Rocky Mountains. 103 



most scarcely allowed themselves time to finish this hasty 

 ceremony of salutation, when they rode to reconnoitre some 

 points of bushes and patches of low grape vines on our left, 

 manifestly to ascertain if the whole strength of our party was 

 collected. The main body of the Indians crossed the river 

 more slowly, and as we halted on an elevation near the point 

 where they ascended the bank, the whole passed in review 

 before us. They were all on horseback, and the squaws and 

 children, composing by far the greatest part of the cavalcade, 

 passed us without halting. Every squaw appeared to have 

 under her care a greater or less number of horses, vihich 

 were driven before her, some dragging lodge-poles, some 

 loaded with packs of meat, and some carrying children. We 

 were amused at observing many small children, too young 

 to be able by their own strength to sit on a horse, lashed by 

 their legs to the saddle, and riding on in entire unconcern. 

 As they passed the deepest part of the river, many of the 

 squaws stooped to fill their vessels with water. These were 

 of the most primitive kind, being formed almost without ex- 

 ception of the stomach or bladder of a bison or other ani- 

 mal. 



At length the chief, who was one of the last to cross the 

 river, came up, and shaking us each by the hand, with some 

 appearance of cordiality, invited us to accompany him a short 

 distance on his route, to a place where his party would en- 

 camp for the remainder of the day and the ensuing night. 

 The chief was accompanied by an old man, who could speak 

 a little Spanish, by which language we communicated with 

 him. He informed us, his band were a part of the tribe of 

 Kaskaias or Bad-hearts, as they are called by the French, 

 that they had been on an hunting excursion to the sources 

 of the Rio Brassis and the Rio Colorado of Texas, and were 

 now on their way to meet the Spanish traders, at a point near 

 the sources of the river we were descending. They in their 

 turn demanded who we were, whence and whither we were 



