the middle of winter, with the river running full of ice. so
that several detachments were obliged to wait some time on the east-
ern bank for the channel to become clear. In talking with old men
HOOKEY] VIJKIYAl. IN INDIAN TKKKIToRY 1839 133
and women ;it Tahlequafa tln> author found that the lapse of over half a
century had not sufficed to wipe <>ut the memory of the miseries of
thai hall beside the frozen river, with hundreds of sick and dying
penned up in wagons or stretched upon the ground, with only a blanket
overhead to keep out the January blast. The crossing was made at
last in two divisions, at Cape Girardeau and at Green's ferry, a short
distance below, whence the march was on through Missouri to Indian
Territory, the later detachments making a northerlycircuit l>y Spring-
field, because those who had gone before had killed oil all the game
along the direct route. At last their destination was reached. They
had started in October, 1838, and it was now March. 1839, the journey
having occupied nearly six mouths of the hardest part of the year.'
It i- difficult to arrive at any accurate statement of the number of
Cherokee who died as the resull of the Removal. According to the
official figures those who removed under the direction of Ross lost over
L,600 on the journey.- The proportionate mortality among those
previously removed under military supervision was probably greater,
as it was their suffering that led to the proposition of the Cherokee
national officers to take charge of the emigration. Hundreds died in
the stockades and the waiting camps, chiefly by reason of