Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/153

142 142 WHY JUNCTION CITY IS SO NAMED. select a favorably located encampment in case of a surprise, for the party frequently saw tiie natives watching them from a distance as they proceeded. Again our party threw out pickets and the men •were cautioned to be on the alert, to have their horses ready to mount at a moment's notice, as well as to have their firearms primed ready to discharge which the small party relied on above all other weapons to repulse an attack. But all was well on the Smoky which was crossed the first thing as their guides informed them that the large city was on the north bank of the stream. The cavalcade avoided meander- ing the crooked river by the use of buffalo chips made into mounds along the valley as straight as the crow flies. This made the day's march about twenty-two miles to Junction City, named thus because the Re- publican river here empties into the Smoky, which from this point is rechristened "Kansas," just as the Missouri changes its name at St. Louis into "Missis- sippi." On arriving at ths confluence of the Repub- lican our party has made another twenty-two miles and the evidences are becomin-j stronger of settle- ments as the game are prone to scamper at their approacli, showing that they were hunted more. *' The party had m-'.de good time by reason of the path, and reached camp about five o'clock in the evening; they, as usual, had selected a good natural situation in case of surprise, and were preparing Supper, when Ysopete called Alonso's and Monte's attention to the fact that it looked like rain; so the word was passed around camp to prepare for it. It' was about six o'clock when it commenced to rain.