Mormon History, Apr 21, 1847

[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 21st Cloudy with a light sprinkle of rain. Wind in the east. Our road runs west to begin with. The ox teams started at 7 oclok the Horse teams at 8. 5 minutes to 9 An Indian appeared on a mound mounted on a poney about 5 miles from us. He went out of sight & again appered. He then approached the camp full speed. Was met by the brethren & shook hands. Was soon followed by others. Were 8 in all. They went through the encampment & then returned with us. The road runs 20 degrees South of west 7 miles then turned 10 degrees North of west.
At half past 12 we came in sight of 70 Indian Horses & Mules. Soon we came in sight of a large Pawnee Indian village on the north side of the loup fork & also a large one on the south side of it. We drove on by the villages & they soon began to sally out to Come to us. We camped in a half moon the bank of the river forming A parallel line in front.
The indians to the number of about 200 on the south side of the river came down to the shore. Some waided over. About 75 came into camp including the grand Chief of the Nation with many war Chiefs. We met them before we left the ground & made them presents of about 4 lbs of tobacco 15 lbs lead powder fish Hooks heads flour salt &c. But still they were not satisfied considering our Numbers they thought they ought to have had more & when we left the ground they appeared vary dissatisfied. We however Harnessed up our teams & drove on to looking glass Creek & Camped at its mouth for the night upon the bank of the loop fork.
After our Horses were turned out we were Called to gather & in Consequence of the dissatisfaction of the Indians A guard of 100 men was Called for. The quorum of the Twelve with nearly the whole camp volunteered to stand guard one half the fore part of the night & the other the latter part. We had A picket guard also of 4 men & mules at a time. I with my mule was on picket guard. We had hard wind & rain in the Afternoon which continued A part of the time while I was on guard. I rolled myself up in my buffalo & let the wind & rain beat onto me. We were releaved at about 1 oclok & went to rest. But no Indians appeared during the night.

[source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

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