.OTAw.NTY2NDk

50 the Indians; but so dangerous had the country become that the settlers, had been forced to abandon this dugout as they term their under-ground houses; but in this underground dug-out, I and the rest fared quite well, being sheltered from the night winds as well as from the enemy. We got through with our breakfast by day-light, and immediately finished our journey to Fort Dodge: we did not meet an Indian, for they had been so vigorously pursued, during the last season that they were glad to abandon the war-path for a while at least; we reached Fort Dodge at night, and were kindly entertained by the Commanding Officer. It was at this Fort only a few months previous, that the Indians had swept down from the hills; killed the sentinel at his post, stampeded and run off a herd of horses, and disappeared inside of a few minutes. Fort Dodge was situated on the Arkansas River, and the houses were only a few hundred feet from the water, which is some times so shallow that mules can draw a train of wagons across the river; but at other times it rises very high: some of the houses were frame buildings, and some were made of adobe, which is a brick simply made of mud and dried in the sun. I did not