Our entire wardrobe, with the sole exception of the rude clothing on our persons, and our entire private stock of Indian presents, were included in the saddle bags. But their most important contents were all the manuscripts of Mr. Say and Lieut. Swift, completed during the extensive journey from Engineer Cantonment to this place. Those of the former consisted of five books, viz. one book of observations on the manners and habits of the Mountain Indians, and their history, so far as it could be obtained from the interpreters; one book of notes on the manners and habits of animals, and descriptions of species; one book containing a journal; two books containing vocabularies of the languages of the Mountain Indians; and those of the latter consisted of a topographical journal of the same portion of our expedition. All these, being utterly useless to the wretches who now possessed them, were probably thrown away upon the ocean of prairie, and consequently the labour of months was consigned to oblivion by these uneducated vandals. Nolan, Myers, and Bernard, though selected by the officers of Camp Missouri, with the best intentions, for the purpose of accompanying our party, proved worthless, indolent, and pusillanimous from the beginning; and Nolan, we ascertained, was a notorious deserter in two former instances. This desertion and robbery occurred at a most unfortunate period, inasmuch as we were all much debilitated, and their services consequently the less dispensable on that account, in the attentions necessarily due to the pack-horses, in driving these animals, loading and unloading them, &c. {100} We resumed our journey upon our Indian pathway in silence, and at the distance of sixteen miles we passed through the river forest, here three miles in width, and once again encamped upon the bank which overlooks that stream. No trace of Belle Point, nor any appearances of civilization were yet in view. But we were all immediately struck with the change in the appearance of the water in the river. No longer of that pale clay colour, to which we have been accustomed, it has now assumed a reddish hue, hardly unlike that of the blood of the human arteries, and is still perfectly opaque, from the quantity of an earthy substance of this tint, which it holds in suspension; its banks and bars are, from deposition, of the same colour. This extraneous pigment has been contributed by some large stream flowing in from the opposite side, and which, in consequence of our late aberrance, we had not seen.[122] The hunters returned without game, but bringing us a few grapes and some unripe persimmons, all of which were eaten. The extreme heat of the day was 95 degrees, and in the evening thunder and lightning occurred in the western horizon. {101} CHAPTER XIII {VII}[123] The Party Meet with Osage Indians--Some Account of this Nation--Manner of Taking Wild Horses.