About dark a sallow-faced fellow descended the hill on horseback, and
splashing through the pool, rode up to the tents. He was enveloped in
a huge cloak, and his broad felt hat was weeping about his ears with
the drizzling moisture of the evening. Another followed, a stout,
square-built, intelligent-looking man, who announced himself as leader
of an emigrant party, encamped a mile in advance of us. About twenty
wagons, he said, were with him; the rest of his party were on the
other side of the Big Blue, waiting for a woman who was in the pains
of childbirth, and quarreling meanwhile among themselves.
These were the first emigrants that we had overtaken, although we had
found abundant and melancholy traces of their progress throughout the
course of the journey. Sometimes we passed the grave of one who had
sickened and died on the way. The earth was usually torn up, and
covered thickly with wolf-tracks. Some had escaped this violation. One
morning, a piece of plank, standing upright on the summit of a grassy
hill, attracted our notice, and riding up to it, we found the
following words very roughly traced upon it, apparently with a red-hot
piece of iron:—
MARY ELLIS
DIED MAY 7th, 1845
Aged two months.
Such tokens were of common occurrence.
We were late in breaking up our camp on the following morning, and
scarcely had we ridden a mile when we saw ... the emigrant caravan,
with its heavy white wagons creeping on in slow procession, and a
large drove of cattle following behind. Half a dozen yellow-visaged
Missourians, mounted on horseback, were cursing and shouting among
them, their lank angular proportions enveloped in brown homespun,
evidently cut and adjusted by the hands of a domestic female tailor.
As we approached, they called out to us: “How are ye, boys? Are ye for
Oregon or California?”
As we pushed rapidly by the wagons, children’s faces were thrust out
from the white coverings to look at us; while the care-worn,
thin-featured matron, or the buxom girl, seated in front, suspended
the knitting on which most of them were engaged to stare at us with
wondering curiosity. By the side of each wagon stalked the proprietor,
urging on his patient oxen, who shouldered heavily along, inch by
inch, on their interminable journey. It was easy to see that fear and
dissension prevailed among them.... Many were murmuring against the
leader they had chosen, and wished to depose him....
We soon left them far behind, and hoped that we had taken a final
leave; but our companions’ wagon stuck so long in a deep muddy ditch,
that before it was extricated the van of the emigrant caravan appeared
again, descending a ridge close at hand. Wagon after wagon plunged
through the mud; and as it was nearly noon, and the place promised
shade and water, we saw with satisfaction that they were resolved to
encamp. Soon the wagons were wheeled into a circle: the cattle were
grazing over the meadow, and the men, with sour, sullen faces, were
looking about for wood and water. They seemed to meet but indifferent
success. As we left the ground, I saw a tall slouching fellow ...
contemplating the contents of his tin cup, which he had just filled
with water.
“Look here, you,” said he; “it’s chock-full of animals!”
The cup, as he held it out, exhibited in fact an extraordinary variety
and profusion of animal and vegetable life.
Riding up the little hill, and looking back on the meadow, we could
easily see that all was not right in the camp of the emigrants. The
men were crowded together, and an angry discussion seemed to be going
forward. R—— [_one of Parkman’s party_] was missing from his wonted
place in the line, and the Captain told us that he had remained behind
to get his horse shod by a blacksmith attached to the emigrant party.
Something whispered in our ears that mischief was on foot; we kept on,
however, and coming soon to a stream of tolerable water, we stopped to
rest and dine. Still the absentee lingered behind. At last, at the
distance of a mile, he and his horse suddenly appeared, sharply
defined against the sky on the summit of a hill; and close behind, a
huge white object rose slowly into view.
“What is that blockhead bringing with him now?”
A moment dispelled the mystery. Slowly and solemnly, one behind the
other, four long trains of oxen and four emigrant wagons rolled over
the crest of the hill and gravely descended, while R—— rode in state
in the van. It seems that during the process of shoeing the horse the
smothered dissensions among the emigrants suddenly broke into open
rupture. Some insisted on pushing forward, some on remaining where
they were, and some on going back. Kearsley, their captain, threw up
his command in disgust. “And now, boys,” said he, “if any of you are
for going ahead, just you come along with me.”
Four wagons, with ten men, one woman, and one small child, made up the
force of the “go-ahead” faction, and R——, with his usual proclivity
toward mischief, invited them to join our party. Fear of the
Indians—for I can conceive no other motive—must have induced him to
court so burdensome an alliance. At all events, the proceeding was a
cool one. The men who joined us, it is true, were all that could be
desired; rude indeed in manners, but frank, manly, and intelligent. To
tell them we could not travel with them was out of the question. I
merely reminded Kearsley that if his oxen could not keep up with our
mules he must expect to be left behind, as we could not consent to be
farther delayed on the journey; but he immediately replied, that his
oxen “_should_ keep up; and if they couldn’t, why, he allowed, he’d
find out how to make ’em.”