The adventures of a party under Ezekiel Williams occurred also as early as 1807. He was a well-known frontiersman, who had been employed by the Government to restore to his own people a Mandan chief who had accompanied Lewis and Clark to Washington after a military expedition had failed. Twenty men started with him. Having safely performed this assigned duty, Williams and his party started west into the mountains on a trapping trip, dividing into two detachments on arriving at the mouth of the Yellowstone. The Indians becoming troublesome, Williams with eight or ten of the men moved south along the base of the mountains until they reached the Arkansas. Here another separation took place, four going to Santa Fe, while Williams with five men, two of them Frenchmen, struck out into the mountains. Here, while trapping, three were killed, and Williams, with Chaplain and Parteau, sought protection among the Arapahoes on the South Platte. They passed a miserable winter, but in the spring Williams got away, and floated down the Arkansas in a canoe for over four hundred miles. He was captured by Kansas Indians, and robbed of his furs, but finally reached safety in Missouri in September. The next May he conducted a party back to the Arapahoe village in search of his companions, only to learn they had probably been killed.
Originally published in 1913; reformatted for the Kindle; may contain occasional imperfection; original spellings have been kept in place.
Originally published in 1913; reformatted for the Kindle; may contain occasional imperfection; original spellings have been kept in place.
