Mr. Kinzie was of opinion that it tended too much to the north, and was, moreover, too faint and obscure for a trail so much used, and by so large a body of Indians in their annual journeys.
Plante was positive as to its being the very spot where he and “Piché” in their journey to Fort Winnebago, the year before, struck into the great road. “On that very rising-ground at the point of woods, he remembered perfectly stopping to shoot ducks, which they ate for their supper.”
Mr. Kellogg was non-committal, but sided alternately with each speaker.
As Plante was “the guide,” and withal so confident of being right, it was decided to follow him, not without some demurring, however, on the part of the “bourgeois,” who every now and then called a halt, to discuss the state of affairs.
“Now Plante,” he would say, “I am sure you are leading us too far north. Why, man, if we keep on in this direction, following the course of the river, we shall bring up at Kosh-ko-nong, instead of Chicago.”
“Ah! mon bourgeois,” would the light-hearted Canadian reply, “would I tell you this is the road if I were not quite certain? Only one year ago I travelled it, and can I forget so soon? Oh! no—I remember every foot of it.”
But Monsieur Plante was convinced of his mistake when the trail brought us to the great bend of the river with its bold rocky bluffs.
“Are you satisfied, now, Plante?” asked Mr. Kinzie. “By your leave, I will now play pilot myself,” and he struck off from the trail, in a direction as nearly east as possible.
The weather had changed and become intensely cold, and we felt that the detention we had met with, even should we now be in the right road, was no trifling matter. We had not added to our stock of provisions at Dixon’s, wishing to carry as much forage as we were able for our horses, for whom the scanty picking around our encamping grounds afforded an insufficient meal. But we were buoyed up by the hope that we were in the right path at last, and we journeyed on until night, when we reached a comfortable “encampment,” in the edge of a grove near a small stream.