post
to trade with the whites. They manifested a very friendly disposition
towards the old trapper, and expressed a wish to accompany him. He
also learned from them, to his great delight, that he was on the
Big Arkansas, and not more than five hundred miles from the white
settlements. He was well enough versed in the treachery of the Indian
character to know just how much he could repose in their confidence. He
was aware that they would not allow a solitary trapper to pass through
their country with a valuable collection of furs, without, at least,
making an effort to rob him. He knew that their plan would be to get him
into a friendly intercourse, and then, at the first opportunity, strip
him of everything he possessed; consequently he was determined to get
rid of them as soon as possible, and to effect this, he plied his oars
with all diligence. The Indians, like most North American savages, were
lazy, and had no disposition to labour in that way, but took it quite
leisurely, satisfied with being carried down by the current. Williams
soon left them in the rear, and, as he supposed, far behind him. When
night came on, however, as he had worked all day, and slept none the
night before, he resolved to turn aside into a bunch of willows to take
a few hours' rest. But he had not stopped more than forty minutes when
he heard some Indians pull to the shore just above him on the same side
of the river. He immediately loosened his canoe from its moorings, and
glided silently away. He rowed hard for two or three hours, when he
again pulled to the bank and tied up.

Only a short time after he had landed, he heard Indians again going
on shore on the same side of the stream as himself. A second time he
repeated his tactics, slipped out of his place of concealment, and stole
softly away. He pulled on vigorously until some time after midnight,
when he supposed he could with safety stop and snatch a little sleep.
He felt apprehensive that he was in a dangerous region, and his anxiety
kept him wide awake. It was very lucky that he did not close his eyes;
for as he was lying in the bottom of his canoe he heard for the third
time a canoe land as before. He was now perfectly satisfied that he was
dogged by the Kansans whom he had passed the preceding day, and in no
very good humour, therefore, he picked up his rifle, and walked up to
the bank where he had heard the Indians land. As he suspected, there
were the three savages. When they sa