Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/547

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 467 did not like to give up as entirely beaten, so he stretched himself out full length t)ii the ground near the door of the mission house. 1 entreated him to leave and go i" his wigwam. He declared that he would not. After waiting for some time for him to go voluntarily, and fearing that he might stay there all night, I took a piece of rope, and slipping it around his ankles, tied his feet together, took the other end over my shoulder and dragged him toward his home. After being drawn five or six rods he begged me to let him get up, promising that he would not trouble me any more. He threatened some after he got out of my reach, but never did me any harm. The prohibitory law w r as triumphant at that time." The difficulties of going from one point to another in a country * where there are neither roads nor bridges, hotels nor farm houses, are among the most formidable that first settlers have to en- counter. I started in September, 1849, alone on' horseback, to go from Red Wing village to another Indian village on the Minnesota river, to attend the annual meeting of the Dakota mission. I was to follow the Mississippi river up to the mouth of the Minnesota river, and then the latter stream some eighty miles to my place of destination, which was near the place now called St. Peter. The first day I expected to reach Kaposia, which was an Indian village a little below St. Paul. Dr. T. S. "William- son was the missionary stationed there, and from that point I was to have his company the remainder of the journey. There were no human habitations between Red Wing and Kaposia at that time. 'The morning was w r arm and sultry on the day I set out. I was directed to follow 'the trail.' After fording Hay creek I was convinced that my horse had not been accustomed to follow an Indian trail. The marshy ground on the sides of the creek was rather soft for his w r eight. The grass had grow T n so tall that season as to hide the trail entirely in many places, and I found it the only safe way to lead my horse over the marshy ground. At the crossing of the Cannon river the same difficulty occurred. The tall grass there reached above my shoulders while I sat on my horse. Where I crossed that stream it was so deep for a short distance that the water took in the horse except his head and a part of his neck. "After reaching the high prairie between the Cannon and Vermilion rivers, and then crossing the latter without trouble, I could see a long stretch of prairie before me, and knowing there were no more rivers to cross that day, I began to feel that I should reach Kaposia in due time. Occasionally I could see plainly a mark where the Indians' ponies had traveled, and tried