waters of the Yellowstone, with a party of twenty men who had chosen
him as their leader. After various exciting incidents and thrilling
adventures, all of the original party, except Williams and two others,
were killed by the Indians somewhere in the vicinity of the Upper
Arkansas. The three survivors, not knowing where they were, separated,
and Captain Williams determined to take to the stream by canoe, and
trap on his way toward the settlements, while his last two companions
started for the Spanish country--that is, for the region of Santa Fe.
The journal of Williams, from which I shall quote freely, is to be
found in _The Lost Trappers_, a work long out of print.[11] As the
country was an unexplored region, he might be on a river that flowed
into the Pacific, or he might be drifting down a stream that was
an affluent to the Gulf of Mexico. He was inclined to believe
that he was on the sources of the Red River. He therefore resolved
to launch his canoe, and go wherever the stream might convey him,
trapping on his descent, when beaver might be plenty.

The first canoe he used he made of buffalo-skins. As this kind
of water conveyance soon begins to leak and rot, he made another
of cottonwood, as soon as he came to timber sufficiently large,
in which he embarked for a port, he knew not where.

Most of his journeyings Captain Williams performed during the hours
of night, excepting when he felt it perfectly safe to travel in
daylight. His usual plan was to glide along down the stream, until
he came to a place where beaver signs were abundant. There he would
push his little bark among the willows, where he remained concealed,
excepting when he was setting his traps or visiting them in the
morning. When he had taken all the beaver in one neighbourhood,
he would untie his little conveyance, and glide onward and downward