REMINISCENCES OF SEVENTY YEARS 255 parched lips. One night, Meek took his wife and ponies and disappeared in the darkness ; he got across the Deschutes river at the mouth of Tygh creek, got dried salmon and other pro- visions from the Indians (for he was at home when he was with them) and struck out on the Mount Hood trail. That was what saved his life, as vengeance was sworn against him. I never knew what became of him, but I understood from his brother that Stephen Meek settled in Southern Oregon and Joe would have nothing to do with him. Now, I have got Steve Meek through and disposed of, I will go back to the big Kaw River, right among the Kaw In- dians, where Kansas City now stands. They were the first tribe of Indians on the route that we had to meet, and were a noble, fine-looking Indian, and they treated us fine. They were about to start on a buffalo hunt up the Big Platte River but they were in fearful dread of the Sioux Indians, for they claimed all the buffalo on the Big Platte River. But the Kaws disputed their right to all the buffalo, but if the two tribes happened to come together there was sure to be bloodshed, unless the Kaws could get back to their own hunting ground. But none of them molested us in the least. So we rolled on until we struck the North Platte River at Ash Hollow, where, according to arrangements at the start, we were all to go into camp and let the big chief, Captain Welch, take the lead. But there were four or five companies ahead of us, the Barlow company ; but when we got there there were no companies to be seen ; so from that time on each company was an independent company of its own, and the "Devil take the hindmost," was the saying. Grass was good and water plenty, but wood was not very plentiful. But we had a good substitute in the way of buffalo chips. We soon came in sight of vast herds of buffalo, and close by, as we thought. But when we started to go to them, we found they were from five to eight miles away. To further illustrate this illusion, when we came in sight of Chimney Rock, some of the young men took their guns, said they would go around by the rock and get on top of it, then overtake the
