aggling 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 Elderado 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
civilised 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 favour 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 of the whole, marched the individual,
who, by his position and air, appeared to be the leader of the band. He
was a tall, sun-burnt, man, past the middle age, of a dull countenance
and listless manner. His frame appeared loose and flexible; but it
was vast, and in reality of prodigious power. It was, only at moments,
however, as some slight impediment opposed itself to his loitering
progress, that his person, which, in its ordinary gait seemed so
lounging and nerveless, displayed any of those energies, which lay
latent in his system, like the slumbering and unwieldy, but terrible,
strength of the e