On examination one
of the men (M'Neal) was discovered to be absent, and a guard (Sergeant
Pryor and four men) despatched, who met him crossing the creek in great
haste. An Indian belonging to another band, who happened to be with the
Killamucks that evening, had treated him with much kindness, and walked
arm in arm with him to a tent where our man found a Chinnook squaw,
who was an old acquaintance. From the conversation and manner of the
stranger, this woman discovered that his object was to murder the white
man for the sake of the few articles on his person; when he rose and
pressed our man to go to another tent where they would find something
better to eat, she held M'Neal by the blanket; not knowing her object,
he freed himself from her, and was going on with his pretended friend,
when she ran out and gave the shriek which brought the men of the
village over, and the stranger ran off before M'Neal knew what had
occasioned the alarm."
The "mighty hunter" of the Lewis and Clark expedition was Drewyer, whose
name has frequently been mentioned in these pages. Under date of January
12, the journal has this just tribute to the man:--
"Our meat is now becoming scarce; we therefore determined to jerk it,
and issue it in small quantities, instead of dividing it among the four
messes, and leaving to each the care of its own provisions; a plan by
which much is lost, in consequence of the improvidence of the men. Two
hunters had been despatched in the morning, and one of them, Drewyer,
had before evening killed seven elk.
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