 received into the bosom of the national Union, on terms of
political equality.
    The incidents and scenes which are connected with this legend, occurred in
the earliest periods of the enterprises which have led to so great and so speedy
a result.
    The harvest of the first year of our possession had long been passed, and
the fading foliage of a few scattered trees was, already, beginning to exhibit
the hues and tints of autumn, when a train of wagons issued from the bed of a
dry rivulet, to pursue its course across the undulating surface of what, in the
language of the country of which we write, is called a rolling Prairie. The
vehicles, loaded with household goods and implements of husbandry, the few
straggling sheep and cattle that were herded in the rear, and the rugged
appearance and careless mien of the sturdy men who loitered at the sides of the
lingering teams, united to announce a band of emigrants seeking for the Eldorado
of the West. Contrary to the usual practice of the men of their caste, this
party had left the fertile bottoms of the low country, and had found its way, by
means only known to such adventurers, across glen and torrent, over deep
morasses and arid wastes, to a point far beyond the usual limits of civilized
habitations. In their front were stretched those broad plains, which extend,
with so little diversity of character, to the bases of the Rocky Mountains; and
many long and dreary miles in their rear, foamed the swift and turbid waters of
La Platte.
    The appearance of such a train, in that bleak and solitary place, was
rendered the more remarkable by the fact, that the surrounding country offered
so little, that was tempting to the cupidity of speculation and, if possible,
still less that was flattering to the hopes of an ordinary settler of new lands.
    The meagre herbage of the Prairie promised nothing, in favor of a hard and
unyielding soil, over which the wheels of the vehicles rattled as lightly as if
they travelled on a beaten road; neither wagons nor beasts making any deeper
impression, than to mark that bruised and withered grass, which the cattle
plucked, from time to time, and as often rejected, as food too sour, for even
hunger to render palatable.
    Whatever might be the final destination of these adventurers, or the secret
causes of their apparent security in so remote and unprotected a situation,
there was no visible sign of uneasiness, uncertainty, or alarm among them.
Including both sexes, and every age, the number of the party exceeded twenty.
    At some little distance in front
