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79 Chapter Five River of the Comanches L / Jean Louis Berlandier discovered, as Darius Nash Couch did years later, that a foreign traveler in distant lands was highly dependent on the guides that he hired or that accompanied him by chance. On his journey from the Pánuco to Mexico City, Berlandier relied on muleteers to lead him through the jungles and mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental and Mexican Plateau. The Comisión de Límites, journeying through northern Mexico into Texas, relied on men hardened by a life on the trail. Some of these guides were locals of remote regions, such as Laredo, who were also soldiers. Other guides of the Comisión, north of the Rio Grande, were American hunters who knew the wilderness trails leading to beaver ponds, buffalo plains, and bear haunts. Among American explorers it was more rare to chance upon American Indian hunters who were willing to join them on the trail. Some notable scientific explorers, such as the English botanist Thomas Nuttall, never used indigenous hunters or guides. Thomas Drummond, on the other hand, the fearless botanist who journeyed through the Canadian Rockies about the same time that Berlandier journeyed to Mexico, relied on an Iroquois guide. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had frequent intercourse with American Indians, some of whom joined them in the hunt. Kickapoo hunters, for example, briefly joined Lewis and Clark shortly after they set out in 1804 journeying up the Missouri River. The Kickapoos were particularly adept at providing fresh venison to enliven the spirits of hungry men crowded around the fire at day’s end.1 Chapter Five 80 Likewise, shortly after the Comisión de Límites split on May 29 at the Trinity River, while Berlandier, Chowell, and members of the commission and the majority of the dragoons (including those provided by Elosúa) marched west, Terán, Sánchez, and half a dozen dragoons proceeding east happened upon two Kickapoo hunters at an especially important time. The afternoon of May 31, on their way to Nacogdoches, General Terán became so weak from hunger and illness that he had to halt to rest. Sánchez worried that Terán had met his end. They heard two shots coming from the distant woods; soon the two hunters, both extravagantly painted and fiercelooking , rode up on “excellent horses,” upon both of which were freshly killed deer. They proclaimed themselves as amigos willing to help and shared the venison before moving on.2 The same two Kickapoo warriors amazingly arrived at just the right time to help Berlandier and the other members of the Comisión returning to San Antonio. Berlandier and the rest had bivouacked for several days, putting off departure, awaiting better health and a turn in their fortunes. Berlandier, while still weak, could not keep from doing a bit of exploration, if briefly on horseback, around the environs of the Trinity valley. He discovered a rich vegetation, such as the Cherokee rose (Rose laevigata), a delicate white-petaled flower with a gold center. The return trip was to be along the Upper Road, the Camino de Arriba (or Old San Antonio Road, sometimes called the Camino Real), on which Berlandier hoped that health would allow him to discover plant specimens new at least to him. He regretted departing from his friends Terán and Sánchez but looked forward to leaving the swamps and lagoons of the Trinity for drier and healthier lands, where perhaps game would be more plentiful and hunger satisfied. The soldiers of the dragoon escort were jubilant to be returning, but they had quite a journey ahead of them. The hungry and fatigued soldiers and convalescents had no supplies as they began, and they planned to live off the land the best they could. The two Kickapoo hunters were a fortunate addition. They kept the Mexicans and Frenchman provided with venison during the entire return journey. The leader of the two (called here the Quicapú; his name is not known) was in pursuit of an Indian who had seduced and carried off his wife. Although Berlandier did not know it at the time, the two warriors were to be his welcome traveling companions for well over the next year.3 The Quicapú and his companion knew enough Spanish to be able to converse with the Mexicans. The cuckolded hunter mildly proclaimed his intention not to seek revenge on the seducer of his wife; he merely wished [18.117.183...

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