[ 174 ] rT £00 
In addition to these, Henry Brant, son of Col. J. B. Brant, of St. Louis, 
a young man of nineteen years of age, and Randolph, a lively boy of , 
twelve, son of the Hon. Thomas H. Benton, accompanied me, for the de- 
velopment of mind and body which such an expedition would give. We 
were all well-armed and mounted, with the exception of eight men, who 
conducted as many carts, in which were packed our stores, with the bag- 
gage and instruments, and which were each drawn by twomules. A few 
loose horses, and four.oxen, which had been added to our stock of pro- 
visions, completed the acres We sat out on the morning of the 10th, 
which happened to be Friday—a circumstance which our men did not fail 
to remember and recall during the hardships and vexations of the ensuing 
journey. Mr. Cyprian Chouteau, to whose kindness, during our stay at 
sen house, we were much indebted, accompanied us several miles on our 
ie we met an Indian, whom she had engaged to conduct us on the 
firs thirty or forty miles, where he was to consign us to the ®cean of 
prairie, which, we were told, stretched without interruption almost to the 
base of the Rocky mountains. 
From the belt of wood which borders the Kansas, in which we had 
several good-looking Indian farms, we suddenly emerged on the 
prairies, which received us at the outset with some of their striking char- 
acteristics ; for here and there rode an Indian, and but a few miles distant 
heavy clouds of smoke were solline before the fire. In about ten miles’ 
we reached the Santa Fé road, along which we continued for a short time, 
and encamped early on a small stream ; having travelled about eleven 
miles. During our journey,.it was -_ customary practice to eye: an 
hour or two before sunset, when the carts were disposed so as to form a 
sort of ba e around a circle some eighty yards in Sea The 
pot were pitehed, and the horses hobbled and turned loose to graze ; 
and but a few minutes elapsed before the cooks of the messes, of which 
there were four, were busily engaged in preparing the > eatiind ‘meal. At 
nightfall, the horses, mules, and oxen, were driven in and picketed— 
that is, secured by a halter, of which one end was to a small steel- 
shod picket, and driven into the ground; the halter being twenty or thirty 
feet long, which enabled them to obtain a little food during the night. 
When we had reached a part of the country where such a precaution be- 
came necessary, the carts being regularly arranged for defending’ the 
camp, guard was mounted at eight o’clock, consisting of three men, who 
were relieved every two hours; the morning watch being horse gnard for 
the day. At daybreak, the camp was roused, dhe aniranlo-tnanies oose to 
perc and breakfast oi over between six and seven o’clock, when 
we | our march, making regularly a halt at noon for one or ae. 
Such was usually tke: he of the oa except when accident 
forced a variation; which, pr gua happened but. rarely. We 
_ travelled the next day along the Santa Fé road, which ey left ses oat a af- 
Seat re —aliaae late in the evening on a small creek, tae the 
