much gratified with my excursion and if there be any thing in this rude and hasty diary, to please my friends, that gratification will be more than doubled.
About the latter end of October, Lisa returned to St. Louis. Mr. Henry had joined him at the Arikara village, having passed the mountains early in the spring, and having encountered incredible sufferings and dangers. Lisa had left trading establishments with the Sioux, below the Cedar island, as well as with the Mandans, and Arikaras. Mr. Nuttal, who had chosen to remain sometime longer with Lisa, had also returned.
The party of Mr. Hunt had set off for its destination on the Columbia.
{204} This immense tract of country has now become the theatre of American enterprise. There prevails amongst the natives west of the mountains, a spirit of wild adventure, which reminds us of the fictitious characters of Ariosto. The American hunters constitute a class, different from any people known to the east of the mountains. The life which they lead is exceedingly fascinating. Their scene ever changing—ever presenting something new. Confined by no regular pursuit—their labor is amusement. I have called the region watered by the Missouri and its tributaries, THE PARADISE OF HUNTERS; it is indeed to them a paradise. I have been acquainted with several, who, on returning to the settlements, became in a very short time dissatisfied, and wandered away to these regions, as delightful to them, as are the regions of fancy to the poet.
"Theirs the wild life, in frolick still to range,
From toil to rest, and joy in every change."
