Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/79

Rh few disagreeable adventures. They were now to face the real difficulties of their undertaking. They soon discovered that their complicated wagons were useless, and they were forced to part with them. The warlike tribes, whose hunting-grounds they were to traverse, began to give them uneasiness; and, to crown their misfortunes, they now ascertained how ignorantly they had calculated upon the trade with the savages.

Saint Louis was then the great depot of the Indian traders, who made their annual expeditions across the plains, prepared to fight or barter, as the temper of the Indians might dictate. The old trappers who had made their abode in the mountain regions met the traders at a given rendezvous, receiving powder, lead, tobacco, and a few accessories in exchange for their furs. To one of these parties Wyeth attached himself, and it was well that he did so.

Before reaching the Platte, five of Wyeth's men deserted their companions, either from dissatisfaction with their leader, or because they had just begun to realize the hazard of the enterprise. Nat Wyeth, however, was of that stuff we so expressly name clear grit. There was no flinching about him, the Pacific was his objective, and he determined to arrive at his destination even if he marched alone. William Sublette's party, which Wyeth had joined, encountered the vicissitudes common to a trip across the plains in that day; the only difference being that the New England men now faced these difficulties for the first time, whereas Sublette's party was largely composed of experienced plainsmen. They followed the course of the Platte, seeing great herds of buffalo roaming at large, while they experienced the gnawings of hunger for want of fuel to cook the delicious humps, sirloins and joints, constantly paraded like