I spent another day without food, but had plenty of water; another night on a bed of green brush beside a good fire.  The next day was bright and sunny, quite a contrast to the gloomy days I had spent in the mountains.  For want of food I was becoming quite weak and was not able to travel as fast as usual.  During the early part of the day I saw some tracks of an unshod horse, which renewed my courage and hope of redemption; and at about two o’clock in the afternoon I saw some dark spots on the plain a long distance away, but almost in the direction I was going.  Hoping that these objects might be living creatures, I hurried on for a time, then sat down and after having watched them for a time I found that they changed positions and that satisfied me to a moral certainty that they were living creatures, but what I could not tell.  They might be horses, cattle, elk, deer, antelope or buffalo; but no matter what, I must hurry on and try to reach them before night.

Late in the evening I determined that they were horses but could not yet tell whether they belonged to whites or Indians, or were wild.  As I approached them they stopped grazing and started toward me, but soon disappeared in a deep gulch between us which I had not noticed before.  On arriving at the edge of the gulch or narrow valley I saw the horses in the vicinity of about fifteen or twenty wigwams which were all in a row on the bank of a little creek that ran through the gulch.  Many Indians were sitting outside of their lodges, the weather being warm.

On first sight of the village, being not more than 200 yards away, my heart fluttered just a little, not knowing whether the savages would scalp me or not; but, notwithstanding my natural cowardice, I at once determined to “beard the lion in his den,” and walked as boldly as I could up to the lower end of the row of wigwams.  Within a few feet of the nearest one three young bucks met me and seemed to be anxious to know whence I came and whither I was going; whether right down from Heaven, and if so what was my mission.  They seemed as much surprised at my sudden appearance as I was on coming so suddenly upon them.  My first and most important business was to determine whether they would give me something to eat, or eat me.

As the men, women, and children began to gather around me I heard some one half way up the line of lodges call out saying something which I did not understand, but on looking that way saw a man beckoning to me, as I thought, when the young men motioned for me to move on up the line.  On arriving at the place indicated I found myself in the presence of one whom I then suspected, and afterwards found to be the chief, who extended to his royal right hand and greeted me in a most courteous and polite manner, and then with a graceful wave of his hand and a slight bow indicated that I should precede him at the low open door into his Royal Palace where he very politely introduced me to his wife who proved to be a sensible, clever,