dressed and roasted one shoulder and invited Doctor[1] to help eat it. The Doctor said it was the best roasted meat he ever ate.
When we got to Fort Laramie,[2] Platte River had to be ferried. We got some boats, tied them together and got all the barrels we could and lashed by the sides of the boats to help hold them up. We crossed one wagon at a time till all were over. At the next river, North Platte, we tied all the wagons together. Some one had a long rope which was tied to the ring of the first wagon and men on the other side helped the train to cross. We made a good crossing except that McHaley's wagon broke loose and washed off. At Laramie[2] I got a pair of moccasins for a pint bottle from an Indian woman, a white man's wife.
We traveled up Sweet Water till we got to Independence Rock; the train stopped there. Hiram Straight, Bob Smith, and myself went hunting and were out all night. In the morning we killed a fine fat buffalo cow, and started to get ahead of the wagons. We got on top of the Black Hills where we could see the wagons; we then unpacked our horses and let them graze, while we roasted buffalo meat and ate without bread or salt, then went on to meet the train. So that ends the hunt for that time.
We headed Sweet Water and camped at a lake on the divide. There James White struck his wife. Bob Smith wanted to whip him, but Olinger thought he served her right for abusing his little girls. I will have to go back to the other side of Platte where three of us went hunting, Hiram Straight, Jo Hess, and myself. We killed a fine buffalo. I was riding Patterson's young skittish horse by
- ↑ Mr. Penter fails to give the name of the "doctor." As Dr. Marcus Whitman is always mentioned in connection with any medical service performed during this migration he is probably the person referred to.—Ed.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The flight of years has evidently confused the author slightly on minor points of the geography of the incidents of the trip, but this does not impair the value of his account—Ed.
