At supper time old Takkensuitas (Rotten Belly) and Ish-hol-hol-hoats-hoats were honored with a place at the missionary board. With your permission, ladies and gentlemen, I will give you the bill of fare on this memorable occasion. Place--by the side of a muddy stream called Sandy, about thirty miles south of Wind River Mountain. This mountain, you will remember, is about as near the highest point of the North American continent as can be. This fact is established, not from geographical or barometrical observations, but from the simple fact that water runs from it by way of the Missouri, Colorado, and Columbia rivers into the eastern, southern, and western oceans, and but a short distance to the north of this mountain commences the waters of the Saskatchewan River, running into Hudson's Bay and the northern ocean. There are doubtless many other mountains whose peaks ascend higher into the clouds, but none of them supply water to so vast an extent of country, and none of them are so decidedly on top of the continent as this one. Of course our little party is in a high altitude, and in sight of this mountain, which may or may not have been ten thousand feet higher to its snow-capped peaks. Date--about the 20th day of July, 1836. Our table was the grass beside this muddy stream; cloth--an old broken oil-cloth badly used up; plates--when the company started were called tin, but from hard usage were iron in all shapes; cups--ditto; knives--the common short-bladed wooden-handled butcher knife; forks--a stick each cut to suit himself, or, if he preferred the primitive mode of conveying his food to its proper destination, he was at liberty to practice it; food extra on this occasion--a nice piece of venison, which the Indians had presented to the ladies, a piece of broiled and roast buffalo meat, roasted upon a stick before the fire, seasoned with a little salt, with a full proportion of sand and dirt. Dr. Whitman was inclined to discard the use of salt entirely; as to dirt and sand it was a matter upon which he and Mr. Parker differed on the trip the year previous, though Mrs. Whitman took sides with Mr. Parker against the Doctor, and with the assistance of Mrs. Spalding, the Doctor was kept in most cases within reasonable distance of comfortable cleanliness. On this occasion tea, with sugar, was used; the supply of bread was limited; we will not trouble the reader with an extra list of the dessert. Of this feast these sons of the wilderness partook with expressions of great satisfaction. The Lawyer, twenty-seven years after, spoke of it as the time when his heart became one with the _Suapies_ (Americans). CHAPTER XV. Arrival at American rendezvous.--An Indian procession.--Indian curiosity to see white women.--Captain N. Wyeth.--McCleod and T. McKay.--Description of mountain men.--Their opinion of the missionaries.