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[Illustration: FORT DECATUR, JANUARY 26, 1856]
BLAZING THE WAY
OR
TRUE STORIES, SONGS AND SKETCHES
OF PUGET SOUND AND OTHER
PIONEERS
BY
EMILY INEZ DENNY
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR AND
FROM AUTHENTIC PHOTOGRAPHS
SEATTLE:
RAINIER PRINTING COMPANY, Inc.
1909
Copyright 1899
By
EMILY INEZ DENNY
Published 1909
To My Dear Father and Mother,
Faithful Friends and Counselors,
Whose pioneer life I shared,
This book is affectionately dedicated
By THE AUTHOR
A star stood large and white awest,
Then Time uprose and testified;
They push'd the mailed wood aside,
They toss'd the forest like a toy,
That great forgotten race of men,
The boldest band that yet has been
Together since the siege of Troy,
And followed it and found their rest.
--Miller
PREFACE
BLAZING THE WAY.
In the early days when a hunter, explorer or settler essayed to tread
the mysterious depths of the unknown forest of Puget Sound, he took care
to "blaze the way." At brief intervals he stopped to cut with his sharp
woodman's ax a generous chip from the rough bark of fir, hemlock or
cedar tree, leaving the yellow inner bark or wood exposed, thereby
providing a perfect guide by which he retraced his steps to the canoe or
cabin. As the initial stroke it may well be emblematical of the
beginnings of things in the great Northwest.
I do not feel moved to apologize for this book; I have gathered the
fragments within my reach; such or similar works are needed to set forth
the life, character and movement of the early days on Puget Sound. The
importance of the service of the Pioneers is as yet dimly perceived;
what the Pilgrim Fathers were to New England, the Pioneers were to the
Pacific Coast, to the "nations yet to be," who, following in their
footsteps, shall people the wilds with teeming cities, a "human sea,"
bearing on its bosom argosies of priceless worth.
It does contain some items and incidents not generally known or
heretofore published. I hope others may be provoked to record their
pioneer experiences.
I have had exceptional opportunities in listening to the thrice-told
tales of parents and friends who had crossed the plains, as well as
personal recollections of experiences and observation during a residence
of over fifty years in the Northwest, acknowledging also the good
fortune of having been one of the first white children born on Puget
Sound.
Every old pioneer has a store of memories of adventures and narrow
escapes, hardships bravely endured, fresh pleasures enjoyed, rude but
genial merrymakings, of all the fascinating incidents that made up the
wonder-life of long ago.
Chronology is only a row of hooks to hang the garments of the past upon,
else they may fall together in a confused heap.
Not having a full line of such supports on which to hang the weaving of
my thoughts--I simply overturn my Indian basket of chips picked up after
"Blazing the Way," they being merely bits of beginnings in the
Northwest.
E. I. DENNY.
* * * * *
NOTE--The poem referred to on page 144 will appear in another
work.--AUTHOR.
INDEX
PART I--THE GREAT MARCH
CHAPTER PAGE
I. CROSSING THE PLAINS 17
II. DOWN THE COLUMBIA IN '51 34
III. THE SETTLEMENT AT ALKI 41
IV. FOUNDING OF SEATTLE AND INDIAN WAR 63
V. THE MURDER OF McCORMICK 96
VI. KILLING COUGARS 105
VII. PIONEER CHILD LIFE 113
VIII. MARCHING EXPERIENCES OF ESTHER
CHAMBERS 151
IX. AN OLYMPIA WOMAN'S TRIP ACROSS THE
PLAINS IN 1851 168
X. CAPTAIN HENRY ROEDER ON THE TRAIL 177
PART II--MEN, WOMEN AND ADVENTURES
I. SONG OF THE PIONEERS 182
II. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND SKETCHES,
JOHN DENNY, SARAH LATIMER DENNY 186
III. DAVID THOMAS DENNY 203
IV. THE FIRST WEDDING ON ELLIOT BAY 257
V. LOUISA BOREN DENNY 272
V_a_ MADGE DECATUR DENNY 288
V_b_ ANNA LOUISA DENNY 294
V_c_ WILLIAM RICHARD BOREN 300
VI. ARTHUR A. DENNY, MARY A. DENNY 305
VII. HENRY VAN ASSELT OF DUWAMISH 320
VIII. THOMAS MERCER 329
IX. DR. HENRY A. SMITH, THE BRILLIANT
WRITER 344
X. FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS 358
PART III--INDIAN LIFE AND SETTLERS'
BEGINNINGS
I. SAVAGE DEEDS OF SAVAGE MEN 391
II. PIONEER JOKES AND ANECDOTES 415
III. TRAILS OF COMMERCE 436
IV. BUILDING OF THE TERRITORIAL UNIVERSITY 452
V. A CHEHALIS LETTER, PENNED IN '52 467
VI. SOME PIONEERS OF PORT TOWNSEND 479
VII. PERSONNEL OF THE PIONEER ARMY 489
SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENTS.
Part I.
Page
Chapter I--Crossing the Plains--Names of the Denny Company 20
Attacked by Indians at American Falls 27
Chapter II--A Narrow Escape from Going Over the Cascades 36
About to Sink in the Cold Waters of the Columbia 38
Chapter III--Tramping a Long Trail 42
Landing of J. N. Low, D. T. Denny and Lee
Terry at Sgwudux (West Seattle) 43
Exploring the Duwampsh River 44
Names of Party from "Exact" 50
Chapter IV--A Visit from Wolves 66
A Flight to Fort Decatur 76
Battle of Seattle 80
Story of John I. King's Capture 91
Chapter V--A Tragedy of the Trail 98
Chapter VI--A Hair-raising Hunt for a Cougar 107
Chapter VII--Seeking the Dead Among the Living 121
The Strawberry of Memory 126
Three Little Girls and a Pioneer "Fourth" 131
A Rescue from Drowning 138
Chapter VIII--Frontier Experiences 151
Chapter IX--Placating Indians on the Plains 171
Chapter X--Capt. Roeder's Meeting with the Bandit Joaquin 180
Part II.
Chapter I--Poem--Song of the Pioneers 182
Chapter II--A Notable Pioneer Reformer, John Denny 188
Chapter III--A Tireless Foundation Builder, David
Thomas Denny 203
Threats from Anti-Chinese Agitators 211
His Own Account of Arrival on Elliott Bay 214
Surrounded by Indians 243
Trials and Triumph 256
Chapter IV--A Lively Celebration of the First Wedding
on Elliott Bay 258
Story of a Bear Hunt 268
Chapter V--Indian Courtship 275
On the Day of Battle 276
Chapter VI--Discovery of Shilshole or Salmon Bay 310
An Escape from Murderous Savages 313
Defense with a Hatchet 316
Chapter VII--Immune Because of Indian Superstition 323
Chapter VIII--Saving an Auburn-haired Girl 341
Chapter IX--A Grand Description of a Vast Forest Fire 350
Poem--"The Mortgage" 352
Poem--"Pacific's Pioneers" 354
Chapter X--Hanging of Leschi 370
Poem--"The Chief's Reply" 388
Part III.
Chapter I--Shooting of Lachuse 392
The Fight at Fort Nesqually 395
Abbie Casto's Fate 409
Chapter II--How the Old Shell Blew Up a Stump
and Cautioned Mr. Horton 423
Mr. Beaty and the Cheese 425
Chapter III--Poem--"The Beaver's Requiem" 436
Chapter IV--Poem--"The Voice of the Old University Bell" 459
Chapter V--Charming Description of Early Days on
the Chehalis 467
Chapter VI--Founding of Port Townsend 481
Chapter VII--A Number of Noted Names 489
Poem--"Hail, and Farewell" 503
ILLUSTRATIONS
I Fort Decatur, Jan. 26, 1856 Frontispiece
II Chips Picked Up Facing page 17
III Bargaining with Indians at Alki " " 49
IV Indian Canoes Sailing with North
Wind " " 81
V Log Cabin in the Swale " " 105
VI Where We Wandered Long Ago " " 113
VII A Visit from Our Tillicum " " 145
VIII Sarah, John and Loretta Denny " " 193
IX David Thomas Denny " " 209
X Sons of L. B. and D. T. Denny " " 241
XI Louisa B. Denny " " 257
XII A Flower Garden Planted by L.
B. Denny " " 273
XIII Daughters of D. T. and L. B.
Denny " " 289
XIV Erythronium of Lake Union " " 337
XV Types of Indian Houses " " 369
XVI Last Voyage of the Lumei " " 385
XVII A Few Artifacts of P. S. Indians " " 401
XVIII Ship Belle Isle " " 481
XIX Rev. Blaine, C. D. and Wm. R.
Boren " " 489
XX Mrs. L. C. Low " " 493
BLAZING THE WAY
PART I.--THE GREAT MARCH
CHAPTER I
CROSSING THE PLAINS.
With Faith's clear eye we saw afar
In western sky our empire's star,
And strong of heart and brave of soul,
We marched and marched to reach the goal.
Unrolled a scroll, the great, gray plains,
And traced thereon our wagon trains;
Our blazing campfires marked the road
As night succeeding night they glowed.
--Song of the Pioneers.
The noble army of courageous, enduring, persistent, progressive pioneers
who from time to time were found threading their way across the
illimitable wilderness, forty or fifty years ago, in detached companies,
often unknown and unknowing each other, have proved conclusively that an
age of marvelous heroism is but recently past.
[Illustration: "CHIPS PICKED UP AFTER BLAZING THE WAY"]
The knowledge, foresight, faith and force exhibited by many of these
daring men and women proclaimed them endowed with the genius of
conquerors.
The merely physical aspect of the undertaking is overpowering. To
transport themselves and their effects in slow and toilsome ways,
through hundreds of miles of weary wilderness, uninhabited except by
foes, over beetling mountain ranges, across swift and dangerous rivers,
through waterless deserts, in the shadow of continual dread, required a
fortitude and staying power seldom equaled in the history of human
effort.
But above and beyond all this, they carried the profound convictions of
Christian men and women, of patriots and martyrs. They battled with the
forces of Nature and implacable enemies; they found, too, that their
moral battles must be openly fought year after year, often in the face
of riotous disregard of the laws of God and man. Arrived at their
journey's end, they planted the youngest scions of the Tree of Liberty;
they founded churches and schools, carefully keeping the traditions of
civilization, yet in many things finding greater and truer freedom than
they had left behind.
The noblest of epics, masterpieces of painting, stupendous operas or the
grandest spectacular drama could but meagerly or feebly express the
characters, experiences and environment of those who crossed the plains
for the Pacific slope in the midst of the nineteenth century.
"A mighty nation moving west,
With all its steely sinews set
Against the living forests. Hear
The shouts, the shots of pioneers!
The rended forests, rolling wheels,
As if some half-checked army reels,
Recoils, redoubles, comes again,
Loud-sounding like a hurricane."
--Joaquin Miller.
It is my intention to speak more especially of one little company who
were destined to take a prominent part in the laying of foundations in
the State of Washington.
Previous to 1850, glowing accounts of the fertility, mildness, beauty
and general desirability of Oregon Territory, which then included
Washington, reached the former friends and acquaintances of Farley
Pierce, Liberty Wallace, the Rudolphs and others who wrote letters
concerning this favored land. Added to the impression made thereby, the
perusal of Fremont's travels, the desire for a change of climate from
the rigorous one of Illinois, the possession of a pioneering spirit and
the resolution was taken, "To the far Pacific Coast we will go;" acting
upon it, they took their places in the great movement having for its
watchword, "Westward Ho!"
John Denny, a Kentuckian by birth, a pioneer of Indiana and Illinois,
whose record as a soldier of 1812, a legislator in company and fraternal
relations with Lincoln, Baker, Gates and Trumbull, distinguished him
for the most admirable qualities, was the leading spirit; his wife,
Sarah Latimer Denny, a Tennessean, thrifty, wise, faithful and
far-seeing, who had for many widowed years previous to her marriage to
John Denny, wrought out success in making a home and educating her three
children in Illinois, was a fit leader of pioneer women.
These, with their grown-up sons and daughters, children and
grandchildren, began the great journey across the plains, starting from
Cherry Grove, Knox County, Illinois, on April 10th, 1851. Four "prairie
schooners," as the canvas-covered wagons were called, three of them
drawn by four-horse teams, one with a single span, a few saddle horses
and two faithful watchdogs, whose value is well known to those who have
traveled the wilds, made up the train.
The names of these brave-hearted ones, ready to dare and endure all, are
as follows:
John Denny, Sarah Latimer Denny and their little daughter, Loretta; A.
A. Denny, Mary A. Denny and their two children, Catherine and Lenora; C.
D. Boren, Mrs. Boren and their daughter, Gertrude; the only unmarried
woman, Miss Louisa Boren, sister of Mrs. A. A. Denny and C. D. Boren; C.
Crawford and family; four unmarried sons of John Denny, D. T. Denny,
James, Samuel and Wiley Denny.
The wrench of parting with friends made a deep and lasting wound; no
doubt every old pioneer of the Pacific Coast can recall the anguish of
that parting, whose scars the healing years have never effaced.
The route followed by our pioneers was the old emigrant road along the
north side of the Platte River, down the Columbia and up the Willamette
to Portland, Oregon Territory, which they afterwards left for their
ultimate destination, Puget Sound, where they found Nature so bountiful,
a climate so moderate and their surroundings so ennobling that I have
often heard them say they had no wish to return to dwell in the country
from whence they came.
Past the last sign of civilization, the Mormon town of Kanesville, a
mile or two east of the Missouri River, the prairie schooners were
fairly out at sea. The great Missouri was crossed at Council Bluffs by
ferryboat on the 5th of May. The site of the now populous city of Omaha
was an untrodden waste. From thence they followed the beaten track of
the many who had preceded them to California and Oregon.
Hundreds of wagons had ground their way over the long road before them,
and beside this road stretched the narrower beaten track of the
ox-drivers.
On the Platte, shortly after crossing the Missouri, a violent
thunderstorm with sheets of rain fell upon them at night, blowing down
their tents and saturating their belongings, thereby causing much
discomfort and inconvenience. Of necessity the following day was spent
in drying out the whole equipment.
It served as a robust initiation in roughing it; up to that time they
had carefully dressed in white night robes and lay down in neatly made
beds, but many a night after this storm were glad to rest in the easiest
way possible, when worn by travel and too utterly weary of the long
day's heat and dust, with grinding and bumping of wheels, to think of
the niceties of dainty living.
For a time spring smiled on all the land; along the Platte the prairies
stretched away on either hand, delightfully green and fresh, on the
horizon lay fleecy white clouds, islands of vapor in the ethereal azure
sea above; but summer came on apace and the landscape became brown and
parched.
The second day west of the Missouri our train fell in with a long line
of eighteen wagons drawn by horses, and fraternizing with the occupants,
joined in one company. This new company elected John Denny as Captain.
It did not prove a harmonious combination, however; discord arose, and
nowhere does it seem to arise so easily as in camp. There was
disagreement about standing guard; fault was found with the Captain and
another was elected, but with no better results. Our pioneers found it
convenient and far pleasanter to paddle their own canoes, or rather
prairie schooners, and so left the contentious ones behind.
Long days of travel followed over the monotonous expanse of prairie,
each with scarcely varying incidents, toils and dangers. The stir of
starting in the morning, the morning forward movement, the halt for the
noonday meal, cooked over a fire of buffalo chips, and the long, weary
afternoon of heat and dust whose passing brought the welcome night,
marked the journey through the treeless region.
At one of the noonings, the hopes of the party in a gastronomic line
were woefully disappointed. A pailful of choice home-dried peaches,
cooked with much care, had been set on a wagon tongue to cool and some
unlucky movement precipitated the whole luscious, juicy mass into the
sand below. It was an occurrence to make the visage lengthen, so far,
far distant were the like of them from the hungry travelers.
Fuel was scarce a large part of the way until west of Fort Laramie, the
pitch pine in the Black Hills made such fires as delight the hearts of
campers. In a stretch of two hundred miles but one tree was seen, a lone
elm by the river Platte, which was finally cut down and the limbs used
for firewood. When near this tree, the train camped over Sunday, and our
party first saw buffaloes, a band of perhaps twenty. D. T. Denny and C.
D. Boren of the party went hunting in the hills three miles from the
camp but other hunters had been among them and scattered the band,
killing only one or two; however they generously divided the meat with
the new arrivals. Our two good hunters determined to get one if possible
and tried stalking a shaggy-maned beast that was separated from the
herd, a half mile from their horses left picketed on the grassy plain.
Shots were fired at him without effect and he ran away unhurt,
fortunately for himself as well as his pursuers. One of the hunters, D.
T. Denny, said it might have been a very serious matter for them to have
been charged by a wounded buffalo out on the treeless prairie where a
man had nothing to dodge behind but his own shadow.
On the prairie before they reached Fort Laramie a blinding hailstorm
pelted the travelers.
D. T. Denny, who was driving a four-horse team in the teeth of the
storm, relates that the poor animals were quite restive, no doubt
suffering much from their shelterless condition. They had been well
provided for as to food; their drivers carried corn which lasted for two
hundred miles. The rich grass of five hundred miles of prairie afforded
luxurious living beyond this, and everywhere along the streams where
camp was made there was an abundance of fresh herbage to be found.
Many lonely graves were seen, graves of pioneers, with hopes as high,
mayhap, as any, but who pitched their silent tents in the wilderness to
await the Judgment Day.
A deep solemnity fell upon the living as the train wound along, where on
the side of a mountain was a lone grave heaped up with stones to protect
it from the ravages of wolves. Tall pines stood around it and grass and
flowers adorned it with nature's broidery. Several joined in singing an
old song beginning
"I came to the place
Where the white pilgrim lay,
And pensively stood by his tomb,
When in a low whisper I heard something say,
'How sweetly I sleep here alone.'"
Echoed only by the rustling of the boughs of scattered pines, moving
gently in the wind.
As they approached the upheaved mountainous country, lively interest, a
keen delight in the novelty of their surroundings, and surprise at
unexpected features were aroused in the minds of the travelers.
A thoughtful one has said that the weird beauty of the Wind River
Mountains impressed her deeply, their image has never left her memory
and if she were an artist she could faithfully represent them on canvas.
A surprise to the former prairie dwellers was the vast extent of the
mountains, their imaginations having projected the sort of mountain
range that is quite rare, a single unbroken ridge traversed by climbing
up one side and going down the other! But they found this process must
be repeated an indefinite number of times and over such roughness as
their imaginations had never even suggested.
What grinding, heaving and bumping over huge boulders! What shouting and
urging of animals, what weary hours of tortured endurance dragged along!
One of them remembers, too, perhaps vaguely, the suffering induced by an
attack of the mysterious mountain fever.
The desert also imposed its tax of misery. Only at night could the
desert be safely crossed. Starting at four o'clock in the afternoon they
traveled all the following night over an arid, desolate region, the
Green River desert, thirty miles, a strange journey in the dimness of a
summer night with only the star-lamps overhead. In sight of the river,
the animals made a rush for the water and ran in to drink, taking the
wagons with them.
Often the names of the streams crossed were indicative of their
character, suggestive of adventure or descriptive of their surroundings.
Thus "Sweetwater" speaks eloquently of the refreshing draughts that
slaked the thirst in contrast with the alkaline waters that were bitter;
Burnt River flowed past the blackened remains of an ancient forest and
Bear River may have been named for the ponderous game secured by a lucky
hunter.
By July of 1851 the train reached Old Fort Hall, composed of a stockade
and log houses, situated on the Snake River, whose flood set toward the
long-sought Pacific shore.
While camped about a mile from the fort the Superintendent wrote for
them directions for camping places where wood and water could be
obtained, extending over the whole distance from Fort Hall to the Dalles
of the Columbia River. He told James Denny, brother of D. T. Denny, that
if they met Indians they must on no account stop at their call, saying
that the Indians of that vicinity were renegade Shoshones and horse
thieves.
On the morning of the fifth of July an old Indian visited the camp, but
no significance was attached to the incident, and all were soon moving
quietly along in sight of the Snake River; the road lay on the south
side of the river, which is there about two hundred yards wide. An
encampment of Indians was observed, on the north side of the river, as
they wound along by the American Falls, but no premonition of danger was
felt, on the contrary, they were absorbed in the contemplation of the
falls and basin below. Dark objects were seen to be moving on the
surface of the wide pool and all supposed them to be ducks disporting
themselves after the manner of harmless water fowl generally. What was
their astonishment to behold them swiftly and simultaneously approach
the river bank, spring out of the water and reveal themselves full
grown savages!
With guns and garments, but few of the latter probably, on their heads,
they swam across and climbed up the bank to the level of the sage brush
plain. The leader, attired in a plug hat and long, black overcoat
flapping about his sinewy limbs, gun in hand, advanced toward the train
calling out, "How-de-do! How-de-do! Stop! Stop!" twice repeating the
words. The Captain, Grandfather John Denny, answered "Go back,"
emphasizing the order by vigorous gestures. Mindful of the friendly
caution of the Superintendent at Fort Hall, the train moved on. The
gentleman of the plains retired to his band, who dodged back behind the
sagebrush and began firing at the train. One bullet threw up the dust
under the horse ridden by one of the company. The frightened women and
children huddled down as low as possible in the bottoms of the wagons,
expecting the shots to penetrate the canvas walls of their moving
houses. In the last wagon, in the most exposed position, one of the
mothers sat pale and trembling like an aspen leaf; the fate of the young
sister and two little daughters in the event of capture, beside the
danger of her own immediate death were too dreadful to contemplate. In
their extremity one said, "O, why don't they hurry! If I were driving I
would lay on the lash!"
When the Indians found that their shots took no effect, they changed
their tactics and ran down along the margin of the river under shelter
of the bank, to head off the train at a point where it must go down one
hill and up another. There were seven men with five rifles and two
rifle-pistols, but these would have been of little avail if the teams
had been disabled. D. T. Denny drove the forward wagon, having one rifle
and the pistols; three of the men were not armed.
All understood the maneuver of the Indians and were anxious to hurry the
teams unless it was Captain John Denny, who was an old soldier and may
have preferred to fight.
Sarah Denny, his wife, looked out and saw the Indians going down the
river; no doubt she urged him to whip up. The order was given and after
moments that seemed hours, down the long hill they rushed pell-mell,
without lock or brake, the prairie schooners tossing like their
namesakes on a stormy sea. What a breathless, panting, nightmare it
seemed! If an axle had broken or a linchpin loosened the race would have
been lost. But on, madly careening past the canyon where the Indians
intended to intercept them, tearing up the opposite hill with desperate
energy, expecting every moment to hear the blood-curdling warwhoop, nor
did they slacken their speed to the usual pace for the remainder of the
day. As night approached, the welcome light of a campfire, that of J. N.
Low's company, induced them to stop. This camp was on a level near a
bluff; a narrow deep stream flowed by into the Snake River not far
away. The cattle were corraled, with the wagons in a circle and a fire
of brushwood built in the center.
Around the Denny company's campfire, the women who prepared the evening
meal were in momentary fear of receiving a shot from an ambushed foe,
lit as they were against the darkness, but happily their fears were not
realized. Weary as the drivers were, guards were posted and watched all
night. The dogs belonging to the train were doubtless a considerable
protection, as they would have given the alarm had the enemy approached.
One of the women went down to the brook the next morning to get water
for the camp and saw the tracks of Indian ponies in the dust on the
opposite side of the stream. Evidently they had followed the train to
that point, but feared to attack the united forces of the two camps.
After this race for life the men stood guard every night; one of them,
D. T. Denny, was on duty one-half of every other night and alternately
slept on the ground under one of the wagons.
This was done until they reached the Cayuse country. On Burnt River they
met thirty warriors, the advance guard of their tribe who were moving,
women, children, drags and dogs. The Indians were friendly and
cheeringly announced "Heap sleep now; we are _good_ Indians."
The Denny and Low trains were well pleased to join their forces and
traveled as one company until they reached their journey's end.
The day after the Indian attack, friendly visits were made and Mrs. J.
N. Low recalls that she saw two women of Denny's company frying cakes
and doughnuts over the campfire, while two others were well occupied
with the youngest of the travelers, who were infants.
There were six men and two women in Low's company and when the two
companies joined they felt quite strong and traveled unmolested the
remainder of the way.
An exchange of experiences brought out the fact that Low's company had
crossed the Missouri the third day of May and had traveled on the south
side of the Platte at the same time the Denny company made their way
along the north side of the same stream.
At a tributary called Big Blue, as Mrs. Low relates, she observed the
clouds rolling up and admonished her husband to whip up or they would
not be able to cross for days if they delayed; they crossed, ascended
the bluffs where there was a semicircle of trees, loosed the cattle and
picketed the horses. By evening the storm reached them with lightning,
heavy thunder and great piles of hail. The next morning the water had
risen half way up tall trees.
The Indians stole the lead horse of one of the four-horse teams and Mrs.
Low rode the other on a man's saddle. Many western equestriennes have
learned to be not too particular as to horse, habit or saddle and have
proven also the greater safety and convenience of cross-saddle riding.
In the Black Hills while traveling along the crest of a high ridge,
where to get out of the road would have been disastrous, the train was
met by a band of Indians on ponies, who pressed up to the wagons in a
rather embarrassing way, bent apparently upon riding between and
separating the teams, but the drivers were too wise to permit this and
kept close together, without stopping to parley with them, and after
riding alongside for some distance, the designing but baffled redskins
withdrew.
The presence of the native inhabitants sometimes proved a convenience;
especially was this true of the more peaceable tribes of the far west.
On the Umatilla River the travelers were glad to obtain the first fresh
vegetable since leaving the cultivated gardens and fields of their old
homes months before. One of the women traded a calico apron for green
peas, which were regarded as a great treat and much enjoyed.
Farther on, as they neared the Columbia, Captain Low, who was riding
ahead of the train, met Indians with salmon, eager to purchase so fine a
fish and not wishing to stop the wagon, pulled off an overshirt over his
head and exchanged it for the piscatorial prize.
The food that had sustained them on the long march was almost military
in its simplicity. Corn meal, flour, rice (a little, as it was not then
in common use), beans, bacon and dried fruits were the main dependence.
They could spend but little time hunting and fishing. On Bear River
"David" and "Louisa" each caught a trout, fine, speckled beauties.
"David" and the other hunters of the company also killed sage hens,
antelope and buffalo.
After leaving the Missouri River they had no opportunity to buy anything
until they reached the Snake River, where they purchased some dried
salmon of the Indians.