The broad prairie doubtless belonged to the United States, and we could have our share and own a little piece of it on very easy terms, and raise our own cattle and corn.

If the people were all as kind as those we had met we were sure at least of neighborly treatment.

I have endeavored to write this just as it seemed to us then and not clothe the impressions with the cover of later experience.

The impressions we then daily received and the sights we saw were stranger than the wildest fiction, and if it so strikes you, my friendly reader, do not wonder.
As we came over the hills we could see a village near the southern base and it seemed quite near us.

It was a new and strange sight to us as we approached.