"We _all_ want it, an', by God! we're goin' to git it!" And so at last we parted, each the better for the information gained, each to resume what would to-day seem practically an endless journey.
Our farewells were as careless, as confident, as had been our greetings.
Thousands of miles of unsettled country lay east and west of us, and all around us, our empire, not then won.
History tells how that wagon train went through, and how its settlers scattered all along the Willamette and the Columbia and the Walla Walla, and helped us to hold Oregon.

For myself, the chapter of accidents continued.

I was detained at Fort Hall, and again east of there.

I met straggling immigrants coming on across the South Pass to winter at Bridger's post; but finally I lost all word of Meek's party, and could only suppose that they had got over the mountains.
I made the journey across the South Pass, the snow being now beaten down on the trails more than usual by the west-bound animals and vehicles.

Of all these now coming on, none would get farther west than Fort Hall that year.