It was after midsummer when they set out
again and pressed on westward with a trend to the south. The
country was bare and desolate. For twenty days they saw no human
being. They had Mandan guides who promised to take them to the
next tribe, the Handsome Men--Beaux Hommes--as the brothers
called them, a tribe much feared by the Mandans. The travelers
were now mounted; for the horse, brought first to America by the
Spaniards, had run wild on the western plains where the European
himself had not yet penetrated, and had become an indispensable
aid to certain of the native tribes. Deer and buffalo were in
abundance and they had no lack of food.
When they reached the tribe of Beaux Hommes, the Mandan guides
fled homeward. Summer passed into bleak autumn with chill winds
and long nights. By the end of October they were among the Horse
Indians who, they had been told, could guide them to the sea.
These, however, now said that only the Bow Indians, farther on,
could do this. Winter was near when they were among these
Indians, probably a tribe of the Sioux, whom they found excitedly
preparing for a raid on their neighbors farther west, the Snakes.
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