Hunt, and rendered him
eager to press forward and leave a hostile tract behind him, so that it
would be as perilous to return as to keep on, and no one would dare to
desert.
Accordingly, on the 15th of May he departed from the village of the
Omahas, and set forward towards the country of the formidable Sioux
Tetons. For the first five days they had a fair and fresh breeze, and
the boats made good progress. The wind then came ahead, and the
river beginning to rise, and to increase in rapidity, betokened the
commencement of the annual flood, caused by the melting of the snow on
the Rocky Mountains, and the vernal rains of the upper prairies.
As they were now entering a region where foes might be lying in wait
on either bank, it was determined, in hunting for game, to confine
themselves principally to the islands, which sometimes extend to
considerable length, and are beautifully wooded, affording abundant
pasturage and shade. On one of these they killed three buffaloes and two
elks, and halting on the edge of a beautiful prairie, made a sumptuous
hunter's repast. They had not long resumed their boats and pulled along
the river banks when they descried a canoe approaching, navigated by
two men, whom, to their surprise, they ascertained to be white men.
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