our or two. and you need
a horse also, to ride through & drive the team in all bad places, & to
get up your cattle without getting your feet wet, by wading in water or
dew; if such exposures as these were avoided, I do not think there would
be as much sickness as there usually is, along here, for we have not
passed less than 100 fresh graves from St. Joseph to the Blue river. See
some dead stalk, the wolves have a feast, hope they will not disturb the
graves. [May 20--37th day] We travel about 20 ms. a day our cattle are
thriving, look well; but this Gy[p]sy life is anything but agreeable, it
is impossible to keep anything clean, & it is with great dificulty that
you do what little you have to do. Turned down to the left; tolerable
grass only; here we saw the first buffalo sign; the wolves kept barking
all night. [May 21--38th day] Raining some, came 7 or 8 ms, the rain
still continuing, we put up for the day, down to the left, near a dry
sandy creek, here was a fresh grave; there being some timber along this
creek, we soon had a large fire, & prepared our dinner. We have not as
yet seen any game, & a fishhook would have been of more service so far,
than half a dozen guns, The weather is quite cold, need overcoats, &
mittens. [May 22--39th day] Again we get up the cattle & start on; the
land here is poor, the country flat, & grass only in places, the road is
very crooked thus far; for the track runs wherever it is nearest level.
We encamped on the Little blue,[40] which we had been following up for
the last 3 or 4 days, it is a poor place for grass. Some teams turned
back a day or two since, & one old lady said we had all better turn
back, for if the grass began to give out now, what would become of us if
we went on until our teams were not able to take us back; she said she
was going back, for she had made a living before she had ever heard of
California, & the rest might go on & starve their teams to death if they
liked. Saw the heads of [s]everal fine large fish lying here, but could
not catch any with a pin hook. [May 23--40th day] After some difficulty,
we got our cattle from the other side of the river, where they had
strayed during the night, but when we found they were across, some of
the men went over & watched them, which was the first time we had
watched them, but being now in the Pawnee country we were a little
afraid they might be stolen, but we did not see one of these indians,
some said it was because they