110 THE LIFE or

ing this place, we had to kindle up a fire in the groves several times, in order to cook something for breakfast, and for the rest of the day ; there being no settlers within twenty miles. Some men seem to have come to these “ diggings” only for the purpose of defrauding travellers out of their goods and money. For every slim and dirty meal, we had to pay fifty cents. There is a house between Fort Winnebago and Prairie Du Chien which I can never forget. We had to pay fifty cents for each meal (P) ; twenty-five cents forlodgingin beds swarming with fleas and bugs. Sleep was out of the question; so I spent the hours of the night on the seat of what was called a chair. August 23d, we arrived at Prairie Du Chien, after much fatigue, having traveled ten days. Brother Kavanaugh had just arrived from St. Peters, and had us conveyed to Dubuque, in a canoe. Here Mrs. Copway remained, till I returned from the Confer- ence, which was held at Mount Morris. From Du- buque we went to Prairie Du Chien, in a steamboat; on the 26th we were compelled to go in our canoe to St. Peters, on account of the shallowness of the river. Our company consisted of Brothers Spates, Huddleston, Brown, Jones, Mrs. Copway, her sister, and myself. VVe encamped, occasionally, on the banks of the Mis- sissippi. We were more than two weeks traveling three hundred miles, to St. Peters. We had a tent which we pitched every night. On the 26th Septem- ber, we had to mount the bluffs of the Mississippi river; here we found a number of Indian deities, made of stone. Mrs. Copway and her sister tumbled them all down into the river. Their worshippers must have been astound- ed and mortified when they returned, and discovered