me with awe. I took off the skin, hung it to a tree, and securing the
cub, I hastened home, having lost my appetite for fishing or a
fish-supper for that evening.

A week after this circumstance, a company of traders arrived from St.
Louis. They had been attacked by Indians, and made a doleful appearance.
During their trip they had once remained six days without any kind of
food, except withered grass. Here it may not be amiss to say a few words
about the origin of this inland mercantile expedition, and the dangers
with which the traders are menaced.

In 1807, Captain Pike, returning from his exploring trip in the interior
of the American continent, made it known to the United States merchants
that they could establish a very profitable commerce with the central
provinces of the north of Mexico; and in 1812, a small party of
adventurers. Millar, Knight, Chambers, Beard, and others, their whole
number not exceeding twelve, forced their way from St. Louis to Santa
Fé, with a small quantity of goods.

It has always been the policy of the Spaniards to prevent strangers from
penetrating into the interior of their colonies. At that period, Mexico
being in revolution, strangers, and particularly Americans, were looked
upon with jealousy and distrust. These merchants were, consequently,
seized upon, their goods confiscated, and themselves shut up in the
prisons of Chihuahua, where, during several years, they underwent a
rigorous treatment.

It was, I believe, in the spring of 1821, that Chambers, with the other
prisoners, returned to the United States, and shortly afterwards a
treaty with the States rendered the trade lawful. Their accounts induced