Thus, happy and careless as so many beggars, we crept slowly from day to day along the monotonous banks of the Arkansas.  Tete Rouge gave constant trouble, for he could never catch his mule, saddle her, or indeed do anything else without assistance.  Every day he had some new ailment, real or imaginary, to complain of.  At one moment he would be woebegone and disconsolate, and the next he would be visited with a violent flow of spirits, to which he could only give vent by incessant laughing, whistling, and telling stories.  When other resources failed, we used to amuse ourselves by tormenting him; a fair compensation for the trouble he cost us.  Tete Rouge rather enjoyed being laughed at, for he was an odd compound of weakness, eccentricity, and good-nature.  He made a figure worthy of a painter as he paced along before us, perched on the back of his mule, and enveloped in a huge buffalo-robe coat, which some charitable person had given him at the fort.  This extraordinary garment, which would have contained two men of his size, he chose, for some reason best known to himself, to wear inside out, and he never took it off, even in the hottest weather.  It was fluttering all over with seams and tatters, and the hide was so old and rotten that it broke out every day in a new place.  Just at the top of it a large pile of red curls was visible, with his little cap set jauntily upon one side, to give him a military air.  His seat in the saddle was no less remarkable than his person and equipment.  He pressed one leg close against his mule’s side, and thrust the other out at an angle of 45 degrees.  His pantaloons were decorated with a military red stripe, of which he was extremely vain; but being much too short, the whole length of his boots was usually visible below them.  His blanket, loosely rolled up into a large bundle, dangled at the back of his saddle, where he carried it tied with a string.  Four or five times a day it would fall to the ground.  Every few minutes he would drop his pipe, his knife, his flint and steel, or a piece of tobacco, and have to scramble down to pick them up.  In doing this he would contrive to get in everybody’s way; and as the most of the party were by no means remarkable for a fastidious choice of language, a storm of anathemas would be showered upon him, half in earnest and half in jest, until Tete Rouge would declare that there was no comfort in life, and that he never saw such fellows before.

Only a day or two after leaving Bent’s Fort Henry Chatillon rode forward to hunt, and took Ellis along with him.  After they had been some time absent we saw them coming down the hill, driving three dragoon-horses, which had escaped from their owners on the march, or perhaps had given out and been abandoned.  One of them was in tolerable condition, but the others were much emaciated and severely bitten by the wolves.  Reduced as they were we carried two of them to the settlements, and Henry exchanged the third with the Arapahoes for an excellent mule.