"At Traverse des Sioux our land journey, of one hundred and twenty-five miles to Lac-qui-parle, commenced. Here we made the acquaintance of a somewhat remarkable French trader, by name Louis Provencalle, but commonly called Le Bland. The Indians called him Skadan, _Little White_. He was an old voyager, who could neither read nor write, but, by a certain force of character, he had risen to the honorable position of trader. He kept his accounts with his Indian debtors by a system of hieroglyphics. "For the next week we were under the convoy of Dr. Thomas S. Williamson and Mr. Gideon H. Pond, who met us with teams from Lac-qui-parle. The first night of our camping on the prairie, Dr. Williamson taught me a lesson which I never forgot. We were preparing the tent for the night, and I was disposed to let the roughness of the surface remain, and not even gather grass for a bed, which the Indians do; on the ground, as I said, that it was for _only one night_. 'But,' said the doctor, 'there will be a _great many one nights_.' And so I have found it. It is best to make the tent comfortable for _one night_." This was our first introduction--Mary's and mine--to the broad prairies of the West. At first, we kept in sight of the woods of the Minnesota, and our road lay among and through little groves of timber. But by and by we emerged into the broad savannahs--thousands of acres of meadow unmowed, and broad rolling country covered, at this time of year, with yellow and blue flowers. Every thing was full of interest to us, even the Bad Swamp,--Wewe Shecha,--which so bent and shook under the tramp of our teams, that we could almost believe it would break through and let us into the earth's centre. For years after, this was the great _fear_ of our prairie travelling, always reminding us very forcibly of Bunyan's description of the "Slough of Despond." The only accident of this journey was the breaking of the axle of one of Mr. Pond's loaded carts. It was Saturday afternoon. Mr. Pond and Dr. Williamson remained to make a new one, and Mary and I went on to the stream where we were to camp, and made ready for the Sabbath. "ON THE BROAD PRAIRIE OF 'THE FAR WEST.' "Saturday Eve., Sept. 9, 1837. "_My Ever Dear Mother:_--