"Next morning we were up by the earliest break of day, and had the
pleasure of witnessing a beautiful phenomenon in the sunrise. The whole
country to the east, as far as we could see, was a level plain; and the
horizon, of course, resembled that of the ocean when calm. As the great
yellow globe of the sun appeared above it, one could have fancied that
he was rising out of the earth itself--although he was more than ninety
millions of miles distant from any part of it. It was a beautiful sky
into which the sun was slowly climbing up. It was of a pale blue
colour, and without the smallest cloud--for on these high table-plains
in the interior of America, you may often travel for days without seeing
a cloud as big as a kite. We were all in better spirits, for we had
rested well, and had no longer any fear of being followed by the savages
who had massacred our companions. They would have been fools, indeed,
to have made that dreadful journey for all they could have gotten from
us. Moreover, the sight of our antelope, with its nice yellow fat,
crisped by the cold night-air, was anything but disheartening. As Cudjo
was a dexterous butcher, I allowed him to quarter it, while I shouldered
the axe and marched off to the mountain-foot to procure more wood for
the fire. Mary was busy among her pots, pans, and platters, scouring
and washing them all in the clear stream--for the dust of the barren
plains had blown into the wagon as we marched, and had formed a thick
coating over the vessels. Fortunately we had a good stock of these
utensils--consisting of a gridiron, a large camp-kettle, a couple of
mess-pans, a baking-dish, a first-rate coffee-pot and mill, half-a-dozen
tin-cups and plates, with an assortment of knives, forks, and spoons.
All these things we had laid in at Saint Louis, by the advice of our
Scotch friend, who know very well what articles were required for a
journey across the Desert.
"I was not long in getting the wood, and our fire was soon replenished
and blazing brightly. Mary attended to the coffee, which she parched in
one of the mess-pans, and then ground in the mill. I handled the
gridiron and broiled the venison-steaks, while Cudjo collected a large
supply of locust-beans, and roasted them. These last were to serve us
for bread, as we had neither meal nor flour. The supply we had brought
from Saint Louis had been exhausted several days before; and we had
lived altogether upon dried beef and coffee. Of this last article we
were very sparing, as we had not over a pound of it left, and it was our
most precious luxury. We had no sugar whatever, nor cream, but we did
not mind the want of either, as those who travel in the wilderness find
coffee very palatable without them--perhaps quite as much so as it is,
when mixed with the whitest of sugar and the yellowest of cream, to the
pampered appetites of those who live always at home. But, after all, we
should not have to drink our coffee without sweetening, as I observed
that Frank, while extracting the beans of the locust, was also scraping
the honeyed pulp from the pods, and putting it to one side. He had
already collected nearly a plate full. Well done, Frank!
"The great mess-chest had been lifted out of the wagon; and the lid of
this, with a cloth spread over it, served us for a table. For seats we
had rolled several large stones around the chest; and upon these we sat
drinking the delicious coffee, and eating the savoury steaks of venison.
"While we were thus pleasantly engaged, I observed Cudjo suddenly
rolling the whites of his eyes upwards, at the same time exclaiming,--
"`Golly! Massa--Massa--lookee yonder!'
"The rest of us turned quickly round--for we had been sitting with our
backs to the mountain--and looked in the direction indicated by Cudjo.
There were high cliffs fronting us; and along the face of these, five
large reddish objects were moving, so fast, that I at first thought they
were birds upon the wing. After watching them a moment, however, I saw
that they were quadrupeds; but so nimbly did they go, leaping from ledge
to ledge, that it was impossible to see their limbs. They appeared to
be animals of the deer species--somewhat larger than sheep or goats--but
we could see that, in place of antlers, each of them had a pair of huge
curving horns. As they leaped downward, from one platform of the cliffs
to another, we fancied that they whirled about in the air, as though
they were `turning somersaults,' and seemed at times to come down heads
foremost!
"There was a spur of the cliff that sloped down to within less than a
hundred yards of the place where we sat. It ended in an abrupt
precipice of some sixty or seventy feet in height above the plain. The
animals, on reaching the level of this spur, ran along it until they had
arrived at its end. Seeing the precipice they suddenly stopped, as if
to reconnoitre it; and we had now a full view of them, as they stood
outlined against the sky, with their graceful limbs and great curved
horns almost as large as their bodies. We thought, of course, they
could get no farther for the precipice, and I was calculating whether my
rifle--which I had laid hold of--would reach them at that distance. All
at once, to our astonishment, the foremost sprang out from the cliff;
and whirling through the air, lit upon his head on the hard plain
below!" We could see that he came down upon his horns, and rebounding
up again to the height of several feet, turned a second somersault, and
then dropped upon his legs, and stood still! Nothing daunted the rest
followed, one after the other in quick succession, like so many
street-tumblers, and like them--after the feat had been performed--the
animals stood for a moment, as if waiting for applause!
"The spot where they had dropped was not more than fifty paces from our
camp; but I was so astonished at the tremendous leap, that I quite
forgot the rifle I held in my hands. The animals, too, seemed equally
astonished upon discovering us--which they now did for the first time.
The yelping of the dogs, who rushed forward at the moment, brought me to
myself again, as it did also the strangers to a sense of their dangerous
proximity; and, wheeling suddenly, they bounded back for the mountain.
I fired after them at random; but we all supposed without effect, as the
whole five kept on to the foot of the mountain, followed by the dogs.
Presently they commenced ascending, as though they had wings; but we
noticed that one of them hung in the rear, and seemed to leap upward
with difficulty. Upon this one our eyes became fixed, as we now fancied
it was wounded. We were right in this. The rest soon disappeared out
of sight; but that which lagged behind, on leaping for a high ledge,
came short in the attempt, and rolled backward down the face of the
mountain. The next moment we saw him struggling between the mastiffs.
"Cudjo, frank, and Harry, ran together up the steep; and soon returned,
bringing the animal along with them quite dead--as the dogs had put an
end to him. It was a good load for Cudjo, and proved upon closer
acquaintance to be as large as a fallow-deer. From the huge wrinkled
horns, and other marks, I knew it to be the _argali_, or wild sheep,
known among hunters by the name of the `bighorn,' and sometimes spoken
of in books as the `Rocky Mountain sheep,' although in its general
appearance it looked more like an immense yellow goat, or deer with a
pair of rams' horns stuck upon his head. We knew, however, it was not
bad to eat,--especially to people in our circumstances; and as soon as
we had finished our breakfast, Cudjo and I whetted our knives, and
having removed the skin, hung up the carcass alongside the remainder of
the antelope. The dogs for their pains had a breakfast to their
satisfaction; and the rest of us, seeing so much fresh meat hanging to
the tree, with a cool stream of water running beneath it, began to fancy
we were quite delivered from the Desert.
"We now sat down together to deliberate on our future proceedings.
Between the argali and the antelope, we had provision enough to last us
for a week at least; but when that was done, what likelihood was there
of our procuring a further supply of either? Not much, thought we; for
although there might be a few more antelopes and a few more `bighorns'
about the place, there could not be many with so little appearance of
anything for them to feed upon. Moreover, we might not find it so easy
to kill any more of them,--for those we had already shot seemed to have
fallen in our way by chance, or--as we more properly believed at the
time and still believe--by the guiding of a Providential hand. But we
knew it was not right or wise to rely altogether on this,--that is, we
knew it was our duty, while trusting in its guidance, at the same time
to make every effort which lay in our own power to save ourselves. When
our present supply should be exhausted, where was the next to come from?
We could not always live upon armadilloes, and argalis, and
antelopes,--even supposing they were as plenty as the rocks. But the
chances were ten to one we should get no more of them. Our ox in a week
would have improved in condition. He would sustain us for a time; and
then--our horse--and then--and then--the dogs--and then--we should
starve to a certainty.
"Any of these necessities was sufficiently fearful to contemplate.
Should we kill our ox, we would be unable to take the wagon along, and
how could the horse carry us all out of the Desert? If we then killed
the horse, we should be still worse off, and utterly helpless on foot.
No man can cross the Great Desert on foot--not even the hunters--and how
could we do it? To remain where we were would be impossible. There
were a few patches of vegetation on the different runlets that filtered
away from the mountain-foot. There were clumps of willows growing along
these, but not enough of grass to support any stock of game upon which
we could live, even were we certain of being able to capture it. It was
evident, then, to us all, that we should have to get away from that
place as speedily as possible.
"The next point to be determined was, whether the Desert extended away
to the south, as we already knew that it did to the north. To ascertain
this, I resolved to go around the mountain, leaving the rest at the camp
until my return.
"Our horse was by this time rested, and well fed; and, having saddled
him and shouldered my rifle, I mounted and rode off. I kept around the
mountain-foot, going by the eastern side. I crossed several rivulets
resembling the one on which we had encamped; and noticed that all these
turned off toward the eastward, making their way to a main stream. In
this direction, too, I saw a few stunted trees, with here and there an
appearance of greenness on the surface of the plain. On the way I saw
an antelope, and another animal resembling a deer, but differing from
all the deer I had ever seen, in having a long tail like a cow. I knew
not at the time what sort of an animal it was, as I had never met with
any description of it in books of natural history.
"After riding about five miles, I got fairly round to the east side of
the mountain, and could view the country away to the south. As far as
my sight could reach, I saw nothing but an open plain--if possible more
sterile in its character than that which stretched northward. The only
direction in which there were any signs of fertility was to the east,
and that was but in patches of scanty vegetation.
"It was a cheerless prospect. We should now certainly have a desert to
cross before we could get to any inhabited country. To strike
eastwardly again, for the American frontier--circumstanced as we were
without provisions and with worn-out cattle--would be madness; as the
distance was at least eight hundred miles. Besides, I knew there were
many hostile tribes of Indians living on that route, so that, even
should the country prove fertile, we could never hope to get through it.
To go northward or southward would be equally impossible, as there was
no civilised settlement for a thousand miles in either direction. Our
only hope, then, would be, to attempt crossing the Desert westwardly to
the Mexican settlements on the Del Norte,--a distance of nearly two
hundred miles! To do this, we should need first to rest our ill-matched
team for several days. We should also require provisions enough for the
route, and how were these to be obtained? Again, thought I, we must
trust to Providence, who has already so manifestly extended a helping
hand to us.
"I observed that the mountain on the southern face descended with an
easier slope toward the plain, than upon the north where it is bold and
precipitous. From this I concluded that a greater quantity of snow must
be melted, and run off in that direction. Doubtless then, thought I,
there will be a greater amount of fertility on that side; and I
continued to ride on, until I came in sight of the grove of willows and
cotton-trees, which line the stream above the valley here. I soon
reached them, and saw that there was a stream with considerable
pasturage near its borders--much more than where we had encamped I tied
my horse to a tree, and climbed some distance up the mountain in order
to get a view of the country south and west. I had not got to a great
height when I caught sight of the singular chasm that seemed to open up
in the plain. I was attracted with this peculiarity, and determined to
examine it. Descending again to where I had left my horse, I mounted,
and rode straight for it. In a short time I stood upon the brink of the
precipice, and looked down into this smiling valley.
"I cannot describe my sensations at that moment. Only they, whose eyes
have been bent for days on the sterile wilderness, can feel the full
effect produced by a scene of fertility such as there presented itself.
It was late in the autumn, and the woods that lay below me--clad in all
the variegated livery of that season--looked like some richly-coloured
picture. The music of birds ascended from the groves below, wafted
upward upon the perfumed and aromatic air; and the whole scene appeared
more like a fabled Elysium than a reality of Nature I could hardly
satisfy myself that I was not dreaming, or looking upon some fantastic
hallucination of the _mirage_.
"I stood for many minutes in a sort of trance, gazing down into the
lovely valley. I could observe no signs of human habitation. No smoke
rose over the trees, and no noises issued forth, except the voices of
Nature, uttered in the songs of birds and the hum of falling waters. It
seemed as though man had never desecrated this isolated paradise by his
presence and passions.
"I say I stood for many minutes gazing and listening. I could have
remained for hours; but the sinking sun admonished me to hasten away. I
was nearly twenty miles from our camp, and my horse was neither strong
nor fresh. Determined, therefore, to return on the morrow, bringing
with me my companions and all that belonged to us, I turned my horse's
head and rode back. It was late in the night--near midnight--when I
reached camp. I found everything as I had left it, except that Mary was
in great anxiety about what had delayed me so long. But my return, and
the discovery which I communicated, soon restored her spirits; and we
laid out our plans for changing our camp to the valley, determined to
set forth at an early hour in the morning."