CHAPTER III.'
EN ROUTE TO THE GREAT COUNCIL.
Friendly aid from Culbertson-Starts on Boo-mile journey across country - No perceptible trail - Storms and mosquitoes - Skunk-meat - Volcanic country - The plains appetite - Geologic curiosities - Colter's Hell - Bridger's tale of the Yellowstone Park - De Smet's cure for snake-bites- Fort Alexander and the Rosebud -Signs of enemies-Lack of water-Lake De Smet -Misled by straggling Crows-The great Oregon Trail-Fort Laramie - Campbell and Mitchell - Ten thousand Indians assembled.
Fort Union to Fort Laramie.
HE whole forenoon of the 31st of July, the day on which ~L the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, was employed in making preparations
for our journey into the interior of the country. Mr. [Alexander] Culbertson,' superintendent of the forts on the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, is a distinguished man, endowed with a mild, benevolent and charitable' temper,
though if need be intrepid and courageous. He has always given me marks of kindness and friendship, but most par
ticularly in this last tour. Being at the head of our troop, he was able to aid me in my project.
We numbered thirty-two persons; the greater part were Assiniboins, Minnetarees and Crows, who were repairing to the great Indian council to be held in the vicinity of Fort
1 Comprises Letters IV and V, Second Series, Western Missions and Missionaries.
2 Alexander Culbertson, next to Kenneth McKenzie, the most important of the American Fur Company traders on the Missouri. His principal activities were at Fort Union and at the trading posts at the head of navigation from which finally came Fort Benton. He was born in May, 18o9, and died at Orleans, Mo., August 27, 1879.-American Fur Trade of the Far West, p. 388.