THE COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES
I
At the end of the sixteenth and during the seventeenth century a line
of Spanish settlements ran from Mexico northward along the Rocky
Mountains, terminating in the important town of Taos. To the north,
north-east, and north-west of this town were other settlements,
occupied by the Spaniards and their descendants, and the streams and
geographical features of the country bore Spanish names--almost up to
the headwaters of the Rio Grande del Norte. North of the Arkansas there
was a change of tongue, and the names were English, or French, given
much later by American trappers who had pushed westward, or by French
Canadians and Creoles, who were early voyageurs over the plains.
Though Taos was an important place, it did not equal, either in size or
wealth, the town of Santa Fé.
The first settlements of what is now New Mexico were made about the
end of the sixteenth century, and a colony was established on the Rio
del Norte, in New Mexico. Agriculture was practised, and mines were
discovered and worked. The Spaniards, in their greed for precious
metals, made slaves of the docile Indians, and forced them to labor in
the mines, under circumstances of the greatest severity and hardship.
Almost a hundred years later, in August, 1680, this ill treatment
caused the insurrection of the Pueblos, which put an end to many a
flourishing Spanish settlement, and, temporarily, to the country’s
development. For a time the Spaniards were driven out, but it was for
a time only; a little later they returned, resubdued the country, and
by the close of the century were stronger than ever. Nevertheless,
the Pueblo revolt was not without its good effect, and during the
eighteenth century the Indians were far better treated than they had
been before.
In the year 1806, Captain Zebulon M. Pike crossed the plains and
reached the city of Santa Fé. His return told the inhabitants of the
farther west of a country beyond the plains where there were towns and
people who would purchase goods brought to them. Previous to this, a
merchant of Kaskaskia, named Morrison, had sent a French Creole named
La Lande up the Platte River, directing him to go to Santa Fé to
trade; but La Lande, though he reached that city, never returned, nor
accounted to his employer for the goods that were intrusted to him.
James Pursley, an American, was perhaps the second man to cross these
plains, and reach the Spanish settlements. When Captain Pike returned,
the news of these settlements, hitherto unknown, created a great
interest throughout the slowly advancing frontier.
Expeditions went out to Santa Fé in 1812, but the traders were
suspected by the New Mexicans of being spies, their goods were
confiscated, and they themselves imprisoned and detained for years,
some of them returning to the United States in 1821. After this, other
parties went out, and the trading which they did with the Spaniards was
successful and profitable. More and more expeditions set forth, often
manned by people who were entirely ignorant of the country through
which they were to pass, and of the hardships which they were to face.
Some of these died from starvation or thirst, or, at the very least,
suffered terribly, and often were unsuccessful, but about 1822 the
trade with Santa Fé became established. The distance from the American
settlements across the plains to Santa Fé was hardly half that from
Vera Cruz to Santa Fé, and there was great profit in the trade; but it
was not without its dangers. Indians were constantly met with, and many
of the traders did not understand how to treat them. Some traders were
robbed; others, resisting harshly and sometimes killing a savage, were
attacked, robbed of their animals, and occasionally lost a man.
Among the interesting records of the plains of these early times is
Josiah Gregg’s _Commerce of the Prairies, or the Journal of a Santa Fé
Trader, During Eight Expeditions Across the Great Western Prairies_.
Gregg, an invalid, made his first trip across the plains on the advice
of his physician. The effect of his journey was to re-establish his
health and to beget in him a passion for prairie life. He soon became
interested, as a proprietor, in the Santa Fé trade, and for eight
successive years continued to follow this business. The period covered
by his volumes is from 1831 to 1840, during which time the trade was at
its height.
The caravan with which Gregg started, set out with near a hundred
wagons, of which one-half were hauled by oxen and the remainder by
mules. The very night that they left Council Grove their cattle
stampeded, but being corralled within the circle of wagons, did not
escape.
Having a large company, it was natural that there should be among it
a number of people who were constantly seeing dangers that did not
exist. They had been out but a short time when, “Alarms now began to
accumulate more rapidly upon us. A couple of persons had a few days
before been chased to the wagons by a band of--buffalo; and this
evening the encampment was barely formed when two hunters came bolting
in with information that a hundred, perhaps of the same ‘enemy’ were
at hand--at least this was the current opinion afterward. The hubbub
occasioned by this fearful news had scarcely subsided, when another
arrived on a panting horse, crying out ‘Indians! Indians! I’ve just
escaped from a couple, who pursued me to the very camp!’ ‘To arms! to
arms!’ resounded from every quarter--and just then a wolf, attracted by
the fumes of broiling buffalo bones, sent up a most hideous howl across
the creek. ‘Some one in distress!’ was instantly shouted: ‘To his
relief!’ vociferated the crowd; and off they bolted, one and all, arms
in hand, hurly-burly, leaving the camp entirely unprotected, so that
had an enemy been at hand indeed, and approached us from the opposite
direction, they might easily have taken possession of the wagons.
Before they had returned, however, a couple of hunters came in and
laughed very heartily at the expense of the first alarmist, whom they
had just chased into the camp.”
[Illustration: CARAVAN ON THE MARCH.
From Gregg’s _Commerce of the Prairies_.]
While baseless Indian scares were common, they sometimes had genuine
frights, as in the case of a large body of Indians met on the Cimarron
River. On this occasion, “It was a genuine alarm--a tangible reality.
These warriors, however, as we soon discovered, were only the vanguard
of a ‘countless host,’ who were by this time pouring over the opposite
ridge, and galloping directly toward us.
“The wagons were soon irregularly ‘formed’ upon the hillside: but in
accordance with the habitual carelessness of caravan traders, a great
portion of the men were unprepared for the emergency. Scores of guns
were ‘empty,’ and as many more had been wetted by the recent showers,
and would not ‘go off.’ Here was one calling for balls; another for
powder; a third for flints. Exclamations, such as, ‘I’ve broken my
ramrod!’--‘I’ve spilt my caps!’--‘I’ve rammed down a ball without
powder!’--‘My gun is choked; give me yours!’--were heard from different
quarters; while a timorous ‘greenhorn’ would perhaps cry out: ‘Here,
take my gun, you can outshoot me!’ The more daring bolted off to
encounter the enemy at once, while the timid and cautious took a stand
with presented rifle behind the wagons. The Indians, who were in
advance, made a bold attempt to press upon us, which came near costing
them dearly, for some of our fiery backwoodsmen more than once had
their rusty, but unerring, rifles directed upon the intruders, some of
whom would inevitably have fallen before their deadly aim, had not some
of the more prudent traders interposed. The Indians made demonstrations
no less hostile, rushing, with ready sprung bows, upon a portion of our
men who had gone in search of water, and mischief would, perhaps, have
ensued, had not the impetuosity of the warriors been checked by the
wise men of the nation.
“The Indians were collecting around us, however, in such great
numbers, that it was deemed expedient to force them away, so as to
resume our march, or at least to take a more advantageous position.
Our company was therefore mustered and drawn up in ‘line of battle’;
and, accompanied by the sound of a drum and fife, we marched toward
the main group of the Indians. The latter seemed far more delighted
than frightened with this strange parade and music, a spectacle they
had, no doubt, never witnessed before, and perhaps looked upon the
whole movement rather as a complimentary salute than a hostile array,
for there was no interpreter through whom any communication could
be conveyed to them. But, whatever may have been their impressions,
one thing is certain--that the principal chief (who was dressed in a
long red coat of strouding, or coarse cloth) appeared to have full
confidence in the virtues of his calumet, which he lighted, and came
boldly forward to meet our war-like corps, serenely smoking the ‘pipe
of peace.’ Our captain, now taking a whiff with the savage chief,
directed him by signs to cause his warriors to retire. This most of
them did, to rejoin the long train of squaws and papooses with the
baggage, who followed in the rear, and were just then seen emerging
from beyond the hills.”
It was estimated that there were not less than two or three thousand of
these Indians, who were supposed to be Blackfeet and Gros Ventres. They
remained for some days in the neighborhood of the train, and kept the
traders on tenterhooks of anxiety, lest there should be an attack, or
a wholesale driving off of cattle. Later there were talks--or at least
friendly meeting--and giving of presents; and finally, the Indians
moved away without doing any harm. It was but a day or two later,
however, when some Comanches had a skirmish with the train, but without
evil results to either party.
It was not long after this that the train, still journeying westward,
saw evidence of their approach to the Spanish settlements. On the
5th of July, as they were proceeding after the celebration of the
day before, they met a Mexican _cibolero_, or buffalo hunter, one of
those hardy wanderers of the plains, who used to venture out from the
Spanish settlements to secure dried buffalo meat, killing buffalo and
trading with the Indians. These wanderers made long journeys, which
often extended as far as the country claimed and occupied by Crows,
Cheyennes, and Pawnees. Perfectly accustomed to the life of the
plains, armed with gun and lance, and bow and arrows, they were not
less free than the aboriginal inhabitants, whose methods in many ways
they imitated, and whose blood many of them shared. Like the Indians,
these buffalo hunters killed their game chiefly with the arrow and the
lance, and drying its flesh, packed it on their mules, or in their
ox-carts, and carried it back to the settlements to trade.
It was not very long after, that Gregg, leaving the train and pushing
ahead with others, found himself in the city of Santa Fé. He was much
impressed by the new country, inhabited by a race as different as
possible from those whom he had left in his Eastern home. He was a
close observer and records interestingly much of what he saw.
The wild tribes are described--the Navajoes, Apaches, Yutas, and
Caiguas, or Kiawas. Much is said of the raids of the Apaches and the
terror in which they kept the inhabitants of the towns, as well as the
Mexican troops stationed there to protect these inhabitants. The savage
butchery of a lot of Apaches by a troop of men, under an American
leader, may perhaps be the incident which has given rise to many
similar tales concerning the similar slaughters of the olden times.
It seems there was a celebrated Apache chief, called Juan José, whose
cunning and audacity had caused him to be feared throughout the whole
country. The government of Sonora had announced that all booty taken
from the savages under his command should be the property of those who
took it. “Accordingly, in the spring of 1837 a party of some twenty
men, composed chiefly of foreigners, spurred on by the love of gain,
and never doubting but the Indians, after so many years of successful
robberies, must be possessed of a vast amount of property, set out with
an American as their commander, who had long resided in the country.
In a few days they reached a rancheria of about fifty warriors with
their families, among whom was the famous Juan José himself, and three
other principal chiefs. On seeing the Americans advance, the former
at once gave them to understand that, if they had come to fight,
they were ready to accommodate them; but, on being assured by the
leader that they were merely bent on a trading expedition, a friendly
interview was immediately established between the parties. The American
captain having determined to put these obnoxious chiefs to death under
any circumstances, soon caused a little field-piece, which had been
concealed from the Indians, to be loaded with chain and canister shot,
and to be held in readiness for use. The warriors were then invited
to the camp to receive a present of flour, which was placed within
range of the cannon. While they were occupied in dividing the contents
of the bag, they were fired upon, and a considerable number of their
party killed on the spot! The remainder were then attacked with small
arms, and about twenty slain, including Juan José and the other chiefs.
Those who escaped became afterward their own avengers in a manner which
proved terribly disastrous to another party of Americans, who happened
at the time to be trapping on Rio Gila, not far distant. The enraged
savages resolved to take summary vengeance upon these unfortunate
trappers, and falling upon them, massacred them every one.”
It is added that: “The Apaches, previous to this date, had committed
but few depredations upon foreigners (_i. e._ Americans), restrained
either by fear or respect. Small parties of the latter were permitted
to pass the highways of the wilderness unmolested, while large caravans
of Mexicans suffered frequent attacks.”
It is generally known that the Indians of the plains regarded the
Mexicans as a different people from the dwellers of the United States,
and there was even a time when a distinction was made between the
inhabitants of the United States and those of the Republic of Texas.
The bounty on scalps, adopted by the Mexican government in 1837, was
one of the many schemes devised by the people of the borderland to
check the ravages of the Indians. By this _Proyecto de Guerra_ a series
of bounties were paid for scalps, running from one hundred dollars
for the scalp of a full-grown man, down to fifty for that of a woman,
and twenty-five for that of a little child. For a brief time this
bounty was paid, and Gregg himself saw a scalp brought in on a pole
by a Mexican officer in command of troops, precisely as the Indians,
returning from the war-path, used to bring their scalps into their home
village.
[Illustration: WAGONS PARKED FOR THE NIGHT.
From Gregg’s _Commerce of the Prairies_.]
In 1838, Gregg returned across the plains, meeting a few adventures,
among which the most important was an attack on the train by Indians,
who were supposed to be Pawnees. The effort was merely to steal their
horses, which, happily, they saved.