St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1862-10-02

- > 49, OAsO 00A4AAOS14 AVOS oV4SA
~ Mines. " NJ
t&s4 1NTq1DoTuo IBT1D3S.4
: Ths following extracts from letter n.
ssived BY ". +. Mitchell, Of lh,s pkes,
from n. D. Lsdbsstsr, win b found in.
tsrsssipg. The party With which NJ. l..
~ associated In Post Absrsrombie
shout twelve d.ys IN advance q Captain
yisks Prossssivs Cnpa1 ~. 80.
= Foar BIx1oA, AIgoss 10th, 1862.
D1AR W1ll.-ws arrived here yss-
tssasy. ssfs and sound, AFTER . tedious
tsip u aisy.shrse days from St. jos, ont
e which ~ hid over eleven daya It
would b useless Tor me to give you an
,ecount 81 the trip in detail, a. each day
would amount 70 tho came thing.
Before leaving st. Joe; We hired .
guide to bring ~ here, paying him two
hundred dollsrs-ons hundred "dowo,"
and the bsllaEos when at Fort Benton.-
All went on we'll until tho ll.h Of July.
when We fell in With party Of Sioux
and Stony Lake Indians, about eighty in
al. Our guide advised Us to hold eouu.
oil with them. We did 30, and gave
them Aour, tobaceo, Ac. When We first
cav them coming down the hills, ~e
thought they Intended 70 attack us, -
they came yelling and fring Of their guns
in grand style. They formed themselves
in line and dismount,ng, shook hands
With us. We prepared ourselves for q
council IN orr 'eorrcll," and after several
speeches were ..ade BY chief, We gave
them our presents and started on our
journey. Our guides were very much
atraid Of tho Indians, and these knew i.
SO, the next day {l2.h) our guides very
<zcachsroualy left Us to ourselves, and re-
turned to party Of haifhretd hunters
shat We haa passed two days before The
rsme day, or iu the evening, an Indian
came to our camp 20 guide u to Fort un-
ion. He said he va, going to the F,st
sad worid show Us the way. We believ-
cd him to be . horse thief, (Which he
proved to boz but took him along. For
two days We watched hin night and day,
but,a last he beat US by stealing horse
aud running away in daylight. 1t was
good joke on rs, but the company paid
for the horse.
We were now within short distance
u tho Missouri, river. On the 18th, two
Of our party Wen: to Fort Uni,n, finding
j. to be not more than twelve niles from
our camp. On tho 10th NO I'll in wi:h
another party Of Indians. to whom We
gave presca;s. They canped With US 1t
night. On tho 23d wc een in With a
large party Of G.ossvcntrses pronounced
0rovons) Indians. They we're a very
6ne body Of Indians, ven mounted, bad
cat few guns, xese 'ds<sscd to KILL" and
vi.hal eery friendly: They must have
lad Eve hundred horses at their camp,
DO. few. Of which would bring $3.50 at
II. Paul, at the present prices.
At night when We camped they brought
sAe;z w.ves and daughters, aud offered
.Aen t. the men. They thought it would
be honorable in. rs to accept, or At least
they wanted 10 make Us believe i; but
in fact thy wanted to make good thing
cut Of Us and get al they could BY offer
irg their wives aud daughters and 50 get
provisions and ammunit;on in exchange
tor their honor, All the pe1t DAY part Of
them brought their women along, but We
made them leave, tbs thing was becoming
too disgusting; but before they left they
stole our Odometer from tbs wheel which
VS. : cad loss 70 Us. It would lave been
useless to return 70 thei. camp in search
o! it, r
we did not go to Fort Union on &C.
count Of its being several miles out Of orr
way. We offered 10 board Flackfoot
hslcbresd, his wife and another half.
breed woman aud daughter to Fort Ben
ton Il he would guide us there. He ac-
cepted, aud We brough: them along The
Blackf.se and Grossyentrees are at wal,