grounds, but was willing to pay them for the liberty I was taking. This
seemed to please the Indians and I told them we would eat before we
proceeded to business. We soon had some bacon, bread and coffee ready
which we offered to our guests before we began to eat. After they had
the first "helping" then we all began to eat our rations, after which we
passed the corn cob pipes and tobacco and while we talked we smoked. I
gave them two caddies of tobacco, 200 pounds of bacon, a hundredweight
of flour, several papers of soda, several pounds of salt, and a large
bucket of coffee.

One Indian said that in order to preserve peace and to protect us on our
route ten of them would travel with us through the wildest portion of
the country.

The strange escort remained with us two days, and when we were almost to
Fort Bridger, one of the Indians said that we would have no trouble
until after we had passed Fort Bridger and he did not think we would
encounter any perils even then.

When they were determined to decamp, I took ten silver dollars out of my
pocket, and gave each one of them a silver dollar. This pleased the
Indians greatly and they shook hands with me and departed.

When we arrived in Fort Bridger I had my sheep driven on past the fort,
and stopped to see the commanding officer. I asked him what their rules
were for traveling through the Indian country. He told me that a large
caravan of 200 wagons would start out in a few days and I would have to
drive the sheep on outside of the fort where I could get good range for
the sheep and wait until the other emigrants came up. I thanked him, but
I told Mark Shearer that I believed we could make it alright without the