nts, they were to send back a relief
for those plodding on wearily behind them. Soon a few
who were stronger than the others reached Independence,
Missouri, and immediately sent a party with horses to
bring in their comrades; so, at last, all got safely to
their homes.

In the spring of 1829, Major Bennett Riley of the United States army was
ordered with four companies of the Sixth Regular Infantry to march out
on the Trail as the first military escort ever sent for the protection
of the caravans of traders going and returning between Western Missouri
and Santa Fe. Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the Dragoons,
accompanied the command, and kept a faithful journal of the trip, from
which, and the official report of Major Riley to the Secretary of War, I
have interpolated here copious extracts.

The journal of Captain Cooke states that the battalion marched from Fort
Leavenworth, which was then called a cantonment, and, strange to
say, had been abandoned by the Third Infantry on account of its
unhealthiness. It was the 5th of June that Riley crossed the Missouri at
the cantonment, and recrossed the river again at a point a little above
Independence, in order to avoid the Kaw, or Kansas, which had no ferry.

After five days' marching, the command arrived at Round Grove, where
the caravan had been ordered to rendezvous and wait for the escort. The
number of traders aggregated about seventy-nine men, and their train
consisted of thirty-eight wagons drawn by mules and horses, the former
preponderating. Five days' marching, at an average of fifteen miles a
day, brought them to Council Grove. Leaving the Grove, in a short time
Cow Creek was reached, which at that date abounded in fish; many of
which, says the journal, "weighed several pounds, and were caught as
fast as the line could be handled." The captain does not describe the
variety to which he refers; probably they were the buffalo--a species of
sucker, to be found to-day in every considerable stream in Kansas.

Having reached the Upper Valley,[21] bordered by high sand hills, the
journal continues:

From the tops of the hills, we saw far away, in almost
every direction, mile after mile of prairie, blackened
with buffalo. One morning, when our march was along the
natural meadows by the river, we passed through them for
miles; they opened in front and closed contin