But the recent rains had so swollen the stream that it was rushing by, a swift and rapid torrent two hundred and thirty yards wide.  The river could not be forded.  Several mounted men entered it to swim their horses across, and thus to act as guides or leaders for the rest.  The remaining animals were driven in, and all got safely across excepting the three oxen, who being more clumsy swimmers, were borne down by the current and again landed on the right side.  The next morning, however, they were got over in safety.

Lieutenant Fremont had adopted the precaution of taking with him a portable India rubber boat.  It was twenty feet long and five feet broad.  It was placed in the water, and the carts and the baggage were carried over piecemeal.  Three men paddled the boat.  Still the current was so strong that one of the best swimmers took in his teeth the end of a rope attached to the boat and swam ahead, that, reaching the shore, he might assist in drawing her over.  Six passages were successfully made and six carts with most of their contents were transported across.  Night was approaching, and it was very desirable that everything should be upon the other side before the darkness closed in.

“I put,” says Lieutenant Fremont, “upon the boat the two remaining carts.  The man at the helm was timid on the water and, in his alarm, capsized the boat.  Carts, barrels, boxes and bales were, in a moment, floating down the current.  But all the men who were on the shore jumped into the water without stopping to think if they could swim, and almost everything, even heavy articles, was recovered.  Two men came very near being drowned.  All the sugar belonging to one of the messes was dissolved in the water and lost.”

But the heaviest calamity of all was the loss of a bag containing the coffee for the whole company.  There is nothing so refreshing to a weary mountaineer, as a cup of hot coffee.  Often afterwards these travellers, overcome with toil, mourned the loss of their favorite beverage.

Kit Carson had made such efforts in the water, that in the morning he was found quite sick.  Another of the party also was disabled.  Lieutenant Fremont, on their account, and also to repair damages, decided to remain in camp for the day.  Quite a number of the Kansas tribe of Indians visited them in the most friendly manner.  One of them had received quite a thorough education at St. Louis, and could speak French as fluently and correctly as any Frenchman.  They brought vegetables of various kinds, and butter.  They seemed very glad to find a market for their productions.

The camping-ground of the party was on the open, sunny prairie, some twenty feet above the water, where the animals enjoyed luxuriant pasturage.  The party was now fairly in the Indian country, and the chances of the wilderness were opening before them.