23rd At 6 oclok made A Barometrical observation
mercury standing at 28.697 inch Attached Thermometer
36° detached thermometer 34° vary little wind from
west fair. Also took an altitude of the sun for the time, and
also A Meridan Altitude of the sun for the latitude found it
to be 41° 24' 29". While wattering the Horses
at a creek at the last evening Brother Horse
mired & pitched foreward & Jumped onto him trod upon his
feet & breast & held him fast in the mud untill I caught
him by the bit & backed him off I was fearful He was badly
injured but at last found that He was but little hurt
[FIGURE] This was A day of Advenurtures to the pioner camp in
the morning 12 of us started on Horsback to search
out a ford across the dangerous difficult & troublesom of the we went down the stream some
distance & several men waided across the stream & found
the water so deep & so much quick sand we concluded
to drive Hier up to the old village so we returned
to the camp Harnessed up our Horses, my gray Horse named
Titus had the belly ake or bots yet I started out with him
& the camp drove up with some little difficulty to the
old Indian village or a little below it & men commenced
searching out a ford & found the whole bed of the river
one universal dody [body] of quick sand which if a Horse or
waggon stoped it would begin to sink down we
had two channels of water to cross with a sand bar in
in the middle the deepest water was from 3 to 4 feet deedp &
vary rapid & about 300 ^yards^ strait across some places of quick
sand was found so soft as to sink man or beast instantly in
& the more He strugled to get out the more He would sink
but we calculated to avoid such places as much as possible
As I was forward with my 10 or the first ten it fell to me to
to make the trial professor Pratt having a strong pair of Horses
went forward and I followed him I had towo yoke of
cattle & my horses on my carriage with about 10 hundred
on I immediately saw as soon as I started that the cattle did
but little good were slow & in the way we would stop & bgin
to sink I Jumped out of my carriage into the water up
to my waist about 10 men came to my assistance with a
drag roap & hitched to the oxen & assisted me in getting
across the first stream but with great difficulty I
stoped on a sand bar out of water my Horses & waggon im-
mediately began to sink & by treading the ground a little it
would become a perfect quagmire. but though we were
sinking in it the men had to leave the waggon whare it
was for in trying to cross the second stream had
sunk into a bed of quick sand and all men had to go to his
relief to get his Horses & waggon out the Horses were taken
from the waggons the load taken out & carried to shore by
hand & the waggon drawn out by by the help of men
I took off a part of my load or most of it in a boat
& went through the second stream empty & got out two
other waggons done in the same way but it was so terri-
fic the rest of the camp would not follow suit, so their
were 6 men of us in all to spend the night together without
horses & waggons to guard against the whole band that
were camped below us on the same side of the should they
feel disposed to come upon us, there numbers were not known
but it was supposed they numbered over 600 warriors. we
divided our company which made ownly three of us on guard
at a time. Br O. Pratt & myself went on guard the
fore part of the night although I had been in the water
during the afternoon I stood guard in my wet clothing one
half the night & slept in them the other half, we had not more
than got our position for the night untill we were joined by
5 men who crossed the river in a boat were sent over by
President to assist us which made eleven men
instead of 6 so we divided our force accordingly. the
night past off in peace & no disturbance. distance from the
to the ford 4 miles 4 miles
