desire. 



March 1. — At the dawn of day we prepared our fruo-al rspast. 

 W^e now felt at home, and as the sun rose there seemed to be a 

 cheering brightness in his rays which is n'ot to be seen in "New 

 Mexico," nor on the prairies. 



There was a majesty in the lofty groves which now surrounded 

 us, and a music in the plash of the wild duck as it lit upon the 

 boscm of the river; there was n:usic even in the scream of the par- 

 roquette that swept over our heads; there was a charm in every- 

 thing, for we now really felt that our trials were at an end. 



At a rapid pace I started off for the fort. As I passed through 

 the bottom lands of the Kansas, the prairie chickens were Con- 

 stantly flying up with a loud whirring sound. 



At an early hour in the afternoon I reached fort Leavenworth, 

 where I was most kindly received by Colonel Wharton, the com- 

 mander of this post. 



i. T^O' respectfully, your obedient servant. 



To Colonel J. J. Abert, 



Chief Corps Toi 



•Corp 



J. W. ABERT, 



