From this time out I knew I must be very careful to look for signs of the lost men, as hunger might drive them to leave the place where their comrade had directed me to look for them.  When I was a little west of where the city of Waltzingburge now stands, and the darkness was beginning to close down, I saw the glimmer of a little fire off to the right, at what looked about a half mile from me.  I thought it might be an Indian camp and directed my course that way, but when I was within sight of it and was within a hundred yards or so of the fire, I could not see a soul stirring around it, but I kept on up to the fire, and suddenly my horse came near stepping on a man who lay on the ground with bare feet and nothing under or over him.  I sprang from my horse and bent over him and spoke to him, but he did not answer or move.  I then took hold of his shoulder and shook him gently, and he seemed to rouse up a little.  I said, “What are you laying here for?” and he murmured in a voice so weak I had to bend my ear close to him to hear, “I have laid down to die."’

I pulled the flask of whiskey from my pocket and raised him on my arm and wet his lips with a few drops of the whiskey.  I repeated this several times, as he seemed to have relapsed into unconsciousness, and I was afraid I was too late to save him or bring him back to consciousness.

I laid him down and built the fire anew and unpacked my horse and got my blankets and made a pallet and lifted him on it.  Lifting him seemed to revive him, and the firelight showed me that he had opened his eyes, and he put his hand on his stomach and whispered, “Oh, how hungry I am.”

I gave him a small sup of whiskey, and, taking a piece of buffalo meat from my pack, I soon had it broiled, and with some bread I began to feed him in small morsels.  I continued to do this for perhaps half an hour, as he was too weak to swallow much at a time, and I had to wait some moments before giving him another morsel, and between times I gave him a taste of the whiskey.  Up to now I had no idea he was one of the men I was hunting for.

It was perhaps an hour from the time that I commenced to feed him when he seemed to come to himself, and I thought that he was strong enough to answer me, so I asked him how he came to be here in the weak, almost dying condition that I had found him in, and then he told me who he was and how he came to be there, and I knew he was the only survivor left alive of the three whom I had started out to find.

He said that he had not had a bite to eat in seven days, only what nourishment he could get by chewing his moccasins.

He had soaked them in water until they were soft and then broiled them on the coals and eaten them.

I told him how his comrade had been picked up near Bent’s Fort in an exhausted condition, and how he had begged someone to go to the relief of those he had left starving, and that I had started out to find them if I could.