OUR GUIDE. 177 
not much affected. We all seemed determined to enjoy the 
fat when we could get it, and to be happy when we had to 
put up with the lean. 
Though deer were plenty and the Delawares kept our 
larder well supplied, still we passed an uncomfortable after- 
noon and a more uncomfortable night, as insects were nume- 
rous and annoying. 
August 10th—We marched at two a. «.—the prairie very 
rough, broken and almost bare of grass. Soon an accident 
occurred to the train, when Jacobs gave us a specimen of 
the nerve and reliability of the Indian upon his own powers 
and sagacity. 
Our anxiety to hear from home and friends induced us 
at Flat Rock Creek, to prevail upon him to go into Fort 
Belknap, mail letters sent by him, and bring us what 
might be there. 
- Never having been in this country before, he would have 
to depend upon powers which, with Indians, seem to me to 
be instinct more than calculation, He consented to go, but 
proposed to march with us until daylight this morning. The 
accident detaining us some time, he became impatient, and 
suddenly wheeled his horse at a tangent, and grunting out, 
half in soliloquy, “May be so he too long,” disappeared in 
the gloom, to our left. On the afternoon of the tenth day 
from this date, he made his appearance in our camp on the 
Clear Fork, seventy-five miles from this point, bringing our 
letters, papers, &c., from Fort Belknap, where he arrived on 
16 
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