All were convinced that it was in vain to attempt to accomplish their
journey, on foot, at this inclement season. They had still many hundred
miles to traverse before they should reach the main course of the
Missouri, and their route would lay over immense prairies, naked and
bleak, and destitute of fuel. The question then was, where to choose
their wintering place, and whether or not to proceed further down the
river. They had at first imagined it to be one of the head waters, or
tributary streams, of the Missouri. Afterwards they had believed it
to be the Rapid, or Quicourt River, in which opinion they had not come
nearer to the truth; they now, however, were persuaded, with equal
fallacy, by its inclining somewhat to the north of east, that it was
the Cheyenne. If so, by continuing down it much further they must arrive
among the Indians, from whom the river takes its name. Among these they
would be sure to meet some of the Sioux tribe. These would appraise
their relatives, the piratical Sioux of the Missouri, of the approach
of a band of white traders; so that, in the spring time, they would be
likely to be waylaid and robbed on their way down the river, by some
party in ambush upon its banks.
Even should this prove to be the Quicourt or Rapid River, it would not
be prudent to winter much further down upon its banks, as, though
they might be out of the range of the Sioux, they would be in the
neighborhood of the Poncas, a tribe nearly as dangerous.
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