A few, led by the
phantoms of hope, and ambitious of sudden affluence, sought the mines
of the virgin territory; but by far the greater portion of the
emigrants were satisfied to establish themselves along the margins of
the larger water-courses, content with the rich returns that the
generous, alluvial, bottoms of the rivers never fail to bestow on the
most desultory industry. In this manner were communities formed with
magical rapidity; and most of those who witnessed the purchase of the
empty empire, have lived to see already a populous and sovereign
state, parcelled from its inhabitants, and received into the bosom of
the national Union, on terms of political equality.
The incidents and scenes which are connected with this legend,
occurred in the earliest periods of the enterprises which have led to
so great and so speedy a result.
The harvest of the first year of our possession had long been passed,
and the fading foliage of a few scattered trees was already beginning
to exhibit the hues and tints of autumn, when a train of wagons issued
from the bed of a dry rivulet, to pursue its course across the
undulating surface, of what, in the language of the country of which
we write, is called a "rolling prairie.
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