Carson had passed the autumn and winter with his family, in the society
of old companions, amid various incidents amusing to the reader if they
were detailed, because so unlike the style of life to which he has been
accustomed, the particulars of which we must however leave to his
imagination, aiding it by some general description of the customs of the
country and locality.
The town of Taos is the second in size in New Mexico, (Santa Fe claiming
of right to be first,) with very little regard to beauty in its
construction, the houses being huddled upon narrow streets, except in
the immediate vicinity of the _plaza_, on which are located the church
and the better class of houses; and where, as in all Mexican towns, the
marketing is carried on. It is situated in the centre of the valley of
Taos, which is about thirty miles long, and fifteen broad, and
surrounded by mountains, upon whose tops snow lies during the greater
part of the year.
The valley appears to be a plain, but is intersected by many ravines,
which flow into the Rio Grande on its western side. There is no timber,
but in the mountains it is abundant, and of excellent quality. The
population in the whole valley numbers scarcely more than ten thousand,
and as their farming operations require but a portion of the soil, the
larger part of the land is still wild, and grazed only by horses,
cattle, and sheep, which are raised in large numbers.
They are obliged to expend much labor upon their crops, as the climate
is too dry to mature them without irrigation; and yet in their community
of interest, in a country without fences, they find much satisfaction in
rendering kind offices to each other; and social life is more cultivated
than in communities whose interests are more separate. The high
altitude, and dryness of the atmosphere, render the climate exceedingly
healthful, rather severe in winter, but very mild and salubrious in
summer, so that disease is scarcely known in the valley.
The dress of the people has changed very much since the population
became partially Americanized, so that often the buckskin pants have
given place to cloth, and the blanket to the coat, and the moccasin to
the leathern shoe, and the dress of the women has undergone as great a
change. They are learning to employ American implements for agriculture,
instead of the rude Egyptian yoke fastened to the horns of the oxen; and
the plough composed of a single hooked piece of timber, and the axe that
more resembles a pick, than the axe of the American woodsman; and the
cart, whose wheels are pieces sawed from the butt end of a log, with a
hole bored for the axle, whose squeaking can be heard for miles, and
which are themselves a sufficient burden without any loading. Their diet
is simple, as it is with all Mexicans, consisting of the products of the
locality, with game, which is always to be included in a bill of fare
such as Carson would furnish; corn, and wheat, and peas, beans, eggs,
pumpkins, and apples, pears, peaches, plums, and grapes, constitute the
principal products of their culture. Their great source of enjoyment is
dancing, and the fandango is so much an institution in a town of the
size of Taos, that, during the winter, scarcely a night passes without a
dance. This is doubtless familiar to the reader, as the acquisition of
California has introduced a knowledge of the customs of its natives to
every eastern household.
In the spring of 1845, Carson had decided to commence the business of
farming at Taos, and had made the necessary arrangements for building a
house, and for stocking and planting, when an express arrived from Col.
Fremont, bringing despatches to remind him of his promise to join a
third exploring expedition, in case he should ever undertake another,
and to designate the place where he would meet the party Fremont was
organising.
Before parting with Fremont in the previous summer, Fremont had secured
the promise from Carson, that he would again be his guide and companion,
should he ever undertake another expedition; but Carson was not
expecting its execution at this time, and yet, though it would entail
severe loss on him to make a hasty sale of his possessions, and arrange
for leaving his family, he felt bound by his promise, as well as by his
attachment to Fremont, and at once closing up his business, together
with an old friend by the name of Owens, who had become, as it were, a
partner with him in his enterprise of farming, they having been old
trapping friends, they repaired together to the point designated for
joining the exploring party, upon the upper Arkansas, at Bent's Fort,
where they had last parted from Fremont.
The meeting was mutually satisfactory, and with Fremont were Maxwell, an
old and well-tried friend, and a Mr. Walker, who had been in Captain
Bonneville's expedition to the Columbia, and in other trapping parties
in California and vicinity, so that with other mountain men, whose names
are less known, but every man of whom was Carson's friend, Fremont's
corps was more efficient for the present service, than it had been in
either of the former expeditions.
After some months spent in examining the head-waters of the great rivers
which flow to either ocean, the party descended at the beginning of
winter to the Great Salt Lake, and in October encamped on its
southwestern shore, in view of that undescribed country which at that
time had not been penetrated, and which vague and contradictory reports
of Indians represented as a desert without grass or water.
Their previous visit to the lake had given it a somewhat familiar
aspect, and on leaving it they felt as if about to commence their
journey anew. Its eastern shore was frequented by large bands of
Indians, but here they had dwindled down to a single family, which was
gleaning from some hidden source, enough to support life, and drinking
the salt water of a little stream near by, no fresh water being at hand.
This offered scanty encouragement as to what they might expect on the
desert beyond.
At its threshold and immediately before them was a naked plain of smooth
clay surface, mostly devoid of vegetation--the hazy weather of the
summer hung over it, and in the distance rose scattered, low, black and
dry-looking mountains. At what appeared to be fifty miles or more, a
higher peak held out some promise of wood and water, and towards this it
was resolved to direct their course.
Four men, with a pack animal loaded with water for two days, and
accompanied by a naked Indian--who volunteered for a reward to be their
guide to a spot where he said there was grass and fine springs--were
sent forward to explore in advance for a foothold, and verify the
existence of water before the whole party should be launched into the
desert. Their way led toward the high peak of the mountain, on which
they were to make a smoke signal in the event of finding water. About
sunset of the second day, no signal having been seen, Fremont became
uneasy at the absence of his men, and set out with the whole party upon
their trail, traveling rapidly all the night. Towards morning one of the
scouts was met returning.
The Indian had been found to know less than themselves, and had been
sent back, but the men had pushed on to the mountains, where they found
a running stream, with wood and sufficient grass. The whole party now
lay down to rest, and the next day, after a hard march, reached the
stream. The distance across the plain was nearly seventy miles, and they
called the mountain which had guided them Pilot Peak. This was their
first day's march and their first camp in the desert.
A few days afterwards the expedition was divided into two parties--the
larger one under the guidance of Walker, a well-known mountaineer and
experienced traveler, going around to the foot of the Sierra Nevada by a
circuitous route which he had previously traveled, and Fremont, with ten
men, Delawares and whites, penetrated directly through the heart of the
desert.
Some days after this separation, Fremont's party, led by Carson, while
traveling along the foot of a mountain, the arid country covered with
dwarf shrubs, discovered a volume of smoke rising from a ravine. Riding
cautiously up, they discovered a single Indian on the border of a small
creek. He was standing before a little fire, naked as he was born,
apparently thinking, and looking at a small earthen pot which was
simmering over the fire, filled with the common ground-squirrel of the
country. Another bunch of squirrels lay near it, and close by were his
bow and arrows. He was a well-made, good-looking young man, about
twenty-five years of age. Although so taken by surprise that he made no
attempt to escape, and evidently greatly alarmed, he received his
visitors with forced gaiety, and offered them part of his _pot au feu_
and his bunch of squirrels. He was kindly treated and some little
presents made him, and the party continued their way.
His bow was handsomely made, and the arrows, of which there were about
forty in his quiver, were neatly feathered, and headed with obsidian,
worked into spear-shape by patient labor.
After they had separated, Fremont found that his Delawares had taken a
fancy to the Indian's bow and arrows, and carried them off. They carried
them willingly back, when they were reminded that they had exposed the
poor fellow to almost certain starvation by depriving him, in the
beginning of winter, of his only means of subsistence, which it would
require months to replace.
One day the party had reached one of the lakes lying along the foot of
the Sierra Nevada, which was their appointed rendezvous with their
friends, and where, at this season, the scattered Indians of the
neighborhood were gathering, to fish. Turning a point on the lake shore,
a party of Indians, some twelve or fourteen in number, came abruptly in
view. They were advancing along in Indian file, one following the other,
their heads bent forward, with eyes fixed on the ground. As the two
parties met, the Indians did not turn their heads or raise their eyes
from the ground, but passed silently along. The whites, habituated to
the chances of savage life, and always uncertain whether they should
find friends or foes in those they met, fell readily into their humor,
and they too passed on their way without word or halt.
It was a strange meeting: two parties of such different races and
different countries, coming abruptly upon each other, with every
occasion to excite curiosity and provoke question, pass in a desert
without a word of inquiry or a single remark on either side, or without
any show of hostility.
Walker's party joined Fremont at the appointed rendezvous, at the point
where Walker's river discharges itself into the lake, but it was now
mid-winter, they were out of provisions--and there was no guide. The
heavy snows might be daily expected to block up the passes in the great
Sierra, if they had not already fallen, and with all their experience it
was considered too hazardous to attempt the passage with the _materiel_
of a whole party; it was arranged therefore that Walker should continue
with the main party southward along the Sierra, and enter the valley of
the San Joaquin by some one of the low passes at its head, where there
is rarely or never snow. Fremont undertook, with a few men, to cross
directly westward over the Sierra Nevada to Sutter's Fort, with the view
of obtaining there the necessary supplies of horses and beef cattle with
which to rejoin his party.
After some days' travel, leaving the Mercedes River, they had entered
among the foothills of the mountains, and were journeying through a
beautiful country of undulating upland, openly timbered with oaks,
principally evergreen, and watered with small streams.
Traveling along, they came suddenly upon broad and deeply-worn trails,
which had been freshly traveled by large bands of horses, apparently
coming from the settlements on the coast. These and other indications
warned them that they were approaching villages of the Horse-Thief
Indians, who appeared to have just returned from a successful foray.
With the breaking up of the missions, many of the Indians had returned
to their tribes in the mountains. Their knowledge of the Spanish
language, and familiarity with the ranches and towns, enabled them to
pass and repass, at pleasure, between their villages in the Sierra and
the ranches on the coast. They very soon availed themselves of these
facilities to steal and run off into the mountains bands of horses, and
in a short time it became the occupation of all the Indians inhabiting
the southern Sierra Nevada, as well as the plains beyond.
Three or four parties would be sent at a time from different villages,
and every week was signalized by the carrying-off of hundreds of horses,
to be killed and eaten in the interior. Repeated expeditions had been
made against them by the Californians, who rarely succeeded in reaching
the foot of the mountains, and were invariably defeated when they did.
As soon as this fresh trail had been discovered, four men, two Delawares
with Maxwell and Dick Owens, two of Fremont's favorite men, were sent
forward upon the trail. The rest of the party had followed along at
their usual gait, but Indian signs became so thick, trail after trail
joining on, that they started rapidly after the men, fearing for their
safety. After a few miles ride, they reached a spot which had been the
recent camping ground of a village, and where abundant grass and good
water suggested a halting place for the night, and they immediately set
about unpacking their animals and preparing to encamp.
While thus engaged, they heard what seemed to be the barking of many
dogs, coming apparently from a village, not far distant; but they had
hardly thrown off their saddles when they suddenly became aware that it
was the noise of women and children shouting and crying; and this was
sufficient notice that the men who had been sent ahead had fallen among
unfriendly Indians, so that a fight had already commenced.
It did not need an instant to throw the saddles on again, and leaving
four men to guard the camp, Fremont, with the rest, rode off in the
direction of the sounds.
They had galloped but half a mile, when crossing a little ridge, they
came abruptly in view of several hundred Indians advancing on each side
of a knoll, on the top of which were the men, where a cluster of trees
and rocks made a good defence. It was evident that they had come
suddenly into the midst of the Indian village, and jumping from their
horses, with the instinctive skill of old hunters and mountaineers as
they were, had got into an admirable place to fight from.
The Indians had nearly surrounded the knoll, and were about getting
possession of the horses, as Fremont's party came in view. Their welcome
shout as they charged up the hill, was answered by the yell of the
Delawares as they dashed down to recover their animals, and the crack of
Owens' and Maxwell's rifles. Owens had singled out the foremost Indian
who went headlong down the hill, to steal horses no more.
Profiting by the first surprise of the Indians, and anxious for the
safety of the men who had been left in camp, the whites immediately
retreated towards it, checking the Indians with occasional rifle shots,
with the range of which it seemed remarkable that they were acquainted.
The whole camp were on guard until daylight. As soon as it was dark,
each man crept to his post. They heard the women and children retreating
towards the mountains, but nothing disturbed the quiet of the camp,
except when one of the Delawares shot at a wolf as it jumped over a log,
and which he mistook for an Indian. As soon as it grew light they took
to the most open ground, and retreated into the plain.