The New York herald., 1845-01-06
Oregon Territory.
GCOrrpapondence of the Herald.1

LINNToN, Oregon Territory, 1874.
Pota,cotomis Indians Catholic Missionariss- Fiat
Head Andia~s and Osages-Pa,onss Scalps-An-
teiope Hunt, &c.
JAMES G. BENNETT, ESQ o:-
In my former communication | gave you some
account Of our trip as far as Elm Grove, Is miles
| from the rendezvous. On the oath May, we
crossed the Walpalusa, tributary Of the Kanzas,
| about twenty yards wide, clear running water,
over pebbly bed. We let our wagons down the
bank (Which was very steep) with ropes There
| was, however. a very practicable ford, unknown
| to us, about 100 yards above. We here saw three
Potawotomie Indians, who rode fine horses, with
wartngales,. brides, and saddles, We found
very few hsh In this stream. On the 26th
May. we reached Kanzas river, which was
| too high to ford and we prepared platform, by
uniting. two large canoes together-and com.
| a meeting, and appointed committee of three to
make arrangements for crossing the river. The
committee attempted to hire Pappa's platform, "a
Frenchman who lived at the crossing,) but no
reasonable arrangement could be made with him
Before we had flashed our platform, some of the
| company made private arrangement with Papa
| for themselves, and commenced crossing. This
produced great dissatisfaction In amp. On the
| 2S,h Pappa's platform sank, and several men,
women, and children, came near being drowned,
but all escaped, with the loss of some property.
L
CONS still coming in rapidly. On the SO.h May,
two Catholic Missionaries, TO the Flat Head In
dams arrived! and crossed the river. The Kanzas
! is here wide stream, with sandy banks and bot
| tom. suppose it TO be about quarter mile wide
| at this point The water was muddy, like that of
| the Missouri river We finished crossing on the
3lst May, Our encampment was on Black War
rior Greek; very uncomfortable, as our stock were
constantly sticking fast in the mud upon its banks
| On the 1st June, we organized the company, by
electing Peter H. Burnett commanderin-c chief,
| we crossed Big Sandy, a large creek with high
banks. Last might've had hard rain Last even.
ing we saw several of the kanzas chiefs, who
visited our encampmcnt. Our usual mode of en-
| camping was to form hollow square with the
| wagons. When we organized, we had about
| Ito wagons and 263 men, all able to bear arms
/ On the 5 h we crossed the East Fork of Blue,
large creek, and tributary of the Kanzas, and on
the 9Th, in the evening, we crossed the Wes, Fork
of Blue, small river, about 50yards wide. Con-
trary 10 our expectations we found it fordabe, by
prOpping up our Wagon beds with large blocks OF
wood. We encamaed for the night on a level
prairie, dry and beautiful. In the night we had
| immense thunder storm, and torrents Of rain
Half the tents blew down, and nearly the whole
deep. We were in most uncomfortable predca-
ment next morning, and nearly all wet. We this
day met war party Of Osages and Kanzas Indians,
consisting OF about 30 warriors; war % They al rode
sni! to it, and full Of wampum. Ts This scalp
had teieIably long hair upon it, and
| they had divided IT into some five or six diff.
| ferent pieces, some with to them, and some
with part Of the cheek. The Kanzas and Osages
are the most miserable, cowardlv. and dirty Indi-
ans we saw East OF the Rocky Mountains. They
annoyed US greatly by their continual begging
We gave this war party bread and meat, and calf;
| they said they had eaten nothing for three days.
Two. OF this party We're wounded severely, one in
the shoulder and the other IN another part. They
| had killed but one Pawnee, who had wounded
these two before he fell The Kanzas Indians,
however, did not steal from US, except perhaps a
horee or two which were missing, but which might
have escaped back to the Kanzas river. On the
7hwe removed our encampment one half mile to
Place we supposed to be dry; but in the night
another severe storm Of rain succeeded, and again
flooded half the encampment. On the slh we ira
| velIed hve miles TO grove OF green elm trees,
and it again ralned in torrents, but our encamp
meht was upon high ground this time. P. H Bur
| In consequence of i'll health. On the 9th, the
| clouds dispersed, and we travelled FIVE miles to
| had wood, where we dried our clothes The
| company now separated into two parties, one un
the other re.organized by electng William Martin
commander Martins company had abou, 72
wagons and LIS men. On the 10rh, we met
company of four wagons from Fort Lorimer,
| with furs and peltries, going TO Independence
| They had with them several buffalo calves As
yet we saw no game Of any kind, except few
saw the corpse Of an Indian. in the prairie: his
head had been cut off, and he badly scaIped
and left TO be eaten up by the buzzards. This, no
doubt, was the same Indian killed and scalped by
| the war party OF the Osages and KaDzas. On the
llth, we had fall OF ram in the evening before
| dark, but none in the night. On the l2lh, the
| whole company were thrown into state OF great
| excitement by the news, which reached us, that
Captain Cant and some others had killed large
buffalo. He was venerable old bull, by himself,
and was discovered by the hunters at about one
mile distant; they run upon him with their
horses, and shot him with their large horse-p
| tolls; seven balls were fired into him before he
fell. The animal was not very fat, and was tough
eating. He had no doubt baen lett here in the
| quen,ly come down uoon the waters of Blue river
10 spend the winter among the rushes, which are
abundant in the bottoms near the stream; but they
return IN the spring On the l4th June, we passed
over level plain Of rich prairie land, equal to
any in the world for farming purposes but it was
company killed an antelope-an animal not very
last three or four days. June 10Th, one deer and
one antelope were killed, and we had most beau.
tfu race between an antelope and some fleet dogs.
two miles, in iull view, about two hundred yards
from us and fast as he would leave one dog
behind, another would come in from the wagons
Why the animal did not change his course, | can
not tell, unless perhaps he was TOO much confused
Perhaps animal in the world Is 30 feet this
beautiful creature. He will weigh about as much
as deer, has hair Of much the same length and
color, is formed little like the goat, but is much
have horns, with several prongs to them, not so
long as the horns of a deer, and of black color
The bucks have black stripes, about an inch wide,
running down from under each ear, and continuing
under each eye towards the nose. These stripes,
and thin black hairs, give the animal quite fan.
ciful appearance. Nothing is more beautiful and
graceful than the movements of this active animal
He runs very smoothly; not in irregular bounds,
like the deer MIR. Lindsay Applegate, who
had tvo very fleet grey hounds with him, stated to
me that he one day witnessed race between his
best grey hound and an antelope He said the
antelope and dog were running at right angles
towards each other, and the antelope did not
discover the dog until the dog was within twenty
feet Of him. The struggle then commenced, and
they ran about quarter OF mile, each doing his
utmost . but the lopc outran the dog so far
that the dog stopped still, and looked after the
antelope in utter astonishment. The dog had