I  had  been  able  to  obtain  no  certain  information  in  regard

0  the  character  of  the  passes  in  this  portion  of  the  Rocky
Mountain  range,  which  had  always  been  represented  as  im-

'  practicable  for  carriages,  but  the  exploration  of  which  was  in-
cidentally contemplated  by  my  instructions,  with  the  view  of
finding  some  convenient  point  of  passage  for  the  road  of  emi-
gration, which  would  enable  it  to  reach,  on  a  more  direct  line,
the  usual  ford  of  the  Great  Colorado — :a  place  considered  as
determined  by  the  nature  of  the  country  beyond  that  river.  It
is  singular,  that  immediately  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  I
could  find  no  one  sufficiently,  acquainted  with  them  to  guide
us  to  the  plains  at  their  western  base ;  but  the  race  of  trap-
pers, who  formerly  lived  in  their  recesses,  has  almost  entirely
disappeared — dwindled  to  a  few  scattered  individuals — some
one  or  two  of  whom  are  regularly  killed  in  the  course  of  each
year  by  the  Indians.  You  will  remember,  that  in  the  previous
year  I  brought  with  me  to  their  village  near  this  post,  an4  hos
pitably  treated  on  the  way,  several  Cheyenne  Indians,  whom

1  met  on  the  Lower  Platte.  Shortly  after  their  arrival  here,
these  were  out  with  a  party  of  Indians,  {themselves  the  princi-
pal men,)  which  discovered  a  few  trappers  in  the  neighboring
mountains,  whom  they  immediately  murdered,  although  one
of  them  had  been  nearly  thirty  years  in  the  country,  and  was
perfectly  well  known,  as  he  had  grown  gray  among  them.
