Many other warriors
would leap into the ring, and with faces upturned toward the starless
sky, they would all stamp, and whoop, and brandish their weapons like
so many frantic devils.
Until the next afternoon we were still remaining with Bisonette. My
companion and I with our three attendants then left his camp for the
Pueblo, a distance of three hundred miles, and we supposed the
journey would occupy about a fortnight. During this time we all
earnestly hoped that we might not meet a single human being, for
should we encounter any, they would in all probability be enemies,
ferocious robbers and murderers, in whose eyes our rifles would be
our only passports. For the first two days nothing worth mentioning
took place. On the third morning, however, an untoward incident
occurred. We were encamped by the side of a little brook in an
extensive hollow of the plain. Delorier was up long before daylight,
and before he began to prepare breakfast he turned loose all the
horses, as in duty bound. There was a cold mist clinging close to
the ground, and by the time the rest of us were awake the animals
were invisible. It was only after a long and anxious search that we
could discover by their tracks the direction they had taken. They
had all set off for Fort Laramie, following the guidance of a
mutinous old mule, and though many of them were hobbled they had
driven three miles before they could be overtaken and driven back.
For the following two or three days we were passing over an arid
desert. The only vegetation was a few tufts of short grass, dried
and shriveled by the heat. There was an abundance of strange insects
and reptiles. Huge crickets, black and bottle green, and wingless
grasshoppers of the most extravagant dimensions, were tumbling about
our horses' feet, and lizards without numbers were darting like
lightning among the tufts of grass. The most curious animal,
however, was that commonly called the horned frog. I caught one of
them and consigned him to the care of Delorier, who tied him up in a
moccasin. About a month after this I examined the prisoner's
condition, and finding him still lively and active, I provided him
with a cage of buffalo hide, which was hung up in the cart. In this
manner he arrived safely at the settlements. From thence he traveled
the whole way to Boston packed closely in a trunk, being regaled with
fresh air regularly every night. When he reached his destination he
was deposited under a glass case, where he sat for some months in
great tranquillity and composure, alternately dilating and
contracting his white throat to the admiration of his visitors. At
length, one morning, about the middle of winter, he gave up the
ghost. His death was attributed to starvation, a very probable
conclusion, since for six months he had taken no food whatever,
though the sympathy of his juvenile admirers had tempted his palate
with a great variety of delicacies.
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