CHAP. XXIX.
DEPARTURE FROM THE OTOE VILLAGE.
It was about ten o’clock, on a rich golden morning, that we started from the Otoe village. The baggage waggons had left it some hours previous, and had long since passed the hills which rose behind the town. A crowd of gazers collected round us as we saddled our horses. At length every thing was completed, and, bidding farewell to the dusky group, we mounted, and galloped off in the direction taken by the waggons.
Our course lay along the borders of the Platte, which soon began to lose the luxuriant verdure that had fringed its banks in the neighbourhood of the Otoe town. Scarcely a tree or shrub grew upon its borders, or threw a shade upon the glare of its waters. It moved sullenly along, with now and then the floating trunk of some ponderous tree, drifting towards the still more murky waters of the Missouri.
Our party now counted about thirty, including Indians; and although, on account of the scarcity of provisions, four of the soldiers had been sent back to the garrison, still the reinforcement of Otoes more than compensated for their loss. They were a noble race of men, with more pride of character than we had observed in any of the Indians we had as yet met with. They had all prepared themselves for the journey. Their blankets were thrown over their shoulders and strapped round their waists, in such a manner as to leave a short skirt extending half way down to the knee. Their legs were protected by coarse leggings of buffalo skin. Each man carried a short scabbard, containing a knife; and several pair of mocassins were strapped upon the back of each. They had left their rifles at the village; and a short thick bow, with a well-stocked quiver of arrows, supplied their places. This was the usual equipment of an Indian warrior when starting on a peaceful journey.
The leader of the band was the Iotan chief. Next followed the short, thick figure of the Big Kaw, succeeded by the long form of the Thief; and after them came the inferior warriors. They moved in front of us, with limbs that seemed not to know fatigue; and although we travelled over many miles of prairie before nightfall, their pace was the same, and their step as unflagging as ever.
Take an Indian upon the prairies, and he is in his element. An air of wild freedom breathes around him. His head droops not; his eye quails not; and not a single feature yields in submission to his fellow man. He is unrestrained in body, unfettered in spirit, and as wayward as the breeze which sweeps over the grass of his own hills.