METHODIST MISSION.
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at our camp, direct from the settlements, just after dark. They came express to communicate to us the last intelligence we shall receive from the United States, before reaching the Pacific. They brought with them all the letters at the Independence and Westport post-offices addressed to emigrants, and several files of papers to the latest dates. These gave positive information of the existence of hostilities between Mexico and the United States on the Rio Grande, and confirmed the rumor respecting the perilous situation of Gen. Taylor. How this important event is to affect us upon our arrival in California, it is impossible to foresee. No one, however, is in the least disposed to turn back in consequence of it.    Distance 10 miles.
CHAPTER IV.
Methodist Mission on the Kansas—Soldier Creek—Lustration—A ruined Indian town—A rose in the wilderness—Another division—Kansas Indian towns—Ki-he-ga-wa-chuck-ee—Prairio potato—Mountain trappers—Beauty of scenery and fertility of soil—Vermilion Creek—Brilliant meteor—Big Blue River—Prairie-pea—Legislation on the prairies.
May 19.—We remained encamped to-day, in order to enable Mr. Boone, a grandson of Daniel Boone, and his family and party, who wish to join us, to come up. Messrs. Kirkendall, Jacob, and Greenbury, reached camp this morning about seven o'clock, relieving me of some uneasiness on their account. They had found a ford, near the mission, about twelve miles up the Kansas; but when they returned to the ferry, finding that our train had all passed over, and it being late, they remained during the night with the party that separated from us this morning. The mission which they had visited, and at which they were well received and entertained, is an establishment for the education and christianization of the Indians, supported in part by the United States government, and under the patronage and