The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-06-27
The Bots des Sioux Colony.


letter written by one of the Bots du Sioux
who left here in April last, to his
brother j. w. Neville, of this city, from
which We are kindly allowed to make som.
extracts. The narrative will show what ad
ventures are met with in settling the viii.
derness, and will doubtless be interesting to
those having friends in that colony, or VIII
are designing to 60 themselves:
PoMME Du TERRE LAKE,
May %, 1857.
DEAR Bro: We left St
Paul, on Monday, April 9th, and walkeo
through to st. Anthony that afternoon, The
ground covered with snow. Next morning
eight of us started during snow storm, t.
walk through to. St. Cloud while the teams
went up ON the west side of the River We
walked % miles over most horrible road
caused by the snow being beaten and packed
on the road, leaving it in ridge, like a raj
sed Railroad, the walking on which was We
ry slippery while it was very hard walking
on either side, the snow being over ancl,
deep. This was the kind of road we hao
all the way up. When We got that evening
to Itasca, one of the party was missing; We
began to be frightened about him. He came
to hand however, about 9 o'clock, and re
ported having lost the road. So he lao
himself down under snow drift and wen
to Sleep when he woke he saw light anc
made his way.to it, which turned out to bt
from the Aatel where we had stopped. A
some of the party were pretty we'll used ~
with that days tramp, we took it more lei
surely the rest of the way, and got int
St. Cloud on Friday morning; here we stay
ed and the whole party collected making ill.,
all eighteen men and three teams. Severai
of the party had sore eyes by the time they
got there. On the next Wednesday we go
underway again after giving three cheers fol
Bots des Sioux. The snow was so deep ano
the road so bad that we only got to St. Joe.
9 Mills from St. Cloud, that night, wher,
we encamped ON the banks of the Watab
Happily our encampment was in the mids
of dutchman's cord wood or we might
have frozen before morning, and as it was,
though several cords of wood disappeared,
vet more miserable set of sinners seldom
got up than might have been seen that morn
ing. During the second day We went miles
further, never getting warm all day, and to-
wards evening arrived at Cold Springs, where
we put up at the hotel, and where we stop
ped till the next Tuesday. While there WE
had fine time hunting. From Cold Springs
we went on for two. days more and then
stopped again to wait for the snow to go off
it being almost impossible to make any pro-
gress through it. Having learned from ex
experience that all the bed clothes put to-
sether into one long bed was much warmer
than each one shifting for himself, fancy
ten men in one bed. By-thc-way, almost
forgot to mention that one of our party be-
ing sick went back from Cold Springs. ,
While here we lived almost on game. ]
the pleasure Of seeing genuine wild bear
within few rods ofme one day. l had UNI
passed within few feet of him:
he jumped into the River and swan to the
other side while I yelled after him like an
Indian which only accelerated his move
ments, qOa cha!
We stayed in our camp until Tuesday
April %, when we once more set out no.
ping to have no more delays, encamped at
Lake George. On tue Goth, after wet day
we encamped at Lake McCloud. During
the day we saw number of elk, but could
not get near them. Next day we reached
White Bear Lake, the most beautiful lake
I have seen in Minnesota. On the 3lst,
while making for camp after crossing Pom
me du "erre, we were overtaken by a man
who reported three Of Moulto..'s party, who
let St. Cloud during the beginning of March,
to be in the woods on the other side of the
river. 1t appears the teamsters turned back
from there and reported having left them
within sight Of Bots DIES Sioux, (only SIS
miles off, The rest of the party packed
through, leaving three of them to take care
of the provisions and make improvements
on the town sight, which they layed out on
the lake, before leaving. .....
While making fire that night we accident
ly set fire to the prairie. and had to work
hard for two hours to protect the camp; the
fire burned brightly all night, continually
increasing in distance from us in all drec-
tons, the next morning we could see moth
ing but black burned prairie for miles, we
started again and encamped at night on
Lightning lake. While preparing supper
four men came into camp who turned out to
be Mr.. Prentice, one of the company, and
three others, who were on their way down
to St. Cloud to order up more provisions, and
the way they pitched into the slap jack (frt-
ters) and wild geese, was caution; they
seemed to be in need of provisions. The
next morning Prentice ordered twelve of us
back to this place where I have been ever
since.
am not apt to be grumber nor easily
put out, but nothing ever annoyed me so or
made me so angry as having to turn back
when within two days march Of our desti-
nation after so many days; however we had
pretty good times while here boarding at
the Bellevue Hotel, where we have all the
delicacles of the season witness our bill OF
fare. Main dishes, rabbit, squirrel musk
. rat, wild goose, duck, prairie chicken, pleas
ant, plover, snipe, crane, bittern, turtle soup,
goose, duck, snipe, crane and black bird
eggs, Ash III Condiments, pork and corn
bread. Does your mouth water; can St. Paul
hotels beat that
On coming down here; myself and another
were ahead, and on approaching the shanty
we proposed to see what effect an Indian
yell would produce upon the boys there
when near I gave mouth; fncy our surprise
on seeing two Chippewas stick their frighten
ed faces out of the door expecting to see
party of Sioux ready to scalp them. We soor
reassured them, and enjoyed the joke to
gether, though they had been awfully fright
ened. These are the only Indians l have seer
since leaving St. Paul, Wash ia do?