Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/339

322 322 CORONADO ERECTS A CROSS. came known to the French. In the great migration, ths Kansas and Osage formed themselves into distinct bands, and located their villages on the banks of the Missouri, the Kansas and the Osage rivers. How long this vast territory his been peopled by these tribes there is no certain knowledge; whether they were the first settlers no one can teU." The Kansas branch is now located upon their smiU reservation adjoining Kansas in the Indian Territory, and by a remarkable coincidence, they are situated in the same direction from the Osages as they were originally in Kansas; 1. e., north and west. From a casual view of the map showing the Kansas, Pawnee and Osage reservations, it would seem that the last named has many times more territory than has the first two; but upon this we shall further touch when our expedition arrives in the Osage territory. This chapter must not be closed until an impor- tant incident has been mentioned. Jaramillo, in his record of the expedition, has left for future ages to think over this statement: "We turned back, it may have been two or three days, where we provided our- selves with picked fruit and dried corn for our re- turn." It is assumed that it took the party two or three days to travel from the Pawnee villages to the City of the Twenty-four, which is distant sixty or sixty-five miles, at which place they prepared new corn by drying same; (this is done by thrifty far- mers' wives at the present time); and also dried fruit, which in the early settlements was also done: so it looks plausible it was near Atchison where the Span- iards made preparation for their return home. Fur-