quered

"In the afternoon, the two Indian boys went ahead-blessed be these boys!-and before nightfall met Godey with the relief. He had gone on with all speed. The boys gave him the news. He fired signal guns to notify his approach. Haler heard the guns and knew the crack of our rifles, and felt that relief had come. This night was the first of hope and joy. Early in the morning, with the first gray light, Godey was in the trail, and soon met Haler with the wreck of his party slowly advancing. I hear that they all cried together like children-these men of iron nerves and lion hearts when dangers were to be faced or hardships to be conquered! They were all children in this moment of melted hearts. was soon dealt out to these few first met, and Godey with his relief, accompanied by Haler who, turning back hurriedly, followed the back trail in search of the living and the dead scattered in the rear. They came to Scott first. He was alive, and is saved! They came to Hubbard next. He was dead, but still warm. These were the only ones of Haler's party that had been left. From Kerne's party, next met, they learnt the deaths of Andrews and Roher; and a little further on, met Ferguson, who told them that Beadle had died the night before. All the living were found and saved, Manuel among them-which looked like a resurrectionand reduced the number of the dead to TEN-one-third of the whole party, which a few days before was scaling the mountain with me, and battling with the elements twelve thousand feet in the air.

"How rapid are the changes of life! A few days ago, and I was struggling through snow in the savage wilds of the Upper Del Norte-following the course of the river in more than Russian cold, no food, no blanket to cover me in the long frozen nights— uncertain at what moment of the night we might be roused by the Indian rifle-doubtful, very doubtful, whether I should ever see you P or friends again. Now, I am seated by a comfortable fire, alone, pursuing my own thoughts, writing to you in the certainty of reaching you-a French volume of Balzac on the table-a colored print of the landing of Columbus before me-listening in safety to the raging storm without!

You will wish to know what effect the scenes I have passed through have had upon me. In person none. The destruction of my party and the loss of friends are causes of grief, but I have not been injured in body or mind. Both have been strained and severely taxed, but neither hurt. I have seen one or the other, and sometimes both, give way in strong frames, strong minds, and stout hearts; but as heretofore, I have come out unhurt. I believe that the remembrance of friends sometimes gives us a power of resist ance which the desire to save our own lives could never call up." In about a fortnight after writing the foregoing account, Fremont made up a party at Santa Fe, and started for California overland by the old Gila route, where he arrived early in the succeeding spring, his family having preceded him by the Panama route.

THE HUNTER'S ESCAPE.

THOSE who have not experienced them, can have but inaccurate ideas of the terrible storms that at times prevail in the plains and mountains of the Far West, and of the sufferings that they often bring upon the unfortunate emigrants and hunters that come within. the region of their influence. A traveler describes one of unusual severity, which he encountered in the winter of 1846-7, near the base of the Rocky Mountains, in the vicinity of the Pueblo Fort, on the headwaters of the Arkansas, and in which, as will be seen in the following narration, he narrowly escaped perishing.

As we were now within twenty miles of the Pueblo Fort, Morgan, who had enough of it, determined to return, and I agreed to go back with the animals to the cache, and bring in the meats and packs. I accordingly tied the blanket on a mule's back, and leading the horse, trotted back at once to the grove of cotton-woods, where we before had encamped.

The sky had been gradually overcast with leaden-colored clouds until, when near sunset, it was one huge inky mass of rolling darkness. The wind had suddenly lulled, and an unnatural calm, which so surely heralds a storm in these tempestuous regions, succeeded. The ravens were winging their way toward the shelter of the timber, and the coyote or prairie wolf was seen trotting quickly to cover, conscious of the coming storm. The black threatening clouds seemed gradually to descend until they kissed the earth, and already the distant mountains were hidden to their very bases. A hollow murmuring swept through the bottom, but as yet not a branch was stirred by the wind; and the huge cottonwoods, with their leafless limbs, loomed like a line of ghosts through the heavy gloom.

Knowing but too well what was coming, I turned my animals toward the timber, about two miles distant. With pointed ears and actually trembling with fright, they were as eager as myself to reach the shelter; but before we had proceeded a third of the distance, with a deafening roar, the tempest broke upon us. The clouds opened and drove right in our faces a storm of freezing sleet, which froze as it fell. The first squall of wind carried away my cap, and the enormous hailstones beating on my unprotected head and face, almost stunned me. In an instant my hunting-shirt was soaked, and, as instantly, frozen hard, and my horse was a mass of icicles. Jumping off my mule-for to ride was impossible-I tore off the saddle-blanket and covered my head. The animals, blinded with the sleet, and their eyes actually coated with ice, turned their tails to the storm, and blown before it, made for the open prairie. All my exertions to drive them to the shelter of the timber were useless. It was impossible to face the hurricane, which now brought with it clouds of driving snow; and perfect darkness soon set in. Still the animals kept on, and I determined not to leave them, following, or rather being blown after them

My blanket, frozen stiff like a board, required all the strength of my numbed fingers to prevent it from being blown away, and although it was no protection against the intense cold, I knew it would, in some degree, shelter me at night from the snow.

In half an hour the ground was covered with snow on the bare prairie to the depth of two feet, and through this I floundered for a long time before the animals stopped. The prairie was as bare as a lake; but one little tuft of greasewood bushes presented itself, and here, turning from the storm, they suddenly stopped and remained perfectly still. In vain I again attempted to turn them toward the direction of the timber; huddled together, they would not move an inch; and exhausted myself, and seeing nothing before me but, as I thought, certain death, I sank down immediately behind them, and covering my head with the blanket, crouched like a ball in the snow. I would have started myself for the timber, but it was pitchy dark; the wind drove clouds of frozen snow into my face; and the animals had so turned about in the prairie, that it was impossible to know the direction to take; and although I had a compass with me, my hands were so frozen that I was utterly unable, after repeated attempts, to unscrew the box and consult it. Even had I reached the timber, my situation would scarcely have been improved, for the trees were scattered wide about over a narrow space, and consequently afforded but little shelter; and even if I had succeeded in getting firewood-by no means an easy matter at any time, and still more difficult now that the ground was covered with three feet of snow-I was utterly unable to use my flint and steel to procure a light, since my fingers were like pieces of stone, and entirely without feeling.

The way the wind roared over the prairie that night; how the snow drove before it, covering me and the poor animals partly; and how I lay there, feeling the very blood freezing in my veins, and my bones petrifying with the icy blasts which seemed to penetrate them; how for hours I remained with my head on my knees, and the snow pressing it down like a weight of lead, expecting every instant to drop into a sleep from which I knew it was impossible I should ever awake; how every now and then the mules would groan aloud, and fall down upon the snow, and then again struggle on their legs; how all night long the piercing howl of wolves was borne upon the wind, which never for an instant abated its violence during the night-I will not attempt to describe. I have passed many nights alone in the wilderness; and, in a solitary camp, have listened to the roarings of the wind and the howling of wolves, and felt the rain or snow beating upon me with perfect unconcern; but this night threw all my former experiences into the shade, and is marked with the blackest of stories in the memoranda of my journeyings.

Once, late in the night, by keeping my hands buried in the breast of my hunting-shirt, I succeeded in restoring sufficient feeling into them to enable me to strike a light. Luckily my pipe,

which was made out of a huge piece of cotton-wood bark, and capable of containing at least twelve ordinary pipesful, was filled with tobacco to the brim; and this, I do believe, kept me alive during the night; for I smoked and smoked, until the pipe itself caught fire and burned completely to the stem.

I was just sinking into a dreamy stupor, when the mules began to shake themselves, and sneeze and snort, which hailing as a good sign, and that they were still alive, I attempted to lift my head and take a view of the weather. When, with great difficulty, I raised my head, all appeared as dark as pitch, and it did not at first occur to me that I was burried deep in snow; but when I thrust my arm above me, a hole was thus made, through which I saw the stars shining in the sky, and the clouds fast clearing away. Making a sudden attempt to straighten my almost petrified back and limbs, I rose, but unable to stand, fell forward in the snow, frightening the animals, which immediately started away. When I gained my legs, I found that day was just breaking, a long gray line of light appearing over the belt of timber on the creek, and the clouds gradually rising from the east, and allowing the stars to peep from patches of the blue sky. Following the animals as soon as I gained the use of my limbs, and taking a last look at the perfect cave from which I had just arisen, I found them in the timber, and, singular enough, under the very tree where we had cached our meat. However, I was unable to ascend the tree in my present state, and my frost-bitten fingers refused to perform their offices; so that I jumped upon my horse, and, followed by the mules, galloped back to the Arkansas, which I reached in the evening, half dead with hunger and cold."

The

The hunters had given me up for lost, as such a night even the "oldest inhabitants had never witnessed. My late companion had reached the Arkansas, and was safely housed before it broke, blessing his lucky stars that he had not gone back with me. next morning he returned and brought in the meat; while I spent two days in nursing my frozen fingers and feet, and making up in feasting mountain fashion for the hardships I had suffered.

THE INDIANS OF THE GREAT PRAIRIE WILDERNESS.

THERE are about one hundred and thirty-five thousand Indians. inhabiting the Great Prairie Wilderness, of whose social and civil condition, manners and customs, we give a brief account. First, we speak of those who reside in the Indian Territory, six hundred miles north and south, and extending along the frontiers of the Western States-which immense tract has been purchased of the wild tribes by the United States Government, for a permanent abiding-place for the emigrating Indians of the settled part of the Union-as a spot where they could be free from those contaminating

influences that conspired to their ruin while residing near the settlements of the whites. It is an admirable location for this purpose; its soil is generally exceedingly fertile, with excellent water, fine timber on the streams, mines of iron and lead ore and coal. Thither, for the last forty years, the government has been inducing the Indians within the jurisdiction of the States to emigrate, until near eighty thousand have moved on to the lands thus assigned them.

Government has been very liberal to them. It purchases the land which the emigrating tribes leave; gives them others within the new territory; transports them; erects a portion of their dwellings; plows and fences a portion of their fields; furnishes them teachers of agriculture and implements of husbandry, horses, cattle, etc.; erects schoolhouses, and supports teachers in them the year round; and makes provision for the subsistence of the new emigrants, and uses every effort for the promotion of their moral and physical welfare.

Considering that the ordinary system of government, of chieftaincies among the tribes, prolific of evil, the United States use all the means in their power to abolish them-making the rulers elective-establishing a form of government in each tribe similar to our State governments, and endeavoring to unite the tribes under a general government, like that at Washington. Accordingly a beautiful spot, centrally situated, has been selected on Osage River, about seven miles square, sixteen miles distant from the Missouri line, as a suitable place for the central government. Any member of those tribes that come into the confederation, may own property in the district and no other.

The Choctaws number about twenty thousand, which includes six hundred negro slaves and two hundred white men, married to Choctaw women. They reside in the extreme south of the territory, on a tract capable of producing most abundant crops of corn, flax, hemp, tobacco, cotton, etc., and sustaining a population as dense as that of England. They are improving in comfort and civilization, have fine farms, well stocked, cotton gins, looms, flouring mills, etc. They have a written constitution similar to that of the United States, which divides the government into four departments-legislative, executive, judicial and military, together with a National Assembly, which meets annually on the first Monday in October. The Chickasaws, numbering fifty-five hundred, including their slaves, are merged in the Choctaws, and are wealthy from the sales of their lands east of the Mississippi, to the United States. They have a large fund applicable to various objects of civilization, ten thousand dollars of which is annually applied to education, and the Choctaws also have six thousand dollars annually applied to the same object.

The Cherokees, including nine hundred slaves, number twentytwo thousand. They, like the above, own fine farms, with lead mines and salt works, where they manufacture one hundred bushels