Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/310

Rh urging that the company would need its full strength while passing through the hostile tribes between Laramie and Fort Hall.

As the emigrants were told that it would be impossible for them to take their oxen and wagons through to Oregon, many sold or exchanged them for horses, the advantage being generally on the side of the fort people. They also laid in a fresh stock of provisions, for which they had to pay at the rate of a dollar a pint for flour and a dollar a pound for coffee and sugar. Before leaving Laramie the company was joined by F. X. Matthieu and half a dozen Canadians, who had been in the service of the fur company east of the Rocky Mountains, and were now going to settle in Oregon. They had few supplies, but depended on game for subsistence.

The company had now no guide for the remainder of the journey, Coats' knowledge of the country extending no farther than Fort Laramie; but they had hardly proceeded a mile from that post before they met Bridger and Fitzpatrick, of the fur companies, the former being on his way to the States with a large