CHAPTER I

Early Western Travels

1748-1846

Volume XXVIII

Early Western Travels

1748-1846

A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the best

and rarest contemporary volumes of travel, descriptive

of the Aborigines and Social and

Economic Conditions in the Middle

and Far West, during the Period

of Early American Settlement

Edited with Notes, Introductions, Index, etc., by

Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D.

Editor of "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents," "Original

Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," "Hennepin's

New Discovery," etc.

Volume XXVIII

Part I of Farnham's Travels in the Great Western

Prairies, etc., May 21-October 16, 1839

[Illustration]

Cleveland, Ohio

The Arthur H. Clark Company

1906

COPYRIGHT 1906, BY

THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Lakeside Press

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY

CHICAGO

CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXVIII

PREFACE TO VOLUMES XXVIII AND XXIX. _The Editor_ 9

TRAVELS IN THE GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES, THE ANAHUAC

AND ROCKY MOUNTAINS, AND IN THE OREGON COUNTRY.

[Part I, being Volume I and chapters i-iv of Volume II of

the London edition, 1843.] _Thomas Jefferson Farnham._

Preface by the First Editor 25

Author's Preface 27

Author's Introduction 29

Author's Table of Contents 41

Text of Part I 45

ILLUSTRATION TO VOLUME XXVIII

FACSIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE TO FARNHAM'S TRAVELS, VOL. I 23

PREFACE TO VOLUMES XXVIII-XXIX

With these two volumes our series returns to Oregon, and to the

question already shadowed forth upon the horizon, whether this vast

territory drained by the Columbia River should belong to the United

States or to Great Britain. Since the treaty of joint occupancy (1818)

the English fur-traders had been in almost exclusive control. From the

upper waters of the great rivers that drain the Arctic plains they had

pushed their way across the Rockies down into the fertile southern

valleys, and had explored, mapped, and threaded the entire region

lying between Spanish territory on the south and Russian on the north.

Between the great mountain barrier on the east, and the Pacific on the

west, they held the country as a vast preserve in which fur-bearing

animals might be reared and hunted. For many years the American right

to joint occupancy lay in abeyance. After his thrilling journey of

exploration and adventure, Jedediah S. Smith was cordially received

at Fort Vancouver (1828), his injuries by predatory Indians avenged,

and his furs purchased by the company's factor; in return for this

courtesy, however, he considered himself in honor bound to restrict the

further trapping enterprises of his firm to the eastern side of the

Rocky Mountains. When Captain Bonneville, with his band of trappers,

reached the forts on the upper Columbia (1833) he was courteously but

firmly refused the privilege of trading at posts of the Hudson's Bay

Company. Thus, fifteen years after joint occupancy had been arranged,

there was scarcely an American in Oregon.

In our volume xxi we traced the rise and fall of the trading

adventures to this far Western territory of Captain Nathaniel Wyeth

of Massachusetts. His two expeditions left on the Willamette River a

small residuum of New Englanders, and before his departure he had seen

the coming of the first American missionaries, pioneers then as now in

advancing American interests. The existence of Oregon had now come to

be known to a considerable body of our people, its fertility and beauty

had been enlarged upon by several writers, its advantages pictured, and

its possession desired.

In returning to the United States, one of the missionaries, Jason Lee,

undertook a tour through the border states of the West, lecturing and

raising funds for his work. In the autumn of 1838 he stopped at the

Illinois town of Peoria, where his glowing descriptions of the land

whence he came produced an impression sufficiently lasting to result

in the organization of an emigration society, which prepared to set

forth for this land of promise early the following spring. Among the

band was a young Vermont lawyer, Thomas Jefferson Farnham, who a few

years earlier had removed to Illinois, and who now sought on the

Western prairies recuperation of his wasting health through outdoor

exploits and change of scene. He also avowed a patriotic purpose to

take possession of this fair territory of Oregon for the American flag,

and to aid in resisting the British fur-trade monopoly. His address and

eloquence won him the honor of being chosen captain of the small band

of nineteen adventurers, none of whom knew aught of wilderness life or

was prepared to endure the hardships of the proposed journey.

Notwithstanding the serious purpose expressed in the motto worked

by Mrs. Farnham upon the flag of the little company--"Oregon or the

Grave"--they set forth in a holiday mood, ill-equipped for traversing

the vast and rugged spaces lying between Illinois and the Pacific

Slope. Each member of the "Oregon Dragoons," as they styled themselves,

was expected to furnish $160 in money to serve for outfit and

provisions.

The thirtieth of May, 1839, found them leaving Independence, on the

western border of Missouri, provided with "bacon and flour, salt and

pepper sufficient for four hundred miles," as well as the necessary

arms and ammunition carefully packed on horses and mules. By the

advice of two experienced fur-traders returning from the mountains,

the travellers determined upon the Santa Fé trail, probably because

of the escort privileges in connection with the annual caravan just

setting forth. Therein they made a serious mistake, for the route

across the mountains from the upper Arkansas to Snake River valley

was infinitely more difficult and dangerous than the ordinary Oregon

Trail, by way of the North Platte, Sweetwater, and South Pass; it was

also less frequented by experienced mountain men, who could offer

advice and assistance to the amateur travellers. Moreover the usual

seeds of dissension and dissatisfaction had already been sown in

the little party, each blaming others for the hardships and trials

already experienced. Some of Farnham's followers pronounced the leader

incompetent. Several deserted at the Lower Crossing of the Arkansas,

preferring to follow the caravan to Santa Fé; while at Bent's Fort,

on the upper trail, the remainder of the party left their leader with

but four companions, one of these a man who had been accidentally

wounded in crossing the plains. Of the "mutineers," who crossed to Fort

St. Vrain, above Denver, the majority arrived in Oregon that or the

following year.

Farnham, however, having secured a competent guide, with undiminished

energy pushed on across the ranges of the Colorado mountains, through

the mazes of its parks and passes, and halted awhile at Brown's Hole.

This was the most difficult part of the journey. With graphic touches

our author makes us feel the hardships, hunger and thirst, the Indian

alarms, and the surprise and joy of meeting mountain men; while at the

same time he is not oblivious to the rugged grandeur of the scenery,

or the delicate tints of sunrise and sunset, and the majesty of the

starlit nights among the hills. At Fort David Crockett, in Brown's

Hole, two more of Farnham's comrades turned back, discouraged by the

gloomy prospects, and the disheartening accounts of Oregon furnished by

a returning guide. Here also Kelly, the unerring scout, was to leave

the party, now consisting of but three travellers, who were under the

necessity of trusting to the guidance of Shoshoni Indian "Jim" as

far as the hospitable gates of Fort Hall. Here, the Shoshoni guide

was exchanged for a Wallawalla, who contracted to conduct the party

across the arid wastes of Snake River valley, halting briefly at Fort

Boise, and leading the way over the Blue Mountains to the valley of the

Wallawalla and the upper Columbia. There meeting a Christian Cayuse on

his way to Dr. Whitman's mission at Waiilatpu, Farnham turned aside for

a brief rest at this hospitable station, whose owners were "desirous

to ask me how long a balloon line had been running between the States

and the Pacific." Resting a few days under their mission roof, Farnham

gives a favorable report of the activities and the success of the

missionaries. Passing on his way by Fort Wallawalla down the Columbia

to the Hudson's Bay Company's headquarters at Fort Vancouver, he there

received the customary courtesy extended to all travellers in that

distant region, this account closing our volume xxviii.

Three weeks' recuperation from the hardships of the four months of

difficult journeying refreshed our traveller sufficiently to set him

forth on an exploration of the settled portions of the country. He

visited the Willamette valley, where he met the Methodist missionaries,

and his presence furnished the opportunity to discuss the desirability

of American occupation. A petition was thereupon set on foot, of which

Farnham was undoubtedly the author, signed by seventy settlers of the

valley, praying the United States to take them under its protection

and describing the country as "one of the most favored portions of

the globe." The language of the petition being much more favorable to

Oregon than Farnham's later writings, these latter caused some acrimony

among his Willamette hosts, one of whom told Commodore Wilkes, the

following year, that a few days before Farnham left his party were lost

in the woods and obliged to pass a cold and dark night, standing up to

their ankles in mire, which cured the visitor of his enthusiasm for the

country.[1] Certain it is that Farnham wrote from the Sandwich Islands

early in January, 1840, that everything in the Oregon country had been

much overrated except the seat of the Methodist mission.[2]

Whatever may have been the cause of Farnham's change of heart, after

a brief sojourn, he left Oregon on the Hudson's Bay Company's vessel

bound for Hawaii. Thence he took passage for the coast of California,

where he arrived at Monterey during one of those tempestuous

revolutions to which Latin-American governments are subject. A

number of American residents had been imprisoned by the successful

revolutionists on charge of complicity with the losing party. According

to Farnham's own account,[3] given in somewhat grandiloquent style, it

was largely due to his efforts that the lives of the Americans were

saved, and that they were shipped on transports to Mexico for trial.

Lingering a few days longer to enjoy a fiesta on the seashore near

Monterey, and to visit the neighboring Carmelo mission, our traveller

embarked for Santa Barbara, finally arriving at San Blas on the

sixteenth of May, 1840. Thence he undertook a hurried journey across

Mexico and through its gulf to New Orleans, which brought him once more

to the confines of his native land. He now "ascended the Father of

Waters to the holy and blooming plains of my Prairie Home--to wife--and

the graves of those I loved among the trees at Prairie Lodge."

The remainder of Farnham's life was passed in literary labors, and in

travels throughout the United States in search of health. In 1841 he

was in New York City. At one time the family moved to Wisconsin for a

brief period, but soon settled in the neighborhood of Alton, Illinois.

About 1846 Farnham returned to California, where he died at San

Francisco in September, 1848. His wife, Eliza Woodson Farnham, acquired

some reputation as an author and philanthropist. She successfully

attempted prison reform among the women inmates at Sing Sing, for a

time assisted Dr. Howe in the Massachusetts Institute for the Blind,

and revisited California, of whose early days she wrote entertainingly.

No doubt Farnham's books did much to awaken interest in the Western

country, and to call attention to its possibilities. Written in an

easy, attractive style, although somewhat garrulous in tone and

inclined to speculative digressions, they were in their day popular

works and ran through several editions, being widely read in the

Eastern and Middle States.[4] Their interest for our present series

lies chiefly in the description of the journey across the plains,

by a route differing much from those of other travellers. Farnham's

descriptions are detailed and well phrased. The first after Pike to

thread the passes of the upper Arkansas, he vividly portrays the

Colorado mountain valleys, streams, and ranges, the grandeur and

nobility of the views, and the fertility of the great parks, and makes

his readers realize the hardy endurance needed for such mountain

journeyings in that early day. Encounters with Indians were rare in

these regions, but occasional meetings with solitary trappers add a

human interest to the picture of the wilderness. The life of these

mountain men--their Indian families, their poverty, generosity,

recklessness, and almost passionate attachment for the wild life that

claimed them--Farnham describes with a sympathetic touch. He also

gathered information at first hand concerning the Indians of the

region, the status of the fur-trade, and the far-reaching operations

of the Hudson's Bay Company. His information on Oregon is, to be sure,

largely the report of hearsay. He includes in his descriptions the

vast region of New Caledonia, whose factors he met at Fort Vancouver,

and whose resources and geography he describes in general terms. The

value of his Oregon material lies chiefly in the reports of his own

experiences and impressions. It is interesting for us to know how

the Western missionary operations, the progress of early Willamette

settlement, and the aspect of the new land impressed a vivacious and

observant New Englander with a gift for easy narrative. His book is

thus an important contribution to our series.

* * * * *

The experiences of Father Pierre Jean de Smet, the indefatigable

Jesuit missionary traveller, were introduced to our readers in volume

xxvii of this series, where the initiation of his Flathead mission, in

Bitterroot valley, was narrated, together with his subsequent return to

St. Louis by way of the country of the Crows and the Missouri River.

The second account of his work, which we here republish, is entitled

_Oregon Missions and Travels over the Rocky Mountains in 1845-46_ (New

York, 1847).

After returning from his second journey to the Flathead country, which

included his first visit to the Columbia and the Oregon settlements

(1840-42), Father de Smet went to Europe to obtain re-inforcements for

his mission and apostolic sanction for his work. Gathering a company of

sisters of Notre Dame to lay the foundation of a convent and school in

the Willamette valley, and enlarging his mission forces by the addition

of a Belgian and three Italian priests, Father de Smet embarked from

Antwerp for a sea voyage to the North-west Coast. This was sighted July

28, 1844, after a tedious passage of eight months around Cape Horn.

Having established the nuns in their convent on the Willamette,

Father de Smet set forth across the mountains to visit his aboriginal

neophytes, who had been gathered at the missions of St. Mary and St.

Francis Borgia. On his way he instituted the mission of St. Ignatius

for the Pend d'Oreilles on the lake of that name. The following year,

a great journey was accomplished by the intrepid missionary in search

of the warlike Blackfeet, whose raids were so disastrous to the

peaceable Indians surrounding the missions. Thinking best to approach

them through the medium of the Hudson's Bay Company's traders, De

Smet proceeded to the head of Columbia River, crossed the divide to

the waters of the Saskatchewan, and found himself at the company's

Rocky Mountain House on October 5, 1845. After negotiations with the

Blackfeet, he proceeded thence to Fort Augustus, where were spent the

early weeks of the winter of 1846. Impatient to be at work, the eager

traveller left his comfortable quarters early in March, proceeding on

the ice to Jasper House, at the eastern end of Athabasca Pass, pressing

on to the "Foot of the Great Glaciere," there awaiting the Columbian

fur-trade brigade which arrived early in May. The traders reported the

pass in a dangerous condition, for the snow was deep and in a melting

state, and snow-shoes were the only possible means of travelling.

Despite his unwieldy bulk, and his unacquaintance with such mode of

travelling, the resolute missionary immediately donned the prescribed

foot-gear and amid much hardship and suffering made his way with his

faithful Indian guides over the mountain barrier to the forts of New

Caledonia. Thence he descended the Columbia to Fort Colville which he

reached by the end of May. Allowing himself but a brief rest, he once

more made the round of his Oregon missions, going to Vancouver and the

Willamette, back across the Spokane plains to the Cœur d'Alène mission,

and finally to St. Mary's, "the nursery of our missionary operations in

the Far West."

The expenses of the enlarging missions required consideration, so

Father de Smet was deputed to visit St. Louis in their behalf. On the

way he once more sought his cherished object of securing peace with the

Blackfeet. This time his mission proved successful, for after three

weeks in a Blackfoot camp the good priest had the happiness not only to

establish an alliance between the Flathead chiefs who accompanied him

and their redoubtable foes, but also of reconciling among the Blackfeet

themselves two warring bands of Blood and Piegan Indians. With a

thankful heart the missionary embarked from Fort Lewis, near the site

of the later Fort Benton, leaving Father Point to continue his labors

among the new admirers of the "black gowns."

Floating in a tiny skiff down the upper Missouri, Fort Union was

reached October 11; Fort Berthold was passed seven days later, and

the end of the month found our tireless traveller the guest of Honoré

Picotte at the American Company's Fort Pierre. Just below Council

Bluffs he encountered Brigham Young and his settlement of ten thousand

Mormons, whose persecutions and sufferings the good father declares,

"will one day probably form a prominent part of the history of the Far

West." Once more in St. Louis, the missionary terminates his volume

with a sketch of a Potawatomi mission and a graphic account of the

custom of human sacrifice among the Pawnee Loups.

The later career of Father de Smet falls without the field of our

inquiry. Although in "labors abundant" until the end of his days, he

never returned as missionary to the mountain tribes among whom his

earlier days were so happily but strenuously spent. The superiors

of his society found other work for him in the province of St.

Louis, permitting him only an occasional visit of supervision to his

"dear Indians" of the Far West. Thrice his aid was requested by the

United States government to assist in pacification, and in important

Indian negotiations. His influence and fame among the red men was so

great that a sight of his black robe was sufficient to impel them

to a peaceful humor. His services to Western settlement were thus

incalculable.

In the volume of _Oregon Missions_, which we here republish, De Smet

is seen in the fullness of his powers, physical and mental. With few

words, but with graphic touches, he describes the regions through which

he passes, and the Indian tribes and their customs--thus adding much to

the material on far Western geography and ethnology which has already

been included in our series.

In the preparation of both these volumes for the press, the Editor

has had the assistance of Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph.D., his editorial

assistant on the staff of the Wisconsin Historical Library.

R. G. T.

MADISON, WIS., June, 1906.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of United States Exploring Expedition_

(Philadelphia 1844), iv, p. 348.

[2] _Niles' Register_, lviii, p. 242.

[3] _Travels in the Californias and Scenes in the Pacific Ocean_ (New

York, 1844).

[4] In successive editions, his books appear under different titles;

but the subject matter is largely the same, one detailing his

experiences crossing the continent and in Oregon, the other narrating

the California visit. To the latter was added in later editions a

history of the American conquest of California. Farnham also published

a work on Mexico, in style similar to the others.

PART I OF FARNHAM'S TRAVELS IN THE GREAT WESTERN

PRAIRIES, ETC., MAY 21-OCTOBER 16, 1839

* * * * *

Reprint of Volume I and chapters i-iv of Volume II of original

London edition, 1843

[Illustration: TRAVELS

IN THE

GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES,

THE ANAHUAC AND ROCKY MOUNTAINS,

AND IN

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

BY THOMAS J. FARNHAM.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty

1843.]

PREFACE BY THE FIRST EDITOR

This authentic account of the Great Western Prairies and Oregon

Territory supplies a deficiency which has been felt for a long time.

The author, by his own personal observations, has been enabled to

furnish a very interesting narrative of travel; and whether he treats

of the Prairies, or of the Oregon region, the various incidents related

by him cannot fail to give entertainment and instruction.

With respect to the Introduction, in which the Author asserts the

claims of the United States to the Oregon Territory little need be said

here: the subject will no doubt receive the full consideration of the

Governments interested in the decision of the question.

London, 1843.

PREFACE

It was customary in old times for all Authors to enter the world

of letters on their knees, and with uncovered head, and a bow of

charming meekness write themselves some brainless dolt's "most humble

and obedient servant." In later days, the same feigned subserviency

has shown itself in other forms. One desires that some will kindly

pardon the weakness and imbecility of his production; for, although

these faults may exist in his book, he wrote under "most adverse

circumstances," as the crying of a hopeful child, the quarrels of his

poultry, and other disasters of the season.

Another, clothed with the mantle of the sweetest self-complacency,

looks out from his Preface, like a sun-dog on the morning sky, and

merely _shines out_ the query, "Am I not a Sun?" while he secures a

retreat for his self-love, in case any body should suppose he ever

indulged such a singular sentiment.

{viii} A few others of our literary shades make no pretensions to

modesty. They hold out to the world no need of aid in laying the

foundations of their fame; and, however adverse the opinions of the

times may be to their claims to renown, they are sure of living

hereafter, and only regret they should have lived a hundred years

before the world was prepared to receive them.

There is another class, who, confident that they understand the

subjects they treat of, if nothing else, and that, speaking plain

truth for the information of plain men, they cannot fail to narrate

matter of interest concerning scenes or incidents they have witnessed,

and sensations they have experienced--trouble not themselves with the

qualms of inability, or lack of polish, but speak from the heart.

These write their names on their title-pages, and leave their readers

at leisure to judge of their merits as they develop themselves in the

work itself, without any special pleading or any deprecatory prayers to

the reviews, by

THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

The Oregon Territory forms the terminus of these Travels; and, as that

country is an object of much interest on both sides of the Atlantic,

I have thought proper to preface my wanderings there by a brief

discussion of the question as to whom it belongs.

By treaties between the United States and Spain and Mexico and Russia,

the southern boundary of Oregon is fixed on the 42nd parallel of

north latitude; and the northern on an east and west line, at 54° 40´

north.[5] Its natural boundary on the east is the main ridge of the

Rocky Mountains, situated about four hundred miles east of the Pacific

Ocean, which washes it on the west. From these data the reader will

observe that it is about six hundred miles in length, and four hundred

in breadth.

According to the well-established laws of nations applicable to the

premises, the title to the sovereignty over it depends upon the prior

discovery and occupancy {x} of it, and upon cessions by treaty from

the first discoverer and occupant. These several important matters I

proceed to examine, with Greenough's History of the North-west Coast

of America, and the works therein named, before me as sources of

reference.[6]

From the year 1532 to 1540, the Spanish government sent four

expeditions to explore the north-west coast of America, in search of

what did not exist--a water communication from the Pacific to the

Atlantic. These fleets were severally commanded by Mazuela, Grijalva,

Becera, and Ulloa. They visited the coast of California, and the

south-western shore of Oregon.[7]

The next naval expedition, under the same Power, commanded by Bartoleme

Ferrello, penetrated to the north as far as latitude 43°, and

discovered Cape Blanco.[8]

Juan de Fuca discovered and entered the Straits that bear his name

in the year 1592. He spent twenty days within the Straits in making

himself acquainted with the surrounding country, trading with the

natives, and in taking possession of the adjacent territories in

the name of the Spanish Crown.[9] The Straits de Fuca enter the land

in latitude 49° north, and, running {xi} one hundred miles in a

south-easterly direction, change their course north-westwardly, and

enter the ocean again under latitude 51° north. Thus it appears that

Spain discovered the Oregon Coast from latitude 42° to 49° north two

hundred and fifty-one years ago; and, as will appear by reference

to dates, one hundred and eighty-four years prior to the celebrated

English Expedition under Captain Cook.[10]

In 1602, and subsequent years, Corran and Viscaino, in the employment

of Spain, surveyed many parts of the Oregon Coast, and in the following

year Aguiler, in the same service, discovered the mouth of the Umpqua

River in latitude 44° north.[11]

In August, 1774, Parez and Martinez, under the Spanish flag,

discovered and anchored in Nootka Sound. It lies between 49° and 50° of

north latitude.[12]

In 1774 and 1775 the north-west coast was explored by Parez and

Martinez of the Spanish service, as far north as the 58th parallel of

latitude.[13]

On the 6th day of May, 1789, the Spanish Captain Martinez, commanding

two national armed vessels, took possession of Nootka Sound and the

adjoining country. {xii} Previous to this event, say the authorities

referred to, no jurisdiction had been exercised by the subjects of any

civilized power on any part of the north-west coast of America between

37° and 60° of north latitude.

Thus is it shown on how firm and incontrovertible data the Spanish

claims rest to the prior discovery and occupancy of the Oregon

Territory.

But as against England this claim was rendered if possible more certain

by the treaty of February 10th, 1763, between Spain, England and

France--by which England was confirmed in her Canadian possessions,

and Spain in her discoveries and purchased possessions west of the

Mississippi. If, then, England has any claim to Oregon as derived from

Spain, it must rest on treaty stipulations entered into subsequently to

the 10th of February, 1763.

We accordingly find her to have formed a treaty with Spain in the year

1800, settling the difficulties between the two powers in relation to

Nootka Sound. By the first article of the convention, Spain agreed to

restore to England those portions of the country around Nootka Sound

which England {xiii} has so occupied in regard to time and manner as to

have acquired a right to them. The 5th article stipulates as follows:

"5th. As well in the places which are to be restored to the British

subjects by virtue of the first article as in all other ports of the

North-West Coast of North America, or of the Island, adjacent, situate

to the north of the coast already occupied by Spain wherein the

subjects of either of the two Powers shall have made settlements since

the month of April 1789, or shall hereafter make any. The subjects of

the other shall have free access and shall carry on their trade without

any disturbance or molestation."[14]

The inquiries that naturally arise here are, on what places or parts

of the North-West Coast did this article operate; what rights were

granted by it, and to what extent the United States, as the successors

of Spain, in the ownership of Oregon, are bound by this treaty?

These will be considered in their order.

Clearly the old Spanish settlements of the Californias were not

included among the places or parts of the North-West Coast on which

this article was intended to operate, for the reason that England, the

party in {xiv} interest, has never claimed that they were. But on the

contrary, in all her diplomatic and commercial intercourse with Spain

since 1800, she has treated the soil of the Californias with the same

consideration that she has any portion of the Spanish territories in

Europe.--And since that country has formed a department of the Mexican

Republic, England has set up no claims within its limits under this

treaty.

Was Nootka Sound embraced among the places referred to in this article?

That was the only settlement on the North-West Coast, of the subjects

of Spain or England, made between the month of April, 1787, and the

date of the treaty, and was undoubtedly embraced in the Fifth Article.

And so was the remainder of the coast, lying northward of Nootka, on

which Spain had claims. It did not extend south of Nootka Sound. Not

an inch of soil in the valley of the Columbia and its tributaries was

included in the provisions of the treaty of 1763.

Our next inquiry relates to the nature and extent of the rights at

Nootka, and northward, which England acquired by this treaty. They

are defined in the concluding phrase of the article before cited. The

subjects {xv} of both the contracting Powers "shall have free access,

and shall carry on their trade without disturbance or molestation."

In other words the subjects of England shall have the same right to

establish trading posts and carry on a trade with the Indians, as were,

or should be enjoyed by Spanish subjects in those regions. Does this

stipulation abrogate the sovereignty of Spain over those territories?

England herself can scarcely urge with seriousness a proposition so

ridiculously absurd. A grant of an equal right to settle in a country

for purposes of trade, and a guarantee against "disturbance" and

"molestation," does not, in any vocabulary, imply a cession of the

sovereignty of the territory in which these acts are to be done.

The number and nature of the rights granted to England by this treaty,

are simply a right to the joint occupancy of Nootka and the Spanish

territories to the northward, for purposes of trade with the Indians;

a joint tenancy, subject to be terminated at the will of the owner of

the title to the fee and the sovereignty; and, if not thus terminated,

to be terminated by the operations of the necessity of things--the

annihilation of the trade {xvi}--the destruction of the Indians

themselves as they should fall before the march of civilisation. It

could not have been a perpetual right, in the contemplation of either

of the contracting parties.

But there are reasons why the provisions of the treaty of 1763 never

had been, and never can be binding on the United States as the

successors of Spain in the Oregon territory.

There is the evidence of private gentlemen of the most undoubted

character to show, that Spain neither surrendered to England any

portion of Nootka, or other parts of the north-west coast; for that

if she offered to do so, the offer was not acted upon by England;

and testimony to the same effect in the debates of the times in the

Parliament of Britain, in which this important fact is distinctly

asserted, authorise us to declare that the treaty of 1763 was annulled

by Spain, and so considered by England herself. And if England did

not mean to show the world that she acquiesced in the non-fulfilment

of Spain, she should have re-asserted her rights, if she thought she

had any, and not left third parties to infer that she had quietly

abandoned them. The United States had every reason to infer {xvii} such

abandonment; and in view of it, thus manifested, purchased Oregon

of Spain. Under these circumstances, with what justice can England,

after the lapse of nearly half a century, come forward and demand

of the successor of Spain rights in Oregon which she thus virtually

abandoned--which were refused by Spain, and to which she never had

the shadow of a right on the score of prior discovery, occupancy or

purchase? The perpetually controlling and selfishness of her policy is

the only plea that history will assign to her in accounting for her

pretensions in this matter.

England also places her claim to Oregon upon the right of discovery.

Let us examine this:--

The first English vessel which visited that coast was commanded by

Francis Drake. He entered the Pacific in 1770[15] and sailed up the

coast to the 45th parallel of north latitude, and then returned to the

38th degree; accepted the crown of the native Prince in the name of

his Queen--called the country New Albion, returned to England and was

knighted.

{xviii} The portions of Oregon seen by Drake had been seen and explored

by the Spaniards several times within the previous thirty years.[16]

Sir Thomas Cavendish next came upon the coast; but did not see so much

of it as Drake had seen.[17]

The celebrated Captain Cook followed Cavendish. He saw the coast in

latitude 43 and 48 degrees. He passed the Straits de Fuca without

seeing them, and anchored in Nootka Sound on the 16th February,

1779.[18] In trading with the Indians there, he found that they had

weapons of iron, ornaments of brass, and spoons of Spanish manufacture.

Nootka had been discovered and occupied by the Spaniards four years

before Cook arrived.

The subsequent English navigators--Messrs. Vancouver,[19] and others,

so far as the Oregon coast was the field of their labours, were

followers in the tracks pointed out by the previous discoveries of the

Spaniards.

So ends the claim of England to Oregon, on the right of prior

discovery. As opposed to England, Spain's rights on this principle were

incontestible.

{xix} By the treaty of Florida, ratified February 22nd, 1819, Spain

ceded to the United States her right in the Oregon territory, in the

following words: "His Catholic Majesty cedes to the said United States

all his rights, claims, and pretensions to any territories east and

north of said line;" meaning the 42nd parallel of north latitude,

commencing at the head waters of the Arkansas, and running west to the

Pacific; "and for himself, his heirs and successors, renounces all

claim to the said territories for ever."

But the United States have rights to Oregon which of themselves

annihilate the pretensions not only of England but the world. Her

citizens first discovered that the country on which Nootka Sound is

situated was an island; they first navigated that part of the Straits

of Fuca lying between Puget's Sound and Queen Charlotte's Island, and

discovered the main coast of north-west America, from latitude 48° to

50° north. American citizens also discovered Queen Charlotte's Island,

sailed around it, and discovered the main land to the east of it, as

far north as latitude 55°.[20]

England can show no discoveries between these latitudes so important as

these; and consequently has not equal rights with the {xx} Americans

as a discoverer, to that part of Oregon north of the 49th degree of

latitude. We also discovered the Columbia River;[21] and its whole

valley, in virtue of that discovery, accrues to us under the laws of

nations. One of these laws is that the nation which discovers the mouth

of a river, by implication discovers the whole country watered by it.

We discovered the mouth of the Columbia and most of its branches;

and that valley is ours against the world--ours, also, by purchase

from Spain, the first discoverer and occupant of the coast--ours by

prior occupancy of its great river and valley, and by that law which

gives us, in virtue of such discovery and occupancy, the territories

naturally dependent upon such valley.[22] We are the rightful and sole

owner of all those parts of Oregon, which are not watered by the

Columbia, lying on its northern and southern border, and which, in the

language of the law, are naturally dependent upon it. Oregon territory,

for all these reasons is the rightful property of the United States.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Our treaty with Spain, made in 1819, adjusted the boundary as far

as the Pacific Ocean, between the latter's possessions in North America

and those of the United States; see Gregg's _Commerce of the Prairies_,

in our volume xix, p. 217, note 52. By this convention the United

States considered itself the heir of all Spanish claims north of the

international boundary line (42°).

Our treaty with Mexico, in 1828, ratified the boundary as defined by

the Spanish treaty of 1819.

By our convention with Russia in 1824, the two countries agreed to make

no settlements north or south, respectively, of the line 54° 40´. This

by no means established the United States claim as far as the line

specified.--ED.

[6] Robert Greenhow, born in Virginia in 1800, was educated at William

and Mary College and later studied medicine in New York, afterwards

spending some years in Europe. In 1828 he was appointed clerk in the

department of state at Washington, where he soon rose to the position

of official translator and librarian, an office retained until 1850,

when he went to California with the United States Land Commission,

dying in San Francisco in 1854. In 1837 he prepared, at the request

of the Senate, a _History of the Discovery of the North-west Coast_,

published in _Senate Docs._, 26 Cong., 1 sess., 174. This was later

expanded into a _History of Oregon and California_ (Boston, 1845).

His access to the records of the state department, and his knowledge

of Spanish sources, make Greenhow's books authoritative in their

field.--ED.

[7] In his _History of Oregon and California_, Greenhow adds

information to that given in his first volume, regarding these

expeditions. His chief source of information was the work of Herrera,

although he secured journals of some of the voyagers from W. H.

Prescott. All of these expeditions were inspired by Hernando de Cortez.

The first (1532) was headed by his kinsman Hurtado de Mendoza, whose

lieutenant Juan de Mazuela brought back one vessel after his superior

officer had been killed. In 1533, Hernando Grivalja and Diego Becerra

were sent to search for the survivors. The former returned without

touching mainland; Becerra was killed in a mutiny, and his pilot,

Fortuño Ximenes, is supposed to have touched the southern end of the

peninsula of Lower California. Farnham omits mention of Cortez's own

expedition of 1535-36, when he also is supposed to have reached Lower

California. In 1539-40, Francisco de Ulloa proved that this was not an

island, and explored its coast to about 30° north latitude.--ED.

[8] This relates to the voyage (1542-43) of Juan Rodriguez de Cabrillo.

The leader of the expedition died upon one of the Santa Barbara Islands

(January, 1543), but his pilot Bartolomé Ferrelo sailed farther north.

The location of his northern point of exploration is given as 43°,

which would be near Cape Blanco; but recent editors consider that

there was an early error of calculation, and that Cape Mendocino is

the more probable point. Ferrelo in all likelihood advanced as far as

the southern boundary of Oregon. See translation of journal of the

expedition, with valuable notes by H. W. Henshaw, in _United States

Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian_ (Washington,

1879), vii, pp. 293-314.--ED.

[9] The voyage of Juan de Fuca is generally considered apocryphal.

Greenhow, however, thinks it probable, from the correspondence of the

straits now called by his name with the great passage he claimed to

have entered. The only authority for the alleged voyage of De Fuca, who

was a Greek pilot in the service of Spain, is the relation of Michael

Lok, an Englishman, who claimed to have met De Fuca at Venice. Lok's

story was published by Purchas in his _Pilgrims_ (1625) and on its face

was a bid for patronage from the English court.--ED.

[10] For Cook's discovery of the Hawaiian Islands and his death

thereupon, see Franchère's _Narrative_ in our volume vi, p. 209, note

21. During his northward expedition he skirted the entire North-west

Coast from Cape Mendocino to North Cape, in the Arctic Ocean, not

finding, however, either the entrance to the Columbia or to Puget

Sound.--ED.

[11] The expedition commanded by Admiral Torribio Gomez de Corvan and

Sebastian Vizcaino was equipped by the Mexican governor, Count de

Monterey (1602). Corvan returned home from the harbor of Monterey,

while Vizcaino with his lieutenant Martin Aguilar pushed northward. The

identification of the headlands which they named, is now difficult. H.

H. Bancroft, _History of the North-west Coast_ (San Francisco, 1886),

i, p. 148, concludes that neither Vizcaino nor Aguilar passed 42°

latitude. Farnham's identification of the river described by Aguilar as

the Umpqua appears to rest upon his own authority.--ED.

[12] The account of the expedition of Juan Perez, who with his

lieutenant Estévan Martinez penetrated to the northern end of Queen

Charlotte's Island, and passed some months in a bay probably to

be identified with Nootka Sound, was not given to the world by

the Spaniards until years later; the English therefore considered

themselves, in the person of Captain Cook, the discoverers of this

portion of the North-west Coast.--ED.

[13] This refers to the voyage of Bruno Heceta in 1775, Juan Perez

being second in command. This expedition discovered the mouth of the

Columbia and took possession for Spain of the entire North-west Coast

from 42° to 55° of north latitude.--ED.

[14] This is a brief but imperfect résumé of what is known as the

Nootka Sound controversy. Martinez seized three English vessels,

and carried them as a prize to San Bias, Mexico. The English

resenting this, war nearly ensued, but the difficulty was adjusted

by the Nootka convention, signed October 28, 1790 (not 1800). The

Washington State Historical Society has recently signalized this event

by erecting a monument at Nootka Sound, containing the following

inscription: "Vancouver and Quadra [English and Spanish representatives

respectively] met here in August 1792 under the treaty between

Spain and Great Britain of October 1790. Erected by the Washington

University State Historical Society, August, 1903." The matter was

not wholly adjusted until 1795. Consult Bancroft, _North-west Coast_,

i, pp. 204-238; Greenhow, _Oregon and California_, pp. 185-215, and

particularly W. R. Manning, "Nootka Sound Controversy," in American

Historical Association _Report_, 1904, pp. 283-475.--ED.

[15] This date is incorrect. It was in 1577; and he sailed to the 48th

parallel of north latitude.--ENGLISH EDITOR.

[16] Much has been written on Drake's famous voyage of circumnavigation

(1577-80), when first of any known Englishmen he explored the

North-west Coast of America, searching for a North-west passage.

Bancroft concludes (_North-west Coast_, p. 145) that he did not go

north of 43° north latitude. See also on this subject, Julian S.

Corbett, _Drake and the Tudor Navy_ (New York, 1898), i, p. 306; and

especially Miller Christy, _Silver Map of the World_ (London, 1904),

p. 20, wherein, on the evidence of the chart, Drake's voyage is traced

as far north as 48°. For Drake's Bay, see our volume vi, p. 257, note

66.--ED.

[17] It is generally conceded that Sir Thomas Cavendish's freebooting

expedition of 1587 did not proceed north of the peninsula of Lower

California.--ED.

[18] He was killed on the 14th February, 1779.--ENGLISH ED.

[19] For Vancouver see Franchère's _Narrative_, given in our volume vi,

p. 184, note 2.--ED.

[20] Farnham here refers to the voyages of the "Columbia" and

"Washington" (1787), sent out by Boston merchants under command of

Captains John Kendrick and Robert Gray. After wintering at Nootka

(1788-89), Gray explored the coast to the northward. Unaware of earlier

English explorations, he christened Queen Charlotte's as Washington

Island. The question of Kendrick's exploration (1790) of Puget Sound is

much in doubt. Farnham makes a specious plea at this point--his cited

authority, Greenhow, admits the discovery (1787) of Queen Charlotte's

Island by Dixon, and by Berkely (1787) of the Straits of Juan de

Fuca. A recent historian of Oregon (H. S. Lyman, _History of Oregon_,

ii, p. 93), however, claims that the Americans by their boldness of

exploration and exact charting of the northern shores, were the real

discoverers of the territory as far as 54° 40´.--ED.

[21] Referring to the second voyage of Captain Robert Gray. See our

volume vi, p. 183, note 1.--ED.

[22] The prior occupancy was the settlement at Astoria, for which see

prefaces to Franchère's _Narrative_, in our volume vi, and Ross's

_Oregon Settlers_ in our volume vii. After the close of the War of

1812-15, the United States made application in accordance with the

Treaty of Ghent for the restoration of Astoria, which accordingly was

formally transferred, October 6, 1818, to Commissioner J. H. Prevost

and Captain J. Biddle. No use was made, however, of this sovereignty,

the treaty of joint occupancy being signed October 20, of the same

year.--ED.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

The Rendezvous--The Destination--The Education of Mules--The

Santa Fé Traders--The Mormons--The Holy War--Entrance upon the

Indian Territory--A Scene--An Encampment--A Loss--A Hunt--The

Osage River--A Meeting and Parting--Kauzaus Indians--An

Indian Encampment--Council Grove--Ruins--An Indian and his

Wants--Elk--A Tempest--Captain Kelly--A comfortless Night 45

CHAPTER II

Scarcity of Food--An Incident--Looing and Bleating--Messrs.

Bents--Trade--Little Arkansas--A Nauseous Meal--A Flood--An

Onset--A Hard Ride--The Deliverance--The Arkansas--An

Attack--The Similitude of Death--The Feast and a bit of

Philosophy--The Traders Walworth and Alvarez's Teams--A

Fright--A Nation of Indians--Their Camp and Hunts--A Treaty--A

Tempest--Indian Butchering--A Hunt among the Buffalo--A

Wounded Man--A Drive--A Storm and its Enemy--Night among the

Buffalo--The Country and the Heavens--The Ford--A Mutiny

and its Consequences--Blistered Fingers--Liberty--Bent's

Fort--Disbanding 69

{xxii} CHAPTER III

The Great Prairie Wilderness--Its

Rivers and Soil--Its People and their

Territories--Choctaws--Chickasaws--Cherokees--Creeks--Senecas

and

Shawnees--Seminoles--Pottawatamies--Weas--Pionkashas--Peorias

and Kaskaskias--Ottowas--Shawnees or

Shawanoes--Delawares--Kausaus--Kickapoos--Sauks

and Foxes--Iowas--Otoes--Omehas--Puncahs--Pawnees,

remnants--Carankauas--Cumanche,

remnants--Knistineaux--Naudowisses or Sioux--Chippeways, and

their traditions 108

CHAPTER IV

Fort William--its Structure, Owners, People, Animals, Business,

Adventures, and Hazards--A Division--A March--Fort el

Puebla--Trappers and Whisky--A Genius--An Adventurous

Iroquois--A Kentuckian--Horses and Servant--A Trade--A

Start--Arkansas and Country--Wolfano Mountains--Creeks--Rio

Wolfano--A Plague of Egypt--Cordilleras--James' Peak--Pike's

Peak--A Bath--The Prison of the Arkansas--Entrance of the Rocky

Mountains--A Vale 161

CHAPTER V

An Ascent--A Misfortune--A Death--The Mountain of the Holy

Cross--Leaping Pines--Killing a Buffalo {xxiii}--Asses and

Tyrants--Panther, &c.--Geography--Something about descending

the Colorado of the West--Dividing Ridges--A Scene--Tumbleton's

Park--A War Whoop--Meeting of Old Fellow Trappers--A Notable

Tramp--My Mare--The etiquette of the Mountains--Kelly's Old

Camp, &c.--A Great Heart--Little Bear River--Vegetables

and Bitterness--Two White Men, a Squaw and Child--A Dead

Shot--What is Tasteful--Trapping--Blackfoot and Sioux--A Bloody

Incident--A Cave--Hot Spring--The Country--A Surprise--American

and Canadian Trappers--The Grand River--Old Park--Death before

us--The Mule--Despair 213

{v} CHAPTER VI {I of Vol. II, original ed.}

Bear Hunt--Sulphur Puddle--The River--Wolves

and their Fare--Dog Eating--Little Snake

River--Thirst--Deserts--Mountains--Mountain Hottentots--Brown's

Hole--Fort David Crockett--Traders--Winter and its

Hilarities--Love--The Way to get a Wife--A Recommendation to

Civilized People--The Colorado of the West--Club Indians--The

Shoshonies--An Indian Temperance Society--The Crows--The

Blackfeet--Unburied Skeletons--The Arrapahoes, and Citizenship

among them--War Parties--Lodge of the Great Spirit--Religious

Ceremonies--The Vow and an Incident--The First Shoshonie who

saw a White Man 243

CHAPTER VII {II of Vol. II}

An Arrival from Fort Hall--An Account from Oregon--Return

of two of my companions to the States--A startling

Condition--An Indian Guide--A Farewell--{vi} How a

Horse studies Geology--A Camp--Dog Mutton superseded--A

Scene--Sheetskadee--Butes--Desolation--Midnight Scene

in the Mountains--Indian Jim and the Buffalo--Hungry

Stomachs--A fat Shot--Fine Eyesight--An old Trapper picked

up--Beautiful Desert--"Hos, Hos"--Meek the Bear Killer--A wild

Vale--Steamboat Spring--Natural Soda Fountains--Neighbouring

Landscape--A hard Drive--Valley of Chasm--Nature's Vase--A

heavy March--Passing the Mountains--A charming Gorge--Entrance

into Oregon--The South Branch of the Columbia--Fort Hall and

its Hospitalities 274

CHAPTER VIII {III of Vol. II}

The Rocky Mountains and their Spurs--Geography of the

Mountain Region--Wyeth--The Outset--The Beaver Catcher's

Bride--Trois Butes--Addition from a Monastery--Orisons--A

Merry Mountain Trapper--Root Diggers--Enormous

Springs--Volcanic Hearths and Chasms--Carbo--An old Chief--A

Bluff--Boisais River--Incident of Trade--The Bonaks--The

Dead Wail--Fort Boisais, its Salmon, Butter, and Hearty

Cheer--Mons. Payette--Curiosity--Departure--Passing the

Blue Mountains--The Grandeur of them--Their Forests,

Flowers, and Torrents--Descent of the Mountains--Plain,

a Christian Crane--Arrival at Dr. Whitman's

Mission--Wallawalla--People--Farm--Mill--Learning--Religion--Mr.

Ermitinger--Blair--Nez Percés--Racing--Indian Horse

Training--Sabbath and its joys in the Wilderness 303

{vii} CHAPTER IX {IV of Vol. II}

Parting with Friends--Wallawalla Valley--Fort Wallawalla--Mr.

Pambrun--The Columbia--Country down its banks--What was

seen of Rock Earth--Wood, Fire, and Water--Danger, &c. from

the Heights--Falling Mountain--Morning Hymn to God--Giant's

Causeway--A View of the Frozen Sublime--Tum Tum Orter' and

other appurtenances--Dalles--Methodist Episcopal Mission--Mr.

and Mrs. Perkins--Mr. Lee--Mission Premises--Egyptian

Pyramids--Indians--How Fifty Indians can fight One--Boston--The

Result of a War--Descent of the Columbia in a Canoe--A

Night on the River--The Poetry of the Wilderness--The

Cascades--Postage--Dr. McLaughlin--Indian Tombs--Death--A

Race--The River and its Banks--Night again--Mounts Washington

and Jefferson--Arrival--Fort Vancouver--British Hospitality 346

TRAVELS IN THE GREAT WESTERN

PRAIRIES, &c., &c.

[PART I]

CHAPTER I

The Rendezvous--The Destination--The Education of Mules--The

Santa Fé Traders--The Mormons--The Holy War--Entrance upon the

Indian Territory--A Scene--An Encampment--A Loss--A Hunt--The

Osage River--A Meeting and Parting--Kauzaus Indians--An

Indian Encampment--Council Grove--Ruins--An Indian and his

Wants--Elk--A Tempest--Captain Kelly--A comfortless Night.

On the 21st of May, 1839, the author and sixteen others arrived in the

town of Independence, Missouri.[23] Our destination was the Oregon

Territory. Some of our number sought health in the wilderness--others

sought the wilderness for its own sake--and others sought a residence

among the ancient forests and lofty heights of the valley of the

Columbia; and each actuated by his own peculiar reasons, or interest,

began his preparations for leaving the frontier.[24] {2} Pack mules

and horses and pack-saddles were purchased and prepared for service.

Bacon and flour, salt and pepper, sufficient for four hundred miles,

were secured in sacks; our powder-casks were wrapt in painted canvas,

and large oil-cloths were purchased to protect these and our sacks of

clothing from the rains; our arms were thoroughly repaired; bullets

were moulded; powder-horns and cap-boxes filled; and all else done that

was deemed needful, before we struck our tent for the Indian territory.

But before leaving this little woodland town, it will be interesting

to remember that it is the usual place of rendezvous and "outfit" for

the overland traders to Santa Fé and other Mexican states. In the month

of May of each year, these traders congregate here, and buy large

Pennsylvania waggons, and teams of mules to convey their calicoes,

cottons, cloths, boots, shoes, etc. over the plains to that distant

and hazardous market. It is quite amusing to greenhorns, as those are

called who have never been engaged in the trade, to see the mules make

their first attempt at practical pulling. They are harnessed in a team,

two upon the shaft, and the remainder two abreast in {3} long swinging

iron traces; and then, by way of initiatory intimation that they have

passed from a life of monotonous contemplation, in the seclusion of

their nursery pastures, to the bustling duties of the "Santa Fé trade,"

a hot iron is applied to the thigh or shoulder of each, with an embrace

so cordially warm, as to leave there, in blistered perfection, the

initials of their last owner's name. This done, a Mexican Spaniard,

as chief muleteer, mounts the right-hand wheel mule, and another, the

left hand one of the span next the leaders, while four or five others,

as foot-guard, stand on either side, armed with whips and thongs. The

team is straightened--and now comes the trial of passive obedience.

The chief muleteer gives the shout of march, and drives his long spurs

into the sides of the animal that bears him; his companion before

follows his example; but there is no movement. A leer--an unearthly

bray, is the only response of these martyrs to human supremacy. Again

the team is straightened, again the rowel is applied, the body-guard

on foot raise the shout, and all apply the lash at the same moment.

The untutored animals kick and leap, rear and plunge, and fall in

their harness. In fine, they act the mule, {4} and generally succeed

in breaking neck or limb of some one of their number, and in raising a

tumult that would do credit to any order of animals accustomed to long

ears.

After a few trainings, however, of this description, they move off in

fine style. And, although some luckless animal may at intervals brace

himself up to an uncompromising resistance of such encroachment upon

his freedom, still, the majority preferring passive obedience to active

pelting, drag him onward, till, like themselves, he submits to the

discipline of the traces.

'Independence' was the first location of the _Mormons_ west of the

Mississippi. Here they laid out grounds for their temple, built the

'Lord's store,' and in other ways prepared the place for the permanent

establishment of their community. But, becoming obnoxious to their

neighbours, they crossed the Missouri, and founded the town of 'Far

West.' In 1838 they recommenced certain practices of their faith in

their new abode, and were ejected from the state by its military

forces.[25]

The misfortunes of these people seem to have arisen from proceeding

upon certain rules of action peculiar to themselves. The basis of

these rules is the assumption that {5} they are the "Saints of the

Most High," to whom the Lord promised of old the inheritance of the

earth; and that as such they have the right to take possession of

whatever they may be inspired to desire. Any means are justifiable,

in their belief, to bring about the restoration to the "Children of

God" of that which He has bequeathed to them. In obedience to these

rules of action, any Mormon or "Latter-Day Saint" labouring for hire

on a "worldly" man's plantation, claimed the right to direct what

improvements should be made on the premises; what trees should be

felled, and what grounds should, from time to time, be cultivated.

If this prerogative of saintship were questioned by the warm-blooded

Missourians, they were with great coolness and gravity informed that

their godly servants expected in a short time to be in comfortable

possession of their employers' premises; for that the Latter-Days

had come, and with them the Saints; that wars and carnage were to

be expected; and that the Latter-Day Prophet had learned, in his

communications with the Court of Heaven, that the Missourians were to

be exterminated on the first enlargement of the borders of "Zion;" and

that over the graves of those "enemies {6} of all righteousness" would

spring that vast spiritual temple which was "to fill the earth."

The prospect of being thus immolated upon the altar of Mormonism,

did not produce so much humility and trembling among these hardy

frontiersmen as the prophet Joe had benevolently desired. On the

contrary, the pious intimation that their throats would be cut

to glorify God, was resisted by some ruthless and sinful act of

self-defence; and all the denunciations of the holy brotherhood were

impiously scorned as idle words. However, in spite of the irreligious

wrath of these deluded, benighted Missourians, the Saints cut timber

wherever they listed on the domains which were claimed by the people of

the world. And if the "Lord's hogs or horses" wanted corn, the farms

in the hands of the wicked were resorted to at a convenient hour of

the night for a supply. In all these cases, the "Saints" manifested

a kind regard to the happiness even of the enemies of their faith.

For whenever they took corn from fields in possession of the world's

people, they not only avoided exciting unholy wrath by allowing

themselves to be seen in the act, but, in order that peace might {7}

reign in the bosoms of the wicked, even, the longest possible time,

they stripped that portion of the harvest field which would be last

seen by the ungodly owner.

The "Church militant," however, being inefficient and weak, the Prophet

Joe declared that it was their duty to use whatever means the Lord

might furnish to strengthen themselves. And as one powerful means would

be the keeping of its doings as much as possible from the world, it

was he said, the will of Heaven, revealed to him in proper form, that

in no case, when called before the ungodly tribunals of this perverse

and blind generation, should they reveal, for any cause, any matter or

thing which might, in its consequences, bring upon the brotherhood the

infliction of those pretended rules of Justice, by the world called

Laws. Under the protection of this prophecy, a band of the brethren

was organized, called the "Tribe of Dan," whose duty it was to take

and bring to the "Lord's store," in the far West, any of the Lord's

personal estate which they might find in the possession of the world,

and which might be useful to the "Saints," in advancing their kingdom.

Great good is said to have been done by this Tribe of Dan; {8} for the

Lord's store was soon filled, and the Saints praised the name of Joe.

The Prophet's face shone with the light of an all-subduing delight at

the increase of "Zion," and the efficiency of his administration.

The Missourians, however, were destitute of the Latter-Day Faith,

and of just views of the rights devised to those, who, in the Lord's

name, should destroy his adversaries, and restore the earth to the

dominion of millennial righteousness. Poor mortals and deluded sinners!

They believed that the vain and worldly enactments of legislative

bodies were to prevail against the inspirations of the Latter-Day

Prophet Joe; and in their unsanctified zeal, declared the Saints to be

thieves, and unjust, and murderous; and the Tribe of Dan to be a pest

to the constitutional and acknowledged inherent and natural right to

acquire, possess, and enjoy property. From this honest difference of

opinion arose the "Mormon War," whose great events are recorded in the

narrative of the "Latter-Day Saints?" Some events, there were, however,

not worthy to find record there, which may be related here.

The Governor of the Missouri[26] ordered {9} out the State troops to

fight and subdue the Mormons, and take from them the property which

the "Tribe of Dan" had deposited in the "Lord's brick store" in the

"citadel of Zion," called "Far West." It was in 1838 they appeared

before the camp of the "Saints" and commanded them to surrender. It

was done in the manner hereafter described. But before this event

transpired, I am informed that the Prophet Joe opened his mouth in the

name of the Lord, and said it had been revealed to him that the scenes

of Jericho were to be re-enacted in Far West; that the angelic host

would appear on the day of battle, and by their power give victory to

the "Saints."

To this end he ordered a breastwork of inch pine boards to be raised

around the camp, to show by this feeble protection against the

artillery of their foes, that their strength was in the "breast-plate

of righteousness," and that they were the soldiers of the militant

portion of the Kingdom of Heaven. There were moments of awful suspense

in the camp of the "Saints." The Missouri bayonets bristled brightly

near their ranks, and an occasional bullet carelessly penetrated the

pine-board rampart, regardless of the inhibition of the {10} Prophet.

The Heavens were gazed upon for the shining host, and listening ears

turned to catch the rushing of wings through the upper air. The demand

of surrender was again and again repeated; but Faith had seized on

Hope, and Delay was the offspring.

At this juncture of affairs, a sturdy old Missourian approached the

brick store, pickaxe in hand, apparently determined to do violence

to the sacred depository. One of the sisters in robes of white

accosted him, and with proper solemnity made known that the "Lord

of the Faithful" had revealed to Joe, the Prophet, that every hand

raised against that "holy structure" would instantly be withered. The

frontiersman hesitated, but the hardihood characteristic of these men

of the rifle returning, he replied, "Well, old gal, I'll go it on one

hand any how." The awful blow was struck; the hand did not wither! "I

doubles up now," said the daring man, and with both hands inflicted

a heavy blow upon a corner brick. It tumbled to the ground, and the

building quickly fell under the weight of a thousand vigorous arms.

The confidence of the Saints in their Prophet waned, and a surrender

followed, {11} Some of the principal men were put in custody, but

the main body were permitted to leave the State without farther

molestation. We afterwards met many of them with their herds, &c., on

the road from Far West to Quincy, Illinois. It was strongly intimated

by the planters in that section of country, that these emigrating

"saints" found large quantities of the "Lord's corn" on their way,

which they appropriated as need suggested to their own and their

animals' wants.

The origin of the "Book of Mormon"[27] was for some time a mystery.

But recent developments prove it to have been written in 1812 by the

Rev. Solomon Spaulding, of New Salem, in the state, Ohio. It was

composed by that gentleman as a historical romance of the long extinct

race who built the mounds and forts which are scattered over the

valley States. Mr. Spaulding read the work while composing it to some

of his friends, who, on the appearance of the book in print, were so

thoroughly convinced of its identity with the romance of their deceased

pastor, that search was made, and the original manuscript found among

his papers. But there was yet a marvel how the work could have got

into the hands of Joe {12} Smith. On further investigation, however,

it appeared that the reverend author had entertained thoughts of

publishing it; and, in pursuance of his intention, had permitted it

to lie a long time in the printing office in which Sidney Rigdon, who

has figured so prominently in the history of the Mormons, was at the

time employed.[28] Rigdon, doubtless, copied poor Spaulding's novel,

and with it, and the aid of Joe Smith, has succeeded in building up a

system of superstition, which, in vileness and falsehood, is scarcely

equalled by that of Mahomet.

Solomon Spaulding was a graduate of Dartmouth College.

On the 30th of May, we found ourselves prepared to move for the Indian

Territory.[29] Our pack-saddles being girded upon the animals, our

sacks of provisions, &c. snugly lashed upon them, and protected from

the rain that had begun to fall, and ourselves well mounted and armed,

we took the road that leads off south-west from Independence in the

direction of Santa Fé.[30] But the rains which had accompanied us

daily since we left Peoria, seemed determined to escort us still,

our ill-natured scowls to the contrary notwithstanding: for we had

travelled only three miles when {13} such torrents fell, that we found

it necessary to take shelter in a neighbouring schoolhouse for the

night. It was dismal enough; but a blazing fire within, and a merry

song from a jovial member of our company imparted as much consolation

as our circumstances seemed to demand, till we responded to the howling

storm the sonorous evidence of sweet and quiet slumber.

The following morning was clear and pleasant, and we were early on

our route. We crossed the stream called Big Blue, a tributary of

the Missouri,[31] about twelve o'clock, and approached the border

of the Indian domains. All were anxious now to see and linger over

every object which reminded us we were still on the confines of that

civilization which we had inherited from a thousand generations; a

vast and imperishable legacy of civil and social happiness. It was,

therefore, painful to approach the last frontier enclosure--the last

habitation of the white man--the last semblance of home. At length

the last cabin was approached. We drank at the well and travelled

on. It was now behind us. All, indeed was behind us with which the

sympathies of our young days had mingled their holy memories. Before

us were the treeless {14} plains of green, as they had been since the

flood--beautiful, unbroken by bush or rock; unsoiled by plough or

spade; sweetly scented with the first blossomings of the spring. They

had been, since time commenced, the theatre of the Indian's prowess--of

his hopes, joys, and sorrows. Here, nations, as the eve of deadly

battle closed around them, had knelt and raised the votive offering to

Heaven, and implored the favour and protection of the Great Spirit who

had fostered their fathers upon the wintry mountains of the North, and

when bravely dying, had borne them to the islands of light beneath the

setting sun. A lovely landscape this, for an Indian's meditation! He

could almost behold in the distance where the plain and sky met, the

holy portals of his after-state so mazy and beautiful was the scene!

Having travelled about twenty-five miles over this beautiful prairie,

we halted on the banks of a small stream at a place called Elm

Grove.[32] Here we pitched our tent, tied our horses to stakes, carried

for that purpose, and after considerable difficulty having obtained

fuel for a fire, cooked and ate for the first time in the Indian

Territory.

At this encampment final arrangements {15} were made for our journey

over the Prairies. To this end provisions, arms, ammunition, packs and

pack-saddles, were overhauled, and an account taken of our common stock

of goods for trade with the Indians. The result of this examination

was, that we determined to remain here a while, and send back to the

Kauzaus Indian mill for two hundred pounds of flour. We were induced

to take this step by assurances received from certain traders whom we

met coming from the mountains, that the buffalo had not advanced so far

north as to furnish us with their fine hump-ribs so early by a week

or fortnight as we had expected. Officers were also chosen and their

powers defined; and whatever leisure we found from these duties during

a stay of two days, was spent in regaling ourselves with strawberries

and gooseberries, which grew in great abundance near our camp.

Our friends having returned from the mill with the flour for which they

had been despatched, we left Elm Grove on the 3rd of June, travelled

along the Santa Fé trail about fifteen miles, and encamped upon a

high knoll, from which we had an extensive view of the surrounding

plains. The grass was now about four inches in height, and {16} bent

and rose in most sprightly beauty under the gusts of wind which at

intervals swept over it. We remained here a day and a half, waiting

for two of our number who had gone in search of a horse that had left

our encampment at Elm Grove. The time, however, passed agreeably. We

were, indeed, beyond the sanctuaries of society, and severed from the

kind pulsations of friendship; but the spirit of the Red Man, wild

and careless as the storms he buffets, began to come over us; and we

shouldered our rifles and galloped away for a deer in the lines of

timber that threaded the western horizon. Our first hunt in the depths

of the beautiful and dreadful wilderness! It was attended with no

success, however, but was worth the effort. We had begun to hunt our

food.

In the afternoon of the 4th, our friends returned with the strayed

animals. The keepers immediately fired the signalguns, and all were

soon in camp. Our road on the 5th was through a rich, level prairie,

clothed with the wild grass common to the plains of the West. A skirt

of black oak timber occasionally lined the horizon or strayed up a

deep ravine near the trail. The extreme care of the pioneers in the

{17} overland Santa Fé trade was every where noticeable, in the fact

that the track of their richly-loaded waggons never approached within

musket-shot of these points of timber. Fifteen miles' march brought us

to our place of encampment. A certain portion of the company allotted

to that labour, unpacked the company's mules of the common-stock

property, provisions, ammunitions, &c.; another portion pitched the

tent; another gathered wood and kindled a fire; whilst others brought

water, and still others again put seething-pots and frying-pans to

their appropriate duties. So that at this, as at many a time before

and after, a few minutes transposed our little cavalcade from a moving

troop into an eating, drinking, and joyous camp. A thunder-storm

visited us during the night. The lightning was intensely vivid, and the

explosions were singularly frequent and loud. The sides of the heavens

appeared to war like contending batteries in deadly conflict. The rain

came in floods; and our tent, not being ditched around, was flooded

soon after the commencement of the storm, and ourselves and baggage

thoroughly drenched.

The next day we made about fifteen miles through the mud and rain,

and stopped for {18} the night near a solitary tree upon the bank of

a small tributary of the Konzas river. Here fortune favoured our fast

decreasing larder. One of the company killed a turtle, which furnished

us all with an excellent supper. This was the only description of game

that we had seen since leaving the frontier.

On the 7th, as the sun was setting, we reached Osage River--a stream

which flows into the Missouri below Jefferson City. The point where

we struck it, was one hundred miles south-west of Independence.[33]

We pitched our tent snugly by a copse of wood within a few yards of

it; staked down our animals near at hand, and prepared, and ate in

the usual form, our evening repast. Our company was divided into two

messes, seven in one, and eight in the other. On the ground, each with

a tin pint cup and a small round plate of the same material, the first

filled with coffee, tea, or water, the last with fried bacon and dough

fried in fat; each with a butcher-knife in hand, and each mess sitting,

tailor-like, around its own frying-pan, eating with the appetite of

tigers formed the _coup-d'œil_ of our company at supper on the banks of

the Osage.

{19} Near us were encamped some waggoners on their return to Missouri,

who had been out to Council Grove with the provisions and that part

of the goods of the Santa Fé traders which the teams of untrained

mules had been unable to draw when they left Independence. With these

men we passed a very agreeable evening; they amused us with yarns of

mountain-life, which from time to time had floated in, and formed the

fireside legends of that wild border. In the morning, while we were

saddling our animals, two of the Kauzaus Indians came within a few rods

of our camp,[34] and waited for an invitation to approach. They were

armed with muskets and knives. The manner of carrying their fire-arms

was peculiar, and strongly characteristic of Indian caution. The breech

was held in the right hand, and the barrel rested on the left arm;

thus they are always prepared to fire. They watched us narrowly, as

if to ascertain whether we were friends or foes, and upon our making

signs to them to approach, they took seats near the fire, and with most

imperturbable calmness, commenced smoking the compound of willow-bark

and tobacco with which they are wont to regale themselves. When we

left the ground, one of {20} the men threw away a pair of old boots,

the soles of which were fastened with iron nails. Our savage visitors

seized upon them with the greatest eagerness, and in their pantomimic

language, aided by harsh, guttural grunts, congratulated themselves

upon becoming the possessors of so much wealth. At eight o'clock we

were on march.

The morning breezes were bland, and a thousand young flowers gemmed

the grassy plains. It seemed as if the tints of a brighter sky and

the increasing beauty of the earth were lifting the clouds from the

future, and shedding vigour upon our hopes. But this illusion lasted

but a moment. Three of my valuable men had determined to accompany

the waggoners to the States; and as they filed off and bade adieu to

the enterprise in which they had embarked, and blighted many cheering

expectations of social intercourse along our weary wayfaring to Oregon,

an expression of deep discouragement shaded every face. This was of

short duration. The determination to penetrate the valleys of Oregon

soon swept away every feeling of depression, and two hunters being sent

forward to replenish our larder, we travelled happily onward.

The Osage River at this place is one {21} hundred yards wide, with

about two-and-a-half feet of water. Its banks are clothed with timber

of cotton-wood, ash and hickory. We crossed it at eight o'clock in

the morning, passed through the groves which border it, and continued

to follow the Santa Fé trail. The portion of country over which it

ran was undulating and truly beautiful; the soil rich, very deep, and

intersected by three small streams, which appeared from their courses

to be tributaries of the Osage.

At nightfall, we found ourselves upon a height overlooking a beautiful

grove. This we supposed to be Council Grove. On the swell of the hill

were the remains of an old Kauzaus' encampment; a beautiful clear

spring gushed out from the rock below. The whole was so inviting to

us, weary and hungry as we were, that we determined to make our bed

there for the night. Accordingly, we fired signalguns for the hunters,

pitched our tents, broke up the boughs which had been used by the

Indians in building their wigwams, for fuel, and proceeded to cook our

supper. This encampment had been made by the Kauzaus six years ago,

when on their way south to their annual buffalo-hunt. A semi-circular

piece of ground was enclosed by the outer lodges. {22} The area was

filled with wigwams, built in straight lines, running from the

diameter to the circumference. They were constructed in the following

manner. Boughs of about two inches in diameter were inserted by their

butts into the ground, and withed together at the top in an arched

form; over these were spread blankets, skins of the buffalo, etc. Fires

were built in front of each: the grass beneath, covered with skins,

made a delightful couch, and the Indian's home was complete. Several

yards from the outer semi-circular row of lodges and parallel to it,

we found large stakes driven firmly into the earth, for the purpose of

securing their horses during the night. We appropriated to ourselves,

without hesitation, whatever we found here of earth, wood or water,

which could be useful to us, and were soon very comfortable. About nine

o'clock, our signalguns were answered by the return of our hunters.

They had scoured the country all day in quest of game, but found none.

Our hopes were somewhat depressed by this result. We had but one

hundred pounds of flour and one side of bacon left; and the buffalo,

by the best estimates we could make, were still three hundred miles

distant; the country between {23} us and these animals, too, being

constantly scoured by Indian hunters, afforded us but little prospect

of obtaining other game. However, we did not dwell very minutely

upon the evils that might await us, but having put ourselves upon

short allowance, and looked at our horses as the means of preventing

starvation, we sought rest for the fatigues of the next day's march.

In the morning we moved down the hill. Our way lay directly through

the little grove already referred to; and, however we might have

admired its freshness and beauty, we were deterred from entering into

the full enjoyment of the scene by the necessity, which we supposed

existed, of keeping a sharp look-out among its green recesses for the

lurking savage. The grove is the northern limit of the wanderings

of the Cumanches--a tribe of Indians who make their home on the rich

plains along the western borders of the republic of Texas.[35] Their

ten thousand warriors, their incomparable horsemanship, their terrible

charge, the unequalled rapidity with which they load and discharge

their fire-arms, and their insatiable hatred, make the enmity of these

Indians more dreadful than that of any other tribe of aborigines.

Fortunately for us, however, {24} these Spartans of the plains did not

appear, and right merrily did we cross the little savannah between it

and Council Grove, a beautiful lawn of the wilderness, some of the men

hoping for the sweets of the bee-tree, others for a shot at a turkey

or a deer, and others again that among the drooping boughs and silent

glades might be found the panting loins of a stately elk.

Council Grove derives its name from the practice among the traders,

from the commencement of the overland commerce with the Mexican

dominions, of assembling there for the appointment of officers and

the establishment of rules and regulations to govern their march

through the dangerous country south of it. They first elect their

commander-in-chief.[36] His duty is to appoint subordinate leaders, and

to divide the owners and men into watches, and to assign them their

several hours of duty in guarding the camp during the remainder of

their perilous journey. He also divides the caravan into two parts,

each of which forms a column when on march. In these lines he assigns

each team the place in which it must always be found. Having arranged

these several matters, the council breaks up; and the commander, with

the guard on {25} duty, moves off in advance to select the tract and

anticipate approaching danger.

After this guard the head teams of each column lead off about thirty

feet apart, and the others follow in regular lines, rising and dipping

gloriously; two hundred men, one hundred waggons, eight hundred mules;

shoutings and whippings, and whistlings and cheerings, are all there;

and, amidst them all, the hardy Yankee move happily onward to the

siege of the mines of Montezuma. Several objects are gained by this

arrangement of the waggons. If they are attacked on march by the

Cumanche cavalry or other foes, the leading teams file to the right and

left, and close the front; and the hindermost, by a similar movement,

close the rear; and thus they form an oblong rampart of waggons laden

with cotton goods that effectually shields teams and men from the small

arms of the Indians. The same arrangement is made when they halt for

the night.

Within the area thus formed are put, after they are fed, many of

the more valuable horses and oxen. The remainder of the animals are

'staked'--that is, tied to stakes, at a distance of twenty or thirty

yards, around the line. The ropes by which {26} they are fastened are

from thirty to forty feet in length, and the stakes to which they

are attached are carefully driven, at such distances apart, as shall

prevent their being entangled one with another.

Among these animals the guard on duty is stationed, standing motionless

near them, or crouching so as to discover every moving spot upon the

horizon of night. The reasons assigned for this, are, that a guard

in motion would be discovered and fired upon by the cautious savage

before his presence could be known; and farther, that it is impossible

to discern the approach of an Indian creeping among the grass in the

dark, unless the eye of the observer be so close to the ground as to

bring the whole surface lying within the range of vision between it

and the line of light around the lower edge of the horizon. If the

camp be attacked, the guard fire and retreat to the waggons. The

whole body then take positions for defence; at one time sallying out,

rescue their animals from the grasp of the Indians; and at another,

concealed behind their waggons, load and fire upon the intruders with

all possible skill and rapidity. Many were the bloody battles fought on

the 'trail,' and such were some of the anxieties {27} and dangers that

attended and still attend the 'Santa Fé Trade.' Many are the graves,

along the track, of those who have fallen before the terrible cavalry

of the Cumanches. They slumber alone in this ocean of plains; no

tears bedew their graves; no lament of affection breaks the stillness

of their tomb. The tramp of savage horsemen--the deep bellowing of

the buffalo--the nightly howl of the hungry wolf--the storms that

sweep down at midnight from the groaning caverns of the 'shining

heights;' or, when Nature is in a tender mood, the sweet breeze that

seems to whisper among the wild flowers that nod over his dust in the

spring--say to the dead, "You are alone; no kindred bones moulder at

your side."

We traversed Council Grove with the same caution and in the same manner

as we had the other; a platoon of four persons in advance to mark the

first appearance of an ambuscade; behind these the pack animals and

their drivers; on each side an unincumbered horseman; in the rear a

platoon of four men, all on the look-out, silent, with rifles lying on

the saddles in front, steadily winding along the path that the heavy

waggons of the traders had made among the {28} matted underbrush. In

this manner we marched half a mile, and emerged from the Grove at a

place where the traders had, a few days before, held their council. The

grass in the vicinity had been gnawed to the earth by their numerous

animals; their fires were still smouldering and smoking; and the ruts

in the road were fresh. These indications of our vicinity to the great

body of the traders produced an exhilarating effect on our spirits;

and we drove merrily away along the trail, cheered with renewed hopes

that we should overtake our countrymen, and be saved from starvation.

The grove that we were now leaving was the largest and most beautiful

we had passed since leaving the frontier of the States. The trees,

maple, ash, hickory, black walnut, oaks of several kinds, butternut,

and a great variety of shrubs clothed with the sweet foliage of June--a

pure stream of water murmuring along a gravelly bottom, and the songs

of the robin and thrush, made Council Grove a source of delight to us,

akin to those that warm the hearts of pilgrims in the great deserts

of the East, when they behold, from the hills of scorching sands, the

green thorn-tree, and {29} the waters of the bubbling spring. For we

also were pilgrims in a land destitute of the means of subsistence,

with a morsel only of meat and bread per day, lonely and hungry; and

although we were among the grassy plains instead of a sandy waste,

we had freezing storms, tempests, lightning and hail, which, if not

similar in the means, were certainly equal in the amount of discomfort

they produced, to the sand-storms of the Great Sahara.

But we were leaving the Grove and the protection it might yield to us

in such disagreeable circumstances. On the shrubless plain again! To

our right the prairie rose gradually, and stretched away for ten miles,

forming a beautiful horizon. The whole was covered with a fine coat of

grass a foot in height, which was at this season of the deepest and

richest green. Behind us lay a dark line of timber, reaching from the

Grove far into the eastern limits of sight, till the leafy tops seemed

to wave and mingle among the grass of the wild swelling meadows. The

eyes ached as we endeavoured to embrace the view. A sense of vastness

was the single and sole conception of the mind!

Near this grove are some interesting Indian {30} ruins. They consist of

a collection of dilapidated mounds, seeming to indicate the truth of

the legend of the tribes, which says, that formerly this was the Holy

ground of the nations, where they were accustomed to meet to adjust

their difficulties, exchange the salutations of peace, and cement the

bonds of union with smoking, and dancing, and prayers, to the Great

Spirit.

We had advanced a few miles in the open country when we discovered, on

the summit to the right, a small band of Indians. They proved to be a

party of Caws or Kauzaus. As soon as they discovered our approach, two

of them started in different directions at the top of their speed, to

spread the news of our arrival among the remote members of the party.

The remainder urged on with the utmost velocity their pack-horses

laden with meat, skins, blankets, and other paraphernalia of a hunting

excursion. We pursued our way, making no demonstrations of any kind,

until one old brave left his party, and came towards us, stationing

himself beside our path, and awaiting our near approach. He stood quite

upright and motionless. As we advanced, we noted closely his appearance

{31} and position. He had no clothing, except a blanket tied over

the left shoulder and drawn under the right arm. His head was shaven

entirely bare, with the exception of a tuft of hair about two inches in

width, extending from the center of the occiput over the middle of the

head to the forehead. It was short and coarse, and stood erect, like a

comb of a cock. His figure was the perfection of physical beauty. It

was five feet nine or ten inches in height, and looked the Indian in

every respect. He stood by the road-side, apparently perfectly at ease;

and seemed to regard all surrounding objects, with as much interest as

he did us. This is a distinguishing characteristic of the Indian. If

a thunderbolt could be embodied and put in living form before their

eyes, it would not startle them from their gravity. So stood our savage

friend, to all appearance unaware of our approach. Not a muscle of his

body or face moved, until I rode up and proffered him a friendly hand.

This he seized eagerly and continued to shake it very warmly, uttering

meanwhile with great emphasis and rapidity, the words "How de," "how,"

"how." As soon as one individual had withdrawn his hand from his grasp,

he {32} passed to another, repeating the same process and the same

words. From the careful watch we had kept upon his movements since

he took his station, we had noticed that a very delicate operation

had been performed upon the lock of his gun. Something had been

warily removed therefrom, and slipped into the leathern pouch worn

at his side. We expected, therefore, that the never-failing appeal

to our charity would be made for something; and in this we were not

disappointed. As soon as the greetings were over, he showed us, with

the most solicitous gestures, that his piece had no flint. We furnished

him with one; and he then signified to us that he would like something

to put in the pan and barrel; and having given him something of all, he

departed at the rapid swinging gait so peculiar to his race.

As we advanced, the prairie became more gently undulating. The heaving

ridges which had made our trail thus far appear to pass over an immense

sea, the billows of which had been changed to waving meadows the

instant they had escaped from the embraces of the tempest, gave place

to wide and gentle swells, scarcely perceptible over the increased

expanse in sight. Ten {33} miles on the day's march; the animals were

tugging lustily through the mud, when the advance guard shouted "Elk!

Elk!" and "steaks broiled," and "ribs boiled," and "marrow bones," and

"no more hunger!" "Oregon for ever, starve or live," as an appointed

number of my companions filed off to the chase.

The hunters circled around the point of the sharp ridge on which the

Elk were feeding, in order to bring them between themselves and the

wind; and laying closely to their horses' necks, they rode slowly

and silently up the ravine towards them. While these movements were

making, the cavalcade moved quietly along the trail for the purpose

of diverting the attention of the Elk from the hunters. And thus the

latter were enabled to approach within three hundred yards of the game

before they were discovered. But the instant--that anxious instant to

our gnawing appetites--the instant that they perceived the crouching

forms of their pursuers approaching them, tossing their heads in the

air, and snuffing disdainfully at such attempt to deceive their wakeful

senses, they put hoof to turf in fine style. The hunters attempted

pursuit; but having to ascend one side of the ridge, {34} while the Elk

in their flight descended the other, they were at least four hundred

yards distant, before the first bullet whistled after them. None were

killed. And we were obliged to console our hunger with the hope that

three hunters, who had been despatched ahead this morning, would meet

with more success. We encamped soon after this tourney of ill luck--ate

one of the last morsels of food that remained--pitched our tent,

stationed the night-guard, &c., and, fatigued and famished, stretched

ourselves within it.

On the following day we made twenty-five miles over a prairie nearly

level, and occasionally marshy. In the afternoon we were favoured

with what we had scarcely failed, for a single day, to receive since

the commencement of our journey, viz: all several and singular, the

numerous benefits of a thunder-storm. As we went into camp at night,

the fresh ruts along the trail indicated the near vicinity of some of

the Santa Fé teams. No sleep; spent the night in drying our drenched

bodies and clothes.

On the 12th under weigh very early: and travelled briskly along,

intending to overtake the traders before nightfall. But {35} another

thunder-storm for a while arrested the prosecution of our desires.--It

was about three o'clock when a black cloud arose in the south-east,

another in the south-west, and another in the north-east; and involving

and evolving themselves like those that accompany tornadoes of other

countries, they rose with awful rapidity towards the zenith. Having

mingled their dreadful masses over our heads, for a moment they

struggled so terrifically that the winds appeared hushed at the voice

of their dread artillery--a moment of direful battle; and yet not a

breath of wind. We looked up for the coming catastrophe indicated by

the awful stillness; and beheld the cloud rent in fragments, by the

most terrific explosion of electricity we had ever witnessed. Then,

as if every energy of the destroying elements had been roused by this

mighty effort, peal upon peal of thunder rolled around, and up and down

the heavens; and the burning bolts appeared to leap from cloud to cloud

across the sky, and from heaven to earth, in such fearful rapidity,

that the lurid glare of one had scarcely fallen on the sight, when

another followed of still greater intensity. The senses were absolutely

{36} stunned by the conflict. Our animals, partaking of the stupefying

horror of the scene, madly huddled themselves together and became

immovable. They heeded neither whip nor spur; but with backs to the

tempest drooped their heads, as if awaiting their doom. The hail and

rain came down in torrents. The plains were converted into a sea; the

sky, overflowing with floods, lighted by a continual blaze of electric

fire! It was such a scene as no pen can adequately describe.

After the violence of the storm had in some degree abated, we pursued

our way, weary, cold and hungry. About six o'clock we overtook a

company of Santa Fé traders, commanded by Captain Kelly. The gloom of

the atmosphere was such, that when we approached his camp, Captain

Kelly supposed us to be Indians, and took measures accordingly to

defend himself. Having stationed his twenty-nine men within the

barricade formed by his waggons, he himself, accompanied by a single

man, came out to reconnoitre. He was not less agreeably affected, to

find us whites and friends, than were we at the prospect of society and

food. Traders always carry a supply of wood over these naked plains,

{37} and it may be supposed that, drenched and pelted as we had been

by the storm, we did not hesitate to accept the offer of their fire to

cook our supper, and warm ourselves. But the rain continued to fall

in cold shivering floods; and, fire excepted, we might as well have

been elsewhere as in company with our countrymen, who were as badly

sheltered and fed, as ourselves. We, therefore, cast about for our own

means of comfort. While some were cooking our morsel of supper, others

staked out the animals, others pitched our tent; and all, when their

tasks were done, huddled under its shelter. We now numbered thirteen.

We ate our scanty suppers, drank the water from the puddles, and sought

rest. But all our packs being wet, we had no change of wardrobe, that

would have enabled us to have done so with a hope of success. We,

however, spread our wet blankets upon the mud, put our saddles under

our heads, had a song from our jolly Joe, and mused and shivered until

morning.

As the sun of the 13th rose, we drove our animals through Cottonwood

creek.[37] It had been very much swollen by the rains of the previous

day; and our packs {38} and ourselves, were again thoroughly wet. But,

once out of the mire and the dangers of the flood, our hearts beat

merrily as we lessened, step by step, the distance from Oregon.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] For a sketch of Independence see Gregg's _Commerce of the

Prairies_, in our volume xix, p. 189, note 34.--ED.

[24] When Jason Lee, the Methodist missionary, went east (1838-39) for

re-inforcements, he took with him two Indian youths to be educated.

Meetings were held in many cities; at Peoria, Illinois, one of the lads

being taken ill, was left behind. His presence continued the interest

aroused by Lee's representations, so that early in 1839 a company

of young men, not one of whom had ever been west of St. Louis, was

organized to undertake the Oregon migration. The party consisted at

first of nineteen persons. See Robert Shortess, "First Emigrants to

Oregon," in Oregon Pioneer Association _Transactions_, 1896.--ED.

[25] For the Mormons in Missouri consult our volume xx, pp. 93-99, with

accompanying notes.--ED.

[26] The governor of Missouri (1836-40) was Lilburn W. Boggs, for whom

see our volume xx, p. 98, note 65.--ED.

[27] Consult the references in our volume xxiv, pp. 119, 120, notes 99,

100.--ED.

[28] See a brief sketch of Rigdon in Flagg's _Far West_, our volume

xxvi, p. 358, note 209.--ED.

[29] For the use of this term Indian Territory--which did not at that

time correspond with our present Indian Territory--see Wyeth's _Oregon_

in our volume xxi, p. 50, note 31.--ED.

[30] The Santa Fé route was taken in preference to the Oregon trail

on the advice of Andrew Sublette and Philip Thompson, who had just

returned from the mountains. See Shortess's "Sketch," cited in note 20,

above.--ED.

[31] For this stream see James's _Long's Expedition_, in our volume

xiv, p. 184, note 153.--ED.

[32] This is probably the same as Round Grove, for which see Gregg's

_Commerce of the Prairies_, in our volume xix, p. 193, note 35.--ED.

[33] The Osage rises in Kansas south of Kansas River, and as Farnham

states, flows in a general easterly course into the Missouri. The usual

camping place on the Santa Fé trail was about a hundred miles out,

on what was called One Hundred and Ten Mile Creek, indicative of its

distance from Fort Osage.--ED.

[34] For the Kansa, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, p. 67,

note 37.--ED.

[35] On the Comanche, see our volume xvi, p. 233, note 109.--ED.

[36] See Gregg's description of this place, and the method of forming a

caravan, in our volume xix, pp. 196-203, with accompanying notes.--ED.

[37] For the Cottonwood see our volume xix, p. 204, note 42. The

crossing was nearly two hundred miles from Independence.--ED.