|A FEW days after his departure, La Bonté found himself at St. Louis,
the emporium of the fur-trade, and the fast-rising metropolis of the
precocious settlements of the West. Here, a prey to the agony of mind
which jealousy, remorse, and blighted love mix into a very puchero of
misery, he got into the company of certain rowdies, a class that every
western city particularly abounds in; and anxious to drown his sorrows
in any way, and quite unscrupulous as to the means, he plunged into all
the vicious excitements of drinking, gambling, and fighting, which form
the every-day amusements of the ris-. ing generation of St. Louis.
Perhaps in no other part of the United States--where, indeed, humanity
is frequently to be seen in many curious and unusual phases--is there
a population so marked in its general character, and at the same time
divided into such distinct classes, as in the above-named city. Dating,
as it does, its foundation from yesterday, *--for what are forty years
in the growth of a metropolis?--its founders are now scarcely past
middle life, regarding with astonishment the growing works of their
hands; and whilst gazing upon its busy quays, piled with grain and other
produce of the West, its fleets of huge steamboats lying tier upon tier
alongside the wharves, its well-stored warehouses, and all the bustling
concomitants of a great commercial depot, they can scarcely realize the
memory of a few short years, when on the same spot nothing was to be
seen but the miserable hovels of a French village--the only sign of
commerce being the unwieldy bateaux of the Indian traders, laden with
peltries from the distant regions of the Platte and Upper Missouri.
* He means as an American city. St. Louis was founded by the
French in 1764; transferred to the United States in 1804.
(Ed.) 1804. (Ed.)
Where now intelligent and wealthy merchants walk erect, in conscious
substantiality of purse and credit, and direct the commerce of a vast
and well-peopled region, there stalked but the other day, in dress of
buckskin, the Indian trader of the West; and all the evidences of life,
mayhap, consisted of the eccentric vagaries of the different bands of
trappers and hardy mountaineers who accompanied, some for pleasure
and some as escort, the periodically arriving bateaux, laden with
the beaver-skins and buffalo-robes collected during the season at the
different trading-posts in the Far West. *
* Written in 1848. (Ed.)
These, nevertheless, were the men whose hardy enterprise opened to
commerce and the plow the vast and fertile regions of the West. Rough
and savage though they were, they were the true pioneers of that
extraordinary tide of civilization which has poured its resistless
current through tracts large enough for kings to govern, over a country
now teeming with cultivation, where, a few short years ago, countless
herds of buffalo roamed unmolested, where the bear and deer abounded,
and the savage Indian skulked through the woods and prairies, lord of
the unappreciated soil that now yields its prolific treasures to the
spade and plow of civilized man. To the wild and half-savage trapper,
who may be said to exemplify the energy, enterprise, and hardihood
characteristic of the American people, divested of all the false and
vicious glare with which a high state of civilization, too rapidly
attained, has obscured their real and genuine character, in which the
above traits are eminently prominent--to these men alone is due the
empire of the West, destined in a few short years to become the most
important of those confederated States composing the mighty Union of
North America.
Sprung, then, out of the wild and adventurous fur-trade, St. Louis,
still the emporium of that species of commerce, preserves even now,
in the character of its population, many of the marked peculiarities
distinguishing its early founders, who were identified with the
primitive Indian in hardihood and instinctive wisdom. Whilst the French
portion of the population retain the thoughtless levity and frivolous
disposition of their original source, the Americans of St. Louis, who
may lay claim to be native, as it were, are as strongly distinguished
for determination and energy of character as they are for physical
strength and animal courage; and are remarkable, at the same time, for
a singular aptitude in carrying out commercial enterprises to successful
terminations, apparently incompatible with the thirst of adventure and
excitement which forms so prominent a feature in their character. In St.
Louis and with her merchants have originated many commercial enterprises
of gigantic speculation, not confined to the immediate locality or to
the distant Indian fur-trade, but embracing all parts of the continent,
and even a portion of the Old World. And here it must be remembered that
St. Louis is situated inland, at a distance of upwards of one thousand
miles from the sea.
Besides her merchants and upper class, who form a little aristocracy
even here, a large portion of her population, still connected with
the Indian and fur trade, preserve all their original characteristics,
unacted upon by the influence of advancing civilization. There is,
moreover, a large floating population of foreigners of all nations, who
must possess no little amount of enterprise to be tempted to this spot,
whence they spread over the remote western tracts, still infested by
the savage; so that, if any of their blood is infused into the native
population, the characteristic energy and enterprise is increased, and
not tempered down by the foreign cross.
But perhaps the most singular of the casual population are the
mountaineers, who, after several seasons spent in trapping, and with
good store of dollars, arrive from the scene of their adventures, wild
as savages, determined to enjoy themselves, for a time, in all the
gayety and dissipation of the western city. In one of the back streets
of the town is a tavern well known as the Rocky-Mountain House; and
hither the trappers resort, drinking and fighting as long as their money
lasts, which, as they are generous and lavish as Jack Tars, is for a
few days only. Such scenes, both tragic and comic, as are enacted in the
Rocky-Mountain House, are beyond the powers of pen to describe; and when
a fandango is in progress, to which congregate the coquettish belles
from "Vide Poche," * as the French portion of the suburb is nicknamed,
the grotesque endeavors of the bear-like mountaineers to sport a figure
on the light fantastic toe, and their insertions into the dance of the
mystic jumps of Terpsichorean Indians when engaged in the "medicine"
dances in honor of bear, of buffalo, or ravished scalp, are such
startling innovations on the choreographic art as would make the shade
of Gallini quake and gibber in his pumps.
* Empty Pocket: A humorous nickname that the old French
bestowed upon Carondelet. (Ed.)
Passing the open doors and windows of the Mountain House, the stranger
stops short as the sounds of violin and banjo twang upon his ears,
accompanied by extraordinary noises--sounding unearthly to the greenhorn
listener, but recognized by the initiated as an Indian song roared out
of the stentorian lungs of a mountaineer, who, patting his stomach
with open hands to improve the necessary shake, choruses the well-known
Indian chant:--
Hi--Hi--Hi--Hi
Hi-i--Hi-i--Hi-i--Hi-i
Hi-ya--hi-ya--hi-ya--hi-ya
Hi-ya--hi-ya--hi-ya--hi-ya
Hi-ya--hi-ya--hi--hi,
&c., &c., &c.
and polishes off the high notes with a whoop which makes the old wooden
houses shake again, as it rattles and echoes down the street.
Here, over fiery "monaghahela," Jean Batiste, the sallow half-breed
voyageur from the North--and who, deserting the service of the
"North West" (the Hudson's Bay Company), has come down the
Mississippi, from the "Falls," to try the sweets and liberty of "free"
trapping--hobnobs with a stalwart leather-clad "boy," just returned
from trapping on the waters of Grand River, on the western side the
mountains, who interlards his mountain jargon with Spanish words picked
up in Taos and California. In one corner a trapper, lean and gaunt from
the starving regions of the Yellow Stone, has just recognized an old
campanyero, with whom he hunted years before in the perilous country of
the Blackfeet.
"Why, John, old hoss, how do you come on?"
"What! Meek, old coon! I thought you were under?"
One from Arkansa stalks into the center of the room, with a pack
of cards in his hand and a handful of dollars in his hat. Squatting
crosslegged on a buffalo-robe, he smacks down the money and cries out
"Ho, boys! hyar's a deck, and hyar's the beaver" (rattling the coin);
"who dar set his hoss? Wagh!"
Tough are the yarns of wondrous hunts and Indian perils, of
hairbreadth'scapes and curious "fixes." Transcendent are the qualities
of sundry rifles which call these hunters masters; "plum" is the
"center" each vaunted barrel shoots; sufficing for a hundred wigs is the
"hair" each hunter has "lifted" from Indians' scalps; multitudinous the
"coups" he has "struck." As they drink so do they brag, first of their
guns, their horses, and their squaws, and lastly of themselves: and when
it comes to that, "ware steel." La Bonté, on his arrival at St. Louis,
found himself one day in no less a place than this; and here he made
acquaintance with an old trapper about to start for the mountains in
a few days, to hunt on the head-waters of Platte and Green River. With
this man he resolved to start, and, having still some hundred dollars in
cash, he immediately set about equipping himself for the expedition.
To effect this, he first of all visited the gun-store of Hawken, whose
rifles are renowned in the mountains, and exchanged his own piece, which
was of very small bore, for a regular mountain rifle. This was of very
heavy metal, carrying about thirty-two balls to the pound, stocked to
the muzzle, and mounted with brass; its only ornament being a buffalo
bull, looking exceedingly ferocious, which was not very artistically
engraved upon the trap in the stock. Here, too, he laid in a few pounds
of powder and lead, and all the necessaries for a long hunt.
His next visit was to a smith's store, which smith was black by trade
and black by nature, for he was a nigger, and, moreover, celebrated
as being the best maker of beaver-traps in St. Louis; and of him he
purchased six new traps, paying for the same twenty dollars--procuring,
at the same time, an old trap-sack made of stout buffalo-skin in which
to carry them.
We next find La Bonté and his companion--one Luke, better known as
Gouge-Eye, one of his eyes having been "gouged" in a mountain fray--at
Independence, a little town situated on the Missouri, several hundred
miles above St. Louis, and within a short distance of the Indian
frontier.
Independence may be termed the prairie port of the western country. Here
the caravans destined for Santa Fé, and the interior of Mexico, assemble
to complete their necessary equipment. Mules and oxen are purchased,
teamsters hired, and all stores and outfit laid in here for the long
journey over the wide expanse of prairie ocean. Here, too, the Indian
traders and the Rocky-Mountain trappers rendezvous, collecting in
sufficient force to insure their safe passage through the Indian
country. At the seasons of departure and arrival of these bands, the
little town presents a lively scene of bustle and confusion. The wild
and dissipated mountaineers get rid of their last dollars in furious
orgies, treating all comers to galore of drink, and pledging each other,
in horns of potent whisky, to successful hunts and "heaps of beaver."
When every cent has disappeared from their pouches, the free trapper
often makes away with rifle, traps, and animals, to gratify his "dry"
(for-your mountaineer is never "thirsty"); and then, "hoss and beaver"
gone, is necessitated to hire himself to one of the leaders of big
bands, and hypothecate his services for an equipment of traps and
animals. Thus La Bonté picked up three excellent mules for a mere song,
with their accompanying pack-saddles, _apishamores_, * and lariats, and
the next day, with Luke, "put out" for Platte.
* Saddle-blanket made of buffalo-calf skin.
As they passed through the rendezvous, which was encamped on a little
stream beyond the town, even our young Mississippian was struck with
the novelty of the scene. Upwards of forty huge wagons, of Conestoga and
Pittsburgh build, and covered with snow-white tilts, were ranged in a
semicircle, or rather a horse-shoe form, on the flat open prairie, their
long tongues (poles) pointing outwards; with the necessary harness for
four pairs of mules, or eight yoke of oxen, lying on the ground beside
them, spread in ready order for hitching up. Round the wagons groups
of teamsters, tall, stalwart, young Missourians, were engaged in busy
preparation for the start, greasing the wheels, fitting or repairing
harness, smoothing ox-bows or overhauling their own moderate kits
or "possibles." They were all dressed in the same fashion: a pair of
homespun pantaloons, tucked into thick boots reaching nearly to the
knee, and confined round the waist by a broad leathern belt, which
supported a strong butcher-knife in a sheath. A coarse checked shirt was
their only other covering, with a fur cap on the head.
Numerous camp-fires surrounded the wagons, and near them lounged
wild-looking mountaineers, easily distinguished from the "greenhorn"
teamsters by their dresses of buckskin and their weather-beaten faces.
Without an exception, these were under the influence of the rosy god;
and one, who sat, the picture of misery, at a fire by himself--staring
into the blaze with vacant countenance, his long matted hair hanging
in unkempt masses over his face, begrimed with the dirt of a week, and
pallid with the effects of ardent drink--was suffering from the usual
consequences of having "kept it up" beyond the usual point, paying the
penalty in a fit of "horrors"--as _delirium tremens_ is most aptly
termed by sailors and the unprofessional.
In another part, the merchants of the caravan and the Indian traders
superintended the lading of the wagons or mule-packs. They were dressed
in civilized attire, and some were even bedizened in St. Louis or
eastern city dandyism, to the infinite disgust of the mountain men, who
look upon a "bourge-way" (bourgeois) with most undisguised contempt,
despising the very simplest forms of civilization. The picturesque
appearance of the encampment was not a little heightened by the addition
of several Indians from the neighboring Shawnee settlement, who, mounted
on their small active horses, on which they reclined rather than sat in
negligent attitudes, quietly looked on at the novel scene, indifferent
to the chaff in which the thoughtless teamsters indulged at their
expense. Numbers of mules and horses were picketed at hand, whilst a
large herd of noble oxen were being driven towards the camp--the _wo-ha_
of the teamsters sounding far and near, as they collected the scattered
beasts in order to yoke up.
As most of the mountain-men were utterly unable to move from camp, Luke
and La Bonté, with three or four of the most sober, started in company,
intending to wait on Blue, a stream which runs into the Caw or Kanzas
River, until the "balance" of the band came up. Mounting their mules,
and leading the loose animals, they struck at once into the park-like
prairie, and were speedily out of sight of civilization.
It was the latter end of May, towards the close of the season of heavy
rains, which in early spring render the climate of this country almost
intolerable, at the same time that they fertilize and thaw the soil,
so long bound up by the winter's frosts. The grass was everywhere
luxuriantly green, and gaudy flowers dotted the surface of the prairie.
This term, however, should hardly be applied to the beautiful undulating
scenery of this park-like country. Unlike the flat monotony of the Grand
Plains, here well-wooded uplands, clothed with forest-trees of every
species, and picturesque dells, through which run clear bubbling streams
belted with gay-blossomed shrubs, everywhere present themselves; whilst
on the level meadow-land, topes of trees with spreading foliage afford
a shelter to the game and cattle, and well-timbered knolls rise at
intervals from the plain.
Many clear streams dashing over their pebbly beds intersect the country,
from which, in the noonday's heat, the red-deer jump, shaking their wet
sides as the noise of approaching man disturbs them; and booming grouse
rise from the tall luxuriant herbage at every step. Where the deep
escarpments of the river-banks exhibit the section of the earth, a rich
alluvial soil of surpassing depth courts the cultivation of civilized
man; and in every feature it is evident that here nature has worked with
kindliest and most bountiful hand.
For hundreds of miles along the western or right bank of the Missouri
does a country extend, with which, for fertility and natural resources,
no part of Europe can stand comparison. Sufficiently large to contain an
enormous population, it has, besides, every advantage of position, and
all the natural capabilities which should make it the happy abode of
civilized man. Through this unpeopled country the United States pours
her greedy thousands, to seize upon the barren territories of her feeble
neighbor.
Camping the first night on Black Jack, our mountaineers here cut each
man a spare hickory wiping-stick for his rifle; and La Bonté, who was
the only greenhorn of the party, witnessed a savage ebullition of rage
on the part of one of his companions, exhibiting the perfect unrestraint
which these men impose upon their passions, and the barbarous anger
which the slightest opposition to their will excites. One of the
trappers, on arriving at the camping-place, dismounted from his horse,
and, after divesting it of the saddle, endeavored to lead his mule by
the rope up to the spot where he wished to deposit his pack. Mulelike,
however, the more he pulled the more stubbornly she remained in her
tracks, planting her fore legs firmly, and stretching out her neck with
provoking obstinacy. Truth to tell, it does require the temper of
a thousand Jobs to manage a mule; and in no case does the willful
mulishness of the animal stir up one's choler more than in the very
trick this one played, and which is a daily occurrence. After tugging
ineffectually for several minutes, winding the rope round his body, and
throwing himself suddenly forward with all his strength, the trapper
actually foamed with passion; and although he might have subdued the
animal at once by fastening the rope with a halfhitch round its nose,
this, with an obstinacy equal to that of the mule itself, he refused to
attempt, preferring to vanquish her by main strength. Failing so to do,
the mountaineer, with a volley of blasphemous imprecations, suddenly
seized his rifle, and, leveling it at the mule's head, shot her dead.
Passing the Wa-ka-rasha, * a well-timbered stream, they met a band of
Osages going "to buffalo." These Indians, in common with some tribes
of the Pawnees, shave the head, with the exception of a ridge from the
forehead to the center of the scalp, which is roached or hogged like
the mane of a mule, and stands erect, plastered with unguents, and
ornamented with feathers of the hawk and turkey. The naked scalp is
often painted in mosaic with black and red, the face with shining
vermilion. This band were all naked to the breech-clout, the warmth
of the sun having made them throw their dirty blankets from their
shoulders. These Indians not unfrequently levy contributions on the
strangers they accidentally meet; but they easily distinguish the
determined mountaineer from the incautious greenhorn, and think it
better to let the former alone.
* Wakarusa. (Ed.)
Crossing Vermilion, the trappers arrived on the fifth day at Blue, where
they encamped in the broad timber belting the creek, and there awaited
the arrival of the remainder of the party.
It was two days before they came up; but the following day they started
for the mountains, fourteen in number, striking a trail which follows
the Big Blue in its course through the prairies, which, as they advanced
to the westward, gradually smoothed away into a vast unbroken expanse of
rolling plain. Herds of antelope began to show themselves, and some
of the hunters, leaving the trail, soon returned with plenty of their
tender meat. The luxuriant but coarse grass they had hitherto seen now
changed into the nutritious and curly buffalo grass, and their animals
soon improved in appearance on the excellent pasture. In a few days,
without any adventure, they struck the Platte River, its shallow waters
(from which it derives its name) spreading over a wide and sandy
bed, numerous sand-bars obstructing the sluggish current, nowhere
sufficiently deep to wet the forder's knee.
By this time, but few antelope having been seen, the party ran entirely
out of meat; and one whole day and part of another having passed without
so much as a stray rabbit presenting itself, not a few objurgations on
the buffalo grumbled from the lips of the hunters, who expected ere
this to have reached the land of plenty. La Bonté killed a fine deer,
however, in the river bottom, after they had encamped, not one particle
of which remained after supper that night, but which hardly took the
rough edge off their keen appetites. Although already in the buffalo
range, no traces of these animals had yet been seen-; and as the country
afforded but little game, and the party did not care to halt and lose
time in hunting for it, they moved along hungry and sulky, the theme of
conversation being the well-remembered merits of good buffalo-meat,--
of fat fleece, hump-rib, and tenderloin; of delicious "boudins," and
marrowbones too good to think of. La Bonté had never seen the lordly
animal, and consequently but half believed the accounts of the
mountaineers, who described their countless bands as covering the
prairie far as the eye could reach, and requiring days of travel to pass
through; but the visions of such dainty and abundant feeding as they
descanted on set his mouth watering, and danced before his eyes as he
slept supperless, night after night, on the banks of the hungry Platte.
One morning he had packed his animals before the rest, and was riding a
mile in advance of the party, when he saw on one side the trail, looming
in the refracted glare which mirages the plains, three large dark
objects without shape or form, which rose and fell in the exaggerated
light like ships at sea. Doubting what it could be, he approached the
strange objects; and as the refraction disappeared before him, the dark
masses assumed a more distinct form, and clearly moved with life. A
little nearer, and he made them out: they were buffalo. Thinking to
distinguish himself, the greenhorn dismounted from his mule and quickly
hobbled her, throwing his lasso on the ground to trail behind when
he wished to catch her. Then, rifle in hand, he approached the huge
animals, and, being a good hunter, knew well to take advantage of the
inequalities of the ground and face the wind; by which means he crawled
at length to within forty yards of the buffalo, which quietly cropped
the grass, unconscious of danger. Now, for the first time, he gazed upon
the noble beast he had so often heard of and longed to see.
With coal-black beard sweeping the ground as he fed, an enormous bull
was in advance of the others, his wild brilliant eyes peering from an
immense mass of shaggy hair, which covered his neck and shoulder. From
this point his skin was smooth as one's hand, a sleek and shining dun,
and his ribs were well covered with shaking flesh. Whilst leisurely
cropping the short curly grass, he occasionally lifted his tail into the
air, and stamped his foot as a fly or mosquito annoyed him--flapping
the intruder with his tail, or snatching at the itching part with his
ponderous head.
When La Bonté had sufficiently admired the buffalo, he lifted his rifle,
and, taking steady aim, and certain of his mark, pulled the trigger,
expecting to see the huge beast fall over at the report. What was his
surprise and consternation, however, to see the animal only flinch
when the ball struck him, and then gallop off, followed by the others,
apparently unhurt. As is generally the case with greenhorns, he had
fired too high, ignorant that the only certain spot to strike a buffalo
is but a few inches above the brisket, and that a higher shot is rarely
fatal. When he rose from the ground he saw all the party halting in full
view of his discomfiture; and when he joined them, loud were the laughs,
and deep the regrets of the hungry at his first attempt.
However, they now knew that they were in the country of meat; and a few
miles farther, another band of stragglers presenting themselves, three
of the hunters went in pursuit, La Bonté taking a mule to pack in the
meat. He soon saw them crawling towards the band, and shortly two puffs
of smoke, and the sharp cracks of their rifles, showed that they had got
within shot; and when he rode up, two fine buffaloes were stretched upon
the ground. Now, for the first time, he was initiated in the mysteries
of butchering. He watched the hunters as they turned the carcass on the
belly, stretching out the legs to support it on each side. A transverse
cut was then made at the nape of the neck, and, gathering the long hair
of the boss in one hand, the skin was separated from the shoulder. It
was then laid open from this point to the tail, along the spine, and
then, freed from the sides and pulled down to the brisket, but still
attached to it, was stretched upon the ground to receive the dissected
portions. Then the shoulder was severed, the fleece removed from along
the backbone, and the hump-ribs cut off with a tomahawk. All this was
placed upon the skin; and after the "boudins" had been withdrawn from
the stomach, and the tongue--a great dainty--taken from the head, the
meat was packed upon the mule, and the whole party hurried to camp
rejoicing.
There was merry-making in the camp that night, and the way they indulged
their appetites--or, in their own language, "throwed" the meat "cold"--
would have made the heart of a dyspeptic leap for joy or burst with
envy. Far into the "still watches of the tranquil night," the fat-clad
"dépouillé" saw its fleshy mass grow small by degrees and beautifully
less before the trenchant blades of the hungry mountaineers; appetizing
yards of well-browned "boudin" slipped glibly down their throats; rib
after rib of tender hump was picked and flung to the wolves; and when
human nature, with helpless gratitude, and confident that nothing of
superexcellent comestibility remained, was lazily wiping the greasy
knife that had done such good service, a skillful hunter was seen to
chuckle to himself as he raked the deep ashes of the fire, and drew
therefrom a pair of tongues so admirably baked, so soft, so sweet, and
of such exquisite flavor, that a veil is considerately drawn over the
effects their discussion produced in the mind of our greenhorn La
Bonté, and the raptures they excited in the bosom of that, as yet,
most ignorant mountaineer. Still, as he ate he wondered, and wondering
admired, that nature, in giving him such profound gastronomic powers,
and such transcendent capabilities of digestion, had yet bountifully
provided an edible so peculiarly adapted to his ostrich-like appetite,
that after consuming nearly his own weight in rich and fat buffalo-meat,
he felt as easy and as little incommoded as if he had lightly supped on
strawberries and cream.
Sweet was the digestive pipe after such a feast; soft was the sleep and
deep, which sealed the eyes of the contented trappers that night. It
felt like the old thing, they said, to be once more amongst the "meat";
and, as they were drawing near the dangerous portion of the trail, they
felt at home; although they now could never be confident, when they lay
down at night upon their buffalo-robes, of awaking again in this life,
knowing, as they did, full well, that savage men lurked near, thirsting
for their blood.
However, no enemies showed themselves as yet, and they proceeded quietly
up the river, vast herds of buffaloes darkening the plains around them,
affording them more than abundance of the choicest meat; but, to their
credit be it spoken, no more was killed than was absolutely required
--unlike the cruel slaughter made by most of the white travelers across
the plains, who wantonly destroy these noble animals, not even for the
excitement of sport, but in cold-blooded and insane butchery. La Bonté
had practice enough to perfect him in the art, and, before the buffalo
range was passed, he was ranked as a first-rate hunter.
One evening he had left the camp for meat, and was approaching a band
of cows for that purpose, crawling towards them along the bed of a dry
hollow in the prairie, when he observed them suddenly jump towards him,
and immediately afterwards a score of mounted Indians appeared, whom,
by their dress, he at once knew to be Pawnees and enemies. Thinking
they might not discover him, he crouched down in the ravine; but a
noise behind caused him to turn his head, and he saw some five or six
advancing up the bed of the dry creek, whilst several more were riding
on the bluffs. The cunning savages had cut off his retreat to his mule,
which he saw in the possession of one of them. His presence of mind,
however, did not desert him; and seeing at once that to remain where he
was would be like being caught in a trap (as the Indians could advance
to the edge of the bluff and shoot him from above), he made for the open
prairie, determined at least to sell his scalp dearly, and make a good
fight. With a yell the Indians charged, but halted when they saw
the sturdy trapper deliberately kneel, and, resting his rifle on the
wiping-stick, take a steady aim as they advanced. Full well the Pawnees
know, to their cost, that a mountaineer seldom pulls his trigger without
sending a bullet to the mark; and, certain that one at least must fall,
they hesitated to make the onslaught. Steadily the white retreated with
his face to the foe, bringing the rifle to his shoulder the instant that
one advanced within shot, the Indians galloping round, firing the few
guns they had amongst them at long distances, but without effect. One
young brave, more daring than the rest, rode out of the crowd, and
dashed at the hunter, throwing himself, as he passed within a few yards,
from the saddle, and hanging over the opposite side of his horse, thus
presenting no other mark than his left foot. As he crossed La Bonté, he
discharged his bow from under his horse's neck, and with such good
aim, that the arrow, whizzing through the air, struck the stock of the
hunter's rifle, which was at his shoulder, and, glancing off, pierced
his arm, inflicting, luckily, but a slight wound. Again the Indian
turned in his course, the others encouraging him with loud war-whoops,
and once more, passing at still less distance, he drew his arrow to
the head. This time, however, the eagle eye of the white detected the
action, and suddenly rising from his knee as the Indian approached
(hanging by his foot alone over the opposite side of the horse), he
jumped towards the animal with outstretched arms and a loud yell,
causing it to start suddenly, and swerve from its course. The Indian
lost his foot-hold, and, after a fruitless struggle to regain his
position, fell to the ground; but instantly rose upon his feet and
gallantly confronted the mountaineer, striking his hand upon his brawny
chest and shouting a loud whoop of defiance. In another instant the
rifle of La Bonté had poured forth its contents; and the brave savage,
springing into the air, fell dead to the ground, just as the other
trappers, who had heard the firing, galloped up to the spot. At sight
of them the Pawnees, with yells of disappointed vengeance, hastily
retreated.
That night La Bonté first lifted hair!
A few days after, the mountaineers reached the point where the Platte
divides into two great forks: the northern one, stretching to the
north-west, skirts the eastern base of the Black Hills, and, sweeping
round to the south, rises in the vicinity of the mountain valley called
the New Park, receiving the Laramie, Medicine Bow, and Sweetwater
creeks. The other, or South Fork, strikes towards the mountains in a
south-westerly direction, hugging the base of the main chain of the
Rocky Mountains; and, fed by several small creeks, rises in the uplands
of the Bayou Salade, near which is also the source of the Arkansa. To
the forks of the Platte the valley of that river extends from three
to five miles on each side, inclosed by steep sandy bluffs, from the
summits of which the prairies stretch away in broad undulating expanse
to the north and south. The bottom, as it is termed, is but thinly
covered with timber, the cotton woods being scattered only here and
there; but some of the islands in the broad bed of the stream are well
wooded, leading to the inference that the trees on the banks have been
felled by Indians who formerly frequented the neighborhood of this river
as a chosen hunting-ground. As, during the long winters, the pasture in
the vicinity is scarce and withered, the Indians feed their horses on
the bark of the sweet cotton wood, upon which they subsist, and even
fatten. Thus, wherever a village has encamped, the trunks of these trees
strew the ground, their upper limbs and smaller branches peeled of their
bark, and looking as white and smooth as if scraped with a knife.
On the forks, however, the timber is heavier and of greater variety,
some of the creeks being well wooded with ash and cherry, which break
the monotony of the everlasting cotton wood.
Dense masses of buffalo still continued to darken the plains, and
numerous bands of wolves hovered round the outskirts of the vast herds,
singling out the sick and wounded animals, and preying upon such calves
as the rifles and arrows of the hunters had bereaved of their mothers.
The white wolf is the invariable attendant upon the buffalo; and when
one of these persevering animals is seen, it is a certain sign that
buffalo are not far distant. Besides the buffalo wolf, there are four
distinct varieties common to the plains, and all more or less attendant
upon the buffalo. These are, the black, the gray, the brown, and,
last and least, the _coyote or cayeute_ of the mountaineers, the
_wachunkamànet_, or "medicine wolf" of the Indians, who hold the latter
animal in reverential awe. This little wolf, whose fur is of great
thickness and beauty, is of diminutive size, but wonderfully sagacious,
making up by cunning what it wants in physical strength. In bands of
from three to thirty they not unfrequently station themselves along
the "runs" of the deer and the antelope, extending their line for many
miles; and the quarry being started, each wolf follows in pursuit until
tired, when it relinquishes the chase to another relay, following slowly
after until the animal is fairly run down, when all hurry to the spot
and speedily consume the carcass. The cayeute, however, is often made a
tool of by his larger brethren, unless, indeed, he acts from motives of
spontaneous charity. When a hunter has slaughtered game, and is in
the act of butchering it, these little wolves sit patiently at a short
distance from the scene of operations, while at a more respectful one
the larger wolves (the white or gray) lope hungrily around, licking
their chops in hungry expectation. Not unfrequently the hunter throws
a piece of meat towards the smaller one, who seizes it immediately, and
runs off with the morsel in his mouth. Before he gets many yards
with his prize, the large wolf pounces with a growl upon him, and the
cayeute, dropping the meat, returns to his former position, and will
continue his charitable act as long as the hunter pleases to supply him.
Wolves are so common on the plains and in the mountains, that the hunter
never cares to throw away a charge of ammunition upon them, although the
ravenous animals are a constant source of annoyance to him, creeping
to the camp-fire at night, and gnawing his saddles and _apishamores_,
eating the skin ropes which secure the horses and mules to their
pickets, and even their very hobbles, and not unfrequently killing or
entirely disabling the animals themselves.
Round the camp, during the night, the cayeute keeps unremitting watch,
and the traveler not unfrequently starts from his bed with affright, as
the mournful and unearthly chiding of the wolf breaks suddenly upon his
ear: the long-drawn howl being taken up by others of the band, until
it dies away in the distance, or some straggler passing within hearing
answers to the note, and howls as he lopes away.
Our party crossed the south fork about ten miles from its juncture with
the main stream, and then, passing the prairie, struck the north fork a
day's travel from the other. At the mouth of an ash-timbered creek they
came upon Indian "sign," and as now they were in the vicinity of the
treacherous Sioux, they moved along with additional caution, Frapp and
Gonneville, two experienced mountaineers, always heading the advance.
About noon they had crossed over to the left bank of the fork, intending
to camp on a large creek where some fresh beaver sign had attracted the
attention of some of the trappers; and as, on further examination, it
appeared that two or three lodges of that animal were not far distant,
it was determined to remain here a day or two, and set their traps.
Gonneville, old Luke, and La Bonté, had started up the creek, and were
carefully examining the banks for sign, when the former, who was in
front, suddenly paused, and, looking intently up the stream, held up his
hand to his companions to signal them to stop.
Luke and La Bonté both followed the direction of the trapper's intent
and fixed gaze. The former uttered in a suppressed tone the expressive
exclamation, Wagh!--the latter saw nothing but a wood-duck swimming
swiftly down the stream, followed by her downy progeny.
Gonneville turned his head, and, extending his arm twice with a forward
motion up the creek, whispered, "Les sauvages."
"Injuns, sure, and Sioux at that," answered Luke.
Still La Bonté looked, but nothing met his view but the duck with her
brood, now rapidly approaching; and as he gazed, the bird suddenly took
wing, and, flapping on the water, flew a short distance down the stream
and once more settled on it.
"Injuns?" he asked; "where are they?"
"Whar?" repeated old Luke, striking the flint of his rifle, and opening
the pan to examine the priming. "What brings a duck a-streakin' it down
stream if humans ain't behint her? and who's thar in these diggins but
Injuns, and the worst kind? and we'd better push to camp, I'm thinking,
if we mean to save our hair."
"Sign" sufficient, indeed, it was to all the trappers, who, on being
apprised of it, instantly drove in their animals and picketed them; and
hardly had they done so when a band of Indians made their appearance
on the banks of the creek, from whence they galloped to the bluff which
overlooked the camp at the distance of about six hundred yards; and
crowning this in number some forty or more, commenced brandishing their
spears and guns, and whooping loud yells of defiance. The trappers had
formed a little breastwork of their packs, forming a semicircle, the
chord of which was made by the animals standing in a line, side by
side, closely picketed and hobbled. Behind this defense stood the
mountaineers, rifle in hand, and silent and determined. The Indians
presently descended the bluff on foot, leaving their animals in charge
of a few of the party, and, scattering, advanced, under cover of the
sage-bushes which dotted the bottom, to about two hundred yards of the
whites. Then a chief advanced before the rest, and made the sign for
a talk with the Long-knives, which led to a consultation amongst the
latter as to the policy of acceding to it. They were in doubts as to
the nation these Indians belonged to, some bands of the Sioux being
friendly, and others bitterly hostile, to the whites.
Gonneville, who spoke the Sioux language, and was well acquainted with
the nation, affirmed they belonged to a band called the Yanka-taus,
* well known to be the most evil-disposed of that treacherous nation;
another of the party maintained they were Brûlés, and that the chief
advancing towards them was the well-known Tah-sha-tunga or Bull Tail,
a most friendly chief of that tribe. The majority, however, trusted to
Gonneville, and he volunteered to go out to meet the Indian, and
hear what he had to say. Divesting himself of all arms save his
butcher-knife, he advanced towards the savage, who awaited his approach
enveloped in the folds of his blanket. At a glance he knew him to be a
Yanka-tau, from the peculiar make of his moccasins, and the way in which
his face was daubed with paint.
* Yanktons. (Ed.)
"Howgh!" exclaimed both as they met; and, after a silence of a few
moments, the Indian spoke, asking--"Why the Long-knives hid behind their
packs when his band approached? Were they afraid, or were they preparing
a dog-feast to entertain their friends? The whites were passing through
his country, burning his wood, drinking his water, and killing his game;
but he knew they had now come to pay for the mischief they had done, and
that the mules and horses they had brought with them were intended as a
present to their red friends.
"He was Mah-to-ga-shane," he said, "the Brave Bear: his tongue was
short, but his arm long; and he loved rather to speak with his bow
and his lance than with the weapon of a squaw. He had said it: the
Long-knives had horses with them and mules; and these were for him, he
knew, and for his braves. Let the White-face go back to his people and
return with the animals, or he, the Brave Bear, would have to come and
take them; and his young men would get mad and would feel blood in their
eyes; and then he would have no power over them; and the whites would
have to go under."
The trapper answered shortly. "The Long-knives," he said, "had brought
the horses for themselves--their hearts were big, but not towards the
Yanka-taus; and if they had to give up their animals, it would be to
_men_ and not _squaws_. They were not 'wah-keitcha' * (French engages),
but Long-knives; and, however short were the tongues of the Yanka-taus,
theirs were still shorter, and their rifles longer. The Yanka-taus were
dogs and squaws, and the Long-knives spat upon them."
* The French Canadians are called wah-keitcha--"bad
medicine"--by the Indians, who account them treacherous and
vindictive, and at the same time less daring than the
American hunters.
Saying this, the trapper turned his back and rejoined his companions;
whilst the Indian slowly proceeded to his people, who, on learning the
contemptuous way in which their threats had been treated, testified
their anger with loud yells; and, seeking whatever cover was afforded,
commenced a scattering volley upon the camp of the mountaineers. The
latter reserved their fire, treating with cool indifference the balls
which began to rattle about them; but as the Indians, emboldened by
this apparent inaction, rushed for a closer position, and exposed their
bodies within a long range, half-a-dozen rifles rang from the assailed,
and two Indians fell dead, one or two more being wounded. As yet, not
one of the whites had been touched, but several of the animals had
received wounds from the enemy's fire of balls and arrows. Indeed, the
Indians remained at too great a distance to render the volleys from
their crazy fusees anything like effectual, and had to raise their
pieces considerably to make their bullets reach as far as the camp.
After three of their band had been killed outright, and many more
wounded, their fire began to slacken, and they drew off to a greater
distance, evidently resolved to beat a retreat. Retiring to the bluff,
they discharged their pieces in a last volley, mounted their horses
and galloped off, carrying their wounded with them. This last volley,
however, although intended as a mere bravado, unfortunately proved fatal
to one of the whites. Gonneville, at the moment, was standing on a pack,
to get an uninterrupted sight for a last shot, when one of the random
bullets struck him in the breast. La Bonté caught him in his arms as he
was about to fall, and laying the wounded trapper gently on the ground,
stripped him of his buckskin hunting-frock, to examine the wound. A
glance was sufficient to convince his companions that the blow was
mortal. The ball had passed through the lungs; and in a few moments the
throat of the wounded man swelled and turned to a livid blue color, as
the choking blood ascended. Only a few drops of purple blood trickled
from the wound--a fatal sign--and the eyes of the mountaineer were
already glazing with death's icy touch. His hand still grasped the
barrel of his rifle, which had done good service in the fray. Anon he
essayed to speak, but, choked with blood, only a few inarticulate words
reached the ears of his companions as they bent over him.
"Rubbed--out--at--last," they heard him say, the words gurgling in his
blood-filled throat; and opening his eyes once more, and turning them
upwards for a last look at the bright sun, the trapper turned gently on
his side and breathed his last sigh.
With no other tools than their scalp-knives, the hunters dug a grave
on the banks of the creek; and whilst some were engaged in this work,
others sought the bodies of the Indians they had slain in the attack,
and presently returned with three reeking scalps, the trophies of the
fight. The body of the mountaineer was wrapped in a buffalo-robe, the
scalps being placed on his breast, and the dead man was then laid in the
shallow grave, and quickly covered--without a word of prayer or sigh of
grief; for however much his companions may have felt, not a word escaped
them. The bitten lip and frowning brow told of anger rather than of
sorrow, as they vowed--what they thought would better please the spirit
of the dead man than vain regrets--bloody and lasting revenge.
Tramping down the earth which filled the grave, they raised upon it a
pile of heavy stones; and packing their mules once more, and taking a
last look at their comrade's lonely resting-place, they turned their
backs upon the stream, which has ever since been known as Gonneville's
Creek.
If the reader casts his eye over any of the recent maps of the western
country which detail the features of the regions embracing the Rocky
Mountains and the vast prairies at their bases, he will not fail to
observe that many of the creeks or smaller streams which feed the larger
rivers--as the Missouri, Platte, and Arkansa--are called by familiar
proper names, both English and French. These are invariably christened
after some unfortunate trapper killed there in Indian fight, or
treacherously slaughtered by the lurking savages, while engaged in
trapping beaver on the stream. Thus alone is the memory of these hardy
men perpetuated, at least of those whose fate is ascertained; for many,
in every season, never return from their hunting expeditions, but meet
a sudden death from Indians, or a more lingering fate from accident or
disease in some lonely gorge of the mountains, where no footfall save
their own, or the heavy tread of the grizzly bear, disturbs the unbroken
silence of the awful solitude. Then, as many winters pass without some
old familiar faces making their appearance at the merry rendezvous,
their long-protracted absence may perhaps elicit a remark, as to where
such and such a mountain worthy can have betaken himself; to which the
casual rejoinder of "Gone under, maybe," too often gives a short but
certain answer.
In all the philosophy of hardened hearts, our hunters turned from the
spot where the unmourned trapper met his death. La Bonté, however, not
yet entirely steeled by mountain life to a perfect indifference to human
feeling, drew his hard hand across his eye, as the unbidden tear rose
from his rough but kindly heart. He could not forget so soon the comrade
he had lost; the companion in the hunt or over the cheerful campfire;
the narrator of many a tale of dangers past--of sufferings from
hunger, cold, thirst, and untended wounds--of Indian perils, and other
vicissitudes. One tear dropped from the young hunter's eye, and rolled
down his cheek--the last for many a long year.
In the forks of the northern branch of the Platte, formed by the
junction of the Laramie, they found a big village of the Sioux encamped
near the station of one of the fur companies. Here the party broke up;
many, finding the alcohol of the traders an impediment to their further
progress, remained some time in the vicinity, while La Bonté, Luke, and
a trapper named Marcelline, started in a few days to the mountains,
to trap on Sweetwater and Medicine Bow. They had leisure, however, to
observe all the rascalities connected with the Indian trade, although at
this season (August) hardly commenced. However, a band of Indians having
come in with several packs of last year's robes, and being anxious
to start speedily on their return, a trader from one of the forts had
erected his lodge in the village.
Here he set to work immediately to induce the Indians to trade. First,
a chief appoints three "soldiers" to guard the trader's lodge from
intrusion; and these sentries amongst the thieving fraternity can be
invariably trusted. Then the Indians are invited to have a drink--a
taste of the fire-water being given to all to incite them to trade.
As the crowd presses upon the entrance to the lodge, and those in rear
become impatient, some large-mouthed savage who has received a portion
of the spirit makes his way, with his mouth full of the liquor and
cheeks distended, through the throng, and is instantly surrounded by his
particular friends. Drawing the face of each, by turns, near his own,
he squirts a small quantity into his open mouth, until the supply
is exhausted, when he returns for more, and repeats the generous
distribution.
When paying for the robes, the traders, in measuring out the liquor in
a tin half-pint cup, thrust their thumbs or the four fingers of the
hand into the measure, in order that it may contain the less, or not
unfrequently fill the bottom with melted buffalo fat, with the same
object. So greedy are the Indians that they never discover the cheat,
and, once under the influence of the liquor, cannot distinguish between
the first cup of comparatively strong spirit, and the following ones
diluted five hundred per cent., and poisonously drugged to boot.
Scenes of drunkenness, riot, and bloodshed last until the trade is over.
In the winter it occupies several weeks, during which period the Indians
present the appearance, under the demoralizing influence of the liquor,
of demons rather than of men.