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At length The Whirlwind and his warriors determined
to move. They had resolved, after all their preparations,
not to go to the rendezvous at La Bonté's camp, but to
pass through the Black Hills and spend a few weeks in
hunting the buffalo on the other side, until they had killed
enough to furnish them with a stock of provisions and
with hides to make their lodges for the next season. This
done, they were to send out a small independent war-
party against the enemy. Their final determination placed
us in some embarrassment. Should we go to La Bonté's
camp, it was not impossible that the other villages would
prove as vacillating as The Whirlwind's, and that no
assembly whatever would take place. Our old companion
Reynal had conceived a liking for us, or rather for our
biscuit and coffee, and for the occasional small presents
which we made him. He was very anxious that we should
go with the village, which he himself intended to follow.
He was certain that no Indians would meet at the rendez-
vous, and said, moreover, that it would be easy to convey
our cart and baggage through the Black Hills. He knew,
however, nothing of the matter. Neither he nor any white
man with us had ever seen the difficult and obscure defiles
through which the Indians intended to make their way. I
passed them afterwards, and had much ado to force my
distressed horse along the narrow ravines, and through
chasms where daylight could scarcely penetrate. Our cart
might as easily have been driven over the summit of Pike's
Peak. But of this we were ignorant; and in view of the
difficulties and uncertainties of an attempt to visit the
rendezvous, we recalled the old proverb about "a bird
in the hand," and decided to follow the village.

3

Both camps, the Indians' and our own, broke up on the
morning of the first of July. I was so weak that the aid

-169-

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Publication Information: Book Title: The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life. Contributors: Francis Parkman - author, Frederic Remington - illustrator. Publisher: Little Brown. Place of Publication: Boston. Publication Year: 1892. Page Number: 169.
    
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