We traveled slowly, because the cows were not easily herded, and, as
Eben Jordan said, none of our people were accustomed to such kind of
marching.
[Illustration]
We did, however, finally arrive at the real starting point after eight
days, during which time Ellen and I came to understand that, however
pleasant it was to sit in the wagon and look out upon the country
through which we passed, it might grow wearisome.
Ellen and I had fancied we would see something very new and wonderful
at Independence, and yet, while everything was strange and there was
much to attract one's attention, it was not so very different from
other settlements through which we had passed.
There was, however, a constant bustle and confusion such as one could
not see elsewhere. Enormous wagons, which Eben Jordan said belonged
to the traders who went over the Santa Fe trail, were coming into
town or going out, each drawn by eight or ten mules and accompanied by
Spaniards or Negroes, until one could but wonder where so many people
were going.
[Illustration]
There were trains, much like our own, belonging to settlers who were
going into Oregon, or, like ourselves, into California. Those were
halted just outside the town, until the entire settlement was literally
surrounded, while among them all, near the wagons of the traders as
well as those of the emigrants, lounged Indians, nothing like the
people I had imagined the savages to be.