272 JOURNAL OF E. WILLARD SMITH
no danger of meeting Indians. They took a horse with them to carry their blankets and provisions.
In the meantime the party on the Platte were hunting daily, and supplied themselves abundantly with provisions.
After waiting thirty days for the return of Mr. Biggs with horses, we began to be fearful that he had been murdered by the Indians, but on the forty-second day from the time of his starting, just as we had given up all hope of seeing him, he and Mr. Vasquez arrived, bringing with them horses sufficient to carry the furs, but not enough to furnish saddle-horses for all the party, consequently some were obliged to walk. They also brought some men with them, increasing our number to twenty-two.
Mr. Biggs immediately started to return for the beaver that had been left some distance back, and was absent five days.
When Mr. Biggs started for the fort in search of horses we built a fort of logs on the Platte to protect us from Indians. We now left this fort on the 14th of April on our way to the fort on the South Fork.
On the 16th we ate dinner at the Medicine Bow Creek, and on the 19th arrived at Laramie Fork, a tributary of the Platte. At the junction of this stream with the North Fork of the River Platte the American Fur Company have a large trading fort, called Fort Laramie. We saw a great many buffalo every day as we passed along.
On the 22nd we met a small party of Arapahoo Indians coming to visit their friends the Shoshonies, or Snake Indians.
On the 24th of April, in the afternoon, we crossed the South Fork of the Platte with considerable difficulty, as the water was very high. After traveling six miles we arrived at the Fort of Sublette and Vasquez. We remained at the fort nearly two days.
April 26th we started in a mackinaw boat, which had been made at the fort at the foot of the mountains. This boat was thirty-six feet long and eight feet wide. We had seven hun- dred buffalo robes on board and four hundred buffalo tongues. There were seven of us in company. The water of this river,
