‘ 
110 NOTES TAKEN. 
CHAPTER IX. 
CAMP AT THE COTTON WOOD SPRING. 
Officers leave.—Deseription of Camp—Wild Indians come in.—Treatment of 
uaws.—Visit of the Indians.—Indian Biyouac.--Departure of Indians. 
Captain and party arrive.—-Major Neighbours.—Description of our Indian 
Corps. 
July 14th—The young officers returned to the fort this 
morning, accompanied by Lieutenant P——e, leaving Lieu- 
tenant nes and myself alone in camp. 
We were encamped in a pleasant mesquite grove, in sight 
of the cool spring, and though the weather was hot, a fine 
breeze so tempered the atmosphere that our stay was very 
reviving after night marches, with muddy rain-water to drink. 
Whilst lying in our tents, about noon, we descried some 
objects advancing over the brow of the hill in front of camp, | 
and soon found them to be a party of To-wac-o-nies and 
Waco’s on their return from Fort Belknap. 
They halted a short distance from our camp, and the women 
commenced putting up their temporary shelter, from sua and 
storm, which they constructed of boughs, skins, blankets, &c. 
The chief—{an ugly old creature, a fac simile of a super- 
annuated monkey,) soon rode up, and dismounting near his : 
half finished lodge, threw himself upon the grass, whilst 
his wife—about to become a mother—stopped her work, 
