Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/224

 27th.] It was scarcely day-break when I arose, impatient to join my companions; but now my horse was not to be found, and it was not until we had made two or three unsuccessful searches, that he was at length discovered two miles on the path I had yesterday travelled. By this time it was near eight o'clock, and nine when I arrived at the major's camp, where I found they had departed about half an hour. It is unnecessary to pourtray my apprehensions on this occasion; not a moment was to be lost, and I offered one of Mr. Styles's sons two dollars to accompany me for a few hours to find their trace, and, if possible, to overtake them. We travelled as fast as possible for about 10 miles through a horrid brake of scrubby oaks, but all to no purpose, and, after firing a gun, which was neither heard nor answered, we returned again, as I dared not to venture alone and unprepared through such a difficult and mountainous wilderness. My botanical acquisitions in the prairies, proved, however, so interesting as almost to make me forget my situation, cast away as I was amidst the refuse of society, without money and without acquaintance; for calculating upon nothing more certain than an immediate return, I was consequently unprovided with every means of subsistence.

I was informed by the hunters, that these prairies, partially divided by groves and strips of timber, bordering the water courses, continued with little interruption to the hot springs of the Washita, to which, from hence, there is a plain and direct road.[184] The surface of these woodless expanses was gently undulated, {157} and thickly covered with grass knee high, even to the summits of the hills,