Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/203

192 1913. THE INDIAN FAST MAIL. America, and Webster says that Kansas in the Indian language means potato; and especially the woods were sfci-igiped of their plums, grapes and other wild fruits, which were very palatable and acceptable to our party. The corn had r^iched a stage in its growth when it could be ground into meal, and those who have never eaten corn cake made from this have no comprehension of the nice eating it makes, so there was no lack of rations for the soldiers and their attendants. ^It was before stated that the Indian runners had sped on wings to notify the OsagiBS and Pawnees of the presence of the strangers, and although it was about ninety miles distant to the Osage villages, and about the same to the Pawnees, and a hundred to the largest of the Kansas villages, then located near Atch- ison on the Missouri river, which was known by the name of "The Village of the Twenty-four," yet in one day the news was carried a distance of ninety mUes, and it was not considered a remarkable feat. Here is what is recorded ill the Indian Book, gotten out by theUhited States, and frequently heretofore cited: "A Mohave courier, well known to the writer, has been known to make the journey between Camp Mo " have and a temporary camp ninety miles southward between sunrise and sunset. He would eat but little dlifirig the day preceding the journey, and on the morning of his departure, shortly before the sum- mer's early sunrise, would tuck the dispatches or letters in his huge coil of hair, and being clad only in breech-cloth and moccasins was unimpeded in his progresd. The trail lay along the hard, sandy banks