the party, all of whom
gave the same answers, whereupon he smiled, and in his quaint
vernacular said, "Injun he don't know nothing. Injun big fool. White
man mighty smart; he know heap." At the same time he pointed to a tree
about two hundred yards from where we were then standing, and informed
us that our outward trail ran directly by the side of it, which proved
to be true.

Another time, as I was returning from the Comanche country over a route
many miles distant from the one I had traveled in going out, one of my
Delaware hunters, who had never visited the section before, on arriving
upon the crest of an eminence in the prairie, pointed out to me a clump
of trees in the distance, remarking that our outward track would be
found there. I was not, however, disposed to credit his statement until
we reached the locality and found the road passing the identical spot
he had indicated.

This same Indian would start from any place to which he had gone by a
sinuous route, through an unknown country, and keep a direct bearing
back to the place of departure; and he assured me that he has never,
even during the most cloudy or foggy weather, or in the darkest nights,
lost the points of compass. There are very few white men who are
endowed with these wonderful faculties, and those few are only rendered
proficient by matured experience.

I have known several men, after they had become lost in the prairies,
to wander about for days without exercising the least judgment, and
finally exhibiting a state of mental aberration almost upon the verge
of lunacy. Instead of reasoning upon their situation, they exhaust
themselves running a-head at their utmost speed without any regard to
direction. When a person is satisfied that he has lost his way, he
should stop and reflect upon the course he has been traveling, the time
that has elapsed since he left his camp, and the probable distance that
he is from it; and if he is unable to retrace his steps, he should keep
as nearly in the direction of them as possible; and if he has a
compass, this will be an easy matter; but, above all, he should guard
against following his own track around in a circle with the idea that
he is in a beaten trace.

When he is traveling with a train of wagons which leaves a plain trail,
he can make the distance he has traveled from camp the radius of a
circle in which to ride around, and before the circle is described he
will strike the trail. If the person has n