Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/131

Rh without water, and their scows dry upon the sand. They were therefore compelled to persue some other course. The American Fur Company were hauling back the loading of their boats to Fort Lauramie, whence they would take, it, in some manner, across the country to Fort St. Peters, and thence, in batteaux, down the Missouri River to St. Louis. The other Company would take their's by land, directly to Independence. From Fort St. Peters, our companions were promised a passage on board the Fur Company's boats, to whatever point on the Missouri they wished. They arrived in the States, as we afterwards learned, in safety, but later, by about a month, than we who came directly by land.

Our little company, now dwindled down to seven persons, had yet to travel between seven and eight hundred miles, according to our estimate of the distance, through an Indian country: yet the reflection that we had passed over the most dangerous part of our way unharmed, gave us confidence to believe that the same protecting Providence would guide us on and guard us as before.

The Sioux and Shians, who, next to the Black Feet, are the terror of the mountains, and the tribes which had been the cause of our greatest dread, were now not so much to be feared. They are most likely to attack companies beyond Fort Lauramie, and especially those coming, from the West, because they say, they have been trading with the Snakes, their enemies. Although it was possible that we might see them between Fort Lauramie and the forks of the Platte, yet, in this part of their country, we knew they were much less to be dreaded: And in addition to this, they were beginning to have a much better idea of the strength of the whites. Formerly they had considered that they were weak, and that their numbers were very small. When the Emigration of 1843 passed through their country, they told the traders at Fort Lauramie, that they believed it to be the white people's big village, and the last of the race. Under this belief, they entertained serious notions, of going back, and taking possession of the country which they had abandoned. But an emigration of twelve hundred the following year, and one of three thousand the present year, had an effect to open their eyes; and they began to respect their power. Col. Carney's visit this year, with two or three hundred dragoons, had even made them to fear a little, and would, we believed, have a tendency to promote our safety. He had not only passed through the whole extent of their country, as far as the South Pass, but had called together, at Fort