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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life
+on the Frontier, by Frances Fuller Victor
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life on the Frontier
+       Also a History of the Sioux War, and a Life of Gen. George A. Custer with Full Account of His Last Battle
+
+
+Author: Frances Fuller Victor
+
+
+
+Release Date: April 17, 2012  [eBook #39465]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY
+MOUNTAINS AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Greg Bergquist, Cathy Maxam, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 39465-h.htm or 39465-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39465/39465-h/39465-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39465/39465-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ENGLISH TOURISTS' CAMP--DOUBTFUL FRIENDS.]
+
+
+ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
+AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER.
+
+by
+
+FRANCES F. VICTOR.
+
+Also
+A History of the Sioux War, and a Life of Gen. George A. Custer
+with Full Account of His Last Battle.
+
+Illustrated by Engravings and Maps.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Published by Subscription Only.
+
+Columbian Book Company,
+Hartford, Conn.
+1877.
+
+Copyright by
+Columbian Book Company.
+1877.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES AND FRONTIER LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+When the author of this book has been absorbed in the elegant narratives
+of Washington Irving, reading and musing over _Astoria_ and
+_Bonneville_, in the cozy quiet of a New York study, no prescient motion
+of the mind ever gave prophetic indication of that personal acquaintance
+which has since been formed with the scenes, and even with some of the
+characters which figure in the works just referred to. Yet so have
+events shaped themselves that to me Astoria is familiar ground; Forts
+Vancouver and Walla-Walla pictured forever in my memory; while such
+journeys as I have been enabled to make into the country east of the
+last named fort, have given me a fair insight into the characteristic
+features of its mountains and its plains.
+
+To-day, a railroad traverses the level stretch between the Missouri
+River and the Rocky Mountains, along which, thirty years ago, the
+fur-traders had worn a trail by their annual excursions with men,
+pack-horses, and sometimes wagons, destined to the Rocky Mountains.
+Then, they had to guard against the attacks of the Savages; and in this
+respect civilization is behind the railroad, for now, as then, it is not
+safe to travel without a sufficient escort. To-day, also, we have new
+Territories called by several names cut out of the identical
+hunting-grounds of the fur-traders of thirty years ago; and steamboats
+plying the rivers where the mountain-men came to set their traps for
+beaver; or cities growing up like mushrooms from a soil made quick by
+gold, where the hardy mountain-hunter pursued the buffalo herds in
+search of his winter's supply of food.
+
+The wonderful romance which once gave enchantment to stories of hardship
+and of daring deeds, suffered and done in these then distant wilds, is
+fast being dissipated by the rapid settlement of the new Territories,
+and by the familiarity of the public mind with tales of stirring
+adventure encountered in the search for glittering ores. It was, then,
+not without an emotion of pleased surprise that I first encountered in
+the fertile plains of Western Oregon the subject of this biography, a
+man fifty-eight years of age, of fine appearance and buoyant temper,
+full of anecdote, and with a memory well stored with personal
+recollections of all the men of note who have formerly visited the old
+Oregon Territory, when it comprised the whole country west of the Rocky
+Mountains lying north of California and south of the forty-ninth
+parallel. This man is _Joseph L. Meek_, to whose stories of
+mountain-life I have listened for days together; and who, after having
+figured conspicuously, and not without considerable fame, in the early
+history of Oregon, still prides himself most of all on having been a
+"mountain-man."
+
+It has frequently been suggested to Mr. Meek, who has now come to be
+known by the familiar title of "Uncle Joe" to all Oregon, that a history
+of his varied adventures would make a readable book, and some of his
+neighbors have even undertaken to become his historian, yet with so
+little well-directed efforts that the task after all has fallen to a
+comparative stranger. I confess to having taken hold of it with some
+doubts as to my claims to the office; and the best recommendation I can
+give my work is the interest I myself felt in the subject of it; and the
+only apology I can offer for anything incredible in the narrative which
+it may contain, is that I "tell the tale as 'twas told to me," and that
+I have no occasion to doubt the truth of it.
+
+Seeing that the incidents I had to record embraced a period of a score
+and a half of years, and that they extended over those years most
+interesting in Oregon history, as well as of the history of the Fur
+Trade in the West, I have concluded to preface Mr. Meek's adventures
+with a sketch of the latter, believing that the information thus
+conveyed to the reader will give an additional degree of interest to
+their narration. The impression made upon my own mind as I gained a
+knowledge of the facts which I shall record in this book relating to the
+early occupation of Oregon, was that they were not only profoundly
+romantic, but decidedly unique.
+
+Mr. Meek was born in Washington Co., Virginia, in 1810, one year before
+the settlement of _Astoria_, and at a period when Congress was much
+interested in the question of our Western possessions and their
+boundary. "Manifest destiny" seemed to have raised him up, together with
+many others, bold, hardy, and fearless men, to become sentinels on the
+outposts of civilization, securing to the United States with comparative
+ease a vast extent of territory, for which, without them, a long
+struggle with England would have taken place, delaying the settlement of
+the Pacific Coast for many years, if not losing it to us altogether. It
+is not without a feeling of genuine self-congratulation, that I am able
+to bear testimony to the services, hitherto hardly recognized, of the
+"mountain-men" who have settled in Oregon. Whenever there shall arise a
+studious and faithful historian, their names shall not be excluded from
+honorable mention, nor least illustrious will appear that of Joseph L.
+Meek, the Rocky Mountain Hunter and Trapper.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PREFATORY CHAPTER.
+
+   Astoria--Fort Vancouver--Its isolated Position--Precautions against
+     Indians--The Hudson's Bay Company--Its Policy and Intercourse with
+     the Indians--The Arrival of the "Brigade"--Other Yearly
+     Arrivals--Punishment of Indian Offenders--Indian Strategy--A
+     Hero--The American Fur Companies--Their Dealings with the
+     Indians--Ashley's Expeditions to Green River--Attack on Smith's
+     Party--Wyeth's Expeditions--Fort Hall--Decline of the Fur
+     Trade--Causes of the Indians' Hostility--Dangers attending the
+     Trapper's Life,      23
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+   Early Life of Meek--He leaves Home--Enlists in a Fur Company--On
+     the March--A Warning Voice--Frontier Sports--Last Vestige of
+     Civilization--On the Plains--A first Adventure--A firm Front--A
+     Parley--The Summer Rendezvous--An enchanting Picture--The Free
+     Trapper's Indian Wife--Wild Carousals--Routine of Camp Life--Smoked
+     Moccasins versus Green Ones--A "Trifling Fellow,"      41
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+   The Camp in Motion--A Trapping Expedition--Opposition to the
+     Hudson's Bay Company--Beautiful Scenery--The Lost Leader
+     Found--Rejoicings in Camp--The "Luck" of the Trappers--Conference
+     of Leaders--The "Devil's Own"--Blackfoot Character--Account of the
+     Tribes,      57
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+   How Beaver are Taken--Beaver Dams--Formation of Meadows--Beaver
+     Lodges--"Bachelors"--Trapping in Winter--"Up to Trap"--Blackfeet on
+     the Trail--On Guard--The Trapper's Ruse--A disappointed Bear--A
+     Fight with Blackfeet--"Out of Luck"--Alone in the
+     Mountains--Splendid Views--A Miserable Night--The last Luxury of
+     Life--The Awfulness of Solitude--A Singular Discovery--A Hell on
+     Earth--A Joyful Recognition--Hard Times in Camp--The Negro's
+     Porcupine--Craig's Rabbit--Deep Snows--What the Scout saw--Bighorn
+     River--"Colter's Hell"--An Alarm--Arrival at Wind River--Christmas,
+     64
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+   Removal to Powder River--A Trapper's Paradise--The Transformation
+     in the Wilderness--The Encampment by Night--Meek takes to
+     Study--On the Move--Loss of Horses and Traps--Robbed and Insulted
+     by a Bear--Crossing the Yellowstone--A Novel Ferriage--Annoyance
+     from Blackfeet--A Cache Opened--A Comrade Killed--Rude Burial
+     Service--Return to Rendezvous--Gay Times--The old Partners take
+     Leave,      82
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+   Grizzly Bears--An Adventure with a Grizzly--The Three "Bares"--The
+     Mountain-Man's Manners--Joking the Leaders--The Irishman and the
+     Booshway--How Sublette climbed a Tree and escaped a Bear--Rival
+     Trappers--Whisky as a Strong Card--Ogden's Indian Wife--Her Courage
+     and Escape--Winter Quarters--Crow Horse-Thieves--An Expedition on
+     Foot--Night Attack on the Indian Fort--Fitzpatrick
+     Missing--Destitution in Camp--A "Medicine-Man" consulted--"Making
+     Medicine"--A Vision Obtained--Fitzpatrick Found--Death of Smith--An
+     Expedition on Snow-Shoes,      90
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+   Annoying Competition--The Chief's Daughter--Sublette Wounded--Forty
+     Days of Isolation--Sublette and Meek captured by Snake Indians--A
+     Solemn Council--Sentence of Death--Hope Deferred--A Rescue--The
+     "Mountain Lamb"--An Obstinate Rival--Blackfeet
+     Marauders--Fitzpatrick's Adventures in the Mountains--"When the Pie
+     was opened the Birds began to Sing"--Rough Sports--A Man on
+     Fire--Brigades ready for the Start--Blackfeet Caravan--Peaceful
+     Overtures--The Half-Breed's Revenge--A
+     Battle--Reinforcements--Death of Sinclair--Sublette
+     Wounded--Greenhorns--A false Alarm--Indian Adroitness--A Deserted
+     Fort--Incident of the Blackfoot Woman--Murder of a Party by
+     Blackfeet,      103
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+   The March to the Humboldt--Scarcity of Game--Terrible
+     Sufferings--The Horrors of Thirst and Famine--Eating Ants, Crickets
+     and Mules--Return to Snake River--A lucky Discovery--A Trout
+     Supper--The Country of the Diggers--Some Account of Them--Anecdote
+     of Wyeth and Meek--Comparison of Indian Tribes--The Blackfeet--The
+     Crows--The Coast Tribes and the Mountain Tribes--The Columbia River
+     Indians--Their Habits, Customs, and Dress--Indian Commerce--The
+     Indians of the Plains--Their Dress, Manners, and Wealth--The Horses
+     of the Plains--Language--The Indian's Moral Nature--Hungry and
+     Hospitable Savages--A Trap set for a Rival--An Ambush--Death of
+     Vanderburg--Skirmish with Blackfeet--The Woman Interpreter taken
+     Prisoner--Bravery of her Husband--Happy Finale--Meek Rescues the
+     "Mountain Lamb"--Intense Cold--Threatened by Famine--The Den of
+     Grizzlys--Second Daniels,      119
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+   A Visit from Blackfeet--The Green River Rendezvous--A "Powerful
+     Drunk"--Mad Wolf--A Friendly Warning--A Trip to the Salt Lake
+     Country--Meek Joins Jo. Walker's California Expedition--Instinct of
+     the Mule--On the Humboldt River--Massacre of Diggers at Mary's
+     River--Vain Explorations--Crossing the Sierra Nevadas--Hardships
+     and Sufferings--The Sacramento Valley--Delight of the
+     Trappers--Meeting with Spanish Soldiers--A Parley--Escorted to
+     Monterey--A Hospitable Reception--The Native Californians--Visit to
+     the Mohave Village--Meeting with Trapp and Jervais--Infamous
+     Conduct at the Moquis Village--The Return March,      141
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+   In the Camanche Country--A Surprise and a Rapid Movement--The Mule
+     Fort--A Camanche Charge--Sure Aim--Another Charge--More Dead
+     Indians--Woman's Weapon, the Tongue--Fearful Heat and Sufferings
+     from Thirst--The Escape by Night--The South Park--Death of
+     Guthrie--Meeting with Bonneville--Indignant Reproaches,      154
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+   Gossip at Rendezvous--Adventures in the Crow Country--Fitzpatrick
+     Picked by the Crows and Flies from Them--Honor among
+     Thieves--Unfair Treatment of Wyeth--Bonneville Snubbed at
+     Walla-Walla--He Rejects good Counsel--Wyeth's Threat, and its
+     Fulfillment--Division of Territory,      160
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+   In the Blackfoot Country--A Visit to Wyeth's Trappers--Sorry
+     Experiences--Condolence and its Effect--The Visitors become
+     Defenders--A Battle with Fire and Sword--Fighting for Life--The
+     Trappers' Victory--A Trapping Excursion--Meek Plays a Trick and has
+     one Played on Him--A Run to Camp--Taking up Traps--A Blackfoot
+     Ambush--A Running Fire--A lucky Escape--Winter Camp on the
+     Yellowstone--Interpretation of a Dream--A Buffalo Hunt and a
+     Blackfoot Surprise--Meek's Mule Story,      166
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+   Setting up as a Family Man--First Love--Cut out by the
+     Booshway--Reward of Constancy--Beauty of Umentucken--Her Dress, Her
+     Horse and Equipments--Anecdotes of the Mountain Lamb--Her Quarrel
+     with The Trapper--Capture by Crows--Her Rescue--Meek Avenges an
+     Insult--A Row in Camp--The Female Element--Death of Umentucken,
+     175
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+   Visitors at Rendezvous--Advent of Missionaries--What Brought
+     Them--Bonneville's account of the Nez Perces and Flatheads--An
+     Enthusiastic View of Their Characters--Origin of some of Their
+     Religious Observances--An Indian's Idea of a God--Material Good
+     Desired--Mistake of the Missionaries--First Sermon in the Rocky
+     Mountains--Interrupted by Buffaloes--Precept and Example--Dr.
+     Whitman's Character--The Missionaries Separate--Dr. Whitman Returns
+     to the States,      181
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+   Meek Falls into the Hands of Crows--The Story as He tells It--He
+     Packs Moccasins, and Bears the Jeers of the Fair Sex--Bridger's
+     Camp Discovered and the Lie Found out--A Desperate
+     Situation--Signaling the Horse-Guard--A Parley with
+     Bridger--Successful Strategy--Capture of Little-Gun--Meek Set at
+     Liberty with a New Name--A Fort Besieged by Bears--A Lazy
+     Trapper--The Decoy of the Delawares--Winter Amusements--The
+     Ishmaelite of the Wilderness--March through the Crow
+     Country--Return to Green River--Punishment of the
+     Bannacks--Consolidation--An Excursion--Intercepted by Crows--A
+     Scattered Camp--The Escape,      189
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+   An Express from Fitzpatrick--The Approach of Missionaries
+     Announced--The Caravan Welcomed by a Party of Trappers--Noisy
+     Demonstrations--Curiosity of the Indians--The Missionary
+     Ladies--Preparations in the Indian Villages--Reception of the
+     Missionaries by the Nez Perces and Flatheads--Kind Treatment from
+     the Hudson's Bay Company--The Missionaries' Land of Promise--Visit
+     to Fort Vancouver--Selection of Missionary Stations,      201
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+   The Den of Rattlesnakes--The Old Frenchman--How to Keep Snakes out
+     of Bed--The Prairie Dog's Tenants at Will--Fight with
+     Blackfeet--Policy of War--A Duel Averted--A Run-away Bear--Meek's
+     Best Bear Fight--Winter Quarters on Powder River--Robbing
+     Bonneville's Men,      214
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+   A Dissipated Camp--A Crow Carousal--Picked Crows--A Fight with
+     Blackfeet--Manhead Killed--Night Visit to the Blackfoot
+     Village--"Cooning a River"--Stanley the Indian Painter--Desperate
+     Fight with Blackfeet--"The Trapper's Last Shot"--War and Peace--In
+     the Wrong Camp--To Rendezvous on Wind River--Mr. Gray, and His
+     Adventures--Massacre of Indian Allies--Capt. Stuart Robbed by
+     Crows--Newell's Address to the Chiefs,      225
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+   Decline of the Fur Trade--Wild Scenes at Rendezvous--A Missionary
+     Party--Entertained by a War Dance--Meek in Armor--Deserted by his
+     Indian Spouse--The Pursuit--Meek abuses a Missionary and Kidnaps
+     his Wife--Meek's Black Eyed Daughter--Singing for a
+     Biscuit--Trapping Again--A hot March, and Fearful Suffering from
+     Thirst--The Old Flathead Woman--Water at Last,      237
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+   A Chat about Buffalo Hunting--Buffalo Horses--The Start--The
+     Pursuit--The Charge--Tumbles--Horsemanship--The Glory of Mountain
+     Life--How a Nez Perce Village Hunts Buffalo--Kit Carson and the
+     Frenchman on a Run--Mountain Manners,      246
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+   The Solitary Trapper--A Jest--Among the Nez Perces--Their Eagerness
+     to be Taught--Meek is Called upon to Preach--He modestly
+     Complies--Asks for a Wife--Polygamy Defended--Meek Gets a Wife--The
+     Preacher's Salary--Surprised by Blackfeet--Death of Allen--The Last
+     Rendezvous--Anecdote of Shawnee Jim--The new Wife Missing--Meeting
+     with Farnham--Cold and Famine--Succor and Food--Parties at Fort
+     Crockett--Setting up in Trade--How Al. Saved His Bacon--Bad
+     Times--War upon Horse Thieves--In Search of Adventures--Green River
+     Canyon--Running Antelope--Gambling--Vain Hunt for
+     Rendezvous--Reflections and Half-Resolves--The last Trapping
+     Expedition,      251
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+   A new Start in Life--Mountain-Men for Pioneers--Discovery of the
+     Columbia River--What Capt. Gray Did--What Vancouver Did--The United
+     States' Claim to Oregon--First Missionaries to the Wallamet--John
+     McLaughlin--Hospitalities of Fort Vancouver--The Mission
+     Reinforced--Other Settlers in the Wallamet Valley--How they
+     Regarded the Mission--The California Cattle Company--Distribution
+     of Settlers,      264
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+   Westward Ho!--Opening Wagon Roads--Republicanism--Fat Pork for
+     Preachers--Mission Work at Waiilatpu--Helen Mar--Off for the
+     Wallamet--Wagons Left at Walla-Walla--The Dalles Mission--Indian
+     Prayers--The Missionaries and the Mountain-Men--The Impious
+     Canadian--Doing Penance--Down the Columbia--Trouble with
+     Indians--Arrival at the Wallamet--Hunger, and Dependence on Fort
+     Vancouver--Meeting Old Comrades--Settling on the Tualatin Plains--A
+     disagreeable Winter--Taking Claims--Who furnished the Seed Wheat,
+     271
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+   Scarcity of Employment--Wilkes' Exploring Expedition--Meek Employed
+     as Pilot--Interchange of Courtesies at Vancouver--"The
+     Peacock"--Unpleasant Reminder--Exploring the Cowelitz--Wilkes'
+     Chronometer--Land Expedition to California--Meek
+     Discharged--Gleaning Wheat--Fifty Miles for an Axe--Visit to the
+     New Mission--Praying for a Cow--Marriage Ceremony,      280
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+   The Brooding of Events--Arrival of the Chenamus--Meek Celebrates
+     the Fourth of July--Dr. Whitman Goes to Washington--An Alarming
+     Feature--Mission Stations of the Upper Country--Discontent of the
+     Indians--The Missionaries Insulted and Threatened--Mrs. Whitman
+     Frightened Away from Waiilatpu,      285
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+   The Plot Thickens--The Wolf Association--Suspicions of the
+     Canadians--"Who's for a Divide?"--The Die Cast--A Shout for
+     Freedom--Meek Appointed Sheriff--The Provisional Government,      291
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+   Arrival of the Immigration at the Dalles--Wagons
+     Abandoned--Pitiable Condition of the Women and Children--Aid from
+     the Hudson's Bay Company--Perils of the Columbia--Wreck of the
+     Boat--Wonderful Escape--Trials of the New Colonists--The Generous
+     Savage--The Barefoot Lawyer--Meek's Pumpkin--Privation of the
+     Settlers--Shopping under Difficulties--Attempt to Manufacture
+     Ardent Spirits--Dilemma of the People--An Appeal--The Sheriff
+     Destroys the Distillery--Anecdote of Dr. White and Madam
+     Cooper--Meek Levies on Her Whisky--First Official Act of the
+     Sheriff,      294
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+   Excitement about Indians--Dr. White's Flogging Law--Indian
+     Revenge--Raid of the Klamaths--Massacre of Indians--Affray at the
+     Falls--Death of Cockstock--Death of LeBreton and Rogers--"You'd
+     Better Run"--Meek's Policy with the Indians--Meek and the
+     Agent--The Borrowed Horse--Solemn Audacity--Wonderful
+     Transformation--Temperance--Courts--Anecdote of Judge
+     Nesmith--Early Days of Portland--An Indian Carousal--Meek "Settles
+     the Indians"--The Immigration of 1845--The Cascade Mountain
+     Road-Hunters--Hunger and Peril--A Last Request--Succor at the Last
+     Moment--A Reason for Patriotism,      306
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+   Difficulty of Collecting Taxes--A Ponderous Currency--Dr.
+     McLaughlin's Ox--An Exciting Year--The Boundary
+     Question--"Fifty-four-forty or Fight"--War Vessels in the
+     Columbia--Loss of the Shark--Meek Receives a Salute--Schenck
+     Arrested--The Color-Stand of the Shark--"Sunset at the Mouth of the
+     Columbia,"      320
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+   "The Adventures of a Columbia River Salmon"--History of the
+     Immigration of 1846--Opening of Southern Route to the
+     Wallamet--Tragic Fate of the California Immigrants--Sufferings of
+     the Oregon Immigrants--Tardy Relief--Celebrating the Fourth of
+     July--Visit to the Ship Brutus--An Insult to the Mountain-Men--The
+     Indignity Resented with a Twelve-Pounder--Dr. McLaughlin
+     Interferes--Re-election of Meek--Large Immigration--Failure of the
+     Territorial Bill--Affray between Immigrants and Indians at the
+     Dalles--Meeting of the Legislature--Falling of the Thunderbolt,
+     325
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+   Trouble with the Up-Country Indians--Causes of their
+     Disquiet--Their Opinion of the Americans--"Humbugged and
+     Cheated"--Fear of Greater Frauds in the Future--Resolve not to
+     Submit--Their Feelings Toward Dr. Whitman--Acts of
+     Violence--Influence of the Catholic Missionaries--A Season of
+     Severe Sickness--What Provoked the Massacre--Joe Lewis the
+     Half-Breed--The Fatal Test--Sickness Among the Immigrants--Dr.
+     Whitman's Family--Persons at the Mission and Mill--Helen
+     Mar--Arrival of Mr. Whitman and his Daughter--A Night Visit to the
+     Umatilla--In the Lodge of Stickas, the Walla-Walla Chief--The
+     Warning of Stickas and His Family--The Death Song--"Beware of the
+     Cayuses at the Mission!"--Mr. Spaulding meets Brouillet, the
+     Catholic Bishop--News of the Massacre--Escape to the Woods--Night
+     Journeys to Lapwai,      334
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+   The Tragedy at Waiilatpu--Dr. Whitman's Arrival at Home--Monday
+     Morning at the Mission--Commencement of the Massacre--The First
+     Victim--"Oh, the Indians!"--Horrors of the Attack--Shooting of Mrs.
+     Whitman--Treachery of Jo Lewis--Sufferings of the Children--Indian
+     Orgies--The Victims Tortured--The Two Compassionate Indians--A
+     Night of Horror--Remarkable Escape of Mr. Osborne and
+     Family--Escape and Fate of Mr. Hall--Cruel Treatment of
+     Fugitives--Kindness of Mr. Stanley--Inhospitable Reception at Fort
+     Walla-Walla--Touching Kindness of Stickas,      344
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+   Horrors of the Waiilatpu Massacre--Exemption of the
+     Catholics--Charges of the Protestants--Natural Suspicions--Further
+     Particulars of the Massacre--Cruelty to the Children--Fate of the
+     Young Women--Miss Bulee and the Priests--Lapwai Mission--Arrival of
+     Mr. Camfield--An Indian Trait--Heroism of Mrs. Spalding--Appeal to
+     the Chiefs--Arrival of the News--Lapwai Plundered--Treachery of
+     Joseph--Arrival of Mr. Spalding--Detained as Hostages--Ransomed by
+     the H.B. Company--The "Blood of the Martyrs"--Country Abandoned to
+     the Indians--Subsequent Return of Mr. Spalding to the Nez Perces,
+     353
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+   The Call to Arms--Meetings and Speeches--Ways and Means of
+     Defence--The first Regiment of Oregon Riflemen--Messenger to the
+     Governor of California--Meek Chosen Messenger to the President of
+     the United States--He Proceeds to the Dalles--The Army Marches to
+     Waiilatpu--A Skirmish with the Des Chutes--Burial of the
+     Victims--Meek Escorted to the Blue Mountains,      362
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+   Meek's Party--Precautions against Indians--Meeting with
+     Bannacks--White Lies--Fort Hall--Deep Snows--Horses Abandoned--The
+     Mountain Spirit Returning--Meeting with Peg-Leg Smith--A Mountain
+     Revel--Meeting with An Old Leader--Reception at Fort
+     Laramie--Passing the Sioux Village--Courtesy of a French
+     Trader--Reflections on Nearing the Settlements--Resolve to Remain
+     Joe Meek--Reception at St. Joseph--"The Quickest Trip Yet"--Arrival
+     at St. Louis--Meek as Steamboat Runner--Interview with the Stage
+     Agent at Wheeling--Astonishing the Natives--The Puzzled
+     Conductor--Arrival at Washington,      368
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+   Meek Dines at Coleman's--A Sensation--An Amusing Scene--Recognized
+     by Senator Underwood--Visit to the President--Cordial Reception by
+     the Family of Polk--Some Doubts of Himself--Rapid Recovery of
+     Self-Possession--Action of the Friends of Oregon--The Two Oregon
+     Representatives--The Oregon Bill in the Senate--Mr.
+     Thornton--Meek's Successful Debut in Society--Curiosity of
+     Ladies--Kit Carson and the "Contingent Fund"--Meek's Remarkable
+     Popularity--Invited to Baltimore by the City Council--Escorts the
+     President--Visit to Lowell--The Factory Girls--Some Natural
+     Regrets--Kindness of Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Walker--Commodore
+     Wilkes--Oregon Lies--Getting Franked--Champagne Suppers,      381
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+   Meek Appointed U.S. Marshal for Oregon--"Home Sweet Home"--Pay of
+     the Delegates--The Lion's Share--Meek's Interview with Gov.
+     Lane--Buying out a Peddler--The Escort of Riflemen--The Start from
+     St. Louis, and the Route--Meeting Price's Army--An Adventure and a
+     Pleasant Surprise--Leaving the Wagons--Desertion of
+     Soldiers--Drought--The Trick of the Yumas--Demoralization of the
+     Train--Rumors of Gold--Gen. Lane's Coffee--The Writer's
+     Reflection--The Party on Foot--Extreme Sufferings--Arrival at
+     William's Ranch--Speculation in Silks and Jack-Knives--Miners at
+     Los Angelos--Oregonians at San Francisco--Nat Lane and Meek Take
+     the Gold Fever--Meek's Investment--The Governor and Marshal
+     Quarrel--Pranks with a Jew--A Salute--Arrival in Oregon City,
+     394
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+   Lane's Course with the Cayuse Indians--Magnanimity of the
+     Savages--Rebuke to Their Captors--Their Statements to Meek--The
+     Puzzle of Indian Ethics--Incidents of the Trial and
+     Execution--State of the Upper Country for A Term of Years--How Meek
+     Was Received in Oregon--His Incurable Waggishness--Scene in a
+     Court-Room--Contempt of Court--Judge Nelson and the Carpenters--Two
+     Hundred Lies--An Excursion by the Oregon Court--Indians Tried for
+     Murder--Proceedings of a Jury--Sentence and Execution of the
+     Indians--The Chief's Wife--Cost of Proceedings--Lane's Career in
+     Oregon--Gov. Davis,      408
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+   Meek as U.S. Marshal--The Captain of the Melvin--The British
+     Smuggler--Returning a Compliment--"Barly Enough for the Officers of
+     the Court"--Misused Confidence--Indian Disturbances--The Indian War
+     of 1855-6--Gen. Wool and Gov. Curry--Officers of the War--How the
+     Volunteers Fared--Meek as a Volunteer--Feasting and Fun--"Marking
+     Time"--End of Meek's Public Career,      417
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                              PAGE.
+
+  ENGLISH TOURISTS' CAMP--DOUBTFUL FRIENDS.--_Frontispiece._
+
+  WINTER COURIERS OF THE NORTH-WEST FUR COMPANY,        23
+
+  A STATION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY,        30
+
+  WATCHING FOR INDIAN HORSE-THIEVES,        38
+
+  MAP OF THE FUR COUNTRY,        40
+
+  THE ENLISTMENT,        42
+
+  THE SUMMER RENDEZVOUS,        48
+
+  BEAVERS AT WORK,        66
+
+  HUNTERS' WINTER CAMP,        81
+
+  THE THREE "BARES,"        92
+
+  THE WRONG END OF THE TREE,        94
+
+  SCOUTS IN THE BLACKFOOT COUNTRY--"ELK OR INDIANS?",        132
+
+  BRANDING CATTLE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,        150
+
+  A FIGHT WITH CAMANCHES--THE MULE FORT,        155
+
+  VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA,        165
+
+  THE FREE TRAPPER'S INDIAN WIFE,        177
+
+  "INDIANS, BY JOVE!"        200
+
+  DESCENDING THE BLUE MOUNTAINS,        211
+
+  THE BEAR IN CAMP,        219
+
+  SATISFIED WITH BEAR FIGHTING,        221
+
+  CACHE,        227
+
+  THE TRAPPER'S LAST SHOT,        230
+
+  THE SQUAW'S ESCAPE,        231
+
+  HORSE-TAIL FALLS,        245
+
+  A BUFFALO HUNT,        246
+
+  CASTLE ROCK, COLUMBIA RIVER,        263
+
+  WRECKED IN THE RAPIDS,        294
+
+  A WILD INDIAN IN TOWN,        307
+
+  THE CASCADE MOUNTAIN ROAD-HUNTERS,        317
+
+  MOUNT HOOD FROM THE DALLES,        343
+
+  MASSACRE OF THE WHITMAN FAMILY,        344
+
+  MEEK AS A STEAMBOAT RUNNER,        375
+
+  "TAKE CARE KNOX,"        385
+
+  A MOUNTAIN-MAN IN CLOVER,        392
+
+  GOV. LANE AND MEEK ON THE COLORADO DESERT,        401
+
+  MEEK AS U.S. MARSHAL--SCENE IN A COURT-ROOM,        413
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: WINTER COURIERS OF THE NORTH-WEST FUR COMPANY.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY CHAPTER.
+
+   AN ACCOUNT OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S INTERCOURSE WITH THE
+     INDIANS OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST; WITH A SKETCH OF THE DIFFERENT
+     AMERICAN FUR COMPANIES, AND THEIR DEALINGS WITH THE TRIBES OF THE
+     ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+
+In the year 1818, Mr. Prevost, acting for the United States, received
+Astoria back from the British, who had taken possession, as narrated by
+Mr. Irving, four years previous. The restoration took place in
+conformity with the treaty of Ghent, by which those places captured
+during the war were restored to their original possessors. Mr. Astor
+stood ready at that time to renew his enterprise on the Columbia River,
+had Congress been disposed to grant him the necessary protection which
+the undertaking required. Failing to secure this, when the United States
+sloop of war Ontario sailed away from Astoria, after having taken formal
+possession of that place for our Government, the country was left to the
+occupancy, (scarcely a joint-occupancy, since there were then no
+Americans here,) of the British traders. After the war, and while
+negotiations were going on between Great Britain and the United States,
+the fort at Astoria had remained in possession of the North-West
+Company, as their principal establishment west of the mountains. It had
+been considerably enlarged since it had come into their possession, and
+was furnished with artillery enough to have frightened into friendship a
+much more warlike people than the subjects of old king Comcomly; who, it
+will be remembered, was not at first very well disposed towards the
+"King George men," having learned to look upon the "Boston men" as his
+friends in his earliest intercourse with the whites. At this time
+Astoria, or _Fort George_, as the British traders called it, contained
+sixty-five inmates, twenty-three of whom were whites, and the remainder
+Canadian half-breeds and Sandwich Islanders. Besides this number of men,
+there were a few women, the native wives of the men, and their
+half-breed offspring. The situation of Astoria, however, was not
+favorable, being near the sea coast, and not surrounded with good
+farming lands such as were required for the furnishing of provisions to
+the fort. Therefore, when in 1821 it was destroyed by fire, it was only
+in part rebuilt, but a better and more convenient location for the
+headquarters of the North-West Company was sought for in the interior.
+
+About this time a quarrel of long standing between the Hudson's Bay and
+North-West Companies culminated in a battle between their men in the
+Red River country, resulting in a considerable loss of life and
+property. This affair drew the attention of the Government at home; the
+rights of the rival companies were examined into, the mediation of the
+Ministry secured, and a compromise effected, by which the North-West
+Company, which had succeeded in dispossessing the Pacific Fur Company
+under Mr. Astor, was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company, whose name
+and fame are so familiar to all the early settlers of Oregon.
+
+At the same time, Parliament passed an act by which the hands of the
+consolidated company were much strengthened, and the peace and security
+of all persons greatly insured; but which became subsequently, in the
+joint occupancy of the country, a cause of offence to the American
+citizens, as we shall see hereafter. This act allowed the commissioning
+of Justices of the Peace in all the territories not belonging to the
+United States, nor already subject to grants. These justices were to
+execute and enforce the laws and decisions of the courts of Upper
+Canada; to take evidence, and commit and send to Canada for trial the
+guilty; and even in some cases, to hold courts themselves for the trial
+of criminal offences and misdemeanors not punishable with death, or of
+civil causes in which the amount at issue should not exceed two hundred
+pounds.
+
+Thus in 1824, the North-West Company, whose perfidy had occasioned such
+loss and mortification to the enterprising New York merchant, became
+itself a thing of the past, and a new rule began in the region west of
+the Rocky Mountains. The old fort at Astoria having been only so far
+rebuilt as to answer the needs of the hour, after due consideration, a
+site for head-quarters was selected about one hundred miles from the
+sea, near the mouth of the Wallamet River, though opposite to it. Three
+considerations went to make up the eligibility of the point selected.
+First, it was desirable, even necessary, to settle upon good
+agricultural lands, where the Company's provisions could be raised by
+the Company's servants. Second, it was important that the spot chosen
+should be upon waters navigable for the Company's vessels, or upon
+tide-water. Lastly, and not leastly, the Company had an eye to the
+boundary question between Great Britain and the United States; and
+believing that the end of the controversy would probably be to make the
+Columbia River the northern limit of the United States territory, a spot
+on the northern bank of that river was considered a good point for their
+fort, and possible future city.
+
+The site chosen by the North-West Company in 1821, for their new fort,
+combined all these advantages, and the further one of having been
+already commenced and named. Fort Vancouver became at once on the
+accession of the Hudson's Bay Company, the metropolis of the northwest
+coast, the center of the fur trade, and the seat of government for that
+immense territory, over which roamed the hunters and trappers in the
+employ of that powerful corporation. This post was situated on the edge
+of a beautiful sloping plain on the northern bank of the Columbia, about
+six miles above the upper mouth of the Wallamet. At this point the
+Columbia spreads to a great width, and is divided on the south side into
+bayous by long sandy islands, covered with oak, ash, and cotton-wood
+trees, making the noble river more attractive still by adding the charm
+of curiosity concerning its actual breadth to its natural and ordinary
+magnificence. Back of the fort the land rose gently, covered with
+forests of fir; and away to the east swelled the foot-hills of the
+Cascade range, then the mountains themselves, draped in filmy azure, and
+over-topped five thousand feet by the snowy cone of Mt. Hood.
+
+In this lonely situation grew up, with the dispatch which characterized
+the acts of the Company, a fort in most respects similar to the original
+one at Astoria. It was not, however, thought necessary to make so great
+a display of artillery as had served to keep in order the subjects of
+Comcomly. A stockade enclosed a space about eight hundred feet long by
+five hundred broad, having a bastion at one corner, where were mounted
+three guns, while two eighteen pounders and two swivels were planted in
+front of the residence of the Governor and chief factors. These
+commanded the main entrance to the fort, besides which there were two
+other gates in front, and another in the rear. Military precision was
+observed in the precautions taken against surprises, as well as in all
+the rules of the place. The gates were opened and closed at certain
+hours, and were always guarded. No large number of Indians were
+permitted within the enclosure at the same time, and every employee at
+the fort knew and performed his duty with punctuality.
+
+The buildings within the stockade were the Governor's and chief factors'
+residences, stores, offices, work-shops, magazines, warehouses, &c.
+
+Year by year, up to 1835 or '40, improvements continued to go on in and
+about the fort, the chief of which was the cultivation of the large farm
+and garden outside the enclosure, and the erection of a hospital
+building, large barns, servants' houses, and a boat-house, all outside
+of the fort; so that at the period when the Columbia River was a romance
+and a mystery to the people of the United States, quite a flourishing
+and beautiful village adorned its northern shore, and that too erected
+and sustained by the enemies of American enterprise on soil commonly
+believed to belong to the United States: fair foes the author firmly
+believes them to have been in those days, yet foes nevertheless.
+
+The system on which the Hudson's Bay Company conducted its business was
+the result of long experience, and was admirable for its method and its
+justice also. When a young man entered its service as a clerk, his wages
+were small for several years, increasing only as his ability and good
+conduct entitled him to advancement. When his salary had reached one
+hundred pounds sterling he became eligible to a chief-tradership as a
+partner in the concern, from which position he was promoted to the rank
+of a chief factor. No important business was ever intrusted to an
+inexperienced person, a policy which almost certainly prevented any
+serious errors. A regular tariff was established on the Company's goods,
+comprising all the articles used in their trade with the Indians; nor
+was the quality of their goods ever allowed to deteriorate. A price was
+also fixed upon furs according to their market value, and an Indian
+knowing this, knew exactly what he could purchase. No bartering was
+allowed. When skins were offered for sale at the fort they were handed
+to the clerk through a window like a post-office delivery-window, and
+their value in the article desired, returned through the same aperture.
+All these regulations were of the highest importance to the good order,
+safety, and profit of the Company. The confidence of the Indians was
+sure to be gained by the constancy and good faith always observed toward
+them, and the Company obtained thereby numerous and powerful allies in
+nearly all the tribes.
+
+As soon as it was possible to make the change, the Indians were denied
+the use of intoxicating drinks, the appetite for which had early been
+introduced among them by coasting vessels, and even continued by the
+Pacific Fur Company at Astoria. It would have been dangerous to have
+suddenly deprived them of the coveted stimulus; therefore the practice
+must be discontinued by many wise arts and devices. A public notice was
+given that the sale of it would be stopped, and the reasons for this
+prohibition explained to the Indians. Still, not to come into direct
+conflict with their appetites, a little was sold to the chiefs, now and
+then, by the clerks, who affected to be running the greatest risks in
+violating the order of the company. The strictest secrecy was enjoined
+on the lucky chief who, by the friendship of some under-clerk, was
+enabled to smuggle off a bottle under his blanket. But the cunning clerk
+had generally managed to get his "good friend" into a state so cleverly
+between drunk and sober, before he entrusted him with the precious
+bottle, that he was sure to betray himself. Leaving the shop with a mien
+even more erect than usual, with a gait affected in its majesty, and his
+blanket tightened around him to conceal his secret treasure, the
+chuckling chief would start to cross the grounds within the fort. If he
+was a new customer, he was once or twice permitted to play his little
+game with the obliging clerk whose particular friend he was, and to
+escape detection.
+
+But by-and-by, when the officers had seen the offence repeated more than
+once from their purposely contrived posts of observation, one of them
+would skillfully chance to intercept the guilty chief at whose comical
+endeavors to appear sober he was inwardly laughing, and charge him with
+being intoxicated. Wresting away the tightened blanket, the bottle
+appeared as evidence that could not be controverted, of the duplicity of
+the Indian and the unfaithfulness of the clerk, whose name was instantly
+demanded, that he might be properly punished. When the chief again
+visited the fort, his particular friend met him with a sorrowful
+countenance, reproaching him for having been the cause of his disgrace
+and loss. This reproach was the surest means of preventing another
+demand for rum, the Indian being too magnanimous, probably, to wish to
+get his friend into trouble; while the clerk affected to fear the
+consequences too much to be induced to take the risk another time. Thus
+by kind and careful means the traffic in liquors was at length broken
+up, which otherwise would have ruined both Indian and trader.
+
+To the company's servants liquor was sold or allowed at certain times:
+to those on the sea-board, one half-pint two or three times a year, to
+be used as medicine,--not that it was always needed or used for this
+purpose, but too strict inquiry into its use was wisely avoided,--and
+for this the company demanded pay. To their servants in the interior no
+liquor was sold, but they were furnished as a gratuity with one pint on
+leaving rendezvous, and another on arriving at winter quarters. By this
+management, it became impossible for them to dispose of drink to the
+Indians; their small allowance being always immediately consumed in a
+meeting or parting carouse.
+
+The arrival of men from the interior at Fort Vancouver usually took
+place in the month of June, when the Columbia was high, and a stirring
+scene it was. The chief traders generally contrived their march through
+the upper country, their camps, and their rendezvous, so as to meet the
+Express which annually came to Vancouver from Canada and the Red River
+settlements. They then descended the Columbia together, and arrived in
+force at the Fort. This annual fleet went by the name of Brigade--a name
+which suggested a military spirit in the crews that their appearance
+failed to vindicate. Yet, though there was nothing warlike in the scene,
+there was much that was exciting, picturesque, and even brilliant; for
+these _couriers de bois_, or wood-rangers, and the _voyageurs_, or
+boatmen, were the most foppish of mortals when they came to rendezvous.
+Then, too, there was an exaltation of spirits on their safe arrival at
+head-quarters, after their year's toil and danger in wildernesses, among
+Indians and wild beasts, exposed to famine and accident, that almost
+deprived them of what is called "common sense," and compelled them to
+the most fantastic excesses.
+
+Their well-understood peculiarities did not make them the less welcome
+at Vancouver. When the cry was given--"the Brigade! the Brigade!"--there
+was a general rush to the river's bank to witness the spectacle. In
+advance came the chief-trader's barge, with the company's flag at the
+bow, and the cross of St. George at the stern: the fleet as many abreast
+as the turnings of the river allowed. With strong and skillful strokes
+the boatmen governed their richly laden boats, keeping them in line, and
+at the same time singing in chorus a loud and not unmusical hunting or
+boating song. The gay ribbons and feathers with which the singers were
+bedecked took nothing from the picturesqueness of their appearance. The
+broad, full river, sparkling in the sunlight, gemmed with emerald
+islands, and bordered with a rich growth of flowering shrubbery; the
+smiling plain surrounding the Fort; the distant mountains, where
+glittered the sentinel Mt. Hood, all came gracefully into the picture,
+and seemed to furnish a fitting back-ground and middle distance for the
+bright bit of coloring given by the moving life in the scene. As with a
+skillful sweep the brigade touched the bank, and the traders and men
+sprang on shore, the first cheer which had welcomed their appearance was
+heartily repeated, while a gay clamor of questions and answers followed.
+
+After the business immediately incident to their arrival had been
+dispatched, then took place the regale of pork, flour, and spirits,
+which was sure to end in a carouse, during which blackened eyes and
+broken noses were not at all uncommon; but though blood was made to
+flow, life was never put seriously in peril, and the belligerent parties
+were the best of friends when the fracas was ended.
+
+The business of exchange being completed in three or four weeks--the
+rich stores of peltries consigned to their places in the warehouse, and
+the boats reladen with goods for the next year's trade with the Indians
+in the upper country, a parting carouse took place, and with another
+parade of feathers, ribbons, and other finery, the brigade departed
+with songs and cheers as it had come, but with probably heavier hearts.
+
+It would be a stern morality indeed which could look upon the excesses
+of this peculiar class as it would upon the same excesses committed by
+men in the enjoyment of all the comforts and pleasures of civilized
+life. For them, during most of the year, was only an out-door life of
+toil, watchfulness, peril, and isolation. When they arrived at the
+rendezvous, for the brief period of their stay they were allowed perfect
+license because nothing else would content them. Although at
+head-quarters they were still in the wilderness, thousands of miles from
+civilization, with no chance of such recreations as men in the continual
+enjoyment of life's sweetest pleasures would naturally seek. For them
+there was only one method of seeking and finding temporary oblivion of
+the accustomed hardship; and whatever may be the strict rendering of
+man's duty as an immortal being, we cannot help being somewhat lenient
+at times to his errors as a mortal.
+
+After the departure of the boats, there was another arrival at the Fort,
+of trappers from the Snake River country. Previous to 1832, such were
+the dangers of the fur trade in this region, that only the most
+experienced traders were suffered to conduct a party through it; and
+even they were frequently attacked, and sometimes sustained serious
+losses of men and animals. Subsequently, however, the Hudson's Bay
+Company obtained such an influence over even these hostile tribes as to
+make it safe for a party of no more than two of their men to travel
+through this much dreaded region.
+
+There was another important arrival at Fort Vancouver, usually in
+midsummer. This was the Company's supply ship from London. In the
+possible event of a vessel being lost, one cargo was always kept on
+store at Vancouver; but for which wise regulation much trouble and
+disaster might have resulted, especially in the early days of the
+establishment. Occasionally a vessel foundered at sea or was lost on the
+bar of the Columbia; but these losses did not interrupt the regular
+transaction of business. The arrival of a ship from London was the
+occasion of great bustle and excitement also. She brought not only goods
+for the posts throughout the district of the Columbia, but letters,
+papers, private parcels, and all that seemed of so much value to the
+little isolated world at the Fort.
+
+A company conducting its business with such method and regularity as has
+been described, was certain of success. Yet some credit also must attach
+to certain individuals in its service, whose faithfulness, zeal, and
+ability in carrying out its designs, contributed largely to its welfare.
+Such a man was at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs in the
+large and important district west of the Rocky Mountains. The Company
+never had in its service a more efficient man than Gov. John McLaughlin,
+more commonly called Dr. McLaughlin.
+
+To the discipline, at once severe and just, which Dr. McLaughlin
+maintained in his district, was due the safety and prosperity of the
+company he served, and the servants of that company generally; as well
+as, at a later period, of the emigration which followed the hunter and
+trapper into the wilds of Oregon. Careful as were all the officers of
+the Hudson's Bay Company, they could not always avoid conflicts with the
+Indians; nor was their kindness and justice always sufficiently
+appreciated to prevent the outbreak of savage instincts. Fort Vancouver
+had been threatened in an early day; a vessel or two had been lost in
+which the Indians were suspected to have been implicated; at long
+intervals a trader was murdered in the interior; or more frequently,
+Indian insolence put to the test both the wisdom and courage of the
+officers to prevent an outbreak.
+
+When murders and robberies were committed, it was the custom at Fort
+Vancouver to send a strong party to demand the offenders from their
+tribe; Such was the well known power and influence of the Company, and
+such the wholesome fear of the "King George men," that this demand was
+never resisted, and if the murderer could be found he was given up to be
+hung according to "King George" laws. They were almost equally impelled
+to good conduct by the state of dependence on the company into which
+they had been brought. Once they had subsisted and clothed themselves
+from the spoils of the rivers and forest; since they had tasted of the
+tree of knowledge of good and evil, they could no more return to skins
+for raiment, nor to game alone for food. Blankets and flour, beads,
+guns, and ammunition had become dear to their hearts: for all these
+things they must love and obey the Hudson's Bay Company. Another fine
+stroke of policy in the Company was to destroy the chieftain-ships in
+the various tribes; thus weakening them by dividing them and preventing
+dangerous coalitions of the leading spirits: for in savage as well as
+civilized life, the many are governed by the few.
+
+It may not be uninteresting in this place to give a few anecdotes of the
+manner in which conflicts with the Indians were prevented, or offences
+punished by the Hudson's Bay Company. In the year 1828 the ship _William
+and Ann_ was cast away just inside the bar of the Columbia, under
+circumstances which seemed to direct suspicion to the Indians in that
+vicinity. Whether or not they had attacked the ship, not a soul was
+saved from the wreck to tell how she was lost. On hearing that the ship
+had gone to pieces, and that the Indians had appropriated a portion of
+her cargo, Dr. McLaughlin sent a message to the chiefs, demanding
+restitution of the stolen goods. Nothing was returned by the messenger
+except one or two worthless articles. Immediately an armed force was
+sent to the scene of the robbery with a fresh demand for the goods,
+which the chiefs, in view of their spoils, thought proper to resist by
+firing upon the reclaiming party. But they were not unprepared; and a
+swivel was discharged to let the savages know what they might expect in
+the way of firearms. The argument was conclusive, the Indians fleeing
+into the woods. While making search for the goods, a portion of which
+were found, a chief was observed skulking near, and cocking his gun; on
+which motion one of the men fired, and he fell. This prompt action, the
+justice of which the Indians well understood, and the intimidating power
+of the swivel, put an end to the incipient war. Care was then taken to
+impress upon their minds that they must not expect to profit by the
+disasters of vessels, nor be tempted to murder white men for the sake of
+plunder. The _William and Ann_ was supposed to have got aground, when
+the savages seeing her situation, boarded her and murdered the crew for
+the cargo which they knew her to contain. Yet as there were no positive
+proofs, only such measures were taken as would deter them from a similar
+attempt in future. That the lesson was not lost, was proven two years
+later, when the _Isabella_, from London, struck on the bar, her crew
+deserting her. In this instance no attempt was made to meddle with the
+vessel's cargo; and as the crew made their way to Vancouver, the goods
+were nearly all saved.
+
+In a former voyage of the _William and Ann_ to the Columbia River, she
+had been sent on an exploring expedition to the Gulf of Georgia to
+discover the mouth of Frazier's River, having on board a crew of forty
+men. Whenever the ship came to anchor, two sentries were kept constantly
+on deck to guard against any surprise or misconduct on the part of the
+Indians; so adroit, however, were they in the light-fingered art, that
+every one of the eight cannon with which the ship was armed was robbed
+of its ammunition, as was discovered on leaving the river! Such
+incidents as these served to impress the minds of the Company's officers
+and servants with the necessity of vigilance in their dealings with the
+savages.
+
+Not all their vigilance could at all times avail to prevent mischief.
+When Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, was on a
+visit to Vancouver in 1829, he was made aware of this truism. The
+Governor was on his return to Canada by way of the Red River Settlement,
+and had reached the Dalles of the Columbia with his party. In making the
+portage at this place, all the party except Dr. Tod gave their guns into
+the charge of two men to prevent their being stolen by the Indians, who
+crowded about, and whose well-known bad character made great care
+needful. All went well, no attempt to seize either guns or other
+property being made until at the end of the portage the boats had been
+reloaded. As the party were about to re-embark, a simultaneous rush was
+made by the Indians who had dogged their steps, to get possession of the
+boats. Dr. Tod raised his gun immediately, aiming at the head chief,
+who, not liking the prospect of so speedy dissolution, ordered his
+followers to desist, and the party were suffered to escape. It was soon
+after discovered that every gun belonging to the party in the boat had
+been wet, excepting the one carried by Dr. Tod; and to the fact that the
+Doctor did carry his gun, all the others owed their lives.
+
+The great desire of the Indians for guns and ammunition led to many
+stratagems which were dangerous to the possessors of the coveted
+articles. Much more dangerous would it have been to have allowed them a
+free supply of these things; nor could an Indian purchase from the
+Company more than a stated supply, which was to be used, not for the
+purposes of war, but to keep himself in game.
+
+[Illustration: A STATION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.]
+
+Dr. McLaughlin was himself once quite near falling into a trap of the
+Indians, so cunningly laid as to puzzle even him. This was a report
+brought to him by a deputation of Columbia River Indians, stating the
+startling fact that the fort at Nesqually had been attacked, and every
+inmate slaughtered. To this horrible story, told with every appearance
+of truth, the Doctor listened with incredulity mingled with apprehension.
+The Indians were closely questioned and cross-questioned, but did not
+conflict in their testimony. The matter assumed a very painful aspect.
+Not to be deceived, the Doctor had the unwelcome messengers committed to
+custody while he could bring other witnesses from their tribe. But they
+were prepared for this, and the whole tribe were as positive as those
+who brought the tale. Confounded by this cloud of witnesses, Dr.
+McLaughlin had almost determined upon sending an armed force to
+Nesqually to inquire into the matter, and if necessary, punish the
+Indians, when a detachment of men arrived from that post, and the plot
+was exposed! The design of the Indians had been simply to cause a
+division of the force at Vancouver, after which they believed they might
+succeed in capturing and plundering the fort. Had they truly been
+successful in this undertaking, every other trading-post in the country
+would have been destroyed. But so long as the head-quarters of the
+Company remained secure and powerful, the other stations were
+comparatively safe.
+
+An incident which has been several times related, occurred at fort
+Walla-Walla, and shows how narrow escapes the interior traders sometimes
+made. The hero of this anecdote was Mr. McKinlay, one of the most
+estimable of the Hudson's Bay Company's officers, in charge of the fort
+just named. An Indian was one day lounging about the fort, and seeing
+some timbers lying in a heap that had been squared for pack saddles,
+helped himself to one and commenced cutting it down into a whip handle
+for his own use. To this procedure Mr. McKinlay's clerk demurred, first
+telling the Indian its use, and then ordering him to resign the piece of
+timber. The Indian insolently replied that the timber was his, and he
+should take it. At this the clerk, with more temper than prudence,
+struck the offender, knocking him over, soon after which the savage left
+the fort with sullen looks boding vengeance. The next day Mr. McKinlay,
+not being informed of what had taken place, was in a room of the fort
+with his clerk when a considerable party of Indians began dropping
+quietly in until there were fifteen or twenty of them inside the
+building. The first intimation of anything wrong McKinlay received was
+when he observed the clerk pointed out in a particular manner by one of
+the party. He instantly comprehended the purpose of his visitors, and
+with that quickness of thought which is habitual to the student of
+savage nature, he rushed into the store room and returned with a powder
+keg, flint and steel. By this time the unlucky clerk was struggling for
+his life with his vindictive foes. Putting down the powder in their
+midst and knocking out the head of the keg with a blow, McKinlay stood
+over it ready to strike fire with his flint and steel. The savages
+paused aghast. They knew the nature of the "perilous stuff," and also
+understood the trader's purpose. "Come," said he with a clear,
+determined voice, "you are twenty braves against us two: now touch him
+if you dare, and see who dies first." In a moment the fort was cleared,
+and McKinlay was left to inquire the cause of what had so nearly been a
+tragedy. It is hardly a subject of doubt whether or not his clerk got a
+scolding. Soon after, such was the powerful influence exerted by these
+gentlemen, the chief of the tribe flogged the pilfering Indian for the
+offence, and McKinlay became a great brave, a "big heart" for his
+courage.
+
+It was indeed necessary to have courage, patience, and prudence in
+dealing with the Indians. These the Hudson's Bay officers generally
+possessed. Perhaps the most irascible of them all in the Columbia
+District, was their chief, Dr. McLaughlin; but such was his goodness and
+justice that even the savages recognized it, and he was _hyas tyee_, or
+great chief, in all respects to them. Being on one occasion very much
+annoyed by the pertinacity of an Indian who was continually demanding
+pay for some stones with which the Doctor was having a vessel ballasted,
+he seized one of some size, and thrusting it in the Indian's mouth,
+cried out in a furious manner, "pay, pay! if the stones are yours, take
+them and eat them, you rascal! Pay, pay! the devil! the devil!" upon
+which explosion of wrath, the native owner of the soil thought it
+prudent to withdraw his immediate claims.
+
+There was more, however, in the Doctor's action than mere indulgence of
+wrath. He understood perfectly that the savage values only what he can
+eat and wear, and that as he could not put the stones to either of these
+uses, his demand for pay was an impudent one.
+
+Enough has been said to give the reader an insight into Indian
+character, to prepare his mind for events which are to follow, to convey
+an idea of the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to show on
+what it was founded. The American Fur Companies will now be sketched,
+and their mode of dealing with the Indians contrasted with that of the
+British Company. The comparison will not be favorable; but should any
+unfairness be suspected, a reference to Mr. Irving's _Bonneville_, will
+show that the worthy Captain was forced to witness against his own
+countrymen in his narrative of his hunting and trading adventures in the
+Rocky Mountains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The dissolution of the Pacific Fur Company, the refusal of the United
+States Government to protect Mr. Astor in a second attempt to carry on a
+commerce with the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains, and the
+occupation of that country by British traders, had the effect to deter
+individual enterprise from again attempting to establish commerce on the
+Pacific coast. The people waited for the Government to take some steps
+toward the encouragement of a trans-continental trade; the Government
+beholding the lion (British) in the way, waited for the expiration of
+the convention of 1818, in the Micawber-like hope that something would
+"turn up" to settle the question of territorial sovereignty. The war of
+1812 had been begun on the part of Great Britain, to secure the great
+western territories to herself for the profits of the fur trade, almost
+solely. Failing in this, she had been compelled, by the treaty of Ghent,
+to restore to the United States all the places and forts captured during
+that war. Yet the forts and trading posts in the west remained
+practically in the possession of Great Britain; for her traders and fur
+companies still roamed the country, excluding American trade, and
+inciting (so the frontiers-men believed), the Indians to acts of blood
+and horror.
+
+Congress being importuned by the people of the West, finally, in 1815,
+passed an act expelling British traders from American territory east of
+the Rocky Mountains. Following the passage of this act the hunters and
+trappers of the old North American Company, at the head of which Mr.
+Astor still remained, began to range the country about the head waters
+of the Mississippi and the upper Missouri. Also a few American traders
+had ventured into the northern provinces of Mexico, previous to the
+overthrow of the Spanish Government; and after that event, a thriving
+trade grew up between St. Louis and Santa Fé.
+
+At length, in 1823, Mr. W.H. Ashley, of St. Louis, a merchant for a long
+time engaged in the fur trade on the Missouri and its tributaries,
+determined to push a trading party up to or beyond the Rocky Mountains.
+Following up the Platte River, Mr. Ashley proceeded at the head of a
+large party with horses and merchandise, as far as the northern branch
+of the Platte, called the Sweetwater. This he explored to its source,
+situated in that remarkable depression in the Rocky Mountains, known as
+the South Pass--the same which Fremont _discovered_ twenty years later,
+during which twenty years it was annually traveled by trading parties,
+and just prior to Fremont's discovery, by missionaries and emigrants
+destined to Oregon. To Mr. Ashley also belongs the credit of having
+first explored the head-waters of the Colorado, called the Green River,
+afterwards a favorite rendezvous of the American Fur Companies. The
+country about the South Pass proved to be an entirely new hunting
+ground, and very rich in furs, as here many rivers take their rise,
+whose head-waters furnished abundant beaver. Here Mr. Ashley spent the
+summer, returning to St. Louis in the fall with a valuable collection of
+skins.
+
+In 1824, Mr. Ashley repeated the expedition, extending it this time
+beyond Green River as far as Great Salt Lake, near which to the south he
+discovered another smaller lake, which he named Lake Ashley, after
+himself. On the shores of this lake he built a fort for trading with the
+Indians, and leaving in it about one hundred men, returned to St. Louis
+the second time with a large amount of furs. During the time the fort
+was occupied by Mr. Ashley's men, a period of three years, more than one
+hundred and eighty thousand dollars worth of furs were collected and
+sent to St. Louis. In 1827, the fort, and all Mr. Ashley's interest in
+the business, was sold to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, at the head of
+which were Jedediah Smith, William Sublette, and David Jackson, Sublette
+being the leading spirit in the Company.
+
+The custom of these enterprising traders, who had been in the mountains
+since 1824, was to divide their force, each taking his command to a good
+hunting ground, and returning at stated times to rendezvous, generally
+appointed on the head-waters of Green River. Frequently the other fur
+companies, (for there were other companies formed on the heels of
+Ashley's enterprise,) learning of the place appointed for the yearly
+rendezvous, brought their goods to the same resort, when an intense
+rivalry was exhibited by the several traders as to which company should
+soonest dispose of its goods, getting, of course, the largest amount of
+furs from the trappers and Indians. So great was the competition in the
+years between 1826 and 1829, when there were about six hundred American
+trappers in and about the Rocky Mountains, besides those of the Hudson's
+Bay Company, that it was death for a man of one company to dispose of
+his furs to a rival association. Even a "free trapper"--that is, one not
+indentured, but hunting upon certain terms of agreement concerning the
+price of his furs and the cost of his outfit, only, dared not sell to
+any other company than the one he had agreed with.
+
+Jedediah Smith, of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, during their first
+year in the mountains, took a party of five trappers into Oregon, being
+the first American, trader or other, to cross into that country since
+the breaking up of Mr. Astor's establishment. He trapped on the
+head-waters of the Snake River until autumn, when he fell in with a
+party of Hudson's Bay trappers, and going with them to their post in the
+Flathead country, wintered there.
+
+Again, in 1826, Smith, Sublette, and Jackson, brought out a large number
+of men to trap in the Snake River country, and entered into direct
+competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, whom they opposed with hardly
+a degree more of zeal than they competed with rival American traders:
+this one extra degree being inspired by a "spirit of '76" toward
+anything British.
+
+After the Rocky Mountain Fur Company had extended its business by the
+purchase of Mr. Ashley's interest, the partners determined to push their
+enterprise to the Pacific coast, regardless of the opposition they were
+likely to encounter from the Hudson's Bay traders. Accordingly, in the
+spring of 1827, the Company was divided up into three parts, to be led
+separately, by different routes, into the Indian Territory, nearer the
+ocean.
+
+Smith's route was from the Platte River, southwards to Santa Fé, thence
+to the bay of San Francisco, and thence along the coast to the Columbia
+River. His party were successful, and had arrived in the autumn of the
+following year at the Umpqua River, about two hundred miles south of the
+Columbia, in safety. Here one of those sudden reverses to which the
+"mountain-man" is liable at any moment, overtook him. His party at this
+time consisted of thirteen men, with their horses, and a collection of
+furs valued at twenty thousand dollars. Arrived at the Umpqua, they
+encamped for the night on its southern bank, unaware that the natives in
+this vicinity (the Shastas) were more fierce and treacherous than the
+indolent tribes of California, for whom, probably, they had a great
+contempt. All went well until the following morning, the Indians hanging
+about the camp, but apparently friendly. Smith had just breakfasted, and
+was occupied in looking for a fording-place for the animals, being on a
+raft, and having with him a little Englishman and one Indian. When they
+were in the middle of the river the Indian snatched Smith's gun and
+jumped into the water. At the same instant a yell from the camp, which
+was in sight, proclaimed that it was attacked. Quick as thought Smith
+snatched the Englishman's gun, and shot dead the Indian in the river.
+
+To return to the camp was certain death. Already several of his men had
+fallen; overpowered by numbers he could not hope that any would escape,
+and nothing was left him but flight. He succeeded in getting to the
+opposite shore with his raft before he could be intercepted, and fled
+with his companion, on foot and with only one gun, and no provisions, to
+the mountains that border the river. With great good fortune they were
+enabled to pass through the remaining two hundred miles of their journey
+without accident, though not without suffering, and reach Fort Vancouver
+in a destitute condition, where they were kindly cared for.
+
+Of the men left in camp, only two escaped. One man named Black defended
+himself until he saw an opportunity for flight, when he escaped to the
+cover of the woods, and finally to a friendly tribe farther north, near
+the coast, who piloted him to Vancouver. The remaining man was one
+Turner, of a very powerful frame, who was doing camp duty as cook on
+this eventful morning. When the Indians rushed upon him he defended
+himself with a huge firebrand, or half-burnt poplar stick, with which he
+laid about him like Sampson, killing four red-skins before he saw a
+chance of escape. Singularly, for one in his extremity, he did escape,
+and also arrived at Vancouver that winter.
+
+Dr. McLaughlin received the unlucky trader and his three surviving men
+with every mark and expression of kindness, and entertained them through
+the winter. Not only this, but he dispatched a strong, armed party to
+the scene of the disaster to punish the Indians and recover the stolen
+goods; all of which was done at his own expense, both as an act of
+friendship toward his American rivals, and as necessary to the
+discipline which they everywhere maintained among the Indians. Should
+this offence go unpunished, the next attack might be upon one of his own
+parties going annually down into California. Sir George Simpson, the
+Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, chanced to be spending the winter
+at Vancouver. He offered to send Smith to London the following summer,
+in the Company's vessel, where he might dispose of his furs to
+advantage; but Smith declined this offer, and finally sold his furs to
+Dr. McLaughlin, and returned in the spring to the Rocky Mountains.
+
+On Sublette's return from St. Louis, in the summer of 1829, with men and
+merchandise for the year's trade, he became uneasy on account of Smith's
+protracted absence. According to a previous plan, he took a large party
+into the Snake River country to hunt. Among the recruits from St. Louis
+was Joseph L. Meek, the subject of the narrative following this chapter.
+Sublette not meeting with Smith's party on its way from the Columbia, as
+he still hoped, at length detailed a party to look for him on the
+head-waters of the Snake. Meek was one of the men sent to look for the
+missing partner, whom he discovered at length in Pierre's Hole, a deep
+valley in the mountains, from which issues the Snake River in many
+living streams. Smith returned with the men to camp, where the tale of
+his disasters was received after the manner of mountain-men, simply
+declaring with a momentarily sobered countenance, that their comrade has
+not been "in luck;" with which brief and equivocal expression of
+sympathy the subject is dismissed. To dwell on the dangers incident to
+their calling would be to half disarm themselves of their necessary
+courage; and it is only when they are gathered about the fire in their
+winter camp, that they indulge in tales of wild adventure and
+"hair-breadth 'scapes," or make sorrowful reference to a comrade lost.
+
+Influenced by the hospitable treatment which Smith had received at the
+hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, the partners now determined to
+withdraw from competition with them in the Snake country, and to trap
+upon the waters of the Colorado, in the neighborhood of their fort. But
+"luck," the mountain-man's Providence, seemed to have deserted Smith. In
+crossing the Colorado River with a considerable collection of skins, he
+was again attacked by Indians, and only escaped by losing all his
+property. He then went to St. Louis for a supply of merchandise, and
+fitted out a trading party for Santa Fé; but on his way to that place
+was killed in an encounter with the savages.
+
+Turner, the man who so valiantly wielded the firebrand on the Umpqua
+River, several years later met with a similar adventure on the Rogue
+River, in Southern Oregon, and was the means of saving the lives of his
+party by his courage, strength, and alertness. He finally, when trapping
+had become unprofitable, retired upon a farm in the Wallamet Valley, as
+did many other mountain-men who survived the dangers of their perilous
+trade.
+
+After the death of Smith, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company continued its
+operations under the command of Bridger, Fitzpatrick, and Milton
+Sublette, brother of William. In the spring of 1830 they received about
+two hundred recruits, and with little variation kept up their number of
+three or four hundred men for a period of eight or ten years longer, or
+until the beaver were hunted out of every nook and corner of the Rocky
+Mountains.
+
+Previous to 1835, there were in and about the Rocky Mountains, beside
+the "American" and "Rocky Mountain" companies, the St. Louis Company,
+and eight or ten "lone traders." Among these latter were William
+Sublette, Robert Campbell, J.O. Pattie, Mr. Pilcher, Col. Charles Bent,
+St. Vrain, William Bent, Mr. Gant, and Mr. Blackwell. All these
+companies and traders more or less frequently penetrated into the
+countries of New Mexico, Old Mexico, Sonora, and California; returning
+sometimes through the mountain regions of the latter State, by the
+Humboldt River to the head-waters of the Colorado. Seldom, in all their
+journeys, did they intrude on that portion of the Indian Territory lying
+within three hundred miles of Fort Vancouver, or which forms the area of
+the present State of Oregon.
+
+Up to 1832, the fur trade in the West had been chiefly conducted by
+merchants from the frontier cities, especially by those of St. Louis.
+The old "North American" was the only exception. But in the spring of
+this year, Captain Bonneville, an United States officer on furlough, led
+a company of a hundred men, with a train of wagons, horses and mules,
+with merchandise, into the trapping grounds of the Rocky Mountains. His
+wagons were the first that had ever crossed the summit of these
+mountains, though William Sublette had, two or three years previous,
+brought wagons as far as the valley of the Wind River, on the east side
+of the range. Captain Bonneville remained nearly three years in the
+hunting and trapping grounds, taking parties of men into the Colorado,
+Humboldt, and Sacramento valleys; but he realized no profits from his
+expedition, being opposed and competed with by both British and American
+traders of larger experience.
+
+But Captain Bonneville's venture was a fortunate one compared with that
+of Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth of Massachusetts, who also crossed the continent
+in 1832, with the view of establishing a trade on the Columbia River.
+Mr. Wyeth brought with him a small party of men, all inexperienced in
+frontier or mountain life, and destined for a salmon fishery on the
+Columbia. He had reached Independence, Missouri, the last station before
+plunging into the wilderness, and found himself somewhat at a loss how
+to proceed, until, at this juncture, he was overtaken by the party of
+William Sublette, from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains, with whom he
+travelled in company to the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole.
+
+When Wyeth arrived at the Columbia River, after tarrying until he had
+acquired some mountain experiences, he found that his vessel, which was
+loaded with merchandise for the Columbia River trade, had not arrived.
+He remained at Vancouver through the winter, the guest of the Hudson's
+Bay Company, and either having learned or surmised that his vessel was
+wrecked, returned to the United States in the following year. Not
+discouraged, however, he made another venture in 1834, despatching the
+ship _May Dacre_, Captain Lambert, for the Columbia River, with another
+cargo of Indian goods, traveling himself overland with a party of two
+hundred men, and a considerable quantity of merchandise which he
+expected to sell to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In this expectation
+he was defeated by William Sublette, who had also brought out a large
+assortment of goods for the Indian trade, and had sold out, supplying
+the market, before Mr. Wyeth arrived.
+
+Wyeth then built a post, named Fort Hall, on Snake River, at the
+junction of the Portneuf, where he stored his goods, and having detached
+most of his men in trapping parties, proceeded to the Columbia River to
+meet the _May Dacre_. He reached the Columbia about the same time with
+his vessel, and proceeded at once to erect a salmon fishery. To forward
+this purpose he built a post, called Fort William, on the lower end of
+Wappatoo (now known as Sauvie's) Island, near where the Lower Wallamet
+falls into the Columbia. But for various reasons he found the business
+on which he had entered unprofitable. He had much trouble with the
+Indians, his men were killed or drowned, so that by the time he had half
+a cargo of fish, he was ready to abandon the effort to establish a
+commerce with the Oregon Indians, and was satisfied that no enterprise
+less stupendous and powerful than that of the Hudson's Bay Company could
+be long sustained in that country.
+
+Much complaint was subsequently made by Americans, chiefly Missionaries,
+of the conduct of that company in not allowing Mr. Wyeth to purchase
+beaver skins of the Indians, but Mr. Wyeth himself made no such
+complaint. Personally, he was treated with unvarying kindness, courtesy,
+and hospitality. As a trader, they would not permit him to undersell
+them. In truth, they no doubt wished him away; because competition would
+soon ruin the business of either, and they liked not to have the Indians
+taught to expect more than their furs were worth, nor to have the
+Indians' confidence in themselves destroyed or tampered with.
+
+The Hudson's Bay Company were hardly so unfriendly to him as the
+American companies; since to the former he was enabled to sell his goods
+and fort on the Snake River, before he returned to the United States,
+which he did in 1835.
+
+The sale of Fort Hall to the Hudson's Bay Company was a finishing blow
+at the American fur trade in the Rocky Mountains, which after two or
+three years of constantly declining profits, was entirely abandoned.
+
+Something of the dangers incident to the life of the hunter and trapper
+may be gathered from the following statements, made by various parties
+who have been engaged in it. In 1808, a Missouri Company engaged in fur
+hunting on the three forks of the river Missouri, were attacked by
+Blackfeet, losing twenty-seven men, and being compelled to abandon the
+country. In 1823, Mr. Ashley was attacked on the same river by the
+Arickaras, and had twenty-six men killed. About the same time the
+Missouri company lost seven men, and fifteen thousand dollars' worth of
+merchandise on the Yellowstone River. A few years previous, Major Henry
+lost, on the Missouri River, six men and fifty horses. In the sketch
+given of Smith's trading adventures is shown how uncertain were life and
+property at a later period. Of the two hundred men whom Wyeth led into
+the Indian country, only about forty were alive at the end of three
+years. There was, indeed, a constant state of warfare between the
+Indians and the whites, wherever the American Companies hunted, in which
+great numbers of both lost their lives. Add to this cause of decimation
+the perils from wild beasts, famine, cold, and all manner of accidents,
+and the trapper's chance of life was about one in three.
+
+Of the causes which have produced the enmity of the Indians, there are
+about as many. It was found to be the case almost universally, that on
+the first visit of the whites the natives were friendly, after their
+natural fears had been allayed. But by degrees their cupidity was
+excited to possess themselves of the much coveted dress, arms, and goods
+of their visitors. As they had little or nothing to offer in exchange,
+which the white man considered an equivalent, they took the only method
+remaining of gratifying their desire of possession, and _stole_ the
+coveted articles which they could not purchase. When they learned that
+the white men punished theft, they murdered to prevent the punishment.
+Often, also, they had wrongs of their own to avenge. White men did not
+always regard their property-rights. They were guilty of infamous
+conduct toward Indian women. What one party of whites told them was
+true, another plainly contradicted, leaving the lie between them. They
+were overbearing toward the Indians on their own soil, exciting to
+irrepressible hostility the natural jealousy of the inferior toward the
+superior race, where both are free, which characterizes all people. In
+short, the Indians were not without their grievances; and from barbarous
+ignorance and wrong on one side, and intelligent wrong-doing on the
+other, together with the misunderstandings likely to arise between two
+entirely distinct races, grew constantly a thousand abuses, which
+resulted in a deadly enmity between the two.
+
+For several reasons this evil existed to a greater degree among the
+American traders and trappers than among the British. The American
+trapper was not, like the Hudson's Bay employees, bred to the business.
+Oftener than any other way he was some wild youth who, after an
+_escapade_ in the society of his native place, sought safety from
+reproach or punishment in the wilderness. Or he was some disappointed
+man who, with feelings embittered towards his fellows, preferred the
+seclusion of the forest and mountain. Many were of a class disreputable
+everywhere, who gladly embraced a life not subject to social laws. A few
+were brave, independent, and hardy spirits, who delighted in the
+hardships and wild adventures their calling made necessary. All these
+men, the best with the worst, were subject to no will but their own; and
+all experience goes to prove that a life of perfect liberty is apt to
+degenerate into a life of license. Even their own lives, and those of
+their companions, when it depended upon their own prudence, were but
+lightly considered. The constant presence of danger made them reckless.
+It is easy to conceive how, under these circumstances, the natives and
+the foreigners grew to hate each other, in the Indian country;
+especially after the Americans came to the determination to "shoot an
+Indian at sight," unless he belonged to some tribe with whom they had
+intermarried, after the manner of the trappers.
+
+[Illustration: WATCHING FOR INDIAN HORSE-THIEVES.]
+
+On the other hand, the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company were many
+of them half-breeds or full-blooded Indians of the Iroquois nation,
+towards whom nearly all the tribes were kindly disposed. Even the
+Frenchmen who trapped for this company were well liked by the Indians on
+account of their suavity of manner, and the ease with which they adapted
+themselves to savage life. Besides most of them had native wives and
+half-breed children, and were regarded as relatives. They were trained
+to the life of a trapper, were subject to the will of the Company, and
+were generally just and equitable in their dealings with the Indians,
+according to that company's will, and the dictates of prudence. Here was
+a wide difference.
+
+Notwithstanding this, there were many dangers to be encountered. The
+hostility of some of the tribes could never be overcome; nor has it ever
+abated. Such were the Crows, the Blackfeet, the Cheyennes, the Apaches,
+the Camanches. Only a superior force could compel the friendly offices
+of these tribes for any white man, and then their treachery was as
+dangerous as their open hostility.
+
+It happened, therefore, that although the Hudson's Bay Company lost
+comparatively few men by the hands of the Indians, they sometimes found
+them implacable foes in common with the American trappers; and
+frequently one party was very glad of the others' assistance.
+Altogether, as has before been stated, the loss of life was immense in
+proportion to the number employed.
+
+Very few of those who had spent years in the Rocky Mountains ever
+returned to the United States. With their Indian wives and half-breed
+children, they scattered themselves throughout Oregon, until when, a
+number of years after the abandonment of the fur trade, Congress donated
+large tracts of land to actual settlers, they laid claim, each to his
+selected portion, and became active citizens of their adopted state.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE FUR COUNTRY.]
+
+
+
+
+A TRAPPER AND PIONEER'S LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+As has been stated in the Introduction, Joseph L. Meek was a native of
+Washington Co., Va. Born in the early part of the present century, and
+brought up on a plantation where the utmost liberty was accorded to the
+"young massa;" preferring out-door sports with the youthful bondsmen of
+his father, to study with the bald-headed schoolmaster who furnished him
+the alphabet on a paddle; possessing an exhaustless fund of waggish
+humor, united to a spirit of adventure and remarkable personal strength,
+he unwittingly furnished in himself the very material of which the
+heroes of the wilderness were made. Virginia, "the mother of
+Presidents," has furnished many such men, who, in the early days of the
+now populous Western States, became the hardy frontiers-men, or the
+fearless Indian fighters who were the bone and sinew of the land.
+
+When young Joe was about eighteen years of age, he wearied of the
+monotony of plantation life, and jumping into the wagon of a neighbor
+who was going to Louisville, Ky., started out in life for himself. He
+"reckoned they did not grieve for him at home;" at which conclusion
+others besides Joe naturally arrive on hearing of his heedless
+disposition, and utter contempt for the ordinary and useful employments
+to which other men apply themselves.
+
+Joe probably believed that should his father grieve for him, his
+step-mother would be able to console him; this step-mother, though a
+pious and good woman, not being one of the lad's favorites, as might
+easily be conjectured. It was such thoughts as these that kept up his
+resolution to seek the far west. In the autumn of 1828 he arrived in St.
+Louis, and the following spring he fell in with Mr. Wm. Sublette, of the
+Rocky Mountain Fur Company, who was making his annual visit to that
+frontier town to purchase merchandise for the Indian country, and pick
+up recruits for the fur-hunting service. To this experienced leader he
+offered himself.
+
+[Illustration: THE ENLISTMENT.]
+
+"How old are you?" asked Sublette.
+
+"A little past eighteen."
+
+"And you want to go to the Rocky Mountains?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You don't know what you are talking about, boy. You'll be killed before
+you get half way there."
+
+"If I do, I reckon I can die!" said Joe, with a flash of his fall dark
+eyes, and throwing back his shoulders to show their breadth.
+
+"Come," exclaimed the trader, eyeing the youthful candidate with
+admiration, and perhaps a touch of pity also; "that is the game spirit.
+I think you'll do, after all. Only be prudent, and keep your wits about
+you."
+
+"Where else should they be?" laughed Joe, as he marched off, feeling an
+inch or two taller than before.
+
+Then commenced the business of preparing for the journey--making
+acquaintance with the other recruits--enjoying the novelty of owning an
+outfit, being initiated into the mysteries of camp duty by the few old
+hunters who were to accompany the expedition, and learning something of
+their swagger and disregard of civilized observances.
+
+On the 17th of March, 1829, the company, numbering about sixty men, left
+St. Louis, and proceeded on horses and mules, with pack-horses for the
+goods, up through the state of Missouri. Camp-life commenced at the
+start; and this being the season of the year when the weather is most
+disagreeable, its romance rapidly melted away with the snow and sleet
+which varied the sharp spring wind and the frequent cold rains. The
+recruits went through all the little mishaps incident to the business
+and to their inexperience, such as involuntary somersaults over the
+heads of their mules, bloody noses, bruises, dusty faces, bad colds,
+accidents in fording streams,--yet withal no very serious hurts or
+hindrances. Rough weather and severe exercise gave them wolfish
+appetites, which sweetened the coarse camp-fare and amateur cooking.
+
+Getting up at four o'clock of a March morning to kindle fires and
+attend to the animals was not the most delectable duty that our
+labor-despising young recruit could have chosen; but if he repented of
+the venture he had made nobody was the wiser. Sleeping of stormy nights
+in corn-cribs or under sheds, could not be by any stretch of imagination
+converted into a highly romantic or heroic mode of lodging one's self.
+The squalid manner of living of the few inhabitants of Missouri at this
+period, gave a forlorn aspect to the country which is lacking in the
+wilderness itself;--a thought which sometimes occurred to Joe like a
+hope for the future. Mountain-fare he began to think must be better than
+the boiled corn and pork of the Missourians. Antelope and buffalo meat
+were more suitable viands for a hunter than coon and opossum. Thus those
+very duties which seemed undignified, and those hardships without danger
+or glory, which marked the beginning of his career made him ambitious of
+a more free and hazardous life on the plains and in the mountains.
+
+Among the recruits was a young man not far from Joe's own age, named
+Robert Newell, from Ohio. One morning, when the company was encamped
+near Boonville, the two young men were out looking for their mules, when
+they encountered an elderly woman returning from the milking yard with a
+gourd of milk. Newell made some remark on the style of vessel she
+carried, when she broke out in a sharp voice,--
+
+"Young chap, I'll bet you run off from your mother! Who'll mend them
+holes in the elbow of your coat? You're a purty looking chap to go to
+the mountains, among them Injuns! They'll _kill_ you. You'd better go
+back home!"
+
+Considering that these frontier people knew what Indian fighting was,
+this was no doubt sound and disinterested advice, notwithstanding it
+was given somewhat sharply. And so the young men felt it to be; but it
+was not in the nature of either of them to turn back from a course
+because there was danger in it. The thought of home, and somebody to
+mend their coats, was, however, for the time strongly presented. But the
+company moved on, with undiminished numbers, stared at by the few
+inhabitants, and having their own little adventures, until they came to
+Independence, the last station before committing themselves to the
+wilderness.
+
+At this place, which contained a dwelling-house, cotton-gin, and
+grocery, the camp tarried for a few days to adjust the packs, and
+prepare for a final start across the plains. On Sunday the settlers got
+together for a shooting-match, in which some of the travelers joined,
+without winning many laurels. Coon-skins, deer-skins, and bees-wax
+changed hands freely among the settlers, whose skill with the rifle was
+greater than their hoard of silver dollars. This was the last vestige of
+civilization which the company could hope to behold for years; and rude
+as it was, yet won from them many a parting look as they finally took
+their way across the plains toward the Arkansas River.
+
+Often on this part of the march a dead silence fell upon the party,
+which remained unbroken for miles of the way. Many no doubt were
+regretting homes by them abandoned, or wondering dreamily how many and
+whom of that company would ever see the Missouri country again. Many
+indeed went the way the woman of the gourd had prophesied; but not the
+hero of this story, nor his comrade Newell.
+
+The route of Captain Sublette led across the country from near the mouth
+of the Kansas River to the River Arkansas; thence to the South Fork of
+the Platte; thence on to the North Fork of that River, to where Ft.
+Laramie now stands; thence up the North Fork to the Sweetwater, and
+thence across in a still northwesterly direction to the head of Wind
+River.
+
+The manner of camp-travel is now so well known through the writings of
+Irving, and still more from the great numbers which have crossed the
+plains since _Astoria_ and _Bonneville_ were written, that it would be
+superfluous here to enter upon a particular description of a train on
+that journey. A strict half-military discipline had to be maintained,
+regular duties assigned to each person, precautions taken against the
+loss of animals either by straying or Indian stampeding, etc. Some of
+the men were appointed as camp-keepers, who had all these things to look
+after, besides standing guard. A few were selected as hunters, and these
+were free to come and go, as their calling required. None but the most
+experienced were chosen for hunters, on a march; therefore our recruit
+could not aspire to that dignity yet.
+
+The first adventure the company met with worthy of mention after leaving
+Independence, was in crossing the country between the Arkansas and the
+Platte. Here the camp was surprised one morning by a band of Indians a
+thousand strong, that came sweeping down upon them in such warlike style
+that even Captain Sublette was fain to believe it his last battle. Upon
+the open prairie there is no such thing as flight, nor any cover under
+which to conceal a party even for a few moments. It is always fight or
+die, if the assailants are in the humor for war.
+
+Happily on this occasion the band proved to be more peaceably disposed
+than their appearance indicated, being the warriors of several
+tribes--the Sioux, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Cheyennes, who had been
+holding a council to consider probably what mischief they could do to
+some other tribes. The spectacle they presented as they came at full
+speed on horseback, armed, painted, brandishing their weapons, and
+yelling in first-rate Indian style, was one which might well strike with
+a palsy the stoutest heart and arm. What were a band of sixty men
+against a thousand armed warriors in full fighting trim, with spears,
+shields, bows, battle-axes, and not a few guns?
+
+But it is the rule of the mountain-men to _fight_--and that there is a
+chance for life until the breath is out of the body; therefore Captain
+Sublette had his little force drawn up in line of battle. On came the
+savages, whooping and swinging their weapons above their heads. Sublette
+turned to his men. "When you hear my shot, then fire." Still they came
+on, until within about fifty paces of the line of waiting men. Sublette
+turned his head, and saw his command with their guns all up to their
+faces ready to fire, then raised his own gun. Just at this moment the
+principal chief sprang off his horse and laid his weapon on the ground,
+making signs of peace. Then followed a talk, and after the giving of a
+considerable present, Sublette was allowed to depart. This he did with
+all dispatch, the company putting as much distance as possible between
+themselves and their visitors before making their next camp. Considering
+the warlike character of these tribes and their superior numbers, it was
+as narrow an escape on the part of the company as it was an exceptional
+freak of generosity on the part of the savages to allow it. But Indians
+have all a great respect for a man who shows no fear; and it was most
+probably the warlike movement of Captain Sublette and his party which
+inspired a willingness on the part of the chief to accept a present,
+when he had the power to have taken the whole train. Besides, according
+to Indian logic, the present cost him nothing, and it might cost him
+many warriors to capture the train. Had there been the least wavering
+on Sublette's part, or fear in the countenances of his men, the end of
+the affair would have been different. This adventure was a grand
+initiation of the raw recruits, giving them both an insight into savage
+modes of attack, and an opportunity to test their own nerve.
+
+The company proceeded without accident, and arrived, about the first of
+July, at the rendezvous, which was appointed for this year on the Popo
+Agie, one of the streams which form the head-waters of Bighorn River.
+
+Now, indeed, young Joe had an opportunity of seeing something of the
+life upon which he had entered. As customary, when the traveling partner
+arrived at rendezvous with the year's merchandise, there was a meeting
+of all the partners, if they were within reach of the appointed place.
+On this occasion Smith was absent on his tour through California and
+Western Oregon, as has been related in the prefatory chapter. Jackson,
+the resident partner, and commander for the previous year, was not yet
+in; and Sublette had just arrived with the goods from St. Louis.
+
+All the different hunting and trapping parties and Indian allies were
+gathered together, so that the camp contained several hundred men, with
+their riding and pack-horses. Nor were Indian women and children wanting
+to give variety and an appearance of domesticity to the scene.
+
+[Illustration: _THE SUMMER RENDEZVOUS._]
+
+The Summer rendezvous was always chosen in some valley where there was
+grass for the animals, and game for the camp. The plains along the Popo
+Agie, besides furnishing these necessary bounties, were bordered by
+picturesque mountain ranges, whose naked bluffs of red sandstone glowed
+in the morning and evening sun with a mellowness of coloring charming to
+the eye of the Virginia recruit. The waving grass of the plain,
+variegated with wild flowers; the clear summer heavens flecked with
+white clouds that threw soft shadows in passing; the grazing animals
+scattered about the meadows; the lodges of the _Booshways_,[A] around
+which clustered the camp in motley garb and brilliant coloring; gay
+laughter, and the murmur of soft Indian voices, all made up a most
+spirited and enchanting picture, in which the eye of an artist could not
+fail to delight.
+
+    [A] Leaders or chiefs--corrupted from the French of Bourgeois, and
+    borrowed from the Canadians.
+
+But as the goods were opened the scene grew livelier. All were eager to
+purchase, most of the trappers to the full amount of their year's wages;
+and some of them, generally free trappers, went in debt to the company
+to a very considerable amount, after spending the value of a year's
+labor, privation, and danger, at the rate of several hundred dollars in
+a single day.
+
+The difference between a hired and a free trapper was greatly in favor
+of the latter. The hired trapper was regularly indentured, and bound not
+only to hunt and trap for his employers, but also to perform any duty
+required of him in camp. The Booshway, or the trader, or the partisan,
+(leader of the detachment,) had him under his command, to make him take
+charge of, load and unload the horses, stand guard, cook, hunt fuel, or,
+in short, do any and every duty. In return for this toilsome service he
+received an outfit of traps, arms and ammunition, horses, and whatever
+his service required. Besides his outfit, he received no more than three
+or four hundred dollars a year as wages.
+
+There was also a class of free trappers, who were furnished with their
+outfit by the company they trapped for, and who were obliged to agree to
+a certain stipulated price for their furs before the hunt commenced.
+But the genuine free trapper regarded himself as greatly the superior of
+either of the foregoing classes. He had his own horses and
+accoutrements, arms and ammunition. He took what route he thought fit,
+hunted and trapped when and where he chose; traded with the Indians;
+sold his furs to whoever offered highest for them; dressed flauntingly,
+and generally had an Indian wife and half-breed children. They prided
+themselves on their hardihood and courage; even on their recklessness
+and profligacy. Each claimed to own the best horse; to have had the
+wildest adventures; to have made the most narrow escapes; to have killed
+the greatest number of bears and Indians; to be the greatest favorite
+with the Indian belles, the greatest consumer of alcohol, and to have
+the most money to spend, _i. e._ the largest credit on the books of the
+company. If his hearers did not believe him, he was ready to run a race
+with him, to beat him at "old sledge," or to fight, if fighting was
+preferred,--ready to prove what he affirmed in any manner the company
+pleased.
+
+If the free trapper had a wife, she moved with the camp to which he
+attached himself, being furnished with a fine horse, caparisoned in the
+gayest and costliest manner. Her dress was of the finest goods the
+market afforded, and was suitably ornamented with beads, ribbons,
+fringes, and feathers. Her rank, too, as a free trapper's wife, gave her
+consequence not only in her own eyes, but in those of her tribe, and
+protected her from that slavish drudgery to which as the wife of an
+Indian hunter or warrior she would have been subject. The only authority
+which the free trapper acknowledged was that of his Indian spouse, who
+generally ruled in the lodge, however her lord blustered outside.
+
+One of the free trapper's special delights was to take in hand the raw
+recruits, to gorge their wonder with his boastful tales, and to amuse
+himself with shocking his pupil's civilized notions of propriety. Joe
+Meek did not escape this sort of "breaking in;" and if it should appear
+in the course of this narrative that he proved an apt scholar, it will
+but illustrate a truth--that high spirits and fine talents tempt the
+tempter to win them over to his ranks. But Joe was not won over all at
+once. He beheld the beautiful spectacle of the encampment as it has been
+described, giving life and enchantment to the summer landscape, changed
+into a scene of the wildest carousal, going from bad to worse, until
+from harmless noise and bluster it came to fighting and loss of life. At
+this first rendezvous he was shocked to behold the revolting exhibition
+of four trappers playing at a game of cards with the dead body of a
+comrade for a card-table! Such was the indifference to all the natural
+and ordinary emotions which these veterans of the wilderness cultivated
+in themselves, and inculcated in those who came under their influence.
+Scenes like this at first had the effect to bring feelings of
+home-sickness, while it inspired by contrast a sort of penitential and
+religious feeling also. According to Meek's account of those early days
+in the mountains, he said some secret prayers, and shed some secret
+tears. But this did not last long. The force of example, and especially
+the force of ridicule, is very potent with the young; nor are we quite
+free from their influence later in life.
+
+If the gambling, swearing, drinking, and fighting at first astonished
+and alarmed the unsophisticated Joe, he found at the same time something
+to admire, and that he felt to be congenial with his own disposition, in
+the fearlessness, the contempt of sordid gain, the hearty merriment and
+frolicsome abandon of the better portion of the men about him. A spirit
+of emulation arose in him to become as brave as the bravest, as hardy as
+the hardiest, and as gay as the gayest, even while his feelings still
+revolted at many things which his heroic models were openly guilty of.
+If at any time in the future course of this narrative, Joe is discovered
+to have taken leave of his early scruples, the reader will considerately
+remember the associations by which he was surrounded for years, until
+the memory of the pious teachings of his childhood was nearly, if not
+quite, obliterated. To "nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in
+malice," should be the frame of mind in which both the writer and reader
+of Joe's adventures should strive to maintain himself.
+
+Before our hero is ushered upon the active scenes of a trapper's life,
+it may be well to present to the reader a sort of _guide to camp life_,
+in order that he may be able to understand some of its technicalities,
+as they may be casually mentioned hereafter.
+
+When the large camp is on the march, it has a leader, generally one of
+the Booshways, who rides in advance, or at the head of the column.
+Near him is a led mule, chosen for its qualities of speed and
+trustworthiness, on which are packed two small trunks that balance each
+other like panniers, and which contain the company's books, papers, and
+articles of agreement with the men. Then follow the pack animals, each
+one bearing three packs--one on each side, and one on top--so nicely
+adjusted as not to slip in traveling. These are in charge of certain men
+called camp-keepers, who have each three of these to look after. The
+trappers and hunters have two horses, or mules, one to ride, and one to
+pack their traps. If there are women and children in the train, all are
+mounted. Where the country is safe, the caravan moves in single file,
+often stretching out for half or three-quarters of a mile. At the end
+of the column rides the second man, or "little Booshway," as the men
+call him; usually a hired officer, whose business it is to look after
+the order and condition of the whole camp.
+
+[Illustration: MULE PACKING.]
+
+On arriving at a suitable spot to make the night camp, the leader stops,
+dismounts in the particular space which is to be devoted to himself in
+its midst. The others, as they come up, form a circle; the "second man"
+bringing up the rear, to be sure all are there. He then proceeds to
+appoint every man a place in the circle, and to examine the horses'
+backs to see if any are sore. The horses are then turned out, under a
+guard, to graze; but before darkness comes on are placed inside the
+ring, and picketed by a stake driven in the earth, or with two feet so
+tied together as to prevent easy or free locomotion. The men are divided
+into messes: so many trappers and so many camp-keepers to a mess. The
+business of eating is not a very elaborate one, where the sole article
+of diet is meat, either dried or roasted. By a certain hour all is quiet
+in camp, and only the guard is awake. At times during the night, the
+leader, or the officer of the guard, gives the guard a challenge--"all's
+well!" which is answered by "all's well!"
+
+In the morning at daylight, or sometimes not till sunrise, according to
+the safe or dangerous locality, the second man comes forth from his
+lodge and cries in French, "_leve, leve, leve, leve, leve!_" fifteen or
+twenty times, which is the command to rise. In about five minutes more
+he cries out again, in French, "_leche lego, leche lego!_" or turn out,
+turn out; at which command all come out from the lodges, and the horses
+are turned loose to feed; but not before a horseman has galloped all
+round the camp at some distance, and discovered every thing to be safe
+in the neighborhood. Again, when the horses have been sufficiently fed,
+under the eye of a guard, they are driven up, the packs replaced, the
+train mounted, and once more it moves off, in the order before
+mentioned.
+
+In a settled camp, as in winter, there are other regulations. The leader
+and the second man occupy the same relative positions; but other minor
+regulations are observed. The duty of a trapper, for instance, in the
+trapping season, is only to trap, and take care of his own horses. When
+he comes in at night, he takes his beaver to the clerk, and the number
+is counted off, and placed to his credit. Not he, but the camp-keepers,
+take off the skins and dry them. In the winter camp there are six
+persons to a lodge: four trappers and two camp-keepers; therefore the
+trappers are well waited upon, their only duty being to hunt, in turns,
+for the camp. When a piece of game is brought in,--a deer, an antelope,
+or buffalo meat,--it is thrown down on the heap which accumulates in
+front of the Booshway's lodge; and the second man stands by and cuts it
+up, or has it cut up for him. The first man who chances to come along,
+is ordered to stand still and turn his back to the pile of game, while
+the "little Booshway" lays hold of a piece that has been cut off, and
+asks in a loud voice--"who will have this?"--and the man answering for
+him, says, "the Booshway," or perhaps "number six," or "number
+twenty"--meaning certain messes; and the number is called to come and
+take their meat. In this blind way the meat is portioned off; strongly
+reminding one of the game of "button, button, who has the button?" In
+this chance game of the meat, the Booshway fares no better than his men;
+unless, in rare instances, the little Booshway should indicate to the
+man who calls off, that a certain choice piece is designed for the mess
+of the leader or the second man.
+
+A gun is never allowed to be fired in camp under any provocation, short
+of an Indian raid; but the guns are frequently inspected, to see if they
+are in order; and woe to the careless camp-keeper who neglects this or
+any other duty. When the second man comes around, and finds a piece of
+work imperfectly done, whether it be cleaning the firearms, making a
+hair rope, or a skin lodge, or washing a horse's back, he does not
+threaten the offender with personal chastisement, but calls up another
+man and asks him, "Can _you_ do this properly?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I will give you ten dollars to do it;" and the ten dollars is set down
+to the account of the inefficient camp-keeper. But he does not risk
+forfeiting another ten dollars in the same manner.
+
+In the spring, when the camp breaks up, the skins which have been used
+all winter for lodges are cut up to make moccasins: because from their
+having been thoroughly smoked by the lodge fires they do not shrink in
+wetting, like raw skins. This is an important quality in a moccasin, as
+a trapper is almost constantly in the water, and should not his
+moccasins be smoked they will close upon his feet, in drying, like a
+vice. Sometimes after trapping all day, the tired and soaked trapper
+lies down in his blankets at night, still wet. But by-and-by he is
+wakened by the pinching of his moccasins, and is obliged to rise and
+seek the water again to relieve himself of the pain. For the same
+reason, when spring comes, the trapper is forced to cut off the lower
+half of his buckskin breeches, and piece them down with blanket leggins,
+which he wears all through the trapping season.
+
+Such were a few of the peculiarities, and the hardships also, of a life
+in the Rocky Mountains. If the camp discipline, and the dangers and
+hardships to which a raw recruit was exposed, failed to harden him to
+the service in one year, he was rejected as a "trifling fellow," and
+sent back to the settlement the next year. It was not probable,
+therefore, that the mountain-man often was detected in complaining at
+his lot. If he was miserable, he was laughed at; and he soon learned to
+laugh at his own miseries, as well as to laugh back at his comrades.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+The business of the rendezvous occupied about a month. In this period
+the men, Indian allies, and other Indian parties who usually visited the
+camp at this time, were all supplied with goods. The remaining
+merchandise was adjusted for the convenience of the different traders
+who should be sent out through all the country traversed by the company.
+Sublette then decided upon their routes, dividing up his forces into
+camps, which took each its appointed course, detaching as it proceeded
+small parties of trappers to all the hunting grounds in the
+neighborhood. These smaller camps were ordered to meet at certain times
+and places, to report progress, collect and cache their furs, and "count
+noses." If certain parties failed to arrive, others were sent out in
+search for them.
+
+This year, in the absence of Smith and Jackson, a considerable party was
+dispatched, under Milton Sublette, brother of the Captain, and two other
+free trappers and traders, Frapp and Jervais, to traverse the country
+down along the Bighorn River. Captain Sublette took a large party, among
+whom was Joe Meek, across the mountains to trap on the Snake River, in
+opposition to the Hudson's Bay Company. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company
+had hitherto avoided this country, except when Smith had once crossed to
+the head-waters of the Snake with a small party of five trappers. But
+Smith and Sublette had determined to oppose themselves to the British
+traders who occupied so large an extent of territory presumed to be
+American; and it had been agreed between them to meet this year on Snake
+River on Sublette's return from St. Louis, and Smith's from his
+California tour. What befel Smith's party before reaching the Columbia,
+has already been related; also his reception by the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and his departure from Vancouver.
+
+Sublette led his company up the valley of the Wind River, across the
+mountains, and on to the very head-waters of the Lewis or Snake River.
+Here he fell in with Jackson, in the valley of Lewis Lake, called
+Jackson's Hole, and remained on the borders of this lake for some time,
+waiting for Smith, whose non-appearance began to create a good deal of
+uneasiness. At length runners were dispatched in all directions looking
+for the lost Booshway.
+
+The detachment to which Meek was assigned had the pleasure and honor of
+discovering the hiding place of the missing partner, which was in
+Pierre's Hole, a mountain valley about thirty miles long and of half
+that width, which subsequently was much frequented by the camps of the
+various fur companies. He was found trapping and exploring, in company
+with four men only, one of whom was Black, who with him escaped from the
+Umpqua Indians, as before related.
+
+Notwithstanding the excitement and elation attendant upon the success of
+his party, Meek found time to admire the magnificent scenery of the
+valley, which is bounded on two sides by broken and picturesque ranges,
+and overlooked by that magnificent group of mountains, called the Three
+Tetons, towering to a height of fourteen thousand feet. This emerald cup
+set in its rim of amethystine mountains, was so pleasant a sight to the
+mountain-men that camp was moved to it without delay, where it remained
+until some time in September, recruiting its animals and preparing for
+the fall hunt.
+
+Here again the trappers indulged in their noisy sports and rejoicing,
+ostensibly on account of the return of the long-absent Booshway. There
+was little said of the men who had perished in that unfortunate
+expedition. "Poor fellow! out of luck;" was the usual burial rite which
+the memory of a dead comrade received. So much and no more. They could
+indulge in noisy rejoicings over a lost comrade restored; but the dead
+one was not mentioned. Nor was this apparently heartless and heedless
+manner so irrational or unfeeling as it seemed. Everybody understood one
+thing in the mountains--that he must keep his life by his own courage
+and valor, or at the least by his own prudence. Unseen dangers always
+lay in wait for him. The arrow or tomahawk of the Indian, the blow of
+the grizzly bear, the mis-step on the dizzy or slippery height, the rush
+of boiling and foaming floods, freezing cold, famine--these were the
+most common forms of peril, yet did not embrace even then all the forms
+in which Death sought his victims in the wilderness. The avoidance of
+painful reminders, such as the loss of a party of men, was a natural
+instinct, involving also a principle of self defence--since to have weak
+hearts would be the surest road to defeat in the next dangerous
+encounter. To keep their hearts "big," they must be gay, they must not
+remember the miserable fate of many of their one-time comrades. Think of
+that, stern moralist and martinet in propriety! Your fur collar hangs in
+the gas-lighted hall. In your luxurious dressing gown and slippers, by
+the warmth of a glowing grate, you muse upon the depravity of your
+fellow men. But imagine yourself, if you can, in the heart of an
+interminable wilderness. Let the snow be three or four feet deep, game
+scarce, Indians on your track: escaped from these dangers, once more
+beside a camp fire, with a roast of buffalo meat on a stick before it,
+and several of your companions similarly escaped, and destined for the
+same chances to-morrow, around you. Do you fancy you should give much
+time to lamenting the less lucky fellows who were left behind frozen,
+starved, or scalped? Not you. You would be fortifying yourself against
+to-morrow, when the same terrors might lay in wait for you. Jedediah
+Smith was a pious man; one of the few that ever resided in the Rocky
+Mountains, and led a band of reckless trappers; but he did not turn back
+to his camp when he saw it attacked on the Umpqua, nor stop to lament
+his murdered men. The law of self-preservation is strong in the
+wilderness. "Keep up your heart to-day, for to-morrow you may die," is
+the motto of the trapper.
+
+In the conference which took place between Smith and Sublette, the
+former insisted that on account of the kind services of the Hudson's Bay
+Company toward himself and the three other survivors of his party, they
+should withdraw their trappers and traders from the western side of the
+mountains for the present, so as not to have them come in conflict with
+those of that company. To this proposition Sublette reluctantly
+consented, and orders were issued for moving once more to the east,
+before going into winter camp, which was appointed for the Wind River
+Valley.
+
+In the meantime Joe Meek was sent out with a party to take his first
+hunt for beaver as a hired trapper. The detachment to which he belonged
+traveled down Pierre's fork, the stream which watered the valley of
+Pierre's Hole, to its junction with Lewis' and Henry's forks where they
+unite to form the great Snake River. While trapping in this locality the
+party became aware of the vicinity of a roving band of Blackfeet, and in
+consequence, redoubled their usual precautions while on the march.
+
+The Blackfeet were the tribe most dreaded in the Rocky Mountains, and
+went by the name of "Bugs Boys," which rendered into good English, meant
+"the devil's own." They are now so well known that to mention their
+characteristics seems like repeating a "twice-told tale;" but as they
+will appear so often in this narrative, Irving's account of them as he
+had it from Bonneville when he was fresh from the mountains, will, after
+all, not be out of place. "These savages," he says, "are the most
+dangerous banditti of the mountains, and the inveterate foe of the
+trapper. They are Ishmaelites of the first order, always with weapon in
+hand, ready for action. The young braves of the tribe, who are destitute
+of property, go to war for booty; to gain horses, and acquire the means
+of setting up a lodge, supporting a family, and entitling themselves to
+a seat in the public councils. The veteran warriors fight merely for the
+love of the thing, and the consequence which success gives them among
+their people. They are capital horsemen, and are generally well mounted
+on short, stout horses, similar to the prairie ponies, to be met with in
+St. Louis. When on a war party, however, they go on foot, to enable them
+to skulk through the country with greater secrecy; to keep in thickets
+and ravines, and use more adroit subterfuges and stratagems. Their mode
+of warfare is entirely by ambush, surprise, and sudden assaults in the
+night time. If they succeed in causing a panic, they dash forward with
+headlong fury; if the enemy is on the alert, and shows no signs of fear,
+they become wary and deliberate in their movements.
+
+"Some of them are armed in the primitive style, with bows and arrows;
+the greater part have American fusees, made after the fashion of those
+of the Hudson's Bay Company. These they procure at the trading post of
+the American Fur Company, on Maria's River, where they traffic their
+peltries for arms, ammunition, clothing, and trinkets. They are
+extremely fond of spirituous liquors and tobacco, for which nuisances
+they are ready to exchange, not merely their guns and horses, but even
+their wives and daughters. As they are a treacherous race, and have
+cherished a lurking hostility to the whites, ever since one of their
+tribe was killed by Mr. Lewis, the associate of General Clarke, in his
+exploring expedition across the Rocky Mountains, the American Fur
+Company is obliged constantly to keep at their post a garrison of sixty
+or seventy men."
+
+"Under the general name of Blackfeet are comprehended several tribes,
+such as the Surcies, the Peagans, the Blood Indians, and the Gros
+Ventres of the Prairies, who roam about the Southern branches of the
+Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, together with some other tribes further
+north. The bands infesting the Wind River Mountains, and the country
+adjacent, at the time of which we are treating, were Gros Ventres _of
+the Prairies_, which are not to be confounded with the Gros Ventres _of
+the Missouri_, who keep about the _lower_ part of that river, and are
+friendly to the white men."
+
+"This hostile band keeps about the head-waters of the Missouri, and
+numbers about nine hundred fighting men. Once in the course of two or
+three years they abandon their usual abodes and make a visit to the
+Arapahoes of the Arkansas. Their route lies either through the Crow
+country, and the Black Hills, or through the lands of the Nez Perces,
+Flatheads, Bannacks, and Shoshonies. As they enjoy their favorite state
+of hostility with all these tribes, their expeditions are prone to be
+conducted in the most lawless and predatory style; nor do they hesitate
+to extend their maraudings to any party of white men they meet with,
+following their trail, hovering about their camps, waylaying and
+dogging the caravans of the free traders, and murdering the solitary
+trapper. The consequences are frequent and desperate fights between them
+and the mountaineers, in the wild defiles and fastnesses of the Rocky
+Mountains." Such were the Blackfeet at the period of which we are
+writing; nor has their character changed at this day, as many of the
+Montana miners know to their cost.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+1830. Sublette's camp commenced moving back to the east side of the
+Rocky Mountains in October. Its course was up Henry's fork of the Snake
+River, through the North Pass to Missouri Lake, in which rises the
+Madison fork of the Missouri River. The beaver were very plenty on
+Henry's fork, and our young trapper had great success in making up his
+packs; having learned the art of setting his traps very readily. The
+manner in which the trapper takes his game is as follows:--
+
+He has an ordinary steel trap weighing five pounds, attached to a chain
+five feet long, with a swivel and ring at the end, which plays round
+what is called the _float_, a dry stick of wood, about six feet long.
+The trapper wades out into the stream, which is shallow, and cuts with
+his knife a bed for the trap, five or six inches under water. He then
+takes the float out the whole length of the chain in the direction of
+the centre of the stream, and drives it into the mud, so fast that the
+beaver cannot draw it out; at the same time tying the other end by a
+thong to the bank. A small stick or twig, dipped in musk or castor,
+serves for bait, and is placed so as to hang directly above the trap,
+which is now set. The trapper then throws water plentifully over the
+adjacent bank to conceal any foot prints or scent by which the beaver
+would be alarmed, and going to some distance wades out of the stream.
+
+In setting a trap, several things are to be observed with care:--first,
+that the trap is firmly fixed, and the proper distance from the
+bank--for if the beaver can get on shore with the trap, he will cut off
+his foot to escape: secondly, that the float is of dry wood, for should
+it not be, the little animal will cut it off at a stroke, and swimming
+with the trap to the middle of the dam, be drowned by its weight. In the
+latter case, when the hunter visits his traps in the morning, he is
+under the necessity of plunging into the water and swimming out to dive
+for the missing trap, and his game. Should the morning be frosty and
+chill, as it very frequently is in the mountains, diving for traps is
+not the pleasantest exercise. In placing the bait, care must be taken to
+fix it just where the beaver in reaching it will spring the trap. If the
+bait-stick be placed high, the hind foot of the beaver will be caught:
+if low, his fore foot.
+
+The manner in which the beavers make their dam, and construct their
+lodge, has long been reckoned among the wonders of the animal creation;
+and while some observers have claimed for the little creature more
+sagacity than it really possesses, its instinct is still sufficiently
+wonderful. It is certainly true that it knows how to keep the water of a
+stream to a certain level, by means of an obstruction; and that it cuts
+down trees for the purpose of backing up the water by a dam. It is not
+true, however, that it can always fell a tree in the direction required
+for this purpose. The timber about a beaver dam is felled in all
+directions; but as trees that grow near the water, generally lean
+towards it, the tree, when cut, takes the proper direction by
+gravitation alone. The beaver then proceeds to cut up the fallen timber
+into lengths of about three feet, and to convey them to the spot where
+the dam is to be situated, securing them in their places by means of mud
+and stones. The work is commenced when the water is low, and carried on
+as it rises, until it has attained the desired height. And not only is
+it made of the requisite height and strength, but its shape is suited
+exactly to the nature of the stream in which it is built. If the water
+is sluggish the dam is straight; if rapid and turbulent, the barrier is
+constructed of a convex form, the better to resist the action of the
+water.
+
+[Illustration: BEAVER-DAM.]
+
+When the beavers have once commenced a dam, its extent and thickness are
+continually augmented, not only by their labors, but by accidental
+accumulations; thus accommodating itself to the size of the growing
+community. At length, after a lapse of many years, the water being
+spread over a considerable tract, and filled up by yearly accumulations
+of drift-wood and earth, seeds take root in the new made ground, and the
+old beaver-dams become green meadows, or thickets of cotton-wood and
+willow.
+
+The food on which the beaver subsists, is the bark of the young trees in
+its neighborhood; and when laying up a winter store, the whole community
+join in the labor of selecting, cutting up, and carrying the strips to
+their store-houses under water. They do not, as some writers have
+affirmed, when cutting wood for a dam strip off the bark and store it in
+their lodges for winter consumption; but only carry under water the
+stick with the bark on.
+
+     "The beaver has two incisors and eight molars in each jaw; and
+     empty hollows where the canine teeth might be. The upper pair of
+     cutting teeth extend far into the jaw, with a curve of rather more
+     than a semicircle; and the lower pair of incisors form rather less
+     than a semicircle. Sometimes, one of these teeth gets broken and
+     then the opposite tooth continues growing until it forms a nearly
+     complete circle. The chewing muscle of the beaver is strengthened
+     by tendons in such a way as to give it great power. But more is
+     needed to enable the beaver to eat wood. The insalivation of the
+     dry food is provided for by the extraordinary size of the salivary
+     glands.
+
+     "Now, every part of these instruments is of vital importance to the
+     beavers. The loss of an incisor involves the formation of an
+     obstructive circular tooth; deficiency of saliva renders the food
+     indigestible; and when old age comes and the enamel is worn down
+     faster than it is renewed, the beaver is not longer able to cut
+     branches for its support. Old, feeble and poor, unable to borrow,
+     and ashamed to beg, he steals cuttings, and subjects himself to the
+     penalty assigned to theft. Aged beavers are often found dead with
+     gashes in their bodies, showing that they have been killed by their
+     mates. In the fall of 1864, a very aged beaver was caught in one of
+     the dams of the Esconawba River, and this was the reflection of a
+     great authority on the occasion, one Ah-she-goes, an Ojibwa
+     trapper: 'Had he escaped the trap he would have been killed before
+     the winter was over, by other beavers, for stealing cuttings.'
+
+     "When the beavers are about two or three years old, their teeth are
+     in their best condition for cutting. On the Upper Missouri, they
+     cut the cotton tree and the willow bush; around Hudson's Bay and
+     Lake Superior, in addition to the willow they cut the poplar and
+     maple, hemlock, spruce and pine. The cutting is round and round,
+     and deepest upon the side on which they wish the tree to fall.
+     Indians and trappers have seen beavers cutting trees. The felling
+     of a tree is a family affair. No more than a single pair with two
+     or three young ones are engaged at a time. The adults take the
+     cutting in turns, one gnawing and the other watching; and
+     occasionally a youngster trying his incisors. The beaver whilst
+     gnawing sits on his plantigrade hind legs, which keep him
+     conveniently upright. When the tree begins to crackle the beavers
+     work cautiously, and when it crashes down they plunge into the
+     pond, fearful lest the noise should attract an enemy to the spot.
+     After the tree-fall, comes the lopping of the branches. A single
+     tree may be winter provision for a family. Branches five or six
+     inches thick have to be cut into proper lengths for transport, and
+     are then taken home."
+
+The lodge of a beaver is generally about six feet in diameter, on the
+inside, and about half as high. They are rounded or dome-shaped on the
+outside, with very thick walls, and communicate with the land by
+subterranean passages, below the depth at which the water freezes in
+winter. Each lodge is made to accommodate several inmates, who have
+their beds ranged round the walls, much as the Indian does in his tent.
+They are very cleanly, too, and after eating, carry out the sticks that
+have been stripped, and either use them in repairing their dam, or throw
+them into the stream below.
+
+During the summer months the beavers abandon their lodges, and disport
+themselves about the streams, sometimes going on long journeys; or if
+any remain at home, they are the mothers of young families. About the
+last of August the community returns to its home, and begins
+preparations for the domestic cares of the long winter months.
+
+An exception to this rule is that of certain individuals, who have no
+families, make no dam, and never live in lodges, but burrow in
+subterranean tunnels. They are always found to be males, whom the French
+trappers call "les parasseux," or idlers; and the American trappers,
+"bachelors." Several of them are sometimes found in one abode, which the
+trappers facetiously denominate "bachelor's hall." Being taken with less
+difficulty than the more domestic beaver, the trapper is always glad to
+come upon their habitations.
+
+The trapping season is usually in the spring and autumn. But should the
+hunters find it necessary to continue their work in winter, they capture
+the beaver by sounding on the ice until an aperture is discovered, when
+the ice is cut away and the opening closed up. Returning to the bank,
+they search for the subterranean passage, tracing its connection with
+the lodge; and by patient watching succeed in catching the beaver on
+some of its journeys between the water and the land. This, however, is
+not often resorted to when the hunt in the fall has been successful; or
+when not urged by famine to take the beaver for food.
+
+"Occasionally it happens," says Captain Bonneville, "that several
+members of a beaver family are trapped in succession. The survivors then
+become extremely shy, and can scarcely be "brought to medicine," to use
+the trappers' phrase for "taking the bait." In such case, the trapper
+gives up the use of the bait, and conceals his traps in the usual paths
+and crossing places of the household. The beaver being now completely
+"up to trap," approaches them cautiously, and springs them, ingeniously,
+with a stick. At other times, he turns the traps bottom upwards, by the
+same means, and occasionally even drags them to the barrier, and
+conceals them in the mud. The trapper now gives up the contest of
+ingenuity, and shouldering his traps, marches off, admitting that he is
+not yet "up to beaver."
+
+Before the camp moved from the forks of the Snake River, the haunting
+Blackfeet made their appearance openly. It was here that Meek had his
+first battle with that nation, with whom he subsequently had many a
+savage contest. They attacked the camp early in the morning, just as the
+call to turn out had sounded. But they had miscalculated their
+opportunity: the design having evidently been to stampede the horses and
+mules, at the hour and moment of their being turned loose to graze. They
+had been too hasty by a few minutes, so that when they charged on the
+camp pell-mell, firing a hundred guns at once, to frighten both horses
+and men, it happened that only a few of the animals had been turned out,
+and they had not yet got far off. The noise of the charge only turned
+them back to camp.
+
+In an instant's time, Fitzpatrick was mounted, and commanding the men to
+follow, he galloped at headlong speed round and round the camp, to drive
+back such of the horses as were straying, or had been frightened from
+their pickets. In this race, two horses were shot under him; but he
+escaped, and the camp-horses were saved. The battle now was to punish
+the thieves. They took their position, as usual with Indian fighters, in
+a narrow ravine; from whence the camp was forced to dislodge them, at a
+great disadvantage. This they did do, at last, after six hours of hard
+fighting, in which a few men were wounded, but none killed. The thieves
+skulked off, through the canyon, when they found themselves defeated,
+and were seen no more until the camp came to the woods which cover the
+western slope of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+But as the camp moved eastward, or rather in a northeasterly direction,
+through the pine forests between Pierre's Hole and the head-waters of
+the Missouri, it was continually harrassed by Blackfeet, and required a
+strong guard at night, when these marauders delighted to make an attack.
+The weather by this time was very cold in the mountains, and chilled the
+marrow of our young Virginian. The travel was hard, too, and the
+recruits pretty well worn out.
+
+One cold night, Meek was put on guard on the further side of the camp,
+with a veteran named Reese. But neither the veteran nor the youngster
+could resist the approaches of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," and went
+to sleep at their post of duty. When, during the night, Sublette came
+out of his tent and gave the challenge--"All's well!" there was no
+reply. To quote Meek's own language, "Sublette came round the horse-pen
+swearing and snorting. He was powerful mad. Before he got to where Reese
+was, he made so much noise that he waked him; and Reese, in a loud
+whisper, called to him, 'Down, Billy! Indians!' Sublette got down on his
+belly mighty quick. 'Whar? whar?' he asked.
+
+"'They were right there when you hollered so,' said Reese.
+
+"'Where is Meek?' whispered Sublette.
+
+"'He is trying to shoot one,' answered Reese, still in a whisper.
+
+"Reese then crawled over to whar I war, and told me what had been said,
+and informed me what to do. In a few minutes I crept cautiously over to
+Reese's post, when Sublette asked me how many Indians had been thar, and
+I told him I couldn't make out their number. In the morning a pair of
+Indian moccasins war found whar Reese _saw the Indians_, which I had
+_taken care to leave there_; and thus confirmed, our story got us the
+credit of vigilance, instead of our receiving our just dues for neglect
+of duty."
+
+It was sometime during the fall hunt in the Pine Woods, on the west side
+of the Rocky Mountains, that Meek had one of his earliest adventures
+with a bear. Two comrades, Craig and Nelson, and himself, while out
+trapping, left their horses, and traveled up a creek on foot, in search
+of beaver. They had not proceeded any great distance, before they came
+suddenly face to face with a red bear; so suddenly, indeed, that the men
+made a spring for the nearest trees. Craig and Meek ascended a large
+pine, which chanced to be nearest, and having many limbs, was easy to
+climb. Nelson happened to take to one of two small trees that grew close
+together; and the bear, fixing upon him for a victim, undertook to climb
+after him. With his back against one of these small trees, and his feet
+against the other, his bearship succeeded in reaching a point not far
+below Nelson's perch, when the trees opened with his weight, and down
+he went, with a shock that fairly shook the ground. But this bad luck
+only seemed to infuriate the beast, and up he went again, with the same
+result, each time almost reaching his enemy. With the second tumble he
+was not the least discouraged; but started up the third time, only to be
+dashed once more to the ground when he had attained a certain height. At
+the third fall, however, he became thoroughly disgusted with his want of
+success, and turned and ran at full speed into the woods.
+
+"Then," says Meek, "Craig began to sing, and I began to laugh; but
+Nelson took to swearing. 'O yes, you can laugh and sing now,' says
+Nelson; 'but you war quiet enough when the bear was around.' 'Why,
+Nelson,' I answered, 'you wouldn't have us noisy before that
+distinguished guest of yours?' But Nelson damned the wild beast; and
+Craig and I laughed, and said he didn't seem wild a bit. That's the way
+we hector each other in the mountains. If a man gets into trouble he is
+only laughed at: 'let him keep out; let him have better luck,' is what
+we say."
+
+The country traversed by Sublette in the fall of 1829, was unknown at
+that period, even to the fur companies, they having kept either farther
+to the south or to the north. Few, if any, white men had passed through
+it since Lewis and Clarke discovered the head-waters of the Missouri and
+the Snake Rivers, which flow from the opposite sides of the same
+mountain peaks. Even the toils and hardships of passing over mountains
+at this season of the year, did not deprive the trapper of the enjoyment
+of the magnificent scenery the region afforded. Splendid views, however,
+could not long beguile men who had little to eat, and who had yet a long
+journey to accomplish in cold, and surrounded by dangers, before
+reaching the wintering ground.
+
+In November the camp left Missouri Lake on the east side of the
+mountains, and crossed over, still northeasterly, on to the Gallatin
+fork of the Missouri River, passing over a very rough and broken
+country. They were, in fact, still in the midst of mountains, being
+spurs of the great Rocky range, and equally high and rugged. A
+particularly high mountain lay between them and the main Yellowstone
+River. This they had just crossed, with great fatigue and difficulty,
+and were resting the camp and horses for a few days on the river's bank,
+when the Blackfeet once more attacked them in considerable numbers. Two
+men were killed in this fight, and the camp thrown into confusion by the
+suddenness of the alarm. Capt. Sublette, however, got off, with most of
+his men, still pursued by the Indians.
+
+Not so our Joe, who this time was not in luck, but was cut off from
+camp, alone, and had to flee to the high mountains overlooking the
+Yellowstone. Here was a situation for a nineteen-year-old raw recruit!
+Knowing that the Blackfeet were on the trail of the camp, it was death
+to proceed in that direction. Some other route must be taken to come up
+with them; the country was entirely unknown to him; the cold severe; his
+mule, blanket, and gun, his only earthly possessions. On the latter he
+depended for food, but game was scarce; and besides, he thought the
+sound of his gun would frighten himself, so alone in the wilderness,
+swarming with stealthy foes.
+
+Hiding his mule in a thicket, he ascended to the mountain top to take a
+view of the country, and decide upon his course. And what a scene was
+that for the miserable boy, whose chance of meeting with his comrades
+again was small indeed! At his feet rolled the Yellowstone River,
+coursing away through the great plain to the eastward. To the north his
+eye follows the windings of the Missouri, as upon a map, but playing at
+hide-and-seek in amongst the mountains. Looking back, he saw the River
+Snake stretching its serpentine length through lava plains, far away, to
+its junction with the Columbia. To the north, and to the south, one
+white mountain rose above another as far as the eye could reach. What a
+mighty and magnificent world it seemed, to be alone in! Poor Joe
+succumbed to the influence of the thought, and wept.
+
+Having indulged in this sole remaining luxury of life, Joe picked up his
+resolution, and decided upon his course. To the southeast lay the Crow
+country, a land of plenty,--as the mountain-man regards plenty,--and
+there he could at least live; provided the Crows permitted him to do so.
+Besides, he had some hopes of falling in with one of the camps, by
+taking that course.
+
+Descending the mountain to the hiding-place of his mule, by which time
+it was dark night, hungry and freezing, Joe still could not light a
+fire, for fear of revealing his whereabouts to the Indians; nor could he
+remain to perish with cold. Travel he must, and travel he did, going he
+scarcely knew whither. Looking back upon the terrors and discomforts of
+that night, the veteran mountaineer yet regards it as about the most
+miserable one of his life. When day at length broke, he had made, as
+well as he could estimate the distance, about thirty miles. Traveling on
+toward the southeast, he had crossed the Yellowstone River, and still
+among the mountains, was obliged to abandon his mule and accoutrements,
+retaining only one blanket and his gun. Neither the mule nor himself had
+broken fast in the last two days. Keeping a southerly course for twenty
+miles more, over a rough and elevated country, he came, on the evening
+of the third day, upon a band of mountain sheep. With what eagerness did
+he hasten to kill, cook, and eat! Three days of fasting was, for a
+novice, quite sufficient to provide him with an appetite.
+
+Having eaten voraciously, and being quite overcome with fatigue, Joe
+fell asleep in his blanket, and slumbered quite deeply until morning.
+With the morning came biting blasts from the north, that made motion
+necessary if not pleasant. Refreshed by sleep and food, our traveler
+hastened on upon his solitary way, taking with him what sheep-meat he
+could carry, traversing the same rough and mountainous country as
+before. No incidents nor alarms varied the horrible and monotonous
+solitude of the wilderness. The very absence of anything to alarm was
+awful; for the bravest man is wretchedly nervous in the solitary
+presence of sublime Nature. Even the veteran hunter of the mountains can
+never entirely divest himself of this feeling of awe, when his single
+soul comes face to face with God's wonderful and beautiful handiwork.
+
+At the close of the fourth day, Joe made his lonely camp in a deep
+defile of the mountains, where a little fire and some roasted mutton
+again comforted his inner and outer man, and another night's sleep still
+farther refreshed his wearied frame. On the following morning, a very
+bleak and windy one, having breakfasted on his remaining piece of
+mutton, being desirous to learn something of the progress he had made,
+he ascended a low mountain in the neighborhood of his camp--and behold!
+the whole country beyond was smoking with the vapor from boiling
+springs, and burning with gasses, issuing from small craters, each of
+which was emitting a sharp whistling sound.
+
+When the first surprise of this astonishing scene had passed, Joe began
+to admire its effect in an artistic point of view. The morning being
+clear, with a sharp frost, he thought himself reminded of the city of
+Pittsburg, as he had beheld it on a winter morning, a couple of years
+before. This, however, related only to the rising smoke and vapor; for
+the extent of the volcanic region was immense, reaching far out of
+sight. The general face of the country was smooth and rolling, being a
+level plain, dotted with cone-shaped mounds. On the summits of these
+mounds were small craters from four to eight feet in diameter.
+Interspersed among these, on the level plain, were larger craters, some
+of them from four to six miles across. Out of these craters issued blue
+flames and molten brimstone.
+
+For some minutes Joe gazed and wondered. Curious thoughts came into his
+head, about hell and the day of doom. With that natural tendency to
+reckless gayety and humorous absurdities which some temperaments are
+sensible of in times of great excitement, he began to soliloquize. Said
+he, to himself, "I have been told the sun would be blown out, and the
+earth burnt up. If this infernal wind keeps up, I shouldn't be surprised
+if the sun war blown out. If the earth is _not_ burning up over thar,
+then it is that place the old Methodist preacher used to threaten me
+with. Any way it suits me to go and see what it's like."
+
+On descending to the plain described, the earth was found to have a
+hollow sound, and seemed threatening to break through. But Joe found the
+warmth of the place most delightful, after the freezing cold of the
+mountains, and remarked to himself again, that "if it war hell, it war a
+more agreeable climate than he had been in for some time."
+
+He had thought the country entirely desolate, as not a living creature
+had been seen in the vicinity; but while he stood gazing about him in
+curious amazement, he was startled by the report of two guns, followed
+by the Indian yell. While making rapid preparations for defence and
+flight, if either or both should be necessary, a familiar voice greeted
+him with the exclamation, "It _is_ old Joe!" When the adjective "old" is
+applied to one of Meek's age at that time, it is generally understood to
+be a term of endearment. "My feelings you may imagine," says the "old
+Uncle Joe" of the present time, in recalling the adventure.
+
+Being joined by these two associates, who had been looking for him, our
+traveler, no longer simply a raw recruit, but a hero of wonderful
+adventures, as well as the rest of the men, proceeded with them to camp,
+which they overtook the third day, attempting to cross the high
+mountains between the Yellowstone and the Bighorn Rivers. If Meek had
+seen hard times in the mountains alone, he did not find them much
+improved in camp. The snow was so deep that the men had to keep in
+advance, and break the road for the animals; and to make their condition
+still more trying, there were no provisions in camp, nor any prospect of
+plenty, for men or animals, until they should reach the buffalo country
+beyond the mountains.
+
+During this scarcity of provisions, some of those amusing incidents took
+place with which the mountaineer will contrive to lighten his own and
+his comrades' spirits, even in periods of the greatest suffering. One
+which we have permission to relate, has reference to what Joe Meek calls
+the "meanest act of his life."
+
+While the men were starving, a negro boy, belonging to Jedediah Smith,
+by some means was so fortunate as to have caught a porcupine, which he
+was roasting before the fire. Happening to turn his back for a moment,
+to observe something in camp, Meek and Reese snatched the tempting
+viand and made off with it, before the darkey discovered his loss. But
+when it was discovered, what a wail went up for the embezzled porcupine!
+Suspicion fixed upon the guilty parties, but as no one would 'peach on
+white men to save a "nigger's" rights, the poor, disappointed boy could
+do nothing but lament in vain, to the great amusement of the men, who
+upon the principle that "misery loves company," rather chuckled over
+than condemned Meek's "mean act."
+
+There was a sequel, however, to this little story. So much did the negro
+dwell upon the event, and the heartlessness of the men towards him, that
+in the following summer, when Smith was in St. Louis, he gave the boy
+his freedom and two hundred dollars, and left him in that city; so that
+it became a saying in the mountains, that "the nigger got his freedom
+for a porcupine."
+
+During this same march, a similar joke was played upon one of the men
+named Craig. He had caught a rabbit and put it up to roast before the
+fire--a tempting looking morsel to starving mountaineers. Some of his
+associates determined to see how it tasted, and Craig was told that the
+Booshways wished to speak with him at their lodge. While he obeyed this
+supposed command, the rabbit was spirited away, never more to be seen by
+mortal man. When Craig returned to the camp-fire, and beheld the place
+vacant where a rabbit so late was nicely roasting, his passion knew no
+bounds, and he declared his intention of cutting it out of the stomach
+that contained it. But as finding the identical stomach which contained
+it involved the cutting open of many that probably did not, in the
+search, he was fain to relinquish that mode of vengeance, together with
+his hopes of a supper. As Craig is still living, and is tormented by the
+belief that he knows the man who stole his rabbit, Mr. Meek takes this
+opportunity of assuring him, upon the word of a gentleman, that _he_ is
+not the man.
+
+While on the march over these mountains, owing to the depth of the snow,
+the company lost a hundred head of horses and mules, which sank in the
+yet unfrozen drifts, and could not be extricated. In despair at their
+situation, Jedediah Smith one day sent a man named Harris to the top of
+a high peak to take a view of the country, and ascertain their position.
+After a toilsome scramble the scout returned.
+
+"Well, what did you see, Harris?" asked Smith anxiously.
+
+"I saw the city of St. Louis, and one fellow taking a drink!" replied
+Harris; prefacing the assertion with a shocking oath.
+
+Smith asked no more questions. He understood by the man's answer that he
+had made no pleasing discoveries; and knew that they had still a weary
+way before them to reach the plains below. Besides, Smith was a
+religious man, and the coarse profanity of the mountaineers was very
+distasteful to him. "A very mild man, and a christian; and there were
+very few of them in the mountains," is the account given of him by the
+mountaineers themselves.
+
+The camp finally arrived without loss of life, except to the animals, on
+the plains of the Bighorn River, and came upon the waters of the
+Stinking Fork, a branch of this river, which derives its unfortunate
+appellation from the fact that it flows through a volcanic tract similar
+to the one discovered by Meek on the Yellowstone plains. This place
+afforded as much food for wonder to the whole camp, as the former one
+had to Joe; and the men unanimously pronounced it the "back door to that
+country which divines preach about." As this volcanic district had
+previously been seen by one of Lewis and Clarke's men, named Colter,
+while on a solitary hunt, and by him also denominated "hell," there must
+certainly have been something very suggestive in its appearance.
+
+If the mountains had proven barren, and inhospitably cold, this hot and
+sulphurous country offered no greater hospitality. In fact, the fumes
+which pervaded the air rendered it exceedingly noxious to every living
+thing, and the camp was fain to push on to the main stream of the
+Bighorn River. Here signs of trappers became apparent, and spies having
+been sent out discovered a camp of about forty men, under Milton
+Sublette, brother of Captain William Sublette, the same that had been
+detached the previous summer to hunt in that country. Smith and Sublette
+then cached their furs, and moving up the river joined the camp of M.
+Sublette.
+
+The manner of caching furs is this: A pit is dug to a depth of five or
+six feet in which to stand. The men then drift from this under a bank of
+solid earth, and excavate a room of considerable dimensions, in which
+the furs are deposited, and the apartment closed up. The pit is then
+filled up with earth, and the traces of digging obliterated or
+concealed. These caches are the only storehouses of the wilderness.
+
+While the men were recruiting themselves in the joint camp, the alarm of
+"Indians!" was given, and hurried cries of "shoot! shoot!" were uttered
+on the instant. Captain Sublette, however, checked this precipitation,
+and ordering the men to hold, allowed the Indians to approach, making
+signs of peace. They proved to be a war party of Crows, who after
+smoking the pipe of peace with the Captain, received from him a present
+of some tobacco, and departed.
+
+As soon as the camp was sufficiently recruited for traveling, the united
+companies set out again toward the south, and crossed the Horn mountains
+once more into Wind River Valley; having had altogether, a successful
+fall hunt, and made some important explorations, notwithstanding the
+severity of the weather and the difficulty of mountain traveling. It was
+about Christmas when the camp arrived on Wind River, and the cold
+intense. While the men celebrated Christmas, as best they might under
+the circumstances, Capt. Sublette started to St. Louis with one man,
+Harris, called among mountain-men Black Harris, on snowshoes, with a
+train of pack-dogs. Such was the indomitable energy and courage of this
+famous leader!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+1830. The furs collected by Jackson's company were cached on the Wind
+River; and the cold still being very severe, and game scarce, the two
+remaining leaders, Smith and Jackson, set out on the first of January
+with the whole camp, for the buffalo country, on the Powder River, a
+distance of about one hundred and fifty miles. "Times were hard in
+camp," when mountains had to be crossed in the depth of winter.
+
+The animals had to be subsisted on the bark of the sweet cotton-wood,
+which grows along the streams and in the valleys on the east side of the
+Rocky Mountains, but is nowhere to be found west of that range. This way
+of providing for his horses and mules involved no trifling amount of
+labor, when each man had to furnish food for several of them. To collect
+this bark, the men carried the smooth limbs of the cotton-wood to camp,
+where, beside the camp-fire, they shaved off the sweet, green bark with
+a hunting-knife transformed into a drawing-knife by fastening a piece of
+wood to its point; or, in case the cotton-wood was not convenient, the
+bark was peeled off, and carried to camp in a blanket. So nutritious is
+it, that animals fatten upon it quite as well as upon oats.
+
+[Illustration: HUNTER'S WINTER CAMP.]
+
+In the large cotton-wood bottoms on the Yellowstone River, it sometimes
+became necessary to station a double guard to keep the buffalo out of
+camp, so numerous were they, when the severity of the cold drove them
+from the prairies to these cotton-wood thickets for subsistence. It
+was, therefore, of double importance to make the winter camp where the
+cotton-wood was plenty; since not only did it furnish the animals of the
+camp with food, but by attracting buffalo, made game plenty for the men.
+To such a hunter's paradise on Powder River, the camp was now traveling,
+and arrived, after a hard, cold march, about the middle of January, when
+the whole encampment went into winter quarters, to remain until the
+opening of spring.
+
+This was the occasion when the mountain-man "lived fat" and enjoyed
+life: a season of plenty, of relaxation, of amusement, of
+acquaintanceship with all the company, of gayety, and of "busy
+idleness." Through the day, hunting parties were coming and going, men
+were cooking, drying meat, making moccasins, cleaning their arms,
+wrestling, playing games, and, in short, everything that an isolated
+community of hardy men could resort to for occupation, was resorted to
+by these mountaineers. Nor was there wanting, in the appearance of the
+camp, the variety, and that picturesque air imparted by a mingling of
+the native element; for what with their Indian allies, their native
+wives, and numerous children, the mountaineers' camp was a motley
+assemblage; and the trappers themselves, with their affectation of
+Indian coxcombry, not the least picturesque individuals.
+
+The change wrought in a wilderness landscape by the arrival of the grand
+camp was wonderful indeed. Instead of Nature's superb silence and
+majestic loneliness, there was the sound of men's voices in boisterous
+laughter, or the busy hum of conversation; the loud-resounding stroke of
+the axe; the sharp report of the rifle; the neighing of horses, and
+braying of mules; the Indian whoop and yell; and all that not unpleasing
+confusion of sound which accompanies the movements of the creature man.
+Over the plain, only dotted until now with shadows of clouds, or the
+transitory passage of the deer, the antelope, or the bear, were
+scattered hundreds of lodges and immense herds of grazing animals. Even
+the atmosphere itself seemed changed from its original purity, and
+became clouded with the smoke from many camp-fires. And all this change
+might go as quickly as it came. The tent struck and the march resumed,
+solitude reigned once more, and only the cloud dotted the silent
+landscape.
+
+If the day was busy and gleesome, the night had its charms as well.
+Gathered about the shining fires, groups of men in fantastic costumes
+told tales of marvelous adventures, or sung some old-remembered song, or
+were absorbed in games of chance. Some of the better educated men, who
+had once known and loved books, but whom some mishap in life had
+banished to the wilderness, recalled their favorite authors, and recited
+passages once treasured, now growing unfamiliar; or whispered to some
+chosen confrere the saddened history of his earlier years, and charged
+him thus and thus, should ever-ready death surprise himself in the next
+spring's hunt.
+
+It will not be thought discreditable to our young trapper, Joe, that he
+learned to read by the light of the camp-fire. Becoming sensible, even
+in the wilderness, of the deficiencies of his early education, he found
+a teacher in a comrade, named Green, and soon acquired sufficient
+knowledge to enjoy an old copy of Shakspeare; which, with a Bible, was
+carried about with the property of the camp.
+
+In this life of careless gayety and plenty, the whole company was
+allowed to remain without interruption, until the first of April, when
+it was divided, and once more started on the march. Jackson, or "Davey,"
+as he was called by the men, with about half the company, left for the
+Snake country. The remainder, among whom was Meek, started north, with
+Smith for commander, and James Bridger as pilot.
+
+Crossing the mountains, ranges of which divide the tributary streams of
+the Yellowstone from each other, the first halt was made on Tongue
+River. From thence the camp proceeded to the Bighorn River. Through all
+this country game was in abundance,--buffalo, elk, and bear, and beaver
+also plenty. In mountain phrase, "times were good on this hunt:" beaver
+packs increased in number, and both men and animals were in excellent
+condition.
+
+A large party usually hunted out the beaver and frightened away the game
+in a few weeks, or days, from any one locality. When this happened the
+camp moved on; or, should not game be plenty, it kept constantly on the
+move, the hunters and trappers seldom remaining out more than a day or
+two. Should the country be considered dangerous on account of Indians,
+it was the habit of the men to return every night to the encampment.
+
+It was the design of Smith to take his command into the Blackfoot
+country, a region abounding in the riches which he sought, could they
+only be secured without coming into too frequent conflict with the
+natives: always a doubtful question concerning these savages. He had
+proceeded in this direction as far as Bovey's Fork of the Bighorn, when
+the camp was overtaken by a heavy fall of snow, which made traveling
+extremely difficult, and which, when melted, caused a sudden great rise
+in the mountain streams. In attempting to cross Bovey's Fork during the
+high water, he had thirty horses swept away, with three hundred traps: a
+serious loss in the business of hunting beaver.
+
+In the manner described, pushing on through an unknown country, hunting
+and trapping as they moved, the company proceeded, passing another low
+chain of mountains, through a pass called Pryor's Gap, to Clark's Fork
+of the Yellowstone, thence to Rose-Bud River, and finally to the main
+Yellowstone River, where it makes a great bend to the east, enclosing a
+large plain covered with grass, and having also extensive cotton-wood
+bottoms, which subsequently became a favorite wintering ground of the
+fur companies.
+
+It was while trapping up in this country, on the Rose-Bud River, that an
+amusing adventure befel our trapper Joe. Being out with two other
+trappers, at some distance from the great camp, they had killed and
+supped off a fat buffalo cow. The night was snowy, and their camp was
+made in a grove of young aspens. Having feasted themselves, the
+remaining store of choice pieces was divided between, and placed, hunter
+fashion, under the heads of the party, on their betaking themselves to
+their blanket couches for the night. Neither Indian nor wild beast
+disturbed their repose, as they slept, with their guns beside them,
+filled with comfort and plenty. But who ever dreams of the presence of a
+foe under such circumstances? Certainly not our young trapper, who was
+only awakened about day-break by something very large and heavy walking
+over him, and snuffing about him with a most insulting freedom. It did
+not need Yankee powers of guessing to make out who the intruder in camp
+might be: in truth, it was only too disagreeably certain that it was a
+full sized grizzly bear, whose keenness of smell had revealed to him the
+presence of fat cow-meat in that neighborhood.
+
+"You may be sure," says Joe, "that I kept very quiet, while that bar
+helped himself to some of my buffalo meat, and went a little way off to
+eat it. But Mark Head, one of the men, raised up, and back came the
+bar. Down went our heads under the blankets, and I kept mine covered
+pretty snug, while the beast took another walk over the bed, but finally
+went off again to a little distance. Mitchel then wanted to shoot; but I
+said, 'no, no; hold on, or the brute will kill us, sure.' When the bar
+heard our voices, back he run again, and jumped on the bed as before.
+I'd have been happy to have felt myself sinking ten feet under ground,
+while that bar promenaded over and around us! However, he couldn't quite
+make out our style, and finally took fright, and ran off down the
+mountain. Wanting to be revenged for his impudence, I went after him,
+and seeing a good chance, shot him dead. Then I took my turn at running
+over him awhile!"
+
+Such are the not infrequent incidents of the trapper's life, which
+furnish him with material, needing little embellishment to convert it
+into those wild tales with which the nights are whiled away around the
+winter camp-fire.
+
+Arrived at the Yellowstone with his company, Smith found it necessary,
+on account of the high water, to construct Bull-boats for the crossing.
+These are made by stitching together buffalo hides, stretching them over
+light frames, and paying the seams with elk tallow and ashes. In these
+light wherries the goods and people were ferried over, while the horses
+and mules were crossed by swimming.
+
+The mode usually adopted in crossing large rivers, was to spread the
+lodges on the ground, throwing on them the light articles, saddles, etc.
+A rope was then run through the pin-holes around the edge of each, when
+it could be drawn up like a reticule. It was then filled with the
+heavier camp goods, and being tightly drawn up, formed a perfect ball. A
+rope being tied to it, it was launched on the water, the children of the
+camp on top, and the women swimming after and clinging to it, while a
+man, who had the rope in his hand, swam ahead holding on to his horse's
+mane. In this way, dancing like a cork on the waves, the lodge was
+piloted across; and passengers as well as freight consigned, undamaged,
+to the opposite shore. A large camp of three hundred men, and one
+hundred women and children were frequently thus crossed in one hour's
+time.
+
+The camp was now in the excellent but inhospitable country of the
+Blackfeet, and the commander redoubled his precautions, moving on all
+the while to the Mussel Shell, and thence to the Judith River. Beaver
+were plenty and game abundant; but the vicinity of the large village of
+the Blackfeet made trapping impracticable. Their war upon the trappers
+was ceaseless; their thefts of traps and horses ever recurring: and
+Smith, finding that to remain was to be involved in incessant warfare,
+without hope of victory or gain, at length gave the command to turn
+back, which was cheerfully obeyed: for the trappers had been very
+successful on the spring hunt, and thinking discretion some part at
+least of valor, were glad to get safe out of the Blackfoot country with
+their rich harvest of beaver skins.
+
+The return march was by the way of Pryor's Gap, and up the Bighorn, to
+Wind River, where the cache was made in the previous December. The furs
+were now taken out and pressed, ready for transportation across the
+plains. A party was also dispatched, under Mr. Tullock, to raise the
+cache on the Bighorn River. Among this party was Meek, and a Frenchman
+named Ponto. While digging to come at the fur, the bank above caved in,
+falling upon Meek and Ponto, killing the latter almost instantly. Meek,
+though severely hurt, was taken out alive: while poor Ponto was "rolled
+in a blanket, and pitched into the river." So rude were the burial
+services of the trapper of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+Meek was packed back to camp, along with the furs, where he soon
+recovered. Sublette arrived from St. Louis with fourteen wagons loaded
+with merchandise, and two hundred additional men for the service.
+Jackson also arrived from the Snake country with plenty of beaver, and
+the business of the yearly rendezvous began. Then the scenes previously
+described were re-enacted. Beaver, the currency of the mountains, was
+plenty that year, and goods were high accordingly. A thousand dollars a
+day was not too much for some of the most reckless to spend on their
+squaws, horses, alcohol, and themselves. For "alcohol" was the beverage
+of the mountaineers. Liquors could not be furnished to the men in that
+country. Pure alcohol was what they "got tight on;" and a desperate
+tight it was, to be sure!
+
+An important change took place in the affairs of the Rocky Mountain
+Company at this rendezvous. The three partners, Smith, Sublette, and
+Jackson, sold out to a new firm, consisting of Milton Sublette, James
+Bridger, Fitzpatrick, Frapp, and Jervais; the new company retaining the
+same name and style as the old.
+
+The old partners left for St. Louis, with a company of seventy men, to
+convoy the furs. Two of them never returned to the Rocky Mountains; one
+of them, Smith, being killed the following year, as will hereafter be
+related; and Jackson remaining in St. Louis, where, like a true
+mountain-man, he dissipated his large and hard-earned fortune in a few
+years. Captain Sublette, however, continued to make his annual trips to
+and from the mountains for a number of years; and until the
+consolidation of another wealthy company with the Rocky Mountain
+Company, continued to furnish goods to the latter, at a profit on St.
+Louis prices; his capital and experience enabling him to keep the new
+firm under his control to a large degree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+1830. The whole country lying upon the Yellowstone and its tributaries,
+and about the head-waters of the Missouri, at the time of which we are
+writing, abounded not only in beaver, but in buffalo, bear, elk,
+antelope, and many smaller kinds of game. Indeed the buffalo used then
+to cross the mountains into the valleys about the head-waters of the
+Snake and Colorado Rivers, in such numbers that at certain seasons of
+the year, the plains and river bottoms swarmed with them. Since that day
+they have quite disappeared from the western slope of the Rocky
+Mountains, and are no longer seen in the same numbers on the eastern
+side.
+
+Bear, although they did not go in herds, were rather uncomfortably
+numerous, and sometimes put the trapper to considerable trouble, and
+fright also; for very few were brave enough to willingly encounter the
+formidable grizzly, one blow of whose terrible paw, aimed generally at
+the hunter's head, if not arrested, lays him senseless and torn, an easy
+victim to the wrathful monster. A gunshot wound, if not directed with
+certainty to some vulnerable point, has only the effect to infuriate the
+beast, and make him trebly dangerous. From the fact that the bear always
+bites his wound, and commences to run with his head thus brought in the
+direction from which the ball comes, he is pretty likely to make a
+straight wake towards his enemy, whether voluntarily or not; and woe be
+to the hunter who is not prepared for him, with a shot for his eye,
+or the spot just behind the ear, where certain death enters.
+
+[Illustration: _THE THREE "BARES."_]
+
+In the frequent encounters of the mountain-men with these huge beasts,
+many acts of wonderful bravery were performed, while some tragedies, and
+not a few comedies were enacted.
+
+From something humorous in Joe Meek's organization, or some wonderful
+"luck" to which he was born, or both, the greater part of his adventures
+with bears, as with men, were of a humorous complexion; enabling him not
+only to have a story to tell, but one at which his companions were bound
+to laugh. One of these which happened during the fall hunt of 1830, we
+will let him tell for himself:
+
+"The first fall on the Yellowstone, Hawkins and myself were coming up
+the river in search of camp, when we discovered a very large bar on the
+opposite bank. We shot across, and thought we had killed him, fur he
+laid quite still. As we wanted to take some trophy of our victory to
+camp, we tied our mules and left our guns, clothes, and everything
+except our knives and belts, and swum over to whar the bar war. But
+instead of being dead, as we expected, he sprung up as we come near him,
+and took after us. Then you ought to have seen two naked men run! It war
+a race for life, and a close one, too. But we made the river first. The
+bank war about fifteen feet high above the water, and the river ten or
+twelve feet deep; but we didn't halt. Overboard we went, the bar after
+us, and in the stream about as quick as we war. The current war very
+strong, and the bar war about half way between Hawkins and me. Hawkins
+was trying to swim down stream faster than the current war carrying the
+bar, and I war a trying to hold back. You can reckon that I swam! Every
+moment I felt myself being washed into the yawning jaws of the mighty
+beast, whose head war up the stream, and his eyes on me. But the
+current war too strong for him, and swept him along as fast as it did
+me. All this time, not a long one, we war looking for some place to land
+where the bar could not overtake us. Hawkins war the first to make the
+shore, unknown to the bar, whose head war still up stream; and he set up
+such a whooping and yelling that the bar landed too, but on the opposite
+side. I made haste to follow Hawkins, who had landed on the side of the
+river we started from, either by design or good luck: and then we
+traveled back a mile and more to whar our mules war left--a bar on one
+side of the river, and _two bares_ on the other!"
+
+Notwithstanding that a necessary discipline was observed and maintained
+in the fur traders' camp, there was at the same time a freedom of manner
+between the Booshways and the men, both hired and free, which could not
+obtain in a purely military organization, nor even in the higher walks
+of civilized life in cities. In the mountain community, motley as it
+was, as in other communities more refined, were some men who enjoyed
+almost unlimited freedom of speech and action, and others who were the
+butt of everybody's ridicule or censure. The leaders themselves did not
+escape the critical judgment of the men; and the estimation in which
+they were held could be inferred from the manner in which they
+designated them. Captain Sublette, whose energy, courage, and kindness
+entitled him to the admiration of the mountaineers, went by the name of
+_Billy_: his partner Jackson, was called _Davey_; Bridger, _old Gabe_,
+and so on. In the same manner the men distinguished favorites or
+oddities amongst themselves, and to have the adjective _old_ prefixed to
+a man's name signified nothing concerning his age, but rather that he
+was an object of distinction; though it did not always indicate, except
+by the tone in which it was pronounced, whether that distinction were an
+enviable one or not.
+
+Whenever a trapper could get hold of any sort of story reflecting on the
+courage of a leader, he was sure at some time to make him aware of it,
+and these anecdotes were sometimes sharp answers in the mouths of
+careless camp-keepers. Bridger was once waylaid by Blackfeet, who shot
+at him, hitting his horse in several places. The wounds caused the
+animal to rear and pitch, by reason of which violent movements Bridger
+dropped his gun, and the Indians snatched it up; after which there was
+nothing to do except to run, which Bridger accordingly did. Not long
+after this, as was customary, the leader was making a circuit of the
+camp examining the camp-keeper's guns, to see if they were in order, and
+found that of one Maloney, an Irishman, in a very dirty condition.
+
+"What would you do," asked Bridger, "with a gun like that, if the
+Indians were to charge on the camp?"
+
+"Be ----, I would throw it to them, and run the way ye did," answered
+Maloney, quickly. It was sometime after this incident before Bridger
+again examined Maloney's gun.
+
+A laughable story in this way went the rounds of the camp in this fall
+of 1830. Milton Sublette was out on a hunt with Meek after buffalo, and
+they were just approaching the band on foot, at a distance apart of
+about fifty yards, when a large grizzly bear came out of a thicket and
+made after Sublette, who, when he perceived the creature, ran for the
+nearest cotton-wood tree. Meek in the meantime, seeing that Sublette was
+not likely to escape, had taken sure aim, and fired at the bear,
+fortunately killing him. On running up to the spot where it laid,
+Sublette was discovered sitting at the foot of a cotton-wood, with his
+legs and arms clasped tightly around it.
+
+"Do you always climb a tree in that way?" asked Meek.
+
+"I reckon you took the wrong end of it, that time, Milton!"
+
+"I'll be ----, Meek, if I didn't think I was twenty feet up that tree
+when you shot;" answered the frightened Booshway; and from that time the
+men never tired of alluding to Milton's manner of climbing a tree.
+
+[Illustration: THE WRONG END OF THE TREE.]
+
+These were some of the mirthful incidents which gave occasion for a
+gayety which had to be substituted for happiness, in the checkered life
+of the trapper; and there were like to be many such, where there were
+two hundred men, each almost daily in the way of adventures by flood or
+field.
+
+On the change in the management of the Company which occurred at the
+rendezvous this year, three of the new partners, Fitzpatrick, Sublette,
+and Bridger, conducted a large party, numbering over two hundred, from
+the Wind River to the Yellowstone; crossing thence to Smith's River, the
+Falls of the Missouri, three forks of the Missouri, and to the Big
+Blackfoot River. The hunt proved very successful; beaver were plentiful;
+and the Blackfeet shy of so large a traveling party. Although so long in
+their country, there were only four men killed out of the whole company
+during this autumn.
+
+From the Blackfoot River the company proceeded down the west side of the
+mountains to the forks of the Snake River, and after trapping for a
+short time in this locality, continued their march southward as far as
+Ogden's Hole, a small valley among the Bear River Mountains.
+
+At this place they fell in with a trading and trapping party, under Mr.
+Peter Skeen Ogden, of the Hudson's Bay Company. And now commenced that
+irritating and reprehensible style of rivalry with which the different
+companies were accustomed to annoy one another. Accompanying Mr. Ogden's
+trading party were a party of Rockway Indians, who were from the North,
+and who were employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, as the Iroquois and
+Crows were, to trap for them. Fitzpatrick and associates camped in the
+neighborhood of Ogden's company, and immediately set about endeavoring
+to purchase from the Rockways and others, the furs collected for Mr.
+Ogden. Not succeeding by fair means, if the means to such an end could
+be called fair,--they opened a keg of whiskey, which, when the Indians
+had got a taste, soon drew them away from the Hudson's Bay trader, the
+regulations of whose company forbade the selling or giving of liquors to
+the Indians. Under its influence, the furs were disposed of to the Rocky
+Mountain Company, who in this manner obtained nearly the whole product
+of their year's hunt. This course of conduct was naturally exceedingly
+disagreeable to Mr. Ogden, as well as unprofitable also; and a feeling
+of hostility grew up and increased between the two camps.
+
+While matters were in this position, a stampede one day occurred among
+the horses in Ogden's camp, and two or three of the animals ran away,
+and ran into the camp of the rival company. Among them was the horse of
+Mr. Ogden's Indian wife, which had escaped, with her babe hanging to the
+saddle.
+
+Not many minutes elapsed, before the mother, following her child and
+horse, entered the camp, passing right through it, and catching the now
+halting steed by the bridle. At the same moment she espied one of her
+company's pack-horses, loaded with beaver, which had also run into the
+enemy's camp. The men had already begun to exult over the circumstance,
+considering this chance load of beaver as theirs, by the laws of war.
+But not so the Indian woman. Mounting her own horse, she fearlessly
+seized the pack-horse by the halter, and led it out of camp, with its
+costly burden.
+
+At this undaunted action, some of the baser sort of men cried out "shoot
+her, shoot her!" but a majority interfered, with opposing cries of "let
+her go; let her alone; she's a brave woman: I glory in her pluck;" and
+other like admiring expressions. While the clamor continued, the wife of
+Ogden had galloped away, with her baby and her pack-horse.
+
+As the season advanced, Fitzpatrick, with his other partners, returned
+to the east side of the mountains, and went into winter quarters on
+Powder river. In this trapper's "land of Canaan" they remained between
+two and three months. The other two partners, Frapp and Jervais, who
+were trapping far to the south, did not return until the following year.
+
+While wintering it became necessary to send a dispatch to St. Louis on
+the company's business. Meek and a Frenchman named Legarde, were chosen
+for this service, which was one of trust and peril also. They proceeded
+without accident, however, until the Pawnee villages were reached, when
+Legarde was taken prisoner. Meek, more cautious, escaped, and proceeded
+alone a few days' travel beyond, when he fell in with an express on its
+way to St. Louis, to whom he delivered his dispatches, and returned to
+camp, accompanied only by a Frenchman named Cabeneau; thus proving
+himself an efficient mountaineer at twenty years of age.
+
+1831. As soon as the spring opened, sometime in March, the whole company
+started north again, for the Blackfoot country. But on the night of the
+third day out, they fell unawares into the neighborhood of a party of
+Crow Indians, whose spies discovered the company's horses feeding on the
+dry grass of a little bottom, and succeeded in driving off about three
+hundred head. Here was a dilemma to be in, in the heart of an enemy's
+country! To send the remaining horses after these, might be "sending the
+axe after the helve;" besides most of them belonged to the free
+trappers, and could not be pressed into the service.
+
+The only course remaining was to select the best men and dispatch them
+on foot, to overtake and retake the stolen horses. Accordingly one
+hundred trappers were ordered on this expedition, among whom were Meek,
+Newell, and Antoine Godin, a half-breed and brave fellow, who was to
+lead the party. Following the trail of the Crows for two hundred miles,
+traveling day and night, on the third day they came up with them on a
+branch of the Bighorn river. The trappers advanced cautiously, and being
+on the opposite side of the stream, on a wooded bluff, were enabled to
+approach close enough to look into their fort, and count the
+unsuspecting thieves. There were sixty of them, fine young braves, who
+believed that now they had made a start in life. Alas, for the vanity of
+human, and especially of Crow expectations! Even then, while they were
+grouped around their fires, congratulating themselves on the sudden
+wealth which had descended upon them, as it were from the skies, an
+envious fate, in the shape of several roguish white trappers, was
+laughing at them and their hopes, from the overhanging bluff opposite
+them. And by and by, when they were wrapped in a satisfied slumber, two
+of these laughing rogues, Robert Newell, and Antoine Godin, stole under
+the very walls of their fort, and setting the horses free, drove them
+across the creek.
+
+The Indians were awakened by the noise of the trampling horses, and
+sprang to arms. But Meek and his fellow-trappers on the bluff fired into
+the fort with such effect that the Crows were appalled. Having delivered
+their first volley, they did not wait for the savages to recover from
+their recoil. Mounting in hot haste, the cavalcade of bare-back riders,
+and their drove of horses, were soon far away from the Crow fort,
+leaving the ambitious braves to finish their excursion on foot. It was
+afterwards ascertained that the Crows lost seven men by that one volley
+of the trappers.
+
+Flushed with success, the trappers yet found the backward journey more
+toilsome than the outward; for what with sleeplessness and fatigue, and
+bad traveling in melted snow, they were pretty well exhausted when they
+reached camp. Fearing, however, another raid from the thieving Crows,
+the camp got in motion again with as little delay as possible. They had
+not gone far, when Fitzpatrick turned back, with only one man, to go to
+St. Louis for supplies.
+
+After the departure of Fitzpatrick, Bridger and Sublette completed their
+spring and summer campaign without any material loss in men or animals,
+and with considerable gain in beaver skins. Having once more visited the
+Yellowstone, they turned to the south again, crossing the mountains into
+Pierre's Hole, on to Snake river; thence to Salt river; thence to Bear
+river; and thence to Green river, to rendezvous.
+
+It was expected that Fitzpatrick would have arrived from St. Louis with
+the usual annual recruits and supplies of merchandise, in time for the
+summer rendezvous; but after waiting for some time in vain, Bridger and
+Sublette determined to send out a small party to look for him. The large
+number of men now employed, had exhausted the stock of goods on hand.
+The camp was without blankets and without ammunition; knives were not to
+be had; traps were scarce; but worse than all, the tobacco had given
+out, and alcohol was not! In such a case as this, what could a
+mountain-man do?
+
+To seek the missing Booshway became not only a duty, but a necessity;
+and not only a necessity of the physical man, but in an equal degree a
+need of the moral and spiritual man, which was rusting with the tedium
+of waiting. In the state of uncertainty in which the minds of the
+company were involved, it occurred to that of Frapp to consult a great
+"medicine-man" of the Crows, one of those recruits filched from Mr.
+Ogden's party by whiskey the previous year.
+
+Like all eminent professional men, the Crow chief required a generous
+fee, of the value of a horse or two, before he would begin to make
+"medicine." This peculiar ceremony is pretty much alike among all the
+different tribes. It is observed first in the making of a medicine man,
+_i. e._, qualifying him for his profession; and afterwards is practiced
+to enable him to heal the sick, to prophecy, and to dream dreams, or
+even to give victory to his people. To a medicine-man was imputed great
+power, not only to cure, but to kill; and if, as it sometimes happened,
+the relatives of a sick man suspected the medicine-man of having caused
+his death, by the exercise of evil powers, one of them, or all of them,
+pursued him to the death. Therefore, although it might be honorable, it
+was not always safe to be a great "medicine."
+
+The Indians placed a sort of religious value upon the practice of
+fasting; a somewhat curious fact, when it is remembered how many
+compulsory fasts they are obliged to endure, which must train them to
+think lightly of the deprivation of food. Those, however, who could
+endure voluntary abstinence long enough, were enabled to become very
+wise and very brave. The manner of making a "medicine" among some of the
+interior tribes, is in certain respects similar to the practice gone
+through with by some preachers, in making a convert. A sort of
+camp-meeting is held, for several nights, generally about five, during
+which various dances are performed, with cries, and incantations, bodily
+exercises, singing, and nervous excitement; enough to make many
+patients, instead of one doctor. But the native's constitution is a
+strong one, and he holds out well. At last, however, one or more are
+overcome with the mysterious _power_ which enters into them at that
+time; making, instead of a saint, only a superstitious Indian doctor.
+
+The same sort of exercises which had made the Cree man a doctor were now
+resorted to, in order that he might obtain a more than natural sight,
+enabling him to see visions of the air, or at the least to endow him
+with prophetic dreams. After several nights of singing, dancing,
+hopping, screeching, beating of drums, and other more violent exercises
+and contortions, the exhausted medicine-man fell off to sleep, and when
+he awoke he announced to Frapp that Fitzpatrick was not dead. He was on
+the road; some road; but not the right one; etc., etc.
+
+Thus encouraged, Frapp determined to take a party, and go in search of
+him. Accordingly Meek, Reese, Ebarts, and Nelson, volunteered to
+accompany him. This party set out, first in the direction of Wind
+River; but not discovering any signs of the lost Booshway in that
+quarter, crossed over to the Sweetwater, and kept along down to the
+North Fork of the Platte, and thence to the Black Hills, where they
+found a beautiful country full of game; but not the hoped-for train,
+with supplies. After waiting for a short time at the Black Hills,
+Frapp's party returned to the North Fork of the Platte, and were
+rejoiced to meet at last, the long absent partner, with his pack train.
+Urged by Frapp, Fitzpatrick hastened forward, and came into camp on
+Powder River after winter had set in.
+
+Fitzpatrick had a tale to tell the other partners, in explanation of his
+unexpected delay. When he had started for St. Louis in the month of
+March previous, he had hoped to have met the old partners, Capt.
+Sublette and Jedediah Smith, and to have obtained the necessary supplies
+from them, to furnish the Summer rendezvous with plenty. But these
+gentlemen, when he fell in with them, used certain arguments which
+induced him to turn back, and accompany them to Santa Fe, where they
+promised to furnish him goods, as he desired, and to procure for him an
+escort at that place. The journey had proven tedious, and unfortunate.
+They had several times been attacked by Indians, and Smith had been
+killed. While they were camped on a small tributary of the Simmaron
+River, Smith had gone a short distance from camp to procure water, and
+while at the stream was surprised by an ambush, and murdered on the
+spot, his murderers escaping unpunished. Sublette, now left alone in the
+business, finally furnished him; and he had at last made his way back to
+his Rocky Mountain camp.
+
+But Fitzpatrick's content at being once more with his company was
+poisoned by the disagreeable proximity of a rival company. If he had
+annoyed Mr. Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company, in the previous autumn,
+Major Vanderburg and Mr. Dripps, of the American Company, in their turn
+annoyed him. This company had been on their heels, from the Platte
+River, and now were camped in the same neighborhood, using the Rocky
+Mountain Company as pilots to show them the country. As this was just
+what it was not for their interest to do, the Rocky Mountain Company
+raised camp, and fairly ran away from them; crossing the mountains to
+the Forks of the Snake River, where they wintered among the Nez Perces
+and Flathead Indians.
+
+Some time during this winter, Meek and Legarde, who had escaped from the
+Pawnees, made another expedition together; traveling three hundred miles
+on snowshoes, to the Bitter Root River, to look for a party of free
+trappers, whose beaver the company wished to secure. They were absent
+two months and a half, on this errand, and were entirely successful,
+passing a Blackfoot village in the night, but having no adventures worth
+recounting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+1832. In the following spring, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company commenced
+its march, first up Lewis' Fork, then on to Salt River, thence to Gray's
+River, and thence to Bear River. They fell in with the North American
+Fur Company on the latter river, with a large lot of goods, but no
+beaver. The American Company's resident partners were ignorant of the
+country, and were greatly at a loss where to look for the good trapping
+grounds. These gentlemen, Vanderburg and Dripps, were therefore inclined
+to keep an eye on the movements of the Rocky Mountain Company, whose
+leaders were acquainted with the whole region lying along the mountains,
+from the head-waters of the Colorado to the northern branches of the
+Missouri. On the other hand, the Rocky Mountain Company were anxious to
+"shake the dust from off their feet," which was trodden by the American
+Company, and to avoid the evils of competition in an Indian country. But
+they found the effort quite useless; the rival company had a habit of
+turning up in the most unexpected places, and taking advantage of the
+hard-earned experience of the Rocky Mountain Company's leaders. They
+tampered with the trappers, and ferreted out the secret of their next
+rendezvous; they followed on their trail, making them pilots to the
+trapping grounds; they sold goods to the Indians, and what was worse, to
+the hired trappers. In this way grew up that fierce conflict of
+interests, which made it "as much as his life was worth" for a trapper
+to suffer himself to be inveigled into the service of a rival company,
+which about this time or a little later, was at its highest, and which
+finally ruined the fur-trade for the American companies in the Rocky
+Mountains.
+
+Finding their rivals in possession of the ground, Bridger and Milton
+Sublette resolved to spend but a few days in that country. But so far as
+Sublette was concerned, circumstances ordered differently. A Rockway
+Chief, named Gray, and seven of his people, had accompanied the camp
+from Ogden's Hole, in the capacity of trappers. But during the sojourn
+on Bear River, there was a quarrel in camp on account of some indignity,
+real or fancied, which had been offered to the chief's daughter, and in
+the affray Gray stabbed Sublette so severely that it was thought he must
+die.
+
+It thus fell out that Sublette had to be left behind; and Meek who was
+his favorite, was left to take care of him while he lived, and bury him
+if he died; which trouble Sublette saved him, however, by getting well.
+But they had forty lonesome days to themselves after the camps had moved
+off,--one on the heels of the other, to the great vexation of Bridger.
+Time passed slowly in Sublette's lodge, while waiting for his wound to
+heal. Day passed after day, so entirely like each other that the
+monotony alone seemed sufficient to invite death to an easy conquest.
+But the mountain-man's blood, like the Indians, is strong and pure, and
+his flesh heals readily, therefore, since death would not have him, the
+wounded man was forced to accept of life in just this monotonous form.
+To him Joe Meek was everything,--hands, feet, physician, guard, caterer,
+hunter, cook, companion, friend. What long talks they had, when Sublette
+grew better: what stories they told; what little glimpses of a secret
+chamber in their hearts, and a better than the every-day spirit, in
+their bosoms, was revealed,--as men will reveal such things in the
+isolation of sea-voyages, or the solitary presence of majestic Nature.
+
+To the veteran mountaineer there must have been something soothing in
+the care and friendship of the youth of twenty-two, with his daring
+disposition, his frankness, his cheerful humor, and his good looks;--for
+our Joe was growing to be a maturely handsome man--tall,
+broad-shouldered, straight, with plenty of flesh, and none too much of
+it; a Southerner's olive complexion; frank, dark eyes, and a classical
+nose and chin. What though in the matter of dress he was ignorant of the
+latest styles?--grace imparts elegance even to the trapper's beaver-skin
+cap and blanket capote.
+
+At the end of forty days, as many as it took to drown a world, Sublette
+found himself well enough to ride; and the two set out on their search
+for camp. But now other adventures awaited them. On a fork of Green
+River, they came suddenly upon a band of Snake Indians feeding their
+horses. As soon as the Snakes discovered the white men, they set up a
+yell, and made an instinctive rush for their horses. Now was the
+critical moment. One word passed between the travelers, and they made a
+dash past the savages, right into the village, and never slacked rein
+until they threw themselves from their horses at the door of the
+Medicine lodge. This is a large and fancifully decorated lodge, which
+stands in the centre of a village, and like the churches of Christians,
+is sacred. Once inside of this, the strangers were safe for the present;
+their blood could not be shed there.
+
+The warriors of the village soon followed Sublette and Meek into their
+strange house of refuge. In half an hour it was filled. Not a word was
+addressed to the strangers; nor by them to the Indians, who talked
+among themselves with a solemn eagerness, while they smoked the
+medicine pipe, as inspiration in their councils. Great was the
+excitement in the minds of the listeners, who understood the Snake
+tongue, as the question of their life or death was gravely discussed;
+yet in their countenances appeared only the utmost serenity. To show
+fear, is to whet an Indian's appetite for blood: coolness confounds and
+awes him when anything will.
+
+If Sublette had longed for excitement, while an invalid in his lonely
+lodge on Bear River, he longed equally now for that blissful seclusion.
+Listening for, and hearing one's death-warrant from a band of
+blood-thirsty savages, could only prove with bitter sharpness how sweet
+was life, even the most uneventful. For hours the council continued, and
+the majority favored the death-sentence. But one old chief, called the
+good _Gotia_, argued long for an acquittal: he did not see the necessity
+of murdering two harmless travelers of the white race. Nothing availed,
+however, and just at sunset their doom was fixed.
+
+The only hope of escape was, that, favored by darkness, they might elude
+the vigilance of their jailers; and night, although so near, seemed ages
+away, even at sundown. Death being decreed, the warriors left the lodge
+one by one to attend to the preparation of the preliminary ceremonies.
+Gotia, the good, was the last to depart. As he left the Medicine lodge
+he made signs to the captives to remain quiet until he should return;
+pointing upwards to signify that there was a chance of life; and
+downwards to show that possibly they must die.
+
+What an age of anxiety was that hour of waiting! Not a word had been
+exchanged between the prisoners since the Indians entered the lodge,
+until now; and now very little was said, for speech would draw upon them
+the vigilance of their enemy, by whom they desired most ardently to be
+forgotten.
+
+About dusk there was a great noise, and confusion, and clouds of dust,
+in the south end of the village. Something was going wrong among the
+Indian horses. Immediately all the village ran to the scene of the
+disorder, and at the same moment Gotia, the good, appeared at the door
+of the Medicine lodge, beckoning the prisoners to follow him. With
+alacrity they sprang up and after him, and were led across the stream,
+to a thicket on the opposite side, where their horses stood, ready to
+mount, in the charge of a young Indian girl. They did not stop for
+compliments, though had time been less precious, they might well have
+bestowed some moments of it in admiration of _Umentucken Tukutsey
+Undewatsey_, the Mountain Lamb. Soon after, the beautiful Snake girl
+became the wife of Milton Sublette; and after his return to the States,
+of the subject of this narrative; from which circumstance the incident
+above related takes on something of the rosy hue of romance.
+
+As each released captive received his bridle from the delicate hand of
+the Mountain Lamb, he sprang to the saddle. By this time the chief had
+discovered that the strangers understood the Snake dialect. "Ride, if
+you wish to live," said he: "ride without stopping, all night: and
+to-morrow linger not." With hurried thanks our mountain-men replied to
+this advice, and striking into a gallop, were soon far away from the
+Snake village. The next day at noon found them a hundred and fifty miles
+on their way to camp. Proceeding without further accident, they crossed
+the Teton Mountains, and joined the company at Pierre's Hole, after an
+absence of nearly four months.
+
+Here they found the ubiquitous if not omnipresent American Fur Company
+encamped at the rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Company. The partners
+being anxious to be freed from this sort of espionage, and obstinate
+competition on their own ground, made a proposition to Vanderburg and
+Dripps to divide the country with them, each company to keep on its own
+territory. This proposition was refused by the American Company; perhaps
+because they feared having the poorer portion set off to themselves by
+their more experienced rivals. On this refusal, the Rocky Mountain
+Company determined to send an express to meet Capt. William Sublette,
+who was on his way out with a heavy stock of merchandise, and hurry him
+forward, lest the American Company should have the opportunity of
+disposing of its goods, when the usual gathering to rendezvous began. On
+this decision being formed, Fitzpatrick determined to go on this errand
+himself; which he accordingly did, falling in with Sublette, and
+Campbell, his associate, somewhere near the Black Hills. To them he
+imparted his wishes and designs, and receiving the assurance of an early
+arrival at rendezvous, parted from them at the Sweetwater, and hastened
+back, alone, as he came, to prepare for business.
+
+Captain Sublette hurried forward with his train, which consisted of
+sixty men with pack-horses, three to a man. In company with him, was Mr.
+Nathaniel Wyeth, a history of whose fur-trading and salmon-fishing
+adventures has already been given. Captain Sublette had fallen in with
+Mr. Wyeth at Independence, Missouri; and finding him ignorant of the
+undertaking on which he was launched, offered to become pilot and
+traveling companion, an offer which was gratefully accepted.
+
+The caravan had reached the foot-hills of the Wind River Mountains, when
+the raw recruits belonging to both these parties were treated to a
+slight foretaste of what Indian fighting would be, should they ever have
+to encounter it. Their camp was suddenly aroused at midnight by the
+simultaneous discharge of guns and arrows, and the frightful whoops and
+yells with which the savages make an attack. Nobody was wounded,
+however; but on springing to arms, the Indians fled, taking with them a
+few horses which their yells had frightened from their pickets. These
+marauders were Blackfeet, as Captain Sublette explained to Mr. Wyeth,
+their moccasin tracks having betrayed them; for as each tribe has a
+peculiar way of making or shaping the moccasin, the expert in Indian
+habits can detect the nationality of an Indian thief by his foot-print.
+After this episode of the night assault, the leaders redoubled their
+watchfulness, and reached their destination in Pierre's hole about the
+first of July.
+
+When Sublette arrived in camp, it was found that Fitzpatrick was
+missing. If the other partners had believed him to be with the Captain,
+the Captain expected to find him with them; but since neither could
+account to the other for his non-appearance, much anxiety was felt, and
+Sublette remembered with apprehension the visit he had received from
+Blackfeet. However, before anything had been determined upon with regard
+to him, he made his appearance in camp, in company with two Iroquois
+half-breeds, belonging to the camp, who had been out on a hunt.
+
+Fitzpatrick had met with an adventure, as had been conjectured. While
+coming up the Green river valley, he descried a small party of mounted
+men, whom he mistook for a company of trappers, and stopped to
+reconnoitre; but almost at the same moment the supposed trappers,
+perceiving him, set up a yell that quickly undeceived him, and compelled
+him to flight. Abandoning his pack-horse, he put the other to its
+topmost speed, and succeeded in gaining the mountains, where in a deep
+and dark defile he secreted himself until he judged the Indians had
+left that part of the valley. In this he was deceived, for no sooner did
+he emerge again into the open country, than he was once more pursued,
+and had to abandon his horse, to take refuge among the cliffs of the
+mountains. Here he remained for several days, without blankets or
+provisions, and with only one charge of ammunition, which was in his
+rifle, and kept for self-defense. At length, however, by frequent
+reconnoitering, he managed to elude his enemies, traveling by night,
+until he fortunately met with the two hunters from camp, and was
+conveyed by them to the rendezvous.
+
+All the parties were now safely in. The lonely mountain valley was
+populous with the different camps. The Rocky Mountain and American
+companies had their separate camps; Wyeth had his; a company of free
+trappers, fifteen in number, led by a man named Sinclair, from Arkansas,
+had the fourth; the Nez Perces and Flatheads, the allies of the Rocky
+Mountain company, and the friends of the whites, had their lodges along
+all the streams; so that altogether there could not have been less than
+one thousand souls, and two or three thousand horses and mules gathered
+in this place.
+
+"When the pie was opened then the birds began to sing." When Captain
+Sublette's goods were opened and distributed among the trappers and
+Indians, then began the usual gay carousal; and the "fast young men" of
+the mountains outvied each other in all manner of mad pranks. In the
+beginning of their spree many feats of horsemanship and personal
+strength were exhibited, which were regarded with admiring wonder by the
+sober and inexperienced New Englanders under Mr. Wyeth's command. And as
+nothing stimulated the vanity of the mountain-men like an audience of
+this sort, the feats they performed were apt to astonish themselves. In
+exhibitions of the kind, the free trappers took the lead, and usually
+carried off the palm, like the privileged class that they were.
+
+But the horse-racing, fine riding, wrestling, and all the manlier
+sports, soon degenerated into the baser exhibitions of a "crazy drunk"
+condition. The vessel in which the trapper received and carried about
+his supply of alcohol was one of the small camp kettles. "Passing round"
+this clumsy goblet very freely, it was not long before a goodly number
+were in the condition just named, and ready for any mad freak whatever.
+It is reported by several of the mountain-men that on the occasion of
+one of these "frolics," one of their number seized a kettle of alcohol,
+and poured it over the head of a tall, lank, redheaded fellow, repeating
+as he did so the baptismal ceremony. No sooner had he concluded, than
+another man with a lighted stick, touched him with the blaze, when in an
+instant he was enveloped in flames. Luckily some of the company had
+sense enough left to perceive his danger, and began beating him with
+pack-saddles to put out the blaze. But between the burning and the
+beating, the unhappy wretch nearly lost his life, and never recovered
+from the effects of his baptism by fire.
+
+Beaver being plenty in camp, business was correspondingly lively, there
+being a great demand for goods. When this demand was supplied, as it was
+in the course of about three weeks, the different brigades were set in
+motion. One of the earliest to move was a small party under Milton
+Sublette, including his constant companion, Meek. With this company, no
+more than thirty in number, Sublette intended to explore the country to
+the south-west, then unknown to the fur companies, and to proceed as far
+as the Humboldt river in that direction.
+
+On the 17th of July they set out toward the south end of the valley, and
+having made but about eight miles the first day, camped that night near
+a pass in the mountains. Wyeth's party of raw New Englanders, and
+Sinclair's free trappers, had joined themselves to the company of Milton
+Sublette, and swelled the number in camp to about sixty men, many of
+them new to the business of mountain life.
+
+Just as the men were raising camp for a start the next morning, a
+caravan was observed moving down the mountain pass into the valley. No
+alarm was at first felt, as an arrival was daily expected of one of the
+American company's partisans, Mr. Fontenelle, and his company. But on
+reconnoitering with a glass, Sublette discovered them to be a large
+party of Blackfeet, consisting of a few mounted men, and many more, men,
+women, and children, on foot. At the instant they were discovered, they
+set up the usual yell of defiance, and rushed down like a mountain
+torrent into the valley, flourishing their weapons, and fluttering their
+gay blankets and feathers in the wind. There was no doubt as to the
+warlike intentions of the Blackfeet in general, nor was it for a moment
+to be supposed that any peaceable overture on their part meant anything
+more than that they were not prepared to fight at that particular
+juncture; therefore let not the reader judge too harshly of an act which
+under ordinary circumstances would have been infamous. In Indian
+fighting, every man is his own leader, and the bravest take the front
+rank. On this occasion there were two of Sublette's men, one a
+half-breed Iroquois, the other a Flathead Indian, who had wrongs of
+their own to avenge, and they never let slip a chance of killing a
+Blackfoot. These two men rode forth alone to meet the enemy, as if to
+hold a "talk" with the principal chief, who advanced to meet them,
+bearing the pipe of peace. When the chief extended his hand, Antonio
+Godin, the half-breed, took it, but at the same moment he ordered the
+Flathead to fire, and the chief fell dead. The two trappers galloped
+back to camp, Antoine bearing for a trophy the scarlet blanket of his
+enemy.
+
+This action made it impossible to postpone the battle, as the dead chief
+had meant to do by peaceful overtures, until the warriors of his nation
+came up. The Blackfeet immediately betook themselves to a swamp formed
+by an old beaver dam, and thickly overgrown with cotton-wood and willow,
+matted together with tough vines. On the edge of this dismal covert the
+warriors skulked, and shot with their guns and arrows, while in its very
+midst the women employed themselves in digging a trench and throwing up
+a breastwork of logs, and whatever came to hand. Such a defence as the
+thicket afforded was one not easy to attack; its unseen but certain
+dangers being sufficient to appal the stoutest heart.
+
+Meantime, an express had been sent off to inform Captain Sublette of the
+battle, and summon assistance. Sinclair and his free trappers, with
+Milton Sublette's small company, were the only fighting men at hand. Mr.
+Wyeth, knowing the inefficiency of his men in an Indian fight, had them
+entrenched behind their packs, and there left them to take care of
+themselves, but charged them not to appear in open field. As for the
+fighting men, they stationed themselves in a ravine, where they could
+occasionally pick off a Blackfoot, and waited for reinforcements.
+
+Great was the astonishment of the Blackfeet, who believed they had only
+Milton Sublette's camp to fight, when they beheld first one party of
+white men and then another; and not only whites, but Nez Perces and
+Flatheads came galloping up the valley. If before it had been a battle
+to destroy the whites, it was now a battle to defend themselves.
+Previous to the arrival of Captain Sublette, the opposing forces had
+kept up only a scattering fire, in which nobody on the side of the
+trappers had been either killed or wounded. But when the impetuous
+captain arrived on the battle-field, he prepared for less guarded
+warfare. Stripped as if for the prize-ring, and armed _cap-a-pie_, he
+hastened to the scene of action, accompanied by his intimate friend and
+associate in business, Robert Campbell.
+
+At sight of the reinforcements, and their vigorous movements, the
+Indians at the edge of the swamp fell back within their fort. To
+dislodge them was a dangerous undertaking, but Captain Sublette was
+determined to make the effort. Finding the trappers generally
+disinclined to enter the thicket, he set the example, together with
+Campbell, and thus induced some of the free trappers, with their leader,
+Sinclair, to emulate his action. However, the others took courage at
+this, and advanced near the swamp, firing at random at their invisible
+foe, who, having the advantage of being able to see them, inflicted some
+wounds on the party.
+
+The few white "braves" who had resolved to enter the swamp, made their
+wills as they went, feeling that they were upon perilous business.
+Sublette, Campbell, and Sinclair succeeded in penetrating the thicket
+without alarming the enemy, and came at length to a more open space from
+whence they could get a view of the fort. From this they learned that
+the women and children had retired to the mountains, and that the fort
+was a slight affair, covered with buffalo robes and blankets to keep out
+prying eyes. Moving slowly on, some slight accident betrayed their
+vicinity, and the next moment a shot struck Sinclair, wounding him
+mortally. He spoke to Campbell, requesting to be taken to his brother.
+By this time some of the men had come up, and he was given in charge to
+be taken back to camp. Sublette then pressed forward, and seeing an
+Indian looking through an aperture, aimed at him with fatal effect. No
+sooner had he done so, and pointed out the opening to Campbell, than he
+was struck with a ball in the shoulder, which nearly prostrated him, and
+turned him so faint that Campbell took him in his arms and carried him,
+assisted by Meek, out of the swamp. At the same time one of the men
+received a wound in the head. The battle was now carried on with spirit,
+although from the difficulty of approaching the fort, the firing was
+very irregular.
+
+The mountaineers who followed Sublette, took up their station in the
+woods on one side of the fort, and the Nez Perces, under Wyeth, on the
+opposite side, which accidental arrangement, though it was fatal to many
+of the Blackfeet in the fort, was also the occasion of loss to
+themselves by the cross-fire. The whites being constantly reinforced by
+fresh arrivals from the rendezvous, were soon able to silence the guns
+of the enemy, but they were not able to drive them from their fort,
+where they remained silent and sullen after their ammunition was
+exhausted.
+
+Seeing that the women of the Nez Perces and Flatheads were gathering up
+sticks to set fire to their breastwork of logs, an old chief proclaimed
+in a loud voice from within, the startling intelligence that there were
+four hundred lodges of his people close at hand, who would soon be there
+to avenge their deaths, should the whites choose to reduce them to
+ashes. This harangue, delivered in the usual high-flown style of Indian
+oratory, either was not clearly understood, or was wrongly interpreted,
+and the impression got abroad that an attack was being made on the great
+encampment. This intelligence occasioned a diversion, and a division of
+forces; for while a small party was left to watch the fort, the rest
+galloped in hot haste to the rescue of the main camp. When they arrived,
+they found it had been a false alarm, but it was too late to return that
+night, and the several camps remained where they were until the next
+day.
+
+Meantime the trappers left to guard the fort remained stationed within
+the wood all night, firmly believing they had their enemy "corraled," as
+the horsemen of the plains would say. On the return, in the morning, of
+their comrades from the main camp, they advanced cautiously up to the
+breastwork of logs, and behold! not a buffalo skin nor red blanket was
+to be seen! Through the crevices among the logs was seen an empty fort.
+On making this discovery there was much chagrin among the white
+trappers, and much lamentation among the Indian allies, who had
+abandoned the burning of the fort expressly to save for themselves the
+fine blankets and other goods of their hereditary foes.
+
+From the reluctance displayed by the trappers, in the beginning of the
+battle, to engage with the Indians while under cover of the woods, it
+must not be inferred that they were lacking in courage. They were too
+well informed in Indian modes of warfare to venture recklessly into the
+den of death, which a savage ambush was quite sure to be. The very
+result which attended the impetuosity of their leaders, in the death of
+Sinclair and the wounding of Captain Sublette, proved them not over
+cautious.
+
+On entering the fort, the dead bodies of ten Blackfeet were found,
+besides others dead outside the fort, and over thirty horses, some of
+which were recognized as those stolen from Sublette's night camp on the
+other side of the mountains, besides those abandoned by Fitzpatrick.
+Doubtless the rascals had followed his trail to Pierre's Hole, not
+thinking, however, to come upon so large a camp as they found at last.
+The savage garrison which had so cunningly contrived to elude the guard
+set upon them, carried off some of their wounded, and, perhaps, also
+some of their dead; for they acknowledged afterwards a much larger loss
+than appeared at the time. Besides Sinclair, there were five other white
+men killed, one half-breed, and seven Nez Perces. About the same number
+of whites and their Indian allies were wounded.
+
+An instance of female devotion is recorded by Bonneville's historian as
+having occurred at this battle. On the morning following it, as the
+whites were exploring the thickets about the fort, they discovered a
+Blackfoot woman leaning silent and motionless against a tree. According
+to Mr. Irving, whose fine feeling for the sex would incline him to put
+faith in this bit of romance, "their surprise at her lingering here
+alone, to fall into the hands of her enemies, was dispelled when they
+saw the corpse of a warrior at her feet. Either she was so lost in grief
+as not to perceive their approach, or a proud spirit kept her silent and
+motionless. The Indians set up a yell on discovering her, and before the
+trappers could interfere, her mangled body fell upon the corpse which
+she had refused to abandon." This version is true in the main incidents,
+but untrue in the sentiment. The woman's leg had been broken by a ball,
+and she was unable to move from the spot where she leaned. When the
+trappers approached her, she stretched out her hands supplicatingly,
+crying out in a wailing voice, "kill me! kill me! O white men, kill
+me!"--but this the trappers had no disposition to do. While she was
+entreating them, and they refusing, a ball from some vengeful Nez Perce
+or Flathead put an end to her sufferings.
+
+Still remembering the threats of the Blackfoot chief, that four hundred
+lodges of his brethren were advancing on the valley, all the companies
+returned to rendezvous, and remained for several days, to see whether an
+attack should take place. But if there had ever been any such intention
+on the part of the Blackfoot nation, the timely lesson bestowed on their
+advance guard had warned them to quit the neighborhood of the whites.
+
+Captain Sublette's wound was dressed by Mr. Wyeth's physician, and
+although it hindered his departure for St. Louis for some time, it did
+not prevent his making his usual journey later in the season. It was as
+well, perhaps, that he did not set out earlier, for of a party of seven
+who started for St. Louis a few days after the battle, three were killed
+in Jackson's Hole, where they fell in with the four hundred warriors
+with whom the Blackfoot chief threatened the whites at the battle of
+Pierre's Hole. From the story of the four survivors who escaped and
+returned to camp, there could no longer be any doubt that the big
+village of the Blackfeet had actually been upon the trail of Capt.
+Sublette, expecting an easy victory when they should overtake him. How
+they were disappointed by the reception met with by the advance camp,
+has already been related.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+1832. On the 23d of July, Milton Sublette's brigade and the company of
+Mr. Wyeth again set out for the southwest, and met no more serious
+interruptions while they traveled in company. On the head-waters of the
+Humboldt River they separated, Wyeth proceeding north to the Columbia,
+and Sublette continuing on into a country hitherto untraversed by
+American trappers.
+
+It was the custom of a camp on the move to depend chiefly on the men
+employed as hunters to supply them with game, the sole support of the
+mountaineers. When this failed, the stock on hand was soon exhausted,
+and the men reduced to famine. This was what happened to Sublette's
+company in the country where they now found themselves, between the
+Owyhee and Humboldt Rivers. Owing to the arid and barren nature of these
+plains, the largest game to be found was the beaver, whose flesh proved
+to be poisonous, from the creature having eaten of the wild parsnip in
+the absence of its favorite food. The men were made ill by eating of
+beaver flesh, and the horses were greatly reduced from the scarcity of
+grass and the entire absence of the cotton-wood.
+
+In this plight Sublette found himself, and finally resolved to turn
+north, in the hope of coming upon some better and more hospitable
+country. The sufferings of the men now became terrible, both from hunger
+and thirst. In the effort to appease the former, everything was eaten
+that could be eaten, and many things at which the well-fed man would
+sicken with disgust. "I have," says Joe Meek, "held my hands in an
+ant-hill until they were covered with the ants, then greedily licked
+them off. I have taken the soles off my moccasins, crisped them in the
+fire, and eaten them. In our extremity, the large black crickets which
+are found in this country were considered game. We used to take a kettle
+of hot water, catch the crickets and throw them in, and when they
+stopped kicking, eat them. That was not what we called _cant tickup ko
+hanch_, (good meat, my friend), but it kept us alive."
+
+Equally abhorrent expedients were resorted to in order to quench thirst,
+some of which would not bear mention. In this condition, and exposed to
+the burning suns and the dry air of the desert, the men now so nearly
+exhausted began to prey upon their almost equally exhausted animals. At
+night when they made their camp, by mutual consent a mule was bled, and
+a soup made from its blood. About a pint was usually taken, when two or
+three would mess together upon this reviving, but scanty and not very
+palatable dish. But this mode of subsistence could not be long depended
+on, as the poor mules could ill afford to lose blood in their famishing
+state; nor could the men afford to lose their mules where there was a
+chance of life: therefore hungry as they were, the men were cautious in
+this matter; and it generally caused a quarrel when a man's mule was
+selected for bleeding by the others.
+
+A few times a mule had been sacrificed to obtain meat; and in this case
+the poorest one was always selected, so as to economise the chances for
+life for the whole band. In this extremity, after four days of almost
+total abstinence and several weeks of famine, the company reached the
+Snake River, about fifty miles above the fishing falls, where it boils
+and dashes over the rocks, forming very strong rapids. Here the company
+camped, rejoiced at the sight of the pure mountain water, but still in
+want of food. During the march a horse's back had become sore from some
+cause; probably, his rider thought, because the saddle did not set well;
+and, although that particular animal was selected to be sacrificed on
+the morrow, as one that could best be spared, he set about taking the
+stuffing out of his saddle and re-arranging the padding. While engaged
+in this considerate labor, he uttered a cry of delight and held up to
+view a large brass pin, which had accidentally got into the stuffing,
+when the saddle was made, and had been the cause of all the mischief to
+his horse.
+
+The same thought struck all who saw the pin: it was soon converted into
+a fish-hook, a line was spun from horse-hair, and in a short time there
+were trout enough caught to furnish them a hearty and a most delicious
+repast. "In the morning," says Meek, "we went on our way rejoicing;"
+each man with the "five fishes" tied to his saddle, if without any
+"loaves." This was the end of their severest suffering, as they had now
+reached a country where absolute starvation was not the normal condition
+of the inhabitants; and which was growing more and more bountiful, as
+they neared the Rocky Mountains, where they at length joined camp, not
+having made a very profitable expedition.
+
+It may seem incredible to the reader that any country so poor as that in
+which our trappers starved could have native inhabitants. Yet such was
+the fact; and the people who lived in and who still inhabit this barren
+waste, were called _Diggers_, from their mode of obtaining their food--a
+few edible roots growing in low grounds, or marshy places. When these
+fail them they subsist as did our trappers, by hunting crickets and
+field mice.
+
+Nothing can be more abject than the appearance of the Digger Indian, in
+the fall, as he roams about, without food and without weapons, save
+perhaps a bow and arrows, with his eyes fixed upon the ground, looking
+for crickets! So despicable is he, that he has neither enemies nor
+friends; and the neighboring tribes do not condescend to notice his
+existence, unless indeed he should come in their way, when they would
+not think it more than a mirthful act to put an end to his miserable
+existence. And so it must be confessed the trappers regarded him. When
+Sublette's party first struck the Humboldt, Wyeth's being still with
+them, Joe Meek one day shot a Digger who was prowling about a stream
+where his traps were set.
+
+"Why did you shoot him?" asked Wyeth.
+
+"To keep him from stealing traps."
+
+"Had he stolen any?"
+
+"No: but he _looked as if he was going to_!"
+
+This recklessness of life very properly distressed the just minded New
+Englander. Yet it was hard for the trappers to draw lines of distinction
+so nice as his. If a tribe was not known to be friendly, it was a rule
+of necessity to consider it unfriendly. The abjectness and cowardice of
+the Diggers was the fruit of their own helpless condition. That they had
+the savage instinct, held in check only by circumstances, was
+demonstrated about the same time that Meek shot one, by his being
+pursued by four of them when out trapping alone, and only escaping at
+last by the assistance of one of his comrades who came to the rescue.
+They could not fight, like the Crows and Blackfeet, but they could steal
+and murder, when they had a safe opportunity.
+
+It would be an interesting study, no doubt, to the philanthropist, to
+ascertain in how great a degree the habits, manners, and morals of a
+people are governed by their resources, especially by the quality and
+quantity of their diet. But when diet and climate are both taken into
+consideration, the result is striking.
+
+The character of the Blackfeet who inhabited the good hunting grounds on
+the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, is already pretty well given.
+They were tall, sinewy, well-made fellows; good horsemen, and good
+fighters, though inclined to marauding and murdering. They dressed
+comfortably and even handsomely, as dress goes amongst savages, and
+altogether were more to be feared than despised.
+
+The Crows resembled the Blackfeet, whose enemies they were, in all the
+before-mentioned traits, but were if possible, even more predatory in
+their habits. Unlike the Blackfeet, however, they were not the enemies
+of all mankind; and even were disposed to cultivate some friendliness
+with the white traders and trappers, in order, as they acknowledged, to
+strengthen their own hands against the Blackfeet. They too inhabited a
+good country, full of game, and had horses in abundance. These were the
+mountain tribes.
+
+Comparing these with the coast tribes, there was a striking difference.
+The natives of the Columbia were not a tall and robust people, like
+those east of the Rocky Mountains, who lived by hunting. Their height
+rarely exceeded five feet six inches; their forms were good, rather
+inclining to fatness, their faces round, features coarse, but complexion
+light, and their eyes large and intelligent. The custom of flattening
+their heads in infancy gave them a grotesque and unnatural appearance,
+otherwise they could not be called ill-looking. On the first advent of
+white men among them, they were accustomed to go entirely naked, except
+in winter, when a panther skin, or a mantle of other skins sewed
+together, served to protect them from the cold: or if the weather was
+rainy, as it generally was in that milder climate, a long mantle of
+rush mats, like the toga of the ancient Romans, took the place of that
+made of skins. To this was added a conical hat, woven of fibrous roots,
+and gaily painted.
+
+For defensive armor they were provided with a tunic of elkskin double,
+descending to the ankles, with holes in it for the arms, and quite
+impenetrable to arrows. A helmet of similar material covered the head,
+rendering them like Achilles, invulnerable except in the heels. In this
+secure dress they went to battle in their canoes, notice being first
+given to the enemy of the intended attack. Their battles might therefore
+be termed compound duels, in which each party observed great
+punctiliousness and decorum. Painted and armor-encased, the warriors in
+two flotillas of canoes were rowed to the battle ground by their women,
+when the battle raged furiously for some time; not, however, doing any
+great harm to either side. If any one chanced to be killed, that side
+considered itself beaten, and retired from the conflict to mourn over
+and bury the estimable and departed brave. If the case was a stubborn
+one, requiring several days fighting, the opponents encamped near each
+other, keeping up a confusion of cries, taunts, menaces, and raillery,
+during the whole night; after which they resumed the conflict, and
+continued it until one was beaten. If a village was to be attacked,
+notice being received, the women and children were removed; and if the
+village was beaten they made presents to their conquerors. Such were the
+decorous habits of the warriors of the lower Columbia.
+
+These were the people who lived almost exclusively by fishing, and whose
+climate was a mild and moist one. Fishing, in which both sexes engaged
+about equally, was an important accomplishment, since it was by fish
+they lived in this world; and by being good fishermen that they had
+hopes of the next one. The houses in which they lived, instead of being
+lodges made of buffalo skins, were of a large size and very well
+constructed, being made out of cedar planks. An excavation was first
+made in the earth two or three feet deep, probably to secure greater
+warmth in winter. A double row of cedar posts was then planted firmly
+all round the excavation, and between these the planks were laid, or,
+sometimes cedar bark, so overlapped as to exclude the rain and wind. The
+ridge-pole of the roof was supported on a row of taller posts, passing
+through the centre of the building, and notched to receive it. The
+rafters were then covered with planks or bark, fastened down with ropes
+made of the fibre of the cedar bark. A house made in this manner, and
+often a hundred feet long by thirty or forty wide, accommodated several
+families, who each had their separate entrance and fireplace; the
+entrance being by a low oval-shaped door, and a flight of steps.
+
+The canoes of these people were each cut out of a single log of cedar;
+and were often thirty feet long and five wide at midships. They were
+gaily painted, and their shape was handsome, with a very long bow so
+constructed as to cut the surf in landing with the greatest ease, or the
+more readily to go through a rough sea. The oars were about five feet
+long, and bent in the shape of a crescent; which shape enabled them to
+draw them edgewise through the water with little or no noise--this
+noiselessness being an important quality in hunting the sea otter, which
+is always caught sleeping on the rocks.
+
+The single instrument which sufficed to build canoes and houses was the
+chisel; generally being a piece of old iron obtained from some vessel
+and fixed in a wooden handle. A stone mallet aided them in using the
+chisel; and with this simple "kit" of tools they contrived to
+manufacture plates, bowls, carved oars, and many ornamental things.
+
+Like the men of all savage nations, they made slaves of their captives,
+and their women. The dress of the latter consisted merely of a short
+petticoat, manufactured from the fibre of the cedar bark, previously
+soaked and prepared. This material was worked into a fringe, attached to
+a girdle, and only long enough to reach the middle of the thigh. When
+the season required it, they added a mantle of skins. Their bodies were
+anointed with fish-oil, and sometimes painted with red ochre in
+imitation of the men. For ornaments they wore strings of glass beads,
+and also of a white shell found on the northern coast, called _haiqua_.
+Such were the _Chinooks_, who lived upon the coast.
+
+Farther up the river, on the eastern side of the Cascade range of
+mountains, a people lived, the same, yet different from the Chinooks.
+They resembled them in form, features, and manner of getting a living.
+But they were more warlike and more enterprising; they even had some
+notions of commerce, being traders between the coast Indians and those
+to the east of them. They too were great fishermen, but used the net
+instead of fishing in boats. Great scaffoldings were erected every year
+at the narrows of the Columbia, known as the Dalles, where, as the
+salmon passed up the river in the spring, in incredible numbers, they
+were caught and dried. After drying, the fish were then pounded fine
+between two stones, pressed tightly into packages or bales of about a
+hundred pounds, covered with matting, and corded up for transportation.
+The bales were then placed in storehouses built to receive them, where
+they awaited customers.
+
+By and by there came from the coast other Indians, with different
+varieties of fish, to exchange for the salmon in the Wish-ram
+warehouses. And by and by there came from the plains to the eastward,
+others who had horses, camas-root, bear-grass, fur robes, and whatever
+constituted the wealth of the mountains and plains, to exchange for the
+rich and nutritious salmon of the Columbia. These Wish-ram Indians were
+sharp traders, and usually made something by their exchanges; so that
+they grew rich and insolent, and it was dangerous for the unwary
+stranger to pass their way. Of all the tribes of the Columbia, they
+perpetrated the most outrages upon their neighbors, the passing
+traveler, and the stranger within their gates.
+
+Still farther to the east, on the great grassy plains, watered by
+beautiful streams, coming down from the mountains, lived the Cayuses,
+Yakimas, Nez Perces, Wallah-Wallahs, and Flatheads; as different in
+their appearance and habits as their different modes of living would
+naturally make them. Instead of having many canoes, they had many
+horses; and in place of drawing the fishing net, or trolling lazily
+along with hook and line, or spearing fish from a canoe, they rode
+pell-mell to the chase, or sallied out to battle with the hostile
+Blackfeet, whose country lay between them and the good hunting-grounds,
+where the great herds of buffalo were. Being Nimrods by nature, they
+were dressed in complete suits of skins, instead of going naked, like
+their brethren in the lower country. Being wandering and pastoral in
+their habits, they lived in lodges, which could be planted every night
+and raised every morning.
+
+Their women, too, were good riders, and comfortably clad in dressed
+skins, kept white with chalk. So wealthy were some of the chiefs that
+they could count their fifteen hundred head of horses grazing on their
+grassy uplands. Horse-racing was their delight, and betting on them
+their besetting vice. For bridles they used horse-hair cords, attached
+around the animal's mouth. This was sufficient to check him, and by
+laying a hand on this side or that of the horse's neck, the rider could
+wheel him in either direction. The simple and easy-fitting saddle was a
+stuffed deer-skin, with stirrups of wood, resembling in shape those used
+by the Mexicans, and covered with deer-skin sewed on wet, so as to
+tighten in drying. The saddles of the women were furnished with a pair
+of deer's antlers for the pommel.
+
+In many things their customs and accoutrements resembled those of the
+Mexicans, from whom, no doubt, they were borrowed. Like the Mexican,
+they threw the lasso to catch the wild horse. Their horses, too, were of
+Mexican stock, and many of them bore the brand of that country, having
+been obtained in some of their not infrequent journeys into California
+and New Mexico.
+
+As all the wild horses of America are said to have sprung from a small
+band, turned loose upon the plains by Cortez, it would be interesting to
+know at what time they came to be used by the northern Indians, or
+whether the horse and the Indian did not emigrate together. If the horse
+came to the Indian, great must have been the change effected by the
+advent of this new element in the savage's life. It is impossible to
+conceive, however, that the Indian ever could have lived on these
+immense plains, barren of everything but wild grass, without his horse.
+With him he does well enough, for he not only "lives on horseback," by
+which means he can quickly reach a country abounding in game, but he
+literally lives on horse-flesh, when other game is scarce.
+
+Curious as the fact may seem, the Indians at the mouth of the Columbia
+and those of New Mexico speak languages similar in construction to that
+of the Aztecs; and from this fact, and the others before mentioned, it
+may be very fairly inferred that difference of circumstances and
+localities have made of the different tribes what they are.
+
+As to the Indian's moral nature, that is pretty much alike everywhere;
+and with some rare exceptions, the rarest of which is, perhaps, the
+Flathead and Nez Perces nations, all are cruel, thieving, and
+treacherous. The Indian gospel is literally the "gospel of blood"; an
+"eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." Vengeance is as much a
+commandment to him as any part of the decalogue is to the Christian. But
+we have digressed far from our narrative; and as it will be necessary to
+refer to the subject of the moral code of savages further on in our
+narrative, we leave it for the present.
+
+After the incident of the pin and the fishes, Sublette's party kept on
+to the north, coursing along up Payette's River to Payette Lake, where
+he camped, and the men went out trapping. A party of four, consisting of
+Meek, Antoine Godin, Louis Leaugar, and Small, proceeded to the north as
+far as the Salmon river and beyond, to the head of one of its
+tributaries, where the present city of Florence is located. While camped
+in this region, three of the men went out one day to look for their
+horses, which had strayed away, or been stolen by the Indians. During
+their absence, Meek, who remained in camp, had killed a fine fat deer,
+and was cooking a portion of it, when he saw a band of about a hundred
+Indians approaching, and so near were they that flight was almost
+certainly useless; yet as a hundred against one was very great odds, and
+running away from them would not increase their number, while it gave
+him something to do in his own defence, he took to his heels and ran as
+only a mountain-man can run. Instead, however, of pursuing him, the
+practical-minded braves set about finishing his cooking for him, and
+soon had the whole deer roasting before the fire.
+
+This procedure provoked the gastronomic ire of our trapper, and after
+watching them for some time from his hiding-place, he determined to
+return and share the feast. On reaching camp again, and introducing
+himself to his not over-scrupulous visitors, he found they were from the
+Nez Perces tribe inhabiting that region, who, having been so rude as to
+devour his stock of provisions, invited him to accompany them to their
+village, not a great way off, where they would make some return for his
+involuntary hospitality. This he did, and there found his three comrades
+and all their horses. While still visiting at the Nez Perces village,
+they were joined by the remaining portion of Sublette's command, when
+the whole company started south again. Passing Payette's lake to the
+east, traversing the Boise Basin, going to the head-waters of that
+river, thence to the Malade, thence to Godin's river, and finally to the
+forks of the Salmon, where they found the main camp. Captain Bonneville,
+of whose three years wanderings in the wilderness Mr. Irving has given a
+full and interesting account, was encamped in the same neighborhood, and
+had built there a small fort or trading-house, and finally wintered in
+the neighborhood.
+
+An exchange of men now took place, and Meek went east of the mountains
+under Fitzpatrick and Bridger. When these famous leaders had first set
+out for the summer hunt, after the battle of Pierre's Hole, their course
+had been to the head-waters of the Missouri, to the Yellowstone lake,
+and the forks of the Missouri, some of the best beaver grounds known to
+them. But finding their steps dogged by the American Fur Company, and
+not wishing to be made use of as pilots by their rivals, they had
+flitted about for a time like an Arab camp, in the endeavor to blind
+them, and finally returned to the west side of the mountains, where Meek
+fell in with them.
+
+Exasperated by the perseverance of the American Company, they had come
+to the determination of leading them a march which should tire them of
+the practice of keeping at their heels. They therefore planned an
+expedition, from which they expected no other profit than that of
+shaking off their rivals. Taking no pains to conceal their expedition,
+they rather held out the bait to the American Company, who, unsuspicious
+of their purpose, took it readily enough. They led them along across the
+mountains, and on to the head-waters of the Missouri. Here, packing up
+their traps, they tarried not for beaver, nor even tried to avoid the
+Blackfeet, but pushed right ahead, into the very heart of their country,
+keeping away from any part of it where beaver might be found, and going
+away on beyond, to the elevated plains, quite destitute of that small
+but desirable game, but followed through it by their rivals.
+
+However justifiable on the part of trade this movement of the Rocky
+Mountain Company might have been, it was a cruel device as concerned the
+inexperienced leaders of the other company, one of whom lost his life in
+consequence. Not knowing of their danger, they only discovered their
+situation in the midst of Blackfeet, after discovering the ruse that had
+been played upon them. They then halted, and being determined to find
+beaver, divided their forces and set out in opposite directions for that
+purpose. Unhappily, Major Vanderburg took the worst possible direction
+for a small party to take, and had not traveled far when his scouts came
+upon the still smoking camp-fires of a band of Indians who were
+returning from a buffalo hunt. From the "signs" left behind them, the
+scout judged that they had become aware of the near neighborhood of
+white men, and from their having stolen off, he judged that they were
+only gone for others of their nation, or to prepare for war.
+
+But Vanderburg, with the fool-hardiness of one not "up to Blackfeet,"
+determined to ascertain for himself what there was to fear; and taking
+with him half a score of his followers, put himself upon their trail,
+galloping hard after them, until, in his rashness, he found himself
+being led through a dark and deep defile, rendered darker and gloomier
+by overhanging trees. In the midst of this dismal place, just where an
+ambush might have been expected, he was attacked by a horde of savages,
+who rushed upon his little party with whoops and frantic gestures,
+intended not only to appal the riders, but to frighten their horses, and
+thus make surer their bloody butchery. It was but the work of a few
+minutes to consummate their demoniac purpose. Vanderburg's horse was
+shot down at once, falling on his rider, whom the Indians quickly
+dispatched. One or two of the men were instantly tomahawked, and the
+others wounded while making their escape to camp. The remainder of
+Vanderburg's company, on learning the fate of their leader, whose place
+there was no one to fill, immediately raised camp and fled with all
+haste to the encampment of the Pends Oreille Indians for assistance.
+Here they waited, while those Indians, a friendly tribe, made an effort
+to recover the body of their unfortunate leader; but the remains were
+never recovered, probably having first been fiendishly mutilated, and
+then left to the wolves.
+
+Fitzpatrick and Bridger, finding they were no longer pursued by their
+rivals, as the season advanced began to retrace their steps toward the
+good trapping grounds. Being used to Indian wiles and Blackfeet
+maraudings and ambushes, they traveled in close columns, and never
+camped or turned out their horses to feed, without the greatest caution.
+Morning and evening scouts were sent out to beat up every thicket or
+ravine that seemed to offer concealment to a foe, and the horizon was
+searched in every direction for signs of an Indian attack. The
+complete safety of the camp being settled almost beyond a peradventure,
+the horses were turned loose, though never left unguarded.
+
+[Illustration: SCOUTS IN THE BLACKFOOT COUNTRY--"ELK OR INDIANS?"]
+
+It was not likely, however, that the camp should pass through the
+Blackfoot country without any encounters with that nation. When it had
+reached the head-waters of the Missouri, on the return march, a party of
+trappers, including Meek, discovered a small band of Indians in a bend
+of the lake, and thinking the opportunity for sport a good one,
+commenced firing on them. The Indians, who were without guns, took to
+the lake for refuge, while the trappers entertained themselves with the
+rare amusement of keeping them in the water, by shooting at them
+occasionally. But it chanced that these were only a few stragglers from
+the main Blackfoot camp, which soon came up and put an end to the sport
+by putting the trappers to flight in their turn. The trappers fled to
+camp, the Indians pursuing, until the latter discovered that they had
+been led almost into the large camp of the whites. This occasioned a
+halt, the Blackfeet not caring to engage with superior numbers.
+
+In the pause which ensued, one of the chiefs came out into the open
+space, bearing the peace pipe, and Bridger also advanced to meet him,
+but carrying his gun across the pommel of his saddle. He was accompanied
+by a young Blackfoot woman, wife of a Mexican in his service, as
+interpreter. The chief extended his hand in token of amity; but at that
+moment Bridger saw a movement of the chiefs, which he took to mean
+treachery, and cocked his rifle. But the lock had no sooner clicked than
+the chief, a large and powerful man, seized the gun and turned the
+muzzle downward, when the contents were discharged into the earth. With
+another dexterous movement he wrested it from Bridger's hand, and
+struck him with it, felling him to the ground. In an instant all was
+confusion. The noise of whoops, yells, of fire-arms, and of running
+hither and thither, gathered like a tempest. At the first burst of this
+demoniac blast, the horse of the interpreter became frightened, and, by
+a sudden movement, unhorsed her, wheeling and running back to camp. In
+the melee which now ensued, the woman was carried off by the Blackfeet,
+and Bridger was wounded twice in the back with arrows. A chance medley
+fight now ensued, continuing until night put a period to the contest. So
+well matched were the opposing forces, that each fought with caution
+firing from the cover of thickets and from behind rocks, neither side
+doing much execution. The loss on the part of the Blackfeet was nine
+warriors, and on that of the whites, three men and six horses.
+
+As for the young Blackfoot woman, whose people retained her a prisoner,
+her lamentations and struggles to escape and return to her husband and
+child so wrought upon the young Mexican, who was the pained witness of
+her grief, that he took the babe in his arms, and galloped with it into
+the heart of the Blackfoot camp, to place it in the arms of the
+distracted mother. This daring act, which all who witnessed believed
+would cause his death, so excited the admiration of the Blackfoot chief,
+that he gave him permission to return, unharmed, to his own camp.
+Encouraged by this clemency, Loretta begged to have his wife restored to
+him, relating how he had rescued her, a prisoner, from the Crows, who
+would certainly have tortured her to death. The wife added her
+entreaties to his, but the chief sternly bade him depart, and as sternly
+reminded the Blackfoot girl that she belonged to his tribe, and could
+not go with his enemies. Loretta was therefore compelled to abandon his
+wife and child, and return to camp.
+
+It is, however, gratifying to know that so true an instance of affection
+in savage life was finally rewarded; and that when the two rival fur
+companies united, as they did in the following year, Loretta was
+permitted to go to the American Company's fort on the Missouri, in the
+Blackfoot country, where he was employed as interpreter, assisted by his
+Blackfoot wife.
+
+Such were some of the incidents that signalized this campaign in the
+wilderness, where two equally persistent rivals were trying to outwit
+one another. Subsequently, when several years of rivalry had somewhat
+exhausted both, the Rocky Mountain and American companies consolidated,
+using all their strategy thereafter against the Hudson's Bay Company,
+and any new rival that chanced to enter their hunting grounds.
+
+After the fight above described, the Blackfeet drew off in the night,
+showing no disposition to try their skill next day against such
+experienced Indian fighters as Bridger's brigade had shown themselves.
+The company continued in the Missouri country, trapping and taking many
+beaver, until it reached the Beaver Head Valley, on the head-waters of
+the Jefferson fork of the Missouri. Here the lateness of the season
+compelled a return to winter-quarters, and by Christmas all the
+wanderers were gathered into camp at the forks of the Snake River.
+
+1833. In the latter part of January it became necessary to move to the
+junction of the Portneuf to subsist the animals. The main body of the
+camp had gone on in advance, while some few, with pack horses, or women
+with children, were scattered along the trail. Meek, with five others,
+had been left behind to gather up some horses that had strayed. When
+about a half day's journey from camp, he overtook _Umentucken_, the
+Mountain Lamb, now the wife of Milton Sublette, with her child, on
+horseback. The weather was terribly cold, and seeming to grow colder.
+The naked plains afforded no shelter from the piercing winds, and the
+air fairly glittered with frost. Poor Umentucken was freezing, but more
+troubled about her babe than herself. The camp was far ahead, with all
+the extra blankets, and the prospect was imminent that they would
+perish. Our gallant trapper had thought himself very cold until this
+moment, but what were his sufferings compared to those of the Mountain
+Lamb and her little Lambkin? Without an instant's hesitation, he
+divested himself of his blanket capote, which he wrapped round the
+mother and child, and urged her to hasten to camp. For himself, he could
+not hasten, as he had the horses in charge, but all that fearful
+afternoon rode naked above the waist, exposed to the wind, and the fine,
+dry, icy hail, which filled the air as with diamond needles, to pierce
+the skin; and, probably, to the fact that the hail _was_ so stinging,
+was owing the fact that his blood did not congeal.
+
+"O what a day was that!" said Meek to the writer; "why, the air war
+thick with fine, sharp hail, and the sun shining, too! not one sun only,
+but three suns--there were _three_ suns! And when night came on, the
+northern lights blazed up the sky! It was the most beautiful sight I
+ever saw. That is the country for northern lights!"
+
+When some surprise was expressed that he should have been obliged to
+expose his naked skin to the weather, in order to save Umentucken--"In
+the mountains," he answered, "we do not have many garments. Buckskin
+breeches, a blanket capote, and a beaver skin cap makes up our rig."
+
+"You do not need a laundress, then? But with such clothing how could you
+keep free of vermin?"
+
+"We didn't always do that. Do you want to know how we got rid of lice in
+the mountains? We just took off our clothes and laid them on an
+ant-hill, and you ought to see how the ants would carry off the lice!"
+
+But to return to our hero, frozen, or nearly so. When he reached camp at
+night, so desperate was his condition that the men had to roll him and
+rub him in the snow for some time before allowing him to approach the
+fire. But Umentucken was saved, and he became heroic in her eyes.
+Whether it was the glory acquired by the gallant act just recorded, or
+whether our hero had now arrived at an age when the tender passion has
+strongest sway, the writer is unprepared to affirm: for your
+mountain-man is shy of revealing his past gallantries; but from this
+time on, there are evidences of considerable susceptibility to the
+charms of the dusky beauties of the mountains and the plains.
+
+The cold of this winter was very severe, insomuch that men and mules
+were frozen to death. "The frost," says Meek, "used to hang from the
+roofs of our lodges in the morning, on first waking, in skeins two feet
+long, and our blankets and whiskers were white with it. But we trappers
+laid still, and called the camp-keepers to make a fire, and in our close
+lodges it was soon warm enough.
+
+"The Indians suffered very much. Fuel war scarce on the Snake River, and
+but little fire could be afforded--just sufficient for the children and
+their mothers to get warm by, for the fire was fed only with buffalo fat
+torn in strips, which blazed up quickly and did not last long. Many a
+time I have stood off, looking at the fire, but not venturing to
+approach, when a chief would say, 'Are you cold, my friend? come to the
+fire'--so kind are these Nez Perces and Flatheads."
+
+The cold was not the only enemy in camp that winter, but famine
+threatened them. The buffalo had been early driven east of the
+mountains, and other game was scarce. Sometimes a party of hunters were
+absent for days, even weeks, without finding more game than would
+subsist themselves. As the trappers were all hunters in the winter, it
+frequently happened that Meek and one or more of his associates went on
+a hunt in company, for the benefit of the camp, which was very hungry at
+times.
+
+On one of these hunting expeditions that winter, the party consisting of
+Meek, Hawkins, Doughty, and Antoine Claymore, they had been out nearly a
+fortnight without killing anything of consequence, and had clambered up
+the side of the mountains on the frozen snow, in hopes of finding some
+mountain sheep. As they traveled along under a projecting ledge of
+rocks, they came to a place where there were the impressions in the snow
+of enormous grizzly bear feet. Close by was an opening in the rocks,
+revealing a cavern, and to this the tracks in the snow conducted.
+Evidently the creature had come out of its winter den, and made
+just one circuit back again. At these signs of game the hunters
+hesitated--certain it was there, but doubtful how to obtain it.
+
+At length Doughty proposed to get up on the rocks above the mouth of the
+cavern and shoot the bear as he came out, if somebody would go in and
+dislodge him.
+
+"I'm your man," answered Meek.
+
+"And I too," said Claymore.
+
+"I'll be ---- if we are not as brave as you are," said Hawkins, as he
+prepared to follow.
+
+On entering the cave, which was sixteen or twenty feet square, and high
+enough to stand erect in, instead of one, three bears were discovered.
+They were standing, the largest one in the middle, with their eyes
+staring at the entrance, but quite quiet, greeting the hunters only
+with a low growl. Finding that there was a bear apiece to be disposed
+of, the hunters kept close to the wall, and out of the stream of light
+from the entrance, while they advanced a little way, cautiously, towards
+their game, which, however, seemed to take no notice of them. After
+maneuvering a few minutes to get nearer, Meek finally struck the large
+bear on the head with his wiping-stick, when it immediately moved off
+and ran out of the cave. As it came out, Doughty shot, but only wounded
+it, and it came rushing back, snorting, and running around in a circle,
+till the well directed shots from all three killed it on the spot. Two
+more bears now remained to be disposed of.
+
+The successful shot put Hawkins in high spirits. He began to hallo and
+laugh, dancing around, and with the others striking the next largest
+bear to make him run out, which he soon did, and was shot by Doughty. By
+this time their guns were reloaded, the men growing more and more
+elated, and Hawkins declaring they were "all Daniels in the lions' den,
+and no mistake." This, and similar expressions, he constantly
+vociferated, while they drove out the third and smallest bear. As it
+reached the cave's mouth, three simultaneous shots put an end to the
+last one, when Hawkins' excitement knew no bounds. "Daniel was a
+humbug," said he. "Daniel in the lions' den! Of course it was winter,
+and the lions were sucking their paws! Tell me no more of Daniel's
+exploits. We are as good Daniels as he ever dared to be. Hurrah for
+these Daniels!" With these expressions, and playing many antics by way
+of rejoicing, the delighted Hawkins finally danced himself out of his
+"lion's den," and set to work with the others to prepare for a return to
+camp.
+
+Sleds were soon constructed out of the branches of the mountain willow,
+and on these light vehicles the fortunate find of bear meat was soon
+conveyed to the hungry camp in the plain below. And ever after this
+singular exploit of the party, Hawkins continued to aver, in language
+more strong than elegant, that the Scripture Daniel was a humbug
+compared to himself, and Meek, and Claymore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+1833. In the spring the camp was visited by a party of twenty Blackfeet,
+who drove off most of the horses; and among the stolen ones, Bridger's
+favorite race-horse, Grohean, a Camanche steed of great speed and
+endurance. To retake the horses, and if possible punish the thieves, a
+company of the gamest trappers, thirty in number, including Meek, and
+Kit Carson, who not long before had joined the Rocky Mountain Company,
+was dispatched on their trail. They had not traveled long before they
+came up with the Blackfeet, but the horses were nowhere to be seen,
+having been secreted, after the manner of these thieves, in some defile
+of the mountains, until the skirmish was over which they knew well
+enough to anticipate. Accordingly when the trappers came up, the wily
+savages were prepared for them. Their numbers were inferior to that of
+the whites; accordingly they assumed an innocent and peace-desiring air,
+while their head man advanced with the inevitable peace-pipe, to have a
+"talk." But as their talk was a tissue of lies, the trappers soon lost
+patience, and a quarrel quickly arose. The Indians betook themselves to
+the defences which were selected beforehand, and a fight began, which
+without giving to either party the victory of arms, ended in the killing
+of two or three of the Blackfeet, and the wounding very severely of Kit
+Carson. The firing ceased with nightfall; and when morning came, as
+usual the Blackfeet were gone, and the trappers returned to camp without
+their horses.
+
+The lost animals were soon replaced by purchase from the Nez Perces, and
+the company divided up into brigades, some destined for the country east
+of the mountains, and others for the south and west. In this year Meek
+rose a grade above the hired trapper, and became one of the order
+denominated skin trappers. These, like the hired trappers, depend upon
+the company to furnish them an outfit; but do not receive regular wages,
+as do the others. They trap for themselves, only agreeing to sell their
+beaver to the company which furnishes the outfit, and to no other. In
+this capacity, our Joe, and a few associates, hunted this spring, in the
+Snake River and Salt Lake countries; returning as usual to the annual
+rendezvous, which was appointed this summer to meet on Green River. Here
+were the Rocky Mountain and American Companies; the St. Louis Company,
+under Capt. Wm. Sublette and his friend Campbell; the usual camp of
+Indian allies; and, a few miles distant, that of Captain Bonneville. In
+addition to all these, was a small company belonging to Capt. Stuart, an
+Englishman of noble family, who was traveling in the far west only to
+gratify his own love of wild adventure, and admiration of all that is
+grand and magnificent in nature. With him was an artist named Miller,
+and several servants; but he usually traveled in company with one or
+another of the fur companies; thus enjoying their protection, and at the
+same time gaining a knowledge of the habits of mountain life.
+
+The rendezvous, at this time, furnished him a striking example of some
+of the ways of mountain-men, least to their honorable fame; and we fear
+we must confess that our friend Joe Meek, who had been gathering laurels
+as a valiant hunter and trapper during the three or four years of his
+apprenticeship, was also becoming fitted, by frequent practice, to
+graduate in some of the vices of camp life, especially the one of
+conviviality during rendezvous. Had he not given his permission, we
+should not perhaps have said what he says of himself, that he was at
+such times often very "powerful drunk."
+
+During the indulgence of these excesses, while at this rendezvous, there
+occurred one of those incidents of wilderness life which make the blood
+creep with horror. Twelve of the men were bitten by a mad wolf, which
+hung about the camp for two or three nights. Two of these were seized
+with madness in camp, sometime afterwards, and ran off into the
+mountains, where they perished. One was attacked by the paroxysm while
+on a hunt; when, throwing himself off his horse, he struggled and foamed
+at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and barking like a wolf. Yet he
+retained consciousness enough to warn away his companions, who hastened
+in search of assistance; but when they returned he was nowhere to be
+found. It was thought that he was seen a day or two afterwards, but no
+one could come up with him, and of course, he too, perished. Another
+died on his journey to St. Louis; and several died at different times
+within the next two years.
+
+At the time, however, immediately following the visit of the wolf to
+camp, Captain Stuart was admonishing Meek on the folly of his ways,
+telling him that the wolf might easily have bitten him, he was so drunk.
+
+"It would have killed him,--sure, if it hadn't cured him!" said
+Meek,--alluding to the belief that alcohol is a remedy for the poison of
+hydrophobia.
+
+When sobriety returned, and work was once more to be resumed, Meek
+returned with three or four associates to the Salt Lake country, to trap
+on the numerous streams that flow down from the mountains to the east of
+Salt Lake. He had not been long in this region when he fell in on Bear
+River with a company of Bonneville's men, one hundred and eighteen in
+number, under Jo Walker, who had been sent to explore the Great Salt
+Lake, and the adjacent country; to make charts, keep a journal, and, in
+short, make a thorough discovery of all that region. Great expectations
+were cherished by the Captain concerning this favorite expedition, which
+were, however, utterly blighted, as his historian has recorded. The
+disappointment and loss which Bonneville suffered from it, gave a tinge
+of prejudice to his delineations of the trapper's character. It was true
+that they did not explore Salt Lake; and that they made a long and
+expensive journey, collecting but few peltries. It is true also, that
+they caroused in true mountain style, while among the Californians: but
+that the expedition was unprofitable was due chiefly to the difficulties
+attending the exploration of a new country, a large portion of which was
+desert and mountain.
+
+But let us not anticipate. When Meek and his companions fell in with Jo
+Walker and his company, they resolved to accompany the expedition; for
+it was "a feather in a man's cap," and made his services doubly valuable
+to have become acquainted with a new country, and fitted himself for a
+pilot.
+
+On leaving Bear River, where the hunters took the precaution to lay in a
+store of dried meat, the company passed down on the west side of Salt
+Lake, and found themselves in the Salt Lake desert, where their store,
+insufficiently large, soon became reduced to almost nothing. Here was
+experienced again the sufferings to which Meek had once before been
+subjected in the Digger country, which, in fact, bounded this desert on
+the northwest. "There was," says Bonneville, "neither tree, nor herbage,
+nor spring, nor pool, nor running stream; nothing but parched wastes of
+sand, where horse and rider were in danger of perishing." Many an
+emigrant has since confirmed the truth of this account.
+
+It could not be expected that men would continue on in such a country,
+in that direction which offered no change for the better. Discerning at
+last a snowy range to the northwest, they traveled in that direction;
+pinched with famine, and with tongues swollen out of their mouths with
+thirst. They came at last to a small stream, into which both men and
+animals plunged to quench their raging thirst.
+
+The instinct of a mule on these desert journeys is something wonderful.
+We have heard it related by others besides the mountain-men, that they
+will detect the neighborhood of water long before their riders have
+discovered a sign; and setting up a gallop, when before they could
+hardly walk, will dash into the water up to their necks, drinking in the
+life-saving moisture through every pore of the skin, while they
+prudently refrain from swallowing much of it. If one of a company has
+been off on a hunt for water, and on finding it has let his mule drink,
+when he returns to camp, the other animals will gather about it, and
+snuff its breath, and even its body, betraying the liveliest interest
+and envy. It is easy to imagine that in the case of Jo Walker's company,
+not only the animals but the men were eager to steep themselves in the
+reviving waters of the first stream which they found on the border of
+this weary desert.
+
+It proved to be a tributary of Mary's or Ogden's River, along which the
+company pursued their way, trapping as they went, and living upon the
+flesh of the beaver. They had now entered upon the same country
+inhabited by Digger Indians, in which Milton Sublette's brigade had so
+nearly perished with famine the previous year. It was unexplored, and
+the natives were as curious about the movements of their white visitors,
+as Indians always are on the first appearance of civilized men.
+
+They hung about the camps, offering no offences by day, but contriving
+to do a great deal of thieving during the night-time. Each day, for
+several days, their numbers increased, until the army which dogged the
+trappers by day, and filched from them at night, numbered nearly a
+thousand. They had no guns; but carried clubs, and some bows and arrows.
+The trappers at length became uneasy at this accumulation of force, even
+though they had no fire-arms, for was it not this very style of people,
+armed with clubs, that attacked Smith's party on the Umpqua, and killed
+all but four?
+
+"We must kill a lot of them, boys," said Jo Walker. "It will never do to
+let that crowd get into camp." Accordingly, as the Indians crowded round
+at a ford of Mary's River, always a favorite time of attack with the
+savages, Walker gave the order to fire, and the whole company poured a
+volley into the jostling crowd. The effect was terrible. Seventy-five
+Diggers bit the dust; while the others, seized with terror and horror at
+this new and instantaneous mode of death, fled howling away, the
+trappers pursuing them until satisfied that they were too much
+frightened to return. This seemed to Captain Bonneville, when he came to
+hear of it, like an unnecessary and ferocious act. But Bonneville was
+not an experienced Indian fighter. His views of their character were
+much governed by his knowledge of the Flatheads and Nez Perces; and also
+by the immunity from harm he enjoyed among the Shoshonies on the Snake
+River, where the Hudson's Bay Company had brought them into subjection,
+and where even two men might travel in safety at the time of his
+residence in that country.
+
+Walker's company continued on down to the main or Humboldt River,
+trapping as they went, both for the furs, and for something to eat; and
+expecting to find that the river whose course they were following
+through these barren plains, would lead them to some more important
+river, or to some large lake or inland sea. This was a country entirely
+unknown, even to the adventurous traders and trappers of the fur
+companies, who avoided it because it was out of the buffalo range; and
+because the borders of it, along which they sometimes skirted, were
+found to be wanting in water-courses in which beaver might be looked
+for. Walker's company therefore, now determined to prosecute their
+explorations until they came to some new and profitable beaver grounds.
+
+But after a long march through an inhospitable country they came at last
+to where the Humboldt sinks itself in a great swampy lake, in the midst
+of deserts of sage-brush. Here was the end of their great expectations.
+To the west of them, however, and not far off, rose the lofty summits of
+the Sierra Nevada range, some of whose peaks were covered with eternal
+snows. Since they had already made an unprofitable business of their
+expedition, and failed in its principal aim, that of exploring Salt
+Lake, they resolved upon crossing the mountains into California, and
+seeking new fields of adventure on the western side of the Nevada
+mountains.
+
+Accordingly, although it was already late in the autumn, the party
+pushed on toward the west, until they came to Pyramid Lake, another of
+those swampy lakes which are frequently met with near the eastern base
+of these Sierras. Into this flowed a stream similar to the Humboldt,
+which came from the south, and, they believed, had its rise in the
+mountains. As it was important to find a good pass, they took their
+course along this stream, which they named Trucker's River, and
+continued along it to its head-waters in the Sierras.
+
+And now began the arduous labor of crossing an unknown range of lofty
+mountains. Mountaineers as they were, they found it a difficult
+undertaking, and one attended with considerable peril. For a period of
+more than three weeks they were struggling with these dangers; hunting
+paths for their mules and horses, traveling around canyons thousands of
+feet deep; sometimes sinking in new fallen snow; always hungry, and
+often in peril from starvation. Sometimes they scrambled up almost
+smooth declivities of granite, that offered no foothold save the
+occasional seams in the rock; at others they traveled through pine
+forests made nearly impassable by snow; and at other times on a ridge
+which wind and sun made bare for them. All around rose rocky peaks and
+pinnacles fretted by ages of denudation to very spears and needles of a
+burnt looking, red colored rock. Below, were spread out immense fields,
+or rather oceans, of granite that seemed once to have been a molten sea,
+whose waves were suddenly congealed. From the fissures between these
+billows grew stunted pines, which had found a scanty soil far down in
+the crevices of the rock for their hardy roots. Following the course of
+any stream flowing in the right direction for their purpose, they came
+not infrequently to some small fertile valley, set in amidst the rocks
+like a cup, and often containing in its depth a bright little lake.
+These are the oases in the mountain deserts. But the lateness of the
+season made it necessary to avoid the high valleys on account of the
+snow, which in winter accumulates to a depth of twenty feet.
+
+Great was the exultation of the mountaineers when they emerged from the
+toils and dangers, safe into the bright and sunny plains of California;
+having explored almost the identical route since fixed upon for the
+Union Pacific Railroad.
+
+They proceeded down the Sacramento valley, toward the coast, after
+recruiting their horses on the ripe wild oats, and the freshly springing
+grass which the December rains had started into life, and themselves on
+the plentiful game of the foot-hills. Something of the stimulus of the
+Californian climate seemed to be imparted to the ever buoyant blood of
+these hardy and danger-despising men. They were mad with delight on
+finding themselves, after crossing the stern Sierras, in a land of
+sunshine and plenty; a beautiful land of verdant hills and tawny plains;
+of streams winding between rows of alder and willow, and valleys dotted
+with picturesque groves of the evergreen oak. Instead of the wild blasts
+which they were used to encounter in December, they experienced here
+only those dainty and wooing airs which poets have ascribed to spring,
+but which seldom come even with the last May days in an eastern climate.
+
+In the San José valley they encountered a party of one hundred soldiers,
+which the Spanish government at Monterey had sent out to take a party of
+Indians accused of stealing cattle. The soldiers were native
+Californians, descendants of the mixed blood of Spain and Mexico, a
+wild, jaunty looking set of fellows, who at first were inclined to take
+Walker's party for a band of cattle thieves, and to march them off to
+Monterey. But the Rocky Mountain trapper was not likely to be taken
+prisoner by any such brigade as the dashing _cabelleros_ of Monterey.
+
+After astonishing them with a series of whoops and yells, and trying to
+astonish them with feats of horsemanship, they began to discover that
+when it came to the latter accomplishment, even mountain-men could learn
+something from a native Californian. In this latter frame of mind they
+consented to be conducted to Monterey as prisoners or not, just as the
+Spanish government should hereafter be pleased to decree; and they had
+confidence in themselves that they should be able to bend that high and
+mighty authority to their own purposes thereafter.
+
+Nor were they mistaken in their calculations. Their fearless, free and
+easy style, united to their complete furnishing of arms, their numbers,
+and their superior ability to stand up under the demoralizing effect of
+the favorite _aguadiente_, soon so far influenced the soldiery at least,
+that the trappers were allowed perfect freedom under the very eyes of
+the jealous Spanish government, and were treated with all hospitality.
+
+The month which the trappers spent at Monterey was their "red letter
+day" for a long time after. The habits of the Californians accorded with
+their own, with just difference enough to furnish them with novelties
+and excitements such as gave a zest to their intercourse. The
+Californian, and the mountain-men, were alike centaurs. Horses were
+their necessity, and their delight; and the plains swarmed with them, as
+also with wild cattle, descendants of those imported by the Jesuit
+Fathers in the early days of the Missions. These horses and cattle were
+placed at the will and pleasure of the trappers. They feasted on one,
+and bestrode the other as it suited them. They attended bull-fights, ran
+races, threw the lasso, and played monte, with a relish that delighted
+the inhabitants of Monterey.
+
+The partial civilization of the Californians accorded with every feeling
+to which the mountain-men could be brought to confess. To them the
+refinements of cities would have been oppressive. The adobe houses of
+Monterey were not so restraining in their elegance as to trouble the
+sensations of men used to the heavens for a roof in summer, and a skin
+lodge for shelter in winter. Some fruits and vegetables, articles not
+tasted for years, they obtained at the missions, where the priests
+received them courteously and hospitably, as they had done Jedediah
+Smith and his company, five years before, when on their long and
+disastrous journey they found themselves almost destitute of the
+necessaries of life, upon their arrival in California. There was
+something too, in the dress of the people, both men and women, which
+agreed with, while differing from, the dress of the mountaineers and
+their now absent Indian dulcineas.
+
+[Illustration: _BRANDING CATTLE._]
+
+The men wore garments of many colors, consisting of blue velveteen
+breeches and jacket, the jacket having a scarlet collar and cuffs, and
+the breeches being open at the knee to display the stocking of white.
+Beneath these were displayed high buskins made of deer skin, fringed
+down the outside of the ankle, and laced with a cord and tassels. On the
+head was worn a broad brimmed _sombrero_; and over the shoulders the
+jaunty Mexican _sarape_. When they rode, the Californians wore enormous
+spurs, fastened on by jingling chains. Their saddles were so shaped that
+it was difficult to dislodge the rider, being high before and behind;
+and the indispensable lasso hung coiled from the pommel. Their stirrups
+were of wood, broad on the bottom, with a guard of leather that
+protected the fancy buskin of the horseman from injury. Thus accoutred,
+and mounted on a wild horse, the Californian was a suitable comrade, in
+appearance, at least, for the buckskin clad trapper, with his high
+beaver-skin cap, his gay scarf, and moccasins, and profusion of arms.
+
+The dress of the women was a gown of gaudy calico or silk, and a bright
+colored shawl, which served for mantilla and bonnet together. They were
+well formed, with languishing eyes and soft voices; and doubtless
+appeared charming in the eyes of our band of trappers, with whom they
+associated freely at fandangoes, bull-fights, or bear-baitings. In such
+company, what wonder that Bonneville's men lingered for a whole month!
+What wonder that the California expedition was a favorite theme by
+camp-fires, for a long time subsequent?
+
+1834. In February the trappers bethought themselves of returning to the
+mountains. The route fixed upon was one which should take them through
+Southern California, and New Mexico, along the course of all the
+principal rivers. Crossing the coast mountains, into the valley of the
+San Joaquin, they followed its windings until they came to its rise in
+the Lulare Lake. Thence turning in a southeasterly course, they came to
+the Colorado, at the Mohave villages, where they traded with the
+natives, whom they found friendly. Keeping on down the Colorado, to the
+mouth of the Gila, they turned back from that river, and ascended the
+Colorado once more, to Williams' Fork, and up the latter stream to some
+distance, when they fell in with a company of sixty men under Frapp and
+Jervais, two of the partners in the Rocky Mountain Company. The meeting
+was joyful on all sides; but particularly so between Meek and some of
+his old comrades, with whom he had fought Indians and grizzly bears, or
+set beaver traps on some lonely stream in the Blackfoot country. A
+lively exchange of questions and answers took place, while gaiety and
+good feeling reigned.
+
+Frapp had been out quite as long as the Monterey party. It was seldom
+that the brigade which traversed the southern country, on the Colorado,
+and its large tributaries, returned to winter quarters; for in the
+region where they trapped winter was unknown, and the journey to the
+northern country a long and hazardous one. But the reunited trappers had
+each their own experiences to relate.
+
+The two companies united made a party nearly two hundred strong. Keeping
+with Frapp, they crossed over from Williams' Fork to the Colorado
+Chiquito river, at the Moquis village, where some of the men disgraced
+themselves far more than did Jo Walker's party at the crossing of Mary's
+River. For the Moquis were a half-civilized nation, who had houses and
+gardens, and conducted themselves kindly, or at the worst peaceably,
+toward properly behaved strangers. These trappers, instead of
+approaching them with offers of purchase, lawlessly entered their
+gardens, rifling them of whatever fruit or melons were ripe, and not
+hesitating to destroy that which was not ripe. To this, as might be
+expected, the Moquises objected; and were shot down for so doing. In
+this truly infamous affair fifteen or twenty of them were killed.
+
+"I didn't belong to that crowd," says Joe Meek, "I sat on the fence and
+saw it, though. It was a shameful thing."
+
+From the Moquis village, the joint companies crossed the country in a
+northeasterly direction, crossing several branches of the Colorado at
+their head-waters, which course finally brought them to the head-waters
+of the Rio Grande. The journey from the mouth of the Gila, though long,
+extended over a country comparatively safe. Either farther to the south
+or east, the caravan would have been in danger of a raid from the most
+dangerous tribes on the continent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+1834. But Joe Meek was not destined to return to the Rocky Mountains
+without having had an Indian fight. If adventures did not come in his
+way he was the man to put himself in the way of adventures.
+
+While the camp was on its way from the neighborhood of Grande River to
+the New Park, Meek, Kit Carson, and Mitchell, with three Delaware
+Indians, named Tom Hill, Manhead, and Jonas, went on a hunt across to
+the east of Grande River, in the country lying between the Arkansas and
+Cimarron, where numerous small branches of these rivers head together,
+or within a small extent of country.
+
+They were about one hundred and fifty miles from camp, and traveling
+across the open plain between the streams, one beautiful May morning,
+when about five miles off they descried a large band of Indians mounted,
+and galloping toward them. As they were in the Camanche country, they
+knew what to expect if they allowed themselves to be taken prisoners.
+They gave but a moment to the observation of their foes, but that one
+moment revealed a spirited scene. Fully two hundred Camanches, their
+warriors in front, large and well formed men, mounted on fleet and
+powerful horses, armed with spears and battle axes, racing like the wind
+over the prairie, their feather head-dresses bending to the breeze, that
+swept past them in the race with double force; all distinctly seen in
+the clear air of the prairie, and giving the beholder a thrill of
+fear mingled with admiration.
+
+[Illustration: _THE MULE FORT._]
+
+The first moment given to this spectacle, the second one was employed to
+devise some means of escape. To run was useless. The swift Camanche
+steeds would soon overtake them; and then their horrible doom was fixed.
+No covert was at hand, neither thicket nor ravine, as in the mountains
+there might have been. Carson and Meek exchanged two or three sentences.
+At last, "we must kill our mules!" said they.
+
+That seems a strange devise to the uninitiated reader, who no doubt
+believes that in such a case their mules must be their salvation. And so
+they were intended to be. In this plight a dead mule was far more useful
+than a live one. To the ground sprang every man; and placing their
+mules, seven in number, in a ring, they in an instant cut their throats
+with their hunting knives, and held on to the bridles until each animal
+fell dead in its appointed place. Then hastily scooping up what earth
+they could with knives, they made themselves a fort--a hole to stand in
+for each man, and a dead mule for a breastwork.
+
+In less than half an hour the Camanches charged on them; the
+medicine-man in advance shouting, gesticulating, and making a desperate
+clatter with a rattle which he carried and shook violently. The yelling,
+the whooping, the rattling, the force of the charge were appalling. But
+the little garrison in the mule fort did not waver. The Camanche horses
+did. They could not be made to charge upon the bloody carcasses of the
+mules, nor near enough for their riders to throw a spear into the fort.
+
+This was what the trappers had relied upon. They were cool and
+determined, while terribly excited and wrought up by their situation. It
+was agreed that no more than three should fire at a time, the other
+three reserving their fire while the empty guns could be reloaded. They
+were to pick their men, and kill one at every shot.
+
+They acted up to their regulations. At the charge the Camanche horses
+recoiled and could not be urged upon the fort of slaughtered mules. The
+three whites fired first, and the medicine-man and two other Camanches
+fell. When a medicine-man is killed, the others retire to hold a council
+and appoint another, for without their "medicine" they could not expect
+success in battle. This was time gained. The warriors retired, while
+their women came up and carried off the dead.
+
+After devoting a little time to bewailing the departed, another chief
+was appointed to the head place, and another furious charge was made
+with the same results as before. Three more warriors bit the dust; while
+the spears of their brethren, attached to long hair ropes by which they
+could be withdrawn, fell short of reaching the men in the fort. Again
+and again the Camanches made a fruitless charge, losing, as often as
+they repeated it, three warriors, either dead or wounded. Three times
+that day the head chief or medicine-man was killed; and when that
+happened, the heroes in the fort got a little time to breathe. While the
+warriors held a council, the women took care of the wounded and slain.
+
+As the women approached the fort to carry off the fallen warriors, they
+mocked and reviled the little band of trappers, calling them "women,"
+for fighting in a fort, and resorting to the usual Indian ridicule and
+gasconade. Occasionally, also, a warrior raced at full speed past the
+fort apparently to take observations. Thus the battle continued through
+the entire day.
+
+It was terrible work for the trappers. The burning sun of the plains
+shone on them, scorching them to faintness. Their faces were begrimed
+with powder and dust; their throats parched, and tongues swollen with
+thirst, and their whole frames aching from their cramped positions, as
+well as the excitement and fatigue of the battle. But they dared not
+relax their vigilance for a moment. They were fighting for their lives,
+and they meant to win.
+
+At length the sun set on that bloody and wearisome day. Forty-two
+Camanches were killed, and several more wounded, for the charge had been
+repeated fifteen or twenty times. The Indians drew off at nightfall to
+mourn over their dead, and hold a council. Probably they had lost faith
+in their medicines, or believed that the trappers possessed one far
+greater than any of theirs. Under the friendly cover of the night, the
+six heroes who had fought successfully more than a hundred Camanches,
+took each his blanket and his gun, and bidding a brief adieu to dead
+mules and beaver packs, set out to return to camp.
+
+When a mountain-man had a journey to perform on foot, to travel express,
+or to escape from an enemy, he fell into what is called a dog trot, and
+ran in that manner, sometimes, all day. On the present occasion, the
+six, escaping for life, ran all night, and found no water for
+seventy-five mile. When they did at last come to a clear running stream,
+their thankfulness was equal to their necessity, "for," says Meek,
+"thirst is the greatest suffering I ever experienced. It is far worse
+than hunger or pain."
+
+Having rested and refreshed themselves at the stream, they kept on
+without much delay until they reached camp in that beautiful valley of
+the Rocky Mountains called the New, or the South Park.
+
+While they remained in the South Park, Mr. Guthrie, one of the Rocky
+Mountain Company's traders, was killed by lightning. A number of persons
+were collected in the lodge of the Booshway, Frapp, to avoid the rising
+tempest, when Guthrie, who was leaning against the lodge pole, was
+struck by a flash of the electric current, and fell dead instantly.
+Frapp rushed out of the lodge, partly bewildered himself by the shock,
+and under the impression that Guthrie had been shot. Frapp was a German,
+and spoke English somewhat imperfectly. In the excitement of the moment
+he shouted out, "By ----, who did shoot Guttery!"
+
+"-- a'----, I expect: He's a firing into camp;" drawled out Hawkins,
+whose ready wit was very disregardful of sacred names and subjects.
+
+The mountaineers were familiar with the most awful aspects of nature;
+and if their familiarity had not bred contempt, it had at least hardened
+them to those solemn impressions which other men would have felt under
+their influence.
+
+From New Park, Meek traveled north with the main camp, passing first to
+the Old Park; thence to the Little Snake, a branch of Bear River; thence
+to Pilot Butte; and finally to Green River to rendezvous; having
+traveled in the past year about three thousand miles, on horseback,
+through new and often dangerous countries. It is easy to believe that
+the Monterey expedition was the popular theme in camp during rendezvous.
+It had been difficult to get volunteers for Bonneville's Salt Lake
+Exploration: but such was the wild adventure to which it led, that
+volunteering for a trip to Monterey would have been exceedingly popular
+immediately thereafter.
+
+On Bear River, Bonneville's men fell in with their commander, Captain
+Bonneville, whose disappointment and indignation at the failure of his
+plans was exceedingly great. In this indignation there was considerable
+justice; yet much of his disappointment was owing to causes which a more
+experienced trader would have avoided. The only conclusion which can be
+arrived at by an impartial observer of the events of 1832-35, is, that
+none but certain men of long experience and liberal means, could succeed
+in the business of the fur-trade. There were too many chances of loss;
+too many wild elements to be mingled in amity; and too powerful
+opposition from the old established companies. Captain Bonneville's
+experience was no different from Mr. Wyeth's. In both cases there was
+much effort, outlay, and loss. Nor was their failure owing to any action
+of the Hudson's Bay Company, different from, or more tyrannical, than
+the action of the American companies, as has frequently been
+represented. It was the American companies in the Rocky Mountains that
+drove both Bonneville and Wyeth out of the field. Their inexperience
+could not cope with the thorough knowledge of the business, and the
+country, which their older rivals possessed. Raw recruits were no match,
+in trapping or fighting, for old mountaineers: and those veterans who
+had served long under certain leaders could not be inveigled from their
+service except upon the most extravagant offers; and these extravagant
+wages, which if one paid, the other must, would not allow a profit to
+either of the rivals.
+
+"How much does your company pay you?" asked Bonneville of Meek, to whom
+he was complaining of the conduct of his men on the Monterey expedition.
+
+"Fifteen hundred dollars," answered Meek.
+
+"Yes: and _I_ will give it to you," said Bonneville with bitterness.
+
+It was quite true. Such was the competition aroused by the Captain's
+efforts to secure good men and pilots, that rather than lose them to a
+rival company, the Rocky Mountain Company paid a few of their best men
+the wages above named.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+1834. The gossip at rendezvous was this year of an unusually exciting
+character. Of the brigades which left for different parts of the country
+the previous summer, the Monterey travelers were not the only ones who
+had met with adventures. Fitzpatrick, who had led a party into the Crow
+country that autumn, had met with a characteristic reception from that
+nation of cunning vagabonds.
+
+Being with his party on Lougue River, in the early part of September, he
+discovered that he was being dogged by a considerable band of Crows, and
+endeavored to elude their spying; but all to no purpose. The Crow chief
+kept in his neighborhood, and finally expressed a desire to bring his
+camp alongside that of Fitzpatrick, pretending to the most friendly and
+honorable sentiments toward his white neighbors. But not feeling any
+confidence in Crow friendship, Fitzpatrick declined, and moved camp a
+few miles away. Not, however, wishing to offend the dignity of the
+apparently friendly chief, he took a small escort, and went to pay a
+visit to his Crow neighbors, that they might see that he was not afraid
+to trust them. Alas, vain subterfuge!
+
+While he was exchanging civilities with the Crow chief, a party of the
+young braves stole out of camp, and taking advantage of the leader's
+absence, made an attack on his camp, so sudden and successful that not a
+horse, nor anything else which they could make booty of was left. Even
+Captain Stuart, who was traveling with Fitzpatrick, and who was an
+active officer, was powerless to resist the attack, and had to consent
+to see the camp rifled of everything valuable.
+
+In the meantime Fitzpatrick, after concluding his visit in the most
+amicable manner, was returning to camp, when he was met by the exultant
+braves, who added insult to injury by robbing him of his horse, gun, and
+nearly all his clothes, leaving him to return to his party in a
+deplorable condition, to the great amusement of the trappers, and his
+own chagrin.
+
+However, the next day a talk was held with the head chief of the Crows,
+to whom Fitzpatrick represented the infamy of such treacherous conduct
+in a very strong light. In answer to this reproof, the chief disowned
+all knowledge of the affair; saying that he could not always control the
+conduct of the young men, who would be a little wild now and then, in
+spite of the best Crow precepts: but that he would do what he could to
+have the property restored. Accordingly, after more talk, and much
+eloquence on the part of Fitzpatrick, the chief part of the plunder was
+returned to him, including the horses and rifles of the men, together
+with a little ammunition, and a few beaver traps.
+
+Fitzpatrick understood the meaning of this apparent fairness, and
+hastened to get out of the Crow country before another raid by the
+mischievous young braves, at a time when their chief was not "honor
+bound," should deprive him of the recovered property. That his
+conjecture was well founded, was proven by the numerous petty thefts
+which were committed, and by the loss of several horses and mules,
+before he could remove them beyond the limits of the Crow territory.
+
+While the trappers exchanged accounts of their individual experiences,
+the leaders had more important matters to gossip over. The rivalry
+between the several fur companies was now at its climax. Through the
+energy and ability of Captain Sublette of the St. Louis Company, and the
+experience and industry of the Rocky Mountain Company, which Captain
+Sublette still continued to control in a measure, the power still
+remained with them. The American Company had never been able to cope
+with them in the Rocky Mountains; and the St. Louis Company were already
+invading their territory on the Missouri River, by carrying goods up
+that river in boats, to trade with the Indians under the very walls of
+the American Company's forts.
+
+In August of the previous year, when Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth had started on
+his return to the states, he was accompanied as far as the mouth of the
+Yellowstone by Milton Sublette; and had engaged with that gentleman to
+furnish him with goods the following year, as he believed he could do,
+cheaper than the St. Louis Company, who purchased their goods in St.
+Louis at a great advance on Boston prices. But Milton Sublette fell in
+with his brother the Captain, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, with a
+keel-boat loaded with merchandise; and while Wyeth pursued his way
+eastward to purchase the Indian goods which were intended to supply the
+wants of the fur-traders in the Rocky Mountains, at a profit to him, and
+an advantage to them, the Captain was persuading his brother not to
+encourage any interlopers in the Indian trade; but to continue to buy
+goods from himself, as formerly. So potent were his arguments, that
+Milton yielded to them, in spite of his engagement with Wyeth. Thus
+during the autumn of 1833, while Bonneville was being wronged and
+robbed, as he afterwards became convinced, by his men under Walker, and
+anticipated in the hunting-ground selected for himself, in the Crow
+country, by Fitzpatrick, as he had previously been in the Snake country
+by Milton Sublette, Wyeth was proceeding to Boston in good faith, to
+execute what proved to be a fool's errand. Bonneville also had gone on
+another, when after the trapping season was over he left his camp to
+winter on the Snake River, and started with a small escort to visit the
+Columbia, and select a spot for a trading-post on the lower portion of
+that river. On arriving at Wallah-Wallah, after a hard journey over the
+Blue Mountains in the winter, the agent at that post had refused to
+supply him with provisions to prosecute his journey, and given him to
+understand that the Hudson's Bay Company might be polite and hospitable
+to Captain Bonneville as the gentleman, but that it was against their
+regulations to encourage the advent of other traders who would interfere
+with their business, and unsettle the minds of the Indians in that
+region.
+
+This reply so annoyed the Captain, that he refused the well meant advice
+of Mr. Pambrun that he should not undertake to recross the Blue
+Mountains in March snows, but travel under the escort of Mr. Payette,
+one of the Hudson's Bay Company's leaders, who was about starting for
+the Nez Perce country by a safer if more circuitous route. He therefore
+set out to return by the route he came, and only arrived at camp in May,
+1834, after many dangers and difficulties. From the Portneuf River, he
+then proceeded with his camp to explore the Little Snake River, and
+Snake Lake; and it was while so doing that he fell in with his men just
+returned from Monterey.
+
+Such was the relative position of the several fur companies in the Rocky
+Mountains in 1834; and it was of such matters that the leaders talked in
+the lodge of the Booshways, at rendezvous. In the meantime Wyeth
+arrived in the mountains with his goods, as he had contracted with
+Milton Sublette in the previous year. But on his heels came Captain
+Sublette, also with goods, and the Rocky Mountain Company violated their
+contract with Wyeth, and purchased of their old leader.
+
+Thus was Wyeth left, with his goods on his hands, in a country where it
+was impossible to sell them, and useless to undertake an opposition to
+the already established fur-traders and trappers. His indignation was
+great, and certainly was just. In his interview with the Rocky Mountain
+Company, in reply to their excuses for, and vindication of their
+conduct, his answer was:
+
+"Gentlemen, I will roll a stone into your garden that you will never be
+able to get out."
+
+And he kept his promise; for that same autumn he moved on to the Snake
+River, and built Fort Hall, storing his goods therein. The next year he
+sold out goods and fort to the Hudson's Bay Company; and the stone was
+in the garden of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company that they were never
+able to dislodge. When Wyeth had built his fort and left it in charge of
+an agent, he dispatched a party of trappers to hunt in the Big Blackfoot
+country, under Joseph Gale, who had previously been in the service of
+the Rocky Mountain Company, and of whom we shall learn more hereafter,
+while he set out for the Columbia to meet his vessel, and establish a
+salmon fishery. The fate of that enterprise has already been recorded.
+
+As for Bonneville, he made one more effort to reach the lower Columbia;
+failing, however, a second time, for the same reason as before--he could
+not subsist himself and company in a country where even every Indian
+refused to sell to him either furs or provisions. After being reduced to
+horse-flesh, and finding no encouragement that his condition would be
+improved farther down the river, he turned back once more from about
+Wallah-Wallah, and returned to the mountains, and from there to the east
+in the following year. A company of his trappers, however, continued to
+hunt for him east of the mountains for two or three years longer.
+
+The rivalry between the Rocky Mountain and American Companies was this
+year diminished by their mutually agreeing to confine themselves to
+certain parts of the country, which treaty continued for two years, when
+they united in one company. They were then, with the exception of a few
+lone traders, the only competitors of the Hudson's Bay Company, for the
+fur-trade of the West.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+1834. The Rocky Mountain Company now confined themselves to the country
+lying east of the mountains, and upon the head-waters and tributaries of
+the Missouri, a country very productive in furs, and furnishing
+abundance of game. But it was also the most dangerous of all the
+northern fur-hunting territory, as it was the home of those two nations
+of desperadoes, the Crows and Blackfeet. During the two years in which
+the company may have been said almost to reside there, desperate
+encounters and hair-breadth escapes were incidents of daily occurrence
+to some of the numerous trapping parties.
+
+The camp had reached the Blackfoot country in the autumn of this year,
+and the trappers were out in all directions, hunting beaver in the
+numerous small streams that flow into the Missouri. On a small branch of
+the Gallatin Fork, some of the trappers fell in with a party of Wyeth's
+men, under Joseph Gale. When their neighborhood became known to the
+Rocky Mountain camp, Meek and a party of sixteen of his associates
+immediately resolved to pay them a visit, and inquire into their
+experience since leaving rendezvous. These visits between different
+camps are usually seasons of great interest and general rejoicing. But
+glad as Gale and his men were to meet with old friends, when the first
+burst of hearty greeting was over, they had but a sorry experience to
+relate. They had been out a long time. The Blackfeet had used them
+badly--several men had been killed. Their guns were out of order, their
+ammunition all but exhausted; they were destitute, or nearly so, of
+traps, blankets, knives, everything. They were what the Indian and the
+mountain-man call "very poor."
+
+Half the night was spent in recounting all that had passed in both
+companies since the fall hunt began. Little sympathy did Wyeth's men
+receive for their forlorn condition, for sympathy is repudiated by your
+true mountaineer for himself, nor will he furnish it to others. The
+absurd and humorous, or the daring and reckless, side of a story is the
+only one which is dwelt upon in narrating his adventures. The laugh
+which is raised at his expense when he has a tale of woes to
+communicate, is a better tonic to his dejected spirits than the gentlest
+pity would be. Thus lashed into courage again, he is ready to declare
+that all his troubles were only so much pastime.
+
+It was this sort of cheer which the trapping party conveyed to Wyeth's
+men on this visit, and it was gratefully received, as being of the true
+kind.
+
+In the morning the party set out to return to camp, Meek and Liggit
+starting in advance of the others. They had not proceeded far when they
+were fired on by a large band of Blackfeet, who came upon them quite
+suddenly, and thinking these two trappers easy game, set up a yell and
+dashed at them. As Meek and Liggit turned back and ran to Gale's camp,
+the Indians in full chase charged on them, and rushed pell-mell into the
+midst of camp, almost before they had time to discover that they had
+surprised so large a party of whites. So sudden was their advent, that
+they had almost taken the camp before the whites could recover from the
+confusion of the charge.
+
+It was but a momentary shock, however. In another instant the roar of
+twenty guns reverberated from the mountains that rose high on either
+side of camp. The Blackfeet were taken in a snare; but they rallied and
+fell back beyond the grove in which the camp was situated, setting on
+fire the dry grass as they went. The fire quickly spread to the grove,
+and shot up the pine trees in splendid columns of flame, that seemed to
+lick the face of heaven. The Indians kept close behind the fire,
+shooting into camp whenever they could approach near enough, the
+trappers replying by frequent volleys. The yells of the savages, the
+noise of the flames roaring in the trees, the bellowing of the guns,
+whose echoes rolled among the hills, and the excitement of a battle for
+life, made the scene one long to be remembered with distinctness.
+
+Both sides fought with desperation. The Blackfoot blood was up--the
+trapper blood no less. Gale's men, from having no ammunition, nor guns
+that were in order, could do little more than take charge of the horses,
+which they led out into the bottom land to escape the fire, fight the
+flames, and look after the camp goods. The few whose guns were
+available, showed the game spirit, and the fight became interesting as
+an exhibition of what mountain white men could do in a contest of one to
+ten, with the crack warriors of the red race. It was, at any time, a
+game party, consisting of Meek, Carson, Hawkins, Gale, Liggit, Rider,
+Robinson, Anderson, Russel, Larison, Ward, Parmaley, Wade, Michael Head,
+and a few others whose names have been forgotten.
+
+The trappers being driven out of the grove by the fire, were forced to
+take to the open ground. The Indians, following the fire, had the
+advantage of the shelter afforded by the trees, and their shots made
+havoc among the horses, most of which were killed because they could not
+be taken. As for the trappers, they used the horses for defence, making
+rifle-pits behind them, when no other covert could be found. In this
+manner the battle was sustained until three o'clock in the afternoon,
+without loss of life to the whites, though several men were wounded.
+
+At three in the afternoon, the Blackfoot chief ordered a retreat,
+calling out to the trappers that they would fight no more. Though their
+loss had been heavy, they still greatly outnumbered the whites; nor
+would the condition of the arms and the small amount of ammunition left
+permit the trappers to pursue them. The Indians were severely beaten,
+and no longer in a condition to fight, all of which was highly
+satisfactory to the victors. The only regret was, that Bridger's camp,
+which had become aware during the day that a battle was going on in the
+neighborhood, did not arrive early enough to exterminate the whole band.
+As it was, the big camp only came up in time to assist in taking care of
+the wounded. The destruction of their horses put an end to the
+independent existence of Gale's brigade, which joined itself and its
+fortunes to Bridger's command for the remainder of the year. Had it not
+been for the fortunate visit of the trappers to Gale's camp, without
+doubt every man in it would have perished at the hands of the Blackfeet:
+a piece of bad fortune not unaccordant with that which seemed to pursue
+the enterprises set on foot by the active but unlucky New England
+trader.
+
+Not long after this battle with the Blackfeet, Meek and a trapper named
+Crow, with two Shawnees, went over into the Crow Country to trap on
+Pryor's River, a branch of the Yellowstone. On coming to the pass in the
+mountains between the Gallatin Fork of the Missouri and the great bend
+in the Yellowstone, called Pryor's Gap, Meek rode forward, with the
+mad-cap spirit strong in him, to "have a little fun with the boys," and
+advancing a short distance into the pass, wheeled suddenly, and came
+racing back, whooping and yelling, to make his comrades think he had
+discovered Indians. And lo! as if his yells had invoked them from the
+rocks and trees, a war party suddenly emerged from the pass, on the
+heels of the jester, and what had been sport speedily became earnest, as
+the trappers turned their horses' heads and made off in the direction of
+camp. They had a fine race of it, and heard other yells and war-whoops
+besides their own; but they contrived to elude their pursuers, returning
+safe to camp.
+
+This freak of Meek's was, after all, a fortunate inspiration, for had
+the four trappers entered the pass and come upon the war party of Crows,
+they would never have escaped alive.
+
+A few days after, the same party set out again, and succeeded in
+reaching Pryor's River unmolested, and setting their traps. They
+remained some time in this neighborhood trapping, but the season had
+become pretty well advanced, and they were thinking of returning to camp
+for the winter. The Shawnees set out in one direction to take up their
+traps, Meek and Crow in another. The stream where their traps were set
+was bordered by thickets of willow, wild cherry, and plum trees, and the
+bank was about ten feet above the water at this season of the year.
+
+Meek had his traps set in the stream about midway between two thickets.
+As he approached the river he observed with the quick eye of an
+experienced mountain-man, certain signs which gave him little
+satisfaction. The buffalo were moving off as if disturbed; a bear ran
+suddenly out of its covert among the willows.
+
+"I told Crow," said Meek, "that I didn't like to go in there. He laughed
+at me, and called me a coward. 'All the same,' I said; I had no fancy
+for the place just then--I didn't like the indications. But he kept
+jeering me, and at last I got mad and started in. Just as I got to my
+traps, I discovered that two red devils war a watching me from the
+shelter of the thicket to my left, about two rods off. When they saw
+that they war discovered they raised their guns and fired. I turned my
+horse's head at the same instant, and one ball passed through his neck,
+under the neck bone, and the other through his withers, just forward of
+my saddle.
+
+"Seeing that they had not hit me, one of them ran up with a spear to
+spear me. My horse war rearing and pitching from the pain of his wounds,
+so that I could with difficulty govern him; but I had my gun laid across
+my arm, and when I fired I killed the rascal with the spear. Up to that
+moment I had supposed that them two war all I had to deal with. But as I
+got my horse turned round, with my arm raised to fire at the other red
+devil, I encountered the main party, forty-nine of them, who war in the
+bed of the stream, and had been covered by the bank. They fired a volley
+at me. Eleven balls passed through my blanket, under my arm, which war
+raised. I thought it time to run, and run I did. Crow war about two
+hundred yards off. So quick had all this happened, that he had not
+stirred from the spot whar I left him. When I came up to him I called
+out that I must get on behind him, for my horse war sick and staggering.
+
+"'Try him again,' said Crow, who war as anxious to be off as I war. I
+did try him agin, and sure enough, he got up a gallop, and away we went,
+the Blackfeet after us. But being mounted, we had the advantage, and
+soon distanced them. Before we had run a mile, I had to dismount and
+breathe my horse. We war in a narrow pass whar it war impossible to
+hide, so when the Indians came up with us, as they did, while I war
+dismounted we took sure aim and killed the two foremost ones. Before the
+others could get close enough to fire we war off agin. It didn't take
+much urging to make my horse go then, for the yells of them Blackfeet
+spurred him on.
+
+"When we had run another mile I dismounted agin, for fear that my horse
+would give out, and agin we war overtaken. Them Blackfeet are powerful
+runners:--no better than us mountain-men, though. This time we served
+them just as we did before. We picked off two of the foremost, and then
+went on, the rest whooping after us. We war overtaken a third time in
+the same manner; and the third time two Blackfeet fell dead in advance.
+At this, they took the hint. Six warriors already gone for two white
+scalps and two horses; they didn't know how many more would go in the
+same way. And I reckon they had run about all they wanted to, anyway."
+
+It is only necessary to add that Meek and Crow arrived safely at camp;
+and that the Shawnees came in after a day or two all right. Soon after
+the whole command under Bridger moved on to the Yellowstone, and went
+into winter camp in the great bend of that river, where buffalo were
+plenty, and cotton-wood was in abundance.
+
+1835. Towards spring, however, the game had nearly all disappeared from
+the neighborhood of the camp; and the hunters were forced to follow the
+buffalo in their migration eastward. On one of these expeditions a party
+of six trappers, including Meek, and a man named Rose, made their camp
+on Clarke's fork of the Yellowstone. The first night in camp Rose had a
+dream with which he was very much impressed. He dreamed of shaking hands
+with a large white bear, which insisted on taking his right hand for
+that friendly ceremony. He had not given it very willingly, for he knew
+too much about bears in general to desire to be on very intimate terms
+with them.
+
+Seeing that the dream troubled Rose, who was superstitiously inclined,
+Meek resorted to that "certain medicine for minds diseased" which was
+in use in the mountains, and added to the distress of Rose his
+interpretation, in the spirit of ridicule, telling him that he was an
+adept in the matter of dreams, and that unless he, Rose, was very
+mindful of himself that day, he would shake hands with Beelzebub before
+he slept again.
+
+With this comforting assurance, Rose set out with the remainder of the
+party to hunt buffalo. They had proceeded about three miles from camp,
+Rose riding in advance, when they suddenly encountered a company of
+Blackfeet, nine in number, spies from a war party of one hundred and
+fifty, that was prowling and marauding through the country on the
+lookout for small parties from the camp of Bridger. The Blackfeet fired
+on the party as it came up, from their place of concealment, a ball
+striking Rose's right arm, and breaking it at the elbow. This caused his
+gun to fall, and an Indian sprang forward and raised it up quickly,
+aiming it at Meek. The ball passed through his cap without doing any
+other harm. By this time the trappers were made aware of an ambuscade;
+but how numerous the enemy was they could not determine. However, as the
+rest, who were well-mounted, turned to fly, Meek, who was riding an old
+mule that had to be beaten over the head to make it go, seeing that he
+was going to be left behind, called out lustily, "hold on, boys! There's
+not many of them. Let's stop and fight 'em;" at the same time pounding
+the mule over the head, but without effect. The Indians saw the
+predicament, and ran up to seize the mule by the bridle, but the moment
+the mule got wind of the savages, away he went, racing like a
+thoroughbred, jumping impediments, and running right over a ravine,
+which was fortunately filled with snow. This movement brought Meek out
+ahead.
+
+The other men then began to call out to Meek to stop and fight. "Run
+for your lives, boys," roared Meek back at them, "there's ten thousand
+of them; they'll kill every one of you!"
+
+The mule had got his head, and there was no more stopping him than there
+had been starting him. On he went in the direction of the Yellowstone,
+while the others made for Clarke's Fork. On arriving at the former
+river, Meek found that some of the pack horses had followed him, and
+others the rest of the party. This had divided the Indians, three or
+four of whom were on his trail. Springing off his mule, he threw his
+blankets down on the ice, and by moving them alternately soon crossed
+the mule over to the opposite side, just in time to avoid a bullet that
+came whistling after him. As the Indians could not follow, he pursued
+his way to camp in safety, arriving late that evening. The main party
+were already in and expecting him. Soon after, the buffalo hunters
+returned to the big camp, minus some pack horses, but with a good story
+to tell, at the expense of Meek, and which he enjoys telling of himself
+to this day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+1835. Owing to the high rate of pay which Meek was now able to command,
+he began to think of imitating the example of that distinguished order,
+the free trappers, to which he now belonged, and setting up a lodge to
+himself as a family man. The writer of this veracious history has never
+been able to obtain a full and particular account of our hero's earliest
+love adventures. This is a subject on which, in common with most
+mountain-men, he observes a becoming reticence. But of one thing we feel
+quite well assured: that from the time when the young Shoshonie beauty
+assisted in the rescue of himself and Sublette from the execution of the
+death sentence at the hands of her people, Meek had always cherished a
+rather more than friendly regard for the "Mountain Lamb."
+
+[Illustration: _THE FREE TRAPPER'S INDIAN WIFE._]
+
+But Sublette, with wealth and power, and the privileges of a Booshway,
+had hastened to secure her for himself; and Meek had to look and long
+from afar off, until, in the year of which we are writing, Milton
+Sublette was forced to leave the mountains and repair to an eastern city
+for surgical aid; having received a very troublesome wound in the leg,
+which was only cured at last by amputation.
+
+Whether it was the act of a gay Lothario, or whether the law of divorce
+is even more easy in the mountains than in Indiana, we have always
+judiciously refrained from inquiring; but this we do know, upon the word
+of Meek himself, no sooner was Milton's back turned, than his friend so
+insinuated himself into the good graces of his _Isabel_, as Sublette was
+wont to name the lovely Umentucken, that she consented to join her
+fortunes to those of the handsome young trapper without even the
+ceremony of serving a notice on her former lord. As their season of
+bliss only extended over one brief year, this chapter shall be entirely
+devoted to recording such facts as have been imparted to us concerning
+this free trapper's wife.
+
+"She was the most beautiful Indian woman I ever saw," says Meek: "and
+when she was mounted on her dapple gray horse, which cost me three
+hundred dollars, she made a fine show. She wore a skirt of beautiful
+blue broadcloth, and a bodice and leggins of scarlet cloth, of the very
+finest make. Her hair was braided and fell over her shoulders, a scarlet
+silk handkerchief, tied on hood fashion, covered her head; and the
+finest embroidered moccasins her feet. She rode like all the Indian
+women, astride, and carried on one side of the saddle the tomahawk for
+war, and on the other the pipe of peace.
+
+"The name of her horse was "All Fours." His accoutrements were as fine
+as his rider's. The saddle, crupper, and bust girths cost one hundred
+and fifty dollars; the bridle fifty dollars; and the musk-a-moots fifty
+dollars more. All these articles were ornamented with fine cut glass
+beads, porcupine quills, and hawk's bells, that tinkled at every step.
+Her blankets were of scarlet and blue, and of the finest quality. Such
+was the outfit of the trapper's wife, _Umentucken, Tukutey Undenwatsy_,
+the Lamb of the Mountains."
+
+Although Umentucken was beautiful, and had a name signifying gentleness,
+she was not without a will and a spirit of her own, when the occasion
+demanded it. While the camp was on the Yellowstone River, in the summer
+of 1835, a party of women left it to go in search of berries, which were
+often dried and stored for winter use by the Indian women. Umentucken
+accompanied this party, which was attacked by a band of Blackfeet, some
+of the squaws being taken prisoners. But Umentucken saved herself by
+flight, and by swimming the Yellowstone while a hundred guns were
+leveled on her, the bullets whistling about her ears.
+
+At another time she distinguished herself in camp by a quarrel with one
+of the trappers, in which she came off with flying colors. The trapper
+was a big, bullying Irishman named O'Fallen, who had purchased two
+prisoners from the Snake Indians, to be kept in a state of slavery,
+after the manner of the savages. The prisoners were Utes, or Utahs, who
+soon contrived to escape. O'Fallen, imagining that Umentucken had
+liberated them, threatened to whip her, and armed himself with a
+horsewhip for that purpose. On hearing of these threats Umentucken
+repaired to her lodge, and also armed herself, but with a pistol. When
+O'Fallen approached, the whole camp looking on to see the event,
+Umentucken slipped out at the back of the lodge and coming around
+confronted him before he could enter.
+
+"Coward!" she cried. "You would whip the wife of Meek. He is not here to
+defend me; not here to kill you. But I shall do that for myself," and
+with that she presented the pistol to his head. O'Fallen taken by
+surprise, and having every reason to believe she would keep her word,
+and kill him on the spot, was obliged not only to apologize, but to beg
+to have his life spared. This Umentucken consented to do on condition of
+his sufficiently humbling himself, which he did in a very shame-faced
+manner; and a shout then went up from the whole camp--"hurrah for the
+Mountain Lamb!" for nothing more delights a mountaineer than a show of
+pluck, especially in an unlooked for quarter.
+
+The Indian wives of the trappers were often in great peril, as well as
+their lords. Whenever it was convenient they followed them on their long
+marches through dangerous countries. But if the trapper was only going
+out for a few days, or if the march before him was more than usually
+dangerous, the wife remained with the main camp.
+
+During this year of which we are writing, a considerable party had been
+out on Powder River hunting buffalo, taking their wives along with them.
+When on the return, just before reaching camp, Umentucken was missed
+from the cavalcade. She had fallen behind, and been taken prisoner by a
+party of twelve Crow Indians. As soon as she was missed, a volunteer
+party mounted their buffalo horses in such haste that they waited not
+for saddle or bridle, but snatched only a halter, and started back in
+pursuit. They had not run a very long distance when they discovered poor
+Umentucken in the midst of her jubilant captors, who were delighting
+their eyes with gazing at her fine feathers, and promising themselves
+very soon to pluck the gay bird, and appropriate her trinkets to their
+own use.
+
+Their delight was premature. Swift on their heels came an avenging, as
+well as a saving spirit. Meek, at the head of his six comrades, no
+sooner espied the drooping form of the Lamb, than he urged his horse to
+the top of its speed. The horse was a spirited creature, that seeing
+something wrong in all these hasty maneuvers, took fright and adding
+terror to good will, ran with the speed of madness right in amongst the
+startled Crows, who doubtless regarded as a great "medicine" so fearless
+a warrior. It was now too late to be prudent, and Meek began the battle
+by yelling and firing, taking care to hit his Indian. The other
+trappers, emulating the bold example of their leader, dashed into the
+melee and a chance medley fight was carried on, in which Umentucken
+escaped, and another Crow bit the dust. Finding that they were getting
+the worst of the fight, the Indians at length took to flight, and the
+trappers returned to camp rejoicing, and complimenting Meek on his
+gallantry in attacking the Crows single-handed.
+
+"I took their compliments quite naturally," says Meek, "nor did I think
+it war worth while to explain to them that I couldn't hold my horse."
+
+The Indians are lordly and tyrannical in their treatment of women,
+thinking it no shame to beat them cruelly; even taking the liberty of
+striking other women than those belonging to their own families. While
+the camp was traveling through the Crow country in the spring of 1836, a
+party of that nation paid a visit to Bridger, bringing skins to trade
+for blankets and ammunition. The bargaining went on quite pleasantly for
+some time; but one of the braves who was promenading about camp
+inspecting whatever came in his way, chanced to strike Umentucken with a
+whip he carried in his hand, by way of displaying his superiority to
+squaws in general, and trappers' wives in particular. It was an unlucky
+blow for the brave, for in another instant he rolled on the ground, shot
+dead by a bullet from Meek's gun.
+
+At this rash act the camp was in confusion. Yells from the Crows, who
+took the act as a signal for war; hasty questions, and cries of command;
+arming and shooting. It was some time before the case could be explained
+or understood. The Crows had two or three of their party shot; the
+whites also lost a man. After the unpremeditated fight was over, and the
+Crows departed not thoroughly satisfied with the explanation, Bridger
+went round to Meek's lodge.
+
+"Well, you raised a hell of a row in camp;" said the commander, rolling
+out his deep bass voice in the slow monotonous tones which mountain men
+very quickly acquire from the Indians.
+
+"Very sorry, Bridger; but couldn't help it. No devil of an Indian shall
+strike Meek's wife."
+
+"But you got a man killed."
+
+"Sorry for the man; couldn't help it, though, Bridger."
+
+And in truth it was too late to mend the matter. Fearing, however, that
+the Crows would attempt to avenge themselves for the losses they had
+sustained, Bridger hurried his camp forward, and got out of their
+neighborhood as quickly as possible.
+
+So much for the female element in the camp of the Rocky Mountain
+trapper. Woman, it is said, has held the apple of discord, from mother
+Eve to Umentucken, and in consonance with this theory, Bridger,
+doubtless, considered the latter as the primal cause of the unfortunate
+"row in camp," rather than the brutality of the Crow, or the imprudence
+of Meek.
+
+But Umentucken's career was nearly run. In the following summer she met
+her death by a Bannack arrow; dying like a warrior, although living she
+was only a woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+1835. The rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Company seldom took place
+without combining with its many wild elements, some other more civilized
+and refined. Artists, botanists, travelers, and hunters, from the busy
+world outside the wilderness, frequently claimed the companionship, if
+not the hospitality of the fur companies, in their wanderings over
+prairies and among mountains. Up to the year 1835, these visitors had
+been of the classes just named; men traveling either for the love of
+adventure, to prosecute discoveries in science, or to add to art the
+treasure of new scenes and subjects.
+
+But in this year there appeared at rendezvous two gentlemen, who had
+accompanied the St. Louis Company in its outward trip to the mountains,
+whose object was not the procurement of pleasure, or the improvement of
+science. They had come to found missions among the Indians; the Rev.
+Samuel Parker and Rev. Dr. Marcus Whitman; the first a scholarly and
+fastidious man, and the other possessing all the boldness, energy, and
+contempt of fastidiousness, which would have made him as good a mountain
+leader, as he was an energetic servant of the American Board of Foreign
+Missions.
+
+The cause which had brought these gentlemen to the wilderness was a
+little incident connected with the fur trade. Four Flathead Indians, in
+the year 1832, having heard enough of the Christian religion, from the
+few devout men connected with the fur companies, to desire to know
+more, performed a winter journey to St. Louis, and there made inquiry
+about the white man's religion. This incident, which to any one
+acquainted with Indian character, would appear a very natural one, when
+it became known to Christian churches in the United States, excited a
+very lively interest, and seemed to call upon them like a voice out of
+heaven, to fly to the rescue of perishing heathen souls. The Methodist
+Church was the first to respond. When Wyeth returned to the mountains in
+1834, four missionaries accompanied him, destined for the valley of the
+Wallamet River in Oregon. In the following year, the Presbyterian Church
+sent out its agents, the two gentlemen above mentioned; one of whom, Dr.
+Whitman, subsequently located near Fort Walla-Walla.
+
+The account given by Capt. Bonneville of the Flatheads and Nez Perces,
+as he found them in 1832, before missionary labor had been among them,
+throws some light on the incident of the journey to St. Louis, which so
+touched the Christian heart in the United States. After relating his
+surprise at finding that the Nez Perces observed certain sacred days, he
+continues: "A few days afterwards, four of them signified that they were
+about to hunt. 'What!' exclaimed the captain, 'without guns or arrows;
+and with only one old spear? What do you expect to kill?' They smiled
+among themselves, but made no answer. Preparatory to the chase, they
+performed some religious rites, and offered up to the Great Spirit a few
+short prayers for safety and success; then having received the blessing
+of their wives, they leaped upon their horses and departed, leaving the
+whole party of Christian spectators amazed and rebuked by this lesson of
+faith and dependence on a supreme and benevolent Being. Accustomed as I
+had heretofore been to find the wretched Indian reveling in blood, and
+stained by every vice which can degrade human nature, I could scarcely
+realize the scene which I had witnessed. Wonder at such unaffected
+tenderness and piety, where it was least to have been sought, contended
+in all our bosoms with shame and confusion, at receiving such pure and
+wholesome instructions from creatures so far below us in all the arts
+and comforts of life.
+
+"Simply to call these people religious," continued Bonneville, "would
+convey but a faint idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which
+pervades their whole conduct. Their honesty is immaculate, and their
+purity of purpose, and their observance of the rites of their religion,
+are most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more like a nation
+of saints than a horde of savages."
+
+This was a very enthusiastic view to take of the Nez Perce character,
+which appeared all the brighter to the Captain, by contrast with the
+savage life which he had witnessed in other places, and even by contrast
+with the conduct of the white trappers. But the Nez Perces and Flatheads
+were, intellectually and morally, an exception to all the Indian tribes
+west of the Missouri River. Lewis and Clarke found them different from
+any others; the fur-traders and the missionaries found them different;
+and they remain at this day an honorable example, for probity and piety,
+to both savage and civilized peoples.
+
+To account for this superiority is indeed difficult. The only clue to
+the cause is in the following statement of Bonneville's. "It would
+appear," he says, "that they had imbibed some notions of the Christian
+faith from Catholic missionaries and traders who had been among them.
+They even had a rude calender of the fasts and festivals of the Romish
+Church, and some traces of its ceremonials. These have become blended
+with their own wild rites, and present a strange medley, civilized and
+barbarous."
+
+Finding that these people among whom he was thrown exhibited such
+remarkable traits of character, Captain Bonneville exerted himself to
+make them acquainted with the history and spirit of Christianity. To
+these explanations they listened with great eagerness. "Many a time," he
+says, "was my little lodge thronged, or rather piled with hearers, for
+they lay on the ground, one leaning over the other, until there was no
+further room, all listening with greedy ears to the wonders which the
+Great Spirit had revealed to the white man. No other subject gave them
+half the satisfaction, or commanded half the attention; and but few
+scenes of my life remain so freshly on my memory, or are so pleasurably
+recalled to my contemplation, as these hours of intercourse with a
+distant and benighted race in the midst of the desert."
+
+It was the interest awakened by these discourses of Captain Bonneville,
+and possibly by Smith, and other traders who happened to fall in with
+the Nez Perces and Flatheads, that stimulated those four Flatheads to
+undertake the journey to St. Louis in search of information; and this it
+was which resulted in the establishment of missions, both in western
+Oregon, and among the tribes inhabiting the country between the two
+great branches of the Columbia.
+
+The trait of Indian character which Bonneville, in his pleased surprise
+at the apparent piety of the Nez Perces and Flatheads, failed to
+observe, and which the missionaries themselves for a long time remained
+oblivious to, was the material nature of their religious views. The
+Indian judges of all things by the material results. If he is possessed
+of a good natural intelligence and powers of observation, he soon
+discovers that the God of the Indian is but a feeble deity; for does he
+not permit the Indian to be defeated in war; to starve, and to freeze?
+Do not the Indian medicine men often fail to save life, to win battles,
+to curse their enemies? The Indian's God, he argues, must be a good deal
+of a humbug. He sees the white men faring much better. They have guns,
+ammunition, blankets, knives, everything in plenty; and they are
+successful in war; are skillful in a thousand things the Indian knows
+nothing of. To be so blest implies a very wise and powerful Deity. To
+gain all these things they are eager to learn about the white man's God;
+are willing to do whatever is necessary to please and propitiate Him.
+Hence their attentiveness to the white man's discourse about his
+religion. Naturally enough they were struck with wonder at the doctrine
+of peace and good will; a doctrine so different from the law of blood by
+which the Indian, in his natural state, lives. Yet if it is good for the
+white men, it must be good for him; at all events he is anxious to try
+it.
+
+That is the course of reasoning by which an Indian is led to inquire
+into Christianity. It is a desire to better his physical, rather than
+his spiritual condition; for of the latter he has but a very faint
+conception. He was accustomed to desire a material Heaven, such a world
+beyond the grave, as he could only imagine from his earthly experience.
+Heaven was happiness, and happiness was plenty; therefore the most a
+good Indian could desire was to go where there should forevermore be
+plenty.
+
+Such was the Indian's view of religion, and it could be no other. Until
+the wants of the body have been supplied by civilization, the wants of
+the soul do not develop themselves: and until then the savage is not
+prepared to understand Christianity. This is the law of Nature and of
+God. Primeval man was a savage; and it was little by little, through
+thousands of years, that Christ was revealed. Every child born, even
+now, is a savage, and has to be taught civilization year after year,
+until he arrives at the possibility of comprehending spiritual religion.
+So every full grown barbarian is a child in moral development; and to
+expect him to comprehend those mysteries over which the world has
+agonized for centuries, is to commit the gravest error. Into this error
+fell all the missionaries who came to the wilds that lay beyond the
+Rocky Mountains. They undertook to teach religion first, and more simple
+matters afterward--building their edifice like the Irishman's chimney,
+by holding up the top brick, and putting the others under it. Failure
+was the result of such a process, as the record of the Oregon Missions
+sufficiently proves.
+
+The reader will pardon this digression--made necessary by the part which
+one of the gentlemen present at this year's rendezvous, was destined to
+take in the history which we are writing. Shortly after the arrival of
+Messrs. Parker and Whitman, rendezvous broke up. A party, to which Meek
+was attached, moved in the direction of the Snake River head-waters, the
+missionaries accompanying them, and after making two camps, came on
+Saturday eve to Jackson's Little Hole, a small mountain valley near the
+larger one commonly known as Jackson's Hole.
+
+On the following day religious services were held in the Rocky Mountain
+Camp. A scene more unusual could hardly have transpired than that of a
+company of trappers listening to the preaching of the Word of God. Very
+little pious reverence marked the countenances of that wild and motley
+congregation. Curiosity, incredulity, sarcasm, or a mocking levity, were
+more plainly perceptible in the expression of the men's faces, than
+either devotion or the longing expectancy of men habitually deprived of
+what they once highly valued. The Indians alone showed by their eager
+listening that they desired to become acquainted with the mystery of the
+"Unknown God."
+
+The Rev. Samuel Parker preached, and the men were as politely attentive
+as it was in their reckless natures to be, until, in the midst of the
+discourse, a band of buffalo appeared in the valley, when the
+congregation incontinently broke up, without staying for a benediction,
+and every man made haste after his horse, gun, and rope, leaving Mr.
+Parker to discourse to vacant ground.
+
+The run was both exciting and successful. About twenty fine buffaloes
+were killed, and the choice pieces brought to camp, cooked and eaten,
+amidst the merriment, mixed with something coarser, of the hunters. On
+this noisy rejoicing Mr. Parker looked with a sober aspect: and
+following the dictates of his religious feeling, he rebuked the
+sabbath-breakers quite severely. Better for his influence among the men,
+if he had not done so, or had not eaten so heartily of the tender-loin
+afterwards, a circumstance which his irreverent critics did not fail to
+remark, to his prejudice; and upon the principle that the "partaker is
+as bad as the thief," they set down his lecture on sabbath-breaking as
+nothing better than pious humbug.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER.]
+
+Dr. Marcus Whitman was another style of man. Whatever he thought of the
+wild ways of the mountain-men he discreetly kept to himself, preferring
+to teach by example rather than precept; and showing no fastidious
+contempt for any sort of rough duty he might be called upon to perform.
+So aptly indeed had he turned his hand to all manner of camp service on
+the journey to the mountains, that this abrogation of clerical dignity
+had become a source of solicitude, not to say disapproval and
+displeasure on the part of his colleague; and it was agreed between
+them that the Doctor should return to the states with the St. Louis
+Company, to procure recruits for the promising field of labor which they
+saw before them, while Mr. Parker continued his journey to the Columbia
+to decide upon the location of the missionary stations. The difference
+of character of the two men was clearly illustrated by the results of
+this understanding. Parker went to Vancouver, where he was hospitably
+entertained, and where he could inquire into the workings of the
+missionary system as pursued by the Methodist missionaries. His
+investigations not proving the labor to his taste, he sailed the
+following summer for the Sandwich Islands, and thence to New York;
+leaving only a brief note for Doctor Whitman, when he, with
+indefatigable exertions, arrived that season among the Nez Perces with a
+missionary company, eager for the work which they hoped to make as great
+as they believed it to be good.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+From the mountains about the head-waters of the Snake River, Meek
+returned, with Bridger's brigade to the Yellowstone country, where he
+fell into the hands of the Crows. The story as he relates it, is as
+follows:
+
+"I war trapping on the Rocky Fork of the Yellowstone. I had been out
+from camp five days; and war solitary and alone, when I war discovered
+by a war party of Crows. They had the prairie, and I war forced to run
+for the Creek bottom; but the beaver had throwed the water out and made
+dams, so that my mule mired down. While I war struggling in the marsh,
+the Indians came after me, with tremendous yells; firing a random shot
+now and then, as they closed in on me.
+
+"When they war within about two rods of me, I brought old _Sally_, that
+is my gun, to my face, ready to fire, and then die; for I knew it war
+death this time, unless Providence interfered to save me: and I didn't
+think Providence would do it. But the head chief, when he saw the
+warlike looks of _Sally_, called out to me to put down my gun, and I
+should live.
+
+"Well, I liked to live,--being then in the prime of life; and though it
+hurt me powerful, I resolved to part with _Sally_. I laid her down. As I
+did so, the chief picked her up, and one of the braves sprang at me with
+a spear, and would have run me through, but the chief knocked him down
+with the butt of my gun. Then they led me forth to the high plain on the
+south side of the stream. There they called a halt, and I was given in
+charge of three women, while the warriors formed a ring to smoke and
+consult. This gave me an opportunity to count them: they numbered one
+hundred and eighty-seven men, nine boys, and three women.
+
+"After a smoke of three long hours, the chief, who war named 'The Bold,'
+called me in the ring, and said:
+
+"'I have known the whites for a long time, and I know them to be great
+liars, deserving death; but if _you_ will tell the truth, you shall
+live.'
+
+"Then I thought to myself, they will fetch the truth out of me, if thar
+is any in me. But his highness continued:
+
+"'Tell me whar are the whites you belong to; and what is your captain's
+name.'
+
+"I said 'Bridger is my captain's name; or, in the Crow tongue,
+_Casapy_,' the 'Blanket chief.' At this answer the chief seemed lost in
+thought. At last he asked me--
+
+"'How many men has he?'
+
+"I thought about telling the truth and living; but I said 'forty,' which
+war a tremendous lie; for thar war two hundred and forty. At this answer
+The Bold laughed:
+
+"'We will make them poor,' said he; 'and you shall live, but they shall
+die.'
+
+"I thought to myself, 'hardly;' but I said nothing. He then asked me
+whar I war to meet the camp, and I told him:--and then how many days
+before the camp would be thar; which I answered truly, for I wanted them
+to find the camp.
+
+"It war now late in the afternoon, and thar war a great bustle, getting
+ready for the march to meet Bridger. Two big Indians mounted my mule,
+but the women made me pack moccasins. The spies started first, and after
+awhile the main party. Seventy warriors traveled ahead of me: I war
+placed with the women and boys; and after us the balance of the braves.
+As we traveled along, the women would prod me with sticks, and laugh,
+and say 'Masta Sheela,' (which means white man,) 'Masta sheela very poor
+now.' The fair sex war very much amused.
+
+"We traveled that way till midnight, the two big bucks riding my mule,
+and I packing moccasins. Then we camped; the Indians in a ring, with me
+in the centre, to keep me safe. I didn't sleep very well that night. I'd
+a heap rather been in some other place.
+
+"The next morning we started on in the same order as before: and the
+squaws making fun of me all day; but I kept mighty quiet. When we
+stopped to cook that evening, I war set to work, and war head cook, and
+head waiter too. The third and the fourth day it war the same. I felt
+pretty bad when we struck camp on the last day: for I knew we must be
+coming near to Bridger, and that if any thing should go wrong, my life
+would pay the forfeit.
+
+"On the afternoon of the fourth day, the spies, who war in advance,
+looking out from a high hill, made a sign to the main party. In a moment
+all sat down. Directly they got another sign, and then they got up and
+moved on. I war as well up in Indian signs as they war; and I knew they
+had discovered white men. What war worse, I knew they would soon
+discover that I had been lying to them. All I had to do then war to
+trust to luck. Soon we came to the top of the hill, which overlooked the
+Yellowstone, from which I could see the plains below extending as far as
+the eye could reach, and about three miles off, the camp of my friends.
+My heart beat double quick about that time; and I once in a while put my
+hand to my head, to feel if my scalp war thar.
+
+"While I war watching our camp, I discovered that the horse guard had
+seen us, for I knew the sign he would make if he discovered Indians. I
+thought the camp a splendid sight that evening. It made a powerful show
+to me, who did not expect ever to see it after that day. And it _war_ a
+fine sight any how, from the hill whar I stood. About two hundred and
+fifty men, and women and children in great numbers, and about a thousand
+horses and mules. Then the beautiful plain, and the sinking sun; and the
+herds of buffalo that could not be numbered; and the cedar hills,
+covered with elk,--I never saw so fine a sight as all that looked to me
+then!
+
+"When I turned my eyes on that savage Crow band, and saw the chief
+standing with his hand on his mouth, lost in amazement; and beheld the
+warriors' tomahawks and spears glittering in the sun, my heart war very
+little. Directly the chief turned to me with a horrible scowl. Said he:
+
+"'I promised that you should live if you told the truth; but you have
+told me a great lie.'
+
+"Then the warriors gathered around, with their tomahawks in their hands;
+but I war showing off very brave, and kept my eyes fixed on the
+horse-guard who war approaching the hill to drive in the horses. This
+drew the attention of the chief, and the warriors too. Seeing that the
+guard war within about two hundred yards of us, the chief turned to me
+and ordered me to tell him to come up. I pretended to do what he said;
+but instead of that I howled out to him to stay off, or he would be
+killed; and to tell Bridger to try to treat with them, and get me away.
+
+"As quick as he could he ran to camp, and in a few minutes Bridger
+appeared, on his large white horse. He came up to within three hundred
+yards of us, and called out to me, asking who the Indians war. I
+answered 'Crows.' He then told me to say to the chief he wished him to
+send one of his sub-chiefs to smoke with him.
+
+"All this time my heart beat terribly hard. I don't know now why they
+didn't kill me at once; but the head chief seemed overcome with
+surprise. When I repeated to him what Bridger said, he reflected a
+moment, and then ordered the second chief, called Little-Gun, to go and
+smoke with Bridger. But they kept on preparing for war; getting on their
+paint and feathers, arranging their scalp locks, selecting their arrows,
+and getting their ammunition ready.
+
+"While this war going on, Little-Gun had approached to within about a
+hundred yards of Bridger; when, according to the Crow laws of war, each
+war forced to strip himself, and proceed the remaining distance in a
+state of nudity, and kiss and embrace. While this interesting ceremony
+war being performed, five of Bridger's men had followed him, keeping in
+a ravine until they got within shooting distance, when they showed
+themselves, and cut off the return of Little-Gun, thus making a prisoner
+of him.
+
+"If you think my heart did not jump up when I saw that, you think wrong.
+I knew it war kill or cure, now. Every Indian snatched a weapon, and
+fierce threats war howled against me. But all at once about a hundred of
+our trappers appeared on the scene. At the same time Bridger called to
+me, to tell me to propose to the chief to exchange me for Little-Gun. I
+explained to The Bold what Bridger wanted to do, and he sullenly
+consented: for, he said, he could not afford to give a chief for one
+white dog's scalp. I war then allowed to go towards my camp, and
+Little-Gun towards his; and the rescue I hardly hoped for war
+accomplished.
+
+"In the evening the chief, with forty of his braves, visited Bridger
+and made a treaty of three months. They said they war formerly at war
+with the whites; but that they desired to be friendly with them now, so
+that together they might fight the Blackfeet, who war everybody's
+enemies. As for me, they returned me my mule, gun, and beaver packs, and
+said my name should be _Shiam Shaspusia_, for I could out-lie the
+Crows."
+
+In December, Bridger's command went into winter quarters in the bend of
+the Yellowstone. Buffalo, elk, and bear were in great abundance, all
+that fall and winter. Before they went to camp, Meek, Kit Carson,
+Hawkins, and Doughty were trapping together on the Yellowstone, about
+sixty miles below. They had made their temporary camp in the ruins of an
+old fort, the walls of which were about six feet high. One evening,
+after coming in from setting their traps, they discovered three large
+grizzly bears in the river bottom, not more than half a mile off, and
+Hawkins went out to shoot one. He was successful in killing one at the
+first shot, when the other two, taking fright, ran towards the fort. As
+they came near enough to show that they were likely to invade camp, Meek
+and Carson, not caring to have a bear fight, clambered up a cotton-wood
+tree close by, at the same time advising Doughty to do the same. But
+Doughty was tired, and lazy besides, and concluded to take his chances
+where he was; so he rolled himself in his blanket and laid quite still.
+The bears, on making the fort, reared up on their hind legs and looked
+in as if meditating taking it for a defence.
+
+The sight of Doughty lying rolled in his blanket, and the monster
+grizzlys inspecting the fort, caused the two trappers who were safely
+perched in the cotton-wood to make merry at Doughty's expense; saying
+all the mirth-provoking things they could, and then advising him not to
+laugh, for fear the bears should seize him. Poor Doughty, agonizing
+between suppressed laughter and growing fear, contrived to lie still
+however, while the bears gazed upward at the speakers in wonder, and
+alternately at the suspicious looking bundle inside the fort. Not being
+able to make out the meaning of either, they gave at last a grunt of
+dissatisfaction, and ran off into a thicket to consult over these
+strange appearances; leaving the trappers to enjoy the incident as a
+very good joke. For a long time after, Doughty was reminded how close to
+the ground he laid, when the grizzlys paid their compliments to him.
+Such were the every day incidents from which the mountain-men contrived
+to derive their rude jests, and laughter-provoking reminiscences.
+
+A few days after this incident, while the same party were trapping a few
+miles farther down the river, on their way to camp, they fell in with
+some Delaware Indians, who said they had discovered signs of Blackfeet,
+and wanted to borrow some horses to decoy them. To this the trappers
+very willingly agreed, and they were furnished with two horses. The
+Delawares then went to the spot where signs had been discovered, and
+tying the horses, laid flat down on the ground near them, concealed by
+the grass or willows. They had not long to wait before a Blackfoot was
+seen stealthily advancing through the thicket, confident in the belief
+that he should gain a couple of horses while their supposed owners were
+busy with their traps.
+
+But just as he laid his hand on the bridle of the first one, crack went
+the rifles of the Delawares, and there was one less Blackfoot thief on
+the scent after trappers. As soon as they could, after this, the party
+mounted and rode to camp, not stopping by the way, lest the main body of
+Blackfeet should discover the deed and seek for vengeance. Truly
+indeed, was the Blackfoot the Ishmael of the wilderness, whose hand was
+against every man, and every man's hand against him.
+
+The Rocky Mountain Company passed the first part of the winter in peace
+and plenty in the Yellowstone camp, unannoyed either by enemies or
+rivals. Hunting buffalo, feeding their horses, playing games, and
+telling stories, occupied the entire leisure of these months of repose.
+Not only did the mountain-men recount their own adventures, but when
+these were exhausted, those whose memories served them rehearsed the
+tales they had read in their youth. Robinson Crusoe and the Arabian
+Nights Entertainment, were read over again by the light of memory; and
+even Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was made to recite like a sensation
+novel, and was quite as well enjoyed.
+
+1836. In January, however, this repose was broken in upon by a visit
+from the Blackfeet. As their visitations were never of a friendly
+character, so then they were not bent upon pacific rites and ceremonies,
+such as all the rest of the world find pleasure in, but came in full
+battle array to try their fortunes in war against the big camp of the
+whites. They had evidently made great preparation. Their warriors
+numbered eleven hundred, got up in the top of the Blackfoot fashions,
+and armed with all manner of savage and some civilized weapons. But
+Bridger was prepared for them, although their numbers were so
+overwhelming. He built a fort, had the animals corraled, and put himself
+on the defensive in a prompt and thorough manner. This made the
+Blackfeet cautious; they too built forts of cotton-wood in the shape of
+lodges, ten men to each fort, and carried on a skirmishing fight for two
+days, when finding there was nothing to be gained, they departed,
+neither side having sustained much loss; the whites losing only two men
+by this grand Blackfoot army.
+
+Soon after this attack Bridger broke camp, and traveled up the
+Yellowstone, through the Crow country. It was while on this march that
+Umentucken was struck by a Crow, and Meek put the whole camp in peril,
+by shooting him. They passed on to the Big Horn and Little Horn rivers,
+down through the Wind River valley and through the South Pass to Green
+River.
+
+While in that country, there occurred the fight with the Bannacks in
+which Umentucken was killed. A small party of Nez Perces had lost their
+horses by the thieving of the Bannacks. They came into camp and
+complained to the whites, who promised them their protection, should
+they be able to recover their horses. Accordingly the Nez Perces started
+after the thieves, and by dogging their camp, succeeded in re-capturing
+their horses and getting back to Bridger's camp with them. In order to
+divert the vengeance of the Bannacks from themselves, they presented
+their horses to the whites, and a very fine one to Bridger.
+
+All went well for a time. The Bannacks went on their way to hunt
+buffalo; but they treasured up their wrath against the supposed white
+thieves who had stolen the horses which they had come by so honestly. On
+their return from the hunt, having learned by spies that the horses were
+in the camp of the whites, they prepared for war. Early one morning they
+made their appearance mounted and armed, and making a dash at the camp,
+rode through it with the usual yells and frantic gestures. The attack
+was entirely unexpected. Bridger stood in front of his lodge, holding
+his horse by a lasso, and the head chief rode over it, jerking it out of
+his hand. At this unprecedented insult to his master, a negro named Jim,
+cook to the Booshways, seized a rifle and shot the chief dead. At the
+same time, an arrow shot at random struck Umentucken in the breast, and
+the joys and sorrows of the Mountain Lamb were over forevermore.
+
+The killing of a head chief always throws an Indian war party into
+confusion, and negro Jim was greatly elated at this signal feat of his.
+The trappers, who were as much surprised at the suddenness of the
+assault as it is in the mountain-man's nature to be, quickly recovered
+themselves. In a few moments the men were mounted and in motion, and the
+disordered Bannacks were obliged to fly towards their village, Bridger's
+company pursuing them.
+
+All the rest of that day the trappers fought the Bannacks, driving them
+out of their village and plundering it, and forcing them to take refuge
+on an island in the river. Even there they were not safe, the guns of
+the mountain-men picking them off, from their stations on the river
+banks. Umentucken was well avenged that day.
+
+All night the Indians remained on the island, where sounds of wailing
+were heard continually; and when morning came one of their old women
+appeared bearing the pipe of peace. "You have killed all our warriors,"
+she said; "do you now want to kill the women? If you wish to smoke with
+women, I have the pipe."
+
+Not caring either to fight or to smoke with so feeble a representative
+of the Bannacks, the trappers withdrew. But it was the last war party
+that nation ever sent against the mountain-men; though in later times
+they have by their atrocities avenged the losses of that day.
+
+While awaiting, in the Green River valley, the arrival of the St. Louis
+Company, the Rocky Mountain and North American companies united; after
+which Captain Sublette and his brother returned no more to the
+mountains. The new firm was known only as the American Fur Company, the
+other having dropped its title altogether. The object of their
+consolidation was by combining their capital and experience to
+strengthen their hands against the Hudson's Bay Company, which now had
+an establishment at Fort Hall, on the Snake River. By this new
+arrangement, Bridger and Fontenelle commanded; and Dripps was to be the
+traveling partner who was to go to St. Louis for goods.
+
+After the conclusion of this agreement, Dripps, with the restlessness of
+the true mountain-man, decided to set out, with a small party of equally
+restless trappers, always eager to volunteer for any undertaking
+promising either danger or diversion, to look for the St. Louis Company
+which was presumed to be somewhere between the Black Hills and Green
+River. According to this determination Dripps, Meek, Carson, Newell, a
+Flathead chief named Victor, and one or two others, set out on the
+search for the expected company.
+
+It happened, however, that a war party of a hundred Crows were out on
+the trail before them, looking perhaps for the same party, and the
+trappers had not made more than one or two camps before they discovered
+signs which satisfied them of the neighborhood of an enemy. At their
+next camp on the Sandy, Meek and Carson, with the caution and vigilance
+peculiar to them, kept their saddles on their horses, and the horses
+tied to themselves by a long rope, so that on the least unusual motion
+of the animals they should be readily informed of the disturbance. Their
+precaution was not lost. Just after midnight had given place to the
+first faint kindling of dawn, their ears were stunned by the
+simultaneous discharge of a hundred guns, and the usual furious din of
+the war-whoop and yell. A stampede immediately took place of all the
+horses excepting those of Meek and Carson. "Every man for himself and
+God for us all," is the motto of the mountain-man in case of an Indian
+attack; nor did our trappers forget it on this occasion. Quickly
+mounting, they put their horses to their speed, which was not checked
+until they had left the Sandy far behind them. Continuing on in the
+direction of the proposed meeting with the St. Louis Company, they made
+their first camp on the Sweetwater, where they fell in with Victor, the
+Flathead chief, who had made his way on foot to this place. One or two
+others came into camp that night, and the following day this portion of
+the party traveled on in company until within about five miles of
+Independence Rock, when they were once more charged on by the Indians,
+who surrounded them in such a manner that they were obliged to turn back
+to escape.
+
+Again Meek and Carson made off, leaving their dismounted comrades to
+their own best devices. Finding that with so many Indians on the trail,
+and only two horses, there was little hope of being able to accomplish
+their journey, these two lucky ones made all haste back to camp. On
+Horse Creek, a few hours travel from rendezvous, they came up with
+Newell, who after losing his horse had fled in the direction of the main
+camp, but becoming bewildered had been roaming about until he was quite
+tired out, and on the point of giving up. But as if the Creek where he
+was found meant to justify itself for having so inharmonious a name, one
+of their own horses, which had escaped from the Crows was found quietly
+grazing on its banks, and the worn out fugitive at once remounted.
+Strange as it may appear, not one of the party was killed, the others
+returning to camp two days later than Meek and Carson, the worse for
+their expedition only by the loss of their horses, and rather an
+unusually fatigued and forlorn aspect.
+
+[Illustration: "INDIANS BY JOVE!"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+1836. While the resident partners of the consolidated company waited at
+the rendezvous for the arrival of the supply trains from St. Louis, word
+came by a messenger sent forward, that the American Company under
+Fitzpatrick, had reached Independence Rock, and was pressing forward.
+The messenger also brought the intelligence that two other parties were
+traveling in company with the fur company; that of Captain Stuart, who
+had been to New Orleans to winter, and that of Doctor Whitman, one of
+the missionaries who had visited the mountains the year previous. In
+this latter party, it was asserted, there were two white ladies.
+
+This exhilarating news immediately inspired some of the trappers,
+foremost among whom was Meek, with a desire to be the first to meet and
+greet the on-coming caravan; and especially to salute the two white
+women who were bold enough to invade a mountain camp. In a very short
+time Meek, with half-a-dozen comrades, and ten or a dozen Nez Perces,
+were mounted and away, on their self-imposed errand of welcome; the
+trappers because they were "spoiling" for a fresh excitement; and the
+Nez Perces because the missionaries were bringing them information
+concerning the powerful and beneficent Deity of the white men. These
+latter also were charged with a letter to Doctor Whitman from his former
+associate, Mr. Parker.
+
+On the Sweetwater about two days' travel from camp the caravan of the
+advancing company was discovered, and the trappers prepared to give them
+a characteristic greeting. To prevent mistakes in recognizing them, a
+white flag was hoisted on one of their guns, and the word was given to
+start. Then over the brow of a hill they made their appearance, riding
+with that mad speed only an Indian or a trapper can ride, yelling,
+whooping, dashing forward with frantic and threatening gestures; their
+dress, noises, and motions, all so completely savage that the white men
+could not have been distinguished from the red.
+
+The first effect of their onset was what they probably intended. The
+uninitiated travelers, including the missionaries, believing they were
+about to be attacked by Indians, prepared for defence, nor could be
+persuaded that the preparation was unnecessary until the guide pointed
+out to them the white flag in advance. At the assurance that the flag
+betokened friends, apprehension was changed to curiosity and intense
+interest. Every movement of the wild brigade became fascinating. On they
+came, riding faster and faster, yelling louder and louder, and
+gesticulating more and more madly, until, as they met and passed the
+caravan, they discharged their guns in one volley over the heads of the
+company, as a last finishing _feu de joie_; and suddenly wheeling rode
+back to the front as wildly as they had come. Nor could this first brief
+display content the crazy cavalcade. After reaching the front, they rode
+back and forth, and around and around the caravan, which had returned
+their salute, showing off their feats of horsemanship, and the knowing
+tricks of their horses together; hardly stopping to exchange questions
+and answers, but seeming really intoxicated with delight at the meeting.
+What strange emotions filled the breasts of the lady missionaries, when
+they beheld among whom their lot was cast, may now be faintly outlined
+by a vivid imagination, but have never been, perhaps never could be put
+into words.
+
+The caravan on leaving the settlements had consisted of nineteen laden
+carts, each drawn by two mules driven tandem, and one light wagon,
+belonging to the American Company; two wagons with two mules to each,
+belonging to Capt. Stuart; and one light two-horse wagon, and one
+four-horse freight wagon, belonging to the missionaries. However, all
+the wagons had been left behind at Fort Laramie, except those of the
+missionaries, and one of Capt. Stuart's; so that the three that remained
+in the train when it reached the Sweetwater were alone in the enjoyment
+of the Nez Perces' curiosity concerning them; a curiosity which they
+divided between them and the domesticated cows and calves belonging to
+the missionaries: another proof, as they considered it, of the superior
+power of the white man's God, who could give to the whites the ability
+to tame wild animals to their uses.
+
+But it was towards the two missionary ladies, Mrs. Whitman and Mrs.
+Spalding, that the chief interest was directed; an interest that was
+founded in the Indian mind upon wonder, admiration, and awe; and in the
+minds of the trappers upon the powerful recollections awakened by seeing
+in their midst two refined Christian women, with the complexion and
+dress of their own mothers and sisters. United to this startling effect
+of memory, was respect for the religious devotion which had inspired
+them to undertake the long and dangerous journey to the Rocky Mountains,
+and also a sentiment of pity for what they knew only too well yet
+remained to be encountered by those delicate women in the prosecution of
+their duty.
+
+Mrs. Whitman, who was in fine health, rode the greater part of the
+journey on horseback. She was a large, stately, fair-skinned woman,
+with blue eyes and light auburn, almost golden hair. Her manners were at
+once dignified and gracious. She was, both by nature and education a
+lady; and had a lady's appreciation of all that was courteous and
+refined; yet not without an element of romance and heroism in her
+disposition strong enough to have impelled her to undertake a
+missionary's life in the wilderness.
+
+Mrs. Spalding was a different type of woman. Talented, and refined in
+her nature, she was less pleasing in exterior, and less attached to that
+which was superficially pleasing in others. But an indifference to
+outside appearances was in her case only a sign of her absorption in the
+work she had taken in hand. She possessed the true missionary spirit,
+and the talent to make it useful in an eminent degree; never thinking of
+herself, or the impression she made upon others; yet withal very firm
+and capable of command. Her health, which was always rather delicate,
+had suffered much from the fatigue of the journey, and the constant diet
+of fresh meat, and meat only, so that she was compelled at last to
+abandon horseback exercise, and to keep almost entirely to the light
+wagon of the missionaries.
+
+As might be expected, the trappers turned from the contemplation of the
+pale, dark-haired occupant of the wagon, with all her humility and
+gentleness, to observe and admire the more striking figure, and more
+affably attractive manners of Mrs. Whitman. Meek, who never lost an
+opportunity to see and be seen, was seen riding alongside Mrs. Whitman,
+answering her curious inquiries, and entertaining her with stories of
+Blackfeet battles, and encounters with grizzly bears. Poor lady! could
+she have looked into the future about which she was then so curious, she
+would have turned back appalled, and have fled with frantic fear to the
+home of her grieving parents. How could she then behold in the gay and
+boastful mountaineer, whose peculiarities of dress and speech so much
+diverted her, the very messenger who was to bear to the home of her
+girlhood the sickening tale of her bloody sacrifice to savage
+superstition and revenge? Yet so had fate decreed it.
+
+When the trappers and Nez Perces had slaked their thirst for excitement
+by a few hours' travel in company with the Fur Company's and
+Missionary's caravan, they gave at length a parting display of
+horsemanship, and dashed off on the return trail to carry to camp the
+earliest news. It was on their arrival in camp that the Nez Perce and
+Flathead village, which had its encampment at the rendezvous ground on
+Green River, began to make preparations for the reception of the
+missionaries. It was then that Indian finery was in requisition! Then
+the Indian women combed and braided their long black hair, tying the
+plaits with gay-colored ribbons, and the Indian braves tied anew their
+streaming scalp-locks, sticking them full of flaunting eagle's plumes,
+and not despising a bit of ribbon either. Paint was in demand both for
+the rider and his horse. Gay blankets, red and blue, buckskin fringed
+shirts, worked with beads and porcupine quills, and handsomely
+embroidered moccasins, were eagerly sought after. Guns were cleaned and
+burnished, and drums and fifes put in tune.
+
+After a day of toilsome preparation all was ready for the grand
+reception in the camp of the Nez Perces. Word was at length given that
+the caravan was in sight. There was a rush for horses, and in a few
+moments the Indians were mounted and in line, ready to charge on the
+advancing caravan. When the command of the chiefs was given to start, a
+simultaneous chorus of yells and whoops burst forth, accompanied by the
+deafening din of the war-drum, the discharge of fire-arms, and the
+clatter of the whole cavalcade, which was at once in a mad gallop toward
+the on-coming train. Nor did the yelling, whooping, drumming, and firing
+cease until within a few yards of the train.
+
+All this demoniac hub-bub was highly complimentary toward those for whom
+it was intended; but an unfortunate ignorance of Indian customs caused
+the missionaries to fail in appreciating the honor intended them.
+Instead of trying to reciprocate the noise by an attempt at imitating
+it, the missionary camp was alarmed at the first burst and at once began
+to drive in their cattle and prepare for an attack. As the missionary
+party was in the rear of the train they succeeded in getting together
+their loose stock before the Nez Perces had an opportunity of making
+themselves known, so that the leaders of the Fur Company, and Captain
+Stuart, had the pleasure of a hearty laugh at their expense, for the
+fright they had received.
+
+A general shaking of hands followed the abatement of the first surprise,
+the Indian women saluting Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding with a kiss,
+and the missionaries were escorted to their camping ground near the Nez
+Perce encampment. Here the whole village again formed in line, and a
+more formal introduction of the missionaries took place, after which
+they were permitted to go into camp.
+
+When the intention of the Indians became known, Dr. Whitman, who was the
+leader of the missionary party, was boyishly delighted with the
+reception which had been given him. His frank, hearty, hopeful nature
+augured much good from the enthusiasm of the Indians. If his estimation
+of the native virtues of the savages was much too high, he suffered with
+those whom he caused to suffer for his belief, in the years which
+followed. Peace to the ashes of a good man! And honor to his associates,
+whose hearts were in the cause they had undertaken of Christianizing
+the Indians. Two of them still live--one of whom, Mr. Spalding, has
+conscientiously labored and deeply suffered for the faith. Mr. Gray, who
+was an unmarried man, returned the following year to the States, for a
+wife, and settled for a time among the Indians, but finally abandoned
+the missionary service, and removed to the Wallamet valley. These five
+persons constituted the entire force of teachers who could be induced at
+that time to devote their lives to the instruction of the savages in the
+neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+The trappers, and gentlemen of the Fur Company and Captain Stuart, had
+been passive but interested spectators of the scene between the Indians
+and the missionaries. When the excitement had somewhat subsided, and the
+various camps had become settled in their places, the tents of the white
+ladies were besieged with visitors, both civilized and savage. These
+ladies, who were making an endeavor to acquire a knowledge of the Nez
+Perce tongue in order to commence their instructions in the language of
+the natives, could have made very little progress, had their purpose
+been less strong than it was. Mrs. Spalding perhaps succeeded better
+than Mrs. Whitman in the difficult study of the Indian dialect. She
+seemed to attract the natives about her by the ease and kindness of her
+manner, especially the native women, who, seeing she was an invalid,
+clung to her rather than to her more lofty and self-asserting associate.
+
+On the contrary, the leaders of the American Fur Company, Captain Wyeth
+and Captain Stuart, paid Mrs. Whitman the most marked and courteous
+attentions. She shone the bright particular star of that Rocky Mountain
+encampment, softening the hearts and the manners of all who came within
+her womanly influence. Not a gentleman among them but felt her silent
+command upon him to be his better self while she remained in his
+vicinity; not a trapper or camp-keeper but respected the presence of
+womanhood and piety. But while the leaders paid court to her, the
+bashful trappers contented themselves with promenading before her tent.
+Should they succeed in catching her eye, they never failed to touch
+their beaver-skin caps in their most studiously graceful manner, though
+that should prove so dubious as to bring a mischievous smile to the blue
+eyes of the observant lady.
+
+But our friend Joe Meek did not belong by nature to the bashful brigade.
+He was not content with disporting himself in his best trapper's toggery
+in front of a lady's tent. He became a not infrequent visitor, and
+amused Mrs. Whitman with the best of his mountain adventures, related in
+his soft, slow, yet smooth and firm utterance, and with many a merry
+twinkle of his mirthful dark eyes. In more serious moments he spoke to
+her of the future, and of his determination, sometime, to "settle down."
+When she inquired if he had fixed upon any spot which in his imagination
+he could regard as "home" he replied that he could not content himself
+to return to civilized life, but thought that when he gave up "bar
+fighting and Injun fighting" he should go down to the Wallamet valley
+and see what sort of life he could make of it there. How he lived up to
+this determination will be seen hereafter.
+
+The missionaries remained at the rendezvous long enough to recruit their
+own strength and that of their stock, and to restore to something like
+health the invalid Mrs. Spalding, who, on changing her diet to dried
+meat, which the resident partners were able to supply her, commenced
+rapidly to improve. Letters were written and given to Capt. Wyeth to
+carry home to the States. The Captain had completed his sale of Fort
+Hall and the goods it contained to the Hudson's Bay Company only a
+short time previous, and was now about to abandon the effort to
+establish any enterprise either on the Columbia or in the Rocky
+Mountains. He had, however, executed his threat of the year previous,
+and punished the bad faith of the Rocky Mountain Company by placing them
+in direct competition with the Hudson's Bay Company.
+
+The missionaries now prepared for their journey to the Columbia River.
+According to the advice of the mountain-men the heaviest wagon was left
+at the rendezvous, together with every heavy article that could be
+dispensed with. But Dr. Whitman refused to leave the light wagon,
+although assured he would never be able to get it to the Columbia, nor
+even to the Snake River. The good Doctor had an immense fund of
+determination when there was an object to be gained or a principle
+involved. The only persons who did not oppose wagon transportation were
+the Indians. They sympathised with his determination, and gave him their
+assistance. The evidences of a different and higher civilization than
+they had ever seen were held in great reverence by them. The wagons, the
+domestic cattle, especially the cows and calves, were always objects of
+great interest with them. Therefore they freely gave their assistance,
+and a sufficient number remained behind to help the Doctor, while the
+main party of both missionaries and Indians, having bidden the Fur
+Company and others farewell, proceeded to join the camp of two Hudson's
+Bay traders a few miles on their way.
+
+The two traders, whose camp they now joined, were named McLeod and
+McKay. The latter, Thomas McKay, was the half-breed son of that
+unfortunate McKay in Mr. Astor's service, who perished on board the
+_Tonquin_, as related in Irving's ASTORIA. He was one of the bravest and
+most skillful partisans in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company.
+McLeod had met the missionaries at the American rendezvous and invited
+them to travel in his company; an offer which they were glad to accept,
+as it secured them ample protection and other more trifling benefits,
+besides some society other than the Indians.
+
+By dint of great perseverance, Doctor Whitman contrived to keep up with
+the camp day after day, though often coming in very late and very weary,
+until the party arrived at Fort Hall. At the fort the baggage was again
+reduced as much as possible; and Doctor Whitman was compelled by the
+desertion of his teamster to take off two wheels of his wagon and
+transform it into a cart which could be more easily propelled in
+difficult places. With this he proceeded as far as the Boise River where
+the Hudson's Bay Company had a small fort or trading-post; but here
+again he was so strongly urged to relinquish the idea of taking his
+wagon to the Columbia, that after much discussion he consented to leave
+it at Fort Boise until some future time when unencumbered by goods or
+passengers he might return for it.
+
+Arrived at the crossing of the Snake River, Mrs. Whitman and Mrs.
+Spalding were treated to a new mode of ferriage, which even in their
+varied experience they had never before met with. This new ferry was
+nothing more or less than a raft made of bundles of bulrushes woven
+together by grass ropes. Upon this frail flat-boat the passengers were
+obliged to stretch themselves at length while an Indian swam across and
+drew it after him by a rope. As the waters of the Snake River are rapid
+and often "dancing mad," it is easy to conjecture that the ladies were
+ill at ease on their bulrush ferry.
+
+On went the party from the Snake River through the Grand Ronde to the
+Blue Mountains. The crossing here was somewhat difficult but
+accomplished in safety. The descent from the Blue Mountains on the west
+side gave the missionaries their first view of the country they had come
+to possess, and to civilize and Christianize. That view was beautiful
+and grand--as goodly a prospect as longing eyes ever beheld this side of
+Canaan. Before them lay a country spread out like a map, with the
+windings of its rivers marked by fringes of trees, and its boundaries
+fixed by mountain ranges above which towered the snowy peaks of Mt.
+Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Rainier. Far away could be traced the course of
+the Columbia; and over all the magnificent scene glowed the red rays of
+sunset, tinging the distant blue of the mountains until they seemed
+shrouded in a veil of violet mist. It were not strange that with the
+reception given them by the Indians, and with this bird's-eye view of
+their adopted country, the hearts of the missionaries beat high with
+hope.
+
+[Illustration: DESCENDING THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.]
+
+The descent from the Blue Mountains brought the party out on the
+Umatilla River, where they camped, Mr. McLeod parting company with them
+at this place to hasten forward to Fort Walla-Walla, and prepare for
+their reception. After two more days of slow and toilsome travel with
+cattle whose feet were cut and sore from the sharp rocks of the
+mountains, the company arrived safely at Walla-Walla fort, on the third
+of September. Here they found Mr. McLeod, and Mr. Panbram who had charge
+of that post.
+
+Mr. Panbram received the missionary party with every token of respect,
+and of pleasure at seeing ladies among them. The kindest attentions were
+lavished upon them from the first moment of their arrival, when the
+ladies were lifted from their horses, to the time of their departure;
+the apartments belonging to the fort being assigned to them, and all
+that the place afforded of comfortable living placed at their disposal.
+Here, for the first time in several months, they enjoyed the luxury of
+bread--a favor for which the suffering Mrs. Spalding was especially
+grateful.
+
+At Walla-Walla the missionaries were informed that they were expected to
+visit Vancouver, the head-quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company on the
+Lower Columbia. After resting for two days, it was determined to make
+this visit before selecting places for mission work among the Indians.
+Accordingly the party embarked in the company's boats, for the voyage
+down the Columbia, which occupied six days, owing to strong head winds
+which were encountered at a point on the Lower Columbia, called Cape
+Horn. They arrived safely on the eleventh of September, at Vancouver,
+where they were again received with the warmest hospitality by the
+Governor, Dr. John McLaughlin, and his associates. The change from the
+privations of wilderness life to the luxuries of Fort Vancouver was very
+great indeed, and two weeks passed rapidly away in the enjoyment of
+refined society, and all the other elegancies of the highest
+civilization.
+
+At the end of two weeks, Dr. Whitman, Mr. Spalding, and Mr. Gray
+returned to the Upper Columbia, leaving the ladies at Fort Vancouver
+while they determined upon their several locations in the Indian
+country. After an absence of several weeks they returned, having made
+their selections, and on the third day of November the ladies once more
+embarked to ascend the Columbia, to take up their residence in Indian
+wigwams while their husbands prepared rude dwellings by the assistance
+of the natives. The spot fixed upon by Dr. Whitman for his mission was
+on the Walla-Walla River about thirty miles from the fort of that name.
+It was called _Waiilatpu_; and the tribe chosen for his pupils were the
+Cayuses, a hardy, active, intelligent race, rich in horses and pasture
+lands.
+
+Mr. Spalding selected a home on the Clearwater River, among the Nez
+Perces, of whom we already know so much. His mission was called
+_Lapwai_. Mr. Gray went among the Flatheads, an equally friendly tribe;
+and here we shall leave the missionaries, to return to the Rocky
+Mountains and the life of the hunter and trapper. At a future date we
+shall fall in once more with these devoted people and learn what success
+attended their efforts to Christianize the Indians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+1836. The company of men who went north this year under Bridger and
+Fontenelle, numbered nearly three hundred. Rendezvous with all its
+varied excitements being over, this important brigade commenced its
+march. According to custom, the trappers commenced business on the
+head-waters of various rivers, following them down as the early frosts
+of the mountains forced them to do, until finally they wintered in the
+plains, at the most favored spots they could find in which to subsist
+themselves and animals.
+
+From Green River, Meek proceeded with Bridger's command to Lewis River,
+Salt River, and other tributaries of the Snake, and camped with them in
+Pierre's Hole, that favorite mountain valley which every year was
+visited by the different fur companies.
+
+[Illustration: _THE BEAR IN CAMP._]
+
+Pierre's Hole, notwithstanding its beauties, had some repulsive
+features, or rather perhaps _one_ repulsive feature, which was, its
+great numbers of rattlesnakes. Meek relates that being once caught in a
+very violent thunder storm, he dismounted, and holding his horse, a fine
+one, by the bridle, himself took shelter under a narrow shelf of rock
+projecting from a precipitous bluff. Directly he observed an enormous
+rattlesnake hastening close by him to its den in the mountain.
+Congratulating himself on his snake-ship's haste to get out of the storm
+and his vicinity, he had only time to have one rejoicing thought when
+two or three others followed the trail of the first one. They were
+seeking the same rocky den, of whose proximity Meek now felt
+uncomfortably assured. Before these were out of sight, there came
+instead of twos and threes, tens and twenties, and then hundreds, and
+finally Meek believes thousands, the ground being literally alive with
+them. Not daring to stir after he discovered the nature of his
+situation, he was obliged to remain and endure the disgusting and
+frightful scene, while he exerted himself to keep his horse quiet, lest
+the reptiles should attack him. By and by, when there were no more to
+come, but all were safe in their holes in the rock, Meek hastily mounted
+and galloped in the face of the tempest in preference to remaining
+longer in so unpleasant a neighborhood.
+
+There was an old Frenchman among the trappers who used to charm
+rattlesnakes, and handling them freely, place them in his bosom, or
+allow them to wind about his arms, several at a time, their flat heads
+extending in all directions, and their bodies waving in the air, in the
+most snaky and nerve-shaking manner, to the infinite disgust of all the
+camp, and of Hawkins and Meek in particular. Hawkins often became so
+nervous that he threatened to shoot the Frenchman on the instant, if he
+did not desist; and great was the dislike he entertained for what he
+termed the "---- infernal old wizard."
+
+It was often the case in the mountains and on the plains that the camp
+was troubled with rattlesnakes, so that each man on laying down to sleep
+found it necessary to encircle his bed with a hair rope, thus
+effectually fencing out the reptiles, which are too fastidious and
+sensitive of touch to crawl over a hair rope. But for this precaution,
+the trapper must often have shared his blanket couch with this foe to
+the "seed of the woman," who being asleep would have neglected to "crush
+his head," receiving instead the serpent's fang in "his heel," if not
+in some nobler portion of his body.
+
+There is a common belief abroad that the prairie dog harbors the
+rattlesnake, and the owl also, in his subterranean house, in a more or
+less friendly manner. Meek, however, who has had many opportunities of
+observing the habits of these three ill-assorted denizens of a common
+abode, gives it as his opinion that the prairie dog consents to the
+invasion of his premises alone through his inability to prevent it. As
+these prairie dog villages are always found on the naked prairies, where
+there is neither rocky den for the rattlesnake, nor shade for the
+blinking eyes of the owl, these two idle and impudent foreigners,
+availing themselves of the labors of the industrious little animal which
+builds itself a cool shelter from the sun, and a safe one from the
+storm, whenever their own necessities drive them to seek refuge from
+either sun or storm, enter uninvited and take possession. It is probable
+also, that so far from being a welcome guest, the rattlesnake
+occasionally gorges himself with a young prairie-dog, when other game is
+not conveniently nigh, or that the owl lies in wait at the door of its
+borrowed-without-leave domicile, and succeeds in nabbing a careless
+field-mouse more easily than it could catch the same game by seeking it
+as an honest owl should do. The owl and the rattlesnake are like the
+Sioux when they go on a visit to the Omahas--the visit being always
+timed so as to be identical in date with that of the Government Agents
+who are distributing food and clothing. They are very good friends for
+the nonce, the poor Omahas not daring to be otherwise for fear of the
+ready vengeance on the next summer's buffalo hunt; therefore they
+conceal their grimaces and let the Sioux eat them up; and when summer
+comes get massacred on their buffalo hunt, all the same.
+
+But to return to our brigade. About the last of October Bridger's
+company moved down on to the Yellowstone by a circuitous route through
+the North Pass, now known as Hell Gate Pass, to Judith River, Mussel
+Shell River, Cross Creeks of the Yellowstone, Three Forks of Missouri,
+Missouri Lake, Beaver Head country, Big Horn River, and thence east
+again, and north again to the wintering ground in the great bend of the
+Yellowstone.
+
+The company had not proceeded far in the Blackfeet country, between Hell
+Gate Pass and the Yellowstone, before they were attacked by the
+Blackfeet. On arriving at the Yellowstone they discovered a considerable
+encampment of the enemy on an island or bar in the river, and proceeded
+to open hostilities before the Indians should have discovered them.
+Making little forts of sticks or bushes, each man advanced cautiously to
+the bank overlooking the island, pushing his leafy fort before him as he
+crept silently nearer, until a position was reached whence firing could
+commence with effect. The first intimation the luckless savages had of
+the neighborhood of the whites was a volley of shots discharged into
+their camp, killing several of their number. But as this was their own
+mode of attack, no reflections were likely to be wasted upon the
+unfairness of the assault; quickly springing to their arms the firing
+was returned, and for several hours was kept up on both sides. At night
+the Indians stole off, having lost nearly thirty killed; nor did the
+trappers escape quite unhurt, three being killed and a few others
+wounded.
+
+Since men were of such value to the fur companies, it would seem strange
+that they should deliberately enter upon an Indian fight before being
+attacked. But unfortunate as these encounters really were, they knew of
+no other policy to be pursued. They, (the American Companies,) were not
+resident, with a long acquaintance, and settled policy, such as
+rendered the Hudson's Bay Company so secure amongst the savages. They
+knew that among these unfriendly Indians, not to attack was to be
+attacked, and consequently little time was ever given for an Indian to
+discover his vicinity to a trapper. The trapper's shot informed him of
+that, and afterwards the race was to the swift, and the battle to the
+strong. Besides this acknowledged necessity for fighting whenever and
+wherever Indians were met with in the Blackfeet and Crow countries,
+almost every trapper had some private injury to avenge--some theft, or
+wound, or imprisonment, or at the very least, some terrible fright
+sustained at the hands of the universal foe. Therefore there was no
+reluctance to shoot into an Indian camp, provided the position of the
+man shooting was a safe one, or more defensible than that of the man
+shot at. Add to this that there was no law in the mountains, only
+license, it is easy to conjecture that might would have prevailed over
+right with far less incentive to the exercise of savage practices than
+actually did exist. Many a trapper undoubtedly shot his Indian "for the
+fun of it," feeling that it was much better to do so than run the risk
+of being shot at for no better reason. Of this class of reasoners, it
+must be admitted, Meek was one. Indian-fighting, like bear-fighting, had
+come to be a sort of pastime, in which he was proud to be known as
+highly accomplished. Having so many opportunities for the display of
+game qualities in encounters with these two by-no-means-to-be despised
+foes of the trapper, it was not often that they quarreled among
+themselves after the grand frolic of the rendezvous was over.
+
+It happened, however, during this autumn, that while the main camp was
+in the valley of the Yellowstone, a party of eight trappers, including
+Meek and a comrade named Stanberry, were trapping together on the
+Mussel Shell, when the question as to which was the bravest man got
+started between them, and at length, in the heat of controversy, assumed
+such importance that it was agreed to settle the matter on the following
+day according to the Virginia code of honor, _i.e._, by fighting a duel,
+and shooting at each other with guns, which hitherto had only done
+execution on bears and Indians.
+
+But some listening spirit of the woods determined to avert the danger
+from these two equally brave trappers, and save their ammunition for its
+legitimate use, by giving them occasion to prove their courage almost on
+the instant. While sitting around the camp-fire discussing the coming
+event of the duel at thirty paces, a huge bear, already wounded by a
+shot from the gun of their hunter who was out looking for game, came
+running furiously into camp, giving each man there a challenge to fight
+or fly.
+
+"Now," spoke up one of the men quickly, "let Meek and Stanberry prove
+which is bravest, by fighting the bear!" "Agreed," cried the two as
+quickly, and both sprang with guns and wiping-sticks in hand, charging
+upon the infuriated beast as it reached the spot where they were
+awaiting it. Stanberry was a small man, and Meek a large one. Perhaps it
+was owing to this difference of stature that Meek was first to reach the
+bear as it advanced. Running up with reckless bravado Meek struck the
+creature two or three times over the head with his wiping-stick before
+aiming to fire, which however he did so quickly and so surely that the
+beast fell dead at his feet. This act settled the vexed question. Nobody
+was disposed to dispute the point of courage with a man who would stop
+to strike a grizzly before shooting him: therefore Meek was proclaimed
+by the common voice to be "cock of the walk" in that camp. The pipe of
+peace was solemnly smoked by himself and Stanberry, and the tomahawk
+buried never more to be resurrected between them, while a fat supper of
+bear meat celebrated the compact of everlasting amity.
+
+It was not an unfrequent occurrence for a grizzly bear to be run into
+camp by the hunters, in the Yellowstone country where this creature
+abounded. An amusing incident occurred not long after that just related,
+when the whole camp was at the Cross Creeks of the Yellowstone, on the
+south side of that river. The hunters were out, and had come upon two or
+three bears in a thicket. As these animals sometimes will do, they
+started off in a great fright, running toward camp, the hunters after
+them, yelling, frightening them still more. A runaway bear, like a
+runaway horse, appears not to see where it is going, but keeps right on
+its course no matter what dangers lie in advance. So one of these
+animals having got headed for the middle of the encampment, saw nothing
+of what lay in its way, but ran on and on, apparently taking note of
+nothing but the yells in pursuit. So sudden and unexpected was the
+charge which he made upon camp, that the Indian women, who were sitting
+on the ground engaged in some ornamental work, had no time to escape out
+of the way. One of them was thrown down and run over, and another was
+struck with such violence that she was thrown twenty feet from the spot
+where she was hastily attempting to rise. Other objects in camp were
+upset and thrown out of the way, but without causing so much merriment
+as the mishaps of the two women who were so rudely treated by the
+monster.
+
+[Illustration: SATISFIED WITH BEAR FIGHTING.]
+
+It was also while the camp was at the Cross Creeks of the Yellowstone
+that Meek had one of his best fought battles with a grizzly bear. He was
+out with two companions, one Gardiner, and Mark Head, a Shawnee Indian.
+Seeing a very large bear digging roots in the creek bottom, Meek
+proposed to attack it, if the others would hold his horse ready to
+mount if he failed to kill the creature. This being agreed to he
+advanced to within about forty paces of his game, when he raised his gun
+and attempted to fire, but the cap bursting he only roused the beast,
+which turned on him with a terrific noise between a snarl and a growl,
+showing some fearful looking teeth. Meek turned to run for his horse, at
+the same time trying to put a cap on his gun; but when he had almost
+reached his comrades, their horses and his own took fright at the bear
+now close on his heels, and ran, leaving him alone with the now fully
+infuriated beast. Just at the moment he succeeded in getting a cap on
+his gun, the teeth of the bear closed on his blanket capote which was
+belted around the waist, the suddenness and force of the seizure turning
+him around, as the skirt of his capote yielded to the strain and tore
+off at the belt. Being now nearly face to face with his foe, the
+intrepid trapper thrust his gun into the creature's mouth and attempted
+again to fire, but the gun being double triggered and not set, it failed
+to go off. Perceiving the difficulty he managed to set the triggers with
+the gun still in the bear's mouth, yet no sooner was this done than the
+bear succeeded in knocking it out, and firing as it slipped out, it hit
+her too low down to inflict a fatal wound and only served to irritate
+her still farther.
+
+In this desperate situation when Meek's brain was rapidly working on the
+problem of live Meek or live bear, two fresh actors appeared on the
+scene in the persons of two cubs, who seeing their mother in difficulty
+seemed desirous of doing something to assist her. Their appearance
+seemed to excite the bear to new exertions, for she made one desperate
+blow at Meek's empty gun with which he was defending himself, and
+knocked it out of his hands, and far down the bank or sloping hillside
+where the struggle was now going on. Then being partially blinded by
+rage, she seized one of her cubs and began to box it about in a most
+unmotherly fashion. This diversion gave Meek a chance to draw his knife
+from the scabbard, with which he endeavored to stab the bear behind the
+ear: but she was too quick for him, and with a blow struck it out of his
+hand, as she had the gun, nearly severing his forefinger.
+
+At this critical juncture the second cub interfered, and got a boxing
+from the old bear, as the first one had done. This too, gave Meek time
+to make a movement, and loosening his tomahawk from his belt, he made
+one tremendous effort, taking deadly aim, and struck her just behind the
+ear, the tomahawk sinking into the brain, and his powerful antagonist
+lay dead before him. When the blow was struck he stood with his back
+against a little bluff of rock, beyond which it was impossible to
+retreat. It was his last chance, and his usual good fortune stood by
+him. When the struggle was over the weary victor mounted the rock
+behind him and looked down upon his enemy slain; and "came to the
+conclusion that he was satisfied with bar-fighting."
+
+But renown had sought him out even here, alone with his lifeless
+antagonist. Capt. Stuart with his artist, Mr. Miller, chanced upon this
+very spot, while yet the conqueror contemplated his slain enemy, and
+taking possession at once of the bear, whose skin was afterward
+preserved and stuffed, made a portrait of the "satisfied" slayer. A
+picture was subsequently painted by Miller of this scene, and was copied
+in wax for a museum in St. Louis, where it probably remains to this day,
+a monument of Meek's best bear fight. As for Meek's runaway horse and
+runaway comrades, they returned to the scene of action too late to be of
+the least service, except to furnish our hero with transportation to
+camp, which, considering the weight of his newly gathered laurels, was
+no light service after all.
+
+In November Bridger's camp arrived at the Bighorn River, expecting to
+winter; but finding the buffalo all gone, were obliged to cross the
+mountains lying between the Bighorn and Powder rivers to reach the
+buffalo country on the latter stream. The snow having already fallen
+quite deep on these mountains the crossing was attended with great
+difficulty; and many horses and mules were lost by sinking in the snow,
+or falling down precipices made slippery by the melting and freezing of
+the snow on the narrow ridges and rocky benches along which they were
+forced to travel.
+
+About Christmas all the company went into winter-quarters on Powder
+River, in the neighborhood of a company of Bonneville's men, left under
+the command of Antoine Montero, who had established a trading-post and
+fort at this place, hoping, no doubt, that here they should be
+comparatively safe from the injurious competition of the older
+companies. The appearance of three hundred men, who had the winter
+before them in which to do mischief, was therefore as unpleasant as it
+was unexpected; and the result proved that even Montero, who was
+Bonneville's experienced trader, could not hold his own against so
+numerous and expert a band of marauders as Bridger's men, assisted by
+the Crows, proved themselves to be; for by the return of spring Montero
+had very little remaining of the property belonging to the fort, nor
+anything to show for it. This mischievous war upon Bonneville was
+prompted partly by the usual desire to cripple a rival trader, which the
+leaders encouraged in their men; but in some individual instances far
+more by the desire for revenge upon Bonneville personally, on account of
+his censures passed upon the members of the Monterey expedition, and on
+the ways of mountain-men generally.
+
+About the first of January, Fontenelle, with four men, and Captain
+Stuart's party, left camp to go to St. Louis for supplies. At Fort
+Laramie Fontenelle committed suicide, in a fit of _mania a potu_, and
+his men returned to camp with the news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+1837. The fate of Fontenelle should have served as a warning to his
+associates and fellows. 'Should have done,' however, are often idle
+words, and as sad as they are idle; they match the poets 'might have
+been,' in their regretful impotency. Perhaps there never was a winter
+camp in the mountains more thoroughly demoralized than that of Bridger
+during the months of January and February. Added to the whites, who were
+reckless enough, were a considerable party of Delaware and Shawnee
+Indians, excellent allies, and skillful hunters and trappers, but having
+the Indian's love of strong drink. "Times were pretty good in the
+mountains," according to the mountain-man's notion of good times; that
+is to say, beaver was plenty, camp large, and alcohol abundant, if dear.
+Under these favorable circumstance much alcohol was consumed, and its
+influence was felt in the manners not only of the trappers, white and
+red, but also upon the neighboring Indians.
+
+The Crows, who had for two years been on terms of a sort of semi-amity
+with the whites, found it to their interest to conciliate so powerful an
+enemy as the American Fur Company was now become, and made frequent
+visits to the camp, on which occasion they usually succeeded in
+obtaining a taste of the fire-water of which they were inordinately
+fond. Occasionally a trader was permitted to sell liquor to the whole
+village, when a scene took place whose peculiar horrors were wholly
+indescribable, from the inability of language to convey an adequate idea
+of its hellish degradation. When a trader sold alcohol to a village it
+was understood both by himself and the Indians what was to follow. And
+to secure the trader against injury a certain number of warriors were
+selected out of the village to act as a police force, and to guard the
+trader during the 'drunk' from the insane passions of his customers. To
+the police not a drop was to be given.
+
+This being arranged, and the village disarmed, the carousal began. Every
+individual, man, woman, and child, was permitted to become intoxicated.
+Every form of drunkenness, from the simple stupid to the silly, the
+heroic, the insane, the beastly, the murderous, displayed itself. The
+scenes which were then enacted beggared description, as they shocked the
+senses of even the hard-drinking, license-loving trappers who witnessed
+them. That they did not "point a moral" for these men, is the strangest
+part of the whole transaction.
+
+When everybody, police excepted, was drunk as drunk could be, the trader
+began to dilute his alcohol with water, until finally his keg contained
+water only, slightly flavored by the washings of the keg, and as they
+continued to drink of it without detecting its weak quality, they
+finally drank themselves sober, and were able at last to sum up the cost
+of their intoxication. This was generally nothing less than the whole
+property of the village, added to which were not a few personal
+injuries, and usually a few murders. The village now being poor, the
+Indians were correspondingly humble; and were forced to begin a system
+of reprisal by stealing and making war, a course for which the traders
+were prepared, and which they avoided by leaving that neighborhood. Such
+were some of the sins and sorrows for which the American fur companies
+were answerable, and which detracted seriously from the respect that
+the courage, and other good qualities of the mountain-men freely
+commanded.
+
+[Illustration: THE GAME OF CACHE.]
+
+By the first of March these scenes of wrong and riot were over, for that
+season at least, and camp commenced moving back toward the Blackfoot
+country. After recrossing the mountains, passing the Bighorn, Clarke's,
+and Rosebud rivers, they came upon a Blackfoot village on the
+Yellowstone, which as usual they attacked, and a battle ensued, in which
+Manhead, captain of the Delawares was killed, another Delaware named Tom
+Hill succeeding him in command. The fight did not result in any great
+loss or gain to either party. The camp of Bridger fought its way past
+the village, which was what they must do, in order to proceed.
+
+Meek, however, was not quite satisfied with the punishment the Blackfeet
+had received for the killing of Manhead, who had been in the fight with
+him when the Camanches attacked them on the plains. Desirous of doing
+something on his own account, he induced a comrade named LeBlas, to
+accompany him to the village, after night had closed over the scene of
+the late contest. Stealing into the village with a noiselessness equal
+to that of one of Fennimore Cooper's Indian scouts, these two daring
+trappers crept so near that they could look into the lodges, and see the
+Indians at their favorite game of _Cache_. Inferring from this that the
+savages did not feel their losses very severely, they determined to
+leave some sign of their visit, and wound their enemy in his most
+sensitive part, the horse. Accordingly they cut the halters of a number
+of the animals, fastened in the customary manner to a stake, and
+succeeded in getting off with nine of them, which property they
+proceeded to appropriate to their own use.
+
+As the spring and summer advanced, Bridger's brigade advanced into the
+mountains, passing the Cross Creek of the Yellowstone, Twenty-five-Yard
+River, Cherry River, and coming on to the head-waters of the Missouri
+spent the early part of the summer in that locality. Between Gallatin
+and Madison forks the camp struck the great trail of the Blackfeet. Meek
+and Mark Head had fallen four or five days behind camp, and being on
+this trail felt a good deal of uneasiness. This feeling was not lessened
+by seeing, on coming to Madison Fork, the skeletons of two men tied to
+or suspended from trees, the flesh eaten off their bones. Concluding
+discretion to be the safest part of valor in this country, they
+concealed themselves by day and traveled by night, until camp was
+finally reached near Henry's Lake. On this march they forded a flooded
+river, on the back of the same mule, their traps placed on the other,
+and escaped from pursuit of a dozen yelling savages, who gazed after
+them in astonishment; "taking their mule," said Mark Head, "to be a
+beaver, and themselves great medicine men." "That," said Meek, "is what
+I call 'cooning' a river."
+
+From this point Meek set out with a party of thirty or forty trappers to
+travel up the river to head-waters, accompanied by the famous Indian
+painter Stanley, whose party was met with, this spring, traveling among
+the mountains. The party of trappers were a day or two ahead of the main
+camp when they found themselves following close after the big Blackfoot
+village which had recently passed over the trail, as could be seen by
+the usual signs; and also by the dead bodies strewn along the trail,
+victims of that horrible scourge, the small pox. The village was
+evidently fleeing to the mountains, hoping to rid itself of the plague
+in their colder and more salubrious air.
+
+Not long after coming upon these evidences of proximity to an enemy, a
+party of a hundred and fifty of their warriors were discovered encamped
+in a defile or narrow bottom enclosed by high bluffs, through which the
+trappers would have to pass. Seeing that in order to pass this war
+party, and the village, which was about half a mile in advance, there
+would have to be some fighting done, the trappers resolved to begin the
+battle at once by attacking their enemy, who was as yet ignorant of
+their neighborhood. In pursuance of this determination, Meek, Newell,
+Mansfield, and Le Blas, commenced hostilities. Leaving their horses in
+camp, they crawled along on the edge of the overhanging bluff until
+opposite to the encampment of Blackfeet, firing on them from the shelter
+of some bushes which grew among the rocks. But the Blackfeet, though
+ignorant of the number of their enemy, were not to be dislodged so
+easily, and after an hour or two of random shooting, contrived to scale
+the bluff at a point higher up, and to get upon a ridge of ground still
+higher than that occupied by the four trappers. This movement dislodged
+the latter, and they hastily retreated through the bushes and returned
+to camp.
+
+The next day, the main camp having come up, the fight was renewed. While
+the greater body of the company, with the pack-horses, were passing
+along the high bluff overhanging them, the party of the day before, and
+forty or fifty others, undertook to drive the Indians out of the bottom,
+and by keeping them engaged allow the train to pass in safety. The
+trappers rode to the fight on this occasion, and charged the Blackfeet
+furiously, they having joined the village a little farther on. A general
+skirmish now took place. Meek, who was mounted on a fine horse, was in
+the thickest of the fight. He had at one time a side to side race with
+an Indian who strung his bow so hard that the arrow dropped, just as
+Meek, who had loaded his gun running, was ready to fire, and the Indian
+dropped after his arrow.
+
+Newell too had a desperate conflict with a half-dead warrior, who having
+fallen from a wound, he thought dead and was trying to scalp. Springing
+from his horse he seized the Indian's long thick hair in one hand, and
+with his knife held in the other made a pass at the scalp, when the
+savage roused up knife in hand, and a struggle took place in which it
+was for a time doubtful which of the combatants would part with the
+coveted scalp-lock. Newell might have been glad to resign the trophy,
+and leave the fallen warrior his tuft of hair, but his fingers were in
+some way caught by some gun-screws with which the savage had ornamented
+his _coiffure_, and would not part company. In this dilemma there was no
+other alternative but fight. The miserable savage was dragged a rod or
+two in the struggle, and finally dispatched.
+
+Mansfield also got into such close quarters, surrounded by the enemy,
+that he gave himself up for lost, and called out to his comrades: "Tell
+old Gabe, (Bridger,) that old Cotton (his own sobriquet) is gone." He
+lived, however, to deliver his own farewell message, for at this
+critical juncture the trappers were re-inforced, and relieved. Still the
+fight went on, the trappers gradually working their way to the upper end
+of the enclosed part of the valley, past the point of danger.
+
+Just before getting clear of this entanglement Meek became the subject
+of another picture, by Stanley, who was viewing the battle from the
+heights above the valley. The picture which is well known as "The
+Trapper's Last Shot," represents him as he turned upon his horse, a fine
+and spirited animal, to discharge his last shot at an Indian
+pursuing, while in the bottom, at a little distance away, other Indians
+are seen skulking in the tall reedy grass.
+
+[Illustration: _THE TRAPPER'S LAST SHOT._]
+
+The last shot having been discharged with fatal effect, our trapper, so
+persistently lionized by painters, put his horse to his utmost speed and
+soon after overtook the camp, which had now passed the strait of danger.
+But the Blackfeet were still unsatisfied with the result of the contest.
+They followed after, reinforced from the village, and attacked the camp.
+In the fight which followed a Blackfoot woman's horse was shot down, and
+Meek tried to take her prisoner: but two or three of her people coming
+to the rescue, engaged his attention; and the woman was saved by seizing
+hold of the tail of her husband's horse, which setting off at a run,
+carried her out of danger.
+
+[Illustration: "AND THEREBY HANGS A TAIL."]
+
+The Blackfeet found the camp of Bridger too strong for them. They were
+severely beaten and compelled to retire to their village, leaving
+Bridger free to move on. The following day the camp reached the village
+of Little-Robe, a chief of the Peagans, who held a talk with Bridger,
+complaining that his nation were all perishing from the small-pox which
+had been given to them by the whites. Bridger was able to explain to
+Little-Robe his error; inasmuch as although the disease might have
+originated among the whites, it was communicated to the Blackfeet by Jim
+Beckwith, a negro, and principal chief of their enemies the Crows. This
+unscrupulous wretch had caused two infected articles to be taken from a
+Mackinaw boat, up from St. Louis, and disposed of to the
+Blackfeet--whence the horrible scourge under which they were suffering.
+
+This matter being explained, Little-Robe consented to trade horses and
+skins; and the two camps parted amicably. The next day after this
+friendly talk, Bridger being encamped on the trail in advance of the
+Blackfeet, an Indian came riding into camp, with his wife and daughter,
+pack-horse and lodge-pole, and all his worldly goods, unaware until he
+got there of the snare into which he had fallen. The French trappers,
+generally, decreed to kill the man and take possession of the woman. But
+Meek, Kit Carson, and others of the American trappers of the better
+sort, interfered to prevent this truly savage act. Meek took the woman's
+horse by the head, Carson the man's, the daughter following, and led
+them out of camp. Few of the Frenchmen cared to interrupt either of
+these two men, and they were suffered to depart in peace. When at a safe
+distance, Meek stopped, and demanded as some return for having saved the
+man's life, a present of tobacco, a luxury which, from the Indian's
+pipe, he suspected him to possess. About enough for two chews was the
+result of this demand, complied with rather grudgingly, the Indian
+vieing with the trapper in his devotion to the weed. Just at this time,
+owing to the death of Fontenelle, and a consequent delay in receiving
+supplies, tobacco was scarce among the mountaineers.
+
+Bridger's brigade of trappers met with no other serious interruptions on
+their summer's march. They proceeded to Henry's Lake, and crossing the
+Rocky Mountains, traveled through the Pine Woods, always a favorite
+region, to Lewis' Lake on Lewis' Fork of the Snake River; and finally up
+the Grovant Fork, recrossing the mountains to Wind River, where the
+rendezvous for this year was appointed.
+
+Here, once more, the camp was visited by a last years' acquaintance.
+This was none other than Mr. Gray, of the Flathead Mission, who was
+returning to the States on business connected with the missionary
+enterprise, and to provide himself with a helpmeet for life,--a
+co-laborer and sufferer in the contemplated toil of teaching savages the
+rudiments of a religion difficult even to the comprehension of an old
+civilization.
+
+Mr. Gray was accompanied by two young men (whites) who wished to return
+to the States, and also by a son of one of the Flathead chiefs. Two
+other Flathead Indians, and one Iroquois and one Snake Indian, were
+induced to accompany Mr. Gray. The undertaking was not without danger,
+and so the leaders of the Fur Company assured him. But Mr. Gray was
+inclined to make light of the danger, having traveled with entire safety
+when under the protection of the Fur Companies the year before. He
+proceeded without interruption until he reached Ash Hollow, in the
+neighborhood of Fort Laramie, when his party was attacked by a large
+band of Sioux, and compelled to accept battle. The five Indians, with
+the whites, fought bravely, killing fifteen of the Sioux, before a
+parley was obtained by the intervention of a French trader who chanced
+to be among the Sioux. When Mr. Gray was able to hold a 'talk' with the
+attacking party he was assured that his life and that of his two white
+associates would be spared, but that they wanted to kill the strange
+Indians and take their fine horses. It is not at all probable that Mr.
+Gray consented to this sacrifice; though he has been accused of doing
+so.
+
+No doubt the Sioux took advantage of some hesitation on his part, and
+rushed upon his Indian allies in an unguarded moment. However that may
+be, his allies were killed and he was allowed to escape, after giving up
+the property belonging to them, and a portion of his own.
+
+This affair was the occasion of much ill-feeling toward Mr. Gray, when,
+in the following year, he returned to the mountains with the tale of
+massacre of his friends and his own escape. The mountain-men, although
+they used their influence to restrain the vengeful feelings of the
+Flathead tribe, whispered amongst themselves that Gray had preferred his
+own life to that of his friends. The old Flathead chief too, who had
+lost a son by the massacre, was hardly able to check his impulsive
+desire for revenge; for he held Mr. Gray responsible for his son's life.
+Nothing more serious, however, grew out of this unhappy tragedy than a
+disaffection among the tribe toward Mr. Gray, which made his labors
+useless, and finally determined him to remove to the Wallamet Valley.
+
+There were no outsiders besides Gray's party at the rendezvous of this
+year, except Captain Stuart, and he was almost as good a mountaineer as
+any. This doughty English traveler had the bad fortune together with
+that experienced leader Fitzpatrick, of being robbed by the Crows in the
+course of the fall hunt, in the Crow country. These expert horse thieves
+had succeeded in stealing nearly all the horses belonging to the joint
+camp, and had so disabled the company that it could not proceed. In this
+emergency, Newell, who had long been a sub-trader and was wise in Indian
+arts and wiles, was sent to hold a talk with the thieves. The talk was
+held, according to custom, in the Medicine lodge, and the usual amount
+of smoking, of long silences, and grave looks, had to be participated
+in, before the subject on hand could be considered. Then the chiefs
+complained as usual of wrongs at the hands of the white men; of their
+fear of small-pox, from which some of their tribe had suffered; of
+friends killed in battle with the whites, and all the list of ills that
+Crow flesh is heir to at the will of their white enemies. The women too
+had their complaints to proffer, and the number of widows and orphans in
+the tribe was pathetically set forth. The chiefs also made a strong
+point of this latter complaint; and on it the wily Newell hung his hopes
+of recovering the stolen property.
+
+"It is true," said he to the chiefs, "that you have sustained heavy
+losses. But that is not the fault of the Blanket chief (Bridger.) If
+your young men have been killed, they were killed when attempting to rob
+or kill our Captain's men. If you have lost horses, your young men have
+stolen five to our one. If you are poor in skins and other property, it
+is because you sold it all for drink which did you no good. Neither is
+Bridger to blame that you have had the small-pox. Your own chief, in
+trying to kill your enemies the Blackfeet, brought that disease into the
+country.
+
+"But it is true that you have many widows and orphans to support, and
+that is bad. I pity the orphans, and will help you to support them, if
+you will restore to my captain the property stolen from his camp.
+Otherwise Bridger will bring more horses, and plenty of ammunition, and
+there will be more widows and orphans among the Crows than ever before."
+
+This was a kind of logic easy to understand and quick to convince among
+savages. The bribe, backed by a threat, settled the question of the
+restoration of the horses, which were returned without further delay,
+and a present of blankets and trinkets was given, ostensibly to the
+bereaved women, really to the covetous chiefs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+1837. The decline of the business of hunting furs began to be quite
+obvious about this time. Besides the American and St. Louis Companies,
+and the Hudson's Bay Company, there were numerous lone traders with whom
+the ground was divided. The autumn of this year was spent by the
+American Company, as formerly, in trapping beaver on the streams issuing
+from the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. When the cold weather
+finally drove the Fur Company to the plains, they went into winter
+quarters once more in the neighborhood of the Crows on Powder River.
+Here were re-enacted the wild scenes of the previous winter, both
+trappers and Indians being given up to excesses.
+
+On the return of spring, Bridger again led his brigade all through the
+Yellowstone country, to the streams on the north side of the Missouri,
+to the head-waters of that river; and finally rendezvoused on the north
+fork of the Yellowstone, near Yellowstone Lake. Though the amount of
+furs taken on the spring hunt was considerable, it was by no means equal
+to former years. The fact was becoming apparent that the beaver was
+being rapidly exterminated.
+
+However there was beaver enough in camp to furnish the means for the
+usual profligacy. Horse-racing, betting, gambling, drinking, were freely
+indulged in. In the midst of this "fun," there appeared at the
+rendezvous Mr. Gray, now accompanied by Mrs. Gray and six other
+missionary ladies and gentlemen. Here also were two gentlemen from the
+Methodist mission on the Wallamet, who were returning to the States.
+Captain Stuart was still traveling with the Fur Company, and was also
+present with his party; besides which a Hudson's Bay trader named
+Ematinger was encamped near by. As if actuated to extraordinary displays
+by the unusual number of visitors, especially the four ladies, both
+trappers and Indians conducted themselves like the mad-caps they were.
+The Shawnees and Delawares danced their great war-dance before the tents
+of the missionaries; and Joe Meek, not to be outdone, arrayed himself in
+a suit of armor belonging to Captain Stuart and strutted about the
+encampment; then mounting his horse played the part of an ancient
+knight, with a good deal of _eclat_.
+
+Meek had not abstained from the alcohol kettle, but had offered it and
+partaken of it rather more freely than usual; so that when rendezvous
+was broken up, the St. Louis Company gone to the Popo Agie, and the
+American Company going to Wind River, he found that his wife, a Nez
+Perce who had succeeded Umentucken in his affections, had taken offence,
+or a fit of homesickness, which was synonymous, and departed with the
+party of Ematinger and the missionaries, intending to visit her people
+at Walla-Walla. This desertion wounded Meek's feelings; for he prided
+himself on his courtesy to the sex, and did not like to think that he
+had not behaved handsomely. All the more was he vexed with himself
+because his spouse had carried with her a pretty and sprightly
+baby-daughter, of whom the father was fond and proud, and who had been
+christened Helen Mar, after one of the heroines of Miss Porter's
+_Scottish Chiefs_--a book much admired in the mountains, as it has been
+elsewhere.
+
+Therefore at the first camp of the American Company, Meek resolved to
+turn his back on the company, and go after the mother and daughter.
+Obtaining a fresh kettle of alcohol, to keep up his spirits, he left
+camp, returning toward the scene of the late rendezvous. But in the
+effort to keep up his spirits he had drank too much alcohol, and the
+result was that on the next morning he found himself alone on the Wind
+River Mountain, with his horses and pack mules, and very sick indeed.
+Taking a little more alcohol to brace up his nerves, he started on
+again, passing around the mountain on to the Sweetwater; thence to the
+Sandy, and thence across a country without water for seventy-five miles,
+to Green River, where the camp of Ematinger was overtaken.
+
+The heat was excessive; and the absence of water made the journey across
+the arid plain between Sandy and Green Rivers one of great suffering to
+the traveler and his animals; and the more so as the frequent references
+to the alcohol kettle only increased the thirst-fever instead of
+allaying it. But Meek was not alone in suffering. About half way across
+the scorching plain he discovered a solitary woman's figure standing in
+the trail, and two riding horses near her, whose drooping heads
+expressed their dejection. On coming up with this strange group, Meek
+found the woman to be one of the missionary ladies, a Mrs. Smith, and
+that her husband was lying on the ground, dying, as the poor sufferer
+believed himself, for water.
+
+Mrs. Smith made a weeping appeal to Meek for water for her dying
+husband; and truly the poor woman's situation was a pitiable one. Behind
+camp, with no protection from the perils of the desert and
+wilderness--only a terrible care instead--the necessity of trying to
+save her husband's life. As no water was to be had, alcohol was offered
+to the famishing man, who, however, could not be aroused from his stupor
+of wretchedness. Seeing that death really awaited the unlucky missionary
+unless something could be done to cause him to exert himself, Meek
+commenced at once, and with unction, to abuse the man for his
+unmanliness. His style, though not very refined, was certainly very
+vigorous.
+
+"You're a ---- pretty fellow to be lying on the ground here, lolling
+your tongue out of your mouth, and trying to die. Die, if you want to,
+you're of no account and will never be missed. Here's your wife, who you
+are keeping standing here in the hot sun; why don't _she_ die? She's got
+more pluck than a white-livered chap like you. But I'm not going to
+leave her waiting here for you to die. Thar's a band of Indians behind
+on the trail, and I've been riding like ---- to keep out of their way.
+If you want to stay here and be scalped, you can stay; Mrs. Smith is
+going with me. Come, madam," continued Meek, leading up her horse, "let
+me help you to mount, for we must get out of this cursed country as fast
+as possible."
+
+Poor Mrs. Smith did not wish to leave her husband; nor did she relish
+the notion of staying to be scalped. Despair tugged at her
+heart-strings. She would have sunk to the ground in a passion of tears,
+but Meek was too much in earnest to permit precious time to be thus
+wasted. "Get on your horse," said he rather roughly. "You can't save
+your husband by staying here, crying. It is better that one should die
+than two; and he seems to be a worthless dog anyway. Let the Indians
+have him."
+
+Almost lifting her upon the horse, Meek tore the distracted woman away
+from her husband, who had yet strength enough to gasp out an entreaty
+not to be left.
+
+"You can follow us if you choose," said the apparently merciless
+trapper, "or you can stay where you are. Mrs. Smith can find plenty of
+better men than you. Come, madam!" and he gave the horse a stroke with
+his riding-whip which started him into a rapid pace.
+
+The unhappy wife, whose conscience reproached her for leaving her
+husband to die alone, looked back, and saw him raising his head to gaze
+after them. Her grief broke out afresh, and she would have gone back
+even then to remain with him: but Meek was firm, and again started up
+her horse. Before they were quite out of sight, Meek turned in his
+saddle, and beheld the dying man sitting up. "Hurrah;" said he: "he's
+all right. He will overtake us in a little while:" and as he predicted,
+in little over an hour Smith came riding up, not more than half dead by
+this time. The party got into camp on Green River, about eleven o'clock
+that night, and Mrs. Smith having told the story of her adventures with
+the unknown trapper who had so nearly kidnaped her, the laugh and the
+cheer went round among the company. "That's Meek," said Ematinger, "you
+may rely on that. He's just the one to kidnap a woman in that way." When
+Mrs. Smith fully realized the service rendered, she was abundantly
+grateful, and profuse were the thanks which our trapper received, even
+from the much-abused husband, who was now thoroughly alive again. Meek
+failed to persuade his wife to return with him. She was homesick for her
+people, and would go to them. But instead of turning back, he kept on
+with Ematinger's camp as far as Fort Hall, which post was then in charge
+of Courtenay Walker.
+
+While the camp was at Soda Springs, Meek observed the missionary ladies
+baking bread in a tin reflector before a fire. Bread was a luxury
+unknown to the mountain-man,--and as a sudden recollection of his
+boyhood, and the days of bread-and-butter came over him, his mouth began
+to water. Almost against his will he continued to hang round the
+missionary camp, thinking about the bread. At length one of the Nez
+Perces, named James, whom the missionary had taught to sing, at their
+request struck up a hymn, which he sang in a very creditable manner. As
+a reward of his pious proficiency, one of the ladies gave James a
+biscuit. A bright thought struck our longing hero's brain. "Go back,"
+said he to James, "and sing another hymn; and when the ladies give you
+another biscuit, bring it to me." And in this manner, he obtained a
+taste of the coveted luxury, bread--of which, during nine years in the
+mountains he had not eaten.
+
+At Fort Hall, Meek parted company with the missionaries, and with his
+wife and child. As the little black-eyed daughter took her departure in
+company with this new element in savage life,--the missionary
+society,--her father could have had no premonition of the fate to which
+the admixture of the savage and the religious elements was step by step
+consigning her.
+
+After remaining a few days at the fort, Meek, who found some of his old
+comrades at this place, went trapping with them up the Portneuf, and
+soon made up a pack of one hundred and fifty beaver-skins. These, on
+returning to the fort, he delivered to Jo Walker, one of the American
+Company's traders at that time, and took Walker's receipt for them. He
+then, with Mansfield and Wilkins, set out about the first of September
+for the Flathead country, where Wilkins had a wife. In their company was
+an old Flathead woman, who wished to return to her people, and took this
+opportunity.
+
+The weather was still extremely warm. It had been a season of great
+drought, and the streams were nearly all entirely dried up. The first
+night out, the horses, eight in number, strayed off in search of water,
+and were lost. Now commenced a day of fearful sufferings. No water had
+been found since leaving the fort. The loss of the horses made it
+necessary for the company to separate to look for them; Mansfield and
+Wilkins going in one direction, Meek and the old Flathead woman in
+another. The little coolness and moisture which night had imparted to
+the atmosphere was quickly dissipated by the unchecked rays of the
+pitiless sun shining on a dry and barren plain, with not a vestige of
+verdure anywhere in sight. On and on went the old Flathead woman,
+keeping always in the advance, and on and on followed Meek, anxiously
+scanning the horizon for a chance sight of the horses. Higher and higher
+mounted the sun, the temperature increasing in intensity until the great
+plain palpitated with radiated heat, and the horizon flickered almost
+like a flame where the burning heavens met the burning earth. Meek had
+been drinking a good deal of rum at the fort, which circumstance did not
+lessen the terrible consuming thirst that was torturing him.
+
+Noon came, and passed, and still the heat and the suffering increased,
+the fever and craving of hunger being now added to that of thirst. On
+and on, through the whole of that long scorching afternoon, trotted the
+old Flathead woman in the peculiar traveling gait of the Indian and the
+mountaineer, Meek following at a little distance, and going mad, as he
+thought, for a little water. And mad he probably was, as famine
+sometimes makes its victims. When night at last closed in, he laid down
+to die, as the missionary Smith had done before. But he did not remember
+Smith: he only thought of water, and heard it running, and fancied the
+old woman was lapping it like a wolf. Then he rose to follow her and
+find it; it was always just ahead, and the woman was howling to him to
+show him the trail.
+
+Thus the night passed, and in the cool of the early morning he
+experienced a little relief. He was really following his guide, who as
+on the day before was trotting on ahead. Then the thought possessed him
+to overtake and kill her, hoping from her shriveled body to obtain a
+morsel of food, and drop of moisture. But his strength was failing, and
+his guide so far ahead that he gave up the thought as involving too
+great exertion, continuing to follow her in a helpless and hopeless kind
+of way.
+
+At last! There was no mistake this time: he heard running water, and the
+old woman _was_ lapping it like a wolf. With a shriek of joy he ran and
+fell on his face in the water, which was not more than one foot in
+depth, nor the stream more than fifteen feet wide. But it had a white
+pebbly bottom; and the water was clear, if not very cool. It was
+something to thank God for, which the none too religious trapper
+acknowledged by a fervent "Thank God!"
+
+For a long time he lay in the water, swallowing it, and by thrusting his
+finger down his throat vomiting it up again, to prevent surfeit, his
+whole body taking in the welcome moisture at all its million pores. The
+fever abated, a feeling of health returned, and the late perishing man
+was restored to life and comparative happiness. The stream proved to be
+Godin's Fork, and here Meek and his faithful old guide rested until
+evening, in the shade of some willows, where their good fortune was
+completed by the appearance of Mansfield and Wilkins with the horses.
+The following morning the men found and killed a fat buffalo cow,
+whereby all their wants were supplied, and good feeling restored in the
+little camp.
+
+From Godin's Fork they crossed over to Salmon River, and presently
+struck the Nez Perce trail which leads from that river over into the
+Beaver-head country, on the Beaver-head or Jefferson Fork of the
+Missouri, where there was a Flathead and Nez Perce village, on or about
+the present site of Virginia City, in Montana.
+
+Not stopping long here, Meek and his companions went on to the Madison
+Fork with the Indian village, and to the shores of Missouri Lake,
+joining in the fall hunt for buffalo.
+
+[Illustration: HORSE-TAIL FALL.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+"Tell me all about a buffalo hunt," said the writer to Joe Meek, as we
+sat at a window overlooking the Columbia River, where it has a beautiful
+stretch of broad waters and curving wooded shores, and talking about
+mountain life, "tell me how you used to hunt buffalo."
+
+"Waal, there is a good deal of sport in runnin' buffalo. When the camp
+discovered a band, then every man that wanted to run, made haste to
+catch his buffalo horse. We sometimes went out thirty or forty strong;
+sometimes two or three, and at other times a large party started on the
+hunt; the more the merrier. We alway had great bantering about our
+horses, each man, according to his own account, having the best one.
+
+"When we first start we ride slow, so as not to alarm the buffalo. The
+nearer we come to the band the greater our excitement. The horses seem
+to feel it too, and are worrying to be off. When we come so near that
+the band starts, then the word is given, our horses' mettle is up, and
+away we go!
+
+[Illustration: _A BUFFALO HUNT._]
+
+"Thar may be ten thousand in a band. Directly we crowd them so close
+that nothing can be seen but dust, nor anything heard but the roar of
+their trampling and bellowing. The hunter now keeps close on their heels
+to escape being blinded by the dust, which does not rise as high as a
+man on horseback, for thirty yards behind the animals. As soon as we are
+close enough the firing begins, and the band is on the run; and a
+herd of buffalo can run about as fast as a good race-horse. How they
+_do_ thunder along! They give us a pretty sharp race. Take care! Down
+goes a rider, and away goes his horse with the band. Do you think we
+stopped to look after the fallen man? Not we. We rather thought that war
+fun, and if he got killed, why, 'he war unlucky, that war all. Plenty
+more men: couldn't bother about him.'
+
+"Thar's a fat cow ahead. I force my way through the band to come up with
+her. The buffalo crowd around so that I have to put my foot on them, now
+on one side, now the other, to keep them off my horse. It is lively
+work, I can tell you. A man has to look sharp not to be run down by the
+band pressing him on; buffalo and horse at the top of their speed.
+
+"Look out; thar's a ravine ahead, as you can see by the plunge which the
+band makes. Hold up! or somebody goes to the d--l now. If the band is
+large it fills the ravine full to the brim, and the hindmost of the herd
+pass over on top of the foremost. It requires horsemanship not to be
+carried over without our own consent; but then we mountain-men are _all_
+good horsemen. Over the ravine we go; but we do it our own way.
+
+"We keep up the chase for about four miles, selecting our game as we
+run, and killing a number of fat cows to each man; some more and some
+less. When our horses are tired we slacken up, and turn back. We meet
+the camp-keepers with pack-horses. They soon butcher, pack up the meat,
+and we all return to camp, whar we laugh at each other's mishaps, and
+eat fat meat: and this constitutes the glory of mountain life."
+
+"But you were going to tell me about the buffalo hunt at Missouri Lake?"
+
+"Thar isn't much to tell. It war pretty much like other buffalo hunts.
+Thar war a lot of us trappers happened to be at a Nez Perce and Flathead
+village in the fall of '38, when they war agoin' to kill winter meat;
+and as their hunt lay in the direction we war going, we joined in. The
+old Nez Perce chief, _Kow-e-so-te_ had command of the village, and we
+trappers had to obey him, too.
+
+"We started off slow; nobody war allowed to go ahead of camp. In this
+manner we caused the buffalo to move on before us, but not to be
+alarmed. We war eight or ten days traveling from the Beaver-head to
+Missouri Lake, and by the time we got thar, the whole plain around the
+lake war crowded with buffalo, and it war a splendid sight!
+
+"In the morning the old chief harangued the men of his village, and
+ordered us all to get ready for the surround. About nine o'clock every
+man war mounted, and we began to move.
+
+"That war a sight to make a man's blood warm! A thousand men, all
+trained hunters, on horseback, carrying their guns, and with their
+horses painted in the height of Indians' fashion. We advanced until
+within about half a mile of the herd; then the chief ordered us to
+deploy to the right and left, until the wings of the column extended a
+long way, and advance again.
+
+"By this time the buffalo war all moving, and we had come to within a
+hundred yards of them. _Kow-e-so-te_ then gave us the word, and away we
+went, pell-mell. Heavens, what a charge! What a rushing and roaring--men
+shooting, buffalo bellowing and trampling until the earth shook under
+them!
+
+"It war the work of half an hour to slay two thousand or may be three
+thousand animals. When the work was over, we took a view of the field.
+Here and there and everywhere, laid the slain buffalo. Occasionally a
+horse with a broken leg war seen; or a man with a broken arm; or maybe
+he had fared worse, and had a broken head.
+
+"Now came out the women of the village to help us butcher and pack up
+the meat. It war a big job; but we war not long about it. By night the
+camp war full of meat, and everybody merry. Bridger's camp, which war
+passing that way, traded with the village for fifteen hundred buffalo
+tongues--the tongue being reckoned a choice part of the animal. And
+that's the way we helped the Nez Perces hunt buffalo."
+
+"But when you were hunting for your own subsistence in camp, you
+sometimes went out in small parties?"
+
+"Oh yes, it war the same thing on a smaller scale. One time Kit Carson
+and myself, and a little Frenchman, named Marteau, went to run buffalo
+on Powder River. When we came in sight of the band it war agreed that
+Kit and the Frenchman should do the running, and I should stay with the
+pack animals. The weather war very cold and I didn't like my part of the
+duty much.
+
+"The Frenchman's horse couldn't run; so I lent him mine. Kit rode his
+own; not a good buffalo horse either. In running, my horse fell with the
+Frenchman, and nearly killed him. Kit, who couldn't make his horse
+catch, jumped off, and caught mine, and tried it again. This time he
+came up with the band, and killed four fat cows.
+
+"When I came up with the pack-animals, I asked Kit how he came by my
+horse. He explained, and wanted to know if I had seen anything of
+Marteau: said my horse had fallen with him, and he thought killed him.
+'You go over the other side of yon hill, and see,' said Kit.
+
+"What'll I do with him if he is dead?" said I.
+
+"Can't you pack him to camp?"
+
+"Pack ----" said I; "I should rather pack a load of meat."
+
+"Waal," said Kit, "I'll butcher, if you'll go over and see, anyhow."
+
+"So I went over, and found the dead man leaning his head on his hand,
+and groaning; for he war pretty bad hurt. I got him on his horse,
+though, after a while, and took him back to whar Kit war at work. We
+soon finished the butchering job, and started back to camp with our
+wounded Frenchman, and three loads of fat meat."
+
+"You were not very compassionate toward each other, in the mountains?"
+
+"That war not our business. We had no time for such things. Besides,
+live men war what we wanted; dead ones war of no account."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+1838. From Missouri Lake, Meek started alone for the Gallatin Fork of
+the Missouri, trapping in a mountain basin called Gardiner's Hole.
+Beaver were plenty here, but it was getting late in the season, and the
+weather was cold in the mountains. On his return, in another basin
+called the Burnt Hole, he found a buffalo skull; and knowing that
+Bridger's camp would soon pass that way, wrote on it the number of
+beaver he had taken, and also his intention to go to Fort Hall to sell
+them.
+
+In a few days the camp passing found the skull, which grinned its threat
+at the angry Booshways, as the chuckling trapper had calculated that it
+would. To prevent its execution runners were sent after him, who,
+however, failed to find him, and nothing was known of the supposed
+renegade for some time. But as Bridger passed through Pierre's Hole, on
+his way to Green river to winter, he was surprised at Meek's appearance
+in camp. He was soon invited to the lodge of the Booshways, and called
+to account for his supposed apostacy.
+
+Meek, for a time, would neither deny nor confess, but put on his free
+trapper airs, and laughed in the face of the Booshways. Bridger, who
+half suspected some trick, took the matter lightly, but Dripps was very
+much annoyed, and made some threats, at which Meek only laughed the
+more. Finally the certificate from their own trader, Jo Walker, was
+produced, the new pack of furs surrendered, and Dripps' wrath turned
+into smiles of approval.
+
+Here again Meek parted company with the main camp, and went on an
+expedition with seven other trappers, under John Larison, to the Salmon
+River: but found the cold very severe on this journey, and the grass
+scarce and poor, so that the company lost most of their horses.
+
+On arriving at the Nez Perce village in the Forks of the Salmon, Meek
+found the old chief _Kow-e-so-te_ full of the story of the missionaries
+and their religion, and anxious to hear preaching. Reports were
+continually arriving by the Indians, of the wonderful things which were
+being taught by Mr. and Mrs. Spalding at Lapwai, on the Clearwater, and
+at Waiilatpu, on the Walla-Walla River. It was now nearly two years
+since these missions had been founded, and the number of converts among
+the Nez Perces and Flatheads was already considerable.
+
+Here was an opening for a theological student, such as Joe Meek was!
+After some little assumption of modesty, Meek intimated that he thought
+himself capable of giving instruction on religious subjects; and being
+pressed by the chief, finally consented to preach to _Kow-e-so-te's_
+people. Taking care first to hold a private council with his associates,
+and binding them not to betray him, Meek preached his first sermon that
+evening, going regularly through with the ordinary services of a
+"meeting."
+
+These services were repeated whenever the Indians seemed to desire it,
+until Christmas. Then, the village being about to start upon a hunt, the
+preacher took occasion to intimate to the chief that a wife would be an
+agreeable present. To this, however, _Kow-e-so-te_ demurred, saying that
+Spalding's religion did not permit men to have two wives: that the Nez
+Perces had many of them given up their wives on this account; and that
+therefore, since Meek already had one wife among the Nez Perces, he
+could not have another without being false to the religion he professed.
+
+To this perfectly clear argument Meek replied, that among white men, if
+a man's wife left him without his consent, as his had done, he could
+procure a divorce, and take another wife. Besides, he could tell him how
+the Bible related many stories of its best men having several wives. But
+_Kow-e-so-te_ was not easily convinced. He could not see how, if the
+Bible approved of polygamy, Spalding should insist on the Indians
+putting away all but one of their wives. "However," says Meek, "after
+about two weeks' explanation of the doings of Solomon and David, I
+succeeded in getting the chief to give me a young girl, whom I called
+Virginia;--my present wife, and the mother of seven children."
+
+After accompanying the Indians on their hunt to the Beaver-head country,
+where they found plenty of buffalo, Meek remained with the Nez Perce
+village until about the first of March, when he again intimated to the
+chief that it was the custom of white men to pay their preachers.
+Accordingly the people were notified, and the winter's salary began to
+arrive. It amounted altogether to thirteen horses, and many packs of
+beaver, beside sheep-skins and buffalo-robes; so that he "considered
+that with his young wife, he had made a pretty good winter's work of
+it."
+
+In March he set out trapping again, in company with one of his comrades
+named Allen, a man to whom he was much attached. They traveled along up
+and down the Salmon, to Godin's River, Henry's Fork of the Snake, to
+Pierre's Fork, and Lewis' Fork, and the Muddy, and finally set their
+traps on a little stream that runs out of the pass which leads to
+Pierre's Hole.
+
+Leaving their camp one morning to take up their traps, they were
+discovered and attacked by a party of Blackfeet just as they came near
+the trapping ground. The only refuge at hand was a thicket of willows on
+the opposite side of the creek, and towards this the trappers directed
+their flight. Meek, who was in advance, succeeded in gaining the thicket
+without being seen; but Allen stumbled and fell in crossing the stream,
+and wet his gun. He quickly recovered his footing and crossed over; but
+the Blackfeet had seen him enter the thicket, and came up to within a
+short distance, yet not approaching too near the place where they knew
+he was concealed. Unfortunately, Allen, in his anxiety to be ready for
+defense, commenced snapping caps on his gun to dry it. The quick ears of
+the savages caught the sound, and understood the meaning of it. Knowing
+him to be defenceless, they plunged into the thicket after him, shooting
+him almost immediately, and dragging him out still breathing to a small
+prairie about two rods away.
+
+And now commenced a scene which Meek was compelled to witness, and which
+he declares nearly made him insane through sympathy, fear, horror, and
+suspense as to his own fate. Those devils incarnate deliberately cut up
+their still palpitating victim into a hundred pieces, each taking a
+piece; accompanying the horrible and inhuman butchery with every
+conceivable gesture of contempt for the victim, and of hellish delight
+in their own acts.
+
+Meek, who was only concealed by the small patch of willows, and a pit in
+the sand hastily scooped out with his knife until it was deep enough to
+lie in, was in a state of the most fearful excitement. All day long he
+had to endure the horrors of his position. Every moment seemed an hour,
+every hour a day, until when night came, and the Indians left the place,
+he was in a high state of fever.
+
+About nine o'clock that night he ventured to creep to the edge of the
+little prairie, where he lay and listened a long time, without hearing
+anything but the squirrels running over the dry leaves; but which he
+constantly feared was the stealthy approach of the enemy. At last,
+however, he summoned courage to crawl out on to the open ground, and
+gradually to work his way to a wooded bluff not far distant. The next
+day he found two of his horses, and with these set out alone for Green
+River, where the American Company was to rendezvous. After twenty-six
+days of solitary and cautious travel he reached the appointed place in
+safety, having suffered fearfully from the recollection of the tragic
+scene he had witnessed in the death of his friend, and also from
+solitude and want of food.
+
+The rendezvous of this year was at Bonneville's old fort on Green River,
+and was the last one held in the mountains by the American Fur Company.
+Beaver was growing scarce, and competition was strong. On the disbanding
+of the company, some went to Santa Fe, some to California, others to the
+Lower Columbia, and a few remained in the mountains trapping, and
+selling their furs to the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall. As to the
+leaders, some of them continued for a few years longer to trade with the
+Indians, and others returned to the States, to lose their fortunes more
+easily far than they made them.
+
+Of the men who remained in the mountains trapping, that year, Meek was
+one. Leaving his wife at Fort Hall, he set out in company with a
+Shawnee, named Big Jim, to take beaver on Salt River, a tributary of the
+Snake. The two trappers had each his riding and his pack horse, and at
+night generally picketed them all; but one night Big Jim allowed one of
+his to remain loose to graze. This horse, after eating for some hours,
+came back and laid down behind the other horses, and every now and then
+raised up his head; which slight movement at length aroused Big Jim's
+attention, and his suspicions also.
+
+"My friend," said he in a whisper to Meek, "Indian steal our horses."
+
+"Jump up and shoot," was the brief answer.
+
+Jim shot, and ran out to see the result. Directly he came back saying:
+"My friend, I shoot my horse; break him neck;" and Big Jim became
+disconsolate over what his white comrade considered a very good joke.
+
+The hunt was short and not very remunerative in furs. Meek soon returned
+to Fort Hall; and when he did so, found his new wife had left that post
+in company with a party under Newell, to go to Fort Crockett, on Green
+River,--Newell's wife being a sister of Virginia's,--on learning which
+he started on again alone, to join that party. On Bear River, he fell in
+with a portion of that Quixotic band, under Farnham, which was looking
+for paradise and perfection, something on the Fourier plan, somewhere in
+this western wilderness. They had already made the discovery in crossing
+the continent, that perfect disinterestedness was lacking among
+themselves; and that the nearer they got to their western paradise the
+farther off it seemed in their own minds.
+
+Continuing his journey alone, soon after parting from Farnham, he lost
+the hammer of his gun, which accident deprived him of the means of
+subsisting himself, and he had no dried meat, nor provisions of any
+kind. The weather, too, was very cold, increasing the necessity for food
+to support animal heat. However, the deprivation of food was one of the
+accidents to which mountain-men were constantly liable, and one from
+which he had often suffered severely; therefore he pushed on, without
+feeling any unusual alarm, and had arrived within fifteen miles of the
+fort before he yielded to the feeling of exhaustion, and laid down
+beside the trail to rest. Whether he would ever have finished the
+journey alone he could not tell; but fortunately for him, he was
+discovered by Jo Walker, and Gordon, another acquaintance, who chanced
+to pass that way toward the fort.
+
+Meek answered their hail, and inquired if they had anything to eat.
+Walker replied in the affirmative, and getting down from his horse,
+produced some dried buffalo meat which he gave to the famishing trapper.
+But seeing the ravenous manner in which he began to eat, Walker inquired
+how long it had been since he had eaten anything.
+
+"Five days since I had a bite."
+
+"Then, my man, you can't have any more just now," said Walker, seizing
+the meat in alarm lest Meek should kill himself.
+
+"It was hard to see that meat packed away again," says Meek in relating
+his sufferings, "I told Walker that if my gun had a hammer I'd shoot and
+eat him. But he talked very kindly, and helped me on my horse, and we
+all went on to the Fort."
+
+At Fort Crockett were Newell and his party, the remainder of Farnham's
+party, a trading party under St. Clair, who owned the fort, Kit Carson,
+and a number of Meek's former associates, including Craig and Wilkins.
+Most of these men, Othello-like, had lost their occupation since the
+disbanding of the American Fur Company, and were much at a loss
+concerning the future. It was agreed between Newell and Meek to take
+what beaver they had to Fort Hall, to trade for goods, and return to
+Fort Crockett, where they would commence business on their own account
+with the Indians.
+
+Accordingly they set out, with one other man belonging to Farnham's
+former adherents. They traveled to Henry's Fork, to Black Fork, where
+Fort Bridger now is, to Bear River, to Soda Springs, and finally to Fort
+Hall, suffering much from cold, and finding very little to eat by the
+way. At Fort Hall, which was still in charge of Courtenay Walker, Meek
+and Newell remained a week, when, having purchased their goods and
+horses to pack them, they once more set out on the long, cold journey to
+Fort Crockett. They had fifteen horses to take care of and only one
+assistant, a Snake Indian called Al. The return proved an arduous and
+difficult undertaking. The cold was very severe; they had not been able
+to lay in a sufficient stock of provisions at Fort Hall, and game there
+was none, on the route. By the time they arrived at Ham's Fork the only
+atom of food they had left was a small piece of bacon which they had
+been carefully saving to eat with any poor meat they might chance to
+find.
+
+The next morning after camping on Ham's Fork was stormy and cold, the
+snow filling the air; yet Snake Al, with a promptitude by no means
+characteristic of him, rose early and went out to look after the horses.
+
+"By that same token," said Meek to Newell, "Al has eaten the bacon." And
+so it proved, on investigation. Al's uneasy conscience having acted as a
+goad to stir him up to begin his duties in season. On finding his
+conjecture confirmed, Meek declared his intention, should no game be
+found before next day night, of killing and eating Al, to get back the
+stolen bacon. But Providence interfered to save Al's bacon. On the
+following afternoon the little party fell in with another still smaller
+but better supplied party of travelers, comprising a Frenchman and his
+wife. These had plenty of fat antelope meat, which they freely parted
+with to the needy ones, whom also they accompanied to Fort Crockett.
+
+It was now Christmas; and the festivities which took place at the Fort
+were attended with a good deal of rum drinking, in which Meek, according
+to his custom, joined, and as a considerable portion of their stock in
+trade consisted of this article, it may fairly be presumed that the home
+consumption of these two "lone traders" amounted to the larger half of
+what they had with so much trouble transported from Fort Hall. In fact,
+"times were bad enough" among the men so suddenly thrown upon their own
+resources among the mountains, at a time when that little creature,
+which had made mountain life tolerable, or possible, was fast being
+exterminated.
+
+To make matters more serious, some of the worst of the now unemployed
+trappers had taken to a life of thieving and mischief which made enemies
+of the friendly Indians, and was likely to prevent the better disposed
+from enjoying security among any of the tribes. A party of these
+renegades, under a man named Thompson, went over to Snake River to steal
+horses from the Nez Perces. Not succeeding in this, they robbed the
+Snake Indians of about forty animals, and ran them off to the Uintee,
+the Indians following and complaining to the whites at Fort Crockett
+that their people had been robbed by white trappers, and demanding
+restitution.
+
+According to Indian law, when one of a tribe offends, the whole tribe is
+responsible. Therefore if whites stole their horses they might take
+vengeance on any whites they met, unless the property was restored. In
+compliance with this well understood requisition of Indian law, a party
+was made up at Fort Crockett to go and retake the horses, and restore
+them to their rightful owners. This party consisted of Meek, Craig,
+Newell, Carson, and twenty-five others, under the command of Jo Walker.
+
+The horses were found on an island in Green River, the robbers having
+domiciled themselves in an old fort at the mouth of the Uintee. In order
+to avoid having a fight with the renegades, whose white blood the
+trappers were not anxious to spill, Walker made an effort to get the
+horses off the island undiscovered. But while horses and men were
+crossing the river on the ice, the ice sinking with them until the water
+was knee-deep, the robbers discovered the escape of their booty, and
+charging on the trappers tried to recover the horses. In this effort
+they were not successful; while Walker made a masterly flank movement
+and getting in Thompson's rear, ran the horses into the fort, where he
+stationed his men, and succeeded in keeping the robbers on the outside.
+Thompson then commenced giving the horses away to a village of Utes in
+the neighborhood of the fort, on condition that they should assist in
+retaking them. On his side, Walker threatened the Utes with dire
+vengeance if they dared interfere. The Utes who had a wholesome fear not
+only of the trappers, but of their foes the Snakes, declined to enter
+into the quarrel. After a day of strategy, and of threats alternated
+with arguments, strengthened by a warlike display, the trappers marched
+out of the fort before the faces of the discomfitted thieves, taking
+their booty with them, which was duly restored to the Snakes on their
+return to Fort Crockett, and peace secured once more with that people.
+
+Still times continued bad. The men not knowing what else to do, went out
+in small parties in all directions seeking adventures, which generally
+were not far to find. On one of these excursions Meek went with a party
+down the canyon of Green River, on the ice. For nearly a hundred miles
+they traveled down this awful canyon without finding but one place where
+they could have come out; and left it at last at the mouth of the
+Uintee.
+
+This passed the time until March. Then the company of Newell and Meek
+was joined by Antoine Rubideau, who had brought goods from Santa Fe to
+trade with the Indians. Setting out in company, they traded along up
+Green River to the mouth of Ham's fork, and camped. The snow was still
+deep in the mountains, and the trappers found great sport in running
+antelope. On one occasion a large herd, numbering several hundreds, were
+run on to the ice, on Green River, where they were crowded into an air
+hole, and large numbers slaughtered only for the cruel sport which they
+afforded.
+
+But killing antelope needlessly was not by any means the worst of
+amusements practiced in Rubideau's camp. That foolish trader occupied
+himself so often and so long in playing _Hand_, (an Indian game,) that
+before he parted with his new associates he had gambled away his goods,
+his horses, and even his wife; so that he returned to Santa Fe much
+poorer than nothing--since he was in debt.
+
+On the departure of Rubideau, Meek went to Fort Hall, and remained in
+that neighborhood, trapping and trading for the Hudson's Bay Company,
+until about the last of June, when he started for the old rendezvous
+places of the American Companies, hoping to find some divisions of them
+at least, on the familiar camping ground. But his journey was in vain.
+Neither on Green River or Wind River, where for ten years he had been
+accustomed to meet the leaders and their men, his old comrades in
+danger, did he find a wandering brigade even. The glory of the American
+companies was departed, and he found himself solitary among his long
+familiar haunts.
+
+With many melancholy reflections, the man of twenty-eight years of age
+recalled how, a mere boy, he had fallen half unawares into the kind of
+life he had ever since led amongst the mountains, with only other men
+equally the victims of circumstance, and the degraded savages, for his
+companions. The best that could be made of it, such life had been and
+must be constantly deteriorating to the minds and souls of himself and
+his associates. Away from all laws, and refined habits of living; away
+from the society of religious, modest, and accomplished women; always
+surrounded by savage scenes, and forced to cultivate a taste for
+barbarous things--what had this life made of him? what was he to do with
+himself in the future?
+
+Sick of trapping and hunting, with brief intervals of carousing, he felt
+himself to be. And then, even if he were not, the trade was no longer
+profitable enough to support him. What could he do? where could he go?
+He remembered his talk with Mrs. Whitman, that fair, tall, courteous,
+and dignified lady who had stirred in him longings to return to the
+civilized life of his native state. But he felt unfit for the society of
+such as she. Would he ever, could he ever attain to it now? He had
+promised her he might go over into Oregon and settle down. But could he
+settle down? Should he not starve at trying to do what other men,
+mechanics and farmers, do? And as to learning, he had none of it; there
+was no hope then of "living by his wits," as some men did--missionaries
+and artists and school teachers, some of whom he had met at the
+rendezvous. Heigho! to be checkmated in life at twenty-eight, that would
+never do.
+
+At Fort Hall, on his return, he met two more missionaries and their
+wives going to Oregon, but these four did not affect him pleasantly; he
+had no mind to go with them. Instead, he set out on what proved to be
+his last trapping expedition, with a Frenchman, named Mattileau. They
+visited the old trapping grounds on Pierre's Fork, Lewis' Lake,
+Jackson's River, Jackson's Hole, Lewis River and Salt River: but beaver
+were scarce; and it was with a feeling of relief that, on returning by
+way of Bear River, Meek heard from a Frenchman whom he met there, that
+he was wanted at Fort Hall, by his friend Newell, who had something to
+propose to him.
+
+[Illustration: CASTLE ROCK.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+1840. When Meek arrived at Fort Hall, where Newell was awaiting him, he
+found that the latter had there the two wagons which Dr. Whitman had
+left at the points on the journey where further transportation by their
+means had been pronounced impossible. The Doctor's idea of finding a
+passable wagon-road over the lava plains and the heavily timbered
+mountains lying between Fort Hall and the Columbia River, seemed to
+Newell not so wild a one as it was generally pronounced to be in the
+mountains. At all events, he was prepared to undertake the journey. The
+wagons were put in traveling order, and horses and mules purchased for
+the expedition.
+
+"Come," said Newell to Meek, "we are done with this life in the
+mountains--done with wading in beaver-dams, and freezing or starving
+alternately--done with Indian trading and Indian fighting. The fur trade
+is dead in the Rocky Mountains, and it is no place for us now, if ever
+it was. We are young yet, and have life before us. We cannot waste it
+here; we cannot or will not return to the States. Let us go down to the
+Wallamet and take farms. There is already quite a settlement there made
+by the Methodist Mission and the Hudson's Bay Company's retired
+servants.
+
+"I have had some talk with the Americans who have gone down there, and
+the talk is that the country is going to be settled up by our people,
+and that the Hudson's Bay Company are not going to rule this country
+much longer. What do you say, Meek? Shall we turn American settlers?"
+
+"I'll go where you do, Newell. What suits you suits me."
+
+"I thought you'd say so, and that's why I sent for you, Meek. In my way
+of thinking, a white man is a little better than a Canadian Frenchman.
+I'll be ---- if I'll hang 'round a post of the Hudson's Bay Company. So
+you'll go?"
+
+"I reckon I will! What have you got for me to do? _I_ haven't got
+anything to begin with but a wife and baby!"
+
+"Well, you can drive one of the wagons, and take your family and traps
+along. Nicholas will drive the other, and I'll play leader, and look
+after the train. Craig will go also, so we shall be quite a party, with
+what strays we shall be sure to pick up."
+
+Thus it was settled. Thus Oregon began to receive her first real
+emigrants, who were neither fur-traders nor missionaries, but true
+frontiersmen--border-men. The training which the mountain-men had
+received in the service of the fur companies admirably fitted them to
+be, what afterwards they became, a valuable and indispensable element in
+the society of that country in whose peculiar history they played an
+important part. But we must not anticipate their acts before we have
+witnessed their gradual transformation from lawless rangers of the
+wilderness, to law-abiding and even law-making and law-executing
+citizens of an isolated territory.
+
+In order to understand the condition of things in the Wallamet Valley,
+or Lower Columbia country, it will be necessary to revert to the
+earliest history of that territory, as sketched in the first chapter of
+this book. A history of the fur companies is a history of Oregon up to
+the year 1834, so far as the occupation of the country was concerned.
+But its political history was begun long before--from the time (May
+11th, 1792) when the captain of a New England coasting and fur-trading
+vessel entered the great "River of the West," which nations had been
+looking for a hundred years. At the very time when the inquisitive
+Yankee was heading his little vessel through the white line of breakers
+at the mouth of the long-sought river, a British exploring expedition
+was scanning the shore between it and the Straits of Fuca, having wisely
+declared its scientific opinion that there was no such river on that
+coast. Vancouver, the chief of that expedition, so assured the Yankee
+trader, whose views did not agree with his own: and, Yankee-like, the
+trader turned back to satisfy himself.
+
+A bold and lucky man was Captain Gray of the ship _Columbia_. No
+explorer he--only an adventurous and, withal, a prudent trader, with an
+eye to the main chance; emulous, too, perhaps, of a little glory! It is
+impossible to conceive how he could have done this thing calmly. We
+think his stout heart must have shivered somewhat, both with
+anticipation and dread, as he ran for the "opening," and plunged into
+the frightful tumult--straight through the proper channel, thank God!
+and sailed out on to the bosom of that beautiful bay, twenty-five miles
+by six, which the great river forms at its mouth.
+
+We trust the morning was fine: for then Captain Gray must have beheld a
+sight which a discoverer should remember for a lifetime. This
+magnificent bay, surrounded by lofty hills, clad thick with noble
+forests of fir, and fretted along its margin with spurs of the
+highlands, forming other smaller bays and coves, into which ran streams
+whose valleys were hidden among the hills. From beyond the farthest
+point, whose dark ridge jutted across this inland sea, flowed down the
+deep, broad river, whose course and origin was still a magnificent
+mystery, but which indicated by its volume that it drained a mighty
+region of probable great fertility and natural wealth. Perhaps Captain
+Gray did not fully realize the importance of his discovery. If the day
+was fine, with a blue sky, and the purple shadows lying in among the
+hills, with smooth water before him and the foamy breakers behind--_if_
+he felt what his discovery was, in point of importance, to the world, he
+was a proud and happy man, and enjoyed the reward of his daring.
+
+The only testimony on that head is the simple entry on his log-book,
+telling us that he had named the river "_Columbia's River_,"--with an
+apostrophe, that tiny point intimating much. This was one ground of the
+American claim, though Vancouver, after Gray had reported his success to
+him, sent a lieutenant to explore the river, and then claimed the
+discovery for England! The next claim of the United States upon the
+Oregon territory was by virtue of the Florida treaty and the Louisiana
+purchase. These, and the general one of natural boundaries, England
+contested also. Hence the treaty of joint occupancy for a term of ten
+years, renewable, unless one of the parties to it gave a twelve-month's
+notice of intention to withdraw. Meantime this question of territorial
+claims hung over the national head like the sword suspended by a hair,
+which statesmen delight in referring to. We did not dare to say Oregon
+was ours, because we were afraid England would make war on us; and
+England did not dare say Oregon was hers, for the same reason. Therefore
+"joint-occupancy" was the polite word with which statesmen glossed over
+the fact that Great Britain actually possessed the country through the
+monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company. That company had a good thing so
+long as the government of Great Britain prevented any outbreak, by
+simply renewing the treaty every ten years. Their manner of doing
+business was such as to prevent any less powerful corporation from
+interfering with them, while individual enterprise was sure to be
+crushed at the start.
+
+But "man proposes and God disposes." In 1834, the Methodist Episcopal
+Board of Missions sent out four missionaries to labor among the Indians.
+These were two preachers, the Rev. Messrs. Jason and Daniel Lee, and two
+lay members, Cyrus Shepard and P.L. Edwards. These gentlemen were
+liberally furnished with all the necessaries and comforts of life by the
+Board, in addition to which they received the kindest attentions and
+consideration from the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at
+Vancouver. Their vessel, the _May Dacre_, Captain Lambert, had arrived
+safely in the river with the mission goods. The gentlemen at Vancouver
+encouraged their enterprise, and advised them to settle in the Wallamet
+valley, the most fertile tract of country west of the Rocky Mountains.
+Being missionaries, nothing was to be feared from them in the way of
+trade. The Wallamet valley was a good country for the mission--at the
+same time it was south of the Columbia River. This latter consideration
+was not an unimportant one with the Hudson's Bay Company, it being
+understood among those in the confidence of the British government, that
+in case the Oregon territory had to be divided with the United States,
+the Columbia River would probably be made the northern boundary of the
+American possessions.
+
+There was nothing in the character of the Christian Missionary's labor
+which the Hudson's Bay Company could possibly object to without a
+palpable violation of the Convention of 1818. Therefore, although the
+Methodist mission in the Wallamet Valley received a large accession to
+its numbers in 1837, they were as kindly welcomed as had been those of
+1834; and also those Presbyterian missionaries of 1836, who had settled
+in the "upper country."
+
+Three points, however, the Hudson's Bay Company insisted upon, so far
+as, under the treaty, they could; the Americans must not trade with the
+Indians, but confine themselves to agricultural pursuits and missionary
+labor, and keep on the south side of the Columbia.
+
+Not an immigrant entered Oregon in that day who did not proceed at once
+to Vancouver: nor was there one who did not meet with the most liberal
+and hospitable treatment. Neither was this hospitality a trifling
+benefit; to the weary traveler just arrived from a long and most
+fatiguing journey, it was extremely welcome and refreshing. At Vancouver
+was the only society, and the only luxurious living to be enjoyed on the
+whole Northwest coast.
+
+At the head of the first was Dr. John McLaughlin, already mentioned as
+the Chief Factor, and Deputy Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in
+Oregon, and all the Northwest. He was of Scotch origin, and Canadian
+birth, a gentleman bred, with a character of the highest integrity, to
+which were united justice and humanity. His position as head of the
+Hudson's Bay Company's affairs, was no enviable one during that period
+of Oregon history which followed the advent of Americans in the Wallamet
+Valley. Himself a British subject, and a representative of that powerful
+corporation which bent the British Government to its will, he was bound
+to execute its commands when they did not conflict too strongly with his
+consciousness of right and justice.
+
+As has been stated, the Methodist mission settlement was reinforced in
+1837, by the arrival of about twenty persons, among whom were several
+ladies, and a few children. These, like those preceding them, were first
+entertained at Fort Vancouver before proceeding to the mission, which
+was between fifty and sixty miles up the Wallamet, in the heart of that
+delightful valley. These persons came by a sailing vessel around Cape
+Horn, bringing with them supplies for the mission.
+
+In the two following years there were about a dozen missionary arrivals
+overland, all of whom tarried a short time at the American Company's
+rendezvous, as before related. These were some of them designed for the
+upper country, but most of them soon settled in the Wallamet valley.
+
+During these years, between 1834 and 1840, there had drifted into the
+valley various persons from California, the Rocky Mountains, and from
+the vessels which sometimes appeared in the Columbia; until at the time
+when Newell and Meek resolved to quit the mountains, the American
+settlers numbered nearly one hundred, men, women, and children. Of
+these, about thirty belonged to the missions; the remainder were
+mountain-men, sailors, and adventurers. The mountain-men, most of them,
+had native wives. Besides the Americans there were sixty Canadian
+Frenchmen, who had been retired upon farms by the Hudson's Bay Company;
+and who would probably have occupied these farms so long as the H.B.
+Company should have continued to do business in Oregon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+When it was settled that Newell and Meek were to go to the Wallamet,
+they lost no time in dallying, but packed the wagons with whatever they
+possessed in the way of worldly goods, topped them with their Nez Perce
+wives and half-breed children, and started for Walla-Walla, accompanied
+by Craig, another mountain-man, and either followed or accompanied by
+several others. Meek drove a five-in-hand team of four horses and one
+mule. Nicholas drove the other team of four horses, and Newell, who
+owned the train, was mounted as leader.
+
+The journey was no easy one, extending as it did over immense plains of
+lava, round impassable canyons, over rapid unbridged rivers, and over
+mountains hitherto believed to be only passable for pack trains. The
+honor which has heretofore been accorded to the Presbyterian
+missionaries solely, of opening a wagon road from the Rocky Mountains to
+the Columbia River, should in justice be divided with these two
+mountaineers, who accomplished the most difficult part of this difficult
+journey.
+
+Arrived at Fort Boise, a post of the Hudson's Bay Company, the little
+caravan stopped for a few days to rest and recruit their animals. With
+the usual courtesy of that Company, Mr. Payette, the trader in charge,
+offered Newell quarters in the fort, as leader of his party. To Meek and
+Craig who were encamped outside, he sent a piece of sturgeon with his
+compliments, which our incipient Oregonians sent back again with
+_their_ compliments. No Hudson's Bay distinctions of rank for them! No,
+indeed! The moment that an American commenced to think of himself as a
+settler on the most remote corner of American soil, that moment, as if
+by instinct, he began to defend and support his republicanism.
+
+After a few days' rest, the party went on, encountering, as might be
+expected, much difficulty and toil, but arriving safely after a
+reasonable time at the Columbia River, at the junction of the Umatilla.
+Here the wagons and stock were crossed over, and the party proceeded
+directly to Dr. Whitman's mission at Waiilatpu. Dr. Whitman gave them a
+friendly reception; killing for them, if not the fatted calf, the
+fattest hog he had; telling Meek at the same time that "fat pork was
+good for preachers," referring to Meek's missionary labors among the Nez
+Perces.
+
+During the three years since the commencement of the mission at
+Waiilatpu considerable advancement had been made in the progress of
+civilization among the Cayuses. Quite a number of Indian children were
+domesticated with Mrs. Whitman, who were rapidly acquiring a knowledge
+of housekeeping, sewing, reading, and writing, and farm labor. With Mrs.
+Whitman, for whom Meek still entertained great admiration and respect,
+he resolved to leave his little girl, Helen Mar; the fruit of his
+connexion with the Nez Perce woman who persisted in abandoning him in
+the mountains, as already related. Having thus made provision for the
+proper instruction of his daughter, and conferred with the Doctor on the
+condition of the American settlers in Oregon--the Doctor being an ardent
+American--Meek and his associates started once more for the Wallamet.
+
+At Walla-Walla Newell decided to leave the wagons, the weather having
+become so rainy and disagreeable as to make it doubtful about getting
+them over the Cascade Mountains that fall. Accordingly the goods were
+transferred to pack-horses for the remainder of the journey. In the
+following year, however, one of the wagons was brought down by Newell,
+and taken to the plains on the Tualatin River, being the first vehicle
+of the kind in the Wallamet Valley.
+
+On arriving at the Dalles of the Columbia, our mountain men found that a
+mission had been established at that place for the conversion of those
+inconscionable thieves, the Wish-ram Indians, renowned in Indian history
+for their acquisitiveness. This mission was under the charge of Daniel
+Lee and a Mr. Perkins, and was an offshoot of the Methodist Mission in
+the Wallamet Valley. These gentlemen having found the benighted
+condition of the Indians to exceed their powers of enlightment in any
+ordinary way, were having recourse to extraordinary efforts, and were
+carrying on what is commonly termed a _revival_; though what piety there
+was in the hearts of these savages to be revived, it would be difficult
+to determine. However, they doubtless hoped so to wrestle with God
+themselves, as to compel a blessing upon their labors.
+
+The Indians indeed were not averse to prayer. They could pray willingly
+and sincerely enough when they could hope for a speedy and actual
+material answer to their prayers. And it was for that, and that only,
+that they importuned the Christian's God. Finding that their prayers
+were not answered according to their desire, it at length became
+difficult to persuade them to pray at all. Sometimes, it is true, they
+succeeded in deluding the missionaries with the belief that they were
+really converted, for a time. One of these most hopeful converts at the
+Dalles mission, being in want of a shirt and capote, volunteered to
+"pray for a whole year," if Mr. Lee would furnish him with these truly
+desirable articles.
+
+It is no wonder that with such hopeless material to work upon the Dalles
+missionaries withdrew from them a portion of their zeal, and bestowed
+it, where it was quite as much needed, upon any "stray mountain-man" who
+chanced to be entertained "within their gates." Newell's party, among
+others, received the well-meant, but not always well-received or
+appreciated attentions of these gentlemen. The American mountaineer was
+not likely to be suddenly surprised into praying in earnest; and he
+generally had too much real reverence to be found making a jest in the
+form of a mocking-prayer.
+
+Not so scrupulous, however, was Jandreau, a lively French Canadian, who
+was traveling in company with the Americans. On being repeatedly
+importuned to pray, with that tireless zeal which distinguishes the
+Methodist preacher above all others, Jandreau appeared suddenly to be
+smitten with a consciousness of his guilt, and kneeling in the midst of
+the 'meeting,' began with clasped hands and upturned eyes to pour forth
+a perfect torrent of words. With wonderful dramatic power he appeared to
+confess, to supplicate, to agonize, in idiomatic French. His tears and
+ejaculations touched the hearts of the missionaries, and filled them
+with gladness. They too ejaculated and wept, with frequently uttered
+"Amens" and "hallelujahs," until the scene became highly dramatic and
+exciting. In the midst of this grand tableau, when the enthusiasm was at
+its height, Jandreau suddenly ceased and rose to his feet, while an
+irrepressible outburst of laughter from his associates aroused the
+astonished missionaries to a partial comprehension of the fact that they
+had been made the subjects of a practical joke, though they never knew
+to exactly how great an extent.
+
+The mischievous Frenchman had only recited with truly artistic power,
+and with such variations as the situation suggested, one of the most
+wonderful and effective tales from the _Arabian Nights Entertainment_,
+with which he was wont to delight and amuse his comrades beside the
+winter camp-fire!
+
+But Jandreau was called to account when he arrived at Vancouver. Dr.
+McLaughlin had heard the story from some of the party, and resolved to
+punish the man's irreverence, at the same time that he gave himself a
+bit of amusement. Sending for the Rev. Father Blanchet, who was then
+resident at Vancouver, he informed him of the circumstance, and together
+they arranged Jandreau's punishment. He was ordered to appear in their
+united presence, and make a true statement of the affair. Jandreau
+confessed that he had done what he was accused of doing--made a mock of
+prayer, and told a tale instead of offering a supplication. He was then
+ordered by the Rev. Father to rehearse the scene exactly as it occurred,
+in order that he might judge of the amount of his guilt, and apportion
+him his punishment.
+
+Trembling and abashed, poor Jandreau fell upon his knees and began the
+recital with much trepidation. But as he proceeded he warmed with the
+subject, his dramatic instinct asserted itself, tears streamed, and
+voice and eyes supplicated, until this second representation threatened
+to outdo the first. With outward gravity and inward mirth his two solemn
+judges listened to the close, and when Jandreau rose quite exhausted
+from his knees, Father Blanchet hastily dismissed him with an admonition
+and a light penance. As the door of Dr. McLaughlin's office closed
+behind him, not only the Doctor, but Father Blanchet indulged in a burst
+of long restrained laughter at the comical absurdities of this impious
+Frenchman.
+
+To return to our immigrants. On leaving the Dalles they proceeded on
+down the south side of the river as far as practicable, or opposite to
+the Wind Mountain. At this point the Indians assisted to cross them over
+to the north side, when they again made their way along the river as far
+as _Tea Prairie_ above Vancouver. The weather was execrable, with a
+pouring rain, and sky of dismal gray; December being already far
+advanced. Our travelers were not in the best of humors: indeed a
+saint-like amiability is seldom found in conjunction with rain, mud,
+fatigue, and an empty stomach. Some ill-natured suspicions were uttered
+to the effect that the Indians who were assisting to cross the party at
+this point, had stolen some ropes that were missing.
+
+Upon this dishonorable insinuation the Indian heart was fired, and a
+fight became imminent. This undesirable climax to emigrant woes was
+however averted by an attack upon the indignant natives with firebrands,
+when they prudently retired, leaving the travelers to pursue their way
+in peace. It was on Sunday that the weary, dirty, hungry little
+procession arrived at a place on the Wallamet River where the present
+town of Milwaukie is situated, and found here two missionaries, the Rev.
+Messrs. Waller and Beers, who were preaching to the Indians.
+
+Meek immediately applied to Mr. Waller for some provisions, and received
+for answer that it was "Sunday." Mr. Waller, however, on being assured
+that it was no more agreeable starving on Sunday than a week-day,
+finally allowed the immigrants to have a peck of small potatoes. But as
+a party of several persons could not long subsist on so short allowance,
+and as there did not seem to be any encouragement to expect more from
+the missionaries, there was no course left to be pursued but to make an
+appeal to Fort Vancouver.
+
+To Fort Vancouver then, Newell went the next day, and returned on the
+following one with some dried salmon, tea, sugar, and sea-bread. It was
+not quite what the mountain-men could have wished, this dependence on
+the Hudson's Bay Company for food, and did not quite agree with what
+they had said when their hearts were big in the mountains. Being
+patriotic on a full stomach is easy compared to being the same thing on
+an empty one; a truth which became more and more apparent as the winter
+progressed, and the new settlers found that if they would eat they must
+ask food of some person or persons outside of the Methodist Mission. And
+outside of that there was in all the country only the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and a few mountain-men like themselves, who had brought nothing
+into the country, and could get nothing out of it at present.
+
+There was but short time in which to consider what was to be done.
+Newell and Meek went to Wallamet Falls, the day after Newell's return
+from Vancouver, and there met an old comrade, Doughty, who was looking
+for a place to locate. The three made their camp together on the west
+side of the river, on a hill overlooking the Falls. While in camp they
+were joined by two other Rocky Mountain men, Wilkins and Ebbarts, who
+were also looking for a place to settle in. There were now six of the
+Rocky Mountain men together; and they resolved to push out into the
+plains to the west of them, and see what could be done in the matter of
+selecting homes.
+
+As for our hero, we fear we cannot say much of him here which would
+serve to render him heroic in criticising Yankee eyes. He was a
+mountain-man, and _that only_. He had neither book learning, nor a
+trade, nor any knowledge of the simplest affairs appertaining to the
+ordinary ways of getting a living. He had only his strong hands, and a
+heart naturally stout and light.
+
+His friend Newell had the advantage of him in several particulars. He
+had rather more book-knowledge, more business experience, and also more
+means. With these advantages he became a sort of "Booshway" among his
+old comrades, who consented to follow his lead in the important movement
+about to be made, and settle in the Tualatin Plains should he decide to
+do so.
+
+Accordingly camp was raised, and the party proceeded to the Plains,
+where they arrived on Christmas, and went into camp again. The hardships
+of mountain life were light compared to the hardships of this winter.
+For in the mountains, when the individual's resources were exhausted,
+there was always the Company to go to, which was practically
+inexhaustible. Should it be necessary, the Company was always willing to
+become the creditor of a good mountain-man. And the debtor gave himself
+no uneasiness, because he knew that if he lived he could discharge his
+indebtedness. But everything was different now. There was no way of
+paying debts, even if there had been a company willing to give them
+credit, which there was not, at least among Americans. Hard times they
+had seen in the mountains; harder times they were likely to see in the
+valley; indeed were already experiencing.
+
+Instead of fat buffalo meat, antelope, and mountain mutton, which made
+the plenty of a camp on Powder River, our carniverous hunters were
+reduced to eating daily a little boiled wheat. In this extremity, Meek
+went on an expedition of discovery across the highlands that border the
+Lower Wallamet, and found on Wappatoo (now Sauvis) Island, a Mr. and
+Mrs. Baldra living, who were in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+and drew rations from them. With great kindness they divided the
+provisions on hand, furnishing him with dried salmon and sea-bread, to
+which he added ducks and swans procured from the Indians. Poor and
+scanty as was the supply thus obtained, it was, after boiled wheat,
+comparative luxury while it lasted.
+
+1841. The winter proved a very disagreeable one. Considerable snow fell
+early, and went off with heavy rains, flooding the whole country. The
+little camp on the Tualatin Plains had no defence from the weather
+better than Indian lodges, and one small cabin built by Doughty on a
+former visit to the Plains; for Doughty had been one of the first of the
+mountain-men to come to the Wallamet on the breaking up of the fur
+companies. Indian lodges, or no lodges at all, were what the men were
+used to; but in the dryer climate of the Rocky Mountains it had not
+seemed such a miserable life, as it now did, where, for months together,
+the ground was saturated with rain, while the air was constantly charged
+with vapor.
+
+As for going anywhere, or doing anything, either were equally
+impossible. No roads, the streams all swollen and out of banks, the
+rains incessant, there was nothing for them but to remain in camp and
+wait for the return of spring. When at last the rainy season was over,
+and the sun shining once more, most of the mountain-men in the Tualatin
+Plains camp took land-claims and set to work improving them. Of those
+who began farming that spring, were Newell, Doughty, Wilkins, and
+Walker. These obtained seed-wheat from the Hudson's Bay Company, also
+such farming implements as they must have, and even oxen to draw the
+plow through the strong prairie sod. The wheat was to be returned to the
+company--the cattle also; and the farming implements paid for whenever
+the debtor became able. This was certainly liberal conduct on the part
+of a company generally understood to be opposed to American settlement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+1841. When spring opened, Meek assisted Newell in breaking the ground
+for wheat. This done, it became necessary to look out for some
+immediately paying employment. But paying occupations were hard to find
+in that new country. At last, like everybody else, Meek found himself,
+if not "hanging about," at least frequently visiting Vancouver. Poor as
+he was, and unpromising as looked the future, he was the same
+light-hearted, reckless, and fearless Joe Meek that he had been in the
+mountains: as jaunty and jolly a ragged mountaineer as ever was seen at
+the Fort. Especially he delighted in recounting his Indian fights,
+because the Company, and Dr. McLaughlin in particular, disapproved the
+American Company's conduct with the Indians.
+
+When the Doctor chanced to overhear Meek's stories, as he sometimes did,
+he would say "Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe,--(a habit the Doctor had of speaking
+rapidly, and repeating his words,)--Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe, you must leave off
+killing Indians, and go to work."
+
+"I can't work," Meek would answer in his impressively slow and smooth
+utterance, at the same time giving his shoulders a slight shrug, and
+looking the Doctor pleasantly in the face.
+
+During the summer, however, the United States Exploring Squadron, under
+Commodore Wilkes, entered the Columbia River, and proceeded to explore
+the country in several directions; and it was now that Meek found an
+employment suited to him; being engaged by Wilkes as pilot and servant
+while on his several tours through the country.
+
+On the arrival of three vessels of the squadron at Vancouver, and the
+first ceremonious visit of Dr. McLaughlin and his associates to
+Commodore Wilkes on board, there was considerable display, the men in
+the yards, saluting, and all the honors due to the representative of a
+friendly foreign power. After dinner, while the guests were walking on
+deck engaged in conversation, the talk turned upon the loss of the
+_Peacock_, one of the vessels belonging to the U.S. squadron, which was
+wrecked on the bar at the mouth of the Columbia. The English gentlemen
+were polite enough to be expressing their regrets at the loss to the
+United States, when Meek, who had picked up a little history in spite of
+his life spent in the mountains, laughingly interrupted with:
+
+"No loss at all, gentlemen. Uncle Sam can get another Peacock the way he
+got that one."
+
+Wilkes, who probably regretted the allusion, as not being consonant with
+the spirit of hospitality, passed over the interruption in silence. But
+when the gentlemen from Vancouver had taken leave he turned to Meek with
+a meaning twinkle in his eyes:
+
+"Meek," said he, "go down to my cabin and you'll find there something
+good to eat, and some first-rate brandy." Of course Meek went.
+
+While Wilkes was exploring in the Cowelitz Valley, with Meek and a
+Hudson's Bay man named Forrest, as guides, he one day laid down in his
+tent to sleep, leaving his chronometer watch lying on the camp-table
+beside him. Forrest, happening to observe that it did not agree with his
+own, which he believed to be correct, very kindly, as he supposed,
+regulated it to agree with his. On awakening and taking up his watch, a
+puzzled expression came over Wilkes' face for a moment, as he discovered
+the change in the time; then one of anger and disappointment, as what
+had occurred flashed over his mind; followed by some rather strong
+expressions of indignation. Forrest was penitent when he perceived the
+mischief done by his meddling, but that would not restore the
+chronometer to the true time: and this accident proved a serious
+annoyance and hindrance during the remainder of the expedition.
+
+After exploring the Cowelitz Valley, Wilkes dispatched a party under
+Lieutenant Emmons, to proceed up the Wallamet Valley, thence south along
+the old trail of the Hudson's Bay Company, to California. Meek was
+employed to pilot this party, which had reached the head of the valley,
+when it became necessary to send for some papers in the possession of
+the Commodore; and he returned to Astoria upon this duty. On joining
+Emmons again he found that some of his men had become disaffected toward
+him; especially Jandreau, the same Frenchman who prayed so dramatically
+at the Dalles.
+
+Jandreau confided to Meek that he hated Emmons, and intended to kill
+him. The next morning when Lieut. E. was examining the arms of the
+party, he fired off Jandreau's gun, which being purposely overcharged,
+flew back and inflicted some injuries upon the Lieutenant.
+
+"What do you mean by loading a gun like that?" inquired Emmons, in a
+rage.
+
+"I meant it to kill two Injuns;--one before, and one behind;" answered
+Jandreau.
+
+As might be conjectured Jandreau was made to fire his own gun after
+that.
+
+The expedition had not proceeded much farther when it again became
+necessary to send an express to Vancouver, and Meek was ordered upon
+this duty. Here he found that Wilkes had purchased a small vessel which
+he named the _Oregon_, with which he was about to leave the country. As
+there was no further use for his services our quondam trapper was again
+thrown out of employment. In this exigency, finding it necessary to make
+some provision for the winter, he became a gleaner of wheat in the
+fields of his more provident neighbors, by which means a sufficient
+supply was secured to keep himself and his small family in food until
+another spring.
+
+When winter set in, Meek paid a visit to the new mission. He had been
+there once before, in the spring, to buy an axe. Think, O reader, of
+traveling fifty or more miles, on horseback, or in a small boat, to
+procure so simple and necessary an article of civilized life as an axe!
+But none of the every-day conveniencies of living grow spontaneously in
+the wilderness--more's the pity:--else life in the wilderness would be
+thought more delightful far than life in the most luxurious of cities;
+inasmuch as Nature is more satisfying than art.
+
+Meek's errand to the mission on this occasion was to find whether he
+could get a cow, and credit at the same time: for the prospect of living
+for another winter on boiled wheat was not a cheerful one. He had not
+succeeded, and was returning, when at Champoeg he met a Mr. Whitcom,
+superintendent of the mission farm. A conversation took place wherein
+Meek's desire for a cow became known. The missionaries never lost an
+opportunity of proposing prayers, and Mr. Whitcom thought this a good
+one. After showing much interest in the condition of Meek's soul, it was
+proposed that he should pray.
+
+"_I_ can't pray: that's your business, not mine," said Meek pleasantly.
+
+"It is every man's business to pray for himself," answered Whitcom.
+
+"Very well; some other time will do for that. What I want now is a cow."
+
+"How can you expect to get what you want, if you wont ask for it?"
+inquired Whitcom.
+
+"I reckon I have asked you; and I don't see nary cow yet."
+
+"You must ask God, my friend: but in the first place you must pray to be
+forgiven for your sins."
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do. If you will furnish the cow, I'll agree to
+pray for half an hour, right here on the spot."
+
+"Down on your knees then."
+
+"You'll furnish the cow?"
+
+"Yes," said Whitcom, fairly cornered.
+
+Down on his knees dropped the merry reprobate, and prayed out his half
+hour, with how much earnestness only himself and God knew.
+
+But the result was what he had come for, a cow; for Whitcom was as good
+as his word, and sent him home rejoicing. And thus, with what he had
+earned from Wilkes, his gleaned wheat, and his cow, he contrived to get
+through another winter.
+
+Perhaps the most important personal event which distinguished this year
+in Meek's history, was the celebration, according to the rites of the
+Christian church, of his marriage with the Nez Perce woman who had
+already borne him two children, and who still lives, the mother of a
+family of seven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+1842. By the opening of another spring, Meek had so far overcome his
+distaste for farm labor as to put in a field of wheat for himself, with
+Doughty, and to make some arrangements about his future subsistence.
+This done, he was ready, as usual, for anything in the way of adventure
+which might turn up. This was, however, a very quiet summer in the
+little colony. Important events were brooding, but as yet results were
+not perceptible, except to the mind of a prophet. The Hudson's Bay
+Company, conformably to British policy, were at work to turn the balance
+of power in Oregon in favor of British occupation, and, unknown even to
+the colonists, the United States Government was taking what measures it
+could to shift the balance in its own favor. Very little was said about
+the subject of government claims among the colonists, but a feeling of
+suspense oppressed all parties.
+
+The work of putting in wheat and improving of farms had just begun to
+slacken a little, when there was an arrival in the Columbia River of a
+vessel from Boston--the _Chenamus_, Captain Couch. The _Chenamus_
+brought a cargo of goods, which were placed in store at Wallamet Falls,
+to be sold to the settlers, being the first successful attempt at trade
+ever made in Oregon, outside of the Hudson's Bay and Methodist Mission
+stores.
+
+When the Fourth of July came, the _Chenamus_ was lying in the Wallamet,
+below the Falls, near where the present city of Portland stands. Meek,
+who was always first to be at any spot where noise, bustle, or
+excitement might be anticipated, and whose fine humor and fund of
+anecdote made him always welcome, had borrowed a boat from Capt. Couch's
+clerk, at the Falls, and gone down to the vessel early in the morning,
+before the salute for the Glorious Fourth was fired. There he remained
+all day, enjoying a patriotic swagger, and an occasional glass of
+something good to drink. Other visitors came aboard during the day,
+which was duly celebrated to the satisfaction of all.
+
+Towards evening, a party from the Mission, wishing to return to the
+Falls, took possession of Meek's borrowed boat to go off with. Now was a
+good opportunity to show the value of free institutions. Meek, like
+other mountain-men, felt the distance which the missionaries placed
+between him and themselves, on the score of their moral and social
+superiority, and resented the freedom with which they appropriated what
+he had with some trouble secured to himself. Intercepting the party when
+more than half of them were seated in the boat, he informed them that
+they were trespassing upon a piece of property which for the present
+belonged to him, and for which he had a very urgent need. Vexed by the
+delay, and by having to relinquish the boat to a man who, according to
+their view of the case, could not "read his title clear," to anything
+either on earth or in heaven, the missionaries expostulated somewhat
+warmly, but Meek insisted, and so compelled them to wait for some better
+opportunity of leaving the ship. Then loading the boat with what was
+much more to the purpose--a good supply of provisions, Meek proceeded to
+drink the Captain's health in a very ostentatious manner, and take his
+leave.
+
+In the meantime, Dr. Marcus Whitman, of the Waiilatpu Mission, in the
+upper country, was so fearful of the intentions of the British
+government that he set out for Washington late in the autumn of 1842, to
+put the Secretary of State on his guard concerning the boundary
+question, and to pray that it might be settled conformably with the
+wishes of the Americans in Oregon.
+
+There was one feature, however, of this otherwise rather entertaining
+race for possession, which was becoming quite alarming. In all this
+strife about claiming the country, the Indian claim had not been
+considered. It has been already intimated that the attempt to civilize
+or Christianize the Indians of western Oregon was practically an entire
+failure. But they were not naturally of a warlike disposition, and had
+been so long under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company that there
+was comparatively little to apprehend from them, even though they felt
+some discontent at the incoming immigration.
+
+But with the Indians of the upper Columbia it was different; especially
+so with the tribes among whom the Presbyterian missionaries were
+settled--the Walla-Wallas, Cayuses, and Nez Perces, three brave and
+powerful nations, much united by intermarriages. The impression which
+these people had first made on the missionaries was very favorable,
+their evident intelligence, inquisitiveness, and desire for religious
+teachings seeming to promise a good reward of missionary labor. Dr.
+Whitman and his associates had been diligent in their efforts to
+civilize and Christianize them--to induce the men to leave off their
+migratory habits and learn agriculture, and the women to learn spinning,
+sewing, cooking, and all the most essential arts of domestic life. At
+the first, the novelty of these new pursuits engaged their interest, as
+it also excited their hope of gain. But the task of keeping them to
+their work with sufficient steadiness, was very great. They required,
+like children, to be bribed with promises of more or less immediate
+reward of their exertions, nor would they relinquish the fulfilment of a
+promise, even though they had failed to perform the conditions on which
+the promise became binding.
+
+By-and-by they made the discovery that neither the missionaries could,
+nor the white man's God did, confer upon them what they desired--the
+enjoyment of all the blessings of the white men--and that if they wished
+to enjoy these blessings, they must labor to obtain them. This discovery
+was very discouraging, inasmuch as the Indian nature is decidedly averse
+to steady labor, and they could perceive that very little was to be
+expected from any progress which could be achieved in one generation. As
+for the Christian faith, they understood about as much of its true
+spirit as savages, with the law of blood written in their hearts, could
+be expected to understand. They looked for nothing more nor less than
+the literal fulfilment of the Bible promises--nothing less would content
+them; and as to the forms of their new religion, they liked them well
+enough--liked singing and praying, and certain orderly observances, the
+chiefs leading in these as in other matters. So much interest did they
+discover at first, that their teachers were deceived as to the actual
+extent of the good they were doing.
+
+As time went on, however, there began to be cause for mutual
+dissatisfaction. The Indians became aware that no matter how many
+concessions their teachers made to them, they were still the inferiors
+of the whites, and that they must ever remain so. But the thought which
+produced the deepest chagrin was, that they had got these white people
+settled amongst them by their own invitation and aid, and that now it
+was evident they were not to be benefited as had been hoped, as the
+whites were turning their attention to benefiting themselves.
+
+As early as 1839, Mr. Smith, an associate of Mr. Spalding in the country
+of the Nez Perces, was forbidden by the high chief of the Nez Perces to
+cultivate the ground. He had been permitted to build, but was assured
+that if he broke the soil for the purpose of farming it, the ground so
+broken should serve to bury him in. Still Smith went on in the spring to
+prepare for ploughing, and the chief seeing him ready to begin, inquired
+if he recollected that he had been forbidden. Yet persisting in his
+undertaking, several of the Indians came to him and taking him by the
+shoulder asked him again "if he did not know that the hole he should
+make in the earth would be made to serve for his grave." Upon which
+third warning Smith left off, and quitted the country. Other
+missionaries also left for the Wallamet Valley.
+
+In 1842 there were three mission stations in the upper country; that of
+Dr. Whitman at Waiilatpu on the Walla-Walla River, that of Mr. Spalding
+on the Clearwater River, called Lapwai, and another on the Spokane
+River, called Cimakain. These missions were from one hundred and twenty
+to three hundred miles distant from each other, and numbered altogether
+only about one dozen whites of both sexes. At each of these stations
+there was a small body of land under cultivation, a few cattle and hogs,
+a flouring and saw mill, and blacksmith shop, and such improvements as
+the needs of the mission demanded. The Indians also cultivated, under
+the direction of their teachers, some little patches of ground,
+generally but a small garden spot, and the fact that they did even so
+much was very creditable to those who labored to instruct them. There
+was no want of ardor or industry in the Presbyterian mission; on the
+contrary they applied themselves conscientiously to the work they had
+undertaken.
+
+But this conscientious discharge of duty did not give them immunity from
+outrage. Both Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman had been rudely handled by
+the Indians, had been struck and spat upon, and had nose and ears
+pulled. Even the delicate and devoted Mrs. Spalding had been grossly
+insulted. Later the Cayuses had assailed Dr. Whitman in his house with
+war-clubs, and broken down doors of communication between the private
+apartments and the public sitting room. Explanations and promises
+generally followed these acts of outrage, yet it would seem that the
+missionaries should have been warned.
+
+Taking advantage of Dr. Whitman's absence, the Cayuses had frightened
+Mrs. Whitman from her home to the Methodist mission at the Dalles, by
+breaking into her bed-chamber at night, with an infamous design from
+which she barely escaped, and by subsequently burning down the mill and
+destroying a considerable quantity of grain. About the same time the Nez
+Perces at the Lapwai mission were very insolent, and had threatened Mr.
+Spalding's life; all of which, one would say, was but a poor return for
+the care and instruction bestowed upon them during six years of patient
+effort on the part of their teachers. Poor as it was, the Indians did
+not see it in that light, but only thought of the danger which
+threatened them, in the possible loss of their country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+1842-3. The plot thickened that winter, in the little drama being
+enacted west of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+The forests which clad the mountains and foot-hills in perpetual
+verdure, and the thickets which skirted the numerous streams flowing
+into the Wallamet, all abounded in wild animals, whose depredations upon
+the domestic cattle, lately introduced into the country, were a serious
+drawback to their natural increase. Not a settler, owning cattle or
+hogs, but had been robbed more or less frequently by the wolves, bears,
+and panthers, which prowled unhindered in the vicinity of their herds.
+
+This was a ground of common interest to all settlers of whatever
+allegiance. Accordingly, a notice was issued that a meeting would be
+held at a certain time and place, to consider the best means of
+preventing the destruction of stock in the country, and all persons
+interested were invited to attend. This meeting was held on the 2d of
+February, 1843, and was well attended by both classes of colonists. It
+served, however, only as a preliminary step to the regular "Wolf
+Association" meeting which took place a month later. At the meeting, on
+the 4th of March, there was a full attendance, and the utmost harmony
+prevailed, notwithstanding there was a well-defined suspicion in the
+minds of the Canadians, that they were going to be called upon to
+furnish protection to something more than the cattle and hogs of the
+settlers.
+
+After the proper parliamentary forms, and the choosing of the necessary
+officers for the Association, the meeting proceeded to fix the rate of
+bounty for each animal killed by any one out of the Association, viz:
+$3.00 for a large wolf; $1.50 for a lynx; $2.00 for a bear; and $5.00
+for a panther. The money to pay these bounties was to be raised by
+subscription, and handed over to the treasurer for disbursement; the
+currency being drafts on Fort Vancouver, the Mission, and the Milling
+Company; besides wheat and other commodities.
+
+This business being arranged, the real object of the meeting was
+announced in this wise:
+
+"_Resolved_,--That a committee be appointed to take into consideration
+the propriety of taking measures for the civil and military protection
+of this colony."
+
+A committee of twelve were then selected, and the meeting adjourned. But
+in that committee there was a most subtle mingling of all the
+elements--missionaries, mountain-men, and Canadians--an attempt by an
+offer of the honors, to fuse into one all the several divisions of
+political sentiment in Oregon.
+
+On the 2d day of May, 1843, the committee appointed March 4th to "take
+into consideration the propriety of taking measures for the civil and
+military protection of the colony," met at Champoeg, the Canadian
+settlement, and presented to the people their ultimatum in favor of
+organizing a provisional government.
+
+On a motion being made that the report of the committee should be
+accepted, it was put to vote, and lost. All was now confusion, various
+expressions of disappointment or gratification being mingled in one
+tempest of sound.
+
+When the confusion had somewhat subsided, Mr. G.W. LeBreton made a
+motion that the meeting should divide; those who were in favor of an
+organization taking their positions on the right hand; and those
+opposed to it on the left, marching into file. The proposition carried;
+and Joe Meek, who, in all this historical reminiscence we have almost
+lost sight of--though he had not lost sight of events--stepped to the
+front, with a characteristic air of the free-born American in his gait
+and gestures:--
+
+"Who's for a divide! All in favor of the Report, and an Organization,
+follow me!"--then marched at the head of his column, which speedily fell
+into line, as did also the opposite party.
+
+On counting, fifty-two were found to be on the right hand side, and
+fifty on the left,--so evenly were the two parties balanced at that
+time. When the result was made known, once more Meek's voice rang out--
+
+"Three cheers for our side!"
+
+It did not need a second invitation; but loud and long the shout went up
+for FREEDOM; and loudest and longest were heard the voices of the
+American "mountain-men." Thus the die was cast which made Oregon
+ultimately a member of the Federal Union.
+
+The business of the meeting was concluded by the election of a Supreme
+Judge, with probate powers, a clerk of the court, a sheriff, four
+magistrates, four constables, a treasurer, a mayor, and a captain,--the
+two latter officers being instructed to form companies of mounted
+riflemen. In addition to these officers, a legislative committee was
+chosen, consisting of nine members, who were to report to the people at
+a public meeting to be held at Champoeg on the 5th of July following. Of
+the legislative committee, two were mountain-men, with whose names the
+reader is familiar--Newell and Doughty. Among the other appointments,
+was Meek, to the office of sheriff; a position for which his personal
+qualities of courage and good humor admirably fitted him in the then
+existing state of society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+The immigration into Oregon of the year 1843, was the first since Newell
+and Meek, who had brought wagons through to the Columbia River; and in
+all numbered nearly nine hundred men, women, and children. These
+immigrants were mostly from Missouri and other border States. They had
+been assisted on their long and perilous journey by Dr. Whitman, whose
+knowledge of the route, and the requirements of the undertaking, made
+him an invaluable counselor, as he was an untiring friend of the
+immigrants.
+
+At the Dalles of the Columbia the wagons were abandoned; it being too
+late in the season, and the wants of the immigrants too pressing, to
+admit of an effort being made to cut out a wagon road through the heavy
+timber of the Cascade mountains. Already a trail had been made over them
+and around the base of Mount Hood, by which cattle could be driven from
+the Dalles to the settlements on the Wallamet; and by this route the
+cattle belonging to the train, amounting to thirteen hundred, were
+passed over into the valley.
+
+But for the people, especially the women and children, active and
+efficient help was demanded. There was something truly touching and
+pitiable in the appearance of these hundreds of worn-out, ragged,
+sun-burnt, dusty, emaciated, yet indomitable pioneers, who, after a
+journey of nearly two thousand miles, and of several months duration,
+over fertile plains, barren deserts, and rugged mountains, stood at
+last beside the grand and beautiful river of their hopes, exhausted by
+the toils of their pilgrimage, dejected and yet rejoicing.
+
+[Illustration: _WRECKED IN THE RAPIDS._]
+
+Much they would have liked to rest, even here; but their poverty
+admitted of no delay. The friends to whom they were going, and from whom
+they must exact and receive a temporary hospitality, were still
+separated from them a weary and dangerous way. They delayed as little as
+possible, yet the fall rains came upon them, and snow fell in the
+mountains, so as seriously to impede the labor of driving the cattle,
+and hunger and sickness began to affright them.
+
+In this unhappy situation they might have remained a long time, had
+there been no better dependence than the American settlers already in
+the valley, with the Methodist Mission at their head; for from them it
+does not appear that aid came, nor that any provision had been made by
+them to assist the expected immigrants. As usual in these crises, it was
+the Hudson's Bay Company who came to the rescue, and, by the offer of
+boats, made it possible for those families to reach the Wallamet. Not
+only were the Hudson's Bay Company's boats all required, but canoes and
+rafts were called into requisition to transport passengers and goods. No
+one, never having made the voyage of the Columbia from above the Dalles
+to Vancouver, could have an adequate idea of the perils of the passage,
+as it was performed in those days, by small boats and the flat-bottomed
+"Mackinaw" boats of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Canadian "voyageurs,"
+who handled a boat as a good rider governs a horse, were not always able
+to make the passage without accident: how, then, could the clumsy
+landsmen, who were more used to the feel of a plow handle than an oar,
+be expected to do so? Numerous have been the victims suddenly clutched
+from life by the grasp of the whirlpools, or dashed to death among the
+fearful rapids of the beautiful, but wild and pitiless, Columbia.
+
+The immigration of 1843 did not escape without loss and bereavement.
+Three brothers from Missouri, by the name of Applegate, with their
+families, were descending the river together, when, by the striking of a
+boat on a rock in the rapids, a number of passengers, mostly children of
+these gentlemen, were precipitated into the frightful current. The
+brothers each had a son in this boat, one of whom was lost, another
+injured for life, and the third escaped as by a miracle. This last boy
+was only ten years of age, yet such was the presence of mind and courage
+displayed in saving his own and a companion's life, that the miracle of
+his escape might be said to be his own. Being a good swimmer, he kept
+himself valiantly above the surface, while being tossed about for nearly
+two miles. Succeeding at last in grasping a feather bed which was
+floating near him, he might have passed the remaining rapids without
+serious danger, had he not been seized, as it were, by the feet, and
+drawn down, down, into a seething, turning, roaring abyss of water,
+where he was held, whirling about, and dancing up and down, striking now
+and then upon the rocks, until death seemed not only imminent but
+certain. After enduring this violent whirling and dashing for what
+seemed a hopelessly long period of time, he was suddenly vomited forth
+by the whirlpool once more upon the surface of the rapids, and,
+notwithstanding the bruises he had received, was able, by great
+exertion, to throw himself near, and seize upon a ledge of rocks. To
+this he clung with desperation, until, by dint of much effort, he
+finally drew himself out of the water, and stretched himself on the
+narrow shelf, where, for a moment, he swooned away. But on opening his
+eyes, he beheld, struggling in the foaming flood, a young man who had
+been a passenger in the wrecked boat with himself, and who, though
+older, was not so good a swimmer. Calling to him with all his might, to
+make his voice heard above the roar of the rapids, he at last gained his
+attention, and encouraged him to try to reach the ledge of rocks, where
+he would assist him to climb up; and the almost impossible feat was
+really accomplished by their united efforts. This done, young Applegate
+sank again into momentary unconsciousness, while poor exhausted Nature
+recruited her forces.
+
+But, although they were saved from immediate destruction, death still
+stared them in the face. That side of the river on which they had found
+lodgment, was bounded by precipitous mountains, coming directly down to
+the water. They could neither ascend nor skirt along them, for foot-hold
+there was none. On the other side was level ground, but to reach it they
+must pass through the rapids--an alternative that looked like an
+assurance of destruction.
+
+In this extremity, it was the boy who resolved to risk his life to save
+it. Seeing that a broken ledge of rock extended nearly across the river
+from a point within his reach, but only coming to the surface here and
+there, and of course very slippery, he nevertheless determined to
+attempt to cross on foot, amidst the roaring rapids. Starting alone to
+make the experiment, he actually made the crossing in safety, amid the
+thundering roar and dizzying rush of waters--not only made it once, but
+returned to assure his companion of its practicability. The young man,
+however, had not the courage to undertake it, until he had repeatedly
+been urged to do so, and at last only by being pursuaded to go before,
+while his younger comrade followed after, not to lose sight of him,
+(for it was impossible to turn around,) and directed him where to place
+his steps. In this manner that which appears incredible was
+accomplished, and the two arrived in safety on the opposite side, where
+they were ultimately discovered by their distressed relatives, who had
+believed them to be lost. Such was the battle which young Applegate had
+with the rocks, that the flesh was torn from the palms of his hands, and
+his whole body bruised and lacerated.
+
+So it was with sorrow, after all, that the immigrants arrived in the
+valley. Nor were their trials over when they had arrived. The worst
+feature about this long and exhausting journey was, that it could not be
+accomplished so as to allow time for recruiting the strength of the
+travelers, and providing them with shelter before the rainy season set
+in. Either the new arrivals must camp out in the weather until a log
+house was thrown up, or they must, if they were invited, crowd into the
+small cabins of the settlers until there was scarce standing room, and
+thus live for months in an atmosphere which would have bred pestilence
+in any other less healthful climate.
+
+Not only was the question of domiciles a trying one, but that of food
+still more so. Some, who had families of boys to help in the rough labor
+of building, soon became settled in houses of their own, more or less
+comfortable; nor was anything very commodious required for the
+frontiers-men from Missouri; but in the matter of something to eat, the
+more boys there were in the family, the more hopeless the situation.
+They had scarcely managed to bring with them provisions for their
+summer's journey--it was not possible to bring more. In the colony was
+food, but they had no money--few of them had much, at least; they had
+not goods to exchange; labor was not in demand: in short, the first
+winter in Oregon was, to nearly all the new colonists, a time of trial,
+if not of actual suffering. Many families now occupying positions of
+eminence on the Pacific coast, knew what it was, in those early days, to
+feel the pangs of hunger, and to want for a sufficient covering for
+their nakedness.
+
+Two anecdotes of this kind come to the writer's memory, as related by
+the parties themselves: the Indians, who are everywhere a begging race,
+were in the habit of visiting the houses of the settlers and demanding
+food. On one occasion, one of them came to the house of a now prominent
+citizen of Oregon, as usual petitioning for something to eat. The lady
+of the house, and mother of several young children, replied that she had
+nothing to give. Not liking to believe her, the Indian persisted in his
+demand, when the lady pointed to her little children and said, "Go away;
+I have nothing--not even for those." The savage turned on his heel and
+strode quickly away, as the lady thought, offended. In a short time he
+reappeared with a sack of dried venison, which he laid at her feet.
+"Take that," he said, "and give the _tenas tillicum_ (little children)
+something to eat." From that day, as long as he lived, that humane
+savage was a "friend of the family."
+
+The other anecdote concerns a gentleman who was chief justice of Oregon
+under the provisional government, afterwards governor of California, and
+at present a banker in San Francisco. He lived, at the time spoken of on
+the Tualatin Plains, and was a neighbor of Joe Meek. Not having a house
+to go into at first, he was permitted to settle his family in the
+district school-house, with the understanding that on certain days of
+the month he was to allow religious services to be held in the building.
+In this he assented. Meeting day came, and the family put on their best
+apparel to make themselves tidy in the eyes of their neighbors. Only one
+difficulty was hard to get over: Mr. ---- had only one shoe, the other
+foot was bare. But he considered the matter for some time, and then
+resolved that he might take a sheltered position behind the teacher's
+desk, where his deficiency would be hidden, and when the house filled
+up, as it would do very rapidly, he could not be expected to stir for
+want of space. However, that happened to the ambitious young lawyer
+which often does happen to the "best laid schemes of mice and men"--his
+went "all aglee." In the midst of the services, the speaker needed a cup
+of water, and requested Mr. ---- to furnish it. There was no refusing so
+reasonable a request. Out before all the congregation, walked the
+abashed and blushing pioneer, with his ill-matched feet exposed to view.
+This mortifying exposure was not without an agreeable result; for next
+day he received a present of a pair of moccasins, and was enabled
+thereafter to appear with feet that bore a brotherly resemblance to each
+other.
+
+About this time, the same gentleman, who was, as has been said, a
+neighbor of Meek's, was going to Wallamet Falls with a wagon, and Meek
+was going along. "Take something to eat," said he to Meek, "for I have
+nothing;" and Meek promised that he would.
+
+Accordingly when it came time to camp for the night, Meek was requested
+to produce his lunch basket. Going to the wagon, Meek unfolded an
+immense pumpkin, and brought it to the fire.
+
+"What!" exclaimed Mr. ----, "is that all we have for supper?"
+
+"Roast pumpkin is not so bad," said Meek, laughing back at him; "I've
+had worse fare in the mountains. It's buffalo tongue compared to ants or
+moccasin soles."
+
+And so with much merriment they proceeded to cut up their pumpkin and
+roast it, finding it as Meek had said--"not so bad" when there was no
+better.
+
+These anecdotes illustrate what a volume could only describe--the perils
+and privations endured by the colonists in Oregon. If we add that there
+were only two flouring mills in the Wallamet Valley, and these two not
+convenient for most of the settlers, both belonging to the mission, and
+that to get a few bushels of wheat ground involved the taking of a
+journey of from four to six days, for many, and that, too, over
+half-broken roads, destitute of bridges, it will be seen how difficult
+it was to obtain the commonest comforts of life. As for such luxuries as
+groceries and clothing, they had to wait for better times. Lucky was the
+man who, "by hook or by crook," got hold of an order on the Hudson's Bay
+Company, the Methodist Mission, or the Milling Company at the Falls.
+Were he thus fortunate, he had much ado to decide how to make it go
+farthest, and obtain the most. Not far would it go, at the best, for
+fifty per cent. profit on all sales was what was demanded and obtained.
+Perhaps the holder of a ten dollar draft made out his list of
+necessaries, and presented himself at the store, expecting to get them.
+He wanted some unbleached cotton, to be dyed to make dresses for the
+children; he would buy a pair of calf-skin shoes if he could afford
+them; and--yes--he would indulge in the luxury of a little--a very
+little--sugar, just for that once!
+
+Arrived at the store after a long, jolting journey, in the farm wagon
+which had crossed the continent the year before, he makes his inquiries:
+"Cotton goods?" "No; just out." "Shoes?" "Got one pair, rather
+small--wouldn't fit you." "What have you got in the way of goods?" "Got
+a lot of silk handkerchiefs and twelve dozen straw hats." "Any pins?"
+"No; a few knitting needles." "Any yarn?" "Yes, there's a pretty good
+lot of yarn, but don't you want some sugar? the last ship that was in
+left a quantity of sugar." So the holder of the draft exchanges it for
+some yarn and a few nails, and takes the balance in sugar; fairly
+compelled to be luxurious in one article, for the reason that others
+were not to be had till some other ship came in.
+
+No mails reached the colony, and no letters left it, except such as were
+carried by private hand, or were sent once a year in the Hudson's Bay
+Company's express to Canada, and thence to the States. Newspapers
+arrived in the same manner, or by vessel from the Sandwich Islands.
+Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, education was encouraged even from
+the very beginning; a library was started, and literary societies
+formed, and this all the more, perhaps, that the colony was so isolated
+and dependent on itself for intellectual pleasures.
+
+The spring of 1844 saw the colony in a state of some excitement on
+account of an attempt to introduce the manufacture of ardent spirits.
+This dangerous article had always been carefully excluded from the
+country, first by the Hudson's Bay Company, and secondly by the
+Methodist Mission; and since the time when a Mr. Young had been induced
+to relinquish its manufacture, no serious effort had been made to
+introduce it.
+
+It does not appear from the Oregon archives, that any law against its
+manufacture existed at that time: it had probably been overlooked in the
+proceedings of the legislative committee of the previous summer; neither
+was there yet any executive head to the Provisional Government, the
+election not having taken place. In this dilemma the people found
+themselves in the month of February, when one James Conner had been
+discovered to be erecting a distillery at the Falls of the Wallamet.
+
+It happened, however, that an occasion for the exercise of executive
+power had occurred before the election of the executive committee, and
+now what was to be done? It was a case too, which required absolute
+power, for there was no law on the subject of distilleries. After some
+deliberation it was decided to allow the Indian agent temporary power,
+and several letters were addressed to him, informing him of the calamity
+which threatened the community at the Falls. "Now, we believe that if
+there is anything which calls your attention in your official capacity,
+or anything in which you would be most cordially supported by the good
+sense and prompt action of the better part of community, it is the
+present case. We do not wish to dictate, but we hope for the best,
+begging pardon for intrusions." So read the closing paragraph of one of
+the letters.
+
+Perhaps this humble petition touched the Doctor's heart; perhaps he saw
+in the circumstance a possible means of acquiring influence; at all
+events he hastened to the Falls, a distance of fifty miles, and entered
+at once upon the discharge of the executive duties thus thrust upon him
+in the hour of danger. Calling upon Meek, who had entered upon his
+duties as sheriff the previous summer, he gave him his orders. Writ in
+hand, Meek proceeded to the distillery, frightened the poor sinner into
+quiet submission with a display of his mountain manners; made a bugle of
+the worm, and blew it, to announce to the Doctor his complete success;
+after which he tumbled the distillery apparatus into the river, and
+retired. Connor was put under three hundred dollar bonds, and so the
+case ended.
+
+But there were other occasions on which the Doctor's authority was put
+in requisition. It happened that a vessel from Australia had been in the
+river, and left one Madam Cooper, who was said to have brought with her
+a barrel of whisky. Her cabin stood on the east bank of the Wallamet,
+opposite the present city of Portland. Not thinking it necessary to send
+the sheriff to deal with a woman, the Doctor went in person, accompanied
+by a couple of men. Entering the cabin the Doctor remarked blandly, "you
+have a barrel of whisky, I believe."
+
+Not knowing but her visitor's intention was to purchase, and not having
+previously resided in a strictly temperance community, Madam Cooper
+replied frankly that she had, and pointed to the barrel in question.
+
+The Doctor then stepped forward, and placing his foot on it, said: "In
+the name of the United States, I levy execution on it!"
+
+At this unexpected declaration, the English woman stared wildly one
+moment, then recovering herself quickly, seized the poker from the
+chimney corner, and raising it over the Doctor's head, exclaimed--"In
+the name of Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland, I levy execution on
+you!"
+
+But when the stick descended, the Doctor was not there. He had backed
+out at the cabin door; nor did he afterwards attempt to interfere with a
+subject of the crown of Great Britain.
+
+On the following day, however, the story having got afloat at the Falls,
+Meek and a young man highly esteemed at the mission, by the name of Le
+Breton, set out to pay their respects to Madam Cooper. Upon entering the
+cabin, the two callers cast their eyes about until they rested on the
+whisky barrel.
+
+"Have _you_ come to levy on my whisky?" inquired the now suspicious
+Madam.
+
+"Yes," said Meek, "I have come to levy on it; but as I am not quite so
+high in authority as Doctor White, I don't intend to levy on the whole
+of it at once. I think about a quart of it will do me."
+
+Comprehending by the twinkle in Meek's eye that she had now a customer
+more to her mind, Madam Cooper made haste to set before her visitors a
+bottle and tin cup, upon which invitation they proceeded to levy
+frequently upon the contents of the bottle; and we fear that the length
+of time spent there, and the amount of whisky drank must have strongly
+reminded Meek of past rendezvous times in the mountains; nor can we
+doubt that he entertained Le Breton and Madam Cooper with many
+reminiscences of those times. However that may be, this was not the last
+visit of Meek to Madam Cooper's, nor his last levy on her whisky.
+
+Shortly after his election as sheriff he had been called upon to serve a
+writ upon a desperate character, for an attempt to kill. Many persons,
+however, fearing the result of trying to enforce the law upon
+desperadoes, in the then defenceless condition of the colony, advised
+him to wait for the immigration to come in before attempting the arrest.
+But Meek preferred to do his duty then, and went with the writ to arrest
+him. The man resisted, making an attack on the sheriff with a
+carpenter's axe; but Meek coolly presented a pistol, assuring the
+culprit of the uselessness of such demonstrations, and soon brought him
+to terms of compliance. Such coolness, united with a fine physique, and
+a mountain-man's reputation for reckless courage, made it very desirable
+that Meek should continue to hold the office of sheriff during that
+stage of the colony's development.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+1844. As has before been mentioned, the Indians of the Wallamet valley
+were by no means so formidable as those of the upper country: yet
+considering their numbers and the condition of the settlers, they were
+quite formidable enough to occasion considerable alarm when any one of
+them, or any number of them betrayed the savage passions by which they
+were temporarily overcome. Considerable excitement had prevailed among
+the more scattered settlers, ever since the reports of the disaffection
+among the up-country tribes had reached them; and Dr. White had been
+importuned to throw up a strong fortification in the most central part
+of the colony, and to procure arms for their defence, at the expense of
+the United States.
+
+This excitement had somewhat subsided when an event occurred which for a
+time renewed it: a house was plundered and some horses stolen from the
+neighborhood of the Falls. An Indian from the Dalles, named Cockstock,
+was at the bottom of the mischief, and had been committing or
+instigating others to commit depredations upon the settlers, for a year
+previous, because he had been, as he fancied, badly treated in a matter
+between himself and a negro in the colony, in which the latter had taken
+an unfair advantage of him in a bargain.
+
+[Illustration: A WILD INDIAN IN TOWN.]
+
+To crown his injuries Dr. White had caused a relative of his to be
+flogged by the Dalles chief, for entering the house of the Methodist
+missionary at that place, and tying him, with the purpose of flogging
+him. (It was a poor law, he thought, that would not work both ways.)
+
+In revenge for this insult Cockstock came to the Doctor's house in the
+Wallamet, threatening to shoot him at sight, but not finding him at
+home, contented himself for that time, by smashing all the windows in
+the dwelling and office of the Doctor, and nearly frightening to death a
+young man on the premises.
+
+When on the Doctor's return in the evening, the extent of the outrage
+became known, a party set out in pursuit of Cockstock and his band, but
+failed to overtake them, and the settlers remained in ignorance
+concerning the identity of the marauders. About a month later, however,
+a party of Klamath and Molalla Indians from the south of Oregon,
+numbering fifteen, came riding into the settlement, armed and painted in
+true Indian war-style. They made their way to the lodge of a Calapooya
+chief in the neighborhood--the Calapooyas being the Indians native to
+the valley. Dr. White fearing these mischievous visitors might infect
+the mind of the Calapooya chief, sent a message to him, to bring his
+friends to call upon him in the morning, as he had something good to say
+to them.
+
+This they did, when Dr. White explained the laws of the Nez Perces to
+them, and told them how much it would be to their advantage to adopt
+such laws. He gave the Calapooya chief a fine fat ox to feast his
+friends with, well knowing that an Indian's humor depends much on the
+state of his stomach, whether shrunken or distended. After the feast
+there was some more talk about the laws, in the midst of which the
+Indian Cockstock made his appearance, armed, and sullen in his demeanor.
+But as Dr. White did not know him for the perpetrator of the outrage on
+his premises, he took no notice of him more than of the others. The
+Molallas and Klamaths finally agreed to receive the laws; departing in
+high good humor, singing and shouting. So little may one know of the
+savage heart from the savage professions! Some of these Indians were
+boiling over with secret wrath at the weakness of their brethren in
+consenting to laws of the Agent's dictation; and while they were
+crossing a stream, fell upon and massacred them without mercy, Cockstock
+taking an active part in the murder.
+
+The whites were naturally much excited by the villainous and horrible
+affray, and were for taking and hanging the murderers. The Agent,
+however, was more cautious, and learning that there had been feuds among
+these Indians long unsettled, decided not to interfere.
+
+In February, 1844, fresh outrages on settlers having been committed so
+that some were leaving their claims and coming to stop at the Falls
+through fear, Dr. White was petitioned to take the case in hand. He
+accordingly raised a party of ten men, who had nearly all suffered some
+loss or outrage at Cockstock's hands, and set out in search of him, but
+did not succeed in finding him. His next step was to offer a reward of a
+hundred dollars for his arrest, meaning to send him to the upper country
+to be tried and punished by the Cayuses and Nez Perces, the Doctor
+prudently desiring to have them bear the odium, and suffer the
+punishment, should any follow, of executing justice on the Indian
+desperado. Not so had the fates ordained.
+
+About a week after the reward was offered, Cockstock came riding into
+the settlement at the Falls, at mid-day, accompanied by five other
+Indians, all well armed, and frightfully painted. Going from house to
+house on their horses, they exhibited their pistols, and by look and
+gesture seemed to defy the settlers, who, however, kept quiet through
+prudential motives. Not succeeding in provoking the whites to commence
+the fray, Cockstock finally retired to an Indian village on the other
+side of the river, where he labored to get up an insurrection, and
+procure the burning of the settlement houses.
+
+Meantime the people at the Falls were thoroughly alarmed, and bent upon
+the capture of this desperate savage. When, after an absence of a few
+hours, they saw him recrossing the river with his party, a crowd of
+persons ran down to the landing, some with offers of large reward to any
+person who would attempt to take him, while others, more courageous,
+were determined upon earning it. No definite plan of capture or concert
+of action was decided on, but all was confusion and doubt. In this frame
+of mind a collision was sure to take place; both the whites and Indians
+firing at the moment of landing. Mr. LeBreton, the young man mentioned
+in the previous chapter, after firing ineffectually, rushed unarmed upon
+Cockstock, whose pistol was also empty, but who still had his knife. In
+the struggle both fell to the ground, when a mulatto man, who had wrongs
+of his own to avenge, ran up and struck Cockstock a blow on the head
+with the butt of his gun which dispatched him at once.
+
+Thus the colony was rid of a scourge, yet not without loss which
+counterbalanced the gain. Young LeBreton besides having his arm
+shattered by a ball, was wounded by a poisoned arrow, which occasioned
+his death; and Mr. Rogers, another esteemed citizen, died from the same
+cause; while a third was seriously injured by a slight wound from a
+poisoned arrow. As for the five friends of Cockstock, they escaped to
+the bluffs overlooking the settlement, and commenced firing down upon
+the people. But fire-arms were mustered sufficient to dislodge them,
+and thus the affair ended; except that the Agent had some trouble to
+settle it with the Dalles Indians, who came down in a body to demand
+payment for the loss of their brother. After much talk and explanation,
+a present to the widow of the dead Indian was made to smooth over the
+difficulty.
+
+Meek, who at the time of the collision was rafting timber for Dr.
+McLaughlin's mill at the Falls, as might have been expected was appealed
+to in the melee by citizens who knew less about Indian fighting.
+
+A prominent citizen and merchant, who probably seldom spoke _of_ him as
+Mr. Meek, came running to him in great affright:--"Mr. Meek! Mr. Meek!
+Mr. Meek!--I want to send my wife down to Vancouver. Can you assist me?
+Do you think the Indians will take the town?"
+
+"It 'pears like half-a-dozen Injuns might do it," retorted Meek, going
+on with his work.
+
+"What do you think we had better do, Mr. Meek?--What do you advise?"
+
+"I think _you'd_ better RUN."
+
+In all difficulties between the Indians and settlers, Meek usually
+refrained from taking sides--especially from taking sides against the
+Indians. For Indian slayer as he had once been when a ranger of the
+mountains, he had too much compassion for the poor wretches in the
+Wallamet Valley, as well as too much knowledge of the savage nature, to
+like to make unnecessary war upon them. Had he been sent to take
+Cockstock, very probably he would have done it with little uproar; for
+he had sufficient influence among the Calapooyas to have enlisted them
+in the undertaking. But this was the Agent's business and he let him
+manage it; for Meek and the Doctor were not in love with one another;
+one was solemnly audacious, the other mischievously so. Of the latter
+sort of audacity, here is an example. Meek wanted a horse to ride out
+to the Plains where his family were, and not knowing how else to obtain
+it, helped himself to one belonging to Dr. White; which presumption
+greatly incensed the Doctor, and caused him to threaten various
+punishments, hanging among the rest. But the Indians overhearing him
+replied,
+
+"_Wake nika cumtux_--You dare not.--You no put rope round Meek's neck.
+He _tyee_ (chief)--no hang him."
+
+Upon which the Doctor thought better of it, and having vented his solemn
+audacity, received smiling audacity with apparent good humor when he
+came to restore the borrowed horse.
+
+As our friend Meek was sure to be found wherever there was anything
+novel or exciting transpiring, so he was sure to fall in with visitors
+of distinguished character, and as ready to answer their questions as
+they were to ask them. The conversation chanced one day to run upon the
+changes that had taken place in the country since the earliest
+settlement by the Americans, and Meek, who felt an honest pride in them,
+was expatiating at some length, to the ill-concealed amusement of two
+young officers, who probably saw nothing to admire in the rude
+improvements of the Oregon pioneers.
+
+"Mr. Meek," said one of them, "if you have been so long in the country
+and have witnessed such wonderful transformations, doubtless you may
+have observed equally great ones in nature; in the rivers and mountains,
+for instance?"
+
+Meek gave a lightning glance at the speaker who had so mistaken his
+respondent:
+
+"I reckon I have," said he slowly. Then waving his hand gracefully
+toward the majestic Mt. Hood, towering thousands of feet above the
+summit of the Cascade range, and white with everlasting snows: "When
+_I_ came to this country, Mount Hood was _a hole in the ground_!"
+
+It is hardly necessary to say that the conversation terminated abruptly,
+amid the universal cachinations of the bystanders.
+
+Notwithstanding the slighting views of Her British Majesty's naval
+officers, the young colony was making rapid strides. The population had
+been increased nearly eight hundred by the immigration of 1844, so that
+now it numbered nearly two thousand. Grain had been raised in
+considerable quantities, cattle and hogs had multiplied, and the farmers
+were in the best of spirits. Even our hero, who hated farm labor, began
+to entertain faith in the resources of his land claim to make him rich.
+
+Such was the promising condition of the colony in the summer of 1845.
+Much of the real prosperity of the settlers was due to the determination
+of the majority to exclude ardent spirits and all intoxicating drinks
+from the country. So well had they succeeded that a gentleman writing of
+the colony at that time, says: "I attended the last term of the circuit
+courts in most of the counties, and I found great respect shown to
+judicial authority everywhere; nor did I see a single _drunken juryman_,
+_nor witness_, _nor spectator_. So much industry, good order, and
+sobriety I have never seen in any community."
+
+While this was the rule, there were exceptions to it. During the spring
+term of the Circuit Court, Judge Nesmith being on the bench, a prisoner
+was arraigned before him for "assault with intent to kill." The witness
+for the prosecution was called, and was proceeding to give evidence,
+when, at some statement of his, the prisoner vociferated that he was a
+"d----d liar," and quickly stripping off his coat demanded a chance to
+fight it out with the witness.
+
+Judge Nesmith called for the interference of Meek, who had been made
+marshal, but just at that moment he was not to be found. Coming into the
+room a moment later, Meek saw the Judge down from his bench, holding the
+prisoner by the collar.
+
+"You can imagine," says Meek, "the bustle in court. But the Judge had
+the best of it. He fined the rascal, and made him pay it on the spot;
+while I just stood back to see his honor handle him. That was fun for
+me."
+
+The autumn of 1845 was marked less by striking events than by the energy
+which the people exhibited in improving the colony by laying out roads
+and town-sites. Already quite a number of towns were located, in which
+the various branches of business were beginning to develop themselves.
+Oregon City was the most populous and important, but Salem, Champoeg,
+and Portland were known as towns, and other settlements were growing up
+on the Tualatin Plains and to the south of them, in the fertile valleys
+of the numerous tributaries to the Wallamet.
+
+Portland was settled in this year, and received its name from the game
+of "heads you lose, tails I win," by which its joint owners agreed to
+determine it. One of them being a Maine man, was for giving it the name
+which it now bears, the other partner being in favor of Boston, because
+he was a Massachusetts man. It was, therefore, agreed between them that
+a copper cent should be tossed to decide the question of the
+christening, which being done, heads and Portland won.
+
+The early days of that city were not always safe and pleasant any more
+than those of its older rivals; and the few inhabitants frequently were
+much annoyed by the raids they were subject to from the now thoroughly
+vagabondized Indians. On one occasion, while yet the population was
+small, they were very much annoyed by the visit of eight or ten lodges
+of Indians, who had somewhere obtained liquor enough to get drunk on,
+and were enjoying a debauch in that spirit of total abandon which
+distinguishes the Indian carousal.
+
+Their performances at length alarmed the people, yet no one could be
+found who could put an end to them. In this dilemma the Marshal came
+riding into town, splendidly mounted on a horse that would turn at the
+least touch of the rein. The countenances of the anxious Portlanders
+brightened. One of the town proprietors eagerly besought him to "settle
+those Indians." "Very well," answered Meek; "I reckon it won't take me
+long." Mounting his horse, after first securing a rawhide rope, he
+"charged" the Indian lodges, rope in hand, laying it on with force, the
+bare shoulders of the Indians offering good _back-grounds_ for the
+pictures which he was rapidly executing.
+
+Not one made any resistance, for they had a wholesome fear of _tyee_
+Meek. In twenty minutes not an Indian, man or woman, was left in
+Portland. Some jumped into the river and swam to the opposite side, and
+some fled to the thick woods and hid themselves. The next morning,
+early, the women cautiously returned and carried away their property,
+but the men avoided being seen again by the marshal who punished
+drunkenness so severely.
+
+_Reader's query._ Was it Meek or the Marshal who so strongly disapproved
+of spreeing?
+
+_Ans._ It was the Marshal.
+
+The immigration to Oregon this year much exceeded that of any previous
+year; and there was the usual amount of poverty, sickness, and suffering
+of every sort, among the fresh arrivals. Indeed the larger the trains
+the greater the amount of suffering generally; since the grass was more
+likely to be exhausted, and more hindrances of every kind were likely
+to occur. In any case, a march of several months through an unsettled
+country was sure to leave the traveler in a most forlorn and exhausted
+condition every way.
+
+This was the situation of thousands of people who reached the Dalles in
+the autumn of 1845. Food was very scarce among them, and the
+difficulties to encounter before reaching the Wallamet just as great as
+those of the two previous years. As usual the Hudson's Bay Company came
+to the assistance of the immigrants, furnishing a passage down the river
+in their boats; the sick, and the women and children being taken first.
+
+Among the crowd of people encamped at the Dalles, was a Mr. Rector,
+since well known in Oregon and California. Like many others he was
+destitute of provisions; his supplies having given out. Neither had he
+any money. In this extremity he did that which was very disagreeable to
+him, as one of the "prejudiced" American citizens who were instructed
+beforehand to hate and suspect the Hudson's Bay Company--he applied to
+the company's agent at the Dalles for some potatoes and flour,
+confessing his present inability to pay, with much shame and reluctance.
+
+"Do not apologize, sir," said the agent kindly; "take what you need.
+There is no occasion to starve while our supplies hold out."
+
+Mr. R. found his prejudices in danger of melting away under such
+treatment; and not liking to receive bounty a second time, he resolved
+to undertake the crossing of the Cascade mountains while the more feeble
+of the immigrants were being boated down the Columbia. A few others who
+were in good health decided to accompany him. They succeeded in getting
+their wagons forty miles beyond the Dalles; but there they could move no
+further.
+
+In this dilemma, after consultation, Mr. Rector and Mr. Barlow agreed to
+go ahead and look out a wagon road. Taking with them two days'
+provisions, they started on in the direction of Oregon City. But they
+found road hunting in the Cascade mountains an experience unlike any
+they had ever had. Not only had they to contend with the usual obstacles
+of precipices, ravines, mountain torrents, and weary stretches of ascent
+and descent; but they found the forests standing so thickly that it
+would have been impossible to have passed between the trees with their
+wagons had the ground been clear of fallen timber and undergrowth. On
+the contrary these latter obstacles were the greatest of all. So thickly
+were the trunks of fallen trees crossed and recrossed everywhere, and so
+dense the growth of bushes in amongst them, that it was with difficulty
+they could force their way on foot.
+
+It soon became apparent to the road hunters, that two days' rations
+would not suffice for what work they had before them. At the first camp
+it was agreed to live upon half rations the next day; and to divide and
+subdivide their food each day, only eating half of what was left from
+the day before, so that there would always still remain a morsel in case
+of dire extremity.
+
+But the toil of getting through the woods and over the mountains proved
+excessive; and that, together with insufficient food, had in the course
+of two or three days reduced the strength of Mr. Barlow so that it was
+with great effort only that he could keep up with his younger and more
+robust companion, stumbling and falling at every few steps, and
+frequently hurting himself considerably.
+
+So wolfish and cruel is the nature of men, under trying circumstances,
+that instead of feeling pity for his weaker and less fortunate
+companion, Mr. Rector became impatient, blaming him for causing delays,
+and often requiring assistance.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROAD-HUNTERS.]
+
+To render their situation still more trying, rain began to fall heavily,
+which with the cold air of the mountains, soon benumbed their exhausted
+frames. Fearing that should they go to sleep so cold and famished, they
+might never be able to rise again, on the fourth or fifth evening they
+resolved to kindle a fire, if by any means they could do so. Dry and
+broken wood had been plenty enough, but for the rain, which was
+drenching everything. Neither matches nor flint had they, however, in
+any case. The night was setting in black with darkness; the wind swayed
+the giant firs over head, and then they heard the thunder of a falling
+monarch of the forest unpleasantly near. Searching among the bushes, and
+under fallen timber for some dry leaves and sticks, Mr. Rector took a
+bundle of them to the most sheltered spot he could find, and set himself
+to work to coax a spark of fire out of two pieces of dry wood which he
+had split for that purpose. It was a long and weary while before
+success was attained, by vigorous rubbing together of the dry wood, but
+it was attained at last; and the stiffening limbs of the road-hunters
+were warmed by a blazing camp-fire.
+
+The following day, the food being now reduced to a crumb for each, the
+explorers, weak and dejected, toiled on in silence, Mr. Rector always in
+advance. On chancing to look back at his companion he observed him to be
+brushing away a tear. "What now, old man?" asked Mr. R. with most
+unchristian harshness.
+
+"What would you do with me, Rector, should I fall and break a leg, or
+become in any way disabled?" inquired Mr. Barlow, nervously.
+
+"Do with you? _I would eat you!_" growled Mr. Rector, stalking on again.
+
+As no more was said for some time, Mr. R.'s conscience rather misgave
+him that he treated his friend unfeelingly; then he stole a look back at
+him, and beheld the wan face bathed in tears.
+
+"Come, come, Barlow," said he more kindly, "don't take affairs so much
+to heart. You will not break a leg, and I should not eat you if you did,
+for you haven't any flesh on you to eat."
+
+"Nevertheless, Rector, I want you to promise me that in case I should
+fall and disable myself, so that I cannot get on, you will not leave me
+here to die alone, but will kill me with your axe instead."
+
+"Nonsense, Barlow; you are weak and nervous, but you are not going to be
+disabled, nor eaten, nor killed. Keep up man; we shall reach Oregon City
+yet."
+
+So, onward, but ever more slowly and painfully, toiled again the
+pioneers, the wonder being that Mr. Barlow's fears were not realized,
+for the clambering and descending gave him many a tumble, the tumbles
+becoming more frequent as his strength declined.
+
+Towards evening of this day as they came to the precipitous bank of a
+mountain stream which was flowing in the direction they wished to go,
+suddenly there came to their ears a sound of more than celestial melody;
+the tinkling of bells, lowing of cattle, the voice of men hallooing to
+the herds. They had struck the cattle trail, which they had first
+diverged from in the hope of finding a road passable to wagons. In the
+overwhelming revulsion of feeling which seized them, neither were able
+for some moments to command their voices to call for assistance. That
+night they camped with the herdsmen, and supped in such plenty as an
+immigrant camp afforded.
+
+Such were the sufferings of two individuals, out of a great crowd of
+sufferers; some afflicted in one way and some in another. That people
+who endured so much to reach their El Dorado should be the most locally
+patriotic people in the world, is not singular. Mr. Barlow lived to
+construct a wagon road over the Cascades for the use of subsequent
+immigrations.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Early in 1846, Meek resigned his office of marshal of the colony, owing
+to the difficulty of collecting taxes; for in a thinly inhabited
+country, where wheat was a legal tender, at sixty cents per bushel, it
+was rather a burdensome occupation to collect, in so ponderous a
+currency; and one in which the collector required a granary more than a
+pocket-book. Besides, Meek had out-grown the marshalship, and aspired to
+become a legislator at the next June election.
+
+He had always discharged his duty with promptitude and rectitude while
+sheriff; and to his known courage might be attributed, in many
+instances, the ready compliance with law which was remarkable in so new
+and peculiar an organization as that of the Oregon colony. The people
+had desired not to be taxed, at first; and for a year or more the
+government was sustained by a fund raised by subscription. When at last
+it was deemed best to make collections by law, the Canadians objected to
+taxation to support an American government, while they were still
+subjects of Great Britain; but ultimately yielded the point, by the
+advice of Dr. McLaughlin.
+
+But it was not always the Canadians who objected to being taxed, as the
+following anecdote will show. Dr. McLaughlin was one day seated in his
+office, in conversation with some of his American friends, when the tall
+form of the sheriff darkened the doorway.
+
+"I have come to tax you, Doctor," said Meek with his blandest manner,
+and with a merry twinkle, half suppressed, in his black eyes.
+
+"To tax me, Mr. Jo. I was not aware--I really was not aware--I believed
+I had paid my tax, Mr. Jo," stammered the Doctor, somewhat annoyed at
+the prospect of some fresh demand.
+
+"Thar is an old ox out in my neighborhood, Doctor, and he is said to
+belong to you. Thar is a tax of twenty-five cents on him."
+
+"I do not understand you, Mr. Jo. I have no cattle out in your
+neighborhood."
+
+"I couldn't say how that may be, Doctor. All I do know about it, is just
+this. I went to old G----'s to collect the tax on his stock--and he's
+got a powerful lot of cattle,--and while we war a countin 'em over, he
+left out that old ox and said it belonged to you."
+
+"Oh, oh, I see, Mr. Jo: yes, yes, I see! So it was Mr. G----," cried the
+Doctor, getting very red in the face. "I do remember now, since you
+bring it to my mind, that _I lent Mr. G---- that steer six years ago_!
+Here are the twenty-five cents, Mr. Jo."
+
+The sheriff took his money, and went away laughing; while the Doctor's
+American friends looked quite as much annoyed as the Doctor himself,
+over the meanness of some of their countrymen.
+
+The year of 1846 was one of the most exciting in the political history
+of Oregon. President Polk had at last given the notice required by the
+Joint occupation treaty, that the Oregon boundary question must be
+settled.
+
+Agreeably to the promise which Dr. McLaughlin had received from the
+British Admiral, H.B.M. Sloop of war _Modeste_ had arrived in the
+Columbia River in the month of October, 1845, and had wintered there.
+Much as the Doctor had wished for protection from possible outbreaks,
+he yet felt that the presence of a British man-of-war in the Columbia,
+and another one in Puget Sound, was offensive to the colonists. He set
+himself to cover up as carefully as possible the disagreeable features
+of the British lion, by endeavoring to establish social intercourse
+between the officers of the _Modeste_ and the ladies and gentlemen of
+the colony, and his endeavors were productive of a partial success.
+
+During the summer, however, the United States Schooner _Shark_ appeared
+in the Columbia, thus restoring the balance of power, for the relief of
+national jealousy. After remaining for some weeks, the _Shark_ took her
+departure, but was wrecked on the bar at the mouth of the river,
+according to a prophecy of Meek's, who had a grudge against her
+commander, Lieut. Howison, for spoiling the sport he was having in
+company with one of her officers, while Howison was absent at the
+Cascades.
+
+It appears that Lieut. Schenck was hospitably inclined, and that on
+receiving a visit from the hero of many bear-fights, who proved to be
+congenial on the subject of good liquors, he treated both Meek and
+himself so freely as to render discretion a foreign power to either of
+them. Varied and brilliant were the exploits performed by these jolly
+companions during the continuance of the spree; and still more brilliant
+were those they talked of performing, even the taking of the _Modeste_,
+which was lying a little way off, in front of Vancouver. Fortunately for
+the good of all concerned, Schenck contented himself with firing a
+salute as Meek was going over the side of the ship on leaving. But for
+this misdemeanor he was put under arrest by Howison, on his return from
+the Cascades, an indignity which Meek resented for the prisoner, by
+assuring Lieut. Howison that he would lose his vessel before he got out
+of the river. And lose her he did. Schenck was released after the vessel
+struck, escaping with the other officers and crew by means of small
+boats. Very few articles were saved from the wreck, but among those few
+was the stand of colors, which Lieut. Howison subsequently presented to
+Gov. Abernethy for the colony.
+
+    There sinks the sun; like cavalier of old,
+      Servant of crafty Spain,
+    He flaunts his banner, barred with blood and gold,
+      Wide o'er the western main;
+    A thousand spear heads glint beyond the trees
+      In columns bright and long,
+    While kindling fancy hears upon the breeze
+      The swell of shout and song.
+
+    And yet not here Spain's gay, adventurous host
+      Dipped sword or planted cross;
+    The treasures guarded by this rock-bound coast
+      Counted them gain nor loss.
+    The blue Columbia, sired by the eternal hills
+      And wedded with the sea,
+    O'er golden sands, tithes from a thousand rills,
+      Boiled in lone majesty--
+
+    Through deep ravine, through burning, barren plain,
+      Through wild and rocky strait,
+    Through forest dark, and mountain rent in twain
+      Toward the sunset gate;
+    While curious eyes, keen with the lust of gold,
+      Caught not the informing gleam,
+    These mighty breakers age on age have rolled
+      To meet this mighty stream.
+
+    Age after age these noble hills have kept,
+      The same majestic lines;
+    Age after age the horizon's edge been swept
+      By fringe of pointed pines.
+    Summers and Winters circling came and went,
+      Bringing no change of scene;
+    Unresting, and unhasting, and unspent,
+      Dwelt Nature here serene!
+
+    Till God's own time to plant of Freedom's seed,
+      In this selected soil;
+    Denied forever unto blood and greed,
+      But blest to honest toil.
+    There sinks the sun; Gay cavalier no more!
+      His banners trail the sea,
+    And all his legions shining on the shore
+      Fade into mystery.
+
+    The swelling tide laps on the shingly beach,
+      Like any starving thing;
+    And hungry breakers, white with wrath, upreach,
+      In a vain clamoring.
+    The shadows fall; just level with mine eye
+      Sweet Hesper stands and shines,
+    And shines beneath an arc of golden sky,
+      Pinked round with pointed pines.
+
+    A noble scene! all breadth, deep tone, and power,
+      Suggesting glorious themes;
+    Shaming the idler who would fill the hour
+      With unsubstantial dreams.
+    Be mine the dreams prophetic, shadowing forth
+      The things that yet shall be,
+    When through this gate the treasures of the North
+      Flow outward to the sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+The author of the following, "poem" was not either a dull or an
+unobservant writer; and we insert his verses as a comical bit of natural
+history belonging peculiarly to Oregon.
+
+    ADVENTURES OF A COLUMBIA SALMON.
+
+    What is yon object which attracts the eye
+    Of the observing traveler, who ascends
+    Columbia's waters, when the summer sky
+    In one soft tint, calm nature's clothing blends:
+    As glittering in the sunbeams down it floats
+    'Till some vile vulture on its carcase gloats?
+
+    'Tis a poor salmon, which a short time past,
+    With thousands of her finny sisters came,
+    By instinct taught, to seek and find at last,
+    The place that gave her birth, there to remain
+    'Till nature's offices had been discharged,
+    And fry from out the ova had emerged.
+
+    Her Winter spent amongst the sheltered bays
+    Of the salt sea, where numerous fish of prey,
+    With appetite keen, the number of her days
+    Would soon have put an end to, could but they
+    Have caught her; but as they could not, she,
+    Spring having come, resolved to quit the sea:
+
+    And moving with the shoal along the coast, at length
+    She reached the outlet of her native river,
+    There tarried for a little to recruit her strength,
+    So tried of late by cold and stormy weather;
+    Sporting in playful gambols o'er the banks and sands,
+    Chasing the tiny fish frequenting there in bands.
+
+    But ah, how little thought this simple fish,
+    The toils and perils she had yet to suffer,
+    The chance she ran of serving as a dish
+    For hungry white men or for Indian's supper,--
+    Of enemies in which the stream abounded,
+    When lo! she's by a fisher's net surrounded.
+
+    Partly conscious of her approaching end,
+    She darts with meteoric swiftness to and fro,
+    Striking the frail meshes, within which she's penned,
+    Which bid defiance to her stoutest blow:
+    To smaller compass by degrees the snare is drawn,
+    When with a leap she clears it and is gone.
+
+    Once more at large with her companions, now
+    Become more cautious from her late escape,
+    She keeps in deeper water and thinks how
+    Foolish she was to get in such a scrape;
+    As mounting further up the stream, she vies
+    With other fish in catching gnats and flies.
+
+    And as she on her way did thus enjoy
+    Life's fleeting moments, there arose a panic
+    Amongst the stragglers, who in haste deploy
+    Around their elder leaders, quick as magic,
+    While she unconscious of the untimely rout,
+    Was by a hungry otter singled out:
+
+    Vigorous was the chase, on the marked victim shot
+    Through the clear water, while in close pursuit
+    Followed her amphibious foe, who scarce had got
+    Near enough to grasp her, when with turns acute,
+    And leaps and revolutions, she so tried the otter,
+    He gave up the hunt with merely having bit her.
+
+    Scarce had she recovered from her weakness, when
+    An ancient eagle, of the bald-head kind,
+    Winging his dreary way to'rds some lone glen,
+    Where was her nest with four plump eaglets lined,
+    Espied the fish, which he judged quite a treat,
+    And just the morsel for his little ones to eat:
+
+    And sailing in spiral circles o'er the spot,
+    Where lay his prey, then hovering for a time,
+    To take his wary aim, he stooped and caught
+    His booty, which he carried to a lofty pine;
+    Upon whose topmost branches, he first adjusted
+    His awkward load, ere with his claws he crushed it.
+
+    "Ill is the wind that blows no person good"--
+    So said the adage, and as luck would have it,
+    A huge grey eagle out in search of food,
+    Who just had whet his hunger with a rabbit,
+    Attacked the other, and the pair together,
+    In deadly combat fell into the river.
+
+    Our friend of course made off, when she'd done falling
+    Some sixty yards, and well indeed she might;
+    For ne'er, perhaps, a fish got such a mauling
+    Since Adam's time, or went up such a height
+    Into the air, and came down helter-skelter,
+    As did this poor production of a melter.
+
+    All these, with many other dangers, she survived,
+    Too manifold in this short space to mention;
+    So we'll suppose her to have now arrived
+    Safe at _the Falls_, without much more detention
+    Than one could look for, where so many liked her
+    Company, and so many Indians spiked her.
+
+    And here a mighty barrier stops her way:
+    The tranquil water, finding in its course
+    Itself beset with rising rocks, which lay
+    As though they said, "retire ye to your source,"
+    Bursts with indignant fury from its bondage, now
+    Rushes in foaming torrents to the chasm below.
+
+    The persevering fish then at the foot arrives,
+    Laboring with redoubled vigor mid the surging tide,
+    And finding, by her strength, she vainly strives
+    To overcome the flood, though o'er and o'er she tried;
+    Her tail takes in her mouth, and bending like a bow
+    That's to full compass drawn, aloft herself doth throw;
+
+    And spinning in the air, as would a silver wand
+    That's bended end to end and upwards cast,
+    Headlong she falls amid the showering waters, and
+    Gasping for breath, against the rocks is dashed:
+    Again, again she vaults, again she tries,
+    And in one last and feeble effort--dies.
+
+There was, in Oregon City, a literary society called the "Falls
+Association," some of whose effusions were occasionally sent to the
+_Spectator_, and this may have been one of them. At all events, it is
+plain that with balls, theatres, literary societies, and politics, the
+colony was not afflicted with dullness, in the winter of 1846.
+
+But the history of the immigration this year, afforded, perhaps, more
+material for talk than any one other subject. The condition in which the
+immigrants arrived was one of great distress. A new road into the valley
+had been that season explored, at great labor and expense, by a company
+of gentlemen who had in view the aim to lessen the perils usually
+encountered in descending the Columbia. They believed that a better pass
+might be discovered through the Cascade range to the south, than that
+which had been found around the base of Mount Hood, and one which should
+bring the immigrants in at the upper end of the valley, thus saving them
+considerable travel and loss of time at a season of the year when the
+weather was apt to be unsettled.
+
+With this design, a party had set out to explore the Cascades to the
+south, quite early in the spring; but failing in their undertaking, had
+returned. Another company was then immediately formed, headed by a
+prominent member of society and the legislature. This company followed
+the old Hudson's Bay Company's trail, crossing all those ranges of
+mountains perpendicular to the coast, which form a triple wall between
+Oregon and California, until they came out into the valley of the
+Humboldt, whence they proceeded along a nearly level, but chiefly barren
+country to Fort Hall, on the Snake River.
+
+The route was found to be practicable, although there was a scarcity of
+grass and water along a portion of it; but as the explorers had with
+great difficulty found out and marked all the best camping grounds, and
+encountered first for themselves all the dangers of a hitherto
+unexplored region, most of which they believed they had overcome, they
+felt no hesitation in recommending the new road to the emigrants whom
+they met at Fort Hall.
+
+Being aware of the hardships which the immigrants of the previous years
+had undergone on the Snake River plains, at the crossing of Snake River,
+the John Day, and Des Chutes Rivers, and the passage of the Columbia,
+the travelers gladly accepted the tidings of a safer route to the
+Wallamet. A portion of the immigration had already gone on by the road
+to the Dalles; the remainder turned off by the southern route.
+
+Of those who took the new route, a part were destined for California.
+All, however, after passing through the sage deserts, committed the
+error of stopping to recruit their cattle and horses in the fresh green
+valleys among the foot-hills of the mountains. It did not occur to them
+that they were wasting precious time in this way; but to this indulgence
+was owing an incredible amount of suffering. The California-bound
+travelers encountered the season of snow on the Sierras, and such
+horrors are recorded of their sufferings as it is seldom the task of
+ears to hear or pen to record. Snow-bound, without food, those who died
+of starvation were consumed by the living; even children were eaten by
+their once fond parents, with an indifference horrible to think on: so
+does the mind become degraded by great physical suffering.
+
+The Oregon immigrants had not to cross the lofty Sierras; but they still
+found mountains before them which, in the dry season, would have been
+formidable enough. Instead, however, of the dry weather continuing, very
+heavy rains set in. The streams became swollen, the mountain sides heavy
+and slippery with the wet earth. Where the road led through canyons, men
+and women were sometimes forced to stem a torrent, breast high, and cold
+enough to chill the life in their veins. The cattle gave out, the
+wagons broke down, provisions became exhausted, and a few persons
+perished, while all were in the direst straits.
+
+The first who got through into the valley sent relief to those behind;
+but it was weeks before the last of the worn, weary, and now
+impoverished travelers escaped from the horrors of the mountains in
+which they were so hopelessly entangled, and where most of their worldly
+goods were left to rot.
+
+The Oregon legislature met as usual, to hold its winter session, though
+the people hoped and expected it would be for the last time under the
+Provisional Government. There were only two "mountain-men" in the House,
+at this session--Meek and Newell.
+
+In the suspense under which they for the present remained, there was
+nothing to do but to go on in the path of duty as they had heretofore
+done, keeping up their present form of government until it was
+supplanted by a better one. So passed the summer until the return of the
+"Glorious Fourth," which, being the first national anniversary occurring
+since the news of the treaty had reached the colony, was celebrated with
+proper enthusiasm.
+
+It chanced that an American ship, the _Brutus_, Capt. Adams, from
+Boston, was lying in the Wallamet, and that a general invitation had
+been given to the celebrationists to visit the ship during the day. A
+party of fifty or sixty, including Meek and some of his mountain
+associates, had made their calculations to go on board at the same time,
+and were in fact already alongside in boats, when Captain Adams singled
+out a boat load of people belonging to the mission clique, and inviting
+them to come on board, ordered all the others off.
+
+This was an insult too great to be borne by mountain-men, who resented
+it not only for themselves, but for the people's party of Americans to
+which they naturally belonged. Their blood was up, and without stopping
+to deliberate, Meek and Newell hurried off to fetch the twelve-pounder
+that had a few hours before served to thunder forth the rejoicings of a
+free people, but with which they now purposed to proclaim their
+indignation as freeman heinously insulted. The little twelve-pound
+cannon was loaded with rock, and got into range with the offending ship,
+and there is little doubt that Capt. Adams would have suffered loss at
+the hands of the incensed multitude, but for the timely interference of
+Dr. McLaughlin. On being informed of the warlike intentions of Meek and
+his associates, the good Doctor came running to the rescue, his white
+hair flowing back from his noble face with the hurry of his movements.
+
+"Oh, oh, Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe, you must not do this! indeed, you must not do
+this foolish thing! Come now; come away. You will injure your country,
+Mr. Joe. How can you expect that ships will come here, if they are fired
+on? Come away, come away!"
+
+And Meek, ever full of waggishness, even in his wrath, replied:
+
+"Doctor, it is not that I love the Brutus less, but my dignity more."
+
+"Oh, Shakespeare, Mr. Joe! But come with me; come with me."
+
+And so the good Doctor, half in authority, half in kindness, persuaded
+the resentful colonists to pass by the favoritism of the Boston captain.
+
+Meek was reëlected to the legislature this summer, and swam out to a
+vessel lying down at the mouth of the Wallamet, to get liquor to treat
+his constituents; from which circumstance it may be inferred that while
+Oregon was remarkable for temperance, there were occasions on which
+conviviality was deemed justifiable by a portion of her people.
+
+Thus passed the summer. The autumn brought news of a large emigration
+_en route_ for the new territory; but it brought no news of good import
+from Congress. On the contrary the bill providing for a territorial
+government for Oregon had failed, because the Organic Laws of that
+territory excluded slavery forever from the country. The history of its
+failure is a part and parcel of the record of the long hard struggle of
+the south to extend slavery into the United States' territories.
+
+Justly dissatisfied, but not inconsolable, the colony, now that hope was
+extinguished for another season, returned to its own affairs. The
+immigration, which had arrived early this year, amounted to between four
+and five thousand. An unfortunate affray between the immigrants and the
+Indians at the Dalles, had frightened away from that station the Rev.
+Father Waller; and Dr. Whitman of the Waiilatpu mission had purchased
+the station for the Presbyterian mission, and placed a nephew of his in
+charge. Although, true to their original bad character, the Dalles
+Indians had frequently committed theft upon the passing emigration, this
+was the first difficulty resulting in loss of life, which had taken
+place. This quarrel arose out of some thefts committed by the Indians,
+and the unwise advice of Mr. Waller, in telling the immigrants to
+retaliate by taking some of the Indian horses. An Indian can see the
+justice of taking toll from every traveler passing through his country;
+but he cannot see the justice of being robbed in return; and Mr. Waller
+had been long enough among them to have known this.
+
+Finding that it must continue yet a little longer to look after its own
+government and welfare, the colony had settled back into its wonted
+pursuits. The legislature had convened for its winter session, and had
+hardly elected its officers and read the usual message of the Governor,
+before there came another, which fell upon their ears like a
+thunderbolt. Gov. Abernethy had sent in the following letter, written at
+Vancouver the day before:
+
+     FORT VANCOUVER, Dec. 7, 1847.
+
+     _George Abernethy, Esq._;
+
+     SIR:--Having received intelligence, last night, by special express
+     from Walla-Walla, of the destruction of the missionary settlement
+     at Waiilatpu, by the Cayuse Indians of that place, we hasten to
+     communicate the particulars of that dreadful event, one of the most
+     atrocious which darkens the annals of Indian crime.
+
+     Our lamented friend, Dr. Whitman, his amiable and accomplished
+     lady, with nine other persons, have fallen victims to the fury of
+     these remorseless savages, who appear to have been instigated to
+     this appalling crime by a horrible suspicion which had taken
+     possession of their superstitious minds, in consequence of the
+     number of deaths from dysentery and measles, that Dr. Whitman was
+     silently working the destruction of their tribe by administering
+     poisonous drugs, under the semblance of salutary medicines.
+
+     With a goodness of heart and benevolence truly his own, Dr. Whitman
+     had been laboring incessantly since the appearance of the measles
+     and dysentery among his Indian converts, to relieve their
+     sufferings; and such has been the reward of his generous labors.
+
+     A copy of Mr. McBean's letter, herewith transmitted, will give you
+     all the particulars known to us of this indescribably painful
+     event.
+
+     Mr. Ogden, with a strong party, will leave this place as soon as
+     possible for Walla-Walla, to endeavor to prevent further evil; and
+     we beg to suggest to you the propriety of taking instant measures
+     for the protection of the Rev. Mr. Spalding, who, for the sake of
+     his family, ought to abandon the Clear-water mission without delay,
+     and retire to a place of safety, as he cannot remain at that
+     isolated station without imminent risk, in the present excited and
+     irritable State of the Indian population.
+
+     I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
+
+     JAMES DOUGLAS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+1842-7. Doubtless the reader remembers the disquiet felt and expressed
+by the Indians in the upper country in the year 1842. For the time they
+had been quieted by presents, by the advice of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+and by the Agent's promise that in good time the United States would
+send them blankets, guns, ammunition, food farming implements, and
+teachers to show them how to live like the whites.
+
+In the meantime, five years having passed, these promises had not been
+kept. Five times a large number of whites, with their children, their
+cattle, and wagons, had passed through their country, and gone down into
+the Wallamet Valley to settle. Now they had learned that the United
+States claimed the Wallamet valley; yet they had never heard that the
+Indians of that country had received any pay for it.
+
+They had accepted the religion of the whites believing it would do them
+good; but now they were doubtful. Had they not accepted laws from the
+United States agent, and had not their people been punished for acts
+which their ancestors and themselves had always before committed at
+will? None of these innovations seemed to do them any good: they were
+disappointed. But the whites, or Bostons, (meaning the Americans) were
+coming more and more every year, so that by-and-by there would be all
+Bostons and no Indians.
+
+Once they had trusted in the words of the Americans; but now they knew
+how worthless were their promises. The Americans had done them much
+harm. Years before had not one of the missionaries suffered several of
+their people, and the son of one of their chiefs, to be slain in his
+company, yet himself escaped? Had not the son of another chief, who had
+gone to California to buy cattle, been killed by a party of Americans,
+for no fault of his own? Their chief's son was killed, the cattle robbed
+from his party, after having been paid for; and his friends obliged to
+return poor and in grief.
+
+To be sure, Dr. White had given them some drafts to be used in obtaining
+cattle from the immigration, as a compensation for their losses in
+California; but they could not make them available; and those who wanted
+cattle had to go down to the Wallamet for them. In short, could the
+Indians have thought of an American epithet to apply to Americans, it
+would have been that expressive word _humbug_. What they felt and what
+they thought, was, that they had been cheated. They feared greater
+frauds in the future, and they were secretly resolved not to submit to
+them.
+
+So far as regarded the missionaries, Dr. Whitman and his associates,
+they were divided; yet as so many looked on the Doctor as an agent in
+promoting the settlement of the country with whites, it was thought best
+to drive him from the country, together with all the missionaries.
+Several years before Dr. Whitman had known that the Indians were
+displeased with his settlement among them. They had told him of it: they
+had treated him with violence; they had attempted to outrage his wife;
+had burned his property; and had more recently several times warned him
+to leave their country, or they should kill him.
+
+Not that all were angry at him alike, or that any were personally very
+ill-disposed towards him. Everything that a man could do to instruct and
+elevate these savage people, he had done, to the best of his ability,
+together with his wife and assistants. But he had not been able, or
+perhaps had not attempted, to conceal the fact, that he looked upon the
+country as belonging to his people, rather than to the natives, and it
+was this fact which was at the bottom of their "bad hearts" toward the
+Doctor. So often had warnings been given which were disregarded by Dr.
+Whitman, that his friends, both at Vancouver and in the settlements, had
+long felt great uneasiness, and often besought him to remove to the
+Wallamet valley.
+
+But although Dr. Whitman sometimes was half persuaded to give up the
+mission upon the representations of others, he could not quite bring
+himself to do so. So far as the good conduct of the Indians was
+concerned, they had never behaved better than for the last two years.
+There had been less violence, less open outrage, than formerly; and
+their civilization seemed to be progressing; while some few were
+apparently hopeful converts. Yet there was ever a whisper in the
+air--"Dr. Whitman must die."
+
+The mission at Lapwai was peculiarly successful. Mrs. Spalding, more
+than any other of the missionaries, had been able to adapt herself to
+the Indian character, and to gain their confidence. Besides, the Nez
+Perces were a better nation than the Cayuses;--more easily controlled by
+a good counsel; and it seemed like doing a wrong to abandon the work so
+long as any good was likely to result from it. There were other reasons
+too, why the missions could not be abandoned in haste, one of which was
+the difficulty of disposing of the property. This might have been done
+perhaps, to the Catholics, who were establishing missions throughout the
+upper country; but Dr. Whitman would never have been so false to his own
+doctrines, as to leave the field of his labors to the Romish Church.
+
+Yet the division of sentiment among the Indians with regard to religion,
+since the Catholic missionaries had come among them, increased the
+danger of a revolt: for in the Indian country neither two rival trading
+companies, nor two rival religions can long prosper side by side. The
+savage cannot understand the origin of so many religions. He either
+repudiates all, or he takes that which addresses itself to his
+understanding through the senses. In the latter respect, the forms of
+Catholicism, as adapted to the savage understanding, made that religion
+a dangerous rival to intellectual and idealistic Presbyterianism. But
+the more dangerous the rival, the greater the firmness with which Dr.
+Whitman would cling to his duty.
+
+There were so many causes at work to produce a revolution among the
+Indians, that it would be unfair to name any one as _the_ cause. The
+last and immediate provocation was a season of severe sickness among
+them. The disease was measles, and was brought in the train of the
+immigration.
+
+This fact alone was enough to provoke the worst passions of the savage.
+The immigration in itself was a sufficient offense; the introduction
+through them of a pestilence, a still weightier one. It did not signify
+that Dr. Whitman had exerted himself night and day to give them relief.
+Their peculiar notions about a medicine-man made it the Doctor's duty to
+cure the sick; or made it the duty of the relatives of the dead and
+dying to avenge their deaths.
+
+Yet in spite of all and every provocation, perhaps the fatal tragedy
+might have been postponed, had it not been for the evil influence of
+one Jo Lewis, a half-breed, who had accompanied the emigration from the
+vicinity of Fort Hall. This Jo Lewis, with a large party of emigrants,
+had stopped to winter at the mission, much against Dr. Whitman's wishes;
+for he feared not having food enough for so many persons. Finding that
+he could not prevent them, he took some of the men into his employ, and
+among others the stranger half-breed.
+
+This man was much about the house, and affected to relate to the Indians
+conversations which he heard between Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, and Mr.
+Spalding, who with his little daughter, was visiting at Waiilatpu. These
+conversations related to poisoning the Indians, in order to get them all
+out of the way, so that the white men could enjoy their country
+unmolested. Yet this devil incarnate did not convince his hearers at
+once of the truth of his statements; and it was resolved in the tribe to
+make a test of Dr. Whitman's medicine. Three persons were selected to
+experiment upon; two of them already sick, and the third quite well.
+Whether it was that the medicine was administered in too large
+quantities, or whether an unhappy chance so ordered it, all those three
+persons died. Surely it is not singular that in the savage mind this
+circumstance should have been deemed decisive. It was then that the
+decree went forth that not only the Doctor and Mrs. Whitman, but all the
+Americans at the mission must die.
+
+On the 22d of November, Mr. Spalding arrived at Waiilatpu, from his
+mission, one hundred and twenty miles distant, with his daughter, a
+child of ten years, bringing with him also several horse-loads of grain,
+to help feed the emigrants wintering there. He found the Indians
+suffering very much, dying one, two, three, and sometimes five in a day.
+Several of the emigrant families, also, were sick with measles and the
+dysentery, which followed the disease. A child of one of them died the
+day following Mr. Spalding's arrival.
+
+Dr. Whitman's family consisted of himself and wife, a young man named
+Rodgers, who was employed as a teacher, and also studying for the
+ministry, two young people, a brother and sister, named Bulee, seven
+orphaned children of one family, whose parents had died on the road to
+Oregon in a previous year, named Sager, Helen Mar, the daughter of Joe
+Meek, another little half-breed girl, daughter of Bridger the
+fur-trader, a half-breed Spanish boy whom the Doctor had brought up from
+infancy, and two sons of a Mr. Manson, of the Hudson's Bay Company.
+
+Besides these, there were half-a-dozen other families at the mission,
+and at the saw-mill, twenty miles distant, five families more--in all,
+forty-six persons at Waiilatpu, and fifteen at the mill, who were among
+those who suffered by the attack. But there were also about the mission,
+three others, Jo Lewis, Nicholas Finlay, and Joseph Stanfield, who
+probably knew what was about to take place, and may, therefore be
+reckoned as among the conspirators.
+
+While Mr. Spalding was at Waiilatpu, a message came from two Walla-Walla
+chiefs, living on the Umatilla River, to Dr. Whitman, desiring him to
+visit the sick in their villages, and the two friends set out together
+to attend to the call, on the evening of the 27th of November. Says Mr.
+Spalding, referring to that time: "The night was dark, and the wind and
+rain beat furiously upon us. But our interview was sweet. We little
+thought it was to be our last. With feelings of the deepest emotion we
+called to mind the fact, that eleven years before, we crossed this trail
+before arriving at Walla-Walla, the end of our seven months' journey
+from New York. We called to mind the high hopes and thrilling interests
+which had been awakened during the year that followed--of our successful
+labors and the constant devotedness of the Indians to improvement. True,
+we remembered the months of deep solicitude we had, occasioned by the
+increasing menacing demands of the Indians for pay for their wood, their
+water, their air, their lands. But much of this had passed away, and the
+Cayuses were in a far more encouraging condition than ever before." Mr.
+Spalding further relates that himself and Dr. Whitman also conversed on
+the danger which threatened them from the Catholic influence. "We felt,"
+he says, "that the present sickness afforded them a favorable
+opportunity to excite the Indians to drive us from the country, and all
+the movements about us seemed to indicate that this would soon be
+attempted, if not executed." Such was the suspicion in the minds of the
+Protestants. Let us hope that it was not so well founded as they
+believed.
+
+The two friends arrived late at the lodge of _Stickas_, a chief, and
+laid down before a blazing fire to dry their drenched clothing. In the
+morning a good breakfast was prepared for them, consisting of beef,
+vegetables, and bread--all of which showed the improvement of the
+Indians in the art of living. The day, being Sunday, was observed with
+as much decorum as in a white man's house. After breakfast, Dr. Whitman
+crossed the river to visit the chiefs who had sent for him, namely,
+_Tan-i-tan_, _Five Crows_, and _Yam-ha-wa-lis_, returning about four
+o'clock in the afternoon, saying he had taken tea with the Catholic
+bishop and two priests, at their house, which belonged to _Tan-i-tan_,
+and that they had promised to visit him in a short time. He then
+departed for the mission, feeling uneasy about the sick ones at home.
+
+Mr. Spalding remained with the intention of visiting the sick and
+offering consolation to the dying. But he soon discovered that there was
+a weighty and uncomfortable secret on the mind of his entertainer,
+_Stickas_. After much questioning, _Stickas_ admitted that the thought
+which troubled him was that the Americans had been "decreed against" by
+his people; more he could not be induced to reveal. Anxious, yet not
+seriously alarmed,--for these warnings had been given before many
+times,--he retired to his couch of skins, on the evening of the 29th,
+being Monday--not to sleep, however; for on either side of him an Indian
+woman sat down to chant the death-song--that frightful lament which
+announces danger and death. On being questioned they would reveal
+nothing.
+
+On the following morning, Mr. Spalding could no longer remain in
+uncertainty, but set out for Waiilatpu. As he mounted his horse to
+depart, an Indian woman placed her hand on the neck of his horse to
+arrest him, and pretending to be arranging his head-gear, said in a low
+voice to the rider, "Beware of the Cayuses at the mission." Now more
+than ever disturbed by this intimation that it was the mission which was
+threatened, he hurried forward, fearing for his daughter and his
+friends. He proceeded without meeting any one until within sight of the
+lovely Walla-Walla valley, almost in sight of the mission itself, when
+suddenly, at a wooded spot where the trail passes through a little
+hollow, he beheld two horsemen advancing, whom he watched with a
+fluttering heart, longing for, and yet dreading, the news which the very
+air seemed whispering.
+
+The two horsemen proved to be the Catholic Vicar General, Brouillet,
+who, with a party of priests and nuns had arrived in the country only a
+few months previous, and his half-breed interpreter, both of whom were
+known to Mr. Spalding. They each drew rein as they approached, Mr.
+Spalding immediately inquiring "what news?"
+
+"There are very many sick at the Whitman station," answered Brouillet,
+with evident embarrassment.
+
+"How are Doctor and Mrs. Whitman?" asked Spalding anxiously.
+
+"The Doctor is ill--is dead," added the priest reluctantly.
+
+"And Mrs. Whitman?" gasped Spalding.
+
+"Is dead also. The Indians have killed them."
+
+"My daughter?" murmured the agonized questioner.
+
+"Is safe, with the other prisoners," answered Brouillet.
+
+"And then," says Spalding in speaking of that moment of infinite horror,
+when in his imagination a picture of the massacre, of the anguish of his
+child, the suffering of the prisoners, of the probable destruction of
+his own family and mission, and his surely impending fate, all rose up
+before him--"I felt the world all blotted out at once, and sat on my
+horse as rigid as a stone, not knowing or feeling anything."
+
+While this conversation had been going on the half-breed interpreter had
+kept a sinister watch over the communication, and his actions had so
+suspicious a look that the priest ordered him to ride on ahead. When he
+had obeyed, Brouillet gave some rapid instructions to Spalding; not to
+go near the mission, where he could do no good, but would be certainly
+murdered; but to fly, to hide himself until the excitement was over. The
+men at the mission were probably all killed; the women and children
+would be spared; nothing could be done at present but to try to save his
+own life, which the Indians were resolved to take.
+
+The conversation was hurried, for there was no time to lose. Spalding
+gave his pack-horse to Brouillet, to avoid being encumbered by it; and
+taking some provisions which the priest offered, struck off into the
+woods there to hide until dark. Nearly a week from this night he arrived
+at the Lapwai mission, starved, torn, with bleeding feet as well as
+broken heart. Obliged to secrete himself by day, his horse had escaped
+from him, leaving him to perform his night journeys on foot over the
+sharp rocks and prickly cactus plants, until not only his shoes had been
+worn out, but his feet had become cruelly lacerated. The constant fear
+which had preyed upon his heart of finding his family murdered, had
+produced fearful havoc in the life-forces; and although Mr. Spalding had
+the happiness of finding that the Nez Perces had been true to Mrs.
+Spalding, defending her from destruction, yet so great had been the
+first shock, and so long continued the strain, that his nervous system
+remained a wreck ever afterward.
+
+[Illustration: MOUNT HOOD FROM THE DALLES.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+1847. When Dr. Whitman reached home on that Sunday night, after parting
+with Mr. Spalding at the Umatilla, it was already about midnight; yet he
+visited the sick before retiring to rest; and early in the morning
+resumed his duties among them. An Indian died that morning. At his
+burial, which the Doctor attended, he observed that but few of the
+friends and relatives of the deceased were present but attributed it to
+the fear which the Indians have of disease.
+
+Everything about the mission was going on as usual. Quite a number of
+Indians were gathered about the place; but as an ox was being butchered,
+the crowd was easily accounted for. Three men were dressing the beef in
+the yard. The afternoon session of the mission school had just
+commenced. The mechanics belonging to the station were about their
+various avocations. Young Bulee was sick in the Doctor's house. Three of
+the orphan children who were recovering from the measles, were with the
+Doctor and Mrs. Whitman in the sitting-room; and also a Mrs. Osborne,
+one of the emigrants who had just got up from a sick bed, and who had a
+sick child in her arms.
+
+[Illustration: _MASSACRE OF REV. DR. WHITMAN OF THE PRESBYTERIAN
+MISSION._]
+
+The Doctor had just come in, wearied, and dejected as it was possible
+for his resolute spirit to be, and had seated himself, bible in hand,
+when several Indians came to a side door, asking permission to come in
+and get some medicine. The Doctor rose, got his medicines, gave them
+out, and sat down again. At that moment Mrs. Whitman was in an
+adjoining room and did not see what followed. _Tam-a-has_, a chief
+called "the murderer," came behind the Doctor's chair, and raising his
+tomahawk, struck the Doctor in the back of the head, stunning but not
+killing him.
+
+Instantly there was a violent commotion. John Sager, one of the adopted
+children, sprang up with his pistol in his hand, but before he could
+fire it, he too was struck down, and cut and hacked shockingly. In the
+meantime Dr. Whitman had received a second blow upon the head, and now
+laid lifeless on the floor. Cries and confusion filled the house.
+
+At the first sound, Mrs. Whitman, in whose ears that whisper in the air
+had so long sounded, began in agony to stamp upon the floor, and wring
+her hands, crying out, "Oh, the Indians, the Indians!" At that moment
+one of the women from an adjoining building came running in, gasping
+with terror, for the butchery was going on outside as well, and
+_Tam-a-has_ and his associates were now assisting at it. Going to the
+room where the Doctor lay insensible, Mrs. Whitman and her terrified
+neighbor dragged him to the sofa and laid him upon it, doing all they
+could to revive him. To all their inquiries he answered by a whispered
+"no," probably not conscious what was said.
+
+While this was being done, the people from every quarter began to crowd
+into the Doctor's house, many of them wounded. Outside were heard the
+shrieks of women, the yells of the Indians, the roar of musketry, the
+noise of furious riding, of meeting war-clubs, groans, and every
+frightful combination of sound, such as only could be heard at such a
+carnival of blood. Still Mrs. Whitman sat by her husband's side, intent
+on trying to rouse him to say one coherent word.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the struggle, and she heard some one exclaim
+that two of her friends were being murdered beneath the window. Starting
+up, she approached the casement to get a view, as if by looking she
+could save; but that moment she encountered the fiendish gaze of Jo
+Lewis the half-breed, and comprehended his guilt. "Is it _you_, Jo, who
+are doing this?" she cried. Before the expression of horror had left her
+lips, a young Indian who had been a special favorite about the mission,
+drew up his gun and fired, the ball entering her right breast, when she
+fell without a groan.
+
+When the people had at first rushed in, Mrs. Whitman had ordered the
+doors fastened and the sick children removed to a room up stairs.
+Thither now she was herself conveyed, having first recovered
+sufficiently to stagger to the sofa where lay her dying husband. Those
+who witnessed this strange scene, say that she knelt and prayed--prayed
+for the orphan children she was leaving, and for her aged parents. The
+only expression of personal regret she was heard to utter, was sorrow
+that her father and mother should live to know she had perished in such
+a manner.
+
+In the chamber were now gathered Mrs. Whitman, Mrs. Hayes, Miss Bulee,
+Catharine Sager, thirteen years of age, and three of the sick children,
+besides Mr. Rogers and Mr. Kimble. Scarcely had they gained this retreat
+when the crashing of windows and doors was heard below, and with whoops
+and yells the savages dashed into the sitting-room where Doctor Whitman
+still lay dying. While some busied themselves removing from the house
+the goods and furniture, a chief named _Te-lau-ka-ikt_, a favorite at
+the mission, and on probation for admission into the church,
+deliberately chopped and mangled the face of his still breathing teacher
+and friend with his tomahawk, until every feature was rendered
+unrecognizable.
+
+The children from the school-house were brought into the kitchen of the
+Doctor's house about this time, by Jo Lewis, where, he told them, they
+were going to be shot. Mr. Spalding's little girl Eliza, was among them.
+Understanding the native language, she was fully aware of the terrible
+import of what was being said by their tormentors. While the Indians
+talked of shooting the children huddled together in the kitchen,
+pointing their guns, and yelling, Eliza covered her face with her apron,
+and leaned over upon the sink, that she might not see them shoot her.
+After being tortured in this manner for some time, the children were
+finally ordered out of doors.
+
+While this was going on, a chief called _Tamt-sak-y_, was trying to
+induce Mrs. Whitman to come down into the sitting-room.
+
+She replied that she was wounded and could not do so, upon which he
+professed much sorrow, and still desired her to be brought down, "If you
+are my friend _Tamt-sak-y_, come up and see me," was her reply to his
+professions, but he objected, saying there were Americans concealed in
+the chamber, whom he feared might kill him. Mr. Rogers then went to the
+head of the stairs and endeavored to have the chief come up, hoping
+there might be some friendly ones, who would aid them in escaping from
+the murderers. _Tamt-sak-y_, however, would not come up the stairs,
+although he persisted in saying that Mrs. Whitman should not be harmed,
+and that if all would come down and go over to the other house where the
+families were collected, they might do so in safety.
+
+The Indians below now began to call out that they were going to burn the
+Doctor's house. Then no alternative remained but to descend and trust to
+the mercy of the savages. As Mrs. Whitman entered the sitting-room,
+leaning on one arm of Mr. Rogers, who also was wounded in the head, and
+had a broken arm, she caught a view of the shockingly mutilated face of
+her husband and fell fainting upon the sofa, just as Doctor Whitman gave
+a dying gasp.
+
+Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Hayes now attempted to get the sofa, or settee, out
+of the house, and had succeeded in moving it through the kitchen to the
+door. No sooner did they appear in the open door-way than a volley of
+balls assailed them. Mr. Rogers fell at once, but did not die
+immediately, for one of the most horrid features in this horrid butchery
+was, that the victims were murdered by torturing degrees. Mrs. Whitman
+also received several gunshot wounds, lying on the settee. Francis
+Sager, the oldest of her adopted boys, was dragged into the group of
+dying ones and shot down.
+
+The children, who had been turned out of the kitchen were still huddled
+together about the kitchen door, so near to this awful scene that every
+incident was known to them, so near that the flashes from the guns of
+the Indians burnt their hair, and the odor of the blood and the burning
+powder almost suffocated them.
+
+At two o'clock in the afternoon the massacre had commenced. It was now
+growing dusk, and the demons were eager to finish their work. Seeing
+that life still lingered in the mangled bodies of their victims, they
+finished their atrocities by hurling them in the mud and gore which
+filled the yard, and beating them upon their faces with whips and clubs,
+while the air was filled with the noise of their shouting, singing, and
+dancing--the Indian women and children assisting at these orgies, as if
+the Bible had never been preached to them. And thus, after eleven years
+of patient endeavor to save some heathen souls alive, perished Doctor
+and Mrs. Whitman.
+
+In all that number of Indians who had received daily kindnesses at the
+hands of the missionaries, only two showed any compassion. These two,
+_Ups_ and _Madpool_, Walla-Wallas, who were employed by the Doctor, took
+the children away from the sickening sights that surrounded them, into
+the kitchen pantry, and there in secret tried to comfort them.
+
+When night set in the children and families were all removed to the
+building called the mansion-house, where they spent a night of horror;
+all, except those who were left in Mrs. Whitman's chamber, from which
+they dared not descend, and the family of Mr. Osborne, who escaped.
+
+On the first assault Mr. and Mrs. Osborne ran into their bedroom which
+adjoined the sitting-room, taking with them their three small children.
+Raising a plank in the floor, Mr. O. quickly thrust his wife and
+children into the space beneath, and then following, let the plank down
+to its place. Here they remained until darkness set in, able to hear all
+that was passing about them, and fearing to stir. When all was quiet at
+the Doctor's house, they stole out under cover of darkness and succeeded
+in reaching Fort Walla-Walla, after a painful journey of several days,
+or rather nights, for they dared not travel by day.
+
+Another person who escaped was a Mr. Hall, carpenter, who in a hand to
+hand contest with an Indian, received a wound in the face, but finally
+reached the cover of some bushes where he remained until dark, and then
+fled in the direction of Fort Walla-Walla. Mr. Hall was the first to
+arrive at the fort, where, contrary to his expectations, and to all
+humanity, he was but coldly received by the gentleman in charge, Mr.
+McBean.
+
+Whether it was from cowardice or cruelty as some alleged, that Mr.
+McBean rejoiced in the slaughter of the Protestant missionaries, himself
+being a Catholic, can never be known. Had that been true, one might have
+supposed that their death would have been enough, and that he might
+have sheltered a wounded man fleeing for his life, without grudging him
+this atom of comfort. Unfortunately for Mr. McBean's reputation, he
+declined to grant such shelter willingly. Mr. Hall remained, however,
+twelve hours, until he heard a report that the women and children were
+murdered, when, knowing how unwelcome he was, and being in a half
+distracted state, he consented to be set across the Columbia to make his
+way as best he could to the Wallamet. From this hour he was never seen
+or heard from, the manner of his death remaining a mystery to his wife
+and their family of five children, who were among the prisoners at
+Waiilatpu.
+
+When Mr. Osborne left the mission in the darkness, he was able only to
+proceed about two miles, before Mrs. Osborne's strength gave way, she
+lately having been confined by an untimely birth; and he was compelled
+to stop, secreting himself and family in some bushes. Here they
+remained, suffering with cold, and insufficient food, having only a
+little bread and cold mush which they had found in the pantry of the
+Doctor's house, before leaving it. On Tuesday night, Mrs. O. was able to
+move about three miles more: and again they were compelled to stop. In
+this way to proceed, they must all perish of starvation; therefore on
+Wednesday night Mr. O. took the second child and started with it for the
+fort, where he arrived before noon on Thursday.
+
+Although Mr. McBean received him with friendliness of manner, he refused
+him horses to go for Mrs. Osborne and his other children, and even
+refused to furnish food to relieve their hunger, telling him to go to
+the Umatilla, and forbidding his return to the fort. A little food was
+given to himself and child, who had been fasting since Monday night.
+Whether Mr. McBean would have allowed this man to perish is uncertain:
+but certain it is that some base or cowardly motive made him
+exceedingly cruel to both Hall and Osborne.
+
+While Mr. Osborne was partaking of his tea and crackers, there arrived
+at the fort Mr. Stanley, the artist, whom the reader will remember
+having met in the mountains several years before. When the case became
+known to him, he offered his horses immediately to go for Mrs. Osborne.
+Shamed into an appearance of humanity, Mr. McBean then furnished an
+Indian guide to accompany Mr. O. to the Umatilla, where he still
+insisted the fugitives should go, though this was in the murderer's
+country.
+
+A little meat and a few crackers were furnished for the supper of the
+travelers; and with a handkerchief for his hatless head and a pair of
+socks for his child's naked feet, all furnished by Mr. Stanley, Mr.
+Osborne set out to return to his suffering wife and children. He and his
+guide traveled rapidly, arriving in good time near the spot where he
+believed his family to be concealed. But the darkness had confused his
+recollection, and after beating the bushes until daylight, the unhappy
+husband and father was about to give up the search in despair, when his
+guide at length discovered their retreat.
+
+The poor mother and children were barely alive, having suffered much
+from famine and exposure, to say nothing of their fears. Mrs. Osborne
+was compelled to be tied to the Indian in order to sit her horse. In
+this condition the miserable fugitives turned toward the Umatilla, in
+obedience to the command of McBean, and were only saved from being
+murdered by a Cayuse by the scornful words of the guide, who shamed the
+murderer from his purpose of slaughtering a sick and defenceless family.
+At a Canadian farm-house, where they stopped to change horses, they were
+but roughly received; and learning here that _Tamt-sak-y's_ lodge was
+near by, Mrs. Osborne refused to proceed any farther toward the
+Umatilla. She said, "I doubt if I can live to reach the Umatilla; and if
+I must die, I may as well die at the gates of the Fort. Let us, then,
+turn back to the Fort."
+
+To this the guide assented, saying it was not safe going among the
+Cayuses. The little party, quite exhausted, reached Walla-Walla about
+ten o'clock at night, and were at once admitted. Contrary to his former
+course, Mr. McBean now ordered a fire made to warm the benumbed
+travelers, who, after being made tolerably comfortable, were placed in a
+secret room of the fort. Again Mr. Osborne was importuned to go away,
+down to the Wallamet, Mr. McBean promising to take care of his family
+and furnish him an outfit if he would do so. Upon being asked to furnish
+a boat, and Indians to man it, in order that the family might accompany
+him, he replied that his Indians refused to go.
+
+From all this reluctance, not only on the part of McBean, but of the
+Indians also, to do any act which appeared like befriending the
+Americans, it would appear that there was a very general fear of the
+Cayuse Indians, and a belief that they were about to inaugurate a
+general war upon the Americans, and their friends and allies. Mr.
+Osborne, however, refused to leave his family behind, and Mr. McBean was
+forced to let him remain until relief came. When it did come at last, in
+the shape of Mr. Ogden's party, _Stickas_, the chief who had warned Mr.
+Spalding, showed his kind feeling for the sufferers by removing his own
+cap and placing it on Mr. Osborne's head, and by tying a handkerchief
+over the ears of Mr. Osborne's little son, as he said, "to keep him
+warm, going down the river." Sadly indeed, did the little ones who
+suffered by the massacre at Waiilatpu, stand in need of any Christian
+kindness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+1847. A full account of the horrors of the Waiilatpu massacre, together
+with the individual sufferings of the captives whose lives were spared,
+would fill a volume, and be harrowing to the reader; therefore, only so
+much of it will be given here as, from its bearing upon Oregon history,
+is important to our narrative.
+
+The day following the massacre, being Tuesday, was the day on which Mr.
+Spalding was met and warned not to go to the mission, by the Vicar
+General, Brouillet. Happening at the mission on that day, and finding
+the bodies of the victims still unburied, Brouillet had them hastily
+interred before leaving, if interment it could be called which left them
+still a prey to wolves. The reader of this chapter of Oregon history
+will always be very much puzzled to understand by what means the
+Catholic priests procured their perfect exemption from harm during this
+time of terror to the Americans. Was it that they were French, and that
+they came into the country _only_ as missionaries of a religion adapted
+to the savage mind, and not as settlers? Was it at all owing to the fact
+that they were celibates, with no families to excite jealous feelings of
+comparison in the minds of their converts?
+
+Through a long and bitter war of words, which followed the massacre at
+Waiilatpu, terrible sins were charged upon the priests--no less than
+inciting the Indians to the murder of the Protestants, and winking at
+the atrocities of every kind committed by the savages. Whether they
+feared to enter into the quarrel, and were restrained from showing
+sympathy solely by this fear, is a question only themselves can
+determine. Certain it is, that they preserved a neutral position, when
+to be neutral was to seem, if not to be, devoid of human sympathies.
+That the event would have happened without any other provocation than
+such as the Americans furnished by their own reckless disregard of
+Indian prejudices, seems evident. The question, and the only question
+which is suggested by a knowledge of all the circumstances, is whether
+the event was helped on by an intelligent outside influence.
+
+It was quite natural that the Protestants should wonder at the immunity
+from danger which the priests enjoyed; and that, not clearly seeing the
+reason, they should suspect them of collusion with the Indians. It was
+natural, too, for the sufferers from the massacre to look for some
+expression of sympathy from any and all denominations of Christians; and
+that, not receiving it, they should have doubts of the motives which
+prompted such reserve. The story of that time is but an unpleasant
+record, and had best be lightly touched upon.
+
+The work of death and destruction did not close with the first day at
+Waiilatpu. Mr. Kimble, who had remained in the chamber of the Doctor's
+house all night, had suffered much from the pain of his broken arm. On
+Tuesday, driven desperate by his own sufferings, and those of the three
+sick children with him, one of whom was the little Helen Mar Meek, he
+resolved to procure some water from the stream which ran near the house.
+But he had not proceeded more than a few rods before he was shot down
+and killed instantly. The same day, a Mr. Young, from the saw-mill, was
+also killed. In the course of the week, Mr. Bulee, who was sick over at
+the mansion, was brutally murdered.
+
+Meanwhile the female captives and children were enduring such agony as
+seldom falls to the lot of humanity to suffer. Compelled to work for the
+Indians, their feelings were continually harrowed up by the terrible
+sights which everywhere met their eyes in going back and forth between
+the houses, in carrying water from the stream, or moving in any
+direction whatever. For the dead were not removed until the setting in
+of decay made it necessary to the Indians themselves.
+
+The goods belonging to the mission were taken from the store-room, and
+the older women ordered to make them up into clothing for the Indians.
+The buildings were plundered of everything which the Indians coveted;
+all the rest of their contents that could not be made useful to
+themselves were destroyed. Those of the captives who were sick were not
+allowed proper attention, and in a day or two Helen Mar Meek died of
+neglect.
+
+Thus passed four or five days. On Saturday a new horror was added to the
+others. The savages began to carry off the young women for wives. Three
+were thus dragged away to Indian lodges to suffer tortures worse than
+death. One young girl, a daughter of Mr. Kimble, was taken possession of
+by the murderer of her father, who took daily delight in reminding her
+of that fact, and when her sorrow could no longer be restrained, only
+threatened to exchange her for another young girl who was also a wife by
+compulsion.
+
+Miss Bulee, the eldest of the young women at the mission, and who was a
+teacher in the mission school, was taken to the Umatilla, to the lodge
+of _Five-Crows_. As has before been related, there was a house on the
+Umatilla belonging to _Tan-i-tan_, in which were residing at this time
+two Catholic priests--the Vicar-General Brouillet, and Blanchet, Bishop
+of Walla-Walla. To this house Miss Bulee applied for protection, and
+was refused, whether from fear, or from the motives subsequently
+attributed to them by some Protestant writers in Oregon, is not known to
+any but themselves. The only thing certain about it is, that Miss Bulee
+was allowed to be violently dragged from their presence every night, to
+return to them weeping in the morning, and to have her entreaties for
+their assistance answered by assurances from them that the wisest course
+for her was to submit. And this continued for more than two weeks, until
+the news of Mr. Ogden's arrival at Walla-Walla became known, when Miss
+Bulee was told that if _Five-Crows_ would not allow her to remain at
+their house altogether, she must remain at the lodge of _Five-Crows_
+without coming to their house at all, well knowing what _Five-Crows_
+would do, but wishing to have Miss Bulee's action seem voluntary, from
+shame perhaps, at their own cowardice. Yet the reason they gave ought to
+go for all it is worth--that they being priests could not have a woman
+about their house. In this unhappy situation did the female captives
+spend three most miserable weeks.
+
+In the meantime the mission at Lapwai had been broken up, but not
+destroyed, nor had any one suffered death as was at first feared. The
+intelligence of the massacre at Waiilatpu was first conveyed to Mrs.
+Spalding by a Mr. Camfield, who at the breaking out of the massacre,
+fled with his wife and children to a small room in the attic of the
+mansion, from the window of which he was able to behold the scenes which
+followed. When night came Mr. Camfield contrived to elude observation
+and descend into the yard, where he encountered a French Canadian long
+in the employ of Dr. Whitman, and since suspected to have been privy to
+the plan of the murders. To him Mr. Camfield confided his intention to
+escape, and obtained a promise that a horse should be brought to a
+certain place at a certain time for his use. But the Canadian failing
+to appear with his horse, Mr. C. set out on foot, and under cover of
+night, in the direction of the Lapwai mission. He arrived in the Nez
+Perce country on Thursday. On the following day he came upon a camp of
+these people, and procured from them a guide to Lapwai, without,
+however, speaking of what had occurred at Waiilatpu.
+
+The caution of Mr. Camfield relates to a trait of Indian character which
+the reader of Indian history must bear in mind, that is, the close
+relationship and identity of feeling of allied tribes. Why he did not
+inform the Nez Perces of the deed done by their relatives, the Cayuses,
+was because in that case he would have expected them to have sympathized
+with their allies, even to the point of making him a prisoner, or of
+taking his life. It is this fact concerning the Indian character, which
+alone furnishes an excuse for the conduct of Mr. McBean and the Catholic
+priests. Upon it Mr. Camfield acted, making no sign of fear, nor
+betraying any knowledge of the terrible matter on his mind to the Nez
+Perces.
+
+On Saturday afternoon Mr. C. arrived at Mrs. Spalding's house and
+dismissed his guide with the present of a buffalo robe. When he was
+alone with Mrs. Spalding he told his unhappy secret. It was then that
+the strength and firmness of Mrs. Spalding's character displayed itself
+in her decisive action. Well enough she knew the close bond between the
+Nez Perces and Cayuses, and also the treachery of the Indian character.
+But she saw that if affairs were left to shape themselves as Mr.
+Camfield entreated they might be left to do, putting off the evil
+day,--that when the news came from the Cayuses, there would be an
+outbreak.
+
+The only chance of averting this danger was to inform the chiefs most
+attached to her, at once, and throw herself and her family upon their
+mercy. Her resolution was taken not an hour too soon. Two of the chiefs
+most relied upon happened to be at the place that very afternoon, one of
+whom was called _Jacob_, and the other _Eagle_. To these two Mrs.
+Spalding confided the news without delay, and took counsel of them.
+According to her hopes, they assumed the responsibility of protecting
+her. One of them went to inform his camp, and give them orders to stand
+by Mrs. S., while the other carried a note to Mr. Craig, one of our
+Rocky Mountain acquaintances, who lived ten miles from the mission.
+
+_Jacob_ and _Eagle_, with two other friendly chiefs, decided that Mrs.
+S. must go to their camp near Mr. Craig's; because in case the Cayuses
+came to the mission as was to be expected, she would be safer with them.
+Mrs. S. however would not consent to make the move on the Sabbath, but
+begged to be allowed to remain quiet until Monday. Late Saturday evening
+Mr. Craig came down; and Mrs. Spalding endeavored with his assistance to
+induce the Indians to carry an express to Cimikain in the country of the
+Spokanes, where Messrs. Walker and Eells had a station. Not an Indian
+could be persuaded to go. An effort, also, was made by the heroic and
+suffering wife and mother, to send an express to Waiilatpu to learn the
+fate of her daughter, and if possible of her husband. But the Indians
+were none of them inclined to go. They said, without doubt all the women
+and children were slain. That Mr. Spalding was alive no one believed.
+
+The reply of Mrs. S. to their objections was that she could not believe
+that they were her friends if they would not undertake this journey, for
+the relief of her feelings under such circumstances. At length _Eagle_
+consented to go; but so much opposed were the others to having anything
+done which their relations, the Cayuses, might be displeased with, that
+it was nearly twenty-four hours before _Eagle_ got leave to go.
+
+On Monday morning a Nez Perce arrived from Waiilatpu with the news of
+what the Cayuses had done. With him were a number of Indians from the
+camp where Mr. Camfield had stopped for a guide, all eager for plunder,
+and for murder too, had not they found Mrs. Spalding protected by
+several chiefs. Her removal to their camp probably saved her from the
+fate of Mrs. Whitman.
+
+Among those foremost in plundering the mission buildings at Lapwai were
+some of the hitherto most exemplary Indians among the Nez Perces. Even
+the chief, first in authority after Ellis, who was absent, was prominent
+in these robberies. For eight years had this chief, Joseph, been a
+member of the church at Lapwai, and sustained a good reputation during
+that time. How bitter must have been the feelings of Mrs. Spalding, who
+had a truly devoted missionary heart, when she beheld the fruit of her
+life's labor turned to ashes in her sight as it was by the conduct of
+Joseph and his family.
+
+Shortly after the removal of Mrs. Spalding, and the pillaging of the
+buildings, Mr. Spalding arrived at Lapwai from his long and painful
+journey during which he had wandered much out of his way, and suffered
+many things. His appearance was the signal for earnest consultations
+among the Nez Perces who were not certain that they might safely give
+protection to him without the consent of the Cayuses. To his petition
+that they should carry a letter express to Fort Colville or Fort
+Walla-Walla, they would not consent. Their reason for refusing seemed to
+be a fear that such a letter might be answered by an armed body of
+Americans, who would come to avenge the deaths of their countrymen.
+
+To deprive them of this suspicion, Mr. Spalding told them that as he
+had been robbed of everything, he had no means of paying them for their
+services to his family, and that it was necessary to write to
+Walla-Walla for blankets, and to the Umatilla for his horses. He assured
+them that he would write to his countrymen to keep quiet, and that they
+had nothing to fear from the Americans. The truth was, however, that he
+had forwarded through Brouillet, a letter to Gov. Abernethy asking for
+help which could only come into that hostile country armed and equipped
+for war.
+
+Late in the month of December there arrived in Oregon City to be
+delivered to the governor, sixty-two captives, bought from the Cayuses
+and Nez Perces by Hudson's Bay blankets and goods; and obtained at that
+price by Hudson's Bay influence. "No other power on earth," says Joe
+Meek, the American, "could have rescued those prisoners from the hands
+of the Indians;" and no man better than Mr. Meek understood the Indian
+character, or the Hudson's Bay Company's power over them.
+
+The number of victims to the Waiilatpu massacre was fourteen. None
+escaped who had not to mourn a father, brother, son, or friend. If "the
+blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," there ought to arise on
+the site of Waiilatpu a generation of extraordinary piety. As for the
+people for whom a noble man and woman, and numbers of innocent persons
+were sacrificed, they have returned to their traditions; with the
+exception of the Nez Perces, who under the leadership of their old
+teacher Mr. Spalding, have once more resumed the pursuits of civilized
+and Christianized nations.
+
+The description of Waiilatpu at the present time given on the following
+page, is from "_All Over Oregon and Washington_" by the author of this
+book.
+
+"Waiilatpu is just that--a creek-bottom--the creeks on either side of it
+fringed with trees; higher land shutting out the view in front;
+isolation and solitude the most striking features of the place. Yet here
+came a man and a woman to live and to labor among the savages, when all
+the old Oregon territory was an Indian country. Here stood the station
+erected by them: _adobe_ houses, a mill, a school-house for the Indians,
+shops, and all the necessary appurtenances of an isolated settlement.
+Nothing remains to-day but mounds of earth, into which the _adobes_ were
+dissolved by weather, after burning.
+
+"A few rods away, on the side of the hill, is a different mound: the
+common grave of fourteen victims of savage superstition, jealousy, and
+wrath. It is roughly inclosed by a board fence, and has not a shrub or a
+flower to disguise its terrible significance. The most affecting
+reminders of wasted effort which remain on the old Mission-grounds are
+the two or three apple-trees which escaped the general destruction, and
+the scarlet poppies which are scattered broadcast through the
+creek-bottom near the houses. Sadly significant it is that the flower
+whose evanescent bloom is the symbol of unenduring joys, should be the
+only tangible witness left of the womanly tastes and labors of the
+devoted Missionary who gave her life a sacrifice to ungrateful Indian
+savagery.
+
+"The place is occupied, at present, by one of Dr. Whitman's early
+friends and co-laborers, who claimed the Mission-ground, under the
+Donation Act, and who was first and most active in founding the seminary
+to the memory of a Christian gentleman and martyr. On the identical spot
+where stood the Doctor's residence, now stands the more modern one of
+his friend; and he seems to take a melancholy pleasure in keeping in
+remembrance the events of that unhappy time, which threw a gloom over
+the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+1847-8. When the contents of Mr. Douglas' letter to the governor became
+known to the citizens of the Wallamet settlement, the greatest
+excitement prevailed. On the reading of that letter, and those
+accompanying it, before the House, a resolution was immediately
+introduced authorizing the governor to raise a company of riflemen, not
+to exceed fifty in number, to occupy and hold the mission station at the
+Dalles, until a larger force could be raised, and such measures adopted
+as the government might think advisable. This resolution being sent to
+the governor without delay, received his approval, when the House
+adjourned.
+
+A large meeting of the citizens was held that evening, which was
+addressed by several gentlemen, among whom was Meek, whose taste for
+Indian fighting was whetted to keenness by the aggravating circumstances
+of the Waiilatpu massacre, and the fact that his little Helen Mar was
+among the captives. Impatient as was Meek to avenge the murders, he was
+too good a mountain-man to give any rash advice. All that could be done
+under the existing circumstances was to trust to the Hudson's Bay
+Company for the rescue of the prisoners, and to take such means for
+defending the settlements as the people in their unarmed condition could
+devise.
+
+The legislature undertook the settlement of the question of ways and
+means. To raise money for the carrying out of the most important
+measures immediately, was a task which after some consideration was
+entrusted to three commissioners; and by these commissioners letters
+were addressed to the Hudson's Bay Company, the superintendent of the
+Methodist mission, and to the "merchants and citizens of Oregon." The
+latter communication is valuable as fully explaining the position of
+affairs at that time in Oregon. It is dated Dec. 17th, and was as
+follows:
+
+     GENTLEMEN:--You are aware that the undersigned have been charged by
+     the legislature of our provisional government with the difficult
+     duty of obtaining the necessary means to arm, equip, and support in
+     the field a force sufficient to obtain full satisfaction of the
+     Cayuse Indians, for the late massacre at Waiilatpu, and to protect
+     the white population of our common country from further aggression.
+
+     In furtherance of this object they have deemed it their duty to
+     make immediate application to the merchants and citizens of the
+     country for the requisite assistance.
+
+     Though clothed with the power to pledge, to the fullest extent, the
+     faith and means of the present government of Oregon, they do not
+     consider this pledge the only security to those who, in this
+     distressing emergency, may extend to the people of this country the
+     means of protection and redress.
+
+     Without claiming any special authority from the government of the
+     United States to contract a debt to be liquidated by that power,
+     yet, from all precedents of like character in the history of our
+     country, the undersigned feel confident that the United States
+     government will regard the murder of the late Dr. Whitman and his
+     lady, as a national wrong, and will fully justify the people of
+     Oregon in taking active measures to obtain redress for that
+     outrage, and for their protection from further aggression.
+
+     The right of self-defence is tacitly acknowledged to every body
+     politic in the confederacy to which we claim to belong, and in
+     every case similar to our own, within our knowledge, the general
+     government has promptly assumed the payment of all liabilities
+     growing out of the measures taken by the constituted authorities,
+     to protect the lives and property of those who reside within the
+     limits of their districts.
+
+     If the citizens of the States and territories, east of the Rocky
+     mountains, are justified in promptly acting in such emergencies,
+     who are under the immediate protection of the general government,
+     there appears no room for doubt that the lawful acts of the Oregon
+     government will receive a like approval.
+
+     Though the Indians of the Columbia have committed a great outrage
+     upon our fellow citizens passing through their country, and
+     residing among them, and their punishment for these murders may,
+     and ought to be, a prime object with every citizen of Oregon, yet,
+     as that duty more particularly devolves upon the government of the
+     United States, and admits of delay, we do not make this the
+     strongest ground upon which to found our earnest appeal to you for
+     pecuniary assistance. It is a fact well known to every person
+     acquainted with the Indian character, that, by passing silently
+     over their repeated thefts, robberies, and murders of our
+     fellow-citizens, they have been emboldened to the commission of the
+     appalling massacre at Waiilatpu. They call us women, destitute of
+     the hearts and courage of men, and if we allow this wholesale
+     murder to pass by as former aggressions, who can tell how long
+     either life or property will be secure in any part of this country,
+     or what moment the Willamette will be the scene of blood and
+     carnage.
+
+     The officers of our provisional government have nobly performed
+     their duty. None can doubt the readiness of the patriotic sons of
+     the west to offer their personal services in defence of a cause so
+     righteous. So it now rests with you, gentlemen, to say whether our
+     rights and our fire-sides shall be defended, or not.
+
+     Hoping that none will be found to falter in so high and so sacred a
+     duty, we beg leave, gentlemen, to subscribe ourselves,
+
+     Your servants and fellow-citizens,
+     JESSE APPLEGATE,
+     A.L. LOVEJOY,
+     GEO. L. CURRY,
+     _Commissioners_.
+
+A similar letter had been addressed to the Hudson's Bay Company, and to
+the Methodist mission. From each of these sources such assistance was
+obtained as enabled the colony to arm and equip the first regiment of
+Oregon riflemen, which in the month of January proceeded to the Cayuse
+country. The amount raised, however, was very small, being less than
+five thousand dollars, and it became imperatively necessary that the
+government of the United States should be called upon to extend its aid
+and protection to the loyal but distressed young territory.
+
+In view of this necessity it was resolved in the legislature to send a
+messenger to carry the intelligence of the massacre to Gov. Mason of
+California, and through him to the commander of the United States
+squadron in the Pacific, that a vessel of war might be sent into the
+Columbia River, and arms and ammunition borrowed for the present
+emergency, from the nearest arsenal. For this duty was chosen Jesse
+Applegate, Esq., a gentleman who combined in his character and person
+the ability of the statesman with the sagacity and strength of the
+pioneer. Mr. Applegate, with a small party of brave men, set out in
+midwinter to cross the mountains into California, but such was the depth
+of snow they encountered that traveling became impossible, even after
+abandoning their horses, and they were compelled to return.
+
+The messenger elected to proceed to the United States was Joseph L.
+Meek, whose Rocky Mountain experiences eminently fitted him to encounter
+the dangers of such a winter journey, and whose manliness, firmness, and
+ready wit stood him instead of statesmanship.
+
+On the 17th December Meek resigned his seat in the House in order to
+prepare for the discharge of his duty as messenger to the United States.
+On the 4th of January, armed with his credentials from the Oregon
+legislature, and bearing dispatches from that body and the Governor to
+the President, he at length set out on the long and perilous expedition,
+having for traveling companions Mr. John Owens, and Mr. George
+Ebbarts--the latter having formerly been a Rocky Mountain man, like
+himself.
+
+At the Dalles they found the first regiment of Oregon Riflemen, under
+Major Lee, of the newly created army of Oregon. From the reports which
+the Dalles Indians brought in of the hostility of the Indians beyond the
+Des Chutes River it was thought best not to proceed before the arrival
+of the remainder of the army, when all the forces would proceed at once
+to Waiilatpu. Owing to various delays, the army, consisting of about
+five hundred men, under Colonel Gilliam, did not reach the Dalles until
+late in January, when the troops proceeded at once to the seat of war.
+
+The reports concerning the warlike disposition of the Indians proved to
+be correct. Already, the Wascopams or Dalles Indians had begun robbing
+the mission at that place, when Colonel Lee's arrival among them with
+troops had compelled them to return the stolen property. As the army
+advanced they found that all the tribes above the Dalles were holding
+themselves prepared for hostilities. At Well Springs, beyond the Des
+Chutes River, they were met by a body of about six hundred Indians to
+whom they gave battle, soon dispersing them, the superior arms and
+equipments of the whites tending to render timid those tribes yet
+unaccustomed to so superior an enemy. From thence to Waiilatpu the
+course of the army was unobstructed.
+
+In the meantime the captives had been given up to the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and full particulars of the massacre were obtained by the army,
+with all the subsequent abuses and atrocities suffered by the prisoners.
+The horrible details were not calculated to soften the first bitterness
+of hatred which had animated the volunteers on going into the field. Nor
+was the appearance of an armed force in their midst likely to allay the
+hostile feelings with which other causes had inspired the Indians. Had
+not the captives already been removed out of the country, no influence,
+not even that of the Hudson's Bay Company, could have prevailed to get
+them out of the power of their captors then. Indeed, in order to treat
+with the Cayuses in the first place, Mr. Ogden had been obliged to
+promise peace to the Indians, and now they found instead of peace, every
+preparation for war. However, as the army took no immediate action, but
+only remained in their country to await the appearance of the
+commissioners appointed by the legislature of Oregon to hold a council
+with the chiefs of the various tribes, the Cayuses were forced to
+observe the outward semblance of amity while these councils were
+pending.
+
+Arrived at Waiilatpu, the friends and acquaintances of Dr. Whitman were
+shocked to find that the remains of the victims were still unburied,
+although a little earth had been thrown over them. Meek, to whom, ever
+since his meeting with her in the train of the fur-trader, Mrs. Whitman
+had seemed all that was noble and captivating, had the melancholy
+satisfaction of bestowing, with others, the last sad rite of burial upon
+such portions of her once fair person as murder and the wolves had not
+destroyed. Some tresses of golden hair were severed from the brow so
+terribly disfigured, to be given to her friends in the Wallamet as a
+last and only memorial. Among the State documents at Salem, Oregon, may
+still be seen one of these relics of the Waiilatpu tragedy.
+
+Not only had Meek to discover and inter the remains of Dr. and Mrs.
+Whitman, but also of his little girl, who was being educated at the
+mission, with a daughter of his former leader, Bridger.
+
+This sad duty performed, he immediately set out, escorted by a company
+of one hundred men under Adjutant Wilcox, who accompanied him as far as
+the foot of the Blue Mountains. Here the companies separated, and Meek
+went on his way to Washington.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+1848. Meek's party now consisted of himself, Ebbarts, Owens, and four
+men, who being desirous of returning to the States took this
+opportunity. However, as the snow proved to be very deep on the Blue
+Mountains, and the cold severe, two of these four volunteers became
+discouraged and concluded to remain at Fort Boise, where was a small
+trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company.
+
+In order to avoid trouble with the Indians he might meet on the western
+side of the Rocky mountains, Meek had adopted the red belt and Canadian
+cap of the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company; and to this precaution
+was owing the fact of his safe passage through the country now all
+infected with hostility caught from the Cayuses. About three days'
+travel beyond Fort Boise, the party met a village of Bannack Indians,
+who at once made warlike demonstrations; but on seeing Meek's costume,
+and receiving an invitation to hold a 'talk', desisted, and received the
+travelers in a friendly manner. Meek informed the chief, with all the
+gravity which had won for him the name of "_shiam shuspusia_" among the
+Crows in former years, that he was going on the business of the Hudson's
+Bay Company to Fort Hall; and that Thomas McKay was a day's march behind
+with a large trading party, and plenty of goods. On the receipt of this
+good news, the chief ordered his braves to fall back, and permit the
+party to pass. Yet, fearing the deception might be discovered, they
+thought it prudent to travel day and night until they reached Fort Hall.
+
+At this post of the Hudson's Bay Company, in charge of Mr. Grant, they
+were kindly received, and stopped for a few hours of rest. Mr. Grant
+being absent, his wife provided liberally for the refreshment of the
+party, who were glad to find themselves even for a short interval under
+a roof, beside a fire and partaking of freshly cooked food. But they
+permitted themselves no unnecessary delay. Before night they were once
+more on their way, though snow had now commenced to fall afresh,
+rendering the traveling very difficult. For two days they struggled on,
+their horses floundering in the soft drifts, until further progress in
+that manner became impossible. The only alternative left was to abandon
+their horses and proceed on snow-shoes, which were readily constructed
+out of willow sticks.
+
+Taking only a blanket and their rifles, and leaving the animals to find
+their way back to Fort Hall, the little party pushed on. Meek was now on
+familiar ground, and the old mountain spirit which had once enabled him
+to endure hunger, cold, and fatigue without murmuring, possessed him
+now. It was not without a certain sense of enjoyment that he found
+himself reduced to the necessity of shooting a couple of pole-cats to
+furnish a supper for himself and party. How long the enjoyment of
+feeling want would have lasted is uncertain, but probably only long
+enough to whet the appetite for plenty.
+
+To such a point had the appetites of all the party been whetted, when,
+after several days of scarcity and toil, followed by nights of emptiness
+and cold, Meek had the agreeable surprise of falling in with an old
+mountain comrade on the identical ground of many a former adventure, the
+head-waters of Bear River. This man, whom Meek was delighted to meet,
+was Peg-leg Smith, one of the most famous of many well-known
+mountain-men. He was engaged in herding cattle in the valley of Thomas'
+Fork, where the tall grass was not quite buried under snow, and had with
+him a party of ten men.
+
+Meek was as cordially received by his former comrade as the unbounded
+hospitality of mountain manners rendered it certain he would be. A fat
+cow was immediately sacrificed, which, though not buffalo meat, as in
+former times it would have been, was very good beef, and furnished a
+luxurious repast to the pole-cat eaters of the last several days.
+Smith's camp did not lack the domestic element of women and children,
+any more than had the trapper's camps in the flush times of the
+fur-trade. Therefore, seeing that the meeting was most joyful, and full
+of reminiscences of former winter camps, Smith thought to celebrate the
+occasion by a grand entertainment. Accordingly, after a great deal of
+roast beef had been disposed of, a dance was called for, in which white
+men and Indian women joined with far more mirth and jollity than grace
+or ceremony. Thus passed some hours of the night, the bearer of
+dispatches seizing, in true mountain style, the passing moment's
+pleasure, so long as it did not interfere with the punctilious discharge
+of his duty. And to the honor of our hero be it said, nothing was ever
+allowed to interfere with that.
+
+Refreshed and provided with rations for a couple of days, the party
+started on again next morning, still on snow-shoes, and traveled up Bear
+River to the head-waters of Green River, crossing from the Muddy fork
+over to Fort Bridger, where they arrived very much fatigued but quite
+well in little more than three days' travel. Here again it was Meek's
+good fortune to meet with his former leader, Bridger, to whom he related
+what had befallen him since turning pioneer. The meeting was joyful on
+both sides, clouded only by the remembrance of what had brought it
+about, and the reflection that both had a personal wrong to avenge in
+bringing about the punishment of the Cayuse murderers.
+
+Once more Meek's party were generously fed, and furnished with such
+provisions as they could carry about their persons. In addition to this,
+Bridger presented them with four good mules, by which means the
+travelers were mounted four at a time, while the fifth took exercise on
+foot; so that by riding or walking, turn about, they were enabled to get
+on very well as far as the South Pass. Here again for some distance the
+snow was very deep, and two of their mules were lost in it. Their course
+lay down the Sweetwater River, past many familiar hunting and camping
+grounds, to the Platte River. Owing to the deep snows, game was very
+scarce, and a long day of toil was frequently closed by a supperless
+sleep under shelter of some rock or bank, with only a blanket for cover.
+At Red Buttes they were so fortunate as to find and kill a single
+buffalo, which, separated from the distant herd, was left by Providence
+in the path of the famished travelers.
+
+On reaching the Platte River they found the traveling improved, as well
+as the supply of game, and proceeded with less difficulty as far as Fort
+Laramie, a trading post in charge of a French trader named Papillion.
+Here again fresh mules were obtained, and the little party treated in
+the most hospitable manner. In parting from his entertainer, Meek was
+favored with this brief counsel:
+
+"There is a village of Sioux, of about six hundred lodges, a hundred
+miles from here. Your course will bring you to it. Look out for
+yourself, and don't make a Gray muss of it!"--which latter clause
+referred to the affair of 1837, when the Sioux had killed the Indian
+escort of Mr. Gray.
+
+When the party arrived at Ash Hollow, which they meant to have passed in
+the night, on account of the Sioux village, the snow was again falling
+so thickly that the party had not perceived their nearness to the
+village until they were fairly in the midst of it. It was now no safer
+to retreat than to proceed; and after a moment's consultation, the word
+was given to keep on. In truth, Meek thought it doubtful whether the
+Sioux would trouble themselves to come out in such a tempest, and if
+they did so, that the blinding snow-fall was rather in his favor. Thus
+reasoning, he was forcing his mule through the drifts as rapidly as the
+poor worried animal could make its way, when a head was protruded from a
+lodge door, and "Hallo, Major!" greeted his ear in an accent not
+altogether English.
+
+On being thus accosted, the party came to a halt, and Meek was invited
+to enter the lodge, with his friends. His host on this occasion was a
+French trader named Le Bean, who, after offering the hospitalities of
+the lodge, and learning who were his guests, offered to accompany the
+party a few miles on its way. This he did, saying by way of explanation
+of this act of courtesy, "The Sioux are a bad people; I thought it best
+to see you safe out of the village." Receiving the thanks of the
+travelers, he turned back at night-fall, and they continued on all night
+without stopping to camp, going some distance to the south of their
+course before turning east again, in order to avoid any possible
+pursuers.
+
+Without further adventures, and by dint of almost constant travel, the
+party arrived at St. Joseph, Mo., in safety, in a little over two
+months, from Portland, Oregon. Soon afterwards, when the circumstances
+of this journey became known, a steamboat built for the Missouri River
+trade was christened the _Joseph L. Meek_, and bore for a motto, on her
+pilot-house, "The quickest trip yet," in reference both to Meek's
+overland journey and her own steaming qualities.
+
+As Meek approached the settlements, and knew that he must soon be thrown
+into society of the highest official grade, and be subjected to such
+ordeals as he dreaded far more than Indian fighting, or even traveling
+express across a continent of snow, the subject of how he was to behave
+in these new and trying positions very frequently occurred to him. He,
+an uneducated man, trained to mountain life and manners, without money,
+or even clothes, with nothing to depend on but the importance of his
+mission and his own mother wit, he felt far more keenly than his
+careless appearance would suggest, the difficulties and awkwardness of
+his position.
+
+"I thought a great deal about it," confesses the Col. Joseph L. Meek of
+to-day, "and I finally concluded that as I had never tried to act like
+anybody but myself, I would not make myself a fool by beginning to ape
+other folks now. So I said, 'Joe Meek you always have been, and Joe Meek
+you shall remain; go ahead, Joe Meek!'"
+
+In fact, it would have been rather difficult putting on fine gentleman
+airs, in that old worn-out hunting suit of his, and with not a dollar to
+bless himself. On the contrary, it needed just the devil-may-care temper
+which naturally belonged to our hero, to carry him through the remainder
+of his journey to Washington. To be hungry, ill-clad, dirty, and
+penniless, is sufficient in itself for the subduing of most spirits; how
+it affected the temper of the messenger from Oregon we shall now learn.
+
+When the weary little party arrived in St. Joseph, they repaired to a
+hotel, and Meek requested that a meal should be served for all, but
+frankly confessing that they had no money to pay. The landlord, however,
+declined furnishing guests of his style upon such terms, and our
+travelers were forced to go into camp below the town. Meek now bethought
+himself of his letters of introduction. It chanced that he had one from
+two young men among the Oregon volunteers, to their father in St Joseph.
+Stopping a negro who was passing his camp, he inquired whether such a
+gentleman was known to him; and on learning that he was, succeeded in
+inducing the negro to deliver the letter from his sons.
+
+This movement proved successful. In a short space of time the gentleman
+presented himself, and learning the situation of the party, provided
+generously for their present wants, and promised any assistance which
+might be required in future. Meek, however, chose to accept only that
+which was imperatively needed, namely, something to eat, and
+transportation to some point on the river where he could take a steamer
+for St. Louis. A portion of his party chose to remain in St. Joseph, and
+a portion accompanied him as far as Independence, whither this same St.
+Joseph gentleman conveyed them in his carriage.
+
+While Meek was stopping at Independence, he was recognized by a sister,
+whom he had not seen for nineteen years; who, marrying and emigrating
+from Virginia, had settled on the frontier of Missouri. But he gave
+himself no time for family reunion and gossip. A steamboat that had been
+frozen up in the ice all winter, was just about starting for St. Louis,
+and on board of this he went, with an introduction to the captain, which
+secured for him every privilege the boat afforded, together with the
+kindest attention of its officers.
+
+When the steamer arrived in St. Louis, by one of those fortuitous
+circumstances so common in our hero's career, he was met at the landing
+by Campbell, a Rocky Mountain trader who had formerly belonged to the
+St. Louis Company. This meeting relieved him of any care about his
+night's entertainment in St. Louis, and it also had another effect--that
+of relieving him of any further care about the remainder of his journey;
+for, after hearing Meek's story of the position of affairs in Oregon and
+his errand to the United States, Campbell had given the same to the
+newspaper reporters, and Meek, like Byron, waked up next morning to find
+himself famous.
+
+[Illustration: MEEK AS STEAMBOAT RUNNER.]
+
+Having telegraphed to Washington, and received the President's order to
+come on, the previous evening, our hero wended his way to the levee the
+morning after his arrival in St. Louis. There were two steamers lying
+side by side, both up for Pittsburg, with runners for each, striving to
+outdo each other in securing passengers. A bright thought occurred to
+the moneyless envoy--he would earn his passage!
+
+Walking on board one of the boats, which bore the name of _The
+Declaration_, himself a figure which attracted all eyes by his size and
+outlandish dress, he mounted to the hurricane deck and began to
+harrangue the crowd upon the levee, in the voice of a Stentor:
+
+"This way, gentlemen, if you please. Come right on board the
+_Declaration_. I am the man from Oregon, with dispatches to the
+President of these United States, that you all read about in this
+morning's paper. Come on board, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to
+hear the news from Oregon. I've just come across the plains, two months
+from the Columbia River, where the Injuns are killing your missionaries.
+Those passengers who come aboard the _Declaration_ shall hear all about
+it before they get to Pittsburg. Don't stop thar, looking at my old
+wolf-skin cap, but just come aboard, and hear what I've got to tell!"
+
+The novelty of this sort of solicitation operated capitally. Many
+persons crowded on board the _Declaration_ only to get a closer look at
+this picturesque personage who invited them, and many more because they
+were really interested to know the news from the far off young territory
+which had fallen into trouble. So it chanced that the _Declaration_ was
+inconveniently crowded on this particular morning.
+
+After the boat had got under way, the captain approached his roughest
+looking cabin passenger and inquired in a low tone of voice if he were
+really and truly the messenger from Oregon.
+
+"Thar's what I've got to show for it;" answered Meek, producing his
+papers.
+
+"Well, all I have to say is, Mr. Meek, that you are the best runner this
+boat ever had; and you are welcome to your passage ticket, and anything
+you desire besides."
+
+Finding that his bright thought had succeeded so well, Meek's spirit
+rose with the occasion, and the passengers had no reason to complain
+that he had not kept his word. Before he reached Wheeling his popularity
+was immense, notwithstanding the condition of his wardrobe. At
+Cincinnati he had time to present a letter to the celebrated Doctor
+----, who gave him another, which proved to be an 'open sesame' wherever
+he went thereafter.
+
+On the morning of his arrival in Wheeling it happened that the stage
+which then carried passengers to Cumberland, where they took the train
+for Washington, had already departed. Elated by his previous good
+fortune our ragged hero resolved not to be delayed by so trivial a
+circumstance; but walking pompously into the stage office inquired, with
+an air which must have smacked strongly of the mock-heroic, if he "could
+have a stage for Cumberland?"
+
+The nicely dressed, dignified elderly gentleman who managed the business
+of the office, regarded the man who proffered this modest request for a
+moment in motionless silence, then slowly raising the spectacles over
+his eyes to a position on his forehead, finished his survey with
+unassisted vision. Somewhat impressed by the manner in which Meek bore
+this scrutiny, he ended by demanding "who are you?"
+
+Tickled by the absurdity of the tableau they were enacting, Meek
+straightened himself up to his six feet two, and replied with an air of
+superb self assurance--
+
+"I am Envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the Republic
+of Oregon to the Court of the United States!"
+
+After a pause in which the old gentleman seemed to be recovering from
+some great surprise, he requested to see the credentials of this
+extraordinary envoy. Still more surprised he seemed on discovering for
+himself that the personage before him was really a messenger from Oregon
+to the government of the United States. But the effect was magical. In a
+moment the bell-rope was pulled, and in an incredibly short space of
+time a coach stood at the door ready to convey the waiting messenger on
+his way to Washington.
+
+In the meantime in a conversation with the stage agent, Meek had
+explained more fully the circumstances of his mission, and the agent had
+become much interested. On parting, Meek received a ticket to the Relay
+House, with many expressions of regret from the agent that he could
+ticket him no farther.
+
+"But it is all the same," said he; "you are sure to go through."
+
+"Or run a train off the track," rejoined Meek, as he was bowed out of
+the office.
+
+It happened that there were some other passengers waiting to take the
+first stage, and they crowded into this one, glad of the unexpected
+opportunity, but wondering at the queer looking passenger to whom the
+agent was so polite. This scarcely concealed curiosity was all that was
+needed to stimulate the mad-cap spirits of our so far "conquering hero."
+Putting his head out of the window just at the moment of starting, he
+electrified everybody, horses included, by the utterance of a war-whoop
+and yell that would have done credit to a wild Camanche. Satisfied with
+the speed to which this demoniac noise had excited the driver's prancing
+steeds, he quietly ensconced himself in his corner of the coach and
+waited for his fellow passengers to recover from their stunned
+sensations. When their complete recovery had been effected, there
+followed the usual questioning and explanations, which ended in the
+inevitable lionizing that was so much to the taste of this sensational
+individual.
+
+On the cars at Cumberland, and at the eating-houses, the messenger from
+Oregon kept up his sensational character, indulging in alternate fits of
+mountain manners, and again assuming a disproportionate amount of
+grandeur; but in either view proving himself very amusing. By the time
+the train reached the Relay House, many of the passengers had become
+acquainted with Meek, and were prepared to understand and enjoy each new
+phase of his many-sided comicality.
+
+The ticket with which the stage agent presented him, dead-headed him
+only to this point. Here again he must make his poverty a jest, and joke
+himself through to Washington. Accordingly when the conductor came
+through the car in which he, with several of his new acquaintances were
+sitting, demanding tickets, he was obliged to tap his blanketed
+passenger on the shoulder to attract his attention to the "ticket, sir!"
+
+"_Ha ko any me ca, hanch?_" said Meek, starting up and addressing him in
+the Snake tongue.
+
+"Ticket, sir!" repeated the conductor, staring.
+
+"_Ka hum pa, hanch?_" returned Meek, assuming a look which indicated
+that English was as puzzling to him, as Snake to other people.
+
+Finding that his time would be wasted on this singular passenger, the
+conductor went on through the train; returning after a time with a fresh
+demand for his ticket. But Meek sustained his character admirably, and
+it was only through the excessive amusement of the passengers that the
+conductor suspected that he was being made the subject of a practical
+joke. At this stage of affairs it was privately explained to him who
+and what his waggish customer was, and tickets were no more mentioned
+during the journey.
+
+On the arrival of the train at Washington, the heart of our hero became
+for a brief moment of time "very little." He felt that the importance of
+his mission demanded some dignity of appearance--some conformity to
+established rules and precedents. But of the latter he knew absolutely
+nothing; and concerning the former, he realized the absurdity of a
+dignitary clothed in blankets and a wolf-skin cap. 'Joe Meek I must
+remain,' said he to himself, as he stepped out of the train, and glanced
+along the platform at the crowd of porters with the names of their
+hotels on their hat-bands. Learning from inquiry that Coleman's was the
+most fashionable place, he decided that to Coleman's he would go,
+judging correctly that it was best to show no littleness of heart even
+in the matter of hotels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+1848. When Meek arrived at Coleman's it was the dinner hour, and
+following the crowd to the dining saloon, he took the first seat he came
+to, not without being very much stared at. He had taken his cue and the
+staring was not unexpected, consequently not so embarrassing as it might
+otherwise have been. A bill of fare was laid beside his plate. Turning
+to the colored waiter who placed it there, he startled him first by
+inquiring in a low growling voice--
+
+"What's that boy?"
+
+"Bill of fare, sah," replied the "boy," who recognized the Southerner in
+the use of that one word.
+
+"Read!" growled Meek again. "The people in _my_ country can't read."
+
+Though taken by surprise, the waiter, politely obedient, proceeded to
+enumerate the courses on the bill of fare. When he came to game----
+
+"Stop thar, boy!" commanded Meek, "what kind of game?"
+
+"Small game, sah."
+
+"Fetch me a piece of antelope," leaning back in his chair with a look of
+satisfaction on his face.
+
+"Got none of that sah; don't know what that ar' sah."
+
+"Don't know!" with a look of pretended surprise. "In _my_ country
+antelope and deer ar' small game; bear and buffalo ar' large game. I
+reckon if you haven't got one, you haven't got the other, either. In
+that case you may fetch me some beef."
+
+The waiter disappeared grinning, and soon returned with the customary
+thin and small cut, which Meek eyed at first contemptuously, and then
+accepting it in the light of a sample swallowed it at two mouthfuls,
+returning his plate to the waiter with an approving smile, and saying
+loud enough to be overheard by a score of people----
+
+"Boy, that will do. Fetch me about four pounds of the same kind."
+
+By this time the blanketed beef-eater was the recipient of general
+attention, and the "boy" who served him comprehending with that
+quickness which distinguishes servants, that he had no ordinary
+backwoodsman to deal with, was all the time on the alert to make himself
+useful. People stared, then smiled, then asked each other "who is it?"
+loud enough for the stranger to hear. Meek looked neither to the right
+nor to the left, pretending not to hear the whispering. When he had
+finished his beef, he again addressed himself to the attentive "boy."
+
+"That's better meat than the old mule I eat in the mountains."
+
+Upon this remark the whispering became more general, and louder, and
+smiles more frequent.
+
+"What have you got to drink, boy?" continued Meek, still unconscious.
+"Isn't there a sort of wine called--some kind of _pain_?"
+
+"Champagne, sah?"
+
+"That's the stuff, I reckon; bring me some."
+
+While Meek drank his champagne, with an occasional aside to his faithful
+attendant, people laughed and wondered "who the devil it was." At
+length, having finished his wine, and overhearing many open inquiries as
+to his identity, the hero of many bear-fights slowly arose, and
+addressing the company through the before-mentioned "boy," said:
+
+"You want to know who I am?"
+
+"If you please, sah; yes, if you please, sah, for the sake of these
+gentlemen present," replied the "boy," answering for the company.
+
+"Wall then," proclaimed Meek with a grandiloquent air quite at variance
+with his blanket coat and unkempt hair, yet which displayed his fine
+person to advantage, "I am Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
+Plenipotentiary from the Republic of Oregon to the Court of the United
+States!"
+
+With that he turned and strode from the room. He had not proceeded far,
+however, before he was overtaken by a party of gentlemen in pursuit.
+Senator Underwood of Kentucky immediately introduced himself, calling
+the envoy by name, for the dispatch from St. Louis had prepared the
+President and the Senate for Meek's appearance in Washington, though it
+had not advised them of his style of dress and address. Other gentlemen
+were introduced, and questions followed questions in rapid succession.
+
+When curiosity was somewhat abated, Meek expressed a wish to see the
+President without delay. To Underwood's question as to whether he did
+not wish to make his toilet before visiting the White House, his reply
+was, "business first, and toilet afterwards."
+
+"But," said Underwood, "even your business can wait long enough for
+that."
+
+"No, that's your mistake, Senator, and I'll tell you why: I can't dress,
+for two reasons, both good ones. I've not got a cent of money, nor a
+second suit of clothes."
+
+The generous Kentuckian offered to remove the first of the objections
+on the spot, but Meek declined. "I'll see the President first, and hear
+what he has to say about my mission." Then calling a coach from the
+stand, he sprang into it, answering the driver's question of where he
+would be taken, with another inquiry.
+
+"Whar should a man of _my_ style want to go?--to the White House, of
+course!" and so was driven away amid the general laughter of the
+gentlemen in the portico at Coleman's, who had rather doubted his
+intention to pay his respects to the President in his dirty blankets.
+
+He was admitted to the Presidential mansion by a mulatto of about his
+own age, with whom he remembered playing when a lad, for it must be
+remembered that the Meeks and Polks were related, and this servant had
+grown up in the family. On inquiring if he could see the President, he
+was directed to the office of the private Secretary, Knox Walker, also a
+relative of Meek's on the mother's side.
+
+On entering he found the room filled with gentlemen waiting to see the
+President, each when his turn to be admitted should arrive. The
+Secretary sat reading a paper, over the top of which he glanced but once
+at the new comer, to ask him to be seated. But Meek was not in the humor
+for sitting. He had not traveled express for more than two months, in
+storm and cold, on foot and on horseback, by day and by night, with or
+without food, as it chanced, to sit down quietly now and wait. So he
+took a few turns up and down the room, and seeing that the Secretary
+glanced at him a little curiously, stopped and said:
+
+"I should like to see the President immediately. Just tell him if you
+please that there is a gentleman from Oregon waiting to see him on very
+important business."
+
+At the word _Oregon_, the Secretary sprang up, dashed his paper to the
+ground, and crying out "Uncle Joe!" came forward with both hands
+extended to greet his long lost relative.
+
+"Take care, Knox! don't come too close," said Meek stepping back, "I'm
+ragged, dirty, and--lousy."
+
+[Illustration: "TAKE CARE, KNOX."]
+
+But Walker seized his cousin's hand, without seeming fear of the
+consequences, and for a few moments there was an animated exchange of
+questions and answers, which Meek at last interrupted to repeat his
+request to be admitted to the President without delay. Several times the
+Secretary turned to leave the room, but as often came back with some
+fresh inquiry, until Meek fairly refused to say another word, until he
+had delivered his dispatches.
+
+When once the Secretary got away he soon returned with a request from
+the President for the appearance of the Oregon messenger, all other
+visitors being dismissed for that day. Polk's reception proved as
+cordial as Walker's had been. He seized the hand of his newly found
+relative, and welcomed him in his own name, as well as that of messenger
+from the distant, much loved, and long neglected Oregon. The interview
+lasted for a couple of hours. Oregon affairs and family affairs were
+talked over together; the President promising to do all for Oregon that
+he could do; at the same time he bade Meek make himself at home in the
+Presidential mansion, with true southern hospitality.
+
+But Meek, although he had carried off his poverty and all his
+deficiencies in so brave a style hitherto, felt his assurance leaving
+him, when, his errand performed, he stood in the presence of rank and
+elegance, a mere mountain-man in ragged blankets, whose only wealth
+consisted of an order for five hundred dollars on the Methodist mission
+in New York, unavailable for present emergencies. And so he declined the
+hospitalities of the White House, saying he "could make himself at home
+in an Indian wigwam in Oregon, or among the Rocky Mountains, but in the
+residence of the chief magistrate of a great nation, he felt out of
+place, and ill at ease."
+
+Polk, however, would listen to no refusal, and still further abashed his
+Oregon cousin by sending for Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Walker, to make his
+acquaintance. Says Meek:
+
+"When I heard the silks rustling in the passage, I felt more frightened
+than if a hundred Blackfeet had whooped in my ear. A mist came over my
+eyes, and when Mrs. Polk spoke to me I couldn't think of anything to say
+in return."
+
+But the ladies were so kind and courteous that he soon began to see a
+little, though not quite plainly while their visit lasted. Before the
+interview with the President and his family was ended, the poverty of
+the Oregon envoy became known, which led to the immediate supplying of
+all his wants. Major Polk was called in and introduced; and to him was
+deputed the business of seeing Meek "got up" in a style creditable to
+himself and his relations. Meek avers that when he had gone through the
+hands of the barber and tailor, and surveyed himself in a full length
+mirror, he was at first rather embarrassed, being under the impression
+that he was being introduced to a fashionable and decidedly good-looking
+gentleman, before whose overpowering style he was disposed to shrink,
+with the old familiar feeling of being in blankets.
+
+But Meek was not the sort of man to be long in getting used to a
+situation however novel or difficult. In a very short time he was _au
+fait_ in the customs of the capital. His perfect frankness led people to
+laugh at his errors as eccentricities; his good looks and natural
+_bonhomie_ procured him plenty of admirers; while his position at the
+White House caused him to be envied and lionized at once.
+
+On the day following his arrival the President sent in a message to
+Congress accompanied by the memorial from the Oregon legislature and
+other documents appertaining to the Oregon cause. Meek was introduced to
+Benton, Oregon's indefatigable friend, and received from him the kindest
+treatment; also to Dallas, President of the Senate; Douglas, Fremont,
+Gen. Houston, and all the men who had identified themselves with the
+interests of the West.
+
+It should be stated that only a short time previous to the Waiilatpu
+massacre a delegate had left Oregon for Washington, by ship around Cape
+Horn, who had been accredited by the governor of the colony only, and
+that the legislature had subsequently passed resolutions expressive of
+their disapproval of "secret factions," by which was meant the mission
+party, whose delegate Mr. Thornton was.
+
+It so happened that, by reason of the commander of the _Portsmouth_
+having assumed it to be a duty to convey Mr. Thornton from La Paz, where
+through the infidelity of the Captain of the _Whitton_, he was stranded,
+he was enabled to reach the States early in the Spring, arriving in fact
+a week or two before Meek reached Washington. Thus Oregon had two
+representatives, although not entitled to any: nor had either a right to
+a seat in either House; yet to one this courtesy was granted, while the
+two together controlled more powerful influences than were ever before
+or since brought to bear on the fate of any single territory of the
+United States. While Mr. Thornton sat among Senators as a sort of
+consulting member or referee, but without a vote; Meek had the private
+ear of the President, and mingled freely among members of both Houses,
+in a social character, thereby exercising a more immediate influence
+than his more learned coadjutor.
+
+In the meantime our hero was making the most of his advantages. He went
+to dinners and champagne suppers, besides giving an occasional one of
+the latter. At the presidential levees he made himself agreeable to
+witty and distinguished ladies, answering innumerable questions about
+Oregon and Indians, generally with a veil of reserve between himself and
+the questioner whenever the inquiries became, as they sometimes would,
+disagreeably searching. Again the spirit of perversity and mischief led
+him to make his answers so very direct as to startle or bewilder the
+questioner.
+
+On one occasion a lady with whom he was promenading a drawing-room at
+some Senator's reception, admiring his handsome physique perhaps, and
+wondering if any woman owned it, finally ventured the question--was he
+married?
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Meek, with emphasis, "I have a wife and several
+children."
+
+"Oh dear," exclaimed the lady, "I should think your wife would be _so_
+afraid of the Indians!"
+
+"Afraid of the Indians!" exclaimed Meek in his turn; "why, madam, she is
+an Indian herself!"
+
+No further remarks on the subject were ventured that evening; and it is
+doubtful if the lady did not take his answer as a rebuke to her
+curiosity rather than the plain truth that it was.
+
+Meek found his old comrade, Kit Carson, in Washington, staying with
+Fremont at the house of Senator Benton. Kit, who had left the mountains
+as poor as any other of the mountain-men, had no resource at that time
+except the pay furnished by Fremont for his services as guide and
+explorer in the California and Oregon expeditions; where, in fact, it
+was Carson and not Fremont who deserved fame as a path-finder. However
+that may be, Carson had as little money as men of his class usually
+have, and needed it as much. So long as Meek's purse was supplied, as it
+generally was, by some member of the family at the White House, Carson
+could borrow from him. But one being quite as careless of money as the
+other, they were sometimes both out of pocket at the same time. In that
+case the conversation was apt to take a turn like this:
+
+_Carson._ Meek, let me have some money, can't you?
+
+_Meek._ I haven't got any money, Kit.
+
+_Carson._ Go and get some.
+
+_Meek._ ---- it, whar am I to get money from?
+
+_Carson._ Try the "contingent fund," can't you?
+
+Truth to tell the contingent fund was made to pay for a good many things
+not properly chargeable to the necessary expenditures of "Envoy
+Extraordinary" like our friend from Oregon.
+
+The favoritism with which our hero was everywhere received was something
+remarkable, even when all the circumstances of his relationship to the
+chief magistrate, and the popularity of the Oregon question were
+considered. Doubtless the novelty of having a bear-fighting and
+Indian-fighting Rocky Mountain man to lionize, was one great secret of
+the furore which greeted him wherever he went; but even that fails to
+account fully for the enthusiasm he awakened, since mountain-men had
+begun to be pretty well known and understood, from the journal of
+Fremont and other explorers. It could only have been the social genius
+of the man which enabled him to overcome the impediments of lack of
+education, and the associations of half a lifetime. But whatever was the
+fortunate cause of his success, he enjoyed it to the full. He took
+excursions about the country in all directions, petted and spoiled like
+any "curled darling" instead of the six-foot-two Rocky Mountain trapper
+that he was.
+
+In June he received an invitation to Baltimore, tendered by the city
+council, and was received by that body with the mayor at its head, in
+whose carriage he was conveyed to Monument Square, to be welcomed by a
+thousand ladies, smiling and showering roses upon him as he passed. And
+kissing the roses because he could not kiss the ladies, he bowed and
+smiled himself past the festive groups waiting to receive the messenger
+from Oregon. Music, dining, and the parade usual to such occasions
+distinguished this day, which Meek declares to have been the proudest of
+his life; not denying that the beauty of the Baltimore ladies
+contributed chiefly to produce that impression.
+
+On the fourth of July, Polk laid the corner stone of the National
+Monument. The occasion was celebrated with great _eclat_, the address
+being delivered by Winthrop, the military display, and the fire-works in
+the evening being unusually fine. In the procession General Scott and
+staff rode on one side of the President's carriage, Col. May and Meek
+on the other,--Meek making a great display of horsemanship, in which as
+a mountain-man he excelled.
+
+[Illustration: _A MOUNTAIN-MAN IN CLOVER._]
+
+A little later in the summer Meek joined a party of Congressmen who were
+making campaign speeches in the principal cities of the north. At
+Lowell, Mass., he visited the cotton factories, and was equally
+surprised at the extent of the works, and the number of young women
+employed in them. Seeing this, the forewoman requested him to stop until
+noon and see the girls come out. As they passed in review before him,
+she asked if he had made his choice.
+
+"No," replied the gallant Oregonian, "it would be impossible to choose,
+out of such a lot as that; I should have to take them all."
+
+If our hero, under all his gaity smothered a sigh of regret that he was
+not at liberty to take _one_--a woman like those with whom for the first
+time in his life he was privileged to associate--who shall blame him?
+The kind of life he was living now was something totally different to
+anything in the past. It opened to his comprehension delightful
+possibilities of what might have been done and enjoyed under other
+circumstances, yet which now never could be done or enjoyed, until
+sometimes he was ready to fly from all these allurements, and hide
+himself again in the Rocky Mountains. Then again by a desperate effort,
+such thoughts were banished, and he rushed more eagerly than before into
+every pleasure afforded by the present moment, as if to make the present
+atone for the past and the future.
+
+The kindness of the ladies at the White House, while it was something to
+be grateful for, as well as to make him envied, often had the effect to
+disturb his tranquility by the suggestions it gave rise to. Yet he was
+always demanding it, always accepting it. So constantly was he the
+attendant of his lady cousins in public and in private, riding and
+driving, or sauntering in the gardens of the presidential mansion, that
+the less favored among their acquaintances felt called upon to believe
+themselves aggrieved. Often, as the tall form of our hero was seen with
+a lady on either arm promenading the gardens at evening, the question
+would pass among the curious but uninitiated--"Who is that?" And the
+reply of some jealous grumbler would be--"It is that ---- Rocky Mountain
+man," so loud sometimes as to be overheard by the careless trio, who
+smothered a laugh behind a hat or a fan.
+
+And so passed that brief summer of our hero's life. A great deal of
+experience, of sight-seeing, and enjoyment had been crowded into a short
+few months of time. He had been introduced to and taken by the hand by
+the most celebrated men of the day. Nor had he failed to meet with men
+whom he had known in the mountains and in Oregon. His old employer,
+Wilkes, who was ill in Washington, sent for him to come and tell "some
+of those Oregon lies" for his amusement, and Meek, to humor him,
+stretched some of his good stories to the most wonderful dimensions.
+
+But from the very nature of the enjoyment it could not last long; it was
+too vivid and sensational for constant wear. Feeling this, he began to
+weary of Washington, and more particularly since he had for the last few
+weeks been stopping away from the White House. In one of his restless
+moods he paid a visit to Polk, who detecting the state of his mind asked
+laughingly----
+
+"Well, Meek, what do you want now?"
+
+"I want to be franked."
+
+"How long will five hundred dollars last you?"
+
+"About as many days as there ar' hundreds, I reckon."
+
+"You are shockingly extravagant, Meek. Where do you think all this money
+is to come from?"
+
+"It is not my business to know, Mr. President," replied Meek, laughing,
+"but it _is_ the business of these United States to pay the expenses of
+the messenger from Oregon, isn't it?"
+
+"I think I will send you to the Secretary of War to be franked, Meek;
+his frank is better than mine. But no, stay; I will speak to Knox about
+it this time. And you must not spend your money so recklessly, Meek; it
+will not do--it will not do."
+
+Meek thanked the President both for the money and the advice, but gave a
+champagne supper the next night, and in a week's time was as
+empty-handed as ever.
+
+The close of the session was at hand and nothing had been done except to
+talk. Congress was to adjourn at noon on Monday, August 14th, and it was
+now Saturday the 12th. The friends of Oregon were anxious; the two
+waiting Oregonians nearly desperate. On this morning of the 12th, the
+friends of the bill, under Benton's lead, determined upon obtaining a
+vote on the final passage of the bill; resolving that they would not
+yield to the usual motions for delay and adjournments, but that they
+would, if necessary, sit until twelve o'clock Monday.
+
+Saturday night wore away; the Sabbath morning's sun arose; and at last,
+two hours after sunrise, a consultation was held between Butler, Mason,
+Calhoun, Davis, and Foote, which resulted in the announcement that no
+further opposition would be offered to taking the vote upon the final
+passage of the Oregon bill. The vote was then taken, the bill passed,
+and the weary Senate adjourned, to meet again on Monday for a final
+adjournment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+1848-9. The long suspense ended, Meek prepared to return to Oregon, if
+not without some regrets, at the same time not unwillingly. His restless
+temper, and life-long habits of unrestrained freedom began to revolt
+against the conventionality of his position in Washington. Besides, in
+appointing officers for the new territory, Polk had made him United
+States Marshal, than which no office could have suited him better, and
+he was as prompt to assume the discharge of its duties, as all his life
+he had been to undertake any duty to which his fortunes assigned him.
+
+On the 20th of August, only six days after the passage of the
+territorial bill, he received his papers from Buchanan, and set off for
+Bedford Springs, whither the family from the White House were flown to
+escape from the suffocating air of Washington in August. He had brought
+his papers to be signed by Polk, and being expected by the President
+found everything arranged for his speedy departure; Polk even ordering a
+seat for him in the upcoming coach, by telegraph. On learning this from
+the President, at dinner, when the band was playing, Meek turned to the
+leader and ordered him to play "Sweet Home," much to the amusement of
+his lady cousins, who had their own views of the sweets of a home in
+Oregon. A hurried farewell, spoken to each of his friends separately,
+and Oregon's new Marshal was ready to proceed on his long journey toward
+the Pacific.
+
+The occasion of Polk's haste in the matter of getting Meek started, was
+his anxiety to have the Oregon government become a fact before the
+expiration of his term of office. The appointment of Governor of the new
+territory had been offered to Shields, and declined. Another commission
+had been made out, appointing General Joseph Lane of Indiana, Governor
+of Oregon, and the commission was that day signed by the President and
+given to Meek to be delivered to Lane in the shortest possible time. His
+last words to the Marshal on parting were--"God bless you, Meek. Tell
+Lane to have a territorial government organized during my
+administration."
+
+Of the ten thousand dollars appropriated by Congress "to be expended
+under the direction of the President, in payment for services and
+expenses of such persons as had been engaged by the provisional
+government of Oregon in conveying communications to and from the United
+States; and for purchase of presents for such Indian tribes as the peace
+and quiet of the country required"--Thornton received two thousand six
+hundred dollars, Meek seven thousand four hundred, and the Indian tribes
+none. Whether the President believed that the peace and quiet of the
+country did not require presents to be made to the Indians, or whether
+family credit required that Meek should get the lion's share, is not
+known. However that may be, our hero felt himself to be quite rich, and
+proceeded to get rid of his superfluity, as will hereafter be seen, with
+his customary prodigality and enjoyment of the present without regard to
+the future.
+
+Before midnight on the day of his arrival at the springs, Meek was on
+his way to Indiana to see General Lane. Arriving at the Newburg landing
+one morning at day-break, he took horse immediately for the General's
+residence at Newburg, and presented him with his commission soon after
+breakfast. Lane sat writing, when Meek, introducing himself, laid his
+papers before him.
+
+"Do you accept?" asked Meek.
+
+"Yes," answered Lane.
+
+"How soon can you be ready to start?"
+
+"In fifteen minutes!" answered Lane, with military promptness.
+
+Three days, however, were actually required to make the necessary
+preparations for leaving his farm and proceeding to the most remote
+corner of the United States territory.
+
+At St. Louis they were detained one day, waiting for a boat to
+Leavenworth, where they expected to meet their escort. This one day was
+too precious to be lost in waiting by so business-like a person as our
+hero, who, when nothing more important was to be done generally was
+found trying to get rid of his money. So, on this occasion, after having
+disburdened himself of a small amount in treating the new Governor and
+all his acquaintances, he entered into negotiations with a peddler who
+was importuning the passengers to buy everything, from a jack-knife to a
+silk dress.
+
+Finding that Nat. Lane, the General's son, wanted a knife, but was
+disposed to beat down the price, Meek made an offer for the lot of a
+dozen or two, and thereby prevented Lane getting one at any price. Not
+satisfied with this investment, he next made a purchase of three whole
+pieces of silk, at one dollar and fifty cents per yard. At this stage of
+the transaction General Lane interfered sufficiently to inquire "what he
+expected to do with that stuff?"
+
+"Can't tell," answered Meek; "but I reckon it is worth the money."
+
+"Better save your money," said the more prudent Lane. But the
+incorrigible spendthrift only laughed, and threatened to buy out the
+Jew's entire stock, if Lane persisted in preaching economy.
+
+At St. Louis, besides his son Nat., Lane was met by Lieut. Hawkins, who
+was appointed to the command of the escort of twenty-five riflemen, and
+Dr. Hayden, surgeon of the company. This party proceeded to Leavenworth,
+the point of starting, where the wagons and men of Hawkins' command
+awaited them. At this place, Meek was met by a brother and two sisters
+who had come to look on him for the first time in many years. The two
+days' delay which was necessary to get the train ready for a start,
+afforded an opportunity for this family reunion, the last that might
+ever occur between its widely separated branches, new shoots from which
+extend at this day from Virginia to Alabama, and from Tennessee to
+California and Oregon.
+
+By the 10th of September the new government was on its way to Oregon in
+the persons of Lane and Meek. The whole company of officers, men, and
+teamsters, numbered about fifty-five; the wagons ten; and riding-horses,
+an extra supply for each rider.
+
+The route taken, with the object to avoid the snows of a northern
+winter, was from Leavenworth to Santa Fe, and thence down the Rio Grande
+to near El Paso; thence northwesterly by Tucson, in Arizona; thence to
+the Pimas village on the Gila River; following the Gila to its junction
+with the Colorado, thence northwesterly again to the Bay of San Pedro in
+California. From this place the company were to proceed by ship to San
+Francisco; and thence again by ship to the Columbia River.
+
+On the Santa Fe trail they met the army returning from Mexico, under
+Price, and learned from them that they could not proceed with wagons
+beyond Santa Fe. The lateness of the season, although it was not
+attended with snow, as on the northern route it would have been,
+subjected the travelers nevertheless to the strong, cold winds which
+blow over the vast extent of open country between the Missouri River and
+the high mountain range which forms the water-shed of the continent. It
+also made it more difficult to subsist the animals, especially after
+meeting Price's army, which had already swept the country bare.
+
+On coming near Santa Fe, Meek was riding ahead of his party, when he had
+a most unexpected encounter. Seeing a covered traveling carriage drawn
+up under the shade of some trees growing beside a small stream, not far
+off from the trail, he resolved, with his usual love of adventure, to
+discover for himself the character of the proprietor. But as he drew
+nearer, he discovered no one, although a camp-table stood under the
+trees, spread with refreshments, not only of a solid, but a fluid
+nature. The sight of a bottle of cognac induced him to dismount, and he
+was helping himself to a liberal glass, when a head was protruded from a
+covering of blankets inside the carriage, and a heavy bass voice was
+heard in a polite protest:
+
+"Seems to me, stranger, you are making free with my property!"
+
+"Here's to you, sir," rejoined the purloiner; "it isn't often I find as
+good brandy as that,"--holding out the glass admiringly,--"but when I
+do, I make it a point of honor not to pass it."
+
+"May I inquire your name, sir?" asked the owner of the brandy, forced to
+smile at the good-humored audacity of his guest.
+
+"I couldn't refuse to give my name after that,"--replacing the glass on
+the table,--"and I now introduce myself as Joseph L. Meek, Esq.,
+Marshal of Oregon, on my way from Washington to assist General Lane in
+establishing a territorial Government west of the Rocky Mountains."
+
+"Meek!--what, not the Joe Meek I have heard my brothers tell so much
+about?"
+
+"Joe Meek is my name; but whar did your brothers know me?" inquired our
+hero, mystified in his turn.
+
+"I think you must have known Captain William Sublette and his brother
+Milton, ten or twelve years ago, in the Rocky Mountains," said the
+gentleman, getting out of the carriage, and approaching Meek with
+extended hand.
+
+A delighted recognition now took place. From Solomon Sublette, the owner
+of the carriage and the cognac, Meek learned many particulars of the
+life and death of his former leaders in the mountains. Neither of them
+were then living; but this younger brother, Solomon, had inherited
+Captain Sublette's wife and wealth at the same time. After these
+explanations, Mr. Sublette raised the curtains of the carriage again,
+and assisted to descend from it a lady, whom he introduced as his wife,
+and who exhibited much gratification in becoming acquainted with the
+hero of many a tale recited to her by her former husband, Captain
+Sublette.
+
+In the midst of this pleasant exchange of reminiscences, the remainder
+of Meek's party rode up, were introduced, and invited to regale
+themselves on the fine liquors with which Mr. Sublette's carriage proved
+to be well furnished. This little adventure gave our hero much pleasure,
+as furnishing a link between the past and present, and bringing freshly
+to mind many incidents already beginning to fade in his memory.
+
+At Santa Fe, the train stopped to be overhauled and reconstructed. The
+wagons having to be abandoned, their contents had to be packed on
+mules, after the manner of mountain or of Mexican travel and
+transportation. This change accomplished, with as little delay as
+possible, the train proceeded without any other than the usual
+difficulties, as far as Tucson, when two of the twenty-five riflemen
+deserted, having become suddenly enamored of liberty, in the dry and
+dusty region of southern Arizona.
+
+Lieutenant Hawkins, immediately on discovering the desertion, dispatched
+two men, well armed, to compel their return. One of the men detailed for
+this duty belonged to the riflemen, but the other was an American, who,
+with a company of Mexican packers, had joined the train at Santa Fe, and
+was acting in the capacity of pilot. In order to fit out this volunteer
+for the service, always dangerous, of retaking deserting soldiers, Meek
+had lent him his Colt's revolvers. It was a vain precaution, however,
+both the men being killed in attempting to capture the deserters; and
+Meek's pistols were never more heard of, having fallen into the
+murderous hands of the runaways.
+
+Drouth now began to be the serious evil with which the travelers had to
+contend. From the Pimas villages westward, it continually grew worse,
+the animals being greatly reduced from the want both of food and water.
+At the crossing of the Colorado, the animals had to be crossed over by
+swimming, the officers and men by rafts made of bulrushes. Lane and Meek
+being the first to be ferried over, were landed unexpectedly in the
+midst of a Yuma village. The Indians, however, gave them no trouble,
+and, except the little artifice of drowning some of the mules at the
+crossing, in order to get their flesh to eat, committed neither murders
+nor thefts, nor any outrage whatever.
+
+[Illustration: _GOVERNOR LANE AND MARSHAL MEEK ENROUTE TO OREGON._]
+
+It was quite as well for the unlucky mules to be drowned and eaten as
+it was for their fellows to travel on over the arid desert before them
+until they starved and perished, which they nearly all did. From the
+Colorado on, the company of Lieut. Hawkins became thoroughly
+demoralized. Not only would the animals persist in dying, several in a
+day, but the soldiers also persisted in deserting, until, by the time he
+reached the coast, his forlorn hope was reduced to three men. But it was
+not the drouth in their case which caused the desertions: it was rumors
+which they heard everywhere along the route, of mines of gold and
+silver, where they flattered themselves they could draw better pay than
+from Uncle Sam's coffers.
+
+The same difficulty from desertion harassed Lieutenant-Colonel Loring in
+the following summer, when he attempted to establish a line of posts
+along the route to Oregon, by the way of Forts Kearney, Laramie, and
+through the South Pass to Fort Hall. His mounted rifle regiment dwindled
+down to almost nothing. At one time, over one hundred men deserted in a
+body: and although he pursued and captured seventy of them, he could not
+keep them from deserting again at the first favorable moment. The bones
+of many of those gold-seeking soldiers were left on the plains, where
+wolves had stripped the flesh from them; and many more finally had rude
+burial at the hands of fellow gold-seekers: but few indeed ever won or
+enjoyed that for which they risked everything.
+
+On arriving at Cook's wells, some distance beyond the Colorado, our
+travelers found that the water at this place was tainted by the body of
+a mule which had lost its life some days before in endeavoring to get at
+the water. This was a painful discovery for the thirsty party to make.
+However, there being no water for some distance ahead, General Lane
+boiled some of it, and made coffee of it, remarking that "maggots were
+more easily swallowed cooked than raw!"
+
+And here the writer, and no doubt, the reader too, is compelled to make
+a reflection. Was the office of Governor of a Territory at fifteen
+hundred dollars a year, and Indian agent at fifteen hundred more, worth
+a journey of over three thousand miles, chiefly by land, even allowing
+that there had been no maggots in the water? _Quien sábe?_
+
+Not far from this locality our party came upon one hundred wagons
+abandoned by Major Graham, who had not been able to cross the desert
+with them. Proceeding onward, the riders eventually found themselves on
+foot, there being only a few animals left alive to transport the baggage
+that could not be abandoned. So great was their extremity, that to
+quench their thirst the stomach of a mule was opened to get at the
+moisture it contained. In the horror and pain of the thirst-fever, Meek
+renewed again the sufferings he had undergone years before in the
+deserts inhabited by Diggers, and on the parched plains of the Snake
+River.
+
+About the middle of January the Oregon Government, which had started out
+so gaily from Fort Leavenworth, arrived weary, dusty, foot-sore,
+famished, and suffering, at William's Ranch on the Santa Anna River,
+which empties into the Bay of San Pedro. Here they were very kindly
+received, and their wants ministered to.
+
+At this place Meek developed, in addition to his various
+accomplishments, a talent for speculation. While overhauling his
+baggage, the knives and the silk which had been purchased of the
+_peddler_ in St. Louis, were brought to light. No sooner did the
+senoritas catch a glimpse of the shining fabrics than they went into
+raptures over them, after the fashion of their sex. Seeing the state of
+mind to which these raptures, if unheeded, were likely to reduce the
+ladies of his house, Mr. Williams approached Meek delicately on the
+subject of purchase. But Meek, in the first flush of speculative
+shrewdness declared that as he had bought the goods for his own wife, he
+could not find it in his heart to sell them.
+
+However, as the senoritas were likely to prove inconsolable, Mr.
+Williams again mentioned the desire of his family to be clad in silk,
+and the great difficulty, nay, impossibility, of obtaining the much
+coveted fabric in that part of the world, and accompanied his remarks
+with an offer of ten dollars a yard for the lot. At this magnificent
+offer our hero affected to be overcome by regard for the feelings of the
+senoritas, and consented to sell his dollar and a-half silks for ten
+dollars per yard.
+
+In the same manner, finding that knives were a desirable article in that
+country, very much wanted by miners and others, he sold out his dozen or
+two, for an ounce each of gold-dust, netting altogether the convenient
+little profit of about five hundred dollars. When Gen. Lane was informed
+of the transaction, and reminded of his objections to the original
+purchase, he laughed heartily.
+
+"Well, Meek," said he, "you were drunk when you bought them, and by ----
+I think you must have been drunk when you sold them; but drunk or sober,
+I will own you can beat me at a bargain."
+
+Such bargains, however, became common enough about this time in
+California, for this was the year memorable in California history, of
+the breaking out of the gold-fever, and the great rush to the mines
+which made even the commonest things worth their weight in gold-dust.
+
+Proceeding to Los Angelos, our party, once more comfortably mounted,
+found traveling comparatively easy. At this place they found quartered
+the command of Maj. Graham, whose abandoned wagons had been passed at
+the _Hornella_ on the Colorado River. The town, too, was crowded with
+miners, men of every class, but chiefly American adventurers, drawn
+together from every quarter of California and Mexico by the rumor of the
+gold discovery at Sutter's Fort.
+
+On arriving at San Pedro, a vessel--the _Southampton_, was found ready
+to sail. She had on board a crowd of fugitives from Mexico, bound to San
+Francisco, where they hoped to find repose from the troubles which
+harassed that revolutionary Republic.
+
+At San Francisco, Meek was surprised to meet about two hundred
+Oregonians, who on the first news of the gold discovery the previous
+autumn, had fled, as it is said men shall flee on the day of
+judgment--leaving the wheat ungathered in the fields, the grain unground
+in the mills, the cattle unherded on the plains, their tools and farming
+implements rusting on the ground--everything abandoned as if it would
+never more be needed, to go and seek the shining dust, which is vainly
+denominated "filthy lucre." The two hundred were on their way home,
+having all either made something, or lost their health by exposure so
+that they were obliged to return. But they left many more in the mines.
+
+Such were the tales told in San Francisco of the wonderful fortunes of
+some of the miners that young Lane became infected with the universal
+fever and declared his intention to try mining with the rest. Meek too,
+determined to risk something in gold-seeking, and as some of the
+teamsters who had left Fort Leavenworth with the company, and had come
+as far as San Francisco, were very desirous of going to the mines, Meek
+fitted out two or three with pack-horses, tools, and provisions, to
+accompany young Lane. For the money expended in the outfit he was to
+receive half of their first year's profits. The result of this venture
+was three pickle-jars of gold-dust, which were sent to him by the hands
+of Nat. Lane, the following year; and which just about reimbursed him
+for the outlay.
+
+At San Francisco, Gen. Lane found the U.S. Sloop of War, the _St.
+Mary's_; and Meek insisted that the Oregon government, which was
+represented in their persons, had a right to require her services in
+transporting itself to its proper seat. But Lane, whose notions of
+economy extended, singularly enough, to the affairs of the general
+government, would not consent to the needless expenditure. Meek was
+rebellious, and quoted Thornton, by whom he was determined not to be
+outdone in respect of expense for transportation. Lane insisted that his
+dignity did not require a government vessel to convey him to Oregon. In
+short the new government was very much divided against itself, and only
+escaped a fall by Meek's finding some one, or some others, else, on whom
+to play his pranks.
+
+The first one was a Jew peddler who had gentlemen's clothes to sell. To
+him the Marshal represented himself as a United States Custom officer,
+and after frightening him with a threat of confiscating his entire
+stock, finally compromised with the terrified Israelite by accepting a
+suit of clothes for himself. After enjoying the mortification of spirit
+which the loss inflicted on the Jew, for twenty-four hours, he finally
+paid him for the clothes, at the same time administering a lecture upon
+the sin and danger of smuggling.
+
+The party which had left Leavenworth for Oregon nearly six months
+before, numbering fifty-five, now numbered only seven. Of the original
+number two had been killed, and all the rest had deserted to go to the
+mines. There remained only Gen. Lane, Meek, Lieut. Hawkins and Hayden,
+surgeon, besides three soldiers. With this small company Gen. Lane went
+on board the _Jeanette_, a small vessel, crowded with miners, and
+destined for the Columbia River. As the _Jeanette_ dropped down the Bay,
+a salute was fired from the _St. Mary's_ in honor of Gen. Lane, and
+appropriated to himself by Marshal Meek, who seems to have delighted in
+appropriating to himself all the honors in whatever circumstances he
+might be placed; the more especially too, if such assumption annoyed the
+General.
+
+After a tedious voyage of eighteen days the _Jeanette_ arrived in the
+Columbia River. From Astoria the party took small boats for Oregon City,
+a voyage of one hundred and twenty miles; so that it was already the 2d
+of March when they arrived at that place, and only one day was left for
+the organization of the Territorial Government before the expiration of
+Polk's term of office.
+
+On the 2d of March Gen. Lane arrived at Oregon City, and was introduced
+to Gov. Abernethy, by Marshal Meek. On the 3d, there appeared the
+following--
+
+     PROCLAMATION.
+
+     In pursuance of an act of Congress, approved the 14th of August, in
+     the year of our Lord 1848, establishing a Territorial Government in
+     the Territory of Oregon:
+
+     I, Joseph Lane, was, on the 18th day of August, in the year 1848,
+     appointed Governor in and for the Territory of Oregon. I have
+     therefore thought it proper to issue this, my proclamation, making
+     known that I have this day entered upon the discharge of the duties
+     of my office, and by virtue thereof do declare the laws of the
+     United States extended over, and declared to be in force in said
+     Territory, so far as the same, or any portion thereof may be
+     applicable.
+
+     Given under my hand at Oregon City, in the Territory of Oregon,
+     this 3d day of March, Anno Domini 1849.
+
+     JOSEPH LANE.
+
+Thus Oregon had one day, under Polk, who, take it all in all, had been a
+faithful guardian of her interests.
+
+In the month of August, 1848, the _Honolulu_, a vessel of one hundred
+and fifty tons, owned in Boston, carrying a consignment of goods to a
+mercantile house in Portland, arrived at her anchorage in the Wallamet,
+_via_ San Francisco, California. Captain Newell, almost before he had
+discharged freight, commenced buying up a cargo of flour and other
+provisions. But what excited the wonder of the Oregonians was the fact
+that he also bought up all manner of tools such as could be used in
+digging or cutting, from a spade and pickaxe, to a pocket-knife. This
+singular proceeding naturally aroused the suspicions of a people
+accustomed to have something to suspect. A demand was made for the
+_Honolulu's_ papers, and these not being forthcoming, it was proposed by
+some of the prudent ones to tie her up. When this movement was
+attempted, the secret came out. Captain Newell, holding up a bag of
+gold-dust before the astonished eyes of his persecutors, cried out--
+
+"Do you see that gold? ---- you, I will depopulate your country! I know
+where there is plenty of this stuff, and I am taking these tools where
+it is to be found."
+
+This was in August, the month of harvest. So great was the excitement
+which seized the people, that all classes of men were governed by it.
+Few persons stopped to consider that this was the time for producers to
+reap golden harvests of precious ore, for the other yellow harvest of
+grain which was already ripe and waiting to be gathered. Men left their
+grain standing, and took their teams from the reapers to pack their
+provisions and tools to the mines.
+
+Some men would have gladly paid double to get back the spades, shovels,
+or picks, which the shrewd Yankee Captain had purchased from them a week
+previous. All implements of this nature soon commanded fabulous prices,
+and he was a lucky man who had a supply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+1850-4. The Territorial law of Oregon combined the offices of Governor
+and Indian Agent. One of the most important acts which marked Lane's
+administration was that of securing and punishing the murderers of Dr.
+and Mrs. Whitman. The Indians of the Cayuse tribe to whom the murderers
+belonged, were assured that the only way in which they could avoid a war
+with the whites was to deliver up the chiefs who had been engaged in the
+massacre, to be tried and punished according to the laws of the whites.
+Of the two hundred Indians implicated in the massacre, five were given
+up to be dealt with according to law. These were the five chiefs,
+_Te-lou-i-kite_, _Tam-a-has_, _Klok-a-mas_, _Ki-am-a-sump-kin_, and
+_I-sa-i-a-cha-lak-is_.
+
+These men might have made their escape; there was no imperative
+necessity upon them to suffer death, had they chosen to flee to the
+mountains. But with that strange magnanimity which the savage often
+shows, to the astonishment of Christians, they resolved to die for their
+people rather than by their flight to involve them in war.
+
+Early in the summer of 1850, the prisoners were delivered up to Gov.
+Lane, and brought down to Oregon City, where they were given into the
+keeping of the marshal. During their passage down the river, and while
+they were incarcerated at Oregon City, their bearing was most proud and
+haughty. Some food, more choice than their prisoner's fare, being
+offered to one of the chiefs at a camp of the guard, in their transit
+down the Columbia, the proud savage rejected it with scorn.
+
+"What sort of heart have you," he asked, "that you offer food to me,
+whose hands are red with your brother's blood?"
+
+And this, after eleven years of missionary labor, was all the
+comprehension the savage nature knew of the main principle of
+Christianity,--forgiveness, or charity toward our enemies.
+
+At Oregon City, Meek had many conversations with them. In all of these
+they gave but one explanation of their crime. They feared that Dr.
+Whitman intended, with the other whites, to take their land from them;
+and they were told by Jo Lewis, the half-breed, that the Doctor's
+medicine was intended to kill them off quickly, in order the sooner to
+get possession of their country. None of them expressed any sorrow for
+what had been done; but one of them, _Ki-am-a-sump-kin_, declared his
+innocence to the last.
+
+In conversations with others, curious to gain some knowledge of the
+savage moral nature, _Te-lou-i-kite_ often puzzled these students of
+Indian ethics. When questioned as to his motive for allowing himself to
+be taken, _Te-lou-i-kite_ answered:
+
+"Did not your missionaries tell us that Christ died to save his people?
+So die we, to save our people!"
+
+Notwithstanding the prisoners were pre-doomed to death, a regular form
+of trial was gone through. The Prosecuting Attorney for the Territory,
+A. Holbrook, conducted the prosecution: Secretary Pritchett, Major
+Runnels, and Captain Claiborne, the defence. The fee offered by the
+chiefs was fifty head of horses. Whether it was compassion, or a love of
+horses which animated the defence, quite an effort was made to show
+that the murderers were not guilty.
+
+The presiding Justice was O.C. Pratt--Bryant having resigned. Perhaps we
+cannot do better than to give the Marshal's own description of the trial
+and execution, which is as follows: "Thar war a great many indictments,
+and a great many people in attendance at this court. The Grand Jury
+found true bills against the five Indians, and they war arraigned for
+trial. Captain Claiborne led off for the defence. He foamed and ranted
+like he war acting a play in some theatre. He knew about as much law as
+one of the Indians he war defending; and his gestures were so powerful
+that he smashed two tumblers that the Judge had ordered to be filled
+with cold water for him. After a time he gave out mentally and
+physically. Then came Major Runnels, who made a very good defence. But
+the Marshal thought they must do better, for they would never ride fifty
+head of horses with them speeches.
+
+Mr. Pritchett closed for the defence with a very able argument; for he
+war a man of brains. But then followed Mr. Holbrook, for the
+prosecution, and he laid down the case so plain that the jury were
+convinced before they left the jury-box. When the Judge passed sentence
+of death on them, two of the chiefs showed no terror; but the other
+three were filled with horror and consternation that they could not
+conceal.
+
+After court had adjourned, and Gov. Lane war gone South on some business
+with the Rogue River Indians, Secretary Pritchett came to me and told me
+that as he war now acting Governor he meant to reprieve the Indians.
+Said he to me, 'Now Meek, I want you to liberate them Indians, when you
+receive the order.'
+
+'Pritchett,' said I, 'so far as Meek is concerned, he would do anything
+for you.'
+
+This talk pleased him; he said he 'war glad to hear it; and would go
+right off and write the reprieve.'
+
+'But,' said I, 'Pritchett, let us talk now like men. I have got in my
+pocket the death-warrant of them Indians, signed by Gov. Lane. The
+Marshal will execute them men, as certain as the day arrives.'
+
+Pritchett looked surprised, and remarked--'That war not what you just
+said, that you would do anything for me.'
+
+Said I, 'you were talking then to Meek,--not to the Marshal, who always
+does his duty.' At that he got mad and left.
+
+When the 3d of June, the day of execution, arrived, Oregon City was
+thronged with people to witness it. I brought forth the five prisoners
+and placed them on a drop. Here the chief, who always declared his
+innocence, _Ki-am-i-sump-kin_, begged me to kill him with my knife,--for
+an Indian fears to be hanged,--but I soon put an end to his entreaties
+by cutting the rope which held the drop, with my tomahawk. As I said
+'The Lord have mercy on your souls,' the trap fell, and the five Cayuses
+hung in the air. Three of them died instantly. The other two struggled
+for several minutes; the Little Chief, _Tam-a-has_, the longest. It was
+he who was cruel to my little girl at the time of the massacre; so I
+just put my foot on the knot to tighten it, and he got quiet. After
+thirty-five minutes they were taken down and buried."
+
+Thus terminated a tragic chapter in the history of Oregon. Among the
+services which Thurston performed for the Territory, was getting an
+appropriation of $100,000, to pay the expenses of the Cayuse war. From
+the Spring of 1848, when all the whites, except the Catholic
+missionaries, were withdrawn from the upper country, for a period of
+several years, or until Government had made treaties with the tribes
+east of the Cascades, no settlers were permitted to take up land in
+Eastern Oregon. During those years, the Indians, dissatisfied with the
+encroachments which they foresaw the whites would finally make upon
+their country, and incited by certain individuals who had suffered
+wrongs, or been punished for their own offences at the hands of the
+whites, finally combined, as it was supposed from the extent of the
+insurrection, and Oregon was involved in a three years Indian war, the
+history of which would fill a volume of considerable size.
+
+When Meek returned to Oregon as marshal, with his fine clothes and his
+newly acquired social accomplishments, he was greeted with a cordial
+acknowledgment of his services, as well as admiration for his improved
+appearance. He was generally acknowledged to be the model of a handsome
+marshal, when clad in his half-military dress, and placed astride of a
+fine horse, in the execution of the more festive duties of marshal of a
+procession on some patriotic occasion.
+
+But no amount of official responsibility could ever change him from a
+wag into a "grave and reverend seignior." No place nor occasion was
+sacred to him when the wild humor was on him.
+
+At this same term of court, after the conviction of the Cayuse chiefs,
+there was a case before Judge Pratt, in which a man was charged with
+selling liquor to the Indians. In these cases Indian evidence was
+allowed, but the jury-room being up stairs, caused a good deal of
+annoyance in court; because when an Indian witness was wanted up stairs,
+a dozen or more who were not wanted would follow. The Judge's bench was
+so placed that it commanded a full view of the staircase and every one
+passing up or down it.
+
+A call for some witness to go before the jury was followed on this
+occasion, as on all others, by a general rush of the Indians, who were
+curious to witness the proceedings. One fat old squaw had got part way
+up the stairs, when the Marshal, full of wrath, seized her by a leg and
+dragged her down flat, at the same time holding the fat member so that
+it was pointed directly toward the Judge. A general explosion followed
+this _pointed_ action, and the Judge grew very red in the face.
+
+[Illustration: MEEK AS UNITED STATES MARSHAL.]
+
+"Mr. Marshal, come within the bar!" thundered the Judge.
+
+Meek complied, with a very dubious expression of countenance.
+
+"I must fine you fifty dollars," continued the Judge; "the dignity of
+the Court must be maintained."
+
+When court had adjourned that evening, the Judge and the Marshal were
+walking toward their respective lodgings. Said Meek to his Honor:
+
+"Why did you fine me so heavily to-day?"
+
+"I _must_ do it," returned the Judge. "I must keep up the dignity of the
+Court; I must do it, if I pay the fines myself."
+
+"And you _must_ pay all the fines you lay on the marshal, of course,"
+answered Meek.
+
+"Very well," said the Judge; "I shall do so."
+
+"All right, Judge. As I am the proper disbursing officer, you can pay
+that fifty dollars to me--and I'll take it now."
+
+At this view of the case, his Honor was staggered for one moment, and
+could only swing his cane and laugh faintly. After a little reflection,
+he said:
+
+"Marshal, when court is called to-morrow, I shall remit your fine; but
+don't you let me have occasion to fine you again!"
+
+After the removal of the capital to Salem, in 1852, court was held in a
+new building, on which the carpenters were still at work. Judge Nelson,
+then presiding, was much put out by the noise of hammers, and sent the
+marshal more than once, to request the men to suspend their work during
+those hours when court was in session, but all to no purpose. Finally,
+when his forbearance was quite exhausted, he appealed to the marshal for
+advice.
+
+"What shall I do, Meek," said he, "to stop that infernal noise?"
+
+"Put the workmen on the Grand Jury," replied Meek.
+
+"Summon them instantly!" returned the Judge. They were summoned, and
+quiet secured for that term.
+
+At this same term of court, a great many of the foreign born settlers
+appeared, to file their intention of becoming American citizens, in
+order to secure the benefits of the Donation Law. Meek was retained as a
+witness, to swear to their qualifications, one of which was, that they
+were possessed of good moral characters. The first day there were about
+two hundred who made declarations, Meek witnessing for most of them. On
+the day following, he declined serving any longer.
+
+"What now?" inquired the Judge; "you made no objections yesterday."
+
+"Very true," replied Meek; "and two hundred lies are enough for me. I
+swore that all those mountain-men were of 'good moral character,' and I
+never knew a mountain-man of that description in my life! Let Newell
+take the job for to-day."
+
+The "job" was turned over to Newell; but whether the second lot was
+better than the first, has never transpired.
+
+During Lane's administration, there was a murder committed by a party of
+Indians at the Sound, on the person of a Mr. Wallace. Owing to the
+sparse settlement of the country, Governor Lane adopted the original
+measure of exporting not only the officers of the court, but the jury
+also, to the Sound district. Meek was ordered to find transportation for
+the court _in toto_, jury and all. Boats were hired and provisioned to
+take the party to the Cowelitz Landing, and from thence to Fort
+Steilacoom, horses were hired for the land transportation.
+
+The Indians accused were five in number--two chiefs and three slaves.
+The Grand Jury found a true bill against the two chiefs, and let the
+slaves go. So few were the inhabitants of those parts, that the marshal
+was obliged to take a part of the grand jury to serve on the petite
+jury. The form of a trial was gone through with, the Judge delivered his
+charge, and the jury retired.
+
+It was just after night-fall when these worthies betook themselves to
+the jury-room. One of them curled himself up in a corner of the room,
+with the injunction to the others to "wake him up when they got ready
+to hang them ---- rascals." The rest of the party spent four or five
+hours betting against monte, when, being sleepy also, they waked up
+their associate, spent about ten minutes in arguing their convictions,
+and returned a verdict of "guilty of murder in the first degree."
+
+The Indians were sentenced to be hung at noon on the following day, and
+the marshal was at work early in the morning preparing a gallows. A rope
+was procured from a ship lying in the sound. At half-past eleven
+o'clock, guarded by a company of artillery from the fort, the miserable
+savages were marched forth to die. A large number of Indians were
+collected to witness the execution; and to prevent any attempt at
+rescue, Captain Hill's artillery formed a ring around the marshal and
+his prisoners. The execution was interrupted or delayed for some
+moments, on account of the frantic behavior of an Indian woman, wife of
+one of the chiefs, whose entreaties for the life of her husband were
+very affecting. Having exhausted all her eloquence in an appeal to the
+nobler feelings of the man, she finally promised to leave her husband
+and become his wife, if he, the marshal, would spare her lord and chief.
+
+She was carried forcibly out of the ring, and the hanging took place.
+When the bodies were taken down, Meek spoke to the woman, telling her
+that now she could have her husband; but she only sullenly replied, "You
+have killed him, and you may bury him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+While Meek was in Washington, he had been dubbed with the title of
+Colonel, which title he still bears, though during the Indian war of
+1855-56, it was alternated with that of Major. During his marshalship he
+was fond of showing off his titles and authority to the discomfiture of
+that class of people who had "put on airs" with him in former days, when
+he was in his transition stage from a trapper to a United States
+Marshal.
+
+While Pratt was Judge of the District Court, a kidnaping case came
+before him. The writ of _habeas corpus_ having been disregarded by the
+Captain of the _Melvin_, who was implicated in the business, Meek was
+sent to arrest him, and also the first mate. Five of the _Melvin's_
+sailors were ordered to be summoned as witnesses, at the same time.
+
+Meek went on board with his summons, marched forward, and called out the
+names of the men. Every man came up as he was summoned. When they were
+together, Meek ordered a boat lowered for their conveyance to Oregon
+City. The men started to obey, when the Captain interfered, saying that
+the boat should not be taken for such a purpose, as it belonged to him.
+
+"That is of no consequence at all," answered the smiling marshal. "It is
+a very good boat, and will suit our purpose very well. Lower away, men!"
+
+The men quickly dropped the boat. As it fell, they were ordered to man
+it. When they were at the oars, the mate was then invited to take a seat
+in it, which he did, after a moment's hesitation, and glancing at his
+superior officer. Meek then turned to the Captain, and extended the same
+invitation to him. But he was reluctant to accept the courtesy,
+blustering considerably, and declaring his intention to remain where he
+was. Meek slowly drew his revolver, all the time cool and smiling.
+
+"I don't like having to urge a gentleman too hard," he said, in a
+meaning tone; "but thar is an argument that few men ever resist. Take a
+seat, Captain."
+
+The Captain took a seat; the idlers on shore cheered for "Joe
+Meek"--which was, after all, his most familiar title; the Captain and
+mate went to Oregon City, and were fined respectively $500 and $300; the
+men took advantage of being on shore to desert; and altogether, the
+master of the _Melvin_ felt himself badly used.
+
+About the same time news was received that a British vessel was
+unloading goods for the Hudson's Bay Company, somewhere on Puget Sound.
+Under the new order of affairs in Oregon, this was smuggling. Delighted
+with an opportunity of doing the United States a service, and the
+British traders an ill turn, Marshal Meek immediately summoned a _posse_
+of men and started for the Sound. On his way he learned the name of the
+vessel and Captain, and recognized them as having been in the Columbia
+River some years before. On that occasion the Captain had ordered Meek
+ashore, when, led by his curiosity and general love of novelty, he had
+paid a visit to this vessel. This information was "nuts" to the marshal,
+who believed that "a turn about was fair play."
+
+With great dispatch and secrecy he arrived entirely unexpected at the
+point where the vessel was lying, and proceeded to board her without
+loss of time. The Captain and officers were taken by surprise and were
+all aghast at this unlooked for appearance. But after the first moment
+of agitation was over, the Captain recognized Meek, he being a man not
+likely to be forgotten, and thinking to turn this circumstance to
+advantage, approached him with the blandest of smiles and the most
+cordial manner, saying with forced frankness--
+
+"I am sure I have had the pleasure of meeting you before. You must have
+been at Vancouver when my vessel was in the river, seven or eight years
+ago. I am very happy to have met with you again."
+
+"Thar is some truth in that remark of yours, Captain," replied Meek,
+eyeing him with lofty scorn; "you _did_ meet me at Vancouver several
+years ago. But I was nothing but 'Joe Meek' at that time, and you
+ordered me ashore. Circumstances are changed since then. I am now
+Colonel Joseph L. Meek, United States Marshal for Oregon Territory; and
+you sir, are only a ---- smuggler! Go ashore, sir!"
+
+The Captain saw the point of that concluding "go ashore, sir!" and
+obeyed with quite as bad a grace as 'Joe Meek' had done in the first
+instance.
+
+The vessel was confiscated and sold, netting to the Government about
+$40,000, above expenses. This money, which fell into bad hands, failed
+to be accounted for. Nobody suspected the integrity of the marshal, but
+most persons suspected that he placed too much confidence in the
+District Attorney, who had charge of his accounts. On some one asking
+him, a short time after, what had become of the money from the sale of
+the smuggler, he seemed struck with a sudden surprise:
+
+"Why," said he, looking astonished at the question, "thar was barly
+enough for the officers of the court!"
+
+This answer, given as it was, with such apparent simplicity became a
+popular joke; and "barly enough" was quoted on all occasions.
+
+The truth was, that there was a serious deficiency in Meek's account
+with the Government, resulting entirely from his want of confidence in
+his own literary accomplishments, which led him to trust all his
+correspondence and his accounts to the hands of a man whose talents were
+more eminent than his sense of honor. The result of this misplaced
+confidence was a loss to the Government, and to himself, whom the
+Government held accountable. Contrary to the general rule of disbursing
+officers, the office made him poor instead of rich; and when on the
+incoming of the Pierce administration he suffered decapitation along
+with the other Territorial officers, he was forced to retire upon his
+farm on the Tualatin Plains, and become a rather indifferent tiller of
+the earth.
+
+The breaking out of the Indian war of 1855-6, was preceded by a long
+period of uneasiness among the Indians generally. The large emigration
+which crossed the plains every year for California and Oregon was one
+cause of the disturbance; not only by exciting their fears for the
+possession of their lands, but by the temptation which was offered them
+to take toll of the travelers. Difficulties occurred at first between
+the emigrants and Indians concerning stolen property. These quarrels
+were followed, probably the subsequent year, by outrages and murder on
+the part of the Indians, and retaliation on the part of volunteer
+soldiers from Oregon. When once this system of outrage and retaliation
+on either side, was begun, there was an end of security, and war
+followed as an inevitable consequence. Very horrible indeed were the
+acts perpetrated by the Indians upon the emigrants to Oregon, during the
+years from 1852 to 1858.
+
+But when at last the call to arms was made in Oregon, it was an
+opportunity sought, and not an alternative forced upon them, by the
+politicians of that Territory. The occasion was simply this. A party of
+lawless wretches from the Sound Country, passing over the Cascade
+Mountains into the Yakima Valley, on their way to the Upper Columbia
+mines, found some Yakima women digging roots in a lonely place, and
+abused them. The women fled to their village and told the chiefs of the
+outrage; and a party followed the guilty whites and killed several of
+them in a fight.
+
+Mr. Bolin, the Indian sub-agent for Washington went to the Yakima
+village, and instead of judging of the case impartially, made use of
+threats in the name of the United States Government, saying that an army
+should be sent to punish them for killing his people. On his return
+home, Mr. Bolin was followed and murdered.
+
+The murder of an Indian agent was an act which could not be overlooked.
+Very properly, the case should have been taken notice of in a manner to
+convince the Indians that murder must be punished. But, tempted by an
+opportunity for gain, and encouraged by the somewhat reasonable fears of
+the white population of Washington and Oregon, Governor G.L. Curry, of
+the latter, at once proclaimed war, and issued a call for volunteers,
+without waiting for the sanction or assistance of the general
+Government. The moment this was done, it was too late to retract. It was
+as if a torch had been applied to a field of dry grass. So
+simultaneously did the Indians from Puget Sound to the Rocky Mountains,
+and from the Rocky Mountains to the southern boundary of Oregon send
+forth the war-whoop, that there was much justification for the belief
+which agitated the people, that a combination among the Indians had been
+secretly agreed to, and that the whites were all to be exterminated.
+
+Volunteer companies were already raised and sent into the Indian
+country, when Brevet Major G.O. Haller arrived at Vancouver, now a part
+of the United States. He had been as far east as Fort Boise to protect
+the incoming immigration; and finding on his return that there was an
+Indian war on hand, proceeded at once to the Yakima country with his
+small force of one hundred men, only fifty of whom were mounted. Much
+solicitude was felt for the result of the first engagement, every one
+knowing that if the Indians were at first successful, the war would be
+long and bloody.
+
+Major Haller was defeated with considerable loss, and notwithstanding
+slight reinforcements, from Fort Vancouver, only succeeded in getting
+safely out of the country. Major Raines, the commanding officer at
+Vancouver, seeing the direction of events, made a requisition upon
+Governor Curry for four of his volunteer companies to go into the field.
+Then followed applications to Major Raines for horses and arms to equip
+the volunteers; but the horses at the Fort being unfit for service, and
+the Major unauthorized to equip volunteer troops, there resulted only
+misunderstandings and delays. When General Wool, at the head of the
+Department in San Francisco, was consulted, he also was without
+authority to employ or receive the volunteers; and when the volunteers,
+who at length armed and equipped themselves, came to go into the field
+with the regulars, they could not agree as to the mode of fighting
+Indians; so that with one thing and another, the war became an exciting
+topic for more reasons than because the whites were afraid of the
+Indians. As for General Wool, he was in great disfavor both in Oregon
+and Washington because he did not believe there ever had existed the
+necessity for a war; and that therefore he bestowed what assistance was
+at his command very grudgingly. General Wool, it was said, was jealous
+of the volunteers; and the volunteers certainly cared little for the
+opinion of General Wool.
+
+However all that may be, Col. Meek gives it as his opinion that the old
+General was right. "It makes me think," said he, "of a bear-fight I once
+saw in the Rocky Mountains, where a huge old grizzly was surrounded by a
+pack of ten or twelve dogs, all snapping at and worrying him. It made
+him powerful mad, and every now and then he would make a claw at one of
+them that silenced him at once."
+
+The Indian war in Oregon gave practice to a number of officers, since
+become famous, most prominent among whom is Sheridan, who served in
+Oregon as a Lieutenant. Grant himself, was at one time a Captain on that
+frontier. Col. Wright, afterwards Gen. Wright, succeeded Major Raines at
+Vancouver, and conducted the war through its most active period. During
+a period of three years there were troops constantly occupied in trying
+to subdue the Indians in one quarter or another.
+
+As for the volunteers they fared badly. On the first call to arms the
+people responded liberally. The proposition which the Governor made for
+their equipment was accepted, and they turned in their property at a
+certain valuation. When the war was over and the property sold, the men
+who had turned it in could not purchase it without paying more for it in
+gold and silver than it was valued at when it was placed in the hands of
+the Quartermaster. It was sold, however, and the money enjoyed by the
+shrewd political speculators, who thought an Indian war a very good
+investment.
+
+Meek was one of the first to volunteer, and went as a private in Company
+A. On arriving at the Dalles he was detailed for special service by Col.
+J.W. Nesmith, and sent out as pilot or messenger, whenever any such
+duty was required. He was finally placed on Nesmith's staff, and given
+the title of Major. In this capacity, as in every other, he was still
+the same alert and willing individual that we have always seen him, and
+not a whit less inclined to be merry when an opportunity offered.
+
+While the army was in the Yakima country, it being an enemy's country,
+and provisions scarce, the troops sometimes were in want of rations. But
+Meek had not forgotten his mountain craft, and always had something to
+eat, if anybody did. One evening he had killed a fat cow which he had
+discovered astray, and was proceeding to roast a twenty-pound piece
+before his camp-fire, when a number of the officers called on him. The
+sight and savory smell of the beef was very grateful to them.
+
+"Major Meek," said they in a breath, "we will sup with you to-night."
+
+"I am very sorry, gentlemen, to decline the honor," returned Meek with a
+repetition of the innocent surprise for which he had so often been
+laughed at, "but I am very hungry, and thar is barly enough beef for one
+man!"
+
+On hearing this sober assertion, those who had heard the story laughed,
+but the rest looked rather aggrieved. However, the Major continued his
+cooking, and when the beef was done to a turn, he invited his visitors
+to the feast, and the evening passed merrily with jests and camp
+stories.
+
+After the army went into winter-quarters, Nesmith having resigned, T.R.
+Cornelius was elected Colonel. One of his orders prohibited firing in
+camp, an order which as a good mountaineer the Major should have
+remembered. But having been instructed to proceed to Salem without
+delay, as bearer of dispatches, the Major committed the error of firing
+his gun to see if it was in good condition for a trip through the
+enemy's country. Shortly after he received a message from his Colonel
+requesting him to repair to his tent. The Colonel received him politely,
+and invited him to breakfast with him. The aroma of coffee made this
+invitation peculiarly acceptable--for luxuries were scarce in camp--and
+the breakfast proceeded for some time very agreeably. When Meek had
+breakfasted, Colonel Cornelius took occasion to inquire if the Major had
+not heard his order against firing in camp. "Yes," said Meek. "Then,"
+said the Colonel, "I shall be obliged to make an example of you."
+
+While Meek stood aghast at the idea of punishment, a guard appeared at
+the door of the tent, and he heard what his punishment was to be, "Mark
+time for twenty minutes in the presence of the whole regiment."
+
+"When the command "forward!" was given," says Meek, "you might have seen
+somebody step off lively, the officer counting it off, 'left, left.' But
+some of the regiment grumbled more about it than I did. I just got my
+horse and my dispatches and left for the lower country, and when I
+returned I asked for my discharge, and got it."
+
+And here ends the career of our hero as a public man. The history of the
+young State, of which he is so old a pioneer furnishes ample material
+for an interesting volume, and will sometime be written by an abler than
+our sketchy pen.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+
+
+
+OUR
+CENTENNIAL INDIAN WAR
+
+AND THE
+LIFE OF GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The reader of the foregoing pages can hardly have failed to observe,
+that the region east of the Big Horn Mountains, including the valleys of
+the Yellowstone, Big Horn, Powder, and Rosebud Rivers, was the favorite
+haunt of the Rocky Mountain hunters and trappers--the field of many of
+their stirring adventures and hardy exploits. Here was the "hunters'
+paradise," where they came to secure game for food and to feed their
+animals on the nutritious bark of the cottonwoods; here they assembled
+at the Summer rendezvous, to exchange their peltries for supplies; and
+here, ofttimes, was established their winter camp, with its rough cheer,
+athletic sports, and wild carousals.
+
+Here, also, between the plains and the mountains, was the dark and
+sanguinary ground where terrific and deadly combats were fought between
+the Delawares, Iroquois, Crows, and Blackfeet, and between the trappers
+and Indians; and here, fifty years later, were enacted scenes of warfare
+and massacre which cast a gloom over the festivities of our Centennial
+anniversary.
+
+The recent campaign against the hostile Sioux was over the identical
+ground where the fur-traders roamed intent on beaver-skins and
+adventure; and it is believed that some account thereof, and a sketch of
+the renowned Indian fighter who perished on the Little Big Horn, may
+appropriately supplement the story of the Mountain-men.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+   Our Centennial War with the Sioux--Scene of the Campaign--General
+     Aspect of the Country--The hostile Indians and their
+     Grievances--The People of the Frontier--The Treaty of 1868--The
+     Invasion of the Black Hills--Sitting Bull--Immediate Causes of the
+     War--The Indians Warned and Threatened--The Warning Disregarded--An
+     Appeal to Arms--Bishop Whipple on the Roaming Indians,      7
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+   General Crook's First Expedition--The March Northward--Reynolds
+     Follows a Trail--Camp of Crazy Horse Discovered and Attacked--The
+     Battle of Powder River--Return to Fort Fetterman--Crook's Second
+     Expedition--On the Head Waters of Tongue River--Friendly
+     Crows--Battle of the Rosebud--Retreat to Goose Creek Camp,      20
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+   Gen. Terry's Expedition--March from Fort Lincoln--Rendezvous on the
+     Yellowstone--The Montana Column--Reno's Scouting Party Discovers a
+     Trail--The Seventh Cavalry Start up the Rosebud--Custer Discovers
+     an Indian Village and Advances to Attack,      26
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+   Gibbon's Troops Cross the Yellowstone--March up the Big Horn--A
+     Smoke Cloud--An Omen of Victory--Crow Scouts--Indians in Front--A
+     Night's Bivouac on the Little Big Horn--Site of a deserted
+     Village--Evidences of Conflict--A breathless Scout--Intrenched
+     Cavalry--Reno Relieved--"Where is Custer?"      30
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+   Custer's last Battle--Revelations of the Battle-field--Theories as
+     to the Engagement--Custer and His Officers--Capt. Tom
+     Custer--Boston Custer--Armstrong Reed--Burial of the Slain--Retreat
+     to the Yellowstone--Story of Custer's Scout "Curley"--Death of
+     Custer,      35
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+   Reno's Battles--His Charge down the Valley, and Retreat to the
+     Bluffs--Benteen's Battalion--A terrific Assault--Holding the
+     Fort--Volunteer Water Carriers--Removal of Indian Village--Approach
+     of Terry--Statements of Benteen and Godfrey--A Scout's Narrative,
+     40
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+   Kill Eagle at Sitting Bull's Camp--His Account of the Battles with
+     Custer and Reno--"We have Killed them all"--What Buck Elk Saw,
+     52
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+   Criticisms on the Conduct of Reno and Benteen--Reno's Defence--What
+     Benteen Says--Gen. Sheridan on the Custer Disaster,      56
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+   The Midsummer Campaign--Adventures of a Scouting Party--Running the
+     Gauntlet--Indian Allies--Hazardous Service--Junction of Terry and
+     Crook--Following the Trail--At the Mouth of Powder River--Crook
+     Starts for the Black Hills--Short Rations--Battle of Slim
+     Buttes--The Chief American Horse--Deadwood--Terry at Glendive
+     Creek--A Chase after Sitting Bull--Close of the Campaign--Long
+     Dog's Reconnoitering Party,      62
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+   Autumn on the Yellowstone--Gallant Defence of a Wagon Train--A
+     Letter from Sitting Bull--A Flag of Truce--Col. Miles and Sitting
+     Bull Have a "Talk" between the Lines--An Exciting Scene--The
+     Council Disperses--The Troops Advance--A Battle and its
+     Results--Escape of Sitting Bull--Surrender of Chiefs as Hostages,
+     70
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+   Terry and Crook at the Sioux Agencies--The Agency Indians Disarmed
+     and Dismounted--A Gleam of Daylight--What became of the Ponies--Red
+     Cloud Deposed--Spotted Tail Declared Chief Sachem--Gen. Crook's
+     Address to His Troops,      77
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+   Winter Operations--Crook's Expedition--Col. McKenzie on the
+     Trail--A Night's March--A Charge down a Canyon--Destruction of a
+     Cheyenne Village--Life at the Tongue River Cantonment--Miles'
+     Excursion Northward--Capture of Sitting Bull's Camp--An Unfortunate
+     Affair--Massacre of Five Chiefs--Treacherous Crows--Winter March
+     Southward--Desperate Battle in the Wolf Mountains--Defeat of Crazy
+     Horse--Red Horse Surrenders--His Story of the Big Horn
+     Battles--Spotted Tail's Mission--Surrender of Roman Nose, Standing
+     Elk and Crazy Horse,      81
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+   George A. Custer--Early Youth--Cadet Life--From West Point to Bull
+     Run--On Kearny's Staff--Wades the Chickahominy--On McClellan's
+     Staff--Antietam--On Pleasonton's Staff--Aldie--A General at
+     Gettysburg--Pursues Lee--Falling Waters--Wounded--Cavalry
+     Engagement at Brandy Station--Marriage,      90
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+   A Raid toward Richmond--With Sheridan in the Shenandoah
+     Valley--Opequan Creek--Fisher's Hill--Commander of the Third
+     Division--Fight with Rosser--Sheridan's Army Surprised--Defeat and
+     Victory--The Cavalry at Cedar Creek--The last great Raid,      98
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+   The last Struggle for Richmond--Custer at Dinwiddie and Fire
+     Forks--Petersburg Evacuated--The Pursuit of
+     Lee--Jetersville--Sailor's Creek--Appomattox--A Flag of
+     Truce--Custer's Address to His Soldiers--The Great Parade--A Major
+     General--Texas--Negotiation with Romero,      106
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+   The Seventh Cavalry--Hancock's Expedition--Tricky Indians--A Scout
+     on the Plains--Camp Attacked by Indians--A Fight for the Wagon
+     Train--The Kidder Massacre--Court Martialed--Sully's
+     Expedition--Battle of the Washita--Death of Black Kettle--Fate of
+     Major Elliot--Night Retreat--March to Fort Cobb--Lone Wolf and
+     Satanta--After the Cheyennes--Captive Women Recovered,      113
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+   The Yellowstone Expedition--Road-hunters--A Siesta--Dashing
+     Indians--A Trap--Fearful Odds--Rapid Volleys--Attack
+     Renewed--Reinforcements--The Foe Repulsed--A Tragedy--The Revenge
+     of Rain in the Face--Another Fight--Assigned to Fort Lincoln--Mrs.
+     Custer,      121
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+   The Campaign of 1876--The Dakota Column--The Babcock
+     Investigation--The Congressional Committee--Grant's
+     Displeasure--Appeal to the President--Custer's last Campaign,
+     126
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+   Reminiscences of General Custer--Personal Characteristics,      132
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+   The Indian Commission of 1876--Purchase of the Black Hills--Indian
+     Orators--Speeches of Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Blue Teeth, Running
+     Antelope, Two Bears, Red Feather, Swan, White Ghost, etc.,      138
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE SIOUX COUNTRY.]
+
+
+
+
+THE INDIAN WAR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SIOUX TRIBES--CAUSES OF THE WAR.
+
+
+The scene of the campaign against the hostile Indians in 1876, was the
+rugged, desolate, and partially unexplored region lying between the Big
+Horn and Powder Rivers, and extending from the Big Horn Mountains
+northerly to and beyond the Yellowstone River. This region is the most
+isolated and inaccessible of any lying east of the Rocky Mountains, and
+is admirably adapted for Indian warfare and defense. Several rivers,
+tributaries of the Yellowstone, flow through it, and it abounds in
+creeks, ravines, and canyons. It is the hereditary country of the Crows,
+who for generations defended it against marauding tribes of Blackfeet.
+
+A vivid description of the general aspect of the country and of the
+hardships and perils of our soldiers, has been given by Col. Nelson A.
+Miles, of the Fifth Infantry, in a letter written from the mouth of the
+Powder River. "No service," he says, "is more thankless or dangerous
+than contending against these treacherous savages, and if you will come
+out and learn the real sentiment of the army, you will find the officers
+of the army the strongest advocates of any peace policy that shall be
+just and honorable. You will find us out here, five hundred miles from
+railroad communication, in as barren, desolate and worthless a country
+as the sun shines upon--volcanic, broken, and almost impassable--so
+rugged as to make our granite hills of Vermont and New Hampshire appear
+in comparison as pleasant parks. Jagged and precipitous cliffs; narrow
+and deep arroyos filled with massive boulders; alkali water, or for
+miles and miles none at all; and vegetation of cactus and sage-bushes,
+will represent to you, feebly indeed, the scene of the present campaign,
+in which we are contending against the most powerful, warlike, and
+best-armed body of savages on the American Continent, armed and mounted
+partly at the expense of the Government, and fully supplied with the
+most improved magazine guns and tons of metallic ammunition."
+
+"The brave mariner," wrote a newspaper correspondent, "on the trackless
+ocean without compass, is no more at the mercy of wind and wave than
+Terry's army, out upon this vast trackless waste, is at the mercy of his
+guides and scouts. The sun rises in the east, shines all day upon a vast
+expanse of sage-brush and grass, and, as it sets in the west, casts its
+dull rays into a thousand ravines that neither man nor beast can cross.
+The magnet always points north; but whether one can go either north or
+south can be decided only by personal effort. An insignificant turn to
+the wrong side of a little knoll or buffalo-wallow ofttimes
+imperceptibly leads the voyager into ravine after ravine, over bluff
+after bluff, until at last he stands on the edge of a yawning canyon,
+hundreds of feet in depth and with perpendicular walls. Nothing is left
+for him to do but to retrace his steps and find an accessible route."
+
+The hostile Indians with whom our soldiers have had to contend are no
+despicable foe; on the contrary they are quite able, in frontier
+warfare, to cope with disciplined troops. They fight in bodies, under
+skilled leaders, and have regular rules which they observe in battle, on
+their marches, and in their camps. "They have systems of signalling and
+of scouting, of posting sentinels and videttes, and of herding their
+animals." They are remarkably expert horsemen, and are so dependent on
+their steeds, that "a Sioux on foot is a Sioux warrior no longer." Gen.
+Crook testifies to their adroitness and skill as follows:--
+
+     "When the Sioux Indian was armed with a bow and arrow he was more
+     formidable, fighting as he does most of the time on horseback, than
+     when he came into possession of the old fashioned muzzle loading
+     rifle. But when he came into possession of the breech loader and
+     metallic catridge, which allows him to load and fire from his horse
+     with perfect ease, he became at once ten times more formidable.
+     With the improved arms I have seen our friendly Indians, riding at
+     full speed, shoot and kill a wolf, also on the run, while it is a
+     rare thing that our troops can hit an Indian on horseback though
+     the soldier may be on his feet at the time.
+
+     "The Sioux is a cavalry soldier from the time he has intelligence
+     enough to ride a horse or fire a gun. If he wishes to dismount, his
+     hardy pony, educated by long usage, will graze around near where he
+     has been left, ready when his master wants to mount either to move
+     forward or escape. Even with their lodges and families they can
+     move at the rate of fifty miles per day. They are perfectly
+     familiar with the country, have their spies and hunting parties out
+     all the time at distances of from twenty to fifty miles each way
+     from their villages, know the number and movements of all the
+     troops that may be operating against them, just about what they can
+     probably do, and hence can choose their own times and places of
+     conflict or avoid it altogether."
+
+The primary causes of the hostilities of the Indians which made this
+campaign and previous ones against them necessary, extend far back and
+are too numerous to be here fully stated. The principal Indian
+grievances however, for which the government is responsible, are a
+failure to fulfil treaties, encroachment on reserved territories, and
+the dishonesty of agents. Col. Miles speaks of our relationship with the
+Indians for the last fifty years, as the dark page in our history,
+which, next to African slavery, has done more to disgrace our
+government, blacken our fair name, and reflect upon our civilization,
+than aught else. It has, he says, been a source of corruption and a
+disturbing element, unconfined to any one political party or class of
+individuals.
+
+Wendell Phillips asserts that the worst brutality which prurient malice
+ever falsely charged the Indian with, is but weak imitation of what the
+white man has often inflicted on Indian men, women and children; and
+that the Indian has never lifted his hand against us until provoked to
+it by misconduct on our part, compared with which, any misconduct of his
+is but dust in the balance.
+
+The great difference in the condition and character of the Indians over
+the Canada line and our own, can only be accounted for by the different
+treatment they have received. The Canadian Indians are, on the whole, a
+harmless, honest people, who, though they are gradually disappearing
+before the white man, bear him no ill-will, but rather the contrary.
+Bishop Whipple of Minnesota, an earnest advocate of the peace policy,
+draws the following contrast:--
+
+     "Here are two pictures--on one side of the line a nation has spent
+     $500,000,000 in Indian war; a people who have not 100 miles between
+     the Atlantic and the Pacific which has not been the scene of an
+     Indian massacre; a government which has not passed twenty years
+     without an Indian war; not one Indian tribe to whom it has given
+     Christian civilization; and which celebrates its centennial year
+     by another bloody Indian war. On the other side of the line there
+     is the same greedy, dominant Anglo-Saxon race, and the same
+     heathen. They have not spent one dollar in Indian war; they have
+     had no Indian massacres. Why? In Canada the Indian treaty calls
+     these men 'the Indian subjects of her Majesty.' When civilization
+     approaches them they are placed on ample reservations; they receive
+     aid in civilization; they have personal rights of property; they
+     are amenable to law and are protected by law; they have schools,
+     and Christian people delight to give them their best men to teach
+     them the religion of Christ. We expend more than one hundred
+     dollars to their one in caring for Indian wards."
+
+The results of the Indian disturbances, whatever their causes, have
+borne heavily on the hardy and enterprising settlers along the border.
+Of these citizens Gen. Crook says:--
+
+     "I believe it is wrong for a Government as great and powerful as
+     ours not to protect its frontier people from savages. I do not see
+     why a man who has the courage to come out here and open the way for
+     civilization in his own country, is not as much entitled to the
+     protection of his Government as anybody else. I am not one of those
+     who believe, as many missionaries sent out here by well-meaning
+     eastern socities do, that the people of the frontiers are
+     cut-throats, thieves, and murderers. I have been thrown among them
+     for nearly 25 years of my life, and believe them to compare
+     favorably in energy, intelligence and manhood with the best of
+     their eastern brethren. They are mercilessly plundered by Indians
+     without any attempt being made to punish the perpetrators, and when
+     they ask for protection, they are told by some of our peace
+     commissioners sent out to make further concessions to the Indians,
+     that they have no business out here anyhow. I do not deny that my
+     sympathies have been with the frontier people in their unequal
+     contest against such obstacles. At the same time I do not wish to
+     be understood as the unrelenting foe of the Indian."
+
+The Sioux Indians, embracing several tribes, are the old Dakotahs, long
+known as among the bravest and most warlike aboriginals of this
+continent. They were steadily pushed westward by the tide of
+civilization to the Great Plains north of the Platte, where they claimed
+as their own all the vast region west of the Missouri as far as they
+could roam or fight their way. They resisted the approach of all
+settlers and opposed the building of the Pacific Railroad.
+
+In 1867, Congress sent out four civilians and three army officers as
+Peace Commissioners, who, in 1868, made a treaty with the Sioux, whereby
+for certain payments or stipulations, they agreed to surrender their
+claims to a vast tract of country, to live at peace with their
+neighbors, and to restrict themselves to a territory bounded south by
+Nebraska, west by the 104th meridian, and north by the 46th parallel of
+latitude--a territory as large as the State of Michigan. "They had the
+solemn pledge of the United States that they should be protected in the
+absolute and peaceable possession of the country thus set apart for
+them; and the constitution makes such treaties the highest of all
+authorities, and declares that they are binding upon every citizen."
+
+In the western part of the Sioux territory, lying between the two forks
+of the Cheyenne River, is the Black Hills country with an area of four
+or five thousand square miles. Of the interior of this region up to 1874
+nothing was known excepting from the indefinite reports of hunters who
+had penetrated therein. The arrival at a trading post of Indians who
+offered gold-dust for sale which they said was procured at the Black
+Hills, caused much excitement; and a military expedition of 1200 men was
+sent from Fort Lincoln in July 1874, to explore the Hills and ascertain
+if gold existed there. As was expected, no hostile enemy were
+encountered by the large expedition which thus invaded the Indian
+territory. A few lodges of Indians were met in the Hills, and they ran
+away notwithstanding friendly overtures were made. An attempt was made
+to lead the pony of one mounted Indian to headquarters, but he got away,
+and a shot was fired after him which, says General Custer, wounded
+either the Indian or his pony as blood was found on the ground.
+
+The geologists of the expedition reported that there was gold in the
+Black Hills, and miners and others began to flock thither. In 1875,
+troops were sent to remove the trespassers on the Indian reservation,
+but as fast as they compelled or persuaded the miners to go away others
+came to fill their places; and at the present date there are more
+settlers there than ever before.
+
+Of the treaty of 1868 and the so-called peace policy then inaugurated
+various opinions are entertained. Gen. Sherman, a member of the
+commission, in his report for 1876, says:--
+
+     "The commission had also to treat with other tribes at the south;
+     viz,--the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas and Commanches; were engaged
+     for two years in visiting and confering with these scattered bands;
+     and finally, in 1868, concluded many treaties, which were the best
+     possible at that date, and which resulted in comparative peace on
+     the Plains, by defining clearly the boundaries to be thereafter
+     occupied by the various tribes, with the annuities in money,
+     provisions, and goods to be paid the Indians for the relenquishment
+     of their claims to this vast and indefinite region of land. At this
+     time the Sioux nation consisted of many distinct tribes, and was
+     estimated at 50,000, of whom some 8,000 were named as hostiles.
+
+     "These Indians, as all others, were under the exclusive
+     jurisdiction of the Indian Bureau, and only small garrisons of
+     soldiers were called for at the several agencies, such as Red Cloud
+     and Spotted Tail on the head of the White Earth River in Nebraska
+     (outside their reservation), and at Standing Rock, Cheyenne, and
+     Crow Creek on the Missouri River, to protect the persons of the
+     agents and their employes. About these several agencies were
+     grouped the several bands of Sioux under various names, receiving
+     food, clothing, etc., and undergoing the process of civilization;
+     but from the time of the Peace Commission of 1868 to the date of
+     this report, a number of Sioux, recognized as hostile or 'outlaws,'
+     had remained out under the lead of Sitting Bull and a few other
+     chiefs."
+
+     "The so-called peace policy," says Bishop Whipple, "was commenced
+     when we were at war. The Indian tribes were either openly hostile,
+     or sullen and turbulent. The new policy was a marvellous success. I
+     do honestly believe that it has done more for the civilization of
+     the Indians than all which the Government has done before. Its only
+     weakness was that the system was not reformed. The new work was
+     fettered by all the faults and traditions of the old policy. The
+     nation left 300,000 men living within our own borders without a
+     vestige of government, without personal rights of property, without
+     the slightest protection of person, property, or life. We persisted
+     in telling these heathen tribes that they were independent nations.
+     We sent out the bravest and best of our officers, some who had
+     grown gray in the service of the country; men whose slightest word
+     was as good as their bond--we sent them because the Indians would
+     not doubt a soldier's honor. They made a treaty, and they pledged
+     the nation's faith that no white man should enter that territory. I
+     do not discuss its wisdom. The Executive and Senate ratified it....
+     A violation of its plain provisions was an act of deliberate
+     perjury. In the words of Gen. Sherman, 'Civilization made its own
+     compact with the weaker party; it was violated, but not by the
+     savage.' The whole world knew that we violated that treaty, and the
+     reason of the failure of the negotiations of last year was that our
+     own commissioners did not have authority from Congress to offer the
+     Indians more than one-third of the sum they were already receiving
+     under the old treaty."
+
+     "The Sioux Nation," says Gen. Crook, in his report of Sept. 1876,
+     "numbers many thousands of warriors, and they have been encouraged
+     in their insolent overbearing conduct by the fact, that those who
+     participated in the wholesale massacre of the innocent people in
+     Minnesota during the brief period that preceded their removal to
+     their present location, never received adequate punishment
+     therefor. Following hard upon and as the apparent result of the
+     massacre of over eighty officers and men of the army at Fort Phil
+     Kearney, the Government abandoned three of its military posts, and
+     made a treaty of unparalleled liberality with the perpetrators of
+     these crimes, against whom any other nation would have prosecuted a
+     vigorous war.
+
+     "Since that time the reservations, instead of being the abode of
+     loyal Indians holding the terms of their agreement sacred, have
+     been nothing but nests of disloyalty to their treaties and the
+     Government, and scourges to the people whose misfortune it has been
+     to be within the reach of the endurance of their ponies. And in
+     this connection, I regret to say, they have been materially aided
+     by sub-agents who have disgraced a bureau established for the
+     propagation of peace and good will, man to man.
+
+     "What is the loyal condition of mind of a lot of savages, who will
+     not allow the folds of the flag of the country to float over the
+     very sugar, coffee and beef, they are kind enough to accept at the
+     hands of the nation to which they have thus far dictated their own
+     terms? Such has been the condition of things at the Red Cloud
+     Agency.
+
+     "The hostile bands roamed over a vast extent of country, making the
+     Agencies their base of supplies, their recruiting and ordinance
+     depots, and were so closely connected by intermarriage, interest
+     and common cause with the Agency Indians, that it was difficult to
+     determine where the line of peaceably disposed ceased and the
+     hostile commenced. They have, without interruption, attacked
+     persons at home, murdered and scalped them, stolen their stock--in
+     fact violated every leading feature in the treaty. Indeed, so great
+     were their depredations on the stock belonging to the settlers,
+     that at certain times they have not had sufficient horses to do
+     their ordinary farming work--all the horses being concentrated on
+     the Sioux Reservation or among the bands which owe allegiance to
+     what is called the Sioux Nation. In the winter months these
+     renegade bands dwindle down to a comparatively small number; while
+     in summer they are recruited by restless spirits from the different
+     reservations, attracted by the opportunity to plunder the
+     frontiersman, so that by midsummer they become augmented from small
+     bands of one hundred to thousands.
+
+     "In fact, it was well known that the treaty of 1868 had been
+     regarded by the Indians as an instrument binding on us but not
+     binding on them. On the part of the Government, notwithstanding the
+     utter disregard by the Sioux of the terms of the treaty, stringent
+     orders, enforced by military power, had been issued prohibiting
+     settlers from trespassing upon the country known as the Black
+     Hills. The people of the country against whom the provisions of the
+     treaty were so rigidly enforced naturally complained that if they
+     were required to observe this treaty, some effort should be made to
+     compel the Indians to observe it likewise.
+
+     "The occupation by the settlers of the Black Hills country had
+     nothing to do with the hostilities which have been in progress. In
+     fact, by the continuous violations by these Indians of the treaty
+     referred to, the settlers were furnished with at least a reasonable
+     excuse for such occupation, in that a treaty so long and
+     persistently violated by the Indians themselves, should not be
+     quoted as a valid instrument for the preventing of such occupation.
+     Since the occupation of the Black Hills there has not been any
+     greater number of depredations committed by the Indians than
+     previous to such occupation; in truth, the people who have gone to
+     the Hills have not suffered any more and probably not as much from
+     Indians, as they would had they remained at their homes along the
+     border."
+
+     "In 1868," says Wm. R. Steele, delegate from Wyoming, "the United
+     States made a treaty with the Sioux Nation, which was a grave
+     mistake, if it was not a national dishonor and disgrace; that
+     treaty has been the foundation of all the difficulties in the Sioux
+     country. In 1866, Gen. Pope established posts at Fort Phil Kearney,
+     Reno, and Fort Smith, so as to open the road to Montana and protect
+     the country and friendly Crows from the hostile Sioux. In keeping
+     these posts and opening that road, many men, citizens and soldiers,
+     had been killed. Notable among the actions that had taken place was
+     the massacre of Fetterman and his command at Fort Phil Kearney; and
+     yet after these men had sacrificed their lives, the Government went
+     to work and made a treaty by which it ignominiously abandoned that
+     country to these savages, dismantling its own forts, and leaving
+     there the bones of men who had laid down their lives in the
+     wilderness. Was it to be wondered at, under these circumstances,
+     that Sitting Bull and his men believed they were superior to the
+     general government? Any body who knows anything about Indian
+     nature knows that the legitimate result of that cowardly policy of
+     peace at any price, was to defer only the evil day which has now
+     come upon us. Since that time the Sioux have been constantly
+     depredating on the frontiers of Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana, and
+     more men have fallen there in the peaceful vocations of civil life,
+     without a murmur being heard, than fell under the gallant Custer.
+     The friendly Crows have been raided with every full moon; so with
+     the Shoshones; and at last these outrages have become so great and
+     so long continued that even the peaceable Indian Department could
+     not stand them any longer, and called on the military arm of the
+     Government to punish these men."
+
+     President Grant, in his message of December, 1876, uses the
+     following language:--"A policy has been adopted towards the Indian
+     tribes inhabiting a large portion of the territory of the United
+     States, which has been humane, and has substantially ended Indian
+     hostilities in the whole land, except in a portion of Nebraska, and
+     Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana territories, the Black Hills region,
+     and approaches thereto. Hostilities there have grown out of the
+     avarice of the white man, who has violated our treaty stipulations
+     in his search for gold. The question might be asked, why the
+     Government had not enforced obedience to the terms of the treaty
+     prohibiting the occupation of the Black Hills region by whites? The
+     answer is simple. The first immigrants to the Black Hills were
+     removed by troops, but rumors of rich discoveries of gold took into
+     that region increased numbers. Gold has actually been found in
+     paying quantity, and an effort to remove the miners would only
+     result in the desertion of the bulk of the troops that might be
+     sent there to remove them."
+
+The causes and objects of the military operations against the Sioux in
+1876, as stated by the Secretary of War in a letter to the President
+dated July 8th, 1876, were in part as follows:--
+
+     "The present military operations are not against the Sioux nation
+     at all, but against certain hostile parts of it which defy the
+     Government, and are undertaken at the special request of the bureau
+     of the Government charged with their supervision, and wholly to
+     make the civilization of the remainder possible. No part of these
+     operations are on or near the Sioux reservation. The accidental
+     discovery of gold on the western border of the Sioux reservation
+     and the intrusion of our people thereon have not caused this war,
+     and have only complicated it by the uncertainty of numbers to be
+     encountered. The young warriors love war, and frequently escape
+     their agents to go to the hunt or war path--their only idea of the
+     object of life. The object of these military expeditions was in the
+     interest of the peaceful parts of the Sioux nation, supposed to
+     embrace at least nine-tenths of the whole, and not one of these
+     peaceful treaty Indians has been molested by the military
+     authorities."
+
+Of the hostile Indians referred to by the Secretary of War, Hon. E.P.
+Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reported Nov. 1st, 1875:--"It
+will probably be found necessary to compel the Northern non-treaty
+Sioux, under the leadership of Sitting Bull, who have never yet in any
+way recognized the United States Government, except by snatching rations
+occasionally at an agency, and such outlaws from the several agencies as
+have attached themselves to these same hostiles, to cease marauding and
+settle down, as the other Sioux have done, at some designated point."
+
+Soon afterwards, Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins addressed the
+Commissioner respecting these Indians, as follows:--"The true policy in
+my judgment is to send troops against them in winter, the sooner the
+better, and whip them into subjection. They richly merit punishment for
+their incessant warfare and their numerous murders of white settlers and
+their families, or white men whenever found unarmed."
+
+Early in December, by the advice of the Secretary of the Interior,
+Commissioner Smith directed that runners be sent out to notify "said
+Indian Sitting Bull, and others outside their reservation, that they
+must move to the reservation before the 31st day of January, 1876; that
+if they neglect or refuse so to move, they will be reported to the War
+Department as hostile Indians, and that a military force will be sent to
+compel them to obey the order of the Indian officer." Respecting this
+order to the Indians, Bishop Whipple, in a letter to the _New York
+Tribune_, says:--
+
+     "There was an inadequate supply of provisions at the agencies that
+     Fall, and the Indians went out to their unceded territory to hunt.
+     They went as they were accustomed to do--with the consent of their
+     agents and as provided by the treaty. * * * The Indians had gone a
+     way from the agencies to secure food, and skins for clothing. The
+     United States had set apart this very country as a hunting-ground
+     for them forever. Eight months after this order to return or be
+     treated as hostile, Congress appropriated money for the seventh of
+     thirty installments for these roaming Indians. It was impossible
+     for the Indians to obey the order. No one of the runners sent out
+     to inform the Indians, was able to return himself by the time
+     appointed; yet Indian women and children were expected to travel a
+     treeless desert, without food or proper clothing, under the penalty
+     of death."
+
+As the order and warning were disregarded by the Indians, the Secretary
+of the Interior notified the Secretary of War, Feb. 1st, 1876, that "the
+time given him (Sitting Bull) in which to return to an agency having
+expired, and advices received at the Indian Office being to the effect
+that Sitting Bull still refuses to comply with the direction of the
+Commissioner, the said Indians are hereby turned over to the War
+Department for such action on the part of the army as you may deem
+proper under the circumstances."
+
+By direction of Lieut. General Sheridan, Commander over the vast extent
+of territory included in the Military Division of Missouri, Brig. Gen.
+George Crook, Commander of the Department of the Platte, an officer of
+great merit and experience in Indian fighting, now undertook to reduce
+these Indian outlaws to subjection, and made preparations for an
+expedition against them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+BATTLES OF THE POWDER AND ROSEBUD.
+
+
+General Crook started from Fort Fetterman, W.T., March 1st, 1876, at the
+head of an expedition composed of ten companies of the 2d and 3d Cavalry
+under Col. J.J. Reynolds, and two companies of the 4th Infantry, with
+teamsters, guides, etc., amounting in all to nearly nine hundred men.
+His course was nearly north, past the abandoned Forts Reno and Phil.
+Kearney to Tongue River. He descended this river nearly to the
+Yellowstone, scouted Rosebud River, and then changed his course to the
+south-east toward Powder River. At a point on the head of Otter Creek,
+Crook divided his command, and sent Col. Reynolds with six companies of
+cavalry and one day's rations to follow the trail of two Indians
+discovered that day in the snow.
+
+Col. Reynolds moved at 5 P.M. of the 16th, and at 4.20 A.M., after a
+night's march of thirty miles, was near the forks of Powder River. The
+following extracts are copied from a letter written to the _New York
+Tribune_:--
+
+     "A halt was called here and the column took shelter in a ravine. No
+     fires were allowed to be kindled, nor even a match lighted. The
+     cold was intense and seemed to be at least 30° below zero. The
+     command remained here till about 6 o'clock, doing their uttermost
+     to keep from freezing, the scouts meantime going out to
+     reconnoitre. At this hour they returned, reporting a larger and
+     fresher trail leading down to the river which was about four miles
+     distant. The column immediately started on the trail. The approach
+     to the river seemed almost impracticable. Before reaching the final
+     precipices which overlooked the riverbed, the scouts discovered
+     that a village lay in the valley at the foot of the bluffs. It was
+     now 8 o'clock. The sun shone brightly through the cold frosty air.
+
+     "The column halted, and Noyes's battalion, 2d Cavalry, was ordered
+     up to the front. It consisted of Company I, Capt. Noyes, and
+     Company K, Capt. Egan. This battalion was ordered to descend to the
+     valley, and while Egan charged the camp, Noyes was to cut out the
+     herd of horses feeding close by and drive it up the river. Capt.
+     Moore's battalion of two companies was ordered to dismount and
+     proceed along the edge of the ridge to a position covering the
+     eastern side of the village opposite that from which Egan was to
+     charge. Capt. Mills's battalion was ordered to follow Egan
+     dismounted, and support him in the engagement which might follow
+     the charge.
+
+     "These columns began the descent of the mountain, through gorges
+     which were almost perpendicular. Nearly two hours were occupied in
+     getting the horses of the charging columns down these rough sides
+     of the mountain, and even then, when a point was reached where the
+     men could mount their horses and proceed toward the village in the
+     narrow valley beneath, Moore's battalion had not been able to gain
+     its position on the eastern side after clambering along the edges
+     of the mountain. A few Indians could be seen with the herd, driving
+     it to the edge of the river, but nothing indicated that they knew
+     of our approach.
+
+     "Just at 9 o'clock Capt. Egan turned the point of the mountain
+     nearest the river, and first in a walk and then in a rapid trot
+     started for the village. The company went first in column of twos,
+     but when within 200 yards of the village the command 'Left front
+     into line' was given, and with a yell they rushed into the
+     encampment. Capt. Noyes had in the meantime wheeled to the right
+     and started the herd up the river. With the yell of the charging
+     column the Indians sprang up as if by magic and poured in a rapid
+     fire from all sides. Egan charged through and through the village
+     before Moore's and Mills's battalions got within supporting
+     distance, and finding things getting very hot, formed his line in
+     some high willows on the south side of the camp, from which he
+     poured in rapid volleys upon the Indians.
+
+     "Up to this time the Indians supposed that one company was all they
+     had to contend with, but when the other battalions appeared,
+     rapidly advancing, deployed as skirmishers and pouring in a galling
+     fire of musketry, they broke on all sides and took refuge in the
+     rocks along the side of the mountain. The camp, consisting of 110
+     lodges, with immense quantities of robes, fresh meat, and plunder
+     of all kinds, with over 700 head of horses were in our possession.
+     The work of burning immediately began, and soon the whole
+     encampment was in flames.
+
+     "After the work of destruction was completed the whole command
+     moved rapidly up the river twenty miles to Lodgepole Creek. This
+     point was reached at nightfall by all except Moore's battalion and
+     Egan's company. Company E was the rear guard, and assisted Major
+     Stanton and the scouts in bringing up the herd of horses; many of
+     these were shot on the road, and the remainder reached camp about 9
+     P.M. These troops had been in the saddle for 36 hours, with the
+     exception of five hours during which they were fighting, and all,
+     officers and men, were much exhausted.
+
+     "Upon arriving at Lodgepole, it was found that General Crook and
+     the other four companies and pack-train had not arrived, so that
+     everybody was supperless and without a blanket. The night,
+     therefore, was not a cheerful one, but not a murmur was heard. The
+     tired men lay upon the snow or leaned against a tree, and slept as
+     best they could on so cold a night. Saturday, at noon, General
+     Crook arrived. In the meantime a portion of the herd of horses had
+     straggled into the ravines, and fallen into the hands of the
+     Indians."
+
+The village thus destroyed was that of Crazy Horse, one of the avowedly
+hostile chiefs. "He had with him," wrote Gen. Crook, "the Northern
+Cheyennes, and some of the Minneconjous--probably in all one-half of the
+Indians off the reservations." The Indian loss was unknown. Four of
+Reynolds' men were killed, and six men including one officer were
+wounded. The whole force subsequently returned to Fort Fetterman,
+reaching there March 26th.
+
+The results of this expedition were neither conclusive or satisfactory.
+Therefore, Gen. Sheridan determined to proceed more systematically by
+concentric movements. He ordered three distinct columns to be prepared
+to move to a common centre, where the hostiles were supposed to be, from
+Montana, from Dakota, and from the Platte. The two former fell under the
+command of Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Commander of the Department of Dakota,
+and the latter under Gen. Crook. These movements were to be
+simultaneous, so that Indians avoiding one column might be encountered
+by another.
+
+Gen. Crook marched from Fort Fetterman on the 29th of May, with two
+battalions of the 2d and 3d Cavalry under Lieut. Col. W.B. Royall, and a
+battalion of five companies of the 4th and 9th Infantry under Major
+Alex. Chambers, with a train of wagons, pack-mules, and Indian scouts,
+all amounting to 47 officers and 1,000 men present for duty. This
+expedition marched by the same route as the preceding one, to a point on
+Goose Creek, which is the head of Tongue River, where a supply camp was
+established on June 8th. During the preceding night a party of Sioux
+came down on the encampment, and endeavored to stampede the horses,
+bringing on an engagement which resulted in the discomfiture and retreat
+of the enemy. On the 14th, a band of Shoshones and Crows--Indians
+unfriendly to the Sioux--joined Crook, and were provided with arms and
+ammunition.
+
+The aggressive column of the expedition resumed the march forward on the
+morning of the 16th, leaving the trains parked at the Goose Creek camp.
+The infantry were mounted on mules borrowed from the pack-train, and
+each man carried his own supplies consisting of only three days' rations
+and one blanket. At night, after marching about 35 miles, the little
+army encamped between high bluffs at the head waters of Rosebud River.
+
+At 5 A.M. on the morning of the 17th the troops started down the valley
+of the Rosebud, the Indian allies marching in front and on the flanks.
+After advancing about seven miles successive shots were heard in front,
+the scouts came running in to report Indians advancing, and Gen. Crook
+had hardly time to form his men, before large numbers of warriors fully
+prepared for a fight were in view.
+
+The battle which ensued was on both banks of the Rosebud, near the upper
+end of a deep canyon having sides which were steep, covered with pine,
+and apparently impregnable, through which the stream ran. The Indians
+displayed a strong force at all points, and contested the ground with a
+tenacity which indicated that they were fighting for time to remove
+their village, which was supposed to be about six miles down the Rosebud
+at the lower end of the canyon, or believed themselves strong enough to
+defeat their opponents.
+
+The officers and men of Crook's command behaved with marked gallantry
+during the engagement. The Sioux were finally repulsed in their bold
+onset, and lost many of their bravest warriors; but when they fled they
+could not be pursued far without great danger owing to the roughness of
+the country. The Indian allies were full of enthusiasm but not very
+manageable, preferring to fight independently of orders. Crook's losses
+were nine soldiers killed, and twenty-one wounded, including Capt. Henry
+of the 3d Cavalry. Seven of the friendly Indians were wounded, and one
+was killed.
+
+Gen. Crook was satisfied that the number and quality of the enemy
+required more men than he had, and being encumbered with wounded he
+concluded to retreat. The night was passed on the battle-field, and the
+next day he started for his camp on Goose Creek, which was reached June
+19th. Couriers were sent to Fort Fetterman for reinforcements and
+supplies, and the command remained inactive for several weeks awaiting
+their arrival.
+
+The battle of the Rosebud was fought not very far from the scene of
+Custer's defeat a few days later, and Gen. Crook concludes that his
+opponents were the same that Custer and Reno encountered.
+
+"It now became apparent," says Gen. Sheridan in his report "that Gen.
+Crook had not only Crazy Horse and his small band to contend with, but
+that the hostile force had been augmented by large numbers of the young
+warriors from the agencies along the Missouri River, and the Red Cloud
+and Spotted Tail agencies in Nebraska, and that the Indian agents at
+these agencies had concealed the fact of the departure of these
+warriors, and that in most cases they continued to issue rations as
+though they were present."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TERRY'S EXPEDITION--OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN.
+
+
+General Terry left Fort Abraham Lincoln on the Missouri River, May 17th
+1876, with his division, consisting of the 7th Cavalry under Lieut. Col.
+George A. Custer, three companies of infantry, a battery of Gatling
+guns, and 45 enlisted scouts. His whole force, exclusive of the
+wagon-train drivers, numbered about 1000 men. His march was westerly,
+over the route taken by the Stanley expedition in 1873.
+
+On the 11th of June, Terry reached the south bank of the Yellowstone at
+the mouth of Powder River, where by appointment he met steamboats, and
+established his supply camp. A scouting party of six companies of the
+7th Cavalry under Major M.A. Reno was sent out June 10th, which ascended
+Powder River to its forks, crossed westerly to Tongue River and beyond,
+and discovered, near Rosebud River, a heavy Indian trail about ten days
+old leading westward toward Little Big Horn River. After following this
+trail a short distance Reno returned to the Yellowstone and rejoined his
+regiment, which then marched, accompanied by steamboats, to the mouth of
+Rosebud River where it encamped June 21st. Communication by steamboats
+and scouts had previously been opened with Col. John Gibbon, whose
+column was at this time encamped on the north side of the Yellowstone,
+near by.
+
+Col. Gibbon of the 7th Infantry had left Fort Ellis in Montana about the
+middle of May, with a force consisting of six companies of his regiment,
+and four companies of the 2d Cavalry under Major J.S. Brisbin. He had
+marched eastward down the north bank of the Yellowstone to the mouth of
+the Rosebud, where he encamped about June 1st.
+
+Gen. Terry now consulted with Gibbon and Custer, and decided upon a plan
+for attacking the Indians who were believed to be assembled in large
+numbers near Big Horn River. Custer with his regiment was to ascend the
+valley of the Rosebud, and then turn towards Little Big Horn River,
+keeping well to the south. Gibbon's troops were to cross the Yellowstone
+at the mouth of Big Horn River, and march up the Big Horn to its
+junction with the Little Big Horn, to co-operate with Custer. It was
+hoped that the Indians would thus be brought between the two forces so
+that their escape would be impossible.
+
+Col. Gibbon's column was immediately put in motion for the mouth of the
+Big Horn. On the next day, June 22d, at noon, Custer announced himself
+ready to start, and drew out his regiment. It consisted of 12 companies,
+numbering 28 officers and 747 soldiers. There were also a strong
+detachment of scouts and guides, several civilians, and a supply train
+of 185 pack mules. Gen. Terry reviewed the column in the presence of
+Gibbon and Brisbin, and it was pronounced in splendid condition. "The
+officers clustered around Terry for a final shake of the hand, the last
+good-bye was said, and in the best of spirits, filled with high hopes,
+they galloped away--many of them to their death."
+
+Gen. Terry's orders to Custer were as follows:--
+
+
+     CAMP AT THE MOUTH OF ROSEBUD RIVER,}
+                         June 22d, 1876.}
+
+     _Lieut. Col. Custer, 7th Cavalry._
+
+     COLONEL: The Brigadier General Commanding directs that as soon as
+     your regiment can be made ready for the march, you proceed up the
+     Rosebud in pursuit of the Indians whose trail was discovered by
+     Major Reno a few days ago. It is, of course, impossible to give any
+     definite instructions in regard to this movement, and, were it not
+     impossible to do so, the Department Commander places too much
+     confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon
+     you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in
+     contact with the enemy. He will, however, indicate to you his own
+     views of what your action should be, and he desires that you should
+     conform to them unless you shall see sufficient reason for
+     departing from them. He thinks that you should proceed up the
+     Rosebud until you ascertain definitely the direction in which the
+     trail above spoken of leads. Should it be found (as it appears to
+     be almost certain that it will be found) to turn towards the Little
+     Big Horn, he thinks that you should still proceed southward perhaps
+     as far as the head waters of the Tongue, and then turn toward the
+     Little Big Horn, feeling constantly, however, to your left, so as
+     to preclude the possibility of the escape of the Indians to the
+     south or south-east by passing around your left flank. The column
+     of Col. Gibbon is now in motion for the mouth of the Big Horn. As
+     soon as it reaches that point it will cross the Yellowstone, and
+     move up at least as far as the forks of the Big and Little Big
+     Horn. Of course its future movements must be controlled by
+     circumstances as they arise; but it is hoped that the Indians, if
+     up on the Little Big Horn, may be so nearly inclosed by the two
+     columns that their escape will be impossible. The Department
+     Commander desires that on your way up the Rosebud you should
+     thoroughly examine the upper part of Tulloch's Creek, and that you
+     should endeavor to send a scout through to Col. Gibbon's column
+     with information of the result of your examination. The lower part
+     of this creek will be examined by a detachment from Col. Gibbon's
+     command. The supply steamer will be pushed up the Big Horn as far
+     as the forks of the river are found to be navigable for that space,
+     and the Department Commander, who will accompany the column of Col.
+     Gibbon, desires you to report to him there not later than the
+     expiration of the time for which your troops are rationed, unless
+     in the meantime you receive further orders. Respectfully, &c.,
+
+     E.W. SMITH, Captain 18th Infantry,
+
+     Acting Assistant Adjutant General.
+
+After proceeding southerly up the Rosebud for about seventy miles,
+Custer, at 11 P.M. on the night of the 24th, turned westerly towards
+Little Big Horn River. The next morning while crossing the elevated land
+between the two rivers, a large Indian village was discovered about
+fifteen miles distant, just across Little Big Horn River. Custer with
+characteristic promptness decided to attack the village at once.
+
+One company was escorting the train at the rear. The balance of the
+force was divided into three columns. The trail they were on led down to
+the stream at a point some distance south of the village. Major Reno,
+with three companies under Capt. T.H. French, Capt. Myles Moylan, and
+Lieut. Donald Mclntosh, was ordered to follow the trail, cross the
+stream, and charge down its north bank. Capt. F.W. Benteen, with his own
+company and two others under Capt. T. B. Weir and Lieut. E.S. Godfrey,
+was sent to make a detour to the south of Reno. The other five companies
+of the regiment, under the immediate command of Custer, formed the right
+of the little army.
+
+On reaching the river Reno crossed it as ordered, and Custer with his
+five companies turned northerly into a ravine running behind the bluffs
+on the east side of the stream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+GIBBON'S MARCH UP THE BIG HORN RIVER.
+
+
+The supply steamer Far West with Gen. Terry and Col. Gibbon on board,
+which steamed up the Yellowstone on the evening of June 23d, overtook
+Gibbon's troops near the mouth of the Big Horn early on the morning of
+the 24th; and by 4 o'clock P.M. of the same day, the entire command with
+the animals and supplies had been ferried over to the south side of the
+Yellowstone. An hour later the column marched out to and across
+Tulloch's Creek, and then encamped for the night.
+
+At 5 o'clock on the morning of the 25th, (Sunday) the column was again
+in motion; and after marching 22 miles over a country so rugged as to
+task the endurance of the men to the utmost, the infantry halted for the
+night. Gen. Terry, however, with the cavalry and the battery pushed on
+14 miles further in hopes of opening communication with Custer, and
+camped at midnight near the mouth of the Little Big Horn.
+
+Scouts sent out from Terry's camp early on the morning of the 26th
+discovered three Indians, who proved to be Crows who had accompanied
+Custer's regiment. They reported that a battle had been fought and that
+the Indians were killing white men in great numbers. Their story was not
+fully credited, as it was not expected that a conflict would occur so
+soon, or believed that serious disaster could have overtaken so large a
+force.
+
+The infantry, which had broken camp very early, now came up, and the
+whole column crossed the Little Big Horn and moved up its western
+valley. It was soon reported that a dense heavy smoke was resting over
+the southern horizon far ahead, and in a short time it became visible to
+all. This was hailed as a sign that Custer had met the Indians, defeated
+them, and burned their village. The weary foot soldiers were elated and
+freshened by the sight, and pressed on with increased spirit and speed.
+
+Custer's position was believed to be not far ahead, and efforts were
+repeatedly made during the afternoon to open communication with him; but
+the scouts who attempted to go through were met and driven back by
+hostile Indians who were hovering in the front. As evening came on,
+their numbers increased and large parties could be seen on the bluffs
+hurrying from place to place and watching every movement of the
+advancing soldiers.
+
+At 8:40 in the evening the infantry had marched that day about 30 miles.
+The forks of the Big Horn, the place where Terry had requested Custer to
+report to him, were many miles behind and the expected messenger from
+Custer had not arrived. Daylight was fading, the men were fatigued, and
+the column was therefore halted for the night. The animals were
+picketed, guards were set, and the weary men, wrapped in their blankets
+and with their weapons beside them, were soon asleep on the ground.
+
+Early on the morning of the 27th the march up the Little Big Horn was
+resumed. The smoke cloud was still visible and apparently but a short
+distance ahead. Soon a dense grove of trees was reached and passed
+through cautiously, and then the head of the column entered a beautiful
+level meadow about a mile in width, extending along the west side of the
+stream and overshadowed east and west by high bluffs. It soon became
+apparent that this meadow had recently been the site of an immense
+Indian village, and the great number of temporary brushwood and willow
+huts indicated that many Indians beside the usual inhabitants had
+rendezvoused there. It was also evident that it had been hastily
+deserted. Hundreds of lodge-poles, with finely-dressed buffalo-robes and
+other hides, dried meat, stores, axes, utensils, and Indian trinkets
+were left behind; and in two tepees or lodges still standing, were the
+bodies of nine Indians who had gone to the "happy hunting-grounds."
+
+Every step of the march now revealed some evidence that a conflict had
+taken place not far away. The dead bodies of Indian horses were seen,
+and cavalry equipments and weapons, bullet-pierced clothing, and
+blood-stained gloves were picked up; and at last the bodies of soldiers
+and their horses gave positive proof that a disastrous battle had taken
+place. The Crow Indians had told the truth.
+
+The head of the column was now met by a breathless scout, who came
+running up with the intelligence that Major Reno with a body of troops
+was intrenched on a bluff further on, awaiting relief. The soldiers
+pushed ahead in the direction pointed out, and soon came in sight of men
+and horses intrenched on top of a hill on the opposite or east side of
+the river. Terry and Gibbon immediately forded the stream and rode
+toward the group. As they approached the top of the hill, they were
+welcomed by hearty cheers from a swarm of soldiers who came out of
+their intrenchments to meet their deliverers. The scene was a touching
+one. Stout-hearted soldiers who had kept bravely up during the hours of
+conflict and danger now cried like children, and the pale faces of the
+wounded lighted up as hope revived within them.
+
+The story of the relieved men briefly told was as follows:--After
+separating from Custer about noon, June 25th, (as related in the last
+chapter) Reno proceeded to the river, forded it, and charged down its
+west bank toward the village, meeting at first with but little
+resistance. Soon however he was attacked by such numbers as to be
+obliged to dismount his men, shelter his horses in a strip of woods, and
+fight on foot. Finding that they would soon be surrounded and defeated,
+he again mounted his men, and charging upon such of the enemy as
+obstructed his way, retreated across the river, and reached the top of a
+bluff followed closely by Indians. Just then Benteen, returning from his
+detour southward, discovered Reno's perilous position, drove back the
+Indians, and joined him on the hill. Shortly afterward, the company
+which was escorting the mule train also joined Reno. The seven companies
+thus brought together had been subsequently assailed by Indians; many of
+the men had been killed and wounded, and it was only by obstinate
+resistance that they had been enabled to defend themselves in an
+entrenched position. The enemy had retired on the evening of the 26th.
+
+After congratulations to Reno and his brave men for their successful
+defence enquiries were made respecting Custer, but no one could tell
+where he was. Neither he or any of his men had been seen since the fight
+commenced, and the musketry heard from the direction he took had ceased
+on the afternoon of the 25th. It was supposed by Reno and Benteen that
+he had been repulsed, and retreated northerly towards Terry's troops.
+
+A search for Custer and his men was immediately began, and it revealed a
+scene calculated to appal the stoutest heart. Although neither Custer or
+any of that part of his regiment which he led to combat were found alive
+to tell the tale, an examination of their trail and the scene of
+conflict enabled their comrades to form some idea of the engagement in
+which they perished.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CUSTER'S LAST BATTLE.
+
+
+General Custer's trail, from the place where he left Reno's and turned
+northward, passed along and in the rear of the crest of hills on the
+east bank of the stream for nearly three miles, and then led, through an
+opening in the bluff, down to the river. Here Custer had evidently
+attempted to cross over to attack the village. The trail then turned
+back on itself, as if Custer had been repulsed and obliged to retreat,
+and branched to the northward, as if he had been prevented from
+returning southerly by the way he came, or had determined to retreat in
+the direction from which Terry's troops were advancing.
+
+Several theories as to the subsequent movements of the troops have been
+entertained by persons who visited the grounds. One is, that the
+soldiers in retreating took advantage of two ravines; that two companies
+under Capt. T.W. Custer and Lieut. A. E. Smith, were led by Gen. Custer
+up the ravine nearest the river, while the upper ravine furnished a line
+of retreat for the three companies of Capt. G.W. Yates, Capt. M.W.
+Keogh, and Lieut. James Calhoun. At the head of this upper ravine, a
+mile from the river, a stand had been made by Calhoun's company; the
+skirmish lines were marked by rows of the slain with heaps of empty
+cartridge shells before them, and Lieuts. Calhoun and Crittenden lay
+dead just behind the files. Further on, Capt. Keogh had fallen
+surrounded by his men; and still further on, upon a hill, Capt. Yates'
+company took its final stand. Here, according to this theory, Yates was
+joined by what remained of the other two companies, who had been
+furiously assailed in the lower ravine; and here Gen. Custer and the
+last survivors of the five companies met their death, fighting bravely
+to the end.
+
+Another theory of the engagement is, that Custer attempted to retreat up
+the lower ravine in columns of companies; that the companies of Custer
+and Smith being first in the advance and last in the retreat, fell first
+in the slaughter which followed the retrograde movement; that Yates'
+company took the position on the hill, and perished there with Custer
+and other officers; and that the two other companies, Keogh's and
+Calhoun's, perished while fighting their way back towards Reno--a few
+reaching the place where Custer first struck the high banks of the
+river.
+
+Still another theory is, that the main line of retreat was by the upper
+ravine; that Calhoun's company was thrown across to check the Indians,
+and was the first annihilated. That the two companies of Capt. Custer
+and Lieut. Smith retreated from the place where Gen. Custer was killed
+into the lower ravine, and were the last survivors of the conflict.
+
+Near the highest point of the hill lay the body of General Custer, and
+near by were those of his brother Captain Custer, Lieut. Smith, Capt.
+Yates, Lieut. W. V. Riley of Yates' company, and Lieut. W.W. Cooke. Some
+distance away, close together, were found another brother of Gen.
+Custer--Boston Custer, a civilian, who had accompanied the expedition
+as forage master of the 7th Cavalry--and his nephew Armstrong Reed, a
+youth of nineteen, who was visiting the General at the time the
+expedition started, and accompanied it as a driver of the herd of cattle
+taken along. The wife of Lieut. Calhoun was a sister of the Custer's,
+and she here lost her husband, three brothers, and a nephew.
+
+Other officers of Custer's battalion killed but not already mentioned,
+were Asst. Surgeon L.W. Lord, and Lieuts. H.M. Harrington, J.E. Porter,
+and J.G. Sturgis. The last named was a West Point graduate of 1875, and
+a son of General S.D. Sturgis, the Colonel of the 7th Cavalry, who had
+been detained by other duties when his regiment started on this
+expedition. The bodies of the slain were rifled of valuables and all
+were mutilated excepting Gen. Custer, and Mark Kellogg--a correspondent
+of the _New York Herald_. Gen. Custer was clad in a buckskin suit; and a
+Canadian--Mr. Macdonald--was subsequently informed by Indians who were
+in the fight, that for this reason he was not mangled, as they took him
+to be some brave hunter accidentally with the troops. Others believe
+that Custer was passed by from respect for the heroism of one whom the
+Indians had learned to fear and admire.
+
+The dead were buried June 28th, where they fell, Major Reno and the
+survivors of his regiment performing the last sad rites over their
+comrades.
+
+A retreat to the mouth of Big Horn River was now ordered and
+successfully effected, the wounded being comfortably transported on mule
+litters to the mouth of the Little Big Horn, where they were placed on a
+steamboat and taken to Fort Lincoln. Gibbon's Cavalry followed the
+Indians for about ten miles, and ascertained that they had moved to the
+south and west by several trails. A good deal of property had been
+thrown away by them to lighten their march, and was found scattered
+about. Many of their dead were also discovered secreted in ravines a
+long distance from the battle field.
+
+At the boat was found one of Custer's scouts, who had been in the
+fight--a Crow named Curley; his story was as follows:--
+
+     "Custer kept down the river on the north bank four miles, after
+     Reno had crossed to the south side above. He thought Reno would
+     drive down the valley, to attack the village at the upper end,
+     while he (Custer) would go in at the lower end. Custer had to go
+     further down the river and further away from Reno than he wished on
+     account of the steep bank along the north side; but at last he
+     found a ford and dashed for it. The Indians met him and poured in a
+     heavy fire from across the narrow river. Custer dismounted to fight
+     on foot, but could not get his skirmishers over the stream.
+     Meantime hundreds of Indians, on foot and on ponies, poured over
+     the river, which was only about three feet deep, and filled the
+     ravine on each side of Custer's men. Custer then fell back to some
+     high ground behind him and seized the ravines in his immediate
+     vicinity. The Indians completely surrounded Custer and poured in a
+     terrible fire on all sides. They charged Custer on foot in vast
+     numbers, but were again and again driven back.
+
+     "The fight began about 2 o'clock, and lasted almost until the sun
+     went down over the hills. The men fought desperately, and after the
+     ammunition in their belts was exhausted went to their saddlebags,
+     got more and continued the fight. Custer lived until nearly all his
+     men had been killed or wounded, and went about encouraging his
+     soldiers to fight on. He got a shot in the left side and sat down,
+     with his pistol in his hand. Another shot struck Custer in the
+     breast, and he fell over. The last officer killed was a man who
+     rode a white horse--believed to be Lieut. Cooke, as Cooke and
+     Calhoun were the only officers who rode white horses.
+
+     "When he saw Custer hopelessly surrounded he watched his
+     opportunity, got a Sioux blanket, put it on, and worked up a
+     ravine, and when the Sioux charged, he got among them and they did
+     not know him from one of their own men. There were some mounted
+     Sioux, and seeing one fall, he ran to him, mounted his pony, and
+     galloped down as if going towards the white men, but went up a
+     ravine and got away. As he rode off he saw, when nearly a mile from
+     the battle field, a dozen or more soldiers in a ravine, fighting
+     with Sioux all around them. He thinks all were killed, as they were
+     outnumbered five to one, and apparently dismounted. The battle was
+     desperate in the extreme, and more Indians than white men must have
+     been killed."
+
+The following extract is from a letter written to Gen. Sheridan by Gen.
+Terry at his camp on the Big Horn, July 2d:--
+
+     "We calculated it would take Gibbon's command until the 26th to
+     reach the mouth of the Little Big Horn, and that the wide sweep I
+     had proposed Custer should make would require so much time that
+     Gibbon would be able to co-operate with him in attacking any
+     Indians that might be found on the stream. I asked Custer how long
+     his marches would be. He said they would be at the rate of about 30
+     miles a day. Measurements were made and calculations based on that
+     rate of progress. I talked with him about his strength, and at one
+     time suggested that perhaps it would be well for me to take
+     Gibbon's cavalry and go with him. To the latter suggestion he
+     replied:--that, without reference to the command, he would prefer
+     his own regiment alone. As a homogeneous body, as much could be
+     done with it as with the two combined. He expressed the utmost
+     confidence that he had all the force that he could need, and I
+     shared his confidence. The plan adopted was the only one which
+     promised to bring the infantry into action, and I desired to make
+     sure of things by getting up every available man. I offered Custer
+     the battery of Gatling guns, but he declined it, saying that it
+     might embarrass him, and that he was strong enough without it. The
+     movements proposed by General Gibbon's column were carried out to
+     the letter, and had the attack been deferred until it was up, I
+     cannot doubt that we should have been successful."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+RENO'S BATTLES ON THE LITTLE BIG HORN.
+
+
+After the battle in which Lieut. Col. Custer lost his life, the command
+of the 7th Cavalry regiment devolved on Major Reno. The following is a
+copy of Reno's official report to Gen. Terry, excepting that a few
+unimportant paragraphs are omitted. It is dated July 5th, 1876.
+
+     "The regiment left the camp at the mouth of Rosebud River, after
+     passing in review before the department commander, under command of
+     Brevet Major General G.A. Custer, Lieutenant Colonel, on the
+     afternoon of the 22d of June, and marched up the Rosebud 12 miles
+     and encamped. 23d--Marched up the Rosebud, passing many old Indian
+     camps, and following a very large lodge-pole trail, but not fresh,
+     making 33 miles. 24th--The march was continued up the Rosebud, the
+     trail and signs freshening with every mile until we had made 28
+     miles, and we then encamped and waited for information from the
+     scouts. At 9.25 P.M., Custer called the officers together, and
+     informed us that beyond a doubt the village was in the valley of
+     the Little Big Horn, and that to reach it, it was necessary to
+     cross the divide between the Rosebud and Little Big Horn, and it
+     would be impossible to do so in the daytime without discovering our
+     march to the Indians; that we would prepare to move at 11 P.M. This
+     was done, the line of march turning from the Rosebud to the right,
+     up one of its branches, which headed near the summit of the divide.
+
+     "About 2 A.M. of the 25th, the scouts told him that he could not
+     cross the divide before daylight. We then made coffee and rested
+     for three hours, at the expiration of which time the march was
+     resumed, the divide crossed, and about 8 A.M. the command was in
+     the valley of one of the branches of the Little Big Horn. By this
+     time Indians had been seen, and it was certain that we could not
+     surprise them, and it was determined to move at once to the attack.
+
+     "Previous to this no division of the regiment had been made since
+     the order was issued on the Yellowstone, annulling wing and
+     battalion organizations. General Custer informed me he would assign
+     commands on the march. I was ordered by Lieut. W.W. Cooke,
+     Adjutant, to assume command of Companies M, A, and G; Capt. Benteen
+     of Companies H, D, and K; Custer retaining C, E, F, I, and L, under
+     his immediate command; and Company B, Capt. McDougall, being in
+     rear of the pack train. I assumed command of the companies assigned
+     to me, and without any definite orders, moved forward with the rest
+     of the column, and well to its left. I saw Benteen moving further
+     to the left, and, as they passed, he told me he had orders to move
+     well to the left, and sweep everything before him; I did not see
+     him again until about 2:30 P.M. The command moved down the creek
+     towards the Little Big Horn Valley. Custer with five companies on
+     the right bank; myself and three companies on the left bank; and
+     Benteen further to the left, and out of sight.
+
+     "As we approached a deserted village, in which was standing one
+     tepee, about 11 A.M., Custer motioned me to cross to him, which I
+     did, and moved nearer to his column, until about 12:30 A.M., when
+     Lieut. Cooke came to me and said the village was only two miles
+     ahead and running away. To 'move forward at as rapid a gait as I
+     thought prudent and to charge afterward, and that the whole outfit
+     would support me.' I think those were his exact words. I at once
+     took a fast trot, and moved down about two miles, when I came to a
+     ford of the river. I crossed immediately, and halted about ten
+     minutes or less, to gather the battalion, sending word to Custer
+     that I had everything in front of me, and that they were strong.
+
+     "I deployed, and, with the Ree scouts on my left, charged down the
+     valley, driving the Indians with great ease for about 2-1/2 miles.
+     I, however, soon saw that I was being drawn into some trap, as they
+     certainly would fight harder, and especially as we were nearing
+     their village, which was still standing; besides, I could not see
+     Custer or any other support; and at the same time the very earth
+     seemed to grow Indians, and they were running toward me in swarms,
+     and from all directions. I saw I must defend myself, and give up
+     the attack mounted. This I did, taking possession of a point of
+     woods, which furnished near its edge a shelter for the horses;
+     dismounted, and fought them on foot, making headway through the
+     woods. I soon found myself in the near vicinity of the village, saw
+     that I was fighting odds of at least five to one, and that my only
+     hope was to get out of the woods, where I would soon have been
+     surrounded, and gain some high ground. I accomplished this by
+     mounting and charging the Indians between me and the bluffs on the
+     opposite side of the river. In this charge First Lieut. Donald
+     McIntosh, Second Lieut. Benjamin H. Hodgson, and Acting Assistant
+     Surgeon J. M. De Wolf were killed.
+
+     "I succeeded in reaching the top of the bluff, with a loss of the
+     three officers and 29 enlisted men killed, and seven men wounded.
+     Almost at the same time I reached the top, mounted men were seen to
+     be coming toward us, and it proved to be Capt. Benteen's battalion,
+     Companies H, D, and K; we joined forces, and in a short time the
+     pack train came up. As senior my command was then Companies A, B,
+     D, G, H, K, and M, about 380 men; and the following
+     officers:--Captains Benteen, Weir, French, and McDougall, First
+     Lieutenants Godfrey, Mathey, and Gibson, Second Lieutenants
+     Edgerly, Wallace, Varnum, and Hare, and A.A. Surgeon Porter. First
+     Lieut. De Rudio was in the dismounted fight in the woods, but
+     having some trouble with his horse did not join the command in the
+     charge out, and hiding himself in the woods, joined the command
+     after nightfall of the 26th.
+
+     "Still hearing nothing of Custer, and with this reinforcement, I
+     moved down the river in the direction of the village, keeping on
+     the bluffs. We had heard firing in that direction, and knew it
+     could only be Custer. I moved to the summit of the highest bluff,
+     but seeing and hearing nothing, sent Capt. Weir, with his company,
+     to open communication with the other command. He soon sent back
+     word by Lieut. Hare that he could go no further, and that the
+     Indians were getting around him. At this time he was keeping up a
+     heavy fire from his skirmish line. I at once turned everything back
+     to the first position I had taken on the bluff, and which seemed to
+     me the best. I dismounted the men, had the horses and mules of the
+     pack train driven together in a depression, put the men on the
+     crests of the hills making the depression, and had hardly done so
+     when I was furiously attacked. This was about 6 P.M. We held our
+     ground, with the loss of 18 enlisted men killed and 46 wounded,
+     until the attack ceased, about 9 P.M.
+
+     "As I knew by this time their overwhelming numbers, and had given
+     up any support from the portion of the regiment with Custer, I had
+     the men dig rifle-pits; barricaded with dead horses, mules, and
+     boxes of hard bread, the opening of the depression toward the
+     Indians in which the animals were herded; and made every exertion
+     to be ready for what I saw would be a terrific assault the next
+     day. All this night the men were busy, and the Indians holding a
+     scalp dance underneath us in the bottom and in our hearing.
+
+     "On the morning of the 26th I felt confident that I could hold my
+     own, and was ready as far as I could be, when at daylight, about
+     2:30 A.M., I heard the crack of two rifles. This was the signal for
+     the beginning of a fire that I have never seen equaled. Every rifle
+     was handled by an expert and skilled marksman, and with a range
+     that exceeded our carbine; and it was simply impossible to show any
+     part of the body, before it was struck. We could see, as the day
+     brightened, countless hordes of them pouring up the valley from out
+     the village, and scampering over the high points toward the places
+     designated for them by their chiefs, and which entirely surrounded
+     our position. They had sufficient numbers to completely encircle
+     us, and men were struck on the opposite sides of the lines from
+     which the shots were fired. I think we were fighting all the Sioux
+     nation, and also all the desperados, renegades, half-breeds and
+     squaw men, between the Missouri and the Arkansas and east of the
+     Rocky Mountains. They must have numbered at least 2,500 warriors.
+
+     "The fire did not slacken until about 9:30 A.M., and then we
+     discovered that they were making a last desperate attempt, which
+     was directed against the lines held by Companies H and M. In this
+     attack they charged close enough to use their bows and arrows, and
+     one man lying dead within our lines was touched by the 'coup stick'
+     of one of the foremost Indians. When I say the stick was only about
+     10 or 12 feet long, some idea of the desperate and reckless
+     fighting of these people may be understood. This charge of theirs
+     was gallantly repulsed by the men on that line led by Capt.
+     Benteen. They also came close enough to send their arrows into the
+     line held by Companies D and K, but were driven away by a like
+     charge of the line, which I accompanied. We now had many wounded,
+     and the question of water was vital, as from 6 P.M. of the previous
+     evening until now, 10 A.M. (about 16 hours) we had been without it.
+     A skirmish line was formed under Capt. Benteen, to protect the
+     descent of volunteers down the hill in front of his position to
+     reach the water. We succeeded in getting some canteens, although
+     many of the men were hit in doing so.
+
+     "The fury of the attack was now over, and to my astonishment the
+     Indians were seen going in parties toward the village. But two
+     solutions occurred to us for this movement--that they were going
+     for something to eat, more ammunition (as they had been throwing
+     arrows), or that Custer was coming. We took advantage of this lull
+     to fill all vessels with water, and soon had it by the camp kettle
+     full; but they continued to withdraw, and all firing ceased, save
+     occasional shots from sharpshooters, sent to annoy us about the
+     water. About 2 P.M. the grass in the bottom was set on fire, and
+     followed up by Indians who encouraged its burning, and it was
+     evident it was done for a purpose, which purpose I discovered,
+     later on, to be the creation of a dense cloud of smoke, behind
+     which they were packing and preparing to move their tepees.
+
+     "It was between 6 and 7 P.M. that the village came out from behind
+     the clouds of smoke and dust. We had a close and good view of them,
+     as they filed away in the direction of the Big Horn Mountains,
+     moving in almost perfect military order. The length of the column
+     was fully equal to that of a large division of the cavalry corps of
+     the Army of the Potomac, as I have seen it on its march.
+
+     "We now thought of Custer, of whom nothing had been seen and
+     nothing heard since the firing in his direction about 6 P.M. on the
+     eve of the 25th, and we concluded that the Indians had gotten
+     between him and us, and driven him toward the boat, at the mouth of
+     Little Big Horn River; the awful fate that did befall him never
+     occurring to any of us as within the limits of possibilities.
+     During the night I changed my position, in order to secure an
+     unlimited supply of water, and was prepared for their return,
+     feeling sure they would do so, as they were in such numbers. But
+     early in the morning of the 27th, and while we were on the _qui
+     vive_ for Indians, I saw with my glass a dust some distance down
+     the valley. There was no certainty for some time what they were,
+     but finally I satisfied myself they were cavalry, and if so could
+     only be Custer, as it was ahead of the time that I understood that
+     General Terry could be expected. Before this time, however, I had
+     written a communication to Gen. Terry, and three volunteers were to
+     try and reach him (I had no confidence in the Indians with me, and
+     could not get them to do anything). If this dust were Indians, it
+     was possible they would not expect any one to leave. The men
+     started, and were told to go as near as was safe to determine if
+     the approaching column was white men, and to return at once in case
+     they found it so; but if they were Indians to push on to General
+     Terry. In a short time we saw them returning over the high bluff
+     already alluded to; they were accompanied by a scout who had a note
+     from Terry to Custer, saying, 'Crow scouts had come to camp saying
+     he had been whipped, but it was not believed.' I think it was about
+     10:30 A.M. that General Terry rode into my lines, and the fate of
+     Custer and his brave men was soon determined by Capt. Benteen
+     proceeding with his company to the battle ground.
+
+     "The wounded in my lines were, during the afternoon and eve of the
+     27th, moved to the camp of General Terry; and at 5 A.M. of the
+     28th, I proceeded with the regiment to the battle ground of Custer,
+     and buried 204 bodies, including the following named citizens:--Mr.
+     Boston Custer, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Kellogg. The following named
+     citizens and Indians, who were with my command, were also
+     killed:--Charles Reynolds (guide and hunter); Isaiah (colored)
+     interpreter; Bloody Knife (who fell from immediately by my side);
+     Bob-tailed Bull and Stab of the Indian scouts.
+
+     "After following over his trail, it is evident to me that Custer
+     intended to support me by moving further down the stream, and
+     attacking the village in flank; that he found the distance to the
+     ford greater than he anticipated; that he did charge, but his march
+     had taken so long, although his trail shows he moved rapidly, that
+     they were ready for him; that Companies C and I, and perhaps part
+     of Company E, crossed to the village or attempted it at the charge
+     and were met by a staggering fire; and that they fell back to
+     secure a position from which to defend themselves; but they were
+     followed too closely by the Indians to permit him to form any kind
+     of a line. I think had the regiment gone in as a body, and from the
+     woods in which I fought advanced on the village, its destruction
+     was certain; but he was fully confident they were running, or he
+     would not have turned from me. I think (after the great number of
+     Indians that were in the village) that the following reasons
+     obtained for the misfortune: His rapid marching for two days and
+     one night before the fight, attacking in the day time at 12 M. and
+     when they were on the _qui vive_, instead of early in the morning;
+     and lastly, his unfortunate division of the regiment into three
+     commands.
+
+     "During my fight with the Indians I had the heartiest support from
+     officers and men, but the conspicuous services of Brevet Colonel
+     F.W. Benteen, I desire to call attention to especially, for if ever
+     a soldier deserved recognition by his government for distinguished
+     services, he certainly does.
+
+     "The harrowing sight of the dead bodies crowning the height on
+     which Custer fell, and which will remain vividly in my memory until
+     death, is too recent for me not to ask the good people of this
+     country whether a policy that sets opposing parties in the field,
+     armed, clothed, and equipped by one and the same government, should
+     not be abolished. All of which is respectfully submitted."
+
+The following is Capt. Benteen's account of his detour to the south and
+junction with Reno:--
+
+     "I was sent with my battalion to the left to a line of bluffs about
+     five miles off, with instructions to look for Indians and see what
+     was to be seen, and if I saw nothing there to go on, and when I had
+     satisfied myself that it was useless to go further in that
+     direction to rejoin the main trail. After proceeding through a
+     rough and difficult country, very tiring on the horses, and seeing
+     nothing, and wishing to save the horses unnecessary fatigue, I
+     decided to return to the main trail. Before I had proceeded a mile
+     in the direction of the bluffs I was overtaken by the chief
+     trumpeter and the sergeant major, with instructions from Gen.
+     Custer to use my own discretion, and in case I should find any
+     trace of Indians, at once to notify Gen. Custer.
+
+     "Having marched rapidly and passed the line of bluffs on the left
+     bank of a branch of the Little Big Horn which made into the main
+     stream about two and a half miles above the ford crossed by Col.
+     Reno's command, as ordered, I continued my march in the same
+     direction. The whole time occupied in this march was about an hour
+     and a half. As I was anxious to regain the main command, as there
+     was no signs of Indians, I then decided to rejoin the main trail,
+     as the country before me was mostly of the same character as that I
+     had already passed over, without valley and without water, and
+     offering no inducement for the Indians. No valleys were visible,
+     not even the valley where the fight took place, until my command
+     struck the river.
+
+     "About three miles from the point where Reno crossed the ford, I
+     met a sergeant bringing orders to the commanding officer of the
+     rear guard, Capt. McDougall, to hurry up the pack trains. A mile
+     further I was met by my trumpeter, bringing a written order from
+     Lieut. Cooke, the adjutant of the regiment, to this
+     effect:--'Benteen, come on; big village; be quick; bring packs:'
+     and a postscript saying, 'Bring packs.' A mile or a mile and a half
+     further on I first came in sight of the valley and Little Big Horn.
+     About twelve or fifteen dismounted men were fighting on the plains
+     with Indians, charging and recharging them. This body numbered
+     about 900 at this time. Col. Reno's mounted party were retiring
+     across the river to the bluffs. I did not recognize till later what
+     part of the command this was, but was clear they had been beaten. I
+     then marched my command in line to their succor.
+
+     "On reaching the bluff I reported to Col. Reno, and first learned
+     that the command had been separated and that Custer was not in that
+     part of the field, and no one of Reno's command was able to inform
+     me of the whereabouts of Gen. Custer. While the command was
+     awaiting the arrival of the pack mules, a company was sent forward
+     in the direction supposed to have been taken by Custer. After
+     proceeding about a mile they were attacked and driven back. During
+     this time I heard no heavy firing, and there was nothing to
+     indicate that a heavy fight was going on, and I believe that at
+     this time Custer's immediate command had been annihilated."
+
+In a letter addressed to the _Army and Navy Journal_, Lieut. E.L.
+Godfry, of Benteen's battalion, gives the following information:--
+
+     "Captain Benteen was some six miles from the scene of action when
+     he received Lieut. Cooke's note; he had no intimation that the
+     battle had begun, of the force of the Indians, or plan of attack.
+     Benteen pushed ahead; the packs followed, and not until he reached
+     the high bluffs over-looking the river valley and near to where the
+     troops afterwards were besieged did he know of the battle or
+     immediate presence of the troops to the enemy; he could only hear
+     occasional shots, not enough to intimate that a battle was going
+     on. Soon after reaching this point two volleys were heard down the
+     river where Gen. Custer was, but his force was not in sight. Soon
+     after this Reno and Benteen joined. By accident Benteen's column
+     constituted a reserve. It was well it was so. As soon as
+     dispositions were made on the bluff, Weir's company was sent to
+     look for Gen. Custer. He went to a high point about three-quarters
+     of a mile down the river, from which he had a good view of the
+     country. From it could be seen Custer's battle field, but there was
+     nothing to indicate the result. The field was covered with Indians.
+     He was recalled from the place; the packs closed up; ammunition was
+     issued and the command moved down the river to, if possible, join
+     Custer. Upon reaching this high point we could see nothing, hear
+     nothing, to indicate Custer's vicinage. But immediately the Indians
+     started for us."
+
+The following is the narrative of George Herndon, a scout, published in
+the _New York Herald_:--
+
+     "At 11 P.M., June 24th, Custer followed the scouts up the
+     right-hand fork of the Rosebud. About daylight we went into camp,
+     made coffee, and soon after it was light the scouts brought Custer
+     word that they had seen the village from the top of a divide that
+     separates the Rosebud from Little Big Horn River. We moved up the
+     creek until near its head, and concealed ourselves in a ravine. It
+     was about three miles from the head of the creek where we then were
+     to the top of the divide where the Indian scouts said the village
+     could be seen, and after hiding his command, General Custer with a
+     few orderlies galloped forward to look at the Indian camp. In about
+     an hour he returned, and said he could not see the Indian village,
+     but the scouts and a half-breed guide said they could distinctly
+     see it some 15 miles off. Custer had 'officers' call' blown, gave
+     his orders, and the command was put in fighting order. The scouts
+     were ordered forward, and the regiment moved at a walk. After going
+     about three miles the scouts reported Indians ahead, and the
+     command then took the trail.
+
+     "Our way lay down a little creek, a branch of the Little Big Horn,
+     and after going some six miles we discovered an Indian lodge ahead
+     and Custer bore down on it at a stiff trot. In coming to it we
+     found ourselves in a freshly-abandoned Indian camp, all the lodges
+     of which were gone except the one we saw, and on entering it we
+     found it contained a dead Indian. From this point we could see into
+     the Little Big Horn valley, and observed heavy clouds of dust
+     rising about five miles distant. Many thought the Indians were
+     moving away, and I think Custer believed so, for he sent word to
+     Reno, who was ahead, to push on the scouts rapidly and head for the
+     dust. Reno took a steady gallop down the creek bottom three miles
+     to where it emptied into the Little Big Horn, and found a natural
+     ford across Little Big Horn River. He started to cross, when the
+     scouts came back and called out to him to hold on, that the Sioux
+     were coming in large numbers to meet him. He crossed over, however,
+     formed his companies on the prairie in line of battle, and moved
+     forward at a trot, but soon took a gallop.
+
+     "The valley was about three-fourths of a mile wide. On the left a
+     line of low, round hills, and on the right the river bottom,
+     covered with a growth of cottonwood trees and bushes. After
+     scattering shots were fired from the hills and a few from the river
+     bottom, and Reno's skirmishers had returned the shots, he advanced
+     about a mile from the ford, to a line of timber on the right, and
+     dismounted his men to fight on foot. The horses were sent into the
+     timber, and the men formed on the prairies and advanced toward the
+     Indians. The Indians, mounted on ponies, came across the prairies
+     and opened a heavy fire on the soldiers. After skirmishing for a
+     few minutes Reno fell back to his horses in the timber. The Indians
+     moved to his left and rear, evidently with the intention of cutting
+     him off from the ford. Reno ordered his men to mount and move
+     through the timber. Just as the men got into the saddle the Sioux,
+     who had advanced in the timber, fired at close range and killed one
+     soldier. Reno then commanded the men to dismount, and they did so;
+     but he soon ordered them to mount again and moved out on the open
+     prairie. The command headed for the ford, pressed closely by
+     Indians in large numbers, and at every moment the rate of speed
+     was increased, until it became a dead run for the ford. The Sioux,
+     mounted on their swift ponies, dashed up by the side of the
+     soldiers and fired at them, killing both men and horses. Little
+     resistance was offered, and it was a complete route to the ford.
+
+     "I did not see the men at the ford, and do not know what took place
+     further than a good many were killed when the command left the
+     timber. Just as I got out my horse stumbled and fell, and I was
+     dismounted--the horse running away after Reno's command. I saw
+     several soldiers who were dismounted, their horses having been
+     killed or having run away. There were also some soldiers mounted
+     who had remained behind. In all there was as many as 13 men, three
+     of whom were wounded. Seeing no chance to get away, I called on
+     them to come into the timber and we would stand off the Indians.
+     They wanted to go out, but I said 'No, we can't get to the ford,
+     and, besides, we have wounded men and must stand by them.' They
+     still wanted to go, but I told them I was an old frontiersman,
+     understood Indians, and, if they would do as I said, I would get
+     them out of the scrape, which was no worse than scrapes I had been
+     in before. About half of the men were mounted, and they wanted to
+     keep their horses with them; but I told them to let them go, and
+     fight on foot. We stayed in the bush about three hours, and I could
+     hear heavy firing below in the river, apparently about two miles
+     distant. I did not know who it was, but knew the Indians were
+     fighting some of our men, and learned afterward it was Custer's
+     command. Nearly all the Indians in the upper end of the valley drew
+     off down the river, and the fight with Custer lasted about one
+     hour, when the heavy firing ceased.
+
+     "When the shooting below began to die away I said to the boys,
+     'Come, now is the time to get out; the Indians will come back, and
+     we had better be off at once.' Eleven of the 13 said they would go,
+     but two staid behind. I deployed the men as skirmishers, and we
+     moved forward on foot toward the river. When we had got nearly to
+     the river we met five Indians on ponies, and they fired on us. I
+     returned the fire and the Indians broke, and we forded the river,
+     the water being breast-deep. We finally got over, wounded men and
+     all, and headed for Reno's command, which I could see drawn up on
+     the bluffs along the river about a mile off. We reached Reno in
+     safety. We had not been with Reno more than 15 minutes when I saw
+     the Indians coming up the valley from Custer's fight. Reno was
+     then moving his whole command down the ridge toward Custer. The
+     Indians crossed the river below Reno and swarmed up the bluff on
+     all sides. After skirmishing with them Reno went back to his old
+     position which was on one of the highest points along the bluffs.
+     It was now about 5 P.M., and the fight lasted until it was too dark
+     to see to shoot. As soon as it was dark, Reno took the packs and
+     saddles off the mules and horses and made breastworks of them. He
+     also dragged the dead horses and mules on the line and sheltered
+     the men behind them. Some of the men dug rifle pits with their
+     butcher knives and all slept on their arms.
+
+     "At the peep of day the Indians opened a heavy fire and a desperate
+     fight ensued, lasting until 10 A.M. The Indians charged our
+     position three or four times, coming up close enough to hit our men
+     with stones, which they threw by hand. Captain Benteen saw a large
+     mass of Indians gathering on his front to charge, and ordered his
+     men to charge on foot and scatter them. Benteen led the charge, and
+     was upon the Indians before they knew what they were about and
+     killed a great many. They were evidently surprised at this
+     offensive movement. I think in desperate fighting Benteen is one of
+     the bravest men I ever saw. All the time he was going about through
+     the bullets, encouraging the soldiers to stand up to their work and
+     not let the Indians whip them. He never sheltered his own person
+     once during the battle, and I do not see how he escaped being
+     killed. The desperate charging and fighting was at about 1 P.M.,
+     but firing was kept up on both sides until late in the afternoon.
+
+     "I think the Indian village must have contained about 6,000 people,
+     fully 3,000 of whom were warriors. The Indians fought Reno first
+     and then went to fight Custer, after which they came back to finish
+     Reno. Hordes of squaws and old, gray-haired Indians were roaming
+     over the battle-field howling like mad. The squaws had stone
+     mallets, and mashed in the skulls of the dead and wounded. Our men
+     did not kill any squaws, but the Ree Indian scouts did. The bodies
+     of six squaws were found in the little ravine. The Indians must
+     have lost as many men in killed and wounded as the whites did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+KILL EAGLE'S NARRATIVE.
+
+
+A vivid account of Custer's last battle has been given by an Indian
+named Kill Eagle, who was in Sitting Bull's village on the day of the
+fight as, he claims, a non-combatant. Kill Eagle was head chief of the
+Cheyenne River Agency Indians who had become much dissatisfied. Capt.
+Poland, formerly commander of the troops at Standing Rock, says that the
+Indians there were "abominably starved during the winter and spring of
+1875--the authorities having failed to deliver the rations due them; and
+in May and June 1876, the Indians received practically nothing except
+two issues of beef and ground corn, called meal, but so coarse that one
+peck yielded but a quart of meal."
+
+Early in May, Kill Eagle entered the military post with a party of
+warriors, gave a dance, demanded rations, and proclaimed "that he owned
+the land the post was built on, the timber and stone which had been used
+in its construction, and that he would have the Great Father pay for all
+these things; that his people were starving and they could get no food
+from the agent." The post commander told them he could do nothing for
+them. Kill Eagle's party manifested sulliness, and demonstrated their
+defiance by firing off pistols in the air as they marched outside of
+the garrison. A few days later the post commander was informed that
+Kill Eagle had started for the hostile camp with about thirty lodges.
+
+In September, Kill Eagle came near the post and sent word that he
+intended to kill all the soldiers unless they crossed the river. The
+troops were under arms all night anticipating an attack, but none was
+made. Subsequently Kill Eagle surrendered to the authorities, and gave
+them an account of his wanderings during the summer. A letter written at
+Standing Rock described his story as follows:--
+
+     "He commences with the date at which he left this agency, last
+     spring, with 26 lodges, for the purpose of hunting buffalo and
+     trading with the hostile Indians. He speaks of having heard reports
+     that troops were going out to punish the hostiles, but thought he
+     would have time to do his hunting and trading and get out of the
+     way before a battle occurred. They were obliged to hunt, as they
+     were starving at the agency, and were very successful.
+
+     "On the seventh day they arrived at Sitting Bull's village, where a
+     feast and numerous presents of ponies and robes were given them.
+     Efforts were made to induce Kill Eagle and his band to join in the
+     contemplated movements and hostilities, but evidently without much
+     success. They were desirous of getting back again to the protecting
+     arms of their agency, but were unable to escape from the meshes of
+     the wily Sitting Bull. They found, too late, that for them there
+     was no escape; their horses were either shot or stolen, and wounds
+     and insults were showered upon them from every side. In the
+     meantime the forces of Crook were approaching, and with his people
+     Kill Eagle succeeded in escaping temporarily from the hostiles. He
+     claims to have been distant some forty or fifty miles from the
+     scene of the Rosebud fight, and relates many of the incidents which
+     he was able subsequently to gather from the participants. He places
+     the loss of the Indians in the Rosebud fight at four dead, left on
+     the field, and twelve that were brought to camp. He places the
+     wounded at as high as 400, and says they had 180 horses killed,
+     besides those that were captured.
+
+     "He next comes to the fight on the Little Big Horn, and describes
+     the Indian village, which was six miles long and one wide. He then
+     speaks of Custer's approach and fight with its tragic details as an
+     unwilling spectator, rather than a participant, who, during its
+     progress, remained quietly in his lodge in the centre of the Indian
+     village. The fight with Reno commenced about noon, the Indians all
+     rushing to oppose his advance, until the approach of Custer toward
+     the lower end of the village was announced, when the wildest
+     confusion prevailed throughout the camp. Lodges were struck and
+     preparations made for instant flight. Vast numbers of Indians left
+     Reno's front and hastened to the assistance of their red brethren
+     engaged with Custer, who was steadily forced back and surrounded
+     until all were swept from the field by the repeated charges of the
+     Indians.
+
+     "He described the firing at this point as simply terrific, and
+     illustrated its force by clapping his hands together with great
+     rapidity and regularity. Then came a lull in the fearful storm of
+     iron hail and his hands were still again. The storm beat fast and
+     furious as the thought of some loved one nerved the arm of each
+     contending trooper. Then the movement of his hands slackened and
+     gradually grew more feeble. A few scattering shakes, like the rain
+     upon a window pane, and then the movement ceased as the last of
+     Custer's band of heroes went down with the setting sun.
+
+     "It was dusk as the successful combatants returned to camp littered
+     with their dead and wounded. 'We have killed them all,' they said,
+     'put up your lodges where they are.' They had just began to fix
+     their lodges that evening, when a report came that troops were
+     coming from toward the mouth of the creek. When this report came,
+     after dark, the lodges were all taken down and they started up the
+     creek. 'I told my men,' says Kill Eagle, 'to keep together, and we
+     would try and get away. Some one told on me, and they said let us
+     kill him and his band, we have lost many young men to-day, and our
+     hearts are bad. We travelled all night and next day; after crossing
+     the Greasy Grass we encamped near the foot of the White Mountains.
+     That night, when I was asleep, I heard a man calling. I woke up my
+     people and this man proved to be a Cheyenne Indian, belonging to a
+     party that had been off on the war-path in the White Mountains.'
+
+     "It was not to the Indians a bloodless victory. Fourteen had fallen
+     in front of Reno, thirty-nine went down with Custer, and fourteen
+     were dead in camp. Horses and travoises were laden with their
+     wounded on every hand and in countless numbers. One band alone of
+     Ogallallas had twenty-seven wounded on travoises, and thirty-eight
+     thrown across horses. There were no white men in the fight or on
+     the field. The bugle calls were sounded by an Indian. No prisoners
+     were taken. The troops were all killed on the east side; none
+     crossed the river."
+
+Little Buck-Elk, an Uncapapa chief who came into Fort Peck in September,
+said that he was present at the fight with Custer, and that eleven
+different tribes were engaged in it. "The Indians were as thick as bees
+at the fight, and there were so many of them that they could not all
+take part in it. The soldiers were all brave men and fought well; some
+of them, when they found themselves surrounded and overpowered, broke
+through the lines and tried to make their escape, but were pursued and
+killed miles from the battle ground. The Indians captured six battle
+flags. No soldiers were taken alive, but after the fight the women went
+among the dead bodies and robbed and mutilated them. There were plenty
+of watches and money taken, which the young warriors are wearing in
+their shirts and belts."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AN ATTACK IN THE REAR.
+
+
+Major Reno's conduct on the first day of the fighting on the Little Big
+Horn, has been severely criticised by several of Gen. Custer's personal
+friends; and one of them, Gen T.L. Rosser, in a letter addressed to Reno
+and published in the _Army and Navy Journal_, blames him for taking to
+the timber when his "loss was little or nothing." "You had," he says,
+"an open field for cavalry operations, and I believe that if you had
+remained in the saddle and charged boldly into the village, the shock
+upon the Indians would have been so great that they would have been
+compelled to withdraw their attacking force from Custer, who, when
+relieved, could have pushed his command through to open ground, where he
+could have manoeuvred his command, and thus greatly have increased his
+chances of success." It would seem as if this and similar criticisms
+were sufficiently answered by Reno's report; and by his reply to Rosser,
+which is given in part below:--
+
+     "After reading all your letter I could no longer look upon it as a
+     tribute of a generous enemy, since through me you had attacked as
+     brave officers as ever served a government, and with the same
+     recklessness and ignorance of circumstances as Custer is charged
+     with in his attacks upon the hostile Indians. Both charges--the one
+     made against him and the one made by you against us--are equally
+     untrue, You say:--'I feel Custer would have succeeded had Reno,
+     with all the reserve of seven companies, passed through and joined
+     Custer after the first repulse;' and after confessing that you are
+     firing at long range say further: 'I think it quite certain that
+     Custer had agreed with Reno upon a place of junction in case of the
+     repulse of either or both detachments; and, instead of an effort
+     being made by Reno for such a junction, as soon as he encountered
+     heavy resistance he took refuge in the hills and abandoned Custer
+     and his gallant comrades to their fate.
+
+     "As I shall show, both the premises are false, and consequently all
+     the conclusions of your letter fall to the ground. * * * The only
+     official orders I had from Custer were about five miles from the
+     village, when Cooke gave me his orders in these words: 'Custer says
+     to move at as rapid a gait as you think prudent, and to charge
+     afterwards, and you will be supported by the whole outfit.'
+
+     "No mention of any plan, no thought of junction, only the usual
+     orders to the advance guard to attack by the charge. When the enemy
+     was reached I moved to the front at a fast trot, and at the river
+     halted ten minutes or less to gather the battalion. I sent word to
+     Custer that I had the enemy in my front very strong, and then
+     charged, driving the reds before me about three miles or less, to
+     within a short distance of their village, supposing my command,
+     consisting of 120 officers and men and about 25 scouts and guards,
+     followed by the columns under Custer. The stream was very crooked,
+     like a letter S in its wanderings, and on the side on which the
+     village was it opened out into a broad bottom, perhaps half or
+     three-quarters of a mile wide. The stream was fringed, as usual,
+     with the trees of the plains--a growth of large cottonwood, and on
+     the opposite side was a range of high bluffs which had been cut
+     into very deep ravines.
+
+     "As I neared the village the Indians came out in great numbers, and
+     I was soon convinced I had at least ten to one against me, and was
+     forced on the defensive. This I accomplished by taking possession
+     of a point of woods where I found shelter for my horses. I fought
+     there dismounted, and made my way to within 200 yards of the
+     village, and firmly believe that if, at that moment, the seven
+     companies had been together the Indians could have been driven from
+     their village. As we approached near their village they came out in
+     overwhelming numbers, and soon the small command would have been
+     surrounded on all sides, to prevent which I mounted and charged
+     through them to a position I could hold with the few men I had.
+
+     "You see by this I was the advance and the first to be engaged and
+     draw fire, and was consequently the command to be supported, and
+     not the one from which support could be expected. All I know of
+     Custer from the time he ordered me to attack till I saw him buried,
+     is that he did not follow my trail, but kept on his side of the
+     river and along the crest of the bluffs on the opposite side from
+     the village and from my command; that he heard and saw my action I
+     believe, although I could not see him; and it is just here that the
+     Indians deceived us. All this time I was driving them with ease,
+     and his trail shows he moved rapidly down the river for three miles
+     to the ford, at which he attempted to cross into their village, and
+     with the conviction that he would strike a a retreating enemy.
+     Trumpeter Martin, of Co. H, who the last time of any living person
+     heard and saw Gen. Custer, and who brought the last order his
+     adjutant ever penciled, says he left the General at the summit of
+     the highest bluff on that side, and which overlooked the village
+     and my first battle-field, and as he turned, Gen. Custer raised his
+     hat and gave a yell, saying they were asleep in their tepees and
+     surprised, and to charge. * * *
+
+     "The Indians made him over confident by appearing to be stampeded,
+     and, undoubtedly, when he arrived at the ford, expecting to go with
+     ease through their village, he rode into an ambuscade of at least
+     2,000 reds. My getting the command of the seven companies was not
+     the result of any order or prearranged plan. Benteen and McDougal
+     arrived separately, and saw the command on the bluffs and came to
+     it. They did not go into the bottom at all after the junction. They
+     attempted to go down the trail of Gen. Custer, but the advance
+     company soon sent back word they were being surrounded. Crowds of
+     reds were seen on all sides of us, and Custer's fate had evidently
+     been determined. I knew the position I had first taken on the bluff
+     was near and a strong one. I at once moved there, dismounted, and
+     herded the pack train, and had but just time to do so when they
+     came upon me by thousands. Had we been twenty minutes later
+     effecting the junction not a man of that regiment would be living
+     to-day to tell the tale."
+
+Another writer attacks both Reno and Benteen, accusing one of incapacity
+and utter demoralization during the attack of the Indians, and the other
+of wilful disobedience. "That he (Benteen) should have, as his own
+testimony confesses, deliberately disobeyed the _peremptory order of
+Custer_ to 'Come on,' argues either a desire to sacrifice Custer, or an
+ignorance of which his past career renders him incapable. Custer told
+him to 'Come on,' and he reported to Reno." In order, as he says, to
+"vindicate the reputation of a noble man from unjust aspersions," this
+writer further declares, that "had Reno fought as Custer fought, and had
+Benteen obeyed Custer's orders, the battle of the Little Big Horn might
+have proved Custer's last and greatest Indian victory."
+
+Of the writer last quoted, the _Army and Navy Journal_ says:--"With
+reckless pen he thrusts right and left, careless of reputations,
+regardless of facts, darkening the lives of other men, in the vain hope
+that one name may shine more brightly on the page of history * * *
+Nothing but the most absolute demonstration, accompanied by the proof,
+would justify such statements as he has made, and this he has not given.
+The reports of anonymous newspaper correspondents, and an _ex parte_
+statement of the conclusions drawn from letters, of which we have not so
+much as the names of the writers, is not proof on which to base
+criticisms affecting character and reputation."
+
+Capt. Benteen, Brevet Colonel U.S.A., who has been a captain in the 7th
+Cavalry since its organization in 1866, at which date Gen. Custer was
+appointed its Lieut. Colonel, in a letter to the _Army and Navy Journal_
+uses the following language:--
+
+"Col. Reno and I thought during the siege of June 25th and 26th, at the
+Little Big Horn, that he, Reno, was the abandoned party, and spoke of it
+as another 'Major Elliot[B] affair'; thinking that General Custer had
+retreated to the mouth of the river, where the steamboat was supposed to
+be, and that Reno's command was left to _its_ fate. I am accused of
+disobeying Custer's orders. Nothing is further from the truth in point
+of fact; and I do not think the matter of sufficient importance to
+attempt to vindicate myself, but can rest contentedly under the ban when
+I have the consoling belief that the contrary is so well known by all my
+military superiors and comrades."
+
+    [B] Major Joel H. Elliot of the 7th Cavalry, and 19 of his command,
+    were missing after the Battle of the Washita in Nov., 1868. Their
+    dead bodies were found some weeks later.
+
+Lieut. Gen. Sheridan, in his report for 1876, expresses his views of the
+Custer disaster as follows:--
+
+     "As much has been said in regard to the misfortune that occurred to
+     General Custer and the portion of his regiment under his immediate
+     command in this action, I wish to express the conviction I have
+     arrived at concerning it. From all the information that has reached
+     me, I am led to believe that the Indians were not aware of the
+     proximity of Custer until he had arrived within about eight or nine
+     miles of their village, and that then their scouts who carried the
+     intelligence back to the valley were so closely followed up by
+     Custer, that he arrived on the summit of the divide overlooking the
+     upper portion of the village, almost as soon as the scouts reached
+     it. As soon as the news was given, the Indians began to strike
+     their lodges and get their women and children out of the way--a
+     movement they always make under such circumstances. Custer, seeing
+     this, believed the village would escape him if he awaited the
+     arrival of the four companies of his regiment--still some miles in
+     his rear. Only about 75 or 100 lodges or tepees could be seen from
+     the summit or divide, and this, probably, deceived him as to the
+     extent of the village. He therefore directed Major Reno, with three
+     companies, to cross the river and charge the village, while he,
+     with the remaining five companies, would gallop down the east bank
+     of the river behind the bluff and cut off the retreat of the
+     Indians. Reno crossed and attacked gallantly with his three
+     companies--about 110 men--but the warriors, leaving the women to
+     strike the lodges, fell on Reno's handful of men and drove them
+     back to and over the river with severe loss.
+
+     "About this time Custer reached a point about three and a half or
+     four miles down the river, but instead of finding a village of 75
+     or 100 lodges, he found one of perhaps from 1500 to 2000, and
+     swarming with warriors, who brought him to a halt. This, I think,
+     was the first intimation the Indians had of Custer's approach to
+     cut them off, for they at once left Reno and concentrated to meet
+     the new danger. The point where Custer reached the river, on the
+     opposite side of which was the village, was broken into choppy
+     ravines, and the Indians, crossing from Reno, got between the two
+     commands, and as Custer could not return, he fell back over the
+     broken ground with his tired men and tired horses (they had ridden
+     about 70 miles with but few halts) and became, I am afraid, an easy
+     prey to the enemy. Their wild, savage yells, overwhelming numbers,
+     and frightening war paraphernalia, made it as much as each trooper
+     could do to take care of his horse, thus endangering his own safety
+     and efficiency. If Custer could have reached any position
+     susceptible of defence, he could have defended himself; but none
+     offered itself in the choppy and broken ravines over which he had
+     to pass, and he and his command were lost without leaving any one
+     to tell the tale.
+
+     "As soon as Custer and his gallant officers and men were
+     exterminated and the scenes of mutilation by the squaws commenced,
+     the warriors returned to renew the attack upon Reno; but he had
+     been joined by Captain Benteen and the four companies of the
+     regiment that were behind when the original attack took place, and
+     the best use had been made of the respite given by the attack on
+     Custer, to entrench their position.
+
+     "Had the 7th Cavalry been kept together, it is my belief it would
+     have been able to handle the Indians on the Little Big Horn, and
+     under any circumstances it could have at least defended itself; but
+     separated as it was into three distinct detachments, the Indians
+     had largely the advantage in addition to their overwhelming
+     numbers. If Custer had not come upon the village so suddenly, the
+     warriors would have gone to meet him, in order to give time to the
+     women and children to get out of the way, as they did with Crook
+     only a few days before, and there would have been, as with Crook,
+     what might be designated a rearguard fight--a fight to get their
+     valuables out of the way, or in other words, to cover the escape of
+     their women, children and lodges."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE MIDSUMMER CAMPAIGN.
+
+
+After regaining his position at the mouth of the Big Horn River, Gen.
+Terry called for reinforcements and additional troops were at once put
+in motion for his camp; but as they had to be collected from all the
+various stations on the frontier--some of them very remote from
+railroads--considerable time elapsed before their arrival.
+
+During this period, the bands which had broken off from the main body of
+hostiles, and the young men at the agencies, continued their old and
+well-known methods of warfare, stealing horses on the frontier and
+killing small parties of citizens; while the constant communication by
+the hostiles with the Indians at the agencies made it evident that
+supplies of food and ammunition were being received. To prevent this,
+Gen. Sheridan deemed it necessary that the military should control the
+agencies, and at his request, the Secretary of the Interior, July 22d,
+authorized the military to assume control of all the agencies in the
+Sioux country.
+
+About the same date Medicine Cloud, a chief, who had been sent from Fort
+Peck, in May, with a message to Sitting Bull inviting him to visit Fort
+Peck with a view to reconciliation, returned to the agency. To the
+invitation, Sitting Bull had replied:--
+
+"Tell him I am coming before long to his post to trade. Tell him I did
+not commence. I am getting old, and I did not want to fight, but the
+whites rush on me, and I am compelled to defend myself. But for the
+soldiers stationed on the Rosebud, I with my people would have been
+there before that. If I was assured of the protection of the Great
+Father, I would go to Fort Peck for the purpose of making peace. I and
+others want the Black Hills abandoned, and we will make peace."
+
+While awaiting reinforcements, Generals Terry and Crook were separated
+by about 100 miles of rough territory, the hostile Indians were between
+them, and for reliable communication with each other it was necessary to
+send around by the rear nearly 2000 miles. The carrying of dispatches
+direct was a work of the most arduous and perilous nature, and in doing
+it, and in reconnoitering, brave and gallant deeds were performed.
+
+On the 6th of July, Gen. Crook sent out Lieut. Sibley of the 2nd Cavalry
+with 25 mounted troops and two guides, Gerard and Baptiste, to
+reconnoiter the country to the front, and learn if possible the
+movements of the enemy and the whereabouts of Terry's division. The
+party marched all night, and in the morning were near where the Little
+Big Horn debouches from the mountains. Here, from an eminence, they
+espied a large body of Indians marching eastward as though meditating an
+attack on the camp at Goose Creek. Concealing themselves as well as they
+could, they watched the movements of the enemy; but a great shout soon
+warned them that their trail had been discovered, and hundreds of
+savages immediately set out to follow it, uttering terrific cries.
+
+The fugitives galloped toward the mountains, and seemed to outrun their
+pursuers; but about noon, while going through a ravine, a sudden volley
+was fired upon them from the surrounding slopes, and many Indians
+charged down upon them. They wheeled, and took refuge in the woods, but
+three horses were already wounded. Taking the ammunition from the
+saddles, and leaving their horses tied to the trees to divert the enemy,
+they now moved stealthily and unseen from the ground, and escaped behind
+adjacent rocks; then they climbed over steep and slippery places till
+exhausted, and while halting for a rest knew by the repeated firing that
+their horses were undergoing an attack.
+
+All that night they toiled among the mountains, and on the morning of
+the 9th reached Tongue River. As they had left their rations behind,
+they suffered much from hunger, and two of the men were so weak they
+could not ford the deep stream, and remained behind. When near the camp
+one of the guides went ahead for assistance, and a company of cavalry
+brought in the exhausted men.
+
+Having urgent occasion to communicate with Gen. Crook, Gen. Terry, by
+the promise of a large reward, induced a professional scout to make an
+attempt to reach him, but he soon returned unsuccessful. No other scout
+would undertake the task, and as a last resort a call for volunteers was
+made, in response to which, 12 soldiers promptly offered their services
+for the hazardous duty without hope of pecuniary reward. Three of these,
+Privates Wm. Evans, Benjamin F. Stewart, and Joseph Bell, of the 17th
+Infantry, were selected. They set out on the 9th of July, reached
+Crook's camp on the 12th; and returned on the 25th accompanied by three
+Crow Indians who had arrived from Terry's camp on the 19th. The three
+soldiers were thanked by their commander, in a General Order, "for a
+deed reflecting so much credit on the Service."
+
+Partial reinforcements having reached Gen. Crook, on the 16th of July he
+broke camp and moved gradually along the hills toward Tongue River. On
+the 3d of August, just before sunset, an additional regiment, the 5th
+Cavalry, ten companies, under Col. W. Merritt, "marched into camp with
+their supply wagons close on their heels, presenting a fine appearance,
+despite the fatigue and dust of the march."
+
+Gen. Crook's fighting force now numbered about 2000 men. Among them were
+over 200 Shoshone and Ute Indians, sworn enemies to the Sioux, led by
+Washakie, a well known Shoshone chief. These Indians were thus spoken of
+by a correspondent who saw them at Fort Bridger, drawn up in line before
+starting to join Gen. Crook:--
+
+     "In advance of the party was a swarthy temporary chief, his face
+     covered with vertical white streaks. In his right hand, hanging to
+     the end of a window-blind rod, were the two fingers of a dead
+     Sioux. Another rod had a white flag nailed to it--a precaution
+     necessary to preserve them from being fired upon in proceeding to
+     the seat of war. The faces of the rest had on a plentiful supply of
+     war paint. Once in line, they struck up a peculiar grunting sound
+     on a scale of about five notes. One of the braves, afflicted with a
+     malady peculiar to the Caucasian race, began to brag what he'd do
+     when he got to the seat of war, winding up in broken English, 'Me
+     little mad now; bime by me heap mad.' Old Washakie, their chief,
+     wants to die in battle, and not in bed."
+
+On the 5th of Aug., Gen. Crook cut loose from his wagon trains and
+started in pursuit of the Indians who, it was ascertained, had left the
+foot of the Big Horn Mountains, July 25th, and moved eastward. His route
+was north-easterly, across the Panther Mountains to Rosebud River. On
+the 8th of Aug. the troops were ten miles north of the battle-ground of
+June 17th, and near the site of a deserted village. The country west of
+the Rosebud had been burned over, and a trail recently traveled by large
+numbers of Indians led down the valley. Upon this trail the march was
+continued.
+
+Meantime, Gen. Terry had been reinforced by six companies of the 5th
+Infantry under Col. Nelson A. Miles, six companies of the 22d Infantry
+under Lt. Col. Otis, and other detachments, until his command numbered
+about the same as Gen. Crook's. On the 25th of July, he started for the
+mouth of the Rosebud and there established a base of operations. On the
+8th of Aug., with his troops and a train of 225 wagons with supplies for
+30 days, he moved down the west bank of the Rosebud; and on the 10th,
+when 35 miles from its mouth, made a junction with Crook's command. Col.
+Miles with the 5th Infantry was sent back to the mouth of the Rosebud to
+patrol the Yellowstone, aided by steamboats, and intercept the Indians
+should they attempt to cross the river.
+
+The trail which Gen. Crook had been following now turned from the
+Rosebud eastward, and its pursuit was promptly and steadily continued by
+the united forces. It led the troops across to Powder River and down its
+valley. On the 17th of August they were encamped near the mouth of
+Powder River, on both sides of the stream; and here the two commands
+separated on the 24th of August.
+
+As the principal Indian trail had turned eastward toward the Little
+Missouri, Gen. Crook's column took up the pursuit in that direction. On
+the 5th of Sept, when on the headwaters of Heart River, a small party
+of Indians were discovered going eastward,--the first hostile Indians
+seen since leaving Tongue River.
+
+The trail had now scattered so that it could be followed no longer, and
+Crook decided to push for the Black Hills settlements. His troops were
+nearly out of food, and suffering from want of clothing, and bad
+weather. Cold rains prevailed, and camp life with no tents, few
+blankets, and half rations, bore hard on the soldiers. Meat was scarce
+and some of the horses were killed to supply food.
+
+On the 7th of Sept., Capt. Anson Mills with 150 men and a pack-train,
+was sent ahead with directions to obtain food at the Black Hills
+settlements about 100 miles distant, and to return to the hungry column
+as soon as possible. Gerard, the scout, accompanied the detachment, and
+on the evening of the 8th, he discovered a hostile village of 40 lodges
+and several hundred ponies. Capt. Mills retreated a few miles, hid his
+men in a ravine, and at daybreak next morning dashed into the village.
+The Indians were completely surprised and fled to the surrounding hills,
+from which they exchanged shots with their assailants. The lodges were
+secured, with their contents consisting of large quantities of dried
+meat and other food, robes, and flags and clothing taken from Custer and
+his men. 140 ponies were also among the spoils.
+
+A small party of the Indians had taken possession of a narrow ravine or
+canyon near the village, and in trying to dislodge them several soldiers
+were wounded. By direction of Gen. Crook, who had reached the field with
+reinforcements, the Indians in the ravine were informed that if they
+would surrender they would not be harmed. An old squaw was the first to
+take advantage of the offer, and was followed by 15 women and children,
+and, lastly, by three warriors, one of whom, the chief American Horse,
+had been mortally wounded.
+
+Later in the day, before the troops had left the village, the Indians
+appeared in force and began a vigorous attack. Infantry were at once
+thrown out along the slope of the bluffs and, "about sundown it was a
+very inspiring sight to see this branch of the command with their long
+Springfield breech-loaders drive the enemy for a mile and a half to the
+west, and behind the castellated rocks." The captives in camp said the
+attacking Indians were reinforcements from the camp of Crazy Horse
+further west. This engagement is known as the battle of Slim Buttes. Our
+losses during the day were three killed, and 11 wounded including Lieut.
+Von Leuttroitz.
+
+During the march of Sept. 10th a number of Indians came down on the
+rear, but were repulsed with a loss of several killed and wounded. Three
+soldiers were wounded in this skirmish.
+
+The remainder of this long and difficult march was successfully
+accomplished. On the 16th, Gen. Crook reached Deadwood, a Black Hills
+settlement, and was cordially received by the inhabitants. In a speech
+made by the General on this occasion, he said:--
+
+     "Citizens: while you welcome me and my personal staff as the
+     representatives of the soldiers who are here encamped upon the
+     Whitewood, let me ask you, when the rank and file pass through
+     here, to show that you appreciate their admirable fortitude in
+     bearing the sufferings of a terrible march almost without a murmur,
+     and to show them that they are not fighting for $13 per month, but
+     for the cause--the proper development of our gold and other mineral
+     resources, and of humanity. This exhibition of your gratitude need
+     not be expensive. Let the private soldier feel that he is
+     remembered by our people as the real defender of his country."
+
+After parting with Gen. Crook, Aug. 24th, Gen. Terry crossed the
+Yellowstone and marched down its left bank, his object being to
+intercept the Indians Crook was following if they attempted to cross the
+river. On the 27th he left the river, and moved northerly into the
+buffalo range where hunting parties were detailed who secured
+considerable game. The country was parched, the small streams dry, and
+water scarce. A scouting party made a detour to the north and west, but
+no Indians could be found. On the 5th of Sept. the whole command was at
+the mouth of Glendive Creek, where a military post had been established.
+
+Gen. Terry now decided to close the campaign and distribute his troops
+to their winter quarters. The Montana column under Col. Gibbon started
+on the return march to Fort Ellis, 400 miles distant; Lieut. Col. Otis
+of the 22d Infantry, with his command, remained at Glendive Creek, to
+build a stockade and co-operate with Col. Miles, who was establishing a
+winter post at the mouth of Tongue River; and Gen. Terry with the
+balance of the troops started for Fort Buford at the mouth of the
+Yellowstone.
+
+Hearing that Sitting Bull with a large band had recently crossed to the
+north side of the Missouri River near Fort Peck, Terry sent Reno with
+troops--then en route to Fort Buford--in pursuit. Reno marched to Fort
+Peck, and thence to Fort Buford, but encountered no Indians. A
+reconnoitering party under Long Dog had been near Fort Peck, and that
+chief passed one night at the agency. They did not want rations or
+annuities, but desired plenty of ammunition, for which they were ready
+to exchange 7th Cavalry horses, arms and equipments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AUTUMN ON THE YELLOWSTONE.
+
+
+On the 10th of October, as a train escorted by two companies of the 6th
+Infantry was carrying supplies from Glendive Creek to the cantonment at
+the mouth of Tongue River, it was attacked by Indians, and was obliged
+to return to Glendive with a loss of sixty mules.
+
+Lieut. Col. Otis was in command at Glendive, and on the 14th he again
+started out the train and personally accompanied it. The train consisted
+of 86 wagons, 41 of which were driven by soldiers, who had taken the
+places of as many citizen teamsters too demoralized by the recent attack
+to continue in the service. The military escort numbered with officers
+196 men. The following interesting narrative of subsequent events is
+from the report of Col. Otis:--
+
+     "We proceeded on the first day 12 miles, and encamped on the broad
+     bottom of the Yellowstone River, without discovering a sign of the
+     presence of Indians. During the night a small thieving party was
+     fired upon by the pickets, but the party escaped, leaving behind a
+     single pony, with its trappings, which was killed. At dawn of day,
+     upon the 15th, the train pulled out in two strings, and proceeded
+     quietly to Spring Creek, distant from camp about three miles, when
+     I directed two mounted men to station themselves upon a hill beyond
+     the creek, and watch the surrounding country until the train should
+     pass through the defile. The men advanced at swift pace in proper
+     direction, and when within 50 yards of the designated spot, they
+     received a volley from a number of concealed Indians, when
+     suddenly men and Indians came leaping down the bluff. The men
+     escaped without injury to person, although their clothing was
+     riddled with bullets. I quickly advanced on the skirmish line,
+     which drove out 40 or 50 Indians, and making a similar movement on
+     the opposite flank, passed through the gorge and gained the high
+     table land. Here, three or four scouts, sent out by Colonel Miles,
+     from Tongue River, joined us. They had been driven into the Tongue
+     upon the previous evening, there corraled, had lost their horses
+     and one of their number, and escaped to the bluffs under cover of
+     the darkness. The dead scout was found and buried.
+
+     "The train proceeded along the level prairie, surrounded by the
+     skirmish line, and the Indians were coming thick and fast from the
+     direction of Cabin Creek. But few shots were exchanged, and both
+     parties were preparing for the struggle which it was evident would
+     take place at the deep and broken ravine at Clear Creek, through
+     which the train must pass. We cautiously entered the ravine, and
+     from 150 to 200 Indians had gained the surrounding bluffs to our
+     left; signal fires were lighted for miles around, and extended far
+     away on the opposite side of the Yellowstone. The prairies to our
+     front were fired, and sent up vast clouds of smoke. We had no
+     artillery, and nothing remained to us except to charge the bluffs.
+     Company C, of the 17th Infantry, and Company H, of the 22d
+     Infantry, were thrown forward upon the run, and gallantly scaled
+     the bluffs, answering the Indian yell with one equally as
+     barbarous, and driving back the enemy to another ridge of hills. We
+     then watered all the stock at the creek, took on water for the men,
+     and the train slowly ascended the bluffs.
+
+     "The country now surrounding us was broken. The Indians continued
+     to increase in numbers, surrounded the train, and the entire escort
+     became engaged. The train was drawn up in four strings, and the
+     entire escort enveloped it by a thin skirmish line. In that
+     formation we advanced, the Indians pressing every point, especially
+     the rear, Company C, 17th, which was only able to follow by
+     charging the enemy, and then retreating rapidly toward the train,
+     taking advantage of all the knolls and ridges in its course. The
+     flanks, Companies G, 17th, and K and G, 22d, were advanced about
+     1000 yards, and the road was opened in the front, by Company H,
+     22d, by repeated charges.
+
+     "In this manner we advanced several miles, and then halted for the
+     night upon a depression of the high prairie, the escort holding the
+     surrounding ridge. The Indians now had attempted every artifice.
+     They had pressed every point of the line, had run their fires
+     through the train, which we were compelled to cross with great
+     rapidity, had endeavored to approach under cover of smoke, when
+     they found themselves overmatched by the officers and men, who,
+     taking advantage of the cover, moved forward and took them at close
+     range. They had met with considerable loss, a good many of their
+     saddles were emptied, and several ponies wounded. Their firing was
+     wild in the extreme, and I should consider them the poorest of
+     marksmen. For several hours they kept up a brisk fire and wounded
+     but three of our men.
+
+     "Upon the morning of the 16th, the train pulled out in four
+     strings, and we took up the advance, formed as on the previous day.
+     Many Indians occupied the surrounding hills, and soon a number
+     approached, and left a communication upon a distant hill. It was
+     brought in by Scout Jackson, and read as follows:--
+
+
+     "YELLOWSTONE."
+
+     "I want to know what you are doing traveling on this road? you
+     scare all the buffalo away. I want to hunt on the place. I want you
+     to turn back from here: if you don't I will fight you again. I want
+     you to leave what you have got here, and turn back from here.
+
+     "I am your friend, SITTING BULL.
+
+     "I mean all the rations you have got and some powder; I wish you
+     would write as soon as you can."
+
+"I directed the Scout Jackson to inform the Indians that I had nothing
+to say in reply, except that we intended to take the train through to
+Tongue River, and that we should be pleased to accommodate them at any
+time with a fight. The train continued to proceed, and about eight
+o'clock the Indians began to gather for battle.
+
+"We passed through the long, narrow gorge, near Bad Route Creek, when we
+again watered the stock, and took in wood and water, consuming in this
+labor about an hour's time. When we had pulled up the gentle ascent, the
+Indians had again surrounded us, but the lesson of the previous day
+taught them to keep at long range, and there was but little firing by
+either party. I counted 150 Indians in our rear, and from their
+movements and position I judged their numbers to be between 300 and
+500. After proceeding a short distance, a flag of truce appeared on the
+left flank, borne by two Indians, whom I directed to be allowed to enter
+the lines. They proved to be Indian scouts from Standing Rock Agency,
+bearing dispatches from Lieut. Col. Carlin, of the 17th Infantry,
+stating that they had been sent out to find Sitting Bull, and to
+endeavor to influence him to proceed to some military post and treat for
+peace.
+
+"These scouts informed me that they had that morning reached the camp of
+Sitting Bull and Man-afraid-of-his-horse, near the mouth of Cabin Creek,
+and that they had talked with Sitting Bull, who wished to see me outside
+the lines. I declined the invitation, but professed a willingness to see
+Sitting Bull within my own lines. The scouts left me, and soon returned
+with three of the principal soldiers of Sitting Bull--the last named
+individual being unwilling to trust his person within our reach. The
+chiefs said that their people were angry because our train was driving
+away the buffalo from their hunting grounds, that they were hungry and
+without ammunition, and that they especially wished to obtain the
+latter; that they were tired of war, and desired to conclude a peace.
+
+"I informed them that I could not give them ammunition, that had they
+saved the amount already wasted upon the train it would have supplied
+them for hunting purposes for a long time, that I had no authority to
+treat with them upon any terms whatever, but they were at liberty to
+visit Tongue River, and there make known conditions. They wished to know
+what assurance I could give them of their safety should they visit that
+place, and I replied that I could give them nothing but the word of an
+officer. They then wished rations for their people, promising to proceed
+to Fort Rock immediately, and from thence to Tongue River. I declined to
+give them rations, but finally offered them as a present 150lb. of hard
+bread and two sides of bacon, which they gladly accepted. The train
+moved on, and the Indians fell to the rear. Upon the following day I saw
+a number of them from Cedar Creek, far away to the right, and after that
+time they disappeared entirely.
+
+"Upon the evening of the 18th I met Col. Miles encamped with his entire
+regiment on Custer Creek. Alarmed for the safety of the train, he had
+set out from Tongue River upon the previous day."
+
+While Col. Otis was thus gallantly advancing with his train, Col. Miles,
+of the 5th Infantry, fearing for its safety, had crossed the Yellowstone
+before daybreak on the 17th and started toward Glendive. He met Col.
+Otis, as above stated, on the evening of the 18th; and on being informed
+of the attack on the train, started in pursuit of the enemy. On the
+21st, when about eight miles beyond Cedar Creek, a large number of
+Indians appeared in front of the column, and two of them, bearing a
+white flag, rode up to the line. They proved to be the Standing Rock
+ambassadors who had met Col. Otis; and brought word that Sitting Bull
+wished a conference with Col. Miles. Lieut. H.R. Bailey accompanied the
+two friendly Indians to the hostile camp, and there arranged with
+Sitting Bull's white interpreter for a meeting to take place between the
+lines.
+
+The troops rested on their arms in line of battle while Col. Miles with
+a few officers rode forward and halted about half way between the two
+forces. Sitting Bull with a dozen unarmed warriors presently emerged
+from the hostile lines and walked slowly forward in single file. Col.
+Miles' party dismounted and advanced to meet them, and the council
+began. The scene was picturesque and exciting; and the occasion one of
+much anxiety to the troops who remembered the assassination of Gen.
+Canby--especially so when dozens of armed warriors rode forward and
+surrounded the little group.
+
+The "talk" was long and earnest; the Indians wanted an "old-fashioned
+peace," with privileges of trade--especially in ammunition, and demanded
+the discontinuing of supply trains and the abandonment of Fort Buford.
+Col. Miles explained that he could only accept surrender on the terms
+of absolute submission to the U.S. Government. At evening the conference
+was adjourned to the next day, and the parties separated as quietly as
+they had assembled.
+
+In the morning Col. Miles moved his command north, so as to intercept
+retreat in that direction. At about 11 A.M., Sitting Bull, Pretty Bear,
+Bull Eagle, John, Standing Bear, Gall, White Bull and others, came
+forward, marching abreast, and met Col. Miles and several officers on a
+knoll half way between the opposing lines. The Indians asked to be let
+alone, and professed a wish for peace, but such a peace as Col. Miles
+could not concede. "After much talk by the various chiefs, Sitting Bull
+was informed once and for all that he must accept the liberal conditions
+offered by the Government or prepare for immediate hostilities; and the
+council dispersed--Sitting Bull disappearing like a shadow in the crowd
+of warriors behind him."
+
+     "The scene," wrote a correspondent of the _Army and Navy Journal_,
+     "was now most animated. Col. Miles sent for his company commanders,
+     and they came charging over the field to receive his final
+     instructions. On the other side, the Sioux leaders rode hither and
+     thither at full speed in front of their line, marshaling their men
+     and haranguing them, calling on them to be brave. Sitting Bull's
+     interpreter, Bruey, rode back to ask why the troops were following
+     him? He was answered by Col. Miles, that the non-acceptance of the
+     liberal terms offered was considered an act of hostility, and he
+     would open fire at once. The whole line then advanced in skirmish
+     order. One company occupied a knoll on the left with the 3-inch
+     gun, the first shell from which was greeted with a hearty cheer
+     from the advancing line. The Indians tried their old tactics and
+     attempted rear and flank attacks from the ravines, but they found
+     those vital points well protected by companies disposed _en
+     potence_, which poured in a torrent of lead wherever an Indian
+     showed himself. The firing then became general along the whole
+     line. Some of the sharpest shooting was done by the Sioux, and many
+     officers only escaped "close calls" by the ends of their hair. Two
+     enlisted men were wounded. Finally, Sitting Bull, finding his old
+     plan of battle frustrated by that solid infantry skirmish line
+     advancing upon him with the relentless sternness of fate, began a
+     general and precipitate retreat."
+
+The pursuit was resolutely kept up. The Indians fled down Bad Route
+Creek and across the Yellowstone, a distance of 42 miles, abandoning
+tons of dried meat, lodge-poles, camp equipments, ponies, etc. The
+troops on foot followed rapidly, not stopping to count the dead or
+gather the plunder; and the result was, that on the 27th of October five
+principal chiefs surrendered themselves to Col. Miles, on the
+Yellowstone, opposite the mouth of Cabin Creek, as hostages for the
+surrender of their whole people, represented as between 400 and 500
+lodges, equal to about 2,000 souls. The hostages were sent under escort
+to Gen. Terry, at St. Paul, and the Indians were allowed five days in
+their then camp to gather food, and thirty days to reach the Cheyenne
+Agency on the Missouri River, where they were to surrender their arms
+and ponies, and remain either as prisoners of war or subject to
+treatment such as is usually accorded to friendly Indians.
+
+Sitting Bull was not among the chiefs who surrendered; during the
+retreat, they said, he had slipped out, with thirty lodges of his own
+special followers, and gone northerly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+TERRY AND CROOK AT THE SIOUX AGENCIES.
+
+
+The disarming and dismounting of the Sioux Agency Indians being deemed
+necessary as a precautionary measure, to prevent the hostile Indians
+from receiving constant supplies of arms, ammunition, and ponies from
+their friends at the agencies, General Sheridan directed Generals Crook
+and Terry to act simultaneously in accomplishing that object. The
+friendly and unfriendly Indians at the agencies were so intermixed, that
+it seemed impossible to discriminate between them.
+
+After refitting at the Black Hills, Gen. Crook proceeded to the Red
+Cloud Agency, and found the Indians there in a dissatisfied mood and
+probably about to start to join the hostile bands. They had moved out
+some 25 miles from the agency, and refused to return although informed
+that no more rations would be given them till they did so.
+
+At daylight, Oct. 22d, Col. Mackenzie, the post commander, with eight
+companies of the 4th and 5th Cavalry, surrounded the Indian camp
+containing 300 lodges, and captured Red Cloud and his whole band, men,
+squaws and ponies without firing a shot, and marched them into the
+agency dismounted and disarmed. The Indians at Spotted Tail Agency were
+also disarmed and dismounted.
+
+Gen. Crook had an interview with Spotted Tail, and being satisfied that
+he was the only important Sioux leader who had remained friendly, he
+deposed Red Cloud, and declared Spotted Tail, his rival, the "Sachem of
+the whole Sioux Nation, by the grace of the Great Father the President.
+As the representative of the latter, Gen. Crook invested him with the
+powers of a grand chief, and in token thereof presented him his
+commission as such, written upon a parchment scroll tied with richly
+colored ribbons. Spotted Tail's heart was very glad."
+
+"The line of the hostile and the peaceably disposed," wrote Gen. Crook
+at this time, "is now plainly drawn, and we shall have our enemies only
+in the front in the future. I feel that this is the first gleam of
+daylight we have had in this business."
+
+Meantime Gen. Terry, with the 7th Cavalry and local garrisons, was
+disarming and dismounting the Indians at the Standing Rock and Cheyenne
+River Agencies. The following is a copy of his report to Gen. Sheridan,
+written at Standing Rock, Oct. 25th:--
+
+     "Colonel Sturgis left Lincoln on the 20th, Major Reno on the 21st,
+     and each arrived here on the afternoon of the 22d. Sturgis
+     immediately commenced dismounting and disarming the Indians at Two
+     Bears' camp, on the left bank of the river, and Lieut. Col. Carlin,
+     with his own and Reno's forces, dismounted and disarmed them at
+     both camps on this side. Owing partially to the fact that before I
+     arrived at Lincoln news was sent the Indians here, it is said, by
+     Mrs. Galpin, that we were coming, and our purpose stated; but
+     principally, I believe, that some time since, owing to the failure
+     of the grass here, the animals were sent to distant grazing places
+     many miles away, comparatively only a few horses were found. I,
+     therefore, the next morning, called the chiefs together, and
+     demanded the surrender of their horses and arms, telling them that
+     unless they complied their rations would be stopped, and also
+     telling them that whatever might be realized from the sale of the
+     property taken would be invested in stock for them. They have
+     quietly submitted, and have sent out to bring in their animals.
+     Some have already arrived, and we have now in our possession 700.
+     More are arriving rapidly, and I expect to double that number. I
+     have kept the whole force here until now for the effect its
+     presence produces.
+
+     "I shall start Sturgis to-morrow morning for Cheyenne, leaving Reno
+     until Carlin completes the work here. Only a few arms have yet been
+     found or surrendered, but I think our results are satisfactory. Not
+     a shot was fired on either side of the river. Of course no surprise
+     can now be expected at Cheyenne. The desired effect will be
+     attained there by the same means as those employed here."
+
+The late Sioux Commissioners, who made a treaty for the Black Hills in
+Sept. 1876, gave their pledge that all _friendly_ Indians would be
+protected in their persons and property. Bishop Whipple comments on the
+dismounting of the Indians as follows:--
+
+     "In violation of these pledges 2,000 ponies were taken from
+     Cheyenne and Standing Rock Agencies. No inventory was kept of
+     individual property. Of 1,100 ponies taken at Standing Rock, only
+     874 left Bismark for Saint Paul. No provision was made to feed them
+     on the way. The grass had burned on the prairie and there was
+     several inches of snow on the ground. The small streams were
+     frozen, and no water was to be had until they reached the James
+     River. There was no grass, and no hay could be purchased until they
+     reached the Cheyenne River, more than ten days' travel, and then
+     nothing until they reached Fort Abercrombie. No wonder that there
+     were only 1,200 ponies out of 2,000 that left Abercrombie, and that
+     of these only 500 reached St. Paul. The wretched, dying brutes were
+     made the subject of jest as the war horses of the Dakota. Many died
+     on the way, many were stolen, and the remnant were sold in St.
+     Paul. It was worse than the ordinary seizure of property without
+     color of law. It was not merely robbery of our friends. It was
+     cruel. The Indians are compelled to camp from 10 to 40 miles away
+     from the agency to find fuel. They have to cross this distance in
+     the coldest weather to obtain their rations, and without ponies
+     they must cross on foot, and some of them may perish."
+
+Gen. Crook issued at Red Cloud Agency his General Orders, No. 8--in part
+as follows:--
+
+
+     HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PLATTE, IN THE FIELD,}
+                    CAMP ROBINSON, NEB., Oct. 24th, 1876.}
+
+     "The time having arrived when the troops composing the Big Horn and
+     Yellowstone Expedition are about to separate, the Brigadier-General
+     commanding addresses himself to the officers and men of the
+     command, to say:--
+
+     "In the campaign now closed he has been obliged to call upon you
+     for much hard service and many sacrifices of personal comfort. At
+     times you have been out of reach of your base of supplies; in most
+     inclement weather you have marched without food and slept without
+     shelter. In your engagements you have evinced a high order of
+     discipline and courage, in your marches wonderful powers of
+     endurance, and in your deprivations and hardships, patience and
+     fortitude.
+
+     "Indian warfare is, of all warfare, the most trying, the most
+     dangerous, and the most thankless; not recognized by the high
+     authority of the United States Congress as war, it still possesses
+     for you the disadvantages of civilized warfare with all the
+     horrible accompaniments that barbarians can invent and savages can
+     execute. In it, you are required to serve without the incentive to
+     promotion or recognition; in truth, without favor or hope of
+     reward.
+
+     "The people of our sparsely settled frontier, in whose defence this
+     war is waged, have but little influence with the powerful
+     communities in the East; their representatives have little voice in
+     our national councils, while your savage foes are not only the
+     wards of the nation, supported in idleness, but objects of sympathy
+     with a large number of people otherwise well informed and
+     discerning. You may, therefore, congratulate yourselves that in the
+     performance of your military duty you have been on the side of the
+     weak against the strong, and that the few people there are on the
+     frontier will remember your efforts with gratitude."
+
+Gen. Crook's losses during the campaign extending from May 27th to Oct.
+24th, were 12 killed, 32 wounded (most of whom subsequently returned to
+duty), one death by accident and one by disease.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE WINTER OF 1876-7.
+
+
+After leaving Red Cloud, Gen. Crook marched to Fort Fetterman and
+organized a new column for a winter expedition against the enemy.
+Subsequently, with a force of ten companies of cavalry under Col.
+Mackenzie, eleven companies of infantry and four of artillery under
+Lieut. Col. R.I. Dodge, and about 200 Indian allies, some of whom were
+friendly Sioux enlisted at Red Cloud Agency, Gen. Crook advanced to old
+Fort Reno, head of Powder River, where a cantonment had been built.
+
+Hearing that a band of Cheyenne Indians were encamped among the Big Horn
+Mountains to the southwest, Gen. Crook, Nov. 23d, sent Col. Mackenzie
+with his cavalry and the Indian allies to hunt them up. At noon, Nov.
+24th, after marching some 30 miles along the base of the mountains
+toward the Sioux Pass, Mackenzie met five of seven Indian scouts who had
+been sent ahead the evening previously. These scouts reported that they
+had discovered the camp of the Cheyennes at a point in the mountains
+about 20 miles distant, and that the other two scouts had remained to
+watch the camp.
+
+A night's march was decided upon and, at sunset, after a halt of three
+hours, the command moved forward toward the village; but owing to the
+roughness of the country, it was daylight when they reached the mouth
+of a canyon leading to and near the village. Through this canyon the
+column advanced, crossing several deep ravines, and when within a mile
+of the camp the order to charge was given. The Indian allies, who were
+in front, rushed forward howling and blowing on instruments, and some of
+them subsequently ascended the side of the canyon and occupied a high
+bluff opposite to and overlooking the village.
+
+The surprise was nearly complete; but some of the Cheyennes, whom the
+scouts had reported as being engaged in a war dance, sounded the alarm
+on a drum, and began firing on the advancing column. The inhabitants
+immediately deserted their lodges, taking nothing but their weapons with
+them, and took refuge in a net-work of very difficult ravines beyond the
+upper end of the village. A brisk fight for about an hour ensued, after
+which skirmishing was kept up until night. The village of 173 lodges and
+their entire contents were destroyed, about 500 ponies were captured,
+and the bodies of 25 Indians killed in the engagement were found. Col.
+Mackenzie's loss was Lieut. J.A. McKinney and six men killed, and
+twenty-two men wounded.
+
+On the 4th of Dec., Gen. Crook left Fort Reno with his whole force, and
+moved down Little Powder River, intending to form at its junction with
+Powder River a supply camp from which to operate against the Indians.
+Subsequently, however, he crossed over to the Belle Fourche River, and,
+Dec. 22d, started for Fort Fetterman where he arrived Dec. 29th. The
+weather during this homeward march was at times intensely cold, and the
+men and horses suffered considerably thereby.
+
+While Gen. Crook was thus looking for and harassing the Indians in the
+Powder River country, the isolated garrison of the Tongue River
+cantonment, further north, were not idle. An excursion northward in
+search of Sitting Bull was led by Col. Miles, the post-commander, and as
+reports as to the location of the Indians were conflicting and their
+trails obscured by snow, he divided his force, and sent Lieut. Frank D.
+Baldwin with three companies of the 5th Infantry to the north of the
+Missouri, while he examined the the Mussel Shell and Dry Forks country.
+
+On the 7th of Dec., Lieut. Baldwin discovered Sitting Bull's band, and
+followed the Indians to the Missouri River, where they crossed and for a
+short time resisted the crossing of the troops. The Indians then
+retreated south, but were overtaken in the Redwood country and attacked,
+Dec. 18th. Their camp of 122 lodges was captured and burned with its
+contents, and 60 mules and horses were taken. The Indians escaped, but
+carried off little property except what they had on their backs. Lieut.
+Baldwin's command marched on this expedition over 500 miles--walking on
+one occasion 73 miles in 48 hours--and endured the cold of a Montana
+winter with great fortitude.
+
+A very unfortunate affair occurred at the Tongue River cantonment,
+within a few hundred yards of the parade-ground, Dec. 16th. The
+following is from Col. Miles' report thereof:--
+
+     "As five Minneconjou chiefs were coming in, bearing two white
+     flags, followed by twenty or thirty other Indians, and were passing
+     by the Crow Indian camp, the five in advance were surrounded by
+     twelve Crows and instantly killed. The act was an unprovoked,
+     cowardly murder. The Crows approached them in a friendly manner,
+     said "How," shook hands with them, and when they were within their
+     power and partly behind a large wood pile, killed them in a most
+     brutal manner. Upon hearing the first shot, both officers and men
+     rushed out and tried to save the Minneconjous, but could not reach
+     them in time. The Crows were aware of the enormity of their crime,
+     as they saw that the Minneconjous had a flag of truce, and they
+     were told to come back. They were warned the day before against
+     committing any act of violence against messengers or other parties
+     coming in for friendly purposes. They tried to hide the flag of
+     truce and, taking advantage of the momentary excitement, while
+     efforts were being made to open communication and bring back the
+     others, who were following, and who became alarmed and fled to the
+     bluffs, the guilty Crow Indians jumped upon their ponies and fled
+     to their agency in Montana. The only thing that can be said in
+     defence of the Crows is, that a false report was made by one of the
+     Crow women that the Sioux had fired upon her, and that within the
+     last few months some of their number had lost relatives killed by
+     the Sioux in the vicinity of the Rosebud. These Indians have
+     claimed to be friends of the white man for years, have been
+     frequently in the Government employ, and were brought down to fight
+     such outlaws as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
+
+     "Those killed were believed to be Bull Eagle, Tall Bull, Red ----,
+     Red Cloth, and one other prominent chief of the Sioux nation. I am
+     unable to state the object of Bull Eagle's coming, but am satisfied
+     he came with the best of motives. I can only judge from the
+     following:--When he surrendered on the Yellowstone, after the
+     engagement on Cedar Creek, he was the first to respond to my
+     demands, and, I believe, was largely instrumental in bringing his
+     people to accept the terms of the Government. When I had received
+     five of the principal chiefs as hostages, and was about parting
+     with him, I told him, if he had any trouble in going in, or his
+     people hesitated or doubted that the Government would deal fairly
+     and justly with them, to come back to me, and I would tell him what
+     to do; that if he would come back to my command, I would be glad to
+     see him and, so long as he complied with the orders of the
+     Government, he could be assured of the friendship of its officers.
+     I could not but regard him with respect, as he appeared in every
+     sense a chief, and seemed to be doing everything in his power for
+     the good of his people, and endeavoring to bring them to a more
+     peaceful condition. He appeared to have great confidence in what I
+     told him; I gave him five days to obtain meat; during that time he
+     lost three favorite ponies, which were brought to this place.
+     During my absence he came in, bringing five horses that had strayed
+     or been stolen from some citizens in the vicinity, and requested
+     his own. He also inquired if he could send up to the Big Horn
+     country for the remainder of his people, and take them in on the
+     pass I had given him. He was informed by the commanding officer,
+     Gen. Whistler (whom he had known for years before), that he could,
+     and was told to send for them. Whether he had met with some trouble
+     in taking his people in to their agency, and had returned, as I had
+     told him, for directions, or had gathered up his people, and in
+     passing had come in to apprise me of the fact, I know not; but
+     there is every reason to believe that the above mentioned
+     circumstances gave rise to his motives and prompted his actions.
+
+     "The Crows were immediately disarmed, twelve of their ponies taken
+     from them, and other considerations, together with a letter
+     explaining the whole affair, were sent to the people and friends of
+     those killed, as an assurance that no white man had any part in the
+     affair, and that we had no heart for such brutal and cowardly acts.
+
+     "It illustrates clearly the ferocious, savage instincts of even the
+     best of these wild tribes, and the impossibility of their
+     controlling their desire for revenge when it is aroused by the
+     sight of their worst enemies, who have whipped them for years and
+     driven them out of this country. Such acts are expected and
+     considered justifiable among these two tribes of Indians, and it is
+     to be hoped that the Sioux will understand that they fell into a
+     camp of their ancient enemies, and did not reach the encampment of
+     this command."
+
+In January, 1877, Col. Miles with 350 of his troops marched southerly
+sixty miles up the Tongue River, and on the evening of the 7th
+discovered a large Indian village. Skirmishing ensued, and on the next
+day 1000 well-armed warriors appeared in front, and a battle was fought.
+The battle-ground was very rough and broken, and a heavy snow storm came
+on during the fight. The Indians fought with desperation; but our
+troops had been so admirably arranged that they succeeded in gaining a
+decisive victory. The following is Col. Miles' report of the affair:--
+
+     "I have the honor to report that this command fought the hostile
+     tribes of Cheyenne and Ogallala Sioux, under Crazy Horse, in
+     skirmishes on the 1st, 3d, and 7th of January, and in a five hours'
+     engagement on the 8th inst. Their camp, consisting of some 500
+     lodges, extended three miles along the valley of Tongue River,
+     below Hanging Woman's Creek. They were driven through the canyons
+     of the Wolf or Panther Mountains, in the direction of Big Horn
+     Mountains. Their fighting strength outnumbered mine by two or three
+     to one, but by taking advantage of the ground we had them at a
+     disadvantage, and their loss is known to be heavy. Our loss is
+     three killed and eight wounded. They fought entirely dismounted,
+     and charged on foot to within fifty yards of Captain Casey's line,
+     but were taken in front and flank by Captain Butler's and
+     Lieutenant McDonald's companies. They were whipped at every point
+     and driven from the field, and pursued so far as my limited
+     supplies and worn down animals would carry my command."
+
+The following additional particulars are derived from a letter to the
+_Army and Navy Journal_:--
+
+     "On the 5th January, Indian signs grew thicker and thicker. Miles
+     of hastily abandoned war lodges were passed. The country became
+     very rough. The valley of the Tongue grew narrower, the stream more
+     tortuous, and the hills on both sides loftier and more precipitous,
+     until the valley shrank into a prolonged and winding canyon. At
+     short distances, jutting bluffs made narrow passes which offered
+     points of vantage to the savage enemy. The gorges of the Wolf
+     Mountains had been reached.
+
+     "On the 6th, the march was through a large war camp, recently and
+     hurriedly abandoned. Unusual heat was followed by snow. In the
+     evening there was snow and hail driven by a cruel wind, and by 5
+     P.M. it was pitch dark. On the evening of the 7th, the scouts
+     captured four Cheyenne squaws, a youth, and three young children.
+     Two hundred Indians made a dash at the scouts, shot two of their
+     horses and made a desperate effort to take them. Casey opened a
+     musketry fire on the Indians, and darkness supervening, they
+     withdrew.
+
+     "Next morning the fight was renewed shortly after daylight. The
+     Indians charged down the valley in large force, close up to the
+     skirmish line, but failed to make any impression. They then turned
+     their attention to the flanks, and began to swarm on the bluffs to
+     the right. The action then became general. The Indians were in
+     strong force, and tried every point of the line. The hills and
+     woods resounded with their cries and the high-pitched voices of the
+     chiefs giving their orders.
+
+     "It is the opinion of some who have had years of experience in
+     Indian fighting, that there has rarely, if ever, been a fight
+     before in which the Sioux and Cheyenne showed such determination
+     and persistency, where they were finally defeated. They had chosen
+     their ground; and it has since been learned that they expected to
+     make another Custer slaughter. The Cheyenne captives, in the hands
+     of the troops, sang songs of triumph during the entire fight, in
+     anticipation of a speedy rescue and the savage orgies of a
+     massacre."
+
+In a complimentary order to his troops, dated Jan. 31st, Col. Miles
+says:--
+
+     "Here in the home of the hostile Sioux, this command, during the
+     past three months, has marched 1200 miles and fought three
+     engagements--besides affairs of less importance. * * * Fortunate
+     indeed is the officer who commands men who will improvise boats of
+     wagon beds, fearlessly dash out into the cold and turbid waters,
+     and amid the treacherous current and floating ice, cross and
+     recross the great Missouri; who will defy the elements on these
+     bleak plains in a Montana winter; and who have in every field
+     defeated superior numbers."
+
+The dismounting and disarming policy was kept up at the Agencies through
+the winter. Several bands came in and surrendered--among them that of
+Red Horse, who had been actively hostile. This chief thus describes the
+engagement on the Little Big Horn. The "brave officer" referred to is
+said to be Capt. T.H. French, of Reno's battalion.
+
+     "On the morning of the attack, myself and several women were out
+     about a mile from camp gathering wild turnips. Suddenly one of the
+     women called my attention to a cloud of dust rising in the
+     neighborhood of the camp. I soon discovered that troops were making
+     an attack. We ran for the camp, and when I got there I was sent for
+     at once to come to the council-lodge. I found many of the council
+     men already there when I arrived. We gave directions immediately
+     for every Indian to get his horse and arms; for the women and
+     children to mount the horses and get out of the way, and for the
+     young men to go and meet the troops.
+
+     "Among the troops was an officer who rode a horse with four white
+     feet. The Indians have fought a great many tribes of people, and
+     very brave ones, too, but they all say that this man was the
+     bravest man they had ever met. I don't know whether this man was
+     General Custer or not. This officer wore a large-brimmed hat and
+     buckskin coat. He alone saved his command a number of times by
+     turning on his horse in the retreat. In speaking of him, the
+     Indians call him the 'man who rode the horse with four white feet.'
+
+     "After driving this party back, the Indians corraled them on top of
+     a high hill, and held them there until they saw that the women and
+     children were in danger of being made prisoners by another party of
+     troops which just then made its appearance below. The word passed
+     among the Indians like a whirlwind, and they all started to attack
+     the new party, leaving the troops on the hill. When we attacked the
+     other party, we swarmed down on them and drove them in confusion.
+     No prisoners were taken. All were killed. None were left alive even
+     for a few minutes. These troopers used very few of their
+     cartridges. I took a gun and a couple of belts off two dead men.
+     Out of one belt two cartridges were gone; out of the other five.
+
+     "It was with captured ammunition and arms that we fought the other
+     body of troops. If they had all remained together they would have
+     hurt us very badly. The party we killed made five different starts.
+     Once we charged right in until we scattered the whole of them,
+     fighting among them hand to hand. One band of soldiers was right in
+     the rear of us when they charged. We fell back, and stood for one
+     moment facing each other. Then the Indians got courage and started
+     for them in a solid body. We went but a little distance when we
+     spread out and encircled them. All the time I could see their
+     officers riding in front, and hear them shouting to their men. We
+     finished up the party right there in the ravine.
+
+     "The troops up the river made their first attack, skirmishing a
+     little while after the fight commenced with the other troops below
+     the village. While the latter fight was going on we posted some
+     Indians to prevent the other command from forming a junction. As
+     soon as we had finished the fight we all went back to massacre the
+     troops on the hill. After skirmishing around awhile we saw the
+     walking soldiers coming. These new troops making their appearance
+     was the saving of the others. An Indian started to go to Red Cloud
+     Agency that day, and when a few miles from camp discovered dust
+     rising. He turned back and reported that a large herd of buffalo
+     was approaching the camp, and a short time after he reported this
+     the camp was attacked by troops."
+
+In February, Spotted Tail, with a body-guard of 200 warriors, started
+out to visit his roaming brethren as a peacemaker; and through his
+influence, or for other reasons, all the hostile bands, it is believed,
+except Sitting Bull's, have accepted the terms offered by the Government
+and surrendered their arms and ponies. One band of about 1000 encircled
+the Indian camp at Spotted Tail Agency, April 16th, and after
+discharging their guns in the air by way of salutation, surrendered to
+Gen. Crook. Roman Nose, whose village was destroyed at Slim Buttes,
+indicated his desire for peace in a short speech and by laying his rifle
+at the feet of the General. Five days later, 500 Cheyennes, with 600
+ponies, came into Red Cloud Agency. Their village near Sioux Pass had
+been destroyed in November, and they were in a destitute and pitiable
+condition.
+
+Crazy Horse and his band of 900 Indians surrendered at Red Cloud, May
+5th. They appeared to be in a comfortable condition and had 2000 ponies.
+
+At the latest date, Sitting Bull and his band were reported moving
+toward Canada. If they return south, Col. Miles will be prepared to give
+them a suitable reception.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+
+George Armstrong Custer, son of Emmanuel H. Custer, a hard-working,
+enterprising farmer, was born at New Rumley, Harrison County, Ohio,
+December 5th, 1839. He grew up into an active, athletic, and amiable
+youth, acquired a fair English education, and at the age of sixteen
+years engaged in teaching school near his native town.
+
+Having determined to go to West Point if possible, young Custer
+addressed a letter on the subject to Hon. John A. Bingham, Member of
+Congress from his district, to whom he was personally unknown, and
+subsequently called on him. The result was that he entered West Point
+Academy as a cadet in 1857. The official notification of his appointment
+was signed by Jefferson Davis, President Buchanan's secretary of war.
+
+As a cadet, Custer did not achieve a brilliant record either for
+scholarship or good behavior. This was not owing to any want of
+intelligence or quickness of comprehension, but rather to a love of
+mischief and hatred of restraint. During the four years of his academic
+term he spent 66 Saturdays in doing extra guard duty as penance for
+various offences; and he graduated in 1861, at the foot of a class of
+34.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER.]
+
+His stay terminated with a characteristic incident. He chanced one
+day when officer of the guard to come upon two angry cadets, who from
+words had come to blows, and were just ready to settle their difficulty
+with their fists. Custer pushed through the crowd of spectators who
+surrounded the combatants, but instead of arresting them, as was his
+duty, he restrained those who were endeavoring to restrain them, and
+called out:--
+
+"Stand back, boys; let's have a fair fight."
+
+His appeal was heard by Lieuts. Hazen and Merritt, and he was placed
+under arrest and kept back to be court-martialed, while the rest of his
+class, (excepting such as had already resigned to join the Southern
+army) departed for active service. The court-martial was however cut
+short, through the exertions of his fellow cadets at Washington, by a
+telegraphic order summoning him there.
+
+Custer reported to the Adjutant-General of the Army at Washington, July
+20th, and was by him introduced to Gen. Scott. The company (G, 2nd
+Cavalry) to which he had been assigned, with the rank of 2nd lieutenant,
+was at this time near Centerville, and as he was to join it, Gen. Scott
+entrusted to him some dispatches for Gen. McDowell who commanded the
+troops in the field. A night's ride on horseback took him to the army,
+the dispatches were delivered, and then he joined his company before
+daybreak just as they were preparing to participate in the battle of
+Bull Run. In this battle, however, the cavalry took but little part; in
+the frantic retreat that followed, Custer's company was among the last
+to retire, and did so in good order, taking with them Gen. Heintzelman
+who was wounded.
+
+After Gen. McClellan took command of the army, Custer's company was
+attached to Gen. Phil Kearny's brigade, and that general detailed Custer
+as his aid-de-camp, and afterwards as assistant adjutant-general, which
+position he held till deprived of it by a general order prohibiting
+officers of the regular army from serving on the staffs of volunteer
+officers.
+
+About this time he obtained leave of absence on account of ill health,
+and visited his sister, Mrs. Reed, at her home in Monroe, Michigan; and
+it is said that through her entreaties and influence he then gave up the
+habit of using strong drinks, which, in common with many of his fellow
+officers, he had acquired during his brief army life near Washington.
+Thenceforth, through the remainder of his life, he drank no intoxicating
+liquor.
+
+Returning to the army in Feb. 1862, he was assigned to the 5th Cavalry,
+and when the enemy evacuated Manassas he participated in the advance on
+that place, and led the company which drove the hostile pickets across
+Cedar Run.
+
+When the Army of the Potomac was transferred to the Peninsula, Custer's
+company was among the first to reach Fortress Monroe, and it then
+marched to Warwick. Here he was detailed as assistant to the chief
+engineer, on Gen. W.F. Smith's staff; he served in that capacity during
+the siege of Yorktown, and planned the earthwork nearest the enemy's
+lines. At the battle of Williamsburg, where he acted as aid-de-camp to
+Gen. Hancock, he effected the capture of a battle-flag--the first taken
+by the Army of the Potomac.
+
+When the army was encamped near the Chickahominy River, late in May,
+Custer accompanied Gen. Barnard, the chief engineer of the army, on a
+reconnoisance outside the picket line to the bank of the river; and at
+the request of his superior, he dismounted, jumped into the river, and
+waded across the stream--the object being to ascertain the depth of the
+water, which in some places came nearly up to his shoulders. On reaching
+the opposite bank he examined the ground for some distance, and
+discovered, unseen by them, the position of the enemy's pickets. Barnard
+reported to McClellan that the river was fordable, and how he had
+ascertained that it was so. McClellan sent for Custer, and was so
+pleased with his appearance and courageous act that he transferred him
+to his own staff; and in June, Custer received from the Secretary of War
+his appointment as additional aid-de-camp, with the rank of captain
+during the pleasure of the President. Previously to this he had crossed
+the Chickahominy at daybreak with a company of infantry, attacked the
+enemy's picket post, and captured prisoners and arms.
+
+Custer served on McClellan's staff through all of the Peninsular
+campaign; and after the battles of Gaines' Mills, Fair Oaks, Malvern
+Hill, etc., retreated with him to the protection of the gunboats at
+Harrison's Landing on the James River. Subsequently, after the
+withdrawal of the army from the Peninsula and the defeat of Banks and
+Pope in Virginia, he was McClellan's aid-de-camp in the Maryland
+campaign which closed with the battle of Antietam. When McClellan was
+superseded by Burnside, Nov. 10th, 1862, Custer accompanied his chief to
+Washington, and subsequently visited his friends in Ohio and Michigan.
+His staff position as captain ceased with the retirement of McClellan,
+and he was now a first lieutenant, commissioned July 17th, 1862.
+
+In April, 1863, Custer rejoined his company which was with Gen. Hooker's
+army near Fredericksburg, and took part in the battle of
+Chancellorsville. In June he was on the staff of Gen. Pleasonton, then
+chief of the cavalry corps, and was conspicuous at Beverly Ford and
+other places across the Rappahannock where Stuart's cavalry were met and
+roughly handled.
+
+At the battle of Aldie, Virginia, Custer distinguished himself in the
+charge made by Kilpatrick's cavalry. The onset was irresistible; the
+Confederate forces were driven back in confusion, and Custer's
+impetuosity carried him far within their lines, from which he was
+allowed to escape in consequence, he believed, of the similarity of his
+hat to those worn by the Confederates. For his gallantry in this action,
+Custer was promoted at one bound from a first lieutenant to a
+brigadier-general.
+
+Gen. Custer was now assigned to the command of a Michigan brigade in
+Kilpatrick's division, the 1st, 5th, 6th and 7th Cavalry, and joined his
+command at Hanover, Md., June 29th. The next day he was engaged in a
+skirmish with Stuart's cavalry, and attracted the attention of all by
+the peculiarity of his dress. He wore a broad-brimmed, low-crowned felt
+hat; loose jacket and trowsers of velveteen, the former profusely
+trimmed with gold-braid and the latter tucked into high boots; a blue
+shirt, with turnover collar on either corner of which was an embroidered
+star; and a flaming neck-tie.
+
+The battle of Gettysburg was now in progress, and on the 2nd of July
+Custer distinguished himself, and won the respect of his officers, by
+charging the enemy at the head of a company of his troops, having his
+horse shot under him. The next day his brigade was actively engaged,
+and the charge of the 1st Michigan Cavalry, supported by a battery, is
+designated by Custer as one of the most brilliant and successful
+recorded in the annals of warfare.
+
+After the battle Gen. Lee retreated rapidly toward the Potomac, and the
+cavalry moving by different routes harassed him continually, capturing
+trains and prisoners. The following paragraph is copied from Headley's
+"History of the Civil War."
+
+     "Kilpatrick clung to the rebel army with a tenacity that did not
+     allow it a moment's rest. At midnight, in a furious thunder storm,
+     he charged down the mountain through the darkness with unparalleled
+     boldness, and captured the entire train of Elwell's division, eight
+     miles long. At Emmettsburg, Haggerstown, and other places, he smote
+     the enemy, with blow after blow. Buford, Gregg, Custer, and others,
+     performed deeds which, but for the greater movements that occupied
+     public attention, would have filled the land with shouts of
+     admiration. In fact, the incessant protracted labors of the cavalry
+     during this campaign, rendered it useless for some time."
+
+Custer's brigade came upon the enemy's rear guard at Falling Waters, and
+the 6th Michigan made a gallant charge which was repulsed with
+considerable loss; but after a two hours' fight the enemy was driven to
+the river; Gen. Pettegrew and 125 of his men were killed, and 1500 were
+taken prisoners; cannon and battle-flags were also captured.
+
+When the cavalry crossed the Rappahannock in September, pushing back
+Stuart's cavalry to Brandy Station, Culpepper C.H., and across the
+Rapidan, Custer, as usual, was with the advance, and in one engagement
+was slightly wounded by a piece of a shell--the first and only time he
+was wounded during the war. After a short vacation in consequence of his
+wound, he rejoined his command in season to accompany the advance of
+cavalry to and across the Rapidan in October; and when Mead's army was
+forced back across the Rappahannock, he assisted in covering the
+retreat. The following description of the engagement at Brandy Station
+is also copied from Headley:--
+
+     "Pleasonton, with the cavalry, remained behind to watch the enemy,
+     and then slowly retired toward the retreating army. Buford had been
+     forced back more rapidly than Kilpatrick, whose command--with Davis
+     over the right brigade, and Custer over the left--fell back more
+     slowly. When the latter reached Brandy Station, he found the
+     former, ignorant of his movements, was far in advance, leaving his
+     right entirely exposed. To make matters worse Stuart had passed
+     around his left, so that Kilpatrick, with whom was Pleasonton
+     himself, was suddenly cut off. The gallant leader saw at a glance
+     the peril of his position, and, riding to a slight eminence took a
+     hasty survey of the ground before him. He then gave his orders, and
+     three thousand swords leaped from their scabbards, and a long, loud
+     shout rolled over the field.
+
+     "With a heavy line of skirmishers thrown out, to protect his flanks
+     and rear, he moved in three columns straight on the rebel host that
+     watched his coming. At first, the well-closed columns advanced on a
+     walk, while the batteries of Pennington and Elder played with
+     fearful precision upon the hostile ranks. He thus kept on, till
+     within a few hundred yards of the rebel lines, when the band struck
+     up "Yankee Doodle." The next instant, a hundred bugles pealed the
+     charge, and away, with gleaming sabres and a wild hurrah, went the
+     clattering squadrons. As they came thundering on, the hostile lines
+     parted, and let them pass proudly through. Buford was soon
+     overtaken, and a line of battle formed; for the rebels, outraged to
+     think they had let Kilpatrick off so easy, reorganized, and now
+     advanced to the attack.
+
+     "A fierce cavalry battle followed, lasting till after dark.
+     Pleasonton, Buford, Kilpatrick, Custer and Davis again and again
+     led charges in person. It seemed as if the leaders on both sides
+     were determined to test, on the plains of Brandy Station, the
+     question of superiority between the cavalry; for the charges on
+     both sides were of the most gallant and desperate character. The
+     dark masses would drive on each other, through the deepening gloom,
+     with defiant yells, while the flashing sabres struck fire as they
+     clashed and rung in the fierce conflict. At length the rebels gave
+     it up, and our cavalry, gathering up its dead and wounded, crossed
+     the Rappahannock."
+
+In the spirited encounter near Buckland's Mills, Oct. 19th, in which
+Stuart, aided by a flank attack from Fitz Hugh Lee, worsted Kilpatrick
+by force of numbers, Custer's brigade bore the brunt of the attack, and
+did most of the fighting on our side. This fight terminated the active
+campaign of 1863 for Custer's brigade, which subsequently guarded the
+upper fords of the Rapidan.
+
+On the 9th of February, 1864, Gen. Custer was married at Monroe,
+Michigan, to Miss Elizabeth Bacon, only daughter of Judge Daniel S.
+Bacon of Monroe. When he rejoined his command at Stevensburg a few days
+later, his wife accompanied him, and she remained in camp till the
+opening of the spring campaign of 1864. The marriage was, as far as
+Custer was concerned, the consequence of love at first sight, and ever
+proved to be for both parties a happy one.
+
+Late in February, 1864, Gen. Custer crossed the Rapidan with 1500
+cavalry in light marching order, flanking Lee's army on the west, and
+pushed rapidly ahead to within four miles of Charlottesville, where he
+found his progress arrested by a far superior force. He then turned
+northward toward Stannardsville where he again encountered the enemy,
+and after skirmishing, returned to his camp followed by some hundreds of
+refugees from slavery. This raid was designed to draw attention from a
+more formidable one led by Kilpatrick at the same time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+In the spring of 1864, Gen. Grant was placed at the head of all the
+Union armies; Gen. Sheridan was called to command the cavalry corps in
+place of Gen. Pleasonton; and Custer with his brigade was transferred to
+the First division under Torbert.
+
+In May, the Army of the Potomac once more advanced to the Rapidan and
+crossed it. In the battle of the Wilderness, owing to the character of
+the field, the cavalry were compelled to remain almost idle spectators,
+but subsequently, at Spottsylvania C.H., Torbert's division was
+seriously engaged.
+
+On the 9th of May, Gen. Sheridan started out on his first great cavalry
+raid toward Richmond. At Beaverdam Station he inflicted great damage on
+the railroads, destroyed much property, and liberated 400 Union
+prisoners on their way to Richmond. Continuing his march, he found, at
+Yellow Tavern a few miles north of Richmond, Stuart's cavalry drawn up
+to oppose his passage. A spirited fight ensued, resulting in the death
+of Stuart and the dispersion of his troops. Our cavalry pressed on down
+the road to Richmond, and Custer's brigade attacked and carried the
+outer line of defenses, and took 100 prisoners. The second line of
+works was too strong to be taken by cavalry, and Sheridan was obliged to
+retreat. Beating off assailants both in front and rear he crossed the
+Chickahominy, pushed southward to Haxall's Landing on the James River,
+and then leisurely returned by way of White House and Hanover C.H. to
+Grant's army, arriving in time to be present at the sanguinary battle of
+Cool Arbor.
+
+On the 9th of June, Custer accompanied Sheridan on a raid around Lee's
+army. They struck the railroad at Trevilian's, drove off a large force
+of the enemy and broke up a long section of the road. Retracing their
+steps to Trevilian's, they had there a spirited contest with Fitz Hugh
+Lee, and then drew off and rejoined Gen. Grant. During this raid
+Sheridan lost over 700 men, and captured 400 prisoners.
+
+In the autumn of 1864, two divisions of cavalry under Torbert were with
+Sheridan's army operating in the Shenandoah Valley. Custer's brigade was
+in the First division, commanded by Merritt. Averill commanded the
+Second division.
+
+Having received from Gen. Grant the order, "Go in"--the only
+instructions which Grant deemed it necessary to give--Sheridan, Sept.
+19th, attacked the Confederate forces at Opequan Creek. The artillery
+opened along the whole line, the columns moved steadily forward, and
+Gen. Early soon discovered that Sheridan was in earnest. Early's
+position was a strong one, and he stubbornly held it until the cavalry
+bugles were heard on his right, as the firm-set squadrons bore fiercely
+down. Rolled up before the impetuous charge, the rebel line at length
+crumbled into fragments, and the whole army broke in utter confusion and
+was sent "whirling through Winchester," followed until dark by the
+pursuing cavalry. 3000 prisoners were taken.
+
+Three days later Sheridan attacked Early at Fisher's Hill--a strong
+position to which he had retired--and again forced him to retreat with a
+loss of 1100 men taken prisoners. The cavalry pursued so sharply and
+persistently, that Early left the valley and took refuge in the
+mountains where cavalry could not operate.
+
+On the 26th of Sept., Custer was transferred from the command of the
+Michigan brigade in the First division to the head of the Second
+division; but before he was able to reach his new command, he was placed
+at the head of the Third division, with which he had formerly been
+connected under Kilpatrick.
+
+When Sheridan moved back through the valley from Port Republic to
+Strasburg, sparing the houses, but burning all the barns, mills and
+hay-stacks, and driving off all the cattle, his rear was much harassed
+by the rebel cavalry under Gen. Rosser--a class-mate of Custer's at West
+Point; and on the night of Oct. 8th, Sheridan ordered Torbert to "start
+out at daylight, and whip the rebel cavalry or get whipped himself."
+Accordingly on the next morning the cavalry, led on by Merritt and
+Custer and supported by batteries, swept boldly out to attack a larger
+force drawn up in battle array. At the first charge upon them Rosser's
+men broke and fled, but subsequently rallied, and were again pushed back
+and utterly routed. Rosser lost all his artillery but one piece, and
+everything else which was carried on wheels, and was pursued to Mt.
+Jackson, 26 miles distant. Of this affair, Gen. Torbert reported:--
+
+     "The First Division captured five pieces of artillery, their
+     ordnance, ambulance, and wagon trains, and 60 prisoners. The Third
+     Division captured six pieces of artillery, all of their headquarter
+     wagons, ordnance, ambulance, and wagon trains. There could hardly
+     have been a more complete victory and rout. The cavalry totally
+     covered themselves with glory, and added to their long list of
+     victories the most brilliant one of them all, and the most decisive
+     the country has ever witnessed."
+
+On the 15th of Oct., Sheridan started on a flying visit to Washington,
+leaving his army encamped on three ridges or hills. The crest nearest
+the enemy was held by the Army of West Virginia under Crook; half a mile
+to the rear of this was the second one, held by the 19th Corps under
+Emory; and still further to the rear, on the third crest, was the 6th
+Corps under Gen. Wright, who commanded the whole army during Sheridan's
+absence. The cavalry under Torbert lay to the right of the 6th Corps.
+
+Gen. Early, having resolved to surprise and attack the Union army,
+started out his troops on a dark and foggy night, and advanced
+unperceived and unchallenged in two columns along either flank of the
+6th Corps. The march was noiseless; and trusty guides led the steady
+columns through the gloom, now pushing through the dripping trees and
+now fording a stream, till at length, an hour before day-break, Oct.
+18th, Early's troops, shivering with cold, stood within 600 yards of
+Crook's camp. Two of Crook's pickets had come in at 2 A.M. and reported
+a heavy, muffled tramp heard at the front; but though some extra
+precautions were taken, no one dreamed that an attack would be made.
+
+Crook's troops, slumbering on unconscious of danger, were awakened at
+daybreak by a deafening yell and the crack of musketry on either flank;
+following which, charging lines regardless of the pickets came
+immediately on over the breastworks. The surprise was complete, and
+after a brief struggle the Army of West Virginia was flying in confusion
+toward the second hill occupied by the 19th Corps. Emory attempted to
+stop the progress of the enemy, but they got in his rear, and his
+command soon broke and fled with the rest toward the hill where the 6th
+Corps lay.
+
+Gen. Wright formed a new line of battle, and repulsed a tremendous
+charge of the enemy, thus obtaining time to cover the immense crowd of
+fugitives that darkened the rear. A general retreat was then begun and
+continued in good order till 10 A.M. when, the enemy having ceased to
+advance, Wright halted and commenced reorganizing the scattered troops.
+The cavalry, being at the rear and extreme right, had not suffered in
+the first assault on the Union army, but they were subsequently
+transferred to the left flank, and did brave service in covering the
+retreat of the infantry.
+
+Meanwhile Sheridan, returning from Washington, had slept at Winchester
+20 miles distant, and in the morning rode leisurely toward his army. The
+vibrations of artillery at first surprised him, and he soon became aware
+that a heavy battle was raging and that his army was retreating. Dashing
+his spurs into his horse he pushed madly along the road, and soon left
+his escort far behind. Further on he met fugitives from the army, who
+declared that all was lost. As the cloud of fugitives thickened he
+shouted, as he drove on and swung his cap, "Face the other way, boys; we
+are going back to our camp; we are going to lick them out of their
+boots." The frightened stragglers paused, and then turned back.
+
+On arriving at the front, where the work of reorganization was already
+well advanced, Sheridan inspired his men with new courage by his
+appearance and words. For two hours he rode back and forth in front of
+the line, encouraging the troops; and when the order was given, "The
+entire line will advance, etc.," the infantry went steadily forward upon
+the enemy. Early's front was soon carried, while his left was partly
+turned back; and after much desperate fighting, his astonished troops
+turned and fled in utter confusion over the field.
+
+     "As they streamed down into the Middletown meadow," says Headley,
+     "Sheridan saw that the time for the cavalry had come, and ordered a
+     charge. The bugles pealed forth their stirring notes, and the
+     dashing squadrons of Custer and Merritt came down like a clattering
+     tempest on the right and left, doubling up the rebel flanks, and
+     cleaving a terrible path through the broken ranks. Back to, and
+     through our camp, which they had swept like a whirlwind in the
+     morning, the panic-stricken rebels went, pellmell, leaving all the
+     artillery they had captured, and much of their own, and strewing
+     the way with muskets, clothing, knapsacks, and everything that
+     could impede their flight. The infantry were too tired to continue
+     the pursuit, but the cavalry kept it up, driving them through
+     Strasburg to Fisher's Hill, and beyond, to Woodstock, sixteen miles
+     distant."
+
+After the battle of Cedar Creek and during the winter of 1864--5,
+Sheridan's army, including Custer's division, remained inactive,
+occupying cantonments around Winchester.
+
+On the 27th of Feb., Sheridan started out on his last great raid, taking
+with him Gen. Merritt as chief of cavalry, the First and Third divisions
+of cavalry under Generals Devin and Custer, artillery, wagons, and
+pack-mules. The raiding column, including artillerymen and teamsters,
+numbered 10,000 men.
+
+Moving rapidly up the Shenandoah Valley over the turnpike road, they
+passed many villages without halting or opposition, and on the 29th,
+approached Mount Crawford, where Rosser with 400 men disputed the
+passage over a stream and attempted to burn the bridge; but Col.
+Capehart of Custer's command, which was in advance, by a bold dash drove
+Rosser away and saved the bridge.
+
+Custer now pushed on to Waynesboro' and finding Early intrenched there,
+immediately attacked him. The result, as told by Sheridan, was as
+follows:--
+
+     "Gen. Custer found Gen. Early in a well chosen position, with two
+     brigades of infantry, and some cavalry under Rosser, the infantry
+     occupying breastworks. Custer, without waiting for the enemy to get
+     up courage over the delay of a careful reconnaissance, made his
+     dispositions for attack at once. Sending three regiments around the
+     left flank of the enemy, Custer with the other two brigades, partly
+     mounted and partly dismounted, at a given signal attacked and
+     impetuously carried the enemy's works; while the Eight New York and
+     the First Connecticut cavalry, who were formed in columns of fours,
+     charged over the breastworks, and continued the charge through the
+     streets of Waynesboro', sabring a few men as they went along, and
+     did not stop until they had crossed the South Fork of the
+     Shenandoah, (which was immediately in Early's rear) where they
+     formed as foragers, and with drawn sabres held the east bank of the
+     stream. The enemy threw down their arms and surrendered, with
+     cheers at the suddenness with which they had been captured."
+
+Sixteen hundred prisoners, 11 pieces of artillery, 200 loaded wagons,
+and 17 battle-flags were captured single-handed by Custer at
+Waynesboro', while his own loss was less than a dozen men. Vast amounts
+of public property were subsequently destroyed. The prisoners were sent
+to Winchester under guard.
+
+Pushing on across the Blue Ridge in a heavy rain during the night after
+Early's defeat, Custer, still in the van, approached Charlottesville the
+next afternoon, and was met by the authorities, who surrendered to him
+the keys of the public buildings as a token of submission. The balance
+of the column soon came up, and two days were spent in destroying
+bridges, mills, and the railroad leading to Lynchburg.
+
+Sheridan now divided his command, and sent Merritt and Devin to destroy
+the canal from Scottsville to New Market, while he and Custer tore up
+the railroads as far west as Amherst C.H. The columns united again at
+New Market on the James River; and as the enemy had burned the bridges
+so they could not cross to the south side, they moved eastward behind
+Lee's army, destroying bridges, canals, railroads and supplies, thus
+inflicting a more serious blow to the confederate cause than any
+victories by land or sea gained during the last campaign. Then they
+swept around by the Pamunkey River and White House, and joined Grant's
+besieging army in front of Petersburg, March 27th. They encamped on the
+extreme left of the lines, close to their old comrades of the Second
+Division of cavalry, (now under Gen. Crook) who here again came under
+Sheridan's command.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+The final struggle for the possession of Richmond and Petersburg was now
+commenced by an extension of the Union lines westward, Grant's object
+being to attack the right flank of the Confederates.
+
+On the 29th of March, Sheridan, with his cavalry, moved southwest to
+Dinwiddie C.H., where Devin's and Crook's divisions halted for the
+night. Custer was some distance in the rear protecting the train. In the
+morning, Devin pushed the enemy back northerly to their intrenchments at
+Five Forks; but being unable to advance further, he returned to
+Dinwiddie C.H. Gen. Warren, with the 5th Infantry Corps, had meantime
+been put under Sheridan's command as a support to the cavalry, but had
+not yet come up.
+
+The next day, 31st, Lee's troops attacked Warren unexpectedly, and drove
+two of his divisions back upon a third, where their advance was stopped;
+and with the assistance of Humphrey's 2nd Corps, the enemy were driven
+back into their entrenched position along the White Oak road. Then the
+rebel infantry moved westward along the road to Five Forks, and attacked
+Devin, who, earlier in the day, had advanced to Five Forks and carried
+that position. Devin was driven out in disorder and forced back, and
+after some difficulty rejoined Crook's division at Dinwiddie C. H. The
+confederates now assailed Sheridan with a superior force, but could make
+no headway, and during the night they withdrew.
+
+Meantime Custer, and Gen. McKenzie with 1,000 additional cavalry, had
+joined Sheridan, and Warren was within supporting distance. At daybreak
+the cavalry advanced steadily on the enemy, and by noon had driven them
+behind their works at Five Forks, and were menacing their front. Warren
+was now ordered forward, and after more delay than Sheridan deemed
+necessary, he reached his assigned position and charged furiously
+westward on the enemy's left flank. Custer and Devin at the same time
+charged their right flank and front. Thus assailed by double their
+numbers the rebel infantry fought on with great gallantry and fortitude;
+but at length their flank defenses were carried by Warren's troops, and
+simultaneously the cavalry swept over their works. A large portion of
+the enemy surrendered, and the balance fled westward, pursued by Custer
+and McKenzie; 5,000 prisoners were taken.
+
+The next morning, Sunday, April 2nd, at daybreak, a general assault was
+made by Grant's army upon the defences of Petersburg, and some of them
+were carried. Lee telegraphed to Davis that Richmond must be evacuated;
+and by night the Confederate rule in that city was ended, and Davis and
+his Government on the way by railroad to Danville. Lee's troops withdrew
+from Richmond and Petersburg the same night, and marched rapidly
+westward to Amelia C.H. on the Danville railroad, where they halted,
+April 4th and 5th, to gather supplies of food from the country.
+
+Meantime, the Union army was pursuing the retreating Confederates and
+making every effort to prevent their escape. Custer and Devin moved
+southwesterly toward Burkesville destroying the railroad, and then
+joined Crook, McKenzie, and the 5th Corps at Jetersville five miles west
+of Amelia C.H. Sheridan intrenched his infantry across the railroad,
+supported them by his cavalry, and felt prepared to stop the passage of
+Lee's whole army. Lee, however, finding his way to Danville thus
+blocked, moved northerly around Sheridan's left, and thence westerly
+toward Farmville on the Appomattox River. Gen. Davies, of Crook's
+division, made a reconnoisance and struck Lee's train moving ahead of
+his troops, destroying wagons, and taking prisoners. A fight followed,
+and Davies fell back to Jetersville where nearly the whole army was then
+concentrated.
+
+On the morning of the 6th, Crook, Custer, and Devin started out in
+pursuit. Crook, who was in advance, was ordered to attack the trains,
+and if the enemy was too strong, another division was to pass him, while
+he held fast and pressed the enemy, and attack at a point further
+on--thus alternating until some vulnerable point was found. Crook came
+upon Lee's columns near Deatonsville, and charged upon them, determined
+to detain them at any cost. Crook was finally repulsed, but his action
+gave Custer time to push ahead, and strike further on at Sailor's Creek.
+Crook and Devin came promptly to Custer's support, and he pierced the
+line of march, destroyed 400 wagons, and took many prisoners. Elwell's
+division was separated from Lee, who was further ahead, and being
+enclosed between the cavalry in front and the infantry on their rear,
+the troops threw down their arms and surrendered.
+
+That evening Lee crossed the Appomattox at Farmville, and tried to burn
+the bridges behind him, but troops arrived in season to save one of
+them. Lee halted five miles beyond Farmville, intrenched himself, and
+repulsed an attack from the infantry. At night he silently resumed his
+retreat.
+
+On the morning of the 7th, Custer and Devin, under Merritt, were sent on
+a detour to the left, to cut off retreat toward Danville should it be
+attempted; while Crook forded the Appomattox and attacked a train. On
+the 8th, Sheridan concentrated the cavalry at Prospect Station, and sent
+Merritt, Custer, and Devin swiftly ahead 28 miles to Appomattox Station,
+where, he had learned from scouts, were four trains loaded with supplies
+for Lee, just arrived from Lynchburg.
+
+Gen. Custer took the lead, and on reaching the railroad station he
+skillfully surrounded and captured the trains. Then, followed by Devin,
+he hurried on five miles further to Appomattox C.H., where he confronted
+the van of Lee's army, immediately attacked it, and by night had turned
+it back on the main column, and captured prisoners, wagons, guns, and a
+hospital train. The balance of the cavalry hurried up, and a position
+was taken directly across the road, in front of Lee's army.
+
+By a forced march the infantry under Griffin and Ord, supporting the
+cavalry, reached the rear of Sheridan's position by daybreak the next
+morning. Grant and Mead were pressing closely on Lee's rear, and Lee saw
+there was no escape for him unless he could break through the cavalry
+force which he supposed alone disputed his passage. He therefore ordered
+his infantry to advance. The result of this charge, the last one made
+by the Army of Virginia, is thus described in Greeley's "_American
+Conflict_":--
+
+     "By Sheridan's orders, his troopers, who were in line of battle
+     dismounted, gave ground gradually, while showing a steady front, so
+     as to allow our weary infantry time to form and take position. This
+     effected, the horsemen moved swiftly to the right, and mounted,
+     revealing lines of solid infantry in battle array, before whose
+     wall of gleaming bayonets the astonished enemy recoiled in blank
+     despair, as Sheridan and his troopers, passing briskly around the
+     rebel left, prepared to charge the confused, reeling masses. A
+     white flag was now waved by the enemy before Gen. Custer, who held
+     our cavalry advance, with the information that they had concluded
+     to surrender."
+
+The next day, April 9th, Gen. Custer, who had been brevetted
+Major-General after the battle of Cedar Creek, issued the following
+complimentary order to his troops:--
+
+
+           HEAD-QUARTERS THIRD CAVALRY DIVISION.}
+     APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, VA., April 9, 1865.}
+
+     SOLDIERS OF THE THIRD CAVALRY DIVISION:--
+
+     With profound gratitude toward the God of battles, by whose
+     blessings our enemies have been humbled and our arms rendered
+     triumphant, your Commanding General avails himself of this his
+     first opportunity to express to you his admiration of the heroic
+     manner in which you have passed through the series of battles which
+     to-day resulted in the surrender of the enemy's entire army.
+
+     The record established by your indomitable courage is unparalleled
+     in the annals of war. Your prowess has won for you even the respect
+     and admiration of your enemies. During the past six months,
+     although in most instances confronted by superior numbers, you have
+     captured from the enemy, in open battle, 111 pieces of field
+     artillery, 65 battle-flags, and upward of 10,000 prisoners of war
+     including seven general officers. Within the last ten days, and
+     included in the above, you have captured 46 field-pieces of
+     artillery and 37 battle-flags. You have never lost a gun, never
+     lost a color, and have never been defeated; and notwithstanding the
+     numerous engagements in which you have borne a prominent part,
+     including those memorable battles of the Shenandoah, you have
+     captured every piece of artillery which the enemy has dared to
+     open upon you. The near approach of peace renders it improbable
+     that you will again be called upon to undergo the fatigues of the
+     toilsome march, or the exposure of the battle-field; but should the
+     assistance of keen blades wielded by your sturdy arms be required
+     to hasten the coming of that glorious peace for which we have been
+     so long contending, the General Commanding is firmly confident
+     that, in the future as in the past, every demand will meet a hearty
+     and willing response.
+
+     Let us hope that our work is done, and that blessed with the
+     comforts of peace, we may be permitted to enjoy the pleasures of
+     home and friends. For our comrades who have fallen, let us ever
+     cherish a grateful remembrance. To the wounded and to those who
+     languish in Southern prisons, let our heartfelt sympathy be
+     tendered.
+
+     And now, speaking for myself alone, when the war is ended and the
+     task of the historian begins; when those deeds of daring which have
+     rendered the name and fame of the Third Cavalry Division
+     imperishable are inscribed upon the bright pages of our country's
+     history, I only ask that my name may be written as that of the
+     Commander of the Third Cavalry Division.
+
+Lee's flag of truce at Appomattox--a white towel--and also the table on
+which Grant and Lee signed the capitulation agreement, were presented to
+Mrs. Custer by Gen. Sheridan, and are now in her possession. In a letter
+accompanying them Sheridan wrote, that he "knew of no person more
+instrumental in bringing about this most desired event than her own most
+gallant husband."
+
+In the great parade of the Army of the Potomac at Washington in May
+1865, Sheridan's cavalry were at the head of the column; and the Third
+Division, first in peace as it had been first in war, led the advance.
+Custer, now a Major-General of volunteers, at the age of 26 years, rode
+proudly at the head of his troopers, a prominent figure in the stirring
+pageant, and the observed of all beholders. He had put off for the
+occasion his careless dashing style of dress, and wore, with becoming
+dignity, the full regulation uniform of a Major-General.
+
+Shortly after the parade, Custer was sent to Texas, where he had command
+of a cavalry division at Austin, but no active service became necessary.
+In March, 1866, he was mustered out of service as a Major-General, and
+took rank as a Captain, assigned to the 5th Cavalry, U.S.A. Soon
+afterward, he applied to Senor Romero, Minister from Mexico, for a
+position as chief of President Juarez's cavalry, in his struggle with
+Maximilian. He presented a letter of introduction from General Grant in
+which he was spoken of in the most complimentary terms. Romero was
+anxious to secure his services, and made him liberal offers; but as
+Custer could not obtain leave of absence from his Government, the
+contemplated arrangement was not completed.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+In July, 1866, Custer received from Andrew Johnson, a commission as
+Lieut. Col. of the 7th Cavalry--a new regiment; and after accompanying
+the President on his famous tour through the country, he proceeded to
+Fort Riley, Kansas.
+
+In the spring of 1867, an expedition under Gen. Hancock marched from
+Fort Riley to Fort Larned near the Arkansas River, and the 7th Cavalry,
+under Lieut. Col. Custer, accompanied it. The dissatisfied Indians had
+been invited by the Indian agent to meet Hancock in council at Fort
+Larned, and had agreed to do so; but as they failed to appear at the
+appointed time, Hancock started for a village of Sioux and Cheyenne
+Indians, distant some 30 miles from the fort. On the way he met several
+of the chiefs, and they agreed to hold a council at Hancock's camp on
+the next day, April 14th. As none of the chiefs came, as promised,
+Hancock again started for their village, and soon came upon several
+hundred Indians drawn up in battle array directly across his path. The
+troops were immediately formed in line of battle, and then the General,
+with some of his officers and the interpreter, rode forward and invited
+the chiefs to a meeting between the lines, which were half a mile apart.
+The invitation was accepted; several chiefs advanced to the officers,
+and a friendly interview was holden--all seeming pleased at the peaceful
+turn things had taken. The result of the "talk" was an arrangement for a
+council to be held at Hancock's headquarters after he had camped near
+the Indian village, toward which both parties then proceeded. It was
+ascertained on reaching it that the women and children had been sent
+away; and during the night the warriors, unobserved by the white men,
+also fled, leaving their lodges and stores.
+
+Mistrusting something of the kind, Custer, with the cavalry, had during
+the night stealthily surrounded the village, and on entering it later
+found it deserted. Pursuit of the Indians was commenced, but their trail
+soon scattered so it could not be followed. After burning the deserted
+village, the expedition returned to Fort Hayes, where the 7th Cavalry
+wintered.
+
+The next summer, Custer with several companies of his regiment and 20
+wagons, was sent on a long scouting expedition to the southward in
+search of Indians. Leaving Fort Hayes in June, he proceeded to Fort
+McPherson on the Platte River, and thence to the forks of the Republican
+River in the Indian country. From this place he sent Major J.A. Elliott,
+on the 23d of June, with ten men and one guide, to carry despatches to
+Gen. Sherman at Fort Sedgwick, 100 miles distant. The wagons, escorted
+by cavalry, were also started the same day to procure supplies from Fort
+Wallace, about the same distance away in an opposite direction.
+
+Early the next morning, an attack was made on the camp, but the soldiers
+rallied so promptly and effectively that the Indians soon withdrew.
+Interpreters were then sent toward them, who arranged for a council
+which was held near by. After an unsatisfactory interview, Custer
+returned to his camp and started in pursuit of the Indians, but was
+unable to overtake them.
+
+On the fifth day after his departure, Major Elliott returned in safety
+to the camp. He had traveled only by night, and had seen no Indians. The
+wagon train was not so fortunate. It reached Fort Wallace safely, and
+started to return escorted by 48 troopers. On the way it was attacked by
+a large number of Indians, who for three hours kept up a running fight
+around the circle. The wagons moved forward in two strings, with the
+cavalry horses between them for safety, and the dismounted soldiers
+defended them so successfully that their progress forward was
+uninterrupted. Meanwhile Custer, fearing for the safety of the train,
+had sent out cavalry to meet it; and their approach caused the Indians
+to cease from their attack and withdraw. The balance of the journey was
+safely accomplished.
+
+Resuming his march, Custer again struck the Platte, some distance west
+of Fort Sedgwick. Here he learned by telegraph that Lieut. Kidder with
+ten men and an Indian scout had started from Fort Sedgwick, with
+despatches for Custer directing him to proceed to Fort Wallace, shortly
+after Major Elliott had left the fort. As Kidder had not returned and
+Custer had not seen him, fears for his safety were entertained, and
+Custer immediately started for his late camp at the forks of the
+Republican. On the way thither some of his men deserted, and being
+followed and refusing to surrender, were fired upon, and three were
+wounded.
+
+On reaching the camp, an examination was made by the Indian guide, and
+it was ascertained that Kidder's party had arrived there in safety, and
+continued on towards Fort Wallace, over the trail made by the wagons. In
+the morning Custer started in pursuit, and by noon it became evident by
+the tracks of their horses, that Kidder's party had been hard chased for
+several miles. Further on one of their horses was found, shot dead; and
+at last the mutilated and arrow-pierced bodies of the 12 men were found
+lying near each other. They had been chased, overtaken, and killed by
+the savages. They were buried in one grave, and the troops proceeded to
+Fort Wallace.
+
+Custer had been ordered to report to Gen. Hancock at Fort Wallace, and
+receive further orders from him; but on arriving there he found that the
+General had retired to Fort Leavenworth. The location of Fort Wallace
+was isolated and remote from railroads, and as the stock of provisions
+was low, Custer decided to go for supplies. He started on the evening of
+July 15th, with 100 men, and arrived at Fort Hayes on the morning of
+July 18th, having marched 150 miles, with a loss of two men who had been
+surprised by Indians. He then proceeded to Fort Harker, 60 miles further
+on, and after making arrangements for the supplies, obtained from Gen.
+Smith permission to visit his wife, who was at Fort Riley, 90 miles
+distant by rail.
+
+Soon after this Custer was arraigned before a court-martial, charged
+with leaving Fort Wallace without orders, and making a journey on
+private business, during which two soldiers were killed; also for
+over-tasking his men on the march, and for cruelty while quelling a
+mutiny. After trial, he was pronounced guilty of a breach of discipline
+in making a journey on private business (which he earnestly denied) and
+acquitted of the other charges. His sentence was a suspension of pay and
+rank for a year, during which period he remained in private life, while
+his regiment was engaged in an expedition under Gen. Sully.
+
+In October, 1868, Custer was recalled into service, and joined his
+regiment at Fort Dodge on the Arkansas River. Early in Nov., a winter
+campaign against the Indians was commenced. Gen. Sully, with the 7th
+Cavalry, detachments of infantry, and a large supply train, marched to
+the borders of the Indian country and established a post called Camp
+Supply.
+
+On the 23d of Nov., Custer with his regiment of about 800 men started
+out in a snow storm on a scout for the enemy. The next day a trail was
+discovered and pursued, and at night the troops were in the valley of
+the Washita River, and near an Indian village which had been seen from a
+distance. The village was stealthily surrounded, and at daybreak an
+attack was made simultaneously by several detachments.
+
+The Indians were taken entirely by surprise. The warriors fled from the
+village, but took shelter behind trees, logs, and the bank of the
+stream, and fought with much desperation and courage, but were finally
+driven off. The village was captured with its contents, including 50
+squaws and children who had remained safely in the lodges during the
+fight. Some 800 ponies were also captured. On questioning the squaws,
+one of them said that she was a sister of the Cheyenne chief Black
+Kettle, that it was his village that had been captured, and that
+several other Indian villages were located within ten miles--the nearest
+one being only two miles distant.
+
+Before Custer had time to retreat, hostile Indians--reinforcements from
+the other villages--arrived in such numbers as to surround the captured
+village, which Custer and his men occupied; and an attack was begun
+which continued nearly all day. The Indians were finally driven away.
+The village and its contents were burned. The captives were allowed to
+select ponies to ride on, and the balance of the drove were shot. The
+retreat was begun by a march forward, as if to attack the next village.
+The Indians fled; and after dark Custer moved rapidly back toward Supply
+Camp, taking the captives along as prisoners of war.
+
+In this engagement, known as the Battle of the Washita, Major Elliott,
+Capt. Hamilton, and 19 privates were killed, and three officers and 11
+privates wounded. Captains Weir, Benteen, T.W. Custer, and Lieut. Cook,
+participated in this fight. It was estimated that at least 100 Indians
+were killed, among whom was the noted chief Black Kettle.
+
+The death of Black Kettle was much regretted by many white people. Gen.
+Harney said respecting him:--"I have worn the uniform of my country 55
+years, and I know that Black Kettle was as good a friend of the United
+States as I am." Col. A.G. Boone, a member of the recent Indian
+Commission, who had known Black Kettle for years, said tearfully:--"He
+was a good man; he was my friend; he was murdered."
+
+Early in Dec., the 7th Cavalry and a Kansas cavalry regiment,
+accompanied by Gen. Sheridan and staff, again started out to look for
+Indians. The recent battle-ground was revisited, and then the force
+proceeded along the valley of the Washita, finding the sites of several
+villages which appeared to have been lately and hastily removed. Large
+numbers of lodge poles, and robes, utensils, and stores were left
+behind; and a broad trail, leading down the river toward Fort Cobb, 100
+miles distant, showed the direction their owners had taken when
+frightened away from their winter retreat. A pursuit of the trail was
+commenced, but it soon branched. The troops continued on, and when
+within 20 miles of Fort Cobb, Indians appeared in front with a flag of
+truce. They proved to be Kiowas led by Lone Wolf, Satanta, and other
+chiefs.
+
+A council was held, and both parties agreed to proceed together to Fort
+Cobb; and the Indians agreed that they would then remain on their
+reservation. On the way to the fort, many of the Indians slipped away,
+and as Custer then supposed (erroneously) that Lone Wolf and Satanta had
+been engaged in the recent battle and might also escape, he placed them
+under guard and took them to Fort Cobb, where they were held as hostages
+for the return of the roaming Kiowas, who finally came in on learning
+that Sheridan had determined to hang their chiefs if they failed to do
+so.
+
+Soon after this, Little Robe--a Cheyenne chief, and Yellow Bear--a
+friendly Arapahoe, were visiting at Fort Cobb, and at Custer's
+suggestion Sheridan permitted him with a small party to go with these
+chiefs as a peace ambassador. The mission was successful as far as the
+Arapahoes were concerned, and as its result the whole tribe returned to
+their reservation.
+
+The effort to arrange with the Cheyennes proving unavailing, Custer with
+800 men started, March, 1869, in pursuit of them. On the 13th of March
+he arrived in the vicinity of several Cheyenne villages, one of which
+belonged to Little Robe. Several councils were held with the chiefs; and
+it was ascertained that two white women who had been recently captured
+in Kansas were held as captives in one of the villages. For this reason
+Custer could not attack the Indians, who were still intractable, and had
+to continue negotiations with them. They refused to release the women
+unless a large ransom was paid.
+
+Custer subsequently seized four of the chiefs, and threatened to hang
+them if the white women were not given up unconditionally. This threat
+produced the desired effect, and the women were surrendered. Custer then
+marched to the supply camp, taking with him the captured chiefs, who
+begged for freedom as the white women had been given up. Their friends
+also entreated for their release; but Custer assured them that the
+Washita prisoners and the captive chiefs would not be liberated until
+the Cheyennes returned to their reservation. This they promised to do,
+and subsequently kept their word.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+A treaty having been made with the Indians and peace restored, the 7th
+Cavalry enjoyed a long season of rest. In the autumn of 1870, it was
+broken into detachments and distributed to different posts. Custer, with
+two companies, was assigned to a post at Elizabethtown, Ky., 40 miles
+from Louisville, and in this isolated place he remained two years.
+During this period of inaction he engaged in literary pursuits and wrote
+an account of his life on the Plains. He also joined in a buffalo-hunt
+given on the Plains in honor of the Russian Grand Duke Alexis, and after
+the hunt he and Mrs. Custer accompanied the Duke in his travels through
+the Southern States.
+
+In March, 1873, the 7th Cavalry was ordered to Dakota, and in May was
+encamped at Fort Rice far up the Missouri. Here also were assembled
+other soldiers, and in July the so-called Yellowstone Expedition,
+commanded by Gen. D.S. Stanley, started out on its mission, which was to
+escort and protect the engineers and surveyors of the Northern Pacific
+Railroad. The march was westward to the Yellowstone and up its valley,
+accompanied part of the way by steamboats. The country was rough and
+broken, and the wagon trains were got forward with much difficulty. It
+was Custer's custom to go ahead every day with a small party of
+road-hunters, to pick out and prepare the most suitable road for the
+train.
+
+On the 4th of Aug., when opposite the mouth of Tongue River, as Custer
+and his advance party of about 100 men were enjoying a noon-day siesta
+in a grove on the bank of the river, they were aroused by the firing of
+the pickets. A few Indians had made a dash to stampede the horses which
+were grazing near by, and failing in this, were riding back and forth as
+if inviting pursuit. The soldiers speedily mounted, and Custer with 20
+men followed the Indians, who retreated slowly, keeping out of the reach
+of shot.
+
+After going nearly two miles the retreating Indians faced about as if to
+attack, and simultaneously, 300 mounted warriors emerged from a forest
+and dashed forward. Custer's men immediately dismounted, and while five
+of them held the horses, the remainder, with breech-loading carbines,
+awaited the enemy's charge. Several rapid volleys were sufficient to
+repulse the Indians, and cause them to take shelter in the woods from
+which they came.
+
+Just then the remainder of Custer's men came up, and the whole force
+retreated to the resting place they had so lately vacated. The horses
+were sheltered in the timber, and the men took advantage of a natural
+terrace, using it as a breastwork. The Indians had followed them
+closely, and now made persistent but unsuccessful attempts to drive them
+from their position. Being defeated in this, they next tried to burn
+them out by setting fire to the grass. After continuing their assault
+for several hours, the Indians withdrew at the approach of the main
+column, and Custer and the fresh troops chased them several miles.
+
+[Illustration: COUNTING HIS COUPS.]
+
+The same day, two elderly civilians connected with the expedition were
+murdered while riding in advance of the main column. Nearly two years
+later, Charles Reynolds, a scout subsequently killed at the battle of
+the Little Big Horn, while at Standing Rock Agency, heard an Indian who
+was "counting his _coups_," or in other words rehearsing his great
+achievements, boast of killing two white men on the Yellowstone. From
+his description of the victims and the articles he exhibited, Reynolds
+knew that he was the murderer of the two men.
+
+The name of this Indian was Rain in the Face. He was subsequently
+arrested by Captains Yates and Custer, and taken to Fort Lincoln where
+he was interviewed by Gen. Custer and finally confessed the deed. He was
+kept a close prisoner in the guardhouse for several months, but managed
+to escape, and joined Sitting Bull's band. It is thought by some that he
+was the identical Indian who killed Gen. Custer, and that he did it by
+way of revenge for his long imprisonment. There seems to be no real
+foundation for this theory; but the "Revenge of Rain in the Face" will
+probably go down to posterity as an historical truth, as it has already
+been immortalized in verse by one of our most gifted poets, who seems,
+however, to have overlooked the fact that Gen. Custer's body was not
+mutilated.
+
+A week after the affair on the Yellowstone a large Indian trail was
+discovered leading up the river, and Custer was sent in pursuit. On
+arriving near the mouth of Big Horn River, it was discovered that the
+enemy had crossed the Yellowstone in "bull boats." As Custer had no
+means of getting across, he camped for the night. Early the next
+morning he was attacked by several hundred warriors, some of whom had
+doubtless recrossed the river for that purpose. Sitting Bull was
+commander of the Indians, and large numbers of old men, squaws, and
+children were assembled on the high bluffs and mounds along the river to
+witness the fight. After considerable skirmishing Custer ordered his
+troops to charge, and as they advanced the Indians fled, and were
+pursued some distance.
+
+In these two engagements our loss was four men killed, and two were
+wounded. Custer's horse was shot under him. There was no further trouble
+with the Indians, and the expedition returned to Fort Rice about the 1st
+of October. Later in the autumn, Gen. Custer was assigned to the command
+of Fort Lincoln, on the Missouri River, opposite the town of Bismark.
+
+In the summer of 1874, a military expedition to explore the Black Hills
+was decided on, and Gen. Custer was selected to command it. The column
+of 1,200 troops, escorting a corps of scientists, etc., started from
+Fort Lincoln, July 1st, moved southwesterly about 250 miles to the Black
+Hills, and then explored the region. No trouble was experienced with
+Indians, and the expedition returned to Fort Lincoln in September.
+
+Mrs. Custer had accompanied her husband to the Plains when he first went
+thither, and excepting when he was engaged in some active campaign or
+both were East, she shared with him the hardships, privations, and
+pleasures of frontier life. Mrs. Champney, speaking of her in the
+_Independent_, says:--"She followed the general through all his
+campaigns, her constant aim being to make life pleasant for her husband
+and for his command. General Custer's officers were remarkably attached
+to him; to a man they revered and admired his wife. She was with him not
+only in the idleness of summer camp-life, when the days passed in a
+_dolce far niente_ resembling a holiday picnic; but in ruder and more
+dangerous enterprises she was, as far as he would permit, his constant
+companion."
+
+When Gen. Custer was ordered to Fort Lincoln Mrs. Custer went there with
+him; that retired post was their home for the remainder of his life, and
+when he started out on his last campaign she parted with him there.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+When a campaign against the roaming hostile Indians was decided on in
+1876, Lieut. Col. Custer was naturally selected as the leader of the
+Dakota column, which was organized at Fort Lincoln, and mainly composed
+of his regiment.
+
+About this time a Congressional committee at Washington were
+investigating the charges against Gen. Belknap, who had recently
+resigned the office of Secretary of War. Many persons were called to
+testify; and while Custer was actively engaged in organizing the Sioux
+expedition, he received a telegraphic summons to appear before the
+committee.
+
+On the receipt of the summons, Custer telegraphed to Gen. Terry, the
+Department Commander, informing him of the fact, stating that what he
+knew as to any charges against the War Department was only from hearsay
+evidence, and asking his advice as to what he had better do. Terry, who
+was a lawyer as well as a soldier, in reply informed Custer that his
+services were indispensable, and that he feared it would delay the
+expedition if he had to go to Washington. He suggested that if Custer
+knew nothing of the matter, he might perhaps get excused from going
+there.
+
+After hearing from Terry, Custer telegraphed to the chairman of the
+committee as follows;--
+
+     "While I hold myself in readiness to obey the summons of your
+     committee, I telegraph to state that I am engaged upon an important
+     expedition, intended to operate against the hostile Indians, and I
+     expect to take the field early in April. My presence here is very
+     necessary. In view of this, would it not be satisfactory for you to
+     forward to me such questions as may be necessary, allowing me to
+     return my replies by mail."
+
+As the committee would not consent to the plan proposed, Custer went to
+Washington, and was detained there on this business about one month. He
+was severely cross-examined, but the result showed that he knew but
+little of the matter in controversy. All he could say of his own
+knowledge was, that a contractor had turned over to him at Fort Lincoln
+a quantity of grain, which he suspected had been stolen from the Indian
+Department, as the sacks bore the Indian brand. He had at first refused
+to receive the grain, and had informed the Department commander of his
+suspicions. He had received in reply an order to accept the grain; and
+he believed that the order emanated from the Secretary of War, and so
+testified before the committee. On returning west, he learned from Gen.
+Terry that he alone was responsible for the order to receive the grain;
+and thereupon, Custer telegraphed the fact to Mr. Clymer, and
+added:--"As I would not knowingly do injustice to any individual, I ask
+that this telegram may be appended to and made part of my testimony
+before your committee."
+
+On being discharged by the committee, Custer, for the third time it is
+said, called at the White House, hoping to remove the wrong impression
+and misunderstanding as to his action before the committee which, he
+had learned from private sources, the President had received and still
+entertained. He did not however succeed in getting an interview, and it
+is said that Gen. Grant even refused to see him.
+
+Leaving the White House, Custer proceeded to the office of Gen. Sherman,
+and learned that the General had gone to New York, but was expected back
+that evening. Custer then took the train for Chicago, and on arriving
+there was halted by Gen. Sheridan who had received from Gen. Sherman a
+telegram dated May 2nd, as follows:--
+
+     "I am this moment advised that General Custer started last night
+     for Saint Paul and Fort Abraham Lincoln. He was not justified in
+     leaving without seeing the President or myself. Please intercept
+     him at Chicago or Saint Paul, and order him to halt and await
+     further orders. Meanwhile let the expedition from Fort Lincoln
+     proceed without him."
+
+Gen. Custer was of course greatly surprised on learning that such a
+telegram had been received, and he immediately telegraphed to Gen.
+Sherman a statement of the circumstances under which he left Washington.
+He reminded the General that at their last interview he had stated that
+he would start west May 1st, and had been told in reply that it was the
+best thing he could do; he said further that he had every reason to
+believe, that in leaving Washington when he did he was acting in
+accordance with the General's advice and wishes; and in conclusion, he
+reminded the General of his promise that he should go in command of his
+regiment, and asked that justice might be done him. Receiving no answer
+to this message, he again telegraphed to Sherman asking as a favor that
+he might proceed to Fort Lincoln where his family was. In reply, Sherman
+telegraphed as follows:--
+
+     "Before receipt of yours, I had sent orders to Gen. Sheridan, to
+     permit you to go to Fort Lincoln on duty, but the President adheres
+     to his conclusion that you are not to go on the expedition."
+
+Sherman's orders to Sheridan were as follows:--
+
+     "I have received your despatch of to-day, announcing Gen. Custer's
+     arrival. Have just come from the President, who orders that Gen.
+     Custer be allowed to rejoin his post, to remain there on duty, but
+     not to accompany the expedition supposed to be on the point of
+     starting against the hostile Indians, under Gen. Terry."
+
+General Custer accordingly started for Fort Lincoln, and on arriving at
+Saint Paul, May 6th, he addressed the following letter to President
+Grant:--
+
+     "TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT, through Military Channels:
+
+     I have seen your order transmitted through the General of the army,
+     directing that I be not permitted to accompany the expedition about
+     to move against hostile Indians. As my entire regiment forms a part
+     of the proposed expedition, and as I am the senior officer of the
+     regiment on duty in this Department, I respectfully but most
+     earnestly request that while not allowed to go in command of the
+     expedition, I may be permitted to serve with my regiment in the
+     field. I appeal to you as a soldier to spare me the humiliation of
+     seeing my regiment march to meet the enemy and I not to share its
+     dangers."
+
+This appeal to the President was forwarded by Gen. Terry with the
+following communication:--
+
+     "In forwarding the above, I wish to say expressly, that I have no
+     desire to question the orders of the President, or of my military
+     superiors. Whether Lieut. Col. Custer shall be permitted to
+     accompany my column or not, I shall go in command of it. I do not
+     know the reasons upon which the orders already given rest; but if
+     those reasons do not forbid it, Lieut, Col. Custer's services would
+     be very valuable with his command."
+
+It may be well to state here the probable causes of the unfriendly
+feeling which Gen. Grant at this period manifested toward one whom he
+had "endorsed to a high degree" ten years previously. The Congressional
+committee hitherto mentioned, had been appointed by the Opposition
+members of the House, and some of its proceedings had, doubtless,
+annoyed and vexed the President. Gen. Babcock had been on his staff
+during the war, and enjoyed his friendship and support even after the
+damaging disclosures respecting the sale of the post-tradership at a
+western fort. Attempts had also been made about this time to injure
+Grant's administration, by seeking to identify it with the frauds which
+had been discovered, or which were suspected, and he naturally
+considered those who volunteered information to the committee as
+unfriendly to himself.
+
+It was currently reported that Custer telegraphed to the committee's
+chairman, that an investigation into the post-traderships upon the Upper
+Missouri would reveal a state of things quite as bad as at Fort Sill;
+and that in consequence of this communication he was summoned before the
+committee.
+
+But whatever the causes of Gen. Grant's unfriendliness, or the cruelty
+charged upon him for showing his displeasure as he did, the result of
+Gen. Custer's appeal was creditable to the President. Custer resumed his
+position as Terry's trusted coadjutor in fitting out the expedition, and
+finally marched from Fort Lincoln as commander of his regiment. It was
+no disgrace to him that Terry accompanied the column, and the best
+feeling always existed between the two officers. The junction with the
+Montana troops was contemplated at the time, and their commander, Col.
+Gibbon, would have ranked Lieut. Col. Custer when their forces united.
+Some commanding general had usually accompanied previous expeditions
+into the Indian country, and it seems probable that Gen. Terry would
+have participated in the campaign under any circumstances. Besides, it
+does not appear from Custer's despatch to Sheridan, that he had been
+promised more than the command of his regiment.
+
+The history of the campaign, and the story of the disastrous battle in
+which Gen. Custer lost his life have been given in preceding chapters.
+His action in attacking the Indians before the arrival of Gibbon's
+troops has been the subject of controversy, and by some few even his
+motives have been impugned. The following paragraphs relative thereto
+are from the editorial columns of the _Army and Navy Journal_:--
+
+     "It was not in Terry's instructions, and it clearly was not in his
+     mind, that Custer, if he came "in contact with the enemy," should
+     defer fighting him until the infantry came up. * * * There could be
+     no justification whatever for any plan of operations which made an
+     attack dependent upon a junction between Custer and Gibbon, after
+     three or four days' march from different points.
+
+     "It has been asserted that, smarting under the wounds which
+     preceding events had inflicted upon his pride, Custer dashed
+     recklessly into this affair for the purpose of eclipsing his
+     superior officers in the same field, regardless of cost or
+     consequences. This, it seems to us, is going much too far. Custer
+     was doubtless glad of the opportunity to fight the battle alone,
+     and was stimulated by the anticipation of a victory which,
+     illuminating his already brilliant career, would make him outshine
+     those put on duty over him in this campaign. But his management of
+     the affair was probably just about what it would have been under
+     the same circumstances, if he had had no grievance. His great
+     mistake was in acting in mingled ignorance of, and contempt for his
+     enemy. He regarded attack and victory in this instance as
+     synonymous terms, the only point being to prevent the escape of the
+     foe. Under this fatal delusion he opened the engagement, with his
+     command divided into four parts, with no certainty of co-operation
+     or support between any two of them. Neither ambition, nor wounded
+     vanity, prompted these vicious and fatal dispositions, nor were
+     they due to lack of knowledge of the principles of his profession."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONCLUDED.)
+
+
+As the foregoing biography of Gen. Custer has been confined chiefly to
+his military career, it may be well in conclusion to give some account
+of his personal characteristics; and this can be best done in the
+language of those who knew him well. A gentleman who accompanied Gen.
+Custer on the Yellowstone and Black Hills expeditions, contributed to
+the _New York Tribune_ the following:--
+
+     "Gen. Custer was a born cavalryman. He was never more in his
+     element than when mounted on Dandy, his favorite horse, and riding
+     at the head of his regiment. He once said to me, 'I would rather be
+     a private in the cavalry than a line officer in the infantry.' He
+     was the personification of bravery and dash. If he had only added
+     discretion to his valor he would have been a perfect soldier. His
+     impetuosity very often ran away with his judgment. He was impatient
+     of control. He liked to act independently of others, and take all
+     the risk and all the glory to himself. He frequently got himself
+     into trouble by assuming more authority than really belonged to his
+     rank. It was on the Yellowstone expedition where he came into
+     collision with Gen. Stanley, his superior officer, and was placed
+     under arrest and compelled to ride at the rear of his column for
+     two or three days, until Gen. Rosser, who fought against Custer in
+     the Shenandoah Valley during the war but was then acting as
+     engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad, succeeded in effecting a
+     reconciliation. Custer and Stanley afterward got on very well, and
+     perhaps the quarrel would never have occurred if the two generals
+     had been left alone to themselves without the intervention of camp
+     gossips, who sought to foster the traditional jealousy between
+     infantry and cavalry. For Stanley was the soul of generosity, and
+     Custer did not really mean to be arrogant; but from the time when
+     he entered West Point to the day when he fell on the Big Horn, he
+     was accustomed to take just as much liberty as he was entitled to.
+
+     "For this reason, Custer worked most easily and effectively when
+     under general orders, when not hampered by special instructions, or
+     his success made dependent on anybody else. Gen. Terry understood
+     his man when, in the order directing him to march up the Rosebud,
+     he very liberally said: 'The Department Commander places too much
+     confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon
+     you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in
+     contact with the enemy.' But Gen. Terry did not understand Custer
+     if he thought he would wait for Gibbon's support before attacking
+     an Indian camp. Undoubtedly he ought to have done this; but with
+     his native impetuosity, his reckless daring, his confidence in his
+     own regiment, which had never failed him, and his love of public
+     approval, Custer could no more help charging this Indian camp, than
+     he could help charging just so many buffaloes. He had never learned
+     to spell the word 'defeat;' he knew nothing but success, and if he
+     had met the Indians on the open plains, success would undoubtedly
+     have been his; for no body of Indians could stand the charge of the
+     7th Cavalry when it swept over the Plains like a whirlwind. But in
+     the Mauvaises Terres and the narrow valley of the Big Horn he did
+     it at a fearful risk.
+
+     "With all his bravery and self-reliance, his love of independent
+     action, Custer was more dependent than most men on the kind
+     approval of his fellows. He was even vain; he loved display in
+     dress and in action. He would pay $40 for a pair of troop boots to
+     wear on parade, and have everything else in keeping. On the
+     Yellowstone expedition he wore a bright red shirt, which made him
+     the best mark for a rifle of any man in the regiment. I
+     remonstrated with him for this reckless exposure, but found an
+     appeal to his wife more effectual, and on the next campaign he wore
+     a buckskin suit. He formerly wore his hair very long, letting it
+     fall in a heavy mass upon his shoulders, but cut it off before
+     going out on the Black Hills, producing quite a change in his
+     appearance. But if vain and ambitious, Custer had none of those
+     great vices which are so common and so distressing in the army. He
+     never touched liquor in any form; he did not smoke, or chew, or
+     gamble. He was a man of great energy and remarkable endurance. He
+     could outride almost any man in his regiment, I believe, if it were
+     put to a test. When he set out to reach a certain point at a
+     certain time, you could be sure that he would be there if he killed
+     every horse in the command. He was sometimes too severe in forcing
+     marches, but he never seemed to get tired himself, and he never
+     expected his men to be so. In cutting our way through the forests
+     of the Black Hills, I have often seen him take an ax and work as
+     hard as any of the pioneers. He was never idle when he had a
+     pretext for doing anything. Whatever he did he did thoroughly. He
+     would overshoot the mark, but never fall short. He fretted in
+     garrison sometimes, because it was too inactive; but he found an
+     outlet here for his energies in writing articles for the press.
+
+     "He had a remarkable memory. He could recall in its proper order
+     every detail of any action, no matter how remote, of which he was a
+     participant. He was rather verbose in writing, and had no gifts as
+     a speaker; but his writings interested the masses from their close
+     attention to details, and from his facility with the pen as with
+     the sword in bringing a thing to a climax. As he was apt to overdo
+     in action, so he was apt to exaggerate in statement, not from any
+     wilful disregard of the truth, but because he saw things bigger
+     than they really were. He did not distort the truth; he magnified
+     it. He was a natural optimist. He took rose-colored views of
+     everything, even of the miserable lands of the Northern Pacific
+     Railroad. He had a historical memory, but not a historical mind. He
+     was no philosopher; he could reel off facts from his mind better
+     than he could analyze or mass them. He was not a student, nor a
+     deep thinker. He loved to take part in events rather than to brood
+     over them. He was fond of fun, genial and pleasant in his manner; a
+     loving and devoted husband. It was my privilege to spend two weeks
+     in his family at one time, and I know how happy he was in his
+     social relations."
+
+The following rambling remarks are accredited to a general, whose name
+is not given:--
+
+     "The truth about Custer is, that he was a pet soldier, who had
+     risen not above his merit, but higher than men of equal merit. He
+     fought with Phil Sheridan, and through the patronage of Sheridan he
+     rose; but while Sheridan liked his valor and dash he never trusted
+     his judgment. He was to Sheridan what Murat was to Napoleon. While
+     Sheridan is always cool, Custer was always aflame. Rising to high
+     command early in life, he lost the repose necessary to success in
+     high command. * * * Then Custer must rush into politics, and went
+     swinging around the circle with Johnson. He wanted to be a
+     statesman, and but for Sheridan's influence with Grant, the
+     republicans would have thrown him; but you see we all liked Custer,
+     and did not mind his little freaks in that way any more than we
+     would have minded temper in a woman. Sheridan, to keep Custer in
+     his place, kept him out on the Plains at work. He gave him a fine
+     command--one of the best cavalry regiments in the service. The
+     colonel, Sturgis, was allowed to bask in the sunshine in a large
+     city, while Custer was the real commander. In this service Custer
+     did well, and vindicated the partiality of Sheridan as well as the
+     kind feelings of his friends. * * * The old spirit which sent
+     Custer swinging around the circle revived in him. He came East and
+     took a prominent part in reforming the army. This made feeling, and
+     drew upon Custer the anger of the inside forces of the
+     administration.
+
+     "Then he must write his war memoirs. Well, in these memoirs he
+     began to write recklessly about the army. He took to praising
+     McClellan as the greatest man of the war, and, coming as it did
+     when the democrats began to look lively, it annoyed the
+     administration. Grant grew so much annoyed that even Sheridan could
+     do no good, and Custer was disgraced. Technically it was not a
+     disgrace. All that Grant did was to put Terry, a general, over
+     Custer, a lieutenant-colonel, who had his regiment all the same;
+     but all things considered, it was a disgrace."
+
+The following is from an article by Gen. A.B. Nettleton, published in
+the _Philadelphia Times_:--
+
+     "It must be remembered that in fighting with cavalry, which was
+     Custer's forte, instantaneous quickness of eye--that is, the
+     lightning-like formation and execution of successive correct
+     judgments on a rapidly-shifting situation--is the first thing, and
+     the second is the power of inspiring the troopers with that
+     impetuous yet intelligent ardor with which a mounted brigade
+     becomes a thunderbolt, and without which it remains a useless mass
+     of horses and riders. These qualities Gen. Custer seemed to me to
+     manifest, throughout the hard fighting of the last year of the war,
+     to a degree that was simply astounding, and in a manner that marked
+     him as one of the few really great cavalry commanders developed by
+     the wars of the present century. Of fear, in the sense of dread of
+     death or of bodily harm, he was absolutely destitute, yet his love
+     of life and family and home was keen and constant, leaving no room
+     in his nature for desperation, recklessness, or conscious rashness.
+     In handling his division under Sheridan's general oversight, he
+     seemed to act always on the belief that in campaigning with
+     cavalry, when a certain work must be done, audacity is the truest
+     caution. In action, when all was going well and success was only a
+     question of time or of steady 'pounding,' Gen. Custer did not
+     unnecessarily expose himself, but until the tide of battle had been
+     turned in the right direction, and especially when disaster
+     threatened, the foremost point in our division's line was almost
+     invariably marked by the presence of Custer, his waving division
+     tri-color and his plucky staff.
+
+     "A major-general of wide and splendid fame at twenty-five, and now
+     slain at thirty-six, the gallant Custer had already lived long if
+     life be measured by illustrious deeds."
+
+The following is from a sketch of Gen. Custer published in the _Army and
+Navy Journal_:--
+
+     "Custer was passionately addicted to active and exciting sports as
+     the turf and hunting. He was a splendid horseman and a lover of the
+     horse; he attended many American race-meetings and ran his own
+     horses several times in the West. His greyhounds and staghounds
+     went with him at the head of his regiment, to be let slip at
+     antelope or buffalo. With rifle or shotgun he was equally expert,
+     and had killed his grizzly bear in the most approved fashion. * * *
+     Bold to rashness; feverish in camp, but cool in action; with the
+     personal vanity of a carpet knight, and the endurance and
+     insensibility to fatigue of the hardiest and boldest rough rider; a
+     prince of scouts; a chief of guides, threading a trackless prairie
+     with unerring eye of a native and the precision of the needle to
+     the star; by no means a martinet, his men were led by the golden
+     chain of love, admiration and confidence. He had the proverbial
+     assurance of a hussar, but his personal appearance varied with
+     occasion. During the war he was 'Custer of the golden locks, his
+     broad sombrero turned up from his hard-bronzed face, the ends of
+     his crimson cravat floating over his shoulder, gold galore
+     spangling his jacket sleeves, a pistol in his boot, jangling spurs
+     on his heels, and a ponderous claymore swinging at his side.' And
+     long after, when he roamed a great Indian fighter on the Plains,
+     the portrait was only slightly changed. The cavalry jacket was
+     exchanged for the full suit of buckskin, beautifully embroidered by
+     Indian maidens; across his saddle rested a modern sporting rifle,
+     and at his horse's feet demurely walked hounds of unmixed breed.
+     Again, within a few months, he appears in private society as an
+     honored guest; scrupulously avoiding anything like display, but in
+     a quiet conventional suit of blue, with the 'golden locks' closely
+     shorn, and the bronzed face pale from recent indisposition, he
+     moves almost unnoticed in the throng."
+
+The faithful correspondent who perished with Gen. Custer on the Little
+Big Horn portrayed him thus:--
+
+     "A man of strong impulses, of great hearted friendships and bitter
+     enmities; of quick, nervous temperament, undaunted courage, will,
+     and determination; a man possessing electric mental capacity, and
+     of iron frame and constitution; a brave, faithful, gallant soldier,
+     who has warm friends and bitter enemies; the hardest rider, the
+     greatest pusher; with the most untiring vigilance overcoming
+     seeming impossibilities, and with an ambition to succeed in all
+     things he undertakes; a man to do right, as he construes right, in
+     every case; one respected and beloved by his followers, who would
+     freely follow him into the 'jaws of hell.'"
+
+Gen. Custer's last battle "will stand in history as one of the most
+heroic engagements ever fought, and his name will be respected so long
+as chivalry is applauded and civilization battles against barbarism."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE SIOUX TREATY OF 1876--INDIAN ORATORS.
+
+
+In 1875, the Black Hills country had acquired a white population and an
+importance which rendered its possession and control by the Government
+desirable and necessary; and an attempt was made to treat with the
+Indians for its purchase, but without success.
+
+In 1876, Congress expressed its determination to appropriate nothing
+more for the subsistence of the Sioux Indians unless they made certain
+concessions, including the surrender of the Black Hills, and entered
+into some agreement calculated to enable them to become self-supporting.
+Geo. W. Manypenny, H. C. Bullis, Newton Edmunds, Rt. Rev. H.B. Whipple,
+A.G. Boone, A.S. Gaylord, J.W. Daniels, and Gen. H.H. Sibley, were
+appointed commissioners to negotiate for the concessions demanded. The
+following is an extract from their instructions under which they
+acted:--
+
+     "The President is strongly impressed with the belief that the
+     agreement which shall be best calculated to enable the Indians to
+     become self-supporting is one which shall provide for their
+     removal, at as early a day as possible, to the Indian Territory.
+     For the past three years they have been kept from starvation by
+     large appropriations for their subsistence. These appropriations
+     have been a matter not of obligation but of charity, and the
+     Indians should be made to understand distinctly that they can hope
+     for continued appropriations only by full submission to the
+     authority and wishes of the Government, and upon full evidence of
+     their disposition to undertake, in earnest, measures for their own
+     advancement and support."
+
+The first council was held Sept. 7th, at Red Cloud agency, with chiefs
+and headmen representing 4,901 Indians then at the agency. Red Cloud and
+other chiefs met the commissioners with warm welcomes, and said with
+deep earnestness:--"We are glad to see you; you have come to save us
+from death." The conditions required by Congress were then submitted to
+the Indians, with the assurance that the commissioners had no authority
+to change them in any particular; but that they were authorized to
+devise a plan to save their people from death and lead them to
+civilization. The plan decided on was then carefully explained and
+interpreted, and a copy of the agreement given to the Indians to take to
+their own council. Other councils were held Sept. 19th and 20th, and
+after mutual explanations the agreement was signed.
+
+Subsequently, the commissioners visited Spotted Tail agency, Standing
+Rock agency, Cheyenne River agency, Crow Creek agency, Lower Brule
+agency, and Santee agency. At all of these agencies the agreement was
+made plain to the Indians, and after due deliberation and considerable
+discussion, duly signed. The following are extracts from the report of
+the commissioners:--
+
+     "While the Indians received us as friends, and listened with kind
+     attention to our propositions, we were painfully impressed with
+     their lack of confidence in the pledges of the Government. At times
+     they told their story of wrongs with such impassioned earnestness
+     that our cheeks crimsoned with shame. In their speeches, the
+     recital of the wrongs which their people had suffered at the hands
+     of the whites, the arraignment of the Government for gross acts of
+     injustice and fraud, the description of treaties made only to be
+     broken, the doubts and distrusts of present professions of
+     friendship and good-will, were portrayed in colors so vivid and
+     language so terse, that admiration and surprise would have kept us
+     silent had not shame and humiliation done so. Said a chief to a
+     member of our commission:--'I am glad to see you, you are our
+     friends, but I hear that you have come to move us. Tell your people
+     that since the Great Father promised that we should never be
+     removed we have been moved five times.' He added, with bitter
+     irony, 'I think you had better put the Indians on wheels so you can
+     run them about wherever you wish.'
+
+     "The present condition of the Sioux Indians is such as to awaken
+     the deepest sympathy. They were our friends. If many of this
+     powerful tribe have been changed to relentless foes, we must not
+     forget that it is the simple outcome of our own Indian
+     training-school. Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry, and others, use
+     these words:--
+
+     'The moment the war of the rebellion was over, thousands of our
+     people turned their attention toward the treasures of Montana. The
+     Indian was forgotten. It did not occur to any man that this poor,
+     despised red man was the original discoverer, and sole occupant for
+     many centuries, of every mountain seamed with quartz and every
+     stream whose yellow sand glittered in the noonday sun. He asked to
+     retain only a secluded spot where the buffalo and elk could live,
+     and that spot he would make his home. The truth is, no place was
+     left for him. If the lands of the white men are taken, civilization
+     justifies him in resisting the invader. Civilization does more than
+     this--it brands him as a coward and a slave if he submits to the
+     wrong. If the savage resists, civilization, with the Ten
+     Commandments in one hand and the sword in the other, demands his
+     immediate extermination. That he goes to war is not astonishing. He
+     is often compelled to do so. Wrongs are borne by him in silence
+     that never fail to drive civilized men to deeds of violence. * * *
+     But it is said that our wars with them have been almost constant.
+     Have we been uniformly unjust? We answer unhesitatingly, 'yes.'"
+
+     "General Stanley in 1870 writes from Dakota, that he is 'ashamed to
+     appear any longer in the presence of the chiefs of the different
+     tribes of the Sioux, who inquire why we do not do as we promised,
+     and in their vigorous language aver that we have lied.' Sitting
+     Bull, who had refused to come under treaty relations with the
+     Government, based his refusal in these words, sent to the
+     commission of which Assistant Secretary Cowen was chairman:
+     'Whenever you have found a white man who will tell the truth, you
+     may return, and I shall be glad to see you.'"
+
+     "It has been claimed that all Indians found outside of their
+     reservation shall be regarded as hostile. Gen. Sheridan, June 29th,
+     1869, says in an official order, that all Indians outside the
+     well-defined limits of the reservation are under the original and
+     exclusive jurisdiction of the military authority, _and as a rule
+     will be considered hostile_. This order is the more surprising to
+     us when we remember that the treaty made by General Sherman and
+     others expressly provided that these Indians might hunt upon the
+     unceded territory; and we find that so late as its last session
+     Congress appropriated $200,000 to be used in part for the payment
+     of the seventh of thirty installments '_for Indians roaming_.' We
+     repeat that, under this treaty, it is expressly provided that the
+     Indians may hunt in the unceded territory north and west of the
+     Sioux reservation, and until last year they had the right to hunt
+     in Western Nebraska. We believe that our failure to recognize this
+     right has led to many conflicts between the citizens and army of
+     the United States and the Indians."
+
+     "In 1874, the late lamented Gen. Custer made an expedition to the
+     Black Hills. It was done against the protest of the Indians and
+     their friends, and in plain, direct violation of the treaty. Gold
+     was discovered, white men flocked to the El Dorado. Notwithstanding
+     the gross violation of the treaty, no open war ensued. If our own
+     people had a sad story of wrongs suffered from the Indians, we must
+     not forget that the Indians, who own no telegraph-lines, who have
+     no press and no reporters, claimed that they, too, had been the
+     victims of lawless violence, and had a country of untold value
+     wrested from them by force.
+
+     "The charge is made that the agency Indians are hostile, and that
+     they have furnished ammunition and supplies to the Indians with
+     Sitting Bull. There is water-navigation for 3,000 miles through
+     this territory, and an unguarded border of several hundred miles
+     along the Canadian frontier. So long as the Indians will sell
+     buffalo-robes at a low price and pay two prices for guns, the greed
+     of white men will furnish them. It is gross injustice to the agents
+     and the Interior Department to accuse them of furnishing arms and
+     ammunition for Indians to fight our army and murder our citizens.
+
+     "Of the results of this year's war we have no wish to speak. It is
+     a heart-rending record of the slaughter of many of the bravest of
+     our army. It has not only carried desolation and woe to hundreds of
+     our own hearthstones, but has added to the cup of anguish which we
+     have pressed to the lips of the Indian. We fear that when others
+     shall examine it in the light of history, they will repeat the
+     words of the officers who penned the report of 1868:--'The results
+     of the year's campaign satisfied all reasonable men that the war
+     was useless and expensive.'
+
+     "We hardly know how to frame in words the feelings of shame and
+     sorrow which fill our hearts as we recall the long record of the
+     broken faith of our Government. It is made more sad, in that the
+     rejoicings of our centennial year are mingled with the wail of
+     sorrow of widows and orphans made by a needless Indian war, and
+     that our Government has expended more money in this war than all
+     the religious bodies of our country have spent in Indian missions
+     since our existence as a nation.
+
+     "After long and careful examination we have no hesitation in
+     recommending that it is wise to continue the humane policy
+     inaugurated by President Grant. The great obstacle to its complete
+     success is that no change has been made in the laws for the care of
+     Indians. The Indian is left without the protection of law in
+     person, or property, or life. He has no personal rights. He has no
+     redress for wrongs inflicted by lawless violence. He may see his
+     crops destroyed, his wife or child killed. His only redress is
+     personal revenge. * * * In the Indian's wild state he has a rude
+     government of chiefs and headmen, which is advisory in its
+     character. When located upon reservations under the charge of a
+     United States agent, this government is destroyed, and we give him
+     nothing in its place.
+
+     "We are aware that many of our people think that the only solution
+     of the Indian problem is in their extermination. We would remind
+     such persons that there is only One who can exterminate. There are
+     too many graves within our borders over which the grass has hardly
+     grown, for us to forget that God is just. The Indian is a savage,
+     but he is also a man. He is one of the few savage men who clearly
+     recognize the existence of a Great Spirit. He believes in the
+     immortality of the soul. He has a passionate love for his
+     children. He loves his country. He will gladly die for his tribe.
+     Unless we deny all revealed religion, we must admit that he has the
+     right to share in all the benefits of divine revelation. He is
+     capable of civilization. Amid all the obstacles, the wrongs, and
+     evils of our Indian policy, there are no missions which show richer
+     rewards. Thousands of this poor race, who were once as poor and
+     degraded as the wild Sioux, are to-day civilized men, living by the
+     cultivation of the soil, and sharing with us in those blessings
+     which give to men home, country, and freedom. There is no reason
+     why these men may not also be led out of darkness to light."
+
+The following is a synopsis of the arrangement agreed on by the
+commissioners and Indians:--
+
+     The Sioux surrender all claim to so much of their reservation as
+     lies west of the 103d meridian of longitude, and to so much of it
+     as lies between the North and South Forks of the Cheyenne River
+     east of said meridian; also all claim to any country lying outside
+     of their reservation. Cannon Ball River and its south branch are to
+     be the northern boundary of the reservation. Three wagon or other
+     roads may be maintained across the reservation from the Missouri
+     River to the Black Hills. All subsistence and supplies which may be
+     hereafter provided, are to be delivered on or near the Missouri
+     River. A delegation of chiefs and leading men from each band shall
+     visit the Indian Territory, with a view to selecting therein a
+     permanent home for the Indians. If such delegation shall make a
+     selection satisfactory to the Indians they represent and to the
+     United States, then the Indians are to remove to the selected
+     country within one year, select allotments as soon as possible
+     afterwards, and use their best efforts to cultivate the same. They
+     are in all things to submit themselves to such beneficent plans as
+     the Government may provide for them in the selection of a permanent
+     home where they may live like white men.
+
+     The United States agree to furnish subsistence to the Sioux until
+     such time as they shall become self-supporting--rations to be
+     issued to heads of families; and in case the Indians are located on
+     lands suitable for cultivation, and educational facilities are
+     afforded by the Government, the issue of rations is to be
+     conditioned on the performance of labor by the Indians and the
+     attendance of their children at school. Assistance in the way of
+     schools and instruction in the agricultural and mechanical arts, as
+     provided by the treaty of 1868, is guaranteed; and the building of
+     comfortable houses on allotments in severalty is provided for. The
+     Sioux are declared amenable to the laws of the United States; and
+     Congress shall secure to them an orderly government and protect
+     individual property, person, and life. The agreement not to be
+     binding on either party till approved by Congress and the
+     President.
+
+With the exception of the Santees, the Indians on the Missouri River
+objected to visiting the Indian Territory, and were exempted from that
+part of the agreement by a supplementary clause. A delegation of 90
+Indians from the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies visited the Indian
+Territory in October as provided in the agreement. The following is from
+the report of Commissioners Boone and Daniels who accompanied the
+delegation:--
+
+     "While travelling through the Territory, Spotted Tail took special
+     pains to inform us that he was not pleased with anything that came
+     within his observation, and his part of the delegation, with but
+     few exceptions, were not disposed to express themselves in any
+     other way. Many of the Red Cloud party were well pleased. Their
+     chief said 'his Great Father asked him to go and find a place where
+     his children could live by cultivating the land. This was the
+     country, and he should go back and tell his people so.' The
+     manual-labor school of 120 scholars at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
+     agency, was of more interest to them and gave them more pleasure
+     than anything else seen on the journey. They manifested much
+     interest in the progress of civilization among the Sac and Fox, and
+     when passing the Creek country, the delegation was received by
+     these tribes with generous hospitality and a hearty welcome. When
+     we were at Okmulgee, the capital of the Creek Nation, they were
+     invited to the council-house by the Creek chief, where he made a
+     very friendly speech to them. The following is a copy thereof:--
+
+     "To the Sioux, my brethren:--I am well pleased to see you here in
+     the Mus-koke Nation, brethren of the same race as ourselves. I was
+     told a long time ago of my red brethren, the Sioux, that were
+     living in the far Northwest. I had heard of the name of your tribe
+     and of many of your leading chiefs. I have heard of your great men,
+     great in war, and great in council. I have heard of your trouble on
+     account of the intrusion of the white men on your reservation in
+     search of gold. I have heard that the United States Government had
+     determined to remove you from your present home, and, perhaps it
+     might be, to this Indian Territory, to the west of us. When I heard
+     that you might possibly come to this Territory, which has been 'set
+     apart for the home of the Indians forever,' I was glad. I would
+     like to have all our red brethren settled in this Territory, as we
+     have provided in our treaty. We, the Creeks and Cherokees, have the
+     same kind of title and patent for our lands from the United States,
+     which guarantees this Territory to us for a home, under our own
+     form of government, by people of our own race, as long as 'grass
+     grows and water runs.' And I think, therefore, we shall live
+     forever on our lands. I should like--and I express the wish of our
+     people--that every Indian tribe should come here and settle on
+     these lands, that this Territory may become filled up with Indians,
+     to the exclusion of others who may be inimical to our race and
+     interests. We believe our right to our soil and our government,
+     which is best suited to our peculiar necessities, would be safer if
+     all our race were united together here. This is my earnest wish.
+     Then I think the rising generation could be educated and civilized,
+     and, what is still better, christianized, which, I believe, would
+     be the greatest benefit of all. This would be to our mutual benefit
+     and good. I know I express the minds of our people when I give you
+     this welcome to our life of a higher civilization, which is better
+     than the old life so long led by our race in the past."
+
+At the councils held at the different agencies, the chiefs and principal
+men made numerous speeches, which conveyed a good idea of Indian views
+and feelings, and were often able and eloquent. The balance of this
+chapter will be filled up with extracts from some of these speeches.
+
+     _Red Cloud Agency._ FAST BEAR:--My good friends, you have come here
+     to ask me for something, and I have come here to-day to answer. You
+     ask me to give up the mountains that are to the north of us, and I
+     answer yes to that question. I give them up. You are here also to
+     ask me to take a journey to look at a country, and I also answer
+     yes to that question. I consent for my young men to go down there
+     and see that country; but they must look at it in silence, and come
+     back in silence. When they have seen the country I will consider
+     it. If it is good I will consider it so; if bad I will consider
+     that it is bad. Do you understand, my friends, what I last said to
+     you? We do not agree to go there to live before we have seen the
+     country.
+
+     YOUNG-MAN-AFRAID-OF-HIS-HORSE:--My father shook hands with the
+     Dakotas peacefully on the Platte River. I have been brought up here
+     from a boy until I got to be a chief. The soldiers have no business
+     in this country at all. I wish to tell you plainly that I have been
+     very much ashamed ever since the soldiers came here. This is my
+     country, and I have remained here with my women and children eating
+     such things as the Great Father has sent us. I am going to ask the
+     Great Father for a great many things, things that will make me
+     rich. I am going to ask for so much that I am afraid the Great
+     Father will not consent to give it to me. I want you to tell the
+     Great Father that I, and all the men like me, and the children, are
+     going to ask him for a great many things, and we expect to have
+     food, and blankets to wear as long as we live.
+
+     BLACK COAL:--This place here is a place of peace, where we and our
+     people have lived together happily, and behaved ourselves, and we
+     do not understand why so many soldiers have come here among us. We
+     have never had any trouble and have behaved ourselves, and wish to
+     have the soldiers sent away as soon as possible, and leave us in
+     peace. The people that live here have both minds and hearts and
+     good sense, but it seems as if the Great Father all at once thought
+     differently, and speaks of us as people that are very bad.
+
+     RED CLOUD:--The commissioners have both brains and hearts. The
+     Great Father has sent you here to visit me and my people, and I
+     want that you should help us. We see a great many soldiers here in
+     our country. We do not like to see them here. I want you to have
+     pity upon us, and have them all taken away. I understand all the
+     ways of the whites. I know that everything that has been said has
+     been written down, and I should like to have a fair copy of that
+     made and given to me.
+
+     LITTLE WOUND:--I always considered that when the Great Father
+     borrowed the country for the overland road that he made an
+     arrangement with us that was to last fifty years as payment for
+     that privilege, and yesterday another arrangement was mentioned
+     concerning the Black Hills, and the words that I heard from the
+     Great Father and from the commissioners from the Great Council made
+     me cry. The country upon which I am standing is the country upon
+     which I was born, and upon which I heard that it was the wish of
+     the Great Father and of the Great Council that I should be like a
+     man without a country. I shed tears. I wish that the chief men
+     among you that have come here to see me would help me, and would
+     change those things that do not suit me.
+
+     _Spotted Tail Agency._ SPOTTED TAIL:--My friends that have come
+     here to see me; you have brought to us words from the Great Father
+     at Washington, and I have considered them now for seven days, and
+     have made up my mind. This is the fifth time that you have come. At
+     the time of the first treaty that was made on Horse Creek--the one
+     we call the "great treaty"--there was provision made to borrow the
+     overland road of the Indians, and promises made at the time of the
+     treaty, though I was a boy at the time; they told me it was to last
+     fifty years. These promises have not been kept. All the words have
+     proved to be false. The next conference was the one held with Gen.
+     Manydear, when there were no promises made in particular, nor for
+     any amount to be given to us, but we had a conference with him and
+     made friends and shook hands. Then after that there was a treaty
+     made by Gen. Sherman. He told us we should have annuities and goods
+     from that treaty for thirty-five years. He said this, but yet he
+     didn't tell the truth. He told me the country was mine, and that I
+     should select any place I wished for my reservation and live in it.
+     My friends, I will show you well his words to-day. * * * I see that
+     my friends before me are men of age and dignity. I think that each
+     of you have selected somewhere a good piece of land for himself,
+     with the intention of living on it, that he may there raise up his
+     children. My people, that you see here before you, are not
+     different; they also live upon the earth and upon the things that
+     come to them from above.
+
+     My friends, this seems to me to be a very hard day, and we have
+     come upon very difficult times. This war did not spring up here in
+     our land; this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great
+     Father who came to take our land from us without price, and who, in
+     our land, do a great many evil things. We have a store-house to
+     hold our provisions the Great Father sends us, but he sends very
+     little provisions to put in our store-house. When our people become
+     displeased with their provisions and have gone north to hunt in
+     order that they might live, the Great Father's children are
+     fighting them. It has been our wish to live in our country
+     peaceably, but the Great Father has filled it with soldiers who
+     think only of our death. It seems to me there is a better way than
+     this. When people come to trouble, it is better for both parties to
+     come together without arms and talk it over and find some peaceful
+     way to settle it. My friends, you have come to me to-day, and
+     mentioned two countries to me. One of them I know of old--the
+     Missouri River. It is not possible for me to go there. When I was
+     there before we had a great deal of trouble. I left also 100 of my
+     people buried there. The other country you have mentioned is one I
+     have never seen since I was born, but I agree to go and look at it.
+     When men have a difficult business to settle it is not possible it
+     should be well settled in one day; it takes at least twelve months
+     to consider it.
+
+     SPOTTED TAIL:--(_Second Council._) This war has come from
+     robbery--from the stealing of our land. My friends, I wish to tell
+     the Great Father "Let us consider this matter." There are on both
+     sides a great many widows and a great many orphans. Let us consider
+     who is to take care of these. This matter has not been begun with
+     judgment; and I think it is displeasing to the Great Spirit. The
+     Great Father sent you out here to buy our land and we have agreed
+     together to that, but with one understanding:--That it shall be the
+     end, also, of this war. We have always been peaceful friends of the
+     Great Father, and shall remain at peace with him; but all at once a
+     whirlwind has passed over our land, and the ammunition has been
+     locked up so that we cannot get it to hunt game to live upon. Now
+     we shake hands and make peace and wish it to be unlocked so we can
+     buy ammunition. You know this trouble does not please the Great
+     Spirit, and I want you to help me to blot it out.
+
+     BAPTISTE GOOD:--You have come here with considerations that will
+     make my people live, and my heart is glad. When Gen. Sherman came
+     to make a treaty with my people, I was also glad. That was like
+     the birth of a child. I wish you would tell the Great Father we
+     need implements to work with, and wagons for two horses. I have
+     worn out my fingers working without implements. I have planted
+     corn, and I am happy to say it has grown up and produced fruit. The
+     white minister has come here to teach me, but I don't think it is
+     done properly. I would like to have some female ministers come
+     dressed in black to receive the girls in one house and teach them,
+     and have white male ministers in black hat and coat to teach the
+     boys in another house separately.
+
+     BLUE TEETH:--Just such men as you came to make the treaty with me.
+     They showed me a road to walk in, and I showed my people and
+     advised them according to their words, and they were glad. But the
+     things they promised me didn't turn out as they promised them. I am
+     the man that heard the promises made. Spotted Tail told you about
+     that yesterday, according to my direction, but I was hiding myself.
+     I want the man pointed out that is going to talk to the Great
+     Father. [Judge Gaylord is pointed out.] You see that pipe: take it,
+     [handing to Judge Gaylord a pipe and tobacco-pouch.] The Great
+     Spirit gave me that pipe. He told me to point it to my mother, the
+     earth, when I prayed. I wish you to take it to the Great Father at
+     Washington, and tell him a man that made a speech here presented it
+     to him, and ask him to be merciful to him and help him to live.
+     Tell him this is my country, and for him to have pity upon me and
+     not move me away from it. I want to live here always.
+
+     _Standing Rock Agency._ JOHN GRASS:--Look well at me with both eyes
+     and listen to me with both ears. I have considered the words you
+     have brought me, and I am ready to answer you. The chiefs you see
+     here have all come to the same conclusion. You have brought words
+     to the chiefs here that will bring life to their children; that
+     will make their children live; they answer _how_ [signifying their
+     approval] to that. And now since they have ceded their country to
+     you, they want to tell you of certain things that they shall want
+     in the future.
+
+     RUNNING ANTELOPE:--When people shake hands and talk, they talk in
+     earnest. I want you to look on this man Kill Eagle, with his people
+     who are prisoners here. He is one of us and is our kindred. Kindred
+     living with each other love each other, and when they get into
+     trouble they help each other out, and we look on these Indians the
+     same as white. He went out to the hostile camp, held his gun,
+     witnessed a fight, and came back. I want before the sun sets to see
+     these men released. I am an old man, and I ask these things as a
+     favor.
+
+     In regard to this store. I have been to see the Great Father, and
+     the white people are wealthy. Even they have stores one right
+     against the other, touching each other. When a man goes in a store
+     and finds something he wants and cannot obtain it as cheaply as he
+     desires, he goes into another, and so on until he gets what he
+     wants and at the proper price. We want to do so here.
+
+     TWO BEARS:--Hail Great Spirit, and hail my friends who I see here,
+     and hail Great Father! My heart is this day made glad by seeing you
+     here. You prayed to the Great Spirit and that made our hearts glad.
+     I was the chief owner of this country, but the Great Father turned
+     it over to his young men. This was a hard thing for him to do to
+     me; now that he proposes to pay me for it I am very glad. I am of
+     the fifth generation of the Sioux Indians, and the sixth generation
+     is growing up around me. I want the Government to provide for the
+     same number of generations in the future. I am making this trade
+     with the Great Father, and I am not a white man and am not able to
+     live like a white man. They eat but little, but I am not able to
+     get along with a little yet. The Great Spirit fed me, and fed me in
+     large quantities. I eat all day, and eating great quantities has
+     become a habit with me. I am afraid of frightful things; I am
+     afraid of bad things; I am afraid of a battle. I like good things,
+     and straightforward dealings. For two winters I was starving and
+     have eaten a great number of my horses and dogs. In consequence of
+     this starvation many of our people fled from the agency in search
+     of food, and while they were out one of them got into trouble.
+     [referring to Kill Eagle.]
+
+     MAD BEAR:--I am an Indian, a poor, miserable Indian, but if I
+     should do as has been done by us, the Great Spirit would dislike,
+     and hate me, and for that reason I cannot do these things. Men,
+     civilians, that we have had for agents would steal our food, steal
+     things that were sent to us. It is the fault of the white men that
+     this is done. They select men that belong to the ring. When one
+     agent is removed they select his friend to succeed him, and so the
+     stealing goes on. The matter of their traders alone is enough to
+     drive the Indians hostile. It would drive a white man hostile to be
+     treated as we are treated, and to be charged prices as our traders
+     charge us for goods. If an Indian succeeds in getting a dollar he
+     takes it to the store to trade, and what he receives in return for
+     it amounts to probably half a dime. We want the monopoly of trading
+     stores stopped. The work, the labor, everything is monopolized by
+     white men, who have everything their own way. It is hard to be an
+     Indian chief. Our young men do not listen to us--they will not mind
+     us.
+
+     FOOL DOG:--The Great Spirit created these men and they expect to
+     raise children after them. Generations are not to stop here, they
+     are still to go on living, and we look to you for help and
+     assistance. I am an Indian, and am looked on by the whites as a
+     foolish man; but it must be because I follow the advice of the
+     white man.
+
+     LONG SOLDIER:--The Great Spirit called me forth to be a chief, and
+     this day I say _how_ to you. The Great Father has asked me for a
+     portion of my country and has made me an offer in return for it. I
+     am very glad to get what has been offered to me, and I therefore
+     say _how_ to your proposition. I am a very suspicious man and
+     always suspect people of some evil designs when they talk to me,
+     and therefore remain at home. My father, who has instructed me to
+     be a friend of the whites, is still living, and I want him to share
+     in the benefits that arise from the sale of the Black Hills.
+
+     TWO BEARS:--My friends, to-day we have talked together with smiles
+     on our faces, and we are going to sign this paper with the
+     understanding that everything in it is true, and that we are not
+     deceiving each other. My children are very poor and very ignorant,
+     and they don't know anything about weights and measures, and if you
+     are going to issue my rations by weight I want you to give good
+     measure. In signing this agreement I don't sign it myself; I have a
+     young man who is my hope for the future. Although I touch the pen
+     myself, I touch it for my son, who is to be my successor.
+
+     DRAG WOOD:--I am an old man and my bones are getting sore, and I
+     want my son to sign this agreement with me.
+
+     WOLF NECKLACE:--I never want to leave this country; all my
+     relatives are lying here in the ground, and when I fall to pieces I
+     am going to fall to pieces here.
+
+     _Cheyenne River Agency._ LONG MANDAN:--I am glad of one thing; the
+     Great Father knows that this is my country, and before he takes it
+     from me he is going to ask my permission. Our people are poor, they
+     have nothing in their lodges, and if you will visit them you would
+     feel disposed to bring many things to them to-day. My friends, when
+     I went to Washington I went into your money-house, and I had some
+     young men with me, but none of them took any money out of that
+     house while I was with them. At the same time, when your Great
+     Father's people come into my country, they go into my money-house
+     and take money out. More than that, they commit depredations on us;
+     and stole fifty head of horses and took them away from me. If the
+     Great Father was not a great man and was not a man that had great
+     power and a good man, I should have been mad; but he is a great man
+     and a good man, and that is the reason that I have not been
+     offended at him. I would much rather have gone to Washington with
+     my people and have signed this treaty there. I do not want to spend
+     a great deal of money for the Great Father, but at the same time I
+     know that the Great Father is wealthy. I want to tap the telegraph
+     that is over the river, and talk to the Great Father in that way,
+     and to have him answer me in the same way. I want him to give me
+     plenty of mowing-machines, and I would like very much to have a
+     good blacksmith. I will show you something to-day that I have done
+     in this country in the way of farming; a large pumpkin that I have
+     sent to be brought here to show you. My friends, you may think that
+     I never raised it when you see it, but I want to show it to you,
+     and have sent for it.
+
+     RED FEATHER:--The Great Father asked me in regard to the missions
+     and churches and schools, and told me I must take hold of that and
+     assist him. There were two ministers here, and I regarded them as
+     two canes to walk upon and help me up with. There is one thing that
+     the people of the Great Father have that I do not want, and that is
+     whisky. I do not want any whisky on my reservation. Whenever a man
+     drinks whisky he loses his senses, and that is the reason why I
+     object to it.
+
+     DUCK:--The soldiers that are fighting have killed a great many
+     people on both sides, and have made many widows and orphans on both
+     sides. I am sorry to know that anybody was killed on either side.
+     All the badness and all the trouble that has occurred here
+     formerly, I gather it up in my hand and throw it away; tell the
+     Great Father that. Look at this people; they are poor people; they
+     have a hard time to get what little furs and hides they have; but
+     when we take them to the stores we do not get enough for them. If
+     you are not afraid of me, and do not think I am fooling with you,
+     I would like to have you attend to this hide business, and see that
+     we get $6 apiece for them.
+
+     WHITE BULL:--I see, my friends, the soldiers standing here about
+     me. They are people whose business it is to die, but we think
+     better things for them. We have given them the Black Hills; we wish
+     they would go there and dig gold without being afraid of anybody.
+
+     _Crow Creek Agency._ WHITE GHOST:--Around and about the hills on
+     the prairies there are a great many dead people lying, but the
+     Great Father has decided to give us a good price for the hills;
+     therefore it is--because the Great Father is strong--that we are
+     willing to give them up. We live right near a trading-post, and we
+     become poor because we have not money to buy those things we want.
+     I do not wish you to think that I am finding fault or out of
+     temper. I merely say the things I am instructed to say. My people
+     wish to have it understood that they do not wish to have any
+     soldiers sent here or any soldier for an agent. I must tell
+     everything that I am instructed to say; they are all here listening
+     to see whether I say everything, and I must say all that I have
+     been told. We would like to have Mr. Premeau appointed for
+     interpreter. He is a white man, a man that understands the
+     language, and does not drink whisky. My people think that the flour
+     that is sent here for them is sent for them to eat, and they are
+     not pleased that it is fed to the pigs about the agency; and they
+     wish me to mention that we take a hide to the store, quite a large
+     one, and receive an order for three dollars' worth of goods. For
+     this large beef-hide we get one piece of leather the width of three
+     fingers, for a belt; it is not worth more than fifty cents. That
+     does not please us.
+
+     Last summer when I went to the council for the Black Hills, I had a
+     pipe with me. I told them, in reference to the Black Hills, that we
+     were bound by giving and receiving the pipe, the same as white
+     people when they make an oath in court and swear upon the Bible,
+     and if the party took the pipe that was offered to him in council
+     and held it in his hand everything went well, and if he did not
+     speak the truth always some evil would spring up in connection with
+     it. Last summer the pipe was given in council, and what do you
+     think of the matter now? Have the promises been kept, or has the
+     violation of them caused war and bloodshed? I have for a long time
+     known the ways of your people in dealing with us and taking away
+     our country, and I know that they have been such as to make us
+     miserable. You have driven away our game and our means of
+     livelihood out of the country, until now we have nothing left that
+     is valuable except the hills that you ask us to give up. When we
+     give these up to the Great Father we know that we give up the last
+     thing that is valuable either to us or the white people; and
+     therefore my people wish me to say that, as long as two Indians are
+     living, we expect them to have the benefit of the price paid for
+     these lands.
+
+     My friend, [to the chairman,] I am going to give you a pipe.
+     Perhaps we are deceiving each other in this matter, perhaps we are
+     not going to be truthful, and shall commit a great sin, but I for
+     my part am trying to speak the truth.
+
+     RUNNING BEAR:--I look upon you as you sit before me, and I see that
+     there are no boys among you; that you are all men of age, and I am
+     glad to see it. I am very old, very near the time when I shall lie
+     down in the earth. Therefore if you have really come to help us we
+     are very happy. I will speak now about myself. I am an orphan.
+     Before my father died he told me that my country was very valuable.
+     You say you are going to give me rations by weight; I do not know
+     anything about that; I think it will take me at least twelve years
+     to understand it. It is only yesterday that the people of my
+     generation were laid in the ground, and I am the only one left. My
+     father, who is now dead, went to the Great Father's house and
+     talked with him there. The people have now given you the Black
+     Hills, and we for our part would like to go to our Great Father's
+     house and hear how much money he proposes to give us in return.
+     Again, the whisky that the white people have and carry about with
+     them is very bad. We hear that our people who are living up to the
+     north of us drink a great deal of whisky. We do not like it at all.
+     My friends, I am going to ask you for something that I want. I do
+     not think it possible that you have come out here to ask me for
+     something without paying me for it. I do not consider myself very
+     rich. You white people come out here with a great many pockets in
+     your clothes. Probably the person who sent you told you what to do
+     with the things in your pockets. I would like to have you take up a
+     collection. Each of you put your hands in your pockets and take out
+     ten cents and give it to me to buy something at the store. You are
+     not particularly modest in asking for the things you want, and I
+     see no reason why I should not ask for the things that I want. Do
+     you think I do right in asking you?
+
+     You are a chief, [to the chairman.] I, also, am a chief. I have
+     lived here now 13 years. I do not remember even a bad word that I
+     have said; perhaps the Great Father does. In every country there
+     are men who are skillful in talking in council. I am such a man
+     myself. I also have been instructed. This medal that you see, was
+     put about my neck by a Catholic priest, and yet, notwithstanding I
+     am so honored, you talk to me about issuing rations by weight. I am
+     astonished at you. You are advanced in years; I am also advanced in
+     years.
+
+     WHITE BEAR:--I wonder if you know that I planted a field out here.
+     I raised pumpkins as large as this chair and corn taller than I am,
+     and after I had done that my father took my field away to plant
+     oats in. I wonder if you know that. Tell the Great Father that
+     there is only one store here, and all the young men are shedding
+     tears about it. If they had mowing-machines, such as they could
+     ride upon, to ride around their country and cut hay, they would be
+     able to earn something; but the agent considers that the country
+     belongs to him personally, and cuts all the hay. My friends, I
+     would like to have our agent, before the sun goes down, climb up
+     into the second story of the warehouse and take down all the teepee
+     cloths and blankets that he has there, and divide them among the
+     people.
+
+     DOG BACK:--I am not anybody in particular. Although I am not very
+     strong and a man of no special importance, I took a claim, and
+     planted, and considered that I was watching my own hay and grass. I
+     am the man that has been trying to live in the way that I have been
+     told, but this summer a great many white men have come there and
+     cut my wood, and killed the fowls and animals I have raised, and
+     disturbed me in many ways. I do not wish to make any disturbance
+     about it, but I have been trying to do as the Great Father advised
+     us, and it seems to me that these people who come and do such
+     things to me are lawless people. I have nobody to help me, but you
+     come here to-day from the Great Father, and I have told you these
+     things in the hope that you will help me.
+
+     _Santee Agency._ HAKEWASTE:--I am an Indian and was born naked. I
+     now wear the same kind of clothes as the white man. Old Wabashaw
+     told me that the President wanted us to work, and for that reason
+     I have dressed in this way, but what you have been explaining to me
+     I know nothing about. I have only been six years a chief in this
+     land. You can see how we are situated here; that we have done part
+     of what the President told us to do; you see little patches of
+     corn, &c. As old man Wabashaw is buried here we would all like to
+     live here. We will all do what you ask of us in the treaty. We own
+     nothing, and have nothing to depend upon. When the President makes
+     up his mind to do a thing he generally does it, but we do not want
+     to go to that territory to the south.
+
+     WAMAMSA:--The Lord above rules everything, and he has given us a
+     nice mild day for our council. We have prayed for land and
+     churches, and as we now have three churches I think the Lord has
+     taken good care of us and has answered our prayers. Look at these
+     young men. You have not seen any Indians during your travels
+     dressed in that way. We are not getting along very well--not as
+     well as we should. Twice now we have had Quakers for agents, and we
+     are going down hill all the time; getting into the ground.
+
+     HUSASA:--I have been blind for four years, but I can hear what is
+     said. When any one comes from Washington to see us we ought to be
+     thankful to him. When we lived at Redwood we made the treaty, and
+     it was mentioned that we were to draw annuities and money for fifty
+     years, and for that reason we put ourselves in the wrong place and
+     suffer for it to-day. There are only three chiefs left now, and all
+     we have to do is to throw ourselves into the arms of the Great
+     Father. We are all pretty badly off. When people used to come here
+     from Washington, Wabashaw was here to speak, but now he is lying in
+     the ground and we are all the time looking that way at him. A great
+     many of us have no wagons or oxen or anything to work with. I have
+     nothing but an old wagon that is not fit for use, and am as poor as
+     if I had not sold any land to the President. The Indians' minds are
+     not very long and we forget a thing in a very short time. You have
+     told us what to do. We have got it all in our ears and ought to be
+     proud of it.
+
+     The President said that he would take good care of us, and now here
+     I am blind and have not got a wagon fit to use. Although I am
+     blind, if I had a wagon the women or some of the boys could bring
+     me water when I am thirsty.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious typographical errors and printer errors have been corrected
+without comment.
+
+On page 158, the word "Py" was changed to "By" in the phrase: "Py ----,
+who did shoot...."
+
+With the exception of obvious errors, inconsistencies in the author's
+spelling, punctuation, use of hyphens, and use of quotation marks have
+been retained as in the original publication. Inconsistencies include,
+but are not limited to the following:
+
+  gayety/ gaiety
+  Ogallala/ Ogallalla
+  Camanche/ Commanches
+
+In the original publication, italics are used inconsistently in the
+illustration captions. They are reproduced here as they appear in the
+original.
+
+Unconventional spelling has been retained in words such as (but not
+limited to) the following:
+
+  befel
+  enlightment
+  Milwaukie
+  carniverous
+  conveniencies
+  conformably
+  kidnaped/ kidnaping
+  reconnoisance
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
+AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER***
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+<body>
+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life
+on the Frontier, by Frances Fuller Victor</h1>
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org</p>
+<p>Title: Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life on the Frontier</p>
+<p>       Also a History of the Sioux War, and a Life of Gen. George A. Custer with Full Account of His Last Battle</p>
+<p>Author: Frances Fuller Victor</p>
+<p>Release Date: April 17, 2012  [eBook #39465]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Greg Bergquist, Cathy Maxam,<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="icover" name="icover"></a>
+<img src="images/icover.jpg" alt="cover" />
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i004" name="i004"></a>
+<img src="images/i004.jpg" alt="frontispiece" />
+<p class="caption">ENGLISH TOURISTS' CAMP&mdash;DOUBTFUL FRIENDS.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+<h1>ELEVEN YEARS</h1>
+
+<p class="center smallest">IN THE</p>
+
+<p class="center bigger">ROCKY MOUNTAINS</p>
+
+<p class="center smallest">AND</p>
+
+<p class="center biggest">LIFE ON THE FRONTIER.</p>
+
+<p class="center small"><span class="smcap">By</span> FRANCES F. VICTOR.</p>
+
+<p class="center smaller"><i>ALSO</i></p>
+
+<p class="center bigger"><span class="smcap">A History of the Sioux War</span>,</p>
+
+<p class="center">AND A LIFE OF</p>
+
+<p class="center biggest">GEN. GEORGE A. CUSTER</p>
+
+<p class="center small">WITH FULL ACCOUNT OF HIS LAST BATTLE.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center small"><i>ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS.</i></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center smaller">PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">COLUMBIAN BOOK COMPANY,<br />
+<span class="small">HARTFORD, CONN.</span><br />
+<span class="small">1877.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p class="center smaller">COPYRIGHT BY</p>
+
+<p class="center smaller"><span class="smcap">Columbian Book Company</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center smaller">1877.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="center bigger">PART I.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/ishortline.jpg" alt="shortline" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center bigger">MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES</p>
+<p class="center small">AND</p>
+<p class="center big">FRONTIER LIFE.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<p>When the author of this book has been absorbed in the
+elegant narratives of Washington Irving, reading and
+musing over <i>Astoria</i> and <i>Bonneville</i>, in the cozy quiet of
+a New York study, no prescient motion of the mind ever
+gave prophetic indication of that personal acquaintance
+which has since been formed with the scenes, and even
+with some of the characters which figure in the works just
+referred to. Yet so have events shaped themselves that
+to me Astoria is familiar ground; Forts Vancouver and
+Walla-Walla pictured forever in my memory; while such
+journeys as I have been enabled to make into the country
+east of the last named fort, have given me a fair insight
+into the characteristic features of its mountains and its
+plains.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, a railroad traverses the level stretch between
+the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, along which,
+thirty years ago, the fur-traders had worn a trail by their
+annual excursions with men, pack-horses, and sometimes
+wagons, destined to the Rocky Mountains. Then, they
+had to guard against the attacks of the Savages; and in
+this respect civilization is behind the railroad, for now, as
+then, it is not safe to travel without a sufficient escort.
+To-day, also, we have new Territories called by several
+names cut out of the identical hunting-grounds of the fur-traders
+of thirty years ago; and steamboats plying the
+rivers where the mountain-men came to set their traps for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>beaver; or cities growing up like mushrooms from a soil
+made quick by gold, where the hardy mountain-hunter
+pursued the buffalo herds in search of his winter's supply
+of food.</p>
+
+<p>The wonderful romance which once gave enchantment
+to stories of hardship and of daring deeds, suffered and
+done in these then distant wilds, is fast being dissipated
+by the rapid settlement of the new Territories, and by the
+familiarity of the public mind with tales of stirring adventure
+encountered in the search for glittering ores. It was,
+then, not without an emotion of pleased surprise that I
+first encountered in the fertile plains of Western Oregon
+the subject of this biography, a man fifty-eight years of
+age, of fine appearance and buoyant temper, full of anecdote,
+and with a memory well stored with personal recollections
+of all the men of note who have formerly visited
+the old Oregon Territory, when it comprised the whole
+country west of the Rocky Mountains lying north of California
+and south of the forty-ninth parallel. This man is
+<i>Joseph L. Meek</i>, to whose stories of mountain-life I have
+listened for days together; and who, after having figured
+conspicuously, and not without considerable fame, in the
+early history of Oregon, still prides himself most of all on
+having been a "mountain-man."</p>
+
+<p>It has frequently been suggested to Mr. Meek, who has
+now come to be known by the familiar title of "Uncle
+Joe" to all Oregon, that a history of his varied adventures
+would make a readable book, and some of his neighbors
+have even undertaken to become his historian, yet with so
+little well-directed efforts that the task after all has fallen
+to a comparative stranger. I confess to having taken hold
+of it with some doubts as to my claims to the office; and
+the best recommendation I can give my work is the interest
+I myself felt in the subject of it; and the only apology
+I can offer for anything incredible in the narrative which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>
+it may contain, is that I "tell the tale as 'twas told to me,"
+and that I have no occasion to doubt the truth of it.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that the incidents I had to record embraced a
+period of a score and a half of years, and that they extended
+over those years most interesting in Oregon history,
+as well as of the history of the Fur Trade in the
+West, I have concluded to preface Mr. Meek's adventures
+with a sketch of the latter, believing that the information
+thus conveyed to the reader will give an additional degree
+of interest to their narration. The impression made upon
+my own mind as I gained a knowledge of the facts which
+I shall record in this book relating to the early occupation
+of Oregon, was that they were not only profoundly romantic,
+but decidedly unique.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Meek was born in Washington Co., Virginia, in
+1810, one year before the settlement of <i>Astoria</i>, and at a
+period when Congress was much interested in the question
+of our Western possessions and their boundary. "Manifest
+destiny" seemed to have raised him up, together with
+many others, bold, hardy, and fearless men, to become
+sentinels on the outposts of civilization, securing to the
+United States with comparative ease a vast extent of territory,
+for which, without them, a long struggle with England
+would have taken place, delaying the settlement of
+the Pacific Coast for many years, if not losing it to us altogether.
+It is not without a feeling of genuine self-congratulation,
+that I am able to bear testimony to the services,
+hitherto hardly recognized, of the "mountain-men" who
+have settled in Oregon. Whenever there shall arise a
+studious and faithful historian, their names shall not be
+excluded from honorable mention, nor least illustrious will
+appear that of Joseph L. Meek, the Rocky Mountain Hunter
+and Trapper.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#PREFATORY_CHAPTER">P&nbsp;R&nbsp;E&nbsp;F&nbsp;A&nbsp;T&nbsp;O&nbsp;R&nbsp;Y
+ &nbsp;C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R.</a></p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Astoria&mdash;Fort Vancouver&mdash;Its isolated Position&mdash;Precautions against Indians&mdash;The
+Hudson's Bay Company&mdash;Its Policy and Intercourse with
+the Indians&mdash;The Arrival of the "Brigade"&mdash;Other Yearly Arrivals&mdash;Punishment
+of Indian Offenders&mdash;Indian Strategy&mdash;A Hero&mdash;The
+American Fur Companies&mdash;Their Dealings with the Indians&mdash;Ashley's
+Expeditions to Green River&mdash;Attack on Smith's Party&mdash;Wyeth's Expeditions&mdash;Fort
+Hall&mdash;Decline of the Fur Trade&mdash;Causes of the Indians'
+Hostility&mdash;Dangers attending the Trapper's Life, <span class="pgnum">23</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Early Life of Meek&mdash;He leaves Home&mdash;Enlists in a Fur Company&mdash;On
+the March&mdash;A Warning Voice&mdash;Frontier Sports&mdash;Last Vestige of Civilization&mdash;On
+the Plains&mdash;A first Adventure&mdash;A firm Front&mdash;A Parley&mdash;The
+Summer Rendezvous&mdash;An enchanting Picture&mdash;The Free Trapper's
+Indian Wife&mdash;Wild Carousals&mdash;Routine of Camp Life&mdash;Smoked
+Moccasins versus Green Ones&mdash;A "Trifling Fellow,"        <span class="pgnum">41</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Camp in Motion&mdash;A Trapping Expedition&mdash;Opposition to the Hudson's
+Bay Company&mdash;Beautiful Scenery&mdash;The Lost Leader Found&mdash;Rejoicings
+in Camp&mdash;The "Luck" of the Trappers&mdash;Conference of
+Leaders&mdash;The "Devil's Own"&mdash;Blackfoot Character&mdash;Account of the
+Tribes,        <span class="pgnum">57</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">How Beaver are Taken&mdash;Beaver Dams&mdash;Formation of Meadows&mdash;Beaver
+Lodges&mdash;"Bachelors"&mdash;Trapping in Winter&mdash;"Up to Trap"&mdash;Blackfeet
+on the Trail&mdash;On Guard&mdash;The Trapper's Ruse&mdash;A disappointed
+Bear&mdash;A Fight with Blackfeet&mdash;"Out of Luck"&mdash;Alone in the Mountains&mdash;Splendid
+Views&mdash;A Miserable Night&mdash;The last Luxury of Life&mdash;The
+Awfulness of Solitude&mdash;A Singular Discovery&mdash;A Hell on Earth&mdash;A
+Joyful Recognition&mdash;Hard Times in Camp&mdash;The Negro's Porcupine&mdash;Craig's
+Rabbit&mdash;Deep Snows&mdash;What the Scout saw&mdash;Bighorn River&mdash;"Colter's
+Hell"&mdash;An Alarm&mdash;Arrival at Wind River&mdash;Christmas,        <span class="pgnum">64</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Removal to Powder River&mdash;A Trapper's Paradise&mdash;The Transformation
+in the Wilderness&mdash;The Encampment by Night&mdash;Meek takes to Study<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>&mdash;On
+the Move&mdash;Loss of Horses and Traps&mdash;Robbed and Insulted by a
+Bear&mdash;Crossing the Yellowstone&mdash;A Novel Ferriage&mdash;Annoyance from
+Blackfeet&mdash;A Cache Opened&mdash;A Comrade Killed&mdash;Rude Burial Service&mdash;Return
+to Rendezvous&mdash;Gay Times&mdash;The old Partners take Leave,        <span class="pgnum">82</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Grizzly Bears&mdash;An Adventure with a Grizzly&mdash;The Three "Bares"&mdash;The
+Mountain-Man's Manners&mdash;Joking the Leaders&mdash;The Irishman
+and the Booshway&mdash;How Sublette climbed a Tree and escaped a Bear&mdash;Rival
+Trappers&mdash;Whisky as a Strong Card&mdash;Ogden's Indian Wife&mdash;Her
+Courage and Escape&mdash;Winter Quarters&mdash;Crow Horse-Thieves&mdash;An
+Expedition on Foot&mdash;Night Attack on the Indian Fort&mdash;Fitzpatrick
+Missing&mdash;Destitution in Camp&mdash;A "Medicine-Man" consulted&mdash;"Making
+Medicine"&mdash;A Vision Obtained&mdash;Fitzpatrick Found&mdash;Death of
+Smith&mdash;An Expedition on Snow-Shoes,        <span class="pgnum">90</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; V&nbsp;I</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Annoying Competition&mdash;The Chief's Daughter&mdash;Sublette Wounded&mdash;Forty
+Days of Isolation&mdash;Sublette and Meek captured by Snake Indians&mdash;A
+Solemn Council&mdash;Sentence of Death&mdash;Hope Deferred&mdash;A Rescue&mdash;The
+"Mountain Lamb"&mdash;An Obstinate Rival&mdash;Blackfeet Marauders&mdash;Fitzpatrick's
+Adventures in the Mountains&mdash;"When the Pie
+was opened the Birds began to Sing"&mdash;Rough Sports&mdash;A Man on Fire&mdash;Brigades
+ready for the Start&mdash;Blackfeet Caravan&mdash;Peaceful Overtures&mdash;The
+Half-Breed's Revenge&mdash;A Battle&mdash;Reinforcements&mdash;Death of Sinclair&mdash;Sublette
+Wounded&mdash;Greenhorns&mdash;A false Alarm&mdash;Indian Adroitness&mdash;A
+Deserted Fort&mdash;Incident of the Blackfoot Woman&mdash;Murder of
+a Party by Blackfeet,        <span class="pgnum">103</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The March to the Humboldt&mdash;Scarcity of Game&mdash;Terrible Sufferings&mdash;The
+Horrors of Thirst and Famine&mdash;Eating Ants, Crickets and Mules&mdash;Return
+to Snake River&mdash;A lucky Discovery&mdash;A Trout Supper&mdash;The
+Country of the Diggers&mdash;Some Account of Them&mdash;Anecdote of Wyeth
+and Meek&mdash;Comparison of Indian Tribes&mdash;The Blackfeet&mdash;The Crows&mdash;The
+Coast Tribes and the Mountain Tribes&mdash;The Columbia River
+Indians&mdash;Their Habits, Customs, and Dress&mdash;Indian Commerce&mdash;The
+Indians of the Plains&mdash;Their Dress, Manners, and Wealth&mdash;The Horses
+of the Plains&mdash;Language&mdash;The Indian's Moral Nature&mdash;Hungry and
+Hospitable Savages&mdash;A Trap set for a Rival&mdash;An Ambush&mdash;Death of
+Vanderburg&mdash;Skirmish with Blackfeet&mdash;The Woman Interpreter taken
+Prisoner&mdash;Bravery of her Husband&mdash;Happy Finale&mdash;Meek Rescues the
+"Mountain Lamb"&mdash;Intense Cold&mdash;Threatened by Famine&mdash;The Den
+of Grizzlys&mdash;Second Daniels,        <span class="pgnum">119</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">A Visit from Blackfeet&mdash;The Green River Rendezvous&mdash;A "Powerful
+Drunk"&mdash;Mad Wolf&mdash;A Friendly Warning&mdash;A Trip to the Salt Lake
+Country&mdash;Meek Joins Jo. Walker's California Expedition&mdash;Instinct of
+the Mule&mdash;On the Humboldt River&mdash;Massacre of Diggers at Mary's
+River&mdash;Vain Explorations&mdash;Crossing the Sierra Nevadas&mdash;Hardships
+and Sufferings&mdash;The Sacramento Valley&mdash;Delight of the Trappers&mdash;Meeting
+with Spanish Soldiers&mdash;A Parley&mdash;Escorted to Monterey&mdash;A
+Hospitable Reception&mdash;The Native Californians&mdash;Visit to the Mohave
+Village&mdash;Meeting with Trapp and Jervais&mdash;Infamous Conduct at the
+Moquis Village&mdash;The Return March,        <span class="pgnum">141</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I&nbsp;X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">In the Camanche Country&mdash;A Surprise and a Rapid Movement&mdash;The
+Mule Fort&mdash;A Camanche Charge&mdash;Sure Aim&mdash;Another Charge&mdash;More
+Dead Indians&mdash;Woman's Weapon, the Tongue&mdash;Fearful Heat and Sufferings
+from Thirst&mdash;The Escape by Night&mdash;The South Park&mdash;Death
+of Guthrie&mdash;Meeting with Bonneville&mdash;Indignant Reproaches, <span class="pgnum">154</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Gossip at Rendezvous&mdash;Adventures in the Crow Country&mdash;Fitzpatrick
+Picked by the Crows and Flies from Them&mdash;Honor among Thieves&mdash;Unfair
+Treatment of Wyeth&mdash;Bonneville Snubbed at Walla-Walla&mdash;He
+Rejects good Counsel&mdash;Wyeth's Threat, and its Fulfillment&mdash;Division
+of Territory,        <span class="pgnum">160</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">In the Blackfoot Country&mdash;A Visit to Wyeth's Trappers&mdash;Sorry Experiences&mdash;Condolence
+and its Effect&mdash;The Visitors become Defenders&mdash;A
+Battle with Fire and Sword&mdash;Fighting for Life&mdash;The Trappers' Victory&mdash;A
+Trapping Excursion&mdash;Meek Plays a Trick and has one Played
+on Him&mdash;A Run to Camp&mdash;Taking up Traps&mdash;A Blackfoot Ambush&mdash;A
+Running Fire&mdash;A lucky Escape&mdash;Winter Camp on the Yellowstone&mdash;Interpretation
+of a Dream&mdash;A Buffalo Hunt and a Blackfoot Surprise&mdash;Meek's
+Mule Story,        <span class="pgnum">166</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Setting up as a Family Man&mdash;First Love&mdash;Cut out by the Booshway&mdash;Reward
+of Constancy&mdash;Beauty of Umentucken&mdash;Her Dress, Her Horse
+and Equipments&mdash;Anecdotes of the Mountain Lamb&mdash;Her Quarrel with
+The Trapper&mdash;Capture by Crows&mdash;Her Rescue&mdash;Meek Avenges an Insult&mdash;A
+Row in Camp&mdash;The Female Element&mdash;Death of Umentucken,        <span class="pgnum">175</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Visitors at Rendezvous&mdash;Advent of Missionaries&mdash;What Brought Them&mdash;Bonneville's
+account of the Nez Perces and Flatheads&mdash;An Enthusiastic
+View of Their Characters&mdash;Origin of some of Their Religious Observances&mdash;An
+Indian's Idea of a God&mdash;Material Good Desired&mdash;Mistake
+of the Missionaries&mdash;First Sermon in the Rocky Mountains&mdash;Interrupted
+by Buffaloes&mdash;Precept and Example&mdash;Dr. Whitman's Character&mdash;The
+Missionaries Separate&mdash;Dr. Whitman Returns to the States,       <span class="pgnum">181</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Meek Falls into the Hands of Crows&mdash;The Story as He tells It&mdash;He Packs
+Moccasins, and Bears the Jeers of the Fair Sex&mdash;Bridger's Camp Discovered
+and the Lie Found out&mdash;A Desperate Situation&mdash;Signaling the
+Horse-Guard&mdash;A Parley with Bridger&mdash;Successful Strategy&mdash;Capture
+of Little-Gun&mdash;Meek Set at Liberty with a New Name&mdash;A Fort Besieged
+by Bears&mdash;A Lazy Trapper&mdash;The Decoy of the Delawares&mdash;Winter
+Amusements&mdash;The Ishmaelite of the Wilderness&mdash;March
+through the Crow Country&mdash;Return to Green River&mdash;Punishment of the
+Bannacks&mdash;Consolidation&mdash;An Excursion&mdash;Intercepted by Crows&mdash;A
+Scattered Camp&mdash;The Escape,            <span class="pgnum">189</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">An Express from Fitzpatrick&mdash;The Approach of Missionaries Announced&mdash;The
+Caravan Welcomed by a Party of Trappers&mdash;Noisy Demonstrations&mdash;Curiosity
+of the Indians&mdash;The Missionary Ladies&mdash;Preparations
+in the Indian Villages&mdash;Reception of the Missionaries by the Nez Perces
+and Flatheads&mdash;Kind Treatment from the Hudson's Bay Company&mdash;The
+Missionaries' Land of Promise&mdash;Visit to Fort Vancouver&mdash;Selection
+of Missionary Stations,           <span class="pgnum">201</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Den of Rattlesnakes&mdash;The Old Frenchman&mdash;How to Keep Snakes
+out of Bed&mdash;The Prairie Dog's Tenants at Will&mdash;Fight with Blackfeet&mdash;Policy
+of War&mdash;A Duel Averted&mdash;A Run-away Bear&mdash;Meek's Best Bear
+Fight&mdash;Winter Quarters on Powder River&mdash;Robbing Bonneville's Men,      <span class="pgnum">214</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">A Dissipated Camp&mdash;A Crow Carousal&mdash;Picked Crows&mdash;A Fight with
+Blackfeet&mdash;Manhead Killed&mdash;Night Visit to the Blackfoot Village&mdash;"Cooning
+a River"&mdash;Stanley the Indian Painter&mdash;Desperate Fight
+with Blackfeet&mdash;"The Trapper's Last Shot"&mdash;War and Peace&mdash;In the
+Wrong Camp&mdash;To Rendezvous on Wind River&mdash;Mr. Gray, and His
+Adventures&mdash;Massacre of Indian Allies&mdash;Capt. Stuart Robbed by
+Crows&mdash;Newell's Address to the Chiefs,              <span class="pgnum">225</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Decline of the Fur Trade&mdash;Wild Scenes at Rendezvous&mdash;A Missionary
+Party&mdash;Entertained by a War Dance&mdash;Meek in Armor&mdash;Deserted by
+his Indian Spouse&mdash;The Pursuit&mdash;Meek abuses a Missionary and Kidnaps
+his Wife&mdash;Meek's Black Eyed Daughter&mdash;Singing for a Biscuit&mdash;Trapping
+Again&mdash;A hot March, and Fearful Suffering from Thirst&mdash;The
+Old Flathead Woman&mdash;Water at Last,        <span class="pgnum">237</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I&nbsp;X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">A Chat about Buffalo Hunting&mdash;Buffalo Horses&mdash;The Start&mdash;The Pursuit&mdash;The
+Charge&mdash;Tumbles&mdash;Horsemanship&mdash;The Glory of Mountain
+Life&mdash;How a Nez Perce Village Hunts Buffalo&mdash;Kit Carson and the
+Frenchman on a Run&mdash;Mountain Manners,        <span class="pgnum">246</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Solitary Trapper&mdash;A Jest&mdash;Among the Nez Perces&mdash;Their Eagerness
+to be Taught&mdash;Meek is Called upon to Preach&mdash;He modestly Complies&mdash;Asks
+for a Wife&mdash;Polygamy Defended&mdash;Meek Gets a Wife&mdash;The
+Preacher's Salary&mdash;Surprised by Blackfeet&mdash;Death of Allen&mdash;The Last
+Rendezvous&mdash;Anecdote of Shawnee Jim&mdash;The new Wife Missing&mdash;Meeting
+with Farnham&mdash;Cold and Famine&mdash;Succor and Food&mdash;Parties
+at Fort Crockett&mdash;Setting up in Trade&mdash;How Al. Saved His Bacon&mdash;Bad
+Times&mdash;War upon Horse Thieves&mdash;In Search of Adventures&mdash;Green
+River Canyon&mdash;Running Antelope&mdash;Gambling&mdash;Vain Hunt for
+Rendezvous&mdash;Reflections and Half-Resolves&mdash;The last Trapping Expedition,  <span class="pgnum">251</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">A new Start in Life&mdash;Mountain-Men for Pioneers&mdash;Discovery of the Columbia
+River&mdash;What Capt. Gray Did&mdash;What Vancouver Did&mdash;The
+United States' Claim to Oregon&mdash;First Missionaries to the Wallamet&mdash;John
+McLaughlin&mdash;Hospitalities of Fort Vancouver&mdash;The Mission Reinforced&mdash;Other
+Settlers in the Wallamet Valley&mdash;How they Regarded
+the Mission&mdash;The California Cattle Company&mdash;Distribution of Settlers,        <span class="pgnum">264</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Westward Ho!&mdash;Opening Wagon Roads&mdash;Republicanism&mdash;Fat Pork for
+Preachers&mdash;Mission Work at Waiilatpu&mdash;Helen Mar&mdash;Off for the Wallamet&mdash;Wagons
+Left at Walla-Walla&mdash;The Dalles Mission&mdash;Indian
+Prayers&mdash;The Missionaries and the Mountain-Men&mdash;The Impious Canadian&mdash;Doing
+Penance&mdash;Down the Columbia&mdash;Trouble with Indians&mdash;Arrival
+at the Wallamet&mdash;Hunger, and Dependence on Fort Vancouver&mdash;Meeting
+Old Comrades&mdash;Settling on the Tualatin Plains&mdash;A disagreeable
+Winter&mdash;Taking Claims&mdash;Who furnished the Seed Wheat,        <span class="pgnum">271</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Scarcity of Employment&mdash;Wilkes' Exploring Expedition&mdash;Meek Employed
+as Pilot&mdash;Interchange of Courtesies at Vancouver&mdash;"The Peacock"&mdash;Unpleasant
+Reminder&mdash;Exploring the Cowelitz&mdash;Wilkes' Chronometer&mdash;Land
+Expedition to California&mdash;Meek Discharged&mdash;Gleaning Wheat&mdash;Fifty
+Miles for an Axe&mdash;Visit to the New Mission&mdash;Praying for a Cow&mdash;Marriage
+Ceremony,        <span class="pgnum">280</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Brooding of Events&mdash;Arrival of the Chenamus&mdash;Meek Celebrates the
+Fourth of July&mdash;Dr. Whitman Goes to Washington&mdash;An Alarming
+Feature&mdash;Mission Stations of the Upper Country&mdash;Discontent of the
+Indians&mdash;The Missionaries Insulted and Threatened&mdash;Mrs. Whitman
+Frightened Away from Waiilatpu,        <span class="pgnum">285</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Plot Thickens&mdash;The Wolf Association&mdash;Suspicions of the Canadians&mdash;"Who's
+for a Divide?"&mdash;The Die Cast&mdash;A Shout for Freedom&mdash;Meek
+Appointed Sheriff&mdash;The Provisional Government,        <span class="pgnum">291</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Arrival of the Immigration at the Dalles&mdash;Wagons Abandoned&mdash;Pitiable
+Condition of the Women and Children&mdash;Aid from the Hudson's Bay
+Company&mdash;Perils of the Columbia&mdash;Wreck of the Boat&mdash;Wonderful
+Escape&mdash;Trials of the New Colonists&mdash;The Generous Savage&mdash;The Barefoot
+Lawyer&mdash;Meek's Pumpkin&mdash;Privation of the Settlers&mdash;Shopping
+under Difficulties&mdash;Attempt to Manufacture Ardent Spirits&mdash;Dilemma
+of the People&mdash;An Appeal&mdash;The Sheriff Destroys the Distillery&mdash;Anecdote
+of Dr. White and Madam Cooper&mdash;Meek Levies on Her Whisky&mdash;First
+Official Act of the Sheriff,        <span class="pgnum">294</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Excitement about Indians&mdash;Dr. White's Flogging Law&mdash;Indian Revenge&mdash;Raid
+of the Klamaths&mdash;Massacre of Indians&mdash;Affray at the Falls&mdash;Death
+of Cockstock&mdash;Death of LeBreton and Rogers&mdash;"You'd Better
+Run"&mdash;Meek's Policy with the Indians&mdash;Meek and the Agent&mdash;The
+Borrowed Horse&mdash;Solemn Audacity&mdash;Wonderful Transformation&mdash;Temperance&mdash;Courts&mdash;Anecdote
+of Judge Nesmith&mdash;Early Days of Portland&mdash;An
+Indian Carousal&mdash;Meek "Settles the Indians"&mdash;The Immigration
+of 1845&mdash;The Cascade Mountain Road-Hunters&mdash;Hunger and
+Peril&mdash;A Last Request&mdash;Succor at the Last Moment&mdash;A Reason for
+Patriotism,        <span class="pgnum">306</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Difficulty of Collecting Taxes&mdash;A Ponderous Currency&mdash;Dr. McLaughlin's
+Ox&mdash;An Exciting Year&mdash;The Boundary Question&mdash;"Fifty-four-forty or
+Fight"&mdash;War Vessels in the Columbia&mdash;Loss of the Shark&mdash;Meek Receives
+a Salute&mdash;Schenck Arrested&mdash;The Color-Stand of the Shark&mdash;"Sunset
+at the Mouth of the Columbia,"        <span class="pgnum">320</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I&nbsp;X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">"The Adventures of a Columbia River Salmon"&mdash;History of the Immigration
+of 1846&mdash;Opening of Southern Route to the Wallamet&mdash;Tragic
+Fate of the California Immigrants&mdash;Sufferings of the Oregon Immigrants&mdash;Tardy
+Relief&mdash;Celebrating the Fourth of July&mdash;Visit to the
+Ship Brutus&mdash;An Insult to the Mountain-Men&mdash;The Indignity Resented
+with a Twelve-Pounder&mdash;Dr. McLaughlin Interferes&mdash;Re-election of
+Meek&mdash;Large Immigration&mdash;Failure of the Territorial Bill&mdash;Affray
+between Immigrants and Indians at the Dalles&mdash;Meeting of the Legislature&mdash;Falling
+of the Thunderbolt,        <span class="pgnum">325</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Trouble with the Up-Country Indians&mdash;Causes of their Disquiet&mdash;Their
+Opinion of the Americans&mdash;"Humbugged and Cheated"&mdash;Fear of
+Greater Frauds in the Future&mdash;Resolve not to Submit&mdash;Their Feelings
+Toward Dr. Whitman&mdash;Acts of Violence&mdash;Influence of the Catholic
+Missionaries&mdash;A Season of Severe Sickness&mdash;What Provoked the Massacre&mdash;Joe
+Lewis the Half-Breed&mdash;The Fatal Test&mdash;Sickness Among the
+Immigrants&mdash;Dr. Whitman's Family&mdash;Persons at the Mission and Mill&mdash;Helen
+Mar&mdash;Arrival of Mr. Whitman and his Daughter&mdash;A Night Visit
+to the Umatilla&mdash;In the Lodge of Stickas, the Walla-Walla Chief&mdash;The
+Warning of Stickas and His Family&mdash;The Death Song&mdash;"Beware
+of the Cayuses at the Mission!"&mdash;Mr. Spaulding meets Brouillet, the
+Catholic Bishop&mdash;News of the Massacre&mdash;Escape to the Woods&mdash;Night
+Journeys to Lapwai,        <span class="pgnum">334</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Tragedy at Waiilatpu&mdash;Dr. Whitman's Arrival at Home&mdash;Monday
+Morning at the Mission&mdash;Commencement of the Massacre&mdash;The First
+Victim&mdash;"Oh, the Indians!"&mdash;Horrors of the Attack&mdash;Shooting of Mrs.
+Whitman&mdash;Treachery of Jo Lewis&mdash;Sufferings of the Children&mdash;Indian
+Orgies&mdash;The Victims Tortured&mdash;The Two Compassionate Indians&mdash;A
+Night of Horror&mdash;Remarkable Escape of Mr. Osborne and Family&mdash;Escape
+and Fate of Mr. Hall&mdash;Cruel Treatment of Fugitives&mdash;Kindness
+of Mr. Stanley&mdash;Inhospitable Reception at Fort Walla-Walla&mdash;Touching
+Kindness of Stickas,        <span class="pgnum">344</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Horrors of the Waiilatpu Massacre&mdash;Exemption of the Catholics&mdash;Charges
+of the Protestants&mdash;Natural Suspicions&mdash;Further Particulars of the Massacre&mdash;Cruelty
+to the Children&mdash;Fate of the Young Women&mdash;Miss
+Bulee and the Priests&mdash;Lapwai Mission&mdash;Arrival of Mr. Camfield&mdash;An
+Indian Trait&mdash;Heroism of Mrs. Spalding&mdash;Appeal to the Chiefs&mdash;Arrival
+of the News&mdash;Lapwai Plundered&mdash;Treachery of Joseph&mdash;Arrival of Mr.
+Spalding&mdash;Detained as Hostages&mdash;Ransomed by the H.B. Company&mdash;The
+"Blood of the Martyrs"&mdash;Country Abandoned to the Indians&mdash;Subsequent
+Return of Mr. Spalding to the Nez Perces,        <span class="pgnum">353</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Call to Arms&mdash;Meetings and Speeches&mdash;Ways and Means of Defence&mdash;The
+first Regiment of Oregon Riflemen&mdash;Messenger to the Governor
+of California&mdash;Meek Chosen Messenger to the President of the
+United States&mdash;He Proceeds to the Dalles&mdash;The Army Marches to
+Waiilatpu&mdash;A Skirmish with the Des Chutes&mdash;Burial of the Victims&mdash;Meek
+Escorted to the Blue Mountains,        <span class="pgnum">362</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X&nbsp;I&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Meek's Party&mdash;Precautions against Indians&mdash;Meeting with Bannacks&mdash;White
+Lies&mdash;Fort Hall&mdash;Deep Snows&mdash;Horses Abandoned&mdash;The Mountain
+Spirit Returning&mdash;Meeting with Peg-Leg Smith&mdash;A Mountain
+Revel&mdash;Meeting with An Old Leader&mdash;Reception at Fort Laramie&mdash;Passing
+the Sioux Village&mdash;Courtesy of a French Trader&mdash;Reflections
+on Nearing the Settlements&mdash;Resolve to Remain Joe Meek&mdash;Reception
+at St. Joseph&mdash;"The Quickest Trip Yet"&mdash;Arrival at St. Louis&mdash;Meek
+as Steamboat Runner&mdash;Interview with the Stage Agent at Wheeling&mdash;Astonishing
+the Natives&mdash;The Puzzled Conductor&mdash;Arrival at Washington,        <span class="pgnum">368</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Meek Dines at Coleman's&mdash;A Sensation&mdash;An Amusing Scene&mdash;Recognized
+by Senator Underwood&mdash;Visit to the President&mdash;Cordial Reception
+by the Family of Polk&mdash;Some Doubts of Himself&mdash;Rapid Recovery
+of Self-Possession&mdash;Action of the Friends of Oregon&mdash;The Two Oregon
+Representatives&mdash;The Oregon Bill in the Senate&mdash;Mr. Thornton&mdash;Meek's
+Successful Debut in Society&mdash;Curiosity of Ladies&mdash;Kit Carson
+and the "Contingent Fund"&mdash;Meek's Remarkable Popularity&mdash;Invited
+to Baltimore by the City Council&mdash;Escorts the President&mdash;Visit to
+Lowell&mdash;The Factory Girls&mdash;Some Natural Regrets&mdash;Kindness of Mrs.
+Polk and Mrs. Walker&mdash;Commodore Wilkes&mdash;Oregon Lies&mdash;Getting
+Franked&mdash;Champagne Suppers,        <span class="pgnum">381</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Meek Appointed U.S. Marshal for Oregon&mdash;"Home Sweet Home"&mdash;Pay
+of the Delegates&mdash;The Lion's Share&mdash;Meek's Interview with Gov.
+Lane&mdash;Buying out a Peddler&mdash;The Escort of Riflemen&mdash;The Start from
+St. Louis, and the Route&mdash;Meeting Price's Army&mdash;An Adventure and
+a Pleasant Surprise&mdash;Leaving the Wagons&mdash;Desertion of Soldiers&mdash;Drought&mdash;The
+Trick of the Yumas&mdash;Demoralization of the Train&mdash;Rumors
+of Gold&mdash;Gen. Lane's Coffee&mdash;The Writer's Reflection&mdash;The
+Party on Foot&mdash;Extreme Sufferings&mdash;Arrival at William's Ranch&mdash;Speculation
+in Silks and Jack-Knives&mdash;Miners at Los Angelos&mdash;Oregonians
+at San Francisco&mdash;Nat Lane and Meek Take the Gold Fever&mdash;Meek's
+Investment&mdash;The Governor and Marshal Quarrel&mdash;Pranks
+with a Jew&mdash;A Salute&mdash;Arrival in Oregon City,        <span class="pgnum">394</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Lane's Course with the Cayuse Indians&mdash;Magnanimity of the Savages&mdash;Rebuke
+to Their Captors&mdash;Their Statements to Meek&mdash;The Puzzle of
+Indian Ethics&mdash;Incidents of the Trial and Execution&mdash;State of the
+Upper Country for A Term of Years&mdash;How Meek Was Received in Oregon&mdash;His
+Incurable Waggishness&mdash;Scene in a Court-Room&mdash;Contempt
+of Court&mdash;Judge Nelson and the Carpenters&mdash;Two Hundred Lies&mdash;An
+Excursion by the Oregon Court&mdash;Indians Tried for Murder&mdash;Proceedings
+of a Jury&mdash;Sentence and Execution of the Indians&mdash;The Chief's
+Wife&mdash;Cost of Proceedings&mdash;Lane's Career in Oregon&mdash;Gov. Davis,        <span class="pgnum">408</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X&nbsp;X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Meek as U.S. Marshal&mdash;The Captain of the Melvin&mdash;The British Smuggler&mdash;Returning
+a Compliment&mdash;"Barly Enough for the Officers of the
+Court"&mdash;Misused Confidence&mdash;Indian Disturbances&mdash;The Indian War
+of 1855-6&mdash;Gen. Wool and Gov. Curry&mdash;Officers of the War&mdash;How the
+Volunteers Fared&mdash;Meek as a Volunteer&mdash;Feasting and Fun&mdash;"Marking
+Time"&mdash;End of Meek's Public Career,        <span class="pgnum">417</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<table summary="illustrations">
+
+
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i004">English Tourists' Camp&mdash;Doubtful Friends.</a></span>&mdash;<i>Frontispiece.</i>
+</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i022">Winter Couriers of the North-West Fur Company</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">23</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i031">A Station of the Hudson's Bay Company</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">30</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i042">Watching for Indian Horse-Thieves</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">38</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i044">Map of the Fur Country</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">40</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i046">The Enlistment</a></span>, </td>
+<td class="tdr">42</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i053">The Summer Rendezvous</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">48</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i074">Beavers at Work</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">66</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i091">Hunters' Winter Camp</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">81</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i101">The Three "Bares,"</a></span></td>
+<td class="tdr">92</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i106">The Wrong End of the Tree</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">94</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i145">Scouts in the Blackfoot Country&mdash;"Elk or Indians?"</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">132</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i166">Branding Cattle in Southern California</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">150</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i171">A Fight with Camanches&mdash;The Mule Fort</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">155</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i183">View on the Columbia</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">165</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i194">The Free Trapper's Indian Wife</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">177</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">"<span class="smcap"><a href="#i222">Indians, by Jove!</a></span>"</td>
+<td class="tdr">200</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i233">Descending the Blue Mountains</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">211</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i237">The Bear in Camp</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">219</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i245">Satisfied with Bear Fighting</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">221</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i251">Cache</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">227</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i257">The Trapper's Last Shot</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">230</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i259">The Squaw's Escape</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">231</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i273">Horse-Tail Falls</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">245</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i275">A Buffalo Hunt</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">246</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i293">Castle Rock, Columbia River</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">263</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i325">Wrecked in the Rapids</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">294</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i339">A Wild Indian in Town</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">307</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i351">The Cascade Mountain Road-Hunters</a></span>,  </td>
+<td class="tdr">317</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i377">Mount Hood from the Dalles</a></span>, </td>
+<td class="tdr">343</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i379">Massacre of the Whitman Family</a></span>, </td>
+<td class="tdr">344</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i411">Meek as a Steamboat Runner</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">375</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">"<span class="smcap"><a href="#i421">Take Care Knox</a></span>,"  </td>
+<td class="tdr">385</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i427">A Mountain-man in Clover</a></span>,</td>
+<td class="tdr">392</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i440">Gov. Lane and Meek on the Colorado Desert</a></span>, </td>
+<td class="tdr">401</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#i453">Meek as U.S. Marshal&mdash;Scene in a Court-room</a></span>, </td>
+<td class="tdr">413</td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i022" name="i022"></a>
+<img src="images/i022.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">WINTER COURIERS OF THE NORTH-WEST FUR COMPANY.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFATORY_CHAPTER" id="PREFATORY_CHAPTER"></a>PREFATORY CHAPTER.</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<blockquote class="hang2"><p><span class="smcap">An Account of the Hudson's Bay Company's Intercourse with the
+Indians of the North-West Coast; with a Sketch of the Different
+American Fur Companies, and their Dealings with the
+Tribes of the Rocky Mountains.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>In the year 1818, Mr. Prevost, acting for the United States, received Astoria
+back from the British, who had taken possession, as narrated by Mr. Irving,
+four years previous. The restoration took place in conformity with the treaty
+of Ghent, by which those places captured during the war were restored to their
+original possessors. Mr. Astor stood ready at that time to renew his enterprise
+on the Columbia River, had Congress been disposed to grant him the necessary
+protection which the undertaking required. Failing to secure this, when the
+United States sloop of war Ontario sailed away from Astoria, after having
+taken formal possession of that place for our Government, the country was left to
+the occupancy, (scarcely a joint-occupancy, since there were then no Americans
+here,) of the British traders. After the war, and while negotiations were
+going on between Great Britain and the United States, the fort at Astoria had
+remained in possession of the North-West Company, as their principal establishment
+west of the mountains. It had been considerably enlarged since it had
+come into their possession, and was furnished with artillery enough to have
+frightened into friendship a much more warlike people than the subjects of old
+king Comcomly; who, it will be remembered, was not at first very well disposed
+towards the "King George men," having learned to look upon the "Boston
+men" as his friends in his earliest intercourse with the whites. At this time
+Astoria, or <i>Fort George</i>, as the British traders called it, contained sixty-five
+inmates, twenty-three of whom were whites, and the remainder Canadian half-breeds
+and Sandwich Islanders. Besides this number of men, there were a few
+women, the native wives of the men, and their half-breed offspring. The situation
+of Astoria, however, was not favorable, being near the sea coast, and not
+surrounded with good farming lands such as were required for the furnishing
+of provisions to the fort. Therefore, when in 1821 it was destroyed by fire, it
+was only in part rebuilt, but a better and more convenient location for the headquarters
+of the North-West Company was sought for in the interior.</p>
+
+<p>About this time a quarrel of long standing between the Hudson's Bay and
+North-West Companies culminated in a battle between their men in the Red<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+River country, resulting in a considerable loss of life and property. This affair
+drew the attention of the Government at home; the rights of the rival companies
+were examined into, the mediation of the Ministry secured, and a compromise
+effected, by which the North-West Company, which had succeeded in
+dispossessing the Pacific Fur Company under Mr. Astor, was merged into the
+Hudson's Bay Company, whose name and fame are so familiar to all the early
+settlers of Oregon.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, Parliament passed an act by which the hands of the consolidated
+company were much strengthened, and the peace and security of all
+persons greatly insured; but which became subsequently, in the joint occupancy
+of the country, a cause of offence to the American citizens, as we shall see
+hereafter. This act allowed the commissioning of Justices of the Peace in all
+the territories not belonging to the United States, nor already subject to grants.
+These justices were to execute and enforce the laws and decisions of the courts
+of Upper Canada; to take evidence, and commit and send to Canada for trial
+the guilty; and even in some cases, to hold courts themselves for the trial of
+criminal offences and misdemeanors not punishable with death, or of civil causes
+in which the amount at issue should not exceed two hundred pounds.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in 1824, the North-West Company, whose perfidy had occasioned such
+loss and mortification to the enterprising New York merchant, became itself a
+thing of the past, and a new rule began in the region west of the Rocky Mountains.
+The old fort at Astoria having been only so far rebuilt as to answer the
+needs of the hour, after due consideration, a site for head-quarters was selected
+about one hundred miles from the sea, near the mouth of the Wallamet River,
+though opposite to it. Three considerations went to make up the eligibility of
+the point selected. First, it was desirable, even necessary, to settle upon good
+agricultural lands, where the Company's provisions could be raised by the Company's
+servants. Second, it was important that the spot chosen should be upon
+waters navigable for the Company's vessels, or upon tide-water. Lastly, and
+not leastly, the Company had an eye to the boundary question between Great
+Britain and the United States; and believing that the end of the controversy
+would probably be to make the Columbia River the northern limit of the United
+States territory, a spot on the northern bank of that river was considered a
+good point for their fort, and possible future city.</p>
+
+<p>The site chosen by the North-West Company in 1821, for their new fort,
+combined all these advantages, and the further one of having been already
+commenced and named. Fort Vancouver became at once on the accession of
+the Hudson's Bay Company, the metropolis of the northwest coast, the center
+of the fur trade, and the seat of government for that immense territory, over
+which roamed the hunters and trappers in the employ of that powerful corporation.
+This post was situated on the edge of a beautiful sloping plain on the
+northern bank of the Columbia, about six miles above the upper mouth of the
+Wallamet. At this point the Columbia spreads to a great width, and is divided
+on the south side into bayous by long sandy islands, covered with oak, ash, and
+cotton-wood trees, making the noble river more attractive still by adding the
+charm of curiosity concerning its actual breadth to its natural and ordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+magnificence. Back of the fort the land rose gently, covered with forests of fir;
+and away to the east swelled the foot-hills of the Cascade range, then the mountains
+themselves, draped in filmy azure, and over-topped five thousand feet by
+the snowy cone of Mt. Hood.</p>
+
+<p>In this lonely situation grew up, with the dispatch which characterized the
+acts of the Company, a fort in most respects similar to the original one at
+Astoria. It was not, however, thought necessary to make so great a display of
+artillery as had served to keep in order the subjects of Comcomly. A stockade
+enclosed a space about eight hundred feet long by five hundred broad, having
+a bastion at one corner, where were mounted three guns, while two eighteen
+pounders and two swivels were planted in front of the residence of the Governor
+and chief factors. These commanded the main entrance to the fort,
+besides which there were two other gates in front, and another in the rear.
+Military precision was observed in the precautions taken against surprises, as
+well as in all the rules of the place. The gates were opened and closed at
+certain hours, and were always guarded. No large number of Indians were
+permitted within the enclosure at the same time, and every employee at the fort
+knew and performed his duty with punctuality.</p>
+
+<p>The buildings within the stockade were the Governor's and chief factors'
+residences, stores, offices, work-shops, magazines, warehouses, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Year by year, up to 1835 or '40, improvements continued to go on in and
+about the fort, the chief of which was the cultivation of the large farm and
+garden outside the enclosure, and the erection of a hospital building, large barns,
+servants' houses, and a boat-house, all outside of the fort; so that at the period
+when the Columbia River was a romance and a mystery to the people of the
+United States, quite a flourishing and beautiful village adorned its northern
+shore, and that too erected and sustained by the enemies of American enterprise
+on soil commonly believed to belong to the United States: fair foes the
+author firmly believes them to have been in those days, yet foes nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>The system on which the Hudson's Bay Company conducted its business was
+the result of long experience, and was admirable for its method and its justice also.
+When a young man entered its service as a clerk, his wages were small for several
+years, increasing only as his ability and good conduct entitled him to advancement.
+When his salary had reached one hundred pounds sterling he became
+eligible to a chief-tradership as a partner in the concern, from which position
+he was promoted to the rank of a chief factor. No important business was
+ever intrusted to an inexperienced person, a policy which almost certainly prevented
+any serious errors. A regular tariff was established on the Company's
+goods, comprising all the articles used in their trade with the Indians; nor was
+the quality of their goods ever allowed to deteriorate. A price was also fixed
+upon furs according to their market value, and an Indian knowing this, knew
+exactly what he could purchase. No bartering was allowed. When skins
+were offered for sale at the fort they were handed to the clerk through a window
+like a post-office delivery-window, and their value in the article desired,
+returned through the same aperture. All these regulations were of the highest
+importance to the good order, safety, and profit of the Company. The con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>fidence
+of the Indians was sure to be gained by the constancy and good faith
+always observed toward them, and the Company obtained thereby numerous
+and powerful allies in nearly all the tribes.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as it was possible to make the change, the Indians were denied the
+use of intoxicating drinks, the appetite for which had early been introduced
+among them by coasting vessels, and even continued by the Pacific Fur Company
+at Astoria. It would have been dangerous to have suddenly deprived
+them of the coveted stimulus; therefore the practice must be discontinued by
+many wise arts and devices. A public notice was given that the sale of it
+would be stopped, and the reasons for this prohibition explained to the Indians.
+Still, not to come into direct conflict with their appetites, a little was sold to
+the chiefs, now and then, by the clerks, who affected to be running the greatest
+risks in violating the order of the company. The strictest secrecy was enjoined
+on the lucky chief who, by the friendship of some under-clerk, was enabled to
+smuggle off a bottle under his blanket. But the cunning clerk had generally
+managed to get his "good friend" into a state so cleverly between drunk and
+sober, before he entrusted him with the precious bottle, that he was sure to
+betray himself. Leaving the shop with a mien even more erect than usual,
+with a gait affected in its majesty, and his blanket tightened around him to
+conceal his secret treasure, the chuckling chief would start to cross the grounds
+within the fort. If he was a new customer, he was once or twice permitted to
+play his little game with the obliging clerk whose particular friend he was, and
+to escape detection.</p>
+
+<p>But by-and-by, when the officers had seen the offence repeated more than
+once from their purposely contrived posts of observation, one of them would
+skillfully chance to intercept the guilty chief at whose comical endeavors to
+appear sober he was inwardly laughing, and charge him with being intoxicated.
+Wresting away the tightened blanket, the bottle appeared as evidence that
+could not be controverted, of the duplicity of the Indian and the unfaithfulness
+of the clerk, whose name was instantly demanded, that he might be properly
+punished. When the chief again visited the fort, his particular friend met him
+with a sorrowful countenance, reproaching him for having been the cause of
+his disgrace and loss. This reproach was the surest means of preventing another
+demand for rum, the Indian being too magnanimous, probably, to wish to
+get his friend into trouble; while the clerk affected to fear the consequences
+too much to be induced to take the risk another time. Thus by kind and careful
+means the traffic in liquors was at length broken up, which otherwise would
+have ruined both Indian and trader.</p>
+
+<p>To the company's servants liquor was sold or allowed at certain times: to
+those on the sea-board, one half-pint two or three times a year, to be used as
+medicine,&mdash;not that it was always needed or used for this purpose, but too strict
+inquiry into its use was wisely avoided,&mdash;and for this the company demanded
+pay. To their servants in the interior no liquor was sold, but they were furnished
+as a gratuity with one pint on leaving rendezvous, and another on arriving
+at winter quarters. By this management, it became impossible for them to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+dispose of drink to the Indians; their small allowance being always immediately
+consumed in a meeting or parting carouse.</p>
+
+<p>The arrival of men from the interior at Fort Vancouver usually took place
+in the month of June, when the Columbia was high, and a stirring scene it
+was. The chief traders generally contrived their march through the upper
+country, their camps, and their rendezvous, so as to meet the Express which
+annually came to Vancouver from Canada and the Red River settlements.
+They then descended the Columbia together, and arrived in force at the Fort.
+This annual fleet went by the name of Brigade&mdash;a name which suggested a
+military spirit in the crews that their appearance failed to vindicate. Yet,
+though there was nothing warlike in the scene, there was much that was exciting,
+picturesque, and even brilliant; for these <i>couriers de bois</i>, or wood-rangers,
+and the <i>voyageurs</i>, or boatmen, were the most foppish of mortals when they
+came to rendezvous. Then, too, there was an exaltation of spirits on their safe
+arrival at head-quarters, after their year's toil and danger in wildernesses,
+among Indians and wild beasts, exposed to famine and accident, that almost
+deprived them of what is called "common sense," and compelled them to the
+most fantastic excesses.</p>
+
+<p>Their well-understood peculiarities did not make them the less welcome at
+Vancouver. When the cry was given&mdash;"the Brigade! the Brigade!"&mdash;there
+was a general rush to the river's bank to witness the spectacle. In advance
+came the chief-trader's barge, with the company's flag at the bow, and the
+cross of St. George at the stern: the fleet as many abreast as the turnings of
+the river allowed. With strong and skillful strokes the boatmen governed their
+richly laden boats, keeping them in line, and at the same time singing in chorus
+a loud and not unmusical hunting or boating song. The gay ribbons and feathers
+with which the singers were bedecked took nothing from the picturesqueness
+of their appearance. The broad, full river, sparkling in the sunlight,
+gemmed with emerald islands, and bordered with a rich growth of flowering
+shrubbery; the smiling plain surrounding the Fort; the distant mountains,
+where glittered the sentinel Mt. Hood, all came gracefully into the picture, and
+seemed to furnish a fitting back-ground and middle distance for the bright bit
+of coloring given by the moving life in the scene. As with a skillful sweep the
+brigade touched the bank, and the traders and men sprang on shore, the first
+cheer which had welcomed their appearance was heartily repeated, while a gay
+clamor of questions and answers followed.</p>
+
+<p>After the business immediately incident to their arrival had been dispatched,
+then took place the regale of pork, flour, and spirits, which was sure to end in
+a carouse, during which blackened eyes and broken noses were not at all uncommon;
+but though blood was made to flow, life was never put seriously in
+peril, and the belligerent parties were the best of friends when the fracas was
+ended.</p>
+
+<p>The business of exchange being completed in three or four weeks&mdash;the rich
+stores of peltries consigned to their places in the warehouse, and the boats reladen
+with goods for the next year's trade with the Indians in the upper country,
+a parting carouse took place, and with another parade of feathers, ribbons, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+other finery, the brigade departed with songs and cheers as it had come, but
+with probably heavier hearts.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a stern morality indeed which could look upon the excesses of
+this peculiar class as it would upon the same excesses committed by men in the
+enjoyment of all the comforts and pleasures of civilized life. For them, during
+most of the year, was only an out-door life of toil, watchfulness, peril, and
+isolation. When they arrived at the rendezvous, for the brief period of their
+stay they were allowed perfect license because nothing else would content
+them. Although at head-quarters they were still in the wilderness, thousands
+of miles from civilization, with no chance of such recreations as men in the
+continual enjoyment of life's sweetest pleasures would naturally seek. For
+them there was only one method of seeking and finding temporary oblivion of
+the accustomed hardship; and whatever may be the strict rendering of man's
+duty as an immortal being, we cannot help being somewhat lenient at times to
+his errors as a mortal.</p>
+
+<p>After the departure of the boats, there was another arrival at the Fort, of
+trappers from the Snake River country. Previous to 1832, such were the dangers
+of the fur trade in this region, that only the most experienced traders
+were suffered to conduct a party through it; and even they were frequently
+attacked, and sometimes sustained serious losses of men and animals. Subsequently,
+however, the Hudson's Bay Company obtained such an influence over
+even these hostile tribes as to make it safe for a party of no more than two of
+their men to travel through this much dreaded region.</p>
+
+<p>There was another important arrival at Fort Vancouver, usually in midsummer.
+This was the Company's supply ship from London. In the possible
+event of a vessel being lost, one cargo was always kept on store at Vancouver;
+but for which wise regulation much trouble and disaster might have resulted,
+especially in the early days of the establishment. Occasionally a vessel foundered
+at sea or was lost on the bar of the Columbia; but these losses did not
+interrupt the regular transaction of business. The arrival of a ship from London
+was the occasion of great bustle and excitement also. She brought not
+only goods for the posts throughout the district of the Columbia, but letters,
+papers, private parcels, and all that seemed of so much value to the little
+isolated world at the Fort.</p>
+
+<p>A company conducting its business with such method and regularity as has
+been described, was certain of success. Yet some credit also must attach to
+certain individuals in its service, whose faithfulness, zeal, and ability in carrying
+out its designs, contributed largely to its welfare. Such a man was at the
+head of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs in the large and important district
+west of the Rocky Mountains. The Company never had in its service a
+more efficient man than Gov. John McLaughlin, more commonly called Dr.
+McLaughlin.</p>
+
+<p>To the discipline, at once severe and just, which Dr. McLaughlin maintained
+in his district, was due the safety and prosperity of the company he served,
+and the servants of that company generally; as well as, at a later period, of
+the emigration which followed the hunter and trapper into the wilds of Oregon.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+Careful as were all the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, they could not
+always avoid conflicts with the Indians; nor was their kindness and justice
+always sufficiently appreciated to prevent the outbreak of savage instincts.
+Fort Vancouver had been threatened in an early day; a vessel or two had
+been lost in which the Indians were suspected to have been implicated; at
+long intervals a trader was murdered in the interior; or more frequently,
+Indian insolence put to the test both the wisdom and courage of the officers to
+prevent an outbreak.</p>
+
+<p>When murders and robberies were committed, it was the custom at Fort
+Vancouver to send a strong party to demand the offenders from their tribe;
+Such was the well known power and influence of the Company, and such the
+wholesome fear of the "King George men," that this demand was never resisted,
+and if the murderer could be found he was given up to be hung according
+to "King George" laws. They were almost equally impelled to good conduct
+by the state of dependence on the company into which they had been
+brought. Once they had subsisted and clothed themselves from the spoils of
+the rivers and forest; since they had tasted of the tree of knowledge of good
+and evil, they could no more return to skins for raiment, nor to game alone for
+food. Blankets and flour, beads, guns, and ammunition had become dear to
+their hearts: for all these things they must love and obey the Hudson's Bay
+Company. Another fine stroke of policy in the Company was to destroy the
+chieftain-ships in the various tribes; thus weakening them by dividing them
+and preventing dangerous coalitions of the leading spirits: for in savage as
+well as civilized life, the many are governed by the few.</p>
+
+<p>It may not be uninteresting in this place to give a few anecdotes of the manner
+in which conflicts with the Indians were prevented, or offences punished
+by the Hudson's Bay Company. In the year 1828 the ship <i>William and Ann</i>
+was cast away just inside the bar of the Columbia, under circumstances which
+seemed to direct suspicion to the Indians in that vicinity. Whether or not
+they had attacked the ship, not a soul was saved from the wreck to tell how
+she was lost. On hearing that the ship had gone to pieces, and that the Indians
+had appropriated a portion of her cargo, Dr. McLaughlin sent a message
+to the chiefs, demanding restitution of the stolen goods. Nothing was returned
+by the messenger except one or two worthless articles. Immediately an armed
+force was sent to the scene of the robbery with a fresh demand for the goods,
+which the chiefs, in view of their spoils, thought proper to resist by firing upon
+the reclaiming party. But they were not unprepared; and a swivel was discharged
+to let the savages know what they might expect in the way of firearms.
+The argument was conclusive, the Indians fleeing into the woods.
+While making search for the goods, a portion of which were found, a chief
+was observed skulking near, and cocking his gun; on which motion one of the
+men fired, and he fell. This prompt action, the justice of which the Indians
+well understood, and the intimidating power of the swivel, put an end to the incipient
+war. Care was then taken to impress upon their minds that they must
+not expect to profit by the disasters of vessels, nor be tempted to murder white
+men for the sake of plunder. The <i>William and Ann</i> was supposed to have got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+aground, when the savages seeing her situation, boarded her and murdered the
+crew for the cargo which they knew her to contain. Yet as there were no positive
+proofs, only such measures were taken as would deter them from a similar
+attempt in future. That the lesson was not lost, was proven two years later,
+when the <i>Isabella</i>, from London, struck on the bar, her crew deserting her. In
+this instance no attempt was made to meddle with the vessel's cargo; and as
+the crew made their way to Vancouver, the goods were nearly all saved.</p>
+
+<p>In a former voyage of the <i>William and Ann</i> to the Columbia River, she had
+been sent on an exploring expedition to the Gulf of Georgia to discover the
+mouth of Frazier's River, having on board a crew of forty men. Whenever
+the ship came to anchor, two sentries were kept constantly on deck to guard
+against any surprise or misconduct on the part of the Indians; so adroit, however,
+were they in the light-fingered art, that every one of the eight cannon
+with which the ship was armed was robbed of its ammunition, as was discovered
+on leaving the river! Such incidents as these served to impress the minds of
+the Company's officers and servants with the necessity of vigilance in their dealings
+with the savages.</p>
+
+<p>Not all their vigilance could at all times avail to prevent mischief. When
+Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, was on a visit
+to Vancouver in 1829, he was made aware of this truism. The Governor was
+on his return to Canada by way of the Red River Settlement, and had reached
+the Dalles of the Columbia with his party. In making the portage at this
+place, all the party except Dr. Tod gave their guns into the charge of two men
+to prevent their being stolen by the Indians, who crowded about, and whose
+well-known bad character made great care needful. All went well, no attempt
+to seize either guns or other property being made until at the end of the portage
+the boats had been reloaded. As the party were about to re-embark, a
+simultaneous rush was made by the Indians who had dogged their steps, to get
+possession of the boats. Dr. Tod raised his gun immediately, aiming at the
+head chief, who, not liking the prospect of so speedy dissolution, ordered his
+followers to desist, and the party were suffered to escape. It was soon after
+discovered that every gun belonging to the party in the boat had been wet,
+excepting the one carried by Dr. Tod; and to the fact that the Doctor did carry
+his gun, all the others owed their lives.</p>
+
+<p>The great desire of the Indians for guns and ammunition led to many stratagems
+which were dangerous to the possessors of the coveted articles. Much
+more dangerous would it have been to have allowed them a free supply of these
+things; nor could an Indian purchase from the Company more than a stated
+supply, which was to be used, not for the purposes of war, but to keep himself
+in game.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i031" name="i031"></a>
+<img src="images/i031.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">A STATION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Dr. McLaughlin was himself once quite near falling into a trap of the Indians,
+so cunningly laid as to puzzle even him. This was a report brought to him
+by a deputation of Columbia River Indians, stating the startling fact that the
+fort at Nesqually had been attacked, and every inmate slaughtered. To this
+horrible story, told with every appearance of truth, the Doctor listened with
+incredulity mingled with apprehension. The Indians were closely questioned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+and cross-questioned, but did not conflict in their testimony. The matter assumed
+a very painful aspect. Not to be deceived, the Doctor had the unwelcome
+messengers committed to custody while he could bring other witnesses
+from their tribe. But they were prepared for this, and the whole tribe were as
+positive as those who brought the tale. Confounded by this cloud of witnesses,
+Dr. McLaughlin had almost determined upon sending an armed force to Nesqually
+to inquire into the matter, and if necessary, punish the Indians, when a
+detachment of men arrived from that post, and the plot was exposed! The
+design of the Indians had been simply to cause a division of the force at Vancouver,
+after which they believed they might succeed in capturing and plundering
+the fort. Had they truly been successful in this undertaking, every other
+trading-post in the country would have been destroyed. But so long as the
+head-quarters of the Company remained secure and powerful, the other stations
+were comparatively safe.</p>
+
+<p>An incident which has been several times related, occurred at fort Walla-Walla,
+and shows how narrow escapes the interior traders sometimes made.
+The hero of this anecdote was Mr. McKinlay, one of the most estimable of the
+Hudson's Bay Company's officers, in charge of the fort just named. An Indian
+was one day lounging about the fort, and seeing some timbers lying in a heap
+that had been squared for pack saddles, helped himself to one and commenced
+cutting it down into a whip handle for his own use. To this procedure Mr.
+McKinlay's clerk demurred, first telling the Indian its use, and then ordering
+him to resign the piece of timber. The Indian insolently replied that the timber
+was his, and he should take it. At this the clerk, with more temper than
+prudence, struck the offender, knocking him over, soon after which the savage
+left the fort with sullen looks boding vengeance. The next day Mr. McKinlay,
+not being informed of what had taken place, was in a room of the fort with his
+clerk when a considerable party of Indians began dropping quietly in until
+there were fifteen or twenty of them inside the building. The first intimation
+of anything wrong McKinlay received was when he observed the clerk pointed
+out in a particular manner by one of the party. He instantly comprehended
+the purpose of his visitors, and with that quickness of thought which is habitual
+to the student of savage nature, he rushed into the store room and returned
+with a powder keg, flint and steel. By this time the unlucky clerk was struggling
+for his life with his vindictive foes. Putting down the powder in their
+midst and knocking out the head of the keg with a blow, McKinlay stood over
+it ready to strike fire with his flint and steel. The savages paused aghast.
+They knew the nature of the "perilous stuff," and also understood the trader's
+purpose. "Come," said he with a clear, determined voice, "you are twenty
+braves against us two: now touch him if you dare, and see who dies first." In
+a moment the fort was cleared, and McKinlay was left to inquire the cause of
+what had so nearly been a tragedy. It is hardly a subject of doubt whether or
+not his clerk got a scolding. Soon after, such was the powerful influence
+exerted by these gentlemen, the chief of the tribe flogged the pilfering Indian
+for the offence, and McKinlay became a great brave, a "big heart" for his
+courage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was indeed necessary to have courage, patience, and prudence in dealing
+with the Indians. These the Hudson's Bay officers generally possessed. Perhaps
+the most irascible of them all in the Columbia District, was their chief,
+Dr. McLaughlin; but such was his goodness and justice that even the savages
+recognized it, and he was <i>hyas tyee</i>, or great chief, in all respects to them.
+Being on one occasion very much annoyed by the pertinacity of an Indian who
+was continually demanding pay for some stones with which the Doctor was
+having a vessel ballasted, he seized one of some size, and thrusting it in the
+Indian's mouth, cried out in a furious manner, "pay, pay! if the stones are
+yours, take them and eat them, you rascal! Pay, pay! the devil! the devil!"
+upon which explosion of wrath, the native owner of the soil thought it prudent
+to withdraw his immediate claims.</p>
+
+<p>There was more, however, in the Doctor's action than mere indulgence of
+wrath. He understood perfectly that the savage values only what he can eat
+and wear, and that as he could not put the stones to either of these uses, his
+demand for pay was an impudent one.</p>
+
+<p>Enough has been said to give the reader an insight into Indian character, to
+prepare his mind for events which are to follow, to convey an idea of the influence
+of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to show on what it was founded.
+The American Fur Companies will now be sketched, and their mode of dealing
+with the Indians contrasted with that of the British Company. The comparison
+will not be favorable; but should any unfairness be suspected, a reference
+to Mr. Irving's <i>Bonneville</i>, will show that the worthy Captain was forced to
+witness against his own countrymen in his narrative of his hunting and trading
+adventures in the Rocky Mountains.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The dissolution of the Pacific Fur Company, the refusal of the United States
+Government to protect Mr. Astor in a second attempt to carry on a commerce
+with the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains, and the occupation of that
+country by British traders, had the effect to deter individual enterprise from
+again attempting to establish commerce on the Pacific coast. The people
+waited for the Government to take some steps toward the encouragement of a
+trans-continental trade; the Government beholding the lion (British) in the
+way, waited for the expiration of the convention of 1818, in the Micawber-like
+hope that something would "turn up" to settle the question of territorial sovereignty.
+The war of 1812 had been begun on the part of Great Britain, to
+secure the great western territories to herself for the profits of the fur trade,
+almost solely. Failing in this, she had been compelled, by the treaty of Ghent,
+to restore to the United States all the places and forts captured during that
+war. Yet the forts and trading posts in the west remained practically in the
+possession of Great Britain; for her traders and fur companies still roamed the
+country, excluding American trade, and inciting (so the frontiers-men believed),
+the Indians to acts of blood and horror.</p>
+
+<p>Congress being importuned by the people of the West, finally, in 1815, passed
+an act expelling British traders from American territory east of the Rocky
+Mountains. Following the passage of this act the hunters and trappers of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+old North American Company, at the head of which Mr. Astor still remained,
+began to range the country about the head waters of the Mississippi and the
+upper Missouri. Also a few American traders had ventured into the northern
+provinces of Mexico, previous to the overthrow of the Spanish Government;
+and after that event, a thriving trade grew up between St. Louis and Santa Fé.</p>
+
+<p>At length, in 1823, Mr. W.H. Ashley, of St. Louis, a merchant for a long
+time engaged in the fur trade on the Missouri and its tributaries, determined to
+push a trading party up to or beyond the Rocky Mountains. Following up
+the Platte River, Mr. Ashley proceeded at the head of a large party with horses
+and merchandise, as far as the northern branch of the Platte, called the Sweetwater.
+This he explored to its source, situated in that remarkable depression
+in the Rocky Mountains, known as the South Pass&mdash;the same which Fremont
+<i>discovered</i> twenty years later, during which twenty years it was annually traveled
+by trading parties, and just prior to Fremont's discovery, by missionaries
+and emigrants destined to Oregon. To Mr. Ashley also belongs the credit of
+having first explored the head-waters of the Colorado, called the Green River,
+afterwards a favorite rendezvous of the American Fur Companies. The country
+about the South Pass proved to be an entirely new hunting ground, and
+very rich in furs, as here many rivers take their rise, whose head-waters furnished
+abundant beaver. Here Mr. Ashley spent the summer, returning to St.
+Louis in the fall with a valuable collection of skins.</p>
+
+<p>In 1824, Mr. Ashley repeated the expedition, extending it this time beyond
+Green River as far as Great Salt Lake, near which to the south he discovered
+another smaller lake, which he named Lake Ashley, after himself. On the
+shores of this lake he built a fort for trading with the Indians, and leaving in it
+about one hundred men, returned to St. Louis the second time with a large
+amount of furs. During the time the fort was occupied by Mr. Ashley's men, a
+period of three years, more than one hundred and eighty thousand dollars worth
+of furs were collected and sent to St. Louis. In 1827, the fort, and all Mr.
+Ashley's interest in the business, was sold to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company,
+at the head of which were Jedediah Smith, William Sublette, and David
+Jackson, Sublette being the leading spirit in the Company.</p>
+
+<p>The custom of these enterprising traders, who had been in the mountains
+since 1824, was to divide their force, each taking his command to a good hunting
+ground, and returning at stated times to rendezvous, generally appointed
+on the head-waters of Green River. Frequently the other fur companies, (for
+there were other companies formed on the heels of Ashley's enterprise,) learning
+of the place appointed for the yearly rendezvous, brought their goods to
+the same resort, when an intense rivalry was exhibited by the several traders
+as to which company should soonest dispose of its goods, getting, of course, the
+largest amount of furs from the trappers and Indians. So great was the competition
+in the years between 1826 and 1829, when there were about six hundred
+American trappers in and about the Rocky Mountains, besides those of
+the Hudson's Bay Company, that it was death for a man of one company to
+dispose of his furs to a rival association. Even a "free trapper"&mdash;that is, one
+not indentured, but hunting upon certain terms of agreement concerning the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+price of his furs and the cost of his outfit, only, dared not sell to any other
+company than the one he had agreed with.</p>
+
+<p>Jedediah Smith, of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, during their first
+year in the mountains, took a party of five trappers into Oregon, being the
+first American, trader or other, to cross into that country since the breaking
+up of Mr. Astor's establishment. He trapped on the head-waters of the Snake
+River until autumn, when he fell in with a party of Hudson's Bay trappers,
+and going with them to their post in the Flathead country, wintered there.</p>
+
+<p>Again, in 1826, Smith, Sublette, and Jackson, brought out a large number of
+men to trap in the Snake River country, and entered into direct competition
+with the Hudson's Bay Company, whom they opposed with hardly a degree
+more of zeal than they competed with rival American traders: this one extra
+degree being inspired by a "spirit of '76" toward anything British.</p>
+
+<p>After the Rocky Mountain Fur Company had extended its business by the
+purchase of Mr. Ashley's interest, the partners determined to push their enterprise
+to the Pacific coast, regardless of the opposition they were likely to encounter
+from the Hudson's Bay traders. Accordingly, in the spring of 1827,
+the Company was divided up into three parts, to be led separately, by different
+routes, into the Indian Territory, nearer the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Smith's route was from the Platte River, southwards to Santa Fé, thence to
+the bay of San Francisco, and thence along the coast to the Columbia River.
+His party were successful, and had arrived in the autumn of the following year
+at the Umpqua River, about two hundred miles south of the Columbia, in
+safety. Here one of those sudden reverses to which the "mountain-man" is
+liable at any moment, overtook him. His party at this time consisted of thirteen
+men, with their horses, and a collection of furs valued at twenty thousand
+dollars. Arrived at the Umpqua, they encamped for the night on its southern
+bank, unaware that the natives in this vicinity (the Shastas) were more fierce
+and treacherous than the indolent tribes of California, for whom, probably,
+they had a great contempt. All went well until the following morning, the
+Indians hanging about the camp, but apparently friendly. Smith had just
+breakfasted, and was occupied in looking for a fording-place for the animals,
+being on a raft, and having with him a little Englishman and one Indian.
+When they were in the middle of the river the Indian snatched Smith's gun
+and jumped into the water. At the same instant a yell from the camp, which
+was in sight, proclaimed that it was attacked. Quick as thought Smith
+snatched the Englishman's gun, and shot dead the Indian in the river.</p>
+
+<p>To return to the camp was certain death. Already several of his men had
+fallen; overpowered by numbers he could not hope that any would escape, and
+nothing was left him but flight. He succeeded in getting to the opposite shore
+with his raft before he could be intercepted, and fled with his companion, on
+foot and with only one gun, and no provisions, to the mountains that border
+the river. With great good fortune they were enabled to pass through the remaining
+two hundred miles of their journey without accident, though not without
+suffering, and reach Fort Vancouver in a destitute condition, where they
+were kindly cared for.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Of the men left in camp, only two escaped. One man named Black defended
+himself until he saw an opportunity for flight, when he escaped to the
+cover of the woods, and finally to a friendly tribe farther north, near the coast,
+who piloted him to Vancouver. The remaining man was one Turner, of a very
+powerful frame, who was doing camp duty as cook on this eventful morning.
+When the Indians rushed upon him he defended himself with a huge firebrand,
+or half-burnt poplar stick, with which he laid about him like Sampson, killing
+four red-skins before he saw a chance of escape. Singularly, for one in his extremity,
+he did escape, and also arrived at Vancouver that winter.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. McLaughlin received the unlucky trader and his three surviving men
+with every mark and expression of kindness, and entertained them through the
+winter. Not only this, but he dispatched a strong, armed party to the scene
+of the disaster to punish the Indians and recover the stolen goods; all of which
+was done at his own expense, both as an act of friendship toward his American
+rivals, and as necessary to the discipline which they everywhere maintained
+among the Indians. Should this offence go unpunished, the next attack might
+be upon one of his own parties going annually down into California. Sir
+George Simpson, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, chanced to be
+spending the winter at Vancouver. He offered to send Smith to London the
+following summer, in the Company's vessel, where he might dispose of his furs
+to advantage; but Smith declined this offer, and finally sold his furs to Dr.
+McLaughlin, and returned in the spring to the Rocky Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>On Sublette's return from St. Louis, in the summer of 1829, with men and
+merchandise for the year's trade, he became uneasy on account of Smith's protracted
+absence. According to a previous plan, he took a large party into the
+Snake River country to hunt. Among the recruits from St. Louis was Joseph
+L. Meek, the subject of the narrative following this chapter. Sublette not
+meeting with Smith's party on its way from the Columbia, as he still hoped, at
+length detailed a party to look for him on the head-waters of the Snake. Meek
+was one of the men sent to look for the missing partner, whom he discovered
+at length in Pierre's Hole, a deep valley in the mountains, from which issues
+the Snake River in many living streams. Smith returned with the men to
+camp, where the tale of his disasters was received after the manner of mountain-men,
+simply declaring with a momentarily sobered countenance, that their
+comrade has not been "in luck;" with which brief and equivocal expression
+of sympathy the subject is dismissed. To dwell on the dangers incident to
+their calling would be to half disarm themselves of their necessary courage;
+and it is only when they are gathered about the fire in their winter camp, that
+they indulge in tales of wild adventure and "hair-breadth 'scapes," or make
+sorrowful reference to a comrade lost.</p>
+
+<p>Influenced by the hospitable treatment which Smith had received at the
+hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, the partners now determined to withdraw
+from competition with them in the Snake country, and to trap upon the
+waters of the Colorado, in the neighborhood of their fort. But "luck," the
+mountain-man's Providence, seemed to have deserted Smith. In crossing the
+Colorado River with a considerable collection of skins, he was again attacked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+by Indians, and only escaped by losing all his property. He then went to St.
+Louis for a supply of merchandise, and fitted out a trading party for Santa Fé;
+but on his way to that place was killed in an encounter with the savages.</p>
+
+<p>Turner, the man who so valiantly wielded the firebrand on the Umpqua
+River, several years later met with a similar adventure on the Rogue River, in
+Southern Oregon, and was the means of saving the lives of his party by his
+courage, strength, and alertness. He finally, when trapping had become unprofitable,
+retired upon a farm in the Wallamet Valley, as did many other
+mountain-men who survived the dangers of their perilous trade.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Smith, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company continued its
+operations under the command of Bridger, Fitzpatrick, and Milton Sublette,
+brother of William. In the spring of 1830 they received about two hundred
+recruits, and with little variation kept up their number of three or four hundred
+men for a period of eight or ten years longer, or until the beaver were hunted
+out of every nook and corner of the Rocky Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Previous to 1835, there were in and about the Rocky Mountains, beside the
+"American" and "Rocky Mountain" companies, the St. Louis Company, and
+eight or ten "lone traders." Among these latter were William Sublette,
+Robert Campbell, J.O. Pattie, Mr. Pilcher, Col. Charles Bent, St. Vrain,
+William Bent, Mr. Gant, and Mr. Blackwell. All these companies and
+traders more or less frequently penetrated into the countries of New Mexico,
+Old Mexico, Sonora, and California; returning sometimes through the mountain
+regions of the latter State, by the Humboldt River to the head-waters of
+the Colorado. Seldom, in all their journeys, did they intrude on that portion
+of the Indian Territory lying within three hundred miles of Fort Vancouver,
+or which forms the area of the present State of Oregon.</p>
+
+<p>Up to 1832, the fur trade in the West had been chiefly conducted by merchants
+from the frontier cities, especially by those of St. Louis. The old
+"North American" was the only exception. But in the spring of this year,
+Captain Bonneville, an United States officer on furlough, led a company of a
+hundred men, with a train of wagons, horses and mules, with merchandise, into
+the trapping grounds of the Rocky Mountains. His wagons were the first that
+had ever crossed the summit of these mountains, though William Sublette had,
+two or three years previous, brought wagons as far as the valley of the Wind
+River, on the east side of the range. Captain Bonneville remained nearly
+three years in the hunting and trapping grounds, taking parties of men into
+the Colorado, Humboldt, and Sacramento valleys; but he realized no profits
+from his expedition, being opposed and competed with by both British and
+American traders of larger experience.</p>
+
+<p>But Captain Bonneville's venture was a fortunate one compared with that
+of Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth of Massachusetts, who also crossed the continent in
+1832, with the view of establishing a trade on the Columbia River. Mr. Wyeth
+brought with him a small party of men, all inexperienced in frontier or mountain
+life, and destined for a salmon fishery on the Columbia. He had reached
+Independence, Missouri, the last station before plunging into the wilderness, and
+found himself somewhat at a loss how to proceed, until, at this juncture, he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+overtaken by the party of William Sublette, from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains,
+with whom he travelled in company to the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole.</p>
+
+<p>When Wyeth arrived at the Columbia River, after tarrying until he had
+acquired some mountain experiences, he found that his vessel, which was loaded
+with merchandise for the Columbia River trade, had not arrived. He remained
+at Vancouver through the winter, the guest of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+and either having learned or surmised that his vessel was wrecked, returned to
+the United States in the following year. Not discouraged, however, he made
+another venture in 1834, despatching the ship <i>May Dacre</i>, Captain Lambert,
+for the Columbia River, with another cargo of Indian goods, traveling himself
+overland with a party of two hundred men, and a considerable quantity of merchandise
+which he expected to sell to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In
+this expectation he was defeated by William Sublette, who had also brought out
+a large assortment of goods for the Indian trade, and had sold out, supplying
+the market, before Mr. Wyeth arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Wyeth then built a post, named Fort Hall, on Snake River, at the junction
+of the Portneuf, where he stored his goods, and having detached most of his
+men in trapping parties, proceeded to the Columbia River to meet the <i>May
+Dacre</i>. He reached the Columbia about the same time with his vessel, and
+proceeded at once to erect a salmon fishery. To forward this purpose he built
+a post, called Fort William, on the lower end of Wappatoo (now known as
+Sauvie's) Island, near where the Lower Wallamet falls into the Columbia. But
+for various reasons he found the business on which he had entered unprofitable.
+He had much trouble with the Indians, his men were killed or drowned, so that
+by the time he had half a cargo of fish, he was ready to abandon the effort to
+establish a commerce with the Oregon Indians, and was satisfied that no enterprise
+less stupendous and powerful than that of the Hudson's Bay Company
+could be long sustained in that country.</p>
+
+<p>Much complaint was subsequently made by Americans, chiefly Missionaries,
+of the conduct of that company in not allowing Mr. Wyeth to purchase beaver
+skins of the Indians, but Mr. Wyeth himself made no such complaint. Personally,
+he was treated with unvarying kindness, courtesy, and hospitality. As a
+trader, they would not permit him to undersell them. In truth, they no doubt
+wished him away; because competition would soon ruin the business of either,
+and they liked not to have the Indians taught to expect more than their furs
+were worth, nor to have the Indians' confidence in themselves destroyed or
+tampered with.</p>
+
+<p>The Hudson's Bay Company were hardly so unfriendly to him as the American
+companies; since to the former he was enabled to sell his goods and fort on
+the Snake River, before he returned to the United States, which he did in 1835.</p>
+
+<p>The sale of Fort Hall to the Hudson's Bay Company was a finishing blow at
+the American fur trade in the Rocky Mountains, which after two or three years
+of constantly declining profits, was entirely abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>Something of the dangers incident to the life of the hunter and trapper may
+be gathered from the following statements, made by various parties who have
+been engaged in it. In 1808, a Missouri Company engaged in fur hunting on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+the three forks of the river Missouri, were attacked by Blackfeet, losing twenty-seven
+men, and being compelled to abandon the country. In 1823, Mr. Ashley
+was attacked on the same river by the Arickaras, and had twenty-six men
+killed. About the same time the Missouri company lost seven men, and fifteen
+thousand dollars' worth of merchandise on the Yellowstone River. A few years
+previous, Major Henry lost, on the Missouri River, six men and fifty horses.
+In the sketch given of Smith's trading adventures is shown how uncertain were
+life and property at a later period. Of the two hundred men whom Wyeth
+led into the Indian country, only about forty were alive at the end of three
+years. There was, indeed, a constant state of warfare between the Indians
+and the whites, wherever the American Companies hunted, in which great
+numbers of both lost their lives. Add to this cause of decimation the perils
+from wild beasts, famine, cold, and all manner of accidents, and the trapper's
+chance of life was about one in three.</p>
+
+<p>Of the causes which have produced the enmity of the Indians, there are
+about as many. It was found to be the case almost universally, that on the
+first visit of the whites the natives were friendly, after their natural fears had
+been allayed. But by degrees their cupidity was excited to possess themselves
+of the much coveted dress, arms, and goods of their visitors. As they had
+little or nothing to offer in exchange, which the white man considered an equivalent,
+they took the only method remaining of gratifying their desire of possession,
+and <i>stole</i> the coveted articles which they could not purchase. When they
+learned that the white men punished theft, they murdered to prevent the punishment.
+Often, also, they had wrongs of their own to avenge. White men
+did not always regard their property-rights. They were guilty of infamous
+conduct toward Indian women. What one party of whites told them was true,
+another plainly contradicted, leaving the lie between them. They were overbearing
+toward the Indians on their own soil, exciting to irrepressible hostility
+the natural jealousy of the inferior toward the superior race, where both are
+free, which characterizes all people. In short, the Indians were not without
+their grievances; and from barbarous ignorance and wrong on one side, and
+intelligent wrong-doing on the other, together with the misunderstandings likely
+to arise between two entirely distinct races, grew constantly a thousand abuses,
+which resulted in a deadly enmity between the two.</p>
+
+<p>For several reasons this evil existed to a greater degree among the American
+traders and trappers than among the British. The American trapper was not,
+like the Hudson's Bay employees, bred to the business. Oftener than any
+other way he was some wild youth who, after an <i>escapade</i> in the society of his
+native place, sought safety from reproach or punishment in the wilderness. Or
+he was some disappointed man who, with feelings embittered towards his fellows,
+preferred the seclusion of the forest and mountain. Many were of a class disreputable
+everywhere, who gladly embraced a life not subject to social laws.
+A few were brave, independent, and hardy spirits, who delighted in the hardships
+and wild adventures their calling made necessary. All these men, the
+best with the worst, were subject to no will but their own; and all experience
+goes to prove that a life of perfect liberty is apt to degenerate into a life of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+license. Even their own lives, and those of their companions, when it depended
+upon their own prudence, were but lightly considered. The constant presence
+of danger made them reckless. It is easy to conceive how, under these circumstances,
+the natives and the foreigners grew to hate each other, in the
+Indian country; especially after the Americans came to the determination to
+"shoot an Indian at sight," unless he belonged to some tribe with whom they
+had intermarried, after the manner of the trappers.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i042" name="i042"></a>
+<img src="images/i042.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">WATCHING FOR INDIAN HORSE-THIEVES.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>On the other hand, the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company were many
+of them half-breeds or full-blooded Indians of the Iroquois nation, towards
+whom nearly all the tribes were kindly disposed. Even the Frenchmen who
+trapped for this company were well liked by the Indians on account of their
+suavity of manner, and the ease with which they adapted themselves to savage
+life. Besides most of them had native wives and half-breed children, and were
+regarded as relatives. They were trained to the life of a trapper, were subject
+to the will of the Company, and were generally just and equitable in their dealings
+with the Indians, according to that company's will, and the dictates of
+prudence. Here was a wide difference.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding this, there were many dangers to be encountered. The
+hostility of some of the tribes could never be overcome; nor has it ever abated.
+Such were the Crows, the Blackfeet, the Cheyennes, the Apaches, the Camanches.
+Only a superior force could compel the friendly offices of these tribes
+for any white man, and then their treachery was as dangerous as their open
+hostility.</p>
+
+<p>It happened, therefore, that although the Hudson's Bay Company lost comparatively
+few men by the hands of the Indians, they sometimes found them
+implacable foes in common with the American trappers; and frequently one
+party was very glad of the others' assistance. Altogether, as has before been
+stated, the loss of life was immense in proportion to the number employed.</p>
+
+<p>Very few of those who had spent years in the Rocky Mountains ever returned
+to the United States. With their Indian wives and half-breed children, they
+scattered themselves throughout Oregon, until when, a number of years after
+the abandonment of the fur trade, Congress donated large tracts of land to
+actual settlers, they laid claim, each to his selected portion, and became active
+citizens of their adopted state.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i044" name="i044"></a>
+<img src="images/i044.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">MAP OF THE FUR COUNTRY.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>A TRAPPER AND PIONEER'S LIFE.</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+
+<p>As has been stated in the Introduction, Joseph L. Meek
+was a native of Washington Co., Va. Born in the early
+part of the present century, and brought up on a plantation
+where the utmost liberty was accorded to the "young
+massa;" preferring out-door sports with the youthful
+bondsmen of his father, to study with the bald-headed
+schoolmaster who furnished him the alphabet on a paddle;
+possessing an exhaustless fund of waggish humor, united
+to a spirit of adventure and remarkable personal strength,
+he unwittingly furnished in himself the very material of
+which the heroes of the wilderness were made. Virginia,
+"the mother of Presidents," has furnished many such men,
+who, in the early days of the now populous Western States,
+became the hardy frontiers-men, or the fearless Indian
+fighters who were the bone and sinew of the land.</p>
+
+<p>When young Joe was about eighteen years of age, he
+wearied of the monotony of plantation life, and jumping
+into the wagon of a neighbor who was going to Louisville,
+Ky., started out in life for himself. He "reckoned
+they did not grieve for him at home;" at which conclusion
+others besides Joe naturally arrive on hearing of his
+heedless disposition, and utter contempt for the ordinary
+and useful employments to which other men apply themselves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Joe probably believed that should his father grieve for
+him, his step-mother would be able to console him; this
+step-mother, though a pious and good woman, not being
+one of the lad's favorites, as might easily be conjectured.
+It was such thoughts as these that kept up his resolution
+to seek the far west. In the autumn of 1828 he arrived
+in St. Louis, and the following spring he fell in with Mr.
+Wm. Sublette, of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, who
+was making his annual visit to that frontier town to purchase
+merchandise for the Indian country, and pick up recruits
+for the fur-hunting service. To this experienced
+leader he offered himself.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i046" name="i046"></a>
+<img src="images/i046.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">THE ENLISTMENT.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"How old are you?" asked Sublette.</p>
+
+<p>"A little past eighteen."</p>
+
+<p>"And you want to go to the Rocky Mountains?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what you are talking about, boy.
+You'll be killed before you get half way there."</p>
+
+<p>"If I do, I reckon I can die!" said Joe, with a flash of
+his fall dark eyes, and throwing back his shoulders to show
+their breadth.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," exclaimed the trader, eyeing the youthful candidate
+with admiration, and perhaps a touch of pity also;
+"that is the game spirit. I think you'll do, after all.
+Only be prudent, and keep your wits about you."</p>
+
+<p>"Where else should they be?" laughed Joe, as he
+marched off, feeling an inch or two taller than before.</p>
+
+<p>Then commenced the business of preparing for the journey&mdash;making
+acquaintance with the other recruits&mdash;enjoying
+the novelty of owning an outfit, being initiated into
+the mysteries of camp duty by the few old hunters who
+were to accompany the expedition, and learning something
+of their swagger and disregard of civilized observances.</p>
+
+<p>On the 17th of March, 1829, the company, numbering
+about sixty men, left St. Louis, and proceeded on horses
+and mules, with pack-horses for the goods, up through the
+state of Missouri. Camp-life commenced at the start; and
+this being the season of the year when the weather is
+most disagreeable, its romance rapidly melted away with
+the snow and sleet which varied the sharp spring wind
+and the frequent cold rains. The recruits went through
+all the little mishaps incident to the business and to their
+inexperience, such as involuntary somersaults over the
+heads of their mules, bloody noses, bruises, dusty faces,
+bad colds, accidents in fording streams,&mdash;yet withal no
+very serious hurts or hindrances. Rough weather and severe
+exercise gave them wolfish appetites, which sweetened
+the coarse camp-fare and amateur cooking.</p>
+
+<p>Getting up at four o'clock of a March morning to kindle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+fires and attend to the animals was not the most delectable
+duty that our labor-despising young recruit could
+have chosen; but if he repented of the venture he had
+made nobody was the wiser. Sleeping of stormy nights
+in corn-cribs or under sheds, could not be by any stretch
+of imagination converted into a highly romantic or heroic
+mode of lodging one's self. The squalid manner of living
+of the few inhabitants of Missouri at this period, gave a
+forlorn aspect to the country which is lacking in the wilderness
+itself;&mdash;a thought which sometimes occurred to
+Joe like a hope for the future. Mountain-fare he began
+to think must be better than the boiled corn and pork of
+the Missourians. Antelope and buffalo meat were more
+suitable viands for a hunter than coon and opossum.
+Thus those very duties which seemed undignified, and
+those hardships without danger or glory, which marked
+the beginning of his career made him ambitious of a more
+free and hazardous life on the plains and in the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Among the recruits was a young man not far from Joe's
+own age, named Robert Newell, from Ohio. One morning,
+when the company was encamped near Boonville, the
+two young men were out looking for their mules, when
+they encountered an elderly woman returning from the
+milking yard with a gourd of milk. Newell made some
+remark on the style of vessel she carried, when she broke
+out in a sharp voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Young chap, I'll bet you run off from your mother!
+Who'll mend them holes in the elbow of your coat?
+You're a purty looking chap to go to the mountains,
+among them Injuns! They'll <i>kill</i> you. You'd better go
+back home!"</p>
+
+<p>Considering that these frontier people knew what Indian
+fighting was, this was no doubt sound and disinter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>ested
+advice, notwithstanding it was given somewhat
+sharply. And so the young men felt it to be; but it was
+not in the nature of either of them to turn back from a
+course because there was danger in it. The thought of
+home, and somebody to mend their coats, was, however,
+for the time strongly presented. But the company moved
+on, with undiminished numbers, stared at by the few inhabitants,
+and having their own little adventures, until
+they came to Independence, the last station before committing
+themselves to the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>At this place, which contained a dwelling-house, cotton-gin,
+and grocery, the camp tarried for a few days to adjust
+the packs, and prepare for a final start across the plains.
+On Sunday the settlers got together for a shooting-match,
+in which some of the travelers joined, without winning
+many laurels. Coon-skins, deer-skins, and bees-wax
+changed hands freely among the settlers, whose skill with
+the rifle was greater than their hoard of silver dollars.
+This was the last vestige of civilization which the company
+could hope to behold for years; and rude as it was,
+yet won from them many a parting look as they finally
+took their way across the plains toward the Arkansas
+River.</p>
+
+<p>Often on this part of the march a dead silence fell upon
+the party, which remained unbroken for miles of the way.
+Many no doubt were regretting homes by them abandoned,
+or wondering dreamily how many and whom of that company
+would ever see the Missouri country again. Many
+indeed went the way the woman of the gourd had prophesied;
+but not the hero of this story, nor his comrade
+Newell.</p>
+
+<p>The route of Captain Sublette led across the country
+from near the mouth of the Kansas River to the River Arkansas;
+thence to the South Fork of the Platte; thence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+on to the North Fork of that River, to where Ft. Laramie
+now stands; thence up the North Fork to the Sweetwater,
+and thence across in a still northwesterly direction to the
+head of Wind River.</p>
+
+<p>The manner of camp-travel is now so well known
+through the writings of Irving, and still more from the
+great numbers which have crossed the plains since <i>Astoria</i>
+and <i>Bonneville</i> were written, that it would be superfluous
+here to enter upon a particular description of a train on
+that journey. A strict half-military discipline had to be
+maintained, regular duties assigned to each person, precautions
+taken against the loss of animals either by straying
+or Indian stampeding, etc. Some of the men were
+appointed as camp-keepers, who had all these things to
+look after, besides standing guard. A few were selected
+as hunters, and these were free to come and go, as
+their calling required. None but the most experienced
+were chosen for hunters, on a march; therefore our recruit
+could not aspire to that dignity yet.</p>
+
+<p>The first adventure the company met with worthy of
+mention after leaving Independence, was in crossing the
+country between the Arkansas and the Platte. Here the
+camp was surprised one morning by a band of Indians a
+thousand strong, that came sweeping down upon them in
+such warlike style that even Captain Sublette was fain to
+believe it his last battle. Upon the open prairie there is
+no such thing as flight, nor any cover under which to conceal
+a party even for a few moments. It is always fight
+or die, if the assailants are in the humor for war.</p>
+
+<p>Happily on this occasion the band proved to be more
+peaceably disposed than their appearance indicated, being
+the warriors of several tribes&mdash;the Sioux, Arapahoes, Kiowas,
+and Cheyennes, who had been holding a council to
+consider probably what mischief they could do to some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+other tribes. The spectacle they presented as they came
+at full speed on horseback, armed, painted, brandishing
+their weapons, and yelling in first-rate Indian style, was
+one which might well strike with a palsy the stoutest
+heart and arm. What were a band of sixty men against
+a thousand armed warriors in full fighting trim, with
+spears, shields, bows, battle-axes, and not a few guns?</p>
+
+<p>But it is the rule of the mountain-men to <i>fight</i>&mdash;and
+that there is a chance for life until the breath is out of the
+body; therefore Captain Sublette had his little force
+drawn up in line of battle. On came the savages, whooping
+and swinging their weapons above their heads. Sublette
+turned to his men. "When you hear my shot, then
+fire." Still they came on, until within about fifty paces
+of the line of waiting men. Sublette turned his head, and
+saw his command with their guns all up to their faces
+ready to fire, then raised his own gun. Just at this moment
+the principal chief sprang off his horse and laid his
+weapon on the ground, making signs of peace. Then followed
+a talk, and after the giving of a considerable present,
+Sublette was allowed to depart. This he did with all
+dispatch, the company putting as much distance as possible
+between themselves and their visitors before making
+their next camp. Considering the warlike character of
+these tribes and their superior numbers, it was as narrow
+an escape on the part of the company as it was an exceptional
+freak of generosity on the part of the savages to
+allow it. But Indians have all a great respect for a man
+who shows no fear; and it was most probably the warlike
+movement of Captain Sublette and his party which inspired
+a willingness on the part of the chief to accept a
+present, when he had the power to have taken the whole
+train. Besides, according to Indian logic, the present
+cost him nothing, and it might cost him many warriors to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+capture the train. Had there been the least wavering on
+Sublette's part, or fear in the countenances of his men, the
+end of the affair would have been different. This adventure
+was a grand initiation of the raw recruits, giving
+them both an insight into savage modes of attack, and an
+opportunity to test their own nerve.</p>
+
+<p>The company proceeded without accident, and arrived,
+about the first of July, at the rendezvous, which was appointed
+for this year on the Popo Agie, one of the streams
+which form the head-waters of Bighorn River.</p>
+
+<p>Now, indeed, young Joe had an opportunity of seeing
+something of the life upon which he had entered. As
+customary, when the traveling partner arrived at rendezvous
+with the year's merchandise, there was a meeting of
+all the partners, if they were within reach of the appointed
+place. On this occasion Smith was absent on his tour
+through California and Western Oregon, as has been
+related in the prefatory chapter. Jackson, the resident
+partner, and commander for the previous year, was not
+yet in; and Sublette had just arrived with the goods
+from St. Louis.</p>
+
+<p>All the different hunting and trapping parties and Indian
+allies were gathered together, so that the camp contained
+several hundred men, with their riding and pack-horses.
+Nor were Indian women and children wanting to
+give variety and an appearance of domesticity to the
+scene.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i053" name="i053"></a>
+<img src="images/i053.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>THE SUMMER RENDEZVOUS.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Summer rendezvous was always chosen in some
+valley where there was grass for the animals, and game
+for the camp. The plains along the Popo Agie, besides
+furnishing these necessary bounties, were bordered by picturesque
+mountain ranges, whose naked bluffs of red sandstone
+glowed in the morning and evening sun with a mellowness
+of coloring charming to the eye of the Virginia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+recruit. The waving grass of the plain, variegated with
+wild flowers; the clear summer heavens flecked with
+white clouds that threw soft shadows in passing; the grazing
+animals scattered about the meadows; the lodges of
+the <i>Booshways</i>,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> around which clustered the camp in
+motley garb and brilliant coloring; gay laughter, and the
+murmur of soft Indian voices, all made up a most spirited
+and enchanting picture, in which the eye of an artist
+could not fail to delight.</p>
+
+<p>But as the goods were opened the scene grew livelier.
+All were eager to purchase, most of the trappers to the
+full amount of their year's wages; and some of them,
+generally free trappers, went in debt to the company to a
+very considerable amount, after spending the value of a
+year's labor, privation, and danger, at the rate of several
+hundred dollars in a single day.</p>
+
+<p>The difference between a hired and a free trapper was
+greatly in favor of the latter. The hired trapper was
+regularly indentured, and bound not only to hunt and
+trap for his employers, but also to perform any duty required
+of him in camp. The Booshway, or the trader, or
+the partisan, (leader of the detachment,) had him under
+his command, to make him take charge of, load and unload
+the horses, stand guard, cook, hunt fuel, or, in short,
+do any and every duty. In return for this toilsome service
+he received an outfit of traps, arms and ammunition,
+horses, and whatever his service required. Besides his
+outfit, he received no more than three or four hundred
+dollars a year as wages.</p>
+
+<p>There was also a class of free trappers, who were furnished
+with their outfit by the company they trapped for,
+and who were obliged to agree to a certain stipulated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+price for their furs before the hunt commenced. But the
+genuine free trapper regarded himself as greatly the superior
+of either of the foregoing classes. He had his own
+horses and accoutrements, arms and ammunition. He
+took what route he thought fit, hunted and trapped when
+and where he chose; traded with the Indians; sold his
+furs to whoever offered highest for them; dressed flauntingly,
+and generally had an Indian wife and half-breed
+children. They prided themselves on their hardihood
+and courage; even on their recklessness and profligacy.
+Each claimed to own the best horse; to have had the
+wildest adventures; to have made the most narrow escapes;
+to have killed the greatest number of bears and Indians;
+to be the greatest favorite with the Indian belles,
+the greatest consumer of alcohol, and to have the most
+money to spend, <i>i. e.</i> the largest credit on the books of
+the company. If his hearers did not believe him, he was
+ready to run a race with him, to beat him at "old sledge,"
+or to fight, if fighting was preferred,&mdash;ready to prove
+what he affirmed in any manner the company pleased.</p>
+
+<p>If the free trapper had a wife, she moved with the
+camp to which he attached himself, being furnished with
+a fine horse, caparisoned in the gayest and costliest manner.
+Her dress was of the finest goods the market afforded,
+and was suitably ornamented with beads, ribbons,
+fringes, and feathers. Her rank, too, as a free trapper's
+wife, gave her consequence not only in her own eyes, but
+in those of her tribe, and protected her from that slavish
+drudgery to which as the wife of an Indian hunter or warrior
+she would have been subject. The only authority
+which the free trapper acknowledged was that of his Indian
+spouse, who generally ruled in the lodge, however
+her lord blustered outside.</p>
+
+<p>One of the free trapper's special delights was to take in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+hand the raw recruits, to gorge their wonder with his
+boastful tales, and to amuse himself with shocking his pupil's
+civilized notions of propriety. Joe Meek did not
+escape this sort of "breaking in;" and if it should appear
+in the course of this narrative that he proved an apt
+scholar, it will but illustrate a truth&mdash;that high spirits and
+fine talents tempt the tempter to win them over to his
+ranks. But Joe was not won over all at once. He beheld
+the beautiful spectacle of the encampment as it has
+been described, giving life and enchantment to the summer
+landscape, changed into a scene of the wildest carousal,
+going from bad to worse, until from harmless
+noise and bluster it came to fighting and loss of life. At
+this first rendezvous he was shocked to behold the revolting
+exhibition of four trappers playing at a game of cards
+with the dead body of a comrade for a card-table! Such
+was the indifference to all the natural and ordinary emotions
+which these veterans of the wilderness cultivated in
+themselves, and inculcated in those who came under their
+influence. Scenes like this at first had the effect to bring
+feelings of home-sickness, while it inspired by contrast a
+sort of penitential and religious feeling also. According
+to Meek's account of those early days in the mountains,
+he said some secret prayers, and shed some secret tears.
+But this did not last long. The force of example, and especially
+the force of ridicule, is very potent with the
+young; nor are we quite free from their influence later in
+life.</p>
+
+<p>If the gambling, swearing, drinking, and fighting at
+first astonished and alarmed the unsophisticated Joe, he
+found at the same time something to admire, and that he
+felt to be congenial with his own disposition, in the fearlessness,
+the contempt of sordid gain, the hearty merriment
+and frolicsome abandon of the better portion of the men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+about him. A spirit of emulation arose in him to become
+as brave as the bravest, as hardy as the hardiest, and as
+gay as the gayest, even while his feelings still revolted at
+many things which his heroic models were openly guilty of.
+If at any time in the future course of this narrative, Joe is
+discovered to have taken leave of his early scruples, the
+reader will considerately remember the associations by
+which he was surrounded for years, until the memory of
+the pious teachings of his childhood was nearly, if not
+quite, obliterated. To "nothing extenuate, nor set down
+aught in malice," should be the frame of mind in which
+both the writer and reader of Joe's adventures should
+strive to maintain himself.</p>
+
+<p>Before our hero is ushered upon the active scenes of a
+trapper's life, it may be well to present to the reader a
+sort of <i>guide to camp life</i>, in order that he may be able
+to understand some of its technicalities, as they may be
+casually mentioned hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>When the large camp is on the march, it has a leader,
+generally one of the Booshways, who rides in advance, or
+at the head of the column. Near him is a led mule, chosen
+for its qualities of speed and trustworthiness, on which
+are packed two small trunks that balance each other like
+panniers, and which contain the company's books, papers,
+and articles of agreement with the men. Then follow
+the pack animals, each one bearing three packs&mdash;one on
+each side, and one on top&mdash;so nicely adjusted as not to slip
+in traveling. These are in charge of certain men called
+camp-keepers, who have each three of these to look after.
+The trappers and hunters have two horses, or mules, one
+to ride, and one to pack their traps. If there are women
+and children in the train, all are mounted. Where the
+country is safe, the caravan moves in single file, often
+stretching out for half or three-quarters of a mile. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+the end of the column rides the second man, or "little
+Booshway," as the men call him; usually a hired officer,
+whose business it is to look after the order and condition
+of the whole camp.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i059" name="i059"></a>
+<img src="images/i059.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">MULE PACKING.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>On arriving at a suitable spot to make the night camp,
+the leader stops, dismounts in the particular space which
+is to be devoted to himself in its midst. The others, as
+they come up, form a circle; the "second man" bringing
+up the rear, to be sure all are there. He then proceeds
+to appoint every man a place in the circle, and to examine
+the horses' backs to see if any are sore. The horses
+are then turned out, under a guard, to graze; but before
+darkness comes on are placed inside the ring, and picketed
+by a stake driven in the earth, or with two feet
+so tied together as to prevent easy or free locomotion.
+The men are divided into messes: so many trappers and
+so many camp-keepers to a mess. The business of eating
+is not a very elaborate one, where the sole article of diet
+is meat, either dried or roasted. By a certain hour all is
+quiet in camp, and only the guard is awake. At times
+during the night, the leader, or the officer of the guard,
+gives the guard a challenge&mdash;"all's well!" which is answered
+by "all's well!"</p>
+
+<p>In the morning at daylight, or sometimes not till sunrise,
+according to the safe or dangerous locality, the second
+man comes forth from his lodge and cries in French,
+"<i>leve, leve, leve, leve, leve!</i>" fifteen or twenty times, which
+is the command to rise. In about five minutes more he
+cries out again, in French, "<i>leche lego, leche lego!</i>" or
+turn out, turn out; at which command all come out from
+the lodges, and the horses are turned loose to feed; but
+not before a horseman has galloped all round the camp at
+some distance, and discovered every thing to be safe in
+the neighborhood. Again, when the horses have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+sufficiently fed, under the eye of a guard, they are driven
+up, the packs replaced, the train mounted, and once more
+it moves off, in the order before mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>In a settled camp, as in winter, there are other regulations.
+The leader and the second man occupy the same
+relative positions; but other minor regulations are observed.
+The duty of a trapper, for instance, in the trapping
+season, is only to trap, and take care of his own
+horses. When he comes in at night, he takes his beaver
+to the clerk, and the number is counted off, and placed to
+his credit. Not he, but the camp-keepers, take off the
+skins and dry them. In the winter camp there are six
+persons to a lodge: four trappers and two camp-keepers;
+therefore the trappers are well waited upon, their only
+duty being to hunt, in turns, for the camp. When a piece
+of game is brought in,&mdash;a deer, an antelope, or buffalo
+meat,&mdash;it is thrown down on the heap which accumulates
+in front of the Booshway's lodge; and the second man
+stands by and cuts it up, or has it cut up for him. The
+first man who chances to come along, is ordered to stand
+still and turn his back to the pile of game, while the
+"little Booshway" lays hold of a piece that has been cut
+off, and asks in a loud voice&mdash;"who will have this?"&mdash;and
+the man answering for him, says, "the Booshway,"
+or perhaps "number six," or "number twenty"&mdash;meaning
+certain messes; and the number is called to come and
+take their meat. In this blind way the meat is portioned
+off; strongly reminding one of the game of "button,
+button, who has the button?" In this chance game of
+the meat, the Booshway fares no better than his men;
+unless, in rare instances, the little Booshway should indicate
+to the man who calls off, that a certain choice piece
+is designed for the mess of the leader or the second man.</p>
+
+<p>A gun is never allowed to be fired in camp under any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+provocation, short of an Indian raid; but the guns are
+frequently inspected, to see if they are in order; and
+woe to the careless camp-keeper who neglects this or any
+other duty. When the second man comes around, and
+finds a piece of work imperfectly done, whether it be
+cleaning the firearms, making a hair rope, or a skin lodge,
+or washing a horse's back, he does not threaten the
+offender with personal chastisement, but calls up another
+man and asks him, "Can <i>you</i> do this properly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I will give you ten dollars to do it;" and the ten
+dollars is set down to the account of the inefficient camp-keeper.
+But he does not risk forfeiting another ten dollars
+in the same manner.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring, when the camp breaks up, the skins
+which have been used all winter for lodges are cut up to
+make moccasins: because from their having been thoroughly
+smoked by the lodge fires they do not shrink in
+wetting, like raw skins. This is an important quality in a
+moccasin, as a trapper is almost constantly in the water,
+and should not his moccasins be smoked they will close
+upon his feet, in drying, like a vice. Sometimes after
+trapping all day, the tired and soaked trapper lies down
+in his blankets at night, still wet. But by-and-by he is
+wakened by the pinching of his moccasins, and is obliged
+to rise and seek the water again to relieve himself of the
+pain. For the same reason, when spring comes, the trapper
+is forced to cut off the lower half of his buckskin
+breeches, and piece them down with blanket leggins,
+which he wears all through the trapping season.</p>
+
+<p>Such were a few of the peculiarities, and the hardships
+also, of a life in the Rocky Mountains. If the camp discipline,
+and the dangers and hardships to which a raw recruit
+was exposed, failed to harden him to the service in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+one year, he was rejected as a "trifling fellow," and sent
+back to the settlement the next year. It was not probable,
+therefore, that the mountain-man often was detected
+in complaining at his lot. If he was miserable, he was
+laughed at; and he soon learned to laugh at his own miseries,
+as well as to laugh back at his comrades.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The business of the rendezvous occupied about a
+month. In this period the men, Indian allies, and other
+Indian parties who usually visited the camp at this time,
+were all supplied with goods. The remaining merchandise
+was adjusted for the convenience of the different traders
+who should be sent out through all the country traversed
+by the company. Sublette then decided upon their routes,
+dividing up his forces into camps, which took each its appointed
+course, detaching as it proceeded small parties of
+trappers to all the hunting grounds in the neighborhood.
+These smaller camps were ordered to meet at certain times
+and places, to report progress, collect and cache their furs,
+and "count noses." If certain parties failed to arrive,
+others were sent out in search for them.</p>
+
+<p>This year, in the absence of Smith and Jackson, a considerable
+party was dispatched, under Milton Sublette,
+brother of the Captain, and two other free trappers and
+traders, Frapp and Jervais, to traverse the country down
+along the Bighorn River. Captain Sublette took a large
+party, among whom was Joe Meek, across the mountains
+to trap on the Snake River, in opposition to the Hudson's
+Bay Company. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company had
+hitherto avoided this country, except when Smith had
+once crossed to the head-waters of the Snake with a small
+party of five trappers. But Smith and Sublette had
+determined to oppose themselves to the British traders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+who occupied so large an extent of territory presumed to
+be American; and it had been agreed between them to
+meet this year on Snake River on Sublette's return from
+St. Louis, and Smith's from his California tour. What
+befel Smith's party before reaching the Columbia, has
+already been related; also his reception by the Hudson's
+Bay Company, and his departure from Vancouver.</p>
+
+<p>Sublette led his company up the valley of the Wind
+River, across the mountains, and on to the very head-waters
+of the Lewis or Snake River. Here he fell in with Jackson,
+in the valley of Lewis Lake, called Jackson's Hole,
+and remained on the borders of this lake for some time,
+waiting for Smith, whose non-appearance began to create
+a good deal of uneasiness. At length runners were dispatched
+in all directions looking for the lost Booshway.</p>
+
+<p>The detachment to which Meek was assigned had the
+pleasure and honor of discovering the hiding place of the
+missing partner, which was in Pierre's Hole, a mountain
+valley about thirty miles long and of half that width,
+which subsequently was much frequented by the camps of
+the various fur companies. He was found trapping and
+exploring, in company with four men only, one of whom
+was Black, who with him escaped from the Umpqua Indians,
+as before related.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the excitement and elation attendant
+upon the success of his party, Meek found time to admire
+the magnificent scenery of the valley, which is bounded
+on two sides by broken and picturesque ranges, and overlooked
+by that magnificent group of mountains, called
+the Three Tetons, towering to a height of fourteen thousand
+feet. This emerald cup set in its rim of amethystine
+mountains, was so pleasant a sight to the mountain-men
+that camp was moved to it without delay, where it remained
+until some time in September, recruiting its animals
+and preparing for the fall hunt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Here again the trappers indulged in their noisy sports
+and rejoicing, ostensibly on account of the return of the
+long-absent Booshway. There was little said of the men
+who had perished in that unfortunate expedition. "Poor
+fellow! out of luck;" was the usual burial rite which
+the memory of a dead comrade received. So much and
+no more. They could indulge in noisy rejoicings over a
+lost comrade restored; but the dead one was not mentioned.
+Nor was this apparently heartless and heedless
+manner so irrational or unfeeling as it seemed. Everybody
+understood one thing in the mountains&mdash;that he must
+keep his life by his own courage and valor, or at the least
+by his own prudence. Unseen dangers always lay in
+wait for him. The arrow or tomahawk of the Indian, the
+blow of the grizzly bear, the mis-step on the dizzy or slippery
+height, the rush of boiling and foaming floods, freezing
+cold, famine&mdash;these were the most common forms of
+peril, yet did not embrace even then all the forms in which
+Death sought his victims in the wilderness. The avoidance
+of painful reminders, such as the loss of a party of
+men, was a natural instinct, involving also a principle of
+self defence&mdash;since to have weak hearts would be the
+surest road to defeat in the next dangerous encounter.
+To keep their hearts "big," they must be gay, they must
+not remember the miserable fate of many of their one-time
+comrades. Think of that, stern moralist and martinet in
+propriety! Your fur collar hangs in the gas-lighted hall.
+In your luxurious dressing gown and slippers, by the
+warmth of a glowing grate, you muse upon the depravity
+of your fellow men. But imagine yourself, if you can, in
+the heart of an interminable wilderness. Let the snow
+be three or four feet deep, game scarce, Indians on your
+track: escaped from these dangers, once more beside a
+camp fire, with a roast of buffalo meat on a stick before it,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+and several of your companions similarly escaped, and
+destined for the same chances to-morrow, around you. Do
+you fancy you should give much time to lamenting the less
+lucky fellows who were left behind frozen, starved, or
+scalped? Not you. You would be fortifying yourself
+against to-morrow, when the same terrors might lay in
+wait for you. Jedediah Smith was a pious man; one of
+the few that ever resided in the Rocky Mountains, and led
+a band of reckless trappers; but he did not turn back
+to his camp when he saw it attacked on the Umpqua,
+nor stop to lament his murdered men. The law of self-preservation
+is strong in the wilderness. "Keep up your
+heart to-day, for to-morrow you may die," is the motto
+of the trapper.</p>
+
+<p>In the conference which took place between Smith and
+Sublette, the former insisted that on account of the kind
+services of the Hudson's Bay Company toward himself
+and the three other survivors of his party, they should
+withdraw their trappers and traders from the western side
+of the mountains for the present, so as not to have them
+come in conflict with those of that company. To this
+proposition Sublette reluctantly consented, and orders
+were issued for moving once more to the east, before going
+into winter camp, which was appointed for the Wind
+River Valley.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Joe Meek was sent out with a party to
+take his first hunt for beaver as a hired trapper. The
+detachment to which he belonged traveled down Pierre's
+fork, the stream which watered the valley of Pierre's Hole,
+to its junction with Lewis' and Henry's forks where they
+unite to form the great Snake River. While trapping in
+this locality the party became aware of the vicinity of a
+roving band of Blackfeet, and in consequence, redoubled
+their usual precautions while on the march.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Blackfeet were the tribe most dreaded in the Rocky
+Mountains, and went by the name of "Bugs Boys," which
+rendered into good English, meant "the devil's own."
+They are now so well known that to mention their characteristics
+seems like repeating a "twice-told tale;" but as
+they will appear so often in this narrative, Irving's account
+of them as he had it from Bonneville when he was fresh
+from the mountains, will, after all, not be out of place.
+"These savages," he says, "are the most dangerous banditti
+of the mountains, and the inveterate foe of the trapper.
+They are Ishmaelites of the first order, always with
+weapon in hand, ready for action. The young braves of
+the tribe, who are destitute of property, go to war for
+booty; to gain horses, and acquire the means of setting
+up a lodge, supporting a family, and entitling themselves
+to a seat in the public councils. The veteran warriors
+fight merely for the love of the thing, and the consequence
+which success gives them among their people.
+They are capital horsemen, and are generally well mounted
+on short, stout horses, similar to the prairie ponies, to be
+met with in St. Louis. When on a war party, however,
+they go on foot, to enable them to skulk through the
+country with greater secrecy; to keep in thickets and ravines,
+and use more adroit subterfuges and stratagems.
+Their mode of warfare is entirely by ambush, surprise,
+and sudden assaults in the night time. If they succeed
+in causing a panic, they dash forward with headlong fury;
+if the enemy is on the alert, and shows no signs of fear,
+they become wary and deliberate in their movements.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of them are armed in the primitive style, with
+bows and arrows; the greater part have American fusees,
+made after the fashion of those of the Hudson's Bay Company.
+These they procure at the trading post of the
+American Fur Company, on Maria's River, where they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+traffic their peltries for arms, ammunition, clothing, and
+trinkets. They are extremely fond of spirituous liquors
+and tobacco, for which nuisances they are ready to exchange,
+not merely their guns and horses, but even their wives
+and daughters. As they are a treacherous race, and have
+cherished a lurking hostility to the whites, ever since one
+of their tribe was killed by Mr. Lewis, the associate of
+General Clarke, in his exploring expedition across the
+Rocky Mountains, the American Fur Company is obliged
+constantly to keep at their post a garrison of sixty or seventy
+men."</p>
+
+<p>"Under the general name of Blackfeet are comprehended
+several tribes, such as the Surcies, the Peagans,
+the Blood Indians, and the Gros Ventres of the Prairies,
+who roam about the Southern branches of the Yellowstone
+and Missouri Rivers, together with some other tribes
+further north. The bands infesting the Wind River
+Mountains, and the country adjacent, at the time of which
+we are treating, were Gros Ventres <i>of the Prairies</i>, which
+are not to be confounded with the Gros Ventres <i>of the
+Missouri</i>, who keep about the <i>lower</i> part of that river, and
+are friendly to the white men."</p>
+
+<p>"This hostile band keeps about the head-waters of the
+Missouri, and numbers about nine hundred fighting men.
+Once in the course of two or three years they abandon
+their usual abodes and make a visit to the Arapahoes of
+the Arkansas. Their route lies either through the Crow
+country, and the Black Hills, or through the lands of the
+Nez Perces, Flatheads, Bannacks, and Shoshonies. As
+they enjoy their favorite state of hostility with all these
+tribes, their expeditions are prone to be conducted in the
+most lawless and predatory style; nor do they hesitate to
+extend their maraudings to any party of white men they
+meet with, following their trail, hovering about their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+camps, waylaying and dogging the caravans of the free
+traders, and murdering the solitary trapper. The consequences
+are frequent and desperate fights between them
+and the mountaineers, in the wild defiles and fastnesses of
+the Rocky Mountains." Such were the Blackfeet at the
+period of which we are writing; nor has their character
+changed at this day, as many of the Montana miners know
+to their cost.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1830. Sublette's camp commenced moving back to the
+east side of the Rocky Mountains in October. Its course
+was up Henry's fork of the Snake River, through the North
+Pass to Missouri Lake, in which rises the Madison fork of
+the Missouri River. The beaver were very plenty on
+Henry's fork, and our young trapper had great success in
+making up his packs; having learned the art of setting
+his traps very readily. The manner in which the trapper
+takes his game is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He has an ordinary steel trap weighing five pounds, attached
+to a chain five feet long, with a swivel and ring at
+the end, which plays round what is called the <i>float</i>, a dry
+stick of wood, about six feet long. The trapper wades
+out into the stream, which is shallow, and cuts with his
+knife a bed for the trap, five or six inches under water.
+He then takes the float out the whole length of the chain
+in the direction of the centre of the stream, and drives it
+into the mud, so fast that the beaver cannot draw it out;
+at the same time tying the other end by a thong to the
+bank. A small stick or twig, dipped in musk or castor,
+serves for bait, and is placed so as to hang directly above
+the trap, which is now set. The trapper then throws water
+plentifully over the adjacent bank to conceal any foot
+prints or scent by which the beaver would be alarmed,
+and going to some distance wades out of the stream.</p>
+
+<p>In setting a trap, several things are to be observed with
+care:&mdash;first, that the trap is firmly fixed, and the proper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+distance from the bank&mdash;for if the beaver can get on
+shore with the trap, he will cut off his foot to escape: secondly,
+that the float is of dry wood, for should it not be,
+the little animal will cut it off at a stroke, and swimming
+with the trap to the middle of the dam, be drowned by
+its weight. In the latter case, when the hunter visits his
+traps in the morning, he is under the necessity of plunging
+into the water and swimming out to dive for the missing
+trap, and his game. Should the morning be frosty
+and chill, as it very frequently is in the mountains, diving
+for traps is not the pleasantest exercise. In placing the
+bait, care must be taken to fix it just where the beaver in
+reaching it will spring the trap. If the bait-stick be
+placed high, the hind foot of the beaver will be caught:
+if low, his fore foot.</p>
+
+<p>The manner in which the beavers make their dam,
+and construct their lodge, has long been reckoned among
+the wonders of the animal creation; and while some
+observers have claimed for the little creature more sagacity
+than it really possesses, its instinct is still sufficiently
+wonderful. It is certainly true that it knows how
+to keep the water of a stream to a certain level, by means
+of an obstruction; and that it cuts down trees for the purpose
+of backing up the water by a dam. It is not true,
+however, that it can always fell a tree in the direction required
+for this purpose. The timber about a beaver dam
+is felled in all directions; but as trees that grow near the
+water, generally lean towards it, the tree, when cut, takes
+the proper direction by gravitation alone. The beaver
+then proceeds to cut up the fallen timber into lengths of
+about three feet, and to convey them to the spot where
+the dam is to be situated, securing them in their places
+by means of mud and stones. The work is commenced
+when the water is low, and carried on as it rises, until it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+has attained the desired height. And not only is it made
+of the requisite height and strength, but its shape is suited
+exactly to the nature of the stream in which it is built.
+If the water is sluggish the dam is straight; if rapid and
+turbulent, the barrier is constructed of a convex form, the
+better to resist the action of the water.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i074" name="i074"></a>
+<img src="images/i074.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">BEAVER-DAM.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>When the beavers have once commenced a dam, its extent
+and thickness are continually augmented, not only by
+their labors, but by accidental accumulations; thus accommodating
+itself to the size of the growing community.
+At length, after a lapse of many years, the water being
+spread over a considerable tract, and filled up by yearly
+accumulations of drift-wood and earth, seeds take root
+in the new made ground, and the old beaver-dams become
+green meadows, or thickets of cotton-wood and
+willow.</p>
+
+<p>The food on which the beaver subsists, is the bark of
+the young trees in its neighborhood; and when laying up
+a winter store, the whole community join in the labor of
+selecting, cutting up, and carrying the strips to their store-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>houses
+under water. They do not, as some writers have
+affirmed, when cutting wood for a dam strip off the bark
+and store it in their lodges for winter consumption; but
+only carry under water the stick with the bark on.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"The beaver has two incisors and eight molars in each jaw; and empty hollows
+where the canine teeth might be. The upper pair of cutting teeth extend
+far into the jaw, with a curve of rather more than a semicircle; and the lower
+pair of incisors form rather less than a semicircle. Sometimes, one of these
+teeth gets broken and then the opposite tooth continues growing until it forms a
+nearly complete circle. The chewing muscle of the beaver is strengthened by
+tendons in such a way as to give it great power. But more is needed to enable
+the beaver to eat wood. The insalivation of the dry food is provided for by the
+extraordinary size of the salivary glands.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, every part of these instruments is of vital importance to the beavers.
+The loss of an incisor involves the formation of an obstructive circular tooth;
+deficiency of saliva renders the food indigestible; and when old age comes and
+the enamel is worn down faster than it is renewed, the beaver is not longer able
+to cut branches for its support. Old, feeble and poor, unable to borrow, and
+ashamed to beg, he steals cuttings, and subjects himself to the penalty assigned
+to theft. Aged beavers are often found dead with gashes in their bodies, showing
+that they have been killed by their mates. In the fall of 1864, a very aged
+beaver was caught in one of the dams of the Esconawba River, and this was the
+reflection of a great authority on the occasion, one Ah-she-goes, an Ojibwa trapper:
+'Had he escaped the trap he would have been killed before the winter was
+over, by other beavers, for stealing cuttings.'</p>
+
+<p>"When the beavers are about two or three years old, their teeth are in their
+best condition for cutting. On the Upper Missouri, they cut the cotton tree and
+the willow bush; around Hudson's Bay and Lake Superior, in addition to the
+willow they cut the poplar and maple, hemlock, spruce and pine. The cutting
+is round and round, and deepest upon the side on which they wish the tree to
+fall. Indians and trappers have seen beavers cutting trees. The felling of a
+tree is a family affair. No more than a single pair with two or three young
+ones are engaged at a time. The adults take the cutting in turns, one gnawing
+and the other watching; and occasionally a youngster trying his incisors.
+The beaver whilst gnawing sits on his plantigrade hind legs, which keep him
+conveniently upright. When the tree begins to crackle the beavers work cautiously,
+and when it crashes down they plunge into the pond, fearful lest the
+noise should attract an enemy to the spot. After the tree-fall, comes the lopping
+of the branches. A single tree may be winter provision for a family. Branches
+five or six inches thick have to be cut into proper lengths for transport, and are
+then taken home."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The lodge of a beaver is generally about six feet in di<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>ameter,
+on the inside, and about half as high. They are
+rounded or dome-shaped on the outside, with very thick
+walls, and communicate with the land by subterranean
+passages, below the depth at which the water freezes in
+winter. Each lodge is made to accommodate several inmates,
+who have their beds ranged round the walls, much
+as the Indian does in his tent. They are very cleanly,
+too, and after eating, carry out the sticks that have been
+stripped, and either use them in repairing their dam, or
+throw them into the stream below.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer months the beavers abandon their
+lodges, and disport themselves about the streams, sometimes
+going on long journeys; or if any remain at home,
+they are the mothers of young families. About the last
+of August the community returns to its home, and begins
+preparations for the domestic cares of the long winter
+months.</p>
+
+<p>An exception to this rule is that of certain individuals,
+who have no families, make no dam, and never live in
+lodges, but burrow in subterranean tunnels. They are always
+found to be males, whom the French trappers call
+"les parasseux," or idlers; and the American trappers,
+"bachelors." Several of them are sometimes found in
+one abode, which the trappers facetiously denominate
+"bachelor's hall." Being taken with less difficulty than
+the more domestic beaver, the trapper is always glad to
+come upon their habitations.</p>
+
+<p>The trapping season is usually in the spring and autumn.
+But should the hunters find it necessary to continue
+their work in winter, they capture the beaver by
+sounding on the ice until an aperture is discovered, when
+the ice is cut away and the opening closed up. Returning
+to the bank, they search for the subterranean passage, tracing
+its connection with the lodge; and by patient watching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+succeed in catching the beaver on some of its journeys
+between the water and the land. This, however, is not
+often resorted to when the hunt in the fall has been successful;
+or when not urged by famine to take the beaver
+for food.</p>
+
+<p>"Occasionally it happens," says Captain Bonneville,
+"that several members of a beaver family are trapped in
+succession. The survivors then become extremely shy,
+and can scarcely be "brought to medicine," to use the
+trappers' phrase for "taking the bait." In such case, the
+trapper gives up the use of the bait, and conceals his traps
+in the usual paths and crossing places of the household.
+The beaver being now completely "up to trap," approaches
+them cautiously, and springs them, ingeniously,
+with a stick. At other times, he turns the traps bottom
+upwards, by the same means, and occasionally even drags
+them to the barrier, and conceals them in the mud. The
+trapper now gives up the contest of ingenuity, and shouldering
+his traps, marches off, admitting that he is not yet
+"up to beaver."</p>
+
+<p>Before the camp moved from the forks of the Snake
+River, the haunting Blackfeet made their appearance
+openly. It was here that Meek had his first battle with
+that nation, with whom he subsequently had many a savage
+contest. They attacked the camp early in the morning,
+just as the call to turn out had sounded. But they
+had miscalculated their opportunity: the design having evidently
+been to stampede the horses and mules, at the hour
+and moment of their being turned loose to graze. They
+had been too hasty by a few minutes, so that when they
+charged on the camp pell-mell, firing a hundred guns at
+once, to frighten both horses and men, it happened that
+only a few of the animals had been turned out, and they
+had not yet got far off. The noise of the charge only
+turned them back to camp.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In an instant's time, Fitzpatrick was mounted, and commanding
+the men to follow, he galloped at headlong
+speed round and round the camp, to drive back such of the
+horses as were straying, or had been frightened from their
+pickets. In this race, two horses were shot under him;
+but he escaped, and the camp-horses were saved. The
+battle now was to punish the thieves. They took their
+position, as usual with Indian fighters, in a narrow ravine;
+from whence the camp was forced to dislodge them, at a
+great disadvantage. This they did do, at last, after six
+hours of hard fighting, in which a few men were wounded,
+but none killed. The thieves skulked off, through the
+canyon, when they found themselves defeated, and were
+seen no more until the camp came to the woods which
+cover the western slope of the Rocky Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>But as the camp moved eastward, or rather in a northeasterly
+direction, through the pine forests between Pierre's
+Hole and the head-waters of the Missouri, it was continually
+harrassed by Blackfeet, and required a strong
+guard at night, when these marauders delighted to make
+an attack. The weather by this time was very cold in
+the mountains, and chilled the marrow of our young Virginian.
+The travel was hard, too, and the recruits pretty
+well worn out.</p>
+
+<p>One cold night, Meek was put on guard on the further
+side of the camp, with a veteran named Reese. But
+neither the veteran nor the youngster could resist the approaches
+of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," and went to
+sleep at their post of duty. When, during the night,
+Sublette came out of his tent and gave the challenge&mdash;"All's
+well!" there was no reply. To quote Meek's own
+language, "Sublette came round the horse-pen swearing
+and snorting. He was powerful mad. Before he got to
+where Reese was, he made so much noise that he waked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+him; and Reese, in a loud whisper, called to him, 'Down,
+Billy! Indians!' Sublette got down on his belly mighty
+quick. 'Whar? whar?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'They were right there when you hollered so,' said
+Reese.</p>
+
+<p>"'Where is Meek?' whispered Sublette.</p>
+
+<p>"'He is trying to shoot one,' answered Reese, still in a
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Reese then crawled over to whar I war, and told me
+what had been said, and informed me what to do. In a
+few minutes I crept cautiously over to Reese's post, when
+Sublette asked me how many Indians had been thar, and
+I told him I couldn't make out their number. In the
+morning a pair of Indian moccasins war found whar Reese
+<i>saw the Indians</i>, which I had <i>taken care to leave there</i>;
+and thus confirmed, our story got us the credit of vigilance,
+instead of our receiving our just dues for neglect
+of duty."</p>
+
+<p>It was sometime during the fall hunt in the Pine Woods,
+on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, that Meek had
+one of his earliest adventures with a bear. Two comrades,
+Craig and Nelson, and himself, while out trapping,
+left their horses, and traveled up a creek on foot, in search
+of beaver. They had not proceeded any great distance,
+before they came suddenly face to face with a red bear;
+so suddenly, indeed, that the men made a spring for the
+nearest trees. Craig and Meek ascended a large pine,
+which chanced to be nearest, and having many limbs, was
+easy to climb. Nelson happened to take to one of two
+small trees that grew close together; and the bear, fixing
+upon him for a victim, undertook to climb after him.
+With his back against one of these small trees, and his
+feet against the other, his bearship succeeded in reaching
+a point not far below Nelson's perch, when the trees<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+opened with his weight, and down he went, with a shock
+that fairly shook the ground. But this bad luck only
+seemed to infuriate the beast, and up he went again, with
+the same result, each time almost reaching his enemy.
+With the second tumble he was not the least discouraged;
+but started up the third time, only to be dashed once
+more to the ground when he had attained a certain height.
+At the third fall, however, he became thoroughly disgusted
+with his want of success, and turned and ran at
+full speed into the woods.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," says Meek, "Craig began to sing, and I began
+to laugh; but Nelson took to swearing. 'O yes, you can
+laugh and sing now,' says Nelson; 'but you war quiet
+enough when the bear was around.' 'Why, Nelson,' I
+answered, 'you wouldn't have us noisy before that distinguished
+guest of yours?' But Nelson damned the
+wild beast; and Craig and I laughed, and said he didn't
+seem wild a bit. That's the way we hector each other in
+the mountains. If a man gets into trouble he is only
+laughed at: 'let him keep out; let him have better luck,'
+is what we say."</p>
+
+<p>The country traversed by Sublette in the fall of 1829,
+was unknown at that period, even to the fur companies,
+they having kept either farther to the south or to the
+north. Few, if any, white men had passed through it
+since Lewis and Clarke discovered the head-waters of the
+Missouri and the Snake Rivers, which flow from the opposite
+sides of the same mountain peaks. Even the toils
+and hardships of passing over mountains at this season of
+the year, did not deprive the trapper of the enjoyment
+of the magnificent scenery the region afforded. Splendid
+views, however, could not long beguile men who had
+little to eat, and who had yet a long journey to accom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>plish
+in cold, and surrounded by dangers, before reaching
+the wintering ground.</p>
+
+<p>In November the camp left Missouri Lake on the east
+side of the mountains, and crossed over, still northeasterly,
+on to the Gallatin fork of the Missouri River, passing over
+a very rough and broken country. They were, in fact,
+still in the midst of mountains, being spurs of the great
+Rocky range, and equally high and rugged. A particularly
+high mountain lay between them and the main
+Yellowstone River. This they had just crossed, with
+great fatigue and difficulty, and were resting the camp
+and horses for a few days on the river's bank, when the
+Blackfeet once more attacked them in considerable numbers.
+Two men were killed in this fight, and the camp
+thrown into confusion by the suddenness of the alarm.
+Capt. Sublette, however, got off, with most of his men,
+still pursued by the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Not so our Joe, who this time was not in luck, but was
+cut off from camp, alone, and had to flee to the high
+mountains overlooking the Yellowstone. Here was a situation
+for a nineteen-year-old raw recruit! Knowing that
+the Blackfeet were on the trail of the camp, it was death
+to proceed in that direction. Some other route must be
+taken to come up with them; the country was entirely
+unknown to him; the cold severe; his mule, blanket, and
+gun, his only earthly possessions. On the latter he depended
+for food, but game was scarce; and besides, he
+thought the sound of his gun would frighten himself, so
+alone in the wilderness, swarming with stealthy foes.</p>
+
+<p>Hiding his mule in a thicket, he ascended to the mountain
+top to take a view of the country, and decide upon
+his course. And what a scene was that for the miserable
+boy, whose chance of meeting with his comrades
+again was small indeed! At his feet rolled the Yellow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>stone
+River, coursing away through the great plain to the
+eastward. To the north his eye follows the windings of
+the Missouri, as upon a map, but playing at hide-and-seek
+in amongst the mountains. Looking back, he saw the
+River Snake stretching its serpentine length through lava
+plains, far away, to its junction with the Columbia. To
+the north, and to the south, one white mountain rose
+above another as far as the eye could reach. What a
+mighty and magnificent world it seemed, to be alone in!
+Poor Joe succumbed to the influence of the thought, and
+wept.</p>
+
+<p>Having indulged in this sole remaining luxury of life,
+Joe picked up his resolution, and decided upon his course.
+To the southeast lay the Crow country, a land of plenty,&mdash;as
+the mountain-man regards plenty,&mdash;and there he
+could at least live; provided the Crows permitted him to
+do so. Besides, he had some hopes of falling in with one
+of the camps, by taking that course.</p>
+
+<p>Descending the mountain to the hiding-place of his
+mule, by which time it was dark night, hungry and freezing,
+Joe still could not light a fire, for fear of revealing his
+whereabouts to the Indians; nor could he remain to perish
+with cold. Travel he must, and travel he did, going
+he scarcely knew whither. Looking back upon the terrors
+and discomforts of that night, the veteran mountaineer
+yet regards it as about the most miserable one of his
+life. When day at length broke, he had made, as well as
+he could estimate the distance, about thirty miles. Traveling
+on toward the southeast, he had crossed the Yellowstone
+River, and still among the mountains, was obliged
+to abandon his mule and accoutrements, retaining only
+one blanket and his gun. Neither the mule nor himself
+had broken fast in the last two days. Keeping a southerly
+course for twenty miles more, over a rough and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+elevated country, he came, on the evening of the third
+day, upon a band of mountain sheep. With what eagerness
+did he hasten to kill, cook, and eat! Three days of
+fasting was, for a novice, quite sufficient to provide him
+with an appetite.</p>
+
+<p>Having eaten voraciously, and being quite overcome
+with fatigue, Joe fell asleep in his blanket, and slumbered
+quite deeply until morning. With the morning came
+biting blasts from the north, that made motion necessary
+if not pleasant. Refreshed by sleep and food, our traveler
+hastened on upon his solitary way, taking with him
+what sheep-meat he could carry, traversing the same
+rough and mountainous country as before. No incidents
+nor alarms varied the horrible and monotonous solitude
+of the wilderness. The very absence of anything to
+alarm was awful; for the bravest man is wretchedly nervous
+in the solitary presence of sublime Nature. Even
+the veteran hunter of the mountains can never entirely
+divest himself of this feeling of awe, when his single soul
+comes face to face with God's wonderful and beautiful
+handiwork.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the fourth day, Joe made his lonely
+camp in a deep defile of the mountains, where a little fire
+and some roasted mutton again comforted his inner and
+outer man, and another night's sleep still farther refreshed
+his wearied frame. On the following morning, a very
+bleak and windy one, having breakfasted on his remaining
+piece of mutton, being desirous to learn something of
+the progress he had made, he ascended a low mountain in
+the neighborhood of his camp&mdash;and behold! the whole
+country beyond was smoking with the vapor from boiling
+springs, and burning with gasses, issuing from small craters,
+each of which was emitting a sharp whistling sound.</p>
+
+<p>When the first surprise of this astonishing scene had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+passed, Joe began to admire its effect in an artistic point
+of view. The morning being clear, with a sharp frost, he
+thought himself reminded of the city of Pittsburg, as he
+had beheld it on a winter morning, a couple of years before.
+This, however, related only to the rising smoke and
+vapor; for the extent of the volcanic region was immense,
+reaching far out of sight. The general face of the country
+was smooth and rolling, being a level plain, dotted
+with cone-shaped mounds. On the summits of these
+mounds were small craters from four to eight feet in diameter.
+Interspersed among these, on the level plain,
+were larger craters, some of them from four to six miles
+across. Out of these craters issued blue flames and molten
+brimstone.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes Joe gazed and wondered. Curious
+thoughts came into his head, about hell and the day of
+doom. With that natural tendency to reckless gayety
+and humorous absurdities which some temperaments are
+sensible of in times of great excitement, he began to soliloquize.
+Said he, to himself, "I have been told the sun
+would be blown out, and the earth burnt up. If this infernal
+wind keeps up, I shouldn't be surprised if the sun
+war blown out. If the earth is <i>not</i> burning up over thar,
+then it is that place the old Methodist preacher used to
+threaten me with. Any way it suits me to go and see
+what it's like."</p>
+
+<p>On descending to the plain described, the earth was
+found to have a hollow sound, and seemed threatening to
+break through. But Joe found the warmth of the place
+most delightful, after the freezing cold of the mountains,
+and remarked to himself again, that "if it war hell, it war
+a more agreeable climate than he had been in for some
+time."</p>
+
+<p>He had thought the country entirely desolate, as not a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+living creature had been seen in the vicinity; but while
+he stood gazing about him in curious amazement, he was
+startled by the report of two guns, followed by the Indian
+yell. While making rapid preparations for defence and
+flight, if either or both should be necessary, a familiar
+voice greeted him with the exclamation, "It <i>is</i> old Joe!"
+When the adjective "old" is applied to one of Meek's
+age at that time, it is generally understood to be a term
+of endearment. "My feelings you may imagine," says the
+"old Uncle Joe" of the present time, in recalling the
+adventure.</p>
+
+<p>Being joined by these two associates, who had been looking
+for him, our traveler, no longer simply a raw recruit,
+but a hero of wonderful adventures, as well as the rest of
+the men, proceeded with them to camp, which they overtook
+the third day, attempting to cross the high mountains
+between the Yellowstone and the Bighorn Rivers.
+If Meek had seen hard times in the mountains alone, he
+did not find them much improved in camp. The snow
+was so deep that the men had to keep in advance, and
+break the road for the animals; and to make their condition
+still more trying, there were no provisions in camp,
+nor any prospect of plenty, for men or animals, until they
+should reach the buffalo country beyond the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>During this scarcity of provisions, some of those amusing
+incidents took place with which the mountaineer will
+contrive to lighten his own and his comrades' spirits, even
+in periods of the greatest suffering. One which we have
+permission to relate, has reference to what Joe Meek calls
+the "meanest act of his life."</p>
+
+<p>While the men were starving, a negro boy, belonging to
+Jedediah Smith, by some means was so fortunate as to
+have caught a porcupine, which he was roasting before the
+fire. Happening to turn his back for a moment, to observe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+something in camp, Meek and Reese snatched the tempting
+viand and made off with it, before the darkey discovered
+his loss. But when it was discovered, what a wail
+went up for the embezzled porcupine! Suspicion fixed
+upon the guilty parties, but as no one would 'peach on
+white men to save a "nigger's" rights, the poor, disappointed
+boy could do nothing but lament in vain, to the
+great amusement of the men, who upon the principle that
+"misery loves company," rather chuckled over than condemned
+Meek's "mean act."</p>
+
+<p>There was a sequel, however, to this little story. So
+much did the negro dwell upon the event, and the heartlessness
+of the men towards him, that in the following
+summer, when Smith was in St. Louis, he gave the boy his
+freedom and two hundred dollars, and left him in that city;
+so that it became a saying in the mountains, that "the nigger
+got his freedom for a porcupine."</p>
+
+<p>During this same march, a similar joke was played upon
+one of the men named Craig. He had caught a rabbit
+and put it up to roast before the fire&mdash;a tempting looking
+morsel to starving mountaineers. Some of his associates
+determined to see how it tasted, and Craig was told that
+the Booshways wished to speak with him at their lodge.
+While he obeyed this supposed command, the rabbit was
+spirited away, never more to be seen by mortal man.
+When Craig returned to the camp-fire, and beheld the
+place vacant where a rabbit so late was nicely roasting, his
+passion knew no bounds, and he declared his intention of
+cutting it out of the stomach that contained it. But as
+finding the identical stomach which contained it involved
+the cutting open of many that probably did not, in the
+search, he was fain to relinquish that mode of vengeance,
+together with his hopes of a supper. As Craig is still living,
+and is tormented by the belief that he knows the man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+who stole his rabbit, Mr. Meek takes this opportunity of
+assuring him, upon the word of a gentleman, that <i>he</i> is
+not the man.</p>
+
+<p>While on the march over these mountains, owing to the
+depth of the snow, the company lost a hundred head of
+horses and mules, which sank in the yet unfrozen drifts,
+and could not be extricated. In despair at their situation,
+Jedediah Smith one day sent a man named Harris to the
+top of a high peak to take a view of the country, and ascertain
+their position. After a toilsome scramble the scout
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what did you see, Harris?" asked Smith anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw the city of St. Louis, and one fellow taking a
+drink!" replied Harris; prefacing the assertion with a
+shocking oath.</p>
+
+<p>Smith asked no more questions. He understood by the
+man's answer that he had made no pleasing discoveries;
+and knew that they had still a weary way before them to
+reach the plains below. Besides, Smith was a religious
+man, and the coarse profanity of the mountaineers was
+very distasteful to him. "A very mild man, and a christian;
+and there were very few of them in the mountains,"
+is the account given of him by the mountaineers themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The camp finally arrived without loss of life, except to
+the animals, on the plains of the Bighorn River, and came
+upon the waters of the Stinking Fork, a branch of this
+river, which derives its unfortunate appellation from the
+fact that it flows through a volcanic tract similar to the
+one discovered by Meek on the Yellowstone plains. This
+place afforded as much food for wonder to the whole camp,
+as the former one had to Joe; and the men unanimously
+pronounced it the "back door to that country which divines<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+preach about." As this volcanic district had previously
+been seen by one of Lewis and Clarke's men, named Colter,
+while on a solitary hunt, and by him also denominated
+"hell," there must certainly have been something very
+suggestive in its appearance.</p>
+
+<p>If the mountains had proven barren, and inhospitably
+cold, this hot and sulphurous country offered no greater
+hospitality. In fact, the fumes which pervaded the air
+rendered it exceedingly noxious to every living thing,
+and the camp was fain to push on to the main stream of
+the Bighorn River. Here signs of trappers became apparent,
+and spies having been sent out discovered a camp of
+about forty men, under Milton Sublette, brother of Captain
+William Sublette, the same that had been detached the
+previous summer to hunt in that country. Smith and Sublette
+then cached their furs, and moving up the river joined
+the camp of M. Sublette.</p>
+
+<p>The manner of caching furs is this: A pit is dug to a
+depth of five or six feet in which to stand. The men then
+drift from this under a bank of solid earth, and excavate a
+room of considerable dimensions, in which the furs are
+deposited, and the apartment closed up. The pit is then
+filled up with earth, and the traces of digging obliterated
+or concealed. These caches are the only storehouses of
+the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>While the men were recruiting themselves in the joint
+camp, the alarm of "Indians!" was given, and hurried
+cries of "shoot! shoot!" were uttered on the instant.
+Captain Sublette, however, checked this precipitation, and
+ordering the men to hold, allowed the Indians to approach,
+making signs of peace. They proved to be a war party
+of Crows, who after smoking the pipe of peace with the
+Captain, received from him a present of some tobacco, and
+departed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As soon as the camp was sufficiently recruited for traveling,
+the united companies set out again toward the south,
+and crossed the Horn mountains once more into Wind River
+Valley; having had altogether, a successful fall hunt, and
+made some important explorations, notwithstanding the
+severity of the weather and the difficulty of mountain traveling.
+It was about Christmas when the camp arrived on
+Wind River, and the cold intense. While the men celebrated
+Christmas, as best they might under the circumstances,
+Capt. Sublette started to St. Louis with one man,
+Harris, called among mountain-men Black Harris, on snowshoes,
+with a train of pack-dogs. Such was the indomitable
+energy and courage of this famous leader!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1830. The furs collected by Jackson's company were
+cached on the Wind River; and the cold still being very
+severe, and game scarce, the two remaining leaders, Smith
+and Jackson, set out on the first of January with the
+whole camp, for the buffalo country, on the Powder
+River, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles.
+"Times were hard in camp," when mountains had to be
+crossed in the depth of winter.</p>
+
+<p>The animals had to be subsisted on the bark of the
+sweet cotton-wood, which grows along the streams and in
+the valleys on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, but
+is nowhere to be found west of that range. This way of
+providing for his horses and mules involved no trifling
+amount of labor, when each man had to furnish food for
+several of them. To collect this bark, the men carried
+the smooth limbs of the cotton-wood to camp, where, beside
+the camp-fire, they shaved off the sweet, green bark
+with a hunting-knife transformed into a drawing-knife by
+fastening a piece of wood to its point; or, in case the
+cotton-wood was not convenient, the bark was peeled off,
+and carried to camp in a blanket. So nutritious is it,
+that animals fatten upon it quite as well as upon oats.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i091" name="i091"></a>
+<img src="images/i091.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">HUNTER'S WINTER CAMP.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In the large cotton-wood bottoms on the Yellowstone
+River, it sometimes became necessary to station a double
+guard to keep the buffalo out of camp, so numerous were
+they, when the severity of the cold drove them from the
+prairies to these cotton-wood thickets for subsistence. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+was, therefore, of double importance to make the winter
+camp where the cotton-wood was plenty; since not only
+did it furnish the animals of the camp with food, but by
+attracting buffalo, made game plenty for the men. To
+such a hunter's paradise on Powder River, the camp was
+now traveling, and arrived, after a hard, cold march,
+about the middle of January, when the whole encampment
+went into winter quarters, to remain until the opening
+of spring.</p>
+
+<p>This was the occasion when the mountain-man "lived
+fat" and enjoyed life: a season of plenty, of relaxation,
+of amusement, of acquaintanceship with all the company,
+of gayety, and of "busy idleness." Through the day,
+hunting parties were coming and going, men were cooking,
+drying meat, making moccasins, cleaning their arms,
+wrestling, playing games, and, in short, everything that
+an isolated community of hardy men could resort to for
+occupation, was resorted to by these mountaineers. Nor
+was there wanting, in the appearance of the camp, the
+variety, and that picturesque air imparted by a mingling
+of the native element; for what with their Indian allies,
+their native wives, and numerous children, the mountaineers'
+camp was a motley assemblage; and the trappers
+themselves, with their affectation of Indian coxcombry,
+not the least picturesque individuals.</p>
+
+<p>The change wrought in a wilderness landscape by the
+arrival of the grand camp was wonderful indeed. Instead
+of Nature's superb silence and majestic loneliness, there
+was the sound of men's voices in boisterous laughter, or
+the busy hum of conversation; the loud-resounding stroke
+of the axe; the sharp report of the rifle; the neighing
+of horses, and braying of mules; the Indian whoop and
+yell; and all that not unpleasing confusion of sound which
+accompanies the movements of the creature man. Over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+the plain, only dotted until now with shadows of clouds,
+or the transitory passage of the deer, the antelope, or the
+bear, were scattered hundreds of lodges and immense
+herds of grazing animals. Even the atmosphere itself
+seemed changed from its original purity, and became
+clouded with the smoke from many camp-fires. And all
+this change might go as quickly as it came. The tent
+struck and the march resumed, solitude reigned once
+more, and only the cloud dotted the silent landscape.</p>
+
+<p>If the day was busy and gleesome, the night had its
+charms as well. Gathered about the shining fires, groups
+of men in fantastic costumes told tales of marvelous adventures,
+or sung some old-remembered song, or were
+absorbed in games of chance. Some of the better educated
+men, who had once known and loved books, but
+whom some mishap in life had banished to the wilderness,
+recalled their favorite authors, and recited passages once
+treasured, now growing unfamiliar; or whispered to some
+chosen confrere the saddened history of his earlier years,
+and charged him thus and thus, should ever-ready death
+surprise himself in the next spring's hunt.</p>
+
+<p>It will not be thought discreditable to our young trapper,
+Joe, that he learned to read by the light of the camp-fire.
+Becoming sensible, even in the wilderness, of the
+deficiencies of his early education, he found a teacher in
+a comrade, named Green, and soon acquired sufficient
+knowledge to enjoy an old copy of Shakspeare; which,
+with a Bible, was carried about with the property of the
+camp.</p>
+
+<p>In this life of careless gayety and plenty, the whole
+company was allowed to remain without interruption,
+until the first of April, when it was divided, and once
+more started on the march. Jackson, or "Davey," as he
+was called by the men, with about half the company, left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+for the Snake country. The remainder, among whom
+was Meek, started north, with Smith for commander, and
+James Bridger as pilot.</p>
+
+<p>Crossing the mountains, ranges of which divide the
+tributary streams of the Yellowstone from each other, the
+first halt was made on Tongue River. From thence the
+camp proceeded to the Bighorn River. Through all this
+country game was in abundance,&mdash;buffalo, elk, and bear,
+and beaver also plenty. In mountain phrase, "times
+were good on this hunt:" beaver packs increased in number,
+and both men and animals were in excellent condition.</p>
+
+<p>A large party usually hunted out the beaver and frightened
+away the game in a few weeks, or days, from any
+one locality. When this happened the camp moved on;
+or, should not game be plenty, it kept constantly on the
+move, the hunters and trappers seldom remaining out
+more than a day or two. Should the country be considered
+dangerous on account of Indians, it was the habit of
+the men to return every night to the encampment.</p>
+
+<p>It was the design of Smith to take his command into
+the Blackfoot country, a region abounding in the riches
+which he sought, could they only be secured without
+coming into too frequent conflict with the natives: always
+a doubtful question concerning these savages. He had
+proceeded in this direction as far as Bovey's Fork of the
+Bighorn, when the camp was overtaken by a heavy fall
+of snow, which made traveling extremely difficult, and
+which, when melted, caused a sudden great rise in the
+mountain streams. In attempting to cross Bovey's Fork
+during the high water, he had thirty horses swept away,
+with three hundred traps: a serious loss in the business
+of hunting beaver.</p>
+
+<p>In the manner described, pushing on through an un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>known
+country, hunting and trapping as they moved, the
+company proceeded, passing another low chain of mountains,
+through a pass called Pryor's Gap, to Clark's Fork
+of the Yellowstone, thence to Rose-Bud River, and finally
+to the main Yellowstone River, where it makes a great
+bend to the east, enclosing a large plain covered with
+grass, and having also extensive cotton-wood bottoms,
+which subsequently became a favorite wintering ground
+of the fur companies.</p>
+
+<p>It was while trapping up in this country, on the Rose-Bud
+River, that an amusing adventure befel our trapper
+Joe. Being out with two other trappers, at some distance
+from the great camp, they had killed and supped off a fat
+buffalo cow. The night was snowy, and their camp was
+made in a grove of young aspens. Having feasted themselves,
+the remaining store of choice pieces was divided
+between, and placed, hunter fashion, under the heads of
+the party, on their betaking themselves to their blanket
+couches for the night. Neither Indian nor wild beast disturbed
+their repose, as they slept, with their guns beside
+them, filled with comfort and plenty. But who ever
+dreams of the presence of a foe under such circumstances?
+Certainly not our young trapper, who was only
+awakened about day-break by something very large and
+heavy walking over him, and snuffing about him with a
+most insulting freedom. It did not need Yankee powers
+of guessing to make out who the intruder in camp might
+be: in truth, it was only too disagreeably certain that it
+was a full sized grizzly bear, whose keenness of smell had
+revealed to him the presence of fat cow-meat in that
+neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>"You may be sure," says Joe, "that I kept very quiet,
+while that bar helped himself to some of my buffalo meat,
+and went a little way off to eat it. But Mark Head, one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+of the men, raised up, and back came the bar. Down
+went our heads under the blankets, and I kept mine covered
+pretty snug, while the beast took another walk over
+the bed, but finally went off again to a little distance.
+Mitchel then wanted to shoot; but I said, 'no, no; hold
+on, or the brute will kill us, sure.' When the bar heard
+our voices, back he run again, and jumped on the bed as
+before. I'd have been happy to have felt myself sinking
+ten feet under ground, while that bar promenaded over
+and around us! However, he couldn't quite make out our
+style, and finally took fright, and ran off down the mountain.
+Wanting to be revenged for his impudence, I went
+after him, and seeing a good chance, shot him dead.
+Then I took my turn at running over him awhile!"</p>
+
+<p>Such are the not infrequent incidents of the trapper's
+life, which furnish him with material, needing little embellishment
+to convert it into those wild tales with which
+the nights are whiled away around the winter camp-fire.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the Yellowstone with his company, Smith
+found it necessary, on account of the high water, to construct
+Bull-boats for the crossing. These are made by
+stitching together buffalo hides, stretching them over light
+frames, and paying the seams with elk tallow and ashes.
+In these light wherries the goods and people were ferried
+over, while the horses and mules were crossed by swimming.</p>
+
+<p>The mode usually adopted in crossing large rivers, was
+to spread the lodges on the ground, throwing on them the
+light articles, saddles, etc. A rope was then run through
+the pin-holes around the edge of each, when it could be
+drawn up like a reticule. It was then filled with the
+heavier camp goods, and being tightly drawn up, formed a
+perfect ball. A rope being tied to it, it was launched on
+the water, the children of the camp on top, and the women
+swimming after and clinging to it, while a man, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+had the rope in his hand, swam ahead holding on to his
+horse's mane. In this way, dancing like a cork on the
+waves, the lodge was piloted across; and passengers as
+well as freight consigned, undamaged, to the opposite
+shore. A large camp of three hundred men, and one
+hundred women and children were frequently thus crossed
+in one hour's time.</p>
+
+<p>The camp was now in the excellent but inhospitable
+country of the Blackfeet, and the commander redoubled
+his precautions, moving on all the while to the Mussel Shell,
+and thence to the Judith River. Beaver were plenty
+and game abundant; but the vicinity of the large village
+of the Blackfeet made trapping impracticable. Their
+war upon the trappers was ceaseless; their thefts of traps
+and horses ever recurring: and Smith, finding that to remain
+was to be involved in incessant warfare, without
+hope of victory or gain, at length gave the command to
+turn back, which was cheerfully obeyed: for the trappers
+had been very successful on the spring hunt, and thinking
+discretion some part at least of valor, were glad to get
+safe out of the Blackfoot country with their rich harvest
+of beaver skins.</p>
+
+<p>The return march was by the way of Pryor's Gap, and
+up the Bighorn, to Wind River, where the cache was
+made in the previous December. The furs were now
+taken out and pressed, ready for transportation across the
+plains. A party was also dispatched, under Mr. Tullock,
+to raise the cache on the Bighorn River. Among this
+party was Meek, and a Frenchman named Ponto. While
+digging to come at the fur, the bank above caved in, falling
+upon Meek and Ponto, killing the latter almost instantly.
+Meek, though severely hurt, was taken out alive:
+while poor Ponto was "rolled in a blanket, and pitched
+into the river." So rude were the burial services of the
+trapper of the Rocky Mountains.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meek was packed back to camp, along with the furs,
+where he soon recovered. Sublette arrived from St.
+Louis with fourteen wagons loaded with merchandise, and
+two hundred additional men for the service. Jackson also
+arrived from the Snake country with plenty of beaver,
+and the business of the yearly rendezvous began. Then
+the scenes previously described were re-enacted. Beaver,
+the currency of the mountains, was plenty that year, and
+goods were high accordingly. A thousand dollars a day
+was not too much for some of the most reckless to spend
+on their squaws, horses, alcohol, and themselves. For
+"alcohol" was the beverage of the mountaineers. Liquors
+could not be furnished to the men in that country. Pure
+alcohol was what they "got tight on;" and a desperate
+tight it was, to be sure!</p>
+
+<p>An important change took place in the affairs of the
+Rocky Mountain Company at this rendezvous. The three
+partners, Smith, Sublette, and Jackson, sold out to a new
+firm, consisting of Milton Sublette, James Bridger, Fitzpatrick,
+Frapp, and Jervais; the new company retaining
+the same name and style as the old.</p>
+
+<p>The old partners left for St. Louis, with a company of
+seventy men, to convoy the furs. Two of them never returned
+to the Rocky Mountains; one of them, Smith, being
+killed the following year, as will hereafter be related;
+and Jackson remaining in St. Louis, where, like a true
+mountain-man, he dissipated his large and hard-earned
+fortune in a few years. Captain Sublette, however, continued
+to make his annual trips to and from the mountains
+for a number of years; and until the consolidation of another
+wealthy company with the Rocky Mountain Company,
+continued to furnish goods to the latter, at a profit
+on St. Louis prices; his capital and experience enabling
+him to keep the new firm under his control to a large
+degree.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1830. The whole country lying upon the Yellowstone
+and its tributaries, and about the head-waters of the Missouri,
+at the time of which we are writing, abounded not only in
+beaver, but in buffalo, bear, elk, antelope, and many smaller
+kinds of game. Indeed the buffalo used then to cross
+the mountains into the valleys about the head-waters of the
+Snake and Colorado Rivers, in such numbers that at certain
+seasons of the year, the plains and river bottoms
+swarmed with them. Since that day they have quite disappeared
+from the western slope of the Rocky Mountains,
+and are no longer seen in the same numbers on the eastern
+side.</p>
+
+<p>Bear, although they did not go in herds, were rather
+uncomfortably numerous, and sometimes put the trapper
+to considerable trouble, and fright also; for very few were
+brave enough to willingly encounter the formidable grizzly,
+one blow of whose terrible paw, aimed generally at
+the hunter's head, if not arrested, lays him senseless and
+torn, an easy victim to the wrathful monster. A gunshot
+wound, if not directed with certainty to some vulnerable
+point, has only the effect to infuriate the beast, and make
+him trebly dangerous. From the fact that the bear always
+bites his wound, and commences to run with his
+head thus brought in the direction from which the ball
+comes, he is pretty likely to make a straight wake towards
+his enemy, whether voluntarily or not; and woe be to the
+hunter who is not prepared for him, with a shot for his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+eye, or the spot just behind the ear, where certain death
+enters.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i101" name="i101"></a>
+<img src="images/i101.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>THE THREE "BARES."</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In the frequent encounters of the mountain-men with
+these huge beasts, many acts of wonderful bravery were
+performed, while some tragedies, and not a few comedies
+were enacted.</p>
+
+<p>From something humorous in Joe Meek's organization,
+or some wonderful "luck" to which he was born, or both,
+the greater part of his adventures with bears, as with men,
+were of a humorous complexion; enabling him not only
+to have a story to tell, but one at which his companions
+were bound to laugh. One of these which happened during
+the fall hunt of 1830, we will let him tell for himself:</p>
+
+<p>"The first fall on the Yellowstone, Hawkins and myself
+were coming up the river in search of camp, when we discovered
+a very large bar on the opposite bank. We shot
+across, and thought we had killed him, fur he laid quite
+still. As we wanted to take some trophy of our victory
+to camp, we tied our mules and left our guns, clothes, and
+everything except our knives and belts, and swum over to
+whar the bar war. But instead of being dead, as we expected,
+he sprung up as we come near him, and took after
+us. Then you ought to have seen two naked men run!
+It war a race for life, and a close one, too. But we made
+the river first. The bank war about fifteen feet high above
+the water, and the river ten or twelve feet deep; but we
+didn't halt. Overboard we went, the bar after us, and in
+the stream about as quick as we war. The current war
+very strong, and the bar war about half way between
+Hawkins and me. Hawkins was trying to swim down
+stream faster than the current war carrying the bar, and I
+war a trying to hold back. You can reckon that I swam!
+Every moment I felt myself being washed into the yawning
+jaws of the mighty beast, whose head war up the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+stream, and his eyes on me. But the current war too strong
+for him, and swept him along as fast as it did me. All this
+time, not a long one, we war looking for some place to
+land where the bar could not overtake us. Hawkins war
+the first to make the shore, unknown to the bar, whose
+head war still up stream; and he set up such a whooping
+and yelling that the bar landed too, but on the opposite
+side. I made haste to follow Hawkins, who had landed
+on the side of the river we started from, either by design
+or good luck: and then we traveled back a mile and more
+to whar our mules war left&mdash;a bar on one side of the river,
+and <i>two bares</i> on the other!"</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding that a necessary discipline was observed
+and maintained in the fur traders' camp, there was at the
+same time a freedom of manner between the Booshways
+and the men, both hired and free, which could not obtain
+in a purely military organization, nor even in the higher
+walks of civilized life in cities. In the mountain community,
+motley as it was, as in other communities more refined,
+were some men who enjoyed almost unlimited freedom of
+speech and action, and others who were the butt of everybody's
+ridicule or censure. The leaders themselves did
+not escape the critical judgment of the men; and the estimation
+in which they were held could be inferred from
+the manner in which they designated them. Captain Sublette,
+whose energy, courage, and kindness entitled him to
+the admiration of the mountaineers, went by the name of
+<i>Billy</i>: his partner Jackson, was called <i>Davey</i>; Bridger,
+<i>old Gabe</i>, and so on. In the same manner the men distinguished
+favorites or oddities amongst themselves, and to
+have the adjective <i>old</i> prefixed to a man's name signified
+nothing concerning his age, but rather that he was an
+object of distinction; though it did not always indicate,
+except by the tone in which it was pronounced, whether
+that distinction were an enviable one or not.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Whenever a trapper could get hold of any sort of story
+reflecting on the courage of a leader, he was sure at some
+time to make him aware of it, and these anecdotes were
+sometimes sharp answers in the mouths of careless camp-keepers.
+Bridger was once waylaid by Blackfeet, who
+shot at him, hitting his horse in several places. The
+wounds caused the animal to rear and pitch, by reason of
+which violent movements Bridger dropped his gun, and
+the Indians snatched it up; after which there was nothing
+to do except to run, which Bridger accordingly did. Not
+long after this, as was customary, the leader was making
+a circuit of the camp examining the camp-keeper's guns,
+to see if they were in order, and found that of one Maloney,
+an Irishman, in a very dirty condition.</p>
+
+<p>"What would you do," asked Bridger, "with a gun like
+that, if the Indians were to charge on the camp?"</p>
+
+<p>"Be &mdash;&mdash;, I would throw it to them, and run the way
+ye did," answered Maloney, quickly. It was sometime
+after this incident before Bridger again examined Maloney's
+gun.</p>
+
+<p>A laughable story in this way went the rounds of the
+camp in this fall of 1830. Milton Sublette was out on a
+hunt with Meek after buffalo, and they were just approaching
+the band on foot, at a distance apart of about fifty yards,
+when a large grizzly bear came out of a thicket and made
+after Sublette, who, when he perceived the creature, ran
+for the nearest cotton-wood tree. Meek in the meantime,
+seeing that Sublette was not likely to escape, had taken
+sure aim, and fired at the bear, fortunately killing him.
+On running up to the spot where it laid, Sublette was discovered
+sitting at the foot of a cotton-wood, with his legs and
+arms clasped tightly around it.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you always climb a tree in that way?" asked Meek.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you took the wrong end of it, that time,
+Milton!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be &mdash;&mdash;, Meek, if I didn't think I was twenty
+feet up that tree when you shot;" answered the frightened
+Booshway; and from that time the men never tired of
+alluding to Milton's manner of climbing a tree.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i106" name="i106"></a>
+<img src="images/i106.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">THE WRONG END OF THE TREE.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>These were some of the mirthful incidents which gave
+occasion for a gayety which had to be substituted for happiness,
+in the checkered life of the trapper; and there
+were like to be many such, where there were two hundred
+men, each almost daily in the way of adventures by
+flood or field.</p>
+
+<p>On the change in the management of the Company
+which occurred at the rendezvous this year, three of the
+new partners, Fitzpatrick, Sublette, and Bridger, conducted
+a large party, numbering over two hundred, from the Wind
+River to the Yellowstone; crossing thence to Smith's River,
+the Falls of the Missouri, three forks of the Missouri, and
+to the Big Blackfoot River. The hunt proved very successful;
+beaver were plentiful; and the Blackfeet shy of
+so large a traveling party. Although so long in their
+country, there were only four men killed out of the whole
+company during this autumn.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>From the Blackfoot River the company proceeded down
+the west side of the mountains to the forks of the Snake
+River, and after trapping for a short time in this locality,
+continued their march southward as far as Ogden's Hole,
+a small valley among the Bear River Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>At this place they fell in with a trading and trapping
+party, under Mr. Peter Skeen Ogden, of the Hudson's Bay
+Company. And now commenced that irritating and reprehensible
+style of rivalry with which the different companies
+were accustomed to annoy one another. Accompanying
+Mr. Ogden's trading party were a party of Rockway
+Indians, who were from the North, and who were
+employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, as the Iroquois
+and Crows were, to trap for them. Fitzpatrick and associates
+camped in the neighborhood of Ogden's company,
+and immediately set about endeavoring to purchase from
+the Rockways and others, the furs collected for Mr. Ogden.
+Not succeeding by fair means, if the means to such an end
+could be called fair,&mdash;they opened a keg of whiskey, which,
+when the Indians had got a taste, soon drew them away
+from the Hudson's Bay trader, the regulations of whose
+company forbade the selling or giving of liquors to the
+Indians. Under its influence, the furs were disposed of to
+the Rocky Mountain Company, who in this manner obtained
+nearly the whole product of their year's hunt. This course
+of conduct was naturally exceedingly disagreeable to Mr.
+Ogden, as well as unprofitable also; and a feeling of hostility
+grew up and increased between the two camps.</p>
+
+<p>While matters were in this position, a stampede one day
+occurred among the horses in Ogden's camp, and two or
+three of the animals ran away, and ran into the camp of
+the rival company. Among them was the horse of Mr.
+Ogden's Indian wife, which had escaped, with her babe
+hanging to the saddle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Not many minutes elapsed, before the mother, following
+her child and horse, entered the camp, passing right
+through it, and catching the now halting steed by the bridle.
+At the same moment she espied one of her company's
+pack-horses, loaded with beaver, which had also
+run into the enemy's camp. The men had already begun
+to exult over the circumstance, considering this chance
+load of beaver as theirs, by the laws of war. But not so
+the Indian woman. Mounting her own horse, she fearlessly
+seized the pack-horse by the halter, and led it out of camp,
+with its costly burden.</p>
+
+<p>At this undaunted action, some of the baser sort of men
+cried out "shoot her, shoot her!" but a majority interfered,
+with opposing cries of "let her go; let her alone; she's
+a brave woman: I glory in her pluck;" and other like
+admiring expressions. While the clamor continued, the
+wife of Ogden had galloped away, with her baby and
+her pack-horse.</p>
+
+<p>As the season advanced, Fitzpatrick, with his other partners,
+returned to the east side of the mountains, and went
+into winter quarters on Powder river. In this trapper's
+"land of Canaan" they remained between two and three
+months. The other two partners, Frapp and Jervais, who
+were trapping far to the south, did not return until the
+following year.</p>
+
+<p>While wintering it became necessary to send a dispatch
+to St. Louis on the company's business. Meek and a
+Frenchman named Legarde, were chosen for this service,
+which was one of trust and peril also. They proceeded
+without accident, however, until the Pawnee villages were
+reached, when Legarde was taken prisoner. Meek, more
+cautious, escaped, and proceeded alone a few days' travel
+beyond, when he fell in with an express on its way to St.
+Louis, to whom he delivered his dispatches, and returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+to camp, accompanied only by a Frenchman named Cabeneau;
+thus proving himself an efficient mountaineer at
+twenty years of age.</p>
+
+<p>1831. As soon as the spring opened, sometime in
+March, the whole company started north again, for the
+Blackfoot country. But on the night of the third day out,
+they fell unawares into the neighborhood of a party of
+Crow Indians, whose spies discovered the company's
+horses feeding on the dry grass of a little bottom, and
+succeeded in driving off about three hundred head. Here
+was a dilemma to be in, in the heart of an enemy's country!
+To send the remaining horses after these, might be
+"sending the axe after the helve;" besides most of them
+belonged to the free trappers, and could not be pressed
+into the service.</p>
+
+<p>The only course remaining was to select the best men
+and dispatch them on foot, to overtake and retake the
+stolen horses. Accordingly one hundred trappers were
+ordered on this expedition, among whom were Meek,
+Newell, and Antoine Godin, a half-breed and brave fellow,
+who was to lead the party. Following the trail of
+the Crows for two hundred miles, traveling day and night,
+on the third day they came up with them on a branch of
+the Bighorn river. The trappers advanced cautiously,
+and being on the opposite side of the stream, on a wooded
+bluff, were enabled to approach close enough to look into
+their fort, and count the unsuspecting thieves. There
+were sixty of them, fine young braves, who believed that
+now they had made a start in life. Alas, for the vanity
+of human, and especially of Crow expectations! Even
+then, while they were grouped around their fires, congratulating
+themselves on the sudden wealth which had descended
+upon them, as it were from the skies, an envious fate,
+in the shape of several roguish white trappers, was laugh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>ing
+at them and their hopes, from the overhanging bluff
+opposite them. And by and by, when they were wrapped
+in a satisfied slumber, two of these laughing rogues, Robert
+Newell, and Antoine Godin, stole under the very
+walls of their fort, and setting the horses free, drove them
+across the creek.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians were awakened by the noise of the trampling
+horses, and sprang to arms. But Meek and his fellow-trappers
+on the bluff fired into the fort with such effect
+that the Crows were appalled. Having delivered their
+first volley, they did not wait for the savages to recover
+from their recoil. Mounting in hot haste, the cavalcade
+of bare-back riders, and their drove of horses, were soon
+far away from the Crow fort, leaving the ambitious braves
+to finish their excursion on foot. It was afterwards ascertained
+that the Crows lost seven men by that one volley
+of the trappers.</p>
+
+<p>Flushed with success, the trappers yet found the backward
+journey more toilsome than the outward; for what
+with sleeplessness and fatigue, and bad traveling in melted
+snow, they were pretty well exhausted when they reached
+camp. Fearing, however, another raid from the thieving
+Crows, the camp got in motion again with as little delay
+as possible. They had not gone far, when Fitzpatrick
+turned back, with only one man, to go to St. Louis for
+supplies.</p>
+
+<p>After the departure of Fitzpatrick, Bridger and Sublette
+completed their spring and summer campaign without any
+material loss in men or animals, and with considerable
+gain in beaver skins. Having once more visited the Yellowstone,
+they turned to the south again, crossing the
+mountains into Pierre's Hole, on to Snake river; thence
+to Salt river; thence to Bear river; and thence to Green
+river, to rendezvous.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was expected that Fitzpatrick would have arrived
+from St. Louis with the usual annual recruits and supplies
+of merchandise, in time for the summer rendezvous; but
+after waiting for some time in vain, Bridger and Sublette
+determined to send out a small party to look for him.
+The large number of men now employed, had exhausted
+the stock of goods on hand. The camp was without
+blankets and without ammunition; knives were not to be
+had; traps were scarce; but worse than all, the tobacco
+had given out, and alcohol was not! In such a case as
+this, what could a mountain-man do?</p>
+
+<p>To seek the missing Booshway became not only a duty,
+but a necessity; and not only a necessity of the physical
+man, but in an equal degree a need of the moral and spiritual
+man, which was rusting with the tedium of waiting.
+In the state of uncertainty in which the minds of the company
+were involved, it occurred to that of Frapp to consult
+a great "medicine-man" of the Crows, one of those
+recruits filched from Mr. Ogden's party by whiskey the
+previous year.</p>
+
+<p>Like all eminent professional men, the Crow chief required
+a generous fee, of the value of a horse or two,
+before he would begin to make "medicine." This peculiar
+ceremony is pretty much alike among all the different
+tribes. It is observed first in the making of a medicine
+man, <i>i. e.</i>, qualifying him for his profession; and afterwards
+is practiced to enable him to heal the sick, to
+prophecy, and to dream dreams, or even to give victory
+to his people. To a medicine-man was imputed great
+power, not only to cure, but to kill; and if, as it sometimes
+happened, the relatives of a sick man suspected the
+medicine-man of having caused his death, by the exercise
+of evil powers, one of them, or all of them, pursued him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+to the death. Therefore, although it might be honorable,
+it was not always safe to be a great "medicine."</p>
+
+<p>The Indians placed a sort of religious value upon the
+practice of fasting; a somewhat curious fact, when it is
+remembered how many compulsory fasts they are obliged
+to endure, which must train them to think lightly of the
+deprivation of food. Those, however, who could endure
+voluntary abstinence long enough, were enabled to become
+very wise and very brave. The manner of making
+a "medicine" among some of the interior tribes, is in certain
+respects similar to the practice gone through with by
+some preachers, in making a convert. A sort of camp-meeting
+is held, for several nights, generally about five,
+during which various dances are performed, with cries,
+and incantations, bodily exercises, singing, and nervous
+excitement; enough to make many patients, instead of
+one doctor. But the native's constitution is a strong one,
+and he holds out well. At last, however, one or more
+are overcome with the mysterious <i>power</i> which enters into
+them at that time; making, instead of a saint, only a superstitious
+Indian doctor.</p>
+
+<p>The same sort of exercises which had made the Cree
+man a doctor were now resorted to, in order that he might
+obtain a more than natural sight, enabling him to see visions
+of the air, or at the least to endow him with prophetic
+dreams. After several nights of singing, dancing,
+hopping, screeching, beating of drums, and other more
+violent exercises and contortions, the exhausted medicine-man
+fell off to sleep, and when he awoke he announced
+to Frapp that Fitzpatrick was not dead. He was on the
+road; some road; but not the right one; etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>Thus encouraged, Frapp determined to take a party,
+and go in search of him. Accordingly Meek, Reese,
+Ebarts, and Nelson, volunteered to accompany him. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+party set out, first in the direction of Wind River; but
+not discovering any signs of the lost Booshway in that
+quarter, crossed over to the Sweetwater, and kept along
+down to the North Fork of the Platte, and thence to the
+Black Hills, where they found a beautiful country full of
+game; but not the hoped-for train, with supplies. After
+waiting for a short time at the Black Hills, Frapp's party
+returned to the North Fork of the Platte, and were
+rejoiced to meet at last, the long absent partner, with his
+pack train. Urged by Frapp, Fitzpatrick hastened forward,
+and came into camp on Powder River after winter
+had set in.</p>
+
+<p>Fitzpatrick had a tale to tell the other partners, in explanation
+of his unexpected delay. When he had started
+for St. Louis in the month of March previous, he had
+hoped to have met the old partners, Capt. Sublette and
+Jedediah Smith, and to have obtained the necessary supplies
+from them, to furnish the Summer rendezvous with
+plenty. But these gentlemen, when he fell in with them,
+used certain arguments which induced him to turn back,
+and accompany them to Santa Fe, where they promised
+to furnish him goods, as he desired, and to procure
+for him an escort at that place. The journey had proven
+tedious, and unfortunate. They had several times been
+attacked by Indians, and Smith had been killed. While
+they were camped on a small tributary of the Simmaron
+River, Smith had gone a short distance from camp to procure
+water, and while at the stream was surprised by an
+ambush, and murdered on the spot, his murderers escaping
+unpunished. Sublette, now left alone in the business,
+finally furnished him; and he had at last made his way
+back to his Rocky Mountain camp.</p>
+
+<p>But Fitzpatrick's content at being once more with his
+company was poisoned by the disagreeable proximity of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+rival company. If he had annoyed Mr. Ogden of the
+Hudson's Bay Company, in the previous autumn, Major
+Vanderburg and Mr. Dripps, of the American Company,
+in their turn annoyed him. This company had been on
+their heels, from the Platte River, and now were camped
+in the same neighborhood, using the Rocky Mountain
+Company as pilots to show them the country. As this
+was just what it was not for their interest to do, the
+Rocky Mountain Company raised camp, and fairly ran
+away from them; crossing the mountains to the Forks of
+the Snake River, where they wintered among the Nez Perces
+and Flathead Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Some time during this winter, Meek and Legarde, who
+had escaped from the Pawnees, made another expedition
+together; traveling three hundred miles on snowshoes, to
+the Bitter Root River, to look for a party of free trappers,
+whose beaver the company wished to secure. They were
+absent two months and a half, on this errand, and were
+entirely successful, passing a Blackfoot village in the
+night, but having no adventures worth recounting.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1832. In the following spring, the Rocky Mountain Fur
+Company commenced its march, first up Lewis' Fork, then
+on to Salt River, thence to Gray's River, and thence to
+Bear River. They fell in with the North American Fur
+Company on the latter river, with a large lot of goods,
+but no beaver. The American Company's resident partners
+were ignorant of the country, and were greatly at a
+loss where to look for the good trapping grounds. These
+gentlemen, Vanderburg and Dripps, were therefore inclined
+to keep an eye on the movements of the Rocky
+Mountain Company, whose leaders were acquainted with
+the whole region lying along the mountains, from the
+head-waters of the Colorado to the northern branches of
+the Missouri. On the other hand, the Rocky Mountain
+Company were anxious to "shake the dust from off their
+feet," which was trodden by the American Company, and
+to avoid the evils of competition in an Indian country.
+But they found the effort quite useless; the rival company
+had a habit of turning up in the most unexpected places,
+and taking advantage of the hard-earned experience of
+the Rocky Mountain Company's leaders. They tampered
+with the trappers, and ferreted out the secret of their next rendezvous;
+they followed on their trail, making them pilots
+to the trapping grounds; they sold goods to the Indians,
+and what was worse, to the hired trappers. In this way
+grew up that fierce conflict of interests, which made it "as
+much as his life was worth" for a trapper to suffer himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+to be inveigled into the service of a rival company, which
+about this time or a little later, was at its highest, and
+which finally ruined the fur-trade for the American companies
+in the Rocky Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Finding their rivals in possession of the ground, Bridger
+and Milton Sublette resolved to spend but a few days in
+that country. But so far as Sublette was concerned, circumstances
+ordered differently. A Rockway Chief, named
+Gray, and seven of his people, had accompanied the camp
+from Ogden's Hole, in the capacity of trappers. But during
+the sojourn on Bear River, there was a quarrel in
+camp on account of some indignity, real or fancied, which
+had been offered to the chief's daughter, and in the affray
+Gray stabbed Sublette so severely that it was thought he
+must die.</p>
+
+<p>It thus fell out that Sublette had to be left behind; and
+Meek who was his favorite, was left to take care of him
+while he lived, and bury him if he died; which trouble
+Sublette saved him, however, by getting well. But they
+had forty lonesome days to themselves after the camps
+had moved off,&mdash;one on the heels of the other, to the
+great vexation of Bridger. Time passed slowly in Sublette's
+lodge, while waiting for his wound to heal. Day
+passed after day, so entirely like each other that the monotony
+alone seemed sufficient to invite death to an easy
+conquest. But the mountain-man's blood, like the Indians,
+is strong and pure, and his flesh heals readily, therefore,
+since death would not have him, the wounded man
+was forced to accept of life in just this monotonous form.
+To him Joe Meek was everything,&mdash;hands, feet, physician,
+guard, caterer, hunter, cook, companion, friend. What
+long talks they had, when Sublette grew better: what
+stories they told; what little glimpses of a secret chamber
+in their hearts, and a better than the every-day spirit, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+their bosoms, was revealed,&mdash;as men will reveal such
+things in the isolation of sea-voyages, or the solitary presence
+of majestic Nature.</p>
+
+<p>To the veteran mountaineer there must have been
+something soothing in the care and friendship of the
+youth of twenty-two, with his daring disposition, his frankness,
+his cheerful humor, and his good looks;&mdash;for our Joe
+was growing to be a maturely handsome man&mdash;tall, broad-shouldered,
+straight, with plenty of flesh, and none too
+much of it; a Southerner's olive complexion; frank, dark
+eyes, and a classical nose and chin. What though in the
+matter of dress he was ignorant of the latest styles?&mdash;grace
+imparts elegance even to the trapper's beaver-skin
+cap and blanket capote.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of forty days, as many as it took to drown
+a world, Sublette found himself well enough to ride; and
+the two set out on their search for camp. But now other
+adventures awaited them. On a fork of Green River,
+they came suddenly upon a band of Snake Indians feeding
+their horses. As soon as the Snakes discovered the
+white men, they set up a yell, and made an instinctive
+rush for their horses. Now was the critical moment.
+One word passed between the travelers, and they made a
+dash past the savages, right into the village, and never
+slacked rein until they threw themselves from their horses
+at the door of the Medicine lodge. This is a large and fancifully
+decorated lodge, which stands in the centre of a village,
+and like the churches of Christians, is sacred. Once
+inside of this, the strangers were safe for the present; their
+blood could not be shed there.</p>
+
+<p>The warriors of the village soon followed Sublette and
+Meek into their strange house of refuge. In half an
+hour it was filled. Not a word was addressed to the
+strangers; nor by them to the Indians, who talked among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+themselves with a solemn eagerness, while they smoked
+the medicine pipe, as inspiration in their councils. Great
+was the excitement in the minds of the listeners, who understood
+the Snake tongue, as the question of their life or
+death was gravely discussed; yet in their countenances
+appeared only the utmost serenity. To show fear, is to
+whet an Indian's appetite for blood: coolness confounds
+and awes him when anything will.</p>
+
+<p>If Sublette had longed for excitement, while an invalid
+in his lonely lodge on Bear River, he longed equally now
+for that blissful seclusion. Listening for, and hearing
+one's death-warrant from a band of blood-thirsty savages,
+could only prove with bitter sharpness how sweet was life,
+even the most uneventful. For hours the council continued,
+and the majority favored the death-sentence. But one old
+chief, called the good <i>Gotia</i>, argued long for an acquittal:
+he did not see the necessity of murdering two harmless
+travelers of the white race. Nothing availed, however,
+and just at sunset their doom was fixed.</p>
+
+<p>The only hope of escape was, that, favored by darkness,
+they might elude the vigilance of their jailers; and night,
+although so near, seemed ages away, even at sundown.
+Death being decreed, the warriors left the lodge one by
+one to attend to the preparation of the preliminary ceremonies.
+Gotia, the good, was the last to depart. As he
+left the Medicine lodge he made signs to the captives to
+remain quiet until he should return; pointing upwards to
+signify that there was a chance of life; and downwards
+to show that possibly they must die.</p>
+
+<p>What an age of anxiety was that hour of waiting! Not
+a word had been exchanged between the prisoners since
+the Indians entered the lodge, until now; and now very
+little was said, for speech would draw upon them the vigilance
+of their enemy, by whom they desired most ardently
+to be forgotten.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>About dusk there was a great noise, and confusion, and
+clouds of dust, in the south end of the village. Something
+was going wrong among the Indian horses. Immediately
+all the village ran to the scene of the disorder,
+and at the same moment Gotia, the good, appeared at the
+door of the Medicine lodge, beckoning the prisoners to
+follow him. With alacrity they sprang up and after him,
+and were led across the stream, to a thicket on the opposite
+side, where their horses stood, ready to mount, in the
+charge of a young Indian girl. They did not stop for
+compliments, though had time been less precious, they
+might well have bestowed some moments of it in admiration
+of <i>Umentucken Tukutsey Undewatsey</i>, the Mountain
+Lamb. Soon after, the beautiful Snake girl became the wife
+of Milton Sublette; and after his return to the States, of the
+subject of this narrative; from which circumstance the
+incident above related takes on something of the rosy hue
+of romance.</p>
+
+<p>As each released captive received his bridle from the
+delicate hand of the Mountain Lamb, he sprang to the
+saddle. By this time the chief had discovered that the
+strangers understood the Snake dialect. "Ride, if you
+wish to live," said he: "ride without stopping, all night:
+and to-morrow linger not." With hurried thanks our
+mountain-men replied to this advice, and striking into a
+gallop, were soon far away from the Snake village. The
+next day at noon found them a hundred and fifty miles on
+their way to camp. Proceeding without further accident,
+they crossed the Teton Mountains, and joined the company
+at Pierre's Hole, after an absence of nearly four
+months.</p>
+
+<p>Here they found the ubiquitous if not omnipresent
+American Fur Company encamped at the rendezvous of
+the Rocky Mountain Company. The partners being anx<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>ious
+to be freed from this sort of espionage, and obstinate
+competition on their own ground, made a proposition to
+Vanderburg and Dripps to divide the country with them,
+each company to keep on its own territory. This proposition
+was refused by the American Company; perhaps because
+they feared having the poorer portion set off to
+themselves by their more experienced rivals. On this refusal,
+the Rocky Mountain Company determined to send
+an express to meet Capt. William Sublette, who was on
+his way out with a heavy stock of merchandise, and hurry
+him forward, lest the American Company should have the
+opportunity of disposing of its goods, when the usual
+gathering to rendezvous began. On this decision being
+formed, Fitzpatrick determined to go on this errand himself;
+which he accordingly did, falling in with Sublette,
+and Campbell, his associate, somewhere near the Black
+Hills. To them he imparted his wishes and designs, and
+receiving the assurance of an early arrival at rendezvous,
+parted from them at the Sweetwater, and hastened back,
+alone, as he came, to prepare for business.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Sublette hurried forward with his train, which
+consisted of sixty men with pack-horses, three to a man.
+In company with him, was Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth, a history
+of whose fur-trading and salmon-fishing adventures has
+already been given. Captain Sublette had fallen in with
+Mr. Wyeth at Independence, Missouri; and finding him
+ignorant of the undertaking on which he was launched,
+offered to become pilot and traveling companion, an offer
+which was gratefully accepted.</p>
+
+<p>The caravan had reached the foot-hills of the Wind
+River Mountains, when the raw recruits belonging to both
+these parties were treated to a slight foretaste of what
+Indian fighting would be, should they ever have to encounter
+it. Their camp was suddenly aroused at midnight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+by the simultaneous discharge of guns and arrows, and
+the frightful whoops and yells with which the savages
+make an attack. Nobody was wounded, however; but
+on springing to arms, the Indians fled, taking with them
+a few horses which their yells had frightened from their
+pickets. These marauders were Blackfeet, as Captain
+Sublette explained to Mr. Wyeth, their moccasin tracks
+having betrayed them; for as each tribe has a peculiar
+way of making or shaping the moccasin, the expert in
+Indian habits can detect the nationality of an Indian thief
+by his foot-print. After this episode of the night assault,
+the leaders redoubled their watchfulness, and reached
+their destination in Pierre's hole about the first of July.</p>
+
+<p>When Sublette arrived in camp, it was found that Fitzpatrick
+was missing. If the other partners had believed
+him to be with the Captain, the Captain expected to find
+him with them; but since neither could account to the
+other for his non-appearance, much anxiety was felt, and
+Sublette remembered with apprehension the visit he had
+received from Blackfeet. However, before anything had
+been determined upon with regard to him, he made his
+appearance in camp, in company with two Iroquois half-breeds,
+belonging to the camp, who had been out on a
+hunt.</p>
+
+<p>Fitzpatrick had met with an adventure, as had been
+conjectured. While coming up the Green river valley,
+he descried a small party of mounted men, whom he mistook
+for a company of trappers, and stopped to reconnoitre;
+but almost at the same moment the supposed
+trappers, perceiving him, set up a yell that quickly undeceived
+him, and compelled him to flight. Abandoning
+his pack-horse, he put the other to its topmost speed,
+and succeeded in gaining the mountains, where in a deep
+and dark defile he secreted himself until he judged the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+Indians had left that part of the valley. In this he was
+deceived, for no sooner did he emerge again into the open
+country, than he was once more pursued, and had to
+abandon his horse, to take refuge among the cliffs of the
+mountains. Here he remained for several days, without
+blankets or provisions, and with only one charge of ammunition,
+which was in his rifle, and kept for self-defense.
+At length, however, by frequent reconnoitering, he managed
+to elude his enemies, traveling by night, until he
+fortunately met with the two hunters from camp, and was
+conveyed by them to the rendezvous.</p>
+
+<p>All the parties were now safely in. The lonely mountain
+valley was populous with the different camps. The
+Rocky Mountain and American companies had their separate
+camps; Wyeth had his; a company of free trappers,
+fifteen in number, led by a man named Sinclair, from Arkansas,
+had the fourth; the Nez Perces and Flatheads, the
+allies of the Rocky Mountain company, and the friends of
+the whites, had their lodges along all the streams; so that
+altogether there could not have been less than one thousand
+souls, and two or three thousand horses and mules
+gathered in this place.</p>
+
+<p>"When the pie was opened then the birds began to
+sing." When Captain Sublette's goods were opened and
+distributed among the trappers and Indians, then began
+the usual gay carousal; and the "fast young men" of the
+mountains outvied each other in all manner of mad pranks.
+In the beginning of their spree many feats of horsemanship
+and personal strength were exhibited, which were
+regarded with admiring wonder by the sober and inexperienced
+New Englanders under Mr. Wyeth's command.
+And as nothing stimulated the vanity of the mountain-men
+like an audience of this sort, the feats they performed
+were apt to astonish themselves. In exhibitions of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+kind, the free trappers took the lead, and usually carried
+off the palm, like the privileged class that they were.</p>
+
+<p>But the horse-racing, fine riding, wrestling, and all the
+manlier sports, soon degenerated into the baser exhibitions
+of a "crazy drunk" condition. The vessel in which
+the trapper received and carried about his supply of alcohol
+was one of the small camp kettles. "Passing round"
+this clumsy goblet very freely, it was not long before a
+goodly number were in the condition just named, and
+ready for any mad freak whatever. It is reported by several
+of the mountain-men that on the occasion of one of
+these "frolics," one of their number seized a kettle of alcohol,
+and poured it over the head of a tall, lank, redheaded
+fellow, repeating as he did so the baptismal ceremony.
+No sooner had he concluded, than another man
+with a lighted stick, touched him with the blaze, when in
+an instant he was enveloped in flames. Luckily some of
+the company had sense enough left to perceive his danger,
+and began beating him with pack-saddles to put out the
+blaze. But between the burning and the beating, the
+unhappy wretch nearly lost his life, and never recovered
+from the effects of his baptism by fire.</p>
+
+<p>Beaver being plenty in camp, business was correspondingly
+lively, there being a great demand for goods. When
+this demand was supplied, as it was in the course of about
+three weeks, the different brigades were set in motion.
+One of the earliest to move was a small party under Milton
+Sublette, including his constant companion, Meek.
+With this company, no more than thirty in number, Sublette
+intended to explore the country to the south-west,
+then unknown to the fur companies, and to proceed as far
+as the Humboldt river in that direction.</p>
+
+<p>On the 17th of July they set out toward the south end
+of the valley, and having made but about eight miles the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+first day, camped that night near a pass in the mountains.
+Wyeth's party of raw New Englanders, and Sinclair's free
+trappers, had joined themselves to the company of Milton
+Sublette, and swelled the number in camp to about
+sixty men, many of them new to the business of mountain
+life.</p>
+
+<p>Just as the men were raising camp for a start the next
+morning, a caravan was observed moving down the mountain
+pass into the valley. No alarm was at first felt, as an
+arrival was daily expected of one of the American company's
+partisans, Mr. Fontenelle, and his company. But
+on reconnoitering with a glass, Sublette discovered them
+to be a large party of Blackfeet, consisting of a few
+mounted men, and many more, men, women, and children,
+on foot. At the instant they were discovered, they set up
+the usual yell of defiance, and rushed down like a mountain
+torrent into the valley, flourishing their weapons, and
+fluttering their gay blankets and feathers in the wind.
+There was no doubt as to the warlike intentions of the
+Blackfeet in general, nor was it for a moment to be supposed
+that any peaceable overture on their part meant
+anything more than that they were not prepared to fight at
+that particular juncture; therefore let not the reader judge
+too harshly of an act which under ordinary circumstances
+would have been infamous. In Indian fighting, every
+man is his own leader, and the bravest take the front
+rank. On this occasion there were two of Sublette's men,
+one a half-breed Iroquois, the other a Flathead Indian,
+who had wrongs of their own to avenge, and they never
+let slip a chance of killing a Blackfoot. These two men
+rode forth alone to meet the enemy, as if to hold a "talk"
+with the principal chief, who advanced to meet them,
+bearing the pipe of peace. When the chief extended
+his hand, Antonio Godin, the half-breed, took it, but at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+same moment he ordered the Flathead to fire, and the
+chief fell dead. The two trappers galloped back to camp,
+Antoine bearing for a trophy the scarlet blanket of his
+enemy.</p>
+
+<p>This action made it impossible to postpone the battle,
+as the dead chief had meant to do by peaceful overtures,
+until the warriors of his nation came up. The Blackfeet
+immediately betook themselves to a swamp formed by an
+old beaver dam, and thickly overgrown with cotton-wood
+and willow, matted together with tough vines. On the
+edge of this dismal covert the warriors skulked, and shot
+with their guns and arrows, while in its very midst the
+women employed themselves in digging a trench and
+throwing up a breastwork of logs, and whatever came to
+hand. Such a defence as the thicket afforded was one not
+easy to attack; its unseen but certain dangers being sufficient
+to appal the stoutest heart.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, an express had been sent off to inform Captain
+Sublette of the battle, and summon assistance. Sinclair
+and his free trappers, with Milton Sublette's small
+company, were the only fighting men at hand. Mr. Wyeth,
+knowing the inefficiency of his men in an Indian fight,
+had them entrenched behind their packs, and there left
+them to take care of themselves, but charged them not to
+appear in open field. As for the fighting men, they stationed
+themselves in a ravine, where they could occasionally
+pick off a Blackfoot, and waited for reinforcements.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the astonishment of the Blackfeet, who believed
+they had only Milton Sublette's camp to fight, when
+they beheld first one party of white men and then another;
+and not only whites, but Nez Perces and Flatheads
+came galloping up the valley. If before it had been a
+battle to destroy the whites, it was now a battle to defend
+themselves. Previous to the arrival of Captain Sublette,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+the opposing forces had kept up only a scattering fire, in
+which nobody on the side of the trappers had been either
+killed or wounded. But when the impetuous captain
+arrived on the battle-field, he prepared for less guarded
+warfare. Stripped as if for the prize-ring, and armed
+<i>cap-a-pie</i>, he hastened to the scene of action, accompanied
+by his intimate friend and associate in business, Robert
+Campbell.</p>
+
+<p>At sight of the reinforcements, and their vigorous
+movements, the Indians at the edge of the swamp fell
+back within their fort. To dislodge them was a dangerous
+undertaking, but Captain Sublette was determined to
+make the effort. Finding the trappers generally disinclined
+to enter the thicket, he set the example, together
+with Campbell, and thus induced some of the free trappers,
+with their leader, Sinclair, to emulate his action.
+However, the others took courage at this, and advanced
+near the swamp, firing at random at their invisible foe,
+who, having the advantage of being able to see them, inflicted
+some wounds on the party.</p>
+
+<p>The few white "braves" who had resolved to enter the
+swamp, made their wills as they went, feeling that they
+were upon perilous business. Sublette, Campbell, and
+Sinclair succeeded in penetrating the thicket without
+alarming the enemy, and came at length to a more open
+space from whence they could get a view of the fort.
+From this they learned that the women and children had
+retired to the mountains, and that the fort was a slight
+affair, covered with buffalo robes and blankets to keep out
+prying eyes. Moving slowly on, some slight accident
+betrayed their vicinity, and the next moment a shot struck
+Sinclair, wounding him mortally. He spoke to Campbell,
+requesting to be taken to his brother. By this time some
+of the men had come up, and he was given in charge to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+be taken back to camp. Sublette then pressed forward,
+and seeing an Indian looking through an aperture, aimed
+at him with fatal effect. No sooner had he done so, and
+pointed out the opening to Campbell, than he was struck
+with a ball in the shoulder, which nearly prostrated him,
+and turned him so faint that Campbell took him in his
+arms and carried him, assisted by Meek, out of the swamp.
+At the same time one of the men received a wound in the
+head. The battle was now carried on with spirit, although
+from the difficulty of approaching the fort, the firing was
+very irregular.</p>
+
+<p>The mountaineers who followed Sublette, took up their
+station in the woods on one side of the fort, and the Nez
+Perces, under Wyeth, on the opposite side, which accidental
+arrangement, though it was fatal to many of the
+Blackfeet in the fort, was also the occasion of loss to
+themselves by the cross-fire. The whites being constantly
+reinforced by fresh arrivals from the rendezvous, were
+soon able to silence the guns of the enemy, but they were
+not able to drive them from their fort, where they remained
+silent and sullen after their ammunition was exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that the women of the Nez Perces and Flatheads
+were gathering up sticks to set fire to their breastwork
+of logs, an old chief proclaimed in a loud voice
+from within, the startling intelligence that there were
+four hundred lodges of his people close at hand, who
+would soon be there to avenge their deaths, should the
+whites choose to reduce them to ashes. This harangue,
+delivered in the usual high-flown style of Indian oratory,
+either was not clearly understood, or was wrongly interpreted,
+and the impression got abroad that an attack was
+being made on the great encampment. This intelligence
+occasioned a diversion, and a division of forces; for while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+a small party was left to watch the fort, the rest galloped
+in hot haste to the rescue of the main camp. When they
+arrived, they found it had been a false alarm, but it was
+too late to return that night, and the several camps remained
+where they were until the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the trappers left to guard the fort remained
+stationed within the wood all night, firmly believing they
+had their enemy "corraled," as the horsemen of the
+plains would say. On the return, in the morning, of their
+comrades from the main camp, they advanced cautiously
+up to the breastwork of logs, and behold! not a buffalo
+skin nor red blanket was to be seen! Through the crevices
+among the logs was seen an empty fort. On making
+this discovery there was much chagrin among the white
+trappers, and much lamentation among the Indian allies,
+who had abandoned the burning of the fort expressly to
+save for themselves the fine blankets and other goods of
+their hereditary foes.</p>
+
+<p>From the reluctance displayed by the trappers, in the
+beginning of the battle, to engage with the Indians while
+under cover of the woods, it must not be inferred that
+they were lacking in courage. They were too well informed
+in Indian modes of warfare to venture recklessly
+into the den of death, which a savage ambush was quite
+sure to be. The very result which attended the impetuosity
+of their leaders, in the death of Sinclair and the
+wounding of Captain Sublette, proved them not over
+cautious.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the fort, the dead bodies of ten Blackfeet
+were found, besides others dead outside the fort, and over
+thirty horses, some of which were recognized as those
+stolen from Sublette's night camp on the other side of
+the mountains, besides those abandoned by Fitzpatrick.
+Doubtless the rascals had followed his trail to Pierre's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+Hole, not thinking, however, to come upon so large a
+camp as they found at last. The savage garrison which
+had so cunningly contrived to elude the guard set upon
+them, carried off some of their wounded, and, perhaps, also
+some of their dead; for they acknowledged afterwards a
+much larger loss than appeared at the time. Besides Sinclair,
+there were five other white men killed, one half-breed,
+and seven Nez Perces. About the same number
+of whites and their Indian allies were wounded.</p>
+
+<p>An instance of female devotion is recorded by Bonneville's
+historian as having occurred at this battle. On the
+morning following it, as the whites were exploring the
+thickets about the fort, they discovered a Blackfoot
+woman leaning silent and motionless against a tree. According
+to Mr. Irving, whose fine feeling for the sex
+would incline him to put faith in this bit of romance,
+"their surprise at her lingering here alone, to fall into the
+hands of her enemies, was dispelled when they saw the
+corpse of a warrior at her feet. Either she was so lost in
+grief as not to perceive their approach, or a proud spirit
+kept her silent and motionless. The Indians set up a yell
+on discovering her, and before the trappers could interfere,
+her mangled body fell upon the corpse which she had
+refused to abandon." This version is true in the main incidents,
+but untrue in the sentiment. The woman's leg
+had been broken by a ball, and she was unable to move
+from the spot where she leaned. When the trappers approached
+her, she stretched out her hands supplicatingly,
+crying out in a wailing voice, "kill me! kill me! O white
+men, kill me!"&mdash;but this the trappers had no disposition
+to do. While she was entreating them, and they refusing,
+a ball from some vengeful Nez Perce or Flathead put an
+end to her sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>Still remembering the threats of the Blackfoot chief,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+that four hundred lodges of his brethren were advancing
+on the valley, all the companies returned to rendezvous,
+and remained for several days, to see whether an attack
+should take place. But if there had ever been any such
+intention on the part of the Blackfoot nation, the timely
+lesson bestowed on their advance guard had warned them
+to quit the neighborhood of the whites.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Sublette's wound was dressed by Mr. Wyeth's
+physician, and although it hindered his departure for St.
+Louis for some time, it did not prevent his making his
+usual journey later in the season. It was as well, perhaps,
+that he did not set out earlier, for of a party of
+seven who started for St. Louis a few days after the battle,
+three were killed in Jackson's Hole, where they fell in
+with the four hundred warriors with whom the Blackfoot
+chief threatened the whites at the battle of Pierre's Hole.
+From the story of the four survivors who escaped and returned
+to camp, there could no longer be any doubt that
+the big village of the Blackfeet had actually been upon
+the trail of Capt. Sublette, expecting an easy victory
+when they should overtake him. How they were disappointed
+by the reception met with by the advance camp,
+has already been related.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1832. On the 23d of July, Milton Sublette's brigade
+and the company of Mr. Wyeth again set out for the
+southwest, and met no more serious interruptions while
+they traveled in company. On the head-waters of the
+Humboldt River they separated, Wyeth proceeding north
+to the Columbia, and Sublette continuing on into a country
+hitherto untraversed by American trappers.</p>
+
+<p>It was the custom of a camp on the move to depend
+chiefly on the men employed as hunters to supply them
+with game, the sole support of the mountaineers. When
+this failed, the stock on hand was soon exhausted, and the
+men reduced to famine. This was what happened to
+Sublette's company in the country where they now found
+themselves, between the Owyhee and Humboldt Rivers.
+Owing to the arid and barren nature of these plains, the
+largest game to be found was the beaver, whose flesh
+proved to be poisonous, from the creature having eaten
+of the wild parsnip in the absence of its favorite food.
+The men were made ill by eating of beaver flesh, and the
+horses were greatly reduced from the scarcity of grass
+and the entire absence of the cotton-wood.</p>
+
+<p>In this plight Sublette found himself, and finally resolved
+to turn north, in the hope of coming upon some
+better and more hospitable country. The sufferings of
+the men now became terrible, both from hunger and
+thirst. In the effort to appease the former, everything
+was eaten that could be eaten, and many things at which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+the well-fed man would sicken with disgust. "I have,"
+says Joe Meek, "held my hands in an ant-hill until they
+were covered with the ants, then greedily licked them off.
+I have taken the soles off my moccasins, crisped them in
+the fire, and eaten them. In our extremity, the large
+black crickets which are found in this country were considered
+game. We used to take a kettle of hot water,
+catch the crickets and throw them in, and when they
+stopped kicking, eat them. That was not what we called
+<i>cant tickup ko hanch</i>, (good meat, my friend), but it kept
+us alive."</p>
+
+<p>Equally abhorrent expedients were resorted to in order
+to quench thirst, some of which would not bear mention.
+In this condition, and exposed to the burning suns and
+the dry air of the desert, the men now so nearly exhausted
+began to prey upon their almost equally exhausted animals.
+At night when they made their camp, by mutual
+consent a mule was bled, and a soup made from its blood.
+About a pint was usually taken, when two or three would
+mess together upon this reviving, but scanty and not very
+palatable dish. But this mode of subsistence could not
+be long depended on, as the poor mules could ill afford to
+lose blood in their famishing state; nor could the men afford
+to lose their mules where there was a chance of life:
+therefore hungry as they were, the men were cautious in
+this matter; and it generally caused a quarrel when a man's
+mule was selected for bleeding by the others.</p>
+
+<p>A few times a mule had been sacrificed to obtain meat;
+and in this case the poorest one was always selected, so as
+to economise the chances for life for the whole band. In
+this extremity, after four days of almost total abstinence
+and several weeks of famine, the company reached the
+Snake River, about fifty miles above the fishing falls, where
+it boils and dashes over the rocks, forming very strong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+rapids. Here the company camped, rejoiced at the sight
+of the pure mountain water, but still in want of food.
+During the march a horse's back had become sore from
+some cause; probably, his rider thought, because the saddle
+did not set well; and, although that particular animal
+was selected to be sacrificed on the morrow, as one that
+could best be spared, he set about taking the stuffing out
+of his saddle and re-arranging the padding. While engaged
+in this considerate labor, he uttered a cry of delight
+and held up to view a large brass pin, which had accidentally
+got into the stuffing, when the saddle was made, and
+had been the cause of all the mischief to his horse.</p>
+
+<p>The same thought struck all who saw the pin: it was
+soon converted into a fish-hook, a line was spun from horse-hair,
+and in a short time there were trout enough caught
+to furnish them a hearty and a most delicious repast. "In
+the morning," says Meek, "we went on our way rejoicing;"
+each man with the "five fishes" tied to his saddle, if without
+any "loaves." This was the end of their severest suffering,
+as they had now reached a country where absolute
+starvation was not the normal condition of the inhabitants;
+and which was growing more and more bountiful, as they
+neared the Rocky Mountains, where they at length joined
+camp, not having made a very profitable expedition.</p>
+
+<p>It may seem incredible to the reader that any country
+so poor as that in which our trappers starved could have
+native inhabitants. Yet such was the fact; and the people
+who lived in and who still inhabit this barren waste,
+were called <i>Diggers</i>, from their mode of obtaining their
+food&mdash;a few edible roots growing in low grounds, or marshy
+places. When these fail them they subsist as did our trappers,
+by hunting crickets and field mice.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can be more abject than the appearance of the
+Digger Indian, in the fall, as he roams about, without food<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+and without weapons, save perhaps a bow and arrows,
+with his eyes fixed upon the ground, looking for crickets!
+So despicable is he, that he has neither enemies nor friends;
+and the neighboring tribes do not condescend to notice his
+existence, unless indeed he should come in their way,
+when they would not think it more than a mirthful act to
+put an end to his miserable existence. And so it must be
+confessed the trappers regarded him. When Sublette's
+party first struck the Humboldt, Wyeth's being still with
+them, Joe Meek one day shot a Digger who was prowling
+about a stream where his traps were set.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you shoot him?" asked Wyeth.</p>
+
+<p>"To keep him from stealing traps."</p>
+
+<p>"Had he stolen any?"</p>
+
+<p>"No: but he <i>looked as if he was going to</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>This recklessness of life very properly distressed the just
+minded New Englander. Yet it was hard for the trappers
+to draw lines of distinction so nice as his. If a tribe was
+not known to be friendly, it was a rule of necessity to consider
+it unfriendly. The abjectness and cowardice of the
+Diggers was the fruit of their own helpless condition. That
+they had the savage instinct, held in check only by circumstances,
+was demonstrated about the same time that
+Meek shot one, by his being pursued by four of them when
+out trapping alone, and only escaping at last by the assistance
+of one of his comrades who came to the rescue.
+They could not fight, like the Crows and Blackfeet, but
+they could steal and murder, when they had a safe opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>It would be an interesting study, no doubt, to the philanthropist,
+to ascertain in how great a degree the habits,
+manners, and morals of a people are governed by their
+resources, especially by the quality and quantity of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+diet. But when diet and climate are both taken into consideration,
+the result is striking.</p>
+
+<p>The character of the Blackfeet who inhabited the good
+hunting grounds on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains,
+is already pretty well given. They were tall, sinewy, well-made
+fellows; good horsemen, and good fighters, though
+inclined to marauding and murdering. They dressed comfortably
+and even handsomely, as dress goes amongst savages,
+and altogether were more to be feared than despised.</p>
+
+<p>The Crows resembled the Blackfeet, whose enemies they
+were, in all the before-mentioned traits, but were if possible,
+even more predatory in their habits. Unlike the
+Blackfeet, however, they were not the enemies of all
+mankind; and even were disposed to cultivate some friendliness
+with the white traders and trappers, in order, as
+they acknowledged, to strengthen their own hands
+against the Blackfeet. They too inhabited a good country,
+full of game, and had horses in abundance. These
+were the mountain tribes.</p>
+
+<p>Comparing these with the coast tribes, there was a striking
+difference. The natives of the Columbia were not a
+tall and robust people, like those east of the Rocky Mountains,
+who lived by hunting. Their height rarely exceeded
+five feet six inches; their forms were good, rather inclining
+to fatness, their faces round, features coarse, but
+complexion light, and their eyes large and intelligent.
+The custom of flattening their heads in infancy gave them
+a grotesque and unnatural appearance, otherwise they
+could not be called ill-looking. On the first advent of
+white men among them, they were accustomed to go entirely
+naked, except in winter, when a panther skin, or a
+mantle of other skins sewed together, served to protect
+them from the cold: or if the weather was rainy, as it
+generally was in that milder climate, a long mantle of rush<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+mats, like the toga of the ancient Romans, took the place
+of that made of skins. To this was added a conical hat,
+woven of fibrous roots, and gaily painted.</p>
+
+<p>For defensive armor they were provided with a tunic
+of elkskin double, descending to the ankles, with holes in
+it for the arms, and quite impenetrable to arrows. A helmet
+of similar material covered the head, rendering them
+like Achilles, invulnerable except in the heels. In this
+secure dress they went to battle in their canoes, notice
+being first given to the enemy of the intended attack.
+Their battles might therefore be termed compound duels,
+in which each party observed great punctiliousness and
+decorum. Painted and armor-encased, the warriors in two
+flotillas of canoes were rowed to the battle ground by
+their women, when the battle raged furiously for some
+time; not, however, doing any great harm to either side.
+If any one chanced to be killed, that side considered itself
+beaten, and retired from the conflict to mourn over and
+bury the estimable and departed brave. If the case was a
+stubborn one, requiring several days fighting, the opponents
+encamped near each other, keeping up a confusion
+of cries, taunts, menaces, and raillery, during the whole
+night; after which they resumed the conflict, and continued
+it until one was beaten. If a village was to be attacked,
+notice being received, the women and children
+were removed; and if the village was beaten they made
+presents to their conquerors. Such were the decorous
+habits of the warriors of the lower Columbia.</p>
+
+<p>These were the people who lived almost exclusively by
+fishing, and whose climate was a mild and moist one. Fishing,
+in which both sexes engaged about equally, was an important
+accomplishment, since it was by fish they lived in
+this world; and by being good fishermen that they had hopes
+of the next one. The houses in which they lived, instead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+of being lodges made of buffalo skins, were of a large
+size and very well constructed, being made out of cedar
+planks. An excavation was first made in the earth two or
+three feet deep, probably to secure greater warmth in
+winter. A double row of cedar posts was then planted
+firmly all round the excavation, and between these the
+planks were laid, or, sometimes cedar bark, so overlapped
+as to exclude the rain and wind. The ridge-pole of the
+roof was supported on a row of taller posts, passing
+through the centre of the building, and notched to receive
+it. The rafters were then covered with planks or bark,
+fastened down with ropes made of the fibre of the cedar
+bark. A house made in this manner, and often a hundred
+feet long by thirty or forty wide, accommodated several
+families, who each had their separate entrance and fireplace;
+the entrance being by a low oval-shaped door, and
+a flight of steps.</p>
+
+<p>The canoes of these people were each cut out of a single
+log of cedar; and were often thirty feet long and five
+wide at midships. They were gaily painted, and their
+shape was handsome, with a very long bow so constructed
+as to cut the surf in landing with the greatest ease, or the
+more readily to go through a rough sea. The oars were
+about five feet long, and bent in the shape of a crescent;
+which shape enabled them to draw them edgewise through
+the water with little or no noise&mdash;this noiselessness being
+an important quality in hunting the sea otter, which is
+always caught sleeping on the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>The single instrument which sufficed to build canoes
+and houses was the chisel; generally being a piece of old
+iron obtained from some vessel and fixed in a wooden
+handle. A stone mallet aided them in using the chisel;
+and with this simple "kit" of tools they contrived to
+manufacture plates, bowls, carved oars, and many ornamental
+things.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Like the men of all savage nations, they made slaves of
+their captives, and their women. The dress of the latter
+consisted merely of a short petticoat, manufactured from
+the fibre of the cedar bark, previously soaked and prepared.
+This material was worked into a fringe, attached
+to a girdle, and only long enough to reach the middle of
+the thigh. When the season required it, they added a
+mantle of skins. Their bodies were anointed with fish-oil,
+and sometimes painted with red ochre in imitation of the
+men. For ornaments they wore strings of glass beads,
+and also of a white shell found on the northern coast, called
+<i>haiqua</i>. Such were the <i>Chinooks</i>, who lived upon the
+coast.</p>
+
+<p>Farther up the river, on the eastern side of the Cascade
+range of mountains, a people lived, the same, yet different
+from the Chinooks. They resembled them in form, features,
+and manner of getting a living. But they were
+more warlike and more enterprising; they even had some
+notions of commerce, being traders between the coast
+Indians and those to the east of them. They too were
+great fishermen, but used the net instead of fishing in
+boats. Great scaffoldings were erected every year at the
+narrows of the Columbia, known as the Dalles, where, as
+the salmon passed up the river in the spring, in incredible
+numbers, they were caught and dried. After drying, the
+fish were then pounded fine between two stones, pressed
+tightly into packages or bales of about a hundred pounds,
+covered with matting, and corded up for transportation.
+The bales were then placed in storehouses built to receive
+them, where they awaited customers.</p>
+
+<p>By and by there came from the coast other Indians,
+with different varieties of fish, to exchange for the salmon
+in the Wish-ram warehouses. And by and by there came
+from the plains to the eastward, others who had horses,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+camas-root, bear-grass, fur robes, and whatever constituted
+the wealth of the mountains and plains, to exchange for
+the rich and nutritious salmon of the Columbia. These
+Wish-ram Indians were sharp traders, and usually made
+something by their exchanges; so that they grew rich
+and insolent, and it was dangerous for the unwary
+stranger to pass their way. Of all the tribes of the Columbia,
+they perpetrated the most outrages upon their
+neighbors, the passing traveler, and the stranger within
+their gates.</p>
+
+<p>Still farther to the east, on the great grassy plains, watered
+by beautiful streams, coming down from the mountains,
+lived the Cayuses, Yakimas, Nez Perces, Wallah-Wallahs,
+and Flatheads; as different in their appearance
+and habits as their different modes of living would naturally
+make them. Instead of having many canoes, they
+had many horses; and in place of drawing the fishing net,
+or trolling lazily along with hook and line, or spearing
+fish from a canoe, they rode pell-mell to the chase, or sallied
+out to battle with the hostile Blackfeet, whose country
+lay between them and the good hunting-grounds, where
+the great herds of buffalo were. Being Nimrods by nature,
+they were dressed in complete suits of skins, instead
+of going naked, like their brethren in the lower country.
+Being wandering and pastoral in their habits, they lived
+in lodges, which could be planted every night and raised
+every morning.</p>
+
+<p>Their women, too, were good riders, and comfortably
+clad in dressed skins, kept white with chalk. So wealthy
+were some of the chiefs that they could count their fifteen
+hundred head of horses grazing on their grassy uplands.
+Horse-racing was their delight, and betting on them their
+besetting vice. For bridles they used horse-hair cords,
+attached around the animal's mouth. This was sufficient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+to check him, and by laying a hand on this side or that of
+the horse's neck, the rider could wheel him in either direction.
+The simple and easy-fitting saddle was a stuffed
+deer-skin, with stirrups of wood, resembling in shape those
+used by the Mexicans, and covered with deer-skin sewed
+on wet, so as to tighten in drying. The saddles of the
+women were furnished with a pair of deer's antlers for the
+pommel.</p>
+
+<p>In many things their customs and accoutrements resembled
+those of the Mexicans, from whom, no doubt, they
+were borrowed. Like the Mexican, they threw the lasso
+to catch the wild horse. Their horses, too, were of Mexican
+stock, and many of them bore the brand of that
+country, having been obtained in some of their not infrequent
+journeys into California and New Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>As all the wild horses of America are said to have
+sprung from a small band, turned loose upon the plains
+by Cortez, it would be interesting to know at what time
+they came to be used by the northern Indians, or whether
+the horse and the Indian did not emigrate together. If the
+horse came to the Indian, great must have been the change
+effected by the advent of this new element in the savage's
+life. It is impossible to conceive, however, that the Indian
+ever could have lived on these immense plains, barren
+of everything but wild grass, without his horse. With
+him he does well enough, for he not only "lives on horseback,"
+by which means he can quickly reach a country
+abounding in game, but he literally lives on horse-flesh,
+when other game is scarce.</p>
+
+<p>Curious as the fact may seem, the Indians at the mouth
+of the Columbia and those of New Mexico speak languages
+similar in construction to that of the Aztecs; and from
+this fact, and the others before mentioned, it may be very
+fairly inferred that difference of circumstances and localities
+have made of the different tribes what they are.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As to the Indian's moral nature, that is pretty much alike
+everywhere; and with some rare exceptions, the rarest of
+which is, perhaps, the Flathead and Nez Perces nations,
+all are cruel, thieving, and treacherous. The Indian gospel
+is literally the "gospel of blood"; an "eye for an
+eye, and a tooth for a tooth." Vengeance is as much a
+commandment to him as any part of the decalogue is to
+the Christian. But we have digressed far from our narrative;
+and as it will be necessary to refer to the subject of
+the moral code of savages further on in our narrative, we
+leave it for the present.</p>
+
+<p>After the incident of the pin and the fishes, Sublette's
+party kept on to the north, coursing along up Payette's
+River to Payette Lake, where he camped, and the men
+went out trapping. A party of four, consisting of Meek,
+Antoine Godin, Louis Leaugar, and Small, proceeded to the
+north as far as the Salmon river and beyond, to the head
+of one of its tributaries, where the present city of Florence
+is located. While camped in this region, three of
+the men went out one day to look for their horses, which
+had strayed away, or been stolen by the Indians. During
+their absence, Meek, who remained in camp, had killed a
+fine fat deer, and was cooking a portion of it, when he
+saw a band of about a hundred Indians approaching, and
+so near were they that flight was almost certainly useless;
+yet as a hundred against one was very great odds, and
+running away from them would not increase their number,
+while it gave him something to do in his own defence, he
+took to his heels and ran as only a mountain-man can run.
+Instead, however, of pursuing him, the practical-minded
+braves set about finishing his cooking for him, and soon
+had the whole deer roasting before the fire.</p>
+
+<p>This procedure provoked the gastronomic ire of our
+trapper, and after watching them for some time from his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+hiding-place, he determined to return and share the feast.
+On reaching camp again, and introducing himself to his
+not over-scrupulous visitors, he found they were from the
+Nez Perces tribe inhabiting that region, who, having been
+so rude as to devour his stock of provisions, invited him
+to accompany them to their village, not a great way off,
+where they would make some return for his involuntary
+hospitality. This he did, and there found his three comrades
+and all their horses. While still visiting at the Nez
+Perces village, they were joined by the remaining portion
+of Sublette's command, when the whole company started
+south again. Passing Payette's lake to the east, traversing
+the Boise Basin, going to the head-waters of that river,
+thence to the Malade, thence to Godin's river, and finally
+to the forks of the Salmon, where they found the main
+camp. Captain Bonneville, of whose three years wanderings
+in the wilderness Mr. Irving has given a full and interesting
+account, was encamped in the same neighborhood,
+and had built there a small fort or trading-house,
+and finally wintered in the neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>An exchange of men now took place, and Meek went
+east of the mountains under Fitzpatrick and Bridger.
+When these famous leaders had first set out for the summer
+hunt, after the battle of Pierre's Hole, their course
+had been to the head-waters of the Missouri, to the Yellowstone
+lake, and the forks of the Missouri, some of the
+best beaver grounds known to them. But finding their
+steps dogged by the American Fur Company, and not
+wishing to be made use of as pilots by their rivals, they
+had flitted about for a time like an Arab camp, in the endeavor
+to blind them, and finally returned to the west side
+of the mountains, where Meek fell in with them.</p>
+
+<p>Exasperated by the perseverance of the American
+Company, they had come to the determination of leading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+them a march which should tire them of the practice of
+keeping at their heels. They therefore planned an expedition,
+from which they expected no other profit than that
+of shaking off their rivals. Taking no pains to conceal
+their expedition, they rather held out the bait to the
+American Company, who, unsuspicious of their purpose,
+took it readily enough. They led them along across the
+mountains, and on to the head-waters of the Missouri.
+Here, packing up their traps, they tarried not for beaver,
+nor even tried to avoid the Blackfeet, but pushed right
+ahead, into the very heart of their country, keeping away
+from any part of it where beaver might be found, and
+going away on beyond, to the elevated plains, quite destitute
+of that small but desirable game, but followed
+through it by their rivals.</p>
+
+<p>However justifiable on the part of trade this movement
+of the Rocky Mountain Company might have been,
+it was a cruel device as concerned the inexperienced leaders
+of the other company, one of whom lost his life in
+consequence. Not knowing of their danger, they only
+discovered their situation in the midst of Blackfeet,
+after discovering the ruse that had been played upon
+them. They then halted, and being determined to find
+beaver, divided their forces and set out in opposite directions
+for that purpose. Unhappily, Major Vanderburg
+took the worst possible direction for a small party to take,
+and had not traveled far when his scouts came upon the
+still smoking camp-fires of a band of Indians who were
+returning from a buffalo hunt. From the "signs" left
+behind them, the scout judged that they had become
+aware of the near neighborhood of white men, and from
+their having stolen off, he judged that they were only
+gone for others of their nation, or to prepare for war.</p>
+
+<p>But Vanderburg, with the fool-hardiness of one not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+"up to Blackfeet," determined to ascertain for himself
+what there was to fear; and taking with him half a score
+of his followers, put himself upon their trail, galloping
+hard after them, until, in his rashness, he found himself
+being led through a dark and deep defile, rendered darker
+and gloomier by overhanging trees. In the midst of this
+dismal place, just where an ambush might have been expected,
+he was attacked by a horde of savages, who
+rushed upon his little party with whoops and frantic gestures,
+intended not only to appal the riders, but to frighten
+their horses, and thus make surer their bloody butchery.
+It was but the work of a few minutes to consummate their
+demoniac purpose. Vanderburg's horse was shot down
+at once, falling on his rider, whom the Indians quickly
+dispatched. One or two of the men were instantly tomahawked,
+and the others wounded while making their escape
+to camp. The remainder of Vanderburg's company,
+on learning the fate of their leader, whose place there
+was no one to fill, immediately raised camp and fled with
+all haste to the encampment of the Pends Oreille Indians
+for assistance. Here they waited, while those Indians, a
+friendly tribe, made an effort to recover the body of their
+unfortunate leader; but the remains were never recovered,
+probably having first been fiendishly mutilated, and then
+left to the wolves.</p>
+
+<p>Fitzpatrick and Bridger, finding they were no longer
+pursued by their rivals, as the season advanced began to
+retrace their steps toward the good trapping grounds.
+Being used to Indian wiles and Blackfeet maraudings and
+ambushes, they traveled in close columns, and never
+camped or turned out their horses to feed, without the
+greatest caution. Morning and evening scouts were sent
+out to beat up every thicket or ravine that seemed to
+offer concealment to a foe, and the horizon was searched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+in every direction for signs of an Indian attack. The
+complete safety of the camp being settled almost beyond
+a peradventure, the horses were turned loose, though
+never left unguarded.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i145" name="i145"></a>
+<img src="images/i145.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">SCOUTS IN THE BLACKFOOT COUNTRY&mdash;"ELK OR INDIANS?"</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It was not likely, however, that the camp should pass
+through the Blackfoot country without any encounters
+with that nation. When it had reached the head-waters
+of the Missouri, on the return march, a party of trappers,
+including Meek, discovered a small band of Indians in a
+bend of the lake, and thinking the opportunity for sport
+a good one, commenced firing on them. The Indians,
+who were without guns, took to the lake for refuge, while
+the trappers entertained themselves with the rare amusement
+of keeping them in the water, by shooting at them
+occasionally. But it chanced that these were only a few
+stragglers from the main Blackfoot camp, which soon
+came up and put an end to the sport by putting the trappers
+to flight in their turn. The trappers fled to camp,
+the Indians pursuing, until the latter discovered that they
+had been led almost into the large camp of the whites.
+This occasioned a halt, the Blackfeet not caring to engage
+with superior numbers.</p>
+
+<p>In the pause which ensued, one of the chiefs came out
+into the open space, bearing the peace pipe, and Bridger
+also advanced to meet him, but carrying his gun across
+the pommel of his saddle. He was accompanied by a
+young Blackfoot woman, wife of a Mexican in his service,
+as interpreter. The chief extended his hand in token of
+amity; but at that moment Bridger saw a movement of
+the chiefs, which he took to mean treachery, and cocked
+his rifle. But the lock had no sooner clicked than the
+chief, a large and powerful man, seized the gun and
+turned the muzzle downward, when the contents were
+discharged into the earth. With another dexterous move<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>ment
+he wrested it from Bridger's hand, and struck him
+with it, felling him to the ground. In an instant all was
+confusion. The noise of whoops, yells, of fire-arms, and
+of running hither and thither, gathered like a tempest.
+At the first burst of this demoniac blast, the horse of the
+interpreter became frightened, and, by a sudden movement,
+unhorsed her, wheeling and running back to camp.
+In the melee which now ensued, the woman was carried
+off by the Blackfeet, and Bridger was wounded twice in
+the back with arrows. A chance medley fight now ensued,
+continuing until night put a period to the contest. So
+well matched were the opposing forces, that each fought
+with caution firing from the cover of thickets and from
+behind rocks, neither side doing much execution. The
+loss on the part of the Blackfeet was nine warriors, and
+on that of the whites, three men and six horses.</p>
+
+<p>As for the young Blackfoot woman, whose people retained
+her a prisoner, her lamentations and struggles to
+escape and return to her husband and child so wrought
+upon the young Mexican, who was the pained witness of
+her grief, that he took the babe in his arms, and galloped
+with it into the heart of the Blackfoot camp, to place it
+in the arms of the distracted mother. This daring act,
+which all who witnessed believed would cause his death,
+so excited the admiration of the Blackfoot chief, that he
+gave him permission to return, unharmed, to his own
+camp. Encouraged by this clemency, Loretta begged to
+have his wife restored to him, relating how he had rescued
+her, a prisoner, from the Crows, who would certainly
+have tortured her to death. The wife added her entreaties
+to his, but the chief sternly bade him depart, and as
+sternly reminded the Blackfoot girl that she belonged to
+his tribe, and could not go with his enemies. Loretta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+was therefore compelled to abandon his wife and child,
+and return to camp.</p>
+
+<p>It is, however, gratifying to know that so true an instance
+of affection in savage life was finally rewarded;
+and that when the two rival fur companies united, as they
+did in the following year, Loretta was permitted to go
+to the American Company's fort on the Missouri, in the
+Blackfoot country, where he was employed as interpreter,
+assisted by his Blackfoot wife.</p>
+
+<p>Such were some of the incidents that signalized this
+campaign in the wilderness, where two equally persistent
+rivals were trying to outwit one another. Subsequently,
+when several years of rivalry had somewhat exhausted
+both, the Rocky Mountain and American companies consolidated,
+using all their strategy thereafter against the
+Hudson's Bay Company, and any new rival that chanced
+to enter their hunting grounds.</p>
+
+<p>After the fight above described, the Blackfeet drew off
+in the night, showing no disposition to try their skill next
+day against such experienced Indian fighters as Bridger's
+brigade had shown themselves. The company continued
+in the Missouri country, trapping and taking many beaver,
+until it reached the Beaver Head Valley, on the head-waters
+of the Jefferson fork of the Missouri. Here the
+lateness of the season compelled a return to winter-quarters,
+and by Christmas all the wanderers were gathered
+into camp at the forks of the Snake River.</p>
+
+<p>1833. In the latter part of January it became necessary
+to move to the junction of the Portneuf to subsist
+the animals. The main body of the camp had gone on
+in advance, while some few, with pack horses, or women
+with children, were scattered along the trail. Meek, with
+five others, had been left behind to gather up some horses
+that had strayed. When about a half day's journey from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+camp, he overtook <i>Umentucken</i>, the Mountain Lamb, now
+the wife of Milton Sublette, with her child, on horseback.
+The weather was terribly cold, and seeming to grow
+colder. The naked plains afforded no shelter from the
+piercing winds, and the air fairly glittered with frost.
+Poor Umentucken was freezing, but more troubled about
+her babe than herself. The camp was far ahead, with all
+the extra blankets, and the prospect was imminent that
+they would perish. Our gallant trapper had thought
+himself very cold until this moment, but what were his
+sufferings compared to those of the Mountain Lamb and
+her little Lambkin? Without an instant's hesitation, he
+divested himself of his blanket capote, which he wrapped
+round the mother and child, and urged her to hasten to
+camp. For himself, he could not hasten, as he had the
+horses in charge, but all that fearful afternoon rode naked
+above the waist, exposed to the wind, and the fine, dry,
+icy hail, which filled the air as with diamond needles, to
+pierce the skin; and, probably, to the fact that the hail
+<i>was</i> so stinging, was owing the fact that his blood did not
+congeal.</p>
+
+<p>"O what a day was that!" said Meek to the writer;
+"why, the air war thick with fine, sharp hail, and the sun
+shining, too! not one sun only, but three suns&mdash;there
+were <i>three</i> suns! And when night came on, the northern
+lights blazed up the sky! It was the most beautiful sight
+I ever saw. That is the country for northern lights!"</p>
+
+<p>When some surprise was expressed that he should have
+been obliged to expose his naked skin to the weather, in
+order to save Umentucken&mdash;"In the mountains," he answered,
+"we do not have many garments. Buckskin
+breeches, a blanket capote, and a beaver skin cap makes
+up our rig."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You do not need a laundress, then? But with such
+clothing how could you keep free of vermin?"</p>
+
+<p>"We didn't always do that. Do you want to know
+how we got rid of lice in the mountains? We just took
+off our clothes and laid them on an ant-hill, and you
+ought to see how the ants would carry off the lice!"</p>
+
+<p>But to return to our hero, frozen, or nearly so. When
+he reached camp at night, so desperate was his condition
+that the men had to roll him and rub him in the snow for
+some time before allowing him to approach the fire. But
+Umentucken was saved, and he became heroic in her eyes.
+Whether it was the glory acquired by the gallant act just
+recorded, or whether our hero had now arrived at an age
+when the tender passion has strongest sway, the writer is
+unprepared to affirm: for your mountain-man is shy of
+revealing his past gallantries; but from this time on, there
+are evidences of considerable susceptibility to the charms
+of the dusky beauties of the mountains and the plains.</p>
+
+<p>The cold of this winter was very severe, insomuch that
+men and mules were frozen to death. "The frost," says
+Meek, "used to hang from the roofs of our lodges in the
+morning, on first waking, in skeins two feet long, and our
+blankets and whiskers were white with it. But we trappers
+laid still, and called the camp-keepers to make a fire,
+and in our close lodges it was soon warm enough.</p>
+
+<p>"The Indians suffered very much. Fuel war scarce on
+the Snake River, and but little fire could be afforded&mdash;just
+sufficient for the children and their mothers to get
+warm by, for the fire was fed only with buffalo fat torn in
+strips, which blazed up quickly and did not last long.
+Many a time I have stood off, looking at the fire, but not
+venturing to approach, when a chief would say, 'Are you
+cold, my friend? come to the fire'&mdash;so kind are these
+Nez Perces and Flatheads."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The cold was not the only enemy in camp that winter,
+but famine threatened them. The buffalo had been early
+driven east of the mountains, and other game was scarce.
+Sometimes a party of hunters were absent for days, even
+weeks, without finding more game than would subsist
+themselves. As the trappers were all hunters in the winter,
+it frequently happened that Meek and one or more
+of his associates went on a hunt in company, for the benefit
+of the camp, which was very hungry at times.</p>
+
+<p>On one of these hunting expeditions that winter, the
+party consisting of Meek, Hawkins, Doughty, and Antoine
+Claymore, they had been out nearly a fortnight without
+killing anything of consequence, and had clambered up
+the side of the mountains on the frozen snow, in hopes of
+finding some mountain sheep. As they traveled along
+under a projecting ledge of rocks, they came to a place
+where there were the impressions in the snow of enormous
+grizzly bear feet. Close by was an opening in the
+rocks, revealing a cavern, and to this the tracks in the
+snow conducted. Evidently the creature had come out
+of its winter den, and made just one circuit back again.
+At these signs of game the hunters hesitated&mdash;certain it
+was there, but doubtful how to obtain it.</p>
+
+<p>At length Doughty proposed to get up on the rocks
+above the mouth of the cavern and shoot the bear as he
+came out, if somebody would go in and dislodge him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm your man," answered Meek.</p>
+
+<p>"And I too," said Claymore.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be &mdash;&mdash; if we are not as brave as you are," said
+Hawkins, as he prepared to follow.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the cave, which was sixteen or twenty feet
+square, and high enough to stand erect in, instead of one,
+three bears were discovered. They were standing, the
+largest one in the middle, with their eyes staring at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+entrance, but quite quiet, greeting the hunters only with
+a low growl. Finding that there was a bear apiece to be
+disposed of, the hunters kept close to the wall, and out of
+the stream of light from the entrance, while they advanced
+a little way, cautiously, towards their game, which,
+however, seemed to take no notice of them. After maneuvering
+a few minutes to get nearer, Meek finally struck
+the large bear on the head with his wiping-stick, when it
+immediately moved off and ran out of the cave. As it
+came out, Doughty shot, but only wounded it, and it
+came rushing back, snorting, and running around in a
+circle, till the well directed shots from all three killed it
+on the spot. Two more bears now remained to be disposed
+of.</p>
+
+<p>The successful shot put Hawkins in high spirits. He
+began to hallo and laugh, dancing around, and with the
+others striking the next largest bear to make him run out,
+which he soon did, and was shot by Doughty. By this
+time their guns were reloaded, the men growing more
+and more elated, and Hawkins declaring they were "all
+Daniels in the lions' den, and no mistake." This, and
+similar expressions, he constantly vociferated, while they
+drove out the third and smallest bear. As it reached the
+cave's mouth, three simultaneous shots put an end to the
+last one, when Hawkins' excitement knew no bounds.
+"Daniel was a humbug," said he. "Daniel in the lions'
+den! Of course it was winter, and the lions were sucking
+their paws! Tell me no more of Daniel's exploits. We
+are as good Daniels as he ever dared to be. Hurrah for
+these Daniels!" With these expressions, and playing
+many antics by way of rejoicing, the delighted Hawkins
+finally danced himself out of his "lion's den," and set to
+work with the others to prepare for a return to camp.</p>
+
+<p>Sleds were soon constructed out of the branches of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+mountain willow, and on these light vehicles the fortunate
+find of bear meat was soon conveyed to the hungry camp
+in the plain below. And ever after this singular exploit
+of the party, Hawkins continued to aver, in language
+more strong than elegant, that the Scripture Daniel was a
+humbug compared to himself, and Meek, and Claymore.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1833. In the spring the camp was visited by a party
+of twenty Blackfeet, who drove off most of the horses;
+and among the stolen ones, Bridger's favorite race-horse,
+Grohean, a Camanche steed of great speed and endurance.
+To retake the horses, and if possible punish the thieves,
+a company of the gamest trappers, thirty in number, including
+Meek, and Kit Carson, who not long before had
+joined the Rocky Mountain Company, was dispatched on
+their trail. They had not traveled long before they came
+up with the Blackfeet, but the horses were nowhere to be
+seen, having been secreted, after the manner of these thieves,
+in some defile of the mountains, until the skirmish was
+over which they knew well enough to anticipate. Accordingly
+when the trappers came up, the wily savages were
+prepared for them. Their numbers were inferior to that
+of the whites; accordingly they assumed an innocent and
+peace-desiring air, while their head man advanced with the
+inevitable peace-pipe, to have a "talk." But as their talk
+was a tissue of lies, the trappers soon lost patience, and a
+quarrel quickly arose. The Indians betook themselves to
+the defences which were selected beforehand, and a fight
+began, which without giving to either party the victory
+of arms, ended in the killing of two or three of the Blackfeet,
+and the wounding very severely of Kit Carson.
+The firing ceased with nightfall; and when morning came,
+as usual the Blackfeet were gone, and the trappers returned
+to camp without their horses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The lost animals were soon replaced by purchase from
+the Nez Perces, and the company divided up into brigades,
+some destined for the country east of the mountains, and
+others for the south and west. In this year Meek rose a
+grade above the hired trapper, and became one of the
+order denominated skin trappers. These, like the hired
+trappers, depend upon the company to furnish them an
+outfit; but do not receive regular wages, as do the others.
+They trap for themselves, only agreeing to sell their beaver
+to the company which furnishes the outfit, and to no
+other. In this capacity, our Joe, and a few associates,
+hunted this spring, in the Snake River and Salt Lake countries;
+returning as usual to the annual rendezvous, which
+was appointed this summer to meet on Green River. Here
+were the Rocky Mountain and American Companies; the
+St. Louis Company, under Capt. Wm. Sublette and his
+friend Campbell; the usual camp of Indian allies; and, a
+few miles distant, that of Captain Bonneville. In addition
+to all these, was a small company belonging to Capt. Stuart,
+an Englishman of noble family, who was traveling in the
+far west only to gratify his own love of wild adventure,
+and admiration of all that is grand and magnificent in nature.
+With him was an artist named Miller, and several
+servants; but he usually traveled in company with one or
+another of the fur companies; thus enjoying their protection,
+and at the same time gaining a knowledge of the
+habits of mountain life.</p>
+
+<p>The rendezvous, at this time, furnished him a striking
+example of some of the ways of mountain-men, least to
+their honorable fame; and we fear we must confess that
+our friend Joe Meek, who had been gathering laurels as a
+valiant hunter and trapper during the three or four years
+of his apprenticeship, was also becoming fitted, by frequent
+practice, to graduate in some of the vices of camp life,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+especially the one of conviviality during rendezvous. Had
+he not given his permission, we should not perhaps have
+said what he says of himself, that he was at such times often
+very "powerful drunk."</p>
+
+<p>During the indulgence of these excesses, while at this
+rendezvous, there occurred one of those incidents of wilderness
+life which make the blood creep with horror.
+Twelve of the men were bitten by a mad wolf, which hung
+about the camp for two or three nights. Two of these
+were seized with madness in camp, sometime afterwards,
+and ran off into the mountains, where they perished. One
+was attacked by the paroxysm while on a hunt; when,
+throwing himself off his horse, he struggled and foamed
+at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and barking like a wolf.
+Yet he retained consciousness enough to warn away his
+companions, who hastened in search of assistance; but
+when they returned he was nowhere to be found. It was
+thought that he was seen a day or two afterwards, but no
+one could come up with him, and of course, he too, perished.
+Another died on his journey to St. Louis; and
+several died at different times within the next two years.</p>
+
+<p>At the time, however, immediately following the visit
+of the wolf to camp, Captain Stuart was admonishing
+Meek on the folly of his ways, telling him that the wolf
+might easily have bitten him, he was so drunk.</p>
+
+<p>"It would have killed him,&mdash;sure, if it hadn't cured
+him!" said Meek,&mdash;alluding to the belief that alcohol is a
+remedy for the poison of hydrophobia.</p>
+
+<p>When sobriety returned, and work was once more to be
+resumed, Meek returned with three or four associates to
+the Salt Lake country, to trap on the numerous streams
+that flow down from the mountains to the east of Salt Lake.
+He had not been long in this region when he fell in on
+Bear River with a company of Bonneville's men, one hun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>dred
+and eighteen in number, under Jo Walker, who had
+been sent to explore the Great Salt Lake, and the adjacent
+country; to make charts, keep a journal, and, in short,
+make a thorough discovery of all that region. Great expectations
+were cherished by the Captain concerning this
+favorite expedition, which were, however, utterly blighted,
+as his historian has recorded. The disappointment and loss
+which Bonneville suffered from it, gave a tinge of prejudice
+to his delineations of the trapper's character. It was
+true that they did not explore Salt Lake; and that they
+made a long and expensive journey, collecting but few
+peltries. It is true also, that they caroused in true mountain
+style, while among the Californians: but that the expedition
+was unprofitable was due chiefly to the difficulties
+attending the exploration of a new country, a large
+portion of which was desert and mountain.</p>
+
+<p>But let us not anticipate. When Meek and his companions
+fell in with Jo Walker and his company, they resolved
+to accompany the expedition; for it was "a feather in a
+man's cap," and made his services doubly valuable to have
+become acquainted with a new country, and fitted himself
+for a pilot.</p>
+
+<p>On leaving Bear River, where the hunters took the precaution
+to lay in a store of dried meat, the company passed
+down on the west side of Salt Lake, and found themselves
+in the Salt Lake desert, where their store, insufficiently
+large, soon became reduced to almost nothing. Here was
+experienced again the sufferings to which Meek had once
+before been subjected in the Digger country, which, in
+fact, bounded this desert on the northwest. "There was,"
+says Bonneville, "neither tree, nor herbage, nor spring,
+nor pool, nor running stream; nothing but parched wastes
+of sand, where horse and rider were in danger of perishing."
+Many an emigrant has since confirmed the truth of
+this account.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It could not be expected that men would continue on
+in such a country, in that direction which offered no change
+for the better. Discerning at last a snowy range to the
+northwest, they traveled in that direction; pinched with
+famine, and with tongues swollen out of their mouths with
+thirst. They came at last to a small stream, into which
+both men and animals plunged to quench their raging
+thirst.</p>
+
+<p>The instinct of a mule on these desert journeys is something
+wonderful. We have heard it related by others besides
+the mountain-men, that they will detect the neighborhood
+of water long before their riders have discovered a
+sign; and setting up a gallop, when before they could
+hardly walk, will dash into the water up to their necks,
+drinking in the life-saving moisture through every pore of
+the skin, while they prudently refrain from swallowing
+much of it. If one of a company has been off on a hunt
+for water, and on finding it has let his mule drink, when
+he returns to camp, the other animals will gather about
+it, and snuff its breath, and even its body, betraying
+the liveliest interest and envy. It is easy to imagine that
+in the case of Jo Walker's company, not only the animals
+but the men were eager to steep themselves in the reviving
+waters of the first stream which they found on the
+border of this weary desert.</p>
+
+<p>It proved to be a tributary of Mary's or Ogden's River,
+along which the company pursued their way, trapping as
+they went, and living upon the flesh of the beaver. They
+had now entered upon the same country inhabited by
+Digger Indians, in which Milton Sublette's brigade had so
+nearly perished with famine the previous year. It was
+unexplored, and the natives were as curious about the
+movements of their white visitors, as Indians always are
+on the first appearance of civilized men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They hung about the camps, offering no offences by day,
+but contriving to do a great deal of thieving during the
+night-time. Each day, for several days, their numbers
+increased, until the army which dogged the trappers by
+day, and filched from them at night, numbered nearly a
+thousand. They had no guns; but carried clubs, and
+some bows and arrows. The trappers at length became
+uneasy at this accumulation of force, even though they
+had no fire-arms, for was it not this very style of people,
+armed with clubs, that attacked Smith's party on the
+Umpqua, and killed all but four?</p>
+
+<p>"We must kill a lot of them, boys," said Jo Walker.
+"It will never do to let that crowd get into camp." Accordingly,
+as the Indians crowded round at a ford of Mary's
+River, always a favorite time of attack with the savages,
+Walker gave the order to fire, and the whole company
+poured a volley into the jostling crowd. The effect was
+terrible. Seventy-five Diggers bit the dust; while the
+others, seized with terror and horror at this new and instantaneous
+mode of death, fled howling away, the trappers
+pursuing them until satisfied that they were too much
+frightened to return. This seemed to Captain Bonneville,
+when he came to hear of it, like an unnecessary and ferocious
+act. But Bonneville was not an experienced Indian
+fighter. His views of their character were much governed
+by his knowledge of the Flatheads and Nez Perces; and
+also by the immunity from harm he enjoyed among the
+Shoshonies on the Snake River, where the Hudson's Bay
+Company had brought them into subjection, and where
+even two men might travel in safety at the time of his
+residence in that country.</p>
+
+<p>Walker's company continued on down to the main or
+Humboldt River, trapping as they went, both for the furs,
+and for something to eat; and expecting to find that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+river whose course they were following through these barren
+plains, would lead them to some more important river,
+or to some large lake or inland sea. This was a country
+entirely unknown, even to the adventurous traders and
+trappers of the fur companies, who avoided it because it
+was out of the buffalo range; and because the borders of
+it, along which they sometimes skirted, were found to be
+wanting in water-courses in which beaver might be looked
+for. Walker's company therefore, now determined to
+prosecute their explorations until they came to some new
+and profitable beaver grounds.</p>
+
+<p>But after a long march through an inhospitable country
+they came at last to where the Humboldt sinks itself in a
+great swampy lake, in the midst of deserts of sage-brush.
+Here was the end of their great expectations. To the
+west of them, however, and not far off, rose the lofty summits
+of the Sierra Nevada range, some of whose peaks
+were covered with eternal snows. Since they had already
+made an unprofitable business of their expedition, and
+failed in its principal aim, that of exploring Salt Lake,
+they resolved upon crossing the mountains into California,
+and seeking new fields of adventure on the western side
+of the Nevada mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, although it was already late in the autumn,
+the party pushed on toward the west, until they came to
+Pyramid Lake, another of those swampy lakes which are
+frequently met with near the eastern base of these Sierras.
+Into this flowed a stream similar to the Humboldt, which
+came from the south, and, they believed, had its rise in
+the mountains. As it was important to find a good pass,
+they took their course along this stream, which they
+named Trucker's River, and continued along it to its
+head-waters in the Sierras.</p>
+
+<p>And now began the arduous labor of crossing an un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>known
+range of lofty mountains. Mountaineers as they
+were, they found it a difficult undertaking, and one attended
+with considerable peril. For a period of more
+than three weeks they were struggling with these dangers;
+hunting paths for their mules and horses, traveling around
+canyons thousands of feet deep; sometimes sinking in
+new fallen snow; always hungry, and often in peril
+from starvation. Sometimes they scrambled up almost
+smooth declivities of granite, that offered no foothold
+save the occasional seams in the rock; at others they
+traveled through pine forests made nearly impassable by
+snow; and at other times on a ridge which wind and sun
+made bare for them. All around rose rocky peaks and
+pinnacles fretted by ages of denudation to very spears
+and needles of a burnt looking, red colored rock. Below,
+were spread out immense fields, or rather oceans, of
+granite that seemed once to have been a molten sea, whose
+waves were suddenly congealed. From the fissures between
+these billows grew stunted pines, which had found
+a scanty soil far down in the crevices of the rock for their
+hardy roots. Following the course of any stream flowing
+in the right direction for their purpose, they came not infrequently
+to some small fertile valley, set in amidst the
+rocks like a cup, and often containing in its depth a bright
+little lake. These are the oases in the mountain deserts.
+But the lateness of the season made it necessary to avoid
+the high valleys on account of the snow, which in winter
+accumulates to a depth of twenty feet.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the exultation of the mountaineers when
+they emerged from the toils and dangers, safe into the
+bright and sunny plains of California; having explored
+almost the identical route since fixed upon for the Union
+Pacific Railroad.</p>
+
+<p>They proceeded down the Sacramento valley, toward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+the coast, after recruiting their horses on the ripe wild oats,
+and the freshly springing grass which the December rains
+had started into life, and themselves on the plentiful game
+of the foot-hills. Something of the stimulus of the Californian
+climate seemed to be imparted to the ever buoyant
+blood of these hardy and danger-despising men.
+They were mad with delight on finding themselves, after
+crossing the stern Sierras, in a land of sunshine and plenty;
+a beautiful land of verdant hills and tawny plains; of
+streams winding between rows of alder and willow, and
+valleys dotted with picturesque groves of the evergreen
+oak. Instead of the wild blasts which they were used to
+encounter in December, they experienced here only those
+dainty and wooing airs which poets have ascribed to spring,
+but which seldom come even with the last May days in an
+eastern climate.</p>
+
+<p>In the San José valley they encountered a party of one
+hundred soldiers, which the Spanish government at Monterey
+had sent out to take a party of Indians accused of
+stealing cattle. The soldiers were native Californians, descendants
+of the mixed blood of Spain and Mexico, a wild,
+jaunty looking set of fellows, who at first were inclined
+to take Walker's party for a band of cattle thieves, and to
+march them off to Monterey. But the Rocky Mountain
+trapper was not likely to be taken prisoner by any such
+brigade as the dashing <i>cabelleros</i> of Monterey.</p>
+
+<p>After astonishing them with a series of whoops and
+yells, and trying to astonish them with feats of horsemanship,
+they began to discover that when it came to the latter
+accomplishment, even mountain-men could learn something
+from a native Californian. In this latter frame of
+mind they consented to be conducted to Monterey as prisoners
+or not, just as the Spanish government should hereafter
+be pleased to decree; and they had confidence in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+themselves that they should be able to bend that high and
+mighty authority to their own purposes thereafter.</p>
+
+<p>Nor were they mistaken in their calculations. Their
+fearless, free and easy style, united to their complete furnishing
+of arms, their numbers, and their superior ability
+to stand up under the demoralizing effect of the favorite
+<i>aguadiente</i>, soon so far influenced the soldiery at least, that
+the trappers were allowed perfect freedom under the very
+eyes of the jealous Spanish government, and were treated
+with all hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>The month which the trappers spent at Monterey was
+their "red letter day" for a long time after. The habits
+of the Californians accorded with their own, with just difference
+enough to furnish them with novelties and excitements
+such as gave a zest to their intercourse. The
+Californian, and the mountain-men, were alike centaurs.
+Horses were their necessity, and their delight; and the
+plains swarmed with them, as also with wild cattle, descendants
+of those imported by the Jesuit Fathers in the
+early days of the Missions. These horses and cattle were
+placed at the will and pleasure of the trappers. They
+feasted on one, and bestrode the other as it suited them.
+They attended bull-fights, ran races, threw the lasso, and
+played monte, with a relish that delighted the inhabitants
+of Monterey.</p>
+
+<p>The partial civilization of the Californians accorded
+with every feeling to which the mountain-men could be
+brought to confess. To them the refinements of cities
+would have been oppressive. The adobe houses of Monterey
+were not so restraining in their elegance as to trouble
+the sensations of men used to the heavens for a roof
+in summer, and a skin lodge for shelter in winter. Some
+fruits and vegetables, articles not tasted for years, they
+obtained at the missions, where the priests received them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+courteously and hospitably, as they had done Jedediah
+Smith and his company, five years before, when on their
+long and disastrous journey they found themselves almost
+destitute of the necessaries of life, upon their arrival in
+California. There was something too, in the dress of the
+people, both men and women, which agreed with, while
+differing from, the dress of the mountaineers and their
+now absent Indian dulcineas.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i166" name="i166"></a>
+<img src="images/i166.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>BRANDING CATTLE.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The men wore garments of many colors, consisting of
+blue velveteen breeches and jacket, the jacket having a
+scarlet collar and cuffs, and the breeches being open at
+the knee to display the stocking of white. Beneath these
+were displayed high buskins made of deer skin, fringed
+down the outside of the ankle, and laced with a cord and
+tassels. On the head was worn a broad brimmed <i>sombrero</i>;
+and over the shoulders the jaunty Mexican <i>sarape</i>. When
+they rode, the Californians wore enormous spurs, fastened
+on by jingling chains. Their saddles were so shaped that
+it was difficult to dislodge the rider, being high before and
+behind; and the indispensable lasso hung coiled from the
+pommel. Their stirrups were of wood, broad on the bottom,
+with a guard of leather that protected the fancy buskin
+of the horseman from injury. Thus accoutred, and
+mounted on a wild horse, the Californian was a suitable
+comrade, in appearance, at least, for the buckskin clad trapper,
+with his high beaver-skin cap, his gay scarf, and moccasins,
+and profusion of arms.</p>
+
+<p>The dress of the women was a gown of gaudy calico
+or silk, and a bright colored shawl, which served for mantilla
+and bonnet together. They were well formed, with
+languishing eyes and soft voices; and doubtless appeared
+charming in the eyes of our band of trappers, with whom
+they associated freely at fandangoes, bull-fights, or bear-baitings.
+In such company, what wonder that Bonneville's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+men lingered for a whole month! What wonder that the
+California expedition was a favorite theme by camp-fires,
+for a long time subsequent?</p>
+
+<p>1834. In February the trappers bethought themselves
+of returning to the mountains. The route fixed upon was
+one which should take them through Southern California,
+and New Mexico, along the course of all the principal
+rivers. Crossing the coast mountains, into the valley of
+the San Joaquin, they followed its windings until they
+came to its rise in the Lulare Lake. Thence turning in a
+southeasterly course, they came to the Colorado, at the
+Mohave villages, where they traded with the natives,
+whom they found friendly. Keeping on down the Colorado,
+to the mouth of the Gila, they turned back from
+that river, and ascended the Colorado once more, to Williams'
+Fork, and up the latter stream to some distance,
+when they fell in with a company of sixty men under
+Frapp and Jervais, two of the partners in the Rocky
+Mountain Company. The meeting was joyful on all
+sides; but particularly so between Meek and some of his
+old comrades, with whom he had fought Indians and grizzly
+bears, or set beaver traps on some lonely stream in
+the Blackfoot country. A lively exchange of questions
+and answers took place, while gaiety and good feeling
+reigned.</p>
+
+<p>Frapp had been out quite as long as the Monterey party.
+It was seldom that the brigade which traversed the southern
+country, on the Colorado, and its large tributaries,
+returned to winter quarters; for in the region where they
+trapped winter was unknown, and the journey to the northern
+country a long and hazardous one. But the reunited
+trappers had each their own experiences to relate.</p>
+
+<p>The two companies united made a party nearly two hundred
+strong. Keeping with Frapp, they crossed over from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+Williams' Fork to the Colorado Chiquito river, at the Moquis
+village, where some of the men disgraced themselves
+far more than did Jo Walker's party at the crossing of
+Mary's River. For the Moquis were a half-civilized nation,
+who had houses and gardens, and conducted themselves
+kindly, or at the worst peaceably, toward properly behaved
+strangers. These trappers, instead of approaching them
+with offers of purchase, lawlessly entered their gardens,
+rifling them of whatever fruit or melons were ripe, and
+not hesitating to destroy that which was not ripe. To this,
+as might be expected, the Moquises objected; and were
+shot down for so doing. In this truly infamous affair fifteen
+or twenty of them were killed.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't belong to that crowd," says Joe Meek, "I sat
+on the fence and saw it, though. It was a shameful thing."</p>
+
+<p>From the Moquis village, the joint companies crossed
+the country in a northeasterly direction, crossing several
+branches of the Colorado at their head-waters, which
+course finally brought them to the head-waters of the Rio
+Grande. The journey from the mouth of the Gila, though
+long, extended over a country comparatively safe. Either
+farther to the south or east, the caravan would have been
+in danger of a raid from the most dangerous tribes on the
+continent.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1834. But Joe Meek was not destined to return to the
+Rocky Mountains without having had an Indian fight. If
+adventures did not come in his way he was the man to put
+himself in the way of adventures.</p>
+
+<p>While the camp was on its way from the neighborhood
+of Grande River to the New Park, Meek, Kit Carson,
+and Mitchell, with three Delaware Indians, named Tom
+Hill, Manhead, and Jonas, went on a hunt across to the
+east of Grande River, in the country lying between the
+Arkansas and Cimarron, where numerous small branches
+of these rivers head together, or within a small extent of
+country.</p>
+
+<p>They were about one hundred and fifty miles from camp,
+and traveling across the open plain between the streams,
+one beautiful May morning, when about five miles off they
+descried a large band of Indians mounted, and galloping
+toward them. As they were in the Camanche country,
+they knew what to expect if they allowed themselves
+to be taken prisoners. They gave but a moment to the
+observation of their foes, but that one moment revealed
+a spirited scene. Fully two hundred Camanches, their
+warriors in front, large and well formed men, mounted on
+fleet and powerful horses, armed with spears and battle
+axes, racing like the wind over the prairie, their feather
+head-dresses bending to the breeze, that swept past them
+in the race with double force; all distinctly seen in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+clear air of the prairie, and giving the beholder a thrill of
+fear mingled with admiration.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i171" name="i171"></a>
+<img src="images/i171.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>THE MULE FORT.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The first moment given to this spectacle, the second one
+was employed to devise some means of escape. To run
+was useless. The swift Camanche steeds would soon overtake
+them; and then their horrible doom was fixed. No
+covert was at hand, neither thicket nor ravine, as in the
+mountains there might have been. Carson and Meek exchanged
+two or three sentences. At last, "we must kill
+our mules!" said they.</p>
+
+<p>That seems a strange devise to the uninitiated reader,
+who no doubt believes that in such a case their mules must
+be their salvation. And so they were intended to be. In
+this plight a dead mule was far more useful than a live
+one. To the ground sprang every man; and placing their
+mules, seven in number, in a ring, they in an instant cut
+their throats with their hunting knives, and held on to the
+bridles until each animal fell dead in its appointed place.
+Then hastily scooping up what earth they could with
+knives, they made themselves a fort&mdash;a hole to stand in
+for each man, and a dead mule for a breastwork.</p>
+
+<p>In less than half an hour the Camanches charged on
+them; the medicine-man in advance shouting, gesticulating,
+and making a desperate clatter with a rattle which he
+carried and shook violently. The yelling, the whooping,
+the rattling, the force of the charge were appalling. But
+the little garrison in the mule fort did not waver. The
+Camanche horses did. They could not be made to charge
+upon the bloody carcasses of the mules, nor near enough
+for their riders to throw a spear into the fort.</p>
+
+<p>This was what the trappers had relied upon. They
+were cool and determined, while terribly excited and
+wrought up by their situation. It was agreed that no
+more than three should fire at a time, the other three re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>serving
+their fire while the empty guns could be reloaded.
+They were to pick their men, and kill one at every shot.</p>
+
+<p>They acted up to their regulations. At the charge the
+Camanche horses recoiled and could not be urged upon
+the fort of slaughtered mules. The three whites fired first,
+and the medicine-man and two other Camanches fell.
+When a medicine-man is killed, the others retire to hold a
+council and appoint another, for without their "medicine"
+they could not expect success in battle. This was time
+gained. The warriors retired, while their women came
+up and carried off the dead.</p>
+
+<p>After devoting a little time to bewailing the departed,
+another chief was appointed to the head place, and another
+furious charge was made with the same results as before.
+Three more warriors bit the dust; while the spears of their
+brethren, attached to long hair ropes by which they could
+be withdrawn, fell short of reaching the men in the fort.
+Again and again the Camanches made a fruitless charge,
+losing, as often as they repeated it, three warriors, either
+dead or wounded. Three times that day the head chief
+or medicine-man was killed; and when that happened,
+the heroes in the fort got a little time to breathe. While
+the warriors held a council, the women took care of the
+wounded and slain.</p>
+
+<p>As the women approached the fort to carry off the fallen
+warriors, they mocked and reviled the little band of trappers,
+calling them "women," for fighting in a fort, and
+resorting to the usual Indian ridicule and gasconade.
+Occasionally, also, a warrior raced at full speed past the
+fort apparently to take observations. Thus the battle continued
+through the entire day.</p>
+
+<p>It was terrible work for the trappers. The burning sun
+of the plains shone on them, scorching them to faintness.
+Their faces were begrimed with powder and dust; their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+throats parched, and tongues swollen with thirst, and their
+whole frames aching from their cramped positions, as well
+as the excitement and fatigue of the battle. But they
+dared not relax their vigilance for a moment. They were
+fighting for their lives, and they meant to win.</p>
+
+<p>At length the sun set on that bloody and wearisome
+day. Forty-two Camanches were killed, and several more
+wounded, for the charge had been repeated fifteen or
+twenty times. The Indians drew off at nightfall to mourn
+over their dead, and hold a council. Probably they had
+lost faith in their medicines, or believed that the trappers
+possessed one far greater than any of theirs. Under the
+friendly cover of the night, the six heroes who had fought
+successfully more than a hundred Camanches, took each
+his blanket and his gun, and bidding a brief adieu to dead
+mules and beaver packs, set out to return to camp.</p>
+
+<p>When a mountain-man had a journey to perform on foot,
+to travel express, or to escape from an enemy, he fell into
+what is called a dog trot, and ran in that manner, sometimes,
+all day. On the present occasion, the six, escaping
+for life, ran all night, and found no water for seventy-five
+mile. When they did at last come to a clear running
+stream, their thankfulness was equal to their necessity,
+"for," says Meek, "thirst is the greatest suffering I ever
+experienced. It is far worse than hunger or pain."</p>
+
+<p>Having rested and refreshed themselves at the stream,
+they kept on without much delay until they reached camp
+in that beautiful valley of the Rocky Mountains called the
+New, or the South Park.</p>
+
+<p>While they remained in the South Park, Mr. Guthrie,
+one of the Rocky Mountain Company's traders, was killed
+by lightning. A number of persons were collected in the
+lodge of the Booshway, Frapp, to avoid the rising tempest,
+when Guthrie, who was leaning against the lodge pole,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+was struck by a flash of the electric current, and fell dead
+instantly. Frapp rushed out of the lodge, partly bewildered
+himself by the shock, and under the impression that
+Guthrie had been shot. Frapp was a German, and spoke
+English somewhat imperfectly. In the excitement of the
+moment he shouted out, "By &mdash;&mdash;, who did shoot
+Guttery!"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash; a'&mdash;&mdash;, I expect: He's a firing into camp;"
+drawled out Hawkins, whose ready wit was very disregardful
+of sacred names and subjects.</p>
+
+<p>The mountaineers were familiar with the most awful
+aspects of nature; and if their familiarity had not bred
+contempt, it had at least hardened them to those solemn
+impressions which other men would have felt under their
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>From New Park, Meek traveled north with the main
+camp, passing first to the Old Park; thence to the Little
+Snake, a branch of Bear River; thence to Pilot Butte;
+and finally to Green River to rendezvous; having traveled
+in the past year about three thousand miles, on horseback,
+through new and often dangerous countries. It is easy to
+believe that the Monterey expedition was the popular
+theme in camp during rendezvous. It had been difficult
+to get volunteers for Bonneville's Salt Lake Exploration:
+but such was the wild adventure to which it led, that volunteering
+for a trip to Monterey would have been exceedingly
+popular immediately thereafter.</p>
+
+<p>On Bear River, Bonneville's men fell in with their commander,
+Captain Bonneville, whose disappointment and
+indignation at the failure of his plans was exceedingly
+great. In this indignation there was considerable justice;
+yet much of his disappointment was owing to causes which
+a more experienced trader would have avoided. The only
+conclusion which can be arrived at by an impartial ob<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>server
+of the events of 1832-35, is, that none but certain
+men of long experience and liberal means, could succeed
+in the business of the fur-trade. There were too many
+chances of loss; too many wild elements to be mingled
+in amity; and too powerful opposition from the old established
+companies. Captain Bonneville's experience was
+no different from Mr. Wyeth's. In both cases there was
+much effort, outlay, and loss. Nor was their failure owing
+to any action of the Hudson's Bay Company, different
+from, or more tyrannical, than the action of the American
+companies, as has frequently been represented. It was
+the American companies in the Rocky Mountains that
+drove both Bonneville and Wyeth out of the field. Their
+inexperience could not cope with the thorough knowledge
+of the business, and the country, which their older rivals
+possessed. Raw recruits were no match, in trapping or
+fighting, for old mountaineers: and those veterans who
+had served long under certain leaders could not be inveigled
+from their service except upon the most extravagant
+offers; and these extravagant wages, which if one
+paid, the other must, would not allow a profit to either of
+the rivals.</p>
+
+<p>"How much does your company pay you?" asked Bonneville
+of Meek, to whom he was complaining of the conduct
+of his men on the Monterey expedition.</p>
+
+<p>"Fifteen hundred dollars," answered Meek.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: and <i>I</i> will give it to you," said Bonneville with
+bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite true. Such was the competition aroused
+by the Captain's efforts to secure good men and pilots,
+that rather than lose them to a rival company, the Rocky
+Mountain Company paid a few of their best men the wages
+above named.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1834. The gossip at rendezvous was this year of an
+unusually exciting character. Of the brigades which left
+for different parts of the country the previous summer,
+the Monterey travelers were not the only ones who had
+met with adventures. Fitzpatrick, who had led a party
+into the Crow country that autumn, had met with a characteristic
+reception from that nation of cunning vagabonds.</p>
+
+<p>Being with his party on Lougue River, in the early part
+of September, he discovered that he was being dogged
+by a considerable band of Crows, and endeavored to elude
+their spying; but all to no purpose. The Crow chief
+kept in his neighborhood, and finally expressed a desire
+to bring his camp alongside that of Fitzpatrick, pretending
+to the most friendly and honorable sentiments toward
+his white neighbors. But not feeling any confidence in
+Crow friendship, Fitzpatrick declined, and moved camp a
+few miles away. Not, however, wishing to offend the dignity
+of the apparently friendly chief, he took a small escort,
+and went to pay a visit to his Crow neighbors, that
+they might see that he was not afraid to trust them.
+Alas, vain subterfuge!</p>
+
+<p>While he was exchanging civilities with the Crow chief,
+a party of the young braves stole out of camp, and taking
+advantage of the leader's absence, made an attack on his
+camp, so sudden and successful that not a horse, nor anything
+else which they could make booty of was left.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+Even Captain Stuart, who was traveling with Fitzpatrick,
+and who was an active officer, was powerless to resist the
+attack, and had to consent to see the camp rifled of everything
+valuable.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Fitzpatrick, after concluding his visit
+in the most amicable manner, was returning to camp, when
+he was met by the exultant braves, who added insult to
+injury by robbing him of his horse, gun, and nearly all
+his clothes, leaving him to return to his party in a deplorable
+condition, to the great amusement of the trappers,
+and his own chagrin.</p>
+
+<p>However, the next day a talk was held with the head
+chief of the Crows, to whom Fitzpatrick represented the
+infamy of such treacherous conduct in a very strong light.
+In answer to this reproof, the chief disowned all knowledge
+of the affair; saying that he could not always control
+the conduct of the young men, who would be a little
+wild now and then, in spite of the best Crow precepts:
+but that he would do what he could to have the property
+restored. Accordingly, after more talk, and much eloquence
+on the part of Fitzpatrick, the chief part of the
+plunder was returned to him, including the horses and
+rifles of the men, together with a little ammunition, and a
+few beaver traps.</p>
+
+<p>Fitzpatrick understood the meaning of this apparent
+fairness, and hastened to get out of the Crow country before
+another raid by the mischievous young braves, at a
+time when their chief was not "honor bound," should deprive
+him of the recovered property. That his conjecture
+was well founded, was proven by the numerous petty
+thefts which were committed, and by the loss of several
+horses and mules, before he could remove them beyond
+the limits of the Crow territory.</p>
+
+<p>While the trappers exchanged accounts of their indi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>vidual
+experiences, the leaders had more important matters
+to gossip over. The rivalry between the several fur
+companies was now at its climax. Through the energy
+and ability of Captain Sublette of the St. Louis Company,
+and the experience and industry of the Rocky Mountain
+Company, which Captain Sublette still continued to control
+in a measure, the power still remained with them.
+The American Company had never been able to cope with
+them in the Rocky Mountains; and the St. Louis Company
+were already invading their territory on the Missouri
+River, by carrying goods up that river in boats, to trade
+with the Indians under the very walls of the American
+Company's forts.</p>
+
+<p>In August of the previous year, when Mr. Nathaniel
+Wyeth had started on his return to the states, he was accompanied
+as far as the mouth of the Yellowstone by
+Milton Sublette; and had engaged with that gentleman
+to furnish him with goods the following year, as he believed
+he could do, cheaper than the St. Louis Company,
+who purchased their goods in St. Louis at a great advance
+on Boston prices. But Milton Sublette fell in with his
+brother the Captain, at the mouth of the Yellowstone,
+with a keel-boat loaded with merchandise; and while
+Wyeth pursued his way eastward to purchase the Indian
+goods which were intended to supply the wants of the
+fur-traders in the Rocky Mountains, at a profit to him, and
+an advantage to them, the Captain was persuading his
+brother not to encourage any interlopers in the Indian
+trade; but to continue to buy goods from himself, as formerly.
+So potent were his arguments, that Milton yielded
+to them, in spite of his engagement with Wyeth. Thus
+during the autumn of 1833, while Bonneville was being
+wronged and robbed, as he afterwards became convinced,
+by his men under Walker, and anticipated in the hunting-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>ground
+selected for himself, in the Crow country, by Fitzpatrick,
+as he had previously been in the Snake country
+by Milton Sublette, Wyeth was proceeding to Boston in
+good faith, to execute what proved to be a fool's errand.
+Bonneville also had gone on another, when after the trapping
+season was over he left his camp to winter on the
+Snake River, and started with a small escort to visit the
+Columbia, and select a spot for a trading-post on the lower
+portion of that river. On arriving at Wallah-Wallah, after
+a hard journey over the Blue Mountains in the winter,
+the agent at that post had refused to supply him with provisions
+to prosecute his journey, and given him to understand
+that the Hudson's Bay Company might be polite
+and hospitable to Captain Bonneville as the gentleman,
+but that it was against their regulations to encourage the
+advent of other traders who would interfere with their
+business, and unsettle the minds of the Indians in that
+region.</p>
+
+<p>This reply so annoyed the Captain, that he refused the
+well meant advice of Mr. Pambrun that he should not undertake
+to recross the Blue Mountains in March snows, but
+travel under the escort of Mr. Payette, one of the Hudson's
+Bay Company's leaders, who was about starting for
+the Nez Perce country by a safer if more circuitous route.
+He therefore set out to return by the route he came,
+and only arrived at camp in May, 1834, after many dangers
+and difficulties. From the Portneuf River, he then
+proceeded with his camp to explore the Little Snake
+River, and Snake Lake; and it was while so doing that
+he fell in with his men just returned from Monterey.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the relative position of the several fur companies
+in the Rocky Mountains in 1834; and it was of
+such matters that the leaders talked in the lodge of the
+Booshways, at rendezvous. In the meantime Wyeth ar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>rived
+in the mountains with his goods, as he had contracted
+with Milton Sublette in the previous year. But
+on his heels came Captain Sublette, also with goods, and
+the Rocky Mountain Company violated their contract with
+Wyeth, and purchased of their old leader.</p>
+
+<p>Thus was Wyeth left, with his goods on his hands, in a
+country where it was impossible to sell them, and useless
+to undertake an opposition to the already established fur-traders
+and trappers. His indignation was great, and certainly
+was just. In his interview with the Rocky Mountain
+Company, in reply to their excuses for, and vindication
+of their conduct, his answer was:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, I will roll a stone into your garden that
+you will never be able to get out."</p>
+
+<p>And he kept his promise; for that same autumn he
+moved on to the Snake River, and built Fort Hall, storing
+his goods therein. The next year he sold out goods and
+fort to the Hudson's Bay Company; and the stone was in
+the garden of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company that
+they were never able to dislodge. When Wyeth had built
+his fort and left it in charge of an agent, he dispatched a
+party of trappers to hunt in the Big Blackfoot country,
+under Joseph Gale, who had previously been in the service
+of the Rocky Mountain Company, and of whom we
+shall learn more hereafter, while he set out for the Columbia
+to meet his vessel, and establish a salmon fishery.
+The fate of that enterprise has already been recorded.</p>
+
+<p>As for Bonneville, he made one more effort to reach the
+lower Columbia; failing, however, a second time, for the
+same reason as before&mdash;he could not subsist himself and
+company in a country where even every Indian refused to
+sell to him either furs or provisions. After being reduced
+to horse-flesh, and finding no encouragement that his condition
+would be improved farther down the river, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+turned back once more from about Wallah-Wallah, and
+returned to the mountains, and from there to the east in
+the following year. A company of his trappers, however,
+continued to hunt for him east of the mountains for two
+or three years longer.</p>
+
+<p>The rivalry between the Rocky Mountain and American
+Companies was this year diminished by their mutually
+agreeing to confine themselves to certain parts of the
+country, which treaty continued for two years, when they
+united in one company. They were then, with the exception
+of a few lone traders, the only competitors of the
+Hudson's Bay Company, for the fur-trade of the West.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i183" name="i183"></a>
+<img src="images/i183.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1834. The Rocky Mountain Company now confined
+themselves to the country lying east of the mountains,
+and upon the head-waters and tributaries of the Missouri,
+a country very productive in furs, and furnishing abundance
+of game. But it was also the most dangerous of
+all the northern fur-hunting territory, as it was the home
+of those two nations of desperadoes, the Crows and
+Blackfeet. During the two years in which the company
+may have been said almost to reside there, desperate encounters
+and hair-breadth escapes were incidents of daily
+occurrence to some of the numerous trapping parties.</p>
+
+<p>The camp had reached the Blackfoot country in the
+autumn of this year, and the trappers were out in all
+directions, hunting beaver in the numerous small streams
+that flow into the Missouri. On a small branch of the
+Gallatin Fork, some of the trappers fell in with a party
+of Wyeth's men, under Joseph Gale. When their neighborhood
+became known to the Rocky Mountain camp,
+Meek and a party of sixteen of his associates immediately
+resolved to pay them a visit, and inquire into their experience
+since leaving rendezvous. These visits between
+different camps are usually seasons of great interest and
+general rejoicing. But glad as Gale and his men were
+to meet with old friends, when the first burst of hearty
+greeting was over, they had but a sorry experience to relate.
+They had been out a long time. The Blackfeet
+had used them badly&mdash;several men had been killed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+Their guns were out of order, their ammunition all but
+exhausted; they were destitute, or nearly so, of traps,
+blankets, knives, everything. They were what the Indian
+and the mountain-man call "very poor."</p>
+
+<p>Half the night was spent in recounting all that had
+passed in both companies since the fall hunt began. Little
+sympathy did Wyeth's men receive for their forlorn condition,
+for sympathy is repudiated by your true mountaineer
+for himself, nor will he furnish it to others. The
+absurd and humorous, or the daring and reckless, side of
+a story is the only one which is dwelt upon in narrating
+his adventures. The laugh which is raised at his expense
+when he has a tale of woes to communicate, is a better
+tonic to his dejected spirits than the gentlest pity would
+be. Thus lashed into courage again, he is ready to declare
+that all his troubles were only so much pastime.</p>
+
+<p>It was this sort of cheer which the trapping party conveyed
+to Wyeth's men on this visit, and it was gratefully
+received, as being of the true kind.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning the party set out to return to camp,
+Meek and Liggit starting in advance of the others. They
+had not proceeded far when they were fired on by a large
+band of Blackfeet, who came upon them quite suddenly,
+and thinking these two trappers easy game, set up a yell
+and dashed at them. As Meek and Liggit turned back
+and ran to Gale's camp, the Indians in full chase charged
+on them, and rushed pell-mell into the midst of camp,
+almost before they had time to discover that they had
+surprised so large a party of whites. So sudden was
+their advent, that they had almost taken the camp before
+the whites could recover from the confusion of the charge.</p>
+
+<p>It was but a momentary shock, however. In another
+instant the roar of twenty guns reverberated from the
+mountains that rose high on either side of camp. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
+Blackfeet were taken in a snare; but they rallied and fell
+back beyond the grove in which the camp was situated,
+setting on fire the dry grass as they went. The fire
+quickly spread to the grove, and shot up the pine trees in
+splendid columns of flame, that seemed to lick the face
+of heaven. The Indians kept close behind the fire, shooting
+into camp whenever they could approach near enough,
+the trappers replying by frequent volleys. The yells of
+the savages, the noise of the flames roaring in the trees,
+the bellowing of the guns, whose echoes rolled among
+the hills, and the excitement of a battle for life, made the
+scene one long to be remembered with distinctness.</p>
+
+<p>Both sides fought with desperation. The Blackfoot
+blood was up&mdash;the trapper blood no less. Gale's men,
+from having no ammunition, nor guns that were in order,
+could do little more than take charge of the horses, which
+they led out into the bottom land to escape the fire, fight
+the flames, and look after the camp goods. The few
+whose guns were available, showed the game spirit, and
+the fight became interesting as an exhibition of what
+mountain white men could do in a contest of one to ten,
+with the crack warriors of the red race. It was, at any
+time, a game party, consisting of Meek, Carson, Hawkins,
+Gale, Liggit, Rider, Robinson, Anderson, Russel, Larison,
+Ward, Parmaley, Wade, Michael Head, and a few others
+whose names have been forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>The trappers being driven out of the grove by the fire,
+were forced to take to the open ground. The Indians,
+following the fire, had the advantage of the shelter
+afforded by the trees, and their shots made havoc among
+the horses, most of which were killed because they could
+not be taken. As for the trappers, they used the horses
+for defence, making rifle-pits behind them, when no other
+covert could be found. In this manner the battle was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+sustained until three o'clock in the afternoon, without loss
+of life to the whites, though several men were wounded.</p>
+
+<p>At three in the afternoon, the Blackfoot chief ordered
+a retreat, calling out to the trappers that they would fight
+no more. Though their loss had been heavy, they still
+greatly outnumbered the whites; nor would the condition
+of the arms and the small amount of ammunition left
+permit the trappers to pursue them. The Indians were
+severely beaten, and no longer in a condition to fight, all
+of which was highly satisfactory to the victors. The only
+regret was, that Bridger's camp, which had become aware
+during the day that a battle was going on in the neighborhood,
+did not arrive early enough to exterminate the
+whole band. As it was, the big camp only came up in
+time to assist in taking care of the wounded. The destruction
+of their horses put an end to the independent
+existence of Gale's brigade, which joined itself and its
+fortunes to Bridger's command for the remainder of the
+year. Had it not been for the fortunate visit of the trappers
+to Gale's camp, without doubt every man in it would
+have perished at the hands of the Blackfeet: a piece of
+bad fortune not unaccordant with that which seemed to
+pursue the enterprises set on foot by the active but unlucky
+New England trader.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after this battle with the Blackfeet, Meek and
+a trapper named Crow, with two Shawnees, went over
+into the Crow Country to trap on Pryor's River, a branch
+of the Yellowstone. On coming to the pass in the mountains
+between the Gallatin Fork of the Missouri and the
+great bend in the Yellowstone, called Pryor's Gap, Meek
+rode forward, with the mad-cap spirit strong in him, to
+"have a little fun with the boys," and advancing a short
+distance into the pass, wheeled suddenly, and came racing
+back, whooping and yelling, to make his comrades think<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+he had discovered Indians. And lo! as if his yells had
+invoked them from the rocks and trees, a war party suddenly
+emerged from the pass, on the heels of the jester,
+and what had been sport speedily became earnest, as the
+trappers turned their horses' heads and made off in the
+direction of camp. They had a fine race of it, and heard
+other yells and war-whoops besides their own; but they
+contrived to elude their pursuers, returning safe to camp.</p>
+
+<p>This freak of Meek's was, after all, a fortunate inspiration,
+for had the four trappers entered the pass and come
+upon the war party of Crows, they would never have escaped
+alive.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after, the same party set out again, and
+succeeded in reaching Pryor's River unmolested, and setting
+their traps. They remained some time in this neighborhood
+trapping, but the season had become pretty well
+advanced, and they were thinking of returning to camp
+for the winter. The Shawnees set out in one direction
+to take up their traps, Meek and Crow in another. The
+stream where their traps were set was bordered by thickets
+of willow, wild cherry, and plum trees, and the bank
+was about ten feet above the water at this season of the
+year.</p>
+
+<p>Meek had his traps set in the stream about midway between
+two thickets. As he approached the river he observed
+with the quick eye of an experienced mountain-man,
+certain signs which gave him little satisfaction. The
+buffalo were moving off as if disturbed; a bear ran suddenly
+out of its covert among the willows.</p>
+
+<p>"I told Crow," said Meek, "that I didn't like to go in
+there. He laughed at me, and called me a coward. 'All
+the same,' I said; I had no fancy for the place just then&mdash;I
+didn't like the indications. But he kept jeering me,
+and at last I got mad and started in. Just as I got to my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+traps, I discovered that two red devils war a watching me
+from the shelter of the thicket to my left, about two rods
+off. When they saw that they war discovered they raised
+their guns and fired. I turned my horse's head at the
+same instant, and one ball passed through his neck, under
+the neck bone, and the other through his withers, just
+forward of my saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Seeing that they had not hit me, one of them ran up
+with a spear to spear me. My horse war rearing and pitching
+from the pain of his wounds, so that I could with difficulty
+govern him; but I had my gun laid across my arm,
+and when I fired I killed the rascal with the spear. Up
+to that moment I had supposed that them two war all I
+had to deal with. But as I got my horse turned round,
+with my arm raised to fire at the other red devil, I encountered
+the main party, forty-nine of them, who war in the
+bed of the stream, and had been covered by the bank.
+They fired a volley at me. Eleven balls passed through
+my blanket, under my arm, which war raised. I thought
+it time to run, and run I did. Crow war about two hundred
+yards off. So quick had all this happened, that he
+had not stirred from the spot whar I left him. When I
+came up to him I called out that I must get on behind
+him, for my horse war sick and staggering.</p>
+
+<p>"'Try him again,' said Crow, who war as anxious to be
+off as I war. I did try him agin, and sure enough, he got
+up a gallop, and away we went, the Blackfeet after us.
+But being mounted, we had the advantage, and soon distanced
+them. Before we had run a mile, I had to dismount
+and breathe my horse. We war in a narrow pass whar it
+war impossible to hide, so when the Indians came up with
+us, as they did, while I war dismounted we took sure aim
+and killed the two foremost ones. Before the others could
+get close enough to fire we war off agin. It didn't take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+much urging to make my horse go then, for the yells of
+them Blackfeet spurred him on.</p>
+
+<p>"When we had run another mile I dismounted agin, for
+fear that my horse would give out, and agin we war overtaken.
+Them Blackfeet are powerful runners:&mdash;no better
+than us mountain-men, though. This time we served
+them just as we did before. We picked off two of the
+foremost, and then went on, the rest whooping after us.
+We war overtaken a third time in the same manner; and
+the third time two Blackfeet fell dead in advance. At this,
+they took the hint. Six warriors already gone for two
+white scalps and two horses; they didn't know how many
+more would go in the same way. And I reckon they had
+run about all they wanted to, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>It is only necessary to add that Meek and Crow arrived
+safely at camp; and that the Shawnees came in after a day
+or two all right. Soon after the whole command under
+Bridger moved on to the Yellowstone, and went into winter
+camp in the great bend of that river, where buffalo
+were plenty, and cotton-wood was in abundance.</p>
+
+<p>1835. Towards spring, however, the game had nearly
+all disappeared from the neighborhood of the camp; and
+the hunters were forced to follow the buffalo in their migration
+eastward. On one of these expeditions a party
+of six trappers, including Meek, and a man named Rose,
+made their camp on Clarke's fork of the Yellowstone.
+The first night in camp Rose had a dream with which he
+was very much impressed. He dreamed of shaking hands
+with a large white bear, which insisted on taking his right
+hand for that friendly ceremony. He had not given it
+very willingly, for he knew too much about bears in general
+to desire to be on very intimate terms with them.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that the dream troubled Rose, who was superstitiously
+inclined, Meek resorted to that "certain medicine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+for minds diseased" which was in use in the mountains, and
+added to the distress of Rose his interpretation, in the
+spirit of ridicule, telling him that he was an adept in the
+matter of dreams, and that unless he, Rose, was very mindful
+of himself that day, he would shake hands with Beelzebub
+before he slept again.</p>
+
+<p>With this comforting assurance, Rose set out with the
+remainder of the party to hunt buffalo. They had proceeded
+about three miles from camp, Rose riding in advance,
+when they suddenly encountered a company of
+Blackfeet, nine in number, spies from a war party of one
+hundred and fifty, that was prowling and marauding
+through the country on the lookout for small parties from
+the camp of Bridger. The Blackfeet fired on the party
+as it came up, from their place of concealment, a ball striking
+Rose's right arm, and breaking it at the elbow. This
+caused his gun to fall, and an Indian sprang forward and
+raised it up quickly, aiming it at Meek. The ball passed
+through his cap without doing any other harm. By this
+time the trappers were made aware of an ambuscade; but
+how numerous the enemy was they could not determine.
+However, as the rest, who were well-mounted, turned to
+fly, Meek, who was riding an old mule that had to be beaten
+over the head to make it go, seeing that he was going to
+be left behind, called out lustily, "hold on, boys! There's
+not many of them. Let's stop and fight 'em;" at the
+same time pounding the mule over the head, but without
+effect. The Indians saw the predicament, and ran up to
+seize the mule by the bridle, but the moment the mule got
+wind of the savages, away he went, racing like a thoroughbred,
+jumping impediments, and running right over a ravine,
+which was fortunately filled with snow. This movement
+brought Meek out ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The other men then began to call out to Meek to stop<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>
+and fight. "Run for your lives, boys," roared Meek back
+at them, "there's ten thousand of them; they'll kill every
+one of you!"</p>
+
+<p>The mule had got his head, and there was no more stopping
+him than there had been starting him. On he went
+in the direction of the Yellowstone, while the others made
+for Clarke's Fork. On arriving at the former river, Meek
+found that some of the pack horses had followed him,
+and others the rest of the party. This had divided the
+Indians, three or four of whom were on his trail. Springing
+off his mule, he threw his blankets down on the ice,
+and by moving them alternately soon crossed the mule
+over to the opposite side, just in time to avoid a bullet that
+came whistling after him. As the Indians could not follow,
+he pursued his way to camp in safety, arriving late
+that evening. The main party were already in and expecting
+him. Soon after, the buffalo hunters returned to the
+big camp, minus some pack horses, but with a good story
+to tell, at the expense of Meek, and which he enjoys telling
+of himself to this day.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1835. Owing to the high rate of pay which Meek was
+now able to command, he began to think of imitating the
+example of that distinguished order, the free trappers, to
+which he now belonged, and setting up a lodge to himself
+as a family man. The writer of this veracious history has
+never been able to obtain a full and particular account of
+our hero's earliest love adventures. This is a subject on
+which, in common with most mountain-men, he observes a
+becoming reticence. But of one thing we feel quite well
+assured: that from the time when the young Shoshonie
+beauty assisted in the rescue of himself and Sublette from
+the execution of the death sentence at the hands of her
+people, Meek had always cherished a rather more than
+friendly regard for the "Mountain Lamb."</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i194" name="i194"></a>
+<img src="images/i194.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>THE FREE TRAPPER'S INDIAN WIFE.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>But Sublette, with wealth and power, and the privileges
+of a Booshway, had hastened to secure her for himself;
+and Meek had to look and long from afar off, until, in the
+year of which we are writing, Milton Sublette was forced
+to leave the mountains and repair to an eastern city for
+surgical aid; having received a very troublesome wound
+in the leg, which was only cured at last by amputation.</p>
+
+<p>Whether it was the act of a gay Lothario, or whether
+the law of divorce is even more easy in the mountains
+than in Indiana, we have always judiciously refrained from
+inquiring; but this we do know, upon the word of Meek
+himself, no sooner was Milton's back turned, than his friend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+so insinuated himself into the good graces of his <i>Isabel</i>,
+as Sublette was wont to name the lovely Umentucken, that
+she consented to join her fortunes to those of the handsome
+young trapper without even the ceremony of serving a
+notice on her former lord. As their season of bliss only
+extended over one brief year, this chapter shall be entirely
+devoted to recording such facts as have been imparted to
+us concerning this free trapper's wife.</p>
+
+<p>"She was the most beautiful Indian woman I ever saw,"
+says Meek: "and when she was mounted on her dapple
+gray horse, which cost me three hundred dollars, she
+made a fine show. She wore a skirt of beautiful blue
+broadcloth, and a bodice and leggins of scarlet cloth, of
+the very finest make. Her hair was braided and fell over
+her shoulders, a scarlet silk handkerchief, tied on hood
+fashion, covered her head; and the finest embroidered
+moccasins her feet. She rode like all the Indian women,
+astride, and carried on one side of the saddle the tomahawk
+for war, and on the other the pipe of peace.</p>
+
+<p>"The name of her horse was "All Fours." His accoutrements
+were as fine as his rider's. The saddle, crupper,
+and bust girths cost one hundred and fifty dollars; the
+bridle fifty dollars; and the musk-a-moots fifty dollars more.
+All these articles were ornamented with fine cut glass beads,
+porcupine quills, and hawk's bells, that tinkled at every step.
+Her blankets were of scarlet and blue, and of the finest
+quality. Such was the outfit of the trapper's wife, <i>Umentucken,
+Tukutey Undenwatsy</i>, the Lamb of the Mountains."</p>
+
+<p>Although Umentucken was beautiful, and had a name
+signifying gentleness, she was not without a will and a
+spirit of her own, when the occasion demanded it. While
+the camp was on the Yellowstone River, in the summer of
+1835, a party of women left it to go in search of berries,
+which were often dried and stored for winter use by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
+Indian women. Umentucken accompanied this party,
+which was attacked by a band of Blackfeet, some of the
+squaws being taken prisoners. But Umentucken saved
+herself by flight, and by swimming the Yellowstone while
+a hundred guns were leveled on her, the bullets whistling
+about her ears.</p>
+
+<p>At another time she distinguished herself in camp by a
+quarrel with one of the trappers, in which she came off
+with flying colors. The trapper was a big, bullying Irishman
+named O'Fallen, who had purchased two prisoners
+from the Snake Indians, to be kept in a state of slavery,
+after the manner of the savages. The prisoners were
+Utes, or Utahs, who soon contrived to escape. O'Fallen,
+imagining that Umentucken had liberated them, threatened
+to whip her, and armed himself with a horsewhip for that
+purpose. On hearing of these threats Umentucken repaired
+to her lodge, and also armed herself, but with a
+pistol. When O'Fallen approached, the whole camp looking
+on to see the event, Umentucken slipped out at the
+back of the lodge and coming around confronted him before
+he could enter.</p>
+
+<p>"Coward!" she cried. "You would whip the wife of
+Meek. He is not here to defend me; not here to kill you.
+But I shall do that for myself," and with that she presented
+the pistol to his head. O'Fallen taken by surprise, and
+having every reason to believe she would keep her word,
+and kill him on the spot, was obliged not only to apologize,
+but to beg to have his life spared. This Umentucken consented
+to do on condition of his sufficiently humbling himself,
+which he did in a very shame-faced manner; and a shout
+then went up from the whole camp&mdash;"hurrah for the
+Mountain Lamb!" for nothing more delights a mountaineer
+than a show of pluck, especially in an unlooked for
+quarter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Indian wives of the trappers were often in great
+peril, as well as their lords. Whenever it was convenient
+they followed them on their long marches through dangerous
+countries. But if the trapper was only going out
+for a few days, or if the march before him was more than
+usually dangerous, the wife remained with the main camp.</p>
+
+<p>During this year of which we are writing, a considerable
+party had been out on Powder River hunting buffalo,
+taking their wives along with them. When on the return,
+just before reaching camp, Umentucken was missed from
+the cavalcade. She had fallen behind, and been taken
+prisoner by a party of twelve Crow Indians. As soon as
+she was missed, a volunteer party mounted their buffalo
+horses in such haste that they waited not for saddle or bridle,
+but snatched only a halter, and started back in pursuit.
+They had not run a very long distance when they discovered
+poor Umentucken in the midst of her jubilant captors,
+who were delighting their eyes with gazing at her fine
+feathers, and promising themselves very soon to pluck the
+gay bird, and appropriate her trinkets to their own use.</p>
+
+<p>Their delight was premature. Swift on their heels came
+an avenging, as well as a saving spirit. Meek, at the
+head of his six comrades, no sooner espied the drooping
+form of the Lamb, than he urged his horse to the top of
+its speed. The horse was a spirited creature, that seeing
+something wrong in all these hasty maneuvers, took fright
+and adding terror to good will, ran with the speed of madness
+right in amongst the startled Crows, who doubtless
+regarded as a great "medicine" so fearless a warrior. It
+was now too late to be prudent, and Meek began the battle
+by yelling and firing, taking care to hit his Indian.
+The other trappers, emulating the bold example of their
+leader, dashed into the melee and a chance medley fight
+was carried on, in which Umentucken escaped, and another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
+Crow bit the dust. Finding that they were getting the
+worst of the fight, the Indians at length took to flight,
+and the trappers returned to camp rejoicing, and complimenting
+Meek on his gallantry in attacking the Crows
+single-handed.</p>
+
+<p>"I took their compliments quite naturally," says Meek,
+"nor did I think it war worth while to explain to them
+that I couldn't hold my horse."</p>
+
+<p>The Indians are lordly and tyrannical in their treatment
+of women, thinking it no shame to beat them cruelly;
+even taking the liberty of striking other women than those
+belonging to their own families. While the camp was traveling
+through the Crow country in the spring of 1836, a
+party of that nation paid a visit to Bridger, bringing skins
+to trade for blankets and ammunition. The bargaining
+went on quite pleasantly for some time; but one of
+the braves who was promenading about camp inspecting
+whatever came in his way, chanced to strike Umentucken
+with a whip he carried in his hand, by way of displaying
+his superiority to squaws in general, and trappers' wives
+in particular. It was an unlucky blow for the brave, for
+in another instant he rolled on the ground, shot dead by
+a bullet from Meek's gun.</p>
+
+<p>At this rash act the camp was in confusion. Yells from
+the Crows, who took the act as a signal for war; hasty
+questions, and cries of command; arming and shooting.
+It was some time before the case could be explained or
+understood. The Crows had two or three of their party
+shot; the whites also lost a man. After the unpremeditated
+fight was over, and the Crows departed not thoroughly
+satisfied with the explanation, Bridger went round to
+Meek's lodge.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you raised a hell of a row in camp;" said the
+commander, rolling out his deep bass voice in the slow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>
+monotonous tones which mountain men very quickly acquire
+from the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>"Very sorry, Bridger; but couldn't help it. No devil
+of an Indian shall strike Meek's wife."</p>
+
+<p>"But you got a man killed."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry for the man; couldn't help it, though, Bridger."</p>
+
+<p>And in truth it was too late to mend the matter. Fearing,
+however, that the Crows would attempt to avenge
+themselves for the losses they had sustained, Bridger hurried
+his camp forward, and got out of their neighborhood
+as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>So much for the female element in the camp of the
+Rocky Mountain trapper. Woman, it is said, has held the
+apple of discord, from mother Eve to Umentucken, and
+in consonance with this theory, Bridger, doubtless, considered
+the latter as the primal cause of the unfortunate
+"row in camp," rather than the brutality of the Crow, or
+the imprudence of Meek.</p>
+
+<p>But Umentucken's career was nearly run. In the following
+summer she met her death by a Bannack arrow;
+dying like a warrior, although living she was only a woman.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1835. The rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Company
+seldom took place without combining with its many
+wild elements, some other more civilized and refined.
+Artists, botanists, travelers, and hunters, from the busy
+world outside the wilderness, frequently claimed the companionship,
+if not the hospitality of the fur companies, in
+their wanderings over prairies and among mountains. Up
+to the year 1835, these visitors had been of the classes
+just named; men traveling either for the love of adventure,
+to prosecute discoveries in science, or to add to art
+the treasure of new scenes and subjects.</p>
+
+<p>But in this year there appeared at rendezvous two gentlemen,
+who had accompanied the St. Louis Company in
+its outward trip to the mountains, whose object was not
+the procurement of pleasure, or the improvement of science.
+They had come to found missions among the Indians;
+the Rev. Samuel Parker and Rev. Dr. Marcus
+Whitman; the first a scholarly and fastidious man, and
+the other possessing all the boldness, energy, and contempt
+of fastidiousness, which would have made him as good a
+mountain leader, as he was an energetic servant of the
+American Board of Foreign Missions.</p>
+
+<p>The cause which had brought these gentlemen to the
+wilderness was a little incident connected with the fur
+trade. Four Flathead Indians, in the year 1832, having
+heard enough of the Christian religion, from the few de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>vout
+men connected with the fur companies, to desire to
+know more, performed a winter journey to St. Louis, and
+there made inquiry about the white man's religion. This
+incident, which to any one acquainted with Indian character,
+would appear a very natural one, when it became
+known to Christian churches in the United States, excited
+a very lively interest, and seemed to call upon them like
+a voice out of heaven, to fly to the rescue of perishing
+heathen souls. The Methodist Church was the first to respond.
+When Wyeth returned to the mountains in 1834,
+four missionaries accompanied him, destined for the valley
+of the Wallamet River in Oregon. In the following year,
+the Presbyterian Church sent out its agents, the two gentlemen
+above mentioned; one of whom, Dr. Whitman,
+subsequently located near Fort Walla-Walla.</p>
+
+<p>The account given by Capt. Bonneville of the Flatheads
+and Nez Perces, as he found them in 1832, before missionary
+labor had been among them, throws some light on the
+incident of the journey to St. Louis, which so touched the
+Christian heart in the United States. After relating his
+surprise at finding that the Nez Perces observed certain
+sacred days, he continues: "A few days afterwards, four
+of them signified that they were about to hunt. 'What!'
+exclaimed the captain, 'without guns or arrows; and
+with only one old spear? What do you expect to kill?'
+They smiled among themselves, but made no answer.
+Preparatory to the chase, they performed some religious
+rites, and offered up to the Great Spirit a few short
+prayers for safety and success; then having received the
+blessing of their wives, they leaped upon their horses and
+departed, leaving the whole party of Christian spectators
+amazed and rebuked by this lesson of faith and dependence
+on a supreme and benevolent Being. Accustomed
+as I had heretofore been to find the wretched Indian rev<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>eling
+in blood, and stained by every vice which can degrade
+human nature, I could scarcely realize the scene
+which I had witnessed. Wonder at such unaffected tenderness
+and piety, where it was least to have been sought,
+contended in all our bosoms with shame and confusion, at
+receiving such pure and wholesome instructions from
+creatures so far below us in all the arts and comforts
+of life.</p>
+
+<p>"Simply to call these people religious," continued Bonneville,
+"would convey but a faint idea of the deep hue of
+piety and devotion which pervades their whole conduct.
+Their honesty is immaculate, and their purity of purpose,
+and their observance of the rites of their religion, are
+most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more
+like a nation of saints than a horde of savages."</p>
+
+<p>This was a very enthusiastic view to take of the Nez
+Perce character, which appeared all the brighter to the
+Captain, by contrast with the savage life which he had
+witnessed in other places, and even by contrast with the
+conduct of the white trappers. But the Nez Perces and
+Flatheads were, intellectually and morally, an exception
+to all the Indian tribes west of the Missouri River. Lewis
+and Clarke found them different from any others; the fur-traders
+and the missionaries found them different; and
+they remain at this day an honorable example, for probity
+and piety, to both savage and civilized peoples.</p>
+
+<p>To account for this superiority is indeed difficult. The
+only clue to the cause is in the following statement of
+Bonneville's. "It would appear," he says, "that they had
+imbibed some notions of the Christian faith from Catholic
+missionaries and traders who had been among them. They
+even had a rude calender of the fasts and festivals of the
+Romish Church, and some traces of its ceremonials. These<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+have become blended with their own wild rites, and present
+a strange medley, civilized and barbarous."</p>
+
+<p>Finding that these people among whom he was thrown
+exhibited such remarkable traits of character, Captain
+Bonneville exerted himself to make them acquainted with
+the history and spirit of Christianity. To these explanations
+they listened with great eagerness. "Many a time,"
+he says, "was my little lodge thronged, or rather piled
+with hearers, for they lay on the ground, one leaning over
+the other, until there was no further room, all listening
+with greedy ears to the wonders which the Great Spirit
+had revealed to the white man. No other subject gave
+them half the satisfaction, or commanded half the attention;
+and but few scenes of my life remain so freshly on
+my memory, or are so pleasurably recalled to my contemplation,
+as these hours of intercourse with a distant and benighted
+race in the midst of the desert."</p>
+
+<p>It was the interest awakened by these discourses of
+Captain Bonneville, and possibly by Smith, and other
+traders who happened to fall in with the Nez Perces and
+Flatheads, that stimulated those four Flatheads to undertake
+the journey to St. Louis in search of information;
+and this it was which resulted in the establishment of
+missions, both in western Oregon, and among the tribes
+inhabiting the country between the two great branches of
+the Columbia.</p>
+
+<p>The trait of Indian character which Bonneville, in his
+pleased surprise at the apparent piety of the Nez Perces
+and Flatheads, failed to observe, and which the missionaries
+themselves for a long time remained oblivious to, was
+the material nature of their religious views. The Indian
+judges of all things by the material results. If he is possessed
+of a good natural intelligence and powers of observation,
+he soon discovers that the God of the Indian is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>
+but a feeble deity; for does he not permit the Indian to
+be defeated in war; to starve, and to freeze? Do not the
+Indian medicine men often fail to save life, to win battles,
+to curse their enemies? The Indian's God, he argues,
+must be a good deal of a humbug. He sees the white
+men faring much better. They have guns, ammunition,
+blankets, knives, everything in plenty; and they are successful
+in war; are skillful in a thousand things the Indian
+knows nothing of. To be so blest implies a very wise and
+powerful Deity. To gain all these things they are eager
+to learn about the white man's God; are willing to do
+whatever is necessary to please and propitiate Him. Hence
+their attentiveness to the white man's discourse about his
+religion. Naturally enough they were struck with wonder
+at the doctrine of peace and good will; a doctrine so
+different from the law of blood by which the Indian, in
+his natural state, lives. Yet if it is good for the white
+men, it must be good for him; at all events he is anxious
+to try it.</p>
+
+<p>That is the course of reasoning by which an Indian is
+led to inquire into Christianity. It is a desire to better
+his physical, rather than his spiritual condition; for of the
+latter he has but a very faint conception. He was accustomed
+to desire a material Heaven, such a world beyond
+the grave, as he could only imagine from his earthly experience.
+Heaven was happiness, and happiness was
+plenty; therefore the most a good Indian could desire
+was to go where there should forevermore be plenty.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the Indian's view of religion, and it could be
+no other. Until the wants of the body have been supplied
+by civilization, the wants of the soul do not develop
+themselves: and until then the savage is not prepared
+to understand Christianity. This is the law of Nature and
+of God. Primeval man was a savage; and it was little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
+by little, through thousands of years, that Christ was revealed.
+Every child born, even now, is a savage, and has
+to be taught civilization year after year, until he arrives
+at the possibility of comprehending spiritual religion. So
+every full grown barbarian is a child in moral development;
+and to expect him to comprehend those mysteries
+over which the world has agonized for centuries, is to
+commit the gravest error. Into this error fell all the missionaries
+who came to the wilds that lay beyond the Rocky
+Mountains. They undertook to teach religion first, and
+more simple matters afterward&mdash;building their edifice like
+the Irishman's chimney, by holding up the top brick, and
+putting the others under it. Failure was the result of
+such a process, as the record of the Oregon Missions sufficiently
+proves.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will pardon this digression&mdash;made necessary
+by the part which one of the gentlemen present at this
+year's rendezvous, was destined to take in the history
+which we are writing. Shortly after the arrival of Messrs.
+Parker and Whitman, rendezvous broke up. A party, to
+which Meek was attached, moved in the direction of the
+Snake River head-waters, the missionaries accompanying
+them, and after making two camps, came on Saturday eve
+to Jackson's Little Hole, a small mountain valley near the
+larger one commonly known as Jackson's Hole.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day religious services were held in the
+Rocky Mountain Camp. A scene more unusual could
+hardly have transpired than that of a company of trappers
+listening to the preaching of the Word of God.
+Very little pious reverence marked the countenances of
+that wild and motley congregation. Curiosity, incredulity,
+sarcasm, or a mocking levity, were more plainly perceptible
+in the expression of the men's faces, than either devotion
+or the longing expectancy of men habitually deprived<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
+of what they once highly valued. The Indians alone
+showed by their eager listening that they desired to become
+acquainted with the mystery of the "Unknown
+God."</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Samuel Parker preached, and the men were
+as politely attentive as it was in their reckless natures to
+be, until, in the midst of the discourse, a band of buffalo
+appeared in the valley, when the congregation incontinently
+broke up, without staying for a benediction, and
+every man made haste after his horse, gun, and rope,
+leaving Mr. Parker to discourse to vacant ground.</p>
+
+<p>The run was both exciting and successful. About
+twenty fine buffaloes were killed, and the choice pieces
+brought to camp, cooked and eaten, amidst the merriment,
+mixed with something coarser, of the hunters. On this
+noisy rejoicing Mr. Parker looked with a sober aspect:
+and following the dictates of his religious feeling, he rebuked
+the sabbath-breakers quite severely. Better for his
+influence among the men, if he had not done so, or had
+not eaten so heartily of the tender-loin afterwards, a circumstance
+which his irreverent critics did not fail to remark,
+to his prejudice; and upon the principle that the
+"partaker is as bad as the thief," they set down his lecture
+on sabbath-breaking as nothing better than pious humbug.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i208" name="i208"></a>
+<img src="images/i208.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Dr. Marcus Whitman was another style of man. Whatever
+he thought of the wild ways of the mountain-men
+he discreetly kept to himself, preferring to teach by example
+rather than precept; and showing no fastidious
+contempt for any sort of rough duty he might be called
+upon to perform. So aptly indeed had he turned his hand
+to all manner of camp service on the journey to the mountains,
+that this abrogation of clerical dignity had become
+a source of solicitude, not to say disapproval and displeasure
+on the part of his colleague; and it was agreed be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>tween
+them that the Doctor should return to the states
+with the St. Louis Company, to procure recruits for the
+promising field of labor which they saw before them,
+while Mr. Parker continued his journey to the Columbia
+to decide upon the location of the missionary stations.
+The difference of character of the two men was clearly
+illustrated by the results of this understanding. Parker
+went to Vancouver, where he was hospitably entertained,
+and where he could inquire into the workings of the missionary
+system as pursued by the Methodist missionaries.
+His investigations not proving the labor to his taste, he
+sailed the following summer for the Sandwich Islands, and
+thence to New York; leaving only a brief note for Doctor
+Whitman, when he, with indefatigable exertions, arrived
+that season among the Nez Perces with a missionary company,
+eager for the work which they hoped to make as
+great as they believed it to be good.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>From the mountains about the head-waters of the
+Snake River, Meek returned, with Bridger's brigade to
+the Yellowstone country, where he fell into the hands of
+the Crows. The story as he relates it, is as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"I war trapping on the Rocky Fork of the Yellowstone.
+I had been out from camp five days; and war solitary and
+alone, when I war discovered by a war party of Crows.
+They had the prairie, and I war forced to run for the
+Creek bottom; but the beaver had throwed the water out
+and made dams, so that my mule mired down. While I
+war struggling in the marsh, the Indians came after me,
+with tremendous yells; firing a random shot now and
+then, as they closed in on me.</p>
+
+<p>"When they war within about two rods of me, I brought
+old <i>Sally</i>, that is my gun, to my face, ready to fire, and
+then die; for I knew it war death this time, unless Providence
+interfered to save me: and I didn't think Providence
+would do it. But the head chief, when he saw the
+warlike looks of <i>Sally</i>, called out to me to put down my
+gun, and I should live.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I liked to live,&mdash;being then in the prime of life;
+and though it hurt me powerful, I resolved to part with
+<i>Sally</i>. I laid her down. As I did so, the chief picked her
+up, and one of the braves sprang at me with a spear, and
+would have run me through, but the chief knocked him
+down with the butt of my gun. Then they led me forth
+to the high plain on the south side of the stream. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>
+they called a halt, and I was given in charge of three women,
+while the warriors formed a ring to smoke and consult.
+This gave me an opportunity to count them: they
+numbered one hundred and eighty-seven men, nine boys,
+and three women.</p>
+
+<p>"After a smoke of three long hours, the chief, who war
+named 'The Bold,' called me in the ring, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"'I have known the whites for a long time, and I know
+them to be great liars, deserving death; but if <i>you</i> will
+tell the truth, you shall live.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then I thought to myself, they will fetch the truth
+out of me, if thar is any in me. But his highness continued:</p>
+
+<p>"'Tell me whar are the whites you belong to; and what
+is your captain's name.'</p>
+
+<p>"I said 'Bridger is my captain's name; or, in the Crow
+tongue, <i>Casapy</i>,' the 'Blanket chief.' At this answer the
+chief seemed lost in thought. At last he asked me&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'How many men has he?'</p>
+
+<p>"I thought about telling the truth and living; but I
+said 'forty,' which war a tremendous lie; for thar war
+two hundred and forty. At this answer The Bold laughed:</p>
+
+<p>"'We will make them poor,' said he; 'and you shall
+live, but they shall die.'</p>
+
+<p>"I thought to myself, 'hardly;' but I said nothing. He
+then asked me whar I war to meet the camp, and I told
+him:&mdash;and then how many days before the camp would
+be thar; which I answered truly, for I wanted them to
+find the camp.</p>
+
+<p>"It war now late in the afternoon, and thar war a great
+bustle, getting ready for the march to meet Bridger. Two
+big Indians mounted my mule, but the women made me
+pack moccasins. The spies started first, and after awhile
+the main party. Seventy warriors traveled ahead of me:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
+I war placed with the women and boys; and after us the
+balance of the braves. As we traveled along, the women
+would prod me with sticks, and laugh, and say 'Masta
+Sheela,' (which means white man,) 'Masta sheela very
+poor now.' The fair sex war very much amused.</p>
+
+<p>"We traveled that way till midnight, the two big bucks
+riding my mule, and I packing moccasins. Then we
+camped; the Indians in a ring, with me in the centre, to
+keep me safe. I didn't sleep very well that night. I'd a
+heap rather been in some other place.</p>
+
+<p>"The next morning we started on in the same order as
+before: and the squaws making fun of me all day; but I
+kept mighty quiet. When we stopped to cook that evening,
+I war set to work, and war head cook, and head
+waiter too. The third and the fourth day it war the same.
+I felt pretty bad when we struck camp on the last day: for
+I knew we must be coming near to Bridger, and that if
+any thing should go wrong, my life would pay the forfeit.</p>
+
+<p>"On the afternoon of the fourth day, the spies, who
+war in advance, looking out from a high hill, made a sign
+to the main party. In a moment all sat down. Directly
+they got another sign, and then they got up and moved
+on. I war as well up in Indian signs as they war; and I
+knew they had discovered white men. What war worse,
+I knew they would soon discover that I had been lying to
+them. All I had to do then war to trust to luck. Soon we
+came to the top of the hill, which overlooked the Yellowstone,
+from which I could see the plains below extending
+as far as the eye could reach, and about three miles off,
+the camp of my friends. My heart beat double quick
+about that time; and I once in a while put my hand to
+my head, to feel if my scalp war thar.</p>
+
+<p>"While I war watching our camp, I discovered that the
+horse guard had seen us, for I knew the sign he would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>
+make if he discovered Indians. I thought the camp a
+splendid sight that evening. It made a powerful show to
+me, who did not expect ever to see it after that day. And
+it <i>war</i> a fine sight any how, from the hill whar I stood.
+About two hundred and fifty men, and women and children
+in great numbers, and about a thousand horses and
+mules. Then the beautiful plain, and the sinking sun;
+and the herds of buffalo that could not be numbered;
+and the cedar hills, covered with elk,&mdash;I never saw so fine
+a sight as all that looked to me then!</p>
+
+<p>"When I turned my eyes on that savage Crow band,
+and saw the chief standing with his hand on his mouth, lost
+in amazement; and beheld the warriors' tomahawks and
+spears glittering in the sun, my heart war very little.
+Directly the chief turned to me with a horrible scowl.
+Said he:</p>
+
+<p>"'I promised that you should live if you told the truth;
+but you have told me a great lie.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then the warriors gathered around, with their tomahawks
+in their hands; but I war showing off very brave,
+and kept my eyes fixed on the horse-guard who war approaching
+the hill to drive in the horses. This drew the
+attention of the chief, and the warriors too. Seeing that
+the guard war within about two hundred yards of us, the
+chief turned to me and ordered me to tell him to come
+up. I pretended to do what he said; but instead of that
+I howled out to him to stay off, or he would be killed;
+and to tell Bridger to try to treat with them, and get me
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"As quick as he could he ran to camp, and in a few
+minutes Bridger appeared, on his large white horse. He
+came up to within three hundred yards of us, and called
+out to me, asking who the Indians war. I answered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
+'Crows.' He then told me to say to the chief he wished
+him to send one of his sub-chiefs to smoke with him.</p>
+
+<p>"All this time my heart beat terribly hard. I don't
+know now why they didn't kill me at once; but the head
+chief seemed overcome with surprise. When I repeated
+to him what Bridger said, he reflected a moment, and then
+ordered the second chief, called Little-Gun, to go and
+smoke with Bridger. But they kept on preparing for
+war; getting on their paint and feathers, arranging their
+scalp locks, selecting their arrows, and getting their ammunition
+ready.</p>
+
+<p>"While this war going on, Little-Gun had approached
+to within about a hundred yards of Bridger; when, according
+to the Crow laws of war, each war forced to strip
+himself, and proceed the remaining distance in a state of
+nudity, and kiss and embrace. While this interesting ceremony
+war being performed, five of Bridger's men had
+followed him, keeping in a ravine until they got within
+shooting distance, when they showed themselves, and cut
+off the return of Little-Gun, thus making a prisoner of
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"If you think my heart did not jump up when I saw
+that, you think wrong. I knew it war kill or cure, now.
+Every Indian snatched a weapon, and fierce threats war
+howled against me. But all at once about a hundred of
+our trappers appeared on the scene. At the same time
+Bridger called to me, to tell me to propose to the chief to
+exchange me for Little-Gun. I explained to The Bold
+what Bridger wanted to do, and he sullenly consented:
+for, he said, he could not afford to give a chief for one
+white dog's scalp. I war then allowed to go towards my
+camp, and Little-Gun towards his; and the rescue I hardly
+hoped for war accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>"In the evening the chief, with forty of his braves, vis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>ited
+Bridger and made a treaty of three months. They
+said they war formerly at war with the whites; but that
+they desired to be friendly with them now, so that together
+they might fight the Blackfeet, who war everybody's
+enemies. As for me, they returned me my mule,
+gun, and beaver packs, and said my name should be
+<i>Shiam Shaspusia</i>, for I could out-lie the Crows."</p>
+
+<p>In December, Bridger's command went into winter
+quarters in the bend of the Yellowstone. Buffalo, elk,
+and bear were in great abundance, all that fall and winter.
+Before they went to camp, Meek, Kit Carson, Hawkins,
+and Doughty were trapping together on the Yellowstone,
+about sixty miles below. They had made their temporary
+camp in the ruins of an old fort, the walls of which were
+about six feet high. One evening, after coming in from
+setting their traps, they discovered three large grizzly
+bears in the river bottom, not more than half a mile off,
+and Hawkins went out to shoot one. He was successful
+in killing one at the first shot, when the other two, taking
+fright, ran towards the fort. As they came near enough
+to show that they were likely to invade camp, Meek and
+Carson, not caring to have a bear fight, clambered up a
+cotton-wood tree close by, at the same time advising
+Doughty to do the same. But Doughty was tired, and
+lazy besides, and concluded to take his chances where he
+was; so he rolled himself in his blanket and laid quite
+still. The bears, on making the fort, reared up on their
+hind legs and looked in as if meditating taking it for a
+defence.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of Doughty lying rolled in his blanket, and
+the monster grizzlys inspecting the fort, caused the two
+trappers who were safely perched in the cotton-wood to
+make merry at Doughty's expense; saying all the mirth-provoking
+things they could, and then advising him not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>
+to laugh, for fear the bears should seize him. Poor
+Doughty, agonizing between suppressed laughter and
+growing fear, contrived to lie still however, while the
+bears gazed upward at the speakers in wonder, and alternately
+at the suspicious looking bundle inside the fort.
+Not being able to make out the meaning of either, they
+gave at last a grunt of dissatisfaction, and ran off into a
+thicket to consult over these strange appearances; leaving
+the trappers to enjoy the incident as a very good joke.
+For a long time after, Doughty was reminded how close
+to the ground he laid, when the grizzlys paid their compliments
+to him. Such were the every day incidents from
+which the mountain-men contrived to derive their rude
+jests, and laughter-provoking reminiscences.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this incident, while the same party
+were trapping a few miles farther down the river, on their
+way to camp, they fell in with some Delaware Indians,
+who said they had discovered signs of Blackfeet, and
+wanted to borrow some horses to decoy them. To this
+the trappers very willingly agreed, and they were furnished
+with two horses. The Delawares then went to the
+spot where signs had been discovered, and tying the
+horses, laid flat down on the ground near them, concealed
+by the grass or willows. They had not long to wait before
+a Blackfoot was seen stealthily advancing through the
+thicket, confident in the belief that he should gain a couple
+of horses while their supposed owners were busy with
+their traps.</p>
+
+<p>But just as he laid his hand on the bridle of the first
+one, crack went the rifles of the Delawares, and there was
+one less Blackfoot thief on the scent after trappers. As
+soon as they could, after this, the party mounted and rode
+to camp, not stopping by the way, lest the main body of
+Blackfeet should discover the deed and seek for vengeance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+Truly indeed, was the Blackfoot the Ishmael of the wilderness,
+whose hand was against every man, and every
+man's hand against him.</p>
+
+<p>The Rocky Mountain Company passed the first part of
+the winter in peace and plenty in the Yellowstone camp,
+unannoyed either by enemies or rivals. Hunting buffalo,
+feeding their horses, playing games, and telling stories, occupied
+the entire leisure of these months of repose. Not
+only did the mountain-men recount their own adventures,
+but when these were exhausted, those whose memories
+served them rehearsed the tales they had read in their
+youth. Robinson Crusoe and the Arabian Nights Entertainment,
+were read over again by the light of memory;
+and even Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was made to recite
+like a sensation novel, and was quite as well enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>1836. In January, however, this repose was broken in
+upon by a visit from the Blackfeet. As their visitations
+were never of a friendly character, so then they were not
+bent upon pacific rites and ceremonies, such as all the rest
+of the world find pleasure in, but came in full battle array
+to try their fortunes in war against the big camp of the
+whites. They had evidently made great preparation.
+Their warriors numbered eleven hundred, got up in the
+top of the Blackfoot fashions, and armed with all manner
+of savage and some civilized weapons. But Bridger was
+prepared for them, although their numbers were so overwhelming.
+He built a fort, had the animals corraled, and
+put himself on the defensive in a prompt and thorough manner.
+This made the Blackfeet cautious; they too built
+forts of cotton-wood in the shape of lodges, ten men to
+each fort, and carried on a skirmishing fight for two days,
+when finding there was nothing to be gained, they departed,
+neither side having sustained much loss; the
+whites losing only two men by this grand Blackfoot army.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Soon after this attack Bridger broke camp, and traveled
+up the Yellowstone, through the Crow country. It was
+while on this march that Umentucken was struck by a
+Crow, and Meek put the whole camp in peril, by shooting
+him. They passed on to the Big Horn and Little Horn
+rivers, down through the Wind River valley and through
+the South Pass to Green River.</p>
+
+<p>While in that country, there occurred the fight with the
+Bannacks in which Umentucken was killed. A small party
+of Nez Perces had lost their horses by the thieving of the
+Bannacks. They came into camp and complained to the
+whites, who promised them their protection, should they
+be able to recover their horses. Accordingly the Nez Perces
+started after the thieves, and by dogging their camp,
+succeeded in re-capturing their horses and getting back
+to Bridger's camp with them. In order to divert the
+vengeance of the Bannacks from themselves, they presented
+their horses to the whites, and a very fine one to
+Bridger.</p>
+
+<p>All went well for a time. The Bannacks went on their
+way to hunt buffalo; but they treasured up their wrath
+against the supposed white thieves who had stolen the
+horses which they had come by so honestly. On their return
+from the hunt, having learned by spies that the horses
+were in the camp of the whites, they prepared for war.
+Early one morning they made their appearance mounted
+and armed, and making a dash at the camp, rode through
+it with the usual yells and frantic gestures. The attack
+was entirely unexpected. Bridger stood in front of his
+lodge, holding his horse by a lasso, and the head chief
+rode over it, jerking it out of his hand. At this unprecedented
+insult to his master, a negro named Jim, cook to
+the Booshways, seized a rifle and shot the chief dead. At
+the same time, an arrow shot at random struck Umen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>tucken
+in the breast, and the joys and sorrows of the
+Mountain Lamb were over forevermore.</p>
+
+<p>The killing of a head chief always throws an Indian
+war party into confusion, and negro Jim was greatly elated
+at this signal feat of his. The trappers, who were as
+much surprised at the suddenness of the assault as it is in
+the mountain-man's nature to be, quickly recovered themselves.
+In a few moments the men were mounted and in
+motion, and the disordered Bannacks were obliged to fly
+towards their village, Bridger's company pursuing them.</p>
+
+<p>All the rest of that day the trappers fought the Bannacks,
+driving them out of their village and plundering
+it, and forcing them to take refuge on an island in the
+river. Even there they were not safe, the guns of the
+mountain-men picking them off, from their stations on the
+river banks. Umentucken was well avenged that day.</p>
+
+<p>All night the Indians remained on the island, where
+sounds of wailing were heard continually; and when
+morning came one of their old women appeared bearing the
+pipe of peace. "You have killed all our warriors," she
+said; "do you now want to kill the women? If you
+wish to smoke with women, I have the pipe."</p>
+
+<p>Not caring either to fight or to smoke with so feeble a representative
+of the Bannacks, the trappers withdrew. But
+it was the last war party that nation ever sent against the
+mountain-men; though in later times they have by their
+atrocities avenged the losses of that day.</p>
+
+<p>While awaiting, in the Green River valley, the arrival
+of the St. Louis Company, the Rocky Mountain and North
+American companies united; after which Captain Sublette
+and his brother returned no more to the mountains. The
+new firm was known only as the American Fur Company,
+the other having dropped its title altogether. The object
+of their consolidation was by combining their capital and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+experience to strengthen their hands against the Hudson's
+Bay Company, which now had an establishment at Fort
+Hall, on the Snake River. By this new arrangement,
+Bridger and Fontenelle commanded; and Dripps was to
+be the traveling partner who was to go to St. Louis for
+goods.</p>
+
+<p>After the conclusion of this agreement, Dripps, with the
+restlessness of the true mountain-man, decided to set out,
+with a small party of equally restless trappers, always
+eager to volunteer for any undertaking promising either
+danger or diversion, to look for the St. Louis Company
+which was presumed to be somewhere between the Black
+Hills and Green River. According to this determination
+Dripps, Meek, Carson, Newell, a Flathead chief named
+Victor, and one or two others, set out on the search for
+the expected company.</p>
+
+<p>It happened, however, that a war party of a hundred
+Crows were out on the trail before them, looking perhaps
+for the same party, and the trappers had not made more
+than one or two camps before they discovered signs which
+satisfied them of the neighborhood of an enemy. At
+their next camp on the Sandy, Meek and Carson, with the
+caution and vigilance peculiar to them, kept their saddles
+on their horses, and the horses tied to themselves by a
+long rope, so that on the least unusual motion of the animals
+they should be readily informed of the disturbance.
+Their precaution was not lost. Just after midnight had
+given place to the first faint kindling of dawn, their ears
+were stunned by the simultaneous discharge of a hundred
+guns, and the usual furious din of the war-whoop and yell.
+A stampede immediately took place of all the horses excepting
+those of Meek and Carson. "Every man for himself
+and God for us all," is the motto of the mountain-man in
+case of an Indian attack; nor did our trappers forget it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
+on this occasion. Quickly mounting, they put their horses
+to their speed, which was not checked until they had left
+the Sandy far behind them. Continuing on in the direction
+of the proposed meeting with the St. Louis Company,
+they made their first camp on the Sweetwater, where they
+fell in with Victor, the Flathead chief, who had made his
+way on foot to this place. One or two others came into
+camp that night, and the following day this portion
+of the party traveled on in company until within about
+five miles of Independence Rock, when they were once
+more charged on by the Indians, who surrounded them in
+such a manner that they were obliged to turn back to
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>Again Meek and Carson made off, leaving their dismounted
+comrades to their own best devices. Finding
+that with so many Indians on the trail, and only two horses,
+there was little hope of being able to accomplish their
+journey, these two lucky ones made all haste back to camp.
+On Horse Creek, a few hours travel from rendezvous, they
+came up with Newell, who after losing his horse had fled
+in the direction of the main camp, but becoming bewildered
+had been roaming about until he was quite tired
+out, and on the point of giving up. But as if the Creek
+where he was found meant to justify itself for having so
+inharmonious a name, one of their own horses, which had
+escaped from the Crows was found quietly grazing on its
+banks, and the worn out fugitive at once remounted.
+Strange as it may appear, not one of the party was killed,
+the others returning to camp two days later than Meek
+and Carson, the worse for their expedition only by the loss
+of their horses, and rather an unusually fatigued and forlorn
+aspect.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i222" name="i222"></a>
+<img src="images/i222.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">"INDIANS BY JOVE!"</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1836. While the resident partners of the consolidated
+company waited at the rendezvous for the arrival of the
+supply trains from St. Louis, word came by a messenger
+sent forward, that the American Company under Fitzpatrick,
+had reached Independence Rock, and was pressing
+forward. The messenger also brought the intelligence
+that two other parties were traveling in company with the
+fur company; that of Captain Stuart, who had been to
+New Orleans to winter, and that of Doctor Whitman, one
+of the missionaries who had visited the mountains the year
+previous. In this latter party, it was asserted, there were
+two white ladies.</p>
+
+<p>This exhilarating news immediately inspired some of the
+trappers, foremost among whom was Meek, with a desire
+to be the first to meet and greet the on-coming caravan;
+and especially to salute the two white women who were
+bold enough to invade a mountain camp. In a very short
+time Meek, with half-a-dozen comrades, and ten or a dozen
+Nez Perces, were mounted and away, on their self-imposed
+errand of welcome; the trappers because they were
+"spoiling" for a fresh excitement; and the Nez Perces
+because the missionaries were bringing them information
+concerning the powerful and beneficent Deity of the white
+men. These latter also were charged with a letter to
+Doctor Whitman from his former associate, Mr. Parker.</p>
+
+<p>On the Sweetwater about two days' travel from camp<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
+the caravan of the advancing company was discovered,
+and the trappers prepared to give them a characteristic
+greeting. To prevent mistakes in recognizing them, a
+white flag was hoisted on one of their guns, and the word
+was given to start. Then over the brow of a hill they
+made their appearance, riding with that mad speed only
+an Indian or a trapper can ride, yelling, whooping, dashing
+forward with frantic and threatening gestures; their
+dress, noises, and motions, all so completely savage that
+the white men could not have been distinguished from
+the red.</p>
+
+<p>The first effect of their onset was what they probably
+intended. The uninitiated travelers, including the missionaries,
+believing they were about to be attacked by
+Indians, prepared for defence, nor could be persuaded that
+the preparation was unnecessary until the guide pointed
+out to them the white flag in advance. At the assurance
+that the flag betokened friends, apprehension was changed
+to curiosity and intense interest. Every movement of the
+wild brigade became fascinating. On they came, riding
+faster and faster, yelling louder and louder, and gesticulating
+more and more madly, until, as they met and passed
+the caravan, they discharged their guns in one volley over
+the heads of the company, as a last finishing <i>feu de joie</i>;
+and suddenly wheeling rode back to the front as wildly
+as they had come. Nor could this first brief display content
+the crazy cavalcade. After reaching the front, they
+rode back and forth, and around and around the caravan,
+which had returned their salute, showing off their feats of
+horsemanship, and the knowing tricks of their horses together;
+hardly stopping to exchange questions and answers,
+but seeming really intoxicated with delight at the
+meeting. What strange emotions filled the breasts of the
+lady missionaries, when they beheld among whom their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>
+lot was cast, may now be faintly outlined by a vivid
+imagination, but have never been, perhaps never could be
+put into words.</p>
+
+<p>The caravan on leaving the settlements had consisted
+of nineteen laden carts, each drawn by two mules driven
+tandem, and one light wagon, belonging to the American
+Company; two wagons with two mules to each, belonging to
+Capt. Stuart; and one light two-horse wagon, and one four-horse
+freight wagon, belonging to the missionaries. However,
+all the wagons had been left behind at Fort Laramie,
+except those of the missionaries, and one of Capt. Stuart's;
+so that the three that remained in the train when it reached
+the Sweetwater were alone in the enjoyment of the Nez
+Perces' curiosity concerning them; a curiosity which they
+divided between them and the domesticated cows and
+calves belonging to the missionaries: another proof, as
+they considered it, of the superior power of the white
+man's God, who could give to the whites the ability to tame
+wild animals to their uses.</p>
+
+<p>But it was towards the two missionary ladies, Mrs. Whitman
+and Mrs. Spalding, that the chief interest was directed;
+an interest that was founded in the Indian mind upon wonder,
+admiration, and awe; and in the minds of the trappers
+upon the powerful recollections awakened by seeing in
+their midst two refined Christian women, with the complexion
+and dress of their own mothers and sisters. United
+to this startling effect of memory, was respect for the religious
+devotion which had inspired them to undertake the
+long and dangerous journey to the Rocky Mountains, and
+also a sentiment of pity for what they knew only too well
+yet remained to be encountered by those delicate women
+in the prosecution of their duty.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whitman, who was in fine health, rode the greater
+part of the journey on horseback. She was a large, stately,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
+fair-skinned woman, with blue eyes and light auburn, almost
+golden hair. Her manners were at once dignified
+and gracious. She was, both by nature and education a
+lady; and had a lady's appreciation of all that was courteous
+and refined; yet not without an element of romance
+and heroism in her disposition strong enough to have
+impelled her to undertake a missionary's life in the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Spalding was a different type of woman. Talented,
+and refined in her nature, she was less pleasing in exterior,
+and less attached to that which was superficially pleasing
+in others. But an indifference to outside appearances was
+in her case only a sign of her absorption in the work she
+had taken in hand. She possessed the true missionary
+spirit, and the talent to make it useful in an eminent degree;
+never thinking of herself, or the impression she
+made upon others; yet withal very firm and capable of
+command. Her health, which was always rather delicate,
+had suffered much from the fatigue of the journey, and
+the constant diet of fresh meat, and meat only, so that she
+was compelled at last to abandon horseback exercise, and
+to keep almost entirely to the light wagon of the missionaries.</p>
+
+<p>As might be expected, the trappers turned from the contemplation
+of the pale, dark-haired occupant of the wagon,
+with all her humility and gentleness, to observe and
+admire the more striking figure, and more affably attractive
+manners of Mrs. Whitman. Meek, who never lost an
+opportunity to see and be seen, was seen riding alongside
+Mrs. Whitman, answering her curious inquiries, and entertaining
+her with stories of Blackfeet battles, and encounters
+with grizzly bears. Poor lady! could she have looked
+into the future about which she was then so curious, she
+would have turned back appalled, and have fled with fran<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>tic
+fear to the home of her grieving parents. How could
+she then behold in the gay and boastful mountaineer,
+whose peculiarities of dress and speech so much diverted
+her, the very messenger who was to bear to the home of
+her girlhood the sickening tale of her bloody sacrifice to
+savage superstition and revenge? Yet so had fate decreed
+it.</p>
+
+<p>When the trappers and Nez Perces had slaked their thirst
+for excitement by a few hours' travel in company with the
+Fur Company's and Missionary's caravan, they gave at
+length a parting display of horsemanship, and dashed off
+on the return trail to carry to camp the earliest news. It
+was on their arrival in camp that the Nez Perce and Flathead
+village, which had its encampment at the rendezvous
+ground on Green River, began to make preparations for
+the reception of the missionaries. It was then that Indian
+finery was in requisition! Then the Indian women combed
+and braided their long black hair, tying the plaits with
+gay-colored ribbons, and the Indian braves tied anew
+their streaming scalp-locks, sticking them full of flaunting
+eagle's plumes, and not despising a bit of ribbon either.
+Paint was in demand both for the rider and his horse. Gay
+blankets, red and blue, buckskin fringed shirts, worked
+with beads and porcupine quills, and handsomely embroidered
+moccasins, were eagerly sought after. Guns were
+cleaned and burnished, and drums and fifes put in tune.</p>
+
+<p>After a day of toilsome preparation all was ready for
+the grand reception in the camp of the Nez Perces. Word
+was at length given that the caravan was in sight. There
+was a rush for horses, and in a few moments the Indians
+were mounted and in line, ready to charge on the advancing
+caravan. When the command of the chiefs was given
+to start, a simultaneous chorus of yells and whoops burst
+forth, accompanied by the deafening din of the war-drum,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+the discharge of fire-arms, and the clatter of the whole
+cavalcade, which was at once in a mad gallop toward the
+on-coming train. Nor did the yelling, whooping, drumming,
+and firing cease until within a few yards of the
+train.</p>
+
+<p>All this demoniac hub-bub was highly complimentary
+toward those for whom it was intended; but an unfortunate
+ignorance of Indian customs caused the missionaries
+to fail in appreciating the honor intended them. Instead
+of trying to reciprocate the noise by an attempt at imitating
+it, the missionary camp was alarmed at the first burst
+and at once began to drive in their cattle and prepare for
+an attack. As the missionary party was in the rear of the
+train they succeeded in getting together their loose stock
+before the Nez Perces had an opportunity of making themselves
+known, so that the leaders of the Fur Company, and
+Captain Stuart, had the pleasure of a hearty laugh at their
+expense, for the fright they had received.</p>
+
+<p>A general shaking of hands followed the abatement of
+the first surprise, the Indian women saluting Mrs. Whitman
+and Mrs. Spalding with a kiss, and the missionaries were
+escorted to their camping ground near the Nez Perce encampment.
+Here the whole village again formed in line,
+and a more formal introduction of the missionaries took
+place, after which they were permitted to go into camp.</p>
+
+<p>When the intention of the Indians became known, Dr.
+Whitman, who was the leader of the missionary party, was
+boyishly delighted with the reception which had been
+given him. His frank, hearty, hopeful nature augured
+much good from the enthusiasm of the Indians. If his
+estimation of the native virtues of the savages was much
+too high, he suffered with those whom he caused to suffer
+for his belief, in the years which followed. Peace to the
+ashes of a good man! And honor to his associates, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
+hearts were in the cause they had undertaken of Christianizing
+the Indians. Two of them still live&mdash;one of whom,
+Mr. Spalding, has conscientiously labored and deeply suffered
+for the faith. Mr. Gray, who was an unmarried man,
+returned the following year to the States, for a wife, and
+settled for a time among the Indians, but finally abandoned
+the missionary service, and removed to the Wallamet valley.
+These five persons constituted the entire force of
+teachers who could be induced at that time to devote
+their lives to the instruction of the savages in the neighborhood
+of the Rocky Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>The trappers, and gentlemen of the Fur Company and
+Captain Stuart, had been passive but interested spectators
+of the scene between the Indians and the missionaries.
+When the excitement had somewhat subsided, and the
+various camps had become settled in their places, the tents
+of the white ladies were besieged with visitors, both civilized
+and savage. These ladies, who were making an endeavor
+to acquire a knowledge of the Nez Perce tongue
+in order to commence their instructions in the language
+of the natives, could have made very little progress, had
+their purpose been less strong than it was. Mrs. Spalding
+perhaps succeeded better than Mrs. Whitman in the difficult
+study of the Indian dialect. She seemed to attract
+the natives about her by the ease and kindness of her
+manner, especially the native women, who, seeing she was
+an invalid, clung to her rather than to her more lofty and
+self-asserting associate.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary, the leaders of the American Fur Company,
+Captain Wyeth and Captain Stuart, paid Mrs. Whitman
+the most marked and courteous attentions. She shone
+the bright particular star of that Rocky Mountain encampment,
+softening the hearts and the manners of all who
+came within her womanly influence. Not a gentleman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>
+among them but felt her silent command upon him to be
+his better self while she remained in his vicinity; not a
+trapper or camp-keeper but respected the presence of
+womanhood and piety. But while the leaders paid court
+to her, the bashful trappers contented themselves with
+promenading before her tent. Should they succeed in
+catching her eye, they never failed to touch their beaver-skin
+caps in their most studiously graceful manner, though
+that should prove so dubious as to bring a mischievous
+smile to the blue eyes of the observant lady.</p>
+
+<p>But our friend Joe Meek did not belong by nature to
+the bashful brigade. He was not content with disporting
+himself in his best trapper's toggery in front of a lady's
+tent. He became a not infrequent visitor, and amused
+Mrs. Whitman with the best of his mountain adventures,
+related in his soft, slow, yet smooth and firm utterance,
+and with many a merry twinkle of his mirthful dark eyes.
+In more serious moments he spoke to her of the future,
+and of his determination, sometime, to "settle down."
+When she inquired if he had fixed upon any spot which
+in his imagination he could regard as "home" he replied
+that he could not content himself to return to civilized life,
+but thought that when he gave up "bar fighting and Injun
+fighting" he should go down to the Wallamet valley
+and see what sort of life he could make of it there. How
+he lived up to this determination will be seen hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>The missionaries remained at the rendezvous long enough
+to recruit their own strength and that of their stock, and
+to restore to something like health the invalid Mrs. Spalding,
+who, on changing her diet to dried meat, which the
+resident partners were able to supply her, commenced rapidly
+to improve. Letters were written and given to Capt.
+Wyeth to carry home to the States. The Captain had
+completed his sale of Fort Hall and the goods it contained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>
+to the Hudson's Bay Company only a short time previous,
+and was now about to abandon the effort to establish any
+enterprise either on the Columbia or in the Rocky Mountains.
+He had, however, executed his threat of the year
+previous, and punished the bad faith of the Rocky Mountain
+Company by placing them in direct competition with
+the Hudson's Bay Company.</p>
+
+<p>The missionaries now prepared for their journey to the
+Columbia River. According to the advice of the mountain-men
+the heaviest wagon was left at the rendezvous,
+together with every heavy article that could be dispensed
+with. But Dr. Whitman refused to leave the light wagon,
+although assured he would never be able to get it to the
+Columbia, nor even to the Snake River. The good Doctor
+had an immense fund of determination when there was
+an object to be gained or a principle involved. The only
+persons who did not oppose wagon transportation were
+the Indians. They sympathised with his determination,
+and gave him their assistance. The evidences of a different
+and higher civilization than they had ever seen were
+held in great reverence by them. The wagons, the domestic
+cattle, especially the cows and calves, were always
+objects of great interest with them. Therefore they freely
+gave their assistance, and a sufficient number remained
+behind to help the Doctor, while the main party of both
+missionaries and Indians, having bidden the Fur Company
+and others farewell, proceeded to join the camp of two
+Hudson's Bay traders a few miles on their way.</p>
+
+<p>The two traders, whose camp they now joined, were
+named McLeod and McKay. The latter, Thomas McKay,
+was the half-breed son of that unfortunate McKay in Mr.
+Astor's service, who perished on board the <i>Tonquin</i>, as related
+in Irving's <span class="smcap">Astoria</span>. He was one of the bravest
+and most skillful partisans in the employ of the Hudson's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>
+Bay Company. McLeod had met the missionaries at the
+American rendezvous and invited them to travel in his
+company; an offer which they were glad to accept, as it
+secured them ample protection and other more trifling
+benefits, besides some society other than the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>By dint of great perseverance, Doctor Whitman contrived
+to keep up with the camp day after day, though
+often coming in very late and very weary, until the party
+arrived at Fort Hall. At the fort the baggage was again
+reduced as much as possible; and Doctor Whitman was
+compelled by the desertion of his teamster to take off two
+wheels of his wagon and transform it into a cart which
+could be more easily propelled in difficult places. With
+this he proceeded as far as the Boise River where the
+Hudson's Bay Company had a small fort or trading-post;
+but here again he was so strongly urged to relinquish the
+idea of taking his wagon to the Columbia, that after much
+discussion he consented to leave it at Fort Boise until
+some future time when unencumbered by goods or passengers
+he might return for it.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the crossing of the Snake River, Mrs. Whitman
+and Mrs. Spalding were treated to a new mode of ferriage,
+which even in their varied experience they had
+never before met with. This new ferry was nothing more
+or less than a raft made of bundles of bulrushes woven
+together by grass ropes. Upon this frail flat-boat the
+passengers were obliged to stretch themselves at length
+while an Indian swam across and drew it after him by a
+rope. As the waters of the Snake River are rapid and
+often "dancing mad," it is easy to conjecture that the
+ladies were ill at ease on their bulrush ferry.</p>
+
+<p>On went the party from the Snake River through the
+Grand Ronde to the Blue Mountains. The crossing here
+was somewhat difficult but accomplished in safety. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>
+descent from the Blue Mountains on the west side gave
+the missionaries their first view of the country they had
+come to possess, and to civilize and Christianize. That
+view was beautiful and grand&mdash;as goodly a prospect as
+longing eyes ever beheld this side of Canaan. Before
+them lay a country spread out like a map, with the windings
+of its rivers marked by fringes of trees, and its boundaries
+fixed by mountain ranges above which towered the
+snowy peaks of
+Mt. Hood, Mt.
+Adams, and Mt.
+Rainier. Far
+away could be
+traced the
+course of the
+Columbia; and
+over all the magnificent
+scene
+glowed the red
+rays of sunset,
+tinging the distant
+blue of the
+mountains until
+they seemed
+shrouded in a
+veil of violet
+mist. It were
+not strange that
+with the reception
+given them by the Indians, and with this bird's-eye
+view of their adopted country, the hearts of the missionaries
+beat high with hope.</p>
+
+<div class="figright"><a id="i233" name="i233"></a>
+<img src="images/i233.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">DESCENDING THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The descent from the Blue Mountains brought the party
+out on the Umatilla River, where they camped, Mr. McLeod<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
+parting company with them at this place to hasten forward
+to Fort Walla-Walla, and prepare for their reception.
+After two more days of slow and toilsome travel
+with cattle whose feet were cut and sore from the sharp
+rocks of the mountains, the company arrived safely at
+Walla-Walla fort, on the third of September. Here
+they found Mr. McLeod, and Mr. Panbram who had charge
+of that post.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Panbram received the missionary party with every
+token of respect, and of pleasure at seeing ladies among
+them. The kindest attentions were lavished upon them
+from the first moment of their arrival, when the ladies
+were lifted from their horses, to the time of their departure;
+the apartments belonging to the fort being assigned
+to them, and all that the place afforded of comfortable
+living placed at their disposal. Here, for the first time in
+several months, they enjoyed the luxury of bread&mdash;a favor
+for which the suffering Mrs. Spalding was especially grateful.</p>
+
+<p>At Walla-Walla the missionaries were informed that
+they were expected to visit Vancouver, the head-quarters
+of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Lower Columbia.
+After resting for two days, it was determined to make this
+visit before selecting places for mission work among the
+Indians. Accordingly the party embarked in the company's
+boats, for the voyage down the Columbia, which
+occupied six days, owing to strong head winds which were
+encountered at a point on the Lower Columbia, called
+Cape Horn. They arrived safely on the eleventh of September,
+at Vancouver, where they were again received
+with the warmest hospitality by the Governor, Dr. John
+McLaughlin, and his associates. The change from the
+privations of wilderness life to the luxuries of Fort Vancouver
+was very great indeed, and two weeks passed rap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>idly
+away in the enjoyment of refined society, and all
+the other elegancies of the highest civilization.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of two weeks, Dr. Whitman, Mr. Spalding,
+and Mr. Gray returned to the Upper Columbia, leaving
+the ladies at Fort Vancouver while they determined upon
+their several locations in the Indian country. After an
+absence of several weeks they returned, having made their
+selections, and on the third day of November the ladies
+once more embarked to ascend the Columbia, to take up
+their residence in Indian wigwams while their husbands
+prepared rude dwellings by the assistance of the natives.
+The spot fixed upon by Dr. Whitman for his mission was
+on the Walla-Walla River about thirty miles from the fort
+of that name. It was called <i>Waiilatpu</i>; and the tribe
+chosen for his pupils were the Cayuses, a hardy, active,
+intelligent race, rich in horses and pasture lands.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Spalding selected a home on the Clearwater River,
+among the Nez Perces, of whom we already know so
+much. His mission was called <i>Lapwai</i>. Mr. Gray went
+among the Flatheads, an equally friendly tribe; and here
+we shall leave the missionaries, to return to the Rocky
+Mountains and the life of the hunter and trapper. At a
+future date we shall fall in once more with these devoted
+people and learn what success attended their efforts to
+Christianize the Indians.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1836. The company of men who went north this year
+under Bridger and Fontenelle, numbered nearly three
+hundred. Rendezvous with all its varied excitements
+being over, this important brigade commenced its march.
+According to custom, the trappers commenced business
+on the head-waters of various rivers, following them down
+as the early frosts of the mountains forced them to do,
+until finally they wintered in the plains, at the most
+favored spots they could find in which to subsist themselves
+and animals.</p>
+
+<p>From Green River, Meek proceeded with Bridger's command
+to Lewis River, Salt River, and other tributaries of
+the Snake, and camped with them in Pierre's Hole, that
+favorite mountain valley which every year was visited by
+the different fur companies.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i237" name="i237"></a>
+<img src="images/i237.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>THE BEAR IN CAMP.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Pierre's Hole, notwithstanding its beauties, had some repulsive
+features, or rather perhaps <i>one</i> repulsive feature,
+which was, its great numbers of rattlesnakes. Meek relates
+that being once caught in a very violent thunder storm,
+he dismounted, and holding his horse, a fine one, by the
+bridle, himself took shelter under a narrow shelf of rock
+projecting from a precipitous bluff. Directly he observed
+an enormous rattlesnake hastening close by him to its den
+in the mountain. Congratulating himself on his snake-ship's
+haste to get out of the storm and his vicinity, he
+had only time to have one rejoicing thought when two or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>
+three others followed the trail of the first one. They were
+seeking the same rocky den, of whose proximity Meek
+now felt uncomfortably assured. Before these were out
+of sight, there came instead of twos and threes, tens and
+twenties, and then hundreds, and finally Meek believes
+thousands, the ground being literally alive with them.
+Not daring to stir after he discovered the nature of his
+situation, he was obliged to remain and endure the disgusting
+and frightful scene, while he exerted himself to
+keep his horse quiet, lest the reptiles should attack him.
+By and by, when there were no more to come, but all
+were safe in their holes in the rock, Meek hastily mounted
+and galloped in the face of the tempest in preference to
+remaining longer in so unpleasant a neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>There was an old Frenchman among the trappers who
+used to charm rattlesnakes, and handling them freely,
+place them in his bosom, or allow them to wind about his
+arms, several at a time, their flat heads extending in all
+directions, and their bodies waving in the air, in the most
+snaky and nerve-shaking manner, to the infinite disgust
+of all the camp, and of Hawkins and Meek in particular.
+Hawkins often became so nervous that he threatened to
+shoot the Frenchman on the instant, if he did not desist;
+and great was the dislike he entertained for what he termed
+the "&mdash;&mdash; infernal old wizard."</p>
+
+<p>It was often the case in the mountains and on the plains
+that the camp was troubled with rattlesnakes, so that
+each man on laying down to sleep found it necessary to
+encircle his bed with a hair rope, thus effectually fencing
+out the reptiles, which are too fastidious and sensitive of
+touch to crawl over a hair rope. But for this precaution,
+the trapper must often have shared his blanket couch
+with this foe to the "seed of the woman," who being
+asleep would have neglected to "crush his head," receiv<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>ing
+instead the serpent's fang in "his heel," if not in some
+nobler portion of his body.</p>
+
+<p>There is a common belief abroad that the prairie dog
+harbors the rattlesnake, and the owl also, in his subterranean
+house, in a more or less friendly manner. Meek,
+however, who has had many opportunities of observing
+the habits of these three ill-assorted denizens of a common
+abode, gives it as his opinion that the prairie dog consents
+to the invasion of his premises alone through his inability
+to prevent it. As these prairie dog villages are always
+found on the naked prairies, where there is neither rocky
+den for the rattlesnake, nor shade for the blinking eyes of
+the owl, these two idle and impudent foreigners, availing
+themselves of the labors of the industrious little animal
+which builds itself a cool shelter from the sun, and a safe
+one from the storm, whenever their own necessities drive
+them to seek refuge from either sun or storm, enter uninvited
+and take possession. It is probable also, that so far
+from being a welcome guest, the rattlesnake occasionally
+gorges himself with a young prairie-dog, when other game
+is not conveniently nigh, or that the owl lies in wait at the
+door of its borrowed-without-leave domicile, and succeeds
+in nabbing a careless field-mouse more easily than it could
+catch the same game by seeking it as an honest owl should
+do. The owl and the rattlesnake are like the Sioux when
+they go on a visit to the Omahas&mdash;the visit being always
+timed so as to be identical in date with that of the Government
+Agents who are distributing food and clothing.
+They are very good friends for the nonce, the poor Omahas
+not daring to be otherwise for fear of the ready vengeance
+on the next summer's buffalo hunt; therefore they
+conceal their grimaces and let the Sioux eat them up; and
+when summer comes get massacred on their buffalo hunt,
+all the same.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But to return to our brigade. About the last of October
+Bridger's company moved down on to the Yellowstone by
+a circuitous route through the North Pass, now known as
+Hell Gate Pass, to Judith River, Mussel Shell River, Cross
+Creeks of the Yellowstone, Three Forks of Missouri, Missouri
+Lake, Beaver Head country, Big Horn River, and
+thence east again, and north again to the wintering ground
+in the great bend of the Yellowstone.</p>
+
+<p>The company had not proceeded far in the Blackfeet
+country, between Hell Gate Pass and the Yellowstone,
+before they were attacked by the Blackfeet. On arriving
+at the Yellowstone they discovered a considerable encampment
+of the enemy on an island or bar in the river, and
+proceeded to open hostilities before the Indians should
+have discovered them. Making little forts of sticks or
+bushes, each man advanced cautiously to the bank overlooking
+the island, pushing his leafy fort before him as he
+crept silently nearer, until a position was reached whence
+firing could commence with effect. The first intimation
+the luckless savages had of the neighborhood of the whites
+was a volley of shots discharged into their camp, killing
+several of their number. But as this was their own mode
+of attack, no reflections were likely to be wasted upon the
+unfairness of the assault; quickly springing to their arms
+the firing was returned, and for several hours was kept up
+on both sides. At night the Indians stole off, having lost
+nearly thirty killed; nor did the trappers escape quite unhurt,
+three being killed and a few others wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Since men were of such value to the fur companies, it
+would seem strange that they should deliberately enter
+upon an Indian fight before being attacked. But unfortunate
+as these encounters really were, they knew of no
+other policy to be pursued. They, (the American Companies,)
+were not resident, with a long acquaintance, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>
+settled policy, such as rendered the Hudson's Bay Company
+so secure amongst the savages. They knew that
+among these unfriendly Indians, not to attack was to be
+attacked, and consequently little time was ever given for
+an Indian to discover his vicinity to a trapper. The trapper's
+shot informed him of that, and afterwards the race
+was to the swift, and the battle to the strong. Besides
+this acknowledged necessity for fighting whenever and
+wherever Indians were met with in the Blackfeet and Crow
+countries, almost every trapper had some private injury to
+avenge&mdash;some theft, or wound, or imprisonment, or at the
+very least, some terrible fright sustained at the hands of
+the universal foe. Therefore there was no reluctance to
+shoot into an Indian camp, provided the position of the
+man shooting was a safe one, or more defensible than that
+of the man shot at. Add to this that there was no law in
+the mountains, only license, it is easy to conjecture that
+might would have prevailed over right with far less incentive
+to the exercise of savage practices than actually did
+exist. Many a trapper undoubtedly shot his Indian "for
+the fun of it," feeling that it was much better to do so than
+run the risk of being shot at for no better reason. Of this
+class of reasoners, it must be admitted, Meek was one.
+Indian-fighting, like bear-fighting, had come to be a sort
+of pastime, in which he was proud to be known as highly
+accomplished. Having so many opportunities for the display
+of game qualities in encounters with these two by-no-means-to-be
+despised foes of the trapper, it was not often
+that they quarreled among themselves after the grand frolic
+of the rendezvous was over.</p>
+
+<p>It happened, however, during this autumn, that while
+the main camp was in the valley of the Yellowstone, a
+party of eight trappers, including Meek and a comrade
+named Stanberry, were trapping together on the Mussel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
+Shell, when the question as to which was the bravest man
+got started between them, and at length, in the heat of
+controversy, assumed such importance that it was agreed
+to settle the matter on the following day according to the
+Virginia code of honor, <i>i.e.</i>, by fighting a duel, and shooting
+at each other with guns, which hitherto had only done
+execution on bears and Indians.</p>
+
+<p>But some listening spirit of the woods determined to
+avert the danger from these two equally brave trappers,
+and save their ammunition for its legitimate use, by giving
+them occasion to prove their courage almost on the instant.
+While sitting around the camp-fire discussing the coming
+event of the duel at thirty paces, a huge bear, already
+wounded by a shot from the gun of their hunter who was
+out looking for game, came running furiously into camp,
+giving each man there a challenge to fight or fly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," spoke up one of the men quickly, "let Meek
+and Stanberry prove which is bravest, by fighting the
+bear!" "Agreed," cried the two as quickly, and both
+sprang with guns and wiping-sticks in hand, charging upon
+the infuriated beast as it reached the spot where they were
+awaiting it. Stanberry was a small man, and Meek a large
+one. Perhaps it was owing to this difference of stature
+that Meek was first to reach the bear as it advanced. Running
+up with reckless bravado Meek struck the creature
+two or three times over the head with his wiping-stick
+before aiming to fire, which however he did so quickly
+and so surely that the beast fell dead at his feet. This act
+settled the vexed question. Nobody was disposed to dispute
+the point of courage with a man who would stop to
+strike a grizzly before shooting him: therefore Meek was
+proclaimed by the common voice to be "cock of the walk"
+in that camp. The pipe of peace was solemnly smoked
+by himself and Stanberry, and the tomahawk buried never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
+more to be resurrected between them, while a fat supper
+of bear meat celebrated the compact of everlasting amity.</p>
+
+<p>It was not an unfrequent occurrence for a grizzly bear
+to be run into camp by the hunters, in the Yellowstone
+country where this creature abounded. An amusing incident
+occurred not long after that just related, when the
+whole camp was at the Cross Creeks of the Yellowstone,
+on the south side of that river. The hunters were out,
+and had come upon two or three bears in a thicket. As
+these animals sometimes will do, they started off in a great
+fright, running toward camp, the hunters after them, yelling,
+frightening them still more. A runaway bear, like a
+runaway horse, appears not to see where it is going, but
+keeps right on its course no matter what dangers lie in
+advance. So one of these animals having got headed for
+the middle of the encampment, saw nothing of what lay
+in its way, but ran on and on, apparently taking note of
+nothing but the yells in pursuit. So sudden and unexpected
+was the charge which he made upon camp, that
+the Indian women, who were sitting on the ground engaged
+in some ornamental work, had no time to escape out of the
+way. One of them was thrown down and run over, and
+another was struck with such violence that she was thrown
+twenty feet from the spot where she was hastily attempting
+to rise. Other objects in camp were upset and thrown out
+of the way, but without causing so much merriment as the
+mishaps of the two women who were so rudely treated by
+the monster.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i245" name="i245"></a>
+<img src="images/i245.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">SATISFIED WITH BEAR FIGHTING.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It was also while the camp was at the Cross Creeks of
+the Yellowstone that Meek had one of his best fought battles
+with a grizzly bear. He was out with two companions,
+one Gardiner, and Mark Head, a Shawnee Indian.
+Seeing a very large bear digging roots in the creek bottom,
+Meek proposed to attack it, if the others would hold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>
+his horse ready to mount if he failed to kill the creature.
+This being agreed to he advanced to within about forty
+paces of his game, when he raised his gun and attempted
+to fire, but the cap bursting he only roused the beast,
+which turned on him with a terrific noise between a snarl
+and a growl, showing some fearful looking teeth. Meek
+turned to run for his horse, at the same time trying to put
+a cap on his gun; but when he had almost reached his
+comrades, their horses and his own took fright at the bear
+now close on his heels, and ran, leaving him alone with the
+now fully infuriated beast. Just at the moment he succeeded
+in getting a cap on his gun, the teeth of the bear
+closed on his blanket capote which was belted around the
+waist, the suddenness and force of the seizure turning him
+around, as the skirt of his capote yielded to the strain
+and tore off at the belt. Being now nearly face to face
+with his foe, the intrepid trapper thrust his gun into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>
+creature's mouth and attempted again to fire, but the gun
+being double triggered and not set, it failed to go off.
+Perceiving the difficulty he managed to set the triggers
+with the gun still in the bear's mouth, yet no sooner was
+this done than the bear succeeded in knocking it out, and
+firing as it slipped out, it hit her too low down to inflict a
+fatal wound and only served to irritate her still farther.</p>
+
+<p>In this desperate situation when Meek's brain was rapidly
+working on the problem of live Meek or live bear,
+two fresh actors appeared on the scene in the persons of
+two cubs, who seeing their mother in difficulty seemed
+desirous of doing something to assist her. Their appearance
+seemed to excite the bear to new exertions, for
+she made one desperate blow at Meek's empty gun with
+which he was defending himself, and knocked it out of his
+hands, and far down the bank or sloping hillside where
+the struggle was now going on. Then being partially
+blinded by rage, she seized one of her cubs and began to
+box it about in a most unmotherly fashion. This diversion
+gave Meek a chance to draw his knife from the scabbard,
+with which he endeavored to stab the bear behind the
+ear: but she was too quick for him, and with a blow struck
+it out of his hand, as she had the gun, nearly severing his
+forefinger.</p>
+
+<p>At this critical juncture the second cub interfered, and
+got a boxing from the old bear, as the first one had done.
+This too, gave Meek time to make a movement, and loosening
+his tomahawk from his belt, he made one tremendous
+effort, taking deadly aim, and struck her just behind
+the ear, the tomahawk sinking into the brain, and his
+powerful antagonist lay dead before him. When the blow
+was struck he stood with his back against a little bluff of
+rock, beyond which it was impossible to retreat. It was
+his last chance, and his usual good fortune stood by him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>
+When the struggle was over the weary victor mounted
+the rock behind him and looked down upon his enemy
+slain; and "came to the conclusion that he was satisfied
+with bar-fighting."</p>
+
+<p>But renown had sought him out even here, alone with
+his lifeless antagonist. Capt. Stuart with his artist, Mr.
+Miller, chanced upon this very spot, while yet the conqueror
+contemplated his slain enemy, and taking possession
+at once of the bear, whose skin was afterward preserved
+and stuffed, made a portrait of the "satisfied" slayer. A
+picture was subsequently painted by Miller of this scene,
+and was copied in wax for a museum in St. Louis, where
+it probably remains to this day, a monument of Meek's
+best bear fight. As for Meek's runaway horse and runaway
+comrades, they returned to the scene of action too
+late to be of the least service, except to furnish our hero
+with transportation to camp, which, considering the weight
+of his newly gathered laurels, was no light service after
+all.</p>
+
+<p>In November Bridger's camp arrived at the Bighorn
+River, expecting to winter; but finding the buffalo all gone,
+were obliged to cross the mountains lying between the
+Bighorn and Powder rivers to reach the buffalo country
+on the latter stream. The snow having already fallen
+quite deep on these mountains the crossing was attended
+with great difficulty; and many horses and mules were
+lost by sinking in the snow, or falling down precipices
+made slippery by the melting and freezing of the snow on
+the narrow ridges and rocky benches along which they
+were forced to travel.</p>
+
+<p>About Christmas all the company went into winter-quarters
+on Powder River, in the neighborhood of a company
+of Bonneville's men, left under the command of Antoine
+Montero, who had established a trading-post and fort at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>
+this place, hoping, no doubt, that here they should be
+comparatively safe from the injurious competition of the
+older companies. The appearance of three hundred men,
+who had the winter before them in which to do mischief,
+was therefore as unpleasant as it was unexpected; and
+the result proved that even Montero, who was Bonneville's
+experienced trader, could not hold his own against so
+numerous and expert a band of marauders as Bridger's
+men, assisted by the Crows, proved themselves to be; for
+by the return of spring Montero had very little remaining
+of the property belonging to the fort, nor anything to show
+for it. This mischievous war upon Bonneville was prompted
+partly by the usual desire to cripple a rival trader,
+which the leaders encouraged in their men; but in some
+individual instances far more by the desire for revenge
+upon Bonneville personally, on account of his censures
+passed upon the members of the Monterey expedition,
+and on the ways of mountain-men generally.</p>
+
+<p>About the first of January, Fontenelle, with four men,
+and Captain Stuart's party, left camp to go to St. Louis
+for supplies. At Fort Laramie Fontenelle committed suicide,
+in a fit of <i>mania a potu</i>, and his men returned to
+camp with the news.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1837. The fate of Fontenelle should have served as a
+warning to his associates and fellows. 'Should have done,'
+however, are often idle words, and as sad as they are idle;
+they match the poets 'might have been,' in their regretful
+impotency. Perhaps there never was a winter camp
+in the mountains more thoroughly demoralized than that
+of Bridger during the months of January and February.
+Added to the whites, who were reckless enough, were a
+considerable party of Delaware and Shawnee Indians, excellent
+allies, and skillful hunters and trappers, but having
+the Indian's love of strong drink. "Times were pretty
+good in the mountains," according to the mountain-man's
+notion of good times; that is to say, beaver was plenty,
+camp large, and alcohol abundant, if dear. Under these
+favorable circumstance much alcohol was consumed, and
+its influence was felt in the manners not only of the trappers,
+white and red, but also upon the neighboring Indians.</p>
+
+<p>The Crows, who had for two years been on terms of a
+sort of semi-amity with the whites, found it to their interest
+to conciliate so powerful an enemy as the American
+Fur Company was now become, and made frequent visits
+to the camp, on which occasion they usually succeeded in
+obtaining a taste of the fire-water of which they were inordinately
+fond. Occasionally a trader was permitted to
+sell liquor to the whole village, when a scene took place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>
+whose peculiar horrors were wholly indescribable, from the
+inability of language to convey an adequate idea of its
+hellish degradation. When a trader sold alcohol to a
+village it was understood both by himself and the Indians
+what was to follow. And to secure the trader against injury
+a certain number of warriors were selected out of
+the village to act as a police force, and to guard the trader
+during the 'drunk' from the insane passions of his customers.
+To the police not a drop was to be given.</p>
+
+<p>This being arranged, and the village disarmed, the carousal
+began. Every individual, man, woman, and child,
+was permitted to become intoxicated. Every form of
+drunkenness, from the simple stupid to the silly, the heroic,
+the insane, the beastly, the murderous, displayed
+itself. The scenes which were then enacted beggared description,
+as they shocked the senses of even the hard-drinking,
+license-loving trappers who witnessed them.
+That they did not "point a moral" for these men, is the
+strangest part of the whole transaction.</p>
+
+<p>When everybody, police excepted, was drunk as drunk
+could be, the trader began to dilute his alcohol with water,
+until finally his keg contained water only, slightly flavored
+by the washings of the keg, and as they continued to
+drink of it without detecting its weak quality, they finally
+drank themselves sober, and were able at last to sum up
+the cost of their intoxication. This was generally nothing
+less than the whole property of the village, added to which
+were not a few personal injuries, and usually a few murders.
+The village now being poor, the Indians were correspondingly
+humble; and were forced to begin a system
+of reprisal by stealing and making war, a course for which
+the traders were prepared, and which they avoided by
+leaving that neighborhood. Such were some of the sins
+and sorrows for which the American fur companies were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
+answerable, and which detracted seriously from the respect
+that the courage, and other good qualities of the
+mountain-men freely commanded.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i251" name="i251"></a>
+<img src="images/i251.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">THE GAME OF CACHE.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>By the first of March these scenes of wrong and riot
+were over, for that season at least, and camp commenced
+moving back toward the Blackfoot country. After recrossing
+the mountains, passing the Bighorn, Clarke's, and
+Rosebud rivers, they came upon a Blackfoot village on
+the Yellowstone, which as usual they attacked, and a battle
+ensued, in which Manhead, captain of the Delawares
+was killed, another Delaware named Tom Hill succeeding
+him in command. The fight did not result in any great
+loss or gain to either party. The camp of Bridger fought
+its way past the village, which was what they must do, in
+order to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>Meek, however, was not quite satisfied with the punishment
+the Blackfeet had received for the killing of Manhead,
+who had been in the fight with him when the Camanches
+attacked them on the plains. Desirous of doing
+something on his own account, he induced a comrade
+named LeBlas, to accompany him to the village, after night
+had closed over the scene of the late contest. Stealing
+into the village with a noiselessness equal to that of one
+of Fennimore Cooper's Indian scouts, these two daring
+trappers crept so near that they could look into the lodges,
+and see the Indians at their favorite game of <i>Cache</i>. Inferring
+from this that the savages did not feel their losses
+very severely, they determined to leave some sign of their
+visit, and wound their enemy in his most sensitive part,
+the horse. Accordingly they cut the halters of a number
+of the animals, fastened in the customary manner to a
+stake, and succeeded in getting off with nine of them,
+which property they proceeded to appropriate to their
+own use.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As the spring and summer advanced, Bridger's brigade
+advanced into the mountains, passing the Cross Creek of
+the Yellowstone, Twenty-five-Yard River, Cherry River,
+and coming on to the head-waters of the Missouri spent the
+early part of the summer in that locality. Between Gallatin
+and Madison forks the camp struck the great trail of
+the Blackfeet. Meek and Mark Head had fallen four or
+five days behind camp, and being on this trail felt a good
+deal of uneasiness. This feeling was not lessened by
+seeing, on coming to Madison Fork, the skeletons of two
+men tied to or suspended from trees, the flesh eaten off
+their bones. Concluding discretion to be the safest part
+of valor in this country, they concealed themselves by day
+and traveled by night, until camp was finally reached
+near Henry's Lake. On this march they forded a flooded
+river, on the back of the same mule, their traps placed on
+the other, and escaped from pursuit of a dozen yelling
+savages, who gazed after them in astonishment; "taking
+their mule," said Mark Head, "to be a beaver, and themselves
+great medicine men." "That," said Meek, "is what
+I call 'cooning' a river."</p>
+
+<p>From this point Meek set out with a party of thirty or
+forty trappers to travel up the river to head-waters, accompanied
+by the famous Indian painter Stanley, whose party
+was met with, this spring, traveling among the mountains.
+The party of trappers were a day or two ahead of the
+main camp when they found themselves following close
+after the big Blackfoot village which had recently passed
+over the trail, as could be seen by the usual signs; and
+also by the dead bodies strewn along the trail, victims of
+that horrible scourge, the small pox. The village was evidently
+fleeing to the mountains, hoping to rid itself of the
+plague in their colder and more salubrious air.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after coming upon these evidences of prox<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>imity
+to an enemy, a party of a hundred and fifty of their
+warriors were discovered encamped in a defile or narrow
+bottom enclosed by high bluffs, through which the trappers
+would have to pass. Seeing that in order to pass this
+war party, and the village, which was about half a mile in
+advance, there would have to be some fighting done, the
+trappers resolved to begin the battle at once by attacking
+their enemy, who was as yet ignorant of their neighborhood.
+In pursuance of this determination, Meek, Newell,
+Mansfield, and Le Blas, commenced hostilities. Leaving
+their horses in camp, they crawled along on the edge of
+the overhanging bluff until opposite to the encampment
+of Blackfeet, firing on them from the shelter of some
+bushes which grew among the rocks. But the Blackfeet,
+though ignorant of the number of their enemy, were not
+to be dislodged so easily, and after an hour or two of random
+shooting, contrived to scale the bluff at a point higher
+up, and to get upon a ridge of ground still higher than
+that occupied by the four trappers. This movement dislodged
+the latter, and they hastily retreated through the
+bushes and returned to camp.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, the main camp having come up, the fight
+was renewed. While the greater body of the company,
+with the pack-horses, were passing along the high bluff
+overhanging them, the party of the day before, and forty
+or fifty others, undertook to drive the Indians out of the
+bottom, and by keeping them engaged allow the train to
+pass in safety. The trappers rode to the fight on this occasion,
+and charged the Blackfeet furiously, they having
+joined the village a little farther on. A general skirmish
+now took place. Meek, who was mounted on a fine horse,
+was in the thickest of the fight. He had at one time a
+side to side race with an Indian who strung his bow so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>
+hard that the arrow dropped, just as Meek, who had loaded
+his gun running, was ready to fire, and the Indian dropped
+after his arrow.</p>
+
+<p>Newell too had a desperate conflict with a half-dead
+warrior, who having fallen from a wound, he thought dead
+and was trying to scalp. Springing from his horse he
+seized the Indian's long thick hair in one hand, and with
+his knife held in the other made a pass at the scalp, when
+the savage roused up knife in hand, and a struggle took
+place in which it was for a time doubtful which of the
+combatants would part with the coveted scalp-lock. Newell
+might have been glad to resign the trophy, and leave
+the fallen warrior his tuft of hair, but his fingers were in
+some way caught by some gun-screws with which the savage
+had ornamented his <i>coiffure</i>, and would not part company.
+In this dilemma there was no other alternative but
+fight. The miserable savage was dragged a rod or two in
+the struggle, and finally dispatched.</p>
+
+<p>Mansfield also got into such close quarters, surrounded
+by the enemy, that he gave himself up for lost, and called
+out to his comrades: "Tell old Gabe, (Bridger,) that old
+Cotton (his own sobriquet) is gone." He lived, however,
+to deliver his own farewell message, for at this critical
+juncture the trappers were re-inforced, and relieved. Still
+the fight went on, the trappers gradually working their
+way to the upper end of the enclosed part of the valley,
+past the point of danger.</p>
+
+<p>Just before getting clear of this entanglement Meek became
+the subject of another picture, by Stanley, who was
+viewing the battle from the heights above the valley.
+The picture which is well known as "The Trapper's Last
+Shot," represents him as he turned upon his horse, a fine
+and spirited animal, to discharge his last shot at an Indian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>
+pursuing, while in the bottom, at a little distance away,
+other Indians are seen skulking in the tall reedy grass.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i257" name="i257"></a>
+<img src="images/i257.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>THE TRAPPER'S LAST SHOT.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The last shot having been discharged with fatal effect,
+our trapper, so persistently lionized by painters, put his
+horse to his utmost speed and soon after overtook the
+camp, which had now passed the strait of danger. But
+the Blackfeet were still unsatisfied with the result of the
+contest. They followed after, reinforced from the village,
+and attacked the camp. In the fight which followed a
+Blackfoot woman's horse was shot down, and Meek tried
+to take her prisoner: but two or three of her people coming
+to the rescue, engaged his attention; and the woman
+was saved by seizing hold of the tail of her husband's
+horse, which setting off at a run, carried her out of
+danger.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i259" name="i259"></a>
+<img src="images/i259.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">"AND THEREBY HANGS A TAIL."</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Blackfeet found the camp of Bridger too strong
+for them. They were severely beaten and compelled to
+retire to their village, leaving Bridger free to move on.
+The following day the camp reached the village of Little-Robe,
+a chief of the Peagans, who held a talk with Bridger,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>
+complaining that his nation were all perishing from the
+small-pox which had been given to them by the whites.
+Bridger was able to explain to Little-Robe his error; inasmuch
+as although the disease might have originated
+among the whites, it was communicated to the Blackfeet
+by Jim Beckwith, a negro, and principal chief of their
+enemies the Crows. This unscrupulous wretch had caused
+two infected articles to be taken from a Mackinaw boat,
+up from St. Louis, and disposed of to the Blackfeet&mdash;whence
+the horrible scourge under which they were suffering.</p>
+
+<p>This matter being explained, Little-Robe consented to
+trade horses and skins; and the two camps parted amicably.
+The next day after this friendly talk, Bridger being
+encamped on the trail in advance of the Blackfeet, an Indian
+came riding into camp, with his wife and daughter,
+pack-horse and lodge-pole, and all his worldly goods, unaware
+until he got there of the snare into which he had
+fallen. The French trappers, generally, decreed to kill
+the man and take possession of the woman. But Meek,
+Kit Carson, and others of the American trappers of the
+better sort, interfered to prevent this truly savage act.
+Meek took the woman's horse by the head, Carson the
+man's, the daughter following, and led them out of camp.
+Few of the Frenchmen cared to interrupt either of these
+two men, and they were suffered to depart in peace.
+When at a safe distance, Meek stopped, and demanded as
+some return for having saved the man's life, a present of
+tobacco, a luxury which, from the Indian's pipe, he suspected
+him to possess. About enough for two chews was
+the result of this demand, complied with rather grudgingly,
+the Indian vieing with the trapper in his devotion
+to the weed. Just at this time, owing to the death of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>
+Fontenelle, and a consequent delay in receiving supplies,
+tobacco was scarce among the mountaineers.</p>
+
+<p>Bridger's brigade of trappers met with no other serious
+interruptions on their summer's march. They proceeded
+to Henry's Lake, and crossing the Rocky Mountains, traveled
+through the Pine Woods, always a favorite region, to
+Lewis' Lake on Lewis' Fork of the Snake River; and
+finally up the Grovant Fork, recrossing the mountains to
+Wind River, where the rendezvous for this year was appointed.</p>
+
+<p>Here, once more, the camp was visited by a last years'
+acquaintance. This was none other than Mr. Gray, of the
+Flathead Mission, who was returning to the States on business
+connected with the missionary enterprise, and to
+provide himself with a helpmeet for life,&mdash;a co-laborer
+and sufferer in the contemplated toil of teaching savages
+the rudiments of a religion difficult even to the comprehension
+of an old civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gray was accompanied by two young men (whites)
+who wished to return to the States, and also by a son of
+one of the Flathead chiefs. Two other Flathead Indians,
+and one Iroquois and one Snake Indian, were induced to
+accompany Mr. Gray. The undertaking was not without
+danger, and so the leaders of the Fur Company assured
+him. But Mr. Gray was inclined to make light of the
+danger, having traveled with entire safety when under the
+protection of the Fur Companies the year before. He
+proceeded without interruption until he reached Ash Hollow,
+in the neighborhood of Fort Laramie, when his party
+was attacked by a large band of Sioux, and compelled to
+accept battle. The five Indians, with the whites, fought
+bravely, killing fifteen of the Sioux, before a parley was
+obtained by the intervention of a French trader who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+chanced to be among the Sioux. When Mr. Gray was
+able to hold a 'talk' with the attacking party he was assured
+that his life and that of his two white associates
+would be spared, but that they wanted to kill the strange
+Indians and take their fine horses. It is not at all probable
+that Mr. Gray consented to this sacrifice; though he
+has been accused of doing so.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt the Sioux took advantage of some hesitation
+on his part, and rushed upon his Indian allies in an
+unguarded moment. However that may be, his allies
+were killed and he was allowed to escape, after giving up
+the property belonging to them, and a portion of his own.</p>
+
+<p>This affair was the occasion of much ill-feeling toward
+Mr. Gray, when, in the following year, he returned to the
+mountains with the tale of massacre of his friends and his
+own escape. The mountain-men, although they used their
+influence to restrain the vengeful feelings of the Flathead
+tribe, whispered amongst themselves that Gray had preferred
+his own life to that of his friends. The old Flathead
+chief too, who had lost a son by the massacre, was
+hardly able to check his impulsive desire for revenge; for
+he held Mr. Gray responsible for his son's life. Nothing more
+serious, however, grew out of this unhappy tragedy than a
+disaffection among the tribe toward Mr. Gray, which made
+his labors useless, and finally determined him to remove to
+the Wallamet Valley.</p>
+
+<p>There were no outsiders besides Gray's party at the rendezvous
+of this year, except Captain Stuart, and he was
+almost as good a mountaineer as any. This doughty
+English traveler had the bad fortune together with that
+experienced leader Fitzpatrick, of being robbed by the
+Crows in the course of the fall hunt, in the Crow country.
+These expert horse thieves had succeeded in stealing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
+nearly all the horses belonging to the joint camp, and had
+so disabled the company that it could not proceed. In
+this emergency, Newell, who had long been a sub-trader
+and was wise in Indian arts and wiles, was sent to hold a
+talk with the thieves. The talk was held, according to
+custom, in the Medicine lodge, and the usual amount
+of smoking, of long silences, and grave looks, had to be
+participated in, before the subject on hand could be considered.
+Then the chiefs complained as usual of wrongs
+at the hands of the white men; of their fear of small-pox,
+from which some of their tribe had suffered; of friends
+killed in battle with the whites, and all the list of ills that
+Crow flesh is heir to at the will of their white enemies.
+The women too had their complaints to proffer, and the
+number of widows and orphans in the tribe was pathetically
+set forth. The chiefs also made a strong point of
+this latter complaint; and on it the wily Newell hung
+his hopes of recovering the stolen property.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true," said he to the chiefs, "that you have sustained
+heavy losses. But that is not the fault of the Blanket
+chief (Bridger.) If your young men have been killed,
+they were killed when attempting to rob or kill our Captain's
+men. If you have lost horses, your young men have
+stolen five to our one. If you are poor in skins and other
+property, it is because you sold it all for drink which did
+you no good. Neither is Bridger to blame that you have
+had the small-pox. Your own chief, in trying to kill your
+enemies the Blackfeet, brought that disease into the country.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is true that you have many widows and orphans
+to support, and that is bad. I pity the orphans, and will
+help you to support them, if you will restore to my captain
+the property stolen from his camp. Otherwise
+Bridger will bring more horses, and plenty of ammuni<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>tion,
+and there will be more widows and orphans among
+the Crows than ever before."</p>
+
+<p>This was a kind of logic easy to understand and quick
+to convince among savages. The bribe, backed by a threat,
+settled the question of the restoration of the horses, which
+were returned without further delay, and a present of
+blankets and trinkets was given, ostensibly to the bereaved
+women, really to the covetous chiefs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1837. The decline of the business of hunting furs began
+to be quite obvious about this time. Besides the
+American and St. Louis Companies, and the Hudson's Bay
+Company, there were numerous lone traders with whom
+the ground was divided. The autumn of this year was
+spent by the American Company, as formerly, in trapping
+beaver on the streams issuing from the eastern side of the
+Rocky Mountains. When the cold weather finally drove
+the Fur Company to the plains, they went into winter
+quarters once more in the neighborhood of the Crows on
+Powder River. Here were re-enacted the wild scenes of
+the previous winter, both trappers and Indians being
+given up to excesses.</p>
+
+<p>On the return of spring, Bridger again led his brigade
+all through the Yellowstone country, to the streams on
+the north side of the Missouri, to the head-waters of that
+river; and finally rendezvoused on the north fork of the
+Yellowstone, near Yellowstone Lake. Though the amount
+of furs taken on the spring hunt was considerable, it was
+by no means equal to former years. The fact was becoming
+apparent that the beaver was being rapidly exterminated.</p>
+
+<p>However there was beaver enough in camp to furnish
+the means for the usual profligacy. Horse-racing, betting,
+gambling, drinking, were freely indulged in. In the
+midst of this "fun," there appeared at the rendezvous Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+Gray, now accompanied by Mrs. Gray and six other missionary
+ladies and gentlemen. Here also were two gentlemen
+from the Methodist mission on the Wallamet, who were
+returning to the States. Captain Stuart was still traveling
+with the Fur Company, and was also present with his
+party; besides which a Hudson's Bay trader named Ematinger
+was encamped near by. As if actuated to extraordinary
+displays by the unusual number of visitors, especially
+the four ladies, both trappers and Indians conducted
+themselves like the mad-caps they were. The Shawnees
+and Delawares danced their great war-dance before the
+tents of the missionaries; and Joe Meek, not to be outdone,
+arrayed himself in a suit of armor belonging to Captain
+Stuart and strutted about the encampment; then
+mounting his horse played the part of an ancient knight,
+with a good deal of <i>eclat</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Meek had not abstained from the alcohol kettle, but had
+offered it and partaken of it rather more freely than usual;
+so that when rendezvous was broken up, the St. Louis
+Company gone to the Popo Agie, and the American Company
+going to Wind River, he found that his wife, a Nez
+Perce who had succeeded Umentucken in his affections,
+had taken offence, or a fit of homesickness, which was
+synonymous, and departed with the party of Ematinger
+and the missionaries, intending to visit her people at
+Walla-Walla. This desertion wounded Meek's feelings;
+for he prided himself on his courtesy to the sex, and did
+not like to think that he had not behaved handsomely.
+All the more was he vexed with himself because his spouse
+had carried with her a pretty and sprightly baby-daughter,
+of whom the father was fond and proud, and who had
+been christened Helen Mar, after one of the heroines of
+Miss Porter's <i>Scottish Chiefs</i>&mdash;a book much admired in
+the mountains, as it has been elsewhere.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Therefore at the first camp of the American Company,
+Meek resolved to turn his back on the company, and go
+after the mother and daughter. Obtaining a fresh kettle
+of alcohol, to keep up his spirits, he left camp, returning
+toward the scene of the late rendezvous. But in the effort
+to keep up his spirits he had drank too much alcohol, and
+the result was that on the next morning he found himself
+alone on the Wind River Mountain, with his horses and
+pack mules, and very sick indeed. Taking a little more
+alcohol to brace up his nerves, he started on again, passing
+around the mountain on to the Sweetwater; thence to
+the Sandy, and thence across a country without water for
+seventy-five miles, to Green River, where the camp of Ematinger
+was overtaken.</p>
+
+<p>The heat was excessive; and the absence of water made
+the journey across the arid plain between Sandy and
+Green Rivers one of great suffering to the traveler and
+his animals; and the more so as the frequent references to
+the alcohol kettle only increased the thirst-fever instead
+of allaying it. But Meek was not alone in suffering.
+About half way across the scorching plain he discovered a
+solitary woman's figure standing in the trail, and two
+riding horses near her, whose drooping heads expressed
+their dejection. On coming up with this strange group,
+Meek found the woman to be one of the missionary ladies,
+a Mrs. Smith, and that her husband was lying on the
+ground, dying, as the poor sufferer believed himself, for
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Smith made a weeping appeal to Meek for water
+for her dying husband; and truly the poor woman's situation
+was a pitiable one. Behind camp, with no protection
+from the perils of the desert and wilderness&mdash;only a
+terrible care instead&mdash;the necessity of trying to save her
+husband's life. As no water was to be had, alcohol was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>
+offered to the famishing man, who, however, could not be
+aroused from his stupor of wretchedness. Seeing that
+death really awaited the unlucky missionary unless something
+could be done to cause him to exert himself, Meek
+commenced at once, and with unction, to abuse the man
+for his unmanliness. His style, though not very refined,
+was certainly very vigorous.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a &mdash;&mdash; pretty fellow to be lying on the
+ground here, lolling your tongue out of your mouth, and
+trying to die. Die, if you want to, you're of no account
+and will never be missed. Here's your wife, who you
+are keeping standing here in the hot sun; why don't <i>she</i>
+die? She's got more pluck than a white-livered chap like
+you. But I'm not going to leave her waiting here for
+you to die. Thar's a band of Indians behind on the trail,
+and I've been riding like &mdash;&mdash; to keep out of their way.
+If you want to stay here and be scalped, you can stay;
+Mrs. Smith is going with me. Come, madam," continued
+Meek, leading up her horse, "let me help you to mount,
+for we must get out of this cursed country as fast as possible."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mrs. Smith did not wish to leave her husband; nor
+did she relish the notion of staying to be scalped. Despair
+tugged at her heart-strings. She would have sunk to the
+ground in a passion of tears, but Meek was too much in
+earnest to permit precious time to be thus wasted. "Get
+on your horse," said he rather roughly. "You can't save
+your husband by staying here, crying. It is better that
+one should die than two; and he seems to be a worthless
+dog anyway. Let the Indians have him."</p>
+
+<p>Almost lifting her upon the horse, Meek tore the distracted
+woman away from her husband, who had yet
+strength enough to gasp out an entreaty not to be left.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You can follow us if you choose," said the apparently
+merciless trapper, "or you can stay where you are. Mrs.
+Smith can find plenty of better men than you. Come,
+madam!" and he gave the horse a stroke with his riding-whip
+which started him into a rapid pace.</p>
+
+<p>The unhappy wife, whose conscience reproached her
+for leaving her husband to die alone, looked back, and
+saw him raising his head to gaze after them. Her grief
+broke out afresh, and she would have gone back even
+then to remain with him: but Meek was firm, and again
+started up her horse. Before they were quite out of sight,
+Meek turned in his saddle, and beheld the dying man sitting
+up. "Hurrah;" said he: "he's all right. He will
+overtake us in a little while:" and as he predicted, in
+little over an hour Smith came riding up, not more than
+half dead by this time. The party got into camp on
+Green River, about eleven o'clock that night, and Mrs.
+Smith having told the story of her adventures with the
+unknown trapper who had so nearly kidnaped her, the
+laugh and the cheer went round among the company.
+"That's Meek," said Ematinger, "you may rely on that.
+He's just the one to kidnap a woman in that way." When
+Mrs. Smith fully realized the service rendered, she was
+abundantly grateful, and profuse were the thanks which
+our trapper received, even from the much-abused husband,
+who was now thoroughly alive again. Meek failed to
+persuade his wife to return with him. She was homesick
+for her people, and would go to them. But instead of
+turning back, he kept on with Ematinger's camp as far as
+Fort Hall, which post was then in charge of Courtenay
+Walker.</p>
+
+<p>While the camp was at Soda Springs, Meek observed
+the missionary ladies baking bread in a tin reflector before
+a fire. Bread was a luxury unknown to the mountain-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>man,&mdash;and
+as a sudden recollection of his boyhood, and
+the days of bread-and-butter came over him, his mouth
+began to water. Almost against his will he continued to
+hang round the missionary camp, thinking about the bread.
+At length one of the Nez Perces, named James, whom the
+missionary had taught to sing, at their request struck up
+a hymn, which he sang in a very creditable manner. As
+a reward of his pious proficiency, one of the ladies gave
+James a biscuit. A bright thought struck our longing
+hero's brain. "Go back," said he to James, "and sing
+another hymn; and when the ladies give you another biscuit,
+bring it to me." And in this manner, he obtained a
+taste of the coveted luxury, bread&mdash;of which, during nine
+years in the mountains he had not eaten.</p>
+
+<p>At Fort Hall, Meek parted company with the missionaries,
+and with his wife and child. As the little black-eyed
+daughter took her departure in company with this new
+element in savage life,&mdash;the missionary society,&mdash;her father
+could have had no premonition of the fate to which
+the admixture of the savage and the religious elements
+was step by step consigning her.</p>
+
+<p>After remaining a few days at the fort, Meek, who found
+some of his old comrades at this place, went trapping with
+them up the Portneuf, and soon made up a pack of one
+hundred and fifty beaver-skins. These, on returning to
+the fort, he delivered to Jo Walker, one of the American
+Company's traders at that time, and took Walker's receipt
+for them. He then, with Mansfield and Wilkins, set out
+about the first of September for the Flathead country,
+where Wilkins had a wife. In their company was an old
+Flathead woman, who wished to return to her people, and
+took this opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was still extremely warm. It had been
+a season of great drought, and the streams were nearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
+all entirely dried up. The first night out, the horses,
+eight in number, strayed off in search of water, and were
+lost. Now commenced a day of fearful sufferings. No
+water had been found since leaving the fort. The loss of
+the horses made it necessary for the company to separate
+to look for them; Mansfield and Wilkins going in one direction,
+Meek and the old Flathead woman in another.
+The little coolness and moisture which night had imparted
+to the atmosphere was quickly dissipated by the unchecked
+rays of the pitiless sun shining on a dry and barren plain,
+with not a vestige of verdure anywhere in sight. On
+and on went the old Flathead woman, keeping always in
+the advance, and on and on followed Meek, anxiously
+scanning the horizon for a chance sight of the horses.
+Higher and higher mounted the sun, the temperature increasing
+in intensity until the great plain palpitated with
+radiated heat, and the horizon flickered almost like a
+flame where the burning heavens met the burning earth.
+Meek had been drinking a good deal of rum at the fort,
+which circumstance did not lessen the terrible consuming
+thirst that was torturing him.</p>
+
+<p>Noon came, and passed, and still the heat and the suffering
+increased, the fever and craving of hunger being now
+added to that of thirst. On and on, through the whole
+of that long scorching afternoon, trotted the old Flathead
+woman in the peculiar traveling gait of the Indian and the
+mountaineer, Meek following at a little distance, and going
+mad, as he thought, for a little water. And mad he
+probably was, as famine sometimes makes its victims.
+When night at last closed in, he laid down to die, as the
+missionary Smith had done before. But he did not remember
+Smith: he only thought of water, and heard it
+running, and fancied the old woman was lapping it like a
+wolf. Then he rose to follow her and find it; it was al<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>ways
+just ahead, and the woman was howling to him to
+show him the trail.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the night passed, and in the cool of the early
+morning he experienced a little relief. He was really
+following his guide, who as on the day before was trotting
+on ahead. Then the thought possessed him to overtake
+and kill her, hoping from her shriveled body to obtain a
+morsel of food, and drop of moisture. But his strength
+was failing, and his guide so far ahead that he gave up
+the thought as involving too great exertion, continuing
+to follow her in a helpless and hopeless kind of way.</p>
+
+<p>At last! There was no mistake this time: he heard
+running water, and the old woman <i>was</i> lapping it like a
+wolf. With a shriek of joy he ran and fell on his face
+in the water, which was not more than one foot in depth,
+nor the stream more than fifteen feet wide. But it had a
+white pebbly bottom; and the water was clear, if not very
+cool. It was something to thank God for, which the none
+too religious trapper acknowledged by a fervent "Thank
+God!"</p>
+
+<p>For a long time he lay in the water, swallowing it, and
+by thrusting his finger down his throat vomiting it up
+again, to prevent surfeit, his whole body taking in the
+welcome moisture at all its million pores. The fever
+abated, a feeling of health returned, and the late perishing
+man was restored to life and comparative happiness.
+The stream proved to be Godin's Fork, and here Meek
+and his faithful old guide rested until evening, in the
+shade of some willows, where their good fortune was
+completed by the appearance of Mansfield and Wilkins
+with the horses. The following morning the men found
+and killed a fat buffalo cow, whereby all their wants were
+supplied, and good feeling restored in the little camp.</p>
+
+<p>From Godin's Fork they crossed over to Salmon River,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
+and presently struck the Nez Perce trail which leads from
+that river over into the Beaver-head country, on the
+Beaver-head or Jefferson Fork of the Missouri, where
+there was a Flathead and Nez Perce village, on or about
+the present site of Virginia City, in Montana.</p>
+
+<p>Not stopping long here, Meek and his companions went
+on to the Madison Fork with the Indian village, and to
+the shores of Missouri Lake, joining in the fall hunt for
+buffalo.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i273" name="i273"></a>
+<img src="images/i273.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">HORSE-TAIL FALL.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Tell me all about a buffalo hunt," said the writer to
+Joe Meek, as we sat at a window overlooking the Columbia
+River, where it has a beautiful stretch of broad waters
+and curving wooded shores, and talking about mountain
+life, "tell me how you used to hunt buffalo."</p>
+
+<p>"Waal, there is a good deal of sport in runnin' buffalo.
+When the camp discovered a band, then every man that
+wanted to run, made haste to catch his buffalo horse. We
+sometimes went out thirty or forty strong; sometimes two
+or three, and at other times a large party started on the
+hunt; the more the merrier. We alway had great bantering
+about our horses, each man, according to his own
+account, having the best one.</p>
+
+<p>"When we first start we ride slow, so as not to alarm
+the buffalo. The nearer we come to the band the greater
+our excitement. The horses seem to feel it too, and are
+worrying to be off. When we come so near that the band
+starts, then the word is given, our horses' mettle is up,
+and away we go!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i275" name="i275"></a>
+<img src="images/i275.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>A BUFFALO HUNT.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Thar may be ten thousand in a band. Directly we
+crowd them so close that nothing can be seen but dust,
+nor anything heard but the roar of their trampling and
+bellowing. The hunter now keeps close on their heels to
+escape being blinded by the dust, which does not rise as
+high as a man on horseback, for thirty yards behind the
+animals. As soon as we are close enough the firing begins,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>
+and the band is on the run; and a herd of buffalo can run
+about as fast as a good race-horse. How they <i>do</i> thunder
+along! They give us a pretty sharp race. Take care!
+Down goes a rider, and away goes his horse with the band.
+Do you think we stopped to look after the fallen man?
+Not we. We rather thought that war fun, and if he got
+killed, why, 'he war unlucky, that war all. Plenty more
+men: couldn't bother about him.'</p>
+
+<p>"Thar's a fat cow ahead. I force my way through the
+band to come up with her. The buffalo crowd around so
+that I have to put my foot on them, now on one side, now
+the other, to keep them off my horse. It is lively work,
+I can tell you. A man has to look sharp not to be run
+down by the band pressing him on; buffalo and horse at
+the top of their speed.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out; thar's a ravine ahead, as you can see by the
+plunge which the band makes. Hold up! or somebody
+goes to the d&mdash;l now. If the band is large it fills the
+ravine full to the brim, and the hindmost of the herd pass
+over on top of the foremost. It requires horsemanship
+not to be carried over without our own consent; but
+then we mountain-men are <i>all</i> good horsemen. Over the
+ravine we go; but we do it our own way.</p>
+
+<p>"We keep up the chase for about four miles, selecting our
+game as we run, and killing a number of fat cows to each
+man; some more and some less. When our horses are
+tired we slacken up, and turn back. We meet the camp-keepers
+with pack-horses. They soon butcher, pack up
+the meat, and we all return to camp, whar we laugh at
+each other's mishaps, and eat fat meat: and this constitutes
+the glory of mountain life."</p>
+
+<p>"But you were going to tell me about the buffalo hunt
+at Missouri Lake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thar isn't much to tell. It war pretty much like other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>
+buffalo hunts. Thar war a lot of us trappers happened to
+be at a Nez Perce and Flathead village in the fall of '38,
+when they war agoin' to kill winter meat; and as their
+hunt lay in the direction we war going, we joined in. The
+old Nez Perce chief, <i>Kow-e-so-te</i> had command of the village,
+and we trappers had to obey him, too.</p>
+
+<p>"We started off slow; nobody war allowed to go ahead
+of camp. In this manner we caused the buffalo to move
+on before us, but not to be alarmed. We war eight or ten
+days traveling from the Beaver-head to Missouri Lake, and
+by the time we got thar, the whole plain around the lake
+war crowded with buffalo, and it war a splendid sight!</p>
+
+<p>"In the morning the old chief harangued the men of his
+village, and ordered us all to get ready for the surround.
+About nine o'clock every man war mounted, and we began
+to move.</p>
+
+<p>"That war a sight to make a man's blood warm! A
+thousand men, all trained hunters, on horseback, carrying
+their guns, and with their horses painted in the height of
+Indians' fashion. We advanced until within about half a
+mile of the herd; then the chief ordered us to deploy to
+the right and left, until the wings of the column extended
+a long way, and advance again.</p>
+
+<p>"By this time the buffalo war all moving, and we had
+come to within a hundred yards of them. <i>Kow-e-so-te</i> then
+gave us the word, and away we went, pell-mell. Heavens,
+what a charge! What a rushing and roaring&mdash;men shooting,
+buffalo bellowing and trampling until the earth shook
+under them!</p>
+
+<p>"It war the work of half an hour to slay two thousand
+or may be three thousand animals. When the work was
+over, we took a view of the field. Here and there and
+everywhere, laid the slain buffalo. Occasionally a horse
+with a broken leg war seen; or a man with a broken arm;
+or maybe he had fared worse, and had a broken head.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Now came out the women of the village to help us
+butcher and pack up the meat. It war a big job; but we
+war not long about it. By night the camp war full of
+meat, and everybody merry. Bridger's camp, which war
+passing that way, traded with the village for fifteen hundred
+buffalo tongues&mdash;the tongue being reckoned a choice
+part of the animal. And that's the way we helped the
+Nez Perces hunt buffalo."</p>
+
+<p>"But when you were hunting for your own subsistence
+in camp, you sometimes went out in small parties?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, it war the same thing on a smaller scale. One
+time Kit Carson and myself, and a little Frenchman, named
+Marteau, went to run buffalo on Powder River. When
+we came in sight of the band it war agreed that Kit and
+the Frenchman should do the running, and I should stay
+with the pack animals. The weather war very cold and I
+didn't like my part of the duty much.</p>
+
+<p>"The Frenchman's horse couldn't run; so I lent him
+mine. Kit rode his own; not a good buffalo horse either.
+In running, my horse fell with the Frenchman, and nearly
+killed him. Kit, who couldn't make his horse catch,
+jumped off, and caught mine, and tried it again. This
+time he came up with the band, and killed four fat cows.</p>
+
+<p>"When I came up with the pack-animals, I asked Kit
+how he came by my horse. He explained, and wanted to
+know if I had seen anything of Marteau: said my horse
+had fallen with him, and he thought killed him. 'You
+go over the other side of yon hill, and see,' said Kit.</p>
+
+<p>"What'll I do with him if he is dead?" said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you pack him to camp?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pack &mdash;&mdash;" said I; "I should rather pack a load of
+meat."</p>
+
+<p>"Waal," said Kit, "I'll butcher, if you'll go over and
+see, anyhow."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So I went over, and found the dead man leaning his
+head on his hand, and groaning; for he war pretty bad
+hurt. I got him on his horse, though, after a while, and
+took him back to whar Kit war at work. We soon finished
+the butchering job, and started back to camp with our
+wounded Frenchman, and three loads of fat meat."</p>
+
+<p>"You were not very compassionate toward each other,
+in the mountains?"</p>
+
+<p>"That war not our business. We had no time for such
+things. Besides, live men war what we wanted; dead
+ones war of no account."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1838. From Missouri Lake, Meek started alone for the
+Gallatin Fork of the Missouri, trapping in a mountain
+basin called Gardiner's Hole. Beaver were plenty here,
+but it was getting late in the season, and the weather was
+cold in the mountains. On his return, in another basin
+called the Burnt Hole, he found a buffalo skull; and
+knowing that Bridger's camp would soon pass that way,
+wrote on it the number of beaver he had taken, and also
+his intention to go to Fort Hall to sell them.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days the camp passing found the skull, which
+grinned its threat at the angry Booshways, as the chuckling
+trapper had calculated that it would. To prevent its
+execution runners were sent after him, who, however,
+failed to find him, and nothing was known of the supposed
+renegade for some time. But as Bridger passed through
+Pierre's Hole, on his way to Green river to winter, he was
+surprised at Meek's appearance in camp. He was soon
+invited to the lodge of the Booshways, and called to account
+for his supposed apostacy.</p>
+
+<p>Meek, for a time, would neither deny nor confess, but
+put on his free trapper airs, and laughed in the face of
+the Booshways. Bridger, who half suspected some trick,
+took the matter lightly, but Dripps was very much annoyed,
+and made some threats, at which Meek only
+laughed the more. Finally the certificate from their own
+trader, Jo Walker, was produced, the new pack of furs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+surrendered, and Dripps' wrath turned into smiles of approval.</p>
+
+<p>Here again Meek parted company with the main camp,
+and went on an expedition with seven other trappers, under
+John Larison, to the Salmon River: but found the
+cold very severe on this journey, and the grass scarce and
+poor, so that the company lost most of their horses.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at the Nez Perce village in the Forks of
+the Salmon, Meek found the old chief <i>Kow-e-so-te</i> full of
+the story of the missionaries and their religion, and anxious
+to hear preaching. Reports were continually arriving
+by the Indians, of the wonderful things which were
+being taught by Mr. and Mrs. Spalding at Lapwai, on the
+Clearwater, and at Waiilatpu, on the Walla-Walla River.
+It was now nearly two years since these missions had been
+founded, and the number of converts among the Nez
+Perces and Flatheads was already considerable.</p>
+
+<p>Here was an opening for a theological student, such as
+Joe Meek was! After some little assumption of modesty,
+Meek intimated that he thought himself capable of giving
+instruction on religious subjects; and being pressed
+by the chief, finally consented to preach to <i>Kow-e-so-te's</i>
+people. Taking care first to hold a private council with
+his associates, and binding them not to betray him, Meek
+preached his first sermon that evening, going regularly
+through with the ordinary services of a "meeting."</p>
+
+<p>These services were repeated whenever the Indians
+seemed to desire it, until Christmas. Then, the village
+being about to start upon a hunt, the preacher took occasion
+to intimate to the chief that a wife would be an
+agreeable present. To this, however, <i>Kow-e-so-te</i> demurred,
+saying that Spalding's religion did not permit
+men to have two wives: that the Nez Perces had many
+of them given up their wives on this account; and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
+therefore, since Meek already had one wife among the Nez
+Perces, he could not have another without being false to
+the religion he professed.</p>
+
+<p>To this perfectly clear argument Meek replied, that
+among white men, if a man's wife left him without his
+consent, as his had done, he could procure a divorce, and
+take another wife. Besides, he could tell him how the
+Bible related many stories of its best men having several
+wives. But <i>Kow-e-so-te</i> was not easily convinced. He
+could not see how, if the Bible approved of polygamy,
+Spalding should insist on the Indians putting away all
+but one of their wives. "However," says Meek, "after
+about two weeks' explanation of the doings of Solomon
+and David, I succeeded in getting the chief to give me a
+young girl, whom I called Virginia;&mdash;my present wife,
+and the mother of seven children."</p>
+
+<p>After accompanying the Indians on their hunt to the
+Beaver-head country, where they found plenty of buffalo,
+Meek remained with the Nez Perce village until about the
+first of March, when he again intimated to the chief that
+it was the custom of white men to pay their preachers.
+Accordingly the people were notified, and the winter's
+salary began to arrive. It amounted altogether to thirteen
+horses, and many packs of beaver, beside sheep-skins
+and buffalo-robes; so that he "considered that with his
+young wife, he had made a pretty good winter's work
+of it."</p>
+
+<p>In March he set out trapping again, in company with
+one of his comrades named Allen, a man to whom he was
+much attached. They traveled along up and down the
+Salmon, to Godin's River, Henry's Fork of the Snake, to
+Pierre's Fork, and Lewis' Fork, and the Muddy, and
+finally set their traps on a little stream that runs out of
+the pass which leads to Pierre's Hole.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Leaving their camp one morning to take up their traps,
+they were discovered and attacked by a party of Blackfeet
+just as they came near the trapping ground. The only
+refuge at hand was a thicket of willows on the opposite
+side of the creek, and towards this the trappers directed
+their flight. Meek, who was in advance, succeeded in
+gaining the thicket without being seen; but Allen stumbled
+and fell in crossing the stream, and wet his gun. He
+quickly recovered his footing and crossed over; but the
+Blackfeet had seen him enter the thicket, and came up to
+within a short distance, yet not approaching too near the
+place where they knew he was concealed. Unfortunately,
+Allen, in his anxiety to be ready for defense, commenced
+snapping caps on his gun to dry it. The quick ears of the
+savages caught the sound, and understood the meaning
+of it. Knowing him to be defenceless, they plunged into
+the thicket after him, shooting him almost immediately,
+and dragging him out still breathing to a small prairie
+about two rods away.</p>
+
+<p>And now commenced a scene which Meek was compelled
+to witness, and which he declares nearly made him
+insane through sympathy, fear, horror, and suspense as to
+his own fate. Those devils incarnate deliberately cut up
+their still palpitating victim into a hundred pieces, each
+taking a piece; accompanying the horrible and inhuman
+butchery with every conceivable gesture of contempt for
+the victim, and of hellish delight in their own acts.</p>
+
+<p>Meek, who was only concealed by the small patch of
+willows, and a pit in the sand hastily scooped out with
+his knife until it was deep enough to lie in, was in a state
+of the most fearful excitement. All day long he had to
+endure the horrors of his position. Every moment seemed
+an hour, every hour a day, until when night came, and the
+Indians left the place, he was in a high state of fever.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>About nine o'clock that night he ventured to creep to
+the edge of the little prairie, where he lay and listened a
+long time, without hearing anything but the squirrels
+running over the dry leaves; but which he constantly
+feared was the stealthy approach of the enemy. At last,
+however, he summoned courage to crawl out on to the open
+ground, and gradually to work his way to a wooded bluff
+not far distant. The next day he found two of his horses,
+and with these set out alone for Green River, where the
+American Company was to rendezvous. After twenty-six
+days of solitary and cautious travel he reached the appointed
+place in safety, having suffered fearfully from the
+recollection of the tragic scene he had witnessed in the
+death of his friend, and also from solitude and want of
+food.</p>
+
+<p>The rendezvous of this year was at Bonneville's old
+fort on Green River, and was the last one held in the
+mountains by the American Fur Company. Beaver was
+growing scarce, and competition was strong. On the disbanding
+of the company, some went to Santa Fe, some to
+California, others to the Lower Columbia, and a few remained
+in the mountains trapping, and selling their furs
+to the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall. As to the
+leaders, some of them continued for a few years longer to
+trade with the Indians, and others returned to the States,
+to lose their fortunes more easily far than they made them.</p>
+
+<p>Of the men who remained in the mountains trapping,
+that year, Meek was one. Leaving his wife at Fort Hall,
+he set out in company with a Shawnee, named Big Jim,
+to take beaver on Salt River, a tributary of the Snake.
+The two trappers had each his riding and his pack horse,
+and at night generally picketed them all; but one night
+Big Jim allowed one of his to remain loose to graze.
+This horse, after eating for some hours, came back and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
+laid down behind the other horses, and every now and
+then raised up his head; which slight movement at length
+aroused Big Jim's attention, and his suspicions also.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend," said he in a whisper to Meek, "Indian
+steal our horses."</p>
+
+<p>"Jump up and shoot," was the brief answer.</p>
+
+<p>Jim shot, and ran out to see the result. Directly he
+came back saying: "My friend, I shoot my horse; break
+him neck;" and Big Jim became disconsolate over what
+his white comrade considered a very good joke.</p>
+
+<p>The hunt was short and not very remunerative in furs.
+Meek soon returned to Fort Hall; and when he did so,
+found his new wife had left that post in company with a
+party under Newell, to go to Fort Crockett, on Green
+River,&mdash;Newell's wife being a sister of Virginia's,&mdash;on
+learning which he started on again alone, to join that party.
+On Bear River, he fell in with a portion of that Quixotic
+band, under Farnham, which was looking for paradise and
+perfection, something on the Fourier plan, somewhere in
+this western wilderness. They had already made the discovery
+in crossing the continent, that perfect disinterestedness
+was lacking among themselves; and that the
+nearer they got to their western paradise the farther off it
+seemed in their own minds.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing his journey alone, soon after parting from
+Farnham, he lost the hammer of his gun, which accident
+deprived him of the means of subsisting himself, and he
+had no dried meat, nor provisions of any kind. The
+weather, too, was very cold, increasing the necessity for
+food to support animal heat. However, the deprivation
+of food was one of the accidents to which mountain-men
+were constantly liable, and one from which he had often
+suffered severely; therefore he pushed on, without feeling
+any unusual alarm, and had arrived within fifteen miles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>
+of the fort before he yielded to the feeling of exhaustion,
+and laid down beside the trail to rest. Whether he would
+ever have finished the journey alone he could not tell; but
+fortunately for him, he was discovered by Jo Walker, and
+Gordon, another acquaintance, who chanced to pass that
+way toward the fort.</p>
+
+<p>Meek answered their hail, and inquired if they had anything
+to eat. Walker replied in the affirmative, and getting
+down from his horse, produced some dried buffalo
+meat which he gave to the famishing trapper. But seeing
+the ravenous manner in which he began to eat, Walker
+inquired how long it had been since he had eaten anything.</p>
+
+<p>"Five days since I had a bite."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, my man, you can't have any more just now," said
+Walker, seizing the meat in alarm lest Meek should kill
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"It was hard to see that meat packed away again," says
+Meek in relating his sufferings, "I told Walker that if my
+gun had a hammer I'd shoot and eat him. But he talked
+very kindly, and helped me on my horse, and we all went
+on to the Fort."</p>
+
+<p>At Fort Crockett were Newell and his party, the remainder
+of Farnham's party, a trading party under St. Clair, who
+owned the fort, Kit Carson, and a number of Meek's former
+associates, including Craig and Wilkins. Most of these
+men, Othello-like, had lost their occupation since the disbanding
+of the American Fur Company, and were much at
+a loss concerning the future. It was agreed between Newell
+and Meek to take what beaver they had to Fort Hall, to
+trade for goods, and return to Fort Crockett, where they
+would commence business on their own account with the
+Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly they set out, with one other man belonging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>
+to Farnham's former adherents. They traveled to Henry's
+Fork, to Black Fork, where Fort Bridger now is, to Bear
+River, to Soda Springs, and finally to Fort Hall, suffering
+much from cold, and finding very little to eat by the way.
+At Fort Hall, which was still in charge of Courtenay
+Walker, Meek and Newell remained a week, when, having
+purchased their goods and horses to pack them, they once
+more set out on the long, cold journey to Fort Crockett.
+They had fifteen horses to take care of and only one assistant,
+a Snake Indian called Al. The return proved an
+arduous and difficult undertaking. The cold was very severe;
+they had not been able to lay in a sufficient stock of
+provisions at Fort Hall, and game there was none, on the
+route. By the time they arrived at Ham's Fork the only
+atom of food they had left was a small piece of bacon which
+they had been carefully saving to eat with any poor meat
+they might chance to find.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning after camping on Ham's Fork was
+stormy and cold, the snow filling the air; yet Snake Al,
+with a promptitude by no means characteristic of him, rose
+early and went out to look after the horses.</p>
+
+<p>"By that same token," said Meek to Newell, "Al has
+eaten the bacon." And so it proved, on investigation.
+Al's uneasy conscience having acted as a goad to stir him
+up to begin his duties in season. On finding his conjecture
+confirmed, Meek declared his intention, should no
+game be found before next day night, of killing and eating
+Al, to get back the stolen bacon. But Providence
+interfered to save Al's bacon. On the following afternoon
+the little party fell in with another still smaller but better
+supplied party of travelers, comprising a Frenchman and
+his wife. These had plenty of fat antelope meat, which
+they freely parted with to the needy ones, whom also they
+accompanied to Fort Crockett.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was now Christmas; and the festivities which took
+place at the Fort were attended with a good deal of rum
+drinking, in which Meek, according to his custom, joined,
+and as a considerable portion of their stock in trade
+consisted of this article, it may fairly be presumed that
+the home consumption of these two "lone traders"
+amounted to the larger half of what they had with so
+much trouble transported from Fort Hall. In fact, "times
+were bad enough" among the men so suddenly thrown
+upon their own resources among the mountains, at a time
+when that little creature, which had made mountain life
+tolerable, or possible, was fast being exterminated.</p>
+
+<p>To make matters more serious, some of the worst of the
+now unemployed trappers had taken to a life of thieving
+and mischief which made enemies of the friendly Indians,
+and was likely to prevent the better disposed from enjoying
+security among any of the tribes. A party of these
+renegades, under a man named Thompson, went over to
+Snake River to steal horses from the Nez Perces. Not
+succeeding in this, they robbed the Snake Indians of about
+forty animals, and ran them off to the Uintee, the Indians
+following and complaining to the whites at Fort Crockett
+that their people had been robbed by white trappers, and
+demanding restitution.</p>
+
+<p>According to Indian law, when one of a tribe offends,
+the whole tribe is responsible. Therefore if whites stole
+their horses they might take vengeance on any whites they
+met, unless the property was restored. In compliance
+with this well understood requisition of Indian law, a party
+was made up at Fort Crockett to go and retake the horses,
+and restore them to their rightful owners. This party
+consisted of Meek, Craig, Newell, Carson, and twenty-five
+others, under the command of Jo Walker.</p>
+
+<p>The horses were found on an island in Green River, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
+robbers having domiciled themselves in an old fort at the
+mouth of the Uintee. In order to avoid having a fight
+with the renegades, whose white blood the trappers were
+not anxious to spill, Walker made an effort to get the horses
+off the island undiscovered. But while horses and men
+were crossing the river on the ice, the ice sinking with
+them until the water was knee-deep, the robbers discovered
+the escape of their booty, and charging on the trappers
+tried to recover the horses. In this effort they were not
+successful; while Walker made a masterly flank movement
+and getting in Thompson's rear, ran the horses into the
+fort, where he stationed his men, and succeeded in keeping
+the robbers on the outside. Thompson then commenced
+giving the horses away to a village of Utes in the
+neighborhood of the fort, on condition that they should
+assist in retaking them. On his side, Walker threatened
+the Utes with dire vengeance if they dared interfere. The
+Utes who had a wholesome fear not only of the trappers,
+but of their foes the Snakes, declined to enter into the
+quarrel. After a day of strategy, and of threats alternated
+with arguments, strengthened by a warlike display,
+the trappers marched out of the fort before the faces of
+the discomfitted thieves, taking their booty with them,
+which was duly restored to the Snakes on their return to
+Fort Crockett, and peace secured once more with that
+people.</p>
+
+<p>Still times continued bad. The men not knowing what
+else to do, went out in small parties in all directions seeking
+adventures, which generally were not far to find. On
+one of these excursions Meek went with a party down the
+canyon of Green River, on the ice. For nearly a hundred
+miles they traveled down this awful canyon without finding
+but one place where they could have come out; and
+left it at last at the mouth of the Uintee.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This passed the time until March. Then the company
+of Newell and Meek was joined by Antoine Rubideau,
+who had brought goods from Santa Fe to trade with the
+Indians. Setting out in company, they traded along up
+Green River to the mouth of Ham's fork, and camped.
+The snow was still deep in the mountains, and the trappers
+found great sport in running antelope. On one occasion
+a large herd, numbering several hundreds, were run on to
+the ice, on Green River, where they were crowded into
+an air hole, and large numbers slaughtered only for the
+cruel sport which they afforded.</p>
+
+<p>But killing antelope needlessly was not by any means
+the worst of amusements practiced in Rubideau's camp.
+That foolish trader occupied himself so often and so long
+in playing <i>Hand</i>, (an Indian game,) that before he parted
+with his new associates he had gambled away his goods,
+his horses, and even his wife; so that he returned to Santa
+Fe much poorer than nothing&mdash;since he was in debt.</p>
+
+<p>On the departure of Rubideau, Meek went to Fort Hall,
+and remained in that neighborhood, trapping and trading
+for the Hudson's Bay Company, until about the last of
+June, when he started for the old rendezvous places of the
+American Companies, hoping to find some divisions of them
+at least, on the familiar camping ground. But his journey
+was in vain. Neither on Green River or Wind River,
+where for ten years he had been accustomed to meet the
+leaders and their men, his old comrades in danger, did he
+find a wandering brigade even. The glory of the American
+companies was departed, and he found himself solitary
+among his long familiar haunts.</p>
+
+<p>With many melancholy reflections, the man of twenty-eight
+years of age recalled how, a mere boy, he had fallen
+half unawares into the kind of life he had ever since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
+led amongst the mountains, with only other men equally
+the victims of circumstance, and the degraded savages, for
+his companions. The best that could be made of it,
+such life had been and must be constantly deteriorating
+to the minds and souls of himself and his associates.
+Away from all laws, and refined habits of living; away
+from the society of religious, modest, and accomplished
+women; always surrounded by savage scenes, and forced
+to cultivate a taste for barbarous things&mdash;what had this
+life made of him? what was he to do with himself in the
+future?</p>
+
+<p>Sick of trapping and hunting, with brief intervals of
+carousing, he felt himself to be. And then, even if he
+were not, the trade was no longer profitable enough to
+support him. What could he do? where could he go?
+He remembered his talk with Mrs. Whitman, that fair,
+tall, courteous, and dignified lady who had stirred in him
+longings to return to the civilized life of his native state.
+But he felt unfit for the society of such as she. Would
+he ever, could he ever attain to it now? He had promised
+her he might go over into Oregon and settle down.
+But could he settle down? Should he not starve at trying
+to do what other men, mechanics and farmers, do?
+And as to learning, he had none of it; there was no hope
+then of "living by his wits," as some men did&mdash;missionaries
+and artists and school teachers, some of whom he had
+met at the rendezvous. Heigho! to be checkmated in
+life at twenty-eight, that would never do.</p>
+
+<p>At Fort Hall, on his return, he met two more missionaries
+and their wives going to Oregon, but these four did
+not affect him pleasantly; he had no mind to go with
+them. Instead, he set out on what proved to be his last
+trapping expedition, with a Frenchman, named Mattileau.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>
+They visited the old trapping grounds on Pierre's Fork,
+Lewis' Lake, Jackson's River, Jackson's Hole, Lewis
+River and Salt River: but beaver were scarce; and it
+was with a feeling of relief that, on returning by way
+of Bear River, Meek heard from a Frenchman whom
+he met there, that he was wanted at Fort Hall, by his
+friend Newell, who had something to propose to him.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i293" name="i293"></a>
+<img src="images/i293.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">CASTLE ROCK.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1840. When Meek arrived at Fort Hall, where Newell
+was awaiting him, he found that the latter had there the
+two wagons which Dr. Whitman had left at the points on
+the journey where further transportation by their means
+had been pronounced impossible. The Doctor's idea of
+finding a passable wagon-road over the lava plains and
+the heavily timbered mountains lying between Fort Hall
+and the Columbia River, seemed to Newell not so wild a
+one as it was generally pronounced to be in the mountains.
+At all events, he was prepared to undertake the
+journey. The wagons were put in traveling order, and
+horses and mules purchased for the expedition.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Newell to Meek, "we are done with this
+life in the mountains&mdash;done with wading in beaver-dams,
+and freezing or starving alternately&mdash;done with Indian
+trading and Indian fighting. The fur trade is dead in the
+Rocky Mountains, and it is no place for us now, if ever it
+was. We are young yet, and have life before us. We
+cannot waste it here; we cannot or will not return to the
+States. Let us go down to the Wallamet and take farms.
+There is already quite a settlement there made by the
+Methodist Mission and the Hudson's Bay Company's retired
+servants.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had some talk with the Americans who have
+gone down there, and the talk is that the country is going
+to be settled up by our people, and that the Hudson's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
+Bay Company are not going to rule this country much
+longer. What do you say, Meek? Shall we turn American
+settlers?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go where you do, Newell. What suits you suits
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you'd say so, and that's why I sent for you,
+Meek. In my way of thinking, a white man is a little
+better than a Canadian Frenchman. I'll be &mdash;&mdash; if I'll
+hang 'round a post of the Hudson's Bay Company. So
+you'll go?"</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon I will! What have you got for me to do?
+<i>I</i> haven't got anything to begin with but a wife and
+baby!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can drive one of the wagons, and take your
+family and traps along. Nicholas will drive the other,
+and I'll play leader, and look after the train. Craig will
+go also, so we shall be quite a party, with what strays
+we shall be sure to pick up."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was settled. Thus Oregon began to receive
+her first real emigrants, who were neither fur-traders nor
+missionaries, but true frontiersmen&mdash;border-men. The
+training which the mountain-men had received in the
+service of the fur companies admirably fitted them to be,
+what afterwards they became, a valuable and indispensable
+element in the society of that country in whose peculiar
+history they played an important part. But we
+must not anticipate their acts before we have witnessed
+their gradual transformation from lawless rangers of the
+wilderness, to law-abiding and even law-making and law-executing
+citizens of an isolated territory.</p>
+
+<p>In order to understand the condition of things in the
+Wallamet Valley, or Lower Columbia country, it will be
+necessary to revert to the earliest history of that territory,
+as sketched in the first chapter of this book. A history<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>
+of the fur companies is a history of Oregon up to the
+year 1834, so far as the occupation of the country was
+concerned. But its political history was begun long before&mdash;from
+the time (May 11th, 1792) when the captain
+of a New England coasting and fur-trading vessel entered
+the great "River of the West," which nations had been
+looking for a hundred years. At the very time when
+the inquisitive Yankee was heading his little vessel through
+the white line of breakers at the mouth of the long-sought
+river, a British exploring expedition was scanning the
+shore between it and the Straits of Fuca, having wisely
+declared its scientific opinion that there was no such river
+on that coast. Vancouver, the chief of that expedition,
+so assured the Yankee trader, whose views did not agree
+with his own: and, Yankee-like, the trader turned back
+to satisfy himself.</p>
+
+<p>A bold and lucky man was Captain Gray of the ship
+<i>Columbia</i>. No explorer he&mdash;only an adventurous and,
+withal, a prudent trader, with an eye to the main chance;
+emulous, too, perhaps, of a little glory! It is impossible
+to conceive how he could have done this thing calmly.
+We think his stout heart must have shivered somewhat,
+both with anticipation and dread, as he ran for the "opening,"
+and plunged into the frightful tumult&mdash;straight
+through the proper channel, thank God! and sailed out
+on to the bosom of that beautiful bay, twenty-five miles
+by six, which the great river forms at its mouth.</p>
+
+<p>We trust the morning was fine: for then Captain Gray
+must have beheld a sight which a discoverer should remember
+for a lifetime. This magnificent bay, surrounded
+by lofty hills, clad thick with noble forests of fir, and
+fretted along its margin with spurs of the highlands, forming
+other smaller bays and coves, into which ran streams
+whose valleys were hidden among the hills. From beyond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>
+the farthest point, whose dark ridge jutted across this inland
+sea, flowed down the deep, broad river, whose course
+and origin was still a magnificent mystery, but which indicated
+by its volume that it drained a mighty region of
+probable great fertility and natural wealth. Perhaps Captain
+Gray did not fully realize the importance of his discovery.
+If the day was fine, with a blue sky, and the
+purple shadows lying in among the hills, with smooth
+water before him and the foamy breakers behind&mdash;<i>if</i> he
+felt what his discovery was, in point of importance, to
+the world, he was a proud and happy man, and enjoyed
+the reward of his daring.</p>
+
+<p>The only testimony on that head is the simple entry on
+his log-book, telling us that he had named the river "<i>Columbia's
+River</i>,"&mdash;with an apostrophe, that tiny point
+intimating much. This was one ground of the American
+claim, though Vancouver, after Gray had reported his
+success to him, sent a lieutenant to explore the river, and
+then claimed the discovery for England! The next claim
+of the United States upon the Oregon territory was by
+virtue of the Florida treaty and the Louisiana purchase.
+These, and the general one of natural boundaries, England
+contested also. Hence the treaty of joint occupancy
+for a term of ten years, renewable, unless one of the parties
+to it gave a twelve-month's notice of intention to withdraw.
+Meantime this question of territorial claims hung
+over the national head like the sword suspended by a
+hair, which statesmen delight in referring to. We did
+not dare to say Oregon was ours, because we were afraid
+England would make war on us; and England did not
+dare say Oregon was hers, for the same reason. Therefore
+"joint-occupancy" was the polite word with which
+statesmen glossed over the fact that Great Britain actually
+possessed the country through the monopoly of the Hud<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>son's
+Bay Company. That company had a good thing so
+long as the government of Great Britain prevented any
+outbreak, by simply renewing the treaty every ten years.
+Their manner of doing business was such as to prevent
+any less powerful corporation from interfering with them,
+while individual enterprise was sure to be crushed at the
+start.</p>
+
+<p>But "man proposes and God disposes." In 1834, the
+Methodist Episcopal Board of Missions sent out four missionaries
+to labor among the Indians. These were two
+preachers, the Rev. Messrs. Jason and Daniel Lee, and
+two lay members, Cyrus Shepard and P.L. Edwards.
+These gentlemen were liberally furnished with all the
+necessaries and comforts of life by the Board, in addition
+to which they received the kindest attentions and consideration
+from the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at
+Vancouver. Their vessel, the <i>May Dacre</i>, Captain Lambert,
+had arrived safely in the river with the mission
+goods. The gentlemen at Vancouver encouraged their
+enterprise, and advised them to settle in the Wallamet
+valley, the most fertile tract of country west of the Rocky
+Mountains. Being missionaries, nothing was to be feared
+from them in the way of trade. The Wallamet valley
+was a good country for the mission&mdash;at the same time it
+was south of the Columbia River. This latter consideration
+was not an unimportant one with the Hudson's Bay
+Company, it being understood among those in the confidence
+of the British government, that in case the Oregon
+territory had to be divided with the United States, the
+Columbia River would probably be made the northern
+boundary of the American possessions.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing in the character of the Christian
+Missionary's labor which the Hudson's Bay Company could
+possibly object to without a palpable violation of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>
+Convention of 1818. Therefore, although the Methodist
+mission in the Wallamet Valley received a large accession
+to its numbers in 1837, they were as kindly welcomed
+as had been those of 1834; and also those Presbyterian
+missionaries of 1836, who had settled in the
+"upper country."</p>
+
+<p>Three points, however, the Hudson's Bay Company
+insisted upon, so far as, under the treaty, they could;
+the Americans must not trade with the Indians, but confine
+themselves to agricultural pursuits and missionary
+labor, and keep on the south side of the Columbia.</p>
+
+<p>Not an immigrant entered Oregon in that day who
+did not proceed at once to Vancouver: nor was there
+one who did not meet with the most liberal and
+hospitable treatment. Neither was this hospitality a trifling
+benefit; to the weary traveler just arrived from a
+long and most fatiguing journey, it was extremely welcome
+and refreshing. At Vancouver was the only society,
+and the only luxurious living to be enjoyed on the whole
+Northwest coast.</p>
+
+<p>At the head of the first was Dr. John McLaughlin, already
+mentioned as the Chief Factor, and Deputy Governor
+of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon, and all the
+Northwest. He was of Scotch origin, and Canadian birth,
+a gentleman bred, with a character of the highest integrity,
+to which were united justice and humanity. His position
+as head of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs, was
+no enviable one during that period of Oregon history
+which followed the advent of Americans in the Wallamet
+Valley. Himself a British subject, and a representative
+of that powerful corporation which bent the British Government
+to its will, he was bound to execute its commands
+when they did not conflict too strongly with his consciousness
+of right and justice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As has been stated, the Methodist mission settlement was
+reinforced in 1837, by the arrival of about twenty persons,
+among whom were several ladies, and a few children.
+These, like those preceding them, were first entertained at
+Fort Vancouver before proceeding to the mission, which
+was between fifty and sixty miles up the Wallamet, in the
+heart of that delightful valley. These persons came by a
+sailing vessel around Cape Horn, bringing with them supplies
+for the mission.</p>
+
+<p>In the two following years there were about a dozen
+missionary arrivals overland, all of whom tarried a short
+time at the American Company's rendezvous, as before related.
+These were some of them designed for the upper
+country, but most of them soon settled in the Wallamet
+valley.</p>
+
+<p>During these years, between 1834 and 1840, there had
+drifted into the valley various persons from California, the
+Rocky Mountains, and from the vessels which sometimes
+appeared in the Columbia; until at the time when Newell
+and Meek resolved to quit the mountains, the American
+settlers numbered nearly one hundred, men, women, and
+children. Of these, about thirty belonged to the missions;
+the remainder were mountain-men, sailors, and adventurers.
+The mountain-men, most of them, had native wives.
+Besides the Americans there were sixty Canadian Frenchmen,
+who had been retired upon farms by the Hudson's
+Bay Company; and who would probably have occupied
+these farms so long as the H.B. Company should have
+continued to do business in Oregon.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When it was settled that Newell and Meek were to go
+to the Wallamet, they lost no time in dallying, but packed
+the wagons with whatever they possessed in the way of
+worldly goods, topped them with their Nez Perce wives
+and half-breed children, and started for Walla-Walla, accompanied
+by Craig, another mountain-man, and either
+followed or accompanied by several others. Meek drove
+a five-in-hand team of four horses and one mule. Nicholas
+drove the other team of four horses, and Newell, who
+owned the train, was mounted as leader.</p>
+
+<p>The journey was no easy one, extending as it did over
+immense plains of lava, round impassable canyons, over
+rapid unbridged rivers, and over mountains hitherto believed
+to be only passable for pack trains. The honor
+which has heretofore been accorded to the Presbyterian
+missionaries solely, of opening a wagon road from the
+Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, should in justice
+be divided with these two mountaineers, who accomplished
+the most difficult part of this difficult journey.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at Fort Boise, a post of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+the little caravan stopped for a few days to rest and
+recruit their animals. With the usual courtesy of that
+Company, Mr. Payette, the trader in charge, offered Newell
+quarters in the fort, as leader of his party. To Meek
+and Craig who were encamped outside, he sent a piece of
+sturgeon with his compliments, which our incipient Ore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>gonians
+sent back again with <i>their</i> compliments. No
+Hudson's Bay distinctions of rank for them! No, indeed!
+The moment that an American commenced to think of
+himself as a settler on the most remote corner of American
+soil, that moment, as if by instinct, he began to defend
+and support his republicanism.</p>
+
+<p>After a few days' rest, the party went on, encountering,
+as might be expected, much difficulty and toil, but arriving
+safely after a reasonable time at the Columbia River, at
+the junction of the Umatilla. Here the wagons and stock
+were crossed over, and the party proceeded directly to
+Dr. Whitman's mission at Waiilatpu. Dr. Whitman gave
+them a friendly reception; killing for them, if not the fatted
+calf, the fattest hog he had; telling Meek at the same
+time that "fat pork was good for preachers," referring to
+Meek's missionary labors among the Nez Perces.</p>
+
+<p>During the three years since the commencement of the
+mission at Waiilatpu considerable advancement had been
+made in the progress of civilization among the Cayuses.
+Quite a number of Indian children were domesticated with
+Mrs. Whitman, who were rapidly acquiring a knowledge
+of housekeeping, sewing, reading, and writing, and farm
+labor. With Mrs. Whitman, for whom Meek still entertained
+great admiration and respect, he resolved to leave
+his little girl, Helen Mar; the fruit of his connexion with
+the Nez Perce woman who persisted in abandoning him in
+the mountains, as already related. Having thus made
+provision for the proper instruction of his daughter, and
+conferred with the Doctor on the condition of the American
+settlers in Oregon&mdash;the Doctor being an ardent
+American&mdash;Meek and his associates started once more for
+the Wallamet.</p>
+
+<p>At Walla-Walla Newell decided to leave the wagons,
+the weather having become so rainy and disagreeable as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>
+to make it doubtful about getting them over the Cascade
+Mountains that fall. Accordingly the goods were transferred
+to pack-horses for the remainder of the journey.
+In the following year, however, one of the wagons was
+brought down by Newell, and taken to the plains on the
+Tualatin River, being the first vehicle of the kind in the
+Wallamet Valley.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at the Dalles of the Columbia, our mountain
+men found that a mission had been established at that
+place for the conversion of those inconscionable thieves,
+the Wish-ram Indians, renowned in Indian history for their
+acquisitiveness. This mission was under the charge of
+Daniel Lee and a Mr. Perkins, and was an offshoot of the
+Methodist Mission in the Wallamet Valley. These gentlemen
+having found the benighted condition of the Indians
+to exceed their powers of enlightment in any ordinary
+way, were having recourse to extraordinary efforts, and
+were carrying on what is commonly termed a <i>revival</i>;
+though what piety there was in the hearts of these savages
+to be revived, it would be difficult to determine. However,
+they doubtless hoped so to wrestle with God themselves,
+as to compel a blessing upon their labors.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians indeed were not averse to prayer. They
+could pray willingly and sincerely enough when they could
+hope for a speedy and actual material answer to their
+prayers. And it was for that, and that only, that they
+importuned the Christian's God. Finding that their
+prayers were not answered according to their desire, it at
+length became difficult to persuade them to pray at all.
+Sometimes, it is true, they succeeded in deluding the missionaries
+with the belief that they were really converted,
+for a time. One of these most hopeful converts at the
+Dalles mission, being in want of a shirt and capote, volunteered
+to "pray for a whole year," if Mr. Lee would furnish
+him with these truly desirable articles.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is no wonder that with such hopeless material to work
+upon the Dalles missionaries withdrew from them a portion
+of their zeal, and bestowed it, where it was quite as much
+needed, upon any "stray mountain-man" who chanced to
+be entertained "within their gates." Newell's party,
+among others, received the well-meant, but not always
+well-received or appreciated attentions of these gentlemen.
+The American mountaineer was not likely to be suddenly
+surprised into praying in earnest; and he generally had
+too much real reverence to be found making a jest in the
+form of a mocking-prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Not so scrupulous, however, was Jandreau, a lively
+French Canadian, who was traveling in company with the
+Americans. On being repeatedly importuned to pray,
+with that tireless zeal which distinguishes the Methodist
+preacher above all others, Jandreau appeared suddenly to
+be smitten with a consciousness of his guilt, and kneeling
+in the midst of the 'meeting,' began with clasped hands
+and upturned eyes to pour forth a perfect torrent of words.
+With wonderful dramatic power he appeared to confess,
+to supplicate, to agonize, in idiomatic French. His tears
+and ejaculations touched the hearts of the missionaries,
+and filled them with gladness. They too ejaculated and
+wept, with frequently uttered "Amens" and "hallelujahs,"
+until the scene became highly dramatic and exciting. In
+the midst of this grand tableau, when the enthusiasm was
+at its height, Jandreau suddenly ceased and rose to his feet,
+while an irrepressible outburst of laughter from his associates
+aroused the astonished missionaries to a partial comprehension
+of the fact that they had been made the subjects
+of a practical joke, though they never knew to exactly
+how great an extent.</p>
+
+<p>The mischievous Frenchman had only recited with truly
+artistic power, and with such variations as the situation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>
+suggested, one of the most wonderful and effective tales
+from the <i>Arabian Nights Entertainment</i>, with which he
+was wont to delight and amuse his comrades beside the
+winter camp-fire!</p>
+
+<p>But Jandreau was called to account when he arrived at
+Vancouver. Dr. McLaughlin had heard the story from
+some of the party, and resolved to punish the man's irreverence,
+at the same time that he gave himself a bit of
+amusement. Sending for the Rev. Father Blanchet, who
+was then resident at Vancouver, he informed him of the
+circumstance, and together they arranged Jandreau's punishment.
+He was ordered to appear in their united presence,
+and make a true statement of the affair. Jandreau
+confessed that he had done what he was accused of doing&mdash;made
+a mock of prayer, and told a tale instead of
+offering a supplication. He was then ordered by the Rev.
+Father to rehearse the scene exactly as it occurred, in order
+that he might judge of the amount of his guilt, and
+apportion him his punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Trembling and abashed, poor Jandreau fell upon his
+knees and began the recital with much trepidation. But
+as he proceeded he warmed with the subject, his dramatic
+instinct asserted itself, tears streamed, and voice and eyes
+supplicated, until this second representation threatened to
+outdo the first. With outward gravity and inward mirth
+his two solemn judges listened to the close, and when Jandreau
+rose quite exhausted from his knees, Father Blanchet
+hastily dismissed him with an admonition and a
+light penance. As the door of Dr. McLaughlin's office
+closed behind him, not only the Doctor, but Father Blanchet
+indulged in a burst of long restrained laughter at
+the comical absurdities of this impious Frenchman.</p>
+
+<p>To return to our immigrants. On leaving the Dalles
+they proceeded on down the south side of the river as far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>
+as practicable, or opposite to the Wind Mountain. At this
+point the Indians assisted to cross them over to the north
+side, when they again made their way along the river as
+far as <i>Tea Prairie</i> above Vancouver. The weather was
+execrable, with a pouring rain, and sky of dismal gray;
+December being already far advanced. Our travelers
+were not in the best of humors: indeed a saint-like amiability
+is seldom found in conjunction with rain, mud, fatigue,
+and an empty stomach. Some ill-natured suspicions
+were uttered to the effect that the Indians who were assisting
+to cross the party at this point, had stolen some ropes
+that were missing.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this dishonorable insinuation the Indian heart was
+fired, and a fight became imminent. This undesirable climax
+to emigrant woes was however averted by an attack
+upon the indignant natives with firebrands, when they
+prudently retired, leaving the travelers to pursue their
+way in peace. It was on Sunday that the weary, dirty,
+hungry little procession arrived at a place on the Wallamet
+River where the present town of Milwaukie is situated,
+and found here two missionaries, the Rev. Messrs.
+Waller and Beers, who were preaching to the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Meek immediately applied to Mr. Waller for some provisions,
+and received for answer that it was "Sunday."
+Mr. Waller, however, on being assured that it was no more
+agreeable starving on Sunday than a week-day, finally allowed
+the immigrants to have a peck of small potatoes.
+But as a party of several persons could not long subsist on
+so short allowance, and as there did not seem to be any
+encouragement to expect more from the missionaries, there
+was no course left to be pursued but to make an appeal to
+Fort Vancouver.</p>
+
+<p>To Fort Vancouver then, Newell went the next day,
+and returned on the following one with some dried sal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>mon,
+tea, sugar, and sea-bread. It was not quite what the
+mountain-men could have wished, this dependence on the
+Hudson's Bay Company for food, and did not quite agree
+with what they had said when their hearts were big in the
+mountains. Being patriotic on a full stomach is easy compared
+to being the same thing on an empty one; a truth
+which became more and more apparent as the winter progressed,
+and the new settlers found that if they would eat
+they must ask food of some person or persons outside of
+the Methodist Mission. And outside of that there was in
+all the country only the Hudson's Bay Company, and a
+few mountain-men like themselves, who had brought nothing
+into the country, and could get nothing out of it at
+present.</p>
+
+<p>There was but short time in which to consider what
+was to be done. Newell and Meek went to Wallamet
+Falls, the day after Newell's return from Vancouver, and
+there met an old comrade, Doughty, who was looking for
+a place to locate. The three made their camp together
+on the west side of the river, on a hill overlooking the
+Falls. While in camp they were joined by two other
+Rocky Mountain men, Wilkins and Ebbarts, who were also
+looking for a place to settle in. There were now six of
+the Rocky Mountain men together; and they resolved to
+push out into the plains to the west of them, and see what
+could be done in the matter of selecting homes.</p>
+
+<p>As for our hero, we fear we cannot say much of him
+here which would serve to render him heroic in criticising
+Yankee eyes. He was a mountain-man, and <i>that only</i>.
+He had neither book learning, nor a trade, nor any knowledge
+of the simplest affairs appertaining to the ordinary
+ways of getting a living. He had only his strong hands,
+and a heart naturally stout and light.</p>
+
+<p>His friend Newell had the advantage of him in several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>
+particulars. He had rather more book-knowledge, more
+business experience, and also more means. With these
+advantages he became a sort of "Booshway" among his
+old comrades, who consented to follow his lead in the important
+movement about to be made, and settle in the
+Tualatin Plains should he decide to do so.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly camp was raised, and the party proceeded
+to the Plains, where they arrived on Christmas, and went
+into camp again. The hardships of mountain life were
+light compared to the hardships of this winter. For in
+the mountains, when the individual's resources were exhausted,
+there was always the Company to go to, which
+was practically inexhaustible. Should it be necessary, the
+Company was always willing to become the creditor of a
+good mountain-man. And the debtor gave himself no
+uneasiness, because he knew that if he lived he could discharge
+his indebtedness. But everything was different
+now. There was no way of paying debts, even if there
+had been a company willing to give them credit, which
+there was not, at least among Americans. Hard times
+they had seen in the mountains; harder times they were
+likely to see in the valley; indeed were already experiencing.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of fat buffalo meat, antelope, and mountain
+mutton, which made the plenty of a camp on Powder
+River, our carniverous hunters were reduced to eating
+daily a little boiled wheat. In this extremity, Meek went
+on an expedition of discovery across the highlands that
+border the Lower Wallamet, and found on Wappatoo
+(now Sauvis) Island, a Mr. and Mrs. Baldra living, who
+were in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and
+drew rations from them. With great kindness they
+divided the provisions on hand, furnishing him with dried
+salmon and sea-bread, to which he added ducks and swans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>
+procured from the Indians. Poor and scanty as was the
+supply thus obtained, it was, after boiled wheat, comparative
+luxury while it lasted.</p>
+
+<p>1841. The winter proved a very disagreeable one.
+Considerable snow fell early, and went off with heavy
+rains, flooding the whole country. The little camp on
+the Tualatin Plains had no defence from the weather better
+than Indian lodges, and one small cabin built by
+Doughty on a former visit to the Plains; for Doughty had
+been one of the first of the mountain-men to come to the
+Wallamet on the breaking up of the fur companies. Indian
+lodges, or no lodges at all, were what the men were
+used to; but in the dryer climate of the Rocky Mountains
+it had not seemed such a miserable life, as it now
+did, where, for months together, the ground was saturated
+with rain, while the air was constantly charged with
+vapor.</p>
+
+<p>As for going anywhere, or doing anything, either were
+equally impossible. No roads, the streams all swollen and
+out of banks, the rains incessant, there was nothing for
+them but to remain in camp and wait for the return of
+spring. When at last the rainy season was over, and the
+sun shining once more, most of the mountain-men in the
+Tualatin Plains camp took land-claims and set to work
+improving them. Of those who began farming that
+spring, were Newell, Doughty, Wilkins, and Walker.
+These obtained seed-wheat from the Hudson's Bay Company,
+also such farming implements as they must have,
+and even oxen to draw the plow through the strong
+prairie sod. The wheat was to be returned to the company&mdash;the
+cattle also; and the farming implements paid
+for whenever the debtor became able. This was certainly
+liberal conduct on the part of a company generally understood
+to be opposed to American settlement.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1841. When spring opened, Meek assisted Newell in
+breaking the ground for wheat. This done, it became necessary
+to look out for some immediately paying employment.
+But paying occupations were hard to find in that
+new country. At last, like everybody else, Meek found
+himself, if not "hanging about," at least frequently visiting
+Vancouver. Poor as he was, and unpromising as
+looked the future, he was the same light-hearted, reckless,
+and fearless Joe Meek that he had been in the mountains:
+as jaunty and jolly a ragged mountaineer as ever was seen
+at the Fort. Especially he delighted in recounting his Indian
+fights, because the Company, and Dr. McLaughlin in
+particular, disapproved the American Company's conduct
+with the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>When the Doctor chanced to overhear Meek's stories,
+as he sometimes did, he would say "Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe,&mdash;(a
+habit the Doctor had of speaking rapidly, and repeating
+his words,)&mdash;Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe, you must leave off killing
+Indians, and go to work."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't work," Meek would answer in his impressively
+slow and smooth utterance, at the same time giving his
+shoulders a slight shrug, and looking the Doctor pleasantly
+in the face.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer, however, the United States Exploring
+Squadron, under Commodore Wilkes, entered the Columbia
+River, and proceeded to explore the country in
+several directions; and it was now that Meek found an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>
+employment suited to him; being engaged by Wilkes as
+pilot and servant while on his several tours through the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>On the arrival of three vessels of the squadron at Vancouver,
+and the first ceremonious visit of Dr. McLaughlin
+and his associates to Commodore Wilkes on board, there
+was considerable display, the men in the yards, saluting,
+and all the honors due to the representative of a friendly
+foreign power. After dinner, while the guests were walking
+on deck engaged in conversation, the talk turned upon
+the loss of the <i>Peacock</i>, one of the vessels belonging
+to the U.S. squadron, which was wrecked on the bar at
+the mouth of the Columbia. The English gentlemen were
+polite enough to be expressing their regrets at the loss to
+the United States, when Meek, who had picked up a little
+history in spite of his life spent in the mountains, laughingly
+interrupted with:</p>
+
+<p>"No loss at all, gentlemen. Uncle Sam can get another
+Peacock the way he got that one."</p>
+
+<p>Wilkes, who probably regretted the allusion, as not being
+consonant with the spirit of hospitality, passed over
+the interruption in silence. But when the gentlemen from
+Vancouver had taken leave he turned to Meek with a
+meaning twinkle in his eyes:</p>
+
+<p>"Meek," said he, "go down to my cabin and you'll find
+there something good to eat, and some first-rate brandy."
+Of course Meek went.</p>
+
+<p>While Wilkes was exploring in the Cowelitz Valley,
+with Meek and a Hudson's Bay man named Forrest, as
+guides, he one day laid down in his tent to sleep, leaving
+his chronometer watch lying on the camp-table beside
+him. Forrest, happening to observe that it did not agree
+with his own, which he believed to be correct, very kindly,
+as he supposed, regulated it to agree with his. On awak<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>ening
+and taking up his watch, a puzzled expression came
+over Wilkes' face for a moment, as he discovered the
+change in the time; then one of anger and disappointment,
+as what had occurred flashed over his mind; followed
+by some rather strong expressions of indignation.
+Forrest was penitent when he perceived the mischief done
+by his meddling, but that would not restore the chronometer
+to the true time: and this accident proved a serious
+annoyance and hindrance during the remainder of the
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p>After exploring the Cowelitz Valley, Wilkes dispatched
+a party under Lieutenant Emmons, to proceed up the
+Wallamet Valley, thence south along the old trail of the
+Hudson's Bay Company, to California. Meek was employed
+to pilot this party, which had reached the head of
+the valley, when it became necessary to send for some papers
+in the possession of the Commodore; and he returned
+to Astoria upon this duty. On joining Emmons again he
+found that some of his men had become disaffected toward
+him; especially Jandreau, the same Frenchman who
+prayed so dramatically at the Dalles.</p>
+
+<p>Jandreau confided to Meek that he hated Emmons, and
+intended to kill him. The next morning when Lieut. E.
+was examining the arms of the party, he fired off Jandreau's
+gun, which being purposely overcharged, flew
+back and inflicted some injuries upon the Lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by loading a gun like that?" inquired
+Emmons, in a rage.</p>
+
+<p>"I meant it to kill two Injuns;&mdash;one before, and one
+behind;" answered Jandreau.</p>
+
+<p>As might be conjectured Jandreau was made to fire his
+own gun after that.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition had not proceeded much farther when
+it again became necessary to send an express to Vancou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>ver,
+and Meek was ordered upon this duty. Here he
+found that Wilkes had purchased a small vessel which he
+named the <i>Oregon</i>, with which he was about to leave the
+country. As there was no further use for his services our
+quondam trapper was again thrown out of employment.
+In this exigency, finding it necessary to make some provision
+for the winter, he became a gleaner of wheat in the
+fields of his more provident neighbors, by which means a
+sufficient supply was secured to keep himself and his small
+family in food until another spring.</p>
+
+<p>When winter set in, Meek paid a visit to the new mission.
+He had been there once before, in the spring, to
+buy an axe. Think, O reader, of traveling fifty or more
+miles, on horseback, or in a small boat, to procure so simple
+and necessary an article of civilized life as an axe!
+But none of the every-day conveniencies of living grow
+spontaneously in the wilderness&mdash;more's the pity:&mdash;else
+life in the wilderness would be thought more delightful
+far than life in the most luxurious of cities; inasmuch as
+Nature is more satisfying than art.</p>
+
+<p>Meek's errand to the mission on this occasion was to
+find whether he could get a cow, and credit at the same
+time: for the prospect of living for another winter on
+boiled wheat was not a cheerful one. He had not succeeded,
+and was returning, when at Champoeg he met
+a Mr. Whitcom, superintendent of the mission farm. A
+conversation took place wherein Meek's desire for a cow
+became known. The missionaries never lost an opportunity
+of proposing prayers, and Mr. Whitcom thought this
+a good one. After showing much interest in the condition
+of Meek's soul, it was proposed that he should pray.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> can't pray: that's your business, not mine," said
+Meek pleasantly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is every man's business to pray for himself," answered
+Whitcom.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; some other time will do for that. What
+I want now is a cow."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you expect to get what you want, if you
+wont ask for it?" inquired Whitcom.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon I have asked you; and I don't see nary cow
+yet."</p>
+
+<p>"You must ask God, my friend: but in the first place
+you must pray to be forgiven for your sins."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what I'll do. If you will furnish the cow,
+I'll agree to pray for half an hour, right here on the
+spot."</p>
+
+<p>"Down on your knees then."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll furnish the cow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Whitcom, fairly cornered.</p>
+
+<p>Down on his knees dropped the merry reprobate, and
+prayed out his half hour, with how much earnestness only
+himself and God knew.</p>
+
+<p>But the result was what he had come for, a cow; for
+Whitcom was as good as his word, and sent him home rejoicing.
+And thus, with what he had earned from Wilkes,
+his gleaned wheat, and his cow, he contrived to get
+through another winter.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most important personal event which distinguished
+this year in Meek's history, was the celebration,
+according to the rites of the Christian church, of his
+marriage with the Nez Perce woman who had already
+borne him two children, and who still lives, the mother
+of a family of seven.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1842. By the opening of another spring, Meek had
+so far overcome his distaste for farm labor as to put in a
+field of wheat for himself, with Doughty, and to make
+some arrangements about his future subsistence. This
+done, he was ready, as usual, for anything in the way of
+adventure which might turn up. This was, however, a
+very quiet summer in the little colony. Important events
+were brooding, but as yet results were not perceptible,
+except to the mind of a prophet. The Hudson's Bay
+Company, conformably to British policy, were at work
+to turn the balance of power in Oregon in favor of British
+occupation, and, unknown even to the colonists, the
+United States Government was taking what measures it
+could to shift the balance in its own favor. Very little
+was said about the subject of government claims among
+the colonists, but a feeling of suspense oppressed all
+parties.</p>
+
+<p>The work of putting in wheat and improving of farms
+had just begun to slacken a little, when there was an arrival
+in the Columbia River of a vessel from Boston&mdash;the
+<i>Chenamus</i>, Captain Couch. The <i>Chenamus</i> brought a
+cargo of goods, which were placed in store at Wallamet
+Falls, to be sold to the settlers, being the first successful
+attempt at trade ever made in Oregon, outside of the
+Hudson's Bay and Methodist Mission stores.</p>
+
+<p>When the Fourth of July came, the <i>Chenamus</i> was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>
+lying in the Wallamet, below the Falls, near where the
+present city of Portland stands. Meek, who was always
+first to be at any spot where noise, bustle, or excitement
+might be anticipated, and whose fine humor and fund of
+anecdote made him always welcome, had borrowed a boat
+from Capt. Couch's clerk, at the Falls, and gone down to
+the vessel early in the morning, before the salute for the
+Glorious Fourth was fired. There he remained all day,
+enjoying a patriotic swagger, and an occasional glass of
+something good to drink. Other visitors came aboard
+during the day, which was duly celebrated to the satisfaction
+of all.</p>
+
+<p>Towards evening, a party from the Mission, wishing to
+return to the Falls, took possession of Meek's borrowed
+boat to go off with. Now was a good opportunity to
+show the value of free institutions. Meek, like other
+mountain-men, felt the distance which the missionaries
+placed between him and themselves, on the score of their
+moral and social superiority, and resented the freedom
+with which they appropriated what he had with some
+trouble secured to himself. Intercepting the party when
+more than half of them were seated in the boat, he informed
+them that they were trespassing upon a piece of
+property which for the present belonged to him, and for
+which he had a very urgent need. Vexed by the delay,
+and by having to relinquish the boat to a man who, according
+to their view of the case, could not "read his
+title clear," to anything either on earth or in heaven, the
+missionaries expostulated somewhat warmly, but Meek insisted,
+and so compelled them to wait for some better
+opportunity of leaving the ship. Then loading the boat
+with what was much more to the purpose&mdash;a good supply
+of provisions, Meek proceeded to drink the Captain's
+health in a very ostentatious manner, and take his leave.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Dr. Marcus Whitman, of the Waiilatpu
+Mission, in the upper country, was so fearful of the
+intentions of the British government that he set out for
+Washington late in the autumn of 1842, to put the Secretary
+of State on his guard concerning the boundary
+question, and to pray that it might be settled conformably
+with the wishes of the Americans in Oregon.</p>
+
+<p>There was one feature, however, of this otherwise
+rather entertaining race for possession, which was becoming
+quite alarming. In all this strife about claiming the
+country, the Indian claim had not been considered. It
+has been already intimated that the attempt to civilize or
+Christianize the Indians of western Oregon was practically
+an entire failure. But they were not naturally of a warlike
+disposition, and had been so long under the control
+of the Hudson's Bay Company that there was comparatively
+little to apprehend from them, even though they
+felt some discontent at the incoming immigration.</p>
+
+<p>But with the Indians of the upper Columbia it was different;
+especially so with the tribes among whom the
+Presbyterian missionaries were settled&mdash;the Walla-Wallas,
+Cayuses, and Nez Perces, three brave and powerful nations,
+much united by intermarriages. The impression
+which these people had first made on the missionaries was
+very favorable, their evident intelligence, inquisitiveness,
+and desire for religious teachings seeming to promise a
+good reward of missionary labor. Dr. Whitman and his
+associates had been diligent in their efforts to civilize and
+Christianize them&mdash;to induce the men to leave off their
+migratory habits and learn agriculture, and the women to
+learn spinning, sewing, cooking, and all the most essential
+arts of domestic life. At the first, the novelty of these
+new pursuits engaged their interest, as it also excited
+their hope of gain. But the task of keeping them to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>
+their work with sufficient steadiness, was very great.
+They required, like children, to be bribed with promises
+of more or less immediate reward of their exertions, nor
+would they relinquish the fulfilment of a promise, even
+though they had failed to perform the conditions on which
+the promise became binding.</p>
+
+<p>By-and-by they made the discovery that neither the
+missionaries could, nor the white man's God did, confer
+upon them what they desired&mdash;the enjoyment of all the
+blessings of the white men&mdash;and that if they wished to
+enjoy these blessings, they must labor to obtain them.
+This discovery was very discouraging, inasmuch as the
+Indian nature is decidedly averse to steady labor, and
+they could perceive that very little was to be expected
+from any progress which could be achieved in one generation.
+As for the Christian faith, they understood about
+as much of its true spirit as savages, with the law of
+blood written in their hearts, could be expected to understand.
+They looked for nothing more nor less than the
+literal fulfilment of the Bible promises&mdash;nothing less
+would content them; and as to the forms of their new
+religion, they liked them well enough&mdash;liked singing and
+praying, and certain orderly observances, the chiefs leading
+in these as in other matters. So much interest did
+they discover at first, that their teachers were deceived
+as to the actual extent of the good they were doing.</p>
+
+<p>As time went on, however, there began to be cause for
+mutual dissatisfaction. The Indians became aware that
+no matter how many concessions their teachers made to
+them, they were still the inferiors of the whites, and that
+they must ever remain so. But the thought which produced
+the deepest chagrin was, that they had got these
+white people settled amongst them by their own invitation
+and aid, and that now it was evident they were not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>
+to be benefited as had been hoped, as the whites were
+turning their attention to benefiting themselves.</p>
+
+<p>As early as 1839, Mr. Smith, an associate of Mr. Spalding
+in the country of the Nez Perces, was forbidden by
+the high chief of the Nez Perces to cultivate the ground.
+He had been permitted to build, but was assured that if he
+broke the soil for the purpose of farming it, the ground
+so broken should serve to bury him in. Still Smith went
+on in the spring to prepare for ploughing, and the chief
+seeing him ready to begin, inquired if he recollected that
+he had been forbidden. Yet persisting in his undertaking,
+several of the Indians came to him and taking him by the
+shoulder asked him again "if he did not know that the hole
+he should make in the earth would be made to serve for
+his grave." Upon which third warning Smith left off, and
+quitted the country. Other missionaries also left for the
+Wallamet Valley.</p>
+
+<p>In 1842 there were three mission stations in the upper
+country; that of Dr. Whitman at Waiilatpu on the Walla-Walla
+River, that of Mr. Spalding on the Clearwater River,
+called Lapwai, and another on the Spokane River, called
+Cimakain. These missions were from one hundred and
+twenty to three hundred miles distant from each other,
+and numbered altogether only about one dozen whites of
+both sexes. At each of these stations there was a small
+body of land under cultivation, a few cattle and hogs, a
+flouring and saw mill, and blacksmith shop, and such improvements
+as the needs of the mission demanded. The
+Indians also cultivated, under the direction of their teachers,
+some little patches of ground, generally but a small
+garden spot, and the fact that they did even so much was
+very creditable to those who labored to instruct them.
+There was no want of ardor or industry in the Presbyterian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>
+mission; on the contrary they applied themselves conscientiously
+to the work they had undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>But this conscientious discharge of duty did not give
+them immunity from outrage. Both Mr. Spalding and Dr.
+Whitman had been rudely handled by the Indians, had
+been struck and spat upon, and had nose and ears pulled.
+Even the delicate and devoted Mrs. Spalding had been
+grossly insulted. Later the Cayuses had assailed Dr. Whitman
+in his house with war-clubs, and broken down doors
+of communication between the private apartments and the
+public sitting room. Explanations and promises generally
+followed these acts of outrage, yet it would seem that the
+missionaries should have been warned.</p>
+
+<p>Taking advantage of Dr. Whitman's absence, the Cayuses
+had frightened Mrs. Whitman from her home to the Methodist
+mission at the Dalles, by breaking into her bed-chamber
+at night, with an infamous design from which she
+barely escaped, and by subsequently burning down the
+mill and destroying a considerable quantity of grain.
+About the same time the Nez Perces at the Lapwai mission
+were very insolent, and had threatened Mr. Spalding's life;
+all of which, one would say, was but a poor return for the
+care and instruction bestowed upon them during six years
+of patient effort on the part of their teachers. Poor as it
+was, the Indians did not see it in that light, but only
+thought of the danger which threatened them, in the possible
+loss of their country.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1842-3. The plot thickened that winter, in the little
+drama being enacted west of the Rocky Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>The forests which clad the mountains and foot-hills in
+perpetual verdure, and the thickets which skirted the numerous
+streams flowing into the Wallamet, all abounded
+in wild animals, whose depredations upon the domestic
+cattle, lately introduced into the country, were a serious
+drawback to their natural increase. Not a settler, owning
+cattle or hogs, but had been robbed more or less frequently
+by the wolves, bears, and panthers, which prowled
+unhindered in the vicinity of their herds.</p>
+
+<p>This was a ground of common interest to all settlers of
+whatever allegiance. Accordingly, a notice was issued
+that a meeting would be held at a certain time and place,
+to consider the best means of preventing the destruction
+of stock in the country, and all persons interested were
+invited to attend. This meeting was held on the 2d of
+February, 1843, and was well attended by both classes of
+colonists. It served, however, only as a preliminary step
+to the regular "Wolf Association" meeting which took
+place a month later. At the meeting, on the 4th of March,
+there was a full attendance, and the utmost harmony prevailed,
+notwithstanding there was a well-defined suspicion
+in the minds of the Canadians, that they were going to be
+called upon to furnish protection to something more than
+the cattle and hogs of the settlers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After the proper parliamentary forms, and the choosing
+of the necessary officers for the Association, the meeting
+proceeded to fix the rate of bounty for each animal killed
+by any one out of the Association, viz: $3.00 for a large
+wolf; $1.50 for a lynx; $2.00 for a bear; and $5.00 for
+a panther. The money to pay these bounties was to be
+raised by subscription, and handed over to the treasurer
+for disbursement; the currency being drafts on Fort Vancouver,
+the Mission, and the Milling Company; besides
+wheat and other commodities.</p>
+
+<p>This business being arranged, the real object of the
+meeting was announced in this wise:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Resolved</i>,&mdash;That a committee be appointed to take into
+consideration the propriety of taking measures for the
+civil and military protection of this colony."</p>
+
+<p>A committee of twelve were then selected, and the
+meeting adjourned. But in that committee there was a
+most subtle mingling of all the elements&mdash;missionaries,
+mountain-men, and Canadians&mdash;an attempt by an offer of
+the honors, to fuse into one all the several divisions of political
+sentiment in Oregon.</p>
+
+<p>On the 2d day of May, 1843, the committee appointed
+March 4th to "take into consideration the propriety of taking
+measures for the civil and military protection of the
+colony," met at Champoeg, the Canadian settlement, and
+presented to the people their ultimatum in favor of organizing
+a provisional government.</p>
+
+<p>On a motion being made that the report of the committee
+should be accepted, it was put to vote, and lost. All
+was now confusion, various expressions of disappointment
+or gratification being mingled in one tempest of sound.</p>
+
+<p>When the confusion had somewhat subsided, Mr. G.W.
+LeBreton made a motion that the meeting should divide;
+those who were in favor of an organization taking their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
+positions on the right hand; and those opposed to it on
+the left, marching into file. The proposition carried; and
+Joe Meek, who, in all this historical reminiscence we have
+almost lost sight of&mdash;though he had not lost sight of
+events&mdash;stepped to the front, with a characteristic air of
+the free-born American in his gait and gestures:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who's for a divide! All in favor of the Report, and
+an Organization, follow me!"&mdash;then marched at the head
+of his column, which speedily fell into line, as did also the
+opposite party.</p>
+
+<p>On counting, fifty-two were found to be on the right
+hand side, and fifty on the left,&mdash;so evenly were the
+two parties balanced at that time. When the result was
+made known, once more Meek's voice rang out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers for our side!"</p>
+
+<p>It did not need a second invitation; but loud and long
+the shout went up for <span class="smcap">Freedom</span>; and loudest and longest
+were heard the voices of the American "mountain-men."
+Thus the die was cast which made Oregon ultimately a
+member of the Federal Union.</p>
+
+<p>The business of the meeting was concluded by the election
+of a Supreme Judge, with probate powers, a clerk
+of the court, a sheriff, four magistrates, four constables,
+a treasurer, a mayor, and a captain,&mdash;the two latter officers
+being instructed to form companies of mounted riflemen.
+In addition to these officers, a legislative committee
+was chosen, consisting of nine members, who were to report
+to the people at a public meeting to be held at Champoeg
+on the 5th of July following. Of the legislative
+committee, two were mountain-men, with whose names the
+reader is familiar&mdash;Newell and Doughty. Among the
+other appointments, was Meek, to the office of sheriff; a
+position for which his personal qualities of courage and
+good humor admirably fitted him in the then existing state
+of society.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The immigration into Oregon of the year 1843, was
+the first since Newell and Meek, who had brought wagons
+through to the Columbia River; and in all numbered
+nearly nine hundred men, women, and children. These
+immigrants were mostly from Missouri and other border
+States. They had been assisted on their long and perilous
+journey by Dr. Whitman, whose knowledge of the
+route, and the requirements of the undertaking, made him
+an invaluable counselor, as he was an untiring friend of
+the immigrants.</p>
+
+<p>At the Dalles of the Columbia the wagons were abandoned;
+it being too late in the season, and the wants of
+the immigrants too pressing, to admit of an effort being
+made to cut out a wagon road through the heavy timber
+of the Cascade mountains. Already a trail had been made
+over them and around the base of Mount Hood, by which
+cattle could be driven from the Dalles to the settlements
+on the Wallamet; and by this route the cattle belonging to
+the train, amounting to thirteen hundred, were passed
+over into the valley.</p>
+
+<p>But for the people, especially the women and children,
+active and efficient help was demanded. There was something
+truly touching and pitiable in the appearance of these
+hundreds of worn-out, ragged, sun-burnt, dusty, emaciated,
+yet indomitable pioneers, who, after a journey of nearly
+two thousand miles, and of several months duration, over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>
+fertile plains, barren deserts, and rugged mountains, stood
+at last beside the grand and beautiful river of their hopes,
+exhausted by the toils of their pilgrimage, dejected and
+yet rejoicing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i325" name="i325"></a>
+<img src="images/i325.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>WRECKED IN THE RAPIDS.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Much they would have liked to rest, even here; but
+their poverty admitted of no delay. The friends to
+whom they were going, and from whom they must exact
+and receive a temporary hospitality, were still separated
+from them a weary and dangerous way. They delayed as
+little as possible, yet the fall rains came upon them, and
+snow fell in the mountains, so as seriously to impede the
+labor of driving the cattle, and hunger and sickness began
+to affright them.</p>
+
+<p>In this unhappy situation they might have remained a
+long time, had there been no better dependence than the
+American settlers already in the valley, with the Methodist
+Mission at their head; for from them it does not appear
+that aid came, nor that any provision had been made
+by them to assist the expected immigrants. As usual in
+these crises, it was the Hudson's Bay Company who came
+to the rescue, and, by the offer of boats, made it possible
+for those families to reach the Wallamet. Not only were
+the Hudson's Bay Company's boats all required, but canoes
+and rafts were called into requisition to transport passengers
+and goods. No one, never having made the voyage
+of the Columbia from above the Dalles to Vancouver,
+could have an adequate idea of the perils of the passage,
+as it was performed in those days, by small boats and the
+flat-bottomed "Mackinaw" boats of the Hudson's Bay
+Company. The Canadian "voyageurs," who handled a
+boat as a good rider governs a horse, were not always
+able to make the passage without accident: how, then,
+could the clumsy landsmen, who were more used to the
+feel of a plow handle than an oar, be expected to do so?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>
+Numerous have been the victims suddenly clutched from
+life by the grasp of the whirlpools, or dashed to death
+among the fearful rapids of the beautiful, but wild and
+pitiless, Columbia.</p>
+
+<p>The immigration of 1843 did not escape without loss
+and bereavement. Three brothers from Missouri, by the
+name of Applegate, with their families, were descending
+the river together, when, by the striking of a boat on a
+rock in the rapids, a number of passengers, mostly children
+of these gentlemen, were precipitated into the frightful
+current. The brothers each had a son in this boat,
+one of whom was lost, another injured for life, and the
+third escaped as by a miracle. This last boy was only
+ten years of age, yet such was the presence of mind and
+courage displayed in saving his own and a companion's
+life, that the miracle of his escape might be said to be his
+own. Being a good swimmer, he kept himself valiantly
+above the surface, while being tossed about for nearly two
+miles. Succeeding at last in grasping a feather bed which
+was floating near him, he might have passed the remaining
+rapids without serious danger, had he not been seized,
+as it were, by the feet, and drawn down, down, into a
+seething, turning, roaring abyss of water, where he was
+held, whirling about, and dancing up and down, striking
+now and then upon the rocks, until death seemed not
+only imminent but certain. After enduring this violent
+whirling and dashing for what seemed a hopelessly long
+period of time, he was suddenly vomited forth by the
+whirlpool once more upon the surface of the rapids, and,
+notwithstanding the bruises he had received, was able, by
+great exertion, to throw himself near, and seize upon a
+ledge of rocks. To this he clung with desperation, until,
+by dint of much effort, he finally drew himself out of the
+water, and stretched himself on the narrow shelf, where,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>
+for a moment, he swooned away. But on opening his
+eyes, he beheld, struggling in the foaming flood, a young
+man who had been a passenger in the wrecked boat with
+himself, and who, though older, was not so good a swimmer.
+Calling to him with all his might, to make his voice
+heard above the roar of the rapids, he at last gained his
+attention, and encouraged him to try to reach the ledge
+of rocks, where he would assist him to climb up; and the
+almost impossible feat was really accomplished by their
+united efforts. This done, young Applegate sank again
+into momentary unconsciousness, while poor exhausted
+Nature recruited her forces.</p>
+
+<p>But, although they were saved from immediate destruction,
+death still stared them in the face. That side of the
+river on which they had found lodgment, was bounded
+by precipitous mountains, coming directly down to the
+water. They could neither ascend nor skirt along them,
+for foot-hold there was none. On the other side was level
+ground, but to reach it they must pass through the rapids&mdash;an
+alternative that looked like an assurance of destruction.</p>
+
+<p>In this extremity, it was the boy who resolved to risk
+his life to save it. Seeing that a broken ledge of rock
+extended nearly across the river from a point within his
+reach, but only coming to the surface here and there, and
+of course very slippery, he nevertheless determined to attempt
+to cross on foot, amidst the roaring rapids. Starting
+alone to make the experiment, he actually made the crossing
+in safety, amid the thundering roar and dizzying rush
+of waters&mdash;not only made it once, but returned to assure
+his companion of its practicability. The young man, however,
+had not the courage to undertake it, until he had
+repeatedly been urged to do so, and at last only by being
+pursuaded to go before, while his younger comrade fol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>lowed
+after, not to lose sight of him, (for it was impossible
+to turn around,) and directed him where to place
+his steps. In this manner that which appears incredible
+was accomplished, and the two arrived in safety on the
+opposite side, where they were ultimately discovered by
+their distressed relatives, who had believed them to be
+lost. Such was the battle which young Applegate had
+with the rocks, that the flesh was torn from the palms of
+his hands, and his whole body bruised and lacerated.</p>
+
+<p>So it was with sorrow, after all, that the immigrants
+arrived in the valley. Nor were their trials over when
+they had arrived. The worst feature about this long and
+exhausting journey was, that it could not be accomplished
+so as to allow time for recruiting the strength of the travelers,
+and providing them with shelter before the rainy
+season set in. Either the new arrivals must camp out in
+the weather until a log house was thrown up, or they
+must, if they were invited, crowd into the small cabins
+of the settlers until there was scarce standing room, and
+thus live for months in an atmosphere which would have
+bred pestilence in any other less healthful climate.</p>
+
+<p>Not only was the question of domiciles a trying one,
+but that of food still more so. Some, who had families
+of boys to help in the rough labor of building, soon became
+settled in houses of their own, more or less comfortable;
+nor was anything very commodious required
+for the frontiers-men from Missouri; but in the matter of
+something to eat, the more boys there were in the family,
+the more hopeless the situation. They had scarcely managed
+to bring with them provisions for their summer's
+journey&mdash;it was not possible to bring more. In the
+colony was food, but they had no money&mdash;few of them
+had much, at least; they had not goods to exchange;
+labor was not in demand: in short, the first winter in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
+Oregon was, to nearly all the new colonists, a time of
+trial, if not of actual suffering. Many families now occupying
+positions of eminence on the Pacific coast, knew
+what it was, in those early days, to feel the pangs of
+hunger, and to want for a sufficient covering for their
+nakedness.</p>
+
+<p>Two anecdotes of this kind come to the writer's memory,
+as related by the parties themselves: the Indians,
+who are everywhere a begging race, were in the habit of
+visiting the houses of the settlers and demanding food.
+On one occasion, one of them came to the house of a now
+prominent citizen of Oregon, as usual petitioning for something
+to eat. The lady of the house, and mother of several
+young children, replied that she had nothing to give.
+Not liking to believe her, the Indian persisted in his demand,
+when the lady pointed to her little children and
+said, "Go away; I have nothing&mdash;not even for those."
+The savage turned on his heel and strode quickly away,
+as the lady thought, offended. In a short time he reappeared
+with a sack of dried venison, which he laid at her
+feet. "Take that," he said, "and give the <i>tenas tillicum</i>
+(little children) something to eat." From that day, as
+long as he lived, that humane savage was a "friend of the
+family."</p>
+
+<p>The other anecdote concerns a gentleman who was
+chief justice of Oregon under the provisional government,
+afterwards governor of California, and at present a
+banker in San Francisco. He lived, at the time spoken
+of on the Tualatin Plains, and was a neighbor of Joe
+Meek. Not having a house to go into at first, he was permitted
+to settle his family in the district school-house,
+with the understanding that on certain days of the month
+he was to allow religious services to be held in the building.
+In this he assented. Meeting day came, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>
+family put on their best apparel to make themselves tidy
+in the eyes of their neighbors. Only one difficulty was
+hard to get over: Mr. &mdash;&mdash; had only one shoe, the other
+foot was bare. But he considered the matter for some
+time, and then resolved that he might take a sheltered
+position behind the teacher's desk, where his deficiency
+would be hidden, and when the house filled up, as it
+would do very rapidly, he could not be expected to stir
+for want of space. However, that happened to the ambitious
+young lawyer which often does happen to the "best
+laid schemes of mice and men"&mdash;his went "all aglee."
+In the midst of the services, the speaker needed a cup of
+water, and requested Mr. &mdash;&mdash; to furnish it. There was
+no refusing so reasonable a request. Out before all the
+congregation, walked the abashed and blushing pioneer,
+with his ill-matched feet exposed to view. This mortifying
+exposure was not without an agreeable result; for
+next day he received a present of a pair of moccasins,
+and was enabled thereafter to appear with feet that bore
+a brotherly resemblance to each other.</p>
+
+<p>About this time, the same gentleman, who was, as has
+been said, a neighbor of Meek's, was going to Wallamet
+Falls with a wagon, and Meek was going along. "Take
+something to eat," said he to Meek, "for I have nothing;"
+and Meek promised that he would.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly when it came time to camp for the night,
+Meek was requested to produce his lunch basket. Going
+to the wagon, Meek unfolded an immense pumpkin, and
+brought it to the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, "is that all we have for
+supper?"</p>
+
+<p>"Roast pumpkin is not so bad," said Meek, laughing
+back at him; "I've had worse fare in the mountains.
+It's buffalo tongue compared to ants or moccasin soles."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And so with much merriment they proceeded to cut up
+their pumpkin and roast it, finding it as Meek had said&mdash;"not
+so bad" when there was no better.</p>
+
+<p>These anecdotes illustrate what a volume could only describe&mdash;the
+perils and privations endured by the colonists
+in Oregon. If we add that there were only two flouring
+mills in the Wallamet Valley, and these two not convenient
+for most of the settlers, both belonging to the mission,
+and that to get a few bushels of wheat ground involved
+the taking of a journey of from four to six days,
+for many, and that, too, over half-broken roads, destitute
+of bridges, it will be seen how difficult it was to obtain
+the commonest comforts of life. As for such luxuries as
+groceries and clothing, they had to wait for better times.
+Lucky was the man who, "by hook or by crook," got
+hold of an order on the Hudson's Bay Company, the
+Methodist Mission, or the Milling Company at the Falls.
+Were he thus fortunate, he had much ado to decide how
+to make it go farthest, and obtain the most. Not far
+would it go, at the best, for fifty per cent. profit on all
+sales was what was demanded and obtained. Perhaps the
+holder of a ten dollar draft made out his list of necessaries,
+and presented himself at the store, expecting to get
+them. He wanted some unbleached cotton, to be dyed to
+make dresses for the children; he would buy a pair of
+calf-skin shoes if he could afford them; and&mdash;yes&mdash;he
+would indulge in the luxury of a little&mdash;a very little&mdash;sugar,
+just for that once!</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the store after a long, jolting journey, in
+the farm wagon which had crossed the continent the year
+before, he makes his inquiries: "Cotton goods?" "No;
+just out." "Shoes?" "Got one pair, rather small&mdash;wouldn't
+fit you." "What have you got in the way of
+goods?" "Got a lot of silk handkerchiefs and twelve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>
+dozen straw hats." "Any pins?" "No; a few knitting
+needles." "Any yarn?" "Yes, there's a pretty good
+lot of yarn, but don't you want some sugar? the last
+ship that was in left a quantity of sugar." So the holder
+of the draft exchanges it for some yarn and a few nails,
+and takes the balance in sugar; fairly compelled to be
+luxurious in one article, for the reason that others were
+not to be had till some other ship came in.</p>
+
+<p>No mails reached the colony, and no letters left it, except
+such as were carried by private hand, or were sent
+once a year in the Hudson's Bay Company's express to
+Canada, and thence to the States. Newspapers arrived
+in the same manner, or by vessel from the Sandwich
+Islands. Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, education
+was encouraged even from the very beginning; a library
+was started, and literary societies formed, and this all the
+more, perhaps, that the colony was so isolated and dependent
+on itself for intellectual pleasures.</p>
+
+<p>The spring of 1844 saw the colony in a state of some excitement
+on account of an attempt to introduce the manufacture
+of ardent spirits. This dangerous article had always
+been carefully excluded from the country, first by
+the Hudson's Bay Company, and secondly by the Methodist
+Mission; and since the time when a Mr. Young
+had been induced to relinquish its manufacture, no serious
+effort had been made to introduce it.</p>
+
+<p>It does not appear from the Oregon archives, that any
+law against its manufacture existed at that time: it had
+probably been overlooked in the proceedings of the legislative
+committee of the previous summer; neither was
+there yet any executive head to the Provisional Government,
+the election not having taken place. In this dilemma
+the people found themselves in the month of Feb<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>ruary,
+when one James Conner had been discovered to be
+erecting a distillery at the Falls of the Wallamet.</p>
+
+<p>It happened, however, that an occasion for the exercise
+of executive power had occurred before the election
+of the executive committee, and now what was to be
+done? It was a case too, which required absolute power,
+for there was no law on the subject of distilleries. After
+some deliberation it was decided to allow the Indian agent
+temporary power, and several letters were addressed to
+him, informing him of the calamity which threatened the
+community at the Falls. "Now, we believe that if there
+is anything which calls your attention in your official capacity,
+or anything in which you would be most cordially
+supported by the good sense and prompt action of the
+better part of community, it is the present case. We do
+not wish to dictate, but we hope for the best, begging
+pardon for intrusions." So read the closing paragraph
+of one of the letters.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this humble petition touched the Doctor's heart;
+perhaps he saw in the circumstance a possible means of
+acquiring influence; at all events he hastened to the Falls,
+a distance of fifty miles, and entered at once upon the discharge
+of the executive duties thus thrust upon him in
+the hour of danger. Calling upon Meek, who had entered
+upon his duties as sheriff the previous summer, he gave
+him his orders. Writ in hand, Meek proceeded to the
+distillery, frightened the poor sinner into quiet submission
+with a display of his mountain manners; made a bugle of
+the worm, and blew it, to announce to the Doctor his complete
+success; after which he tumbled the distillery apparatus
+into the river, and retired. Connor was put under
+three hundred dollar bonds, and so the case ended.</p>
+
+<p>But there were other occasions on which the Doctor's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>
+authority was put in requisition. It happened that a vessel
+from Australia had been in the river, and left one Madam
+Cooper, who was said to have brought with her a barrel
+of whisky. Her cabin stood on the east bank of the
+Wallamet, opposite the present city of Portland. Not
+thinking it necessary to send the sheriff to deal with a
+woman, the Doctor went in person, accompanied by a
+couple of men. Entering the cabin the Doctor remarked
+blandly, "you have a barrel of whisky, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>Not knowing but her visitor's intention was to purchase,
+and not having previously resided in a strictly temperance
+community, Madam Cooper replied frankly that she had,
+and pointed to the barrel in question.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor then stepped forward, and placing his foot
+on it, said: "In the name of the United States, I levy
+execution on it!"</p>
+
+<p>At this unexpected declaration, the English woman
+stared wildly one moment, then recovering herself quickly,
+seized the poker from the chimney corner, and raising it
+over the Doctor's head, exclaimed&mdash;"In the name of
+Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland, I levy execution on
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>But when the stick descended, the Doctor was not there.
+He had backed out at the cabin door; nor did he afterwards
+attempt to interfere with a subject of the crown of
+Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, however, the story having got
+afloat at the Falls, Meek and a young man highly esteemed
+at the mission, by the name of Le Breton, set out to
+pay their respects to Madam Cooper. Upon entering the
+cabin, the two callers cast their eyes about until they
+rested on the whisky barrel.</p>
+
+<p>"Have <i>you</i> come to levy on my whisky?" inquired the
+now suspicious Madam.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Meek, "I have come to levy on it; but as
+I am not quite so high in authority as Doctor White, I
+don't intend to levy on the whole of it at once. I think
+about a quart of it will do me."</p>
+
+<p>Comprehending by the twinkle in Meek's eye that she
+had now a customer more to her mind, Madam Cooper
+made haste to set before her visitors a bottle and tin cup,
+upon which invitation they proceeded to levy frequently
+upon the contents of the bottle; and we fear that the
+length of time spent there, and the amount of whisky
+drank must have strongly reminded Meek of past rendezvous
+times in the mountains; nor can we doubt that he
+entertained Le Breton and Madam Cooper with many reminiscences
+of those times. However that may be, this
+was not the last visit of Meek to Madam Cooper's, nor his
+last levy on her whisky.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after his election as sheriff he had been called
+upon to serve a writ upon a desperate character, for an
+attempt to kill. Many persons, however, fearing the result
+of trying to enforce the law upon desperadoes, in the
+then defenceless condition of the colony, advised him to
+wait for the immigration to come in before attempting the
+arrest. But Meek preferred to do his duty then, and went
+with the writ to arrest him. The man resisted, making
+an attack on the sheriff with a carpenter's axe; but Meek
+coolly presented a pistol, assuring the culprit of the uselessness
+of such demonstrations, and soon brought him to
+terms of compliance. Such coolness, united with a fine
+physique, and a mountain-man's reputation for reckless
+courage, made it very desirable that Meek should continue
+to hold the office of sheriff during that stage of the
+colony's development.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1844. As has before been mentioned, the Indians of
+the Wallamet valley were by no means so formidable as
+those of the upper country: yet considering their numbers
+and the condition of the settlers, they were quite formidable
+enough to occasion considerable alarm when any
+one of them, or any number of them betrayed the savage
+passions by which they were temporarily overcome. Considerable
+excitement had prevailed among the more scattered
+settlers, ever since the reports of the disaffection
+among the up-country tribes had reached them; and Dr.
+White had been importuned to throw up a strong fortification
+in the most central part of the colony, and to procure
+arms for their defence, at the expense of the United
+States.</p>
+
+<p>This excitement had somewhat subsided when an event
+occurred which for a time renewed it: a house was plundered
+and some horses stolen from the neighborhood of
+the Falls. An Indian from the Dalles, named Cockstock,
+was at the bottom of the mischief, and had been committing
+or instigating others to commit depredations upon the
+settlers, for a year previous, because he had been, as he
+fancied, badly treated in a matter between himself and a
+negro in the colony, in which the latter had taken an unfair
+advantage of him in a bargain.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i339" name="i339"></a>
+<img src="images/i339.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">A WILD INDIAN IN TOWN.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>To crown his injuries Dr. White had caused a relative
+of his to be flogged by the Dalles chief, for entering the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>
+house of the Methodist missionary at that place, and tying
+him, with the purpose of flogging him. (It was a poor
+law, he thought, that would not work both ways.)</p>
+
+<p>In revenge for this insult Cockstock came to the Doctor's
+house in the Wallamet, threatening to shoot him at
+sight, but not finding him at home, contented himself
+for that time, by smashing all the windows in the dwelling
+and office of the Doctor, and nearly frightening to
+death a young man on the premises.</p>
+
+<p>When on the Doctor's return in the evening, the extent
+of the outrage became known, a party set out in pursuit
+of Cockstock and his band, but failed to overtake them,
+and the settlers remained in ignorance concerning the
+identity of the marauders. About a month later, however,
+a party of Klamath and Molalla Indians from the
+south of Oregon, numbering fifteen, came riding into the
+settlement, armed and painted in true Indian war-style.
+They made their way to the lodge of a Calapooya chief
+in the neighborhood&mdash;the Calapooyas being the Indians
+native to the valley. Dr. White fearing these mischievous
+visitors might infect the mind of the Calapooya chief,
+sent a message to him, to bring his friends to call upon
+him in the morning, as he had something good to say to
+them.</p>
+
+<p>This they did, when Dr. White explained the laws of the
+Nez Perces to them, and told them how much it would be
+to their advantage to adopt such laws. He gave the Calapooya
+chief a fine fat ox to feast his friends with, well
+knowing that an Indian's humor depends much on the
+state of his stomach, whether shrunken or distended. After
+the feast there was some more talk about the laws, in
+the midst of which the Indian Cockstock made his appearance,
+armed, and sullen in his demeanor. But as Dr.
+White did not know him for the perpetrator of the out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>rage
+on his premises, he took no notice of him more than
+of the others. The Molallas and Klamaths finally agreed to
+receive the laws; departing in high good humor, singing
+and shouting. So little may one know of the savage
+heart from the savage professions! Some of these Indians
+were boiling over with secret wrath at the weakness
+of their brethren in consenting to laws of the Agent's dictation;
+and while they were crossing a stream, fell upon
+and massacred them without mercy, Cockstock taking an
+active part in the murder.</p>
+
+<p>The whites were naturally much excited by the villainous
+and horrible affray, and were for taking and hanging the
+murderers. The Agent, however, was more cautious, and
+learning that there had been feuds among these Indians
+long unsettled, decided not to interfere.</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1844, fresh outrages on settlers having
+been committed so that some were leaving their claims
+and coming to stop at the Falls through fear, Dr. White
+was petitioned to take the case in hand. He accordingly
+raised a party of ten men, who had nearly all suffered
+some loss or outrage at Cockstock's hands, and set out in
+search of him, but did not succeed in finding him. His
+next step was to offer a reward of a hundred dollars for
+his arrest, meaning to send him to the upper country to
+be tried and punished by the Cayuses and Nez Perces, the
+Doctor prudently desiring to have them bear the odium,
+and suffer the punishment, should any follow, of executing
+justice on the Indian desperado. Not so had the fates ordained.</p>
+
+<p>About a week after the reward was offered, Cockstock
+came riding into the settlement at the Falls, at mid-day,
+accompanied by five other Indians, all well armed, and
+frightfully painted. Going from house to house on their
+horses, they exhibited their pistols, and by look and ges<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>ture
+seemed to defy the settlers, who, however, kept quiet
+through prudential motives. Not succeeding in provoking
+the whites to commence the fray, Cockstock finally retired
+to an Indian village on the other side of the river,
+where he labored to get up an insurrection, and procure
+the burning of the settlement houses.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the people at the Falls were thoroughly
+alarmed, and bent upon the capture of this desperate savage.
+When, after an absence of a few hours, they saw
+him recrossing the river with his party, a crowd of persons
+ran down to the landing, some with offers of large
+reward to any person who would attempt to take him,
+while others, more courageous, were determined upon
+earning it. No definite plan of capture or concert of action
+was decided on, but all was confusion and doubt. In
+this frame of mind a collision was sure to take place; both
+the whites and Indians firing at the moment of landing.
+Mr. LeBreton, the young man mentioned in the previous
+chapter, after firing ineffectually, rushed unarmed upon
+Cockstock, whose pistol was also empty, but who still had
+his knife. In the struggle both fell to the ground, when
+a mulatto man, who had wrongs of his own to avenge, ran
+up and struck Cockstock a blow on the head with the butt
+of his gun which dispatched him at once.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the colony was rid of a scourge, yet not without
+loss which counterbalanced the gain. Young LeBreton
+besides having his arm shattered by a ball, was wounded
+by a poisoned arrow, which occasioned his death; and
+Mr. Rogers, another esteemed citizen, died from the same
+cause; while a third was seriously injured by a slight
+wound from a poisoned arrow. As for the five friends of
+Cockstock, they escaped to the bluffs overlooking the settlement,
+and commenced firing down upon the people.
+But fire-arms were mustered sufficient to dislodge them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>
+and thus the affair ended; except that the Agent had
+some trouble to settle it with the Dalles Indians, who came
+down in a body to demand payment for the loss of their
+brother. After much talk and explanation, a present to
+the widow of the dead Indian was made to smooth over
+the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Meek, who at the time of the collision was rafting timber
+for Dr. McLaughlin's mill at the Falls, as might have
+been expected was appealed to in the melee by citizens
+who knew less about Indian fighting.</p>
+
+<p>A prominent citizen and merchant, who probably seldom
+spoke <i>of</i> him as Mr. Meek, came running to him in
+great affright:&mdash;"Mr. Meek! Mr. Meek! Mr. Meek!&mdash;I
+want to send my wife down to Vancouver. Can you assist
+me? Do you think the Indians will take the town?"</p>
+
+<p>"It 'pears like half-a-dozen Injuns might do it," retorted
+Meek, going on with his work.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think we had better do, Mr. Meek?&mdash;What
+do you advise?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think <i>you'd</i> better <span class="smcap">run</span>."</p>
+
+<p>In all difficulties between the Indians and settlers, Meek
+usually refrained from taking sides&mdash;especially from taking
+sides against the Indians. For Indian slayer as he had
+once been when a ranger of the mountains, he had too
+much compassion for the poor wretches in the Wallamet
+Valley, as well as too much knowledge of the savage nature,
+to like to make unnecessary war upon them. Had
+he been sent to take Cockstock, very probably he would
+have done it with little uproar; for he had sufficient influence
+among the Calapooyas to have enlisted them in the
+undertaking. But this was the Agent's business and he
+let him manage it; for Meek and the Doctor were not in
+love with one another; one was solemnly audacious, the
+other mischievously so. Of the latter sort of audacity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>
+here is an example. Meek wanted a horse to ride out to
+the Plains where his family were, and not knowing how
+else to obtain it, helped himself to one belonging to Dr.
+White; which presumption greatly incensed the Doctor,
+and caused him to threaten various punishments, hanging
+among the rest. But the Indians overhearing him replied,</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Wake nika cumtux</i>&mdash;You dare not.&mdash;You no put rope
+round Meek's neck. He <i>tyee</i> (chief)&mdash;no hang him."</p>
+
+<p>Upon which the Doctor thought better of it, and having
+vented his solemn audacity, received smiling audacity with
+apparent good humor when he came to restore the borrowed
+horse.</p>
+
+<p>As our friend Meek was sure to be found wherever there
+was anything novel or exciting transpiring, so he was sure
+to fall in with visitors of distinguished character, and as
+ready to answer their questions as they were to ask them.
+The conversation chanced one day to run upon the changes
+that had taken place in the country since the earliest settlement
+by the Americans, and Meek, who felt an honest
+pride in them, was expatiating at some length, to the ill-concealed
+amusement of two young officers, who probably
+saw nothing to admire in the rude improvements of the
+Oregon pioneers.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Meek," said one of them, "if you have been so
+long in the country and have witnessed such wonderful
+transformations, doubtless you may have observed equally
+great ones in nature; in the rivers and mountains, for instance?"</p>
+
+<p>Meek gave a lightning glance at the speaker who had so
+mistaken his respondent:</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon I have," said he slowly. Then waving his
+hand gracefully toward the majestic Mt. Hood, towering
+thousands of feet above the summit of the Cascade range,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>
+and white with everlasting snows: "When <i>I</i> came to this
+country, Mount Hood was <i>a hole in the ground</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>It is hardly necessary to say that the conversation terminated
+abruptly, amid the universal cachinations of the
+bystanders.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the slighting views of Her British Majesty's
+naval officers, the young colony was making rapid
+strides. The population had been increased nearly eight
+hundred by the immigration of 1844, so that now it numbered
+nearly two thousand. Grain had been raised in
+considerable quantities, cattle and hogs had multiplied,
+and the farmers were in the best of spirits. Even our hero,
+who hated farm labor, began to entertain faith in the resources
+of his land claim to make him rich.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the promising condition of the colony in the
+summer of 1845. Much of the real prosperity of the settlers
+was due to the determination of the majority to exclude
+ardent spirits and all intoxicating drinks from the
+country. So well had they succeeded that a gentleman
+writing of the colony at that time, says: "I attended the
+last term of the circuit courts in most of the counties, and
+I found great respect shown to judicial authority everywhere;
+nor did I see a single <i>drunken juryman</i>, <i>nor witness</i>,
+<i>nor spectator</i>. So much industry, good order, and
+sobriety I have never seen in any community."</p>
+
+<p>While this was the rule, there were exceptions to it.
+During the spring term of the Circuit Court, Judge Nesmith
+being on the bench, a prisoner was arraigned before
+him for "assault with intent to kill." The witness for the
+prosecution was called, and was proceeding to give evidence,
+when, at some statement of his, the prisoner vociferated
+that he was a "d&mdash;&mdash;d liar," and quickly stripping
+off his coat demanded a chance to fight it out with the
+witness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Judge Nesmith called for the interference of Meek,
+who had been made marshal, but just at that moment he
+was not to be found. Coming into the room a moment
+later, Meek saw the Judge down from his bench, holding
+the prisoner by the collar.</p>
+
+<p>"You can imagine," says Meek, "the bustle in court.
+But the Judge had the best of it. He fined the rascal,
+and made him pay it on the spot; while I just stood back
+to see his honor handle him. That was fun for me."</p>
+
+<p>The autumn of 1845 was marked less by striking events
+than by the energy which the people exhibited in improving
+the colony by laying out roads and town-sites. Already
+quite a number of towns were located, in which
+the various branches of business were beginning to develop
+themselves. Oregon City was the most populous
+and important, but Salem, Champoeg, and Portland were
+known as towns, and other settlements were growing up
+on the Tualatin Plains and to the south of them, in the
+fertile valleys of the numerous tributaries to the Wallamet.</p>
+
+<p>Portland was settled in this year, and received its name
+from the game of "heads you lose, tails I win," by which
+its joint owners agreed to determine it. One of them
+being a Maine man, was for giving it the name which it
+now bears, the other partner being in favor of Boston,
+because he was a Massachusetts man. It was, therefore,
+agreed between them that a copper cent should be tossed
+to decide the question of the christening, which being
+done, heads and Portland won.</p>
+
+<p>The early days of that city were not always safe and
+pleasant any more than those of its older rivals; and the
+few inhabitants frequently were much annoyed by the
+raids they were subject to from the now thoroughly vagabondized
+Indians. On one occasion, while yet the population
+was small, they were very much annoyed by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>
+visit of eight or ten lodges of Indians, who had somewhere
+obtained liquor enough to get drunk on, and were
+enjoying a debauch in that spirit of total abandon which
+distinguishes the Indian carousal.</p>
+
+<p>Their performances at length alarmed the people, yet
+no one could be found who could put an end to them.
+In this dilemma the Marshal came riding into town, splendidly
+mounted on a horse that would turn at the least
+touch of the rein. The countenances of the anxious
+Portlanders brightened. One of the town proprietors
+eagerly besought him to "settle those Indians." "Very
+well," answered Meek; "I reckon it won't take me long."
+Mounting his horse, after first securing a rawhide rope, he
+"charged" the Indian lodges, rope in hand, laying it on
+with force, the bare shoulders of the Indians offering
+good <i>back-grounds</i> for the pictures which he was rapidly
+executing.</p>
+
+<p>Not one made any resistance, for they had a wholesome
+fear of <i>tyee</i> Meek. In twenty minutes not an Indian, man
+or woman, was left in Portland. Some jumped into the
+river and swam to the opposite side, and some fled to the
+thick woods and hid themselves. The next morning,
+early, the women cautiously returned and carried away
+their property, but the men avoided being seen again by
+the marshal who punished drunkenness so severely.</p>
+
+<p><i>Reader's query.</i> Was it Meek or the Marshal who so
+strongly disapproved of spreeing?</p>
+
+<p><i>Ans.</i> It was the Marshal.</p>
+
+<p>The immigration to Oregon this year much exceeded
+that of any previous year; and there was the usual
+amount of poverty, sickness, and suffering of every sort,
+among the fresh arrivals. Indeed the larger the trains
+the greater the amount of suffering generally; since the
+grass was more likely to be exhausted, and more hin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>drances
+of every kind were likely to occur. In any case,
+a march of several months through an unsettled country
+was sure to leave the traveler in a most forlorn and exhausted
+condition every way.</p>
+
+<p>This was the situation of thousands of people who
+reached the Dalles in the autumn of 1845. Food was
+very scarce among them, and the difficulties to encounter
+before reaching the Wallamet just as great as those of the
+two previous years. As usual the Hudson's Bay Company
+came to the assistance of the immigrants, furnishing a passage
+down the river in their boats; the sick, and the
+women and children being taken first.</p>
+
+<p>Among the crowd of people encamped at the Dalles,
+was a Mr. Rector, since well known in Oregon and California.
+Like many others he was destitute of provisions;
+his supplies having given out. Neither had he any money.
+In this extremity he did that which was very disagreeable
+to him, as one of the "prejudiced" American citizens
+who were instructed beforehand to hate and suspect the
+Hudson's Bay Company&mdash;he applied to the company's
+agent at the Dalles for some potatoes and flour, confessing
+his present inability to pay, with much shame and reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not apologize, sir," said the agent kindly; "take
+what you need. There is no occasion to starve while our
+supplies hold out."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. R. found his prejudices in danger of melting away
+under such treatment; and not liking to receive bounty a
+second time, he resolved to undertake the crossing of the
+Cascade mountains while the more feeble of the immigrants
+were being boated down the Columbia. A few
+others who were in good health decided to accompany
+him. They succeeded in getting their wagons forty miles
+beyond the Dalles; but there they could move no further.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In this dilemma, after consultation, Mr. Rector and Mr.
+Barlow agreed to go ahead and look out a wagon road.
+Taking with them two days' provisions, they started on
+in the direction of Oregon City. But they found road
+hunting in the Cascade mountains an experience unlike
+any they had ever had. Not only had they to contend
+with the usual obstacles of precipices, ravines, mountain
+torrents, and weary stretches of ascent and descent; but
+they found the forests standing so thickly that it would
+have been impossible to have passed between the trees
+with their wagons had the ground been clear of fallen
+timber and undergrowth. On the contrary these latter
+obstacles were the greatest of all. So thickly were the
+trunks of fallen trees crossed and recrossed everywhere,
+and so dense the growth of bushes in amongst them, that
+it was with difficulty they could force their way on foot.</p>
+
+<p>It soon became apparent to the road hunters, that two
+days' rations would not suffice for what work they had
+before them. At the first camp it was agreed to live
+upon half rations the next day; and to divide and subdivide
+their food each day, only eating half of what was
+left from the day before, so that there would always still
+remain a morsel in case of dire extremity.</p>
+
+<p>But the toil of getting through the woods and over the
+mountains proved excessive; and that, together with insufficient
+food, had in the course of two or three days
+reduced the strength of Mr. Barlow so that it was with
+great effort only that he could keep up with his younger
+and more robust companion, stumbling and falling at
+every few steps, and frequently hurting himself considerably.</p>
+
+<p>So wolfish and cruel is the nature of men, under trying
+circumstances, that instead of feeling pity for his weaker
+and less fortunate companion, Mr. Rector became impa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>tient,
+blaming him for causing delays, and often requiring
+assistance.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft"><a id="i351" name="i351"></a>
+<img src="images/i351.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">THE ROAD-HUNTERS.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>To render their situation still more trying, rain began
+to fall heavily, which with the cold air of the mountains,
+soon benumbed their exhausted frames. Fearing that
+should they go to sleep so cold and famished, they might
+never be able to rise again, on the fourth or fifth evening
+they resolved to
+kindle a fire, if by
+any means they
+could do so. Dry
+and broken wood
+had been plenty
+enough, but for the
+rain, which was
+drenching everything.
+Neither
+matches nor flint
+had they, however,
+in any case. The
+night was setting
+in black with darkness;
+the wind
+swayed the giant
+firs over head, and
+then they heard
+the thunder of a
+falling monarch of
+the forest unpleasantly
+near. Searching
+among the bushes,
+and under fallen timber for some dry leaves and sticks,
+Mr. Rector took a bundle of them to the most sheltered
+spot he could find, and set himself to work to coax a spark
+of fire out of two pieces of dry wood which he had split<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>
+for that purpose. It was a long and weary while before success
+was attained, by vigorous rubbing together of the dry
+wood, but it was attained at last; and the stiffening limbs
+of the road-hunters were warmed by a blazing camp-fire.</p>
+
+<p>The following day, the food being now reduced to a
+crumb for each, the explorers, weak and dejected, toiled
+on in silence, Mr. Rector always in advance. On chancing
+to look back at his companion he observed him to be
+brushing away a tear. "What now, old man?" asked
+Mr. R. with most unchristian harshness.</p>
+
+<p>"What would you do with me, Rector, should I fall and
+break a leg, or become in any way disabled?" inquired
+Mr. Barlow, nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"Do with you? <i>I would eat you!</i>" growled Mr. Rector,
+stalking on again.</p>
+
+<p>As no more was said for some time, Mr. R.'s conscience
+rather misgave him that he treated his friend unfeelingly;
+then he stole a look back at him, and beheld the wan face
+bathed in tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Barlow," said he more kindly, "don't
+take affairs so much to heart. You will not break a leg,
+and I should not eat you if you did, for you haven't any
+flesh on you to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, Rector, I want you to promise me that
+in case I should fall and disable myself, so that I cannot
+get on, you will not leave me here to die alone, but will
+kill me with your axe instead."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, Barlow; you are weak and nervous, but
+you are not going to be disabled, nor eaten, nor killed.
+Keep up man; we shall reach Oregon City yet."</p>
+
+<p>So, onward, but ever more slowly and painfully, toiled
+again the pioneers, the wonder being that Mr. Barlow's
+fears were not realized, for the clambering and descending
+gave him many a tumble, the tumbles becoming more
+frequent as his strength declined.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Towards evening of this day as they came to the precipitous
+bank of a mountain stream which was flowing in
+the direction they wished to go, suddenly there came to
+their ears a sound of more than celestial melody; the
+tinkling of bells, lowing of cattle, the voice of men hallooing
+to the herds. They had struck the cattle trail,
+which they had first diverged from in the hope of finding
+a road passable to wagons. In the overwhelming revulsion
+of feeling which seized them, neither were able for
+some moments to command their voices to call for assistance.
+That night they camped with the herdsmen, and
+supped in such plenty as an immigrant camp afforded.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the sufferings of two individuals, out of a
+great crowd of sufferers; some afflicted in one way and
+some in another. That people who endured so much to
+reach their El Dorado should be the most locally patriotic
+people in the world, is not singular. Mr. Barlow lived to
+construct a wagon road over the Cascades for the use of
+subsequent immigrations.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i353" name="i353"></a>
+<img src="images/i353.jpg" alt="" />
+
+
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Early in 1846, Meek resigned his office of marshal of
+the colony, owing to the difficulty of collecting taxes; for
+in a thinly inhabited country, where wheat was a legal
+tender, at sixty cents per bushel, it was rather a burdensome
+occupation to collect, in so ponderous a currency;
+and one in which the collector required a granary more
+than a pocket-book. Besides, Meek had out-grown the
+marshalship, and aspired to become a legislator at the next
+June election.</p>
+
+<p>He had always discharged his duty with promptitude
+and rectitude while sheriff; and to his known courage
+might be attributed, in many instances, the ready compliance
+with law which was remarkable in so new and peculiar
+an organization as that of the Oregon colony. The
+people had desired not to be taxed, at first; and for a
+year or more the government was sustained by a fund
+raised by subscription. When at last it was deemed best
+to make collections by law, the Canadians objected to taxation
+to support an American government, while they were
+still subjects of Great Britain; but ultimately yielded the
+point, by the advice of Dr. McLaughlin.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not always the Canadians who objected to
+being taxed, as the following anecdote will show. Dr.
+McLaughlin was one day seated in his office, in conversation
+with some of his American friends, when the tall form
+of the sheriff darkened the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to tax you, Doctor," said Meek with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>
+blandest manner, and with a merry twinkle, half suppressed,
+in his black eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"To tax me, Mr. Jo. I was not aware&mdash;I really was
+not aware&mdash;I believed I had paid my tax, Mr. Jo,"
+stammered the Doctor, somewhat annoyed at the prospect
+of some fresh demand.</p>
+
+<p>"Thar is an old ox out in my neighborhood, Doctor,
+and he is said to belong to you. Thar is a tax of twenty-five
+cents on him."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand you, Mr. Jo. I have no cattle out
+in your neighborhood."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't say how that may be, Doctor. All I do
+know about it, is just this. I went to old G&mdash;&mdash;'s to collect
+the tax on his stock&mdash;and he's got a powerful lot of cattle,&mdash;and
+while we war a countin 'em over, he left out
+that old ox and said it belonged to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, oh, I see, Mr. Jo: yes, yes, I see! So it was
+Mr. G&mdash;&mdash;," cried the Doctor, getting very red in the face.
+"I do remember now, since you bring it to my mind, that
+<i>I lent Mr. G&mdash;&mdash; that steer six years ago</i>! Here are the
+twenty-five cents, Mr. Jo."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff took his money, and went away laughing;
+while the Doctor's American friends looked quite as much
+annoyed as the Doctor himself, over the meanness of some
+of their countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>The year of 1846 was one of the most exciting in the
+political history of Oregon. President Polk had at last
+given the notice required by the Joint occupation treaty,
+that the Oregon boundary question must be settled.</p>
+
+<p>Agreeably to the promise which Dr. McLaughlin had
+received from the British Admiral, H.B.M. Sloop of war
+<i>Modeste</i> had arrived in the Columbia River in the month
+of October, 1845, and had wintered there. Much as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>
+Doctor had wished for protection from possible outbreaks,
+he yet felt that the presence of a British man-of-war in
+the Columbia, and another one in Puget Sound, was offensive
+to the colonists. He set himself to cover up as carefully
+as possible the disagreeable features of the British
+lion, by endeavoring to establish social intercourse between
+the officers of the <i>Modeste</i> and the ladies and gentlemen
+of the colony, and his endeavors were productive of a
+partial success.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer, however, the United States Schooner
+<i>Shark</i> appeared in the Columbia, thus restoring the balance
+of power, for the relief of national jealousy. After remaining
+for some weeks, the <i>Shark</i> took her departure,
+but was wrecked on the bar at the mouth of the river,
+according to a prophecy of Meek's, who had a grudge
+against her commander, Lieut. Howison, for spoiling the
+sport he was having in company with one of her officers,
+while Howison was absent at the Cascades.</p>
+
+<p>It appears that Lieut. Schenck was hospitably inclined,
+and that on receiving a visit from the hero of many bear-fights,
+who proved to be congenial on the subject of good
+liquors, he treated both Meek and himself so freely as to
+render discretion a foreign power to either of them. Varied
+and brilliant were the exploits performed by these
+jolly companions during the continuance of the spree;
+and still more brilliant were those they talked of performing,
+even the taking of the <i>Modeste</i>, which was lying a
+little way off, in front of Vancouver. Fortunately for the
+good of all concerned, Schenck contented himself with
+firing a salute as Meek was going over the side of the ship
+on leaving. But for this misdemeanor he was put under
+arrest by Howison, on his return from the Cascades, an indignity
+which Meek resented for the prisoner, by assuring
+Lieut. Howison that he would lose his vessel before he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>
+got out of the river. And lose her he did. Schenck was
+released after the vessel struck, escaping with the other
+officers and crew by means of small boats. Very few articles
+were saved from the wreck, but among those few was
+the stand of colors, which Lieut. Howison subsequently
+presented to Gov. Abernethy for the colony.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem small"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">There sinks the sun; like cavalier of old,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Servant of crafty Spain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">He flaunts his banner, barred with blood and gold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Wide o'er the western main;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">A thousand spear heads glint beyond the trees<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In columns bright and long,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">While kindling fancy hears upon the breeze<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The swell of shout and song.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">And yet not here Spain's gay, adventurous host<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Dipped sword or planted cross;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The treasures guarded by this rock-bound coast<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Counted them gain nor loss.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The blue Columbia, sired by the eternal hills<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And wedded with the sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">O'er golden sands, tithes from a thousand rills,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Boiled in lone majesty&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Through deep ravine, through burning, barren plain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Through wild and rocky strait,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Through forest dark, and mountain rent in twain<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Toward the sunset gate;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">While curious eyes, keen with the lust of gold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Caught not the informing gleam,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">These mighty breakers age on age have rolled<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">To meet this mighty stream.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Age after age these noble hills have kept,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The same majestic lines;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Age after age the horizon's edge been swept<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">By fringe of pointed pines.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Summers and Winters circling came and went,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Bringing no change of scene;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Unresting, and unhasting, and unspent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Dwelt Nature here serene!</span><br /><span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Till God's own time to plant of Freedom's seed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In this selected soil;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Denied forever unto blood and greed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">But blest to honest toil.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">There sinks the sun; Gay cavalier no more!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">His banners trail the sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And all his legions shining on the shore<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Fade into mystery.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">The swelling tide laps on the shingly beach,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Like any starving thing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And hungry breakers, white with wrath, upreach,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In a vain clamoring.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The shadows fall; just level with mine eye<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Sweet Hesper stands and shines,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And shines beneath an arc of golden sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Pinked round with pointed pines.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">A noble scene! all breadth, deep tone, and power,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Suggesting glorious themes;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Shaming the idler who would fill the hour<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With unsubstantial dreams.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Be mine the dreams prophetic, shadowing forth<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The things that yet shall be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">When through this gate the treasures of the North<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Flow outward to the sea.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The author of the following, "poem" was not either a
+dull or an unobservant writer; and we insert his verses as
+a comical bit of natural history belonging peculiarly to
+Oregon.</p>
+
+<p class="center small">ADVENTURES OF A COLUMBIA SALMON.</p>
+
+<div class="poem small"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">What is yon object which attracts the eye<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Of the observing traveler, who ascends<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Columbia's waters, when the summer sky<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In one soft tint, calm nature's clothing blends:<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As glittering in the sunbeams down it floats<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">'Till some vile vulture on its carcase gloats?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">'Tis a poor salmon, which a short time past,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With thousands of her finny sisters came,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">By instinct taught, to seek and find at last,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The place that gave her birth, there to remain<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">'Till nature's offices had been discharged,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And fry from out the ova had emerged.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Her Winter spent amongst the sheltered bays<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Of the salt sea, where numerous fish of prey,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With appetite keen, the number of her days<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Would soon have put an end to, could but they<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Have caught her; but as they could not, she,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Spring having come, resolved to quit the sea:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">And moving with the shoal along the coast, at length<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">She reached the outlet of her native river,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">There tarried for a little to recruit her strength,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">So tried of late by cold and stormy weather;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Sporting in playful gambols o'er the banks and sands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Chasing the tiny fish frequenting there in bands.</span><br /><span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">But ah, how little thought this simple fish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The toils and perils she had yet to suffer,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The chance she ran of serving as a dish<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For hungry white men or for Indian's supper,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Of enemies in which the stream abounded,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">When lo! she's by a fisher's net surrounded.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Partly conscious of her approaching end,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">She darts with meteoric swiftness to and fro,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Striking the frail meshes, within which she's penned,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Which bid defiance to her stoutest blow:<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">To smaller compass by degrees the snare is drawn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">When with a leap she clears it and is gone.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Once more at large with her companions, now<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Become more cautious from her late escape,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">She keeps in deeper water and thinks how<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Foolish she was to get in such a scrape;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As mounting further up the stream, she vies<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With other fish in catching gnats and flies.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">And as she on her way did thus enjoy<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Life's fleeting moments, there arose a panic<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Amongst the stragglers, who in haste deploy<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Around their elder leaders, quick as magic,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">While she unconscious of the untimely rout,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Was by a hungry otter singled out:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Vigorous was the chase, on the marked victim shot<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Through the clear water, while in close pursuit<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Followed her amphibious foe, who scarce had got<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Near enough to grasp her, when with turns acute,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And leaps and revolutions, she so tried the otter,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">He gave up the hunt with merely having bit her.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Scarce had she recovered from her weakness, when<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">An ancient eagle, of the bald-head kind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Winging his dreary way to'rds some lone glen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Where was her nest with four plump eaglets lined,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Espied the fish, which he judged quite a treat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And just the morsel for his little ones to eat:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">And sailing in spiral circles o'er the spot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Where lay his prey, then hovering for a time,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">To take his wary aim, he stooped and caught<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">His booty, which he carried to a lofty pine;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Upon whose topmost branches, he first adjusted<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">His awkward load, ere with his claws he crushed it.</span><br /><span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">"Ill is the wind that blows no person good"&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">So said the adage, and as luck would have it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">A huge grey eagle out in search of food,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Who just had whet his hunger with a rabbit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Attacked the other, and the pair together,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In deadly combat fell into the river.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Our friend of course made off, when she'd done falling<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Some sixty yards, and well indeed she might;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For ne'er, perhaps, a fish got such a mauling<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Since Adam's time, or went up such a height<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Into the air, and came down helter-skelter,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As did this poor production of a melter.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">All these, with many other dangers, she survived,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Too manifold in this short space to mention;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">So we'll suppose her to have now arrived<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Safe at <i>the Falls</i>, without much more detention<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Than one could look for, where so many liked her<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Company, and so many Indians spiked her.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">And here a mighty barrier stops her way:<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The tranquil water, finding in its course<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Itself beset with rising rocks, which lay<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As though they said, "retire ye to your source,"<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Bursts with indignant fury from its bondage, now<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Rushes in foaming torrents to the chasm below.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">The persevering fish then at the foot arrives,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Laboring with redoubled vigor mid the surging tide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And finding, by her strength, she vainly strives<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">To overcome the flood, though o'er and o'er she tried;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Her tail takes in her mouth, and bending like a bow<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That's to full compass drawn, aloft herself doth throw;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">And spinning in the air, as would a silver wand<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That's bended end to end and upwards cast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Headlong she falls amid the showering waters, and<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Gasping for breath, against the rocks is dashed:<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Again, again she vaults, again she tries,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And in one last and feeble effort&mdash;dies.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>There was, in Oregon City, a literary society called the
+"Falls Association," some of whose effusions were occasionally
+sent to the <i>Spectator</i>, and this may have been one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>
+of them. At all events, it is plain that with balls, theatres,
+literary societies, and politics, the colony was not
+afflicted with dullness, in the winter of 1846.</p>
+
+<p>But the history of the immigration this year, afforded,
+perhaps, more material for talk than any one other subject.
+The condition in which the immigrants arrived was
+one of great distress. A new road into the valley had
+been that season explored, at great labor and expense, by
+a company of gentlemen who had in view the aim to
+lessen the perils usually encountered in descending the
+Columbia. They believed that a better pass might be
+discovered through the Cascade range to the south, than
+that which had been found around the base of Mount
+Hood, and one which should bring the immigrants in at
+the upper end of the valley, thus saving them considerable
+travel and loss of time at a season of the year
+when the weather was apt to be unsettled.</p>
+
+<p>With this design, a party had set out to explore the
+Cascades to the south, quite early in the spring; but failing
+in their undertaking, had returned. Another company
+was then immediately formed, headed by a prominent
+member of society and the legislature. This company
+followed the old Hudson's Bay Company's trail,
+crossing all those ranges of mountains perpendicular to
+the coast, which form a triple wall between Oregon and
+California, until they came out into the valley of the Humboldt,
+whence they proceeded along a nearly level, but
+chiefly barren country to Fort Hall, on the Snake River.</p>
+
+<p>The route was found to be practicable, although there
+was a scarcity of grass and water along a portion of it;
+but as the explorers had with great difficulty found out
+and marked all the best camping grounds, and encountered
+first for themselves all the dangers of a hitherto unexplored
+region, most of which they believed they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>
+overcome, they felt no hesitation in recommending the
+new road to the emigrants whom they met at Fort Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Being aware of the hardships which the immigrants of
+the previous years had undergone on the Snake River
+plains, at the crossing of Snake River, the John Day, and
+Des Chutes Rivers, and the passage of the Columbia, the
+travelers gladly accepted the tidings of a safer route to
+the Wallamet. A portion of the immigration had already
+gone on by the road to the Dalles; the remainder turned
+off by the southern route.</p>
+
+<p>Of those who took the new route, a part were destined
+for California. All, however, after passing through the
+sage deserts, committed the error of stopping to recruit
+their cattle and horses in the fresh green valleys among
+the foot-hills of the mountains. It did not occur to
+them that they were wasting precious time in this way;
+but to this indulgence was owing an incredible amount of
+suffering. The California-bound travelers encountered
+the season of snow on the Sierras, and such horrors are
+recorded of their sufferings as it is seldom the task of ears
+to hear or pen to record. Snow-bound, without food,
+those who died of starvation were consumed by the living;
+even children were eaten by their once fond parents,
+with an indifference horrible to think on: so does the
+mind become degraded by great physical suffering.</p>
+
+<p>The Oregon immigrants had not to cross the lofty Sierras;
+but they still found mountains before them which, in
+the dry season, would have been formidable enough. Instead,
+however, of the dry weather continuing, very heavy
+rains set in. The streams became swollen, the mountain
+sides heavy and slippery with the wet earth. Where the
+road led through canyons, men and women were sometimes
+forced to stem a torrent, breast high, and cold
+enough to chill the life in their veins. The cattle gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>
+out, the wagons broke down, provisions became exhausted,
+and a few persons perished, while all were in the direst
+straits.</p>
+
+<p>The first who got through into the valley sent relief to
+those behind; but it was weeks before the last of the
+worn, weary, and now impoverished travelers escaped
+from the horrors of the mountains in which they were so
+hopelessly entangled, and where most of their worldly
+goods were left to rot.</p>
+
+<p>The Oregon legislature met as usual, to hold its winter
+session, though the people hoped and expected it would
+be for the last time under the Provisional Government.
+There were only two "mountain-men" in the House, at
+this session&mdash;Meek and Newell.</p>
+
+<p>In the suspense under which they for the present remained,
+there was nothing to do but to go on in the path
+of duty as they had heretofore done, keeping up their
+present form of government until it was supplanted by a
+better one. So passed the summer until the return of the
+"Glorious Fourth," which, being the first national anniversary
+occurring since the news of the treaty had reached
+the colony, was celebrated with proper enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>It chanced that an American ship, the <i>Brutus</i>, Capt.
+Adams, from Boston, was lying in the Wallamet, and that
+a general invitation had been given to the celebrationists
+to visit the ship during the day. A party of fifty or sixty,
+including Meek and some of his mountain associates, had
+made their calculations to go on board at the same time,
+and were in fact already alongside in boats, when Captain
+Adams singled out a boat load of people belonging to the
+mission clique, and inviting them to come on board, ordered
+all the others off.</p>
+
+<p>This was an insult too great to be borne by mountain-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>men,
+who resented it not only for themselves, but for the people's
+party of Americans to which they naturally belonged.
+Their blood was up, and without stopping to deliberate,
+Meek and Newell hurried off to fetch the twelve-pounder
+that had a few hours before served to thunder forth the
+rejoicings of a free people, but with which they now purposed
+to proclaim their indignation as freeman heinously
+insulted. The little twelve-pound cannon was loaded with
+rock, and got into range with the offending ship, and there
+is little doubt that Capt. Adams would have suffered loss
+at the hands of the incensed multitude, but for the timely
+interference of Dr. McLaughlin. On being informed of
+the warlike intentions of Meek and his associates, the good
+Doctor came running to the rescue, his white hair flowing
+back from his noble face with the hurry of his movements.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, oh, Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe, you must not do this! indeed,
+you must not do this foolish thing! Come now;
+come away. You will injure your country, Mr. Joe. How
+can you expect that ships will come here, if they are fired
+on? Come away, come away!"</p>
+
+<p>And Meek, ever full of waggishness, even in his wrath,
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor, it is not that I love the Brutus less, but my
+dignity more."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Shakespeare, Mr. Joe! But come with me; come
+with me."</p>
+
+<p>And so the good Doctor, half in authority, half in kindness,
+persuaded the resentful colonists to pass by the favoritism
+of the Boston captain.</p>
+
+<p>Meek was reëlected to the legislature this summer, and
+swam out to a vessel lying down at the mouth of the
+Wallamet, to get liquor to treat his constituents; from
+which circumstance it may be inferred that while Oregon
+was remarkable for temperance, there were occasions on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>
+which conviviality was deemed justifiable by a portion of
+her people.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed the summer. The autumn brought news
+of a large emigration <i>en route</i> for the new territory; but
+it brought no news of good import from Congress. On
+the contrary the bill providing for a territorial government
+for Oregon had failed, because the Organic Laws of that
+territory excluded slavery forever from the country. The
+history of its failure is a part and parcel of the record of
+the long hard struggle of the south to extend slavery into
+the United States' territories.</p>
+
+<p>Justly dissatisfied, but not inconsolable, the colony, now
+that hope was extinguished for another season, returned
+to its own affairs. The immigration, which had arrived
+early this year, amounted to between four and five thousand.
+An unfortunate affray between the immigrants and
+the Indians at the Dalles, had frightened away from that
+station the Rev. Father Waller; and Dr. Whitman of the
+Waiilatpu mission had purchased the station for the Presbyterian
+mission, and placed a nephew of his in charge.
+Although, true to their original bad character, the Dalles
+Indians had frequently committed theft upon the passing
+emigration, this was the first difficulty resulting in loss
+of life, which had taken place. This quarrel arose out of
+some thefts committed by the Indians, and the unwise advice
+of Mr. Waller, in telling the immigrants to retaliate
+by taking some of the Indian horses. An Indian can see
+the justice of taking toll from every traveler passing
+through his country; but he cannot see the justice of being
+robbed in return; and Mr. Waller had been long
+enough among them to have known this.</p>
+
+<p>Finding that it must continue yet a little longer to look
+after its own government and welfare, the colony had
+settled back into its wonted pursuits. The legislature<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>
+had convened for its winter session, and had hardly elected
+its officers and read the usual message of the Governor,
+before there came another, which fell upon their ears like
+a thunderbolt. Gov. Abernethy had sent in the following
+letter, written at Vancouver the day before:</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small">
+<p class="midind">
+<span class="smcap">Fort Vancouver</span>, Dec. 7, 1847.</p>
+<p><i>George Abernethy, Esq.</i>;
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>:&mdash;Having received intelligence, last night, by special express from
+Walla-Walla, of the destruction of the missionary settlement at Waiilatpu, by
+the Cayuse Indians of that place, we hasten to communicate the particulars of
+that dreadful event, one of the most atrocious which darkens the annals of Indian
+crime.</p>
+
+<p>Our lamented friend, Dr. Whitman, his amiable and accomplished lady, with
+nine other persons, have fallen victims to the fury of these remorseless savages,
+who appear to have been instigated to this appalling crime by a horrible suspicion
+which had taken possession of their superstitious minds, in consequence
+of the number of deaths from dysentery and measles, that Dr. Whitman was
+silently working the destruction of their tribe by administering poisonous drugs,
+under the semblance of salutary medicines.</p>
+
+<p>With a goodness of heart and benevolence truly his own, Dr. Whitman had
+been laboring incessantly since the appearance of the measles and dysentery
+among his Indian converts, to relieve their sufferings; and such has been the
+reward of his generous labors.</p>
+
+<p>A copy of Mr. McBean's letter, herewith transmitted, will give you all the
+particulars known to us of this indescribably painful event.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ogden, with a strong party, will leave this place as soon as possible for
+Walla-Walla, to endeavor to prevent further evil; and we beg to suggest to
+you the propriety of taking instant measures for the protection of the Rev. Mr.
+Spalding, who, for the sake of his family, ought to abandon the Clear-water
+mission without delay, and retire to a place of safety, as he cannot remain at
+that isolated station without imminent risk, in the present excited and irritable
+State of the Indian population.</p>
+
+<p class="ind">I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,</p>
+
+<p class="midind">
+JAMES DOUGLAS.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1842-7. Doubtless the reader remembers the disquiet
+felt and expressed by the Indians in the upper country in
+the year 1842. For the time they had been quieted by
+presents, by the advice of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+and by the Agent's promise that in good time the United
+States would send them blankets, guns, ammunition, food
+farming implements, and teachers to show them how to
+live like the whites.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, five years having passed, these promises
+had not been kept. Five times a large number of
+whites, with their children, their cattle, and wagons, had
+passed through their country, and gone down into the
+Wallamet Valley to settle. Now they had learned that
+the United States claimed the Wallamet valley; yet they
+had never heard that the Indians of that country had received
+any pay for it.</p>
+
+<p>They had accepted the religion of the whites believing
+it would do them good; but now they were doubtful.
+Had they not accepted laws from the United States agent,
+and had not their people been punished for acts which
+their ancestors and themselves had always before committed
+at will? None of these innovations seemed to do
+them any good: they were disappointed. But the whites,
+or Bostons, (meaning the Americans) were coming more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>
+and more every year, so that by-and-by there would be
+all Bostons and no Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Once they had trusted in the words of the Americans;
+but now they knew how worthless were their promises.
+The Americans had done them much harm. Years before
+had not one of the missionaries suffered several of their
+people, and the son of one of their chiefs, to be slain in
+his company, yet himself escaped? Had not the son of
+another chief, who had gone to California to buy cattle,
+been killed by a party of Americans, for no fault of his
+own? Their chief's son was killed, the cattle robbed from
+his party, after having been paid for; and his friends
+obliged to return poor and in grief.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure, Dr. White had given them some drafts to
+be used in obtaining cattle from the immigration, as a
+compensation for their losses in California; but they could
+not make them available; and those who wanted cattle
+had to go down to the Wallamet for them. In short,
+could the Indians have thought of an American epithet to
+apply to Americans, it would have been that expressive
+word <i>humbug</i>. What they felt and what they thought,
+was, that they had been cheated. They feared greater
+frauds in the future, and they were secretly resolved not
+to submit to them.</p>
+
+<p>So far as regarded the missionaries, Dr. Whitman and
+his associates, they were divided; yet as so many looked
+on the Doctor as an agent in promoting the settlement of
+the country with whites, it was thought best to drive him
+from the country, together with all the missionaries. Several
+years before Dr. Whitman had known that the Indians
+were displeased with his settlement among them. They
+had told him of it: they had treated him with violence;
+they had attempted to outrage his wife; had burned his
+property; and had more recently several times warned
+him to leave their country, or they should kill him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Not that all were angry at him alike, or that any were
+personally very ill-disposed towards him. Everything
+that a man could do to instruct and elevate these savage
+people, he had done, to the best of his ability, together
+with his wife and assistants. But he had not been able, or
+perhaps had not attempted, to conceal the fact, that he
+looked upon the country as belonging to his people, rather
+than to the natives, and it was this fact which was at the
+bottom of their "bad hearts" toward the Doctor. So often
+had warnings been given which were disregarded by Dr.
+Whitman, that his friends, both at Vancouver and in the
+settlements, had long felt great uneasiness, and often besought
+him to remove to the Wallamet valley.</p>
+
+<p>But although Dr. Whitman sometimes was half persuaded
+to give up the mission upon the representations of
+others, he could not quite bring himself to do so. So far
+as the good conduct of the Indians was concerned, they
+had never behaved better than for the last two years.
+There had been less violence, less open outrage, than formerly;
+and their civilization seemed to be progressing;
+while some few were apparently hopeful converts. Yet
+there was ever a whisper in the air&mdash;"Dr. Whitman must
+die."</p>
+
+<p>The mission at Lapwai was peculiarly successful. Mrs.
+Spalding, more than any other of the missionaries, had
+been able to adapt herself to the Indian character, and to
+gain their confidence. Besides, the Nez Perces were a
+better nation than the Cayuses;&mdash;more easily controlled
+by a good counsel; and it seemed like doing a wrong to
+abandon the work so long as any good was likely to result
+from it. There were other reasons too, why the missions
+could not be abandoned in haste, one of which was the
+difficulty of disposing of the property. This might have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>
+been done perhaps, to the Catholics, who were establishing
+missions throughout the upper country; but Dr. Whitman
+would never have been so false to his own doctrines,
+as to leave the field of his labors to the Romish Church.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the division of sentiment among the Indians with
+regard to religion, since the Catholic missionaries had come
+among them, increased the danger of a revolt: for in
+the Indian country neither two rival trading companies,
+nor two rival religions can long prosper side by side.
+The savage cannot understand the origin of so many religions.
+He either repudiates all, or he takes that which
+addresses itself to his understanding through the senses.
+In the latter respect, the forms of Catholicism, as adapted
+to the savage understanding, made that religion a dangerous
+rival to intellectual and idealistic Presbyterianism.
+But the more dangerous the rival, the greater the firmness
+with which Dr. Whitman would cling to his duty.</p>
+
+<p>There were so many causes at work to produce a revolution
+among the Indians, that it would be unfair to name
+any one as <i>the</i> cause. The last and immediate provocation
+was a season of severe sickness among them. The
+disease was measles, and was brought in the train of the
+immigration.</p>
+
+<p>This fact alone was enough to provoke the worst passions
+of the savage. The immigration in itself was a sufficient
+offense; the introduction through them of a pestilence,
+a still weightier one. It did not signify that Dr.
+Whitman had exerted himself night and day to give them
+relief. Their peculiar notions about a medicine-man made
+it the Doctor's duty to cure the sick; or made it the duty
+of the relatives of the dead and dying to avenge their
+deaths.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in spite of all and every provocation, perhaps the
+fatal tragedy might have been postponed, had it not been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>
+for the evil influence of one Jo Lewis, a half-breed, who
+had accompanied the emigration from the vicinity of Fort
+Hall. This Jo Lewis, with a large party of emigrants,
+had stopped to winter at the mission, much against Dr.
+Whitman's wishes; for he feared not having food enough
+for so many persons. Finding that he could not prevent
+them, he took some of the men into his employ, and among
+others the stranger half-breed.</p>
+
+<p>This man was much about the house, and affected to relate
+to the Indians conversations which he heard between
+Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, and Mr. Spalding, who with his
+little daughter, was visiting at Waiilatpu. These conversations
+related to poisoning the Indians, in order to get
+them all out of the way, so that the white men could enjoy
+their country unmolested. Yet this devil incarnate
+did not convince his hearers at once of the truth of his
+statements; and it was resolved in the tribe to make a
+test of Dr. Whitman's medicine. Three persons were selected
+to experiment upon; two of them already sick, and
+the third quite well. Whether it was that the medicine
+was administered in too large quantities, or whether an
+unhappy chance so ordered it, all those three persons died.
+Surely it is not singular that in the savage mind this circumstance
+should have been deemed decisive. It was
+then that the decree went forth that not only the Doctor
+and Mrs. Whitman, but all the Americans at the mission
+must die.</p>
+
+<p>On the 22d of November, Mr. Spalding arrived at
+Waiilatpu, from his mission, one hundred and twenty
+miles distant, with his daughter, a child of ten years,
+bringing with him also several horse-loads of grain, to
+help feed the emigrants wintering there. He found the
+Indians suffering very much, dying one, two, three, and
+sometimes five in a day. Several of the emigrant families,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>
+also, were sick with measles and the dysentery, which followed
+the disease. A child of one of them died the day
+following Mr. Spalding's arrival.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Whitman's family consisted of himself and wife,
+a young man named Rodgers, who was employed as a
+teacher, and also studying for the ministry, two young
+people, a brother and sister, named Bulee, seven orphaned
+children of one family, whose parents had died on the
+road to Oregon in a previous year, named Sager, Helen
+Mar, the daughter of Joe Meek, another little half-breed
+girl, daughter of Bridger the fur-trader, a half-breed
+Spanish boy whom the Doctor had brought up from infancy,
+and two sons of a Mr. Manson, of the Hudson's
+Bay Company.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these, there were half-a-dozen other families at
+the mission, and at the saw-mill, twenty miles distant, five
+families more&mdash;in all, forty-six persons at Waiilatpu, and
+fifteen at the mill, who were among those who suffered by
+the attack. But there were also about the mission, three
+others, Jo Lewis, Nicholas Finlay, and Joseph Stanfield,
+who probably knew what was about to take place, and
+may, therefore be reckoned as among the conspirators.</p>
+
+<p>While Mr. Spalding was at Waiilatpu, a message came
+from two Walla-Walla chiefs, living on the Umatilla River,
+to Dr. Whitman, desiring him to visit the sick in their
+villages, and the two friends set out together to attend to
+the call, on the evening of the 27th of November. Says
+Mr. Spalding, referring to that time: "The night was
+dark, and the wind and rain beat furiously upon us. But
+our interview was sweet. We little thought it was to be
+our last. With feelings of the deepest emotion we called
+to mind the fact, that eleven years before, we crossed this
+trail before arriving at Walla-Walla, the end of our seven
+months' journey from New York. We called to mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>
+the high hopes and thrilling interests which had been
+awakened during the year that followed&mdash;of our successful
+labors and the constant devotedness of the Indians to
+improvement. True, we remembered the months of deep
+solicitude we had, occasioned by the increasing menacing
+demands of the Indians for pay for their wood, their
+water, their air, their lands. But much of this had passed
+away, and the Cayuses were in a far more encouraging
+condition than ever before." Mr. Spalding further relates
+that himself and Dr. Whitman also conversed on the
+danger which threatened them from the Catholic influence.
+"We felt," he says, "that the present sickness afforded
+them a favorable opportunity to excite the Indians to
+drive us from the country, and all the movements about
+us seemed to indicate that this would soon be attempted,
+if not executed." Such was the suspicion in the minds
+of the Protestants. Let us hope that it was not so well
+founded as they believed.</p>
+
+<p>The two friends arrived late at the lodge of <i>Stickas</i>, a
+chief, and laid down before a blazing fire to dry their
+drenched clothing. In the morning a good breakfast was
+prepared for them, consisting of beef, vegetables, and
+bread&mdash;all of which showed the improvement of the Indians
+in the art of living. The day, being Sunday, was
+observed with as much decorum as in a white man's house.
+After breakfast, Dr. Whitman crossed the river to visit
+the chiefs who had sent for him, namely, <i>Tan-i-tan</i>, <i>Five
+Crows</i>, and <i>Yam-ha-wa-lis</i>, returning about four o'clock
+in the afternoon, saying he had taken tea with the Catholic
+bishop and two priests, at their house, which belonged
+to <i>Tan-i-tan</i>, and that they had promised to visit him in a
+short time. He then departed for the mission, feeling
+uneasy about the sick ones at home.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Spalding remained with the intention of visiting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>
+the sick and offering consolation to the dying. But he
+soon discovered that there was a weighty and uncomfortable
+secret on the mind of his entertainer, <i>Stickas</i>. After
+much questioning, <i>Stickas</i> admitted that the thought which
+troubled him was that the Americans had been "decreed
+against" by his people; more he could not be induced to
+reveal. Anxious, yet not seriously alarmed,&mdash;for these
+warnings had been given before many times,&mdash;he retired
+to his couch of skins, on the evening of the 29th, being
+Monday&mdash;not to sleep, however; for on either side of
+him an Indian woman sat down to chant the death-song&mdash;that
+frightful lament which announces danger and death.
+On being questioned they would reveal nothing.</p>
+
+<p>On the following morning, Mr. Spalding could no longer
+remain in uncertainty, but set out for Waiilatpu. As he
+mounted his horse to depart, an Indian woman placed
+her hand on the neck of his horse to arrest him, and pretending
+to be arranging his head-gear, said in a low voice
+to the rider, "Beware of the Cayuses at the mission."
+Now more than ever disturbed by this intimation that it
+was the mission which was threatened, he hurried forward,
+fearing for his daughter and his friends. He proceeded
+without meeting any one until within sight of the
+lovely Walla-Walla valley, almost in sight of the mission
+itself, when suddenly, at a wooded spot where the trail
+passes through a little hollow, he beheld two horsemen
+advancing, whom he watched with a fluttering heart,
+longing for, and yet dreading, the news which the very
+air seemed whispering.</p>
+
+<p>The two horsemen proved to be the Catholic Vicar
+General, Brouillet, who, with a party of priests and nuns
+had arrived in the country only a few months previous,
+and his half-breed interpreter, both of whom were known<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>
+to Mr. Spalding. They each drew rein as they approached,
+Mr. Spalding immediately inquiring "what news?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are very many sick at the Whitman station,"
+answered Brouillet, with evident embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"How are Doctor and Mrs. Whitman?" asked Spalding
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor is ill&mdash;is dead," added the priest reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"And Mrs. Whitman?" gasped Spalding.</p>
+
+<p>"Is dead also. The Indians have killed them."</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter?" murmured the agonized questioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Is safe, with the other prisoners," answered Brouillet.</p>
+
+<p>"And then," says Spalding in speaking of that moment
+of infinite horror, when in his imagination a picture of the
+massacre, of the anguish of his child, the suffering of the
+prisoners, of the probable destruction of his own family
+and mission, and his surely impending fate, all rose up
+before him&mdash;"I felt the world all blotted out at once, and
+sat on my horse as rigid as a stone, not knowing or feeling
+anything."</p>
+
+<p>While this conversation had been going on the half-breed
+interpreter had kept a sinister watch over the communication,
+and his actions had so suspicious a look that
+the priest ordered him to ride on ahead. When he had
+obeyed, Brouillet gave some rapid instructions to Spalding;
+not to go near the mission, where he could do no
+good, but would be certainly murdered; but to fly, to
+hide himself until the excitement was over. The men at
+the mission were probably all killed; the women and
+children would be spared; nothing could be done at present
+but to try to save his own life, which the Indians were
+resolved to take.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was hurried, for there was no time to
+lose. Spalding gave his pack-horse to Brouillet, to avoid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>
+being encumbered by it; and taking some provisions
+which the priest offered, struck off into the woods there
+to hide until dark. Nearly a week from this night he arrived
+at the Lapwai mission, starved, torn, with bleeding
+feet as well as broken heart. Obliged to secrete himself
+by day, his horse had escaped from him, leaving him to
+perform his night journeys on foot over the sharp rocks
+and prickly cactus plants, until not only his shoes had
+been worn out, but his feet had become cruelly lacerated.
+The constant fear which had preyed upon his heart of
+finding his family murdered, had produced fearful havoc
+in the life-forces; and although Mr. Spalding had the happiness
+of finding that the Nez Perces had been true to
+Mrs. Spalding, defending her from destruction, yet so
+great had been the first shock, and so long continued the
+strain, that his nervous system remained a wreck ever
+afterward.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i377" name="i377"></a>
+<img src="images/i377.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">MOUNT HOOD FROM THE DALLES.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1847. When Dr. Whitman reached home on that Sunday
+night, after parting with Mr. Spalding at the Umatilla,
+it was already about midnight; yet he visited the sick
+before retiring to rest; and early in the morning resumed
+his duties among them. An Indian died that morning.
+At his burial, which the Doctor attended, he observed
+that but few of the friends and relatives of the deceased
+were present but attributed it to the fear which the Indians
+have of disease.</p>
+
+<p>Everything about the mission was going on as usual.
+Quite a number of Indians were gathered about the place;
+but as an ox was being butchered, the crowd was easily
+accounted for. Three men were dressing the beef in the
+yard. The afternoon session of the mission school had
+just commenced. The mechanics belonging to the station
+were about their various avocations. Young Bulee was
+sick in the Doctor's house. Three of the orphan children
+who were recovering from the measles, were with the
+Doctor and Mrs. Whitman in the sitting-room; and also a
+Mrs. Osborne, one of the emigrants who had just got up
+from a sick bed, and who had a sick child in her arms.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i379" name="i379"></a>
+<img src="images/i379.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>MASSACRE OF REV. DR. WHITMAN OF THE PRESBYTERIAN MISSION.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Doctor had just come in, wearied, and dejected as it
+was possible for his resolute spirit to be, and had seated
+himself, bible in hand, when several Indians came to a side
+door, asking permission to come in and get some medicine.
+The Doctor rose, got his medicines, gave them out, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>
+sat down again. At that moment Mrs. Whitman was in
+an adjoining room and did not see what followed. <i>Tam-a-has</i>,
+a chief called "the murderer," came behind the
+Doctor's chair, and raising his tomahawk, struck the Doctor
+in the back of the head, stunning but not killing him.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly there was a violent commotion. John Sager,
+one of the adopted children, sprang up with his pistol in
+his hand, but before he could fire it, he too was struck
+down, and cut and hacked shockingly. In the meantime
+Dr. Whitman had received a second blow upon the head,
+and now laid lifeless on the floor. Cries and confusion
+filled the house.</p>
+
+<p>At the first sound, Mrs. Whitman, in whose ears that
+whisper in the air had so long sounded, began in agony
+to stamp upon the floor, and wring her hands, crying out,
+"Oh, the Indians, the Indians!" At that moment one of
+the women from an adjoining building came running in,
+gasping with terror, for the butchery was going on outside
+as well, and <i>Tam-a-has</i> and his associates were now assisting
+at it. Going to the room where the Doctor lay insensible,
+Mrs. Whitman and her terrified neighbor dragged
+him to the sofa and laid him upon it, doing all they could
+to revive him. To all their inquiries he answered by a
+whispered "no," probably not conscious what was said.</p>
+
+<p>While this was being done, the people from every quarter
+began to crowd into the Doctor's house, many of them
+wounded. Outside were heard the shrieks of women, the
+yells of the Indians, the roar of musketry, the noise of furious
+riding, of meeting war-clubs, groans, and every
+frightful combination of sound, such as only could be heard
+at such a carnival of blood. Still Mrs. Whitman sat by
+her husband's side, intent on trying to rouse him to say
+one coherent word.</p>
+
+<p>Nearer and nearer came the struggle, and she heard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>
+some one exclaim that two of her friends were being murdered
+beneath the window. Starting up, she approached
+the casement to get a view, as if by looking she could
+save; but that moment she encountered the fiendish gaze
+of Jo Lewis the half-breed, and comprehended his guilt.
+"Is it <i>you</i>, Jo, who are doing this?" she cried. Before the
+expression of horror had left her lips, a young Indian who
+had been a special favorite about the mission, drew up his
+gun and fired, the ball entering her right breast, when she
+fell without a groan.</p>
+
+<p>When the people had at first rushed in, Mrs. Whitman
+had ordered the doors fastened and the sick children removed
+to a room up stairs. Thither now she was herself
+conveyed, having first recovered sufficiently to stagger to
+the sofa where lay her dying husband. Those who witnessed
+this strange scene, say that she knelt and prayed&mdash;prayed
+for the orphan children she was leaving, and for
+her aged parents. The only expression of personal regret
+she was heard to utter, was sorrow that her father and
+mother should live to know she had perished in such a
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>In the chamber were now gathered Mrs. Whitman, Mrs.
+Hayes, Miss Bulee, Catharine Sager, thirteen years of age,
+and three of the sick children, besides Mr. Rogers and Mr.
+Kimble. Scarcely had they gained this retreat when the
+crashing of windows and doors was heard below, and with
+whoops and yells the savages dashed into the sitting-room
+where Doctor Whitman still lay dying. While some
+busied themselves removing from the house the goods and
+furniture, a chief named <i>Te-lau-ka-ikt</i>, a favorite at the
+mission, and on probation for admission into the church,
+deliberately chopped and mangled the face of his still
+breathing teacher and friend with his tomahawk, until every
+feature was rendered unrecognizable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The children from the school-house were brought into
+the kitchen of the Doctor's house about this time, by Jo
+Lewis, where, he told them, they were going to be shot.
+Mr. Spalding's little girl Eliza, was among them. Understanding
+the native language, she was fully aware of the
+terrible import of what was being said by their tormentors.
+While the Indians talked of shooting the children
+huddled together in the kitchen, pointing their guns, and
+yelling, Eliza covered her face with her apron, and leaned
+over upon the sink, that she might not see them shoot her.
+After being tortured in this manner for some time, the
+children were finally ordered out of doors.</p>
+
+<p>While this was going on, a chief called <i>Tamt-sak-y</i>, was
+trying to induce Mrs. Whitman to come down into the
+sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>She replied that she was wounded and could not do so,
+upon which he professed much sorrow, and still desired
+her to be brought down, "If you are my friend <i>Tamt-sak-y</i>,
+come up and see me," was her reply to his professions,
+but he objected, saying there were Americans concealed
+in the chamber, whom he feared might kill him.
+Mr. Rogers then went to the head of the stairs and endeavored
+to have the chief come up, hoping there might
+be some friendly ones, who would aid them in escaping
+from the murderers. <i>Tamt-sak-y</i>, however, would not
+come up the stairs, although he persisted in saying that
+Mrs. Whitman should not be harmed, and that if all would
+come down and go over to the other house where the families
+were collected, they might do so in safety.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians below now began to call out that they were
+going to burn the Doctor's house. Then no alternative
+remained but to descend and trust to the mercy of the
+savages. As Mrs. Whitman entered the sitting-room, leaning
+on one arm of Mr. Rogers, who also was wounded in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>
+the head, and had a broken arm, she caught a view of the
+shockingly mutilated face of her husband and fell fainting
+upon the sofa, just as Doctor Whitman gave a dying gasp.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Hayes now attempted to get the
+sofa, or settee, out of the house, and had succeeded in
+moving it through the kitchen to the door. No sooner
+did they appear in the open door-way than a volley of balls
+assailed them. Mr. Rogers fell at once, but did not die
+immediately, for one of the most horrid features in this
+horrid butchery was, that the victims were murdered by
+torturing degrees. Mrs. Whitman also received several
+gunshot wounds, lying on the settee. Francis Sager, the
+oldest of her adopted boys, was dragged into the group of
+dying ones and shot down.</p>
+
+<p>The children, who had been turned out of the kitchen
+were still huddled together about the kitchen door, so
+near to this awful scene that every incident was known to
+them, so near that the flashes from the guns of the Indians
+burnt their hair, and the odor of the blood and the burning
+powder almost suffocated them.</p>
+
+<p>At two o'clock in the afternoon the massacre had commenced.
+It was now growing dusk, and the demons were
+eager to finish their work. Seeing that life still lingered
+in the mangled bodies of their victims, they finished their
+atrocities by hurling them in the mud and gore which filled
+the yard, and beating them upon their faces with whips
+and clubs, while the air was filled with the noise of their
+shouting, singing, and dancing&mdash;the Indian women and
+children assisting at these orgies, as if the Bible had never
+been preached to them. And thus, after eleven years of
+patient endeavor to save some heathen souls alive, perished
+Doctor and Mrs. Whitman.</p>
+
+<p>In all that number of Indians who had received daily
+kindnesses at the hands of the missionaries, only two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>
+showed any compassion. These two, <i>Ups</i> and <i>Madpool</i>,
+Walla-Wallas, who were employed by the Doctor, took
+the children away from the sickening sights that surrounded
+them, into the kitchen pantry, and there in secret
+tried to comfort them.</p>
+
+<p>When night set in the children and families were all removed
+to the building called the mansion-house, where they
+spent a night of horror; all, except those who were left in
+Mrs. Whitman's chamber, from which they dared not descend,
+and the family of Mr. Osborne, who escaped.</p>
+
+<p>On the first assault Mr. and Mrs. Osborne ran into their
+bedroom which adjoined the sitting-room, taking with
+them their three small children. Raising a plank in the
+floor, Mr. O. quickly thrust his wife and children into the
+space beneath, and then following, let the plank down to
+its place. Here they remained until darkness set in, able
+to hear all that was passing about them, and fearing to
+stir. When all was quiet at the Doctor's house, they stole
+out under cover of darkness and succeeded in reaching
+Fort Walla-Walla, after a painful journey of several days,
+or rather nights, for they dared not travel by day.</p>
+
+<p>Another person who escaped was a Mr. Hall, carpenter,
+who in a hand to hand contest with an Indian, received a
+wound in the face, but finally reached the cover of some
+bushes where he remained until dark, and then fled in the
+direction of Fort Walla-Walla. Mr. Hall was the first to
+arrive at the fort, where, contrary to his expectations, and
+to all humanity, he was but coldly received by the gentleman
+in charge, Mr. McBean.</p>
+
+<p>Whether it was from cowardice or cruelty as some alleged,
+that Mr. McBean rejoiced in the slaughter of the
+Protestant missionaries, himself being a Catholic, can never
+be known. Had that been true, one might have supposed
+that their death would have been enough, and that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>
+might have sheltered a wounded man fleeing for his life,
+without grudging him this atom of comfort. Unfortunately
+for Mr. McBean's reputation, he declined to grant such shelter
+willingly. Mr. Hall remained, however, twelve hours,
+until he heard a report that the women and children were
+murdered, when, knowing how unwelcome he was, and being
+in a half distracted state, he consented to be set across
+the Columbia to make his way as best he could to the Wallamet.
+From this hour he was never seen or heard from,
+the manner of his death remaining a mystery to his wife
+and their family of five children, who were among the
+prisoners at Waiilatpu.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Osborne left the mission in the darkness, he
+was able only to proceed about two miles, before Mrs. Osborne's
+strength gave way, she lately having been confined
+by an untimely birth; and he was compelled to stop,
+secreting himself and family in some bushes. Here they
+remained, suffering with cold, and insufficient food, having
+only a little bread and cold mush which they had found
+in the pantry of the Doctor's house, before leaving it. On
+Tuesday night, Mrs. O. was able to move about three miles
+more: and again they were compelled to stop. In this
+way to proceed, they must all perish of starvation;
+therefore on Wednesday night Mr. O. took the second
+child and started with it for the fort, where he arrived before
+noon on Thursday.</p>
+
+<p>Although Mr. McBean received him with friendliness of
+manner, he refused him horses to go for Mrs. Osborne and
+his other children, and even refused to furnish food to relieve
+their hunger, telling him to go to the Umatilla,
+and forbidding his return to the fort. A little food was
+given to himself and child, who had been fasting since
+Monday night. Whether Mr. McBean would have allowed
+this man to perish is uncertain: but certain it is that some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>
+base or cowardly motive made him exceedingly cruel to
+both Hall and Osborne.</p>
+
+<p>While Mr. Osborne was partaking of his tea and crackers,
+there arrived at the fort Mr. Stanley, the artist, whom the
+reader will remember having met in the mountains several
+years before. When the case became known to him, he
+offered his horses immediately to go for Mrs. Osborne.
+Shamed into an appearance of humanity, Mr. McBean then
+furnished an Indian guide to accompany Mr. O. to the
+Umatilla, where he still insisted the fugitives should go,
+though this was in the murderer's country.</p>
+
+<p>A little meat and a few crackers were furnished for the
+supper of the travelers; and with a handkerchief for his
+hatless head and a pair of socks for his child's naked feet,
+all furnished by Mr. Stanley, Mr. Osborne set out to return
+to his suffering wife and children. He and his guide traveled
+rapidly, arriving in good time near the spot where
+he believed his family to be concealed. But the darkness
+had confused his recollection, and after beating the bushes
+until daylight, the unhappy husband and father was about
+to give up the search in despair, when his guide at length
+discovered their retreat.</p>
+
+<p>The poor mother and children were barely alive, having
+suffered much from famine and exposure, to say nothing
+of their fears. Mrs. Osborne was compelled to be
+tied to the Indian in order to sit her horse. In this condition
+the miserable fugitives turned toward the Umatilla,
+in obedience to the command of McBean, and were only
+saved from being murdered by a Cayuse by the scornful
+words of the guide, who shamed the murderer from his
+purpose of slaughtering a sick and defenceless family.
+At a Canadian farm-house, where they stopped to change
+horses, they were but roughly received; and learning
+here that <i>Tamt-sak-y's</i> lodge was near by, Mrs. Osborne<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>
+refused to proceed any farther toward the Umatilla. She
+said, "I doubt if I can live to reach the Umatilla; and if
+I must die, I may as well die at the gates of the Fort.
+Let us, then, turn back to the Fort."</p>
+
+<p>To this the guide assented, saying it was not safe going
+among the Cayuses. The little party, quite exhausted,
+reached Walla-Walla about ten o'clock at night, and were
+at once admitted. Contrary to his former course, Mr.
+McBean now ordered a fire made to warm the benumbed
+travelers, who, after being made tolerably comfortable,
+were placed in a secret room of the fort. Again Mr.
+Osborne was importuned to go away, down to the Wallamet,
+Mr. McBean promising to take care of his family
+and furnish him an outfit if he would do so. Upon being
+asked to furnish a boat, and Indians to man it, in order
+that the family might accompany him, he replied that his
+Indians refused to go.</p>
+
+<p>From all this reluctance, not only on the part of McBean,
+but of the Indians also, to do any act which appeared
+like befriending the Americans, it would appear
+that there was a very general fear of the Cayuse Indians,
+and a belief that they were about to inaugurate a general
+war upon the Americans, and their friends and allies. Mr.
+Osborne, however, refused to leave his family behind, and
+Mr. McBean was forced to let him remain until relief
+came. When it did come at last, in the shape of Mr.
+Ogden's party, <i>Stickas</i>, the chief who had warned Mr.
+Spalding, showed his kind feeling for the sufferers by
+removing his own cap and placing it on Mr. Osborne's
+head, and by tying a handkerchief over the ears of Mr.
+Osborne's little son, as he said, "to keep him warm, going
+down the river." Sadly indeed, did the little ones who
+suffered by the massacre at Waiilatpu, stand in need of
+any Christian kindness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1847. A full account of the horrors of the Waiilatpu
+massacre, together with the individual sufferings of
+the captives whose lives were spared, would fill a volume,
+and be harrowing to the reader; therefore, only so much
+of it will be given here as, from its bearing upon Oregon
+history, is important to our narrative.</p>
+
+<p>The day following the massacre, being Tuesday, was
+the day on which Mr. Spalding was met and warned not
+to go to the mission, by the Vicar General, Brouillet.
+Happening at the mission on that day, and finding the
+bodies of the victims still unburied, Brouillet had them
+hastily interred before leaving, if interment it could be
+called which left them still a prey to wolves. The reader
+of this chapter of Oregon history will always be very much
+puzzled to understand by what means the Catholic priests
+procured their perfect exemption from harm during this
+time of terror to the Americans. Was it that they were
+French, and that they came into the country <i>only</i> as missionaries
+of a religion adapted to the savage mind, and
+not as settlers? Was it at all owing to the fact that they
+were celibates, with no families to excite jealous feelings
+of comparison in the minds of their converts?</p>
+
+<p>Through a long and bitter war of words, which followed
+the massacre at Waiilatpu, terrible sins were charged
+upon the priests&mdash;no less than inciting the Indians to the
+murder of the Protestants, and winking at the atrocities of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>
+every kind committed by the savages. Whether they
+feared to enter into the quarrel, and were restrained from
+showing sympathy solely by this fear, is a question only
+themselves can determine. Certain it is, that they preserved
+a neutral position, when to be neutral was to seem,
+if not to be, devoid of human sympathies. That the
+event would have happened without any other provocation
+than such as the Americans furnished by their own
+reckless disregard of Indian prejudices, seems evident.
+The question, and the only question which is suggested
+by a knowledge of all the circumstances, is whether the
+event was helped on by an intelligent outside influence.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite natural that the Protestants should wonder
+at the immunity from danger which the priests enjoyed;
+and that, not clearly seeing the reason, they should suspect
+them of collusion with the Indians. It was natural,
+too, for the sufferers from the massacre to look for some
+expression of sympathy from any and all denominations
+of Christians; and that, not receiving it, they should have
+doubts of the motives which prompted such reserve.
+The story of that time is but an unpleasant record, and
+had best be lightly touched upon.</p>
+
+<p>The work of death and destruction did not close with
+the first day at Waiilatpu. Mr. Kimble, who had remained
+in the chamber of the Doctor's house all night,
+had suffered much from the pain of his broken arm. On
+Tuesday, driven desperate by his own sufferings, and those
+of the three sick children with him, one of whom was the
+little Helen Mar Meek, he resolved to procure some water
+from the stream which ran near the house. But he had
+not proceeded more than a few rods before he was shot
+down and killed instantly. The same day, a Mr. Young,
+from the saw-mill, was also killed. In the course of the
+week, Mr. Bulee, who was sick over at the mansion, was
+brutally murdered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the female captives and children were enduring
+such agony as seldom falls to the lot of humanity
+to suffer. Compelled to work for the Indians, their feelings
+were continually harrowed up by the terrible sights
+which everywhere met their eyes in going back and forth
+between the houses, in carrying water from the stream, or
+moving in any direction whatever. For the dead were
+not removed until the setting in of decay made it necessary
+to the Indians themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The goods belonging to the mission were taken from
+the store-room, and the older women ordered to make them
+up into clothing for the Indians. The buildings were plundered
+of everything which the Indians coveted; all the
+rest of their contents that could not be made useful to
+themselves were destroyed. Those of the captives who
+were sick were not allowed proper attention, and in a day
+or two Helen Mar Meek died of neglect.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed four or five days. On Saturday a new
+horror was added to the others. The savages began to
+carry off the young women for wives. Three were thus
+dragged away to Indian lodges to suffer tortures worse
+than death. One young girl, a daughter of Mr. Kimble,
+was taken possession of by the murderer of her father,
+who took daily delight in reminding her of that fact, and
+when her sorrow could no longer be restrained, only
+threatened to exchange her for another young girl who
+was also a wife by compulsion.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bulee, the eldest of the young women at the mission,
+and who was a teacher in the mission school, was taken to
+the Umatilla, to the lodge of <i>Five-Crows</i>. As has before
+been related, there was a house on the Umatilla belonging
+to <i>Tan-i-tan</i>, in which were residing at this time two Catholic
+priests&mdash;the Vicar-General Brouillet, and Blanchet,
+Bishop of Walla-Walla. To this house Miss Bulee applied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>
+for protection, and was refused, whether from fear, or from
+the motives subsequently attributed to them by some
+Protestant writers in Oregon, is not known to any but
+themselves. The only thing certain about it is, that Miss
+Bulee was allowed to be violently dragged from their
+presence every night, to return to them weeping in the
+morning, and to have her entreaties for their assistance
+answered by assurances from them that the wisest course
+for her was to submit. And this continued for more than
+two weeks, until the news of Mr. Ogden's arrival at Walla-Walla
+became known, when Miss Bulee was told that if
+<i>Five-Crows</i> would not allow her to remain at their house
+altogether, she must remain at the lodge of <i>Five-Crows</i>
+without coming to their house at all, well knowing what
+<i>Five-Crows</i> would do, but wishing to have Miss Bulee's
+action seem voluntary, from shame perhaps, at their own
+cowardice. Yet the reason they gave ought to go for all
+it is worth&mdash;that they being priests could not have a
+woman about their house. In this unhappy situation did
+the female captives spend three most miserable weeks.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the mission at Lapwai had been broken
+up, but not destroyed, nor had any one suffered death as
+was at first feared. The intelligence of the massacre at
+Waiilatpu was first conveyed to Mrs. Spalding by a Mr.
+Camfield, who at the breaking out of the massacre, fled
+with his wife and children to a small room in the attic of
+the mansion, from the window of which he was able to
+behold the scenes which followed. When night came Mr.
+Camfield contrived to elude observation and descend into
+the yard, where he encountered a French Canadian long
+in the employ of Dr. Whitman, and since suspected to
+have been privy to the plan of the murders. To him Mr.
+Camfield confided his intention to escape, and obtained a
+promise that a horse should be brought to a certain place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span>
+at a certain time for his use. But the Canadian failing to
+appear with his horse, Mr. C. set out on foot, and under
+cover of night, in the direction of the Lapwai mission.
+He arrived in the Nez Perce country on Thursday. On
+the following day he came upon a camp of these people,
+and procured from them a guide to Lapwai, without, however,
+speaking of what had occurred at Waiilatpu.</p>
+
+<p>The caution of Mr. Camfield relates to a trait of Indian
+character which the reader of Indian history must bear in
+mind, that is, the close relationship and identity of feeling
+of allied tribes. Why he did not inform the Nez Perces
+of the deed done by their relatives, the Cayuses, was because
+in that case he would have expected them to have
+sympathized with their allies, even to the point of making
+him a prisoner, or of taking his life. It is this fact concerning
+the Indian character, which alone furnishes an excuse
+for the conduct of Mr. McBean and the Catholic priests.
+Upon it Mr. Camfield acted, making no sign of fear, nor
+betraying any knowledge of the terrible matter on his
+mind to the Nez Perces.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday afternoon Mr. C. arrived at Mrs. Spalding's
+house and dismissed his guide with the present of a buffalo
+robe. When he was alone with Mrs. Spalding he
+told his unhappy secret. It was then that the strength
+and firmness of Mrs. Spalding's character displayed itself
+in her decisive action. Well enough she knew the close
+bond between the Nez Perces and Cayuses, and also the
+treachery of the Indian character. But she saw that if
+affairs were left to shape themselves as Mr. Camfield
+entreated they might be left to do, putting off the evil
+day,&mdash;that when the news came from the Cayuses, there
+would be an outbreak.</p>
+
+<p>The only chance of averting this danger was to inform
+the chiefs most attached to her, at once, and throw herself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>
+and her family upon their mercy. Her resolution was
+taken not an hour too soon. Two of the chiefs most relied
+upon happened to be at the place that very afternoon,
+one of whom was called <i>Jacob</i>, and the other <i>Eagle</i>. To
+these two Mrs. Spalding confided the news without delay,
+and took counsel of them. According to her hopes, they
+assumed the responsibility of protecting her. One of
+them went to inform his camp, and give them orders to
+stand by Mrs. S., while the other carried a note to Mr.
+Craig, one of our Rocky Mountain acquaintances, who
+lived ten miles from the mission.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jacob</i> and <i>Eagle</i>, with two other friendly chiefs, decided
+that Mrs. S. must go to their camp near Mr. Craig's;
+because in case the Cayuses came to the mission as was to
+be expected, she would be safer with them. Mrs. S. however
+would not consent to make the move on the Sabbath,
+but begged to be allowed to remain quiet until Monday.
+Late Saturday evening Mr. Craig came down; and Mrs.
+Spalding endeavored with his assistance to induce the Indians
+to carry an express to Cimikain in the country of
+the Spokanes, where Messrs. Walker and Eells had a station.
+Not an Indian could be persuaded to go. An effort,
+also, was made by the heroic and suffering wife and
+mother, to send an express to Waiilatpu to learn the fate
+of her daughter, and if possible of her husband. But the
+Indians were none of them inclined to go. They said,
+without doubt all the women and children were slain.
+That Mr. Spalding was alive no one believed.</p>
+
+<p>The reply of Mrs. S. to their objections was that she
+could not believe that they were her friends if they would
+not undertake this journey, for the relief of her feelings
+under such circumstances. At length <i>Eagle</i> consented to
+go; but so much opposed were the others to having anything
+done which their relations, the Cayuses, might be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>
+displeased with, that it was nearly twenty-four hours before
+<i>Eagle</i> got leave to go.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday morning a Nez Perce arrived from Waiilatpu
+with the news of what the Cayuses had done. With
+him were a number of Indians from the camp where Mr.
+Camfield had stopped for a guide, all eager for plunder, and
+for murder too, had not they found Mrs. Spalding protected
+by several chiefs. Her removal to their camp
+probably saved her from the fate of Mrs. Whitman.</p>
+
+<p>Among those foremost in plundering the mission buildings
+at Lapwai were some of the hitherto most exemplary
+Indians among the Nez Perces. Even the chief, first in
+authority after Ellis, who was absent, was prominent in
+these robberies. For eight years had this chief, Joseph,
+been a member of the church at Lapwai, and sustained a
+good reputation during that time. How bitter must have
+been the feelings of Mrs. Spalding, who had a truly devoted
+missionary heart, when she beheld the fruit of her
+life's labor turned to ashes in her sight as it was by the
+conduct of Joseph and his family.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the removal of Mrs. Spalding, and the pillaging
+of the buildings, Mr. Spalding arrived at Lapwai
+from his long and painful journey during which he had
+wandered much out of his way, and suffered many things.
+His appearance was the signal for earnest consultations
+among the Nez Perces who were not certain that they
+might safely give protection to him without the consent
+of the Cayuses. To his petition that they should carry a
+letter express to Fort Colville or Fort Walla-Walla, they
+would not consent. Their reason for refusing seemed to
+be a fear that such a letter might be answered by an
+armed body of Americans, who would come to avenge the
+deaths of their countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>To deprive them of this suspicion, Mr. Spalding told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>
+them that as he had been robbed of everything, he had
+no means of paying them for their services to his family,
+and that it was necessary to write to Walla-Walla for
+blankets, and to the Umatilla for his horses. He assured
+them that he would write to his countrymen to keep quiet,
+and that they had nothing to fear from the Americans.
+The truth was, however, that he had forwarded through
+Brouillet, a letter to Gov. Abernethy asking for help
+which could only come into that hostile country armed
+and equipped for war.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the month of December there arrived in Oregon
+City to be delivered to the governor, sixty-two captives,
+bought from the Cayuses and Nez Perces by Hudson's
+Bay blankets and goods; and obtained at that price
+by Hudson's Bay influence. "No other power on earth,"
+says Joe Meek, the American, "could have rescued those
+prisoners from the hands of the Indians;" and no man
+better than Mr. Meek understood the Indian character,
+or the Hudson's Bay Company's power over them.</p>
+
+<p>The number of victims to the Waiilatpu massacre was
+fourteen. None escaped who had not to mourn a father,
+brother, son, or friend. If "the blood of the martyrs is
+the seed of the church," there ought to arise on the site
+of Waiilatpu a generation of extraordinary piety. As for
+the people for whom a noble man and woman, and numbers
+of innocent persons were sacrificed, they have returned
+to their traditions; with the exception of the Nez
+Perces, who under the leadership of their old teacher Mr.
+Spalding, have once more resumed the pursuits of civilized
+and Christianized nations.</p>
+
+<p>The description of Waiilatpu at the present time given
+on the following page, is from "<i>All Over Oregon and
+Washington</i>" by the author of this book.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Waiilatpu is just that&mdash;a creek-bottom&mdash;the creeks on either
+side of it fringed with trees; higher land shutting out the view
+in front; isolation and solitude the most striking features of
+the place. Yet here came a man and a woman to live and to
+labor among the savages, when all the old Oregon territory was
+an Indian country. Here stood the station erected by them:
+<i>adobe</i> houses, a mill, a school-house for the Indians, shops,
+and all the necessary appurtenances of an isolated settlement.
+Nothing remains to-day but mounds of earth, into which the
+<i>adobes</i> were dissolved by weather, after burning.</p>
+
+<p>"A few rods away, on the side of the hill, is a different mound:
+the common grave of fourteen victims of savage superstition,
+jealousy, and wrath. It is roughly inclosed by a board fence,
+and has not a shrub or a flower to disguise its terrible significance.
+The most affecting reminders of wasted effort which
+remain on the old Mission-grounds are the two or three apple-trees
+which escaped the general destruction, and the scarlet
+poppies which are scattered broadcast through the creek-bottom
+near the houses. Sadly significant it is that the flower whose
+evanescent bloom is the symbol of unenduring joys, should be
+the only tangible witness left of the womanly tastes and labors
+of the devoted Missionary who gave her life a sacrifice to ungrateful
+Indian savagery.</p>
+
+<p>"The place is occupied, at present, by one of Dr. Whitman's
+early friends and co-laborers, who claimed the Mission-ground,
+under the Donation Act, and who was first and most active in
+founding the seminary to the memory of a Christian gentleman
+and martyr. On the identical spot where stood the Doctor's
+residence, now stands the more modern one of his friend; and
+he seems to take a melancholy pleasure in keeping in remembrance
+the events of that unhappy time, which threw a gloom
+over the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1847-8. When the contents of Mr. Douglas' letter to
+the governor became known to the citizens of the Wallamet
+settlement, the greatest excitement prevailed. On
+the reading of that letter, and those accompanying it, before
+the House, a resolution was immediately introduced
+authorizing the governor to raise a company of riflemen,
+not to exceed fifty in number, to occupy and hold the
+mission station at the Dalles, until a larger force could be
+raised, and such measures adopted as the government
+might think advisable. This resolution being sent to the
+governor without delay, received his approval, when the
+House adjourned.</p>
+
+<p>A large meeting of the citizens was held that evening,
+which was addressed by several gentlemen, among whom
+was Meek, whose taste for Indian fighting was whetted to
+keenness by the aggravating circumstances of the Waiilatpu
+massacre, and the fact that his little Helen Mar was
+among the captives. Impatient as was Meek to avenge
+the murders, he was too good a mountain-man to give any
+rash advice. All that could be done under the existing
+circumstances was to trust to the Hudson's Bay Company
+for the rescue of the prisoners, and to take such means for
+defending the settlements as the people in their unarmed
+condition could devise.</p>
+
+<p>The legislature undertook the settlement of the question
+of ways and means. To raise money for the carrying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>
+out of the most important measures immediately, was a
+task which after some consideration was entrusted to three
+commissioners; and by these commissioners letters were
+addressed to the Hudson's Bay Company, the superintendent
+of the Methodist mission, and to the "merchants and
+citizens of Oregon." The latter communication is valuable
+as fully explaining the position of affairs at that time
+in Oregon. It is dated Dec. 17th, and was as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:&mdash;You are aware that the undersigned have been charged by
+the legislature of our provisional government with the difficult duty of obtaining
+the necessary means to arm, equip, and support in the field a force sufficient
+to obtain full satisfaction of the Cayuse Indians, for the late massacre at Waiilatpu,
+and to protect the white population of our common country from further
+aggression.</p>
+
+<p>In furtherance of this object they have deemed it their duty to make immediate
+application to the merchants and citizens of the country for the requisite
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Though clothed with the power to pledge, to the fullest extent, the faith and
+means of the present government of Oregon, they do not consider this pledge
+the only security to those who, in this distressing emergency, may extend to the
+people of this country the means of protection and redress.</p>
+
+<p>Without claiming any special authority from the government of the United
+States to contract a debt to be liquidated by that power, yet, from all precedents
+of like character in the history of our country, the undersigned feel confident
+that the United States government will regard the murder of the late
+Dr. Whitman and his lady, as a national wrong, and will fully justify the people
+of Oregon in taking active measures to obtain redress for that outrage, and
+for their protection from further aggression.</p>
+
+<p>The right of self-defence is tacitly acknowledged to every body politic in the
+confederacy to which we claim to belong, and in every case similar to our own,
+within our knowledge, the general government has promptly assumed the payment
+of all liabilities growing out of the measures taken by the constituted
+authorities, to protect the lives and property of those who reside within the
+limits of their districts.</p>
+
+<p>If the citizens of the States and territories, east of the Rocky mountains,
+are justified in promptly acting in such emergencies, who are under the
+immediate protection of the general government, there appears no room for
+doubt that the lawful acts of the Oregon government will receive a like approval.</p>
+
+<p>Though the Indians of the Columbia have committed a great outrage upon
+our fellow citizens passing through their country, and residing among them,<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>
+and their punishment for these murders may, and ought to be, a prime object
+with every citizen of Oregon, yet, as that duty more particularly devolves upon
+the government of the United States, and admits of delay, we do not make
+this the strongest ground upon which to found our earnest appeal to you for
+pecuniary assistance. It is a fact well known to every person acquainted with
+the Indian character, that, by passing silently over their repeated thefts, robberies,
+and murders of our fellow-citizens, they have been emboldened to the
+commission of the appalling massacre at Waiilatpu. They call us women,
+destitute of the hearts and courage of men, and if we allow this wholesale murder
+to pass by as former aggressions, who can tell how long either life or property
+will be secure in any part of this country, or what moment the Willamette
+will be the scene of blood and carnage.</p>
+
+<p>The officers of our provisional government have nobly performed their duty.
+None can doubt the readiness of the patriotic sons of the west to offer their
+personal services in defence of a cause so righteous. So it now rests with you,
+gentlemen, to say whether our rights and our fire-sides shall be defended, or
+not.</p>
+
+<p>Hoping that none will be found to falter in so high and so sacred a duty, we
+beg leave, gentlemen, to subscribe ourselves,</p>
+
+<p class="midind">
+Your servants and fellow-citizens,</p>
+<p class="deepind"><span class="smcap">Jesse Applegate</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">A.L. Lovejoy</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Geo. L. Curry</span>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Commissioners</i>.<br /></span>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A similar letter had been addressed to the Hudson's
+Bay Company, and to the Methodist mission. From each
+of these sources such assistance was obtained as enabled
+the colony to arm and equip the first regiment of Oregon
+riflemen, which in the month of January proceeded to the
+Cayuse country. The amount raised, however, was very
+small, being less than five thousand dollars, and it became
+imperatively necessary that the government of the United
+States should be called upon to extend its aid and protection
+to the loyal but distressed young territory.</p>
+
+<p>In view of this necessity it was resolved in the legislature
+to send a messenger to carry the intelligence
+of the massacre to Gov. Mason of California, and through
+him to the commander of the United States squadron
+in the Pacific, that a vessel of war might be sent into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>
+the Columbia River, and arms and ammunition borrowed
+for the present emergency, from the nearest arsenal.
+For this duty was chosen Jesse Applegate, Esq., a gentleman
+who combined in his character and person the ability
+of the statesman with the sagacity and strength of the
+pioneer. Mr. Applegate, with a small party of brave
+men, set out in midwinter to cross the mountains into California,
+but such was the depth of snow they encountered
+that traveling became impossible, even after abandoning
+their horses, and they were compelled to return.</p>
+
+<p>The messenger elected to proceed to the United States
+was Joseph L. Meek, whose Rocky Mountain experiences
+eminently fitted him to encounter the dangers of such a
+winter journey, and whose manliness, firmness, and ready
+wit stood him instead of statesmanship.</p>
+
+<p>On the 17th December Meek resigned his seat in the
+House in order to prepare for the discharge of his duty as
+messenger to the United States. On the 4th of January,
+armed with his credentials from the Oregon legislature,
+and bearing dispatches from that body and the Governor
+to the President, he at length set out on the long and perilous
+expedition, having for traveling companions Mr.
+John Owens, and Mr. George Ebbarts&mdash;the latter having
+formerly been a Rocky Mountain man, like himself.</p>
+
+<p>At the Dalles they found the first regiment of Oregon
+Riflemen, under Major Lee, of the newly created army of
+Oregon. From the reports which the Dalles Indians
+brought in of the hostility of the Indians beyond the Des
+Chutes River it was thought best not to proceed before
+the arrival of the remainder of the army, when all the
+forces would proceed at once to Waiilatpu. Owing to
+various delays, the army, consisting of about five hundred
+men, under Colonel Gilliam, did not reach the Dalles until
+late in January, when the troops proceeded at once to the
+seat of war.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The reports concerning the warlike disposition of the
+Indians proved to be correct. Already, the Wascopams
+or Dalles Indians had begun robbing the mission at that
+place, when Colonel Lee's arrival among them with troops
+had compelled them to return the stolen property. As
+the army advanced they found that all the tribes above
+the Dalles were holding themselves prepared for hostilities.
+At Well Springs, beyond the Des Chutes River, they were
+met by a body of about six hundred Indians to whom they
+gave battle, soon dispersing them, the superior arms and
+equipments of the whites tending to render timid those
+tribes yet unaccustomed to so superior an enemy. From
+thence to Waiilatpu the course of the army was unobstructed.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the captives had been given up to the
+Hudson's Bay Company, and full particulars of the massacre
+were obtained by the army, with all the subsequent
+abuses and atrocities suffered by the prisoners. The horrible
+details were not calculated to soften the first bitterness
+of hatred which had animated the volunteers on going
+into the field. Nor was the appearance of an armed force
+in their midst likely to allay the hostile feelings with
+which other causes had inspired the Indians. Had not the
+captives already been removed out of the country, no
+influence, not even that of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+could have prevailed to get them out of the power of their
+captors then. Indeed, in order to treat with the Cayuses
+in the first place, Mr. Ogden had been obliged to promise
+peace to the Indians, and now they found instead of peace,
+every preparation for war. However, as the army took
+no immediate action, but only remained in their country to
+await the appearance of the commissioners appointed by
+the legislature of Oregon to hold a council with the chiefs
+of the various tribes, the Cayuses were forced to observe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>
+the outward semblance of amity while these councils were
+pending.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at Waiilatpu, the friends and acquaintances of
+Dr. Whitman were shocked to find that the remains of the
+victims were still unburied, although a little earth had
+been thrown over them. Meek, to whom, ever since his
+meeting with her in the train of the fur-trader, Mrs. Whitman
+had seemed all that was noble and captivating, had
+the melancholy satisfaction of bestowing, with others, the
+last sad rite of burial upon such portions of her once fair
+person as murder and the wolves had not destroyed. Some
+tresses of golden hair were severed from the brow so terribly
+disfigured, to be given to her friends in the Wallamet
+as a last and only memorial. Among the State documents
+at Salem, Oregon, may still be seen one of these
+relics of the Waiilatpu tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>Not only had Meek to discover and inter the remains of
+Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, but also of his little girl, who was
+being educated at the mission, with a daughter of his
+former leader, Bridger.</p>
+
+<p>This sad duty performed, he immediately set out, escorted
+by a company of one hundred men under Adjutant Wilcox,
+who accompanied him as far as the foot of the Blue
+Mountains. Here the companies separated, and Meek
+went on his way to Washington.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1848. Meek's party now consisted of himself, Ebbarts,
+Owens, and four men, who being desirous of returning to
+the States took this opportunity. However, as the snow
+proved to be very deep on the Blue Mountains, and the
+cold severe, two of these four volunteers became discouraged
+and concluded to remain at Fort Boise, where was a
+small trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company.</p>
+
+<p>In order to avoid trouble with the Indians he might
+meet on the western side of the Rocky mountains, Meek
+had adopted the red belt and Canadian cap of the employees
+of the Hudson's Bay Company; and to this precaution
+was owing the fact of his safe passage through the country
+now all infected with hostility caught from the Cayuses.
+About three days' travel beyond Fort Boise, the party
+met a village of Bannack Indians, who at once made warlike
+demonstrations; but on seeing Meek's costume, and
+receiving an invitation to hold a 'talk', desisted, and received
+the travelers in a friendly manner. Meek informed
+the chief, with all the gravity which had won for him the
+name of "<i>shiam shuspusia</i>" among the Crows in former
+years, that he was going on the business of the Hudson's
+Bay Company to Fort Hall; and that Thomas McKay was
+a day's march behind with a large trading party, and
+plenty of goods. On the receipt of this good news, the
+chief ordered his braves to fall back, and permit the party
+to pass. Yet, fearing the deception might be discovered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span>
+they thought it prudent to travel day and night until they
+reached Fort Hall.</p>
+
+<p>At this post of the Hudson's Bay Company, in charge
+of Mr. Grant, they were kindly received, and stopped for
+a few hours of rest. Mr. Grant being absent, his wife provided
+liberally for the refreshment of the party, who were
+glad to find themselves even for a short interval under a
+roof, beside a fire and partaking of freshly cooked food.
+But they permitted themselves no unnecessary delay. Before
+night they were once more on their way, though
+snow had now commenced to fall afresh, rendering the
+traveling very difficult. For two days they struggled on,
+their horses floundering in the soft drifts, until further
+progress in that manner became impossible. The only alternative
+left was to abandon their horses and proceed on
+snow-shoes, which were readily constructed out of willow
+sticks.</p>
+
+<p>Taking only a blanket and their rifles, and leaving the
+animals to find their way back to Fort Hall, the little party
+pushed on. Meek was now on familiar ground, and the
+old mountain spirit which had once enabled him to endure
+hunger, cold, and fatigue without murmuring, possessed
+him now. It was not without a certain sense of enjoyment
+that he found himself reduced to the necessity of
+shooting a couple of pole-cats to furnish a supper for himself
+and party. How long the enjoyment of feeling want
+would have lasted is uncertain, but probably only long
+enough to whet the appetite for plenty.</p>
+
+<p>To such a point had the appetites of all the party been
+whetted, when, after several days of scarcity and toil, followed
+by nights of emptiness and cold, Meek had the
+agreeable surprise of falling in with an old mountain comrade
+on the identical ground of many a former adventure,
+the head-waters of Bear River. This man, whom Meek<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>
+was delighted to meet, was Peg-leg Smith, one of the
+most famous of many well-known mountain-men. He
+was engaged in herding cattle in the valley of Thomas'
+Fork, where the tall grass was not quite buried under
+snow, and had with him a party of ten men.</p>
+
+<p>Meek was as cordially received by his former comrade
+as the unbounded hospitality of mountain manners rendered
+it certain he would be. A fat cow was immediately
+sacrificed, which, though not buffalo meat, as in former
+times it would have been, was very good beef, and furnished
+a luxurious repast to the pole-cat eaters of the
+last several days. Smith's camp did not lack the domestic
+element of women and children, any more than had
+the trapper's camps in the flush times of the fur-trade.
+Therefore, seeing that the meeting was most joyful, and
+full of reminiscences of former winter camps, Smith
+thought to celebrate the occasion by a grand entertainment.
+Accordingly, after a great deal of roast beef had
+been disposed of, a dance was called for, in which white
+men and Indian women joined with far more mirth and
+jollity than grace or ceremony. Thus passed some hours
+of the night, the bearer of dispatches seizing, in true
+mountain style, the passing moment's pleasure, so long as
+it did not interfere with the punctilious discharge of his
+duty. And to the honor of our hero be it said, nothing
+was ever allowed to interfere with that.</p>
+
+<p>Refreshed and provided with rations for a couple of
+days, the party started on again next morning, still on
+snow-shoes, and traveled up Bear River to the head-waters
+of Green River, crossing from the Muddy fork over to
+Fort Bridger, where they arrived very much fatigued but
+quite well in little more than three days' travel. Here
+again it was Meek's good fortune to meet with his former
+leader, Bridger, to whom he related what had befallen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>
+him since turning pioneer. The meeting was joyful on
+both sides, clouded only by the remembrance of what had
+brought it about, and the reflection that both had a personal
+wrong to avenge in bringing about the punishment
+of the Cayuse murderers.</p>
+
+<p>Once more Meek's party were generously fed, and furnished
+with such provisions as they could carry about
+their persons. In addition to this, Bridger presented
+them with four good mules, by which means the travelers
+were mounted four at a time, while the fifth took exercise
+on foot; so that by riding or walking, turn about, they
+were enabled to get on very well as far as the South Pass.
+Here again for some distance the snow was very deep,
+and two of their mules were lost in it. Their course lay
+down the Sweetwater River, past many familiar hunting
+and camping grounds, to the Platte River. Owing to the
+deep snows, game was very scarce, and a long day of toil
+was frequently closed by a supperless sleep under shelter
+of some rock or bank, with only a blanket for cover. At
+Red Buttes they were so fortunate as to find and kill a
+single buffalo, which, separated from the distant herd, was
+left by Providence in the path of the famished travelers.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the Platte River they found the traveling
+improved, as well as the supply of game, and proceeded
+with less difficulty as far as Fort Laramie, a trading post
+in charge of a French trader named Papillion. Here
+again fresh mules were obtained, and the little party
+treated in the most hospitable manner. In parting from
+his entertainer, Meek was favored with this brief counsel:</p>
+
+<p>"There is a village of Sioux, of about six hundred
+lodges, a hundred miles from here. Your course will
+bring you to it. Look out for yourself, and don't make
+a Gray muss of it!"&mdash;which latter clause referred to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>
+affair of 1837, when the Sioux had killed the Indian escort
+of Mr. Gray.</p>
+
+<p>When the party arrived at Ash Hollow, which they
+meant to have passed in the night, on account of the
+Sioux village, the snow was again falling so thickly that
+the party had not perceived their nearness to the village
+until they were fairly in the midst of it. It was now no
+safer to retreat than to proceed; and after a moment's
+consultation, the word was given to keep on. In truth,
+Meek thought it doubtful whether the Sioux would trouble
+themselves to come out in such a tempest, and if they did
+so, that the blinding snow-fall was rather in his favor.
+Thus reasoning, he was forcing his mule through the
+drifts as rapidly as the poor worried animal could make
+its way, when a head was protruded from a lodge door,
+and "Hallo, Major!" greeted his ear in an accent not
+altogether English.</p>
+
+<p>On being thus accosted, the party came to a halt, and
+Meek was invited to enter the lodge, with his friends.
+His host on this occasion was a French trader named Le
+Bean, who, after offering the hospitalities of the lodge,
+and learning who were his guests, offered to accompany
+the party a few miles on its way. This he did, saying by
+way of explanation of this act of courtesy, "The Sioux
+are a bad people; I thought it best to see you safe out
+of the village." Receiving the thanks of the travelers,
+he turned back at night-fall, and they continued on all
+night without stopping to camp, going some distance to
+the south of their course before turning east again, in
+order to avoid any possible pursuers.</p>
+
+<p>Without further adventures, and by dint of almost constant
+travel, the party arrived at St. Joseph, Mo., in
+safety, in a little over two months, from Portland, Oregon.
+Soon afterwards, when the circumstances of this journey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span>
+became known, a steamboat built for the Missouri River
+trade was christened the <i>Joseph L. Meek</i>, and bore for a
+motto, on her pilot-house, "The quickest trip yet," in
+reference both to Meek's overland journey and her own
+steaming qualities.</p>
+
+<p>As Meek approached the settlements, and knew that he
+must soon be thrown into society of the highest official
+grade, and be subjected to such ordeals as he dreaded far
+more than Indian fighting, or even traveling express
+across a continent of snow, the subject of how he was to
+behave in these new and trying positions very frequently
+occurred to him. He, an uneducated man, trained to
+mountain life and manners, without money, or even
+clothes, with nothing to depend on but the importance of
+his mission and his own mother wit, he felt far more
+keenly than his careless appearance would suggest, the
+difficulties and awkwardness of his position.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought a great deal about it," confesses the Col.
+Joseph L. Meek of to-day, "and I finally concluded that
+as I had never tried to act like anybody but myself, I
+would not make myself a fool by beginning to ape other
+folks now. So I said, 'Joe Meek you always have been,
+and Joe Meek you shall remain; go ahead, Joe Meek!'"</p>
+
+<p>In fact, it would have been rather difficult putting on
+fine gentleman airs, in that old worn-out hunting suit of
+his, and with not a dollar to bless himself. On the contrary,
+it needed just the devil-may-care temper which
+naturally belonged to our hero, to carry him through the
+remainder of his journey to Washington. To be hungry,
+ill-clad, dirty, and penniless, is sufficient in itself for the
+subduing of most spirits; how it affected the temper of
+the messenger from Oregon we shall now learn.</p>
+
+<p>When the weary little party arrived in St. Joseph, they
+repaired to a hotel, and Meek requested that a meal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>
+should be served for all, but frankly confessing that they
+had no money to pay. The landlord, however, declined
+furnishing guests of his style upon such terms, and our
+travelers were forced to go into camp below the town.
+Meek now bethought himself of his letters of introduction.
+It chanced that he had one from two young men
+among the Oregon volunteers, to their father in St Joseph.
+Stopping a negro who was passing his camp, he
+inquired whether such a gentleman was known to him;
+and on learning that he was, succeeded in inducing the
+negro to deliver the letter from his sons.</p>
+
+<p>This movement proved successful. In a short space of
+time the gentleman presented himself, and learning the
+situation of the party, provided generously for their present
+wants, and promised any assistance which might be
+required in future. Meek, however, chose to accept only
+that which was imperatively needed, namely, something
+to eat, and transportation to some point on the river
+where he could take a steamer for St. Louis. A portion
+of his party chose to remain in St. Joseph, and a portion
+accompanied him as far as Independence, whither this
+same St. Joseph gentleman conveyed them in his carriage.</p>
+
+<p>While Meek was stopping at Independence, he was
+recognized by a sister, whom he had not seen for nineteen
+years; who, marrying and emigrating from Virginia, had
+settled on the frontier of Missouri. But he gave himself
+no time for family reunion and gossip. A steamboat that
+had been frozen up in the ice all winter, was just about
+starting for St. Louis, and on board of this he went, with
+an introduction to the captain, which secured for him
+every privilege the boat afforded, together with the kindest
+attention of its officers.</p>
+
+<p>When the steamer arrived in St. Louis, by one of those
+fortuitous circumstances so common in our hero's career,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>
+he was met at the landing by Campbell, a Rocky Mountain
+trader who had formerly belonged to the St. Louis
+Company. This meeting relieved him of any care about
+his night's entertainment in St. Louis, and it also had another
+effect&mdash;that of relieving him of any further care
+about the remainder of his journey; for, after hearing
+Meek's story of the position of affairs in Oregon and his
+errand to the United States, Campbell had given the
+same to the newspaper reporters, and Meek, like Byron,
+waked up next morning to find himself famous.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i411" name="i411"></a>
+<img src="images/i411.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">MEEK AS STEAMBOAT RUNNER.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Having telegraphed to Washington, and received the
+President's order to come on, the previous evening, our
+hero wended his way to the levee the morning after his
+arrival in St. Louis. There were two steamers lying side
+by side, both up for Pittsburg, with runners for each,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>
+striving to outdo each other in securing passengers. A
+bright thought occurred to the moneyless envoy&mdash;he
+would earn his passage!</p>
+
+<p>Walking on board one of the boats, which bore the
+name of <i>The Declaration</i>, himself a figure which attracted
+all eyes by his size and outlandish dress, he mounted to
+the hurricane deck and began to harrangue the crowd
+upon the levee, in the voice of a Stentor:</p>
+
+<p>"This way, gentlemen, if you please. Come right on
+board the <i>Declaration</i>. I am the man from Oregon, with
+dispatches to the President of these United States, that
+you all read about in this morning's paper. Come on
+board, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to hear the news
+from Oregon. I've just come across the plains, two
+months from the Columbia River, where the Injuns are
+killing your missionaries. Those passengers who come
+aboard the <i>Declaration</i> shall hear all about it before they
+get to Pittsburg. Don't stop thar, looking at my old
+wolf-skin cap, but just come aboard, and hear what I've
+got to tell!"</p>
+
+<p>The novelty of this sort of solicitation operated capitally.
+Many persons crowded on board the <i>Declaration</i>
+only to get a closer look at this picturesque personage
+who invited them, and many more because they were really
+interested to know the news from the far off young
+territory which had fallen into trouble. So it chanced
+that the <i>Declaration</i> was inconveniently crowded on this
+particular morning.</p>
+
+<p>After the boat had got under way, the captain approached
+his roughest looking cabin passenger and inquired
+in a low tone of voice if he were really and truly
+the messenger from Oregon.</p>
+
+<p>"Thar's what I've got to show for it;" answered Meek,
+producing his papers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, all I have to say is, Mr. Meek, that you are the
+best runner this boat ever had; and you are welcome to
+your passage ticket, and anything you desire besides."</p>
+
+<p>Finding that his bright thought had succeeded so well,
+Meek's spirit rose with the occasion, and the passengers
+had no reason to complain that he had not kept his word.
+Before he reached Wheeling his popularity was immense,
+notwithstanding the condition of his wardrobe. At Cincinnati
+he had time to present a letter to the celebrated
+Doctor &mdash;&mdash;, who gave him another, which proved to be
+an 'open sesame' wherever he went thereafter.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of his arrival in Wheeling it happened
+that the stage which then carried passengers to Cumberland,
+where they took the train for Washington, had already
+departed. Elated by his previous good fortune our
+ragged hero resolved not to be delayed by so trivial a
+circumstance; but walking pompously into the stage office
+inquired, with an air which must have smacked strongly
+of the mock-heroic, if he "could have a stage for Cumberland?"</p>
+
+<p>The nicely dressed, dignified elderly gentleman who
+managed the business of the office, regarded the man who
+proffered this modest request for a moment in motionless
+silence, then slowly raising the spectacles over his eyes to
+a position on his forehead, finished his survey with unassisted
+vision. Somewhat impressed by the manner in
+which Meek bore this scrutiny, he ended by demanding
+"who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Tickled by the absurdity of the tableau they were enacting,
+Meek straightened himself up to his six feet two,
+and replied with an air of superb self assurance&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am Envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary
+from the Republic of Oregon to the Court of the
+United States!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After a pause in which the old gentleman seemed to be
+recovering from some great surprise, he requested to see
+the credentials of this extraordinary envoy. Still more
+surprised he seemed on discovering for himself that the
+personage before him was really a messenger from Oregon
+to the government of the United States. But the effect
+was magical. In a moment the bell-rope was pulled, and
+in an incredibly short space of time a coach stood at the
+door ready to convey the waiting messenger on his way
+to Washington.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime in a conversation with the stage agent,
+Meek had explained more fully the circumstances of his
+mission, and the agent had become much interested. On
+parting, Meek received a ticket to the Relay House, with
+many expressions of regret from the agent that he could
+ticket him no farther.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is all the same," said he; "you are sure to go
+through."</p>
+
+<p>"Or run a train off the track," rejoined Meek, as he
+was bowed out of the office.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that there were some other passengers
+waiting to take the first stage, and they crowded into this
+one, glad of the unexpected opportunity, but wondering
+at the queer looking passenger to whom the agent was so
+polite. This scarcely concealed curiosity was all that was
+needed to stimulate the mad-cap spirits of our so far "conquering
+hero." Putting his head out of the window just
+at the moment of starting, he electrified everybody,
+horses included, by the utterance of a war-whoop and yell
+that would have done credit to a wild Camanche. Satisfied
+with the speed to which this demoniac noise had excited
+the driver's prancing steeds, he quietly ensconced
+himself in his corner of the coach and waited for his fellow
+passengers to recover from their stunned sensations.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>
+When their complete recovery had been effected, there
+followed the usual questioning and explanations, which
+ended in the inevitable lionizing that was so much to the
+taste of this sensational individual.</p>
+
+<p>On the cars at Cumberland, and at the eating-houses,
+the messenger from Oregon kept up his sensational character,
+indulging in alternate fits of mountain manners, and
+again assuming a disproportionate amount of grandeur;
+but in either view proving himself very amusing. By the
+time the train reached the Relay House, many of the passengers
+had become acquainted with Meek, and were prepared
+to understand and enjoy each new phase of his
+many-sided comicality.</p>
+
+<p>The ticket with which the stage agent presented him,
+dead-headed him only to this point. Here again he must
+make his poverty a jest, and joke himself through to
+Washington. Accordingly when the conductor came
+through the car in which he, with several of his new
+acquaintances were sitting, demanding tickets, he was
+obliged to tap his blanketed passenger on the shoulder
+to attract his attention to the "ticket, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ha ko any me ca, hanch?</i>" said Meek, starting up
+and addressing him in the Snake tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"Ticket, sir!" repeated the conductor, staring.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ka hum pa, hanch?</i>" returned Meek, assuming a look
+which indicated that English was as puzzling to him, as
+Snake to other people.</p>
+
+<p>Finding that his time would be wasted on this singular
+passenger, the conductor went on through the train; returning
+after a time with a fresh demand for his ticket.
+But Meek sustained his character admirably, and it was
+only through the excessive amusement of the passengers
+that the conductor suspected that he was being made the
+subject of a practical joke. At this stage of affairs it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>
+privately explained to him who and what his waggish customer
+was, and tickets were no more mentioned during
+the journey.</p>
+
+<p>On the arrival of the train at Washington, the heart of
+our hero became for a brief moment of time "very little."
+He felt that the importance of his mission demanded some
+dignity of appearance&mdash;some conformity to established
+rules and precedents. But of the latter he knew absolutely
+nothing; and concerning the former, he realized
+the absurdity of a dignitary clothed in blankets and a
+wolf-skin cap. 'Joe Meek I must remain,' said he to himself,
+as he stepped out of the train, and glanced along the
+platform at the crowd of porters with the names of their
+hotels on their hat-bands. Learning from inquiry that
+Coleman's was the most fashionable place, he decided that
+to Coleman's he would go, judging correctly that it was
+best to show no littleness of heart even in the matter of
+hotels.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1848. When Meek arrived at Coleman's it was the
+dinner hour, and following the crowd to the dining saloon,
+he took the first seat he came to, not without being very
+much stared at. He had taken his cue and the staring
+was not unexpected, consequently not so embarrassing as
+it might otherwise have been. A bill of fare was laid beside
+his plate. Turning to the colored waiter who placed
+it there, he startled him first by inquiring in a low growling
+voice&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What's that boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bill of fare, sah," replied the "boy," who recognized
+the Southerner in the use of that one word.</p>
+
+<p>"Read!" growled Meek again. "The people in <i>my</i>
+country can't read."</p>
+
+<p>Though taken by surprise, the waiter, politely obedient,
+proceeded to enumerate the courses on the bill of fare.
+When he came to game&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Stop thar, boy!" commanded Meek, "what kind of
+game?"</p>
+
+<p>"Small game, sah."</p>
+
+<p>"Fetch me a piece of antelope," leaning back in his
+chair with a look of satisfaction on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Got none of that sah; don't know what that ar' sah."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't know!" with a look of pretended surprise. "In
+<i>my</i> country antelope and deer ar' small game; bear and
+buffalo ar' large game. I reckon if you haven't got one,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>
+you haven't got the other, either. In that case you may
+fetch me some beef."</p>
+
+<p>The waiter disappeared grinning, and soon returned with
+the customary thin and small cut, which Meek eyed at first
+contemptuously, and then accepting it in the light of a
+sample swallowed it at two mouthfuls, returning his plate
+to the waiter with an approving smile, and saying loud
+enough to be overheard by a score of people&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Boy, that will do. Fetch me about four pounds of the
+same kind."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the blanketed beef-eater was the recipient
+of general attention, and the "boy" who served him comprehending
+with that quickness which distinguishes servants,
+that he had no ordinary backwoodsman to deal with,
+was all the time on the alert to make himself useful. People
+stared, then smiled, then asked each other "who is it?"
+loud enough for the stranger to hear. Meek looked neither
+to the right nor to the left, pretending not to hear
+the whispering. When he had finished his beef, he again
+addressed himself to the attentive "boy."</p>
+
+<p>"That's better meat than the old mule I eat in the mountains."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this remark the whispering became more general,
+and louder, and smiles more frequent.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you got to drink, boy?" continued Meek,
+still unconscious. "Isn't there a sort of wine called&mdash;some
+kind of <i>pain</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Champagne, sah?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the stuff, I reckon; bring me some."</p>
+
+<p>While Meek drank his champagne, with an occasional
+aside to his faithful attendant, people laughed and wondered
+"who the devil it was." At length, having finished
+his wine, and overhearing many open inquiries as to his
+identity, the hero of many bear-fights slowly arose, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>
+addressing the company through the before-mentioned
+"boy," said:</p>
+
+<p>"You want to know who I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, sah; yes, if you please, sah, for the
+sake of these gentlemen present," replied the "boy," answering
+for the company.</p>
+
+<p>"Wall then," proclaimed Meek with a grandiloquent
+air quite at variance with his blanket coat and unkempt
+hair, yet which displayed his fine person to advantage, "I
+am Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from
+the Republic of Oregon to the Court of the United
+States!"</p>
+
+<p>With that he turned and strode from the room. He
+had not proceeded far, however, before he was overtaken
+by a party of gentlemen in pursuit. Senator Underwood
+of Kentucky immediately introduced himself, calling the
+envoy by name, for the dispatch from St. Louis had prepared
+the President and the Senate for Meek's appearance
+in Washington, though it had not advised them of his
+style of dress and address. Other gentlemen were introduced,
+and questions followed questions in rapid succession.</p>
+
+<p>When curiosity was somewhat abated, Meek expressed
+a wish to see the President without delay. To Underwood's
+question as to whether he did not wish to make his
+toilet before visiting the White House, his reply was,
+"business first, and toilet afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said Underwood, "even your business can wait
+long enough for that."</p>
+
+<p>"No, that's your mistake, Senator, and I'll tell you why:
+I can't dress, for two reasons, both good ones. I've not
+got a cent of money, nor a second suit of clothes."</p>
+
+<p>The generous Kentuckian offered to remove the first of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>
+the objections on the spot, but Meek declined. "I'll see
+the President first, and hear what he has to say about my
+mission." Then calling a coach from the stand, he sprang
+into it, answering the driver's question of where he would
+be taken, with another inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"Whar should a man of <i>my</i> style want to go?&mdash;to the
+White House, of course!" and so was driven away amid
+the general laughter of the gentlemen in the portico at
+Coleman's, who had rather doubted his intention to pay
+his respects to the President in his dirty blankets.</p>
+
+<p>He was admitted to the Presidential mansion by a mulatto
+of about his own age, with whom he remembered
+playing when a lad, for it must be remembered that the
+Meeks and Polks were related, and this servant had grown
+up in the family. On inquiring if he could see the President,
+he was directed to the office of the private Secretary,
+Knox Walker, also a relative of Meek's on the mother's
+side.</p>
+
+<p>On entering he found the room filled with gentlemen
+waiting to see the President, each when his turn to be admitted
+should arrive. The Secretary sat reading a paper,
+over the top of which he glanced but once at the new
+comer, to ask him to be seated. But Meek was not in the
+humor for sitting. He had not traveled express for more
+than two months, in storm and cold, on foot and on horseback,
+by day and by night, with or without food, as it
+chanced, to sit down quietly now and wait. So he took a
+few turns up and down the room, and seeing that the
+Secretary glanced at him a little curiously, stopped and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to see the President immediately. Just
+tell him if you please that there is a gentleman from Oregon
+waiting to see him on very important business."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At the word <i>Oregon</i>, the Secretary sprang up, dashed
+his paper to the ground, and crying out "Uncle Joe!"
+came forward with both hands extended to greet his long
+lost relative.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care, Knox! don't come too close," said Meek
+stepping back, "I'm ragged, dirty, and&mdash;lousy."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i421" name="i421"></a>
+<img src="images/i421.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"> "TAKE CARE, KNOX."</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>But Walker seized his cousin's hand, without seeming
+fear of the consequences, and for a few moments there
+was an animated exchange of questions and answers, which
+Meek at last interrupted to repeat his request to be admitted
+to the President without delay. Several times the Secretary
+turned to leave the room, but as often came back
+with some fresh inquiry, until Meek fairly refused to say
+another word, until he had delivered his dispatches.</p>
+
+<p>When once the Secretary got away he soon returned
+with a request from the President for the appearance of
+the Oregon messenger, all other visitors being dismissed
+for that day. Polk's reception proved as cordial as Walk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>er's
+had been. He seized the hand of his newly found
+relative, and welcomed him in his own name, as well as
+that of messenger from the distant, much loved, and long
+neglected Oregon. The interview lasted for a couple of
+hours. Oregon affairs and family affairs were talked over
+together; the President promising to do all for Oregon
+that he could do; at the same time he bade Meek make
+himself at home in the Presidential mansion, with true
+southern hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>But Meek, although he had carried off his poverty and
+all his deficiencies in so brave a style hitherto, felt his assurance
+leaving him, when, his errand performed, he stood
+in the presence of rank and elegance, a mere mountain-man
+in ragged blankets, whose only wealth consisted of
+an order for five hundred dollars on the Methodist mission
+in New York, unavailable for present emergencies. And
+so he declined the hospitalities of the White House, saying
+he "could make himself at home in an Indian wigwam
+in Oregon, or among the Rocky Mountains, but in the
+residence of the chief magistrate of a great nation, he felt
+out of place, and ill at ease."</p>
+
+<p>Polk, however, would listen to no refusal, and still further
+abashed his Oregon cousin by sending for Mrs. Polk
+and Mrs. Walker, to make his acquaintance. Says Meek:</p>
+
+<p>"When I heard the silks rustling in the passage, I felt
+more frightened than if a hundred Blackfeet had whooped
+in my ear. A mist came over my eyes, and when Mrs.
+Polk spoke to me I couldn't think of anything to say in
+return."</p>
+
+<p>But the ladies were so kind and courteous that he soon
+began to see a little, though not quite plainly while their
+visit lasted. Before the interview with the President and
+his family was ended, the poverty of the Oregon envoy
+became known, which led to the immediate supplying of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>
+all his wants. Major Polk was called in and introduced;
+and to him was deputed the business of seeing Meek
+"got up" in a style creditable to himself and his relations.
+Meek avers that when he had gone through the hands of
+the barber and tailor, and surveyed himself in a full length
+mirror, he was at first rather embarrassed, being under the
+impression that he was being introduced to a fashionable
+and decidedly good-looking gentleman, before whose overpowering
+style he was disposed to shrink, with the old familiar
+feeling of being in blankets.</p>
+
+<p>But Meek was not the sort of man to be long in getting
+used to a situation however novel or difficult. In a very
+short time he was <i>au fait</i> in the customs of the capital.
+His perfect frankness led people to laugh at his errors as
+eccentricities; his good looks and natural <i>bonhomie</i> procured
+him plenty of admirers; while his position at the
+White House caused him to be envied and lionized at
+once.</p>
+
+<p>On the day following his arrival the President sent in a
+message to Congress accompanied by the memorial from
+the Oregon legislature and other documents appertaining
+to the Oregon cause. Meek was introduced to Benton,
+Oregon's indefatigable friend, and received from him the
+kindest treatment; also to Dallas, President of the Senate;
+Douglas, Fremont, Gen. Houston, and all the men who
+had identified themselves with the interests of the West.</p>
+
+<p>It should be stated that only a short time previous
+to the Waiilatpu massacre a delegate had left Oregon for
+Washington, by ship around Cape Horn, who had been
+accredited by the governor of the colony only, and that
+the legislature had subsequently passed resolutions expressive
+of their disapproval of "secret factions," by which
+was meant the mission party, whose delegate Mr. Thornton
+was.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It so happened that, by reason of the commander of the
+<i>Portsmouth</i> having assumed it to be a duty to convey Mr.
+Thornton from La Paz, where through the infidelity of the
+Captain of the <i>Whitton</i>, he was stranded, he was enabled
+to reach the States early in the Spring, arriving in fact a
+week or two before Meek reached Washington. Thus
+Oregon had two representatives, although not entitled to
+any: nor had either a right to a seat in either House; yet
+to one this courtesy was granted, while the two together
+controlled more powerful influences than were ever before
+or since brought to bear on the fate of any single territory
+of the United States. While Mr. Thornton sat among
+Senators as a sort of consulting member or referee, but
+without a vote; Meek had the private ear of the President,
+and mingled freely among members of both Houses,
+in a social character, thereby exercising a more immediate
+influence than his more learned coadjutor.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime our hero was making the most of his
+advantages. He went to dinners and champagne suppers,
+besides giving an occasional one of the latter. At the
+presidential levees he made himself agreeable to witty and
+distinguished ladies, answering innumerable questions
+about Oregon and Indians, generally with a veil of reserve
+between himself and the questioner whenever the inquiries
+became, as they sometimes would, disagreeably searching.
+Again the spirit of perversity and mischief led him
+to make his answers so very direct as to startle or bewilder
+the questioner.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion a lady with whom he was promenading
+a drawing-room at some Senator's reception, admiring his
+handsome physique perhaps, and wondering if any woman
+owned it, finally ventured the question&mdash;was he married?</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," answered Meek, with emphasis, "I have
+a wife and several children."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear," exclaimed the lady, "I should think your
+wife would be <i>so</i> afraid of the Indians!"</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid of the Indians!" exclaimed Meek in his turn;
+"why, madam, she is an Indian herself!"</p>
+
+<p>No further remarks on the subject were ventured that
+evening; and it is doubtful if the lady did not take his
+answer as a rebuke to her curiosity rather than the plain
+truth that it was.</p>
+
+<p>Meek found his old comrade, Kit Carson, in Washington,
+staying with Fremont at the house of Senator Benton.
+Kit, who had left the mountains as poor as any other of
+the mountain-men, had no resource at that time except
+the pay furnished by Fremont for his services as guide and
+explorer in the California and Oregon expeditions; where,
+in fact, it was Carson and not Fremont who deserved fame
+as a path-finder. However that may be, Carson had as
+little money as men of his class usually have, and needed
+it as much. So long as Meek's purse was supplied, as it
+generally was, by some member of the family at the White
+House, Carson could borrow from him. But one being
+quite as careless of money as the other, they were sometimes
+both out of pocket at the same time. In that case
+the conversation was apt to take a turn like this:</p>
+
+<p><i>Carson.</i> Meek, let me have some money, can't you?</p>
+
+<p><i>Meek.</i> I haven't got any money, Kit.</p>
+
+<p><i>Carson.</i> Go and get some.</p>
+
+<p><i>Meek.</i> &mdash;&mdash; it, whar am I to get money from?</p>
+
+<p><i>Carson.</i> Try the "contingent fund," can't you?</p>
+
+<p>Truth to tell the contingent fund was made to pay for
+a good many things not properly chargeable to the necessary
+expenditures of "Envoy Extraordinary" like our
+friend from Oregon.</p>
+
+<p>The favoritism with which our hero was everywhere received
+was something remarkable, even when all the cir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>cumstances
+of his relationship to the chief magistrate, and
+the popularity of the Oregon question were considered.
+Doubtless the novelty of having a bear-fighting and Indian-fighting
+Rocky Mountain man to lionize, was one
+great secret of the furore which greeted him wherever he
+went; but even that fails to account fully for the enthusiasm
+he awakened, since mountain-men had begun to be
+pretty well known and understood, from the journal of
+Fremont and other explorers. It could only have been
+the social genius of the man which enabled him to overcome
+the impediments of lack of education, and the associations
+of half a lifetime. But whatever was the fortunate
+cause of his success, he enjoyed it to the full. He
+took excursions about the country in all directions,
+petted and spoiled like any "curled darling" instead of
+the six-foot-two Rocky Mountain trapper that he was.</p>
+
+<p>In June he received an invitation to Baltimore, tendered
+by the city council, and was received by that body
+with the mayor at its head, in whose carriage he was conveyed
+to Monument Square, to be welcomed by a thousand
+ladies, smiling and showering roses upon him as he
+passed. And kissing the roses because he could not kiss
+the ladies, he bowed and smiled himself past the festive
+groups waiting to receive the messenger from Oregon.
+Music, dining, and the parade usual to such occasions
+distinguished this day, which Meek declares to have been
+the proudest of his life; not denying that the beauty of
+the Baltimore ladies contributed chiefly to produce that
+impression.</p>
+
+<p>On the fourth of July, Polk laid the corner stone of the
+National Monument. The occasion was celebrated with
+great <i>eclat</i>, the address being delivered by Winthrop, the
+military display, and the fire-works in the evening being
+unusually fine. In the procession General Scott and staff<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>
+rode on one side of the President's carriage, Col. May and
+Meek on the other,&mdash;Meek making a great display of
+horsemanship, in which as a mountain-man he excelled.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i427" name="i427"></a>
+<img src="images/i427.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>A MOUNTAIN-MAN IN CLOVER.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>A little later in the summer Meek joined a party of Congressmen
+who were making campaign speeches in the
+principal cities of the north. At Lowell, Mass., he visited
+the cotton factories, and was equally surprised at the extent
+of the works, and the number of young women employed
+in them. Seeing this, the forewoman requested
+him to stop until noon and see the girls come out. As
+they passed in review before him, she asked if he had
+made his choice.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied the gallant Oregonian, "it would be impossible
+to choose, out of such a lot as that; I should have
+to take them all."</p>
+
+<p>If our hero, under all his gaity smothered a sigh of regret
+that he was not at liberty to take <i>one</i>&mdash;a woman like
+those with whom for the first time in his life he was privileged
+to associate&mdash;who shall blame him? The kind of
+life he was living now was something totally different to
+anything in the past. It opened to his comprehension
+delightful possibilities of what might have been done and
+enjoyed under other circumstances, yet which now never
+could be done or enjoyed, until sometimes he was ready
+to fly from all these allurements, and hide himself again
+in the Rocky Mountains. Then again by a desperate effort,
+such thoughts were banished, and he rushed more eagerly
+than before into every pleasure afforded by the present
+moment, as if to make the present atone for the past and
+the future.</p>
+
+<p>The kindness of the ladies at the White House, while it
+was something to be grateful for, as well as to make him
+envied, often had the effect to disturb his tranquility by
+the suggestions it gave rise to. Yet he was always de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span>manding
+it, always accepting it. So constantly was he
+the attendant of his lady cousins in public and in private,
+riding and driving, or sauntering in the gardens of the
+presidential mansion, that the less favored among their
+acquaintances felt called upon to believe themselves aggrieved.
+Often, as the tall form of our hero was seen
+with a lady on either arm promenading the gardens at
+evening, the question would pass among the curious but
+uninitiated&mdash;"Who is that?" And the reply of some
+jealous grumbler would be&mdash;"It is that &mdash;&mdash; Rocky
+Mountain man," so loud sometimes as to be overheard by
+the careless trio, who smothered a laugh behind a hat or
+a fan.</p>
+
+<p>And so passed that brief summer of our hero's life. A
+great deal of experience, of sight-seeing, and enjoyment
+had been crowded into a short few months of time. He
+had been introduced to and taken by the hand by the
+most celebrated men of the day. Nor had he failed to
+meet with men whom he had known in the mountains and
+in Oregon. His old employer, Wilkes, who was ill in
+Washington, sent for him to come and tell "some of those
+Oregon lies" for his amusement, and Meek, to humor him,
+stretched some of his good stories to the most wonderful
+dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>But from the very nature of the enjoyment it could not
+last long; it was too vivid and sensational for constant
+wear. Feeling this, he began to weary of Washington,
+and more particularly since he had for the last few weeks
+been stopping away from the White House. In one of his
+restless moods he paid a visit to Polk, who detecting the
+state of his mind asked laughingly&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Meek, what do you want now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to be franked."</p>
+
+<p>"How long will five hundred dollars last you?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"About as many days as there ar' hundreds, I reckon."</p>
+
+<p>"You are shockingly extravagant, Meek. Where do
+you think all this money is to come from?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not my business to know, Mr. President," replied
+Meek, laughing, "but it <i>is</i> the business of these United
+States to pay the expenses of the messenger from Oregon,
+isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I will send you to the Secretary of War to be
+franked, Meek; his frank is better than mine. But no,
+stay; I will speak to Knox about it this time. And you
+must not spend your money so recklessly, Meek; it will
+not do&mdash;it will not do."</p>
+
+<p>Meek thanked the President both for the money and the
+advice, but gave a champagne supper the next night, and
+in a week's time was as empty-handed as ever.</p>
+
+<p>The close of the session was at hand and nothing had
+been done except to talk. Congress was to adjourn at
+noon on Monday, August 14th, and it was now Saturday
+the 12th. The friends of Oregon were anxious; the two
+waiting Oregonians nearly desperate. On this morning
+of the 12th, the friends of the bill, under Benton's lead, determined
+upon obtaining a vote on the final passage of the
+bill; resolving that they would not yield to the usual motions
+for delay and adjournments, but that they would, if
+necessary, sit until twelve o'clock Monday.</p>
+
+<p>Saturday night wore away; the Sabbath morning's
+sun arose; and at last, two hours after sunrise, a consultation
+was held between Butler, Mason, Calhoun, Davis,
+and Foote, which resulted in the announcement that no
+further opposition would be offered to taking the vote
+upon the final passage of the Oregon bill. The vote
+was then taken, the bill passed, and the weary Senate
+adjourned, to meet again on Monday for a final adjournment.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1848-9. The long suspense ended, Meek prepared to
+return to Oregon, if not without some regrets, at the same
+time not unwillingly. His restless temper, and life-long
+habits of unrestrained freedom began to revolt against the
+conventionality of his position in Washington. Besides,
+in appointing officers for the new territory, Polk had made
+him United States Marshal, than which no office could
+have suited him better, and he was as prompt to assume
+the discharge of its duties, as all his life he had been to
+undertake any duty to which his fortunes assigned him.</p>
+
+<p>On the 20th of August, only six days after the passage
+of the territorial bill, he received his papers from Buchanan,
+and set off for Bedford Springs, whither the family
+from the White House were flown to escape from the suffocating
+air of Washington in August. He had brought
+his papers to be signed by Polk, and being expected by
+the President found everything arranged for his speedy
+departure; Polk even ordering a seat for him in the upcoming
+coach, by telegraph. On learning this from the
+President, at dinner, when the band was playing, Meek
+turned to the leader and ordered him to play "Sweet
+Home," much to the amusement of his lady cousins, who
+had their own views of the sweets of a home in Oregon.
+A hurried farewell, spoken to each of his friends separately,
+and Oregon's new Marshal was ready to proceed
+on his long journey toward the Pacific.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The occasion of Polk's haste in the matter of getting
+Meek started, was his anxiety to have the Oregon government
+become a fact before the expiration of his term of
+office. The appointment of Governor of the new territory
+had been offered to Shields, and declined. Another
+commission had been made out, appointing General Joseph
+Lane of Indiana, Governor of Oregon, and the commission
+was that day signed by the President and given
+to Meek to be delivered to Lane in the shortest possible
+time. His last words to the Marshal on parting were&mdash;"God
+bless you, Meek. Tell Lane to have a territorial
+government organized during my administration."</p>
+
+<p>Of the ten thousand dollars appropriated by Congress
+"to be expended under the direction of the President, in
+payment for services and expenses of such persons as had
+been engaged by the provisional government of Oregon
+in conveying communications to and from the United
+States; and for purchase of presents for such Indian
+tribes as the peace and quiet of the country required"&mdash;Thornton
+received two thousand six hundred dollars,
+Meek seven thousand four hundred, and the Indian tribes
+none. Whether the President believed that the peace
+and quiet of the country did not require presents to be
+made to the Indians, or whether family credit required
+that Meek should get the lion's share, is not known. However
+that may be, our hero felt himself to be quite rich,
+and proceeded to get rid of his superfluity, as will hereafter
+be seen, with his customary prodigality and enjoyment of
+the present without regard to the future.</p>
+
+<p>Before midnight on the day of his arrival at the springs,
+Meek was on his way to Indiana to see General Lane. Arriving
+at the Newburg landing one morning at day-break,
+he took horse immediately for the General's residence at
+Newburg, and presented him with his commission soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>
+after breakfast. Lane sat writing, when Meek, introducing
+himself, laid his papers before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you accept?" asked Meek.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Lane.</p>
+
+<p>"How soon can you be ready to start?"</p>
+
+<p>"In fifteen minutes!" answered Lane, with military
+promptness.</p>
+
+<p>Three days, however, were actually required to make the
+necessary preparations for leaving his farm and proceeding
+to the most remote corner of the United States territory.</p>
+
+<p>At St. Louis they were detained one day, waiting for a
+boat to Leavenworth, where they expected to meet their
+escort. This one day was too precious to be lost in waiting
+by so business-like a person as our hero, who, when
+nothing more important was to be done generally was
+found trying to get rid of his money. So, on this occasion,
+after having disburdened himself of a small amount
+in treating the new Governor and all his acquaintances, he
+entered into negotiations with a peddler who was importuning
+the passengers to buy everything, from a jack-knife
+to a silk dress.</p>
+
+<p>Finding that Nat. Lane, the General's son, wanted a
+knife, but was disposed to beat down the price, Meek
+made an offer for the lot of a dozen or two, and thereby
+prevented Lane getting one at any price. Not satisfied
+with this investment, he next made a purchase of three
+whole pieces of silk, at one dollar and fifty cents per yard.
+At this stage of the transaction General Lane interfered
+sufficiently to inquire "what he expected to do with that
+stuff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't tell," answered Meek; "but I reckon it is worth
+the money."</p>
+
+<p>"Better save your money," said the more prudent Lane.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>
+But the incorrigible spendthrift only laughed, and threatened
+to buy out the Jew's entire stock, if Lane persisted
+in preaching economy.</p>
+
+<p>At St. Louis, besides his son Nat., Lane was met by
+Lieut. Hawkins, who was appointed to the command of
+the escort of twenty-five riflemen, and Dr. Hayden, surgeon
+of the company. This party proceeded to Leavenworth,
+the point of starting, where the wagons and men
+of Hawkins' command awaited them. At this place, Meek
+was met by a brother and two sisters who had come to
+look on him for the first time in many years. The two
+days' delay which was necessary to get the train ready for
+a start, afforded an opportunity for this family reunion, the
+last that might ever occur between its widely separated
+branches, new shoots from which extend at this day from
+Virginia to Alabama, and from Tennessee to California
+and Oregon.</p>
+
+<p>By the 10th of September the new government was on
+its way to Oregon in the persons of Lane and Meek. The
+whole company of officers, men, and teamsters, numbered
+about fifty-five; the wagons ten; and riding-horses, an
+extra supply for each rider.</p>
+
+<p>The route taken, with the object to avoid the snows of
+a northern winter, was from Leavenworth to Santa Fe,
+and thence down the Rio Grande to near El Paso; thence
+northwesterly by Tucson, in Arizona; thence to the
+Pimas village on the Gila River; following the Gila to its
+junction with the Colorado, thence northwesterly again to
+the Bay of San Pedro in California. From this place the
+company were to proceed by ship to San Francisco; and
+thence again by ship to the Columbia River.</p>
+
+<p>On the Santa Fe trail they met the army returning
+from Mexico, under Price, and learned from them that
+they could not proceed with wagons beyond Santa Fe.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>
+The lateness of the season, although it was not attended
+with snow, as on the northern route it would have been,
+subjected the travelers nevertheless to the strong, cold
+winds which blow over the vast extent of open country
+between the Missouri River and the high mountain range
+which forms the water-shed of the continent. It also
+made it more difficult to subsist the animals, especially
+after meeting Price's army, which had already swept the
+country bare.</p>
+
+<p>On coming near Santa Fe, Meek was riding ahead of
+his party, when he had a most unexpected encounter.
+Seeing a covered traveling carriage drawn up under the
+shade of some trees growing beside a small stream, not
+far off from the trail, he resolved, with his usual love of
+adventure, to discover for himself the character of the
+proprietor. But as he drew nearer, he discovered no
+one, although a camp-table stood under the trees, spread
+with refreshments, not only of a solid, but a fluid nature.
+The sight of a bottle of cognac induced him to dismount,
+and he was helping himself to a liberal glass, when a
+head was protruded from a covering of blankets inside
+the carriage, and a heavy bass voice was heard in a polite
+protest:</p>
+
+<p>"Seems to me, stranger, you are making free with my
+property!"</p>
+
+<p>"Here's to you, sir," rejoined the purloiner; "it isn't
+often I find as good brandy as that,"&mdash;holding out the
+glass admiringly,&mdash;"but when I do, I make it a point of
+honor not to pass it."</p>
+
+<p>"May I inquire your name, sir?" asked the owner of
+the brandy, forced to smile at the good-humored audacity
+of his guest.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't refuse to give my name after that,"&mdash;replacing
+the glass on the table,&mdash;"and I now introduce<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>
+myself as Joseph L. Meek, Esq., Marshal of Oregon, on
+my way from Washington to assist General Lane in establishing
+a territorial Government west of the Rocky Mountains."</p>
+
+<p>"Meek!&mdash;what, not the Joe Meek I have heard my
+brothers tell so much about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Joe Meek is my name; but whar did your brothers
+know me?" inquired our hero, mystified in his turn.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you must have known Captain William Sublette
+and his brother Milton, ten or twelve years ago, in
+the Rocky Mountains," said the gentleman, getting out of
+the carriage, and approaching Meek with extended hand.</p>
+
+<p>A delighted recognition now took place. From Solomon
+Sublette, the owner of the carriage and the cognac,
+Meek learned many particulars of the life and death of
+his former leaders in the mountains. Neither of them
+were then living; but this younger brother, Solomon,
+had inherited Captain Sublette's wife and wealth at the
+same time. After these explanations, Mr. Sublette raised
+the curtains of the carriage again, and assisted to descend
+from it a lady, whom he introduced as his wife, and who
+exhibited much gratification in becoming acquainted with
+the hero of many a tale recited to her by her former husband,
+Captain Sublette.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of this pleasant exchange of reminiscences,
+the remainder of Meek's party rode up, were introduced,
+and invited to regale themselves on the fine liquors with
+which Mr. Sublette's carriage proved to be well furnished.
+This little adventure gave our hero much pleasure, as
+furnishing a link between the past and present, and bringing
+freshly to mind many incidents already beginning to
+fade in his memory.</p>
+
+<p>At Santa Fe, the train stopped to be overhauled and
+reconstructed. The wagons having to be abandoned,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span>
+their contents had to be packed on mules, after the manner
+of mountain or of Mexican travel and transportation.
+This change accomplished, with as little delay as possible,
+the train proceeded without any other than the usual
+difficulties, as far as Tucson, when two of the twenty-five
+riflemen deserted, having become suddenly enamored of
+liberty, in the dry and dusty region of southern Arizona.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Hawkins, immediately on discovering the
+desertion, dispatched two men, well armed, to compel
+their return. One of the men detailed for this duty belonged
+to the riflemen, but the other was an American,
+who, with a company of Mexican packers, had joined the
+train at Santa Fe, and was acting in the capacity of pilot.
+In order to fit out this volunteer for the service, always
+dangerous, of retaking deserting soldiers, Meek had lent
+him his Colt's revolvers. It was a vain precaution, however,
+both the men being killed in attempting to capture
+the deserters; and Meek's pistols were never more heard
+of, having fallen into the murderous hands of the runaways.</p>
+
+<p>Drouth now began to be the serious evil with which
+the travelers had to contend. From the Pimas villages
+westward, it continually grew worse, the animals being
+greatly reduced from the want both of food and water.
+At the crossing of the Colorado, the animals had to be
+crossed over by swimming, the officers and men by rafts
+made of bulrushes. Lane and Meek being the first to be
+ferried over, were landed unexpectedly in the midst of a
+Yuma village. The Indians, however, gave them no
+trouble, and, except the little artifice of drowning some
+of the mules at the crossing, in order to get their flesh to
+eat, committed neither murders nor thefts, nor any outrage
+whatever.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i440" name="i440"></a>
+<img src="images/i440.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption"><i>GOVERNOR LANE AND MARSHAL MEEK ENROUTE TO OREGON.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It was quite as well for the unlucky mules to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span>
+drowned and eaten as it was for their fellows to travel on
+over the arid desert before them until they starved and
+perished, which they nearly all did. From the Colorado
+on, the company of Lieut. Hawkins became thoroughly
+demoralized. Not only would the animals persist in
+dying, several in a day, but the soldiers also persisted in
+deserting, until, by the time he reached the coast, his forlorn
+hope was reduced to three men. But it was not the
+drouth in their case which caused the desertions: it was
+rumors which they heard everywhere along the route, of
+mines of gold and silver, where they flattered themselves
+they could draw better pay than from Uncle Sam's coffers.</p>
+
+<p>The same difficulty from desertion harassed Lieutenant-Colonel
+Loring in the following summer, when he attempted
+to establish a line of posts along the route to
+Oregon, by the way of Forts Kearney, Laramie, and
+through the South Pass to Fort Hall. His mounted rifle
+regiment dwindled down to almost nothing. At one
+time, over one hundred men deserted in a body: and although
+he pursued and captured seventy of them, he
+could not keep them from deserting again at the first
+favorable moment. The bones of many of those gold-seeking
+soldiers were left on the plains, where wolves had
+stripped the flesh from them; and many more finally had
+rude burial at the hands of fellow gold-seekers: but few
+indeed ever won or enjoyed that for which they risked
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Cook's wells, some distance beyond the
+Colorado, our travelers found that the water at this place
+was tainted by the body of a mule which had lost its life
+some days before in endeavoring to get at the water.
+This was a painful discovery for the thirsty party to make.
+However, there being no water for some distance ahead,
+General Lane boiled some of it, and made coffee of it,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>
+remarking that "maggots were more easily swallowed
+cooked than raw!"</p>
+
+<p>And here the writer, and no doubt, the reader too, is
+compelled to make a reflection. Was the office of Governor
+of a Territory at fifteen hundred dollars a year, and
+Indian agent at fifteen hundred more, worth a journey of
+over three thousand miles, chiefly by land, even allowing
+that there had been no maggots in the water? <i>Quien
+sábe?</i></p>
+
+<p>Not far from this locality our party came upon one hundred
+wagons abandoned by Major Graham, who had not
+been able to cross the desert with them. Proceeding onward,
+the riders eventually found themselves on foot, there
+being only a few animals left alive to transport the baggage
+that could not be abandoned. So great was their
+extremity, that to quench their thirst the stomach of a
+mule was opened to get at the moisture it contained. In
+the horror and pain of the thirst-fever, Meek renewed
+again the sufferings he had undergone years before in the
+deserts inhabited by Diggers, and on the parched plains
+of the Snake River.</p>
+
+<p>About the middle of January the Oregon Government,
+which had started out so gaily from Fort Leavenworth,
+arrived weary, dusty, foot-sore, famished, and suffering, at
+William's Ranch on the Santa Anna River, which empties
+into the Bay of San Pedro. Here they were very kindly
+received, and their wants ministered to.</p>
+
+<p>At this place Meek developed, in addition to his various
+accomplishments, a talent for speculation. While overhauling
+his baggage, the knives and the silk which had
+been purchased of the <i>peddler</i> in St. Louis, were brought
+to light. No sooner did the senoritas catch a glimpse of
+the shining fabrics than they went into raptures over them,
+after the fashion of their sex. Seeing the state of mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>
+to which these raptures, if unheeded, were likely to reduce
+the ladies of his house, Mr. Williams approached
+Meek delicately on the subject of purchase. But Meek,
+in the first flush of speculative shrewdness declared that
+as he had bought the goods for his own wife, he could not
+find it in his heart to sell them.</p>
+
+<p>However, as the senoritas were likely to prove inconsolable,
+Mr. Williams again mentioned the desire of his family
+to be clad in silk, and the great difficulty, nay, impossibility,
+of obtaining the much coveted fabric in that part
+of the world, and accompanied his remarks with an offer
+of ten dollars a yard for the lot. At this magnificent offer
+our hero affected to be overcome by regard for the feelings
+of the senoritas, and consented to sell his dollar and
+a-half silks for ten dollars per yard.</p>
+
+<p>In the same manner, finding that knives were a desirable
+article in that country, very much wanted by miners
+and others, he sold out his dozen or two, for an ounce
+each of gold-dust, netting altogether the convenient little
+profit of about five hundred dollars. When Gen. Lane
+was informed of the transaction, and reminded of his objections
+to the original purchase, he laughed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Meek," said he, "you were drunk when you
+bought them, and by &mdash;&mdash; I think you must have been
+drunk when you sold them; but drunk or sober, I will
+own you can beat me at a bargain."</p>
+
+<p>Such bargains, however, became common enough about
+this time in California, for this was the year memorable in
+California history, of the breaking out of the gold-fever,
+and the great rush to the mines which made even the
+commonest things worth their weight in gold-dust.</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding to Los Angelos, our party, once more comfortably
+mounted, found traveling comparatively easy. At this
+place they found quartered the command of Maj. Graham,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>
+whose abandoned wagons had been passed at the <i>Hornella</i>
+on the Colorado River. The town, too, was crowded
+with miners, men of every class, but chiefly American
+adventurers, drawn together from every quarter of California
+and Mexico by the rumor of the gold discovery at
+Sutter's Fort.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at San Pedro, a vessel&mdash;the <i>Southampton</i>,
+was found ready to sail. She had on board a crowd of
+fugitives from Mexico, bound to San Francisco, where they
+hoped to find repose from the troubles which harassed
+that revolutionary Republic.</p>
+
+<p>At San Francisco, Meek was surprised to meet about
+two hundred Oregonians, who on the first news of the
+gold discovery the previous autumn, had fled, as it is said
+men shall flee on the day of judgment&mdash;leaving the wheat
+ungathered in the fields, the grain unground in the mills,
+the cattle unherded on the plains, their tools and farming
+implements rusting on the ground&mdash;everything abandoned
+as if it would never more be needed, to go and seek the
+shining dust, which is vainly denominated "filthy lucre."
+The two hundred were on their way home, having all
+either made something, or lost their health by exposure
+so that they were obliged to return. But they left many
+more in the mines.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the tales told in San Francisco of the wonderful
+fortunes of some of the miners that young Lane became
+infected with the universal fever and declared his
+intention to try mining with the rest. Meek too, determined
+to risk something in gold-seeking, and as some of
+the teamsters who had left Fort Leavenworth with the
+company, and had come as far as San Francisco, were very
+desirous of going to the mines, Meek fitted out two or
+three with pack-horses, tools, and provisions, to accompany
+young Lane. For the money expended in the outfit he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>
+was to receive half of their first year's profits. The result
+of this venture was three pickle-jars of gold-dust,
+which were sent to him by the hands of Nat. Lane, the
+following year; and which just about reimbursed him for
+the outlay.</p>
+
+<p>At San Francisco, Gen. Lane found the U.S. Sloop of
+War, the <i>St. Mary's</i>; and Meek insisted that the Oregon
+government, which was represented in their persons, had
+a right to require her services in transporting itself to its
+proper seat. But Lane, whose notions of economy extended,
+singularly enough, to the affairs of the general
+government, would not consent to the needless expenditure.
+Meek was rebellious, and quoted Thornton, by
+whom he was determined not to be outdone in respect of
+expense for transportation. Lane insisted that his dignity
+did not require a government vessel to convey him to
+Oregon. In short the new government was very much
+divided against itself, and only escaped a fall by Meek's
+finding some one, or some others, else, on whom to play
+his pranks.</p>
+
+<p>The first one was a Jew peddler who had gentlemen's
+clothes to sell. To him the Marshal represented himself
+as a United States Custom officer, and after frightening
+him with a threat of confiscating his entire stock, finally
+compromised with the terrified Israelite by accepting a
+suit of clothes for himself. After enjoying the mortification
+of spirit which the loss inflicted on the Jew, for twenty-four
+hours, he finally paid him for the clothes, at the
+same time administering a lecture upon the sin and danger
+of smuggling.</p>
+
+<p>The party which had left Leavenworth for Oregon
+nearly six months before, numbering fifty-five, now numbered
+only seven. Of the original number two had been
+killed, and all the rest had deserted to go to the mines.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span>
+There remained only Gen. Lane, Meek, Lieut. Hawkins
+and Hayden, surgeon, besides three soldiers. With this
+small company Gen. Lane went on board the <i>Jeanette</i>, a
+small vessel, crowded with miners, and destined for the
+Columbia River. As the <i>Jeanette</i> dropped down the Bay,
+a salute was fired from the <i>St. Mary's</i> in honor of Gen.
+Lane, and appropriated to himself by Marshal Meek, who
+seems to have delighted in appropriating to himself all
+the honors in whatever circumstances he might be placed;
+the more especially too, if such assumption annoyed the
+General.</p>
+
+<p>After a tedious voyage of eighteen days the <i>Jeanette</i>
+arrived in the Columbia River. From Astoria the party
+took small boats for Oregon City, a voyage of one hundred
+and twenty miles; so that it was already the 2d of
+March when they arrived at that place, and only one day
+was left for the organization of the Territorial Government
+before the expiration of Polk's term of office.</p>
+
+<p>On the 2d of March Gen. Lane arrived at Oregon City,
+and was introduced to Gov. Abernethy, by Marshal Meek.
+On the 3d, there appeared the following&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p class="center">PROCLAMATION.</p>
+
+<p>In pursuance of an act of Congress, approved the 14th of August, in the
+year of our Lord 1848, establishing a Territorial Government in the Territory
+of Oregon:</p>
+
+<p>I, Joseph Lane, was, on the 18th day of August, in the year 1848, appointed
+Governor in and for the Territory of Oregon. I have therefore thought it
+proper to issue this, my proclamation, making known that I have this day entered
+upon the discharge of the duties of my office, and by virtue thereof do
+declare the laws of the United States extended over, and declared to be in
+force in said Territory, so far as the same, or any portion thereof may be applicable.</p>
+
+<p>Given under my hand at Oregon City, in the Territory of Oregon, this 3d
+day of March, Anno Domini 1849.</p>
+
+<p class="deepind">
+<span class="smcap">Joseph Lane.</span><br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus Oregon had one day, under Polk, who, take it all
+in all, had been a faithful guardian of her interests.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the month of August, 1848, the <i>Honolulu</i>, a vessel
+of one hundred and fifty tons, owned in Boston, carrying
+a consignment of goods to a mercantile house in Portland,
+arrived at her anchorage in the Wallamet, <i>via</i> San Francisco,
+California. Captain Newell, almost before he had
+discharged freight, commenced buying up a cargo of flour
+and other provisions. But what excited the wonder of
+the Oregonians was the fact that he also bought up all
+manner of tools such as could be used in digging or cutting,
+from a spade and pickaxe, to a pocket-knife. This
+singular proceeding naturally aroused the suspicions of a
+people accustomed to have something to suspect. A demand
+was made for the <i>Honolulu's</i> papers, and these not
+being forthcoming, it was proposed by some of the prudent
+ones to tie her up. When this movement was attempted,
+the secret came out. Captain Newell, holding
+up a bag of gold-dust before the astonished eyes of his
+persecutors, cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see that gold? &mdash;&mdash; you, I will depopulate
+your country! I know where there is plenty of this stuff,
+and I am taking these tools where it is to be found."</p>
+
+<p>This was in August, the month of harvest. So great
+was the excitement which seized the people, that all classes
+of men were governed by it. Few persons stopped to
+consider that this was the time for producers to reap golden
+harvests of precious ore, for the other yellow harvest of
+grain which was already ripe and waiting to be gathered.
+Men left their grain standing, and took their teams from
+the reapers to pack their provisions and tools to the mines.</p>
+
+<p>Some men would have gladly paid double to get back
+the spades, shovels, or picks, which the shrewd Yankee
+Captain had purchased from them a week previous. All
+implements of this nature soon commanded fabulous prices,
+and he was a lucky man who had a supply.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>1850-4. The Territorial law of Oregon combined the
+offices of Governor and Indian Agent. One of the most
+important acts which marked Lane's administration was
+that of securing and punishing the murderers of Dr. and
+Mrs. Whitman. The Indians of the Cayuse tribe to whom
+the murderers belonged, were assured that the only way
+in which they could avoid a war with the whites was to
+deliver up the chiefs who had been engaged in the massacre,
+to be tried and punished according to the laws of the
+whites. Of the two hundred Indians implicated in the
+massacre, five were given up to be dealt with according to
+law. These were the five chiefs, <i>Te-lou-i-kite</i>, <i>Tam-a-has</i>,
+<i>Klok-a-mas</i>, <i>Ki-am-a-sump-kin</i>, and <i>I-sa-i-a-cha-lak-is</i>.</p>
+
+<p>These men might have made their escape; there was
+no imperative necessity upon them to suffer death, had
+they chosen to flee to the mountains. But with that
+strange magnanimity which the savage often shows, to the
+astonishment of Christians, they resolved to die for their
+people rather than by their flight to involve them in
+war.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the summer of 1850, the prisoners were delivered
+up to Gov. Lane, and brought down to Oregon City,
+where they were given into the keeping of the marshal.
+During their passage down the river, and while they were
+incarcerated at Oregon City, their bearing was most proud
+and haughty. Some food, more choice than their prisoner's
+fare, being offered to one of the chiefs at a camp of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span>
+the guard, in their transit down the Columbia, the proud
+savage rejected it with scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of heart have you," he asked, "that you
+offer food to me, whose hands are red with your brother's
+blood?"</p>
+
+<p>And this, after eleven years of missionary labor, was all
+the comprehension the savage nature knew of the main
+principle of Christianity,&mdash;forgiveness, or charity toward
+our enemies.</p>
+
+<p>At Oregon City, Meek had many conversations with
+them. In all of these they gave but one explanation of
+their crime. They feared that Dr. Whitman intended,
+with the other whites, to take their land from them; and
+they were told by Jo Lewis, the half-breed, that the Doctor's
+medicine was intended to kill them off quickly, in
+order the sooner to get possession of their country. None
+of them expressed any sorrow for what had been done;
+but one of them, <i>Ki-am-a-sump-kin</i>, declared his innocence
+to the last.</p>
+
+<p>In conversations with others, curious to gain some
+knowledge of the savage moral nature, <i>Te-lou-i-kite</i> often
+puzzled these students of Indian ethics. When questioned
+as to his motive for allowing himself to be taken,
+<i>Te-lou-i-kite</i> answered:</p>
+
+<p>"Did not your missionaries tell us that Christ died to
+save his people? So die we, to save our people!"</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the prisoners were pre-doomed to
+death, a regular form of trial was gone through. The
+Prosecuting Attorney for the Territory, A. Holbrook, conducted
+the prosecution: Secretary Pritchett, Major Runnels,
+and Captain Claiborne, the defence. The fee offered
+by the chiefs was fifty head of horses. Whether it
+was compassion, or a love of horses which animated the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span>
+defence, quite an effort was made to show that the murderers
+were not guilty.</p>
+
+<p>The presiding Justice was O.C. Pratt&mdash;Bryant having
+resigned. Perhaps we cannot do better than to give the
+Marshal's own description of the trial and execution,
+which is as follows: "Thar war a great many indictments,
+and a great many people in attendance at this
+court. The Grand Jury found true bills against the five
+Indians, and they war arraigned for trial. Captain Claiborne
+led off for the defence. He foamed and ranted
+like he war acting a play in some theatre. He knew
+about as much law as one of the Indians he war defending;
+and his gestures were so powerful that he smashed
+two tumblers that the Judge had ordered to be filled with
+cold water for him. After a time he gave out mentally
+and physically. Then came Major Runnels, who made a
+very good defence. But the Marshal thought they must
+do better, for they would never ride fifty head of horses
+with them speeches.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pritchett closed for the defence with a very able
+argument; for he war a man of brains. But then followed
+Mr. Holbrook, for the prosecution, and he laid down the
+case so plain that the jury were convinced before they
+left the jury-box. When the Judge passed sentence of
+death on them, two of the chiefs showed no terror; but
+the other three were filled with horror and consternation
+that they could not conceal.</p>
+
+<p>After court had adjourned, and Gov. Lane war gone
+South on some business with the Rogue River Indians,
+Secretary Pritchett came to me and told me that as he
+war now acting Governor he meant to reprieve the Indians.
+Said he to me, 'Now Meek, I want you to liberate
+them Indians, when you receive the order.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Pritchett,' said I, 'so far as Meek is concerned, he
+would do anything for you.'</p>
+
+<p>This talk pleased him; he said he 'war glad to hear it;
+and would go right off and write the reprieve.'</p>
+
+<p>'But,' said I, 'Pritchett, let us talk now like men. I
+have got in my pocket the death-warrant of them Indians,
+signed by Gov. Lane. The Marshal will execute them
+men, as certain as the day arrives.'</p>
+
+<p>Pritchett looked surprised, and remarked&mdash;'That war
+not what you just said, that you would do anything for
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>Said I, 'you were talking then to Meek,&mdash;not to the
+Marshal, who always does his duty.' At that he got mad
+and left.</p>
+
+<p>When the 3d of June, the day of execution, arrived,
+Oregon City was thronged with people to witness it. I
+brought forth the five prisoners and placed them on a
+drop. Here the chief, who always declared his innocence,
+<i>Ki-am-i-sump-kin</i>, begged me to kill him with my knife,&mdash;for
+an Indian fears to be hanged,&mdash;but I soon put an end
+to his entreaties by cutting the rope which held the drop,
+with my tomahawk. As I said 'The Lord have mercy on
+your souls,' the trap fell, and the five Cayuses hung in
+the air. Three of them died instantly. The other two
+struggled for several minutes; the Little Chief, <i>Tam-a-has</i>,
+the longest. It was he who was cruel to my little girl at
+the time of the massacre; so I just put my foot on the
+knot to tighten it, and he got quiet. After thirty-five
+minutes they were taken down and buried."</p>
+
+<p>Thus terminated a tragic chapter in the history of Oregon.
+Among the services which Thurston performed for
+the Territory, was getting an appropriation of $100,000,
+to pay the expenses of the Cayuse war. From the Spring
+of 1848, when all the whites, except the Catholic missionaries,
+were withdrawn from the upper country, for a pe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>riod
+of several years, or until Government had made
+treaties with the tribes east of the Cascades, no settlers
+were permitted to take up land in Eastern Oregon. During
+those years, the Indians, dissatisfied with the encroachments
+which they foresaw the whites would finally make
+upon their country, and incited by certain individuals who
+had suffered wrongs, or been punished for their own offences
+at the hands of the whites, finally combined, as it
+was supposed from the extent of the insurrection, and
+Oregon was involved in a three years Indian war, the history
+of which would fill a volume of considerable size.</p>
+
+<p>When Meek returned to Oregon as marshal, with his
+fine clothes and his newly acquired social accomplishments,
+he was greeted with a cordial acknowledgment of
+his services, as well as admiration for his improved appearance.
+He was generally acknowledged to be the model
+of a handsome marshal, when clad in his half-military
+dress, and placed astride of a fine horse, in the execution
+of the more festive duties of marshal of a procession on
+some patriotic occasion.</p>
+
+<p>But no amount of official responsibility could ever
+change him from a wag into a "grave and reverend
+seignior." No place nor occasion was sacred to him when
+the wild humor was on him.</p>
+
+<p>At this same term of court, after the conviction of the
+Cayuse chiefs, there was a case before Judge Pratt, in
+which a man was charged with selling liquor to the Indians.
+In these cases Indian evidence was allowed, but
+the jury-room being up stairs, caused a good deal of
+annoyance in court; because when an Indian witness was
+wanted up stairs, a dozen or more who were not wanted
+would follow. The Judge's bench was so placed that it
+commanded a full view of the staircase and every one
+passing up or down it.</p>
+
+<p>A call for some witness to go before the jury was fol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span>lowed
+on this occasion, as on all others, by a general rush
+of the Indians, who were curious to witness the proceedings.
+One fat old squaw had got part way up the stairs,
+when the Marshal, full of wrath, seized her by a leg and
+dragged her down flat, at the same time holding the fat
+member so that it was pointed directly toward the Judge.
+A general explosion followed this <i>pointed</i> action, and the
+Judge grew very red in the face.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i453" name="i453"></a>
+<img src="images/i453.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">MEEK AS UNITED STATES MARSHAL.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Mr. Marshal, come within the bar!" thundered the
+Judge.</p>
+
+<p>Meek complied, with a very dubious expression of
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"I must fine you fifty dollars," continued the Judge;
+"the dignity of the Court must be maintained."</p>
+
+<p>When court had adjourned that evening, the Judge
+and the Marshal were walking toward their respective
+lodgings. Said Meek to his Honor:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why did you fine me so heavily to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>must</i> do it," returned the Judge. "I must keep up
+the dignity of the Court; I must do it, if I pay the fines
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"And you <i>must</i> pay all the fines you lay on the marshal,
+of course," answered Meek.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said the Judge; "I shall do so."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Judge. As I am the proper disbursing
+officer, you can pay that fifty dollars to me&mdash;and I'll take
+it now."</p>
+
+<p>At this view of the case, his Honor was staggered for
+one moment, and could only swing his cane and laugh
+faintly. After a little reflection, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Marshal, when court is called to-morrow, I shall remit
+your fine; but don't you let me have occasion to fine you
+again!"</p>
+
+<p>After the removal of the capital to Salem, in 1852,
+court was held in a new building, on which the carpenters
+were still at work. Judge Nelson, then presiding, was
+much put out by the noise of hammers, and sent the
+marshal more than once, to request the men to suspend
+their work during those hours when court was in session,
+but all to no purpose. Finally, when his forbearance was
+quite exhausted, he appealed to the marshal for advice.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do, Meek," said he, "to stop that infernal
+noise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Put the workmen on the Grand Jury," replied Meek.</p>
+
+<p>"Summon them instantly!" returned the Judge. They
+were summoned, and quiet secured for that term.</p>
+
+<p>At this same term of court, a great many of the foreign
+born settlers appeared, to file their intention of becoming
+American citizens, in order to secure the benefits of the
+Donation Law. Meek was retained as a witness, to swear
+to their qualifications, one of which was, that they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>
+possessed of good moral characters. The first day there
+were about two hundred who made declarations, Meek
+witnessing for most of them. On the day following, he
+declined serving any longer.</p>
+
+<p>"What now?" inquired the Judge; "you made no
+objections yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Very true," replied Meek; "and two hundred lies
+are enough for me. I swore that all those mountain-men
+were of 'good moral character,' and I never knew a
+mountain-man of that description in my life! Let Newell
+take the job for to-day."</p>
+
+<p>The "job" was turned over to Newell; but whether
+the second lot was better than the first, has never transpired.</p>
+
+<p>During Lane's administration, there was a murder committed
+by a party of Indians at the Sound, on the person
+of a Mr. Wallace. Owing to the sparse settlement of the
+country, Governor Lane adopted the original measure of
+exporting not only the officers of the court, but the jury
+also, to the Sound district. Meek was ordered to find
+transportation for the court <i>in toto</i>, jury and all. Boats
+were hired and provisioned to take the party to the
+Cowelitz Landing, and from thence to Fort Steilacoom,
+horses were hired for the land transportation.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians accused were five in number&mdash;two chiefs
+and three slaves. The Grand Jury found a true bill
+against the two chiefs, and let the slaves go. So few
+were the inhabitants of those parts, that the marshal was
+obliged to take a part of the grand jury to serve on the
+petite jury. The form of a trial was gone through with,
+the Judge delivered his charge, and the jury retired.</p>
+
+<p>It was just after night-fall when these worthies betook
+themselves to the jury-room. One of them curled himself
+up in a corner of the room, with the injunction to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span>
+the others to "wake him up when they got ready to hang
+them &mdash;&mdash; rascals." The rest of the party spent four
+or five hours betting against monte, when, being sleepy
+also, they waked up their associate, spent about ten minutes
+in arguing their convictions, and returned a verdict
+of "guilty of murder in the first degree."</p>
+
+<p>The Indians were sentenced to be hung at noon on the
+following day, and the marshal was at work early in the
+morning preparing a gallows. A rope was procured
+from a ship lying in the sound. At half-past eleven
+o'clock, guarded by a company of artillery from the fort,
+the miserable savages were marched forth to die. A
+large number of Indians were collected to witness the
+execution; and to prevent any attempt at rescue, Captain
+Hill's artillery formed a ring around the marshal and his
+prisoners. The execution was interrupted or delayed for
+some moments, on account of the frantic behavior of an
+Indian woman, wife of one of the chiefs, whose entreaties
+for the life of her husband were very affecting. Having
+exhausted all her eloquence in an appeal to the nobler
+feelings of the man, she finally promised to leave her
+husband and become his wife, if he, the marshal, would
+spare her lord and chief.</p>
+
+<p>She was carried forcibly out of the ring, and the hanging
+took place. When the bodies were taken down,
+Meek spoke to the woman, telling her that now she could
+have her husband; but she only sullenly replied, "You
+have killed him, and you may bury him."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>While Meek was in Washington, he had been dubbed
+with the title of Colonel, which title he still bears, though
+during the Indian war of 1855-56, it was alternated with
+that of Major. During his marshalship he was fond of
+showing off his titles and authority to the discomfiture of
+that class of people who had "put on airs" with him
+in former days, when he was in his transition stage from
+a trapper to a United States Marshal.</p>
+
+<p>While Pratt was Judge of the District Court, a kidnaping
+case came before him. The writ of <i>habeas corpus</i>
+having been disregarded by the Captain of the <i>Melvin</i>,
+who was implicated in the business, Meek was sent to
+arrest him, and also the first mate. Five of the <i>Melvin's</i>
+sailors were ordered to be summoned as witnesses, at the
+same time.</p>
+
+<p>Meek went on board with his summons, marched forward,
+and called out the names of the men. Every man
+came up as he was summoned. When they were together,
+Meek ordered a boat lowered for their conveyance to
+Oregon City. The men started to obey, when the Captain
+interfered, saying that the boat should not be taken
+for such a purpose, as it belonged to him.</p>
+
+<p>"That is of no consequence at all," answered the smiling
+marshal. "It is a very good boat, and will suit our purpose
+very well. Lower away, men!"</p>
+
+<p>The men quickly dropped the boat. As it fell, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>
+were ordered to man it. When they were at the oars,
+the mate was then invited to take a seat in it, which he
+did, after a moment's hesitation, and glancing at his superior
+officer. Meek then turned to the Captain, and extended
+the same invitation to him. But he was reluctant
+to accept the courtesy, blustering considerably, and declaring
+his intention to remain where he was. Meek
+slowly drew his revolver, all the time cool and smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like having to urge a gentleman too hard,"
+he said, in a meaning tone; "but thar is an argument
+that few men ever resist. Take a seat, Captain."</p>
+
+<p>The Captain took a seat; the idlers on shore cheered
+for "Joe Meek"&mdash;which was, after all, his most familiar
+title; the Captain and mate went to Oregon City, and
+were fined respectively $500 and $300; the men took
+advantage of being on shore to desert; and altogether,
+the master of the <i>Melvin</i> felt himself badly used.</p>
+
+<p>About the same time news was received that a British
+vessel was unloading goods for the Hudson's Bay Company,
+somewhere on Puget Sound. Under the new order
+of affairs in Oregon, this was smuggling. Delighted with
+an opportunity of doing the United States a service, and
+the British traders an ill turn, Marshal Meek immediately
+summoned a <i>posse</i> of men and started for the Sound. On
+his way he learned the name of the vessel and Captain,
+and recognized them as having been in the Columbia
+River some years before. On that occasion the Captain
+had ordered Meek ashore, when, led by his curiosity and
+general love of novelty, he had paid a visit to this vessel.
+This information was "nuts" to the marshal, who believed
+that "a turn about was fair play."</p>
+
+<p>With great dispatch and secrecy he arrived entirely
+unexpected at the point where the vessel was lying, and
+proceeded to board her without loss of time. The Cap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>tain
+and officers were taken by surprise and were all
+aghast at this unlooked for appearance. But after the
+first moment of agitation was over, the Captain recognized
+Meek, he being a man not likely to be forgotten, and
+thinking to turn this circumstance to advantage, approached
+him with the blandest of smiles and the most cordial
+manner, saying with forced frankness&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I have had the pleasure of meeting you before.
+You must have been at Vancouver when my vessel
+was in the river, seven or eight years ago. I am very
+happy to have met with you again."</p>
+
+<p>"Thar is some truth in that remark of yours, Captain,"
+replied Meek, eyeing him with lofty scorn; "you <i>did</i>
+meet me at Vancouver several years ago. But I was
+nothing but 'Joe Meek' at that time, and you ordered me
+ashore. Circumstances are changed since then. I am
+now Colonel Joseph L. Meek, United States Marshal for
+Oregon Territory; and you sir, are only a &mdash;&mdash; smuggler!
+Go ashore, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>The Captain saw the point of that concluding "go
+ashore, sir!" and obeyed with quite as bad a grace as 'Joe
+Meek' had done in the first instance.</p>
+
+<p>The vessel was confiscated and sold, netting to the Government
+about $40,000, above expenses. This money,
+which fell into bad hands, failed to be accounted for.
+Nobody suspected the integrity of the marshal, but most
+persons suspected that he placed too much confidence in
+the District Attorney, who had charge of his accounts.
+On some one asking him, a short time after, what had become
+of the money from the sale of the smuggler, he
+seemed struck with a sudden surprise:</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said he, looking astonished at the question,
+"thar was barly enough for the officers of the court!"</p>
+
+<p>This answer, given as it was, with such apparent simplic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span>ity
+became a popular joke; and "barly enough" was
+quoted on all occasions.</p>
+
+<p>The truth was, that there was a serious deficiency in
+Meek's account with the Government, resulting entirely
+from his want of confidence in his own literary accomplishments,
+which led him to trust all his correspondence
+and his accounts to the hands of a man whose talents were
+more eminent than his sense of honor. The result of this
+misplaced confidence was a loss to the Government, and
+to himself, whom the Government held accountable. Contrary
+to the general rule of disbursing officers, the office
+made him poor instead of rich; and when on the incoming
+of the Pierce administration he suffered decapitation
+along with the other Territorial officers, he was forced to
+retire upon his farm on the Tualatin Plains, and become a
+rather indifferent tiller of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The breaking out of the Indian war of 1855-6, was
+preceded by a long period of uneasiness among the Indians
+generally. The large emigration which crossed the
+plains every year for California and Oregon was one cause
+of the disturbance; not only by exciting their fears for
+the possession of their lands, but by the temptation which
+was offered them to take toll of the travelers. Difficulties
+occurred at first between the emigrants and Indians concerning
+stolen property. These quarrels were followed,
+probably the subsequent year, by outrages and murder
+on the part of the Indians, and retaliation on the part of
+volunteer soldiers from Oregon. When once this system
+of outrage and retaliation on either side, was begun, there
+was an end of security, and war followed as an inevitable
+consequence. Very horrible indeed were the acts perpetrated
+by the Indians upon the emigrants to Oregon,
+during the years from 1852 to 1858.</p>
+
+<p>But when at last the call to arms was made in Oregon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>
+it was an opportunity sought, and not an alternative
+forced upon them, by the politicians of that Territory.
+The occasion was simply this. A party of lawless wretches
+from the Sound Country, passing over the Cascade Mountains
+into the Yakima Valley, on their way to the Upper
+Columbia mines, found some Yakima women digging roots
+in a lonely place, and abused them. The women fled to
+their village and told the chiefs of the outrage; and a party
+followed the guilty whites and killed several of them in a
+fight.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bolin, the Indian sub-agent for Washington went
+to the Yakima village, and instead of judging of the case
+impartially, made use of threats in the name of the United
+States Government, saying that an army should be sent to
+punish them for killing his people. On his return home,
+Mr. Bolin was followed and murdered.</p>
+
+<p>The murder of an Indian agent was an act which could
+not be overlooked. Very properly, the case should have
+been taken notice of in a manner to convince the Indians
+that murder must be punished. But, tempted by an opportunity
+for gain, and encouraged by the somewhat reasonable
+fears of the white population of Washington and
+Oregon, Governor G.L. Curry, of the latter, at once proclaimed
+war, and issued a call for volunteers, without waiting
+for the sanction or assistance of the general Government.
+The moment this was done, it was too late to retract.
+It was as if a torch had been applied to a field of
+dry grass. So simultaneously did the Indians from Puget
+Sound to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Rocky Mountains
+to the southern boundary of Oregon send forth the
+war-whoop, that there was much justification for the belief
+which agitated the people, that a combination among the
+Indians had been secretly agreed to, and that the whites
+were all to be exterminated.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Volunteer companies were already raised and sent into
+the Indian country, when Brevet Major G.O. Haller arrived
+at Vancouver, now a part of the United States. He
+had been as far east as Fort Boise to protect the incoming
+immigration; and finding on his return that there was an
+Indian war on hand, proceeded at once to the Yakima
+country with his small force of one hundred men, only
+fifty of whom were mounted. Much solicitude was felt
+for the result of the first engagement, every one knowing
+that if the Indians were at first successful, the war would
+be long and bloody.</p>
+
+<p>Major Haller was defeated with considerable loss, and
+notwithstanding slight reinforcements, from Fort Vancouver,
+only succeeded in getting safely out of the country.
+Major Raines, the commanding officer at Vancouver, seeing
+the direction of events, made a requisition upon Governor
+Curry for four of his volunteer companies to go into the
+field. Then followed applications to Major Raines for
+horses and arms to equip the volunteers; but the horses
+at the Fort being unfit for service, and the Major unauthorized
+to equip volunteer troops, there resulted only
+misunderstandings and delays. When General Wool, at
+the head of the Department in San Francisco, was consulted,
+he also was without authority to employ or receive
+the volunteers; and when the volunteers, who at length
+armed and equipped themselves, came to go into the field
+with the regulars, they could not agree as to the mode of
+fighting Indians; so that with one thing and another, the
+war became an exciting topic for more reasons than because
+the whites were afraid of the Indians. As for General
+Wool, he was in great disfavor both in Oregon and
+Washington because he did not believe there ever had
+existed the necessity for a war; and that therefore he
+bestowed what assistance was at his command very grudg<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span>ingly.
+General Wool, it was said, was jealous of the volunteers;
+and the volunteers certainly cared little for the
+opinion of General Wool.</p>
+
+<p>However all that may be, Col. Meek gives it as his opinion
+that the old General was right. "It makes me think,"
+said he, "of a bear-fight I once saw in the Rocky Mountains,
+where a huge old grizzly was surrounded by a pack
+of ten or twelve dogs, all snapping at and worrying him.
+It made him powerful mad, and every now and then he
+would make a claw at one of them that silenced him at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>The Indian war in Oregon gave practice to a number of
+officers, since become famous, most prominent among
+whom is Sheridan, who served in Oregon as a Lieutenant.
+Grant himself, was at one time a Captain on that frontier.
+Col. Wright, afterwards Gen. Wright, succeeded Major
+Raines at Vancouver, and conducted the war through its
+most active period. During a period of three years there
+were troops constantly occupied in trying to subdue the
+Indians in one quarter or another.</p>
+
+<p>As for the volunteers they fared badly. On the first
+call to arms the people responded liberally. The proposition
+which the Governor made for their equipment was
+accepted, and they turned in their property at a certain
+valuation. When the war was over and the property sold,
+the men who had turned it in could not purchase it without
+paying more for it in gold and silver than it was valued
+at when it was placed in the hands of the Quartermaster.
+It was sold, however, and the money enjoyed by
+the shrewd political speculators, who thought an Indian
+war a very good investment.</p>
+
+<p>Meek was one of the first to volunteer, and went as a
+private in Company A. On arriving at the Dalles he was
+detailed for special service by Col. J.W. Nesmith, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span>
+sent out as pilot or messenger, whenever any such duty
+was required. He was finally placed on Nesmith's staff,
+and given the title of Major. In this capacity, as in every
+other, he was still the same alert and willing individual
+that we have always seen him, and not a whit less inclined
+to be merry when an opportunity offered.</p>
+
+<p>While the army was in the Yakima country, it being an
+enemy's country, and provisions scarce, the troops sometimes
+were in want of rations. But Meek had not forgotten
+his mountain craft, and always had something to eat,
+if anybody did. One evening he had killed a fat cow
+which he had discovered astray, and was proceeding to
+roast a twenty-pound piece before his camp-fire, when a
+number of the officers called on him. The sight and savory
+smell of the beef was very grateful to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Major Meek," said they in a breath, "we will sup with
+you to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry, gentlemen, to decline the honor,"
+returned Meek with a repetition of the innocent surprise
+for which he had so often been laughed at, "but I am
+very hungry, and thar is barly enough beef for one
+man!"</p>
+
+<p>On hearing this sober assertion, those who had heard
+the story laughed, but the rest looked rather aggrieved.
+However, the Major continued his cooking, and when the
+beef was done to a turn, he invited his visitors to the
+feast, and the evening passed merrily with jests and camp
+stories.</p>
+
+<p>After the army went into winter-quarters, Nesmith having
+resigned, T.R. Cornelius was elected Colonel. One
+of his orders prohibited firing in camp, an order which as
+a good mountaineer the Major should have remembered.
+But having been instructed to proceed to Salem without
+delay, as bearer of dispatches, the Major committed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span>
+error of firing his gun to see if it was in good condition
+for a trip through the enemy's country. Shortly after he
+received a message from his Colonel requesting him to
+repair to his tent. The Colonel received him politely, and
+invited him to breakfast with him. The aroma of coffee
+made this invitation peculiarly acceptable&mdash;for luxuries
+were scarce in camp&mdash;and the breakfast proceeded for
+some time very agreeably. When Meek had breakfasted,
+Colonel Cornelius took occasion to inquire if the Major
+had not heard his order against firing in camp. "Yes,"
+said Meek. "Then," said the Colonel, "I shall be
+obliged to make an example of you."</p>
+
+<p>While Meek stood aghast at the idea of punishment, a
+guard appeared at the door of the tent, and he heard
+what his punishment was to be, "Mark time for twenty
+minutes in the presence of the whole regiment."</p>
+
+<p>"When the command "forward!" was given," says Meek,
+"you might have seen somebody step off lively, the officer
+counting it off, 'left, left.' But some of the regiment
+grumbled more about it than I did. I just got my horse
+and my dispatches and left for the lower country, and
+when I returned I asked for my discharge, and got it."</p>
+
+<p>And here ends the career of our hero as a public man.
+The history of the young State, of which he is so old a
+pioneer furnishes ample material for an interesting volume,
+and will sometime be written by an abler than our sketchy
+pen.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>PART II.</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/ishortline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center small">OUR</p>
+
+<p class="center bigger">CENTENNIAL INDIAN WAR</p>
+
+<p class="center smaller">AND THE</p>
+
+<p class="center big">LIFE OF GENERAL CUSTER.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The reader of the foregoing pages can hardly have
+failed to observe, that the region east of the Big Horn
+Mountains, including the valleys of the Yellowstone,
+Big Horn, Powder, and Rosebud Rivers, was the
+favorite haunt of the Rocky Mountain hunters and
+trappers&mdash;the field of many of their stirring adventures
+and hardy exploits. Here was the "hunters' paradise,"
+where they came to secure game for food and
+to feed their animals on the nutritious bark of the
+cottonwoods; here they assembled at the Summer rendezvous,
+to exchange their peltries for supplies; and
+here, ofttimes, was established their winter camp, with
+its rough cheer, athletic sports, and wild carousals.</p>
+
+<p>Here, also, between the plains and the mountains,
+was the dark and sanguinary ground where terrific and
+deadly combats were fought between the Delawares,
+Iroquois, Crows, and Blackfeet, and between the trappers
+and Indians; and here, fifty years later, were enacted
+scenes of warfare and massacre which cast a gloom
+over the festivities of our Centennial anniversary.</p>
+
+<p>The recent campaign against the hostile Sioux was
+over the identical ground where the fur-traders roamed
+intent on beaver-skins and adventure; and it is believed
+that some account thereof, and a sketch of the
+renowned Indian fighter who perished on the Little
+Big Horn, may appropriately supplement the story of
+the Mountain-men.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I.</a></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 32em;" class="smcap">Page</span></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Our Centennial War with the Sioux&mdash;Scene of the Campaign&mdash;General
+Aspect of the Country&mdash;The hostile Indians and their Grievances&mdash;The
+People of the Frontier&mdash;The Treaty of 1868&mdash;The Invasion of
+the Black Hills&mdash;Sitting Bull&mdash;Immediate Causes of the War&mdash;The
+Indians Warned and Threatened&mdash;The Warning Disregarded&mdash;An
+Appeal to Arms&mdash;Bishop Whipple on the Roaming Indians,        <span class="pgnum">7</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">General Crook's First Expedition&mdash;The March Northward&mdash;Reynolds
+Follows a Trail&mdash;Camp of Crazy Horse Discovered and Attacked&mdash;The
+Battle of Powder River&mdash;Return to Fort Fetterman&mdash;Crook's
+Second Expedition&mdash;On the Head Waters of Tongue River&mdash;Friendly
+Crows&mdash;Battle of the Rosebud&mdash;Retreat to Goose Creek Camp,        <span class="pgnum">20</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Gen. Terry's Expedition&mdash;March from Fort Lincoln&mdash;Rendezvous on
+the Yellowstone&mdash;The Montana Column&mdash;Reno's Scouting Party
+Discovers a Trail&mdash;The Seventh Cavalry Start up the Rosebud&mdash;Custer
+Discovers an Indian Village and Advances to Attack,        <span class="pgnum">26</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Gibbon's Troops Cross the Yellowstone&mdash;March up the Big Horn&mdash;A
+Smoke Cloud&mdash;An Omen of Victory&mdash;Crow Scouts&mdash;Indians in Front&mdash;A
+Night's Bivouac on the Little Big Horn&mdash;Site of a deserted
+Village&mdash;Evidences of Conflict&mdash;A breathless Scout&mdash;Intrenched
+Cavalry&mdash;Reno Relieved&mdash;"Where is Custer?"        <span class="pgnum">30</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Custer's last Battle&mdash;Revelations of the Battle-field&mdash;Theories as to the
+Engagement&mdash;Custer and His Officers&mdash;Capt. Tom Custer&mdash;Boston
+Custer&mdash;Armstrong Reed&mdash;Burial of the Slain&mdash;Retreat to the
+Yellowstone&mdash;Story of Custer's Scout "Curley"&mdash;Death of Custer,        <span class="pgnum">35</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; V&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Reno's Battles&mdash;His Charge down the Valley, and Retreat to the Bluffs&mdash;Benteen's
+Battalion&mdash;A terrific Assault&mdash;Holding the Fort&mdash;Volunteer
+Water Carriers&mdash;Removal of Indian Village&mdash;Approach of Terry&mdash;Statements
+of Benteen and Godfrey&mdash;A Scout's Narrative,        <span class="pgnum">40</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Kill Eagle at Sitting Bull's Camp&mdash;His Account of the Battles with
+Custer and Reno&mdash;"We have Killed them all"&mdash;What Buck Elk Saw,        <span class="pgnum">52</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Criticisms on the Conduct of Reno and Benteen&mdash;Reno's Defence&mdash;What
+Benteen Says&mdash;Gen. Sheridan on the Custer Disaster,        <span class="pgnum">56</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; I&nbsp;X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Midsummer Campaign&mdash;Adventures of a Scouting Party&mdash;Running
+the Gauntlet&mdash;Indian Allies&mdash;Hazardous Service&mdash;Junction of Terry
+and Crook&mdash;Following the Trail&mdash;At the Mouth of Powder River&mdash;Crook
+Starts for the Black Hills&mdash;Short Rations&mdash;Battle of Slim
+Buttes&mdash;The Chief American Horse&mdash;Deadwood&mdash;Terry at Glendive
+Creek&mdash;A Chase after Sitting Bull&mdash;Close of the Campaign&mdash;Long
+Dog's Reconnoitering Party,        <span class="pgnum">62</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Autumn on the Yellowstone&mdash;Gallant Defence of a Wagon Train&mdash;A
+Letter from Sitting Bull&mdash;A Flag of Truce&mdash;Col. Miles and Sitting
+Bull Have a "Talk" between the Lines&mdash;An Exciting Scene&mdash;The
+Council Disperses&mdash;The Troops Advance&mdash;A Battle and its Results&mdash;Escape
+of Sitting Bull&mdash;Surrender of Chiefs as Hostages,        <span class="pgnum">70</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Terry and Crook at the Sioux Agencies&mdash;The Agency Indians Disarmed
+and Dismounted&mdash;A Gleam of Daylight&mdash;What became of the Ponies&mdash;Red
+Cloud Deposed&mdash;Spotted Tail Declared Chief Sachem&mdash;Gen.
+Crook's Address to His Troops,        <span class="pgnum">77</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Winter Operations&mdash;Crook's Expedition&mdash;Col. McKenzie on the Trail&mdash;A
+Night's March&mdash;A Charge down a Canyon&mdash;Destruction of a
+Cheyenne Village&mdash;Life at the Tongue River Cantonment&mdash;Miles'
+Excursion Northward&mdash;Capture of Sitting Bull's Camp&mdash;An Unfortunate
+Affair&mdash;Massacre of Five Chiefs&mdash;Treacherous Crows&mdash;Winter
+March Southward&mdash;Desperate Battle in the Wolf Mountains&mdash;Defeat
+of Crazy Horse&mdash;Red Horse Surrenders&mdash;His Story of the
+Big Horn Battles&mdash;Spotted Tail's Mission&mdash;Surrender of Roman
+Nose, Standing Elk and Crazy Horse,        <span class="pgnum">81</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">George A. Custer&mdash;Early Youth&mdash;Cadet Life&mdash;From West Point to
+Bull Run&mdash;On Kearny's Staff&mdash;Wades the Chickahominy&mdash;On McClellan's
+Staff&mdash;Antietam&mdash;On Pleasonton's Staff&mdash;Aldie&mdash;A General
+at Gettysburg&mdash;Pursues Lee&mdash;Falling Waters&mdash;Wounded&mdash;Cavalry
+Engagement at Brandy Station&mdash;Marriage,        <span class="pgnum">90</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">A Raid toward Richmond&mdash;With Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley&mdash;Opequan
+Creek&mdash;Fisher's Hill&mdash;Commander of the Third Division&mdash;Fight
+with Rosser&mdash;Sheridan's Army Surprised&mdash;Defeat and Victory&mdash;The
+Cavalry at Cedar Creek&mdash;The last great Raid,        <span class="pgnum">98</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;V.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The last Struggle for Richmond&mdash;Custer at Dinwiddie and Fire Forks&mdash;Petersburg
+Evacuated&mdash;The Pursuit of Lee&mdash;Jetersville&mdash;Sailor's
+Creek&mdash;Appomattox&mdash;A Flag of Truce&mdash;Custer's Address to His
+Soldiers&mdash;The Great Parade&mdash;A Major General&mdash;Texas&mdash;Negotiation
+with Romero,        <span class="pgnum">106</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Seventh Cavalry&mdash;Hancock's Expedition&mdash;Tricky Indians&mdash;A
+Scout on the Plains&mdash;Camp Attacked by Indians&mdash;A Fight for the
+Wagon Train&mdash;The Kidder Massacre&mdash;Court Martialed&mdash;Sully's
+Expedition&mdash;Battle of the Washita&mdash;Death of Black Kettle&mdash;Fate of
+Major Elliot&mdash;Night Retreat&mdash;March to Fort Cobb&mdash;Lone Wolf and
+Satanta&mdash;After the Cheyennes&mdash;Captive Women Recovered,         <span class="pgnum">113</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Yellowstone Expedition&mdash;Road-hunters&mdash;A Siesta&mdash;Dashing
+Indians&mdash;A Trap&mdash;Fearful Odds&mdash;Rapid Volleys&mdash;Attack Renewed&mdash;Reinforcements&mdash;The
+Foe Repulsed&mdash;A Tragedy&mdash;The Revenge of
+Rain in the Face&mdash;Another Fight&mdash;Assigned to Fort Lincoln&mdash;Mrs.
+Custer,        <span class="pgnum">121</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;V&nbsp;I&nbsp;I&nbsp;I.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Campaign of 1876&mdash;The Dakota Column&mdash;The Babcock Investigation&mdash;The
+Congressional Committee&mdash;Grant's Displeasure&mdash;Appeal
+to the President&mdash;Custer's last Campaign,        <span class="pgnum">126</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;I&nbsp;X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">Reminiscences of General Custer&mdash;Personal Characteristics,        <span class="pgnum">132</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center big pchap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX_part2">
+C&nbsp;H&nbsp;A&nbsp;P&nbsp;T&nbsp;E&nbsp;R&nbsp; X&nbsp;X.</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang2 prm">The Indian Commission of 1876&mdash;Purchase of the Black Hills&mdash;Indian
+Orators&mdash;Speeches of Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Blue Teeth, Running
+Antelope, Two Bears, Red Feather, Swan, White Ghost, etc.,        <span class="pgnum">138</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i472" name="i472"></a>
+<img src="images/i472.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">MAP OF THE SIOUX COUNTRY.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE INDIAN WAR.</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/iline.jpg" alt="line" />
+</div>
+
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I_part2" id="CHAPTER_I_part2"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">THE SIOUX TRIBES&mdash;CAUSES OF THE WAR.</p>
+
+
+<p>The scene of the campaign against the hostile
+Indians in 1876, was the rugged, desolate, and partially
+unexplored region lying between the Big Horn
+and Powder Rivers, and extending from the Big Horn
+Mountains northerly to and beyond the Yellowstone
+River. This region is the most isolated and inaccessible
+of any lying east of the Rocky Mountains, and is
+admirably adapted for Indian warfare and defense.
+Several rivers, tributaries of the Yellowstone, flow
+through it, and it abounds in creeks, ravines, and
+canyons. It is the hereditary country of the Crows,
+who for generations defended it against marauding
+tribes of Blackfeet.</p>
+
+<p>A vivid description of the general aspect of the
+country and of the hardships and perils of our soldiers,
+has been given by Col. Nelson A. Miles, of the Fifth
+Infantry, in a letter written from the mouth of the
+Powder River. "No service," he says, "is more
+thankless or dangerous than contending against these
+treacherous savages, and if you will come out and
+learn the real sentiment of the army, you will find
+the officers of the army the strongest advocates of any
+peace policy that shall be just and honorable. You
+will find us out here, five hundred miles from railroad
+communication, in as barren, desolate and worthless a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_8" id="Page_2_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+country as the sun shines upon&mdash;volcanic, broken, and
+almost impassable&mdash;so rugged as to make our granite
+hills of Vermont and New Hampshire appear in comparison
+as pleasant parks. Jagged and precipitous
+cliffs; narrow and deep arroyos filled with massive
+boulders; alkali water, or for miles and miles none
+at all; and vegetation of cactus and sage-bushes, will
+represent to you, feebly indeed, the scene of the
+present campaign, in which we are contending against
+the most powerful, warlike, and best-armed body
+of savages on the American Continent, armed and
+mounted partly at the expense of the Government,
+and fully supplied with the most improved magazine
+guns and tons of metallic ammunition."</p>
+
+<p>"The brave mariner," wrote a newspaper correspondent,
+"on the trackless ocean without compass,
+is no more at the mercy of wind and wave than Terry's
+army, out upon this vast trackless waste, is at the
+mercy of his guides and scouts. The sun rises in the
+east, shines all day upon a vast expanse of sage-brush
+and grass, and, as it sets in the west, casts its dull rays
+into a thousand ravines that neither man nor beast
+can cross. The magnet always points north; but
+whether one can go either north or south can be decided
+only by personal effort. An insignificant turn
+to the wrong side of a little knoll or buffalo-wallow
+ofttimes imperceptibly leads the voyager into ravine
+after ravine, over bluff after bluff, until at last he
+stands on the edge of a yawning canyon, hundreds of
+feet in depth and with perpendicular walls. Nothing
+is left for him to do but to retrace his steps and find
+an accessible route."</p>
+
+<p>The hostile Indians with whom our soldiers have
+had to contend are no despicable foe; on the contrary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_9" id="Page_2_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+they are quite able, in frontier warfare, to cope with
+disciplined troops. They fight in bodies, under skilled
+leaders, and have regular rules which they observe in
+battle, on their marches, and in their camps. "They
+have systems of signalling and of scouting, of posting
+sentinels and videttes, and of herding their animals."
+They are remarkably expert horsemen, and are so dependent
+on their steeds, that "a Sioux on foot is a
+Sioux warrior no longer." Gen. Crook testifies to
+their adroitness and skill as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"When the Sioux Indian was armed with a bow and arrow he
+was more formidable, fighting as he does most of the time on
+horseback, than when he came into possession of the old fashioned
+muzzle loading rifle. But when he came into possession of
+the breech loader and metallic catridge, which allows him to load
+and fire from his horse with perfect ease, he became at once ten
+times more formidable. With the improved arms I have seen
+our friendly Indians, riding at full speed, shoot and kill a wolf,
+also on the run, while it is a rare thing that our troops can hit an
+Indian on horseback though the soldier may be on his feet at the
+time.</p>
+
+<p>"The Sioux is a cavalry soldier from the time he has intelligence
+enough to ride a horse or fire a gun. If he wishes to dismount,
+his hardy pony, educated by long usage, will graze
+around near where he has been left, ready when his master wants
+to mount either to move forward or escape. Even with their
+lodges and families they can move at the rate of fifty miles per
+day. They are perfectly familiar with the country, have their
+spies and hunting parties out all the time at distances of from
+twenty to fifty miles each way from their villages, know the
+number and movements of all the troops that may be operating
+against them, just about what they can probably do, and hence
+can choose their own times and places of conflict or avoid it
+altogether."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The primary causes of the hostilities of the Indians
+which made this campaign and previous ones against
+them necessary, extend far back and are too numerous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_10" id="Page_2_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+to be here fully stated. The principal Indian grievances
+however, for which the government is responsible,
+are a failure to fulfil treaties, encroachment on
+reserved territories, and the dishonesty of agents.
+Col. Miles speaks of our relationship with the Indians
+for the last fifty years, as the dark page in our history,
+which, next to African slavery, has done more to disgrace
+our government, blacken our fair name, and
+reflect upon our civilization, than aught else. It has,
+he says, been a source of corruption and a disturbing
+element, unconfined to any one political party or class
+of individuals.</p>
+
+<p>Wendell Phillips asserts that the worst brutality
+which prurient malice ever falsely charged the Indian
+with, is but weak imitation of what the white man has
+often inflicted on Indian men, women and children;
+and that the Indian has never lifted his hand against
+us until provoked to it by misconduct on our part,
+compared with which, any misconduct of his is but
+dust in the balance.</p>
+
+<p>The great difference in the condition and character
+of the Indians over the Canada line and our own,
+can only be accounted for by the different treatment
+they have received. The Canadian Indians are, on
+the whole, a harmless, honest people, who, though
+they are gradually disappearing before the white
+man, bear him no ill-will, but rather the contrary.
+Bishop Whipple of Minnesota, an earnest advocate
+of the peace policy, draws the following contrast:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Here are two pictures&mdash;on one side of the line a nation has
+spent $500,000,000 in Indian war; a people who have not 100
+miles between the Atlantic and the Pacific which has not been
+the scene of an Indian massacre; a government which has not
+passed twenty years without an Indian war; not one Indian
+tribe to whom it has given Christian civilization; and which<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_11" id="Page_2_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+celebrates its centennial year by another bloody Indian war. On
+the other side of the line there is the same greedy, dominant
+Anglo-Saxon race, and the same heathen. They have not spent
+one dollar in Indian war; they have had no Indian massacres.
+Why? In Canada the Indian treaty calls these men 'the Indian
+subjects of her Majesty.' When civilization approaches them
+they are placed on ample reservations; they receive aid in civilization;
+they have personal rights of property; they are amenable
+to law and are protected by law; they have schools, and
+Christian people delight to give them their best men to teach
+them the religion of Christ. We expend more than one hundred
+dollars to their one in caring for Indian wards."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The results of the Indian disturbances, whatever
+their causes, have borne heavily on the hardy and enterprising
+settlers along the border. Of these citizens
+Gen. Crook says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"I believe it is wrong for a Government as great and powerful
+as ours not to protect its frontier people from savages. I do
+not see why a man who has the courage to come out here and
+open the way for civilization in his own country, is not as much
+entitled to the protection of his Government as anybody else.
+I am not one of those who believe, as many missionaries sent
+out here by well-meaning eastern socities do, that the people of
+the frontiers are cut-throats, thieves, and murderers. I have
+been thrown among them for nearly 25 years of my life, and
+believe them to compare favorably in energy, intelligence and
+manhood with the best of their eastern brethren. They are
+mercilessly plundered by Indians without any attempt being
+made to punish the perpetrators, and when they ask for protection,
+they are told by some of our peace commissioners sent out
+to make further concessions to the Indians, that they have no
+business out here anyhow. I do not deny that my sympathies
+have been with the frontier people in their unequal contest
+against such obstacles. At the same time I do not wish to be
+understood as the unrelenting foe of the Indian."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Sioux Indians, embracing several tribes, are
+the old Dakotahs, long known as among the bravest
+and most warlike aboriginals of this continent. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_12" id="Page_2_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+were steadily pushed westward by the tide of civilization
+to the Great Plains north of the Platte, where
+they claimed as their own all the vast region west of
+the Missouri as far as they could roam or fight their
+way. They resisted the approach of all settlers and
+opposed the building of the Pacific Railroad.</p>
+
+<p>In 1867, Congress sent out four civilians and three
+army officers as Peace Commissioners, who, in 1868,
+made a treaty with the Sioux, whereby for certain
+payments or stipulations, they agreed to surrender
+their claims to a vast tract of country, to live at peace
+with their neighbors, and to restrict themselves to a
+territory bounded south by Nebraska, west by the
+104th meridian, and north by the 46th parallel of
+latitude&mdash;a territory as large as the State of Michigan.
+"They had the solemn pledge of the United States
+that they should be protected in the absolute and
+peaceable possession of the country thus set apart for
+them; and the constitution makes such treaties the
+highest of all authorities, and declares that they are
+binding upon every citizen."</p>
+
+<p>In the western part of the Sioux territory, lying
+between the two forks of the Cheyenne River, is the
+Black Hills country with an area of four or five
+thousand square miles. Of the interior of this region
+up to 1874 nothing was known excepting from the
+indefinite reports of hunters who had penetrated
+therein. The arrival at a trading post of Indians who
+offered gold-dust for sale which they said was procured
+at the Black Hills, caused much excitement; and
+a military expedition of 1200 men was sent from Fort
+Lincoln in July 1874, to explore the Hills and ascertain
+if gold existed there. As was expected, no hostile
+enemy were encountered by the large expedition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_13" id="Page_2_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+which thus invaded the Indian territory. A few
+lodges of Indians were met in the Hills, and they ran
+away notwithstanding friendly overtures were made.
+An attempt was made to lead the pony of one
+mounted Indian to headquarters, but he got away,
+and a shot was fired after him which, says General
+Custer, wounded either the Indian or his pony as
+blood was found on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The geologists of the expedition reported that there
+was gold in the Black Hills, and miners and others
+began to flock thither. In 1875, troops were sent to
+remove the trespassers on the Indian reservation, but
+as fast as they compelled or persuaded the miners to
+go away others came to fill their places; and at the
+present date there are more settlers there than ever
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Of the treaty of 1868 and the so-called peace policy
+then inaugurated various opinions are entertained.
+Gen. Sherman, a member of the commission, in his
+report for 1876, says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"The commission had also to treat with other tribes at the south;
+viz,&mdash;the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas and Commanches; were
+engaged for two years in visiting and confering with these
+scattered bands; and finally, in 1868, concluded many treaties,
+which were the best possible at that date, and which resulted in
+comparative peace on the Plains, by defining clearly the boundaries
+to be thereafter occupied by the various tribes, with the
+annuities in money, provisions, and goods to be paid the Indians
+for the relenquishment of their claims to this vast and indefinite
+region of land. At this time the Sioux nation consisted of
+many distinct tribes, and was estimated at 50,000, of whom some
+8,000 were named as hostiles.</p>
+
+<p>"These Indians, as all others, were under the exclusive jurisdiction
+of the Indian Bureau, and only small garrisons of soldiers
+were called for at the several agencies, such as Red Cloud and
+Spotted Tail on the head of the White Earth River in Nebraska
+(outside their reservation), and at Standing Rock, Cheyenne,<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_14" id="Page_2_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+and Crow Creek on the Missouri River, to protect the persons of
+the agents and their employes. About these several agencies
+were grouped the several bands of Sioux under various names,
+receiving food, clothing, etc., and undergoing the process of civilization;
+but from the time of the Peace Commission of 1868 to
+the date of this report, a number of Sioux, recognized as hostile
+or 'outlaws,' had remained out under the lead of Sitting Bull and
+a few other chiefs."</p>
+
+<p>"The so-called peace policy," says Bishop Whipple, "was
+commenced when we were at war. The Indian tribes were
+either openly hostile, or sullen and turbulent. The new policy
+was a marvellous success. I do honestly believe that it has
+done more for the civilization of the Indians than all which the
+Government has done before. Its only weakness was that the
+system was not reformed. The new work was fettered by all
+the faults and traditions of the old policy. The nation left
+300,000 men living within our own borders without a vestige of
+government, without personal rights of property, without the
+slightest protection of person, property, or life. We persisted in
+telling these heathen tribes that they were independent nations.
+We sent out the bravest and best of our officers, some who had
+grown gray in the service of the country; men whose slightest
+word was as good as their bond&mdash;we sent them because the Indians
+would not doubt a soldier's honor. They made a treaty,
+and they pledged the nation's faith that no white man should
+enter that territory. I do not discuss its wisdom. The Executive
+and Senate ratified it.... A violation of its plain
+provisions was an act of deliberate perjury. In the words of
+Gen. Sherman, 'Civilization made its own compact with the
+weaker party; it was violated, but not by the savage.' The
+whole world knew that we violated that treaty, and the reason
+of the failure of the negotiations of last year was that our own
+commissioners did not have authority from Congress to offer the
+Indians more than one-third of the sum they were already receiving
+under the old treaty."</p>
+
+<p>"The Sioux Nation," says Gen. Crook, in his report of Sept.
+1876, "numbers many thousands of warriors, and they have
+been encouraged in their insolent overbearing conduct by the
+fact, that those who participated in the wholesale massacre of
+the innocent people in Minnesota during the brief period that<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_15" id="Page_2_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+preceded their removal to their present location, never received
+adequate punishment therefor. Following hard upon and as the
+apparent result of the massacre of over eighty officers and men of
+the army at Fort Phil Kearney, the Government abandoned three
+of its military posts, and made a treaty of unparalleled liberality
+with the perpetrators of these crimes, against whom any other
+nation would have prosecuted a vigorous war.</p>
+
+<p>"Since that time the reservations, instead of being the abode
+of loyal Indians holding the terms of their agreement sacred,
+have been nothing but nests of disloyalty to their treaties and
+the Government, and scourges to the people whose misfortune it
+has been to be within the reach of the endurance of their ponies.
+And in this connection, I regret to say, they have been materially
+aided by sub-agents who have disgraced a bureau established for
+the propagation of peace and good will, man to man.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the loyal condition of mind of a lot of savages, who
+will not allow the folds of the flag of the country to float over
+the very sugar, coffee and beef, they are kind enough to accept
+at the hands of the nation to which they have thus far dictated
+their own terms? Such has been the condition of things at the
+Red Cloud Agency.</p>
+
+<p>"The hostile bands roamed over a vast extent of country,
+making the Agencies their base of supplies, their recruiting and
+ordinance depots, and were so closely connected by intermarriage,
+interest and common cause with the Agency Indians, that it was
+difficult to determine where the line of peaceably disposed ceased
+and the hostile commenced. They have, without interruption,
+attacked persons at home, murdered and scalped them, stolen
+their stock&mdash;in fact violated every leading feature in the treaty.
+Indeed, so great were their depredations on the stock belonging
+to the settlers, that at certain times they have not had sufficient
+horses to do their ordinary farming work&mdash;all the horses being
+concentrated on the Sioux Reservation or among the bands which
+owe allegiance to what is called the Sioux Nation. In the winter
+months these renegade bands dwindle down to a comparatively
+small number; while in summer they are recruited by restless
+spirits from the different reservations, attracted by the opportunity
+to plunder the frontiersman, so that by midsummer they
+become augmented from small bands of one hundred to thousands.</p>
+
+<p>"In fact, it was well known that the treaty of 1868 had been
+regarded by the Indians as an instrument binding on us but not<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_16" id="Page_2_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+binding on them. On the part of the Government, notwithstanding
+the utter disregard by the Sioux of the terms of the treaty,
+stringent orders, enforced by military power, had been issued
+prohibiting settlers from trespassing upon the country known as
+the Black Hills. The people of the country against whom the
+provisions of the treaty were so rigidly enforced naturally complained
+that if they were required to observe this treaty, some
+effort should be made to compel the Indians to observe it
+likewise.</p>
+
+<p>"The occupation by the settlers of the Black Hills country had
+nothing to do with the hostilities which have been in progress.
+In fact, by the continuous violations by these Indians of the
+treaty referred to, the settlers were furnished with at least a
+reasonable excuse for such occupation, in that a treaty so long
+and persistently violated by the Indians themselves, should not
+be quoted as a valid instrument for the preventing of such occupation.
+Since the occupation of the Black Hills there has not
+been any greater number of depredations committed by the
+Indians than previous to such occupation; in truth, the people
+who have gone to the Hills have not suffered any more and
+probably not as much from Indians, as they would had they
+remained at their homes along the border."</p>
+
+<p>"In 1868," says Wm. R. Steele, delegate from Wyoming, "the
+United States made a treaty with the Sioux Nation, which was
+a grave mistake, if it was not a national dishonor and disgrace;
+that treaty has been the foundation of all the difficulties in the
+Sioux country. In 1866, Gen. Pope established posts at Fort
+Phil Kearney, Reno, and Fort Smith, so as to open the road to
+Montana and protect the country and friendly Crows from the
+hostile Sioux. In keeping these posts and opening that road,
+many men, citizens and soldiers, had been killed. Notable
+among the actions that had taken place was the massacre of
+Fetterman and his command at Fort Phil Kearney; and yet
+after these men had sacrificed their lives, the Government went
+to work and made a treaty by which it ignominiously abandoned
+that country to these savages, dismantling its own forts, and
+leaving there the bones of men who had laid down their lives in
+the wilderness. Was it to be wondered at, under these circumstances,
+that Sitting Bull and his men believed they were superior
+to the general government? Any body who knows anything<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_17" id="Page_2_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+about Indian nature knows that the legitimate result of that cowardly
+policy of peace at any price, was to defer only the evil
+day which has now come upon us. Since that time the Sioux
+have been constantly depredating on the frontiers of Nebraska,
+Wyoming and Montana, and more men have fallen there in the
+peaceful vocations of civil life, without a murmur being heard,
+than fell under the gallant Custer. The friendly Crows have
+been raided with every full moon; so with the Shoshones; and at
+last these outrages have become so great and so long continued
+that even the peaceable Indian Department could not stand them
+any longer, and called on the military arm of the Government to
+punish these men."</p>
+
+<p>President Grant, in his message of December, 1876, uses the
+following language:&mdash;"A policy has been adopted towards the
+Indian tribes inhabiting a large portion of the territory of the
+United States, which has been humane, and has substantially
+ended Indian hostilities in the whole land, except in a portion of
+Nebraska, and Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana territories, the
+Black Hills region, and approaches thereto. Hostilities there
+have grown out of the avarice of the white man, who has violated
+our treaty stipulations in his search for gold. The question
+might be asked, why the Government had not enforced obedience
+to the terms of the treaty prohibiting the occupation of the
+Black Hills region by whites? The answer is simple. The first
+immigrants to the Black Hills were removed by troops, but
+rumors of rich discoveries of gold took into that region increased
+numbers. Gold has actually been found in paying quantity,
+and an effort to remove the miners would only result in the desertion
+of the bulk of the troops that might be sent there to
+remove them."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The causes and objects of the military operations
+against the Sioux in 1876, as stated by the Secretary
+of War in a letter to the President dated July 8th,
+1876, were in part as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"The present military operations are not against the Sioux
+nation at all, but against certain hostile parts of it which defy
+the Government, and are undertaken at the special request of
+the bureau of the Government charged with their supervision,
+and wholly to make the civilization of the remainder possible.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_18" id="Page_2_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+No part of these operations are on or near the Sioux reservation.
+The accidental discovery of gold on the western border of the
+Sioux reservation and the intrusion of our people thereon have
+not caused this war, and have only complicated it by the uncertainty
+of numbers to be encountered. The young warriors love
+war, and frequently escape their agents to go to the hunt or war
+path&mdash;their only idea of the object of life. The object of these
+military expeditions was in the interest of the peaceful parts of
+the Sioux nation, supposed to embrace at least nine-tenths of the
+whole, and not one of these peaceful treaty Indians has been
+molested by the military authorities."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Of the hostile Indians referred to by the Secretary
+of War, Hon. E.P. Smith, Commissioner of Indian
+Affairs, reported Nov. 1st, 1875:&mdash;"It will probably
+be found necessary to compel the Northern non-treaty
+Sioux, under the leadership of Sitting Bull,
+who have never yet in any way recognized the United
+States Government, except by snatching rations occasionally
+at an agency, and such outlaws from the
+several agencies as have attached themselves to these
+same hostiles, to cease marauding and settle down, as
+the other Sioux have done, at some designated point."</p>
+
+<p>Soon afterwards, Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins
+addressed the Commissioner respecting these Indians,
+as follows:&mdash;"The true policy in my judgment is to
+send troops against them in winter, the sooner the
+better, and whip them into subjection. They richly
+merit punishment for their incessant warfare and their
+numerous murders of white settlers and their families,
+or white men whenever found unarmed."</p>
+
+<p>Early in December, by the advice of the Secretary
+of the Interior, Commissioner Smith directed that
+runners be sent out to notify "said Indian Sitting
+Bull, and others outside their reservation, that they
+must move to the reservation before the 31st day of
+January, 1876; that if they neglect or refuse so to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_19" id="Page_2_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+move, they will be reported to the War Department
+as hostile Indians, and that a military force will be
+sent to compel them to obey the order of the Indian
+officer." Respecting this order to the Indians, Bishop
+Whipple, in a letter to the <i>New York Tribune</i>, says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"There was an inadequate supply of provisions at the agencies
+that Fall, and the Indians went out to their unceded territory
+to hunt. They went as they were accustomed to do&mdash;with the
+consent of their agents and as provided by the treaty. * * *
+The Indians had gone a way from the agencies to secure food,
+and skins for clothing. The United States had set apart this very
+country as a hunting-ground for them forever. Eight months
+after this order to return or be treated as hostile, Congress
+appropriated money for the seventh of thirty installments for
+these roaming Indians. It was impossible for the Indians to obey
+the order. No one of the runners sent out to inform the Indians,
+was able to return himself by the time appointed; yet Indian
+women and children were expected to travel a treeless desert,
+without food or proper clothing, under the penalty of death."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As the order and warning were disregarded by the
+Indians, the Secretary of the Interior notified the Secretary
+of War, Feb. 1st, 1876, that "the time given
+him (Sitting Bull) in which to return to an agency
+having expired, and advices received at the Indian
+Office being to the effect that Sitting Bull still refuses
+to comply with the direction of the Commissioner,
+the said Indians are hereby turned over to the War
+Department for such action on the part of the army
+as you may deem proper under the circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>By direction of Lieut. General Sheridan, Commander
+over the vast extent of territory included in
+the Military Division of Missouri, Brig. Gen. George
+Crook, Commander of the Department of the Platte,
+an officer of great merit and experience in Indian
+fighting, now undertook to reduce these Indian outlaws
+to subjection, and made preparations for an expedition
+against them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II_part2" id="CHAPTER_II_part2"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">BATTLES OF THE POWDER AND ROSEBUD.</p>
+
+
+<p>General Crook started from Fort Fetterman, W.T.,
+March 1st, 1876, at the head of an expedition
+composed of ten companies of the 2d and 3d Cavalry
+under Col. J.J. Reynolds, and two companies of the
+4th Infantry, with teamsters, guides, etc., amounting
+in all to nearly nine hundred men. His course was
+nearly north, past the abandoned Forts Reno and
+Phil. Kearney to Tongue River. He descended this
+river nearly to the Yellowstone, scouted Rosebud
+River, and then changed his course to the south-east
+toward Powder River. At a point on the head of
+Otter Creek, Crook divided his command, and sent
+Col. Reynolds with six companies of cavalry and one
+day's rations to follow the trail of two Indians discovered
+that day in the snow.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Reynolds moved at 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> of the 16th, and at
+4.20 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, after a night's march of thirty miles, was
+near the forks of Powder River. The following
+extracts are copied from a letter written to the <i>New
+York Tribune</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"A halt was called here and the column took shelter in a
+ravine. No fires were allowed to be kindled, nor even a match
+lighted. The cold was intense and seemed to be at least 30°
+below zero. The command remained here till about 6 o'clock,
+doing their uttermost to keep from freezing, the scouts meantime
+going out to reconnoitre. At this hour they returned, reporting<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_21" id="Page_2_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+a larger and fresher trail leading down to the river which was
+about four miles distant. The column immediately started on
+the trail. The approach to the river seemed almost impracticable.
+Before reaching the final precipices which overlooked the riverbed,
+the scouts discovered that a village lay in the valley at the
+foot of the bluffs. It was now 8 o'clock. The sun shone brightly
+through the cold frosty air.</p>
+
+<p>"The column halted, and Noyes's battalion, 2d Cavalry, was
+ordered up to the front. It consisted of Company I, Capt. Noyes,
+and Company K, Capt. Egan. This battalion was ordered to
+descend to the valley, and while Egan charged the camp, Noyes
+was to cut out the herd of horses feeding close by and drive it
+up the river. Capt. Moore's battalion of two companies was
+ordered to dismount and proceed along the edge of the ridge to
+a position covering the eastern side of the village opposite that
+from which Egan was to charge. Capt. Mills's battalion was
+ordered to follow Egan dismounted, and support him in the engagement
+which might follow the charge.</p>
+
+<p>"These columns began the descent of the mountain, through
+gorges which were almost perpendicular. Nearly two hours
+were occupied in getting the horses of the charging columns
+down these rough sides of the mountain, and even then, when a
+point was reached where the men could mount their horses and
+proceed toward the village in the narrow valley beneath, Moore's
+battalion had not been able to gain its position on the eastern
+side after clambering along the edges of the mountain. A few
+Indians could be seen with the herd, driving it to the edge of
+the river, but nothing indicated that they knew of our approach.</p>
+
+<p>"Just at 9 o'clock Capt. Egan turned the point of the mountain
+nearest the river, and first in a walk and then in a rapid trot
+started for the village. The company went first in column of
+twos, but when within 200 yards of the village the command 'Left
+front into line' was given, and with a yell they rushed into the
+encampment. Capt. Noyes had in the meantime wheeled to the
+right and started the herd up the river. With the yell of the
+charging column the Indians sprang up as if by magic and
+poured in a rapid fire from all sides. Egan charged through
+and through the village before Moore's and Mills's battalions got
+within supporting distance, and finding things getting very hot,
+formed his line in some high willows on the south side of the
+camp, from which he poured in rapid volleys upon the Indians.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_22" id="Page_2_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Up to this time the Indians supposed that one company was
+all they had to contend with, but when the other battalions
+appeared, rapidly advancing, deployed as skirmishers and
+pouring in a galling fire of musketry, they broke on all sides and
+took refuge in the rocks along the side of the mountain. The
+camp, consisting of 110 lodges, with immense quantities of robes,
+fresh meat, and plunder of all kinds, with over 700 head of
+horses were in our possession. The work of burning immediately
+began, and soon the whole encampment was in flames.</p>
+
+<p>"After the work of destruction was completed the whole command
+moved rapidly up the river twenty miles to Lodgepole
+Creek. This point was reached at nightfall by all except
+Moore's battalion and Egan's company. Company E was the
+rear guard, and assisted Major Stanton and the scouts in bringing
+up the herd of horses; many of these were shot on the road,
+and the remainder reached camp about 9 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> These troops
+had been in the saddle for 36 hours, with the exception of five
+hours during which they were fighting, and all, officers and men,
+were much exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon arriving at Lodgepole, it was found that General Crook
+and the other four companies and pack-train had not arrived,
+so that everybody was supperless and without a blanket. The
+night, therefore, was not a cheerful one, but not a murmur was
+heard. The tired men lay upon the snow or leaned against a
+tree, and slept as best they could on so cold a night. Saturday,
+at noon, General Crook arrived. In the meantime a portion of
+the herd of horses had straggled into the ravines, and fallen into
+the hands of the Indians."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The village thus destroyed was that of Crazy Horse,
+one of the avowedly hostile chiefs. "He had with
+him," wrote Gen. Crook, "the Northern Cheyennes,
+and some of the Minneconjous&mdash;probably in all one-half
+of the Indians off the reservations." The Indian
+loss was unknown. Four of Reynolds' men were
+killed, and six men including one officer were wounded.
+The whole force subsequently returned to Fort
+Fetterman, reaching there March 26th.</p>
+
+<p>The results of this expedition were neither conclu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_23" id="Page_2_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>sive
+or satisfactory. Therefore, Gen. Sheridan determined
+to proceed more systematically by concentric
+movements. He ordered three distinct columns to
+be prepared to move to a common centre, where the
+hostiles were supposed to be, from Montana, from
+Dakota, and from the Platte. The two former fell
+under the command of Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Commander
+of the Department of Dakota, and the latter
+under Gen. Crook. These movements were to be
+simultaneous, so that Indians avoiding one column
+might be encountered by another.</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Crook marched from Fort Fetterman on the
+29th of May, with two battalions of the 2d and 3d
+Cavalry under Lieut. Col. W.B. Royall, and a battalion
+of five companies of the 4th and 9th Infantry
+under Major Alex. Chambers, with a train of wagons,
+pack-mules, and Indian scouts, all amounting to 47
+officers and 1,000 men present for duty. This expedition
+marched by the same route as the preceding
+one, to a point on Goose Creek, which is the head of
+Tongue River, where a supply camp was established
+on June 8th. During the preceding night a party of
+Sioux came down on the encampment, and endeavored
+to stampede the horses, bringing on an engagement
+which resulted in the discomfiture and retreat of the
+enemy. On the 14th, a band of Shoshones and Crows&mdash;Indians
+unfriendly to the Sioux&mdash;joined Crook, and
+were provided with arms and ammunition.</p>
+
+<p>The aggressive column of the expedition resumed
+the march forward on the morning of the 16th, leaving
+the trains parked at the Goose Creek camp. The
+infantry were mounted on mules borrowed from the
+pack-train, and each man carried his own supplies
+consisting of only three days' rations and one blanket.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_24" id="Page_2_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+At night, after marching about 35 miles, the little
+army encamped between high bluffs at the head
+waters of Rosebud River.</p>
+
+<p>At 5 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> on the morning of the 17th the troops
+started down the valley of the Rosebud, the Indian
+allies marching in front and on the flanks. After
+advancing about seven miles successive shots were
+heard in front, the scouts came running in to report
+Indians advancing, and Gen. Crook had hardly time
+to form his men, before large numbers of warriors
+fully prepared for a fight were in view.</p>
+
+<p>The battle which ensued was on both banks of the
+Rosebud, near the upper end of a deep canyon having
+sides which were steep, covered with pine, and apparently
+impregnable, through which the stream ran.
+The Indians displayed a strong force at all points, and
+contested the ground with a tenacity which indicated
+that they were fighting for time to remove their village,
+which was supposed to be about six miles down
+the Rosebud at the lower end of the canyon, or
+believed themselves strong enough to defeat their
+opponents.</p>
+
+<p>The officers and men of Crook's command behaved
+with marked gallantry during the engagement. The
+Sioux were finally repulsed in their bold onset, and
+lost many of their bravest warriors; but when they
+fled they could not be pursued far without great
+danger owing to the roughness of the country. The
+Indian allies were full of enthusiasm but not very
+manageable, preferring to fight independently of orders.
+Crook's losses were nine soldiers killed, and twenty-one
+wounded, including Capt. Henry of the 3d
+Cavalry. Seven of the friendly Indians were wounded,
+and one was killed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_25" id="Page_2_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gen. Crook was satisfied that the number and
+quality of the enemy required more men than he had,
+and being encumbered with wounded he concluded
+to retreat. The night was passed on the battle-field,
+and the next day he started for his camp on Goose
+Creek, which was reached June 19th. Couriers were
+sent to Fort Fetterman for reinforcements and supplies,
+and the command remained inactive for several
+weeks awaiting their arrival.</p>
+
+<p>The battle of the Rosebud was fought not very far
+from the scene of Custer's defeat a few days later,
+and Gen. Crook concludes that his opponents were
+the same that Custer and Reno encountered.</p>
+
+<p>"It now became apparent," says Gen. Sheridan in
+his report "that Gen. Crook had not only Crazy
+Horse and his small band to contend with, but that
+the hostile force had been augmented by large
+numbers of the young warriors from the agencies
+along the Missouri River, and the Red Cloud and
+Spotted Tail agencies in Nebraska, and that the
+Indian agents at these agencies had concealed the fact
+of the departure of these warriors, and that in most
+cases they continued to issue rations as though they
+were present."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III_part2" id="CHAPTER_III_part2"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">TERRY'S EXPEDITION&mdash;OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN.</p>
+
+
+<p>General Terry left Fort Abraham Lincoln on the
+Missouri River, May 17th 1876, with his division, consisting
+of the 7th Cavalry under Lieut. Col. George
+A. Custer, three companies of infantry, a battery of
+Gatling guns, and 45 enlisted scouts. His whole force,
+exclusive of the wagon-train drivers, numbered about
+1000 men. His march was westerly, over the route
+taken by the Stanley expedition in 1873.</p>
+
+<p>On the 11th of June, Terry reached the south bank
+of the Yellowstone at the mouth of Powder River,
+where by appointment he met steamboats, and established
+his supply camp. A scouting party of six
+companies of the 7th Cavalry under Major M.A. Reno
+was sent out June 10th, which ascended Powder
+River to its forks, crossed westerly to Tongue River
+and beyond, and discovered, near Rosebud River, a
+heavy Indian trail about ten days old leading westward
+toward Little Big Horn River. After following
+this trail a short distance Reno returned to the
+Yellowstone and rejoined his regiment, which then
+marched, accompanied by steamboats, to the mouth
+of Rosebud River where it encamped June 21st.
+Communication by steamboats and scouts had previously
+been opened with Col. John Gibbon, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_27" id="Page_2_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+column was at this time encamped on the north side
+of the Yellowstone, near by.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Gibbon of the 7th Infantry had left Fort Ellis
+in Montana about the middle of May, with a force
+consisting of six companies of his regiment, and four
+companies of the 2d Cavalry under Major J.S. Brisbin.
+He had marched eastward down the north
+bank of the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Rosebud,
+where he encamped about June 1st.</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Terry now consulted with Gibbon and Custer,
+and decided upon a plan for attacking the Indians
+who were believed to be assembled in large numbers
+near Big Horn River. Custer with his regiment was
+to ascend the valley of the Rosebud, and then turn
+towards Little Big Horn River, keeping well to the
+south. Gibbon's troops were to cross the Yellowstone
+at the mouth of Big Horn River, and march up the
+Big Horn to its junction with the Little Big Horn,
+to co-operate with Custer. It was hoped that the
+Indians would thus be brought between the two
+forces so that their escape would be impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Gibbon's column was immediately put in
+motion for the mouth of the Big Horn. On the next
+day, June 22d, at noon, Custer announced himself
+ready to start, and drew out his regiment. It consisted
+of 12 companies, numbering 28 officers and 747
+soldiers. There were also a strong detachment of
+scouts and guides, several civilians, and a supply train
+of 185 pack mules. Gen. Terry reviewed the column
+in the presence of Gibbon and Brisbin, and it was
+pronounced in splendid condition. "The officers
+clustered around Terry for a final shake of the hand,
+the last good-bye was said, and in the best of spirits,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_28" id="Page_2_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+filled with high hopes, they galloped away&mdash;many of
+them to their death."</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Terry's orders to Custer were as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small">
+<table class="other" summary="curlybracket">
+
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+
+<td class="tdcurly" rowspan="3">
+<span style="font-size:2.25em;">}</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Camp at the mouth of Rosebud River</span>,</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">June 22d, 1876.</td></tr>
+
+
+</table>
+<p><i>Lieut. Col. Custer, 7th Cavalry.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Colonel</span>: The Brigadier General Commanding directs that
+as soon as your regiment can be made ready for the march, you
+proceed up the Rosebud in pursuit of the Indians whose trail was
+discovered by Major Reno a few days ago. It is, of course, impossible
+to give any definite instructions in regard to this movement,
+and, were it not impossible to do so, the Department Commander
+places too much confidence in your zeal, energy, and
+ability to wish to impose upon you precise orders which might
+hamper your action when nearly in contact with the enemy. He
+will, however, indicate to you his own views of what your action
+should be, and he desires that you should conform to them unless
+you shall see sufficient reason for departing from them. He
+thinks that you should proceed up the Rosebud until you ascertain
+definitely the direction in which the trail above spoken of
+leads. Should it be found (as it appears to be almost certain
+that it will be found) to turn towards the Little Big Horn, he
+thinks that you should still proceed southward perhaps as far
+as the head waters of the Tongue, and then turn toward the Little
+Big Horn, feeling constantly, however, to your left, so as to preclude
+the possibility of the escape of the Indians to the south or
+south-east by passing around your left flank. The column of
+Col. Gibbon is now in motion for the mouth of the Big Horn.
+As soon as it reaches that point it will cross the Yellowstone,
+and move up at least as far as the forks of the Big and Little
+Big Horn. Of course its future movements must be controlled
+by circumstances as they arise; but it is hoped that the Indians,
+if up on the Little Big Horn, may be so nearly inclosed by the
+two columns that their escape will be impossible. The Department
+Commander desires that on your way up the Rosebud you
+should thoroughly examine the upper part of Tulloch's Creek,
+and that you should endeavor to send a scout through to Col.
+Gibbon's column with information of the result of your examination.
+The lower part of this creek will be examined by a detachment
+from Col. Gibbon's command. The supply steamer will<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_29" id="Page_2_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+be pushed up the Big Horn as far as the forks of the river are
+found to be navigable for that space, and the Department Commander,
+who will accompany the column of Col. Gibbon, desires
+you to report to him there not later than the expiration of the
+time for which your troops are rationed, unless in the meantime
+you receive further orders. Respectfully, &amp;c.,</p>
+
+<p class="smallind">
+<span class="smcap">E.W. Smith</span>, Captain 18th Infantry,</p>
+<p class="midind">Acting Assistant Adjutant General.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>After proceeding southerly up the Rosebud for
+about seventy miles, Custer, at 11 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> on the night
+of the 24th, turned westerly towards Little Big Horn
+River. The next morning while crossing the elevated
+land between the two rivers, a large Indian village
+was discovered about fifteen miles distant, just across
+Little Big Horn River. Custer with characteristic
+promptness decided to attack the village at once.</p>
+
+<p>One company was escorting the train at the rear.
+The balance of the force was divided into three columns.
+The trail they were on led down to the stream
+at a point some distance south of the village. Major
+Reno, with three companies under Capt. T.H. French,
+Capt. Myles Moylan, and Lieut. Donald Mclntosh,
+was ordered to follow the trail, cross the stream, and
+charge down its north bank. Capt. F.W. Benteen,
+with his own company and two others under Capt. T.
+B. Weir and Lieut. E.S. Godfrey, was sent to make a
+detour to the south of Reno. The other five companies
+of the regiment, under the immediate command
+of Custer, formed the right of the little army.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the river Reno crossed it as ordered,
+and Custer with his five companies turned northerly
+into a ravine running behind the bluffs on the east
+side of the stream.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV_part2" id="CHAPTER_IV_part2"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">GIBBON'S MARCH UP THE BIG HORN RIVER.</p>
+
+
+<p>The supply steamer Far West with Gen. Terry
+and Col. Gibbon on board, which steamed up the
+Yellowstone on the evening of June 23d, overtook
+Gibbon's troops near the mouth of the Big Horn
+early on the morning of the 24th; and by 4 o'clock
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span> of the same day, the entire command with the
+animals and supplies had been ferried over to the
+south side of the Yellowstone. An hour later the
+column marched out to and across Tulloch's Creek,
+and then encamped for the night.</p>
+
+<p>At 5 o'clock on the morning of the 25th, (Sunday)
+the column was again in motion; and after marching
+22 miles over a country so rugged as to task the endurance
+of the men to the utmost, the infantry halted
+for the night. Gen. Terry, however, with the cavalry
+and the battery pushed on 14 miles further in hopes
+of opening communication with Custer, and camped
+at midnight near the mouth of the Little Big Horn.</p>
+
+<p>Scouts sent out from Terry's camp early on the
+morning of the 26th discovered three Indians, who
+proved to be Crows who had accompanied Custer's
+regiment. They reported that a battle had been
+fought and that the Indians were killing white men
+in great numbers. Their story was not fully credited,
+as it was not expected that a conflict would occur so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_31" id="Page_2_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+soon, or believed that serious disaster could have overtaken
+so large a force.</p>
+
+<p>The infantry, which had broken camp very early,
+now came up, and the whole column crossed the
+Little Big Horn and moved up its western valley.
+It was soon reported that a dense heavy smoke was
+resting over the southern horizon far ahead, and in a
+short time it became visible to all. This was hailed as
+a sign that Custer had met the Indians, defeated them,
+and burned their village. The weary foot soldiers
+were elated and freshened by the sight, and pressed
+on with increased spirit and speed.</p>
+
+<p>Custer's position was believed to be not far ahead,
+and efforts were repeatedly made during the afternoon
+to open communication with him; but the scouts
+who attempted to go through were met and driven
+back by hostile Indians who were hovering in the
+front. As evening came on, their numbers increased
+and large parties could be seen on the bluffs hurrying
+from place to place and watching every movement of
+the advancing soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>At 8:40 in the evening the infantry had marched
+that day about 30 miles. The forks of the Big Horn,
+the place where Terry had requested Custer to report
+to him, were many miles behind and the expected
+messenger from Custer had not arrived. Daylight
+was fading, the men were fatigued, and the column
+was therefore halted for the night. The animals
+were picketed, guards were set, and the weary men,
+wrapped in their blankets and with their weapons
+beside them, were soon asleep on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning of the 27th the march up the
+Little Big Horn was resumed. The smoke cloud was
+still visible and apparently but a short distance ahead.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_32" id="Page_2_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+Soon a dense grove of trees was reached and passed
+through cautiously, and then the head of the column
+entered a beautiful level meadow about a mile in
+width, extending along the west side of the stream
+and overshadowed east and west by high bluffs. It
+soon became apparent that this meadow had recently
+been the site of an immense Indian village, and the
+great number of temporary brushwood and willow
+huts indicated that many Indians beside the usual
+inhabitants had rendezvoused there. It was also evident
+that it had been hastily deserted. Hundreds of
+lodge-poles, with finely-dressed buffalo-robes and other
+hides, dried meat, stores, axes, utensils, and Indian
+trinkets were left behind; and in two tepees or
+lodges still standing, were the bodies of nine Indians
+who had gone to the "happy hunting-grounds."</p>
+
+<p>Every step of the march now revealed some
+evidence that a conflict had taken place not far
+away. The dead bodies of Indian horses were seen,
+and cavalry equipments and weapons, bullet-pierced
+clothing, and blood-stained gloves were picked up;
+and at last the bodies of soldiers and their horses
+gave positive proof that a disastrous battle had taken
+place. The Crow Indians had told the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The head of the column was now met by a breathless
+scout, who came running up with the intelligence
+that Major Reno with a body of troops was intrenched
+on a bluff further on, awaiting relief. The
+soldiers pushed ahead in the direction pointed out,
+and soon came in sight of men and horses intrenched
+on top of a hill on the opposite or east side of the
+river. Terry and Gibbon immediately forded the
+stream and rode toward the group. As they approached
+the top of the hill, they were welcomed by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_33" id="Page_2_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+hearty cheers from a swarm of soldiers who came out
+of their intrenchments to meet their deliverers. The
+scene was a touching one. Stout-hearted soldiers who
+had kept bravely up during the hours of conflict and
+danger now cried like children, and the pale faces of
+the wounded lighted up as hope revived within them.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the relieved men briefly told was as
+follows:&mdash;After separating from Custer about noon,
+June 25th, (as related in the last chapter) Reno proceeded
+to the river, forded it, and charged down its
+west bank toward the village, meeting at first with
+but little resistance. Soon however he was attacked
+by such numbers as to be obliged to dismount his
+men, shelter his horses in a strip of woods, and fight
+on foot. Finding that they would soon be surrounded
+and defeated, he again mounted his men, and charging
+upon such of the enemy as obstructed his way, retreated
+across the river, and reached the top of a bluff
+followed closely by Indians. Just then Benteen, returning
+from his detour southward, discovered Reno's
+perilous position, drove back the Indians, and joined
+him on the hill. Shortly afterward, the company
+which was escorting the mule train also joined Reno.
+The seven companies thus brought together had been
+subsequently assailed by Indians; many of the men
+had been killed and wounded, and it was only by
+obstinate resistance that they had been enabled to
+defend themselves in an entrenched position. The
+enemy had retired on the evening of the 26th.</p>
+
+<p>After congratulations to Reno and his brave men
+for their successful defence enquiries were made respecting
+Custer, but no one could tell where he was.
+Neither he or any of his men had been seen since the
+fight commenced, and the musketry heard from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_34" id="Page_2_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+direction he took had ceased on the afternoon of the
+25th. It was supposed by Reno and Benteen that he
+had been repulsed, and retreated northerly towards
+Terry's troops.</p>
+
+<p>A search for Custer and his men was immediately
+began, and it revealed a scene calculated to appal the
+stoutest heart. Although neither Custer or any of
+that part of his regiment which he led to combat were
+found alive to tell the tale, an examination of their
+trail and the scene of conflict enabled their comrades
+to form some idea of the engagement in which they
+perished.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i500" name="i500"></a>
+<img src="images/i500.jpg" alt="" />
+
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V_part2" id="CHAPTER_V_part2"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">CUSTER'S LAST BATTLE.</p>
+
+
+<p>General Custer's trail, from the place where he
+left Reno's and turned northward, passed along and
+in the rear of the crest of hills on the east bank of
+the stream for nearly three miles, and then led,
+through an opening in the bluff, down to the river.
+Here Custer had evidently attempted to cross over to
+attack the village. The trail then turned back on
+itself, as if Custer had been repulsed and obliged to
+retreat, and branched to the northward, as if he had
+been prevented from returning southerly by the way
+he came, or had determined to retreat in the direction
+from which Terry's troops were advancing.</p>
+
+<p>Several theories as to the subsequent movements
+of the troops have been entertained by persons who
+visited the grounds. One is, that the soldiers in retreating
+took advantage of two ravines; that two
+companies under Capt. T.W. Custer and Lieut. A.
+E. Smith, were led by Gen. Custer up the ravine
+nearest the river, while the upper ravine furnished a
+line of retreat for the three companies of Capt. G.W.
+Yates, Capt. M.W. Keogh, and Lieut. James Calhoun.
+At the head of this upper ravine, a mile from the
+river, a stand had been made by Calhoun's company;
+the skirmish lines were marked by rows of the slain
+with heaps of empty cartridge shells before them, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_36" id="Page_2_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+Lieuts. Calhoun and Crittenden lay dead just behind
+the files. Further on, Capt. Keogh had fallen surrounded
+by his men; and still further on, upon a
+hill, Capt. Yates' company took its final stand. Here,
+according to this theory, Yates was joined by what
+remained of the other two companies, who had been
+furiously assailed in the lower ravine; and here Gen.
+Custer and the last survivors of the five companies
+met their death, fighting bravely to the end.</p>
+
+<p>Another theory of the engagement is, that Custer
+attempted to retreat up the lower ravine in columns
+of companies; that the companies of Custer and Smith
+being first in the advance and last in the retreat, fell
+first in the slaughter which followed the retrograde
+movement; that Yates' company took the position on
+the hill, and perished there with Custer and other
+officers; and that the two other companies, Keogh's
+and Calhoun's, perished while fighting their way back
+towards Reno&mdash;a few reaching the place where Custer
+first struck the high banks of the river.</p>
+
+<p>Still another theory is, that the main line of retreat
+was by the upper ravine; that Calhoun's company
+was thrown across to check the Indians, and was the
+first annihilated. That the two companies of Capt.
+Custer and Lieut. Smith retreated from the place
+where Gen. Custer was killed into the lower ravine,
+and were the last survivors of the conflict.</p>
+
+<p>Near the highest point of the hill lay the body of
+General Custer, and near by were those of his brother
+Captain Custer, Lieut. Smith, Capt. Yates, Lieut. W.
+V. Riley of Yates' company, and Lieut. W.W. Cooke.
+Some distance away, close together, were found
+another brother of Gen. Custer&mdash;Boston Custer, a
+civilian, who had accompanied the expedition as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_37" id="Page_2_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+forage master of the 7th Cavalry&mdash;and his nephew
+Armstrong Reed, a youth of nineteen, who was visiting
+the General at the time the expedition started,
+and accompanied it as a driver of the herd of cattle
+taken along. The wife of Lieut. Calhoun was a
+sister of the Custer's, and she here lost her husband,
+three brothers, and a nephew.</p>
+
+<p>Other officers of Custer's battalion killed but not
+already mentioned, were Asst. Surgeon L.W. Lord,
+and Lieuts. H.M. Harrington, J.E. Porter, and J.G.
+Sturgis. The last named was a West Point graduate
+of 1875, and a son of General S.D. Sturgis, the Colonel
+of the 7th Cavalry, who had been detained by
+other duties when his regiment started on this expedition.
+The bodies of the slain were rifled of valuables
+and all were mutilated excepting Gen. Custer, and
+Mark Kellogg&mdash;a correspondent of the <i>New York
+Herald</i>. Gen. Custer was clad in a buckskin suit; and
+a Canadian&mdash;Mr. Macdonald&mdash;was subsequently informed
+by Indians who were in the fight, that for this
+reason he was not mangled, as they took him to be
+some brave hunter accidentally with the troops.
+Others believe that Custer was passed by from respect
+for the heroism of one whom the Indians had learned
+to fear and admire.</p>
+
+<p>The dead were buried June 28th, where they fell,
+Major Reno and the survivors of his regiment performing
+the last sad rites over their comrades.</p>
+
+<p>A retreat to the mouth of Big Horn River was now
+ordered and successfully effected, the wounded being
+comfortably transported on mule litters to the mouth
+of the Little Big Horn, where they were placed on a
+steamboat and taken to Fort Lincoln. Gibbon's
+Cavalry followed the Indians for about ten miles, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_38" id="Page_2_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+ascertained that they had moved to the south and
+west by several trails. A good deal of property had
+been thrown away by them to lighten their march,
+and was found scattered about. Many of their dead
+were also discovered secreted in ravines a long distance
+from the battle field.</p>
+
+<p>At the boat was found one of Custer's scouts, who
+had been in the fight&mdash;a Crow named Curley; his
+story was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Custer kept down the river on the north bank four miles,
+after Reno had crossed to the south side above. He thought
+Reno would drive down the valley, to attack the village at the
+upper end, while he (Custer) would go in at the lower end.
+Custer had to go further down the river and further away from
+Reno than he wished on account of the steep bank along the
+north side; but at last he found a ford and dashed for it. The
+Indians met him and poured in a heavy fire from across the narrow
+river. Custer dismounted to fight on foot, but could not
+get his skirmishers over the stream. Meantime hundreds of
+Indians, on foot and on ponies, poured over the river, which was
+only about three feet deep, and filled the ravine on each side of
+Custer's men. Custer then fell back to some high ground behind
+him and seized the ravines in his immediate vicinity. The Indians
+completely surrounded Custer and poured in a terrible fire
+on all sides. They charged Custer on foot in vast numbers, but
+were again and again driven back.</p>
+
+<p>"The fight began about 2 o'clock, and lasted almost until the
+sun went down over the hills. The men fought desperately, and
+after the ammunition in their belts was exhausted went to their
+saddlebags, got more and continued the fight. Custer lived until
+nearly all his men had been killed or wounded, and went about
+encouraging his soldiers to fight on. He got a shot in the left
+side and sat down, with his pistol in his hand. Another shot
+struck Custer in the breast, and he fell over. The last officer
+killed was a man who rode a white horse&mdash;believed to be Lieut.
+Cooke, as Cooke and Calhoun were the only officers who rode
+white horses.</p>
+
+<p>"When he saw Custer hopelessly surrounded he watched his<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_39" id="Page_2_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+opportunity, got a Sioux blanket, put it on, and worked up a
+ravine, and when the Sioux charged, he got among them and
+they did not know him from one of their own men. There were
+some mounted Sioux, and seeing one fall, he ran to him, mounted
+his pony, and galloped down as if going towards the white
+men, but went up a ravine and got away. As he rode off he
+saw, when nearly a mile from the battle field, a dozen or more
+soldiers in a ravine, fighting with Sioux all around them. He
+thinks all were killed, as they were outnumbered five to one, and
+apparently dismounted. The battle was desperate in the extreme,
+and more Indians than white men must have been killed."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following extract is from a letter written to
+Gen. Sheridan by Gen. Terry at his camp on the Big
+Horn, July 2d:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"We calculated it would take Gibbon's command until the
+26th to reach the mouth of the Little Big Horn, and that the
+wide sweep I had proposed Custer should make would require so
+much time that Gibbon would be able to co-operate with him in
+attacking any Indians that might be found on the stream. I
+asked Custer how long his marches would be. He said they
+would be at the rate of about 30 miles a day. Measurements
+were made and calculations based on that rate of progress. I
+talked with him about his strength, and at one time suggested
+that perhaps it would be well for me to take Gibbon's cavalry
+and go with him. To the latter suggestion he replied:&mdash;that,
+without reference to the command, he would prefer his own regiment
+alone. As a homogeneous body, as much could be done
+with it as with the two combined. He expressed the utmost
+confidence that he had all the force that he could need, and I
+shared his confidence. The plan adopted was the only one
+which promised to bring the infantry into action, and I desired
+to make sure of things by getting up every available man. I
+offered Custer the battery of Gatling guns, but he declined it,
+saying that it might embarrass him, and that he was strong
+enough without it. The movements proposed by General Gibbon's
+column were carried out to the letter, and had the attack
+been deferred until it was up, I cannot doubt that we should
+have been successful."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI_part2" id="CHAPTER_VI_part2"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">RENO'S BATTLES ON THE LITTLE BIG HORN.</p>
+
+
+<p>After the battle in which Lieut. Col. Custer lost
+his life, the command of the 7th Cavalry regiment devolved
+on Major Reno. The following is a copy of
+Reno's official report to Gen. Terry, excepting that a
+few unimportant paragraphs are omitted. It is dated
+July 5th, 1876.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"The regiment left the camp at the mouth of Rosebud River,
+after passing in review before the department commander, under
+command of Brevet Major General G.A. Custer, Lieutenant
+Colonel, on the afternoon of the 22d of June, and marched up
+the Rosebud 12 miles and encamped. 23d&mdash;Marched up the
+Rosebud, passing many old Indian camps, and following a very
+large lodge-pole trail, but not fresh, making 33 miles. 24th&mdash;The
+march was continued up the Rosebud, the trail and signs freshening
+with every mile until we had made 28 miles, and we then
+encamped and waited for information from the scouts. At 9.25
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, Custer called the officers together, and informed us that
+beyond a doubt the village was in the valley of the Little Big
+Horn, and that to reach it, it was necessary to cross the divide
+between the Rosebud and Little Big Horn, and it would be impossible
+to do so in the daytime without discovering our march
+to the Indians; that we would prepare to move at 11 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> This
+was done, the line of march turning from the Rosebud to the
+right, up one of its branches, which headed near the summit of
+the divide.</p>
+
+<p>"About 2 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> of the 25th, the scouts told him that he could not
+cross the divide before daylight. We then made coffee and
+rested for three hours, at the expiration of which time the march
+was resumed, the divide crossed, and about 8 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> the command<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_41" id="Page_2_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+was in the valley of one of the branches of the Little Big Horn.
+By this time Indians had been seen, and it was certain that we
+could not surprise them, and it was determined to move at once
+to the attack.</p>
+
+<p>"Previous to this no division of the regiment had been made
+since the order was issued on the Yellowstone, annulling wing
+and battalion organizations. General Custer informed me he
+would assign commands on the march. I was ordered by Lieut.
+W.W. Cooke, Adjutant, to assume command of Companies M,
+A, and G; Capt. Benteen of Companies H, D, and K; Custer
+retaining C, E, F, I, and L, under his immediate command; and
+Company B, Capt. McDougall, being in rear of the pack train.
+I assumed command of the companies assigned to me, and without
+any definite orders, moved forward with the rest of the column,
+and well to its left. I saw Benteen moving further to the
+left, and, as they passed, he told me he had orders to move well
+to the left, and sweep everything before him; I did not see him
+again until about 2:30 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> The command moved down the
+creek towards the Little Big Horn Valley. Custer with five
+companies on the right bank; myself and three companies on
+the left bank; and Benteen further to the left, and out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>"As we approached a deserted village, in which was standing
+one tepee, about 11 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, Custer motioned me to cross to him,
+which I did, and moved nearer to his column, until about 12:30
+<span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, when Lieut. Cooke came to me and said the village was
+only two miles ahead and running away. To 'move forward at as
+rapid a gait as I thought prudent and to charge afterward, and
+that the whole outfit would support me.' I think those were his
+exact words. I at once took a fast trot, and moved down
+about two miles, when I came to a ford of the river. I crossed
+immediately, and halted about ten minutes or less, to gather the
+battalion, sending word to Custer that I had everything in front
+of me, and that they were strong.</p>
+
+<p>"I deployed, and, with the Ree scouts on my left, charged
+down the valley, driving the Indians with great ease for about
+2&frac12; miles. I, however, soon saw that I was being drawn into
+some trap, as they certainly would fight harder, and especially as
+we were nearing their village, which was still standing; besides,
+I could not see Custer or any other support; and at the same time
+the very earth seemed to grow Indians, and they were running<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_42" id="Page_2_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+toward me in swarms, and from all directions. I saw I must
+defend myself, and give up the attack mounted. This I did,
+taking possession of a point of woods, which furnished near its
+edge a shelter for the horses; dismounted, and fought them on
+foot, making headway through the woods. I soon found myself
+in the near vicinity of the village, saw that I was fighting odds of
+at least five to one, and that my only hope was to get out of the
+woods, where I would soon have been surrounded, and gain some
+high ground. I accomplished this by mounting and charging the
+Indians between me and the bluffs on the opposite side of the
+river. In this charge First Lieut. Donald McIntosh, Second
+Lieut. Benjamin H. Hodgson, and Acting Assistant Surgeon J.
+M. De Wolf were killed.</p>
+
+<p>"I succeeded in reaching the top of the bluff, with a loss of the
+three officers and 29 enlisted men killed, and seven men wounded.
+Almost at the same time I reached the top, mounted men were
+seen to be coming toward us, and it proved to be Capt. Benteen's
+battalion, Companies H, D, and K; we joined forces, and in a
+short time the pack train came up. As senior my command was
+then Companies A, B, D, G, H, K, and M, about 380 men; and
+the following officers:&mdash;Captains Benteen, Weir, French, and
+McDougall, First Lieutenants Godfrey, Mathey, and Gibson,
+Second Lieutenants Edgerly, Wallace, Varnum, and Hare, and
+A.A. Surgeon Porter. First Lieut. De Rudio was in the dismounted
+fight in the woods, but having some trouble with his
+horse did not join the command in the charge out, and hiding
+himself in the woods, joined the command after nightfall of the
+26th.</p>
+
+<p>"Still hearing nothing of Custer, and with this reinforcement,
+I moved down the river in the direction of the village, keeping on
+the bluffs. We had heard firing in that direction, and knew it
+could only be Custer. I moved to the summit of the highest
+bluff, but seeing and hearing nothing, sent Capt. Weir, with his
+company, to open communication with the other command. He
+soon sent back word by Lieut. Hare that he could go no further,
+and that the Indians were getting around him. At this time he
+was keeping up a heavy fire from his skirmish line. I at once
+turned everything back to the first position I had taken on the
+bluff, and which seemed to me the best. I dismounted the men,
+had the horses and mules of the pack train driven together in a<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_43" id="Page_2_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+depression, put the men on the crests of the hills making the
+depression, and had hardly done so when I was furiously attacked.
+This was about 6 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> We held our ground, with the loss
+of 18 enlisted men killed and 46 wounded, until the attack ceased,
+about 9 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span></p>
+
+<p>"As I knew by this time their overwhelming numbers, and had
+given up any support from the portion of the regiment with Custer,
+I had the men dig rifle-pits; barricaded with dead horses,
+mules, and boxes of hard bread, the opening of the depression
+toward the Indians in which the animals were herded; and made
+every exertion to be ready for what I saw would be a terrific
+assault the next day. All this night the men were busy, and the
+Indians holding a scalp dance underneath us in the bottom and
+in our hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"On the morning of the 26th I felt confident that I could hold
+my own, and was ready as far as I could be, when at daylight,
+about 2:30 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, I heard the crack of two rifles. This was the
+signal for the beginning of a fire that I have never seen equaled.
+Every rifle was handled by an expert and skilled marksman, and
+with a range that exceeded our carbine; and it was simply impossible
+to show any part of the body, before it was struck. We
+could see, as the day brightened, countless hordes of them pouring
+up the valley from out the village, and scampering over the
+high points toward the places designated for them by their chiefs,
+and which entirely surrounded our position. They had sufficient
+numbers to completely encircle us, and men were struck on the
+opposite sides of the lines from which the shots were fired. I
+think we were fighting all the Sioux nation, and also all the desperados,
+renegades, half-breeds and squaw men, between the
+Missouri and the Arkansas and east of the Rocky Mountains.
+They must have numbered at least 2,500 warriors.</p>
+
+<p>"The fire did not slacken until about 9:30 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, and then we
+discovered that they were making a last desperate attempt, which
+was directed against the lines held by Companies H and M. In
+this attack they charged close enough to use their bows and
+arrows, and one man lying dead within our lines was touched by
+the 'coup stick' of one of the foremost Indians. When I say
+the stick was only about 10 or 12 feet long, some idea of the
+desperate and reckless fighting of these people may be understood.
+This charge of theirs was gallantly repulsed by the men<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_44" id="Page_2_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+on that line led by Capt. Benteen. They also came close enough
+to send their arrows into the line held by Companies D and K,
+but were driven away by a like charge of the line, which I accompanied.
+We now had many wounded, and the question of water
+was vital, as from 6 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> of the previous evening until now, 10
+<span class="smcap">a.m.</span> (about 16 hours) we had been without it. A skirmish line
+was formed under Capt. Benteen, to protect the descent of volunteers
+down the hill in front of his position to reach the water.
+We succeeded in getting some canteens, although many of the
+men were hit in doing so.</p>
+
+<p>"The fury of the attack was now over, and to my astonishment
+the Indians were seen going in parties toward the village.
+But two solutions occurred to us for this movement&mdash;that they
+were going for something to eat, more ammunition (as they had
+been throwing arrows), or that Custer was coming. We took
+advantage of this lull to fill all vessels with water, and soon had
+it by the camp kettle full; but they continued to withdraw, and
+all firing ceased, save occasional shots from sharpshooters, sent
+to annoy us about the water. About 2 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> the grass in the
+bottom was set on fire, and followed up by Indians who encouraged
+its burning, and it was evident it was done for a purpose,
+which purpose I discovered, later on, to be the creation of a dense
+cloud of smoke, behind which they were packing and preparing
+to move their tepees.</p>
+
+<p>"It was between 6 and 7 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> that the village came out from
+behind the clouds of smoke and dust. We had a close and good
+view of them, as they filed away in the direction of the Big Horn
+Mountains, moving in almost perfect military order. The length
+of the column was fully equal to that of a large division of the
+cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, as I have seen it on
+its march.</p>
+
+<p>"We now thought of Custer, of whom nothing had been seen
+and nothing heard since the firing in his direction about 6 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>
+on the eve of the 25th, and we concluded that the Indians had
+gotten between him and us, and driven him toward the boat, at
+the mouth of Little Big Horn River; the awful fate that did befall
+him never occurring to any of us as within the limits of possibilities.
+During the night I changed my position, in order to secure
+an unlimited supply of water, and was prepared for their return,
+feeling sure they would do so, as they were in such numbers. But<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_45" id="Page_2_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+early in the morning of the 27th, and while we were on the <i>qui
+vive</i> for Indians, I saw with my glass a dust some distance down
+the valley. There was no certainty for some time what they
+were, but finally I satisfied myself they were cavalry, and if so
+could only be Custer, as it was ahead of the time that I understood
+that General Terry could be expected. Before this time,
+however, I had written a communication to Gen. Terry, and three
+volunteers were to try and reach him (I had no confidence in the
+Indians with me, and could not get them to do anything). If
+this dust were Indians, it was possible they would not expect any
+one to leave. The men started, and were told to go as near as
+was safe to determine if the approaching column was white men,
+and to return at once in case they found it so; but if they were
+Indians to push on to General Terry. In a short time we saw
+them returning over the high bluff already alluded to; they were
+accompanied by a scout who had a note from Terry to Custer,
+saying, 'Crow scouts had come to camp saying he had been
+whipped, but it was not believed.' I think it was about 10:30
+<span class="smcap">a.m.</span> that General Terry rode into my lines, and the fate of
+Custer and his brave men was soon determined by Capt. Benteen
+proceeding with his company to the battle ground.</p>
+
+<p>"The wounded in my lines were, during the afternoon and eve
+of the 27th, moved to the camp of General Terry; and at 5 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>
+of the 28th, I proceeded with the regiment to the battle ground
+of Custer, and buried 204 bodies, including the following named
+citizens:&mdash;Mr. Boston Custer, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Kellogg.
+The following named citizens and Indians, who were with my
+command, were also killed:&mdash;Charles Reynolds (guide and
+hunter); Isaiah (colored) interpreter; Bloody Knife (who fell
+from immediately by my side); Bob-tailed Bull and Stab of the
+Indian scouts.</p>
+
+<p>"After following over his trail, it is evident to me that Custer
+intended to support me by moving further down the stream, and
+attacking the village in flank; that he found the distance to the
+ford greater than he anticipated; that he did charge, but his
+march had taken so long, although his trail shows he moved
+rapidly, that they were ready for him; that Companies C and I,
+and perhaps part of Company E, crossed to the village or
+attempted it at the charge and were met by a staggering fire; and
+that they fell back to secure a position from which to defend<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_46" id="Page_2_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+themselves; but they were followed too closely by the Indians to
+permit him to form any kind of a line. I think had the regiment
+gone in as a body, and from the woods in which I fought advanced
+on the village, its destruction was certain; but he was fully confident
+they were running, or he would not have turned from
+me. I think (after the great number of Indians that were in the
+village) that the following reasons obtained for the misfortune:
+His rapid marching for two days and one night before the fight,
+attacking in the day time at 12 <span class="smcap">m.</span> and when they were on the
+<i>qui vive</i>, instead of early in the morning; and lastly, his unfortunate
+division of the regiment into three commands.</p>
+
+<p>"During my fight with the Indians I had the heartiest support
+from officers and men, but the conspicuous services of Brevet
+Colonel F.W. Benteen, I desire to call attention to especially,
+for if ever a soldier deserved recognition by his government for
+distinguished services, he certainly does.</p>
+
+<p>"The harrowing sight of the dead bodies crowning the height
+on which Custer fell, and which will remain vividly in my memory
+until death, is too recent for me not to ask the good people of
+this country whether a policy that sets opposing parties in the
+field, armed, clothed, and equipped by one and the same government,
+should not be abolished. All of which is respectfully
+submitted."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following is Capt. Benteen's account of his detour
+to the south and junction with Reno:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"I was sent with my battalion to the left to a line of bluffs
+about five miles off, with instructions to look for Indians and
+see what was to be seen, and if I saw nothing there to go on, and
+when I had satisfied myself that it was useless to go further in
+that direction to rejoin the main trail. After proceeding through
+a rough and difficult country, very tiring on the horses, and seeing
+nothing, and wishing to save the horses unnecessary fatigue, I
+decided to return to the main trail. Before I had proceeded a
+mile in the direction of the bluffs I was overtaken by the chief
+trumpeter and the sergeant major, with instructions from Gen.
+Custer to use my own discretion, and in case I should find any
+trace of Indians, at once to notify Gen. Custer.</p>
+
+<p>"Having marched rapidly and passed the line of bluffs on the
+left bank of a branch of the Little Big Horn which made into the
+main stream about two and a half miles above the ford crossed by<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_47" id="Page_2_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+Col. Reno's command, as ordered, I continued my march in the
+same direction. The whole time occupied in this march was
+about an hour and a half. As I was anxious to regain the main
+command, as there was no signs of Indians, I then decided to
+rejoin the main trail, as the country before me was mostly of the
+same character as that I had already passed over, without valley
+and without water, and offering no inducement for the Indians.
+No valleys were visible, not even the valley where the fight took
+place, until my command struck the river.</p>
+
+<p>"About three miles from the point where Reno crossed the
+ford, I met a sergeant bringing orders to the commanding officer
+of the rear guard, Capt. McDougall, to hurry up the pack trains.
+A mile further I was met by my trumpeter, bringing a written
+order from Lieut. Cooke, the adjutant of the regiment, to this
+effect:&mdash;'Benteen, come on; big village; be quick; bring packs:'
+and a postscript saying, 'Bring packs.' A mile or a mile and
+a half further on I first came in sight of the valley and Little Big
+Horn. About twelve or fifteen dismounted men were fighting on
+the plains with Indians, charging and recharging them. This
+body numbered about 900 at this time. Col. Reno's mounted
+party were retiring across the river to the bluffs. I did not recognize
+till later what part of the command this was, but was clear
+they had been beaten. I then marched my command in line to
+their succor.</p>
+
+<p>"On reaching the bluff I reported to Col. Reno, and first
+learned that the command had been separated and that Custer
+was not in that part of the field, and no one of Reno's command
+was able to inform me of the whereabouts of Gen. Custer. While
+the command was awaiting the arrival of the pack mules, a company
+was sent forward in the direction supposed to have been
+taken by Custer. After proceeding about a mile they were attacked
+and driven back. During this time I heard no heavy
+firing, and there was nothing to indicate that a heavy fight was
+going on, and I believe that at this time Custer's immediate
+command had been annihilated."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In a letter addressed to the <i>Army and Navy Journal</i>,
+Lieut. E.L. Godfry, of Benteen's battalion, gives
+the following information:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Captain Benteen was some six miles from the scene of action
+when he received Lieut. Cooke's note; he had no intimation that<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_48" id="Page_2_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+the battle had begun, of the force of the Indians, or plan of
+attack. Benteen pushed ahead; the packs followed, and not
+until he reached the high bluffs over-looking the river valley and
+near to where the troops afterwards were besieged did he know
+of the battle or immediate presence of the troops to the enemy;
+he could only hear occasional shots, not enough to intimate that
+a battle was going on. Soon after reaching this point two
+volleys were heard down the river where Gen. Custer was, but
+his force was not in sight. Soon after this Reno and Benteen
+joined. By accident Benteen's column constituted a reserve. It
+was well it was so. As soon as dispositions were made on the
+bluff, Weir's company was sent to look for Gen. Custer. He
+went to a high point about three-quarters of a mile down the
+river, from which he had a good view of the country. From it
+could be seen Custer's battle field, but there was nothing to indicate
+the result. The field was covered with Indians. He was
+recalled from the place; the packs closed up; ammunition was
+issued and the command moved down the river to, if possible,
+join Custer. Upon reaching this high point we could see nothing,
+hear nothing, to indicate Custer's vicinage. But immediately the
+Indians started for us."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following is the narrative of George Herndon,
+a scout, published in the <i>New York Herald</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"At 11 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, June 24th, Custer followed the scouts up the
+right-hand fork of the Rosebud. About daylight we went into
+camp, made coffee, and soon after it was light the scouts brought
+Custer word that they had seen the village from the top of a
+divide that separates the Rosebud from Little Big Horn River.
+We moved up the creek until near its head, and concealed ourselves
+in a ravine. It was about three miles from the head of
+the creek where we then were to the top of the divide where the
+Indian scouts said the village could be seen, and after hiding his
+command, General Custer with a few orderlies galloped forward
+to look at the Indian camp. In about an hour he returned, and
+said he could not see the Indian village, but the scouts and a
+half-breed guide said they could distinctly see it some 15 miles
+off. Custer had 'officers' call' blown, gave his orders, and the
+command was put in fighting order. The scouts were ordered
+forward, and the regiment moved at a walk. After going about<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_49" id="Page_2_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+three miles the scouts reported Indians ahead, and the command
+then took the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"Our way lay down a little creek, a branch of the Little Big
+Horn, and after going some six miles we discovered an Indian
+lodge ahead and Custer bore down on it at a stiff trot. In
+coming to it we found ourselves in a freshly-abandoned Indian
+camp, all the lodges of which were gone except the one we saw,
+and on entering it we found it contained a dead Indian. From
+this point we could see into the Little Big Horn valley, and observed
+heavy clouds of dust rising about five miles distant.
+Many thought the Indians were moving away, and I think Custer
+believed so, for he sent word to Reno, who was ahead, to push on
+the scouts rapidly and head for the dust. Reno took a steady
+gallop down the creek bottom three miles to where it emptied
+into the Little Big Horn, and found a natural ford across Little
+Big Horn River. He started to cross, when the scouts came
+back and called out to him to hold on, that the Sioux were
+coming in large numbers to meet him. He crossed over, however,
+formed his companies on the prairie in line of battle, and moved
+forward at a trot, but soon took a gallop.</p>
+
+<p>"The valley was about three-fourths of a mile wide. On the
+left a line of low, round hills, and on the right the river bottom,
+covered with a growth of cottonwood trees and bushes. After
+scattering shots were fired from the hills and a few from the river
+bottom, and Reno's skirmishers had returned the shots, he advanced
+about a mile from the ford, to a line of timber on the
+right, and dismounted his men to fight on foot. The horses were
+sent into the timber, and the men formed on the prairies and advanced
+toward the Indians. The Indians, mounted on ponies,
+came across the prairies and opened a heavy fire on the soldiers.
+After skirmishing for a few minutes Reno fell back to his horses
+in the timber. The Indians moved to his left and rear, evidently
+with the intention of cutting him off from the ford. Reno ordered
+his men to mount and move through the timber. Just as
+the men got into the saddle the Sioux, who had advanced in the
+timber, fired at close range and killed one soldier. Reno then
+commanded the men to dismount, and they did so; but he soon
+ordered them to mount again and moved out on the open prairie.
+The command headed for the ford, pressed closely by Indians in
+large numbers, and at every moment the rate of speed was<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_50" id="Page_2_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+increased, until it became a dead run for the ford. The Sioux,
+mounted on their swift ponies, dashed up by the side of the soldiers
+and fired at them, killing both men and horses. Little
+resistance was offered, and it was a complete route to the ford.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not see the men at the ford, and do not know what
+took place further than a good many were killed when the command
+left the timber. Just as I got out my horse stumbled and
+fell, and I was dismounted&mdash;the horse running away after Reno's
+command. I saw several soldiers who were dismounted, their
+horses having been killed or having run away. There were also
+some soldiers mounted who had remained behind. In all there
+was as many as 13 men, three of whom were wounded. Seeing no
+chance to get away, I called on them to come into the timber
+and we would stand off the Indians. They wanted to go out,
+but I said 'No, we can't get to the ford, and, besides, we have
+wounded men and must stand by them.' They still wanted
+to go, but I told them I was an old frontiersman, understood
+Indians, and, if they would do as I said, I would get them out
+of the scrape, which was no worse than scrapes I had been in
+before. About half of the men were mounted, and they wanted
+to keep their horses with them; but I told them to let them go,
+and fight on foot. We stayed in the bush about three hours, and
+I could hear heavy firing below in the river, apparently about
+two miles distant. I did not know who it was, but knew the
+Indians were fighting some of our men, and learned afterward
+it was Custer's command. Nearly all the Indians in the upper
+end of the valley drew off down the river, and the fight with
+Custer lasted about one hour, when the heavy firing ceased.</p>
+
+<p>"When the shooting below began to die away I said to the
+boys, 'Come, now is the time to get out; the Indians will come
+back, and we had better be off at once.' Eleven of the 13 said
+they would go, but two staid behind. I deployed the men as
+skirmishers, and we moved forward on foot toward the river.
+When we had got nearly to the river we met five Indians on
+ponies, and they fired on us. I returned the fire and the Indians
+broke, and we forded the river, the water being breast-deep. We
+finally got over, wounded men and all, and headed for Reno's
+command, which I could see drawn up on the bluffs along the
+river about a mile off. We reached Reno in safety. We had
+not been with Reno more than 15 minutes when I saw the<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_51" id="Page_2_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+Indians coming up the valley from Custer's fight. Reno was
+then moving his whole command down the ridge toward Custer.
+The Indians crossed the river below Reno and swarmed up the
+bluff on all sides. After skirmishing with them Reno went back
+to his old position which was on one of the highest points along
+the bluffs. It was now about 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and the fight lasted until
+it was too dark to see to shoot. As soon as it was dark, Reno
+took the packs and saddles off the mules and horses and made
+breastworks of them. He also dragged the dead horses and
+mules on the line and sheltered the men behind them. Some of
+the men dug rifle pits with their butcher knives and all slept on
+their arms.</p>
+
+<p>"At the peep of day the Indians opened a heavy fire and a
+desperate fight ensued, lasting until 10 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> The Indians
+charged our position three or four times, coming up close enough
+to hit our men with stones, which they threw by hand. Captain
+Benteen saw a large mass of Indians gathering on his front to
+charge, and ordered his men to charge on foot and scatter them.
+Benteen led the charge, and was upon the Indians before they
+knew what they were about and killed a great many. They were
+evidently surprised at this offensive movement. I think in desperate
+fighting Benteen is one of the bravest men I ever saw.
+All the time he was going about through the bullets, encouraging
+the soldiers to stand up to their work and not let the Indians
+whip them. He never sheltered his own person once during the
+battle, and I do not see how he escaped being killed. The desperate
+charging and fighting was at about 1 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, but firing was
+kept up on both sides until late in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"I think the Indian village must have contained about 6,000
+people, fully 3,000 of whom were warriors. The Indians fought
+Reno first and then went to fight Custer, after which they came
+back to finish Reno. Hordes of squaws and old, gray-haired
+Indians were roaming over the battle-field howling like mad.
+The squaws had stone mallets, and mashed in the skulls of the
+dead and wounded. Our men did not kill any squaws, but the
+Ree Indian scouts did. The bodies of six squaws were found
+in the little ravine. The Indians must have lost as many men in
+killed and wounded as the whites did."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII_part2" id="CHAPTER_VII_part2"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">KILL EAGLE'S NARRATIVE.</p>
+
+
+<p>A vivid account of Custer's last battle has been
+given by an Indian named Kill Eagle, who was in
+Sitting Bull's village on the day of the fight as, he
+claims, a non-combatant. Kill Eagle was head chief
+of the Cheyenne River Agency Indians who had
+become much dissatisfied. Capt. Poland, formerly
+commander of the troops at Standing Rock, says that
+the Indians there were "abominably starved during
+the winter and spring of 1875&mdash;the authorities having
+failed to deliver the rations due them; and in
+May and June 1876, the Indians received practically
+nothing except two issues of beef and ground corn,
+called meal, but so coarse that one peck yielded but
+a quart of meal."</p>
+
+<p>Early in May, Kill Eagle entered the military post
+with a party of warriors, gave a dance, demanded
+rations, and proclaimed "that he owned the land the
+post was built on, the timber and stone which had
+been used in its construction, and that he would have
+the Great Father pay for all these things; that his
+people were starving and they could get no food from
+the agent." The post commander told them he could
+do nothing for them. Kill Eagle's party manifested
+sulliness, and demonstrated their defiance by firing
+off pistols in the air as they marched outside of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_53" id="Page_2_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+garrison. A few days later the post commander was
+informed that Kill Eagle had started for the hostile
+camp with about thirty lodges.</p>
+
+<p>In September, Kill Eagle came near the post and
+sent word that he intended to kill all the soldiers
+unless they crossed the river. The troops were under
+arms all night anticipating an attack, but none was
+made. Subsequently Kill Eagle surrendered to the
+authorities, and gave them an account of his wanderings
+during the summer. A letter written at Standing
+Rock described his story as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"He commences with the date at which he left this agency,
+last spring, with 26 lodges, for the purpose of hunting buffalo
+and trading with the hostile Indians. He speaks of having
+heard reports that troops were going out to punish the hostiles,
+but thought he would have time to do his hunting and trading
+and get out of the way before a battle occurred. They were
+obliged to hunt, as they were starving at the agency, and were
+very successful.</p>
+
+<p>"On the seventh day they arrived at Sitting Bull's village,
+where a feast and numerous presents of ponies and robes were
+given them. Efforts were made to induce Kill Eagle and his
+band to join in the contemplated movements and hostilities, but
+evidently without much success. They were desirous of getting
+back again to the protecting arms of their agency, but were unable
+to escape from the meshes of the wily Sitting Bull. They
+found, too late, that for them there was no escape; their horses
+were either shot or stolen, and wounds and insults were showered
+upon them from every side. In the meantime the forces of
+Crook were approaching, and with his people Kill Eagle succeeded
+in escaping temporarily from the hostiles. He claims to
+have been distant some forty or fifty miles from the scene of the
+Rosebud fight, and relates many of the incidents which he was
+able subsequently to gather from the participants. He places the
+loss of the Indians in the Rosebud fight at four dead, left on the
+field, and twelve that were brought to camp. He places the
+wounded at as high as 400, and says they had 180 horses killed,
+besides those that were captured.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_54" id="Page_2_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He next comes to the fight on the Little Big Horn, and
+describes the Indian village, which was six miles long and one
+wide. He then speaks of Custer's approach and fight with its
+tragic details as an unwilling spectator, rather than a participant,
+who, during its progress, remained quietly in his lodge in the
+centre of the Indian village. The fight with Reno commenced
+about noon, the Indians all rushing to oppose his advance, until
+the approach of Custer toward the lower end of the village was
+announced, when the wildest confusion prevailed throughout the
+camp. Lodges were struck and preparations made for instant
+flight. Vast numbers of Indians left Reno's front and hastened
+to the assistance of their red brethren engaged with Custer, who
+was steadily forced back and surrounded until all were swept
+from the field by the repeated charges of the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>"He described the firing at this point as simply terrific, and
+illustrated its force by clapping his hands together with great
+rapidity and regularity. Then came a lull in the fearful storm
+of iron hail and his hands were still again. The storm beat fast
+and furious as the thought of some loved one nerved the arm of
+each contending trooper. Then the movement of his hands
+slackened and gradually grew more feeble. A few scattering
+shakes, like the rain upon a window pane, and then the movement
+ceased as the last of Custer's band of heroes went down
+with the setting sun.</p>
+
+<p>"It was dusk as the successful combatants returned to camp
+littered with their dead and wounded. 'We have killed them
+all,' they said, 'put up your lodges where they are.' They had
+just began to fix their lodges that evening, when a report came
+that troops were coming from toward the mouth of the creek.
+When this report came, after dark, the lodges were all taken
+down and they started up the creek. 'I told my men,' says Kill
+Eagle, 'to keep together, and we would try and get away. Some
+one told on me, and they said let us kill him and his band, we
+have lost many young men to-day, and our hearts are bad. We
+travelled all night and next day; after crossing the Greasy
+Grass we encamped near the foot of the White Mountains. That
+night, when I was asleep, I heard a man calling. I woke up my
+people and this man proved to be a Cheyenne Indian, belonging
+to a party that had been off on the war-path in the White
+Mountains.'<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_55" id="Page_2_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was not to the Indians a bloodless victory. Fourteen had
+fallen in front of Reno, thirty-nine went down with Custer, and
+fourteen were dead in camp. Horses and travoises were laden
+with their wounded on every hand and in countless numbers.
+One band alone of Ogallallas had twenty-seven wounded on
+travoises, and thirty-eight thrown across horses. There were no
+white men in the fight or on the field. The bugle calls were
+sounded by an Indian. No prisoners were taken. The troops
+were all killed on the east side; none crossed the river."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Little Buck-Elk, an Uncapapa chief who came into
+Fort Peck in September, said that he was present at
+the fight with Custer, and that eleven different tribes
+were engaged in it. "The Indians were as thick as
+bees at the fight, and there were so many of them
+that they could not all take part in it. The soldiers
+were all brave men and fought well; some of them,
+when they found themselves surrounded and overpowered,
+broke through the lines and tried to make
+their escape, but were pursued and killed miles from
+the battle ground. The Indians captured six battle
+flags. No soldiers were taken alive, but after the
+fight the women went among the dead bodies and
+robbed and mutilated them. There were plenty of
+watches and money taken, which the young warriors
+are wearing in their shirts and belts."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII_part2" id="CHAPTER_VIII_part2"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">AN ATTACK IN THE REAR.</p>
+
+
+<p>Major Reno's conduct on the first day of the fighting
+on the Little Big Horn, has been severely criticised
+by several of Gen. Custer's personal friends; and one
+of them, Gen T.L. Rosser, in a letter addressed to
+Reno and published in the <i>Army and Navy Journal</i>,
+blames him for taking to the timber when his "loss
+was little or nothing." "You had," he says, "an open
+field for cavalry operations, and I believe that if you
+had remained in the saddle and charged boldly into
+the village, the shock upon the Indians would have
+been so great that they would have been compelled to
+withdraw their attacking force from Custer, who, when
+relieved, could have pushed his command through to
+open ground, where he could have man&oelig;uvred his
+command, and thus greatly have increased his chances
+of success." It would seem as if this and similar criticisms
+were sufficiently answered by Reno's report; and
+by his reply to Rosser, which is given in part below:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"After reading all your letter I could no longer look upon it
+as a tribute of a generous enemy, since through me you had attacked
+as brave officers as ever served a government, and with
+the same recklessness and ignorance of circumstances as Custer
+is charged with in his attacks upon the hostile Indians. Both
+charges&mdash;the one made against him and the one made by you
+against us&mdash;are equally untrue, You say:&mdash;'I feel Custer would
+have succeeded had Reno, with all the reserve of seven companies,
+passed through and joined Custer after the first repulse;' and<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_57" id="Page_2_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+after confessing that you are firing at long range say further:
+'I think it quite certain that Custer had agreed with Reno upon a
+place of junction in case of the repulse of either or both detachments;
+and, instead of an effort being made by Reno for such a
+junction, as soon as he encountered heavy resistance he took
+refuge in the hills and abandoned Custer and his gallant comrades
+to their fate.</p>
+
+<p>"As I shall show, both the premises are false, and consequently
+all the conclusions of your letter fall to the ground. * * * The
+only official orders I had from Custer were about five miles from
+the village, when Cooke gave me his orders in these words: 'Custer
+says to move at as rapid a gait as you think prudent, and to
+charge afterwards, and you will be supported by the whole outfit.'</p>
+
+<p>"No mention of any plan, no thought of junction, only the
+usual orders to the advance guard to attack by the charge. When
+the enemy was reached I moved to the front at a fast trot, and at
+the river halted ten minutes or less to gather the battalion. I
+sent word to Custer that I had the enemy in my front very strong,
+and then charged, driving the reds before me about three miles
+or less, to within a short distance of their village, supposing my
+command, consisting of 120 officers and men and about 25 scouts
+and guards, followed by the columns under Custer. The stream
+was very crooked, like a letter S in its wanderings, and on the
+side on which the village was it opened out into a broad bottom,
+perhaps half or three-quarters of a mile wide. The stream was
+fringed, as usual, with the trees of the plains&mdash;a growth of large
+cottonwood, and on the opposite side was a range of high bluffs
+which had been cut into very deep ravines.</p>
+
+<p>"As I neared the village the Indians came out in great numbers,
+and I was soon convinced I had at least ten to one against me,
+and was forced on the defensive. This I accomplished by taking
+possession of a point of woods where I found shelter for my horses.
+I fought there dismounted, and made my way to within 200 yards
+of the village, and firmly believe that if, at that moment, the
+seven companies had been together the Indians could have been
+driven from their village. As we approached near their village
+they came out in overwhelming numbers, and soon the small command
+would have been surrounded on all sides, to prevent which
+I mounted and charged through them to a position I could hold
+with the few men I had.</p>
+
+<p>"You see by this I was the advance and the first to be engaged<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_58" id="Page_2_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+and draw fire, and was consequently the command to be supported,
+and not the one from which support could be expected. All
+I know of Custer from the time he ordered me to attack till I saw
+him buried, is that he did not follow my trail, but kept on his side
+of the river and along the crest of the bluffs on the opposite side
+from the village and from my command; that he heard and saw
+my action I believe, although I could not see him; and it is just
+here that the Indians deceived us. All this time I was driving
+them with ease, and his trail shows he moved rapidly down the
+river for three miles to the ford, at which he attempted to cross
+into their village, and with the conviction that he would strike a
+a retreating enemy. Trumpeter Martin, of Co. H, who the last
+time of any living person heard and saw Gen. Custer, and who
+brought the last order his adjutant ever penciled, says he left
+the General at the summit of the highest bluff on that side, and
+which overlooked the village and my first battle-field, and as he
+turned, Gen. Custer raised his hat and gave a yell, saying they
+were asleep in their tepees and surprised, and to charge. * * *</p>
+
+<p>"The Indians made him over confident by appearing to be
+stampeded, and, undoubtedly, when he arrived at the ford, expecting
+to go with ease through their village, he rode into an ambuscade
+of at least 2,000 reds. My getting the command of the
+seven companies was not the result of any order or prearranged
+plan. Benteen and McDougal arrived separately, and saw the
+command on the bluffs and came to it. They did not go into the
+bottom at all after the junction. They attempted to go down the
+trail of Gen. Custer, but the advance company soon sent back
+word they were being surrounded. Crowds of reds were seen on
+all sides of us, and Custer's fate had evidently been determined.
+I knew the position I had first taken on the bluff was near and a
+strong one. I at once moved there, dismounted, and herded the
+pack train, and had but just time to do so when they came upon
+me by thousands. Had we been twenty minutes later effecting
+the junction not a man of that regiment would be living to-day to
+tell the tale."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Another writer attacks both Reno and Benteen,
+accusing one of incapacity and utter demoralization
+during the attack of the Indians, and the other of
+wilful disobedience. "That he (Benteen) should have,
+as his own testimony confesses, deliberately disobeyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_59" id="Page_2_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+the <i>peremptory order of Custer</i> to 'Come on,' argues
+either a desire to sacrifice Custer, or an ignorance of
+which his past career renders him incapable. Custer
+told him to 'Come on,' and he reported to Reno." In
+order, as he says, to "vindicate the reputation of a
+noble man from unjust aspersions," this writer further
+declares, that "had Reno fought as Custer fought, and
+had Benteen obeyed Custer's orders, the battle of the
+Little Big Horn might have proved Custer's last and
+greatest Indian victory."</p>
+
+<p>Of the writer last quoted, the <i>Army and Navy
+Journal</i> says:&mdash;"With reckless pen he thrusts right
+and left, careless of reputations, regardless of facts,
+darkening the lives of other men, in the vain hope
+that one name may shine more brightly on the page
+of history * * * Nothing but the most absolute
+demonstration, accompanied by the proof, would justify
+such statements as he has made, and this he has
+not given. The reports of anonymous newspaper correspondents,
+and an <i>ex parte</i> statement of the conclusions
+drawn from letters, of which we have not so
+much as the names of the writers, is not proof on which
+to base criticisms affecting character and reputation."</p>
+
+<p>Capt. Benteen, Brevet Colonel U.S.A., who has
+been a captain in the 7th Cavalry since its organization
+in 1866, at which date Gen. Custer was appointed
+its Lieut. Colonel, in a letter to the <i>Army and Navy
+Journal</i> uses the following language:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Col. Reno and I thought during the siege of June
+25th and 26th, at the Little Big Horn, that he, Reno,
+was the abandoned party, and spoke of it as another
+'Major Elliot<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> affair'; thinking that General Custer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_60" id="Page_2_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+had retreated to the mouth of the river, where the
+steamboat was supposed to be, and that Reno's command
+was left to <i>its</i> fate. I am accused of disobeying
+Custer's orders. Nothing is further from the truth
+in point of fact; and I do not think the matter of sufficient
+importance to attempt to vindicate myself, but
+can rest contentedly under the ban when I have the
+consoling belief that the contrary is so well known by
+all my military superiors and comrades."</p>
+
+
+<p>Lieut. Gen. Sheridan, in his report for 1876, expresses
+his views of the Custer disaster as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"As much has been said in regard to the misfortune that occurred
+to General Custer and the portion of his regiment under
+his immediate command in this action, I wish to express the conviction
+I have arrived at concerning it. From all the information
+that has reached me, I am led to believe that the Indians were
+not aware of the proximity of Custer until he had arrived within
+about eight or nine miles of their village, and that then their scouts
+who carried the intelligence back to the valley were so closely
+followed up by Custer, that he arrived on the summit of the divide
+overlooking the upper portion of the village, almost as soon as
+the scouts reached it. As soon as the news was given, the Indians
+began to strike their lodges and get their women and children out
+of the way&mdash;a movement they always make under such circumstances.
+Custer, seeing this, believed the village would escape
+him if he awaited the arrival of the four companies of his regiment&mdash;still
+some miles in his rear. Only about 75 or 100 lodges
+or tepees could be seen from the summit or divide, and this, probably,
+deceived him as to the extent of the village. He therefore
+directed Major Reno, with three companies, to cross the river and
+charge the village, while he, with the remaining five companies,
+would gallop down the east bank of the river behind the bluff and
+cut off the retreat of the Indians. Reno crossed and attacked
+gallantly with his three companies&mdash;about 110 men&mdash;but the
+warriors, leaving the women to strike the lodges, fell on Reno's
+handful of men and drove them back to and over the river with
+severe loss.</p>
+
+<p>"About this time Custer reached a point about three and a half<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_61" id="Page_2_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+or four miles down the river, but instead of finding a village of
+75 or 100 lodges, he found one of perhaps from 1500 to 2000,
+and swarming with warriors, who brought him to a halt. This, I
+think, was the first intimation the Indians had of Custer's approach
+to cut them off, for they at once left Reno and concentrated to
+meet the new danger. The point where Custer reached the river,
+on the opposite side of which was the village, was broken into
+choppy ravines, and the Indians, crossing from Reno, got between
+the two commands, and as Custer could not return, he fell back
+over the broken ground with his tired men and tired horses (they
+had ridden about 70 miles with but few halts) and became, I am
+afraid, an easy prey to the enemy. Their wild, savage yells,
+overwhelming numbers, and frightening war paraphernalia, made
+it as much as each trooper could do to take care of his horse, thus
+endangering his own safety and efficiency. If Custer could have
+reached any position susceptible of defence, he could have defended
+himself; but none offered itself in the choppy and broken
+ravines over which he had to pass, and he and his command were
+lost without leaving any one to tell the tale.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as Custer and his gallant officers and men were exterminated
+and the scenes of mutilation by the squaws commenced,
+the warriors returned to renew the attack upon Reno; but he had
+been joined by Captain Benteen and the four companies of the
+regiment that were behind when the original attack took place,
+and the best use had been made of the respite given by the attack
+on Custer, to entrench their position.</p>
+
+<p>"Had the 7th Cavalry been kept together, it is my belief it
+would have been able to handle the Indians on the Little Big
+Horn, and under any circumstances it could have at least defended
+itself; but separated as it was into three distinct detachments,
+the Indians had largely the advantage in addition to their overwhelming
+numbers. If Custer had not come upon the village so
+suddenly, the warriors would have gone to meet him, in order to
+give time to the women and children to get out of the way, as they
+did with Crook only a few days before, and there would have
+been, as with Crook, what might be designated a rearguard fight&mdash;a
+fight to get their valuables out of the way, or in other words,
+to cover the escape of their women, children and lodges."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX_part2" id="CHAPTER_IX_part2"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">THE MIDSUMMER CAMPAIGN.</p>
+
+
+<p>After regaining his position at the mouth of the
+Big Horn River, Gen. Terry called for reinforcements
+and additional troops were at once put in motion for
+his camp; but as they had to be collected from all the
+various stations on the frontier&mdash;some of them very
+remote from railroads&mdash;considerable time elapsed
+before their arrival.</p>
+
+<p>During this period, the bands which had broken
+off from the main body of hostiles, and the young
+men at the agencies, continued their old and well-known
+methods of warfare, stealing horses on the
+frontier and killing small parties of citizens; while
+the constant communication by the hostiles with the
+Indians at the agencies made it evident that supplies
+of food and ammunition were being received. To
+prevent this, Gen. Sheridan deemed it necessary that
+the military should control the agencies, and at his
+request, the Secretary of the Interior, July 22d, authorized
+the military to assume control of all the
+agencies in the Sioux country.</p>
+
+<p>About the same date Medicine Cloud, a chief, who
+had been sent from Fort Peck, in May, with a message
+to Sitting Bull inviting him to visit Fort Peck
+with a view to reconciliation, returned to the agency.
+To the invitation, Sitting Bull had replied:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_63" id="Page_2_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him I am coming before long to his post to
+trade. Tell him I did not commence. I am getting
+old, and I did not want to fight, but the whites rush
+on me, and I am compelled to defend myself. But
+for the soldiers stationed on the Rosebud, I with my
+people would have been there before that. If I was
+assured of the protection of the Great Father, I
+would go to Fort Peck for the purpose of making
+peace. I and others want the Black Hills abandoned,
+and we will make peace."</p>
+
+<p>While awaiting reinforcements, Generals Terry and
+Crook were separated by about 100 miles of rough
+territory, the hostile Indians were between them, and
+for reliable communication with each other it was
+necessary to send around by the rear nearly 2000
+miles. The carrying of dispatches direct was a work
+of the most arduous and perilous nature, and in
+doing it, and in reconnoitering, brave and gallant
+deeds were performed.</p>
+
+<p>On the 6th of July, Gen. Crook sent out Lieut. Sibley
+of the 2nd Cavalry with 25 mounted troops and two
+guides, Gerard and Baptiste, to reconnoiter the country
+to the front, and learn if possible the movements
+of the enemy and the whereabouts of Terry's division.
+The party marched all night, and in the morning
+were near where the Little Big Horn debouches from
+the mountains. Here, from an eminence, they espied
+a large body of Indians marching eastward as though
+meditating an attack on the camp at Goose Creek.
+Concealing themselves as well as they could, they
+watched the movements of the enemy; but a great
+shout soon warned them that their trail had been discovered,
+and hundreds of savages immediately set out
+to follow it, uttering terrific cries.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_64" id="Page_2_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The fugitives galloped toward the mountains, and
+seemed to outrun their pursuers; but about noon,
+while going through a ravine, a sudden volley was
+fired upon them from the surrounding slopes, and
+many Indians charged down upon them. They
+wheeled, and took refuge in the woods, but three
+horses were already wounded. Taking the ammunition
+from the saddles, and leaving their horses tied to
+the trees to divert the enemy, they now moved stealthily
+and unseen from the ground, and escaped behind
+adjacent rocks; then they climbed over steep and
+slippery places till exhausted, and while halting for a
+rest knew by the repeated firing that their horses
+were undergoing an attack.</p>
+
+<p>All that night they toiled among the mountains,
+and on the morning of the 9th reached Tongue River.
+As they had left their rations behind, they suffered
+much from hunger, and two of the men were so weak
+they could not ford the deep stream, and remained
+behind. When near the camp one of the guides went
+ahead for assistance, and a company of cavalry brought
+in the exhausted men.</p>
+
+<p>Having urgent occasion to communicate with Gen.
+Crook, Gen. Terry, by the promise of a large reward,
+induced a professional scout to make an attempt to
+reach him, but he soon returned unsuccessful. No
+other scout would undertake the task, and as a last
+resort a call for volunteers was made, in response to
+which, 12 soldiers promptly offered their services for
+the hazardous duty without hope of pecuniary reward.
+Three of these, Privates Wm. Evans, Benjamin F.
+Stewart, and Joseph Bell, of the 17th Infantry, were
+selected. They set out on the 9th of July, reached
+Crook's camp on the 12th; and returned on the 25th<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_65" id="Page_2_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+accompanied by three Crow Indians who had arrived
+from Terry's camp on the 19th. The three soldiers
+were thanked by their commander, in a General Order,
+"for a deed reflecting so much credit on the Service."</p>
+
+<p>Partial reinforcements having reached Gen. Crook,
+on the 16th of July he broke camp and moved gradually
+along the hills toward Tongue River. On the
+3d of August, just before sunset, an additional regiment,
+the 5th Cavalry, ten companies, under Col. W.
+Merritt, "marched into camp with their supply wagons
+close on their heels, presenting a fine appearance,
+despite the fatigue and dust of the march."</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Crook's fighting force now numbered about
+2000 men. Among them were over 200 Shoshone
+and Ute Indians, sworn enemies to the Sioux, led
+by Washakie, a well known Shoshone chief. These
+Indians were thus spoken of by a correspondent who
+saw them at Fort Bridger, drawn up in line before
+starting to join Gen. Crook:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"In advance of the party was a swarthy temporary chief, his face
+covered with vertical white streaks. In his right hand, hanging
+to the end of a window-blind rod, were the two fingers of a dead
+Sioux. Another rod had a white flag nailed to it&mdash;a precaution
+necessary to preserve them from being fired upon in proceeding
+to the seat of war. The faces of the rest had on a plentiful supply
+of war paint. Once in line, they struck up a peculiar grunting
+sound on a scale of about five notes. One of the braves, afflicted
+with a malady peculiar to the Caucasian race, began to brag what
+he'd do when he got to the seat of war, winding up in broken
+English, 'Me little mad now; bime by me heap mad.' Old
+Washakie, their chief, wants to die in battle, and not in bed."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On the 5th of Aug., Gen. Crook cut loose from his
+wagon trains and started in pursuit of the Indians
+who, it was ascertained, had left the foot of the Big
+Horn Mountains, July 25th, and moved eastward.
+His route was north-easterly, across the Panther<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_66" id="Page_2_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+Mountains to Rosebud River. On the 8th of Aug.
+the troops were ten miles north of the battle-ground
+of June 17th, and near the site of a deserted village.
+The country west of the Rosebud had been burned
+over, and a trail recently traveled by large numbers
+of Indians led down the valley. Upon this trail the
+march was continued.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, Gen. Terry had been reinforced by six
+companies of the 5th Infantry under Col. Nelson A.
+Miles, six companies of the 22d Infantry under Lt.
+Col. Otis, and other detachments, until his command
+numbered about the same as Gen. Crook's. On the
+25th of July, he started for the mouth of the Rosebud
+and there established a base of operations. On the
+8th of Aug., with his troops and a train of 225 wagons
+with supplies for 30 days, he moved down the west
+bank of the Rosebud; and on the 10th, when 35 miles
+from its mouth, made a junction with Crook's command.
+Col. Miles with the 5th Infantry was sent
+back to the mouth of the Rosebud to patrol the
+Yellowstone, aided by steamboats, and intercept the
+Indians should they attempt to cross the river.</p>
+
+<p>The trail which Gen. Crook had been following
+now turned from the Rosebud eastward, and its pursuit
+was promptly and steadily continued by the
+united forces. It led the troops across to Powder
+River and down its valley. On the 17th of August
+they were encamped near the mouth of Powder River,
+on both sides of the stream; and here the two commands
+separated on the 24th of August.</p>
+
+<p>As the principal Indian trail had turned eastward
+toward the Little Missouri, Gen. Crook's column took
+up the pursuit in that direction. On the 5th of Sept,
+when on the headwaters of Heart River, a small party<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_67" id="Page_2_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+of Indians were discovered going eastward,&mdash;the first
+hostile Indians seen since leaving Tongue River.</p>
+
+<p>The trail had now scattered so that it could be
+followed no longer, and Crook decided to push for
+the Black Hills settlements. His troops were nearly
+out of food, and suffering from want of clothing, and
+bad weather. Cold rains prevailed, and camp life
+with no tents, few blankets, and half rations, bore hard
+on the soldiers. Meat was scarce and some of the
+horses were killed to supply food.</p>
+
+<p>On the 7th of Sept., Capt. Anson Mills with 150 men
+and a pack-train, was sent ahead with directions to
+obtain food at the Black Hills settlements about 100
+miles distant, and to return to the hungry column as
+soon as possible. Gerard, the scout, accompanied the
+detachment, and on the evening of the 8th, he discovered
+a hostile village of 40 lodges and several
+hundred ponies. Capt. Mills retreated a few miles,
+hid his men in a ravine, and at daybreak next morning
+dashed into the village. The Indians were completely
+surprised and fled to the surrounding hills,
+from which they exchanged shots with their assailants.
+The lodges were secured, with their contents consisting
+of large quantities of dried meat and other food,
+robes, and flags and clothing taken from Custer and
+his men. 140 ponies were also among the spoils.</p>
+
+<p>A small party of the Indians had taken possession
+of a narrow ravine or canyon near the village, and in
+trying to dislodge them several soldiers were wounded.
+By direction of Gen. Crook, who had reached the
+field with reinforcements, the Indians in the ravine
+were informed that if they would surrender they
+would not be harmed. An old squaw was the first
+to take advantage of the offer, and was followed by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_68" id="Page_2_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+15 women and children, and, lastly, by three warriors,
+one of whom, the chief American Horse, had been
+mortally wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day, before the troops had left the
+village, the Indians appeared in force and began a
+vigorous attack. Infantry were at once thrown out
+along the slope of the bluffs and, "about sundown
+it was a very inspiring sight to see this branch of the
+command with their long Springfield breech-loaders
+drive the enemy for a mile and a half to the west,
+and behind the castellated rocks." The captives in
+camp said the attacking Indians were reinforcements
+from the camp of Crazy Horse further west. This
+engagement is known as the battle of Slim Buttes.
+Our losses during the day were three killed, and 11
+wounded including Lieut. Von Leuttroitz.</p>
+
+<p>During the march of Sept. 10th a number of Indians
+came down on the rear, but were repulsed with a loss
+of several killed and wounded. Three soldiers were
+wounded in this skirmish.</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of this long and difficult march was
+successfully accomplished. On the 16th, Gen. Crook
+reached Deadwood, a Black Hills settlement, and was
+cordially received by the inhabitants. In a speech
+made by the General on this occasion, he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Citizens: while you welcome me and my personal staff as the
+representatives of the soldiers who are here encamped upon the
+Whitewood, let me ask you, when the rank and file pass through
+here, to show that you appreciate their admirable fortitude in
+bearing the sufferings of a terrible march almost without a
+murmur, and to show them that they are not fighting for $13 per
+month, but for the cause&mdash;the proper development of our gold
+and other mineral resources, and of humanity. This exhibition
+of your gratitude need not be expensive. Let the private soldier
+feel that he is remembered by our people as the real defender of
+his country."</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_69" id="Page_2_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After parting with Gen. Crook, Aug. 24th, Gen.
+Terry crossed the Yellowstone and marched down its
+left bank, his object being to intercept the Indians
+Crook was following if they attempted to cross the
+river. On the 27th he left the river, and moved northerly
+into the buffalo range where hunting parties
+were detailed who secured considerable game. The
+country was parched, the small streams dry, and
+water scarce. A scouting party made a detour to the
+north and west, but no Indians could be found. On
+the 5th of Sept. the whole command was at the mouth
+of Glendive Creek, where a military post had been
+established.</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Terry now decided to close the campaign and
+distribute his troops to their winter quarters. The
+Montana column under Col. Gibbon started on the
+return march to Fort Ellis, 400 miles distant; Lieut.
+Col. Otis of the 22d Infantry, with his command, remained
+at Glendive Creek, to build a stockade and
+co-operate with Col. Miles, who was establishing a
+winter post at the mouth of Tongue River; and Gen.
+Terry with the balance of the troops started for
+Fort Buford at the mouth of the Yellowstone.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing that Sitting Bull with a large band had
+recently crossed to the north side of the Missouri
+River near Fort Peck, Terry sent Reno with troops&mdash;then
+en route to Fort Buford&mdash;in pursuit. Reno
+marched to Fort Peck, and thence to Fort Buford,
+but encountered no Indians. A reconnoitering party
+under Long Dog had been near Fort Peck, and that
+chief passed one night at the agency. They did not
+want rations or annuities, but desired plenty of ammunition,
+for which they were ready to exchange 7th
+Cavalry horses, arms and equipments.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X_part2" id="CHAPTER_X_part2"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">AUTUMN ON THE YELLOWSTONE.</p>
+
+
+<p>On the 10th of October, as a train escorted by two
+companies of the 6th Infantry was carrying supplies
+from Glendive Creek to the cantonment at the mouth
+of Tongue River, it was attacked by Indians, and was
+obliged to return to Glendive with a loss of sixty
+mules.</p>
+
+<p>Lieut. Col. Otis was in command at Glendive, and
+on the 14th he again started out the train and personally
+accompanied it. The train consisted of 86
+wagons, 41 of which were driven by soldiers, who had
+taken the places of as many citizen teamsters too demoralized
+by the recent attack to continue in the
+service. The military escort numbered with officers
+196 men. The following interesting narrative of
+subsequent events is from the report of Col. Otis:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"We proceeded on the first day 12 miles, and encamped on the
+broad bottom of the Yellowstone River, without discovering a
+sign of the presence of Indians. During the night a small thieving
+party was fired upon by the pickets, but the party escaped,
+leaving behind a single pony, with its trappings, which was killed.
+At dawn of day, upon the 15th, the train pulled out in two strings,
+and proceeded quietly to Spring Creek, distant from camp about
+three miles, when I directed two mounted men to station themselves
+upon a hill beyond the creek, and watch the surrounding
+country until the train should pass through the defile. The men
+advanced at swift pace in proper direction, and when within 50
+yards of the designated spot, they received a volley from a number<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_71" id="Page_2_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+of concealed Indians, when suddenly men and Indians came
+leaping down the bluff. The men escaped without injury to person,
+although their clothing was riddled with bullets. I quickly
+advanced on the skirmish line, which drove out 40 or 50 Indians,
+and making a similar movement on the opposite flank, passed
+through the gorge and gained the high table land. Here, three
+or four scouts, sent out by Colonel Miles, from Tongue River,
+joined us. They had been driven into the Tongue upon the previous
+evening, there corraled, had lost their horses and one of
+their number, and escaped to the bluffs under cover of the darkness.
+The dead scout was found and buried.</p>
+
+<p>"The train proceeded along the level prairie, surrounded by
+the skirmish line, and the Indians were coming thick and fast
+from the direction of Cabin Creek. But few shots were exchanged,
+and both parties were preparing for the struggle which
+it was evident would take place at the deep and broken ravine
+at Clear Creek, through which the train must pass. We cautiously
+entered the ravine, and from 150 to 200 Indians had gained
+the surrounding bluffs to our left; signal fires were lighted for
+miles around, and extended far away on the opposite side of the
+Yellowstone. The prairies to our front were fired, and sent up
+vast clouds of smoke. We had no artillery, and nothing remained
+to us except to charge the bluffs. Company C, of the 17th Infantry,
+and Company H, of the 22d Infantry, were thrown forward
+upon the run, and gallantly scaled the bluffs, answering the
+Indian yell with one equally as barbarous, and driving back the
+enemy to another ridge of hills. We then watered all the stock
+at the creek, took on water for the men, and the train slowly
+ascended the bluffs.</p>
+
+<p>"The country now surrounding us was broken. The Indians
+continued to increase in numbers, surrounded the train, and the
+entire escort became engaged. The train was drawn up in four
+strings, and the entire escort enveloped it by a thin skirmish line.
+In that formation we advanced, the Indians pressing every point,
+especially the rear, Company C, 17th, which was only able to
+follow by charging the enemy, and then retreating rapidly toward
+the train, taking advantage of all the knolls and ridges in its
+course. The flanks, Companies G, 17th, and K and G, 22d, were
+advanced about 1000 yards, and the road was opened in the front,
+by Company H, 22d, by repeated charges.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_72" id="Page_2_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In this manner we advanced several miles, and then halted
+for the night upon a depression of the high prairie, the escort
+holding the surrounding ridge. The Indians now had attempted
+every artifice. They had pressed every point of the line, had run
+their fires through the train, which we were compelled to cross
+with great rapidity, had endeavored to approach under cover of
+smoke, when they found themselves overmatched by the officers
+and men, who, taking advantage of the cover, moved forward and
+took them at close range. They had met with considerable loss,
+a good many of their saddles were emptied, and several ponies
+wounded. Their firing was wild in the extreme, and I should
+consider them the poorest of marksmen. For several hours they
+kept up a brisk fire and wounded but three of our men.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the morning of the 16th, the train pulled out in four
+strings, and we took up the advance, formed as on the previous
+day. Many Indians occupied the surrounding hills, and soon a
+number approached, and left a communication upon a distant hill.
+It was brought in by Scout Jackson, and read as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="center">
+"<span class="smcap">Yellowstone.</span>"<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"I want to know what you are doing traveling on this road?
+you scare all the buffalo away. I want to hunt on the place. I
+want you to turn back from here: if you don't I will fight you
+again. I want you to leave what you have got here, and turn
+back from here.</p>
+
+<p class="midind">
+"I am your friend,</p>
+<p class="deepind"><span class="smcap">Sitting Bull</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p>"I mean all the rations you have got and some powder; I wish
+you would write as soon as you can."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"I directed the Scout Jackson to inform the Indians that I
+had nothing to say in reply, except that we intended to take the
+train through to Tongue River, and that we should be pleased to
+accommodate them at any time with a fight. The train continued
+to proceed, and about eight o'clock the Indians began to gather
+for battle.</p>
+
+<p>"We passed through the long, narrow gorge, near Bad Route
+Creek, when we again watered the stock, and took in wood and
+water, consuming in this labor about an hour's time. When we
+had pulled up the gentle ascent, the Indians had again surrounded
+us, but the lesson of the previous day taught them to keep at
+long range, and there was but little firing by either party. I
+counted 150 Indians in our rear, and from their movements and
+position I judged their numbers to be between 300 and 500.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_73" id="Page_2_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+After proceeding a short distance, a flag of truce appeared on
+the left flank, borne by two Indians, whom I directed to be
+allowed to enter the lines. They proved to be Indian scouts
+from Standing Rock Agency, bearing dispatches from Lieut. Col.
+Carlin, of the 17th Infantry, stating that they had been sent out
+to find Sitting Bull, and to endeavor to influence him to proceed
+to some military post and treat for peace.</p>
+
+<p>"These scouts informed me that they had that morning
+reached the camp of Sitting Bull and Man-afraid-of-his-horse,
+near the mouth of Cabin Creek, and that they had talked with
+Sitting Bull, who wished to see me outside the lines. I declined
+the invitation, but professed a willingness to see Sitting Bull
+within my own lines. The scouts left me, and soon returned
+with three of the principal soldiers of Sitting Bull&mdash;the last
+named individual being unwilling to trust his person within our
+reach. The chiefs said that their people were angry because our
+train was driving away the buffalo from their hunting grounds,
+that they were hungry and without ammunition, and that they
+especially wished to obtain the latter; that they were tired of war,
+and desired to conclude a peace.</p>
+
+<p>"I informed them that I could not give them ammunition,
+that had they saved the amount already wasted upon the train
+it would have supplied them for hunting purposes for a long
+time, that I had no authority to treat with them upon any terms
+whatever, but they were at liberty to visit Tongue River, and
+there make known conditions. They wished to know what assurance
+I could give them of their safety should they visit that place,
+and I replied that I could give them nothing but the word of an
+officer. They then wished rations for their people, promising to
+proceed to Fort Rock immediately, and from thence to Tongue
+River. I declined to give them rations, but finally offered them
+as a present 150lb. of hard bread and two sides of bacon, which
+they gladly accepted. The train moved on, and the Indians fell
+to the rear. Upon the following day I saw a number of them
+from Cedar Creek, far away to the right, and after that time they
+disappeared entirely.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the evening of the 18th I met Col. Miles encamped with
+his entire regiment on Custer Creek. Alarmed for the safety of
+the train, he had set out from Tongue River upon the previous
+day."</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_74" id="Page_2_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While Col. Otis was thus gallantly advancing with
+his train, Col. Miles, of the 5th Infantry, fearing for
+its safety, had crossed the Yellowstone before daybreak
+on the 17th and started toward Glendive. He
+met Col. Otis, as above stated, on the evening of the
+18th; and on being informed of the attack on the
+train, started in pursuit of the enemy. On the 21st,
+when about eight miles beyond Cedar Creek, a large
+number of Indians appeared in front of the column,
+and two of them, bearing a white flag, rode up to the
+line. They proved to be the Standing Rock ambassadors
+who had met Col. Otis; and brought word
+that Sitting Bull wished a conference with Col. Miles.
+Lieut. H.R. Bailey accompanied the two friendly
+Indians to the hostile camp, and there arranged with
+Sitting Bull's white interpreter for a meeting to take
+place between the lines.</p>
+
+<p>The troops rested on their arms in line of battle
+while Col. Miles with a few officers rode forward and
+halted about half way between the two forces. Sitting
+Bull with a dozen unarmed warriors presently
+emerged from the hostile lines and walked slowly
+forward in single file. Col. Miles' party dismounted
+and advanced to meet them, and the council began.
+The scene was picturesque and exciting; and the occasion
+one of much anxiety to the troops who remembered
+the assassination of Gen. Canby&mdash;especially so
+when dozens of armed warriors rode forward and surrounded
+the little group.</p>
+
+<p>The "talk" was long and earnest; the Indians
+wanted an "old-fashioned peace," with privileges of
+trade&mdash;especially in ammunition, and demanded the
+discontinuing of supply trains and the abandonment
+of Fort Buford. Col. Miles explained that he could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_75" id="Page_2_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+only accept surrender on the terms of absolute submission
+to the U.S. Government. At evening the
+conference was adjourned to the next day, and the
+parties separated as quietly as they had assembled.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning Col. Miles moved his command north,
+so as to intercept retreat in that direction. At about
+11 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, Sitting Bull, Pretty Bear, Bull Eagle, John,
+Standing Bear, Gall, White Bull and others, came
+forward, marching abreast, and met Col. Miles and
+several officers on a knoll half way between the opposing
+lines. The Indians asked to be let alone, and
+professed a wish for peace, but such a peace as Col.
+Miles could not concede. "After much talk by the
+various chiefs, Sitting Bull was informed once and for
+all that he must accept the liberal conditions offered
+by the Government or prepare for immediate hostilities;
+and the council dispersed&mdash;Sitting Bull disappearing
+like a shadow in the crowd of warriors behind
+him."</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"The scene," wrote a correspondent of the <i>Army and Navy
+Journal</i>, "was now most animated. Col. Miles sent for his
+company commanders, and they came charging over the field
+to receive his final instructions. On the other side, the Sioux
+leaders rode hither and thither at full speed in front of their line,
+marshaling their men and haranguing them, calling on them to
+be brave. Sitting Bull's interpreter, Bruey, rode back to ask
+why the troops were following him? He was answered by Col.
+Miles, that the non-acceptance of the liberal terms offered was
+considered an act of hostility, and he would open fire at once.
+The whole line then advanced in skirmish order. One company
+occupied a knoll on the left with the 3-inch gun, the first shell
+from which was greeted with a hearty cheer from the advancing
+line. The Indians tried their old tactics and attempted rear and
+flank attacks from the ravines, but they found those vital points
+well protected by companies disposed <i>en potence</i>, which poured
+in a torrent of lead wherever an Indian showed himself. The<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_76" id="Page_2_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+firing then became general along the whole line. Some of the
+sharpest shooting was done by the Sioux, and many officers only
+escaped "close calls" by the ends of their hair. Two enlisted
+men were wounded. Finally, Sitting Bull, finding his old plan
+of battle frustrated by that solid infantry skirmish line advancing
+upon him with the relentless sternness of fate, began a
+general and precipitate retreat."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The pursuit was resolutely kept up. The Indians
+fled down Bad Route Creek and across the Yellowstone,
+a distance of 42 miles, abandoning tons of dried
+meat, lodge-poles, camp equipments, ponies, etc. The
+troops on foot followed rapidly, not stopping to count
+the dead or gather the plunder; and the result was,
+that on the 27th of October five principal chiefs surrendered
+themselves to Col. Miles, on the Yellowstone,
+opposite the mouth of Cabin Creek, as hostages
+for the surrender of their whole people, represented
+as between 400 and 500 lodges, equal to about 2,000
+souls. The hostages were sent under escort to Gen.
+Terry, at St. Paul, and the Indians were allowed five
+days in their then camp to gather food, and thirty
+days to reach the Cheyenne Agency on the Missouri
+River, where they were to surrender their arms and
+ponies, and remain either as prisoners of war or
+subject to treatment such as is usually accorded to
+friendly Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting Bull was not among the chiefs who surrendered;
+during the retreat, they said, he had slipped
+out, with thirty lodges of his own special followers,
+and gone northerly.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI_part2" id="CHAPTER_XI_part2"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">TERRY AND CROOK AT THE SIOUX AGENCIES.</p>
+
+
+<p>The disarming and dismounting of the Sioux
+Agency Indians being deemed necessary as a precautionary
+measure, to prevent the hostile Indians
+from receiving constant supplies of arms, ammunition,
+and ponies from their friends at the agencies,
+General Sheridan directed Generals Crook and Terry
+to act simultaneously in accomplishing that object.
+The friendly and unfriendly Indians at the agencies
+were so intermixed, that it seemed impossible to discriminate
+between them.</p>
+
+<p>After refitting at the Black Hills, Gen. Crook proceeded
+to the Red Cloud Agency, and found the
+Indians there in a dissatisfied mood and probably
+about to start to join the hostile bands. They had
+moved out some 25 miles from the agency, and refused
+to return although informed that no more
+rations would be given them till they did so.</p>
+
+<p>At daylight, Oct. 22d, Col. Mackenzie, the post
+commander, with eight companies of the 4th and
+5th Cavalry, surrounded the Indian camp containing
+300 lodges, and captured Red Cloud and his whole
+band, men, squaws and ponies without firing a shot,
+and marched them into the agency dismounted and
+disarmed. The Indians at Spotted Tail Agency were
+also disarmed and dismounted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_78" id="Page_2_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gen. Crook had an interview with Spotted Tail,
+and being satisfied that he was the only important
+Sioux leader who had remained friendly, he deposed
+Red Cloud, and declared Spotted Tail, his rival, the
+"Sachem of the whole Sioux Nation, by the grace of
+the Great Father the President. As the representative
+of the latter, Gen. Crook invested him with the
+powers of a grand chief, and in token thereof presented
+him his commission as such, written upon a
+parchment scroll tied with richly colored ribbons.
+Spotted Tail's heart was very glad."</p>
+
+<p>"The line of the hostile and the peaceably disposed,"
+wrote Gen. Crook at this time, "is now
+plainly drawn, and we shall have our enemies only
+in the front in the future. I feel that this is the first
+gleam of daylight we have had in this business."</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Gen. Terry, with the 7th Cavalry and
+local garrisons, was disarming and dismounting the
+Indians at the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River
+Agencies. The following is a copy of his report to
+Gen. Sheridan, written at Standing Rock, Oct. 25th:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Colonel Sturgis left Lincoln on the 20th, Major Reno on the
+21st, and each arrived here on the afternoon of the 22d. Sturgis
+immediately commenced dismounting and disarming the Indians
+at Two Bears' camp, on the left bank of the river, and Lieut.
+Col. Carlin, with his own and Reno's forces, dismounted and disarmed
+them at both camps on this side. Owing partially to the
+fact that before I arrived at Lincoln news was sent the Indians
+here, it is said, by Mrs. Galpin, that we were coming, and our
+purpose stated; but principally, I believe, that some time since,
+owing to the failure of the grass here, the animals were sent to
+distant grazing places many miles away, comparatively only a few
+horses were found. I, therefore, the next morning, called the
+chiefs together, and demanded the surrender of their horses and
+arms, telling them that unless they complied their rations would
+be stopped, and also telling them that whatever might be realized<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_79" id="Page_2_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+from the sale of the property taken would be invested in stock
+for them. They have quietly submitted, and have sent out to
+bring in their animals. Some have already arrived, and we
+have now in our possession 700. More are arriving rapidly, and
+I expect to double that number. I have kept the whole force
+here until now for the effect its presence produces.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall start Sturgis to-morrow morning for Cheyenne, leaving
+Reno until Carlin completes the work here. Only a few arms
+have yet been found or surrendered, but I think our results are
+satisfactory. Not a shot was fired on either side of the river.
+Of course no surprise can now be expected at Cheyenne. The
+desired effect will be attained there by the same means as those
+employed here."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The late Sioux Commissioners, who made a treaty
+for the Black Hills in Sept. 1876, gave their pledge
+that all <i>friendly</i> Indians would be protected in their
+persons and property. Bishop Whipple comments on
+the dismounting of the Indians as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"In violation of these pledges 2,000 ponies were taken from
+Cheyenne and Standing Rock Agencies. No inventory was
+kept of individual property. Of 1,100 ponies taken at Standing
+Rock, only 874 left Bismark for Saint Paul. No provision was
+made to feed them on the way. The grass had burned on the
+prairie and there was several inches of snow on the ground.
+The small streams were frozen, and no water was to be had until
+they reached the James River. There was no grass, and no hay
+could be purchased until they reached the Cheyenne River, more
+than ten days' travel, and then nothing until they reached Fort
+Abercrombie. No wonder that there were only 1,200 ponies out
+of 2,000 that left Abercrombie, and that of these only 500 reached
+St. Paul. The wretched, dying brutes were made the subject of
+jest as the war horses of the Dakota. Many died on the way,
+many were stolen, and the remnant were sold in St. Paul. It
+was worse than the ordinary seizure of property without color of
+law. It was not merely robbery of our friends. It was cruel.
+The Indians are compelled to camp from 10 to 40 miles away
+from the agency to find fuel. They have to cross this distance
+in the coldest weather to obtain their rations, and without ponies
+they must cross on foot, and some of them may perish."</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_80" id="Page_2_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gen. Crook issued at Red Cloud Agency his General
+Orders, No. 8&mdash;in part as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small">
+<table class="other" summary="curlybracket">
+
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+
+<td class="tdcurly" rowspan="3">
+<span style="font-size:2.25em;">}</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Headquarters Department of the Platte, in the Field</span>,</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Camp Robinson, Neb.</span>, Oct. 24th, 1876.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>"The time having arrived when the troops composing the Big
+Horn and Yellowstone Expedition are about to separate, the
+Brigadier-General commanding addresses himself to the officers
+and men of the command, to say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In the campaign now closed he has been obliged to call upon
+you for much hard service and many sacrifices of personal comfort.
+At times you have been out of reach of your base of supplies;
+in most inclement weather you have marched without
+food and slept without shelter. In your engagements you have
+evinced a high order of discipline and courage, in your marches
+wonderful powers of endurance, and in your deprivations and
+hardships, patience and fortitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Indian warfare is, of all warfare, the most trying, the most
+dangerous, and the most thankless; not recognized by the high
+authority of the United States Congress as war, it still possesses
+for you the disadvantages of civilized warfare with all the horrible
+accompaniments that barbarians can invent and savages can
+execute. In it, you are required to serve without the incentive
+to promotion or recognition; in truth, without favor or hope of
+reward.</p>
+
+<p>"The people of our sparsely settled frontier, in whose defence
+this war is waged, have but little influence with the powerful
+communities in the East; their representatives have little voice
+in our national councils, while your savage foes are not only the
+wards of the nation, supported in idleness, but objects of sympathy
+with a large number of people otherwise well informed
+and discerning. You may, therefore, congratulate yourselves
+that in the performance of your military duty you have been
+on the side of the weak against the strong, and that the few
+people there are on the frontier will remember your efforts with
+gratitude."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Gen. Crook's losses during the campaign extending
+from May 27th to Oct. 24th, were 12 killed, 32
+wounded (most of whom subsequently returned to
+duty), one death by accident and one by disease.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII_part2" id="CHAPTER_XII_part2"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">THE WINTER OF 1876-7.</p>
+
+
+<p>After leaving Red Cloud, Gen. Crook marched to
+Fort Fetterman and organized a new column for a
+winter expedition against the enemy. Subsequently,
+with a force of ten companies of cavalry under Col.
+Mackenzie, eleven companies of infantry and four of
+artillery under Lieut. Col. R.I. Dodge, and about 200
+Indian allies, some of whom were friendly Sioux enlisted
+at Red Cloud Agency, Gen. Crook advanced
+to old Fort Reno, head of Powder River, where a cantonment
+had been built.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing that a band of Cheyenne Indians were encamped
+among the Big Horn Mountains to the southwest,
+Gen. Crook, Nov. 23d, sent Col. Mackenzie with
+his cavalry and the Indian allies to hunt them up. At
+noon, Nov. 24th, after marching some 30 miles along
+the base of the mountains toward the Sioux Pass, Mackenzie
+met five of seven Indian scouts who had been
+sent ahead the evening previously. These scouts
+reported that they had discovered the camp of the
+Cheyennes at a point in the mountains about 20 miles
+distant, and that the other two scouts had remained
+to watch the camp.</p>
+
+<p>A night's march was decided upon and, at sunset,
+after a halt of three hours, the command moved forward
+toward the village; but owing to the roughness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_82" id="Page_2_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+of the country, it was daylight when they reached the
+mouth of a canyon leading to and near the village.
+Through this canyon the column advanced, crossing
+several deep ravines, and when within a mile of the
+camp the order to charge was given. The Indian
+allies, who were in front, rushed forward howling and
+blowing on instruments, and some of them subsequently
+ascended the side of the canyon and occupied
+a high bluff opposite to and overlooking the village.</p>
+
+<p>The surprise was nearly complete; but some of the
+Cheyennes, whom the scouts had reported as being engaged
+in a war dance, sounded the alarm on a drum,
+and began firing on the advancing column. The inhabitants
+immediately deserted their lodges, taking
+nothing but their weapons with them, and took refuge
+in a net-work of very difficult ravines beyond the
+upper end of the village. A brisk fight for about
+an hour ensued, after which skirmishing was kept up
+until night. The village of 173 lodges and their
+entire contents were destroyed, about 500 ponies
+were captured, and the bodies of 25 Indians killed in
+the engagement were found. Col. Mackenzie's loss
+was Lieut. J.A. McKinney and six men killed, and
+twenty-two men wounded.</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of Dec., Gen. Crook left Fort Reno with
+his whole force, and moved down Little Powder
+River, intending to form at its junction with Powder
+River a supply camp from which to operate against
+the Indians. Subsequently, however, he crossed over
+to the Belle Fourche River, and, Dec. 22d, started for
+Fort Fetterman where he arrived Dec. 29th. The
+weather during this homeward march was at times
+intensely cold, and the men and horses suffered considerably
+thereby.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_83" id="Page_2_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While Gen. Crook was thus looking for and harassing
+the Indians in the Powder River country, the
+isolated garrison of the Tongue River cantonment, further
+north, were not idle. An excursion northward in
+search of Sitting Bull was led by Col. Miles, the post-commander,
+and as reports as to the location of the
+Indians were conflicting and their trails obscured by
+snow, he divided his force, and sent Lieut. Frank D.
+Baldwin with three companies of the 5th Infantry
+to the north of the Missouri, while he examined the
+the Mussel Shell and Dry Forks country.</p>
+
+<p>On the 7th of Dec., Lieut. Baldwin discovered
+Sitting Bull's band, and followed the Indians to the
+Missouri River, where they crossed and for a short
+time resisted the crossing of the troops. The Indians
+then retreated south, but were overtaken in the Redwood
+country and attacked, Dec. 18th. Their camp of
+122 lodges was captured and burned with its contents,
+and 60 mules and horses were taken. The Indians
+escaped, but carried off little property except what
+they had on their backs. Lieut. Baldwin's command
+marched on this expedition over 500 miles&mdash;walking
+on one occasion 73 miles in 48 hours&mdash;and endured
+the cold of a Montana winter with great fortitude.</p>
+
+<p>A very unfortunate affair occurred at the Tongue
+River cantonment, within a few hundred yards of the
+parade-ground, Dec. 16th. The following is from Col.
+Miles' report thereof:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"As five Minneconjou chiefs were coming in, bearing two
+white flags, followed by twenty or thirty other Indians, and were
+passing by the Crow Indian camp, the five in advance were surrounded
+by twelve Crows and instantly killed. The act was an
+unprovoked, cowardly murder. The Crows approached them in
+a friendly manner, said "How," shook hands with them, and
+when they were within their power and partly behind a large<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_84" id="Page_2_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+wood pile, killed them in a most brutal manner. Upon hearing
+the first shot, both officers and men rushed out and tried to save
+the Minneconjous, but could not reach them in time. The Crows
+were aware of the enormity of their crime, as they saw that the
+Minneconjous had a flag of truce, and they were told to come
+back. They were warned the day before against committing any
+act of violence against messengers or other parties coming in
+for friendly purposes. They tried to hide the flag of truce and,
+taking advantage of the momentary excitement, while efforts
+were being made to open communication and bring back the
+others, who were following, and who became alarmed and fled to
+the bluffs, the guilty Crow Indians jumped upon their ponies and
+fled to their agency in Montana. The only thing that can be
+said in defence of the Crows is, that a false report was made by
+one of the Crow women that the Sioux had fired upon her, and
+that within the last few months some of their number had lost
+relatives killed by the Sioux in the vicinity of the Rosebud.
+These Indians have claimed to be friends of the white man for
+years, have been frequently in the Government employ, and were
+brought down to fight such outlaws as Sitting Bull and Crazy
+Horse.</p>
+
+<p>"Those killed were believed to be Bull Eagle, Tall Bull, Red &mdash;&mdash;,
+Red Cloth, and one other prominent chief of the Sioux
+nation. I am unable to state the object of Bull Eagle's coming,
+but am satisfied he came with the best of motives. I can only
+judge from the following:&mdash;When he surrendered on the Yellowstone,
+after the engagement on Cedar Creek, he was the first to
+respond to my demands, and, I believe, was largely instrumental
+in bringing his people to accept the terms of the Government.
+When I had received five of the principal chiefs as hostages, and
+was about parting with him, I told him, if he had any trouble in
+going in, or his people hesitated or doubted that the Government
+would deal fairly and justly with them, to come back to me,
+and I would tell him what to do; that if he would come back to
+my command, I would be glad to see him and, so long as he
+complied with the orders of the Government, he could be assured
+of the friendship of its officers. I could not but regard him with
+respect, as he appeared in every sense a chief, and seemed to be
+doing everything in his power for the good of his people, and
+endeavoring to bring them to a more peaceful condition. He<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_85" id="Page_2_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+appeared to have great confidence in what I told him; I gave
+him five days to obtain meat; during that time he lost three
+favorite ponies, which were brought to this place. During my
+absence he came in, bringing five horses that had strayed or
+been stolen from some citizens in the vicinity, and requested his
+own. He also inquired if he could send up to the Big Horn
+country for the remainder of his people, and take them in on the
+pass I had given him. He was informed by the commanding
+officer, Gen. Whistler (whom he had known for years before),
+that he could, and was told to send for them. Whether he had
+met with some trouble in taking his people in to their agency, and
+had returned, as I had told him, for directions, or had gathered
+up his people, and in passing had come in to apprise me of the
+fact, I know not; but there is every reason to believe that the
+above mentioned circumstances gave rise to his motives and
+prompted his actions.</p>
+
+<p>"The Crows were immediately disarmed, twelve of their ponies
+taken from them, and other considerations, together with a letter
+explaining the whole affair, were sent to the people and friends
+of those killed, as an assurance that no white man had any part
+in the affair, and that we had no heart for such brutal and cowardly
+acts.</p>
+
+<p>"It illustrates clearly the ferocious, savage instincts of even
+the best of these wild tribes, and the impossibility of their controlling
+their desire for revenge when it is aroused by the sight of
+their worst enemies, who have whipped them for years and driven
+them out of this country. Such acts are expected and considered
+justifiable among these two tribes of Indians, and it is to be hoped
+that the Sioux will understand that they fell into a camp of their
+ancient enemies, and did not reach the encampment of this
+command."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In January, 1877, Col. Miles with 350 of his troops
+marched southerly sixty miles up the Tongue River,
+and on the evening of the 7th discovered a large
+Indian village. Skirmishing ensued, and on the next
+day 1000 well-armed warriors appeared in front, and a
+battle was fought. The battle-ground was very rough
+and broken, and a heavy snow storm came on during
+the fight. The Indians fought with desperation; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_86" id="Page_2_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+our troops had been so admirably arranged that they
+succeeded in gaining a decisive victory. The following
+is Col. Miles' report of the affair:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"I have the honor to report that this command fought the
+hostile tribes of Cheyenne and Ogallala Sioux, under Crazy
+Horse, in skirmishes on the 1st, 3d, and 7th of January, and in a
+five hours' engagement on the 8th inst. Their camp, consisting
+of some 500 lodges, extended three miles along the valley of
+Tongue River, below Hanging Woman's Creek. They were
+driven through the canyons of the Wolf or Panther Mountains, in
+the direction of Big Horn Mountains. Their fighting strength
+outnumbered mine by two or three to one, but by taking advantage
+of the ground we had them at a disadvantage, and their loss
+is known to be heavy. Our loss is three killed and eight wounded.
+They fought entirely dismounted, and charged on foot to
+within fifty yards of Captain Casey's line, but were taken in front
+and flank by Captain Butler's and Lieutenant McDonald's companies.
+They were whipped at every point and driven from the
+field, and pursued so far as my limited supplies and worn down
+animals would carry my command."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following additional particulars are derived
+from a letter to the <i>Army and Navy Journal</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"On the 5th January, Indian signs grew thicker and thicker.
+Miles of hastily abandoned war lodges were passed. The
+country became very rough. The valley of the Tongue grew
+narrower, the stream more tortuous, and the hills on both sides
+loftier and more precipitous, until the valley shrank into a prolonged
+and winding canyon. At short distances, jutting bluffs
+made narrow passes which offered points of vantage to the savage
+enemy. The gorges of the Wolf Mountains had been reached.</p>
+
+<p>"On the 6th, the march was through a large war camp, recently
+and hurriedly abandoned. Unusual heat was followed by snow.
+In the evening there was snow and hail driven by a cruel wind,
+and by 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> it was pitch dark. On the evening of the 7th, the
+scouts captured four Cheyenne squaws, a youth, and three young
+children. Two hundred Indians made a dash at the scouts, shot
+two of their horses and made a desperate effort to take them.
+Casey opened a musketry fire on the Indians, and darkness supervening,
+they withdrew.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_87" id="Page_2_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Next morning the fight was renewed shortly after daylight.
+The Indians charged down the valley in large force, close up to
+the skirmish line, but failed to make any impression. They then
+turned their attention to the flanks, and began to swarm on the
+bluffs to the right. The action then became general. The
+Indians were in strong force, and tried every point of the line.
+The hills and woods resounded with their cries and the high-pitched
+voices of the chiefs giving their orders.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the opinion of some who have had years of experience
+in Indian fighting, that there has rarely, if ever, been a fight
+before in which the Sioux and Cheyenne showed such determination
+and persistency, where they were finally defeated. They
+had chosen their ground; and it has since been learned that they
+expected to make another Custer slaughter. The Cheyenne
+captives, in the hands of the troops, sang songs of triumph
+during the entire fight, in anticipation of a speedy rescue and the
+savage orgies of a massacre."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In a complimentary order to his troops, dated
+Jan. 31st, Col. Miles says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Here in the home of the hostile Sioux, this command, during
+the past three months, has marched 1200 miles and fought three
+engagements&mdash;besides affairs of less importance. * * * Fortunate
+indeed is the officer who commands men who will improvise
+boats of wagon beds, fearlessly dash out into the cold and turbid
+waters, and amid the treacherous current and floating ice, cross
+and recross the great Missouri; who will defy the elements on
+these bleak plains in a Montana winter; and who have in every
+field defeated superior numbers."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The dismounting and disarming policy was kept up
+at the Agencies through the winter. Several bands
+came in and surrendered&mdash;among them that of Red
+Horse, who had been actively hostile. This chief
+thus describes the engagement on the Little Big
+Horn. The "brave officer" referred to is said to be
+Capt. T.H. French, of Reno's battalion.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"On the morning of the attack, myself and several women
+were out about a mile from camp gathering wild turnips. Suddenly
+one of the women called my attention to a cloud of dust<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_88" id="Page_2_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+rising in the neighborhood of the camp. I soon discovered that
+troops were making an attack. We ran for the camp, and
+when I got there I was sent for at once to come to the council-lodge.
+I found many of the council men already there when I
+arrived. We gave directions immediately for every Indian to
+get his horse and arms; for the women and children to mount
+the horses and get out of the way, and for the young men to go
+and meet the troops.</p>
+
+<p>"Among the troops was an officer who rode a horse with four
+white feet. The Indians have fought a great many tribes of
+people, and very brave ones, too, but they all say that this man
+was the bravest man they had ever met. I don't know whether
+this man was General Custer or not. This officer wore a large-brimmed
+hat and buckskin coat. He alone saved his command
+a number of times by turning on his horse in the retreat. In
+speaking of him, the Indians call him the 'man who rode the
+horse with four white feet.'</p>
+
+<p>"After driving this party back, the Indians corraled them on
+top of a high hill, and held them there until they saw that the
+women and children were in danger of being made prisoners by
+another party of troops which just then made its appearance
+below. The word passed among the Indians like a whirlwind, and
+they all started to attack the new party, leaving the troops on the
+hill. When we attacked the other party, we swarmed down on
+them and drove them in confusion. No prisoners were taken.
+All were killed. None were left alive even for a few minutes.
+These troopers used very few of their cartridges. I took a gun
+and a couple of belts off two dead men. Out of one belt two
+cartridges were gone; out of the other five.</p>
+
+<p>"It was with captured ammunition and arms that we fought
+the other body of troops. If they had all remained together they
+would have hurt us very badly. The party we killed made five
+different starts. Once we charged right in until we scattered the
+whole of them, fighting among them hand to hand. One band of
+soldiers was right in the rear of us when they charged. We fell
+back, and stood for one moment facing each other. Then the
+Indians got courage and started for them in a solid body. We
+went but a little distance when we spread out and encircled them.
+All the time I could see their officers riding in front, and hear
+them shouting to their men. We finished up the party right there
+in the ravine.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_89" id="Page_2_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The troops up the river made their first attack, skirmishing a
+little while after the fight commenced with the other troops below
+the village. While the latter fight was going on we posted some
+Indians to prevent the other command from forming a junction.
+As soon as we had finished the fight we all went back to massacre
+the troops on the hill. After skirmishing around awhile we saw
+the walking soldiers coming. These new troops making their
+appearance was the saving of the others. An Indian started to
+go to Red Cloud Agency that day, and when a few miles from
+camp discovered dust rising. He turned back and reported that
+a large herd of buffalo was approaching the camp, and a short
+time after he reported this the camp was attacked by troops."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In February, Spotted Tail, with a body-guard of 200
+warriors, started out to visit his roaming brethren as
+a peacemaker; and through his influence, or for other
+reasons, all the hostile bands, it is believed, except
+Sitting Bull's, have accepted the terms offered by the
+Government and surrendered their arms and ponies.
+One band of about 1000 encircled the Indian camp
+at Spotted Tail Agency, April 16th, and after discharging
+their guns in the air by way of salutation,
+surrendered to Gen. Crook. Roman Nose, whose
+village was destroyed at Slim Buttes, indicated his
+desire for peace in a short speech and by laying his
+rifle at the feet of the General. Five days later, 500
+Cheyennes, with 600 ponies, came into Red Cloud
+Agency. Their village near Sioux Pass had been
+destroyed in November, and they were in a destitute
+and pitiable condition.</p>
+
+<p>Crazy Horse and his band of 900 Indians surrendered
+at Red Cloud, May 5th. They appeared to be
+in a comfortable condition and had 2000 ponies.</p>
+
+<p>At the latest date, Sitting Bull and his band were
+reported moving toward Canada. If they return
+south, Col. Miles will be prepared to give them a
+suitable reception.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII_part2" id="CHAPTER_XIII_part2"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.</p>
+
+
+<p>George Armstrong Custer, son of Emmanuel H.
+Custer, a hard-working, enterprising farmer, was born
+at New Rumley, Harrison County, Ohio, December
+5th, 1839. He grew up into an active, athletic, and
+amiable youth, acquired a fair English education, and
+at the age of sixteen years engaged in teaching school
+near his native town.</p>
+
+<p>Having determined to go to West Point if possible,
+young Custer addressed a letter on the subject to
+Hon. John A. Bingham, Member of Congress from
+his district, to whom he was personally unknown,
+and subsequently called on him. The result was
+that he entered West Point Academy as a cadet in
+1857. The official notification of his appointment
+was signed by Jefferson Davis, President Buchanan's
+secretary of war.</p>
+
+<p>As a cadet, Custer did not achieve a brilliant record
+either for scholarship or good behavior. This was
+not owing to any want of intelligence or quickness of
+comprehension, but rather to a love of mischief and
+hatred of restraint. During the four years of his
+academic term he spent 66 Saturdays in doing extra
+guard duty as penance for various offences; and he
+graduated in 1861, at the foot of a class of 34.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i557" name="i557"></a>
+<img src="images/i557.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>His stay terminated with a characteristic incident.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_91" id="Page_2_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+He chanced one day when officer of the guard to come
+upon two angry cadets, who from words had come
+to blows, and were just ready to settle their difficulty
+with their fists. Custer pushed through the crowd
+of spectators who surrounded the combatants, but
+instead of arresting them, as was his duty, he restrained
+those who were endeavoring to restrain them,
+and called out:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Stand back, boys; let's have a fair fight."</p>
+
+<p>His appeal was heard by Lieuts. Hazen and Merritt,
+and he was placed under arrest and kept back to be
+court-martialed, while the rest of his class, (excepting
+such as had already resigned to join the Southern
+army) departed for active service. The court-martial
+was however cut short, through the exertions of his
+fellow cadets at Washington, by a telegraphic order
+summoning him there.</p>
+
+<p>Custer reported to the Adjutant-General of the
+Army at Washington, July 20th, and was by him introduced
+to Gen. Scott. The company (G, 2nd
+Cavalry) to which he had been assigned, with the
+rank of 2nd lieutenant, was at this time near Centerville,
+and as he was to join it, Gen. Scott entrusted to
+him some dispatches for Gen. McDowell who commanded
+the troops in the field. A night's ride on
+horseback took him to the army, the dispatches were
+delivered, and then he joined his company before
+daybreak just as they were preparing to participate in
+the battle of Bull Run. In this battle, however, the
+cavalry took but little part; in the frantic retreat
+that followed, Custer's company was among the last
+to retire, and did so in good order, taking with them
+Gen. Heintzelman who was wounded.</p>
+
+<p>After Gen. McClellan took command of the army,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_92" id="Page_2_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+Custer's company was attached to Gen. Phil Kearny's
+brigade, and that general detailed Custer as his aid-de-camp,
+and afterwards as assistant adjutant-general,
+which position he held till deprived of it by a general
+order prohibiting officers of the regular army from
+serving on the staffs of volunteer officers.</p>
+
+<p>About this time he obtained leave of absence on
+account of ill health, and visited his sister, Mrs. Reed,
+at her home in Monroe, Michigan; and it is said that
+through her entreaties and influence he then gave up
+the habit of using strong drinks, which, in common
+with many of his fellow officers, he had acquired
+during his brief army life near Washington. Thenceforth,
+through the remainder of his life, he drank no
+intoxicating liquor.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the army in Feb. 1862, he was assigned
+to the 5th Cavalry, and when the enemy evacuated
+Manassas he participated in the advance on that place,
+and led the company which drove the hostile pickets
+across Cedar Run.</p>
+
+<p>When the Army of the Potomac was transferred to
+the Peninsula, Custer's company was among the first
+to reach Fortress Monroe, and it then marched to
+Warwick. Here he was detailed as assistant to the
+chief engineer, on Gen. W.F. Smith's staff; he served
+in that capacity during the siege of Yorktown, and
+planned the earthwork nearest the enemy's lines.
+At the battle of Williamsburg, where he acted as aid-de-camp
+to Gen. Hancock, he effected the capture of
+a battle-flag&mdash;the first taken by the Army of the
+Potomac.</p>
+
+<p>When the army was encamped near the Chickahominy
+River, late in May, Custer accompanied
+Gen. Barnard, the chief engineer of the army, on a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_93" id="Page_2_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+reconnoisance outside the picket line to the bank of
+the river; and at the request of his superior, he dismounted,
+jumped into the river, and waded across
+the stream&mdash;the object being to ascertain the depth
+of the water, which in some places came nearly up to
+his shoulders. On reaching the opposite bank he
+examined the ground for some distance, and discovered,
+unseen by them, the position of the enemy's
+pickets. Barnard reported to McClellan that the
+river was fordable, and how he had ascertained that
+it was so. McClellan sent for Custer, and was so
+pleased with his appearance and courageous act that
+he transferred him to his own staff; and in June,
+Custer received from the Secretary of War his appointment
+as additional aid-de-camp, with the rank of
+captain during the pleasure of the President. Previously
+to this he had crossed the Chickahominy at daybreak
+with a company of infantry, attacked the
+enemy's picket post, and captured prisoners and arms.</p>
+
+<p>Custer served on McClellan's staff through all
+of the Peninsular campaign; and after the battles
+of Gaines' Mills, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, etc., retreated
+with him to the protection of the gunboats at
+Harrison's Landing on the James River. Subsequently,
+after the withdrawal of the army from the Peninsula
+and the defeat of Banks and Pope in Virginia,
+he was McClellan's aid-de-camp in the Maryland campaign
+which closed with the battle of Antietam.
+When McClellan was superseded by Burnside, Nov.
+10th, 1862, Custer accompanied his chief to Washington,
+and subsequently visited his friends in Ohio
+and Michigan. His staff position as captain ceased
+with the retirement of McClellan, and he was now a
+first lieutenant, commissioned July 17th, 1862.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_94" id="Page_2_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In April, 1863, Custer rejoined his company which
+was with Gen. Hooker's army near Fredericksburg, and
+took part in the battle of Chancellorsville. In June
+he was on the staff of Gen. Pleasonton, then chief of
+the cavalry corps, and was conspicuous at Beverly
+Ford and other places across the Rappahannock
+where Stuart's cavalry were met and roughly handled.</p>
+
+<p>At the battle of Aldie, Virginia, Custer distinguished
+himself in the charge made by Kilpatrick's
+cavalry. The onset was irresistible; the Confederate
+forces were driven back in confusion, and Custer's
+impetuosity carried him far within their lines, from
+which he was allowed to escape in consequence, he
+believed, of the similarity of his hat to those worn
+by the Confederates. For his gallantry in this action,
+Custer was promoted at one bound from a first lieutenant
+to a brigadier-general.</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Custer was now assigned to the command of
+a Michigan brigade in Kilpatrick's division, the 1st,
+5th, 6th and 7th Cavalry, and joined his command at
+Hanover, Md., June 29th. The next day he was engaged
+in a skirmish with Stuart's cavalry, and attracted
+the attention of all by the peculiarity of his dress.
+He wore a broad-brimmed, low-crowned felt hat; loose
+jacket and trowsers of velveteen, the former profusely
+trimmed with gold-braid and the latter tucked into
+high boots; a blue shirt, with turnover collar on
+either corner of which was an embroidered star; and
+a flaming neck-tie.</p>
+
+<p>The battle of Gettysburg was now in progress, and
+on the 2nd of July Custer distinguished himself, and
+won the respect of his officers, by charging the enemy
+at the head of a company of his troops, having his
+horse shot under him. The next day his brigade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_95" id="Page_2_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+was actively engaged, and the charge of the 1st
+Michigan Cavalry, supported by a battery, is designated
+by Custer as one of the most brilliant and successful
+recorded in the annals of warfare.</p>
+
+<p>After the battle Gen. Lee retreated rapidly toward
+the Potomac, and the cavalry moving by different
+routes harassed him continually, capturing trains and
+prisoners. The following paragraph is copied from
+Headley's "History of the Civil War."</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Kilpatrick clung to the rebel army with a tenacity that did
+not allow it a moment's rest. At midnight, in a furious thunder
+storm, he charged down the mountain through the darkness with
+unparalleled boldness, and captured the entire train of Elwell's
+division, eight miles long. At Emmettsburg, Haggerstown, and
+other places, he smote the enemy, with blow after blow. Buford,
+Gregg, Custer, and others, performed deeds which, but for the
+greater movements that occupied public attention, would have
+filled the land with shouts of admiration. In fact, the incessant
+protracted labors of the cavalry during this campaign, rendered
+it useless for some time."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Custer's brigade came upon the enemy's rear guard
+at Falling Waters, and the 6th Michigan made a
+gallant charge which was repulsed with considerable
+loss; but after a two hours' fight the enemy was
+driven to the river; Gen. Pettegrew and 125 of his
+men were killed, and 1500 were taken prisoners;
+cannon and battle-flags were also captured.</p>
+
+<p>When the cavalry crossed the Rappahannock in
+September, pushing back Stuart's cavalry to Brandy
+Station, Culpepper C.H., and across the Rapidan,
+Custer, as usual, was with the advance, and in one
+engagement was slightly wounded by a piece of a
+shell&mdash;the first and only time he was wounded during
+the war. After a short vacation in consequence of
+his wound, he rejoined his command in season to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_96" id="Page_2_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+accompany the advance of cavalry to and across the
+Rapidan in October; and when Mead's army was
+forced back across the Rappahannock, he assisted in
+covering the retreat. The following description of
+the engagement at Brandy Station is also copied from
+Headley:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Pleasonton, with the cavalry, remained behind to watch the
+enemy, and then slowly retired toward the retreating army.
+Buford had been forced back more rapidly than Kilpatrick, whose
+command&mdash;with Davis over the right brigade, and Custer over
+the left&mdash;fell back more slowly. When the latter reached Brandy
+Station, he found the former, ignorant of his movements, was
+far in advance, leaving his right entirely exposed. To make
+matters worse Stuart had passed around his left, so that Kilpatrick,
+with whom was Pleasonton himself, was suddenly cut
+off. The gallant leader saw at a glance the peril of his position,
+and, riding to a slight eminence took a hasty survey of the
+ground before him. He then gave his orders, and three thousand
+swords leaped from their scabbards, and a long, loud shout
+rolled over the field.</p>
+
+<p>"With a heavy line of skirmishers thrown out, to protect his
+flanks and rear, he moved in three columns straight on the rebel
+host that watched his coming. At first, the well-closed columns
+advanced on a walk, while the batteries of Pennington and Elder
+played with fearful precision upon the hostile ranks. He thus
+kept on, till within a few hundred yards of the rebel lines, when
+the band struck up "Yankee Doodle." The next instant, a hundred
+bugles pealed the charge, and away, with gleaming sabres
+and a wild hurrah, went the clattering squadrons. As they came
+thundering on, the hostile lines parted, and let them pass proudly
+through. Buford was soon overtaken, and a line of battle formed;
+for the rebels, outraged to think they had let Kilpatrick off so
+easy, reorganized, and now advanced to the attack.</p>
+
+<p>"A fierce cavalry battle followed, lasting till after dark.
+Pleasonton, Buford, Kilpatrick, Custer and Davis again and
+again led charges in person. It seemed as if the leaders on both
+sides were determined to test, on the plains of Brandy Station,
+the question of superiority between the cavalry; for the charges
+on both sides were of the most gallant and desperate character.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_97" id="Page_2_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+The dark masses would drive on each other, through the deepening
+gloom, with defiant yells, while the flashing sabres struck
+fire as they clashed and rung in the fierce conflict. At length
+the rebels gave it up, and our cavalry, gathering up its dead
+and wounded, crossed the Rappahannock."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the spirited encounter near Buckland's Mills,
+Oct. 19th, in which Stuart, aided by a flank attack
+from Fitz Hugh Lee, worsted Kilpatrick by force of
+numbers, Custer's brigade bore the brunt of the
+attack, and did most of the fighting on our side.
+This fight terminated the active campaign of 1863
+for Custer's brigade, which subsequently guarded the
+upper fords of the Rapidan.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th of February, 1864, Gen. Custer was
+married at Monroe, Michigan, to Miss Elizabeth
+Bacon, only daughter of Judge Daniel S. Bacon of
+Monroe. When he rejoined his command at Stevensburg
+a few days later, his wife accompanied him,
+and she remained in camp till the opening of the
+spring campaign of 1864. The marriage was, as far
+as Custer was concerned, the consequence of love at
+first sight, and ever proved to be for both parties a
+happy one.</p>
+
+<p>Late in February, 1864, Gen. Custer crossed the
+Rapidan with 1500 cavalry in light marching order,
+flanking Lee's army on the west, and pushed rapidly
+ahead to within four miles of Charlottesville, where
+he found his progress arrested by a far superior force.
+He then turned northward toward Stannardsville
+where he again encountered the enemy, and after
+skirmishing, returned to his camp followed by some
+hundreds of refugees from slavery. This raid was
+designed to draw attention from a more formidable
+one led by Kilpatrick at the same time.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV_part2" id="CHAPTER_XIV_part2"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.</p>
+
+<p class="center small">(CONTINUED.)</p>
+
+
+<p>In the spring of 1864, Gen. Grant was placed at
+the head of all the Union armies; Gen. Sheridan
+was called to command the cavalry corps in place of
+Gen. Pleasonton; and Custer with his brigade was
+transferred to the First division under Torbert.</p>
+
+<p>In May, the Army of the Potomac once more advanced
+to the Rapidan and crossed it. In the battle
+of the Wilderness, owing to the character of the field,
+the cavalry were compelled to remain almost idle
+spectators, but subsequently, at Spottsylvania C.H.,
+Torbert's division was seriously engaged.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th of May, Gen. Sheridan started out on
+his first great cavalry raid toward Richmond. At
+Beaverdam Station he inflicted great damage on the
+railroads, destroyed much property, and liberated 400
+Union prisoners on their way to Richmond. Continuing
+his march, he found, at Yellow Tavern a few
+miles north of Richmond, Stuart's cavalry drawn up
+to oppose his passage. A spirited fight ensued, resulting
+in the death of Stuart and the dispersion of
+his troops. Our cavalry pressed on down the road to
+Richmond, and Custer's brigade attacked and carried
+the outer line of defenses, and took 100 prisoners.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_99" id="Page_2_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+The second line of works was too strong to be taken
+by cavalry, and Sheridan was obliged to retreat.
+Beating off assailants both in front and rear he crossed
+the Chickahominy, pushed southward to Haxall's
+Landing on the James River, and then leisurely returned
+by way of White House and Hanover C.H.
+to Grant's army, arriving in time to be present at the
+sanguinary battle of Cool Arbor.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th of June, Custer accompanied Sheridan
+on a raid around Lee's army. They struck the railroad
+at Trevilian's, drove off a large force of the
+enemy and broke up a long section of the road. Retracing
+their steps to Trevilian's, they had there a
+spirited contest with Fitz Hugh Lee, and then drew
+off and rejoined Gen. Grant. During this raid Sheridan
+lost over 700 men, and captured 400 prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1864, two divisions of cavalry
+under Torbert were with Sheridan's army operating
+in the Shenandoah Valley. Custer's brigade was in
+the First division, commanded by Merritt. Averill
+commanded the Second division.</p>
+
+<p>Having received from Gen. Grant the order, "Go
+in"&mdash;the only instructions which Grant deemed it
+necessary to give&mdash;Sheridan, Sept. 19th, attacked the
+Confederate forces at Opequan Creek. The artillery
+opened along the whole line, the columns moved
+steadily forward, and Gen. Early soon discovered that
+Sheridan was in earnest. Early's position was a
+strong one, and he stubbornly held it until the
+cavalry bugles were heard on his right, as the firm-set
+squadrons bore fiercely down. Rolled up before the
+impetuous charge, the rebel line at length crumbled
+into fragments, and the whole army broke in utter confusion
+and was sent "whirling through Winchester,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_100" id="Page_2_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+followed until dark by the pursuing cavalry. 3000
+prisoners were taken.</p>
+
+<p>Three days later Sheridan attacked Early at Fisher's
+Hill&mdash;a strong position to which he had retired&mdash;and
+again forced him to retreat with a loss of 1100
+men taken prisoners. The cavalry pursued so sharply
+and persistently, that Early left the valley and took
+refuge in the mountains where cavalry could not
+operate.</p>
+
+<p>On the 26th of Sept., Custer was transferred from
+the command of the Michigan brigade in the First
+division to the head of the Second division; but
+before he was able to reach his new command, he was
+placed at the head of the Third division, with which
+he had formerly been connected under Kilpatrick.</p>
+
+<p>When Sheridan moved back through the valley
+from Port Republic to Strasburg, sparing the houses,
+but burning all the barns, mills and hay-stacks, and
+driving off all the cattle, his rear was much harassed
+by the rebel cavalry under Gen. Rosser&mdash;a class-mate
+of Custer's at West Point; and on the night of Oct.
+8th, Sheridan ordered Torbert to "start out at daylight,
+and whip the rebel cavalry or get whipped himself."
+Accordingly on the next morning the cavalry,
+led on by Merritt and Custer and supported by batteries,
+swept boldly out to attack a larger force drawn
+up in battle array. At the first charge upon them
+Rosser's men broke and fled, but subsequently rallied,
+and were again pushed back and utterly routed.
+Rosser lost all his artillery but one piece, and everything
+else which was carried on wheels, and was pursued
+to Mt. Jackson, 26 miles distant. Of this affair,
+Gen. Torbert reported:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_101" id="Page_2_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p><blockquote class="small"><p>"The First Division captured five pieces of artillery, their
+ordnance, ambulance, and wagon trains, and 60 prisoners. The
+Third Division captured six pieces of artillery, all of their headquarter
+wagons, ordnance, ambulance, and wagon trains. There
+could hardly have been a more complete victory and rout. The
+cavalry totally covered themselves with glory, and added to their
+long list of victories the most brilliant one of them all, and the
+most decisive the country has ever witnessed."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On the 15th of Oct., Sheridan started on a flying
+visit to Washington, leaving his army encamped on
+three ridges or hills. The crest nearest the enemy
+was held by the Army of West Virginia under Crook;
+half a mile to the rear of this was the second one, held
+by the 19th Corps under Emory; and still further to
+the rear, on the third crest, was the 6th Corps under
+Gen. Wright, who commanded the whole army during
+Sheridan's absence. The cavalry under Torbert lay to
+the right of the 6th Corps.</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Early, having resolved to surprise and attack
+the Union army, started out his troops on a dark and
+foggy night, and advanced unperceived and unchallenged
+in two columns along either flank of the 6th
+Corps. The march was noiseless; and trusty guides
+led the steady columns through the gloom, now pushing
+through the dripping trees and now fording a
+stream, till at length, an hour before day-break, Oct.
+18th, Early's troops, shivering with cold, stood within
+600 yards of Crook's camp. Two of Crook's pickets
+had come in at 2 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> and reported a heavy, muffled
+tramp heard at the front; but though some extra
+precautions were taken, no one dreamed that an attack
+would be made.</p>
+
+<p>Crook's troops, slumbering on unconscious of danger,
+were awakened at daybreak by a deafening yell and
+the crack of musketry on either flank; following
+which, charging lines regardless of the pickets came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_102" id="Page_2_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+immediately on over the breastworks. The surprise
+was complete, and after a brief struggle the Army of
+West Virginia was flying in confusion toward the
+second hill occupied by the 19th Corps. Emory attempted
+to stop the progress of the enemy, but they
+got in his rear, and his command soon broke and fled
+with the rest toward the hill where the 6th Corps lay.</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Wright formed a new line of battle, and repulsed
+a tremendous charge of the enemy, thus obtaining
+time to cover the immense crowd of fugitives
+that darkened the rear. A general retreat was then
+begun and continued in good order till 10 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>
+when, the enemy having ceased to advance, Wright
+halted and commenced reorganizing the scattered
+troops. The cavalry, being at the rear and extreme
+right, had not suffered in the first assault on the
+Union army, but they were subsequently transferred
+to the left flank, and did brave service in covering
+the retreat of the infantry.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Sheridan, returning from Washington,
+had slept at Winchester 20 miles distant, and in the
+morning rode leisurely toward his army. The
+vibrations of artillery at first surprised him, and he
+soon became aware that a heavy battle was raging
+and that his army was retreating. Dashing his spurs
+into his horse he pushed madly along the road, and
+soon left his escort far behind. Further on he met
+fugitives from the army, who declared that all was
+lost. As the cloud of fugitives thickened he shouted,
+as he drove on and swung his cap, "Face the other
+way, boys; we are going back to our camp; we
+are going to lick them out of their boots." The
+frightened stragglers paused, and then turned back.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at the front, where the work of reorgan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_103" id="Page_2_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>ization
+was already well advanced, Sheridan inspired
+his men with new courage by his appearance and
+words. For two hours he rode back and forth in
+front of the line, encouraging the troops; and when
+the order was given, "The entire line will advance,
+etc.," the infantry went steadily forward upon the
+enemy. Early's front was soon carried, while his
+left was partly turned back; and after much desperate
+fighting, his astonished troops turned and fled in
+utter confusion over the field.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"As they streamed down into the Middletown meadow," says
+Headley, "Sheridan saw that the time for the cavalry had
+come, and ordered a charge. The bugles pealed forth their
+stirring notes, and the dashing squadrons of Custer and Merritt
+came down like a clattering tempest on the right and left,
+doubling up the rebel flanks, and cleaving a terrible path through
+the broken ranks. Back to, and through our camp, which they
+had swept like a whirlwind in the morning, the panic-stricken
+rebels went, pellmell, leaving all the artillery they had captured,
+and much of their own, and strewing the way with muskets,
+clothing, knapsacks, and everything that could impede their
+flight. The infantry were too tired to continue the pursuit, but
+the cavalry kept it up, driving them through Strasburg to Fisher's
+Hill, and beyond, to Woodstock, sixteen miles distant."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>After the battle of Cedar Creek and during the
+winter of 1864&mdash;5, Sheridan's army, including Custer's
+division, remained inactive, occupying cantonments
+around Winchester.</p>
+
+<p>On the 27th of Feb., Sheridan started out on his last
+great raid, taking with him Gen. Merritt as chief of
+cavalry, the First and Third divisions of cavalry
+under Generals Devin and Custer, artillery, wagons,
+and pack-mules. The raiding column, including artillerymen
+and teamsters, numbered 10,000 men.</p>
+
+<p>Moving rapidly up the Shenandoah Valley over the
+turnpike road, they passed many villages without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_104" id="Page_2_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+halting or opposition, and on the 29th, approached
+Mount Crawford, where Rosser with 400 men disputed
+the passage over a stream and attempted to
+burn the bridge; but Col. Capehart of Custer's command,
+which was in advance, by a bold dash drove
+Rosser away and saved the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>Custer now pushed on to Waynesboro' and finding
+Early intrenched there, immediately attacked him.
+The result, as told by Sheridan, was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Gen. Custer found Gen. Early in a well chosen position, with
+two brigades of infantry, and some cavalry under Rosser, the
+infantry occupying breastworks. Custer, without waiting for the
+enemy to get up courage over the delay of a careful reconnaissance,
+made his dispositions for attack at once. Sending three
+regiments around the left flank of the enemy, Custer with the
+other two brigades, partly mounted and partly dismounted, at a
+given signal attacked and impetuously carried the enemy's works;
+while the Eight New York and the First Connecticut cavalry,
+who were formed in columns of fours, charged over the breastworks,
+and continued the charge through the streets of Waynesboro',
+sabring a few men as they went along, and did not stop
+until they had crossed the South Fork of the Shenandoah,
+(which was immediately in Early's rear) where they formed as
+foragers, and with drawn sabres held the east bank of the stream.
+The enemy threw down their arms and surrendered, with cheers
+at the suddenness with which they had been captured."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Sixteen hundred prisoners, 11 pieces of artillery,
+200 loaded wagons, and 17 battle-flags were captured
+single-handed by Custer at Waynesboro', while his
+own loss was less than a dozen men. Vast amounts
+of public property were subsequently destroyed. The
+prisoners were sent to Winchester under guard.</p>
+
+<p>Pushing on across the Blue Ridge in a heavy rain
+during the night after Early's defeat, Custer, still in
+the van, approached Charlottesville the next afternoon,
+and was met by the authorities, who surrendered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_105" id="Page_2_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+to him the keys of the public buildings as a token of
+submission. The balance of the column soon came up,
+and two days were spent in destroying bridges, mills,
+and the railroad leading to Lynchburg.</p>
+
+<p>Sheridan now divided his command, and sent
+Merritt and Devin to destroy the canal from Scottsville
+to New Market, while he and Custer tore up
+the railroads as far west as Amherst C.H. The columns
+united again at New Market on the James
+River; and as the enemy had burned the bridges so
+they could not cross to the south side, they moved
+eastward behind Lee's army, destroying bridges, canals,
+railroads and supplies, thus inflicting a more serious
+blow to the confederate cause than any victories by
+land or sea gained during the last campaign. Then
+they swept around by the Pamunkey River and
+White House, and joined Grant's besieging army in
+front of Petersburg, March 27th. They encamped
+on the extreme left of the lines, close to their old
+comrades of the Second Division of cavalry, (now
+under Gen. Crook) who here again came under Sheridan's
+command.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i573" name="i573"></a>
+<img src="images/i573.jpg" alt="" />
+
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV_part2" id="CHAPTER_XV_part2"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.</p>
+
+<p class="center small">(CONTINUED.)</p>
+
+
+<p>The final struggle for the possession of Richmond
+and Petersburg was now commenced by an extension
+of the Union lines westward, Grant's object being to
+attack the right flank of the Confederates.</p>
+
+<p>On the 29th of March, Sheridan, with his cavalry,
+moved southwest to Dinwiddie C.H., where Devin's
+and Crook's divisions halted for the night. Custer
+was some distance in the rear protecting the train.
+In the morning, Devin pushed the enemy back northerly
+to their intrenchments at Five Forks; but being
+unable to advance further, he returned to Dinwiddie
+C.H. Gen. Warren, with the 5th Infantry Corps, had
+meantime been put under Sheridan's command as a
+support to the cavalry, but had not yet come up.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, 31st, Lee's troops attacked Warren
+unexpectedly, and drove two of his divisions back
+upon a third, where their advance was stopped; and
+with the assistance of Humphrey's 2nd Corps, the
+enemy were driven back into their entrenched position
+along the White Oak road. Then the rebel infantry
+moved westward along the road to Five Forks, and
+attacked Devin, who, earlier in the day, had advanced
+to Five Forks and carried that position. Devin was
+driven out in disorder and forced back, and after some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_107" id="Page_2_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+difficulty rejoined Crook's division at Dinwiddie C.
+H. The confederates now assailed Sheridan with a
+superior force, but could make no headway, and
+during the night they withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Custer, and Gen. McKenzie with 1,000
+additional cavalry, had joined Sheridan, and Warren
+was within supporting distance. At daybreak the
+cavalry advanced steadily on the enemy, and by noon
+had driven them behind their works at Five Forks,
+and were menacing their front. Warren was now
+ordered forward, and after more delay than Sheridan
+deemed necessary, he reached his assigned position and
+charged furiously westward on the enemy's left flank.
+Custer and Devin at the same time charged their right
+flank and front. Thus assailed by double their numbers
+the rebel infantry fought on with great gallantry
+and fortitude; but at length their flank defenses were
+carried by Warren's troops, and simultaneously the
+cavalry swept over their works. A large portion of
+the enemy surrendered, and the balance fled westward,
+pursued by Custer and McKenzie; 5,000 prisoners
+were taken.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, Sunday, April 2nd, at daybreak,
+a general assault was made by Grant's army upon the
+defences of Petersburg, and some of them were carried.
+Lee telegraphed to Davis that Richmond must be
+evacuated; and by night the Confederate rule in that
+city was ended, and Davis and his Government on the
+way by railroad to Danville. Lee's troops withdrew
+from Richmond and Petersburg the same night, and
+marched rapidly westward to Amelia C.H. on the
+Danville railroad, where they halted, April 4th and
+5th, to gather supplies of food from the country.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, the Union army was pursuing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_108" id="Page_2_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+retreating Confederates and making every effort to
+prevent their escape. Custer and Devin moved southwesterly
+toward Burkesville destroying the railroad,
+and then joined Crook, McKenzie, and the 5th Corps
+at Jetersville five miles west of Amelia C.H. Sheridan
+intrenched his infantry across the railroad, supported
+them by his cavalry, and felt prepared to stop
+the passage of Lee's whole army. Lee, however, finding
+his way to Danville thus blocked, moved northerly
+around Sheridan's left, and thence westerly
+toward Farmville on the Appomattox River. Gen.
+Davies, of Crook's division, made a reconnoisance
+and struck Lee's train moving ahead of his troops,
+destroying wagons, and taking prisoners. A fight
+followed, and Davies fell back to Jetersville where
+nearly the whole army was then concentrated.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 6th, Crook, Custer, and
+Devin started out in pursuit. Crook, who was in
+advance, was ordered to attack the trains, and if the
+enemy was too strong, another division was to pass
+him, while he held fast and pressed the enemy, and
+attack at a point further on&mdash;thus alternating until
+some vulnerable point was found. Crook came upon
+Lee's columns near Deatonsville, and charged upon
+them, determined to detain them at any cost. Crook
+was finally repulsed, but his action gave Custer time
+to push ahead, and strike further on at Sailor's Creek.
+Crook and Devin came promptly to Custer's support,
+and he pierced the line of march, destroyed 400
+wagons, and took many prisoners. Elwell's division
+was separated from Lee, who was further ahead, and
+being enclosed between the cavalry in front and the
+infantry on their rear, the troops threw down their
+arms and surrendered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_109" id="Page_2_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That evening Lee crossed the Appomattox at Farmville,
+and tried to burn the bridges behind him, but
+troops arrived in season to save one of them. Lee
+halted five miles beyond Farmville, intrenched himself,
+and repulsed an attack from the infantry. At
+night he silently resumed his retreat.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 7th, Custer and Devin,
+under Merritt, were sent on a detour to the left, to
+cut off retreat toward Danville should it be attempted;
+while Crook forded the Appomattox and attacked a
+train. On the 8th, Sheridan concentrated the cavalry
+at Prospect Station, and sent Merritt, Custer, and
+Devin swiftly ahead 28 miles to Appomattox Station,
+where, he had learned from scouts, were four trains
+loaded with supplies for Lee, just arrived from
+Lynchburg.</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Custer took the lead, and on reaching the
+railroad station he skillfully surrounded and captured
+the trains. Then, followed by Devin, he hurried on
+five miles further to Appomattox C.H., where he
+confronted the van of Lee's army, immediately attacked
+it, and by night had turned it back on the
+main column, and captured prisoners, wagons, guns,
+and a hospital train. The balance of the cavalry
+hurried up, and a position was taken directly across
+the road, in front of Lee's army.</p>
+
+<p>By a forced march the infantry under Griffin and
+Ord, supporting the cavalry, reached the rear of
+Sheridan's position by daybreak the next morning.
+Grant and Mead were pressing closely on Lee's rear,
+and Lee saw there was no escape for him unless
+he could break through the cavalry force which he
+supposed alone disputed his passage. He therefore
+ordered his infantry to advance. The result of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_110" id="Page_2_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+charge, the last one made by the Army of Virginia,
+is thus described in Greeley's "<i>American Conflict</i>":&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"By Sheridan's orders, his troopers, who were in line of battle
+dismounted, gave ground gradually, while showing a steady
+front, so as to allow our weary infantry time to form and take
+position. This effected, the horsemen moved swiftly to the right,
+and mounted, revealing lines of solid infantry in battle array,
+before whose wall of gleaming bayonets the astonished enemy
+recoiled in blank despair, as Sheridan and his troopers, passing
+briskly around the rebel left, prepared to charge the confused,
+reeling masses. A white flag was now waved by the enemy
+before Gen. Custer, who held our cavalry advance, with the information
+that they had concluded to surrender."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next day, April 9th, Gen. Custer, who had
+been brevetted Major-General after the battle of
+Cedar Creek, issued the following complimentary
+order to his troops:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small">
+
+
+<table class="other" summary="curlybracket">
+
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+
+<td class="tdcurly" rowspan="3">
+<span style="font-size:2.25em;">}</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Head-Quarters Third Cavalry Division.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Appomattox Court House, Va.</span>, April 9, 1865.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+SOLDIERS OF THE THIRD CAVALRY DIVISION:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>With profound gratitude toward the God of battles, by whose
+blessings our enemies have been humbled and our arms rendered
+triumphant, your Commanding General avails himself of this his
+first opportunity to express to you his admiration of the heroic
+manner in which you have passed through the series of battles
+which to-day resulted in the surrender of the enemy's entire army.</p>
+
+<p>The record established by your indomitable courage is unparalleled
+in the annals of war. Your prowess has won for you even
+the respect and admiration of your enemies. During the past
+six months, although in most instances confronted by superior
+numbers, you have captured from the enemy, in open battle, 111
+pieces of field artillery, 65 battle-flags, and upward of 10,000
+prisoners of war including seven general officers. Within the
+last ten days, and included in the above, you have captured 46
+field-pieces of artillery and 37 battle-flags. You have never lost
+a gun, never lost a color, and have never been defeated; and notwithstanding
+the numerous engagements in which you have borne
+a prominent part, including those memorable battles of the
+Shenandoah, you have captured every piece of artillery which the<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_111" id="Page_2_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+enemy has dared to open upon you. The near approach of peace
+renders it improbable that you will again be called upon to undergo
+the fatigues of the toilsome march, or the exposure of the
+battle-field; but should the assistance of keen blades wielded by
+your sturdy arms be required to hasten the coming of that
+glorious peace for which we have been so long contending, the
+General Commanding is firmly confident that, in the future as in
+the past, every demand will meet a hearty and willing response.</p>
+
+<p>Let us hope that our work is done, and that blessed with the
+comforts of peace, we may be permitted to enjoy the pleasures
+of home and friends. For our comrades who have fallen, let us
+ever cherish a grateful remembrance. To the wounded and to
+those who languish in Southern prisons, let our heartfelt sympathy
+be tendered.</p>
+
+<p>And now, speaking for myself alone, when the war is ended
+and the task of the historian begins; when those deeds of daring
+which have rendered the name and fame of the Third Cavalry
+Division imperishable are inscribed upon the bright pages of
+our country's history, I only ask that my name may be written as
+that of the Commander of the Third Cavalry Division.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Lee's flag of truce at Appomattox&mdash;a white towel&mdash;and
+also the table on which Grant and Lee signed
+the capitulation agreement, were presented to Mrs.
+Custer by Gen. Sheridan, and are now in her possession.
+In a letter accompanying them Sheridan wrote,
+that he "knew of no person more instrumental in
+bringing about this most desired event than her own
+most gallant husband."</p>
+
+<p>In the great parade of the Army of the Potomac at
+Washington in May 1865, Sheridan's cavalry were at
+the head of the column; and the Third Division,
+first in peace as it had been first in war, led the advance.
+Custer, now a Major-General of volunteers, at
+the age of 26 years, rode proudly at the head of his
+troopers, a prominent figure in the stirring pageant,
+and the observed of all beholders. He had put off
+for the occasion his careless dashing style of dress,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_112" id="Page_2_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+and wore, with becoming dignity, the full regulation
+uniform of a Major-General.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the parade, Custer was sent to Texas,
+where he had command of a cavalry division at
+Austin, but no active service became necessary. In
+March, 1866, he was mustered out of service as a
+Major-General, and took rank as a Captain, assigned
+to the 5th Cavalry, U.S.A. Soon afterward, he
+applied to Senor Romero, Minister from Mexico, for
+a position as chief of President Juarez's cavalry, in
+his struggle with Maximilian. He presented a letter
+of introduction from General Grant in which he was
+spoken of in the most complimentary terms. Romero
+was anxious to secure his services, and made him
+liberal offers; but as Custer could not obtain leave
+of absence from his Government, the contemplated
+arrangement was not completed.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i580" name="i580"></a>
+<img src="images/i580.jpg" alt="" />
+
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI_part2" id="CHAPTER_XVI_part2"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.</p>
+
+<p class="center small">(CONTINUED.)</p>
+
+
+<p>In July, 1866, Custer received from Andrew Johnson,
+a commission as Lieut. Col. of the 7th Cavalry&mdash;a
+new regiment; and after accompanying the President
+on his famous tour through the country, he proceeded
+to Fort Riley, Kansas.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1867, an expedition under Gen.
+Hancock marched from Fort Riley to Fort Larned
+near the Arkansas River, and the 7th Cavalry, under
+Lieut. Col. Custer, accompanied it. The dissatisfied
+Indians had been invited by the Indian agent to
+meet Hancock in council at Fort Larned, and had
+agreed to do so; but as they failed to appear at the
+appointed time, Hancock started for a village of
+Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, distant some 30 miles
+from the fort. On the way he met several of the
+chiefs, and they agreed to hold a council at Hancock's
+camp on the next day, April 14th. As none of the
+chiefs came, as promised, Hancock again started for
+their village, and soon came upon several hundred
+Indians drawn up in battle array directly across his
+path. The troops were immediately formed in line
+of battle, and then the General, with some of his
+officers and the interpreter, rode forward and invited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_114" id="Page_2_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+the chiefs to a meeting between the lines, which were
+half a mile apart. The invitation was accepted;
+several chiefs advanced to the officers, and a friendly
+interview was holden&mdash;all seeming pleased at the
+peaceful turn things had taken. The result of the
+"talk" was an arrangement for a council to be held
+at Hancock's headquarters after he had camped near
+the Indian village, toward which both parties then
+proceeded. It was ascertained on reaching it that the
+women and children had been sent away; and during
+the night the warriors, unobserved by the white men,
+also fled, leaving their lodges and stores.</p>
+
+<p>Mistrusting something of the kind, Custer, with the
+cavalry, had during the night stealthily surrounded
+the village, and on entering it later found it deserted.
+Pursuit of the Indians was commenced, but their trail
+soon scattered so it could not be followed. After
+burning the deserted village, the expedition returned
+to Fort Hayes, where the 7th Cavalry wintered.</p>
+
+<p>The next summer, Custer with several companies
+of his regiment and 20 wagons, was sent on a long
+scouting expedition to the southward in search of
+Indians. Leaving Fort Hayes in June, he proceeded
+to Fort McPherson on the Platte River, and thence to
+the forks of the Republican River in the Indian
+country. From this place he sent Major J.A. Elliott,
+on the 23d of June, with ten men and one guide, to
+carry despatches to Gen. Sherman at Fort Sedgwick,
+100 miles distant. The wagons, escorted by cavalry,
+were also started the same day to procure supplies
+from Fort Wallace, about the same distance away in
+an opposite direction.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning, an attack was made on
+the camp, but the soldiers rallied so promptly and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_115" id="Page_2_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+effectively that the Indians soon withdrew. Interpreters
+were then sent toward them, who arranged for a
+council which was held near by. After an unsatisfactory
+interview, Custer returned to his camp and
+started in pursuit of the Indians, but was unable to
+overtake them.</p>
+
+<p>On the fifth day after his departure, Major Elliott
+returned in safety to the camp. He had traveled
+only by night, and had seen no Indians. The wagon
+train was not so fortunate. It reached Fort Wallace
+safely, and started to return escorted by 48 troopers.
+On the way it was attacked by a large number of
+Indians, who for three hours kept up a running fight
+around the circle. The wagons moved forward in
+two strings, with the cavalry horses between them
+for safety, and the dismounted soldiers defended
+them so successfully that their progress forward was
+uninterrupted. Meanwhile Custer, fearing for the
+safety of the train, had sent out cavalry to meet it;
+and their approach caused the Indians to cease from
+their attack and withdraw. The balance of the
+journey was safely accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Resuming his march, Custer again struck the Platte,
+some distance west of Fort Sedgwick. Here he
+learned by telegraph that Lieut. Kidder with ten men
+and an Indian scout had started from Fort Sedgwick,
+with despatches for Custer directing him to proceed
+to Fort Wallace, shortly after Major Elliott had left
+the fort. As Kidder had not returned and Custer
+had not seen him, fears for his safety were entertained,
+and Custer immediately started for his late camp at
+the forks of the Republican. On the way thither
+some of his men deserted, and being followed and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_116" id="Page_2_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+refusing to surrender, were fired upon, and three were
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the camp, an examination was made by
+the Indian guide, and it was ascertained that Kidder's
+party had arrived there in safety, and continued on
+towards Fort Wallace, over the trail made by the
+wagons. In the morning Custer started in pursuit,
+and by noon it became evident by the tracks of their
+horses, that Kidder's party had been hard chased for
+several miles. Further on one of their horses was
+found, shot dead; and at last the mutilated and
+arrow-pierced bodies of the 12 men were found lying
+near each other. They had been chased, overtaken,
+and killed by the savages. They were buried in one
+grave, and the troops proceeded to Fort Wallace.</p>
+
+<p>Custer had been ordered to report to Gen. Hancock
+at Fort Wallace, and receive further orders from him;
+but on arriving there he found that the General had
+retired to Fort Leavenworth. The location of Fort
+Wallace was isolated and remote from railroads, and
+as the stock of provisions was low, Custer decided to
+go for supplies. He started on the evening of July
+15th, with 100 men, and arrived at Fort Hayes on the
+morning of July 18th, having marched 150 miles,
+with a loss of two men who had been surprised by
+Indians. He then proceeded to Fort Harker, 60 miles
+further on, and after making arrangements for the
+supplies, obtained from Gen. Smith permission to
+visit his wife, who was at Fort Riley, 90 miles
+distant by rail.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this Custer was arraigned before a court-martial,
+charged with leaving Fort Wallace without
+orders, and making a journey on private business,
+during which two soldiers were killed; also for over-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_117" id="Page_2_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>tasking
+his men on the march, and for cruelty while
+quelling a mutiny. After trial, he was pronounced
+guilty of a breach of discipline in making a journey
+on private business (which he earnestly denied) and
+acquitted of the other charges. His sentence was a
+suspension of pay and rank for a year, during which
+period he remained in private life, while his regiment
+was engaged in an expedition under Gen. Sully.</p>
+
+<p>In October, 1868, Custer was recalled into service,
+and joined his regiment at Fort Dodge on the Arkansas
+River. Early in Nov., a winter campaign against
+the Indians was commenced. Gen. Sully, with the 7th
+Cavalry, detachments of infantry, and a large supply
+train, marched to the borders of the Indian country
+and established a post called Camp Supply.</p>
+
+<p>On the 23d of Nov., Custer with his regiment of
+about 800 men started out in a snow storm on a scout
+for the enemy. The next day a trail was discovered
+and pursued, and at night the troops were in the
+valley of the Washita River, and near an Indian
+village which had been seen from a distance. The
+village was stealthily surrounded, and at daybreak an
+attack was made simultaneously by several detachments.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians were taken entirely by surprise. The
+warriors fled from the village, but took shelter behind
+trees, logs, and the bank of the stream, and fought
+with much desperation and courage, but were finally
+driven off. The village was captured with its contents,
+including 50 squaws and children who had remained
+safely in the lodges during the fight. Some
+800 ponies were also captured. On questioning the
+squaws, one of them said that she was a sister of the
+Cheyenne chief Black Kettle, that it was his village<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_118" id="Page_2_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+that had been captured, and that several other Indian
+villages were located within ten miles&mdash;the
+nearest one being only two miles distant.</p>
+
+<p>Before Custer had time to retreat, hostile Indians&mdash;reinforcements
+from the other villages&mdash;arrived in
+such numbers as to surround the captured village,
+which Custer and his men occupied; and an attack
+was begun which continued nearly all day. The
+Indians were finally driven away. The village and
+its contents were burned. The captives were allowed
+to select ponies to ride on, and the balance of the
+drove were shot. The retreat was begun by a march
+forward, as if to attack the next village. The Indians
+fled; and after dark Custer moved rapidly back
+toward Supply Camp, taking the captives along as
+prisoners of war.</p>
+
+<p>In this engagement, known as the Battle of the
+Washita, Major Elliott, Capt. Hamilton, and 19 privates
+were killed, and three officers and 11 privates
+wounded. Captains Weir, Benteen, T.W. Custer,
+and Lieut. Cook, participated in this fight. It was
+estimated that at least 100 Indians were killed, among
+whom was the noted chief Black Kettle.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Black Kettle was much regretted by
+many white people. Gen. Harney said respecting
+him:&mdash;"I have worn the uniform of my country 55
+years, and I know that Black Kettle was as good a
+friend of the United States as I am." Col. A.G. Boone,
+a member of the recent Indian Commission, who had
+known Black Kettle for years, said tearfully:&mdash;"He
+was a good man; he was my friend; he was murdered."</p>
+
+<p>Early in Dec., the 7th Cavalry and a Kansas cavalry
+regiment, accompanied by Gen. Sheridan and staff,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_119" id="Page_2_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+again started out to look for Indians. The recent
+battle-ground was revisited, and then the force proceeded
+along the valley of the Washita, finding the
+sites of several villages which appeared to have been
+lately and hastily removed. Large numbers of lodge
+poles, and robes, utensils, and stores were left behind;
+and a broad trail, leading down the river toward Fort
+Cobb, 100 miles distant, showed the direction their
+owners had taken when frightened away from their
+winter retreat. A pursuit of the trail was commenced,
+but it soon branched. The troops continued on, and
+when within 20 miles of Fort Cobb, Indians appeared
+in front with a flag of truce. They proved to be
+Kiowas led by Lone Wolf, Satanta, and other chiefs.</p>
+
+<p>A council was held, and both parties agreed to proceed
+together to Fort Cobb; and the Indians agreed
+that they would then remain on their reservation.
+On the way to the fort, many of the Indians slipped
+away, and as Custer then supposed (erroneously) that
+Lone Wolf and Satanta had been engaged in the recent
+battle and might also escape, he placed them under
+guard and took them to Fort Cobb, where they were
+held as hostages for the return of the roaming Kiowas,
+who finally came in on learning that Sheridan had
+determined to hang their chiefs if they failed to do so.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this, Little Robe&mdash;a Cheyenne chief, and
+Yellow Bear&mdash;a friendly Arapahoe, were visiting at
+Fort Cobb, and at Custer's suggestion Sheridan permitted
+him with a small party to go with these chiefs
+as a peace ambassador. The mission was successful
+as far as the Arapahoes were concerned, and as its
+result the whole tribe returned to their reservation.</p>
+
+<p>The effort to arrange with the Cheyennes proving
+unavailing, Custer with 800 men started, March, 1869,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_120" id="Page_2_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+in pursuit of them. On the 13th of March he arrived
+in the vicinity of several Cheyenne villages, one of
+which belonged to Little Robe. Several councils were
+held with the chiefs; and it was ascertained that two
+white women who had been recently captured in
+Kansas were held as captives in one of the villages.
+For this reason Custer could not attack the Indians,
+who were still intractable, and had to continue negotiations
+with them. They refused to release the
+women unless a large ransom was paid.</p>
+
+<p>Custer subsequently seized four of the chiefs, and
+threatened to hang them if the white women were
+not given up unconditionally. This threat produced
+the desired effect, and the women were surrendered.
+Custer then marched to the supply camp, taking with
+him the captured chiefs, who begged for freedom as
+the white women had been given up. Their friends
+also entreated for their release; but Custer assured
+them that the Washita prisoners and the captive
+chiefs would not be liberated until the Cheyennes returned
+to their reservation. This they promised to
+do, and subsequently kept their word.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i588" name="i588"></a>
+<img src="images/i588.jpg" alt="" />
+
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII_part2" id="CHAPTER_XVII_part2"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.</p>
+
+<p class="center small">(CONTINUED.)</p>
+
+
+<p>A treaty having been made with the Indians and
+peace restored, the 7th Cavalry enjoyed a long season
+of rest. In the autumn of 1870, it was broken into detachments
+and distributed to different posts. Custer,
+with two companies, was assigned to a post at Elizabethtown,
+Ky., 40 miles from Louisville, and in this
+isolated place he remained two years. During this
+period of inaction he engaged in literary pursuits and
+wrote an account of his life on the Plains. He also
+joined in a buffalo-hunt given on the Plains in honor
+of the Russian Grand Duke Alexis, and after the
+hunt he and Mrs. Custer accompanied the Duke in
+his travels through the Southern States.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1873, the 7th Cavalry was ordered to
+Dakota, and in May was encamped at Fort Rice far
+up the Missouri. Here also were assembled other
+soldiers, and in July the so-called Yellowstone Expedition,
+commanded by Gen. D.S. Stanley, started out
+on its mission, which was to escort and protect the
+engineers and surveyors of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
+The march was westward to the Yellowstone
+and up its valley, accompanied part of the way by
+steamboats. The country was rough and broken, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_122" id="Page_2_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+the wagon trains were got forward with much difficulty.
+It was Custer's custom to go ahead every day
+with a small party of road-hunters, to pick out and
+prepare the most suitable road for the train.</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of Aug., when opposite the mouth of
+Tongue River, as Custer and his advance party of
+about 100 men were enjoying a noon-day siesta in a
+grove on the bank of the river, they were aroused by
+the firing of the pickets. A few Indians had made a
+dash to stampede the horses which were grazing near
+by, and failing in this, were riding back and forth as
+if inviting pursuit. The soldiers speedily mounted,
+and Custer with 20 men followed the Indians, who
+retreated slowly, keeping out of the reach of shot.</p>
+
+<p>After going nearly two miles the retreating Indians
+faced about as if to attack, and simultaneously, 300
+mounted warriors emerged from a forest and dashed
+forward. Custer's men immediately dismounted, and
+while five of them held the horses, the remainder,
+with breech-loading carbines, awaited the enemy's
+charge. Several rapid volleys were sufficient to repulse
+the Indians, and cause them to take shelter
+in the woods from which they came.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the remainder of Custer's men came up,
+and the whole force retreated to the resting place
+they had so lately vacated. The horses were sheltered
+in the timber, and the men took advantage of a
+natural terrace, using it as a breastwork. The Indians
+had followed them closely, and now made persistent
+but unsuccessful attempts to drive them from their
+position. Being defeated in this, they next tried to
+burn them out by setting fire to the grass. After
+continuing their assault for several hours, the Indians
+withdrew at the approach of the main column, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_123" id="Page_2_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+Custer and the fresh troops chased them several miles.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i592" name="i592"></a>
+<img src="images/i592.jpg" alt="" />
+<p class="caption">COUNTING HIS COUPS.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The same day, two elderly civilians connected with
+the expedition were murdered while riding in advance
+of the main column. Nearly two years later, Charles
+Reynolds, a scout subsequently killed at the battle
+of the Little Big Horn, while at Standing Rock
+Agency, heard an Indian who was "counting his
+<i>coups</i>," or in other words rehearsing his great achievements,
+boast of killing two white men on the Yellowstone.
+From his description of the victims and the
+articles he exhibited, Reynolds knew that he was the
+murderer of the two men.</p>
+
+<p>The name of this Indian was Rain in the Face.
+He was subsequently arrested by Captains Yates and
+Custer, and taken to Fort Lincoln where he was interviewed
+by Gen. Custer and finally confessed the
+deed. He was kept a close prisoner in the guardhouse
+for several months, but managed to escape, and
+joined Sitting Bull's band. It is thought by some that
+he was the identical Indian who killed Gen. Custer,
+and that he did it by way of revenge for his long imprisonment.
+There seems to be no real foundation
+for this theory; but the "Revenge of Rain in the
+Face" will probably go down to posterity as an historical
+truth, as it has already been immortalized in
+verse by one of our most gifted poets, who seems, however,
+to have overlooked the fact that Gen. Custer's
+body was not mutilated.</p>
+
+<p>A week after the affair on the Yellowstone a large
+Indian trail was discovered leading up the river, and
+Custer was sent in pursuit. On arriving near the
+mouth of Big Horn River, it was discovered that the
+enemy had crossed the Yellowstone in "bull boats."
+As Custer had no means of getting across, he camped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_124" id="Page_2_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+for the night. Early the next morning he was attacked
+by several hundred warriors, some of whom
+had doubtless recrossed the river for that purpose.
+Sitting Bull was commander of the Indians, and large
+numbers of old men, squaws, and children were
+assembled on the high bluffs and mounds along the
+river to witness the fight. After considerable skirmishing
+Custer ordered his troops to charge, and as
+they advanced the Indians fled, and were pursued
+some distance.</p>
+
+<p>In these two engagements our loss was four men
+killed, and two were wounded. Custer's horse was
+shot under him. There was no further trouble with
+the Indians, and the expedition returned to Fort Rice
+about the 1st of October. Later in the autumn, Gen.
+Custer was assigned to the command of Fort Lincoln,
+on the Missouri River, opposite the town of Bismark.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1874, a military expedition to explore
+the Black Hills was decided on, and Gen. Custer
+was selected to command it. The column of 1,200
+troops, escorting a corps of scientists, etc., started from
+Fort Lincoln, July 1st, moved southwesterly about
+250 miles to the Black Hills, and then explored the
+region. No trouble was experienced with Indians,
+and the expedition returned to Fort Lincoln in September.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Custer had accompanied her husband to the
+Plains when he first went thither, and excepting when
+he was engaged in some active campaign or both were
+East, she shared with him the hardships, privations,
+and pleasures of frontier life. Mrs. Champney,
+speaking of her in the <i>Independent</i>, says:&mdash;"She
+followed the general through all his campaigns, her
+constant aim being to make life pleasant for her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_125" id="Page_2_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+husband and for his command. General Custer's
+officers were remarkably attached to him; to a man
+they revered and admired his wife. She was with
+him not only in the idleness of summer camp-life,
+when the days passed in a <i>dolce far niente</i> resembling
+a holiday picnic; but in ruder and more dangerous
+enterprises she was, as far as he would permit, his constant
+companion."</p>
+
+<p>When Gen. Custer was ordered to Fort Lincoln
+Mrs. Custer went there with him; that retired post
+was their home for the remainder of his life, and when
+he started out on his last campaign she parted with
+him there.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a id="i595" name="i595"></a>
+<img src="images/i595.jpg" alt="" />
+
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII_part2" id="CHAPTER_XVIII_part2"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.</p>
+
+<p class="center small">(CONTINUED.)</p>
+
+
+<p>When a campaign against the roaming hostile
+Indians was decided on in 1876, Lieut. Col. Custer
+was naturally selected as the leader of the Dakota
+column, which was organized at Fort Lincoln, and
+mainly composed of his regiment.</p>
+
+<p>About this time a Congressional committee at
+Washington were investigating the charges against
+Gen. Belknap, who had recently resigned the office of
+Secretary of War. Many persons were called to testify;
+and while Custer was actively engaged in
+organizing the Sioux expedition, he received a telegraphic
+summons to appear before the committee.</p>
+
+<p>On the receipt of the summons, Custer telegraphed
+to Gen. Terry, the Department Commander, informing
+him of the fact, stating that what he knew as to any
+charges against the War Department was only from
+hearsay evidence, and asking his advice as to what he
+had better do. Terry, who was a lawyer as well as a
+soldier, in reply informed Custer that his services
+were indispensable, and that he feared it would delay
+the expedition if he had to go to Washington. He
+suggested that if Custer knew nothing of the matter,
+he might perhaps get excused from going there.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_127" id="Page_2_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After hearing from Terry, Custer telegraphed to the
+chairman of the committee as follows;&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"While I hold myself in readiness to obey the summons of
+your committee, I telegraph to state that I am engaged upon an
+important expedition, intended to operate against the hostile
+Indians, and I expect to take the field early in April. My
+presence here is very necessary. In view of this, would it not
+be satisfactory for you to forward to me such questions as may
+be necessary, allowing me to return my replies by mail."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As the committee would not consent to the plan
+proposed, Custer went to Washington, and was detained
+there on this business about one month. He
+was severely cross-examined, but the result showed that
+he knew but little of the matter in controversy. All
+he could say of his own knowledge was, that a contractor
+had turned over to him at Fort Lincoln a
+quantity of grain, which he suspected had been
+stolen from the Indian Department, as the sacks bore
+the Indian brand. He had at first refused to receive
+the grain, and had informed the Department commander
+of his suspicions. He had received in reply
+an order to accept the grain; and he believed that the
+order emanated from the Secretary of War, and so
+testified before the committee. On returning west,
+he learned from Gen. Terry that he alone was responsible
+for the order to receive the grain; and thereupon,
+Custer telegraphed the fact to Mr. Clymer, and
+added:&mdash;"As I would not knowingly do injustice to
+any individual, I ask that this telegram may be appended
+to and made part of my testimony before
+your committee."</p>
+
+<p>On being discharged by the committee, Custer, for
+the third time it is said, called at the White House,
+hoping to remove the wrong impression and misunderstanding
+as to his action before the committee which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_128" id="Page_2_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+he had learned from private sources, the President
+had received and still entertained. He did not however
+succeed in getting an interview, and it is said
+that Gen. Grant even refused to see him.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the White House, Custer proceeded to the
+office of Gen. Sherman, and learned that the General
+had gone to New York, but was expected back that
+evening. Custer then took the train for Chicago, and
+on arriving there was halted by Gen. Sheridan who
+had received from Gen. Sherman a telegram dated
+May 2nd, as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"I am this moment advised that General Custer started last
+night for Saint Paul and Fort Abraham Lincoln. He was not
+justified in leaving without seeing the President or myself.
+Please intercept him at Chicago or Saint Paul, and order him to
+halt and await further orders. Meanwhile let the expedition
+from Fort Lincoln proceed without him."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Gen. Custer was of course greatly surprised on
+learning that such a telegram had been received, and
+he immediately telegraphed to Gen. Sherman a statement
+of the circumstances under which he left Washington.
+He reminded the General that at their last
+interview he had stated that he would start west May
+1st, and had been told in reply that it was the best
+thing he could do; he said further that he had every
+reason to believe, that in leaving Washington when
+he did he was acting in accordance with the General's
+advice and wishes; and in conclusion, he reminded
+the General of his promise that he should go in command
+of his regiment, and asked that justice might be
+done him. Receiving no answer to this message, he
+again telegraphed to Sherman asking as a favor that
+he might proceed to Fort Lincoln where his family
+was. In reply, Sherman telegraphed as follows:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_129" id="Page_2_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Before receipt of yours, I had sent orders to Gen. Sheridan,
+to permit you to go to Fort Lincoln on duty, but the President
+adheres to his conclusion that you are not to go on the expedition."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Sherman's orders to Sheridan were as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"I have received your despatch of to-day, announcing Gen.
+Custer's arrival. Have just come from the President, who orders
+that Gen. Custer be allowed to rejoin his post, to remain there on
+duty, but not to accompany the expedition supposed to be on the
+point of starting against the hostile Indians, under Gen. Terry."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>General Custer accordingly started for Fort Lincoln,
+and on arriving at Saint Paul, May 6th, he addressed
+the following letter to President Grant:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"<span class="smcap">To His Excellency the President</span>, through Military Channels:</p>
+
+<p>I have seen your order transmitted through the General of
+the army, directing that I be not permitted to accompany the
+expedition about to move against hostile Indians. As my entire
+regiment forms a part of the proposed expedition, and as I am
+the senior officer of the regiment on duty in this Department, I
+respectfully but most earnestly request that while not allowed to
+go in command of the expedition, I may be permitted to serve
+with my regiment in the field. I appeal to you as a soldier to
+spare me the humiliation of seeing my regiment march to meet
+the enemy and I not to share its dangers."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This appeal to the President was forwarded by Gen.
+Terry with the following communication:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"In forwarding the above, I wish to say expressly, that I have
+no desire to question the orders of the President, or of my
+military superiors. Whether Lieut. Col. Custer shall be permitted
+to accompany my column or not, I shall go in command
+of it. I do not know the reasons upon which the orders already
+given rest; but if those reasons do not forbid it, Lieut, Col.
+Custer's services would be very valuable with his command."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It may be well to state here the probable causes
+of the unfriendly feeling which Gen. Grant at this
+period manifested toward one whom he had "endorsed
+to a high degree" ten years previously. The Congressional
+committee hitherto mentioned, had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_130" id="Page_2_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+appointed by the Opposition members of the House,
+and some of its proceedings had, doubtless, annoyed
+and vexed the President. Gen. Babcock had been
+on his staff during the war, and enjoyed his friendship
+and support even after the damaging disclosures
+respecting the sale of the post-tradership at a western
+fort. Attempts had also been made about this time
+to injure Grant's administration, by seeking to identify
+it with the frauds which had been discovered, or
+which were suspected, and he naturally considered
+those who volunteered information to the committee
+as unfriendly to himself.</p>
+
+<p>It was currently reported that Custer telegraphed
+to the committee's chairman, that an investigation
+into the post-traderships upon the Upper Missouri
+would reveal a state of things quite as bad as at
+Fort Sill; and that in consequence of this communication
+he was summoned before the committee.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever the causes of Gen. Grant's unfriendliness,
+or the cruelty charged upon him for showing
+his displeasure as he did, the result of Gen. Custer's
+appeal was creditable to the President. Custer resumed
+his position as Terry's trusted coadjutor in
+fitting out the expedition, and finally marched from
+Fort Lincoln as commander of his regiment. It was
+no disgrace to him that Terry accompanied the column,
+and the best feeling always existed between the
+two officers. The junction with the Montana troops
+was contemplated at the time, and their commander,
+Col. Gibbon, would have ranked Lieut. Col. Custer
+when their forces united. Some commanding general
+had usually accompanied previous expeditions into
+the Indian country, and it seems probable that Gen.
+Terry would have participated in the campaign under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_131" id="Page_2_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+any circumstances. Besides, it does not appear from
+Custer's despatch to Sheridan, that he had been promised
+more than the command of his regiment.</p>
+
+<p>The history of the campaign, and the story of the
+disastrous battle in which Gen. Custer lost his life
+have been given in preceding chapters. His action
+in attacking the Indians before the arrival of Gibbon's
+troops has been the subject of controversy, and by
+some few even his motives have been impugned. The
+following paragraphs relative thereto are from the
+editorial columns of the <i>Army and Navy Journal</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"It was not in Terry's instructions, and it clearly was not in
+his mind, that Custer, if he came "in contact with the enemy,"
+should defer fighting him until the infantry came up. * * *
+There could be no justification whatever for any plan of operations
+which made an attack dependent upon a junction between
+Custer and Gibbon, after three or four days' march from different
+points.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been asserted that, smarting under the wounds which
+preceding events had inflicted upon his pride, Custer dashed
+recklessly into this affair for the purpose of eclipsing his superior
+officers in the same field, regardless of cost or consequences.
+This, it seems to us, is going much too far. Custer was doubtless
+glad of the opportunity to fight the battle alone, and was stimulated
+by the anticipation of a victory which, illuminating his
+already brilliant career, would make him outshine those put on
+duty over him in this campaign. But his management of the
+affair was probably just about what it would have been under
+the same circumstances, if he had had no grievance. His great
+mistake was in acting in mingled ignorance of, and contempt
+for his enemy. He regarded attack and victory in this instance
+as synonymous terms, the only point being to prevent the escape
+of the foe. Under this fatal delusion he opened the engagement,
+with his command divided into four parts, with no certainty of
+co-operation or support between any two of them. Neither
+ambition, nor wounded vanity, prompted these vicious and fatal
+dispositions, nor were they due to lack of knowledge of the principles
+of his profession."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX_part2" id="CHAPTER_XIX_part2"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.</p>
+
+<p class="center small">(CONCLUDED.)</p>
+
+
+<p>As the foregoing biography of Gen. Custer has been
+confined chiefly to his military career, it may be well
+in conclusion to give some account of his personal
+characteristics; and this can be best done in the language
+of those who knew him well. A gentleman
+who accompanied Gen. Custer on the Yellowstone
+and Black Hills expeditions, contributed to the <i>New
+York Tribune</i> the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Gen. Custer was a born cavalryman. He was never more in
+his element than when mounted on Dandy, his favorite horse,
+and riding at the head of his regiment. He once said to me,
+'I would rather be a private in the cavalry than a line officer in
+the infantry.' He was the personification of bravery and dash.
+If he had only added discretion to his valor he would have been
+a perfect soldier. His impetuosity very often ran away with his
+judgment. He was impatient of control. He liked to act independently
+of others, and take all the risk and all the glory to himself.
+He frequently got himself into trouble by assuming more
+authority than really belonged to his rank. It was on the
+Yellowstone expedition where he came into collision with Gen.
+Stanley, his superior officer, and was placed under arrest and
+compelled to ride at the rear of his column for two or three days,
+until Gen. Rosser, who fought against Custer in the Shenandoah
+Valley during the war but was then acting as engineer of the
+Northern Pacific Railroad, succeeded in effecting a reconciliation.
+Custer and Stanley afterward got on very well, and perhaps the<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_133" id="Page_2_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+quarrel would never have occurred if the two generals had been
+left alone to themselves without the intervention of camp gossips,
+who sought to foster the traditional jealousy between infantry and
+cavalry. For Stanley was the soul of generosity, and Custer
+did not really mean to be arrogant; but from the time when he
+entered West Point to the day when he fell on the Big Horn, he
+was accustomed to take just as much liberty as he was entitled
+to.</p>
+
+<p>"For this reason, Custer worked most easily and effectively
+when under general orders, when not hampered by special instructions,
+or his success made dependent on anybody else.
+Gen. Terry understood his man when, in the order directing him
+to march up the Rosebud, he very liberally said: 'The Department
+Commander places too much confidence in your zeal, energy,
+and ability to wish to impose upon you precise orders which
+might hamper your action when nearly in contact with the
+enemy.' But Gen. Terry did not understand Custer if he
+thought he would wait for Gibbon's support before attacking an
+Indian camp. Undoubtedly he ought to have done this; but
+with his native impetuosity, his reckless daring, his confidence
+in his own regiment, which had never failed him, and his love
+of public approval, Custer could no more help charging this
+Indian camp, than he could help charging just so many buffaloes.
+He had never learned to spell the word 'defeat;' he knew nothing
+but success, and if he had met the Indians on the open plains,
+success would undoubtedly have been his; for no body of Indians
+could stand the charge of the 7th Cavalry when it swept over the
+Plains like a whirlwind. But in the Mauvaises Terres and the
+narrow valley of the Big Horn he did it at a fearful risk.</p>
+
+<p>"With all his bravery and self-reliance, his love of independent
+action, Custer was more dependent than most men on the
+kind approval of his fellows. He was even vain; he loved display
+in dress and in action. He would pay $40 for a pair of
+troop boots to wear on parade, and have everything else in
+keeping. On the Yellowstone expedition he wore a bright red
+shirt, which made him the best mark for a rifle of any man in the
+regiment. I remonstrated with him for this reckless exposure,
+but found an appeal to his wife more effectual, and on the next
+campaign he wore a buckskin suit. He formerly wore his hair
+very long, letting it fall in a heavy mass upon his shoulders, but<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_134" id="Page_2_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+cut it off before going out on the Black Hills, producing quite a
+change in his appearance. But if vain and ambitious, Custer
+had none of those great vices which are so common and so distressing
+in the army. He never touched liquor in any form; he
+did not smoke, or chew, or gamble. He was a man of great energy
+and remarkable endurance. He could outride almost any
+man in his regiment, I believe, if it were put to a test. When he
+set out to reach a certain point at a certain time, you could be
+sure that he would be there if he killed every horse in the command.
+He was sometimes too severe in forcing marches, but he
+never seemed to get tired himself, and he never expected his men
+to be so. In cutting our way through the forests of the Black
+Hills, I have often seen him take an ax and work as hard as any
+of the pioneers. He was never idle when he had a pretext for
+doing anything. Whatever he did he did thoroughly. He would
+overshoot the mark, but never fall short. He fretted in garrison
+sometimes, because it was too inactive; but he found an outlet
+here for his energies in writing articles for the press.</p>
+
+<p>"He had a remarkable memory. He could recall in its proper
+order every detail of any action, no matter how remote, of which
+he was a participant. He was rather verbose in writing, and had
+no gifts as a speaker; but his writings interested the masses from
+their close attention to details, and from his facility with the pen
+as with the sword in bringing a thing to a climax. As he was
+apt to overdo in action, so he was apt to exaggerate in statement,
+not from any wilful disregard of the truth, but because he
+saw things bigger than they really were. He did not distort the
+truth; he magnified it. He was a natural optimist. He took
+rose-colored views of everything, even of the miserable lands of
+the Northern Pacific Railroad. He had a historical memory, but
+not a historical mind. He was no philosopher; he could reel off
+facts from his mind better than he could analyze or mass them.
+He was not a student, nor a deep thinker. He loved to take part
+in events rather than to brood over them. He was fond of fun,
+genial and pleasant in his manner; a loving and devoted husband.
+It was my privilege to spend two weeks in his family at one
+time, and I know how happy he was in his social relations."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following rambling remarks are accredited to
+a general, whose name is not given:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2_135" id="Page_2_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p><blockquote class="small"><p>"The truth about Custer is, that he was a pet soldier, who had
+risen not above his merit, but higher than men of equal merit.
+He fought with Phil Sheridan, and through the patronage of
+Sheridan he rose; but while Sheridan liked his valor and dash he
+never trusted his judgment. He was to Sheridan what Murat
+was to Napoleon. While Sheridan is always cool, Custer was
+always aflame. Rising to high command early in life, he lost the
+repose necessary to success in high command. * * * Then
+Custer must rush into politics, and went swinging around the
+circle with Johnson. He wanted to be a statesman, and but for
+Sheridan's influence with Grant, the republicans would have
+thrown him; but you see we all liked Custer, and did not mind
+his little freaks in that way any more than we would have minded
+temper in a woman. Sheridan, to keep Custer in his place,
+kept him out on the Plains at work. He gave him a fine command&mdash;one
+of the best cavalry regiments in the service. The
+colonel, Sturgis, was allowed to bask in the sunshine in a large
+city, while Custer was the real commander. In this service
+Custer did well, and vindicated the partiality of Sheridan as well
+as the kind feelings of his friends. * * * The old spirit which
+sent Custer swinging around the circle revived in him. He came
+East and took a prominent part in reforming the army. This
+made feeling, and drew upon Custer the anger of the inside forces
+of the administration.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he must write his war memoirs. Well, in these memoirs
+he began to write recklessly about the army. He took to
+praising McClellan as the greatest man of the war, and, coming
+as it did when the democrats began to look lively, it annoyed the
+administration. Grant grew so much annoyed that even Sheridan
+could do no good, and Custer was disgraced. Technically it was
+not a disgrace. All that Grant did was to put Terry, a general,
+over Custer, a lieutenant-colonel, who had his regiment all the
+same; but all things considered, it was a disgrace."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following is from an article by Gen. A.B.
+Nettleton, published in the <i>Philadelphia Times</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"It must be remembered that in fighting with cavalry, which
+was Custer's forte, instantaneous quickness of eye&mdash;that is,
+the lightning-like formation and execution of successive correct
+judgments on a rapidly-shifting situation&mdash;is the first thing, and
+the second is the power of inspiring the troopers with that impetuous
+yet intelligent ardor with which a mounted brigade<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_136" id="Page_2_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+becomes a thunderbolt, and without which it remains a useless
+mass of horses and riders. These qualities Gen. Custer seemed
+to me to manifest, throughout the hard fighting of the last year
+of the war, to a degree that was simply astounding, and in a
+manner that marked him as one of the few really great cavalry
+commanders developed by the wars of the present century. Of
+fear, in the sense of dread of death or of bodily harm, he was absolutely
+destitute, yet his love of life and family and home was
+keen and constant, leaving no room in his nature for desperation,
+recklessness, or conscious rashness. In handling his division
+under Sheridan's general oversight, he seemed to act always on
+the belief that in campaigning with cavalry, when a certain work
+must be done, audacity is the truest caution. In action, when
+all was going well and success was only a question of time or of
+steady 'pounding,' Gen. Custer did not unnecessarily expose
+himself, but until the tide of battle had been turned in the right
+direction, and especially when disaster threatened, the foremost
+point in our division's line was almost invariably marked by the
+presence of Custer, his waving division tri-color and his plucky
+staff.</p>
+
+<p>"A major-general of wide and splendid fame at twenty-five,
+and now slain at thirty-six, the gallant Custer had already lived
+long if life be measured by illustrious deeds."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following is from a sketch of Gen. Custer
+published in the <i>Army and Navy Journal</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"Custer was passionately addicted to active and exciting sports
+as the turf and hunting. He was a splendid horseman and a
+lover of the horse; he attended many American race-meetings
+and ran his own horses several times in the West. His greyhounds
+and staghounds went with him at the head of his regiment,
+to be let slip at antelope or buffalo. With rifle or shotgun
+he was equally expert, and had killed his grizzly bear in the
+most approved fashion. * * * Bold to rashness; feverish in
+camp, but cool in action; with the personal vanity of a carpet
+knight, and the endurance and insensibility to fatigue of the
+hardiest and boldest rough rider; a prince of scouts; a chief of
+guides, threading a trackless prairie with unerring eye of a native
+and the precision of the needle to the star; by no means a martinet,
+his men were led by the golden chain of love, admiration
+and confidence. He had the proverbial assurance of a hussar,<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_137" id="Page_2_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+but his personal appearance varied with occasion. During the
+war he was 'Custer of the golden locks, his broad sombrero
+turned up from his hard-bronzed face, the ends of his crimson
+cravat floating over his shoulder, gold galore spangling his
+jacket sleeves, a pistol in his boot, jangling spurs on his heels,
+and a ponderous claymore swinging at his side.' And long after,
+when he roamed a great Indian fighter on the Plains, the portrait
+was only slightly changed. The cavalry jacket was exchanged
+for the full suit of buckskin, beautifully embroidered by Indian
+maidens; across his saddle rested a modern sporting rifle, and
+at his horse's feet demurely walked hounds of unmixed breed.
+Again, within a few months, he appears in private society as an
+honored guest; scrupulously avoiding anything like display, but
+in a quiet conventional suit of blue, with the 'golden locks'
+closely shorn, and the bronzed face pale from recent indisposition,
+he moves almost unnoticed in the throng."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The faithful correspondent who perished with Gen.
+Custer on the Little Big Horn portrayed him thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"A man of strong impulses, of great hearted friendships
+and bitter enmities; of quick, nervous temperament, undaunted
+courage, will, and determination; a man possessing electric
+mental capacity, and of iron frame and constitution; a brave,
+faithful, gallant soldier, who has warm friends and bitter enemies;
+the hardest rider, the greatest pusher; with the most untiring
+vigilance overcoming seeming impossibilities, and with an
+ambition to succeed in all things he undertakes; a man to do
+right, as he construes right, in every case; one respected and
+beloved by his followers, who would freely follow him into the
+'jaws of hell.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Gen. Custer's last battle "will stand in history as
+one of the most heroic engagements ever fought, and
+his name will be respected so long as chivalry is applauded
+and civilization battles against barbarism."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX_part2" id="CHAPTER_XX_part2"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<p class="center small">THE SIOUX TREATY OF 1876&mdash;INDIAN ORATORS.</p>
+
+
+<p>In 1875, the Black Hills country had acquired a
+white population and an importance which rendered
+its possession and control by the Government desirable
+and necessary; and an attempt was made to treat
+with the Indians for its purchase, but without success.</p>
+
+<p>In 1876, Congress expressed its determination to
+appropriate nothing more for the subsistence of the
+Sioux Indians unless they made certain concessions,
+including the surrender of the Black Hills, and entered
+into some agreement calculated to enable them
+to become self-supporting. Geo. W. Manypenny, H.
+C. Bullis, Newton Edmunds, Rt. Rev. H.B. Whipple,
+A.G. Boone, A.S. Gaylord, J.W. Daniels, and Gen.
+H.H. Sibley, were appointed commissioners to negotiate
+for the concessions demanded. The following
+is an extract from their instructions under which they
+acted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"The President is strongly impressed with the belief that the
+agreement which shall be best calculated to enable the Indians
+to become self-supporting is one which shall provide for their removal,
+at as early a day as possible, to the Indian Territory.
+For the past three years they have been kept from starvation by
+large appropriations for their subsistence. These appropriations
+have been a matter not of obligation but of charity, and the
+Indians should be made to understand distinctly that they can
+hope for continued appropriations only by full submission to the<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_139" id="Page_2_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+authority and wishes of the Government, and upon full evidence
+of their disposition to undertake, in earnest, measures for their
+own advancement and support."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The first council was held Sept. 7th, at Red Cloud
+agency, with chiefs and headmen representing 4,901
+Indians then at the agency. Red Cloud and other
+chiefs met the commissioners with warm welcomes,
+and said with deep earnestness:&mdash;"We are glad to
+see you; you have come to save us from death." The
+conditions required by Congress were then submitted
+to the Indians, with the assurance that the commissioners
+had no authority to change them in any particular;
+but that they were authorized to devise a
+plan to save their people from death and lead them
+to civilization. The plan decided on was then carefully
+explained and interpreted, and a copy of the
+agreement given to the Indians to take to their own
+council. Other councils were held Sept. 19th and
+20th, and after mutual explanations the agreement
+was signed.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequently, the commissioners visited Spotted
+Tail agency, Standing Rock agency, Cheyenne River
+agency, Crow Creek agency, Lower Brule agency,
+and Santee agency. At all of these agencies the
+agreement was made plain to the Indians, and after
+due deliberation and considerable discussion, duly
+signed. The following are extracts from the report
+of the commissioners:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"While the Indians received us as friends, and listened with
+kind attention to our propositions, we were painfully impressed
+with their lack of confidence in the pledges of the Government.
+At times they told their story of wrongs with such impassioned
+earnestness that our cheeks crimsoned with shame. In their
+speeches, the recital of the wrongs which their people had suffered
+at the hands of the whites, the arraignment of the Government<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_140" id="Page_2_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+for gross acts of injustice and fraud, the description of treaties
+made only to be broken, the doubts and distrusts of present professions
+of friendship and good-will, were portrayed in colors so
+vivid and language so terse, that admiration and surprise would
+have kept us silent had not shame and humiliation done so.
+Said a chief to a member of our commission:&mdash;'I am glad to
+see you, you are our friends, but I hear that you have come to
+move us. Tell your people that since the Great Father promised
+that we should never be removed we have been moved five times.'
+He added, with bitter irony, 'I think you had better put the
+Indians on wheels so you can run them about wherever you wish.'</p>
+
+<p>"The present condition of the Sioux Indians is such as to
+awaken the deepest sympathy. They were our friends. If many
+of this powerful tribe have been changed to relentless foes, we
+must not forget that it is the simple outcome of our own Indian
+training-school. Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry, and others,
+use these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'The moment the war of the rebellion was over, thousands of
+our people turned their attention toward the treasures of Montana.
+The Indian was forgotten. It did not occur to any man that
+this poor, despised red man was the original discoverer, and sole
+occupant for many centuries, of every mountain seamed with
+quartz and every stream whose yellow sand glittered in the
+noonday sun. He asked to retain only a secluded spot where
+the buffalo and elk could live, and that spot he would make his
+home. The truth is, no place was left for him. If the lands of
+the white men are taken, civilization justifies him in resisting the
+invader. Civilization does more than this&mdash;it brands him as a
+coward and a slave if he submits to the wrong. If the savage
+resists, civilization, with the Ten Commandments in one hand
+and the sword in the other, demands his immediate extermination.
+That he goes to war is not astonishing. He is often compelled
+to do so. Wrongs are borne by him in silence that never fail to
+drive civilized men to deeds of violence. * * * But it is said
+that our wars with them have been almost constant. Have we
+been uniformly unjust? We answer unhesitatingly, 'yes.'"</p>
+
+<p>"General Stanley in 1870 writes from Dakota, that he is
+'ashamed to appear any longer in the presence of the chiefs of
+the different tribes of the Sioux, who inquire why we do not do
+as we promised, and in their vigorous language aver that we have<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_141" id="Page_2_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+lied.' Sitting Bull, who had refused to come under treaty relations
+with the Government, based his refusal in these words, sent
+to the commission of which Assistant Secretary Cowen was chairman:
+'Whenever you have found a white man who will tell the
+truth, you may return, and I shall be glad to see you.'"</p>
+
+<p>"It has been claimed that all Indians found outside of their
+reservation shall be regarded as hostile. Gen. Sheridan, June
+29th, 1869, says in an official order, that all Indians outside the
+well-defined limits of the reservation are under the original and
+exclusive jurisdiction of the military authority, <i>and as a rule will
+be considered hostile</i>. This order is the more surprising to us
+when we remember that the treaty made by General Sherman
+and others expressly provided that these Indians might hunt
+upon the unceded territory; and we find that so late as its last
+session Congress appropriated $200,000 to be used in part for the
+payment of the seventh of thirty installments '<i>for Indians roaming</i>.'
+We repeat that, under this treaty, it is expressly provided
+that the Indians may hunt in the unceded territory north and
+west of the Sioux reservation, and until last year they had the
+right to hunt in Western Nebraska. We believe that our failure
+to recognize this right has led to many conflicts between the citizens
+and army of the United States and the Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"In 1874, the late lamented Gen. Custer made an expedition
+to the Black Hills. It was done against the protest of the
+Indians and their friends, and in plain, direct violation of the
+treaty. Gold was discovered, white men flocked to the El Dorado.
+Notwithstanding the gross violation of the treaty, no open war
+ensued. If our own people had a sad story of wrongs suffered
+from the Indians, we must not forget that the Indians, who own
+no telegraph-lines, who have no press and no reporters, claimed
+that they, too, had been the victims of lawless violence, and had
+a country of untold value wrested from them by force.</p>
+
+<p>"The charge is made that the agency Indians are hostile, and
+that they have furnished ammunition and supplies to the Indians
+with Sitting Bull. There is water-navigation for 3,000 miles
+through this territory, and an unguarded border of several hundred
+miles along the Canadian frontier. So long as the Indians will
+sell buffalo-robes at a low price and pay two prices for guns, the
+greed of white men will furnish them. It is gross injustice
+to the agents and the Interior Department to accuse them of<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_142" id="Page_2_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+furnishing arms and ammunition for Indians to fight our army
+and murder our citizens.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the results of this year's war we have no wish to speak.
+It is a heart-rending record of the slaughter of many of the
+bravest of our army. It has not only carried desolation and
+woe to hundreds of our own hearthstones, but has added to the
+cup of anguish which we have pressed to the lips of the Indian.
+We fear that when others shall examine it in the light of history,
+they will repeat the words of the officers who penned the report
+of 1868:&mdash;'The results of the year's campaign satisfied all reasonable
+men that the war was useless and expensive.'</p>
+
+<p>"We hardly know how to frame in words the feelings of shame
+and sorrow which fill our hearts as we recall the long record of the
+broken faith of our Government. It is made more sad, in that
+the rejoicings of our centennial year are mingled with the wail
+of sorrow of widows and orphans made by a needless Indian
+war, and that our Government has expended more money in this
+war than all the religious bodies of our country have spent in
+Indian missions since our existence as a nation.</p>
+
+<p>"After long and careful examination we have no hesitation in
+recommending that it is wise to continue the humane policy inaugurated
+by President Grant. The great obstacle to its complete
+success is that no change has been made in the laws for the care
+of Indians. The Indian is left without the protection of law in
+person, or property, or life. He has no personal rights. He has
+no redress for wrongs inflicted by lawless violence. He may see
+his crops destroyed, his wife or child killed. His only redress is
+personal revenge. * * * In the Indian's wild state he has a rude
+government of chiefs and headmen, which is advisory in its character.
+When located upon reservations under the charge of a
+United States agent, this government is destroyed, and we give
+him nothing in its place.</p>
+
+<p>"We are aware that many of our people think that the only
+solution of the Indian problem is in their extermination. We
+would remind such persons that there is only One who can exterminate.
+There are too many graves within our borders over
+which the grass has hardly grown, for us to forget that God is
+just. The Indian is a savage, but he is also a man. He is one
+of the few savage men who clearly recognize the existence of a
+Great Spirit. He believes in the immortality of the soul. He has<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_143" id="Page_2_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+a passionate love for his children. He loves his country. He
+will gladly die for his tribe. Unless we deny all revealed religion,
+we must admit that he has the right to share in all the benefits
+of divine revelation. He is capable of civilization. Amid all
+the obstacles, the wrongs, and evils of our Indian policy, there
+are no missions which show richer rewards. Thousands of this
+poor race, who were once as poor and degraded as the wild Sioux,
+are to-day civilized men, living by the cultivation of the soil, and
+sharing with us in those blessings which give to men home,
+country, and freedom. There is no reason why these men may
+not also be led out of darkness to light."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following is a synopsis of the arrangement
+agreed on by the commissioners and Indians:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>The Sioux surrender all claim to so much of their reservation
+as lies west of the 103d meridian of longitude, and to so much
+of it as lies between the North and South Forks of the Cheyenne
+River east of said meridian; also all claim to any country lying
+outside of their reservation. Cannon Ball River and its south
+branch are to be the northern boundary of the reservation. Three
+wagon or other roads may be maintained across the reservation
+from the Missouri River to the Black Hills. All subsistence
+and supplies which may be hereafter provided, are to be delivered
+on or near the Missouri River. A delegation of chiefs and leading
+men from each band shall visit the Indian Territory, with a
+view to selecting therein a permanent home for the Indians. If
+such delegation shall make a selection satisfactory to the Indians
+they represent and to the United States, then the Indians are to
+remove to the selected country within one year, select allotments
+as soon as possible afterwards, and use their best efforts to cultivate
+the same. They are in all things to submit themselves to
+such beneficent plans as the Government may provide for them
+in the selection of a permanent home where they may live like
+white men.</p>
+
+<p>The United States agree to furnish subsistence to the Sioux
+until such time as they shall become self-supporting&mdash;rations to
+be issued to heads of families; and in case the Indians are located
+on lands suitable for cultivation, and educational facilities are
+afforded by the Government, the issue of rations is to be conditioned
+on the performance of labor by the Indians and the attendance
+of their children at school. Assistance in the way of<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_144" id="Page_2_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+schools and instruction in the agricultural and mechanical arts,
+as provided by the treaty of 1868, is guaranteed; and the building
+of comfortable houses on allotments in severalty is provided
+for. The Sioux are declared amenable to the laws of the United
+States; and Congress shall secure to them an orderly government
+and protect individual property, person, and life. The
+agreement not to be binding on either party till approved by
+Congress and the President.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>With the exception of the Santees, the Indians on
+the Missouri River objected to visiting the Indian
+Territory, and were exempted from that part of the
+agreement by a supplementary clause. A delegation
+of 90 Indians from the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail
+agencies visited the Indian Territory in October as
+provided in the agreement. The following is from
+the report of Commissioners Boone and Daniels who
+accompanied the delegation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p>"While travelling through the Territory, Spotted Tail took
+special pains to inform us that he was not pleased with anything
+that came within his observation, and his part of the delegation,
+with but few exceptions, were not disposed to express themselves
+in any other way. Many of the Red Cloud party were well
+pleased. Their chief said 'his Great Father asked him to go
+and find a place where his children could live by cultivating the
+land. This was the country, and he should go back and tell his
+people so.' The manual-labor school of 120 scholars at the Cheyenne
+and Arapahoe agency, was of more interest to them and
+gave them more pleasure than anything else seen on the journey.
+They manifested much interest in the progress of civilization
+among the Sac and Fox, and when passing the Creek country,
+the delegation was received by these tribes with generous hospitality
+and a hearty welcome. When we were at Okmulgee, the
+capital of the Creek Nation, they were invited to the council-house
+by the Creek chief, where he made a very friendly speech
+to them. The following is a copy thereof:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To the Sioux, my brethren:&mdash;I am well pleased to see you
+here in the Mus-koke Nation, brethren of the same race as ourselves.
+I was told a long time ago of my red brethren, the<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_145" id="Page_2_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+Sioux, that were living in the far Northwest. I had heard of the
+name of your tribe and of many of your leading chiefs. I have
+heard of your great men, great in war, and great in council. I
+have heard of your trouble on account of the intrusion of the
+white men on your reservation in search of gold. I have heard
+that the United States Government had determined to remove
+you from your present home, and, perhaps it might be, to this
+Indian Territory, to the west of us. When I heard that you
+might possibly come to this Territory, which has been 'set apart
+for the home of the Indians forever,' I was glad. I would like to
+have all our red brethren settled in this Territory, as we have
+provided in our treaty. We, the Creeks and Cherokees, have the
+same kind of title and patent for our lands from the United
+States, which guarantees this Territory to us for a home, under
+our own form of government, by people of our own race, as long
+as 'grass grows and water runs.' And I think, therefore, we
+shall live forever on our lands. I should like&mdash;and I express the
+wish of our people&mdash;that every Indian tribe should come here and
+settle on these lands, that this Territory may become filled up
+with Indians, to the exclusion of others who may be inimical to
+our race and interests. We believe our right to our soil and our
+government, which is best suited to our peculiar necessities, would
+be safer if all our race were united together here. This is my
+earnest wish. Then I think the rising generation could be educated
+and civilized, and, what is still better, christianized, which,
+I believe, would be the greatest benefit of all. This would be to
+our mutual benefit and good. I know I express the minds of
+our people when I give you this welcome to our life of a higher
+civilization, which is better than the old life so long led by our
+race in the past."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>At the councils held at the different agencies, the
+chiefs and principal men made numerous speeches,
+which conveyed a good idea of Indian views and
+feelings, and were often able and eloquent. The
+balance of this chapter will be filled up with extracts
+from some of these speeches.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="small"><p><i>Red Cloud Agency.</i> <span class="smcap">Fast Bear</span>:&mdash;My good friends, you have
+come here to ask me for something, and I have come here to-day
+to answer. You ask me to give up the mountains that are to the<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_146" id="Page_2_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+north of us, and I answer yes to that question. I give them up.
+You are here also to ask me to take a journey to look at a country,
+and I also answer yes to that question. I consent for my young
+men to go down there and see that country; but they must look
+at it in silence, and come back in silence. When they have seen
+the country I will consider it. If it is good I will consider it so;
+if bad I will consider that it is bad. Do you understand, my
+friends, what I last said to you? We do not agree to go there
+to live before we have seen the country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horse</span>:&mdash;My father shook hands
+with the Dakotas peacefully on the Platte River. I have been
+brought up here from a boy until I got to be a chief. The
+soldiers have no business in this country at all. I wish to tell
+you plainly that I have been very much ashamed ever since the
+soldiers came here. This is my country, and I have remained
+here with my women and children eating such things as the
+Great Father has sent us. I am going to ask the Great Father
+for a great many things, things that will make me rich. I am
+going to ask for so much that I am afraid the Great Father will
+not consent to give it to me. I want you to tell the Great Father
+that I, and all the men like me, and the children, are going to
+ask him for a great many things, and we expect to have food,
+and blankets to wear as long as we live.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Black Coal</span>:&mdash;This place here is a place of peace, where we
+and our people have lived together happily, and behaved ourselves,
+and we do not understand why so many soldiers have
+come here among us. We have never had any trouble and have
+behaved ourselves, and wish to have the soldiers sent away as
+soon as possible, and leave us in peace. The people that live
+here have both minds and hearts and good sense, but it seems
+as if the Great Father all at once thought differently, and speaks
+of us as people that are very bad.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Red Cloud</span>:&mdash;The commissioners have both brains and hearts.
+The Great Father has sent you here to visit me and my people,
+and I want that you should help us. We see a great many
+soldiers here in our country. We do not like to see them here.
+I want you to have pity upon us, and have them all taken away.
+I understand all the ways of the whites. I know that everything
+that has been said has been written down, and I should like to
+have a fair copy of that made and given to me.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_147" id="Page_2_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Little Wound</span>:&mdash;I always considered that when the Great
+Father borrowed the country for the overland road that he made
+an arrangement with us that was to last fifty years as payment
+for that privilege, and yesterday another arrangement was mentioned
+concerning the Black Hills, and the words that I heard
+from the Great Father and from the commissioners from the
+Great Council made me cry. The country upon which I am
+standing is the country upon which I was born, and upon which
+I heard that it was the wish of the Great Father and of the Great
+Council that I should be like a man without a country. I shed
+tears. I wish that the chief men among you that have come here
+to see me would help me, and would change those things that do
+not suit me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Spotted Tail Agency.</i> <span class="smcap">Spotted Tail</span>:&mdash;My friends that have
+come here to see me; you have brought to us words from the
+Great Father at Washington, and I have considered them now
+for seven days, and have made up my mind. This is the fifth
+time that you have come. At the time of the first treaty that
+was made on Horse Creek&mdash;the one we call the "great treaty"&mdash;there
+was provision made to borrow the overland road of the
+Indians, and promises made at the time of the treaty, though I
+was a boy at the time; they told me it was to last fifty years.
+These promises have not been kept. All the words have proved
+to be false. The next conference was the one held with Gen.
+Manydear, when there were no promises made in particular, nor
+for any amount to be given to us, but we had a conference with
+him and made friends and shook hands. Then after that there
+was a treaty made by Gen. Sherman. He told us we should have
+annuities and goods from that treaty for thirty-five years. He
+said this, but yet he didn't tell the truth. He told me the
+country was mine, and that I should select any place I wished
+for my reservation and live in it. My friends, I will show you
+well his words to-day. * * * I see that my friends before me
+are men of age and dignity. I think that each of you have
+selected somewhere a good piece of land for himself, with the
+intention of living on it, that he may there raise up his children.
+My people, that you see here before you, are not different; they
+also live upon the earth and upon the things that come to them
+from above.</p>
+
+<p>My friends, this seems to me to be a very hard day, and we
+have come upon very difficult times. This war did not spring up<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_148" id="Page_2_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+here in our land; this war was brought upon us by the children
+of the Great Father who came to take our land from us without
+price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things. We
+have a store-house to hold our provisions the Great Father sends
+us, but he sends very little provisions to put in our store-house.
+When our people become displeased with their provisions and
+have gone north to hunt in order that they might live, the Great
+Father's children are fighting them. It has been our wish to
+live in our country peaceably, but the Great Father has filled it
+with soldiers who think only of our death. It seems to me there
+is a better way than this. When people come to trouble, it is
+better for both parties to come together without arms and talk it
+over and find some peaceful way to settle it. My friends, you
+have come to me to-day, and mentioned two countries to me.
+One of them I know of old&mdash;the Missouri River. It is not possible
+for me to go there. When I was there before we had a
+great deal of trouble. I left also 100 of my people buried there.
+The other country you have mentioned is one I have never seen
+since I was born, but I agree to go and look at it. When men
+have a difficult business to settle it is not possible it should be
+well settled in one day; it takes at least twelve months to
+consider it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Spotted Tail</span>:&mdash;(<i>Second Council.</i>) This war has come from
+robbery&mdash;from the stealing of our land. My friends, I wish to
+tell the Great Father "Let us consider this matter." There are
+on both sides a great many widows and a great many orphans.
+Let us consider who is to take care of these. This matter has
+not been begun with judgment; and I think it is displeasing to
+the Great Spirit. The Great Father sent you out here to buy
+our land and we have agreed together to that, but with one
+understanding:&mdash;That it shall be the end, also, of this war. We
+have always been peaceful friends of the Great Father, and shall
+remain at peace with him; but all at once a whirlwind has passed
+over our land, and the ammunition has been locked up so that we
+cannot get it to hunt game to live upon. Now we shake hands
+and make peace and wish it to be unlocked so we can buy ammunition.
+You know this trouble does not please the Great Spirit,
+and I want you to help me to blot it out.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Baptiste Good</span>:&mdash;You have come here with considerations that
+will make my people live, and my heart is glad. When Gen.
+Sherman came to make a treaty with my people, I was also glad.<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_149" id="Page_2_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+That was like the birth of a child. I wish you would tell the
+Great Father we need implements to work with, and wagons for
+two horses. I have worn out my fingers working without implements.
+I have planted corn, and I am happy to say it has grown
+up and produced fruit. The white minister has come here to
+teach me, but I don't think it is done properly. I would like to
+have some female ministers come dressed in black to receive the
+girls in one house and teach them, and have white male ministers
+in black hat and coat to teach the boys in another house separately.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Blue Teeth</span>:&mdash;Just such men as you came to make the treaty
+with me. They showed me a road to walk in, and I showed my
+people and advised them according to their words, and they
+were glad. But the things they promised me didn't turn out as
+they promised them. I am the man that heard the promises
+made. Spotted Tail told you about that yesterday, according to
+my direction, but I was hiding myself. I want the man pointed
+out that is going to talk to the Great Father. [Judge Gaylord is
+pointed out.] You see that pipe: take it, [handing to Judge
+Gaylord a pipe and tobacco-pouch.] The Great Spirit gave me
+that pipe. He told me to point it to my mother, the earth, when
+I prayed. I wish you to take it to the Great Father at Washington,
+and tell him a man that made a speech here presented it
+to him, and ask him to be merciful to him and help him to live.
+Tell him this is my country, and for him to have pity upon me
+and not move me away from it. I want to live here always.</p>
+
+<p><i>Standing Rock Agency.</i> <span class="smcap">John Grass</span>:&mdash;Look well at me with
+both eyes and listen to me with both ears. I have considered
+the words you have brought me, and I am ready to answer you.
+The chiefs you see here have all come to the same conclusion.
+You have brought words to the chiefs here that will bring life to
+their children; that will make their children live; they answer
+<i>how</i> [signifying their approval] to that. And now since they have
+ceded their country to you, they want to tell you of certain things
+that they shall want in the future.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Running Antelope</span>:&mdash;When people shake hands and talk,
+they talk in earnest. I want you to look on this man Kill Eagle,
+with his people who are prisoners here. He is one of us and is
+our kindred. Kindred living with each other love each other,
+and when they get into trouble they help each other out, and we
+look on these Indians the same as white. He went out to the<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_150" id="Page_2_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+hostile camp, held his gun, witnessed a fight, and came back.
+I want before the sun sets to see these men released. I am an
+old man, and I ask these things as a favor.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to this store. I have been to see the Great Father,
+and the white people are wealthy. Even they have stores one
+right against the other, touching each other. When a man goes
+in a store and finds something he wants and cannot obtain it as
+cheaply as he desires, he goes into another, and so on until he gets
+what he wants and at the proper price. We want to do so here.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Two Bears</span>:&mdash;Hail Great Spirit, and hail my friends who I
+see here, and hail Great Father! My heart is this day made
+glad by seeing you here. You prayed to the Great Spirit and
+that made our hearts glad. I was the chief owner of this country,
+but the Great Father turned it over to his young men. This was
+a hard thing for him to do to me; now that he proposes to pay
+me for it I am very glad. I am of the fifth generation of the
+Sioux Indians, and the sixth generation is growing up around
+me. I want the Government to provide for the same number of
+generations in the future. I am making this trade with the Great
+Father, and I am not a white man and am not able to live like a
+white man. They eat but little, but I am not able to get along
+with a little yet. The Great Spirit fed me, and fed me in large
+quantities. I eat all day, and eating great quantities has become
+a habit with me. I am afraid of frightful things; I am afraid
+of bad things; I am afraid of a battle. I like good things, and
+straightforward dealings. For two winters I was starving and
+have eaten a great number of my horses and dogs. In consequence
+of this starvation many of our people fled from the agency
+in search of food, and while they were out one of them got into
+trouble. [referring to Kill Eagle.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mad Bear</span>:&mdash;I am an Indian, a poor, miserable Indian, but if
+I should do as has been done by us, the Great Spirit would dislike,
+and hate me, and for that reason I cannot do these things.
+Men, civilians, that we have had for agents would steal our food,
+steal things that were sent to us. It is the fault of the white
+men that this is done. They select men that belong to the ring.
+When one agent is removed they select his friend to succeed him,
+and so the stealing goes on. The matter of their traders alone
+is enough to drive the Indians hostile. It would drive a white
+man hostile to be treated as we are treated, and to be charged
+prices as our traders charge us for goods. If an Indian succeeds<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_151" id="Page_2_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+in getting a dollar he takes it to the store to trade, and what he
+receives in return for it amounts to probably half a dime. We
+want the monopoly of trading stores stopped. The work, the
+labor, everything is monopolized by white men, who have everything
+their own way. It is hard to be an Indian chief. Our
+young men do not listen to us&mdash;they will not mind us.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Fool Dog</span>:&mdash;The Great Spirit created these men and they expect
+to raise children after them. Generations are not to stop
+here, they are still to go on living, and we look to you for help
+and assistance. I am an Indian, and am looked on by the whites
+as a foolish man; but it must be because I follow the advice of
+the white man.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Long Soldier</span>:&mdash;The Great Spirit called me forth to be a
+chief, and this day I say <i>how</i> to you. The Great Father has
+asked me for a portion of my country and has made me an offer
+in return for it. I am very glad to get what has been offered to
+me, and I therefore say <i>how</i> to your proposition. I am a very
+suspicious man and always suspect people of some evil designs
+when they talk to me, and therefore remain at home. My father,
+who has instructed me to be a friend of the whites, is still living,
+and I want him to share in the benefits that arise from the sale of
+the Black Hills.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Two Bears</span>:&mdash;My friends, to-day we have talked together with
+smiles on our faces, and we are going to sign this paper with the
+understanding that everything in it is true, and that we are not
+deceiving each other. My children are very poor and very ignorant,
+and they don't know anything about weights and measures,
+and if you are going to issue my rations by weight I want you to
+give good measure. In signing this agreement I don't sign it
+myself; I have a young man who is my hope for the future.
+Although I touch the pen myself, I touch it for my son, who is to
+be my successor.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Drag Wood</span>:&mdash;I am an old man and my bones are getting
+sore, and I want my son to sign this agreement with me.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Wolf Necklace</span>:&mdash;I never want to leave this country; all my
+relatives are lying here in the ground, and when I fall to pieces I
+am going to fall to pieces here.</p>
+
+<p><i>Cheyenne River Agency.</i> <span class="smcap">Long Mandan</span>:&mdash;I am glad of one
+thing; the Great Father knows that this is my country, and
+before he takes it from me he is going to ask my permission.
+Our people are poor, they have nothing in their lodges, and if<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_152" id="Page_2_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+you will visit them you would feel disposed to bring many things
+to them to-day. My friends, when I went to Washington I went
+into your money-house, and I had some young men with me, but
+none of them took any money out of that house while I was with
+them. At the same time, when your Great Father's people come
+into my country, they go into my money-house and take money
+out. More than that, they commit depredations on us; and stole
+fifty head of horses and took them away from me. If the Great
+Father was not a great man and was not a man that had great
+power and a good man, I should have been mad; but he is a
+great man and a good man, and that is the reason that I have not
+been offended at him. I would much rather have gone to Washington
+with my people and have signed this treaty there. I do
+not want to spend a great deal of money for the Great Father,
+but at the same time I know that the Great Father is wealthy.
+I want to tap the telegraph that is over the river, and talk to the
+Great Father in that way, and to have him answer me in the same
+way. I want him to give me plenty of mowing-machines, and I
+would like very much to have a good blacksmith. I will show
+you something to-day that I have done in this country in the way
+of farming; a large pumpkin that I have sent to be brought here
+to show you. My friends, you may think that I never raised it
+when you see it, but I want to show it to you, and have sent
+for it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Red Feather</span>:&mdash;The Great Father asked me in regard to the
+missions and churches and schools, and told me I must take hold
+of that and assist him. There were two ministers here, and I regarded
+them as two canes to walk upon and help me up with.
+There is one thing that the people of the Great Father have that
+I do not want, and that is whisky. I do not want any whisky
+on my reservation. Whenever a man drinks whisky he loses his
+senses, and that is the reason why I object to it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Duck</span>:&mdash;The soldiers that are fighting have killed a great many
+people on both sides, and have made many widows and orphans
+on both sides. I am sorry to know that anybody was killed on
+either side. All the badness and all the trouble that has occurred
+here formerly, I gather it up in my hand and throw it away; tell
+the Great Father that. Look at this people; they are poor
+people; they have a hard time to get what little furs and hides
+they have; but when we take them to the stores we do not get
+enough for them. If you are not afraid of me, and do not think<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_153" id="Page_2_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+I am fooling with you, I would like to have you attend to this
+hide business, and see that we get $6 apiece for them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">White Bull</span>:&mdash;I see, my friends, the soldiers standing here
+about me. They are people whose business it is to die, but we
+think better things for them. We have given them the Black
+Hills; we wish they would go there and dig gold without being
+afraid of anybody.</p>
+
+<p><i>Crow Creek Agency.</i> <span class="smcap">White Ghost</span>:&mdash;Around and about the
+hills on the prairies there are a great many dead people lying,
+but the Great Father has decided to give us a good price for the
+hills; therefore it is&mdash;because the Great Father is strong&mdash;that
+we are willing to give them up. We live right near a trading-post,
+and we become poor because we have not money to buy
+those things we want. I do not wish you to think that I am finding
+fault or out of temper. I merely say the things I am instructed
+to say. My people wish to have it understood that they
+do not wish to have any soldiers sent here or any soldier for an
+agent. I must tell everything that I am instructed to say; they
+are all here listening to see whether I say everything, and I must
+say all that I have been told. We would like to have Mr.
+Premeau appointed for interpreter. He is a white man, a man
+that understands the language, and does not drink whisky. My
+people think that the flour that is sent here for them is sent for
+them to eat, and they are not pleased that it is fed to the pigs
+about the agency; and they wish me to mention that we take a
+hide to the store, quite a large one, and receive an order for three
+dollars' worth of goods. For this large beef-hide we get one
+piece of leather the width of three fingers, for a belt; it is not
+worth more than fifty cents. That does not please us.</p>
+
+<p>Last summer when I went to the council for the Black Hills, I
+had a pipe with me. I told them, in reference to the Black Hills,
+that we were bound by giving and receiving the pipe, the same
+as white people when they make an oath in court and swear upon
+the Bible, and if the party took the pipe that was offered to him
+in council and held it in his hand everything went well, and if he
+did not speak the truth always some evil would spring up in connection
+with it. Last summer the pipe was given in council, and
+what do you think of the matter now? Have the promises been
+kept, or has the violation of them caused war and bloodshed? I
+have for a long time known the ways of your people in dealing
+with us and taking away our country, and I know that they have<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_154" id="Page_2_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+been such as to make us miserable. You have driven away our
+game and our means of livelihood out of the country, until now
+we have nothing left that is valuable except the hills that you
+ask us to give up. When we give these up to the Great Father
+we know that we give up the last thing that is valuable either to
+us or the white people; and therefore my people wish me to say
+that, as long as two Indians are living, we expect them to have
+the benefit of the price paid for these lands.</p>
+
+<p>My friend, [to the chairman,] I am going to give you a pipe.
+Perhaps we are deceiving each other in this matter, perhaps we
+are not going to be truthful, and shall commit a great sin, but I
+for my part am trying to speak the truth.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Running Bear</span>:&mdash;I look upon you as you sit before me, and I
+see that there are no boys among you; that you are all men of
+age, and I am glad to see it. I am very old, very near the time
+when I shall lie down in the earth. Therefore if you have really
+come to help us we are very happy. I will speak now about myself.
+I am an orphan. Before my father died he told me that
+my country was very valuable. You say you are going to give
+me rations by weight; I do not know anything about that; I
+think it will take me at least twelve years to understand it. It is
+only yesterday that the people of my generation were laid in the
+ground, and I am the only one left. My father, who is now dead,
+went to the Great Father's house and talked with him there.
+The people have now given you the Black Hills, and we for our
+part would like to go to our Great Father's house and hear how
+much money he proposes to give us in return. Again, the whisky
+that the white people have and carry about with them is very
+bad. We hear that our people who are living up to the north of
+us drink a great deal of whisky. We do not like it at all.
+My friends, I am going to ask you for something that I want.
+I do not think it possible that you have come out here to ask
+me for something without paying me for it. I do not consider
+myself very rich. You white people come out here with a great
+many pockets in your clothes. Probably the person who sent
+you told you what to do with the things in your pockets. I
+would like to have you take up a collection. Each of you put
+your hands in your pockets and take out ten cents and give it to
+me to buy something at the store. You are not particularly
+modest in asking for the things you want, and I see no reason<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_155" id="Page_2_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+why I should not ask for the things that I want. Do you think
+I do right in asking you?</p>
+
+<p>You are a chief, [to the chairman.] I, also, am a chief. I
+have lived here now 13 years. I do not remember even a bad
+word that I have said; perhaps the Great Father does. In every
+country there are men who are skillful in talking in council. I
+am such a man myself. I also have been instructed. This
+medal that you see, was put about my neck by a Catholic priest,
+and yet, notwithstanding I am so honored, you talk to me about
+issuing rations by weight. I am astonished at you. You are
+advanced in years; I am also advanced in years.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">White Bear</span>:&mdash;I wonder if you know that I planted a field out
+here. I raised pumpkins as large as this chair and corn taller
+than I am, and after I had done that my father took my field
+away to plant oats in. I wonder if you know that. Tell the
+Great Father that there is only one store here, and all the young
+men are shedding tears about it. If they had mowing-machines,
+such as they could ride upon, to ride around their country and
+cut hay, they would be able to earn something; but the agent
+considers that the country belongs to him personally, and cuts
+all the hay. My friends, I would like to have our agent, before
+the sun goes down, climb up into the second story of the warehouse
+and take down all the teepee cloths and blankets that he
+has there, and divide them among the people.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dog Back</span>:&mdash;I am not anybody in particular. Although I am
+not very strong and a man of no special importance, I took a
+claim, and planted, and considered that I was watching my own
+hay and grass. I am the man that has been trying to live in the
+way that I have been told, but this summer a great many white
+men have come there and cut my wood, and killed the fowls and
+animals I have raised, and disturbed me in many ways. I do not
+wish to make any disturbance about it, but I have been trying to
+do as the Great Father advised us, and it seems to me that these
+people who come and do such things to me are lawless people.
+I have nobody to help me, but you come here to-day from the
+Great Father, and I have told you these things in the hope that
+you will help me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Santee Agency.</i> <span class="smcap">Hakewaste</span>:&mdash;I am an Indian and was born
+naked. I now wear the same kind of clothes as the white man.
+Old Wabashaw told me that the President wanted us to work,<span class="smpagenum"><a name="Page_2_156" id="Page_2_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+and for that reason I have dressed in this way, but what you have
+been explaining to me I know nothing about. I have only been
+six years a chief in this land. You can see how we are situated
+here; that we have done part of what the President told us to do;
+you see little patches of corn, &amp;c. As old man Wabashaw is
+buried here we would all like to live here. We will all do what
+you ask of us in the treaty. We own nothing, and have nothing
+to depend upon. When the President makes up his mind to do
+a thing he generally does it, but we do not want to go to that
+territory to the south.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Wamamsa</span>:&mdash;The Lord above rules everything, and he has
+given us a nice mild day for our council. We have prayed for
+land and churches, and as we now have three churches I think
+the Lord has taken good care of us and has answered our prayers.
+Look at these young men. You have not seen any Indians
+during your travels dressed in that way. We are not getting
+along very well&mdash;not as well as we should. Twice now we have
+had Quakers for agents, and we are going down hill all the time;
+getting into the ground.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Husasa</span>:&mdash;I have been blind for four years, but I can hear
+what is said. When any one comes from Washington to see us
+we ought to be thankful to him. When we lived at Redwood we
+made the treaty, and it was mentioned that we were to draw
+annuities and money for fifty years, and for that reason we put
+ourselves in the wrong place and suffer for it to-day. There are
+only three chiefs left now, and all we have to do is to throw ourselves
+into the arms of the Great Father. We are all pretty
+badly off. When people used to come here from Washington,
+Wabashaw was here to speak, but now he is lying in the ground
+and we are all the time looking that way at him. A great many
+of us have no wagons or oxen or anything to work with. I have
+nothing but an old wagon that is not fit for use, and am as poor
+as if I had not sold any land to the President. The Indians'
+minds are not very long and we forget a thing in a very short
+time. You have told us what to do. We have got it all in our
+ears and ought to be proud of it.</p>
+
+<p>The President said that he would take good care of us, and
+now here I am blind and have not got a wagon fit to use.
+Although I am blind, if I had a wagon the women or some of
+the boys could bring me water when I am thirsty.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="notes">
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Leaders or chiefs&mdash;corrupted from the French of Bourgeois, and borrowed
+from the Canadians.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Major Joel H. Elliot of the 7th Cavalry, and 19 of his command, were
+missing after the Battle of the Washita in Nov., 1868. Their dead bodies
+were found some weeks later.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="notes">
+
+<p>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:</p>
+
+<p>Obvious typographical errors and printer errors have been corrected
+without comment.</p>
+
+<p>On page 158, the word "Py" was changed to "By" in the phrase: "Py ----,
+who did shoot...."</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of obvious errors, inconsistencies in the author's
+spelling, punctuation, use of hyphens, and use of quotation marks have
+been retained as in the original publication. Inconsistencies include,
+but are not limited to the following:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>  gayety/ gaiety<br />
+  Ogallala/ Ogallalla<br />
+  Camanche/ Commanches</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the original publication, italics are used inconsistently in the illustration
+captions.  They are reproduced here as they appear in the original.</p>
+
+<p>Unconventional spelling has been retained in words such as (but not
+limited to) the following:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>  befel<br />
+  enlightment<br />
+  Milwaukie<br />
+  carniverous<br />
+  conveniencies<br />
+  conformably<br />
+  kidnaped/ kidnaping<br />
+  reconnoisance</p></blockquote>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life
+on the Frontier, by Frances Fuller Victor
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life on the Frontier
+       Also a History of the Sioux War, and a Life of Gen. George A. Custer with Full Account of His Last Battle
+
+
+Author: Frances Fuller Victor
+
+
+
+Release Date: April 17, 2012  [eBook #39465]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY
+MOUNTAINS AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Greg Bergquist, Cathy Maxam, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 39465-h.htm or 39465-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39465/39465-h/39465-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39465/39465-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ENGLISH TOURISTS' CAMP--DOUBTFUL FRIENDS.]
+
+
+ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
+AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER.
+
+by
+
+FRANCES F. VICTOR.
+
+Also
+A History of the Sioux War, and a Life of Gen. George A. Custer
+with Full Account of His Last Battle.
+
+Illustrated by Engravings and Maps.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Published by Subscription Only.
+
+Columbian Book Company,
+Hartford, Conn.
+1877.
+
+Copyright by
+Columbian Book Company.
+1877.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES AND FRONTIER LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+When the author of this book has been absorbed in the elegant narratives
+of Washington Irving, reading and musing over _Astoria_ and
+_Bonneville_, in the cozy quiet of a New York study, no prescient motion
+of the mind ever gave prophetic indication of that personal acquaintance
+which has since been formed with the scenes, and even with some of the
+characters which figure in the works just referred to. Yet so have
+events shaped themselves that to me Astoria is familiar ground; Forts
+Vancouver and Walla-Walla pictured forever in my memory; while such
+journeys as I have been enabled to make into the country east of the
+last named fort, have given me a fair insight into the characteristic
+features of its mountains and its plains.
+
+To-day, a railroad traverses the level stretch between the Missouri
+River and the Rocky Mountains, along which, thirty years ago, the
+fur-traders had worn a trail by their annual excursions with men,
+pack-horses, and sometimes wagons, destined to the Rocky Mountains.
+Then, they had to guard against the attacks of the Savages; and in this
+respect civilization is behind the railroad, for now, as then, it is not
+safe to travel without a sufficient escort. To-day, also, we have new
+Territories called by several names cut out of the identical
+hunting-grounds of the fur-traders of thirty years ago; and steamboats
+plying the rivers where the mountain-men came to set their traps for
+beaver; or cities growing up like mushrooms from a soil made quick by
+gold, where the hardy mountain-hunter pursued the buffalo herds in
+search of his winter's supply of food.
+
+The wonderful romance which once gave enchantment to stories of hardship
+and of daring deeds, suffered and done in these then distant wilds, is
+fast being dissipated by the rapid settlement of the new Territories,
+and by the familiarity of the public mind with tales of stirring
+adventure encountered in the search for glittering ores. It was, then,
+not without an emotion of pleased surprise that I first encountered in
+the fertile plains of Western Oregon the subject of this biography, a
+man fifty-eight years of age, of fine appearance and buoyant temper,
+full of anecdote, and with a memory well stored with personal
+recollections of all the men of note who have formerly visited the old
+Oregon Territory, when it comprised the whole country west of the Rocky
+Mountains lying north of California and south of the forty-ninth
+parallel. This man is _Joseph L. Meek_, to whose stories of
+mountain-life I have listened for days together; and who, after having
+figured conspicuously, and not without considerable fame, in the early
+history of Oregon, still prides himself most of all on having been a
+"mountain-man."
+
+It has frequently been suggested to Mr. Meek, who has now come to be
+known by the familiar title of "Uncle Joe" to all Oregon, that a history
+of his varied adventures would make a readable book, and some of his
+neighbors have even undertaken to become his historian, yet with so
+little well-directed efforts that the task after all has fallen to a
+comparative stranger. I confess to having taken hold of it with some
+doubts as to my claims to the office; and the best recommendation I can
+give my work is the interest I myself felt in the subject of it; and the
+only apology I can offer for anything incredible in the narrative which
+it may contain, is that I "tell the tale as 'twas told to me," and that
+I have no occasion to doubt the truth of it.
+
+Seeing that the incidents I had to record embraced a period of a score
+and a half of years, and that they extended over those years most
+interesting in Oregon history, as well as of the history of the Fur
+Trade in the West, I have concluded to preface Mr. Meek's adventures
+with a sketch of the latter, believing that the information thus
+conveyed to the reader will give an additional degree of interest to
+their narration. The impression made upon my own mind as I gained a
+knowledge of the facts which I shall record in this book relating to the
+early occupation of Oregon, was that they were not only profoundly
+romantic, but decidedly unique.
+
+Mr. Meek was born in Washington Co., Virginia, in 1810, one year before
+the settlement of _Astoria_, and at a period when Congress was much
+interested in the question of our Western possessions and their
+boundary. "Manifest destiny" seemed to have raised him up, together with
+many others, bold, hardy, and fearless men, to become sentinels on the
+outposts of civilization, securing to the United States with comparative
+ease a vast extent of territory, for which, without them, a long
+struggle with England would have taken place, delaying the settlement of
+the Pacific Coast for many years, if not losing it to us altogether. It
+is not without a feeling of genuine self-congratulation, that I am able
+to bear testimony to the services, hitherto hardly recognized, of the
+"mountain-men" who have settled in Oregon. Whenever there shall arise a
+studious and faithful historian, their names shall not be excluded from
+honorable mention, nor least illustrious will appear that of Joseph L.
+Meek, the Rocky Mountain Hunter and Trapper.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PREFATORY CHAPTER.
+
+   Astoria--Fort Vancouver--Its isolated Position--Precautions against
+     Indians--The Hudson's Bay Company--Its Policy and Intercourse with
+     the Indians--The Arrival of the "Brigade"--Other Yearly
+     Arrivals--Punishment of Indian Offenders--Indian Strategy--A
+     Hero--The American Fur Companies--Their Dealings with the
+     Indians--Ashley's Expeditions to Green River--Attack on Smith's
+     Party--Wyeth's Expeditions--Fort Hall--Decline of the Fur
+     Trade--Causes of the Indians' Hostility--Dangers attending the
+     Trapper's Life,      23
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+   Early Life of Meek--He leaves Home--Enlists in a Fur Company--On
+     the March--A Warning Voice--Frontier Sports--Last Vestige of
+     Civilization--On the Plains--A first Adventure--A firm Front--A
+     Parley--The Summer Rendezvous--An enchanting Picture--The Free
+     Trapper's Indian Wife--Wild Carousals--Routine of Camp Life--Smoked
+     Moccasins versus Green Ones--A "Trifling Fellow,"      41
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+   The Camp in Motion--A Trapping Expedition--Opposition to the
+     Hudson's Bay Company--Beautiful Scenery--The Lost Leader
+     Found--Rejoicings in Camp--The "Luck" of the Trappers--Conference
+     of Leaders--The "Devil's Own"--Blackfoot Character--Account of the
+     Tribes,      57
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+   How Beaver are Taken--Beaver Dams--Formation of Meadows--Beaver
+     Lodges--"Bachelors"--Trapping in Winter--"Up to Trap"--Blackfeet on
+     the Trail--On Guard--The Trapper's Ruse--A disappointed Bear--A
+     Fight with Blackfeet--"Out of Luck"--Alone in the
+     Mountains--Splendid Views--A Miserable Night--The last Luxury of
+     Life--The Awfulness of Solitude--A Singular Discovery--A Hell on
+     Earth--A Joyful Recognition--Hard Times in Camp--The Negro's
+     Porcupine--Craig's Rabbit--Deep Snows--What the Scout saw--Bighorn
+     River--"Colter's Hell"--An Alarm--Arrival at Wind River--Christmas,
+     64
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+   Removal to Powder River--A Trapper's Paradise--The Transformation
+     in the Wilderness--The Encampment by Night--Meek takes to
+     Study--On the Move--Loss of Horses and Traps--Robbed and Insulted
+     by a Bear--Crossing the Yellowstone--A Novel Ferriage--Annoyance
+     from Blackfeet--A Cache Opened--A Comrade Killed--Rude Burial
+     Service--Return to Rendezvous--Gay Times--The old Partners take
+     Leave,      82
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+   Grizzly Bears--An Adventure with a Grizzly--The Three "Bares"--The
+     Mountain-Man's Manners--Joking the Leaders--The Irishman and the
+     Booshway--How Sublette climbed a Tree and escaped a Bear--Rival
+     Trappers--Whisky as a Strong Card--Ogden's Indian Wife--Her Courage
+     and Escape--Winter Quarters--Crow Horse-Thieves--An Expedition on
+     Foot--Night Attack on the Indian Fort--Fitzpatrick
+     Missing--Destitution in Camp--A "Medicine-Man" consulted--"Making
+     Medicine"--A Vision Obtained--Fitzpatrick Found--Death of Smith--An
+     Expedition on Snow-Shoes,      90
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+   Annoying Competition--The Chief's Daughter--Sublette Wounded--Forty
+     Days of Isolation--Sublette and Meek captured by Snake Indians--A
+     Solemn Council--Sentence of Death--Hope Deferred--A Rescue--The
+     "Mountain Lamb"--An Obstinate Rival--Blackfeet
+     Marauders--Fitzpatrick's Adventures in the Mountains--"When the Pie
+     was opened the Birds began to Sing"--Rough Sports--A Man on
+     Fire--Brigades ready for the Start--Blackfeet Caravan--Peaceful
+     Overtures--The Half-Breed's Revenge--A
+     Battle--Reinforcements--Death of Sinclair--Sublette
+     Wounded--Greenhorns--A false Alarm--Indian Adroitness--A Deserted
+     Fort--Incident of the Blackfoot Woman--Murder of a Party by
+     Blackfeet,      103
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+   The March to the Humboldt--Scarcity of Game--Terrible
+     Sufferings--The Horrors of Thirst and Famine--Eating Ants, Crickets
+     and Mules--Return to Snake River--A lucky Discovery--A Trout
+     Supper--The Country of the Diggers--Some Account of Them--Anecdote
+     of Wyeth and Meek--Comparison of Indian Tribes--The Blackfeet--The
+     Crows--The Coast Tribes and the Mountain Tribes--The Columbia River
+     Indians--Their Habits, Customs, and Dress--Indian Commerce--The
+     Indians of the Plains--Their Dress, Manners, and Wealth--The Horses
+     of the Plains--Language--The Indian's Moral Nature--Hungry and
+     Hospitable Savages--A Trap set for a Rival--An Ambush--Death of
+     Vanderburg--Skirmish with Blackfeet--The Woman Interpreter taken
+     Prisoner--Bravery of her Husband--Happy Finale--Meek Rescues the
+     "Mountain Lamb"--Intense Cold--Threatened by Famine--The Den of
+     Grizzlys--Second Daniels,      119
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+   A Visit from Blackfeet--The Green River Rendezvous--A "Powerful
+     Drunk"--Mad Wolf--A Friendly Warning--A Trip to the Salt Lake
+     Country--Meek Joins Jo. Walker's California Expedition--Instinct of
+     the Mule--On the Humboldt River--Massacre of Diggers at Mary's
+     River--Vain Explorations--Crossing the Sierra Nevadas--Hardships
+     and Sufferings--The Sacramento Valley--Delight of the
+     Trappers--Meeting with Spanish Soldiers--A Parley--Escorted to
+     Monterey--A Hospitable Reception--The Native Californians--Visit to
+     the Mohave Village--Meeting with Trapp and Jervais--Infamous
+     Conduct at the Moquis Village--The Return March,      141
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+   In the Camanche Country--A Surprise and a Rapid Movement--The Mule
+     Fort--A Camanche Charge--Sure Aim--Another Charge--More Dead
+     Indians--Woman's Weapon, the Tongue--Fearful Heat and Sufferings
+     from Thirst--The Escape by Night--The South Park--Death of
+     Guthrie--Meeting with Bonneville--Indignant Reproaches,      154
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+   Gossip at Rendezvous--Adventures in the Crow Country--Fitzpatrick
+     Picked by the Crows and Flies from Them--Honor among
+     Thieves--Unfair Treatment of Wyeth--Bonneville Snubbed at
+     Walla-Walla--He Rejects good Counsel--Wyeth's Threat, and its
+     Fulfillment--Division of Territory,      160
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+   In the Blackfoot Country--A Visit to Wyeth's Trappers--Sorry
+     Experiences--Condolence and its Effect--The Visitors become
+     Defenders--A Battle with Fire and Sword--Fighting for Life--The
+     Trappers' Victory--A Trapping Excursion--Meek Plays a Trick and has
+     one Played on Him--A Run to Camp--Taking up Traps--A Blackfoot
+     Ambush--A Running Fire--A lucky Escape--Winter Camp on the
+     Yellowstone--Interpretation of a Dream--A Buffalo Hunt and a
+     Blackfoot Surprise--Meek's Mule Story,      166
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+   Setting up as a Family Man--First Love--Cut out by the
+     Booshway--Reward of Constancy--Beauty of Umentucken--Her Dress, Her
+     Horse and Equipments--Anecdotes of the Mountain Lamb--Her Quarrel
+     with The Trapper--Capture by Crows--Her Rescue--Meek Avenges an
+     Insult--A Row in Camp--The Female Element--Death of Umentucken,
+     175
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+   Visitors at Rendezvous--Advent of Missionaries--What Brought
+     Them--Bonneville's account of the Nez Perces and Flatheads--An
+     Enthusiastic View of Their Characters--Origin of some of Their
+     Religious Observances--An Indian's Idea of a God--Material Good
+     Desired--Mistake of the Missionaries--First Sermon in the Rocky
+     Mountains--Interrupted by Buffaloes--Precept and Example--Dr.
+     Whitman's Character--The Missionaries Separate--Dr. Whitman Returns
+     to the States,      181
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+   Meek Falls into the Hands of Crows--The Story as He tells It--He
+     Packs Moccasins, and Bears the Jeers of the Fair Sex--Bridger's
+     Camp Discovered and the Lie Found out--A Desperate
+     Situation--Signaling the Horse-Guard--A Parley with
+     Bridger--Successful Strategy--Capture of Little-Gun--Meek Set at
+     Liberty with a New Name--A Fort Besieged by Bears--A Lazy
+     Trapper--The Decoy of the Delawares--Winter Amusements--The
+     Ishmaelite of the Wilderness--March through the Crow
+     Country--Return to Green River--Punishment of the
+     Bannacks--Consolidation--An Excursion--Intercepted by Crows--A
+     Scattered Camp--The Escape,      189
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+   An Express from Fitzpatrick--The Approach of Missionaries
+     Announced--The Caravan Welcomed by a Party of Trappers--Noisy
+     Demonstrations--Curiosity of the Indians--The Missionary
+     Ladies--Preparations in the Indian Villages--Reception of the
+     Missionaries by the Nez Perces and Flatheads--Kind Treatment from
+     the Hudson's Bay Company--The Missionaries' Land of Promise--Visit
+     to Fort Vancouver--Selection of Missionary Stations,      201
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+   The Den of Rattlesnakes--The Old Frenchman--How to Keep Snakes out
+     of Bed--The Prairie Dog's Tenants at Will--Fight with
+     Blackfeet--Policy of War--A Duel Averted--A Run-away Bear--Meek's
+     Best Bear Fight--Winter Quarters on Powder River--Robbing
+     Bonneville's Men,      214
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+   A Dissipated Camp--A Crow Carousal--Picked Crows--A Fight with
+     Blackfeet--Manhead Killed--Night Visit to the Blackfoot
+     Village--"Cooning a River"--Stanley the Indian Painter--Desperate
+     Fight with Blackfeet--"The Trapper's Last Shot"--War and Peace--In
+     the Wrong Camp--To Rendezvous on Wind River--Mr. Gray, and His
+     Adventures--Massacre of Indian Allies--Capt. Stuart Robbed by
+     Crows--Newell's Address to the Chiefs,      225
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+   Decline of the Fur Trade--Wild Scenes at Rendezvous--A Missionary
+     Party--Entertained by a War Dance--Meek in Armor--Deserted by his
+     Indian Spouse--The Pursuit--Meek abuses a Missionary and Kidnaps
+     his Wife--Meek's Black Eyed Daughter--Singing for a
+     Biscuit--Trapping Again--A hot March, and Fearful Suffering from
+     Thirst--The Old Flathead Woman--Water at Last,      237
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+   A Chat about Buffalo Hunting--Buffalo Horses--The Start--The
+     Pursuit--The Charge--Tumbles--Horsemanship--The Glory of Mountain
+     Life--How a Nez Perce Village Hunts Buffalo--Kit Carson and the
+     Frenchman on a Run--Mountain Manners,      246
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+   The Solitary Trapper--A Jest--Among the Nez Perces--Their Eagerness
+     to be Taught--Meek is Called upon to Preach--He modestly
+     Complies--Asks for a Wife--Polygamy Defended--Meek Gets a Wife--The
+     Preacher's Salary--Surprised by Blackfeet--Death of Allen--The Last
+     Rendezvous--Anecdote of Shawnee Jim--The new Wife Missing--Meeting
+     with Farnham--Cold and Famine--Succor and Food--Parties at Fort
+     Crockett--Setting up in Trade--How Al. Saved His Bacon--Bad
+     Times--War upon Horse Thieves--In Search of Adventures--Green River
+     Canyon--Running Antelope--Gambling--Vain Hunt for
+     Rendezvous--Reflections and Half-Resolves--The last Trapping
+     Expedition,      251
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+   A new Start in Life--Mountain-Men for Pioneers--Discovery of the
+     Columbia River--What Capt. Gray Did--What Vancouver Did--The United
+     States' Claim to Oregon--First Missionaries to the Wallamet--John
+     McLaughlin--Hospitalities of Fort Vancouver--The Mission
+     Reinforced--Other Settlers in the Wallamet Valley--How they
+     Regarded the Mission--The California Cattle Company--Distribution
+     of Settlers,      264
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+   Westward Ho!--Opening Wagon Roads--Republicanism--Fat Pork for
+     Preachers--Mission Work at Waiilatpu--Helen Mar--Off for the
+     Wallamet--Wagons Left at Walla-Walla--The Dalles Mission--Indian
+     Prayers--The Missionaries and the Mountain-Men--The Impious
+     Canadian--Doing Penance--Down the Columbia--Trouble with
+     Indians--Arrival at the Wallamet--Hunger, and Dependence on Fort
+     Vancouver--Meeting Old Comrades--Settling on the Tualatin Plains--A
+     disagreeable Winter--Taking Claims--Who furnished the Seed Wheat,
+     271
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+   Scarcity of Employment--Wilkes' Exploring Expedition--Meek Employed
+     as Pilot--Interchange of Courtesies at Vancouver--"The
+     Peacock"--Unpleasant Reminder--Exploring the Cowelitz--Wilkes'
+     Chronometer--Land Expedition to California--Meek
+     Discharged--Gleaning Wheat--Fifty Miles for an Axe--Visit to the
+     New Mission--Praying for a Cow--Marriage Ceremony,      280
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+   The Brooding of Events--Arrival of the Chenamus--Meek Celebrates
+     the Fourth of July--Dr. Whitman Goes to Washington--An Alarming
+     Feature--Mission Stations of the Upper Country--Discontent of the
+     Indians--The Missionaries Insulted and Threatened--Mrs. Whitman
+     Frightened Away from Waiilatpu,      285
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+   The Plot Thickens--The Wolf Association--Suspicions of the
+     Canadians--"Who's for a Divide?"--The Die Cast--A Shout for
+     Freedom--Meek Appointed Sheriff--The Provisional Government,      291
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+   Arrival of the Immigration at the Dalles--Wagons
+     Abandoned--Pitiable Condition of the Women and Children--Aid from
+     the Hudson's Bay Company--Perils of the Columbia--Wreck of the
+     Boat--Wonderful Escape--Trials of the New Colonists--The Generous
+     Savage--The Barefoot Lawyer--Meek's Pumpkin--Privation of the
+     Settlers--Shopping under Difficulties--Attempt to Manufacture
+     Ardent Spirits--Dilemma of the People--An Appeal--The Sheriff
+     Destroys the Distillery--Anecdote of Dr. White and Madam
+     Cooper--Meek Levies on Her Whisky--First Official Act of the
+     Sheriff,      294
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+   Excitement about Indians--Dr. White's Flogging Law--Indian
+     Revenge--Raid of the Klamaths--Massacre of Indians--Affray at the
+     Falls--Death of Cockstock--Death of LeBreton and Rogers--"You'd
+     Better Run"--Meek's Policy with the Indians--Meek and the
+     Agent--The Borrowed Horse--Solemn Audacity--Wonderful
+     Transformation--Temperance--Courts--Anecdote of Judge
+     Nesmith--Early Days of Portland--An Indian Carousal--Meek "Settles
+     the Indians"--The Immigration of 1845--The Cascade Mountain
+     Road-Hunters--Hunger and Peril--A Last Request--Succor at the Last
+     Moment--A Reason for Patriotism,      306
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+   Difficulty of Collecting Taxes--A Ponderous Currency--Dr.
+     McLaughlin's Ox--An Exciting Year--The Boundary
+     Question--"Fifty-four-forty or Fight"--War Vessels in the
+     Columbia--Loss of the Shark--Meek Receives a Salute--Schenck
+     Arrested--The Color-Stand of the Shark--"Sunset at the Mouth of the
+     Columbia,"      320
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+   "The Adventures of a Columbia River Salmon"--History of the
+     Immigration of 1846--Opening of Southern Route to the
+     Wallamet--Tragic Fate of the California Immigrants--Sufferings of
+     the Oregon Immigrants--Tardy Relief--Celebrating the Fourth of
+     July--Visit to the Ship Brutus--An Insult to the Mountain-Men--The
+     Indignity Resented with a Twelve-Pounder--Dr. McLaughlin
+     Interferes--Re-election of Meek--Large Immigration--Failure of the
+     Territorial Bill--Affray between Immigrants and Indians at the
+     Dalles--Meeting of the Legislature--Falling of the Thunderbolt,
+     325
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+   Trouble with the Up-Country Indians--Causes of their
+     Disquiet--Their Opinion of the Americans--"Humbugged and
+     Cheated"--Fear of Greater Frauds in the Future--Resolve not to
+     Submit--Their Feelings Toward Dr. Whitman--Acts of
+     Violence--Influence of the Catholic Missionaries--A Season of
+     Severe Sickness--What Provoked the Massacre--Joe Lewis the
+     Half-Breed--The Fatal Test--Sickness Among the Immigrants--Dr.
+     Whitman's Family--Persons at the Mission and Mill--Helen
+     Mar--Arrival of Mr. Whitman and his Daughter--A Night Visit to the
+     Umatilla--In the Lodge of Stickas, the Walla-Walla Chief--The
+     Warning of Stickas and His Family--The Death Song--"Beware of the
+     Cayuses at the Mission!"--Mr. Spaulding meets Brouillet, the
+     Catholic Bishop--News of the Massacre--Escape to the Woods--Night
+     Journeys to Lapwai,      334
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+   The Tragedy at Waiilatpu--Dr. Whitman's Arrival at Home--Monday
+     Morning at the Mission--Commencement of the Massacre--The First
+     Victim--"Oh, the Indians!"--Horrors of the Attack--Shooting of Mrs.
+     Whitman--Treachery of Jo Lewis--Sufferings of the Children--Indian
+     Orgies--The Victims Tortured--The Two Compassionate Indians--A
+     Night of Horror--Remarkable Escape of Mr. Osborne and
+     Family--Escape and Fate of Mr. Hall--Cruel Treatment of
+     Fugitives--Kindness of Mr. Stanley--Inhospitable Reception at Fort
+     Walla-Walla--Touching Kindness of Stickas,      344
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+   Horrors of the Waiilatpu Massacre--Exemption of the
+     Catholics--Charges of the Protestants--Natural Suspicions--Further
+     Particulars of the Massacre--Cruelty to the Children--Fate of the
+     Young Women--Miss Bulee and the Priests--Lapwai Mission--Arrival of
+     Mr. Camfield--An Indian Trait--Heroism of Mrs. Spalding--Appeal to
+     the Chiefs--Arrival of the News--Lapwai Plundered--Treachery of
+     Joseph--Arrival of Mr. Spalding--Detained as Hostages--Ransomed by
+     the H.B. Company--The "Blood of the Martyrs"--Country Abandoned to
+     the Indians--Subsequent Return of Mr. Spalding to the Nez Perces,
+     353
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+   The Call to Arms--Meetings and Speeches--Ways and Means of
+     Defence--The first Regiment of Oregon Riflemen--Messenger to the
+     Governor of California--Meek Chosen Messenger to the President of
+     the United States--He Proceeds to the Dalles--The Army Marches to
+     Waiilatpu--A Skirmish with the Des Chutes--Burial of the
+     Victims--Meek Escorted to the Blue Mountains,      362
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+   Meek's Party--Precautions against Indians--Meeting with
+     Bannacks--White Lies--Fort Hall--Deep Snows--Horses Abandoned--The
+     Mountain Spirit Returning--Meeting with Peg-Leg Smith--A Mountain
+     Revel--Meeting with An Old Leader--Reception at Fort
+     Laramie--Passing the Sioux Village--Courtesy of a French
+     Trader--Reflections on Nearing the Settlements--Resolve to Remain
+     Joe Meek--Reception at St. Joseph--"The Quickest Trip Yet"--Arrival
+     at St. Louis--Meek as Steamboat Runner--Interview with the Stage
+     Agent at Wheeling--Astonishing the Natives--The Puzzled
+     Conductor--Arrival at Washington,      368
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+   Meek Dines at Coleman's--A Sensation--An Amusing Scene--Recognized
+     by Senator Underwood--Visit to the President--Cordial Reception by
+     the Family of Polk--Some Doubts of Himself--Rapid Recovery of
+     Self-Possession--Action of the Friends of Oregon--The Two Oregon
+     Representatives--The Oregon Bill in the Senate--Mr.
+     Thornton--Meek's Successful Debut in Society--Curiosity of
+     Ladies--Kit Carson and the "Contingent Fund"--Meek's Remarkable
+     Popularity--Invited to Baltimore by the City Council--Escorts the
+     President--Visit to Lowell--The Factory Girls--Some Natural
+     Regrets--Kindness of Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Walker--Commodore
+     Wilkes--Oregon Lies--Getting Franked--Champagne Suppers,      381
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+   Meek Appointed U.S. Marshal for Oregon--"Home Sweet Home"--Pay of
+     the Delegates--The Lion's Share--Meek's Interview with Gov.
+     Lane--Buying out a Peddler--The Escort of Riflemen--The Start from
+     St. Louis, and the Route--Meeting Price's Army--An Adventure and a
+     Pleasant Surprise--Leaving the Wagons--Desertion of
+     Soldiers--Drought--The Trick of the Yumas--Demoralization of the
+     Train--Rumors of Gold--Gen. Lane's Coffee--The Writer's
+     Reflection--The Party on Foot--Extreme Sufferings--Arrival at
+     William's Ranch--Speculation in Silks and Jack-Knives--Miners at
+     Los Angelos--Oregonians at San Francisco--Nat Lane and Meek Take
+     the Gold Fever--Meek's Investment--The Governor and Marshal
+     Quarrel--Pranks with a Jew--A Salute--Arrival in Oregon City,
+     394
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+   Lane's Course with the Cayuse Indians--Magnanimity of the
+     Savages--Rebuke to Their Captors--Their Statements to Meek--The
+     Puzzle of Indian Ethics--Incidents of the Trial and
+     Execution--State of the Upper Country for A Term of Years--How Meek
+     Was Received in Oregon--His Incurable Waggishness--Scene in a
+     Court-Room--Contempt of Court--Judge Nelson and the Carpenters--Two
+     Hundred Lies--An Excursion by the Oregon Court--Indians Tried for
+     Murder--Proceedings of a Jury--Sentence and Execution of the
+     Indians--The Chief's Wife--Cost of Proceedings--Lane's Career in
+     Oregon--Gov. Davis,      408
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+   Meek as U.S. Marshal--The Captain of the Melvin--The British
+     Smuggler--Returning a Compliment--"Barly Enough for the Officers of
+     the Court"--Misused Confidence--Indian Disturbances--The Indian War
+     of 1855-6--Gen. Wool and Gov. Curry--Officers of the War--How the
+     Volunteers Fared--Meek as a Volunteer--Feasting and Fun--"Marking
+     Time"--End of Meek's Public Career,      417
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                              PAGE.
+
+  ENGLISH TOURISTS' CAMP--DOUBTFUL FRIENDS.--_Frontispiece._
+
+  WINTER COURIERS OF THE NORTH-WEST FUR COMPANY,        23
+
+  A STATION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY,        30
+
+  WATCHING FOR INDIAN HORSE-THIEVES,        38
+
+  MAP OF THE FUR COUNTRY,        40
+
+  THE ENLISTMENT,        42
+
+  THE SUMMER RENDEZVOUS,        48
+
+  BEAVERS AT WORK,        66
+
+  HUNTERS' WINTER CAMP,        81
+
+  THE THREE "BARES,"        92
+
+  THE WRONG END OF THE TREE,        94
+
+  SCOUTS IN THE BLACKFOOT COUNTRY--"ELK OR INDIANS?",        132
+
+  BRANDING CATTLE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,        150
+
+  A FIGHT WITH CAMANCHES--THE MULE FORT,        155
+
+  VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA,        165
+
+  THE FREE TRAPPER'S INDIAN WIFE,        177
+
+  "INDIANS, BY JOVE!"        200
+
+  DESCENDING THE BLUE MOUNTAINS,        211
+
+  THE BEAR IN CAMP,        219
+
+  SATISFIED WITH BEAR FIGHTING,        221
+
+  CACHE,        227
+
+  THE TRAPPER'S LAST SHOT,        230
+
+  THE SQUAW'S ESCAPE,        231
+
+  HORSE-TAIL FALLS,        245
+
+  A BUFFALO HUNT,        246
+
+  CASTLE ROCK, COLUMBIA RIVER,        263
+
+  WRECKED IN THE RAPIDS,        294
+
+  A WILD INDIAN IN TOWN,        307
+
+  THE CASCADE MOUNTAIN ROAD-HUNTERS,        317
+
+  MOUNT HOOD FROM THE DALLES,        343
+
+  MASSACRE OF THE WHITMAN FAMILY,        344
+
+  MEEK AS A STEAMBOAT RUNNER,        375
+
+  "TAKE CARE KNOX,"        385
+
+  A MOUNTAIN-MAN IN CLOVER,        392
+
+  GOV. LANE AND MEEK ON THE COLORADO DESERT,        401
+
+  MEEK AS U.S. MARSHAL--SCENE IN A COURT-ROOM,        413
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: WINTER COURIERS OF THE NORTH-WEST FUR COMPANY.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY CHAPTER.
+
+   AN ACCOUNT OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S INTERCOURSE WITH THE
+     INDIANS OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST; WITH A SKETCH OF THE DIFFERENT
+     AMERICAN FUR COMPANIES, AND THEIR DEALINGS WITH THE TRIBES OF THE
+     ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+
+In the year 1818, Mr. Prevost, acting for the United States, received
+Astoria back from the British, who had taken possession, as narrated by
+Mr. Irving, four years previous. The restoration took place in
+conformity with the treaty of Ghent, by which those places captured
+during the war were restored to their original possessors. Mr. Astor
+stood ready at that time to renew his enterprise on the Columbia River,
+had Congress been disposed to grant him the necessary protection which
+the undertaking required. Failing to secure this, when the United States
+sloop of war Ontario sailed away from Astoria, after having taken formal
+possession of that place for our Government, the country was left to the
+occupancy, (scarcely a joint-occupancy, since there were then no
+Americans here,) of the British traders. After the war, and while
+negotiations were going on between Great Britain and the United States,
+the fort at Astoria had remained in possession of the North-West
+Company, as their principal establishment west of the mountains. It had
+been considerably enlarged since it had come into their possession, and
+was furnished with artillery enough to have frightened into friendship a
+much more warlike people than the subjects of old king Comcomly; who, it
+will be remembered, was not at first very well disposed towards the
+"King George men," having learned to look upon the "Boston men" as his
+friends in his earliest intercourse with the whites. At this time
+Astoria, or _Fort George_, as the British traders called it, contained
+sixty-five inmates, twenty-three of whom were whites, and the remainder
+Canadian half-breeds and Sandwich Islanders. Besides this number of men,
+there were a few women, the native wives of the men, and their
+half-breed offspring. The situation of Astoria, however, was not
+favorable, being near the sea coast, and not surrounded with good
+farming lands such as were required for the furnishing of provisions to
+the fort. Therefore, when in 1821 it was destroyed by fire, it was only
+in part rebuilt, but a better and more convenient location for the
+headquarters of the North-West Company was sought for in the interior.
+
+About this time a quarrel of long standing between the Hudson's Bay and
+North-West Companies culminated in a battle between their men in the
+Red River country, resulting in a considerable loss of life and
+property. This affair drew the attention of the Government at home; the
+rights of the rival companies were examined into, the mediation of the
+Ministry secured, and a compromise effected, by which the North-West
+Company, which had succeeded in dispossessing the Pacific Fur Company
+under Mr. Astor, was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company, whose name
+and fame are so familiar to all the early settlers of Oregon.
+
+At the same time, Parliament passed an act by which the hands of the
+consolidated company were much strengthened, and the peace and security
+of all persons greatly insured; but which became subsequently, in the
+joint occupancy of the country, a cause of offence to the American
+citizens, as we shall see hereafter. This act allowed the commissioning
+of Justices of the Peace in all the territories not belonging to the
+United States, nor already subject to grants. These justices were to
+execute and enforce the laws and decisions of the courts of Upper
+Canada; to take evidence, and commit and send to Canada for trial the
+guilty; and even in some cases, to hold courts themselves for the trial
+of criminal offences and misdemeanors not punishable with death, or of
+civil causes in which the amount at issue should not exceed two hundred
+pounds.
+
+Thus in 1824, the North-West Company, whose perfidy had occasioned such
+loss and mortification to the enterprising New York merchant, became
+itself a thing of the past, and a new rule began in the region west of
+the Rocky Mountains. The old fort at Astoria having been only so far
+rebuilt as to answer the needs of the hour, after due consideration, a
+site for head-quarters was selected about one hundred miles from the
+sea, near the mouth of the Wallamet River, though opposite to it. Three
+considerations went to make up the eligibility of the point selected.
+First, it was desirable, even necessary, to settle upon good
+agricultural lands, where the Company's provisions could be raised by
+the Company's servants. Second, it was important that the spot chosen
+should be upon waters navigable for the Company's vessels, or upon
+tide-water. Lastly, and not leastly, the Company had an eye to the
+boundary question between Great Britain and the United States; and
+believing that the end of the controversy would probably be to make the
+Columbia River the northern limit of the United States territory, a spot
+on the northern bank of that river was considered a good point for their
+fort, and possible future city.
+
+The site chosen by the North-West Company in 1821, for their new fort,
+combined all these advantages, and the further one of having been
+already commenced and named. Fort Vancouver became at once on the
+accession of the Hudson's Bay Company, the metropolis of the northwest
+coast, the center of the fur trade, and the seat of government for that
+immense territory, over which roamed the hunters and trappers in the
+employ of that powerful corporation. This post was situated on the edge
+of a beautiful sloping plain on the northern bank of the Columbia, about
+six miles above the upper mouth of the Wallamet. At this point the
+Columbia spreads to a great width, and is divided on the south side into
+bayous by long sandy islands, covered with oak, ash, and cotton-wood
+trees, making the noble river more attractive still by adding the charm
+of curiosity concerning its actual breadth to its natural and ordinary
+magnificence. Back of the fort the land rose gently, covered with
+forests of fir; and away to the east swelled the foot-hills of the
+Cascade range, then the mountains themselves, draped in filmy azure, and
+over-topped five thousand feet by the snowy cone of Mt. Hood.
+
+In this lonely situation grew up, with the dispatch which characterized
+the acts of the Company, a fort in most respects similar to the original
+one at Astoria. It was not, however, thought necessary to make so great
+a display of artillery as had served to keep in order the subjects of
+Comcomly. A stockade enclosed a space about eight hundred feet long by
+five hundred broad, having a bastion at one corner, where were mounted
+three guns, while two eighteen pounders and two swivels were planted in
+front of the residence of the Governor and chief factors. These
+commanded the main entrance to the fort, besides which there were two
+other gates in front, and another in the rear. Military precision was
+observed in the precautions taken against surprises, as well as in all
+the rules of the place. The gates were opened and closed at certain
+hours, and were always guarded. No large number of Indians were
+permitted within the enclosure at the same time, and every employee at
+the fort knew and performed his duty with punctuality.
+
+The buildings within the stockade were the Governor's and chief factors'
+residences, stores, offices, work-shops, magazines, warehouses, &c.
+
+Year by year, up to 1835 or '40, improvements continued to go on in and
+about the fort, the chief of which was the cultivation of the large farm
+and garden outside the enclosure, and the erection of a hospital
+building, large barns, servants' houses, and a boat-house, all outside
+of the fort; so that at the period when the Columbia River was a romance
+and a mystery to the people of the United States, quite a flourishing
+and beautiful village adorned its northern shore, and that too erected
+and sustained by the enemies of American enterprise on soil commonly
+believed to belong to the United States: fair foes the author firmly
+believes them to have been in those days, yet foes nevertheless.
+
+The system on which the Hudson's Bay Company conducted its business was
+the result of long experience, and was admirable for its method and its
+justice also. When a young man entered its service as a clerk, his wages
+were small for several years, increasing only as his ability and good
+conduct entitled him to advancement. When his salary had reached one
+hundred pounds sterling he became eligible to a chief-tradership as a
+partner in the concern, from which position he was promoted to the rank
+of a chief factor. No important business was ever intrusted to an
+inexperienced person, a policy which almost certainly prevented any
+serious errors. A regular tariff was established on the Company's goods,
+comprising all the articles used in their trade with the Indians; nor
+was the quality of their goods ever allowed to deteriorate. A price was
+also fixed upon furs according to their market value, and an Indian
+knowing this, knew exactly what he could purchase. No bartering was
+allowed. When skins were offered for sale at the fort they were handed
+to the clerk through a window like a post-office delivery-window, and
+their value in the article desired, returned through the same aperture.
+All these regulations were of the highest importance to the good order,
+safety, and profit of the Company. The confidence of the Indians was
+sure to be gained by the constancy and good faith always observed toward
+them, and the Company obtained thereby numerous and powerful allies in
+nearly all the tribes.
+
+As soon as it was possible to make the change, the Indians were denied
+the use of intoxicating drinks, the appetite for which had early been
+introduced among them by coasting vessels, and even continued by the
+Pacific Fur Company at Astoria. It would have been dangerous to have
+suddenly deprived them of the coveted stimulus; therefore the practice
+must be discontinued by many wise arts and devices. A public notice was
+given that the sale of it would be stopped, and the reasons for this
+prohibition explained to the Indians. Still, not to come into direct
+conflict with their appetites, a little was sold to the chiefs, now and
+then, by the clerks, who affected to be running the greatest risks in
+violating the order of the company. The strictest secrecy was enjoined
+on the lucky chief who, by the friendship of some under-clerk, was
+enabled to smuggle off a bottle under his blanket. But the cunning clerk
+had generally managed to get his "good friend" into a state so cleverly
+between drunk and sober, before he entrusted him with the precious
+bottle, that he was sure to betray himself. Leaving the shop with a mien
+even more erect than usual, with a gait affected in its majesty, and his
+blanket tightened around him to conceal his secret treasure, the
+chuckling chief would start to cross the grounds within the fort. If he
+was a new customer, he was once or twice permitted to play his little
+game with the obliging clerk whose particular friend he was, and to
+escape detection.
+
+But by-and-by, when the officers had seen the offence repeated more than
+once from their purposely contrived posts of observation, one of them
+would skillfully chance to intercept the guilty chief at whose comical
+endeavors to appear sober he was inwardly laughing, and charge him with
+being intoxicated. Wresting away the tightened blanket, the bottle
+appeared as evidence that could not be controverted, of the duplicity of
+the Indian and the unfaithfulness of the clerk, whose name was instantly
+demanded, that he might be properly punished. When the chief again
+visited the fort, his particular friend met him with a sorrowful
+countenance, reproaching him for having been the cause of his disgrace
+and loss. This reproach was the surest means of preventing another
+demand for rum, the Indian being too magnanimous, probably, to wish to
+get his friend into trouble; while the clerk affected to fear the
+consequences too much to be induced to take the risk another time. Thus
+by kind and careful means the traffic in liquors was at length broken
+up, which otherwise would have ruined both Indian and trader.
+
+To the company's servants liquor was sold or allowed at certain times:
+to those on the sea-board, one half-pint two or three times a year, to
+be used as medicine,--not that it was always needed or used for this
+purpose, but too strict inquiry into its use was wisely avoided,--and
+for this the company demanded pay. To their servants in the interior no
+liquor was sold, but they were furnished as a gratuity with one pint on
+leaving rendezvous, and another on arriving at winter quarters. By this
+management, it became impossible for them to dispose of drink to the
+Indians; their small allowance being always immediately consumed in a
+meeting or parting carouse.
+
+The arrival of men from the interior at Fort Vancouver usually took
+place in the month of June, when the Columbia was high, and a stirring
+scene it was. The chief traders generally contrived their march through
+the upper country, their camps, and their rendezvous, so as to meet the
+Express which annually came to Vancouver from Canada and the Red River
+settlements. They then descended the Columbia together, and arrived in
+force at the Fort. This annual fleet went by the name of Brigade--a name
+which suggested a military spirit in the crews that their appearance
+failed to vindicate. Yet, though there was nothing warlike in the scene,
+there was much that was exciting, picturesque, and even brilliant; for
+these _couriers de bois_, or wood-rangers, and the _voyageurs_, or
+boatmen, were the most foppish of mortals when they came to rendezvous.
+Then, too, there was an exaltation of spirits on their safe arrival at
+head-quarters, after their year's toil and danger in wildernesses, among
+Indians and wild beasts, exposed to famine and accident, that almost
+deprived them of what is called "common sense," and compelled them to
+the most fantastic excesses.
+
+Their well-understood peculiarities did not make them the less welcome
+at Vancouver. When the cry was given--"the Brigade! the Brigade!"--there
+was a general rush to the river's bank to witness the spectacle. In
+advance came the chief-trader's barge, with the company's flag at the
+bow, and the cross of St. George at the stern: the fleet as many abreast
+as the turnings of the river allowed. With strong and skillful strokes
+the boatmen governed their richly laden boats, keeping them in line, and
+at the same time singing in chorus a loud and not unmusical hunting or
+boating song. The gay ribbons and feathers with which the singers were
+bedecked took nothing from the picturesqueness of their appearance. The
+broad, full river, sparkling in the sunlight, gemmed with emerald
+islands, and bordered with a rich growth of flowering shrubbery; the
+smiling plain surrounding the Fort; the distant mountains, where
+glittered the sentinel Mt. Hood, all came gracefully into the picture,
+and seemed to furnish a fitting back-ground and middle distance for the
+bright bit of coloring given by the moving life in the scene. As with a
+skillful sweep the brigade touched the bank, and the traders and men
+sprang on shore, the first cheer which had welcomed their appearance was
+heartily repeated, while a gay clamor of questions and answers followed.
+
+After the business immediately incident to their arrival had been
+dispatched, then took place the regale of pork, flour, and spirits,
+which was sure to end in a carouse, during which blackened eyes and
+broken noses were not at all uncommon; but though blood was made to
+flow, life was never put seriously in peril, and the belligerent parties
+were the best of friends when the fracas was ended.
+
+The business of exchange being completed in three or four weeks--the
+rich stores of peltries consigned to their places in the warehouse, and
+the boats reladen with goods for the next year's trade with the Indians
+in the upper country, a parting carouse took place, and with another
+parade of feathers, ribbons, and other finery, the brigade departed
+with songs and cheers as it had come, but with probably heavier hearts.
+
+It would be a stern morality indeed which could look upon the excesses
+of this peculiar class as it would upon the same excesses committed by
+men in the enjoyment of all the comforts and pleasures of civilized
+life. For them, during most of the year, was only an out-door life of
+toil, watchfulness, peril, and isolation. When they arrived at the
+rendezvous, for the brief period of their stay they were allowed perfect
+license because nothing else would content them. Although at
+head-quarters they were still in the wilderness, thousands of miles from
+civilization, with no chance of such recreations as men in the continual
+enjoyment of life's sweetest pleasures would naturally seek. For them
+there was only one method of seeking and finding temporary oblivion of
+the accustomed hardship; and whatever may be the strict rendering of
+man's duty as an immortal being, we cannot help being somewhat lenient
+at times to his errors as a mortal.
+
+After the departure of the boats, there was another arrival at the Fort,
+of trappers from the Snake River country. Previous to 1832, such were
+the dangers of the fur trade in this region, that only the most
+experienced traders were suffered to conduct a party through it; and
+even they were frequently attacked, and sometimes sustained serious
+losses of men and animals. Subsequently, however, the Hudson's Bay
+Company obtained such an influence over even these hostile tribes as to
+make it safe for a party of no more than two of their men to travel
+through this much dreaded region.
+
+There was another important arrival at Fort Vancouver, usually in
+midsummer. This was the Company's supply ship from London. In the
+possible event of a vessel being lost, one cargo was always kept on
+store at Vancouver; but for which wise regulation much trouble and
+disaster might have resulted, especially in the early days of the
+establishment. Occasionally a vessel foundered at sea or was lost on the
+bar of the Columbia; but these losses did not interrupt the regular
+transaction of business. The arrival of a ship from London was the
+occasion of great bustle and excitement also. She brought not only goods
+for the posts throughout the district of the Columbia, but letters,
+papers, private parcels, and all that seemed of so much value to the
+little isolated world at the Fort.
+
+A company conducting its business with such method and regularity as has
+been described, was certain of success. Yet some credit also must attach
+to certain individuals in its service, whose faithfulness, zeal, and
+ability in carrying out its designs, contributed largely to its welfare.
+Such a man was at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs in the
+large and important district west of the Rocky Mountains. The Company
+never had in its service a more efficient man than Gov. John McLaughlin,
+more commonly called Dr. McLaughlin.
+
+To the discipline, at once severe and just, which Dr. McLaughlin
+maintained in his district, was due the safety and prosperity of the
+company he served, and the servants of that company generally; as well
+as, at a later period, of the emigration which followed the hunter and
+trapper into the wilds of Oregon. Careful as were all the officers of
+the Hudson's Bay Company, they could not always avoid conflicts with the
+Indians; nor was their kindness and justice always sufficiently
+appreciated to prevent the outbreak of savage instincts. Fort Vancouver
+had been threatened in an early day; a vessel or two had been lost in
+which the Indians were suspected to have been implicated; at long
+intervals a trader was murdered in the interior; or more frequently,
+Indian insolence put to the test both the wisdom and courage of the
+officers to prevent an outbreak.
+
+When murders and robberies were committed, it was the custom at Fort
+Vancouver to send a strong party to demand the offenders from their
+tribe; Such was the well known power and influence of the Company, and
+such the wholesome fear of the "King George men," that this demand was
+never resisted, and if the murderer could be found he was given up to be
+hung according to "King George" laws. They were almost equally impelled
+to good conduct by the state of dependence on the company into which
+they had been brought. Once they had subsisted and clothed themselves
+from the spoils of the rivers and forest; since they had tasted of the
+tree of knowledge of good and evil, they could no more return to skins
+for raiment, nor to game alone for food. Blankets and flour, beads,
+guns, and ammunition had become dear to their hearts: for all these
+things they must love and obey the Hudson's Bay Company. Another fine
+stroke of policy in the Company was to destroy the chieftain-ships in
+the various tribes; thus weakening them by dividing them and preventing
+dangerous coalitions of the leading spirits: for in savage as well as
+civilized life, the many are governed by the few.
+
+It may not be uninteresting in this place to give a few anecdotes of the
+manner in which conflicts with the Indians were prevented, or offences
+punished by the Hudson's Bay Company. In the year 1828 the ship _William
+and Ann_ was cast away just inside the bar of the Columbia, under
+circumstances which seemed to direct suspicion to the Indians in that
+vicinity. Whether or not they had attacked the ship, not a soul was
+saved from the wreck to tell how she was lost. On hearing that the ship
+had gone to pieces, and that the Indians had appropriated a portion of
+her cargo, Dr. McLaughlin sent a message to the chiefs, demanding
+restitution of the stolen goods. Nothing was returned by the messenger
+except one or two worthless articles. Immediately an armed force was
+sent to the scene of the robbery with a fresh demand for the goods,
+which the chiefs, in view of their spoils, thought proper to resist by
+firing upon the reclaiming party. But they were not unprepared; and a
+swivel was discharged to let the savages know what they might expect in
+the way of firearms. The argument was conclusive, the Indians fleeing
+into the woods. While making search for the goods, a portion of which
+were found, a chief was observed skulking near, and cocking his gun; on
+which motion one of the men fired, and he fell. This prompt action, the
+justice of which the Indians well understood, and the intimidating power
+of the swivel, put an end to the incipient war. Care was then taken to
+impress upon their minds that they must not expect to profit by the
+disasters of vessels, nor be tempted to murder white men for the sake of
+plunder. The _William and Ann_ was supposed to have got aground, when
+the savages seeing her situation, boarded her and murdered the crew for
+the cargo which they knew her to contain. Yet as there were no positive
+proofs, only such measures were taken as would deter them from a similar
+attempt in future. That the lesson was not lost, was proven two years
+later, when the _Isabella_, from London, struck on the bar, her crew
+deserting her. In this instance no attempt was made to meddle with the
+vessel's cargo; and as the crew made their way to Vancouver, the goods
+were nearly all saved.
+
+In a former voyage of the _William and Ann_ to the Columbia River, she
+had been sent on an exploring expedition to the Gulf of Georgia to
+discover the mouth of Frazier's River, having on board a crew of forty
+men. Whenever the ship came to anchor, two sentries were kept constantly
+on deck to guard against any surprise or misconduct on the part of the
+Indians; so adroit, however, were they in the light-fingered art, that
+every one of the eight cannon with which the ship was armed was robbed
+of its ammunition, as was discovered on leaving the river! Such
+incidents as these served to impress the minds of the Company's officers
+and servants with the necessity of vigilance in their dealings with the
+savages.
+
+Not all their vigilance could at all times avail to prevent mischief.
+When Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, was on a
+visit to Vancouver in 1829, he was made aware of this truism. The
+Governor was on his return to Canada by way of the Red River Settlement,
+and had reached the Dalles of the Columbia with his party. In making the
+portage at this place, all the party except Dr. Tod gave their guns into
+the charge of two men to prevent their being stolen by the Indians, who
+crowded about, and whose well-known bad character made great care
+needful. All went well, no attempt to seize either guns or other
+property being made until at the end of the portage the boats had been
+reloaded. As the party were about to re-embark, a simultaneous rush was
+made by the Indians who had dogged their steps, to get possession of the
+boats. Dr. Tod raised his gun immediately, aiming at the head chief,
+who, not liking the prospect of so speedy dissolution, ordered his
+followers to desist, and the party were suffered to escape. It was soon
+after discovered that every gun belonging to the party in the boat had
+been wet, excepting the one carried by Dr. Tod; and to the fact that the
+Doctor did carry his gun, all the others owed their lives.
+
+The great desire of the Indians for guns and ammunition led to many
+stratagems which were dangerous to the possessors of the coveted
+articles. Much more dangerous would it have been to have allowed them a
+free supply of these things; nor could an Indian purchase from the
+Company more than a stated supply, which was to be used, not for the
+purposes of war, but to keep himself in game.
+
+[Illustration: A STATION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.]
+
+Dr. McLaughlin was himself once quite near falling into a trap of the
+Indians, so cunningly laid as to puzzle even him. This was a report
+brought to him by a deputation of Columbia River Indians, stating the
+startling fact that the fort at Nesqually had been attacked, and every
+inmate slaughtered. To this horrible story, told with every appearance
+of truth, the Doctor listened with incredulity mingled with apprehension.
+The Indians were closely questioned and cross-questioned, but did not
+conflict in their testimony. The matter assumed a very painful aspect.
+Not to be deceived, the Doctor had the unwelcome messengers committed to
+custody while he could bring other witnesses from their tribe. But they
+were prepared for this, and the whole tribe were as positive as those
+who brought the tale. Confounded by this cloud of witnesses, Dr.
+McLaughlin had almost determined upon sending an armed force to
+Nesqually to inquire into the matter, and if necessary, punish the
+Indians, when a detachment of men arrived from that post, and the plot
+was exposed! The design of the Indians had been simply to cause a
+division of the force at Vancouver, after which they believed they might
+succeed in capturing and plundering the fort. Had they truly been
+successful in this undertaking, every other trading-post in the country
+would have been destroyed. But so long as the head-quarters of the
+Company remained secure and powerful, the other stations were
+comparatively safe.
+
+An incident which has been several times related, occurred at fort
+Walla-Walla, and shows how narrow escapes the interior traders sometimes
+made. The hero of this anecdote was Mr. McKinlay, one of the most
+estimable of the Hudson's Bay Company's officers, in charge of the fort
+just named. An Indian was one day lounging about the fort, and seeing
+some timbers lying in a heap that had been squared for pack saddles,
+helped himself to one and commenced cutting it down into a whip handle
+for his own use. To this procedure Mr. McKinlay's clerk demurred, first
+telling the Indian its use, and then ordering him to resign the piece of
+timber. The Indian insolently replied that the timber was his, and he
+should take it. At this the clerk, with more temper than prudence,
+struck the offender, knocking him over, soon after which the savage left
+the fort with sullen looks boding vengeance. The next day Mr. McKinlay,
+not being informed of what had taken place, was in a room of the fort
+with his clerk when a considerable party of Indians began dropping
+quietly in until there were fifteen or twenty of them inside the
+building. The first intimation of anything wrong McKinlay received was
+when he observed the clerk pointed out in a particular manner by one of
+the party. He instantly comprehended the purpose of his visitors, and
+with that quickness of thought which is habitual to the student of
+savage nature, he rushed into the store room and returned with a powder
+keg, flint and steel. By this time the unlucky clerk was struggling for
+his life with his vindictive foes. Putting down the powder in their
+midst and knocking out the head of the keg with a blow, McKinlay stood
+over it ready to strike fire with his flint and steel. The savages
+paused aghast. They knew the nature of the "perilous stuff," and also
+understood the trader's purpose. "Come," said he with a clear,
+determined voice, "you are twenty braves against us two: now touch him
+if you dare, and see who dies first." In a moment the fort was cleared,
+and McKinlay was left to inquire the cause of what had so nearly been a
+tragedy. It is hardly a subject of doubt whether or not his clerk got a
+scolding. Soon after, such was the powerful influence exerted by these
+gentlemen, the chief of the tribe flogged the pilfering Indian for the
+offence, and McKinlay became a great brave, a "big heart" for his
+courage.
+
+It was indeed necessary to have courage, patience, and prudence in
+dealing with the Indians. These the Hudson's Bay officers generally
+possessed. Perhaps the most irascible of them all in the Columbia
+District, was their chief, Dr. McLaughlin; but such was his goodness and
+justice that even the savages recognized it, and he was _hyas tyee_, or
+great chief, in all respects to them. Being on one occasion very much
+annoyed by the pertinacity of an Indian who was continually demanding
+pay for some stones with which the Doctor was having a vessel ballasted,
+he seized one of some size, and thrusting it in the Indian's mouth,
+cried out in a furious manner, "pay, pay! if the stones are yours, take
+them and eat them, you rascal! Pay, pay! the devil! the devil!" upon
+which explosion of wrath, the native owner of the soil thought it
+prudent to withdraw his immediate claims.
+
+There was more, however, in the Doctor's action than mere indulgence of
+wrath. He understood perfectly that the savage values only what he can
+eat and wear, and that as he could not put the stones to either of these
+uses, his demand for pay was an impudent one.
+
+Enough has been said to give the reader an insight into Indian
+character, to prepare his mind for events which are to follow, to convey
+an idea of the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to show on
+what it was founded. The American Fur Companies will now be sketched,
+and their mode of dealing with the Indians contrasted with that of the
+British Company. The comparison will not be favorable; but should any
+unfairness be suspected, a reference to Mr. Irving's _Bonneville_, will
+show that the worthy Captain was forced to witness against his own
+countrymen in his narrative of his hunting and trading adventures in the
+Rocky Mountains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The dissolution of the Pacific Fur Company, the refusal of the United
+States Government to protect Mr. Astor in a second attempt to carry on a
+commerce with the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains, and the
+occupation of that country by British traders, had the effect to deter
+individual enterprise from again attempting to establish commerce on the
+Pacific coast. The people waited for the Government to take some steps
+toward the encouragement of a trans-continental trade; the Government
+beholding the lion (British) in the way, waited for the expiration of
+the convention of 1818, in the Micawber-like hope that something would
+"turn up" to settle the question of territorial sovereignty. The war of
+1812 had been begun on the part of Great Britain, to secure the great
+western territories to herself for the profits of the fur trade, almost
+solely. Failing in this, she had been compelled, by the treaty of Ghent,
+to restore to the United States all the places and forts captured during
+that war. Yet the forts and trading posts in the west remained
+practically in the possession of Great Britain; for her traders and fur
+companies still roamed the country, excluding American trade, and
+inciting (so the frontiers-men believed), the Indians to acts of blood
+and horror.
+
+Congress being importuned by the people of the West, finally, in 1815,
+passed an act expelling British traders from American territory east of
+the Rocky Mountains. Following the passage of this act the hunters and
+trappers of the old North American Company, at the head of which Mr.
+Astor still remained, began to range the country about the head waters
+of the Mississippi and the upper Missouri. Also a few American traders
+had ventured into the northern provinces of Mexico, previous to the
+overthrow of the Spanish Government; and after that event, a thriving
+trade grew up between St. Louis and Santa Fe.
+
+At length, in 1823, Mr. W.H. Ashley, of St. Louis, a merchant for a long
+time engaged in the fur trade on the Missouri and its tributaries,
+determined to push a trading party up to or beyond the Rocky Mountains.
+Following up the Platte River, Mr. Ashley proceeded at the head of a
+large party with horses and merchandise, as far as the northern branch
+of the Platte, called the Sweetwater. This he explored to its source,
+situated in that remarkable depression in the Rocky Mountains, known as
+the South Pass--the same which Fremont _discovered_ twenty years later,
+during which twenty years it was annually traveled by trading parties,
+and just prior to Fremont's discovery, by missionaries and emigrants
+destined to Oregon. To Mr. Ashley also belongs the credit of having
+first explored the head-waters of the Colorado, called the Green River,
+afterwards a favorite rendezvous of the American Fur Companies. The
+country about the South Pass proved to be an entirely new hunting
+ground, and very rich in furs, as here many rivers take their rise,
+whose head-waters furnished abundant beaver. Here Mr. Ashley spent the
+summer, returning to St. Louis in the fall with a valuable collection of
+skins.
+
+In 1824, Mr. Ashley repeated the expedition, extending it this time
+beyond Green River as far as Great Salt Lake, near which to the south he
+discovered another smaller lake, which he named Lake Ashley, after
+himself. On the shores of this lake he built a fort for trading with the
+Indians, and leaving in it about one hundred men, returned to St. Louis
+the second time with a large amount of furs. During the time the fort
+was occupied by Mr. Ashley's men, a period of three years, more than one
+hundred and eighty thousand dollars worth of furs were collected and
+sent to St. Louis. In 1827, the fort, and all Mr. Ashley's interest in
+the business, was sold to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, at the head of
+which were Jedediah Smith, William Sublette, and David Jackson, Sublette
+being the leading spirit in the Company.
+
+The custom of these enterprising traders, who had been in the mountains
+since 1824, was to divide their force, each taking his command to a good
+hunting ground, and returning at stated times to rendezvous, generally
+appointed on the head-waters of Green River. Frequently the other fur
+companies, (for there were other companies formed on the heels of
+Ashley's enterprise,) learning of the place appointed for the yearly
+rendezvous, brought their goods to the same resort, when an intense
+rivalry was exhibited by the several traders as to which company should
+soonest dispose of its goods, getting, of course, the largest amount of
+furs from the trappers and Indians. So great was the competition in the
+years between 1826 and 1829, when there were about six hundred American
+trappers in and about the Rocky Mountains, besides those of the Hudson's
+Bay Company, that it was death for a man of one company to dispose of
+his furs to a rival association. Even a "free trapper"--that is, one not
+indentured, but hunting upon certain terms of agreement concerning the
+price of his furs and the cost of his outfit, only, dared not sell to
+any other company than the one he had agreed with.
+
+Jedediah Smith, of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, during their first
+year in the mountains, took a party of five trappers into Oregon, being
+the first American, trader or other, to cross into that country since
+the breaking up of Mr. Astor's establishment. He trapped on the
+head-waters of the Snake River until autumn, when he fell in with a
+party of Hudson's Bay trappers, and going with them to their post in the
+Flathead country, wintered there.
+
+Again, in 1826, Smith, Sublette, and Jackson, brought out a large number
+of men to trap in the Snake River country, and entered into direct
+competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, whom they opposed with hardly
+a degree more of zeal than they competed with rival American traders:
+this one extra degree being inspired by a "spirit of '76" toward
+anything British.
+
+After the Rocky Mountain Fur Company had extended its business by the
+purchase of Mr. Ashley's interest, the partners determined to push their
+enterprise to the Pacific coast, regardless of the opposition they were
+likely to encounter from the Hudson's Bay traders. Accordingly, in the
+spring of 1827, the Company was divided up into three parts, to be led
+separately, by different routes, into the Indian Territory, nearer the
+ocean.
+
+Smith's route was from the Platte River, southwards to Santa Fe, thence
+to the bay of San Francisco, and thence along the coast to the Columbia
+River. His party were successful, and had arrived in the autumn of the
+following year at the Umpqua River, about two hundred miles south of the
+Columbia, in safety. Here one of those sudden reverses to which the
+"mountain-man" is liable at any moment, overtook him. His party at this
+time consisted of thirteen men, with their horses, and a collection of
+furs valued at twenty thousand dollars. Arrived at the Umpqua, they
+encamped for the night on its southern bank, unaware that the natives in
+this vicinity (the Shastas) were more fierce and treacherous than the
+indolent tribes of California, for whom, probably, they had a great
+contempt. All went well until the following morning, the Indians hanging
+about the camp, but apparently friendly. Smith had just breakfasted, and
+was occupied in looking for a fording-place for the animals, being on a
+raft, and having with him a little Englishman and one Indian. When they
+were in the middle of the river the Indian snatched Smith's gun and
+jumped into the water. At the same instant a yell from the camp, which
+was in sight, proclaimed that it was attacked. Quick as thought Smith
+snatched the Englishman's gun, and shot dead the Indian in the river.
+
+To return to the camp was certain death. Already several of his men had
+fallen; overpowered by numbers he could not hope that any would escape,
+and nothing was left him but flight. He succeeded in getting to the
+opposite shore with his raft before he could be intercepted, and fled
+with his companion, on foot and with only one gun, and no provisions, to
+the mountains that border the river. With great good fortune they were
+enabled to pass through the remaining two hundred miles of their journey
+without accident, though not without suffering, and reach Fort Vancouver
+in a destitute condition, where they were kindly cared for.
+
+Of the men left in camp, only two escaped. One man named Black defended
+himself until he saw an opportunity for flight, when he escaped to the
+cover of the woods, and finally to a friendly tribe farther north, near
+the coast, who piloted him to Vancouver. The remaining man was one
+Turner, of a very powerful frame, who was doing camp duty as cook on
+this eventful morning. When the Indians rushed upon him he defended
+himself with a huge firebrand, or half-burnt poplar stick, with which he
+laid about him like Sampson, killing four red-skins before he saw a
+chance of escape. Singularly, for one in his extremity, he did escape,
+and also arrived at Vancouver that winter.
+
+Dr. McLaughlin received the unlucky trader and his three surviving men
+with every mark and expression of kindness, and entertained them through
+the winter. Not only this, but he dispatched a strong, armed party to
+the scene of the disaster to punish the Indians and recover the stolen
+goods; all of which was done at his own expense, both as an act of
+friendship toward his American rivals, and as necessary to the
+discipline which they everywhere maintained among the Indians. Should
+this offence go unpunished, the next attack might be upon one of his own
+parties going annually down into California. Sir George Simpson, the
+Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, chanced to be spending the winter
+at Vancouver. He offered to send Smith to London the following summer,
+in the Company's vessel, where he might dispose of his furs to
+advantage; but Smith declined this offer, and finally sold his furs to
+Dr. McLaughlin, and returned in the spring to the Rocky Mountains.
+
+On Sublette's return from St. Louis, in the summer of 1829, with men and
+merchandise for the year's trade, he became uneasy on account of Smith's
+protracted absence. According to a previous plan, he took a large party
+into the Snake River country to hunt. Among the recruits from St. Louis
+was Joseph L. Meek, the subject of the narrative following this chapter.
+Sublette not meeting with Smith's party on its way from the Columbia, as
+he still hoped, at length detailed a party to look for him on the
+head-waters of the Snake. Meek was one of the men sent to look for the
+missing partner, whom he discovered at length in Pierre's Hole, a deep
+valley in the mountains, from which issues the Snake River in many
+living streams. Smith returned with the men to camp, where the tale of
+his disasters was received after the manner of mountain-men, simply
+declaring with a momentarily sobered countenance, that their comrade has
+not been "in luck;" with which brief and equivocal expression of
+sympathy the subject is dismissed. To dwell on the dangers incident to
+their calling would be to half disarm themselves of their necessary
+courage; and it is only when they are gathered about the fire in their
+winter camp, that they indulge in tales of wild adventure and
+"hair-breadth 'scapes," or make sorrowful reference to a comrade lost.
+
+Influenced by the hospitable treatment which Smith had received at the
+hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, the partners now determined to
+withdraw from competition with them in the Snake country, and to trap
+upon the waters of the Colorado, in the neighborhood of their fort. But
+"luck," the mountain-man's Providence, seemed to have deserted Smith. In
+crossing the Colorado River with a considerable collection of skins, he
+was again attacked by Indians, and only escaped by losing all his
+property. He then went to St. Louis for a supply of merchandise, and
+fitted out a trading party for Santa Fe; but on his way to that place
+was killed in an encounter with the savages.
+
+Turner, the man who so valiantly wielded the firebrand on the Umpqua
+River, several years later met with a similar adventure on the Rogue
+River, in Southern Oregon, and was the means of saving the lives of his
+party by his courage, strength, and alertness. He finally, when trapping
+had become unprofitable, retired upon a farm in the Wallamet Valley, as
+did many other mountain-men who survived the dangers of their perilous
+trade.
+
+After the death of Smith, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company continued its
+operations under the command of Bridger, Fitzpatrick, and Milton
+Sublette, brother of William. In the spring of 1830 they received about
+two hundred recruits, and with little variation kept up their number of
+three or four hundred men for a period of eight or ten years longer, or
+until the beaver were hunted out of every nook and corner of the Rocky
+Mountains.
+
+Previous to 1835, there were in and about the Rocky Mountains, beside
+the "American" and "Rocky Mountain" companies, the St. Louis Company,
+and eight or ten "lone traders." Among these latter were William
+Sublette, Robert Campbell, J.O. Pattie, Mr. Pilcher, Col. Charles Bent,
+St. Vrain, William Bent, Mr. Gant, and Mr. Blackwell. All these
+companies and traders more or less frequently penetrated into the
+countries of New Mexico, Old Mexico, Sonora, and California; returning
+sometimes through the mountain regions of the latter State, by the
+Humboldt River to the head-waters of the Colorado. Seldom, in all their
+journeys, did they intrude on that portion of the Indian Territory lying
+within three hundred miles of Fort Vancouver, or which forms the area of
+the present State of Oregon.
+
+Up to 1832, the fur trade in the West had been chiefly conducted by
+merchants from the frontier cities, especially by those of St. Louis.
+The old "North American" was the only exception. But in the spring of
+this year, Captain Bonneville, an United States officer on furlough, led
+a company of a hundred men, with a train of wagons, horses and mules,
+with merchandise, into the trapping grounds of the Rocky Mountains. His
+wagons were the first that had ever crossed the summit of these
+mountains, though William Sublette had, two or three years previous,
+brought wagons as far as the valley of the Wind River, on the east side
+of the range. Captain Bonneville remained nearly three years in the
+hunting and trapping grounds, taking parties of men into the Colorado,
+Humboldt, and Sacramento valleys; but he realized no profits from his
+expedition, being opposed and competed with by both British and American
+traders of larger experience.
+
+But Captain Bonneville's venture was a fortunate one compared with that
+of Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth of Massachusetts, who also crossed the continent
+in 1832, with the view of establishing a trade on the Columbia River.
+Mr. Wyeth brought with him a small party of men, all inexperienced in
+frontier or mountain life, and destined for a salmon fishery on the
+Columbia. He had reached Independence, Missouri, the last station before
+plunging into the wilderness, and found himself somewhat at a loss how
+to proceed, until, at this juncture, he was overtaken by the party of
+William Sublette, from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains, with whom he
+travelled in company to the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole.
+
+When Wyeth arrived at the Columbia River, after tarrying until he had
+acquired some mountain experiences, he found that his vessel, which was
+loaded with merchandise for the Columbia River trade, had not arrived.
+He remained at Vancouver through the winter, the guest of the Hudson's
+Bay Company, and either having learned or surmised that his vessel was
+wrecked, returned to the United States in the following year. Not
+discouraged, however, he made another venture in 1834, despatching the
+ship _May Dacre_, Captain Lambert, for the Columbia River, with another
+cargo of Indian goods, traveling himself overland with a party of two
+hundred men, and a considerable quantity of merchandise which he
+expected to sell to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In this expectation
+he was defeated by William Sublette, who had also brought out a large
+assortment of goods for the Indian trade, and had sold out, supplying
+the market, before Mr. Wyeth arrived.
+
+Wyeth then built a post, named Fort Hall, on Snake River, at the
+junction of the Portneuf, where he stored his goods, and having detached
+most of his men in trapping parties, proceeded to the Columbia River to
+meet the _May Dacre_. He reached the Columbia about the same time with
+his vessel, and proceeded at once to erect a salmon fishery. To forward
+this purpose he built a post, called Fort William, on the lower end of
+Wappatoo (now known as Sauvie's) Island, near where the Lower Wallamet
+falls into the Columbia. But for various reasons he found the business
+on which he had entered unprofitable. He had much trouble with the
+Indians, his men were killed or drowned, so that by the time he had half
+a cargo of fish, he was ready to abandon the effort to establish a
+commerce with the Oregon Indians, and was satisfied that no enterprise
+less stupendous and powerful than that of the Hudson's Bay Company could
+be long sustained in that country.
+
+Much complaint was subsequently made by Americans, chiefly Missionaries,
+of the conduct of that company in not allowing Mr. Wyeth to purchase
+beaver skins of the Indians, but Mr. Wyeth himself made no such
+complaint. Personally, he was treated with unvarying kindness, courtesy,
+and hospitality. As a trader, they would not permit him to undersell
+them. In truth, they no doubt wished him away; because competition would
+soon ruin the business of either, and they liked not to have the Indians
+taught to expect more than their furs were worth, nor to have the
+Indians' confidence in themselves destroyed or tampered with.
+
+The Hudson's Bay Company were hardly so unfriendly to him as the
+American companies; since to the former he was enabled to sell his goods
+and fort on the Snake River, before he returned to the United States,
+which he did in 1835.
+
+The sale of Fort Hall to the Hudson's Bay Company was a finishing blow
+at the American fur trade in the Rocky Mountains, which after two or
+three years of constantly declining profits, was entirely abandoned.
+
+Something of the dangers incident to the life of the hunter and trapper
+may be gathered from the following statements, made by various parties
+who have been engaged in it. In 1808, a Missouri Company engaged in fur
+hunting on the three forks of the river Missouri, were attacked by
+Blackfeet, losing twenty-seven men, and being compelled to abandon the
+country. In 1823, Mr. Ashley was attacked on the same river by the
+Arickaras, and had twenty-six men killed. About the same time the
+Missouri company lost seven men, and fifteen thousand dollars' worth of
+merchandise on the Yellowstone River. A few years previous, Major Henry
+lost, on the Missouri River, six men and fifty horses. In the sketch
+given of Smith's trading adventures is shown how uncertain were life and
+property at a later period. Of the two hundred men whom Wyeth led into
+the Indian country, only about forty were alive at the end of three
+years. There was, indeed, a constant state of warfare between the
+Indians and the whites, wherever the American Companies hunted, in which
+great numbers of both lost their lives. Add to this cause of decimation
+the perils from wild beasts, famine, cold, and all manner of accidents,
+and the trapper's chance of life was about one in three.
+
+Of the causes which have produced the enmity of the Indians, there are
+about as many. It was found to be the case almost universally, that on
+the first visit of the whites the natives were friendly, after their
+natural fears had been allayed. But by degrees their cupidity was
+excited to possess themselves of the much coveted dress, arms, and goods
+of their visitors. As they had little or nothing to offer in exchange,
+which the white man considered an equivalent, they took the only method
+remaining of gratifying their desire of possession, and _stole_ the
+coveted articles which they could not purchase. When they learned that
+the white men punished theft, they murdered to prevent the punishment.
+Often, also, they had wrongs of their own to avenge. White men did not
+always regard their property-rights. They were guilty of infamous
+conduct toward Indian women. What one party of whites told them was
+true, another plainly contradicted, leaving the lie between them. They
+were overbearing toward the Indians on their own soil, exciting to
+irrepressible hostility the natural jealousy of the inferior toward the
+superior race, where both are free, which characterizes all people. In
+short, the Indians were not without their grievances; and from barbarous
+ignorance and wrong on one side, and intelligent wrong-doing on the
+other, together with the misunderstandings likely to arise between two
+entirely distinct races, grew constantly a thousand abuses, which
+resulted in a deadly enmity between the two.
+
+For several reasons this evil existed to a greater degree among the
+American traders and trappers than among the British. The American
+trapper was not, like the Hudson's Bay employees, bred to the business.
+Oftener than any other way he was some wild youth who, after an
+_escapade_ in the society of his native place, sought safety from
+reproach or punishment in the wilderness. Or he was some disappointed
+man who, with feelings embittered towards his fellows, preferred the
+seclusion of the forest and mountain. Many were of a class disreputable
+everywhere, who gladly embraced a life not subject to social laws. A few
+were brave, independent, and hardy spirits, who delighted in the
+hardships and wild adventures their calling made necessary. All these
+men, the best with the worst, were subject to no will but their own; and
+all experience goes to prove that a life of perfect liberty is apt to
+degenerate into a life of license. Even their own lives, and those of
+their companions, when it depended upon their own prudence, were but
+lightly considered. The constant presence of danger made them reckless.
+It is easy to conceive how, under these circumstances, the natives and
+the foreigners grew to hate each other, in the Indian country;
+especially after the Americans came to the determination to "shoot an
+Indian at sight," unless he belonged to some tribe with whom they had
+intermarried, after the manner of the trappers.
+
+[Illustration: WATCHING FOR INDIAN HORSE-THIEVES.]
+
+On the other hand, the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company were many
+of them half-breeds or full-blooded Indians of the Iroquois nation,
+towards whom nearly all the tribes were kindly disposed. Even the
+Frenchmen who trapped for this company were well liked by the Indians on
+account of their suavity of manner, and the ease with which they adapted
+themselves to savage life. Besides most of them had native wives and
+half-breed children, and were regarded as relatives. They were trained
+to the life of a trapper, were subject to the will of the Company, and
+were generally just and equitable in their dealings with the Indians,
+according to that company's will, and the dictates of prudence. Here was
+a wide difference.
+
+Notwithstanding this, there were many dangers to be encountered. The
+hostility of some of the tribes could never be overcome; nor has it ever
+abated. Such were the Crows, the Blackfeet, the Cheyennes, the Apaches,
+the Camanches. Only a superior force could compel the friendly offices
+of these tribes for any white man, and then their treachery was as
+dangerous as their open hostility.
+
+It happened, therefore, that although the Hudson's Bay Company lost
+comparatively few men by the hands of the Indians, they sometimes found
+them implacable foes in common with the American trappers; and
+frequently one party was very glad of the others' assistance.
+Altogether, as has before been stated, the loss of life was immense in
+proportion to the number employed.
+
+Very few of those who had spent years in the Rocky Mountains ever
+returned to the United States. With their Indian wives and half-breed
+children, they scattered themselves throughout Oregon, until when, a
+number of years after the abandonment of the fur trade, Congress donated
+large tracts of land to actual settlers, they laid claim, each to his
+selected portion, and became active citizens of their adopted state.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE FUR COUNTRY.]
+
+
+
+
+A TRAPPER AND PIONEER'S LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+As has been stated in the Introduction, Joseph L. Meek was a native of
+Washington Co., Va. Born in the early part of the present century, and
+brought up on a plantation where the utmost liberty was accorded to the
+"young massa;" preferring out-door sports with the youthful bondsmen of
+his father, to study with the bald-headed schoolmaster who furnished him
+the alphabet on a paddle; possessing an exhaustless fund of waggish
+humor, united to a spirit of adventure and remarkable personal strength,
+he unwittingly furnished in himself the very material of which the
+heroes of the wilderness were made. Virginia, "the mother of
+Presidents," has furnished many such men, who, in the early days of the
+now populous Western States, became the hardy frontiers-men, or the
+fearless Indian fighters who were the bone and sinew of the land.
+
+When young Joe was about eighteen years of age, he wearied of the
+monotony of plantation life, and jumping into the wagon of a neighbor
+who was going to Louisville, Ky., started out in life for himself. He
+"reckoned they did not grieve for him at home;" at which conclusion
+others besides Joe naturally arrive on hearing of his heedless
+disposition, and utter contempt for the ordinary and useful employments
+to which other men apply themselves.
+
+Joe probably believed that should his father grieve for him, his
+step-mother would be able to console him; this step-mother, though a
+pious and good woman, not being one of the lad's favorites, as might
+easily be conjectured. It was such thoughts as these that kept up his
+resolution to seek the far west. In the autumn of 1828 he arrived in St.
+Louis, and the following spring he fell in with Mr. Wm. Sublette, of the
+Rocky Mountain Fur Company, who was making his annual visit to that
+frontier town to purchase merchandise for the Indian country, and pick
+up recruits for the fur-hunting service. To this experienced leader he
+offered himself.
+
+[Illustration: THE ENLISTMENT.]
+
+"How old are you?" asked Sublette.
+
+"A little past eighteen."
+
+"And you want to go to the Rocky Mountains?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You don't know what you are talking about, boy. You'll be killed before
+you get half way there."
+
+"If I do, I reckon I can die!" said Joe, with a flash of his fall dark
+eyes, and throwing back his shoulders to show their breadth.
+
+"Come," exclaimed the trader, eyeing the youthful candidate with
+admiration, and perhaps a touch of pity also; "that is the game spirit.
+I think you'll do, after all. Only be prudent, and keep your wits about
+you."
+
+"Where else should they be?" laughed Joe, as he marched off, feeling an
+inch or two taller than before.
+
+Then commenced the business of preparing for the journey--making
+acquaintance with the other recruits--enjoying the novelty of owning an
+outfit, being initiated into the mysteries of camp duty by the few old
+hunters who were to accompany the expedition, and learning something of
+their swagger and disregard of civilized observances.
+
+On the 17th of March, 1829, the company, numbering about sixty men, left
+St. Louis, and proceeded on horses and mules, with pack-horses for the
+goods, up through the state of Missouri. Camp-life commenced at the
+start; and this being the season of the year when the weather is most
+disagreeable, its romance rapidly melted away with the snow and sleet
+which varied the sharp spring wind and the frequent cold rains. The
+recruits went through all the little mishaps incident to the business
+and to their inexperience, such as involuntary somersaults over the
+heads of their mules, bloody noses, bruises, dusty faces, bad colds,
+accidents in fording streams,--yet withal no very serious hurts or
+hindrances. Rough weather and severe exercise gave them wolfish
+appetites, which sweetened the coarse camp-fare and amateur cooking.
+
+Getting up at four o'clock of a March morning to kindle fires and
+attend to the animals was not the most delectable duty that our
+labor-despising young recruit could have chosen; but if he repented of
+the venture he had made nobody was the wiser. Sleeping of stormy nights
+in corn-cribs or under sheds, could not be by any stretch of imagination
+converted into a highly romantic or heroic mode of lodging one's self.
+The squalid manner of living of the few inhabitants of Missouri at this
+period, gave a forlorn aspect to the country which is lacking in the
+wilderness itself;--a thought which sometimes occurred to Joe like a
+hope for the future. Mountain-fare he began to think must be better than
+the boiled corn and pork of the Missourians. Antelope and buffalo meat
+were more suitable viands for a hunter than coon and opossum. Thus those
+very duties which seemed undignified, and those hardships without danger
+or glory, which marked the beginning of his career made him ambitious of
+a more free and hazardous life on the plains and in the mountains.
+
+Among the recruits was a young man not far from Joe's own age, named
+Robert Newell, from Ohio. One morning, when the company was encamped
+near Boonville, the two young men were out looking for their mules, when
+they encountered an elderly woman returning from the milking yard with a
+gourd of milk. Newell made some remark on the style of vessel she
+carried, when she broke out in a sharp voice,--
+
+"Young chap, I'll bet you run off from your mother! Who'll mend them
+holes in the elbow of your coat? You're a purty looking chap to go to
+the mountains, among them Injuns! They'll _kill_ you. You'd better go
+back home!"
+
+Considering that these frontier people knew what Indian fighting was,
+this was no doubt sound and disinterested advice, notwithstanding it
+was given somewhat sharply. And so the young men felt it to be; but it
+was not in the nature of either of them to turn back from a course
+because there was danger in it. The thought of home, and somebody to
+mend their coats, was, however, for the time strongly presented. But the
+company moved on, with undiminished numbers, stared at by the few
+inhabitants, and having their own little adventures, until they came to
+Independence, the last station before committing themselves to the
+wilderness.
+
+At this place, which contained a dwelling-house, cotton-gin, and
+grocery, the camp tarried for a few days to adjust the packs, and
+prepare for a final start across the plains. On Sunday the settlers got
+together for a shooting-match, in which some of the travelers joined,
+without winning many laurels. Coon-skins, deer-skins, and bees-wax
+changed hands freely among the settlers, whose skill with the rifle was
+greater than their hoard of silver dollars. This was the last vestige of
+civilization which the company could hope to behold for years; and rude
+as it was, yet won from them many a parting look as they finally took
+their way across the plains toward the Arkansas River.
+
+Often on this part of the march a dead silence fell upon the party,
+which remained unbroken for miles of the way. Many no doubt were
+regretting homes by them abandoned, or wondering dreamily how many and
+whom of that company would ever see the Missouri country again. Many
+indeed went the way the woman of the gourd had prophesied; but not the
+hero of this story, nor his comrade Newell.
+
+The route of Captain Sublette led across the country from near the mouth
+of the Kansas River to the River Arkansas; thence to the South Fork of
+the Platte; thence on to the North Fork of that River, to where Ft.
+Laramie now stands; thence up the North Fork to the Sweetwater, and
+thence across in a still northwesterly direction to the head of Wind
+River.
+
+The manner of camp-travel is now so well known through the writings of
+Irving, and still more from the great numbers which have crossed the
+plains since _Astoria_ and _Bonneville_ were written, that it would be
+superfluous here to enter upon a particular description of a train on
+that journey. A strict half-military discipline had to be maintained,
+regular duties assigned to each person, precautions taken against the
+loss of animals either by straying or Indian stampeding, etc. Some of
+the men were appointed as camp-keepers, who had all these things to look
+after, besides standing guard. A few were selected as hunters, and these
+were free to come and go, as their calling required. None but the most
+experienced were chosen for hunters, on a march; therefore our recruit
+could not aspire to that dignity yet.
+
+The first adventure the company met with worthy of mention after leaving
+Independence, was in crossing the country between the Arkansas and the
+Platte. Here the camp was surprised one morning by a band of Indians a
+thousand strong, that came sweeping down upon them in such warlike style
+that even Captain Sublette was fain to believe it his last battle. Upon
+the open prairie there is no such thing as flight, nor any cover under
+which to conceal a party even for a few moments. It is always fight or
+die, if the assailants are in the humor for war.
+
+Happily on this occasion the band proved to be more peaceably disposed
+than their appearance indicated, being the warriors of several
+tribes--the Sioux, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Cheyennes, who had been
+holding a council to consider probably what mischief they could do to
+some other tribes. The spectacle they presented as they came at full
+speed on horseback, armed, painted, brandishing their weapons, and
+yelling in first-rate Indian style, was one which might well strike with
+a palsy the stoutest heart and arm. What were a band of sixty men
+against a thousand armed warriors in full fighting trim, with spears,
+shields, bows, battle-axes, and not a few guns?
+
+But it is the rule of the mountain-men to _fight_--and that there is a
+chance for life until the breath is out of the body; therefore Captain
+Sublette had his little force drawn up in line of battle. On came the
+savages, whooping and swinging their weapons above their heads. Sublette
+turned to his men. "When you hear my shot, then fire." Still they came
+on, until within about fifty paces of the line of waiting men. Sublette
+turned his head, and saw his command with their guns all up to their
+faces ready to fire, then raised his own gun. Just at this moment the
+principal chief sprang off his horse and laid his weapon on the ground,
+making signs of peace. Then followed a talk, and after the giving of a
+considerable present, Sublette was allowed to depart. This he did with
+all dispatch, the company putting as much distance as possible between
+themselves and their visitors before making their next camp. Considering
+the warlike character of these tribes and their superior numbers, it was
+as narrow an escape on the part of the company as it was an exceptional
+freak of generosity on the part of the savages to allow it. But Indians
+have all a great respect for a man who shows no fear; and it was most
+probably the warlike movement of Captain Sublette and his party which
+inspired a willingness on the part of the chief to accept a present,
+when he had the power to have taken the whole train. Besides, according
+to Indian logic, the present cost him nothing, and it might cost him
+many warriors to capture the train. Had there been the least wavering
+on Sublette's part, or fear in the countenances of his men, the end of
+the affair would have been different. This adventure was a grand
+initiation of the raw recruits, giving them both an insight into savage
+modes of attack, and an opportunity to test their own nerve.
+
+The company proceeded without accident, and arrived, about the first of
+July, at the rendezvous, which was appointed for this year on the Popo
+Agie, one of the streams which form the head-waters of Bighorn River.
+
+Now, indeed, young Joe had an opportunity of seeing something of the
+life upon which he had entered. As customary, when the traveling partner
+arrived at rendezvous with the year's merchandise, there was a meeting
+of all the partners, if they were within reach of the appointed place.
+On this occasion Smith was absent on his tour through California and
+Western Oregon, as has been related in the prefatory chapter. Jackson,
+the resident partner, and commander for the previous year, was not yet
+in; and Sublette had just arrived with the goods from St. Louis.
+
+All the different hunting and trapping parties and Indian allies were
+gathered together, so that the camp contained several hundred men, with
+their riding and pack-horses. Nor were Indian women and children wanting
+to give variety and an appearance of domesticity to the scene.
+
+[Illustration: _THE SUMMER RENDEZVOUS._]
+
+The Summer rendezvous was always chosen in some valley where there was
+grass for the animals, and game for the camp. The plains along the Popo
+Agie, besides furnishing these necessary bounties, were bordered by
+picturesque mountain ranges, whose naked bluffs of red sandstone glowed
+in the morning and evening sun with a mellowness of coloring charming to
+the eye of the Virginia recruit. The waving grass of the plain,
+variegated with wild flowers; the clear summer heavens flecked with
+white clouds that threw soft shadows in passing; the grazing animals
+scattered about the meadows; the lodges of the _Booshways_,[A] around
+which clustered the camp in motley garb and brilliant coloring; gay
+laughter, and the murmur of soft Indian voices, all made up a most
+spirited and enchanting picture, in which the eye of an artist could not
+fail to delight.
+
+    [A] Leaders or chiefs--corrupted from the French of Bourgeois, and
+    borrowed from the Canadians.
+
+But as the goods were opened the scene grew livelier. All were eager to
+purchase, most of the trappers to the full amount of their year's wages;
+and some of them, generally free trappers, went in debt to the company
+to a very considerable amount, after spending the value of a year's
+labor, privation, and danger, at the rate of several hundred dollars in
+a single day.
+
+The difference between a hired and a free trapper was greatly in favor
+of the latter. The hired trapper was regularly indentured, and bound not
+only to hunt and trap for his employers, but also to perform any duty
+required of him in camp. The Booshway, or the trader, or the partisan,
+(leader of the detachment,) had him under his command, to make him take
+charge of, load and unload the horses, stand guard, cook, hunt fuel, or,
+in short, do any and every duty. In return for this toilsome service he
+received an outfit of traps, arms and ammunition, horses, and whatever
+his service required. Besides his outfit, he received no more than three
+or four hundred dollars a year as wages.
+
+There was also a class of free trappers, who were furnished with their
+outfit by the company they trapped for, and who were obliged to agree to
+a certain stipulated price for their furs before the hunt commenced.
+But the genuine free trapper regarded himself as greatly the superior of
+either of the foregoing classes. He had his own horses and
+accoutrements, arms and ammunition. He took what route he thought fit,
+hunted and trapped when and where he chose; traded with the Indians;
+sold his furs to whoever offered highest for them; dressed flauntingly,
+and generally had an Indian wife and half-breed children. They prided
+themselves on their hardihood and courage; even on their recklessness
+and profligacy. Each claimed to own the best horse; to have had the
+wildest adventures; to have made the most narrow escapes; to have killed
+the greatest number of bears and Indians; to be the greatest favorite
+with the Indian belles, the greatest consumer of alcohol, and to have
+the most money to spend, _i. e._ the largest credit on the books of the
+company. If his hearers did not believe him, he was ready to run a race
+with him, to beat him at "old sledge," or to fight, if fighting was
+preferred,--ready to prove what he affirmed in any manner the company
+pleased.
+
+If the free trapper had a wife, she moved with the camp to which he
+attached himself, being furnished with a fine horse, caparisoned in the
+gayest and costliest manner. Her dress was of the finest goods the
+market afforded, and was suitably ornamented with beads, ribbons,
+fringes, and feathers. Her rank, too, as a free trapper's wife, gave her
+consequence not only in her own eyes, but in those of her tribe, and
+protected her from that slavish drudgery to which as the wife of an
+Indian hunter or warrior she would have been subject. The only authority
+which the free trapper acknowledged was that of his Indian spouse, who
+generally ruled in the lodge, however her lord blustered outside.
+
+One of the free trapper's special delights was to take in hand the raw
+recruits, to gorge their wonder with his boastful tales, and to amuse
+himself with shocking his pupil's civilized notions of propriety. Joe
+Meek did not escape this sort of "breaking in;" and if it should appear
+in the course of this narrative that he proved an apt scholar, it will
+but illustrate a truth--that high spirits and fine talents tempt the
+tempter to win them over to his ranks. But Joe was not won over all at
+once. He beheld the beautiful spectacle of the encampment as it has been
+described, giving life and enchantment to the summer landscape, changed
+into a scene of the wildest carousal, going from bad to worse, until
+from harmless noise and bluster it came to fighting and loss of life. At
+this first rendezvous he was shocked to behold the revolting exhibition
+of four trappers playing at a game of cards with the dead body of a
+comrade for a card-table! Such was the indifference to all the natural
+and ordinary emotions which these veterans of the wilderness cultivated
+in themselves, and inculcated in those who came under their influence.
+Scenes like this at first had the effect to bring feelings of
+home-sickness, while it inspired by contrast a sort of penitential and
+religious feeling also. According to Meek's account of those early days
+in the mountains, he said some secret prayers, and shed some secret
+tears. But this did not last long. The force of example, and especially
+the force of ridicule, is very potent with the young; nor are we quite
+free from their influence later in life.
+
+If the gambling, swearing, drinking, and fighting at first astonished
+and alarmed the unsophisticated Joe, he found at the same time something
+to admire, and that he felt to be congenial with his own disposition, in
+the fearlessness, the contempt of sordid gain, the hearty merriment and
+frolicsome abandon of the better portion of the men about him. A spirit
+of emulation arose in him to become as brave as the bravest, as hardy as
+the hardiest, and as gay as the gayest, even while his feelings still
+revolted at many things which his heroic models were openly guilty of.
+If at any time in the future course of this narrative, Joe is discovered
+to have taken leave of his early scruples, the reader will considerately
+remember the associations by which he was surrounded for years, until
+the memory of the pious teachings of his childhood was nearly, if not
+quite, obliterated. To "nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in
+malice," should be the frame of mind in which both the writer and reader
+of Joe's adventures should strive to maintain himself.
+
+Before our hero is ushered upon the active scenes of a trapper's life,
+it may be well to present to the reader a sort of _guide to camp life_,
+in order that he may be able to understand some of its technicalities,
+as they may be casually mentioned hereafter.
+
+When the large camp is on the march, it has a leader, generally one of
+the Booshways, who rides in advance, or at the head of the column.
+Near him is a led mule, chosen for its qualities of speed and
+trustworthiness, on which are packed two small trunks that balance each
+other like panniers, and which contain the company's books, papers, and
+articles of agreement with the men. Then follow the pack animals, each
+one bearing three packs--one on each side, and one on top--so nicely
+adjusted as not to slip in traveling. These are in charge of certain men
+called camp-keepers, who have each three of these to look after. The
+trappers and hunters have two horses, or mules, one to ride, and one to
+pack their traps. If there are women and children in the train, all are
+mounted. Where the country is safe, the caravan moves in single file,
+often stretching out for half or three-quarters of a mile. At the end
+of the column rides the second man, or "little Booshway," as the men
+call him; usually a hired officer, whose business it is to look after
+the order and condition of the whole camp.
+
+[Illustration: MULE PACKING.]
+
+On arriving at a suitable spot to make the night camp, the leader stops,
+dismounts in the particular space which is to be devoted to himself in
+its midst. The others, as they come up, form a circle; the "second man"
+bringing up the rear, to be sure all are there. He then proceeds to
+appoint every man a place in the circle, and to examine the horses'
+backs to see if any are sore. The horses are then turned out, under a
+guard, to graze; but before darkness comes on are placed inside the
+ring, and picketed by a stake driven in the earth, or with two feet so
+tied together as to prevent easy or free locomotion. The men are divided
+into messes: so many trappers and so many camp-keepers to a mess. The
+business of eating is not a very elaborate one, where the sole article
+of diet is meat, either dried or roasted. By a certain hour all is quiet
+in camp, and only the guard is awake. At times during the night, the
+leader, or the officer of the guard, gives the guard a challenge--"all's
+well!" which is answered by "all's well!"
+
+In the morning at daylight, or sometimes not till sunrise, according to
+the safe or dangerous locality, the second man comes forth from his
+lodge and cries in French, "_leve, leve, leve, leve, leve!_" fifteen or
+twenty times, which is the command to rise. In about five minutes more
+he cries out again, in French, "_leche lego, leche lego!_" or turn out,
+turn out; at which command all come out from the lodges, and the horses
+are turned loose to feed; but not before a horseman has galloped all
+round the camp at some distance, and discovered every thing to be safe
+in the neighborhood. Again, when the horses have been sufficiently fed,
+under the eye of a guard, they are driven up, the packs replaced, the
+train mounted, and once more it moves off, in the order before
+mentioned.
+
+In a settled camp, as in winter, there are other regulations. The leader
+and the second man occupy the same relative positions; but other minor
+regulations are observed. The duty of a trapper, for instance, in the
+trapping season, is only to trap, and take care of his own horses. When
+he comes in at night, he takes his beaver to the clerk, and the number
+is counted off, and placed to his credit. Not he, but the camp-keepers,
+take off the skins and dry them. In the winter camp there are six
+persons to a lodge: four trappers and two camp-keepers; therefore the
+trappers are well waited upon, their only duty being to hunt, in turns,
+for the camp. When a piece of game is brought in,--a deer, an antelope,
+or buffalo meat,--it is thrown down on the heap which accumulates in
+front of the Booshway's lodge; and the second man stands by and cuts it
+up, or has it cut up for him. The first man who chances to come along,
+is ordered to stand still and turn his back to the pile of game, while
+the "little Booshway" lays hold of a piece that has been cut off, and
+asks in a loud voice--"who will have this?"--and the man answering for
+him, says, "the Booshway," or perhaps "number six," or "number
+twenty"--meaning certain messes; and the number is called to come and
+take their meat. In this blind way the meat is portioned off; strongly
+reminding one of the game of "button, button, who has the button?" In
+this chance game of the meat, the Booshway fares no better than his men;
+unless, in rare instances, the little Booshway should indicate to the
+man who calls off, that a certain choice piece is designed for the mess
+of the leader or the second man.
+
+A gun is never allowed to be fired in camp under any provocation, short
+of an Indian raid; but the guns are frequently inspected, to see if they
+are in order; and woe to the careless camp-keeper who neglects this or
+any other duty. When the second man comes around, and finds a piece of
+work imperfectly done, whether it be cleaning the firearms, making a
+hair rope, or a skin lodge, or washing a horse's back, he does not
+threaten the offender with personal chastisement, but calls up another
+man and asks him, "Can _you_ do this properly?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I will give you ten dollars to do it;" and the ten dollars is set down
+to the account of the inefficient camp-keeper. But he does not risk
+forfeiting another ten dollars in the same manner.
+
+In the spring, when the camp breaks up, the skins which have been used
+all winter for lodges are cut up to make moccasins: because from their
+having been thoroughly smoked by the lodge fires they do not shrink in
+wetting, like raw skins. This is an important quality in a moccasin, as
+a trapper is almost constantly in the water, and should not his
+moccasins be smoked they will close upon his feet, in drying, like a
+vice. Sometimes after trapping all day, the tired and soaked trapper
+lies down in his blankets at night, still wet. But by-and-by he is
+wakened by the pinching of his moccasins, and is obliged to rise and
+seek the water again to relieve himself of the pain. For the same
+reason, when spring comes, the trapper is forced to cut off the lower
+half of his buckskin breeches, and piece them down with blanket leggins,
+which he wears all through the trapping season.
+
+Such were a few of the peculiarities, and the hardships also, of a life
+in the Rocky Mountains. If the camp discipline, and the dangers and
+hardships to which a raw recruit was exposed, failed to harden him to
+the service in one year, he was rejected as a "trifling fellow," and
+sent back to the settlement the next year. It was not probable,
+therefore, that the mountain-man often was detected in complaining at
+his lot. If he was miserable, he was laughed at; and he soon learned to
+laugh at his own miseries, as well as to laugh back at his comrades.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+The business of the rendezvous occupied about a month. In this period
+the men, Indian allies, and other Indian parties who usually visited the
+camp at this time, were all supplied with goods. The remaining
+merchandise was adjusted for the convenience of the different traders
+who should be sent out through all the country traversed by the company.
+Sublette then decided upon their routes, dividing up his forces into
+camps, which took each its appointed course, detaching as it proceeded
+small parties of trappers to all the hunting grounds in the
+neighborhood. These smaller camps were ordered to meet at certain times
+and places, to report progress, collect and cache their furs, and "count
+noses." If certain parties failed to arrive, others were sent out in
+search for them.
+
+This year, in the absence of Smith and Jackson, a considerable party was
+dispatched, under Milton Sublette, brother of the Captain, and two other
+free trappers and traders, Frapp and Jervais, to traverse the country
+down along the Bighorn River. Captain Sublette took a large party, among
+whom was Joe Meek, across the mountains to trap on the Snake River, in
+opposition to the Hudson's Bay Company. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company
+had hitherto avoided this country, except when Smith had once crossed to
+the head-waters of the Snake with a small party of five trappers. But
+Smith and Sublette had determined to oppose themselves to the British
+traders who occupied so large an extent of territory presumed to be
+American; and it had been agreed between them to meet this year on Snake
+River on Sublette's return from St. Louis, and Smith's from his
+California tour. What befel Smith's party before reaching the Columbia,
+has already been related; also his reception by the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and his departure from Vancouver.
+
+Sublette led his company up the valley of the Wind River, across the
+mountains, and on to the very head-waters of the Lewis or Snake River.
+Here he fell in with Jackson, in the valley of Lewis Lake, called
+Jackson's Hole, and remained on the borders of this lake for some time,
+waiting for Smith, whose non-appearance began to create a good deal of
+uneasiness. At length runners were dispatched in all directions looking
+for the lost Booshway.
+
+The detachment to which Meek was assigned had the pleasure and honor of
+discovering the hiding place of the missing partner, which was in
+Pierre's Hole, a mountain valley about thirty miles long and of half
+that width, which subsequently was much frequented by the camps of the
+various fur companies. He was found trapping and exploring, in company
+with four men only, one of whom was Black, who with him escaped from the
+Umpqua Indians, as before related.
+
+Notwithstanding the excitement and elation attendant upon the success of
+his party, Meek found time to admire the magnificent scenery of the
+valley, which is bounded on two sides by broken and picturesque ranges,
+and overlooked by that magnificent group of mountains, called the Three
+Tetons, towering to a height of fourteen thousand feet. This emerald cup
+set in its rim of amethystine mountains, was so pleasant a sight to the
+mountain-men that camp was moved to it without delay, where it remained
+until some time in September, recruiting its animals and preparing for
+the fall hunt.
+
+Here again the trappers indulged in their noisy sports and rejoicing,
+ostensibly on account of the return of the long-absent Booshway. There
+was little said of the men who had perished in that unfortunate
+expedition. "Poor fellow! out of luck;" was the usual burial rite which
+the memory of a dead comrade received. So much and no more. They could
+indulge in noisy rejoicings over a lost comrade restored; but the dead
+one was not mentioned. Nor was this apparently heartless and heedless
+manner so irrational or unfeeling as it seemed. Everybody understood one
+thing in the mountains--that he must keep his life by his own courage
+and valor, or at the least by his own prudence. Unseen dangers always
+lay in wait for him. The arrow or tomahawk of the Indian, the blow of
+the grizzly bear, the mis-step on the dizzy or slippery height, the rush
+of boiling and foaming floods, freezing cold, famine--these were the
+most common forms of peril, yet did not embrace even then all the forms
+in which Death sought his victims in the wilderness. The avoidance of
+painful reminders, such as the loss of a party of men, was a natural
+instinct, involving also a principle of self defence--since to have weak
+hearts would be the surest road to defeat in the next dangerous
+encounter. To keep their hearts "big," they must be gay, they must not
+remember the miserable fate of many of their one-time comrades. Think of
+that, stern moralist and martinet in propriety! Your fur collar hangs in
+the gas-lighted hall. In your luxurious dressing gown and slippers, by
+the warmth of a glowing grate, you muse upon the depravity of your
+fellow men. But imagine yourself, if you can, in the heart of an
+interminable wilderness. Let the snow be three or four feet deep, game
+scarce, Indians on your track: escaped from these dangers, once more
+beside a camp fire, with a roast of buffalo meat on a stick before it,
+and several of your companions similarly escaped, and destined for the
+same chances to-morrow, around you. Do you fancy you should give much
+time to lamenting the less lucky fellows who were left behind frozen,
+starved, or scalped? Not you. You would be fortifying yourself against
+to-morrow, when the same terrors might lay in wait for you. Jedediah
+Smith was a pious man; one of the few that ever resided in the Rocky
+Mountains, and led a band of reckless trappers; but he did not turn back
+to his camp when he saw it attacked on the Umpqua, nor stop to lament
+his murdered men. The law of self-preservation is strong in the
+wilderness. "Keep up your heart to-day, for to-morrow you may die," is
+the motto of the trapper.
+
+In the conference which took place between Smith and Sublette, the
+former insisted that on account of the kind services of the Hudson's Bay
+Company toward himself and the three other survivors of his party, they
+should withdraw their trappers and traders from the western side of the
+mountains for the present, so as not to have them come in conflict with
+those of that company. To this proposition Sublette reluctantly
+consented, and orders were issued for moving once more to the east,
+before going into winter camp, which was appointed for the Wind River
+Valley.
+
+In the meantime Joe Meek was sent out with a party to take his first
+hunt for beaver as a hired trapper. The detachment to which he belonged
+traveled down Pierre's fork, the stream which watered the valley of
+Pierre's Hole, to its junction with Lewis' and Henry's forks where they
+unite to form the great Snake River. While trapping in this locality the
+party became aware of the vicinity of a roving band of Blackfeet, and in
+consequence, redoubled their usual precautions while on the march.
+
+The Blackfeet were the tribe most dreaded in the Rocky Mountains, and
+went by the name of "Bugs Boys," which rendered into good English, meant
+"the devil's own." They are now so well known that to mention their
+characteristics seems like repeating a "twice-told tale;" but as they
+will appear so often in this narrative, Irving's account of them as he
+had it from Bonneville when he was fresh from the mountains, will, after
+all, not be out of place. "These savages," he says, "are the most
+dangerous banditti of the mountains, and the inveterate foe of the
+trapper. They are Ishmaelites of the first order, always with weapon in
+hand, ready for action. The young braves of the tribe, who are destitute
+of property, go to war for booty; to gain horses, and acquire the means
+of setting up a lodge, supporting a family, and entitling themselves to
+a seat in the public councils. The veteran warriors fight merely for the
+love of the thing, and the consequence which success gives them among
+their people. They are capital horsemen, and are generally well mounted
+on short, stout horses, similar to the prairie ponies, to be met with in
+St. Louis. When on a war party, however, they go on foot, to enable them
+to skulk through the country with greater secrecy; to keep in thickets
+and ravines, and use more adroit subterfuges and stratagems. Their mode
+of warfare is entirely by ambush, surprise, and sudden assaults in the
+night time. If they succeed in causing a panic, they dash forward with
+headlong fury; if the enemy is on the alert, and shows no signs of fear,
+they become wary and deliberate in their movements.
+
+"Some of them are armed in the primitive style, with bows and arrows;
+the greater part have American fusees, made after the fashion of those
+of the Hudson's Bay Company. These they procure at the trading post of
+the American Fur Company, on Maria's River, where they traffic their
+peltries for arms, ammunition, clothing, and trinkets. They are
+extremely fond of spirituous liquors and tobacco, for which nuisances
+they are ready to exchange, not merely their guns and horses, but even
+their wives and daughters. As they are a treacherous race, and have
+cherished a lurking hostility to the whites, ever since one of their
+tribe was killed by Mr. Lewis, the associate of General Clarke, in his
+exploring expedition across the Rocky Mountains, the American Fur
+Company is obliged constantly to keep at their post a garrison of sixty
+or seventy men."
+
+"Under the general name of Blackfeet are comprehended several tribes,
+such as the Surcies, the Peagans, the Blood Indians, and the Gros
+Ventres of the Prairies, who roam about the Southern branches of the
+Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, together with some other tribes further
+north. The bands infesting the Wind River Mountains, and the country
+adjacent, at the time of which we are treating, were Gros Ventres _of
+the Prairies_, which are not to be confounded with the Gros Ventres _of
+the Missouri_, who keep about the _lower_ part of that river, and are
+friendly to the white men."
+
+"This hostile band keeps about the head-waters of the Missouri, and
+numbers about nine hundred fighting men. Once in the course of two or
+three years they abandon their usual abodes and make a visit to the
+Arapahoes of the Arkansas. Their route lies either through the Crow
+country, and the Black Hills, or through the lands of the Nez Perces,
+Flatheads, Bannacks, and Shoshonies. As they enjoy their favorite state
+of hostility with all these tribes, their expeditions are prone to be
+conducted in the most lawless and predatory style; nor do they hesitate
+to extend their maraudings to any party of white men they meet with,
+following their trail, hovering about their camps, waylaying and
+dogging the caravans of the free traders, and murdering the solitary
+trapper. The consequences are frequent and desperate fights between them
+and the mountaineers, in the wild defiles and fastnesses of the Rocky
+Mountains." Such were the Blackfeet at the period of which we are
+writing; nor has their character changed at this day, as many of the
+Montana miners know to their cost.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+1830. Sublette's camp commenced moving back to the east side of the
+Rocky Mountains in October. Its course was up Henry's fork of the Snake
+River, through the North Pass to Missouri Lake, in which rises the
+Madison fork of the Missouri River. The beaver were very plenty on
+Henry's fork, and our young trapper had great success in making up his
+packs; having learned the art of setting his traps very readily. The
+manner in which the trapper takes his game is as follows:--
+
+He has an ordinary steel trap weighing five pounds, attached to a chain
+five feet long, with a swivel and ring at the end, which plays round
+what is called the _float_, a dry stick of wood, about six feet long.
+The trapper wades out into the stream, which is shallow, and cuts with
+his knife a bed for the trap, five or six inches under water. He then
+takes the float out the whole length of the chain in the direction of
+the centre of the stream, and drives it into the mud, so fast that the
+beaver cannot draw it out; at the same time tying the other end by a
+thong to the bank. A small stick or twig, dipped in musk or castor,
+serves for bait, and is placed so as to hang directly above the trap,
+which is now set. The trapper then throws water plentifully over the
+adjacent bank to conceal any foot prints or scent by which the beaver
+would be alarmed, and going to some distance wades out of the stream.
+
+In setting a trap, several things are to be observed with care:--first,
+that the trap is firmly fixed, and the proper distance from the
+bank--for if the beaver can get on shore with the trap, he will cut off
+his foot to escape: secondly, that the float is of dry wood, for should
+it not be, the little animal will cut it off at a stroke, and swimming
+with the trap to the middle of the dam, be drowned by its weight. In the
+latter case, when the hunter visits his traps in the morning, he is
+under the necessity of plunging into the water and swimming out to dive
+for the missing trap, and his game. Should the morning be frosty and
+chill, as it very frequently is in the mountains, diving for traps is
+not the pleasantest exercise. In placing the bait, care must be taken to
+fix it just where the beaver in reaching it will spring the trap. If the
+bait-stick be placed high, the hind foot of the beaver will be caught:
+if low, his fore foot.
+
+The manner in which the beavers make their dam, and construct their
+lodge, has long been reckoned among the wonders of the animal creation;
+and while some observers have claimed for the little creature more
+sagacity than it really possesses, its instinct is still sufficiently
+wonderful. It is certainly true that it knows how to keep the water of a
+stream to a certain level, by means of an obstruction; and that it cuts
+down trees for the purpose of backing up the water by a dam. It is not
+true, however, that it can always fell a tree in the direction required
+for this purpose. The timber about a beaver dam is felled in all
+directions; but as trees that grow near the water, generally lean
+towards it, the tree, when cut, takes the proper direction by
+gravitation alone. The beaver then proceeds to cut up the fallen timber
+into lengths of about three feet, and to convey them to the spot where
+the dam is to be situated, securing them in their places by means of mud
+and stones. The work is commenced when the water is low, and carried on
+as it rises, until it has attained the desired height. And not only is
+it made of the requisite height and strength, but its shape is suited
+exactly to the nature of the stream in which it is built. If the water
+is sluggish the dam is straight; if rapid and turbulent, the barrier is
+constructed of a convex form, the better to resist the action of the
+water.
+
+[Illustration: BEAVER-DAM.]
+
+When the beavers have once commenced a dam, its extent and thickness are
+continually augmented, not only by their labors, but by accidental
+accumulations; thus accommodating itself to the size of the growing
+community. At length, after a lapse of many years, the water being
+spread over a considerable tract, and filled up by yearly accumulations
+of drift-wood and earth, seeds take root in the new made ground, and the
+old beaver-dams become green meadows, or thickets of cotton-wood and
+willow.
+
+The food on which the beaver subsists, is the bark of the young trees in
+its neighborhood; and when laying up a winter store, the whole community
+join in the labor of selecting, cutting up, and carrying the strips to
+their store-houses under water. They do not, as some writers have
+affirmed, when cutting wood for a dam strip off the bark and store it in
+their lodges for winter consumption; but only carry under water the
+stick with the bark on.
+
+     "The beaver has two incisors and eight molars in each jaw; and
+     empty hollows where the canine teeth might be. The upper pair of
+     cutting teeth extend far into the jaw, with a curve of rather more
+     than a semicircle; and the lower pair of incisors form rather less
+     than a semicircle. Sometimes, one of these teeth gets broken and
+     then the opposite tooth continues growing until it forms a nearly
+     complete circle. The chewing muscle of the beaver is strengthened
+     by tendons in such a way as to give it great power. But more is
+     needed to enable the beaver to eat wood. The insalivation of the
+     dry food is provided for by the extraordinary size of the salivary
+     glands.
+
+     "Now, every part of these instruments is of vital importance to the
+     beavers. The loss of an incisor involves the formation of an
+     obstructive circular tooth; deficiency of saliva renders the food
+     indigestible; and when old age comes and the enamel is worn down
+     faster than it is renewed, the beaver is not longer able to cut
+     branches for its support. Old, feeble and poor, unable to borrow,
+     and ashamed to beg, he steals cuttings, and subjects himself to the
+     penalty assigned to theft. Aged beavers are often found dead with
+     gashes in their bodies, showing that they have been killed by their
+     mates. In the fall of 1864, a very aged beaver was caught in one of
+     the dams of the Esconawba River, and this was the reflection of a
+     great authority on the occasion, one Ah-she-goes, an Ojibwa
+     trapper: 'Had he escaped the trap he would have been killed before
+     the winter was over, by other beavers, for stealing cuttings.'
+
+     "When the beavers are about two or three years old, their teeth are
+     in their best condition for cutting. On the Upper Missouri, they
+     cut the cotton tree and the willow bush; around Hudson's Bay and
+     Lake Superior, in addition to the willow they cut the poplar and
+     maple, hemlock, spruce and pine. The cutting is round and round,
+     and deepest upon the side on which they wish the tree to fall.
+     Indians and trappers have seen beavers cutting trees. The felling
+     of a tree is a family affair. No more than a single pair with two
+     or three young ones are engaged at a time. The adults take the
+     cutting in turns, one gnawing and the other watching; and
+     occasionally a youngster trying his incisors. The beaver whilst
+     gnawing sits on his plantigrade hind legs, which keep him
+     conveniently upright. When the tree begins to crackle the beavers
+     work cautiously, and when it crashes down they plunge into the
+     pond, fearful lest the noise should attract an enemy to the spot.
+     After the tree-fall, comes the lopping of the branches. A single
+     tree may be winter provision for a family. Branches five or six
+     inches thick have to be cut into proper lengths for transport, and
+     are then taken home."
+
+The lodge of a beaver is generally about six feet in diameter, on the
+inside, and about half as high. They are rounded or dome-shaped on the
+outside, with very thick walls, and communicate with the land by
+subterranean passages, below the depth at which the water freezes in
+winter. Each lodge is made to accommodate several inmates, who have
+their beds ranged round the walls, much as the Indian does in his tent.
+They are very cleanly, too, and after eating, carry out the sticks that
+have been stripped, and either use them in repairing their dam, or throw
+them into the stream below.
+
+During the summer months the beavers abandon their lodges, and disport
+themselves about the streams, sometimes going on long journeys; or if
+any remain at home, they are the mothers of young families. About the
+last of August the community returns to its home, and begins
+preparations for the domestic cares of the long winter months.
+
+An exception to this rule is that of certain individuals, who have no
+families, make no dam, and never live in lodges, but burrow in
+subterranean tunnels. They are always found to be males, whom the French
+trappers call "les parasseux," or idlers; and the American trappers,
+"bachelors." Several of them are sometimes found in one abode, which the
+trappers facetiously denominate "bachelor's hall." Being taken with less
+difficulty than the more domestic beaver, the trapper is always glad to
+come upon their habitations.
+
+The trapping season is usually in the spring and autumn. But should the
+hunters find it necessary to continue their work in winter, they capture
+the beaver by sounding on the ice until an aperture is discovered, when
+the ice is cut away and the opening closed up. Returning to the bank,
+they search for the subterranean passage, tracing its connection with
+the lodge; and by patient watching succeed in catching the beaver on
+some of its journeys between the water and the land. This, however, is
+not often resorted to when the hunt in the fall has been successful; or
+when not urged by famine to take the beaver for food.
+
+"Occasionally it happens," says Captain Bonneville, "that several
+members of a beaver family are trapped in succession. The survivors then
+become extremely shy, and can scarcely be "brought to medicine," to use
+the trappers' phrase for "taking the bait." In such case, the trapper
+gives up the use of the bait, and conceals his traps in the usual paths
+and crossing places of the household. The beaver being now completely
+"up to trap," approaches them cautiously, and springs them, ingeniously,
+with a stick. At other times, he turns the traps bottom upwards, by the
+same means, and occasionally even drags them to the barrier, and
+conceals them in the mud. The trapper now gives up the contest of
+ingenuity, and shouldering his traps, marches off, admitting that he is
+not yet "up to beaver."
+
+Before the camp moved from the forks of the Snake River, the haunting
+Blackfeet made their appearance openly. It was here that Meek had his
+first battle with that nation, with whom he subsequently had many a
+savage contest. They attacked the camp early in the morning, just as the
+call to turn out had sounded. But they had miscalculated their
+opportunity: the design having evidently been to stampede the horses and
+mules, at the hour and moment of their being turned loose to graze. They
+had been too hasty by a few minutes, so that when they charged on the
+camp pell-mell, firing a hundred guns at once, to frighten both horses
+and men, it happened that only a few of the animals had been turned out,
+and they had not yet got far off. The noise of the charge only turned
+them back to camp.
+
+In an instant's time, Fitzpatrick was mounted, and commanding the men to
+follow, he galloped at headlong speed round and round the camp, to drive
+back such of the horses as were straying, or had been frightened from
+their pickets. In this race, two horses were shot under him; but he
+escaped, and the camp-horses were saved. The battle now was to punish
+the thieves. They took their position, as usual with Indian fighters, in
+a narrow ravine; from whence the camp was forced to dislodge them, at a
+great disadvantage. This they did do, at last, after six hours of hard
+fighting, in which a few men were wounded, but none killed. The thieves
+skulked off, through the canyon, when they found themselves defeated,
+and were seen no more until the camp came to the woods which cover the
+western slope of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+But as the camp moved eastward, or rather in a northeasterly direction,
+through the pine forests between Pierre's Hole and the head-waters of
+the Missouri, it was continually harrassed by Blackfeet, and required a
+strong guard at night, when these marauders delighted to make an attack.
+The weather by this time was very cold in the mountains, and chilled the
+marrow of our young Virginian. The travel was hard, too, and the
+recruits pretty well worn out.
+
+One cold night, Meek was put on guard on the further side of the camp,
+with a veteran named Reese. But neither the veteran nor the youngster
+could resist the approaches of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," and went
+to sleep at their post of duty. When, during the night, Sublette came
+out of his tent and gave the challenge--"All's well!" there was no
+reply. To quote Meek's own language, "Sublette came round the horse-pen
+swearing and snorting. He was powerful mad. Before he got to where Reese
+was, he made so much noise that he waked him; and Reese, in a loud
+whisper, called to him, 'Down, Billy! Indians!' Sublette got down on his
+belly mighty quick. 'Whar? whar?' he asked.
+
+"'They were right there when you hollered so,' said Reese.
+
+"'Where is Meek?' whispered Sublette.
+
+"'He is trying to shoot one,' answered Reese, still in a whisper.
+
+"Reese then crawled over to whar I war, and told me what had been said,
+and informed me what to do. In a few minutes I crept cautiously over to
+Reese's post, when Sublette asked me how many Indians had been thar, and
+I told him I couldn't make out their number. In the morning a pair of
+Indian moccasins war found whar Reese _saw the Indians_, which I had
+_taken care to leave there_; and thus confirmed, our story got us the
+credit of vigilance, instead of our receiving our just dues for neglect
+of duty."
+
+It was sometime during the fall hunt in the Pine Woods, on the west side
+of the Rocky Mountains, that Meek had one of his earliest adventures
+with a bear. Two comrades, Craig and Nelson, and himself, while out
+trapping, left their horses, and traveled up a creek on foot, in search
+of beaver. They had not proceeded any great distance, before they came
+suddenly face to face with a red bear; so suddenly, indeed, that the men
+made a spring for the nearest trees. Craig and Meek ascended a large
+pine, which chanced to be nearest, and having many limbs, was easy to
+climb. Nelson happened to take to one of two small trees that grew close
+together; and the bear, fixing upon him for a victim, undertook to climb
+after him. With his back against one of these small trees, and his feet
+against the other, his bearship succeeded in reaching a point not far
+below Nelson's perch, when the trees opened with his weight, and down
+he went, with a shock that fairly shook the ground. But this bad luck
+only seemed to infuriate the beast, and up he went again, with the same
+result, each time almost reaching his enemy. With the second tumble he
+was not the least discouraged; but started up the third time, only to be
+dashed once more to the ground when he had attained a certain height. At
+the third fall, however, he became thoroughly disgusted with his want of
+success, and turned and ran at full speed into the woods.
+
+"Then," says Meek, "Craig began to sing, and I began to laugh; but
+Nelson took to swearing. 'O yes, you can laugh and sing now,' says
+Nelson; 'but you war quiet enough when the bear was around.' 'Why,
+Nelson,' I answered, 'you wouldn't have us noisy before that
+distinguished guest of yours?' But Nelson damned the wild beast; and
+Craig and I laughed, and said he didn't seem wild a bit. That's the way
+we hector each other in the mountains. If a man gets into trouble he is
+only laughed at: 'let him keep out; let him have better luck,' is what
+we say."
+
+The country traversed by Sublette in the fall of 1829, was unknown at
+that period, even to the fur companies, they having kept either farther
+to the south or to the north. Few, if any, white men had passed through
+it since Lewis and Clarke discovered the head-waters of the Missouri and
+the Snake Rivers, which flow from the opposite sides of the same
+mountain peaks. Even the toils and hardships of passing over mountains
+at this season of the year, did not deprive the trapper of the enjoyment
+of the magnificent scenery the region afforded. Splendid views, however,
+could not long beguile men who had little to eat, and who had yet a long
+journey to accomplish in cold, and surrounded by dangers, before
+reaching the wintering ground.
+
+In November the camp left Missouri Lake on the east side of the
+mountains, and crossed over, still northeasterly, on to the Gallatin
+fork of the Missouri River, passing over a very rough and broken
+country. They were, in fact, still in the midst of mountains, being
+spurs of the great Rocky range, and equally high and rugged. A
+particularly high mountain lay between them and the main Yellowstone
+River. This they had just crossed, with great fatigue and difficulty,
+and were resting the camp and horses for a few days on the river's bank,
+when the Blackfeet once more attacked them in considerable numbers. Two
+men were killed in this fight, and the camp thrown into confusion by the
+suddenness of the alarm. Capt. Sublette, however, got off, with most of
+his men, still pursued by the Indians.
+
+Not so our Joe, who this time was not in luck, but was cut off from
+camp, alone, and had to flee to the high mountains overlooking the
+Yellowstone. Here was a situation for a nineteen-year-old raw recruit!
+Knowing that the Blackfeet were on the trail of the camp, it was death
+to proceed in that direction. Some other route must be taken to come up
+with them; the country was entirely unknown to him; the cold severe; his
+mule, blanket, and gun, his only earthly possessions. On the latter he
+depended for food, but game was scarce; and besides, he thought the
+sound of his gun would frighten himself, so alone in the wilderness,
+swarming with stealthy foes.
+
+Hiding his mule in a thicket, he ascended to the mountain top to take a
+view of the country, and decide upon his course. And what a scene was
+that for the miserable boy, whose chance of meeting with his comrades
+again was small indeed! At his feet rolled the Yellowstone River,
+coursing away through the great plain to the eastward. To the north his
+eye follows the windings of the Missouri, as upon a map, but playing at
+hide-and-seek in amongst the mountains. Looking back, he saw the River
+Snake stretching its serpentine length through lava plains, far away, to
+its junction with the Columbia. To the north, and to the south, one
+white mountain rose above another as far as the eye could reach. What a
+mighty and magnificent world it seemed, to be alone in! Poor Joe
+succumbed to the influence of the thought, and wept.
+
+Having indulged in this sole remaining luxury of life, Joe picked up his
+resolution, and decided upon his course. To the southeast lay the Crow
+country, a land of plenty,--as the mountain-man regards plenty,--and
+there he could at least live; provided the Crows permitted him to do so.
+Besides, he had some hopes of falling in with one of the camps, by
+taking that course.
+
+Descending the mountain to the hiding-place of his mule, by which time
+it was dark night, hungry and freezing, Joe still could not light a
+fire, for fear of revealing his whereabouts to the Indians; nor could he
+remain to perish with cold. Travel he must, and travel he did, going he
+scarcely knew whither. Looking back upon the terrors and discomforts of
+that night, the veteran mountaineer yet regards it as about the most
+miserable one of his life. When day at length broke, he had made, as
+well as he could estimate the distance, about thirty miles. Traveling on
+toward the southeast, he had crossed the Yellowstone River, and still
+among the mountains, was obliged to abandon his mule and accoutrements,
+retaining only one blanket and his gun. Neither the mule nor himself had
+broken fast in the last two days. Keeping a southerly course for twenty
+miles more, over a rough and elevated country, he came, on the evening
+of the third day, upon a band of mountain sheep. With what eagerness did
+he hasten to kill, cook, and eat! Three days of fasting was, for a
+novice, quite sufficient to provide him with an appetite.
+
+Having eaten voraciously, and being quite overcome with fatigue, Joe
+fell asleep in his blanket, and slumbered quite deeply until morning.
+With the morning came biting blasts from the north, that made motion
+necessary if not pleasant. Refreshed by sleep and food, our traveler
+hastened on upon his solitary way, taking with him what sheep-meat he
+could carry, traversing the same rough and mountainous country as
+before. No incidents nor alarms varied the horrible and monotonous
+solitude of the wilderness. The very absence of anything to alarm was
+awful; for the bravest man is wretchedly nervous in the solitary
+presence of sublime Nature. Even the veteran hunter of the mountains can
+never entirely divest himself of this feeling of awe, when his single
+soul comes face to face with God's wonderful and beautiful handiwork.
+
+At the close of the fourth day, Joe made his lonely camp in a deep
+defile of the mountains, where a little fire and some roasted mutton
+again comforted his inner and outer man, and another night's sleep still
+farther refreshed his wearied frame. On the following morning, a very
+bleak and windy one, having breakfasted on his remaining piece of
+mutton, being desirous to learn something of the progress he had made,
+he ascended a low mountain in the neighborhood of his camp--and behold!
+the whole country beyond was smoking with the vapor from boiling
+springs, and burning with gasses, issuing from small craters, each of
+which was emitting a sharp whistling sound.
+
+When the first surprise of this astonishing scene had passed, Joe began
+to admire its effect in an artistic point of view. The morning being
+clear, with a sharp frost, he thought himself reminded of the city of
+Pittsburg, as he had beheld it on a winter morning, a couple of years
+before. This, however, related only to the rising smoke and vapor; for
+the extent of the volcanic region was immense, reaching far out of
+sight. The general face of the country was smooth and rolling, being a
+level plain, dotted with cone-shaped mounds. On the summits of these
+mounds were small craters from four to eight feet in diameter.
+Interspersed among these, on the level plain, were larger craters, some
+of them from four to six miles across. Out of these craters issued blue
+flames and molten brimstone.
+
+For some minutes Joe gazed and wondered. Curious thoughts came into his
+head, about hell and the day of doom. With that natural tendency to
+reckless gayety and humorous absurdities which some temperaments are
+sensible of in times of great excitement, he began to soliloquize. Said
+he, to himself, "I have been told the sun would be blown out, and the
+earth burnt up. If this infernal wind keeps up, I shouldn't be surprised
+if the sun war blown out. If the earth is _not_ burning up over thar,
+then it is that place the old Methodist preacher used to threaten me
+with. Any way it suits me to go and see what it's like."
+
+On descending to the plain described, the earth was found to have a
+hollow sound, and seemed threatening to break through. But Joe found the
+warmth of the place most delightful, after the freezing cold of the
+mountains, and remarked to himself again, that "if it war hell, it war a
+more agreeable climate than he had been in for some time."
+
+He had thought the country entirely desolate, as not a living creature
+had been seen in the vicinity; but while he stood gazing about him in
+curious amazement, he was startled by the report of two guns, followed
+by the Indian yell. While making rapid preparations for defence and
+flight, if either or both should be necessary, a familiar voice greeted
+him with the exclamation, "It _is_ old Joe!" When the adjective "old" is
+applied to one of Meek's age at that time, it is generally understood to
+be a term of endearment. "My feelings you may imagine," says the "old
+Uncle Joe" of the present time, in recalling the adventure.
+
+Being joined by these two associates, who had been looking for him, our
+traveler, no longer simply a raw recruit, but a hero of wonderful
+adventures, as well as the rest of the men, proceeded with them to camp,
+which they overtook the third day, attempting to cross the high
+mountains between the Yellowstone and the Bighorn Rivers. If Meek had
+seen hard times in the mountains alone, he did not find them much
+improved in camp. The snow was so deep that the men had to keep in
+advance, and break the road for the animals; and to make their condition
+still more trying, there were no provisions in camp, nor any prospect of
+plenty, for men or animals, until they should reach the buffalo country
+beyond the mountains.
+
+During this scarcity of provisions, some of those amusing incidents took
+place with which the mountaineer will contrive to lighten his own and
+his comrades' spirits, even in periods of the greatest suffering. One
+which we have permission to relate, has reference to what Joe Meek calls
+the "meanest act of his life."
+
+While the men were starving, a negro boy, belonging to Jedediah Smith,
+by some means was so fortunate as to have caught a porcupine, which he
+was roasting before the fire. Happening to turn his back for a moment,
+to observe something in camp, Meek and Reese snatched the tempting
+viand and made off with it, before the darkey discovered his loss. But
+when it was discovered, what a wail went up for the embezzled porcupine!
+Suspicion fixed upon the guilty parties, but as no one would 'peach on
+white men to save a "nigger's" rights, the poor, disappointed boy could
+do nothing but lament in vain, to the great amusement of the men, who
+upon the principle that "misery loves company," rather chuckled over
+than condemned Meek's "mean act."
+
+There was a sequel, however, to this little story. So much did the negro
+dwell upon the event, and the heartlessness of the men towards him, that
+in the following summer, when Smith was in St. Louis, he gave the boy
+his freedom and two hundred dollars, and left him in that city; so that
+it became a saying in the mountains, that "the nigger got his freedom
+for a porcupine."
+
+During this same march, a similar joke was played upon one of the men
+named Craig. He had caught a rabbit and put it up to roast before the
+fire--a tempting looking morsel to starving mountaineers. Some of his
+associates determined to see how it tasted, and Craig was told that the
+Booshways wished to speak with him at their lodge. While he obeyed this
+supposed command, the rabbit was spirited away, never more to be seen by
+mortal man. When Craig returned to the camp-fire, and beheld the place
+vacant where a rabbit so late was nicely roasting, his passion knew no
+bounds, and he declared his intention of cutting it out of the stomach
+that contained it. But as finding the identical stomach which contained
+it involved the cutting open of many that probably did not, in the
+search, he was fain to relinquish that mode of vengeance, together with
+his hopes of a supper. As Craig is still living, and is tormented by the
+belief that he knows the man who stole his rabbit, Mr. Meek takes this
+opportunity of assuring him, upon the word of a gentleman, that _he_ is
+not the man.
+
+While on the march over these mountains, owing to the depth of the snow,
+the company lost a hundred head of horses and mules, which sank in the
+yet unfrozen drifts, and could not be extricated. In despair at their
+situation, Jedediah Smith one day sent a man named Harris to the top of
+a high peak to take a view of the country, and ascertain their position.
+After a toilsome scramble the scout returned.
+
+"Well, what did you see, Harris?" asked Smith anxiously.
+
+"I saw the city of St. Louis, and one fellow taking a drink!" replied
+Harris; prefacing the assertion with a shocking oath.
+
+Smith asked no more questions. He understood by the man's answer that he
+had made no pleasing discoveries; and knew that they had still a weary
+way before them to reach the plains below. Besides, Smith was a
+religious man, and the coarse profanity of the mountaineers was very
+distasteful to him. "A very mild man, and a christian; and there were
+very few of them in the mountains," is the account given of him by the
+mountaineers themselves.
+
+The camp finally arrived without loss of life, except to the animals, on
+the plains of the Bighorn River, and came upon the waters of the
+Stinking Fork, a branch of this river, which derives its unfortunate
+appellation from the fact that it flows through a volcanic tract similar
+to the one discovered by Meek on the Yellowstone plains. This place
+afforded as much food for wonder to the whole camp, as the former one
+had to Joe; and the men unanimously pronounced it the "back door to that
+country which divines preach about." As this volcanic district had
+previously been seen by one of Lewis and Clarke's men, named Colter,
+while on a solitary hunt, and by him also denominated "hell," there must
+certainly have been something very suggestive in its appearance.
+
+If the mountains had proven barren, and inhospitably cold, this hot and
+sulphurous country offered no greater hospitality. In fact, the fumes
+which pervaded the air rendered it exceedingly noxious to every living
+thing, and the camp was fain to push on to the main stream of the
+Bighorn River. Here signs of trappers became apparent, and spies having
+been sent out discovered a camp of about forty men, under Milton
+Sublette, brother of Captain William Sublette, the same that had been
+detached the previous summer to hunt in that country. Smith and Sublette
+then cached their furs, and moving up the river joined the camp of M.
+Sublette.
+
+The manner of caching furs is this: A pit is dug to a depth of five or
+six feet in which to stand. The men then drift from this under a bank of
+solid earth, and excavate a room of considerable dimensions, in which
+the furs are deposited, and the apartment closed up. The pit is then
+filled up with earth, and the traces of digging obliterated or
+concealed. These caches are the only storehouses of the wilderness.
+
+While the men were recruiting themselves in the joint camp, the alarm of
+"Indians!" was given, and hurried cries of "shoot! shoot!" were uttered
+on the instant. Captain Sublette, however, checked this precipitation,
+and ordering the men to hold, allowed the Indians to approach, making
+signs of peace. They proved to be a war party of Crows, who after
+smoking the pipe of peace with the Captain, received from him a present
+of some tobacco, and departed.
+
+As soon as the camp was sufficiently recruited for traveling, the united
+companies set out again toward the south, and crossed the Horn mountains
+once more into Wind River Valley; having had altogether, a successful
+fall hunt, and made some important explorations, notwithstanding the
+severity of the weather and the difficulty of mountain traveling. It was
+about Christmas when the camp arrived on Wind River, and the cold
+intense. While the men celebrated Christmas, as best they might under
+the circumstances, Capt. Sublette started to St. Louis with one man,
+Harris, called among mountain-men Black Harris, on snowshoes, with a
+train of pack-dogs. Such was the indomitable energy and courage of this
+famous leader!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+1830. The furs collected by Jackson's company were cached on the Wind
+River; and the cold still being very severe, and game scarce, the two
+remaining leaders, Smith and Jackson, set out on the first of January
+with the whole camp, for the buffalo country, on the Powder River, a
+distance of about one hundred and fifty miles. "Times were hard in
+camp," when mountains had to be crossed in the depth of winter.
+
+The animals had to be subsisted on the bark of the sweet cotton-wood,
+which grows along the streams and in the valleys on the east side of the
+Rocky Mountains, but is nowhere to be found west of that range. This way
+of providing for his horses and mules involved no trifling amount of
+labor, when each man had to furnish food for several of them. To collect
+this bark, the men carried the smooth limbs of the cotton-wood to camp,
+where, beside the camp-fire, they shaved off the sweet, green bark with
+a hunting-knife transformed into a drawing-knife by fastening a piece of
+wood to its point; or, in case the cotton-wood was not convenient, the
+bark was peeled off, and carried to camp in a blanket. So nutritious is
+it, that animals fatten upon it quite as well as upon oats.
+
+[Illustration: HUNTER'S WINTER CAMP.]
+
+In the large cotton-wood bottoms on the Yellowstone River, it sometimes
+became necessary to station a double guard to keep the buffalo out of
+camp, so numerous were they, when the severity of the cold drove them
+from the prairies to these cotton-wood thickets for subsistence. It
+was, therefore, of double importance to make the winter camp where the
+cotton-wood was plenty; since not only did it furnish the animals of the
+camp with food, but by attracting buffalo, made game plenty for the men.
+To such a hunter's paradise on Powder River, the camp was now traveling,
+and arrived, after a hard, cold march, about the middle of January, when
+the whole encampment went into winter quarters, to remain until the
+opening of spring.
+
+This was the occasion when the mountain-man "lived fat" and enjoyed
+life: a season of plenty, of relaxation, of amusement, of
+acquaintanceship with all the company, of gayety, and of "busy
+idleness." Through the day, hunting parties were coming and going, men
+were cooking, drying meat, making moccasins, cleaning their arms,
+wrestling, playing games, and, in short, everything that an isolated
+community of hardy men could resort to for occupation, was resorted to
+by these mountaineers. Nor was there wanting, in the appearance of the
+camp, the variety, and that picturesque air imparted by a mingling of
+the native element; for what with their Indian allies, their native
+wives, and numerous children, the mountaineers' camp was a motley
+assemblage; and the trappers themselves, with their affectation of
+Indian coxcombry, not the least picturesque individuals.
+
+The change wrought in a wilderness landscape by the arrival of the grand
+camp was wonderful indeed. Instead of Nature's superb silence and
+majestic loneliness, there was the sound of men's voices in boisterous
+laughter, or the busy hum of conversation; the loud-resounding stroke of
+the axe; the sharp report of the rifle; the neighing of horses, and
+braying of mules; the Indian whoop and yell; and all that not unpleasing
+confusion of sound which accompanies the movements of the creature man.
+Over the plain, only dotted until now with shadows of clouds, or the
+transitory passage of the deer, the antelope, or the bear, were
+scattered hundreds of lodges and immense herds of grazing animals. Even
+the atmosphere itself seemed changed from its original purity, and
+became clouded with the smoke from many camp-fires. And all this change
+might go as quickly as it came. The tent struck and the march resumed,
+solitude reigned once more, and only the cloud dotted the silent
+landscape.
+
+If the day was busy and gleesome, the night had its charms as well.
+Gathered about the shining fires, groups of men in fantastic costumes
+told tales of marvelous adventures, or sung some old-remembered song, or
+were absorbed in games of chance. Some of the better educated men, who
+had once known and loved books, but whom some mishap in life had
+banished to the wilderness, recalled their favorite authors, and recited
+passages once treasured, now growing unfamiliar; or whispered to some
+chosen confrere the saddened history of his earlier years, and charged
+him thus and thus, should ever-ready death surprise himself in the next
+spring's hunt.
+
+It will not be thought discreditable to our young trapper, Joe, that he
+learned to read by the light of the camp-fire. Becoming sensible, even
+in the wilderness, of the deficiencies of his early education, he found
+a teacher in a comrade, named Green, and soon acquired sufficient
+knowledge to enjoy an old copy of Shakspeare; which, with a Bible, was
+carried about with the property of the camp.
+
+In this life of careless gayety and plenty, the whole company was
+allowed to remain without interruption, until the first of April, when
+it was divided, and once more started on the march. Jackson, or "Davey,"
+as he was called by the men, with about half the company, left for the
+Snake country. The remainder, among whom was Meek, started north, with
+Smith for commander, and James Bridger as pilot.
+
+Crossing the mountains, ranges of which divide the tributary streams of
+the Yellowstone from each other, the first halt was made on Tongue
+River. From thence the camp proceeded to the Bighorn River. Through all
+this country game was in abundance,--buffalo, elk, and bear, and beaver
+also plenty. In mountain phrase, "times were good on this hunt:" beaver
+packs increased in number, and both men and animals were in excellent
+condition.
+
+A large party usually hunted out the beaver and frightened away the game
+in a few weeks, or days, from any one locality. When this happened the
+camp moved on; or, should not game be plenty, it kept constantly on the
+move, the hunters and trappers seldom remaining out more than a day or
+two. Should the country be considered dangerous on account of Indians,
+it was the habit of the men to return every night to the encampment.
+
+It was the design of Smith to take his command into the Blackfoot
+country, a region abounding in the riches which he sought, could they
+only be secured without coming into too frequent conflict with the
+natives: always a doubtful question concerning these savages. He had
+proceeded in this direction as far as Bovey's Fork of the Bighorn, when
+the camp was overtaken by a heavy fall of snow, which made traveling
+extremely difficult, and which, when melted, caused a sudden great rise
+in the mountain streams. In attempting to cross Bovey's Fork during the
+high water, he had thirty horses swept away, with three hundred traps: a
+serious loss in the business of hunting beaver.
+
+In the manner described, pushing on through an unknown country, hunting
+and trapping as they moved, the company proceeded, passing another low
+chain of mountains, through a pass called Pryor's Gap, to Clark's Fork
+of the Yellowstone, thence to Rose-Bud River, and finally to the main
+Yellowstone River, where it makes a great bend to the east, enclosing a
+large plain covered with grass, and having also extensive cotton-wood
+bottoms, which subsequently became a favorite wintering ground of the
+fur companies.
+
+It was while trapping up in this country, on the Rose-Bud River, that an
+amusing adventure befel our trapper Joe. Being out with two other
+trappers, at some distance from the great camp, they had killed and
+supped off a fat buffalo cow. The night was snowy, and their camp was
+made in a grove of young aspens. Having feasted themselves, the
+remaining store of choice pieces was divided between, and placed, hunter
+fashion, under the heads of the party, on their betaking themselves to
+their blanket couches for the night. Neither Indian nor wild beast
+disturbed their repose, as they slept, with their guns beside them,
+filled with comfort and plenty. But who ever dreams of the presence of a
+foe under such circumstances? Certainly not our young trapper, who was
+only awakened about day-break by something very large and heavy walking
+over him, and snuffing about him with a most insulting freedom. It did
+not need Yankee powers of guessing to make out who the intruder in camp
+might be: in truth, it was only too disagreeably certain that it was a
+full sized grizzly bear, whose keenness of smell had revealed to him the
+presence of fat cow-meat in that neighborhood.
+
+"You may be sure," says Joe, "that I kept very quiet, while that bar
+helped himself to some of my buffalo meat, and went a little way off to
+eat it. But Mark Head, one of the men, raised up, and back came the
+bar. Down went our heads under the blankets, and I kept mine covered
+pretty snug, while the beast took another walk over the bed, but finally
+went off again to a little distance. Mitchel then wanted to shoot; but I
+said, 'no, no; hold on, or the brute will kill us, sure.' When the bar
+heard our voices, back he run again, and jumped on the bed as before.
+I'd have been happy to have felt myself sinking ten feet under ground,
+while that bar promenaded over and around us! However, he couldn't quite
+make out our style, and finally took fright, and ran off down the
+mountain. Wanting to be revenged for his impudence, I went after him,
+and seeing a good chance, shot him dead. Then I took my turn at running
+over him awhile!"
+
+Such are the not infrequent incidents of the trapper's life, which
+furnish him with material, needing little embellishment to convert it
+into those wild tales with which the nights are whiled away around the
+winter camp-fire.
+
+Arrived at the Yellowstone with his company, Smith found it necessary,
+on account of the high water, to construct Bull-boats for the crossing.
+These are made by stitching together buffalo hides, stretching them over
+light frames, and paying the seams with elk tallow and ashes. In these
+light wherries the goods and people were ferried over, while the horses
+and mules were crossed by swimming.
+
+The mode usually adopted in crossing large rivers, was to spread the
+lodges on the ground, throwing on them the light articles, saddles, etc.
+A rope was then run through the pin-holes around the edge of each, when
+it could be drawn up like a reticule. It was then filled with the
+heavier camp goods, and being tightly drawn up, formed a perfect ball. A
+rope being tied to it, it was launched on the water, the children of the
+camp on top, and the women swimming after and clinging to it, while a
+man, who had the rope in his hand, swam ahead holding on to his horse's
+mane. In this way, dancing like a cork on the waves, the lodge was
+piloted across; and passengers as well as freight consigned, undamaged,
+to the opposite shore. A large camp of three hundred men, and one
+hundred women and children were frequently thus crossed in one hour's
+time.
+
+The camp was now in the excellent but inhospitable country of the
+Blackfeet, and the commander redoubled his precautions, moving on all
+the while to the Mussel Shell, and thence to the Judith River. Beaver
+were plenty and game abundant; but the vicinity of the large village of
+the Blackfeet made trapping impracticable. Their war upon the trappers
+was ceaseless; their thefts of traps and horses ever recurring: and
+Smith, finding that to remain was to be involved in incessant warfare,
+without hope of victory or gain, at length gave the command to turn
+back, which was cheerfully obeyed: for the trappers had been very
+successful on the spring hunt, and thinking discretion some part at
+least of valor, were glad to get safe out of the Blackfoot country with
+their rich harvest of beaver skins.
+
+The return march was by the way of Pryor's Gap, and up the Bighorn, to
+Wind River, where the cache was made in the previous December. The furs
+were now taken out and pressed, ready for transportation across the
+plains. A party was also dispatched, under Mr. Tullock, to raise the
+cache on the Bighorn River. Among this party was Meek, and a Frenchman
+named Ponto. While digging to come at the fur, the bank above caved in,
+falling upon Meek and Ponto, killing the latter almost instantly. Meek,
+though severely hurt, was taken out alive: while poor Ponto was "rolled
+in a blanket, and pitched into the river." So rude were the burial
+services of the trapper of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+Meek was packed back to camp, along with the furs, where he soon
+recovered. Sublette arrived from St. Louis with fourteen wagons loaded
+with merchandise, and two hundred additional men for the service.
+Jackson also arrived from the Snake country with plenty of beaver, and
+the business of the yearly rendezvous began. Then the scenes previously
+described were re-enacted. Beaver, the currency of the mountains, was
+plenty that year, and goods were high accordingly. A thousand dollars a
+day was not too much for some of the most reckless to spend on their
+squaws, horses, alcohol, and themselves. For "alcohol" was the beverage
+of the mountaineers. Liquors could not be furnished to the men in that
+country. Pure alcohol was what they "got tight on;" and a desperate
+tight it was, to be sure!
+
+An important change took place in the affairs of the Rocky Mountain
+Company at this rendezvous. The three partners, Smith, Sublette, and
+Jackson, sold out to a new firm, consisting of Milton Sublette, James
+Bridger, Fitzpatrick, Frapp, and Jervais; the new company retaining the
+same name and style as the old.
+
+The old partners left for St. Louis, with a company of seventy men, to
+convoy the furs. Two of them never returned to the Rocky Mountains; one
+of them, Smith, being killed the following year, as will hereafter be
+related; and Jackson remaining in St. Louis, where, like a true
+mountain-man, he dissipated his large and hard-earned fortune in a few
+years. Captain Sublette, however, continued to make his annual trips to
+and from the mountains for a number of years; and until the
+consolidation of another wealthy company with the Rocky Mountain
+Company, continued to furnish goods to the latter, at a profit on St.
+Louis prices; his capital and experience enabling him to keep the new
+firm under his control to a large degree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+1830. The whole country lying upon the Yellowstone and its tributaries,
+and about the head-waters of the Missouri, at the time of which we are
+writing, abounded not only in beaver, but in buffalo, bear, elk,
+antelope, and many smaller kinds of game. Indeed the buffalo used then
+to cross the mountains into the valleys about the head-waters of the
+Snake and Colorado Rivers, in such numbers that at certain seasons of
+the year, the plains and river bottoms swarmed with them. Since that day
+they have quite disappeared from the western slope of the Rocky
+Mountains, and are no longer seen in the same numbers on the eastern
+side.
+
+Bear, although they did not go in herds, were rather uncomfortably
+numerous, and sometimes put the trapper to considerable trouble, and
+fright also; for very few were brave enough to willingly encounter the
+formidable grizzly, one blow of whose terrible paw, aimed generally at
+the hunter's head, if not arrested, lays him senseless and torn, an easy
+victim to the wrathful monster. A gunshot wound, if not directed with
+certainty to some vulnerable point, has only the effect to infuriate the
+beast, and make him trebly dangerous. From the fact that the bear always
+bites his wound, and commences to run with his head thus brought in the
+direction from which the ball comes, he is pretty likely to make a
+straight wake towards his enemy, whether voluntarily or not; and woe be
+to the hunter who is not prepared for him, with a shot for his eye,
+or the spot just behind the ear, where certain death enters.
+
+[Illustration: _THE THREE "BARES."_]
+
+In the frequent encounters of the mountain-men with these huge beasts,
+many acts of wonderful bravery were performed, while some tragedies, and
+not a few comedies were enacted.
+
+From something humorous in Joe Meek's organization, or some wonderful
+"luck" to which he was born, or both, the greater part of his adventures
+with bears, as with men, were of a humorous complexion; enabling him not
+only to have a story to tell, but one at which his companions were bound
+to laugh. One of these which happened during the fall hunt of 1830, we
+will let him tell for himself:
+
+"The first fall on the Yellowstone, Hawkins and myself were coming up
+the river in search of camp, when we discovered a very large bar on the
+opposite bank. We shot across, and thought we had killed him, fur he
+laid quite still. As we wanted to take some trophy of our victory to
+camp, we tied our mules and left our guns, clothes, and everything
+except our knives and belts, and swum over to whar the bar war. But
+instead of being dead, as we expected, he sprung up as we come near him,
+and took after us. Then you ought to have seen two naked men run! It war
+a race for life, and a close one, too. But we made the river first. The
+bank war about fifteen feet high above the water, and the river ten or
+twelve feet deep; but we didn't halt. Overboard we went, the bar after
+us, and in the stream about as quick as we war. The current war very
+strong, and the bar war about half way between Hawkins and me. Hawkins
+was trying to swim down stream faster than the current war carrying the
+bar, and I war a trying to hold back. You can reckon that I swam! Every
+moment I felt myself being washed into the yawning jaws of the mighty
+beast, whose head war up the stream, and his eyes on me. But the
+current war too strong for him, and swept him along as fast as it did
+me. All this time, not a long one, we war looking for some place to land
+where the bar could not overtake us. Hawkins war the first to make the
+shore, unknown to the bar, whose head war still up stream; and he set up
+such a whooping and yelling that the bar landed too, but on the opposite
+side. I made haste to follow Hawkins, who had landed on the side of the
+river we started from, either by design or good luck: and then we
+traveled back a mile and more to whar our mules war left--a bar on one
+side of the river, and _two bares_ on the other!"
+
+Notwithstanding that a necessary discipline was observed and maintained
+in the fur traders' camp, there was at the same time a freedom of manner
+between the Booshways and the men, both hired and free, which could not
+obtain in a purely military organization, nor even in the higher walks
+of civilized life in cities. In the mountain community, motley as it
+was, as in other communities more refined, were some men who enjoyed
+almost unlimited freedom of speech and action, and others who were the
+butt of everybody's ridicule or censure. The leaders themselves did not
+escape the critical judgment of the men; and the estimation in which
+they were held could be inferred from the manner in which they
+designated them. Captain Sublette, whose energy, courage, and kindness
+entitled him to the admiration of the mountaineers, went by the name of
+_Billy_: his partner Jackson, was called _Davey_; Bridger, _old Gabe_,
+and so on. In the same manner the men distinguished favorites or
+oddities amongst themselves, and to have the adjective _old_ prefixed to
+a man's name signified nothing concerning his age, but rather that he
+was an object of distinction; though it did not always indicate, except
+by the tone in which it was pronounced, whether that distinction were an
+enviable one or not.
+
+Whenever a trapper could get hold of any sort of story reflecting on the
+courage of a leader, he was sure at some time to make him aware of it,
+and these anecdotes were sometimes sharp answers in the mouths of
+careless camp-keepers. Bridger was once waylaid by Blackfeet, who shot
+at him, hitting his horse in several places. The wounds caused the
+animal to rear and pitch, by reason of which violent movements Bridger
+dropped his gun, and the Indians snatched it up; after which there was
+nothing to do except to run, which Bridger accordingly did. Not long
+after this, as was customary, the leader was making a circuit of the
+camp examining the camp-keeper's guns, to see if they were in order, and
+found that of one Maloney, an Irishman, in a very dirty condition.
+
+"What would you do," asked Bridger, "with a gun like that, if the
+Indians were to charge on the camp?"
+
+"Be ----, I would throw it to them, and run the way ye did," answered
+Maloney, quickly. It was sometime after this incident before Bridger
+again examined Maloney's gun.
+
+A laughable story in this way went the rounds of the camp in this fall
+of 1830. Milton Sublette was out on a hunt with Meek after buffalo, and
+they were just approaching the band on foot, at a distance apart of
+about fifty yards, when a large grizzly bear came out of a thicket and
+made after Sublette, who, when he perceived the creature, ran for the
+nearest cotton-wood tree. Meek in the meantime, seeing that Sublette was
+not likely to escape, had taken sure aim, and fired at the bear,
+fortunately killing him. On running up to the spot where it laid,
+Sublette was discovered sitting at the foot of a cotton-wood, with his
+legs and arms clasped tightly around it.
+
+"Do you always climb a tree in that way?" asked Meek.
+
+"I reckon you took the wrong end of it, that time, Milton!"
+
+"I'll be ----, Meek, if I didn't think I was twenty feet up that tree
+when you shot;" answered the frightened Booshway; and from that time the
+men never tired of alluding to Milton's manner of climbing a tree.
+
+[Illustration: THE WRONG END OF THE TREE.]
+
+These were some of the mirthful incidents which gave occasion for a
+gayety which had to be substituted for happiness, in the checkered life
+of the trapper; and there were like to be many such, where there were
+two hundred men, each almost daily in the way of adventures by flood or
+field.
+
+On the change in the management of the Company which occurred at the
+rendezvous this year, three of the new partners, Fitzpatrick, Sublette,
+and Bridger, conducted a large party, numbering over two hundred, from
+the Wind River to the Yellowstone; crossing thence to Smith's River, the
+Falls of the Missouri, three forks of the Missouri, and to the Big
+Blackfoot River. The hunt proved very successful; beaver were plentiful;
+and the Blackfeet shy of so large a traveling party. Although so long in
+their country, there were only four men killed out of the whole company
+during this autumn.
+
+From the Blackfoot River the company proceeded down the west side of the
+mountains to the forks of the Snake River, and after trapping for a
+short time in this locality, continued their march southward as far as
+Ogden's Hole, a small valley among the Bear River Mountains.
+
+At this place they fell in with a trading and trapping party, under Mr.
+Peter Skeen Ogden, of the Hudson's Bay Company. And now commenced that
+irritating and reprehensible style of rivalry with which the different
+companies were accustomed to annoy one another. Accompanying Mr. Ogden's
+trading party were a party of Rockway Indians, who were from the North,
+and who were employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, as the Iroquois and
+Crows were, to trap for them. Fitzpatrick and associates camped in the
+neighborhood of Ogden's company, and immediately set about endeavoring
+to purchase from the Rockways and others, the furs collected for Mr.
+Ogden. Not succeeding by fair means, if the means to such an end could
+be called fair,--they opened a keg of whiskey, which, when the Indians
+had got a taste, soon drew them away from the Hudson's Bay trader, the
+regulations of whose company forbade the selling or giving of liquors to
+the Indians. Under its influence, the furs were disposed of to the Rocky
+Mountain Company, who in this manner obtained nearly the whole product
+of their year's hunt. This course of conduct was naturally exceedingly
+disagreeable to Mr. Ogden, as well as unprofitable also; and a feeling
+of hostility grew up and increased between the two camps.
+
+While matters were in this position, a stampede one day occurred among
+the horses in Ogden's camp, and two or three of the animals ran away,
+and ran into the camp of the rival company. Among them was the horse of
+Mr. Ogden's Indian wife, which had escaped, with her babe hanging to the
+saddle.
+
+Not many minutes elapsed, before the mother, following her child and
+horse, entered the camp, passing right through it, and catching the now
+halting steed by the bridle. At the same moment she espied one of her
+company's pack-horses, loaded with beaver, which had also run into the
+enemy's camp. The men had already begun to exult over the circumstance,
+considering this chance load of beaver as theirs, by the laws of war.
+But not so the Indian woman. Mounting her own horse, she fearlessly
+seized the pack-horse by the halter, and led it out of camp, with its
+costly burden.
+
+At this undaunted action, some of the baser sort of men cried out "shoot
+her, shoot her!" but a majority interfered, with opposing cries of "let
+her go; let her alone; she's a brave woman: I glory in her pluck;" and
+other like admiring expressions. While the clamor continued, the wife of
+Ogden had galloped away, with her baby and her pack-horse.
+
+As the season advanced, Fitzpatrick, with his other partners, returned
+to the east side of the mountains, and went into winter quarters on
+Powder river. In this trapper's "land of Canaan" they remained between
+two and three months. The other two partners, Frapp and Jervais, who
+were trapping far to the south, did not return until the following year.
+
+While wintering it became necessary to send a dispatch to St. Louis on
+the company's business. Meek and a Frenchman named Legarde, were chosen
+for this service, which was one of trust and peril also. They proceeded
+without accident, however, until the Pawnee villages were reached, when
+Legarde was taken prisoner. Meek, more cautious, escaped, and proceeded
+alone a few days' travel beyond, when he fell in with an express on its
+way to St. Louis, to whom he delivered his dispatches, and returned to
+camp, accompanied only by a Frenchman named Cabeneau; thus proving
+himself an efficient mountaineer at twenty years of age.
+
+1831. As soon as the spring opened, sometime in March, the whole company
+started north again, for the Blackfoot country. But on the night of the
+third day out, they fell unawares into the neighborhood of a party of
+Crow Indians, whose spies discovered the company's horses feeding on the
+dry grass of a little bottom, and succeeded in driving off about three
+hundred head. Here was a dilemma to be in, in the heart of an enemy's
+country! To send the remaining horses after these, might be "sending the
+axe after the helve;" besides most of them belonged to the free
+trappers, and could not be pressed into the service.
+
+The only course remaining was to select the best men and dispatch them
+on foot, to overtake and retake the stolen horses. Accordingly one
+hundred trappers were ordered on this expedition, among whom were Meek,
+Newell, and Antoine Godin, a half-breed and brave fellow, who was to
+lead the party. Following the trail of the Crows for two hundred miles,
+traveling day and night, on the third day they came up with them on a
+branch of the Bighorn river. The trappers advanced cautiously, and being
+on the opposite side of the stream, on a wooded bluff, were enabled to
+approach close enough to look into their fort, and count the
+unsuspecting thieves. There were sixty of them, fine young braves, who
+believed that now they had made a start in life. Alas, for the vanity of
+human, and especially of Crow expectations! Even then, while they were
+grouped around their fires, congratulating themselves on the sudden
+wealth which had descended upon them, as it were from the skies, an
+envious fate, in the shape of several roguish white trappers, was
+laughing at them and their hopes, from the overhanging bluff opposite
+them. And by and by, when they were wrapped in a satisfied slumber, two
+of these laughing rogues, Robert Newell, and Antoine Godin, stole under
+the very walls of their fort, and setting the horses free, drove them
+across the creek.
+
+The Indians were awakened by the noise of the trampling horses, and
+sprang to arms. But Meek and his fellow-trappers on the bluff fired into
+the fort with such effect that the Crows were appalled. Having delivered
+their first volley, they did not wait for the savages to recover from
+their recoil. Mounting in hot haste, the cavalcade of bare-back riders,
+and their drove of horses, were soon far away from the Crow fort,
+leaving the ambitious braves to finish their excursion on foot. It was
+afterwards ascertained that the Crows lost seven men by that one volley
+of the trappers.
+
+Flushed with success, the trappers yet found the backward journey more
+toilsome than the outward; for what with sleeplessness and fatigue, and
+bad traveling in melted snow, they were pretty well exhausted when they
+reached camp. Fearing, however, another raid from the thieving Crows,
+the camp got in motion again with as little delay as possible. They had
+not gone far, when Fitzpatrick turned back, with only one man, to go to
+St. Louis for supplies.
+
+After the departure of Fitzpatrick, Bridger and Sublette completed their
+spring and summer campaign without any material loss in men or animals,
+and with considerable gain in beaver skins. Having once more visited the
+Yellowstone, they turned to the south again, crossing the mountains into
+Pierre's Hole, on to Snake river; thence to Salt river; thence to Bear
+river; and thence to Green river, to rendezvous.
+
+It was expected that Fitzpatrick would have arrived from St. Louis with
+the usual annual recruits and supplies of merchandise, in time for the
+summer rendezvous; but after waiting for some time in vain, Bridger and
+Sublette determined to send out a small party to look for him. The large
+number of men now employed, had exhausted the stock of goods on hand.
+The camp was without blankets and without ammunition; knives were not to
+be had; traps were scarce; but worse than all, the tobacco had given
+out, and alcohol was not! In such a case as this, what could a
+mountain-man do?
+
+To seek the missing Booshway became not only a duty, but a necessity;
+and not only a necessity of the physical man, but in an equal degree a
+need of the moral and spiritual man, which was rusting with the tedium
+of waiting. In the state of uncertainty in which the minds of the
+company were involved, it occurred to that of Frapp to consult a great
+"medicine-man" of the Crows, one of those recruits filched from Mr.
+Ogden's party by whiskey the previous year.
+
+Like all eminent professional men, the Crow chief required a generous
+fee, of the value of a horse or two, before he would begin to make
+"medicine." This peculiar ceremony is pretty much alike among all the
+different tribes. It is observed first in the making of a medicine man,
+_i. e._, qualifying him for his profession; and afterwards is practiced
+to enable him to heal the sick, to prophecy, and to dream dreams, or
+even to give victory to his people. To a medicine-man was imputed great
+power, not only to cure, but to kill; and if, as it sometimes happened,
+the relatives of a sick man suspected the medicine-man of having caused
+his death, by the exercise of evil powers, one of them, or all of them,
+pursued him to the death. Therefore, although it might be honorable, it
+was not always safe to be a great "medicine."
+
+The Indians placed a sort of religious value upon the practice of
+fasting; a somewhat curious fact, when it is remembered how many
+compulsory fasts they are obliged to endure, which must train them to
+think lightly of the deprivation of food. Those, however, who could
+endure voluntary abstinence long enough, were enabled to become very
+wise and very brave. The manner of making a "medicine" among some of the
+interior tribes, is in certain respects similar to the practice gone
+through with by some preachers, in making a convert. A sort of
+camp-meeting is held, for several nights, generally about five, during
+which various dances are performed, with cries, and incantations, bodily
+exercises, singing, and nervous excitement; enough to make many
+patients, instead of one doctor. But the native's constitution is a
+strong one, and he holds out well. At last, however, one or more are
+overcome with the mysterious _power_ which enters into them at that
+time; making, instead of a saint, only a superstitious Indian doctor.
+
+The same sort of exercises which had made the Cree man a doctor were now
+resorted to, in order that he might obtain a more than natural sight,
+enabling him to see visions of the air, or at the least to endow him
+with prophetic dreams. After several nights of singing, dancing,
+hopping, screeching, beating of drums, and other more violent exercises
+and contortions, the exhausted medicine-man fell off to sleep, and when
+he awoke he announced to Frapp that Fitzpatrick was not dead. He was on
+the road; some road; but not the right one; etc., etc.
+
+Thus encouraged, Frapp determined to take a party, and go in search of
+him. Accordingly Meek, Reese, Ebarts, and Nelson, volunteered to
+accompany him. This party set out, first in the direction of Wind
+River; but not discovering any signs of the lost Booshway in that
+quarter, crossed over to the Sweetwater, and kept along down to the
+North Fork of the Platte, and thence to the Black Hills, where they
+found a beautiful country full of game; but not the hoped-for train,
+with supplies. After waiting for a short time at the Black Hills,
+Frapp's party returned to the North Fork of the Platte, and were
+rejoiced to meet at last, the long absent partner, with his pack train.
+Urged by Frapp, Fitzpatrick hastened forward, and came into camp on
+Powder River after winter had set in.
+
+Fitzpatrick had a tale to tell the other partners, in explanation of his
+unexpected delay. When he had started for St. Louis in the month of
+March previous, he had hoped to have met the old partners, Capt.
+Sublette and Jedediah Smith, and to have obtained the necessary supplies
+from them, to furnish the Summer rendezvous with plenty. But these
+gentlemen, when he fell in with them, used certain arguments which
+induced him to turn back, and accompany them to Santa Fe, where they
+promised to furnish him goods, as he desired, and to procure for him an
+escort at that place. The journey had proven tedious, and unfortunate.
+They had several times been attacked by Indians, and Smith had been
+killed. While they were camped on a small tributary of the Simmaron
+River, Smith had gone a short distance from camp to procure water, and
+while at the stream was surprised by an ambush, and murdered on the
+spot, his murderers escaping unpunished. Sublette, now left alone in the
+business, finally furnished him; and he had at last made his way back to
+his Rocky Mountain camp.
+
+But Fitzpatrick's content at being once more with his company was
+poisoned by the disagreeable proximity of a rival company. If he had
+annoyed Mr. Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company, in the previous autumn,
+Major Vanderburg and Mr. Dripps, of the American Company, in their turn
+annoyed him. This company had been on their heels, from the Platte
+River, and now were camped in the same neighborhood, using the Rocky
+Mountain Company as pilots to show them the country. As this was just
+what it was not for their interest to do, the Rocky Mountain Company
+raised camp, and fairly ran away from them; crossing the mountains to
+the Forks of the Snake River, where they wintered among the Nez Perces
+and Flathead Indians.
+
+Some time during this winter, Meek and Legarde, who had escaped from the
+Pawnees, made another expedition together; traveling three hundred miles
+on snowshoes, to the Bitter Root River, to look for a party of free
+trappers, whose beaver the company wished to secure. They were absent
+two months and a half, on this errand, and were entirely successful,
+passing a Blackfoot village in the night, but having no adventures worth
+recounting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+1832. In the following spring, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company commenced
+its march, first up Lewis' Fork, then on to Salt River, thence to Gray's
+River, and thence to Bear River. They fell in with the North American
+Fur Company on the latter river, with a large lot of goods, but no
+beaver. The American Company's resident partners were ignorant of the
+country, and were greatly at a loss where to look for the good trapping
+grounds. These gentlemen, Vanderburg and Dripps, were therefore inclined
+to keep an eye on the movements of the Rocky Mountain Company, whose
+leaders were acquainted with the whole region lying along the mountains,
+from the head-waters of the Colorado to the northern branches of the
+Missouri. On the other hand, the Rocky Mountain Company were anxious to
+"shake the dust from off their feet," which was trodden by the American
+Company, and to avoid the evils of competition in an Indian country. But
+they found the effort quite useless; the rival company had a habit of
+turning up in the most unexpected places, and taking advantage of the
+hard-earned experience of the Rocky Mountain Company's leaders. They
+tampered with the trappers, and ferreted out the secret of their next
+rendezvous; they followed on their trail, making them pilots to the
+trapping grounds; they sold goods to the Indians, and what was worse, to
+the hired trappers. In this way grew up that fierce conflict of
+interests, which made it "as much as his life was worth" for a trapper
+to suffer himself to be inveigled into the service of a rival company,
+which about this time or a little later, was at its highest, and which
+finally ruined the fur-trade for the American companies in the Rocky
+Mountains.
+
+Finding their rivals in possession of the ground, Bridger and Milton
+Sublette resolved to spend but a few days in that country. But so far as
+Sublette was concerned, circumstances ordered differently. A Rockway
+Chief, named Gray, and seven of his people, had accompanied the camp
+from Ogden's Hole, in the capacity of trappers. But during the sojourn
+on Bear River, there was a quarrel in camp on account of some indignity,
+real or fancied, which had been offered to the chief's daughter, and in
+the affray Gray stabbed Sublette so severely that it was thought he must
+die.
+
+It thus fell out that Sublette had to be left behind; and Meek who was
+his favorite, was left to take care of him while he lived, and bury him
+if he died; which trouble Sublette saved him, however, by getting well.
+But they had forty lonesome days to themselves after the camps had moved
+off,--one on the heels of the other, to the great vexation of Bridger.
+Time passed slowly in Sublette's lodge, while waiting for his wound to
+heal. Day passed after day, so entirely like each other that the
+monotony alone seemed sufficient to invite death to an easy conquest.
+But the mountain-man's blood, like the Indians, is strong and pure, and
+his flesh heals readily, therefore, since death would not have him, the
+wounded man was forced to accept of life in just this monotonous form.
+To him Joe Meek was everything,--hands, feet, physician, guard, caterer,
+hunter, cook, companion, friend. What long talks they had, when Sublette
+grew better: what stories they told; what little glimpses of a secret
+chamber in their hearts, and a better than the every-day spirit, in
+their bosoms, was revealed,--as men will reveal such things in the
+isolation of sea-voyages, or the solitary presence of majestic Nature.
+
+To the veteran mountaineer there must have been something soothing in
+the care and friendship of the youth of twenty-two, with his daring
+disposition, his frankness, his cheerful humor, and his good looks;--for
+our Joe was growing to be a maturely handsome man--tall,
+broad-shouldered, straight, with plenty of flesh, and none too much of
+it; a Southerner's olive complexion; frank, dark eyes, and a classical
+nose and chin. What though in the matter of dress he was ignorant of the
+latest styles?--grace imparts elegance even to the trapper's beaver-skin
+cap and blanket capote.
+
+At the end of forty days, as many as it took to drown a world, Sublette
+found himself well enough to ride; and the two set out on their search
+for camp. But now other adventures awaited them. On a fork of Green
+River, they came suddenly upon a band of Snake Indians feeding their
+horses. As soon as the Snakes discovered the white men, they set up a
+yell, and made an instinctive rush for their horses. Now was the
+critical moment. One word passed between the travelers, and they made a
+dash past the savages, right into the village, and never slacked rein
+until they threw themselves from their horses at the door of the
+Medicine lodge. This is a large and fancifully decorated lodge, which
+stands in the centre of a village, and like the churches of Christians,
+is sacred. Once inside of this, the strangers were safe for the present;
+their blood could not be shed there.
+
+The warriors of the village soon followed Sublette and Meek into their
+strange house of refuge. In half an hour it was filled. Not a word was
+addressed to the strangers; nor by them to the Indians, who talked
+among themselves with a solemn eagerness, while they smoked the
+medicine pipe, as inspiration in their councils. Great was the
+excitement in the minds of the listeners, who understood the Snake
+tongue, as the question of their life or death was gravely discussed;
+yet in their countenances appeared only the utmost serenity. To show
+fear, is to whet an Indian's appetite for blood: coolness confounds and
+awes him when anything will.
+
+If Sublette had longed for excitement, while an invalid in his lonely
+lodge on Bear River, he longed equally now for that blissful seclusion.
+Listening for, and hearing one's death-warrant from a band of
+blood-thirsty savages, could only prove with bitter sharpness how sweet
+was life, even the most uneventful. For hours the council continued, and
+the majority favored the death-sentence. But one old chief, called the
+good _Gotia_, argued long for an acquittal: he did not see the necessity
+of murdering two harmless travelers of the white race. Nothing availed,
+however, and just at sunset their doom was fixed.
+
+The only hope of escape was, that, favored by darkness, they might elude
+the vigilance of their jailers; and night, although so near, seemed ages
+away, even at sundown. Death being decreed, the warriors left the lodge
+one by one to attend to the preparation of the preliminary ceremonies.
+Gotia, the good, was the last to depart. As he left the Medicine lodge
+he made signs to the captives to remain quiet until he should return;
+pointing upwards to signify that there was a chance of life; and
+downwards to show that possibly they must die.
+
+What an age of anxiety was that hour of waiting! Not a word had been
+exchanged between the prisoners since the Indians entered the lodge,
+until now; and now very little was said, for speech would draw upon them
+the vigilance of their enemy, by whom they desired most ardently to be
+forgotten.
+
+About dusk there was a great noise, and confusion, and clouds of dust,
+in the south end of the village. Something was going wrong among the
+Indian horses. Immediately all the village ran to the scene of the
+disorder, and at the same moment Gotia, the good, appeared at the door
+of the Medicine lodge, beckoning the prisoners to follow him. With
+alacrity they sprang up and after him, and were led across the stream,
+to a thicket on the opposite side, where their horses stood, ready to
+mount, in the charge of a young Indian girl. They did not stop for
+compliments, though had time been less precious, they might well have
+bestowed some moments of it in admiration of _Umentucken Tukutsey
+Undewatsey_, the Mountain Lamb. Soon after, the beautiful Snake girl
+became the wife of Milton Sublette; and after his return to the States,
+of the subject of this narrative; from which circumstance the incident
+above related takes on something of the rosy hue of romance.
+
+As each released captive received his bridle from the delicate hand of
+the Mountain Lamb, he sprang to the saddle. By this time the chief had
+discovered that the strangers understood the Snake dialect. "Ride, if
+you wish to live," said he: "ride without stopping, all night: and
+to-morrow linger not." With hurried thanks our mountain-men replied to
+this advice, and striking into a gallop, were soon far away from the
+Snake village. The next day at noon found them a hundred and fifty miles
+on their way to camp. Proceeding without further accident, they crossed
+the Teton Mountains, and joined the company at Pierre's Hole, after an
+absence of nearly four months.
+
+Here they found the ubiquitous if not omnipresent American Fur Company
+encamped at the rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Company. The partners
+being anxious to be freed from this sort of espionage, and obstinate
+competition on their own ground, made a proposition to Vanderburg and
+Dripps to divide the country with them, each company to keep on its own
+territory. This proposition was refused by the American Company; perhaps
+because they feared having the poorer portion set off to themselves by
+their more experienced rivals. On this refusal, the Rocky Mountain
+Company determined to send an express to meet Capt. William Sublette,
+who was on his way out with a heavy stock of merchandise, and hurry him
+forward, lest the American Company should have the opportunity of
+disposing of its goods, when the usual gathering to rendezvous began. On
+this decision being formed, Fitzpatrick determined to go on this errand
+himself; which he accordingly did, falling in with Sublette, and
+Campbell, his associate, somewhere near the Black Hills. To them he
+imparted his wishes and designs, and receiving the assurance of an early
+arrival at rendezvous, parted from them at the Sweetwater, and hastened
+back, alone, as he came, to prepare for business.
+
+Captain Sublette hurried forward with his train, which consisted of
+sixty men with pack-horses, three to a man. In company with him, was Mr.
+Nathaniel Wyeth, a history of whose fur-trading and salmon-fishing
+adventures has already been given. Captain Sublette had fallen in with
+Mr. Wyeth at Independence, Missouri; and finding him ignorant of the
+undertaking on which he was launched, offered to become pilot and
+traveling companion, an offer which was gratefully accepted.
+
+The caravan had reached the foot-hills of the Wind River Mountains, when
+the raw recruits belonging to both these parties were treated to a
+slight foretaste of what Indian fighting would be, should they ever have
+to encounter it. Their camp was suddenly aroused at midnight by the
+simultaneous discharge of guns and arrows, and the frightful whoops and
+yells with which the savages make an attack. Nobody was wounded,
+however; but on springing to arms, the Indians fled, taking with them a
+few horses which their yells had frightened from their pickets. These
+marauders were Blackfeet, as Captain Sublette explained to Mr. Wyeth,
+their moccasin tracks having betrayed them; for as each tribe has a
+peculiar way of making or shaping the moccasin, the expert in Indian
+habits can detect the nationality of an Indian thief by his foot-print.
+After this episode of the night assault, the leaders redoubled their
+watchfulness, and reached their destination in Pierre's hole about the
+first of July.
+
+When Sublette arrived in camp, it was found that Fitzpatrick was
+missing. If the other partners had believed him to be with the Captain,
+the Captain expected to find him with them; but since neither could
+account to the other for his non-appearance, much anxiety was felt, and
+Sublette remembered with apprehension the visit he had received from
+Blackfeet. However, before anything had been determined upon with regard
+to him, he made his appearance in camp, in company with two Iroquois
+half-breeds, belonging to the camp, who had been out on a hunt.
+
+Fitzpatrick had met with an adventure, as had been conjectured. While
+coming up the Green river valley, he descried a small party of mounted
+men, whom he mistook for a company of trappers, and stopped to
+reconnoitre; but almost at the same moment the supposed trappers,
+perceiving him, set up a yell that quickly undeceived him, and compelled
+him to flight. Abandoning his pack-horse, he put the other to its
+topmost speed, and succeeded in gaining the mountains, where in a deep
+and dark defile he secreted himself until he judged the Indians had
+left that part of the valley. In this he was deceived, for no sooner did
+he emerge again into the open country, than he was once more pursued,
+and had to abandon his horse, to take refuge among the cliffs of the
+mountains. Here he remained for several days, without blankets or
+provisions, and with only one charge of ammunition, which was in his
+rifle, and kept for self-defense. At length, however, by frequent
+reconnoitering, he managed to elude his enemies, traveling by night,
+until he fortunately met with the two hunters from camp, and was
+conveyed by them to the rendezvous.
+
+All the parties were now safely in. The lonely mountain valley was
+populous with the different camps. The Rocky Mountain and American
+companies had their separate camps; Wyeth had his; a company of free
+trappers, fifteen in number, led by a man named Sinclair, from Arkansas,
+had the fourth; the Nez Perces and Flatheads, the allies of the Rocky
+Mountain company, and the friends of the whites, had their lodges along
+all the streams; so that altogether there could not have been less than
+one thousand souls, and two or three thousand horses and mules gathered
+in this place.
+
+"When the pie was opened then the birds began to sing." When Captain
+Sublette's goods were opened and distributed among the trappers and
+Indians, then began the usual gay carousal; and the "fast young men" of
+the mountains outvied each other in all manner of mad pranks. In the
+beginning of their spree many feats of horsemanship and personal
+strength were exhibited, which were regarded with admiring wonder by the
+sober and inexperienced New Englanders under Mr. Wyeth's command. And as
+nothing stimulated the vanity of the mountain-men like an audience of
+this sort, the feats they performed were apt to astonish themselves. In
+exhibitions of the kind, the free trappers took the lead, and usually
+carried off the palm, like the privileged class that they were.
+
+But the horse-racing, fine riding, wrestling, and all the manlier
+sports, soon degenerated into the baser exhibitions of a "crazy drunk"
+condition. The vessel in which the trapper received and carried about
+his supply of alcohol was one of the small camp kettles. "Passing round"
+this clumsy goblet very freely, it was not long before a goodly number
+were in the condition just named, and ready for any mad freak whatever.
+It is reported by several of the mountain-men that on the occasion of
+one of these "frolics," one of their number seized a kettle of alcohol,
+and poured it over the head of a tall, lank, redheaded fellow, repeating
+as he did so the baptismal ceremony. No sooner had he concluded, than
+another man with a lighted stick, touched him with the blaze, when in an
+instant he was enveloped in flames. Luckily some of the company had
+sense enough left to perceive his danger, and began beating him with
+pack-saddles to put out the blaze. But between the burning and the
+beating, the unhappy wretch nearly lost his life, and never recovered
+from the effects of his baptism by fire.
+
+Beaver being plenty in camp, business was correspondingly lively, there
+being a great demand for goods. When this demand was supplied, as it was
+in the course of about three weeks, the different brigades were set in
+motion. One of the earliest to move was a small party under Milton
+Sublette, including his constant companion, Meek. With this company, no
+more than thirty in number, Sublette intended to explore the country to
+the south-west, then unknown to the fur companies, and to proceed as far
+as the Humboldt river in that direction.
+
+On the 17th of July they set out toward the south end of the valley, and
+having made but about eight miles the first day, camped that night near
+a pass in the mountains. Wyeth's party of raw New Englanders, and
+Sinclair's free trappers, had joined themselves to the company of Milton
+Sublette, and swelled the number in camp to about sixty men, many of
+them new to the business of mountain life.
+
+Just as the men were raising camp for a start the next morning, a
+caravan was observed moving down the mountain pass into the valley. No
+alarm was at first felt, as an arrival was daily expected of one of the
+American company's partisans, Mr. Fontenelle, and his company. But on
+reconnoitering with a glass, Sublette discovered them to be a large
+party of Blackfeet, consisting of a few mounted men, and many more, men,
+women, and children, on foot. At the instant they were discovered, they
+set up the usual yell of defiance, and rushed down like a mountain
+torrent into the valley, flourishing their weapons, and fluttering their
+gay blankets and feathers in the wind. There was no doubt as to the
+warlike intentions of the Blackfeet in general, nor was it for a moment
+to be supposed that any peaceable overture on their part meant anything
+more than that they were not prepared to fight at that particular
+juncture; therefore let not the reader judge too harshly of an act which
+under ordinary circumstances would have been infamous. In Indian
+fighting, every man is his own leader, and the bravest take the front
+rank. On this occasion there were two of Sublette's men, one a
+half-breed Iroquois, the other a Flathead Indian, who had wrongs of
+their own to avenge, and they never let slip a chance of killing a
+Blackfoot. These two men rode forth alone to meet the enemy, as if to
+hold a "talk" with the principal chief, who advanced to meet them,
+bearing the pipe of peace. When the chief extended his hand, Antonio
+Godin, the half-breed, took it, but at the same moment he ordered the
+Flathead to fire, and the chief fell dead. The two trappers galloped
+back to camp, Antoine bearing for a trophy the scarlet blanket of his
+enemy.
+
+This action made it impossible to postpone the battle, as the dead chief
+had meant to do by peaceful overtures, until the warriors of his nation
+came up. The Blackfeet immediately betook themselves to a swamp formed
+by an old beaver dam, and thickly overgrown with cotton-wood and willow,
+matted together with tough vines. On the edge of this dismal covert the
+warriors skulked, and shot with their guns and arrows, while in its very
+midst the women employed themselves in digging a trench and throwing up
+a breastwork of logs, and whatever came to hand. Such a defence as the
+thicket afforded was one not easy to attack; its unseen but certain
+dangers being sufficient to appal the stoutest heart.
+
+Meantime, an express had been sent off to inform Captain Sublette of the
+battle, and summon assistance. Sinclair and his free trappers, with
+Milton Sublette's small company, were the only fighting men at hand. Mr.
+Wyeth, knowing the inefficiency of his men in an Indian fight, had them
+entrenched behind their packs, and there left them to take care of
+themselves, but charged them not to appear in open field. As for the
+fighting men, they stationed themselves in a ravine, where they could
+occasionally pick off a Blackfoot, and waited for reinforcements.
+
+Great was the astonishment of the Blackfeet, who believed they had only
+Milton Sublette's camp to fight, when they beheld first one party of
+white men and then another; and not only whites, but Nez Perces and
+Flatheads came galloping up the valley. If before it had been a battle
+to destroy the whites, it was now a battle to defend themselves.
+Previous to the arrival of Captain Sublette, the opposing forces had
+kept up only a scattering fire, in which nobody on the side of the
+trappers had been either killed or wounded. But when the impetuous
+captain arrived on the battle-field, he prepared for less guarded
+warfare. Stripped as if for the prize-ring, and armed _cap-a-pie_, he
+hastened to the scene of action, accompanied by his intimate friend and
+associate in business, Robert Campbell.
+
+At sight of the reinforcements, and their vigorous movements, the
+Indians at the edge of the swamp fell back within their fort. To
+dislodge them was a dangerous undertaking, but Captain Sublette was
+determined to make the effort. Finding the trappers generally
+disinclined to enter the thicket, he set the example, together with
+Campbell, and thus induced some of the free trappers, with their leader,
+Sinclair, to emulate his action. However, the others took courage at
+this, and advanced near the swamp, firing at random at their invisible
+foe, who, having the advantage of being able to see them, inflicted some
+wounds on the party.
+
+The few white "braves" who had resolved to enter the swamp, made their
+wills as they went, feeling that they were upon perilous business.
+Sublette, Campbell, and Sinclair succeeded in penetrating the thicket
+without alarming the enemy, and came at length to a more open space from
+whence they could get a view of the fort. From this they learned that
+the women and children had retired to the mountains, and that the fort
+was a slight affair, covered with buffalo robes and blankets to keep out
+prying eyes. Moving slowly on, some slight accident betrayed their
+vicinity, and the next moment a shot struck Sinclair, wounding him
+mortally. He spoke to Campbell, requesting to be taken to his brother.
+By this time some of the men had come up, and he was given in charge to
+be taken back to camp. Sublette then pressed forward, and seeing an
+Indian looking through an aperture, aimed at him with fatal effect. No
+sooner had he done so, and pointed out the opening to Campbell, than he
+was struck with a ball in the shoulder, which nearly prostrated him, and
+turned him so faint that Campbell took him in his arms and carried him,
+assisted by Meek, out of the swamp. At the same time one of the men
+received a wound in the head. The battle was now carried on with spirit,
+although from the difficulty of approaching the fort, the firing was
+very irregular.
+
+The mountaineers who followed Sublette, took up their station in the
+woods on one side of the fort, and the Nez Perces, under Wyeth, on the
+opposite side, which accidental arrangement, though it was fatal to many
+of the Blackfeet in the fort, was also the occasion of loss to
+themselves by the cross-fire. The whites being constantly reinforced by
+fresh arrivals from the rendezvous, were soon able to silence the guns
+of the enemy, but they were not able to drive them from their fort,
+where they remained silent and sullen after their ammunition was
+exhausted.
+
+Seeing that the women of the Nez Perces and Flatheads were gathering up
+sticks to set fire to their breastwork of logs, an old chief proclaimed
+in a loud voice from within, the startling intelligence that there were
+four hundred lodges of his people close at hand, who would soon be there
+to avenge their deaths, should the whites choose to reduce them to
+ashes. This harangue, delivered in the usual high-flown style of Indian
+oratory, either was not clearly understood, or was wrongly interpreted,
+and the impression got abroad that an attack was being made on the great
+encampment. This intelligence occasioned a diversion, and a division of
+forces; for while a small party was left to watch the fort, the rest
+galloped in hot haste to the rescue of the main camp. When they arrived,
+they found it had been a false alarm, but it was too late to return that
+night, and the several camps remained where they were until the next
+day.
+
+Meantime the trappers left to guard the fort remained stationed within
+the wood all night, firmly believing they had their enemy "corraled," as
+the horsemen of the plains would say. On the return, in the morning, of
+their comrades from the main camp, they advanced cautiously up to the
+breastwork of logs, and behold! not a buffalo skin nor red blanket was
+to be seen! Through the crevices among the logs was seen an empty fort.
+On making this discovery there was much chagrin among the white
+trappers, and much lamentation among the Indian allies, who had
+abandoned the burning of the fort expressly to save for themselves the
+fine blankets and other goods of their hereditary foes.
+
+From the reluctance displayed by the trappers, in the beginning of the
+battle, to engage with the Indians while under cover of the woods, it
+must not be inferred that they were lacking in courage. They were too
+well informed in Indian modes of warfare to venture recklessly into the
+den of death, which a savage ambush was quite sure to be. The very
+result which attended the impetuosity of their leaders, in the death of
+Sinclair and the wounding of Captain Sublette, proved them not over
+cautious.
+
+On entering the fort, the dead bodies of ten Blackfeet were found,
+besides others dead outside the fort, and over thirty horses, some of
+which were recognized as those stolen from Sublette's night camp on the
+other side of the mountains, besides those abandoned by Fitzpatrick.
+Doubtless the rascals had followed his trail to Pierre's Hole, not
+thinking, however, to come upon so large a camp as they found at last.
+The savage garrison which had so cunningly contrived to elude the guard
+set upon them, carried off some of their wounded, and, perhaps, also
+some of their dead; for they acknowledged afterwards a much larger loss
+than appeared at the time. Besides Sinclair, there were five other white
+men killed, one half-breed, and seven Nez Perces. About the same number
+of whites and their Indian allies were wounded.
+
+An instance of female devotion is recorded by Bonneville's historian as
+having occurred at this battle. On the morning following it, as the
+whites were exploring the thickets about the fort, they discovered a
+Blackfoot woman leaning silent and motionless against a tree. According
+to Mr. Irving, whose fine feeling for the sex would incline him to put
+faith in this bit of romance, "their surprise at her lingering here
+alone, to fall into the hands of her enemies, was dispelled when they
+saw the corpse of a warrior at her feet. Either she was so lost in grief
+as not to perceive their approach, or a proud spirit kept her silent and
+motionless. The Indians set up a yell on discovering her, and before the
+trappers could interfere, her mangled body fell upon the corpse which
+she had refused to abandon." This version is true in the main incidents,
+but untrue in the sentiment. The woman's leg had been broken by a ball,
+and she was unable to move from the spot where she leaned. When the
+trappers approached her, she stretched out her hands supplicatingly,
+crying out in a wailing voice, "kill me! kill me! O white men, kill
+me!"--but this the trappers had no disposition to do. While she was
+entreating them, and they refusing, a ball from some vengeful Nez Perce
+or Flathead put an end to her sufferings.
+
+Still remembering the threats of the Blackfoot chief, that four hundred
+lodges of his brethren were advancing on the valley, all the companies
+returned to rendezvous, and remained for several days, to see whether an
+attack should take place. But if there had ever been any such intention
+on the part of the Blackfoot nation, the timely lesson bestowed on their
+advance guard had warned them to quit the neighborhood of the whites.
+
+Captain Sublette's wound was dressed by Mr. Wyeth's physician, and
+although it hindered his departure for St. Louis for some time, it did
+not prevent his making his usual journey later in the season. It was as
+well, perhaps, that he did not set out earlier, for of a party of seven
+who started for St. Louis a few days after the battle, three were killed
+in Jackson's Hole, where they fell in with the four hundred warriors
+with whom the Blackfoot chief threatened the whites at the battle of
+Pierre's Hole. From the story of the four survivors who escaped and
+returned to camp, there could no longer be any doubt that the big
+village of the Blackfeet had actually been upon the trail of Capt.
+Sublette, expecting an easy victory when they should overtake him. How
+they were disappointed by the reception met with by the advance camp,
+has already been related.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+1832. On the 23d of July, Milton Sublette's brigade and the company of
+Mr. Wyeth again set out for the southwest, and met no more serious
+interruptions while they traveled in company. On the head-waters of the
+Humboldt River they separated, Wyeth proceeding north to the Columbia,
+and Sublette continuing on into a country hitherto untraversed by
+American trappers.
+
+It was the custom of a camp on the move to depend chiefly on the men
+employed as hunters to supply them with game, the sole support of the
+mountaineers. When this failed, the stock on hand was soon exhausted,
+and the men reduced to famine. This was what happened to Sublette's
+company in the country where they now found themselves, between the
+Owyhee and Humboldt Rivers. Owing to the arid and barren nature of these
+plains, the largest game to be found was the beaver, whose flesh proved
+to be poisonous, from the creature having eaten of the wild parsnip in
+the absence of its favorite food. The men were made ill by eating of
+beaver flesh, and the horses were greatly reduced from the scarcity of
+grass and the entire absence of the cotton-wood.
+
+In this plight Sublette found himself, and finally resolved to turn
+north, in the hope of coming upon some better and more hospitable
+country. The sufferings of the men now became terrible, both from hunger
+and thirst. In the effort to appease the former, everything was eaten
+that could be eaten, and many things at which the well-fed man would
+sicken with disgust. "I have," says Joe Meek, "held my hands in an
+ant-hill until they were covered with the ants, then greedily licked
+them off. I have taken the soles off my moccasins, crisped them in the
+fire, and eaten them. In our extremity, the large black crickets which
+are found in this country were considered game. We used to take a kettle
+of hot water, catch the crickets and throw them in, and when they
+stopped kicking, eat them. That was not what we called _cant tickup ko
+hanch_, (good meat, my friend), but it kept us alive."
+
+Equally abhorrent expedients were resorted to in order to quench thirst,
+some of which would not bear mention. In this condition, and exposed to
+the burning suns and the dry air of the desert, the men now so nearly
+exhausted began to prey upon their almost equally exhausted animals. At
+night when they made their camp, by mutual consent a mule was bled, and
+a soup made from its blood. About a pint was usually taken, when two or
+three would mess together upon this reviving, but scanty and not very
+palatable dish. But this mode of subsistence could not be long depended
+on, as the poor mules could ill afford to lose blood in their famishing
+state; nor could the men afford to lose their mules where there was a
+chance of life: therefore hungry as they were, the men were cautious in
+this matter; and it generally caused a quarrel when a man's mule was
+selected for bleeding by the others.
+
+A few times a mule had been sacrificed to obtain meat; and in this case
+the poorest one was always selected, so as to economise the chances for
+life for the whole band. In this extremity, after four days of almost
+total abstinence and several weeks of famine, the company reached the
+Snake River, about fifty miles above the fishing falls, where it boils
+and dashes over the rocks, forming very strong rapids. Here the company
+camped, rejoiced at the sight of the pure mountain water, but still in
+want of food. During the march a horse's back had become sore from some
+cause; probably, his rider thought, because the saddle did not set well;
+and, although that particular animal was selected to be sacrificed on
+the morrow, as one that could best be spared, he set about taking the
+stuffing out of his saddle and re-arranging the padding. While engaged
+in this considerate labor, he uttered a cry of delight and held up to
+view a large brass pin, which had accidentally got into the stuffing,
+when the saddle was made, and had been the cause of all the mischief to
+his horse.
+
+The same thought struck all who saw the pin: it was soon converted into
+a fish-hook, a line was spun from horse-hair, and in a short time there
+were trout enough caught to furnish them a hearty and a most delicious
+repast. "In the morning," says Meek, "we went on our way rejoicing;"
+each man with the "five fishes" tied to his saddle, if without any
+"loaves." This was the end of their severest suffering, as they had now
+reached a country where absolute starvation was not the normal condition
+of the inhabitants; and which was growing more and more bountiful, as
+they neared the Rocky Mountains, where they at length joined camp, not
+having made a very profitable expedition.
+
+It may seem incredible to the reader that any country so poor as that in
+which our trappers starved could have native inhabitants. Yet such was
+the fact; and the people who lived in and who still inhabit this barren
+waste, were called _Diggers_, from their mode of obtaining their food--a
+few edible roots growing in low grounds, or marshy places. When these
+fail them they subsist as did our trappers, by hunting crickets and
+field mice.
+
+Nothing can be more abject than the appearance of the Digger Indian, in
+the fall, as he roams about, without food and without weapons, save
+perhaps a bow and arrows, with his eyes fixed upon the ground, looking
+for crickets! So despicable is he, that he has neither enemies nor
+friends; and the neighboring tribes do not condescend to notice his
+existence, unless indeed he should come in their way, when they would
+not think it more than a mirthful act to put an end to his miserable
+existence. And so it must be confessed the trappers regarded him. When
+Sublette's party first struck the Humboldt, Wyeth's being still with
+them, Joe Meek one day shot a Digger who was prowling about a stream
+where his traps were set.
+
+"Why did you shoot him?" asked Wyeth.
+
+"To keep him from stealing traps."
+
+"Had he stolen any?"
+
+"No: but he _looked as if he was going to_!"
+
+This recklessness of life very properly distressed the just minded New
+Englander. Yet it was hard for the trappers to draw lines of distinction
+so nice as his. If a tribe was not known to be friendly, it was a rule
+of necessity to consider it unfriendly. The abjectness and cowardice of
+the Diggers was the fruit of their own helpless condition. That they had
+the savage instinct, held in check only by circumstances, was
+demonstrated about the same time that Meek shot one, by his being
+pursued by four of them when out trapping alone, and only escaping at
+last by the assistance of one of his comrades who came to the rescue.
+They could not fight, like the Crows and Blackfeet, but they could steal
+and murder, when they had a safe opportunity.
+
+It would be an interesting study, no doubt, to the philanthropist, to
+ascertain in how great a degree the habits, manners, and morals of a
+people are governed by their resources, especially by the quality and
+quantity of their diet. But when diet and climate are both taken into
+consideration, the result is striking.
+
+The character of the Blackfeet who inhabited the good hunting grounds on
+the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, is already pretty well given.
+They were tall, sinewy, well-made fellows; good horsemen, and good
+fighters, though inclined to marauding and murdering. They dressed
+comfortably and even handsomely, as dress goes amongst savages, and
+altogether were more to be feared than despised.
+
+The Crows resembled the Blackfeet, whose enemies they were, in all the
+before-mentioned traits, but were if possible, even more predatory in
+their habits. Unlike the Blackfeet, however, they were not the enemies
+of all mankind; and even were disposed to cultivate some friendliness
+with the white traders and trappers, in order, as they acknowledged, to
+strengthen their own hands against the Blackfeet. They too inhabited a
+good country, full of game, and had horses in abundance. These were the
+mountain tribes.
+
+Comparing these with the coast tribes, there was a striking difference.
+The natives of the Columbia were not a tall and robust people, like
+those east of the Rocky Mountains, who lived by hunting. Their height
+rarely exceeded five feet six inches; their forms were good, rather
+inclining to fatness, their faces round, features coarse, but complexion
+light, and their eyes large and intelligent. The custom of flattening
+their heads in infancy gave them a grotesque and unnatural appearance,
+otherwise they could not be called ill-looking. On the first advent of
+white men among them, they were accustomed to go entirely naked, except
+in winter, when a panther skin, or a mantle of other skins sewed
+together, served to protect them from the cold: or if the weather was
+rainy, as it generally was in that milder climate, a long mantle of
+rush mats, like the toga of the ancient Romans, took the place of that
+made of skins. To this was added a conical hat, woven of fibrous roots,
+and gaily painted.
+
+For defensive armor they were provided with a tunic of elkskin double,
+descending to the ankles, with holes in it for the arms, and quite
+impenetrable to arrows. A helmet of similar material covered the head,
+rendering them like Achilles, invulnerable except in the heels. In this
+secure dress they went to battle in their canoes, notice being first
+given to the enemy of the intended attack. Their battles might therefore
+be termed compound duels, in which each party observed great
+punctiliousness and decorum. Painted and armor-encased, the warriors in
+two flotillas of canoes were rowed to the battle ground by their women,
+when the battle raged furiously for some time; not, however, doing any
+great harm to either side. If any one chanced to be killed, that side
+considered itself beaten, and retired from the conflict to mourn over
+and bury the estimable and departed brave. If the case was a stubborn
+one, requiring several days fighting, the opponents encamped near each
+other, keeping up a confusion of cries, taunts, menaces, and raillery,
+during the whole night; after which they resumed the conflict, and
+continued it until one was beaten. If a village was to be attacked,
+notice being received, the women and children were removed; and if the
+village was beaten they made presents to their conquerors. Such were the
+decorous habits of the warriors of the lower Columbia.
+
+These were the people who lived almost exclusively by fishing, and whose
+climate was a mild and moist one. Fishing, in which both sexes engaged
+about equally, was an important accomplishment, since it was by fish
+they lived in this world; and by being good fishermen that they had
+hopes of the next one. The houses in which they lived, instead of being
+lodges made of buffalo skins, were of a large size and very well
+constructed, being made out of cedar planks. An excavation was first
+made in the earth two or three feet deep, probably to secure greater
+warmth in winter. A double row of cedar posts was then planted firmly
+all round the excavation, and between these the planks were laid, or,
+sometimes cedar bark, so overlapped as to exclude the rain and wind. The
+ridge-pole of the roof was supported on a row of taller posts, passing
+through the centre of the building, and notched to receive it. The
+rafters were then covered with planks or bark, fastened down with ropes
+made of the fibre of the cedar bark. A house made in this manner, and
+often a hundred feet long by thirty or forty wide, accommodated several
+families, who each had their separate entrance and fireplace; the
+entrance being by a low oval-shaped door, and a flight of steps.
+
+The canoes of these people were each cut out of a single log of cedar;
+and were often thirty feet long and five wide at midships. They were
+gaily painted, and their shape was handsome, with a very long bow so
+constructed as to cut the surf in landing with the greatest ease, or the
+more readily to go through a rough sea. The oars were about five feet
+long, and bent in the shape of a crescent; which shape enabled them to
+draw them edgewise through the water with little or no noise--this
+noiselessness being an important quality in hunting the sea otter, which
+is always caught sleeping on the rocks.
+
+The single instrument which sufficed to build canoes and houses was the
+chisel; generally being a piece of old iron obtained from some vessel
+and fixed in a wooden handle. A stone mallet aided them in using the
+chisel; and with this simple "kit" of tools they contrived to
+manufacture plates, bowls, carved oars, and many ornamental things.
+
+Like the men of all savage nations, they made slaves of their captives,
+and their women. The dress of the latter consisted merely of a short
+petticoat, manufactured from the fibre of the cedar bark, previously
+soaked and prepared. This material was worked into a fringe, attached to
+a girdle, and only long enough to reach the middle of the thigh. When
+the season required it, they added a mantle of skins. Their bodies were
+anointed with fish-oil, and sometimes painted with red ochre in
+imitation of the men. For ornaments they wore strings of glass beads,
+and also of a white shell found on the northern coast, called _haiqua_.
+Such were the _Chinooks_, who lived upon the coast.
+
+Farther up the river, on the eastern side of the Cascade range of
+mountains, a people lived, the same, yet different from the Chinooks.
+They resembled them in form, features, and manner of getting a living.
+But they were more warlike and more enterprising; they even had some
+notions of commerce, being traders between the coast Indians and those
+to the east of them. They too were great fishermen, but used the net
+instead of fishing in boats. Great scaffoldings were erected every year
+at the narrows of the Columbia, known as the Dalles, where, as the
+salmon passed up the river in the spring, in incredible numbers, they
+were caught and dried. After drying, the fish were then pounded fine
+between two stones, pressed tightly into packages or bales of about a
+hundred pounds, covered with matting, and corded up for transportation.
+The bales were then placed in storehouses built to receive them, where
+they awaited customers.
+
+By and by there came from the coast other Indians, with different
+varieties of fish, to exchange for the salmon in the Wish-ram
+warehouses. And by and by there came from the plains to the eastward,
+others who had horses, camas-root, bear-grass, fur robes, and whatever
+constituted the wealth of the mountains and plains, to exchange for the
+rich and nutritious salmon of the Columbia. These Wish-ram Indians were
+sharp traders, and usually made something by their exchanges; so that
+they grew rich and insolent, and it was dangerous for the unwary
+stranger to pass their way. Of all the tribes of the Columbia, they
+perpetrated the most outrages upon their neighbors, the passing
+traveler, and the stranger within their gates.
+
+Still farther to the east, on the great grassy plains, watered by
+beautiful streams, coming down from the mountains, lived the Cayuses,
+Yakimas, Nez Perces, Wallah-Wallahs, and Flatheads; as different in
+their appearance and habits as their different modes of living would
+naturally make them. Instead of having many canoes, they had many
+horses; and in place of drawing the fishing net, or trolling lazily
+along with hook and line, or spearing fish from a canoe, they rode
+pell-mell to the chase, or sallied out to battle with the hostile
+Blackfeet, whose country lay between them and the good hunting-grounds,
+where the great herds of buffalo were. Being Nimrods by nature, they
+were dressed in complete suits of skins, instead of going naked, like
+their brethren in the lower country. Being wandering and pastoral in
+their habits, they lived in lodges, which could be planted every night
+and raised every morning.
+
+Their women, too, were good riders, and comfortably clad in dressed
+skins, kept white with chalk. So wealthy were some of the chiefs that
+they could count their fifteen hundred head of horses grazing on their
+grassy uplands. Horse-racing was their delight, and betting on them
+their besetting vice. For bridles they used horse-hair cords, attached
+around the animal's mouth. This was sufficient to check him, and by
+laying a hand on this side or that of the horse's neck, the rider could
+wheel him in either direction. The simple and easy-fitting saddle was a
+stuffed deer-skin, with stirrups of wood, resembling in shape those used
+by the Mexicans, and covered with deer-skin sewed on wet, so as to
+tighten in drying. The saddles of the women were furnished with a pair
+of deer's antlers for the pommel.
+
+In many things their customs and accoutrements resembled those of the
+Mexicans, from whom, no doubt, they were borrowed. Like the Mexican,
+they threw the lasso to catch the wild horse. Their horses, too, were of
+Mexican stock, and many of them bore the brand of that country, having
+been obtained in some of their not infrequent journeys into California
+and New Mexico.
+
+As all the wild horses of America are said to have sprung from a small
+band, turned loose upon the plains by Cortez, it would be interesting to
+know at what time they came to be used by the northern Indians, or
+whether the horse and the Indian did not emigrate together. If the horse
+came to the Indian, great must have been the change effected by the
+advent of this new element in the savage's life. It is impossible to
+conceive, however, that the Indian ever could have lived on these
+immense plains, barren of everything but wild grass, without his horse.
+With him he does well enough, for he not only "lives on horseback," by
+which means he can quickly reach a country abounding in game, but he
+literally lives on horse-flesh, when other game is scarce.
+
+Curious as the fact may seem, the Indians at the mouth of the Columbia
+and those of New Mexico speak languages similar in construction to that
+of the Aztecs; and from this fact, and the others before mentioned, it
+may be very fairly inferred that difference of circumstances and
+localities have made of the different tribes what they are.
+
+As to the Indian's moral nature, that is pretty much alike everywhere;
+and with some rare exceptions, the rarest of which is, perhaps, the
+Flathead and Nez Perces nations, all are cruel, thieving, and
+treacherous. The Indian gospel is literally the "gospel of blood"; an
+"eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." Vengeance is as much a
+commandment to him as any part of the decalogue is to the Christian. But
+we have digressed far from our narrative; and as it will be necessary to
+refer to the subject of the moral code of savages further on in our
+narrative, we leave it for the present.
+
+After the incident of the pin and the fishes, Sublette's party kept on
+to the north, coursing along up Payette's River to Payette Lake, where
+he camped, and the men went out trapping. A party of four, consisting of
+Meek, Antoine Godin, Louis Leaugar, and Small, proceeded to the north as
+far as the Salmon river and beyond, to the head of one of its
+tributaries, where the present city of Florence is located. While camped
+in this region, three of the men went out one day to look for their
+horses, which had strayed away, or been stolen by the Indians. During
+their absence, Meek, who remained in camp, had killed a fine fat deer,
+and was cooking a portion of it, when he saw a band of about a hundred
+Indians approaching, and so near were they that flight was almost
+certainly useless; yet as a hundred against one was very great odds, and
+running away from them would not increase their number, while it gave
+him something to do in his own defence, he took to his heels and ran as
+only a mountain-man can run. Instead, however, of pursuing him, the
+practical-minded braves set about finishing his cooking for him, and
+soon had the whole deer roasting before the fire.
+
+This procedure provoked the gastronomic ire of our trapper, and after
+watching them for some time from his hiding-place, he determined to
+return and share the feast. On reaching camp again, and introducing
+himself to his not over-scrupulous visitors, he found they were from the
+Nez Perces tribe inhabiting that region, who, having been so rude as to
+devour his stock of provisions, invited him to accompany them to their
+village, not a great way off, where they would make some return for his
+involuntary hospitality. This he did, and there found his three comrades
+and all their horses. While still visiting at the Nez Perces village,
+they were joined by the remaining portion of Sublette's command, when
+the whole company started south again. Passing Payette's lake to the
+east, traversing the Boise Basin, going to the head-waters of that
+river, thence to the Malade, thence to Godin's river, and finally to the
+forks of the Salmon, where they found the main camp. Captain Bonneville,
+of whose three years wanderings in the wilderness Mr. Irving has given a
+full and interesting account, was encamped in the same neighborhood, and
+had built there a small fort or trading-house, and finally wintered in
+the neighborhood.
+
+An exchange of men now took place, and Meek went east of the mountains
+under Fitzpatrick and Bridger. When these famous leaders had first set
+out for the summer hunt, after the battle of Pierre's Hole, their course
+had been to the head-waters of the Missouri, to the Yellowstone lake,
+and the forks of the Missouri, some of the best beaver grounds known to
+them. But finding their steps dogged by the American Fur Company, and
+not wishing to be made use of as pilots by their rivals, they had
+flitted about for a time like an Arab camp, in the endeavor to blind
+them, and finally returned to the west side of the mountains, where Meek
+fell in with them.
+
+Exasperated by the perseverance of the American Company, they had come
+to the determination of leading them a march which should tire them of
+the practice of keeping at their heels. They therefore planned an
+expedition, from which they expected no other profit than that of
+shaking off their rivals. Taking no pains to conceal their expedition,
+they rather held out the bait to the American Company, who, unsuspicious
+of their purpose, took it readily enough. They led them along across the
+mountains, and on to the head-waters of the Missouri. Here, packing up
+their traps, they tarried not for beaver, nor even tried to avoid the
+Blackfeet, but pushed right ahead, into the very heart of their country,
+keeping away from any part of it where beaver might be found, and going
+away on beyond, to the elevated plains, quite destitute of that small
+but desirable game, but followed through it by their rivals.
+
+However justifiable on the part of trade this movement of the Rocky
+Mountain Company might have been, it was a cruel device as concerned the
+inexperienced leaders of the other company, one of whom lost his life in
+consequence. Not knowing of their danger, they only discovered their
+situation in the midst of Blackfeet, after discovering the ruse that had
+been played upon them. They then halted, and being determined to find
+beaver, divided their forces and set out in opposite directions for that
+purpose. Unhappily, Major Vanderburg took the worst possible direction
+for a small party to take, and had not traveled far when his scouts came
+upon the still smoking camp-fires of a band of Indians who were
+returning from a buffalo hunt. From the "signs" left behind them, the
+scout judged that they had become aware of the near neighborhood of
+white men, and from their having stolen off, he judged that they were
+only gone for others of their nation, or to prepare for war.
+
+But Vanderburg, with the fool-hardiness of one not "up to Blackfeet,"
+determined to ascertain for himself what there was to fear; and taking
+with him half a score of his followers, put himself upon their trail,
+galloping hard after them, until, in his rashness, he found himself
+being led through a dark and deep defile, rendered darker and gloomier
+by overhanging trees. In the midst of this dismal place, just where an
+ambush might have been expected, he was attacked by a horde of savages,
+who rushed upon his little party with whoops and frantic gestures,
+intended not only to appal the riders, but to frighten their horses, and
+thus make surer their bloody butchery. It was but the work of a few
+minutes to consummate their demoniac purpose. Vanderburg's horse was
+shot down at once, falling on his rider, whom the Indians quickly
+dispatched. One or two of the men were instantly tomahawked, and the
+others wounded while making their escape to camp. The remainder of
+Vanderburg's company, on learning the fate of their leader, whose place
+there was no one to fill, immediately raised camp and fled with all
+haste to the encampment of the Pends Oreille Indians for assistance.
+Here they waited, while those Indians, a friendly tribe, made an effort
+to recover the body of their unfortunate leader; but the remains were
+never recovered, probably having first been fiendishly mutilated, and
+then left to the wolves.
+
+Fitzpatrick and Bridger, finding they were no longer pursued by their
+rivals, as the season advanced began to retrace their steps toward the
+good trapping grounds. Being used to Indian wiles and Blackfeet
+maraudings and ambushes, they traveled in close columns, and never
+camped or turned out their horses to feed, without the greatest caution.
+Morning and evening scouts were sent out to beat up every thicket or
+ravine that seemed to offer concealment to a foe, and the horizon was
+searched in every direction for signs of an Indian attack. The
+complete safety of the camp being settled almost beyond a peradventure,
+the horses were turned loose, though never left unguarded.
+
+[Illustration: SCOUTS IN THE BLACKFOOT COUNTRY--"ELK OR INDIANS?"]
+
+It was not likely, however, that the camp should pass through the
+Blackfoot country without any encounters with that nation. When it had
+reached the head-waters of the Missouri, on the return march, a party of
+trappers, including Meek, discovered a small band of Indians in a bend
+of the lake, and thinking the opportunity for sport a good one,
+commenced firing on them. The Indians, who were without guns, took to
+the lake for refuge, while the trappers entertained themselves with the
+rare amusement of keeping them in the water, by shooting at them
+occasionally. But it chanced that these were only a few stragglers from
+the main Blackfoot camp, which soon came up and put an end to the sport
+by putting the trappers to flight in their turn. The trappers fled to
+camp, the Indians pursuing, until the latter discovered that they had
+been led almost into the large camp of the whites. This occasioned a
+halt, the Blackfeet not caring to engage with superior numbers.
+
+In the pause which ensued, one of the chiefs came out into the open
+space, bearing the peace pipe, and Bridger also advanced to meet him,
+but carrying his gun across the pommel of his saddle. He was accompanied
+by a young Blackfoot woman, wife of a Mexican in his service, as
+interpreter. The chief extended his hand in token of amity; but at that
+moment Bridger saw a movement of the chiefs, which he took to mean
+treachery, and cocked his rifle. But the lock had no sooner clicked than
+the chief, a large and powerful man, seized the gun and turned the
+muzzle downward, when the contents were discharged into the earth. With
+another dexterous movement he wrested it from Bridger's hand, and
+struck him with it, felling him to the ground. In an instant all was
+confusion. The noise of whoops, yells, of fire-arms, and of running
+hither and thither, gathered like a tempest. At the first burst of this
+demoniac blast, the horse of the interpreter became frightened, and, by
+a sudden movement, unhorsed her, wheeling and running back to camp. In
+the melee which now ensued, the woman was carried off by the Blackfeet,
+and Bridger was wounded twice in the back with arrows. A chance medley
+fight now ensued, continuing until night put a period to the contest. So
+well matched were the opposing forces, that each fought with caution
+firing from the cover of thickets and from behind rocks, neither side
+doing much execution. The loss on the part of the Blackfeet was nine
+warriors, and on that of the whites, three men and six horses.
+
+As for the young Blackfoot woman, whose people retained her a prisoner,
+her lamentations and struggles to escape and return to her husband and
+child so wrought upon the young Mexican, who was the pained witness of
+her grief, that he took the babe in his arms, and galloped with it into
+the heart of the Blackfoot camp, to place it in the arms of the
+distracted mother. This daring act, which all who witnessed believed
+would cause his death, so excited the admiration of the Blackfoot chief,
+that he gave him permission to return, unharmed, to his own camp.
+Encouraged by this clemency, Loretta begged to have his wife restored to
+him, relating how he had rescued her, a prisoner, from the Crows, who
+would certainly have tortured her to death. The wife added her
+entreaties to his, but the chief sternly bade him depart, and as sternly
+reminded the Blackfoot girl that she belonged to his tribe, and could
+not go with his enemies. Loretta was therefore compelled to abandon his
+wife and child, and return to camp.
+
+It is, however, gratifying to know that so true an instance of affection
+in savage life was finally rewarded; and that when the two rival fur
+companies united, as they did in the following year, Loretta was
+permitted to go to the American Company's fort on the Missouri, in the
+Blackfoot country, where he was employed as interpreter, assisted by his
+Blackfoot wife.
+
+Such were some of the incidents that signalized this campaign in the
+wilderness, where two equally persistent rivals were trying to outwit
+one another. Subsequently, when several years of rivalry had somewhat
+exhausted both, the Rocky Mountain and American companies consolidated,
+using all their strategy thereafter against the Hudson's Bay Company,
+and any new rival that chanced to enter their hunting grounds.
+
+After the fight above described, the Blackfeet drew off in the night,
+showing no disposition to try their skill next day against such
+experienced Indian fighters as Bridger's brigade had shown themselves.
+The company continued in the Missouri country, trapping and taking many
+beaver, until it reached the Beaver Head Valley, on the head-waters of
+the Jefferson fork of the Missouri. Here the lateness of the season
+compelled a return to winter-quarters, and by Christmas all the
+wanderers were gathered into camp at the forks of the Snake River.
+
+1833. In the latter part of January it became necessary to move to the
+junction of the Portneuf to subsist the animals. The main body of the
+camp had gone on in advance, while some few, with pack horses, or women
+with children, were scattered along the trail. Meek, with five others,
+had been left behind to gather up some horses that had strayed. When
+about a half day's journey from camp, he overtook _Umentucken_, the
+Mountain Lamb, now the wife of Milton Sublette, with her child, on
+horseback. The weather was terribly cold, and seeming to grow colder.
+The naked plains afforded no shelter from the piercing winds, and the
+air fairly glittered with frost. Poor Umentucken was freezing, but more
+troubled about her babe than herself. The camp was far ahead, with all
+the extra blankets, and the prospect was imminent that they would
+perish. Our gallant trapper had thought himself very cold until this
+moment, but what were his sufferings compared to those of the Mountain
+Lamb and her little Lambkin? Without an instant's hesitation, he
+divested himself of his blanket capote, which he wrapped round the
+mother and child, and urged her to hasten to camp. For himself, he could
+not hasten, as he had the horses in charge, but all that fearful
+afternoon rode naked above the waist, exposed to the wind, and the fine,
+dry, icy hail, which filled the air as with diamond needles, to pierce
+the skin; and, probably, to the fact that the hail _was_ so stinging,
+was owing the fact that his blood did not congeal.
+
+"O what a day was that!" said Meek to the writer; "why, the air war
+thick with fine, sharp hail, and the sun shining, too! not one sun only,
+but three suns--there were _three_ suns! And when night came on, the
+northern lights blazed up the sky! It was the most beautiful sight I
+ever saw. That is the country for northern lights!"
+
+When some surprise was expressed that he should have been obliged to
+expose his naked skin to the weather, in order to save Umentucken--"In
+the mountains," he answered, "we do not have many garments. Buckskin
+breeches, a blanket capote, and a beaver skin cap makes up our rig."
+
+"You do not need a laundress, then? But with such clothing how could you
+keep free of vermin?"
+
+"We didn't always do that. Do you want to know how we got rid of lice in
+the mountains? We just took off our clothes and laid them on an
+ant-hill, and you ought to see how the ants would carry off the lice!"
+
+But to return to our hero, frozen, or nearly so. When he reached camp at
+night, so desperate was his condition that the men had to roll him and
+rub him in the snow for some time before allowing him to approach the
+fire. But Umentucken was saved, and he became heroic in her eyes.
+Whether it was the glory acquired by the gallant act just recorded, or
+whether our hero had now arrived at an age when the tender passion has
+strongest sway, the writer is unprepared to affirm: for your
+mountain-man is shy of revealing his past gallantries; but from this
+time on, there are evidences of considerable susceptibility to the
+charms of the dusky beauties of the mountains and the plains.
+
+The cold of this winter was very severe, insomuch that men and mules
+were frozen to death. "The frost," says Meek, "used to hang from the
+roofs of our lodges in the morning, on first waking, in skeins two feet
+long, and our blankets and whiskers were white with it. But we trappers
+laid still, and called the camp-keepers to make a fire, and in our close
+lodges it was soon warm enough.
+
+"The Indians suffered very much. Fuel war scarce on the Snake River, and
+but little fire could be afforded--just sufficient for the children and
+their mothers to get warm by, for the fire was fed only with buffalo fat
+torn in strips, which blazed up quickly and did not last long. Many a
+time I have stood off, looking at the fire, but not venturing to
+approach, when a chief would say, 'Are you cold, my friend? come to the
+fire'--so kind are these Nez Perces and Flatheads."
+
+The cold was not the only enemy in camp that winter, but famine
+threatened them. The buffalo had been early driven east of the
+mountains, and other game was scarce. Sometimes a party of hunters were
+absent for days, even weeks, without finding more game than would
+subsist themselves. As the trappers were all hunters in the winter, it
+frequently happened that Meek and one or more of his associates went on
+a hunt in company, for the benefit of the camp, which was very hungry at
+times.
+
+On one of these hunting expeditions that winter, the party consisting of
+Meek, Hawkins, Doughty, and Antoine Claymore, they had been out nearly a
+fortnight without killing anything of consequence, and had clambered up
+the side of the mountains on the frozen snow, in hopes of finding some
+mountain sheep. As they traveled along under a projecting ledge of
+rocks, they came to a place where there were the impressions in the snow
+of enormous grizzly bear feet. Close by was an opening in the rocks,
+revealing a cavern, and to this the tracks in the snow conducted.
+Evidently the creature had come out of its winter den, and made
+just one circuit back again. At these signs of game the hunters
+hesitated--certain it was there, but doubtful how to obtain it.
+
+At length Doughty proposed to get up on the rocks above the mouth of the
+cavern and shoot the bear as he came out, if somebody would go in and
+dislodge him.
+
+"I'm your man," answered Meek.
+
+"And I too," said Claymore.
+
+"I'll be ---- if we are not as brave as you are," said Hawkins, as he
+prepared to follow.
+
+On entering the cave, which was sixteen or twenty feet square, and high
+enough to stand erect in, instead of one, three bears were discovered.
+They were standing, the largest one in the middle, with their eyes
+staring at the entrance, but quite quiet, greeting the hunters only
+with a low growl. Finding that there was a bear apiece to be disposed
+of, the hunters kept close to the wall, and out of the stream of light
+from the entrance, while they advanced a little way, cautiously, towards
+their game, which, however, seemed to take no notice of them. After
+maneuvering a few minutes to get nearer, Meek finally struck the large
+bear on the head with his wiping-stick, when it immediately moved off
+and ran out of the cave. As it came out, Doughty shot, but only wounded
+it, and it came rushing back, snorting, and running around in a circle,
+till the well directed shots from all three killed it on the spot. Two
+more bears now remained to be disposed of.
+
+The successful shot put Hawkins in high spirits. He began to hallo and
+laugh, dancing around, and with the others striking the next largest
+bear to make him run out, which he soon did, and was shot by Doughty. By
+this time their guns were reloaded, the men growing more and more
+elated, and Hawkins declaring they were "all Daniels in the lions' den,
+and no mistake." This, and similar expressions, he constantly
+vociferated, while they drove out the third and smallest bear. As it
+reached the cave's mouth, three simultaneous shots put an end to the
+last one, when Hawkins' excitement knew no bounds. "Daniel was a
+humbug," said he. "Daniel in the lions' den! Of course it was winter,
+and the lions were sucking their paws! Tell me no more of Daniel's
+exploits. We are as good Daniels as he ever dared to be. Hurrah for
+these Daniels!" With these expressions, and playing many antics by way
+of rejoicing, the delighted Hawkins finally danced himself out of his
+"lion's den," and set to work with the others to prepare for a return to
+camp.
+
+Sleds were soon constructed out of the branches of the mountain willow,
+and on these light vehicles the fortunate find of bear meat was soon
+conveyed to the hungry camp in the plain below. And ever after this
+singular exploit of the party, Hawkins continued to aver, in language
+more strong than elegant, that the Scripture Daniel was a humbug
+compared to himself, and Meek, and Claymore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+1833. In the spring the camp was visited by a party of twenty Blackfeet,
+who drove off most of the horses; and among the stolen ones, Bridger's
+favorite race-horse, Grohean, a Camanche steed of great speed and
+endurance. To retake the horses, and if possible punish the thieves, a
+company of the gamest trappers, thirty in number, including Meek, and
+Kit Carson, who not long before had joined the Rocky Mountain Company,
+was dispatched on their trail. They had not traveled long before they
+came up with the Blackfeet, but the horses were nowhere to be seen,
+having been secreted, after the manner of these thieves, in some defile
+of the mountains, until the skirmish was over which they knew well
+enough to anticipate. Accordingly when the trappers came up, the wily
+savages were prepared for them. Their numbers were inferior to that of
+the whites; accordingly they assumed an innocent and peace-desiring air,
+while their head man advanced with the inevitable peace-pipe, to have a
+"talk." But as their talk was a tissue of lies, the trappers soon lost
+patience, and a quarrel quickly arose. The Indians betook themselves to
+the defences which were selected beforehand, and a fight began, which
+without giving to either party the victory of arms, ended in the killing
+of two or three of the Blackfeet, and the wounding very severely of Kit
+Carson. The firing ceased with nightfall; and when morning came, as
+usual the Blackfeet were gone, and the trappers returned to camp without
+their horses.
+
+The lost animals were soon replaced by purchase from the Nez Perces, and
+the company divided up into brigades, some destined for the country east
+of the mountains, and others for the south and west. In this year Meek
+rose a grade above the hired trapper, and became one of the order
+denominated skin trappers. These, like the hired trappers, depend upon
+the company to furnish them an outfit; but do not receive regular wages,
+as do the others. They trap for themselves, only agreeing to sell their
+beaver to the company which furnishes the outfit, and to no other. In
+this capacity, our Joe, and a few associates, hunted this spring, in the
+Snake River and Salt Lake countries; returning as usual to the annual
+rendezvous, which was appointed this summer to meet on Green River. Here
+were the Rocky Mountain and American Companies; the St. Louis Company,
+under Capt. Wm. Sublette and his friend Campbell; the usual camp of
+Indian allies; and, a few miles distant, that of Captain Bonneville. In
+addition to all these, was a small company belonging to Capt. Stuart, an
+Englishman of noble family, who was traveling in the far west only to
+gratify his own love of wild adventure, and admiration of all that is
+grand and magnificent in nature. With him was an artist named Miller,
+and several servants; but he usually traveled in company with one or
+another of the fur companies; thus enjoying their protection, and at the
+same time gaining a knowledge of the habits of mountain life.
+
+The rendezvous, at this time, furnished him a striking example of some
+of the ways of mountain-men, least to their honorable fame; and we fear
+we must confess that our friend Joe Meek, who had been gathering laurels
+as a valiant hunter and trapper during the three or four years of his
+apprenticeship, was also becoming fitted, by frequent practice, to
+graduate in some of the vices of camp life, especially the one of
+conviviality during rendezvous. Had he not given his permission, we
+should not perhaps have said what he says of himself, that he was at
+such times often very "powerful drunk."
+
+During the indulgence of these excesses, while at this rendezvous, there
+occurred one of those incidents of wilderness life which make the blood
+creep with horror. Twelve of the men were bitten by a mad wolf, which
+hung about the camp for two or three nights. Two of these were seized
+with madness in camp, sometime afterwards, and ran off into the
+mountains, where they perished. One was attacked by the paroxysm while
+on a hunt; when, throwing himself off his horse, he struggled and foamed
+at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and barking like a wolf. Yet he
+retained consciousness enough to warn away his companions, who hastened
+in search of assistance; but when they returned he was nowhere to be
+found. It was thought that he was seen a day or two afterwards, but no
+one could come up with him, and of course, he too, perished. Another
+died on his journey to St. Louis; and several died at different times
+within the next two years.
+
+At the time, however, immediately following the visit of the wolf to
+camp, Captain Stuart was admonishing Meek on the folly of his ways,
+telling him that the wolf might easily have bitten him, he was so drunk.
+
+"It would have killed him,--sure, if it hadn't cured him!" said
+Meek,--alluding to the belief that alcohol is a remedy for the poison of
+hydrophobia.
+
+When sobriety returned, and work was once more to be resumed, Meek
+returned with three or four associates to the Salt Lake country, to trap
+on the numerous streams that flow down from the mountains to the east of
+Salt Lake. He had not been long in this region when he fell in on Bear
+River with a company of Bonneville's men, one hundred and eighteen in
+number, under Jo Walker, who had been sent to explore the Great Salt
+Lake, and the adjacent country; to make charts, keep a journal, and, in
+short, make a thorough discovery of all that region. Great expectations
+were cherished by the Captain concerning this favorite expedition, which
+were, however, utterly blighted, as his historian has recorded. The
+disappointment and loss which Bonneville suffered from it, gave a tinge
+of prejudice to his delineations of the trapper's character. It was true
+that they did not explore Salt Lake; and that they made a long and
+expensive journey, collecting but few peltries. It is true also, that
+they caroused in true mountain style, while among the Californians: but
+that the expedition was unprofitable was due chiefly to the difficulties
+attending the exploration of a new country, a large portion of which was
+desert and mountain.
+
+But let us not anticipate. When Meek and his companions fell in with Jo
+Walker and his company, they resolved to accompany the expedition; for
+it was "a feather in a man's cap," and made his services doubly valuable
+to have become acquainted with a new country, and fitted himself for a
+pilot.
+
+On leaving Bear River, where the hunters took the precaution to lay in a
+store of dried meat, the company passed down on the west side of Salt
+Lake, and found themselves in the Salt Lake desert, where their store,
+insufficiently large, soon became reduced to almost nothing. Here was
+experienced again the sufferings to which Meek had once before been
+subjected in the Digger country, which, in fact, bounded this desert on
+the northwest. "There was," says Bonneville, "neither tree, nor herbage,
+nor spring, nor pool, nor running stream; nothing but parched wastes of
+sand, where horse and rider were in danger of perishing." Many an
+emigrant has since confirmed the truth of this account.
+
+It could not be expected that men would continue on in such a country,
+in that direction which offered no change for the better. Discerning at
+last a snowy range to the northwest, they traveled in that direction;
+pinched with famine, and with tongues swollen out of their mouths with
+thirst. They came at last to a small stream, into which both men and
+animals plunged to quench their raging thirst.
+
+The instinct of a mule on these desert journeys is something wonderful.
+We have heard it related by others besides the mountain-men, that they
+will detect the neighborhood of water long before their riders have
+discovered a sign; and setting up a gallop, when before they could
+hardly walk, will dash into the water up to their necks, drinking in the
+life-saving moisture through every pore of the skin, while they
+prudently refrain from swallowing much of it. If one of a company has
+been off on a hunt for water, and on finding it has let his mule drink,
+when he returns to camp, the other animals will gather about it, and
+snuff its breath, and even its body, betraying the liveliest interest
+and envy. It is easy to imagine that in the case of Jo Walker's company,
+not only the animals but the men were eager to steep themselves in the
+reviving waters of the first stream which they found on the border of
+this weary desert.
+
+It proved to be a tributary of Mary's or Ogden's River, along which the
+company pursued their way, trapping as they went, and living upon the
+flesh of the beaver. They had now entered upon the same country
+inhabited by Digger Indians, in which Milton Sublette's brigade had so
+nearly perished with famine the previous year. It was unexplored, and
+the natives were as curious about the movements of their white visitors,
+as Indians always are on the first appearance of civilized men.
+
+They hung about the camps, offering no offences by day, but contriving
+to do a great deal of thieving during the night-time. Each day, for
+several days, their numbers increased, until the army which dogged the
+trappers by day, and filched from them at night, numbered nearly a
+thousand. They had no guns; but carried clubs, and some bows and arrows.
+The trappers at length became uneasy at this accumulation of force, even
+though they had no fire-arms, for was it not this very style of people,
+armed with clubs, that attacked Smith's party on the Umpqua, and killed
+all but four?
+
+"We must kill a lot of them, boys," said Jo Walker. "It will never do to
+let that crowd get into camp." Accordingly, as the Indians crowded round
+at a ford of Mary's River, always a favorite time of attack with the
+savages, Walker gave the order to fire, and the whole company poured a
+volley into the jostling crowd. The effect was terrible. Seventy-five
+Diggers bit the dust; while the others, seized with terror and horror at
+this new and instantaneous mode of death, fled howling away, the
+trappers pursuing them until satisfied that they were too much
+frightened to return. This seemed to Captain Bonneville, when he came to
+hear of it, like an unnecessary and ferocious act. But Bonneville was
+not an experienced Indian fighter. His views of their character were
+much governed by his knowledge of the Flatheads and Nez Perces; and also
+by the immunity from harm he enjoyed among the Shoshonies on the Snake
+River, where the Hudson's Bay Company had brought them into subjection,
+and where even two men might travel in safety at the time of his
+residence in that country.
+
+Walker's company continued on down to the main or Humboldt River,
+trapping as they went, both for the furs, and for something to eat; and
+expecting to find that the river whose course they were following
+through these barren plains, would lead them to some more important
+river, or to some large lake or inland sea. This was a country entirely
+unknown, even to the adventurous traders and trappers of the fur
+companies, who avoided it because it was out of the buffalo range; and
+because the borders of it, along which they sometimes skirted, were
+found to be wanting in water-courses in which beaver might be looked
+for. Walker's company therefore, now determined to prosecute their
+explorations until they came to some new and profitable beaver grounds.
+
+But after a long march through an inhospitable country they came at last
+to where the Humboldt sinks itself in a great swampy lake, in the midst
+of deserts of sage-brush. Here was the end of their great expectations.
+To the west of them, however, and not far off, rose the lofty summits of
+the Sierra Nevada range, some of whose peaks were covered with eternal
+snows. Since they had already made an unprofitable business of their
+expedition, and failed in its principal aim, that of exploring Salt
+Lake, they resolved upon crossing the mountains into California, and
+seeking new fields of adventure on the western side of the Nevada
+mountains.
+
+Accordingly, although it was already late in the autumn, the party
+pushed on toward the west, until they came to Pyramid Lake, another of
+those swampy lakes which are frequently met with near the eastern base
+of these Sierras. Into this flowed a stream similar to the Humboldt,
+which came from the south, and, they believed, had its rise in the
+mountains. As it was important to find a good pass, they took their
+course along this stream, which they named Trucker's River, and
+continued along it to its head-waters in the Sierras.
+
+And now began the arduous labor of crossing an unknown range of lofty
+mountains. Mountaineers as they were, they found it a difficult
+undertaking, and one attended with considerable peril. For a period of
+more than three weeks they were struggling with these dangers; hunting
+paths for their mules and horses, traveling around canyons thousands of
+feet deep; sometimes sinking in new fallen snow; always hungry, and
+often in peril from starvation. Sometimes they scrambled up almost
+smooth declivities of granite, that offered no foothold save the
+occasional seams in the rock; at others they traveled through pine
+forests made nearly impassable by snow; and at other times on a ridge
+which wind and sun made bare for them. All around rose rocky peaks and
+pinnacles fretted by ages of denudation to very spears and needles of a
+burnt looking, red colored rock. Below, were spread out immense fields,
+or rather oceans, of granite that seemed once to have been a molten sea,
+whose waves were suddenly congealed. From the fissures between these
+billows grew stunted pines, which had found a scanty soil far down in
+the crevices of the rock for their hardy roots. Following the course of
+any stream flowing in the right direction for their purpose, they came
+not infrequently to some small fertile valley, set in amidst the rocks
+like a cup, and often containing in its depth a bright little lake.
+These are the oases in the mountain deserts. But the lateness of the
+season made it necessary to avoid the high valleys on account of the
+snow, which in winter accumulates to a depth of twenty feet.
+
+Great was the exultation of the mountaineers when they emerged from the
+toils and dangers, safe into the bright and sunny plains of California;
+having explored almost the identical route since fixed upon for the
+Union Pacific Railroad.
+
+They proceeded down the Sacramento valley, toward the coast, after
+recruiting their horses on the ripe wild oats, and the freshly springing
+grass which the December rains had started into life, and themselves on
+the plentiful game of the foot-hills. Something of the stimulus of the
+Californian climate seemed to be imparted to the ever buoyant blood of
+these hardy and danger-despising men. They were mad with delight on
+finding themselves, after crossing the stern Sierras, in a land of
+sunshine and plenty; a beautiful land of verdant hills and tawny plains;
+of streams winding between rows of alder and willow, and valleys dotted
+with picturesque groves of the evergreen oak. Instead of the wild blasts
+which they were used to encounter in December, they experienced here
+only those dainty and wooing airs which poets have ascribed to spring,
+but which seldom come even with the last May days in an eastern climate.
+
+In the San Jose valley they encountered a party of one hundred soldiers,
+which the Spanish government at Monterey had sent out to take a party of
+Indians accused of stealing cattle. The soldiers were native
+Californians, descendants of the mixed blood of Spain and Mexico, a
+wild, jaunty looking set of fellows, who at first were inclined to take
+Walker's party for a band of cattle thieves, and to march them off to
+Monterey. But the Rocky Mountain trapper was not likely to be taken
+prisoner by any such brigade as the dashing _cabelleros_ of Monterey.
+
+After astonishing them with a series of whoops and yells, and trying to
+astonish them with feats of horsemanship, they began to discover that
+when it came to the latter accomplishment, even mountain-men could learn
+something from a native Californian. In this latter frame of mind they
+consented to be conducted to Monterey as prisoners or not, just as the
+Spanish government should hereafter be pleased to decree; and they had
+confidence in themselves that they should be able to bend that high and
+mighty authority to their own purposes thereafter.
+
+Nor were they mistaken in their calculations. Their fearless, free and
+easy style, united to their complete furnishing of arms, their numbers,
+and their superior ability to stand up under the demoralizing effect of
+the favorite _aguadiente_, soon so far influenced the soldiery at least,
+that the trappers were allowed perfect freedom under the very eyes of
+the jealous Spanish government, and were treated with all hospitality.
+
+The month which the trappers spent at Monterey was their "red letter
+day" for a long time after. The habits of the Californians accorded with
+their own, with just difference enough to furnish them with novelties
+and excitements such as gave a zest to their intercourse. The
+Californian, and the mountain-men, were alike centaurs. Horses were
+their necessity, and their delight; and the plains swarmed with them, as
+also with wild cattle, descendants of those imported by the Jesuit
+Fathers in the early days of the Missions. These horses and cattle were
+placed at the will and pleasure of the trappers. They feasted on one,
+and bestrode the other as it suited them. They attended bull-fights, ran
+races, threw the lasso, and played monte, with a relish that delighted
+the inhabitants of Monterey.
+
+The partial civilization of the Californians accorded with every feeling
+to which the mountain-men could be brought to confess. To them the
+refinements of cities would have been oppressive. The adobe houses of
+Monterey were not so restraining in their elegance as to trouble the
+sensations of men used to the heavens for a roof in summer, and a skin
+lodge for shelter in winter. Some fruits and vegetables, articles not
+tasted for years, they obtained at the missions, where the priests
+received them courteously and hospitably, as they had done Jedediah
+Smith and his company, five years before, when on their long and
+disastrous journey they found themselves almost destitute of the
+necessaries of life, upon their arrival in California. There was
+something too, in the dress of the people, both men and women, which
+agreed with, while differing from, the dress of the mountaineers and
+their now absent Indian dulcineas.
+
+[Illustration: _BRANDING CATTLE._]
+
+The men wore garments of many colors, consisting of blue velveteen
+breeches and jacket, the jacket having a scarlet collar and cuffs, and
+the breeches being open at the knee to display the stocking of white.
+Beneath these were displayed high buskins made of deer skin, fringed
+down the outside of the ankle, and laced with a cord and tassels. On the
+head was worn a broad brimmed _sombrero_; and over the shoulders the
+jaunty Mexican _sarape_. When they rode, the Californians wore enormous
+spurs, fastened on by jingling chains. Their saddles were so shaped that
+it was difficult to dislodge the rider, being high before and behind;
+and the indispensable lasso hung coiled from the pommel. Their stirrups
+were of wood, broad on the bottom, with a guard of leather that
+protected the fancy buskin of the horseman from injury. Thus accoutred,
+and mounted on a wild horse, the Californian was a suitable comrade, in
+appearance, at least, for the buckskin clad trapper, with his high
+beaver-skin cap, his gay scarf, and moccasins, and profusion of arms.
+
+The dress of the women was a gown of gaudy calico or silk, and a bright
+colored shawl, which served for mantilla and bonnet together. They were
+well formed, with languishing eyes and soft voices; and doubtless
+appeared charming in the eyes of our band of trappers, with whom they
+associated freely at fandangoes, bull-fights, or bear-baitings. In such
+company, what wonder that Bonneville's men lingered for a whole month!
+What wonder that the California expedition was a favorite theme by
+camp-fires, for a long time subsequent?
+
+1834. In February the trappers bethought themselves of returning to the
+mountains. The route fixed upon was one which should take them through
+Southern California, and New Mexico, along the course of all the
+principal rivers. Crossing the coast mountains, into the valley of the
+San Joaquin, they followed its windings until they came to its rise in
+the Lulare Lake. Thence turning in a southeasterly course, they came to
+the Colorado, at the Mohave villages, where they traded with the
+natives, whom they found friendly. Keeping on down the Colorado, to the
+mouth of the Gila, they turned back from that river, and ascended the
+Colorado once more, to Williams' Fork, and up the latter stream to some
+distance, when they fell in with a company of sixty men under Frapp and
+Jervais, two of the partners in the Rocky Mountain Company. The meeting
+was joyful on all sides; but particularly so between Meek and some of
+his old comrades, with whom he had fought Indians and grizzly bears, or
+set beaver traps on some lonely stream in the Blackfoot country. A
+lively exchange of questions and answers took place, while gaiety and
+good feeling reigned.
+
+Frapp had been out quite as long as the Monterey party. It was seldom
+that the brigade which traversed the southern country, on the Colorado,
+and its large tributaries, returned to winter quarters; for in the
+region where they trapped winter was unknown, and the journey to the
+northern country a long and hazardous one. But the reunited trappers had
+each their own experiences to relate.
+
+The two companies united made a party nearly two hundred strong. Keeping
+with Frapp, they crossed over from Williams' Fork to the Colorado
+Chiquito river, at the Moquis village, where some of the men disgraced
+themselves far more than did Jo Walker's party at the crossing of Mary's
+River. For the Moquis were a half-civilized nation, who had houses and
+gardens, and conducted themselves kindly, or at the worst peaceably,
+toward properly behaved strangers. These trappers, instead of
+approaching them with offers of purchase, lawlessly entered their
+gardens, rifling them of whatever fruit or melons were ripe, and not
+hesitating to destroy that which was not ripe. To this, as might be
+expected, the Moquises objected; and were shot down for so doing. In
+this truly infamous affair fifteen or twenty of them were killed.
+
+"I didn't belong to that crowd," says Joe Meek, "I sat on the fence and
+saw it, though. It was a shameful thing."
+
+From the Moquis village, the joint companies crossed the country in a
+northeasterly direction, crossing several branches of the Colorado at
+their head-waters, which course finally brought them to the head-waters
+of the Rio Grande. The journey from the mouth of the Gila, though long,
+extended over a country comparatively safe. Either farther to the south
+or east, the caravan would have been in danger of a raid from the most
+dangerous tribes on the continent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+1834. But Joe Meek was not destined to return to the Rocky Mountains
+without having had an Indian fight. If adventures did not come in his
+way he was the man to put himself in the way of adventures.
+
+While the camp was on its way from the neighborhood of Grande River to
+the New Park, Meek, Kit Carson, and Mitchell, with three Delaware
+Indians, named Tom Hill, Manhead, and Jonas, went on a hunt across to
+the east of Grande River, in the country lying between the Arkansas and
+Cimarron, where numerous small branches of these rivers head together,
+or within a small extent of country.
+
+They were about one hundred and fifty miles from camp, and traveling
+across the open plain between the streams, one beautiful May morning,
+when about five miles off they descried a large band of Indians mounted,
+and galloping toward them. As they were in the Camanche country, they
+knew what to expect if they allowed themselves to be taken prisoners.
+They gave but a moment to the observation of their foes, but that one
+moment revealed a spirited scene. Fully two hundred Camanches, their
+warriors in front, large and well formed men, mounted on fleet and
+powerful horses, armed with spears and battle axes, racing like the wind
+over the prairie, their feather head-dresses bending to the breeze, that
+swept past them in the race with double force; all distinctly seen in
+the clear air of the prairie, and giving the beholder a thrill of
+fear mingled with admiration.
+
+[Illustration: _THE MULE FORT._]
+
+The first moment given to this spectacle, the second one was employed to
+devise some means of escape. To run was useless. The swift Camanche
+steeds would soon overtake them; and then their horrible doom was fixed.
+No covert was at hand, neither thicket nor ravine, as in the mountains
+there might have been. Carson and Meek exchanged two or three sentences.
+At last, "we must kill our mules!" said they.
+
+That seems a strange devise to the uninitiated reader, who no doubt
+believes that in such a case their mules must be their salvation. And so
+they were intended to be. In this plight a dead mule was far more useful
+than a live one. To the ground sprang every man; and placing their
+mules, seven in number, in a ring, they in an instant cut their throats
+with their hunting knives, and held on to the bridles until each animal
+fell dead in its appointed place. Then hastily scooping up what earth
+they could with knives, they made themselves a fort--a hole to stand in
+for each man, and a dead mule for a breastwork.
+
+In less than half an hour the Camanches charged on them; the
+medicine-man in advance shouting, gesticulating, and making a desperate
+clatter with a rattle which he carried and shook violently. The yelling,
+the whooping, the rattling, the force of the charge were appalling. But
+the little garrison in the mule fort did not waver. The Camanche horses
+did. They could not be made to charge upon the bloody carcasses of the
+mules, nor near enough for their riders to throw a spear into the fort.
+
+This was what the trappers had relied upon. They were cool and
+determined, while terribly excited and wrought up by their situation. It
+was agreed that no more than three should fire at a time, the other
+three reserving their fire while the empty guns could be reloaded. They
+were to pick their men, and kill one at every shot.
+
+They acted up to their regulations. At the charge the Camanche horses
+recoiled and could not be urged upon the fort of slaughtered mules. The
+three whites fired first, and the medicine-man and two other Camanches
+fell. When a medicine-man is killed, the others retire to hold a council
+and appoint another, for without their "medicine" they could not expect
+success in battle. This was time gained. The warriors retired, while
+their women came up and carried off the dead.
+
+After devoting a little time to bewailing the departed, another chief
+was appointed to the head place, and another furious charge was made
+with the same results as before. Three more warriors bit the dust; while
+the spears of their brethren, attached to long hair ropes by which they
+could be withdrawn, fell short of reaching the men in the fort. Again
+and again the Camanches made a fruitless charge, losing, as often as
+they repeated it, three warriors, either dead or wounded. Three times
+that day the head chief or medicine-man was killed; and when that
+happened, the heroes in the fort got a little time to breathe. While the
+warriors held a council, the women took care of the wounded and slain.
+
+As the women approached the fort to carry off the fallen warriors, they
+mocked and reviled the little band of trappers, calling them "women,"
+for fighting in a fort, and resorting to the usual Indian ridicule and
+gasconade. Occasionally, also, a warrior raced at full speed past the
+fort apparently to take observations. Thus the battle continued through
+the entire day.
+
+It was terrible work for the trappers. The burning sun of the plains
+shone on them, scorching them to faintness. Their faces were begrimed
+with powder and dust; their throats parched, and tongues swollen with
+thirst, and their whole frames aching from their cramped positions, as
+well as the excitement and fatigue of the battle. But they dared not
+relax their vigilance for a moment. They were fighting for their lives,
+and they meant to win.
+
+At length the sun set on that bloody and wearisome day. Forty-two
+Camanches were killed, and several more wounded, for the charge had been
+repeated fifteen or twenty times. The Indians drew off at nightfall to
+mourn over their dead, and hold a council. Probably they had lost faith
+in their medicines, or believed that the trappers possessed one far
+greater than any of theirs. Under the friendly cover of the night, the
+six heroes who had fought successfully more than a hundred Camanches,
+took each his blanket and his gun, and bidding a brief adieu to dead
+mules and beaver packs, set out to return to camp.
+
+When a mountain-man had a journey to perform on foot, to travel express,
+or to escape from an enemy, he fell into what is called a dog trot, and
+ran in that manner, sometimes, all day. On the present occasion, the
+six, escaping for life, ran all night, and found no water for
+seventy-five mile. When they did at last come to a clear running stream,
+their thankfulness was equal to their necessity, "for," says Meek,
+"thirst is the greatest suffering I ever experienced. It is far worse
+than hunger or pain."
+
+Having rested and refreshed themselves at the stream, they kept on
+without much delay until they reached camp in that beautiful valley of
+the Rocky Mountains called the New, or the South Park.
+
+While they remained in the South Park, Mr. Guthrie, one of the Rocky
+Mountain Company's traders, was killed by lightning. A number of persons
+were collected in the lodge of the Booshway, Frapp, to avoid the rising
+tempest, when Guthrie, who was leaning against the lodge pole, was
+struck by a flash of the electric current, and fell dead instantly.
+Frapp rushed out of the lodge, partly bewildered himself by the shock,
+and under the impression that Guthrie had been shot. Frapp was a German,
+and spoke English somewhat imperfectly. In the excitement of the moment
+he shouted out, "By ----, who did shoot Guttery!"
+
+"-- a'----, I expect: He's a firing into camp;" drawled out Hawkins,
+whose ready wit was very disregardful of sacred names and subjects.
+
+The mountaineers were familiar with the most awful aspects of nature;
+and if their familiarity had not bred contempt, it had at least hardened
+them to those solemn impressions which other men would have felt under
+their influence.
+
+From New Park, Meek traveled north with the main camp, passing first to
+the Old Park; thence to the Little Snake, a branch of Bear River; thence
+to Pilot Butte; and finally to Green River to rendezvous; having
+traveled in the past year about three thousand miles, on horseback,
+through new and often dangerous countries. It is easy to believe that
+the Monterey expedition was the popular theme in camp during rendezvous.
+It had been difficult to get volunteers for Bonneville's Salt Lake
+Exploration: but such was the wild adventure to which it led, that
+volunteering for a trip to Monterey would have been exceedingly popular
+immediately thereafter.
+
+On Bear River, Bonneville's men fell in with their commander, Captain
+Bonneville, whose disappointment and indignation at the failure of his
+plans was exceedingly great. In this indignation there was considerable
+justice; yet much of his disappointment was owing to causes which a more
+experienced trader would have avoided. The only conclusion which can be
+arrived at by an impartial observer of the events of 1832-35, is, that
+none but certain men of long experience and liberal means, could succeed
+in the business of the fur-trade. There were too many chances of loss;
+too many wild elements to be mingled in amity; and too powerful
+opposition from the old established companies. Captain Bonneville's
+experience was no different from Mr. Wyeth's. In both cases there was
+much effort, outlay, and loss. Nor was their failure owing to any action
+of the Hudson's Bay Company, different from, or more tyrannical, than
+the action of the American companies, as has frequently been
+represented. It was the American companies in the Rocky Mountains that
+drove both Bonneville and Wyeth out of the field. Their inexperience
+could not cope with the thorough knowledge of the business, and the
+country, which their older rivals possessed. Raw recruits were no match,
+in trapping or fighting, for old mountaineers: and those veterans who
+had served long under certain leaders could not be inveigled from their
+service except upon the most extravagant offers; and these extravagant
+wages, which if one paid, the other must, would not allow a profit to
+either of the rivals.
+
+"How much does your company pay you?" asked Bonneville of Meek, to whom
+he was complaining of the conduct of his men on the Monterey expedition.
+
+"Fifteen hundred dollars," answered Meek.
+
+"Yes: and _I_ will give it to you," said Bonneville with bitterness.
+
+It was quite true. Such was the competition aroused by the Captain's
+efforts to secure good men and pilots, that rather than lose them to a
+rival company, the Rocky Mountain Company paid a few of their best men
+the wages above named.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+1834. The gossip at rendezvous was this year of an unusually exciting
+character. Of the brigades which left for different parts of the country
+the previous summer, the Monterey travelers were not the only ones who
+had met with adventures. Fitzpatrick, who had led a party into the Crow
+country that autumn, had met with a characteristic reception from that
+nation of cunning vagabonds.
+
+Being with his party on Lougue River, in the early part of September, he
+discovered that he was being dogged by a considerable band of Crows, and
+endeavored to elude their spying; but all to no purpose. The Crow chief
+kept in his neighborhood, and finally expressed a desire to bring his
+camp alongside that of Fitzpatrick, pretending to the most friendly and
+honorable sentiments toward his white neighbors. But not feeling any
+confidence in Crow friendship, Fitzpatrick declined, and moved camp a
+few miles away. Not, however, wishing to offend the dignity of the
+apparently friendly chief, he took a small escort, and went to pay a
+visit to his Crow neighbors, that they might see that he was not afraid
+to trust them. Alas, vain subterfuge!
+
+While he was exchanging civilities with the Crow chief, a party of the
+young braves stole out of camp, and taking advantage of the leader's
+absence, made an attack on his camp, so sudden and successful that not a
+horse, nor anything else which they could make booty of was left. Even
+Captain Stuart, who was traveling with Fitzpatrick, and who was an
+active officer, was powerless to resist the attack, and had to consent
+to see the camp rifled of everything valuable.
+
+In the meantime Fitzpatrick, after concluding his visit in the most
+amicable manner, was returning to camp, when he was met by the exultant
+braves, who added insult to injury by robbing him of his horse, gun, and
+nearly all his clothes, leaving him to return to his party in a
+deplorable condition, to the great amusement of the trappers, and his
+own chagrin.
+
+However, the next day a talk was held with the head chief of the Crows,
+to whom Fitzpatrick represented the infamy of such treacherous conduct
+in a very strong light. In answer to this reproof, the chief disowned
+all knowledge of the affair; saying that he could not always control the
+conduct of the young men, who would be a little wild now and then, in
+spite of the best Crow precepts: but that he would do what he could to
+have the property restored. Accordingly, after more talk, and much
+eloquence on the part of Fitzpatrick, the chief part of the plunder was
+returned to him, including the horses and rifles of the men, together
+with a little ammunition, and a few beaver traps.
+
+Fitzpatrick understood the meaning of this apparent fairness, and
+hastened to get out of the Crow country before another raid by the
+mischievous young braves, at a time when their chief was not "honor
+bound," should deprive him of the recovered property. That his
+conjecture was well founded, was proven by the numerous petty thefts
+which were committed, and by the loss of several horses and mules,
+before he could remove them beyond the limits of the Crow territory.
+
+While the trappers exchanged accounts of their individual experiences,
+the leaders had more important matters to gossip over. The rivalry
+between the several fur companies was now at its climax. Through the
+energy and ability of Captain Sublette of the St. Louis Company, and the
+experience and industry of the Rocky Mountain Company, which Captain
+Sublette still continued to control in a measure, the power still
+remained with them. The American Company had never been able to cope
+with them in the Rocky Mountains; and the St. Louis Company were already
+invading their territory on the Missouri River, by carrying goods up
+that river in boats, to trade with the Indians under the very walls of
+the American Company's forts.
+
+In August of the previous year, when Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth had started on
+his return to the states, he was accompanied as far as the mouth of the
+Yellowstone by Milton Sublette; and had engaged with that gentleman to
+furnish him with goods the following year, as he believed he could do,
+cheaper than the St. Louis Company, who purchased their goods in St.
+Louis at a great advance on Boston prices. But Milton Sublette fell in
+with his brother the Captain, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, with a
+keel-boat loaded with merchandise; and while Wyeth pursued his way
+eastward to purchase the Indian goods which were intended to supply the
+wants of the fur-traders in the Rocky Mountains, at a profit to him, and
+an advantage to them, the Captain was persuading his brother not to
+encourage any interlopers in the Indian trade; but to continue to buy
+goods from himself, as formerly. So potent were his arguments, that
+Milton yielded to them, in spite of his engagement with Wyeth. Thus
+during the autumn of 1833, while Bonneville was being wronged and
+robbed, as he afterwards became convinced, by his men under Walker, and
+anticipated in the hunting-ground selected for himself, in the Crow
+country, by Fitzpatrick, as he had previously been in the Snake country
+by Milton Sublette, Wyeth was proceeding to Boston in good faith, to
+execute what proved to be a fool's errand. Bonneville also had gone on
+another, when after the trapping season was over he left his camp to
+winter on the Snake River, and started with a small escort to visit the
+Columbia, and select a spot for a trading-post on the lower portion of
+that river. On arriving at Wallah-Wallah, after a hard journey over the
+Blue Mountains in the winter, the agent at that post had refused to
+supply him with provisions to prosecute his journey, and given him to
+understand that the Hudson's Bay Company might be polite and hospitable
+to Captain Bonneville as the gentleman, but that it was against their
+regulations to encourage the advent of other traders who would interfere
+with their business, and unsettle the minds of the Indians in that
+region.
+
+This reply so annoyed the Captain, that he refused the well meant advice
+of Mr. Pambrun that he should not undertake to recross the Blue
+Mountains in March snows, but travel under the escort of Mr. Payette,
+one of the Hudson's Bay Company's leaders, who was about starting for
+the Nez Perce country by a safer if more circuitous route. He therefore
+set out to return by the route he came, and only arrived at camp in May,
+1834, after many dangers and difficulties. From the Portneuf River, he
+then proceeded with his camp to explore the Little Snake River, and
+Snake Lake; and it was while so doing that he fell in with his men just
+returned from Monterey.
+
+Such was the relative position of the several fur companies in the Rocky
+Mountains in 1834; and it was of such matters that the leaders talked in
+the lodge of the Booshways, at rendezvous. In the meantime Wyeth
+arrived in the mountains with his goods, as he had contracted with
+Milton Sublette in the previous year. But on his heels came Captain
+Sublette, also with goods, and the Rocky Mountain Company violated their
+contract with Wyeth, and purchased of their old leader.
+
+Thus was Wyeth left, with his goods on his hands, in a country where it
+was impossible to sell them, and useless to undertake an opposition to
+the already established fur-traders and trappers. His indignation was
+great, and certainly was just. In his interview with the Rocky Mountain
+Company, in reply to their excuses for, and vindication of their
+conduct, his answer was:
+
+"Gentlemen, I will roll a stone into your garden that you will never be
+able to get out."
+
+And he kept his promise; for that same autumn he moved on to the Snake
+River, and built Fort Hall, storing his goods therein. The next year he
+sold out goods and fort to the Hudson's Bay Company; and the stone was
+in the garden of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company that they were never
+able to dislodge. When Wyeth had built his fort and left it in charge of
+an agent, he dispatched a party of trappers to hunt in the Big Blackfoot
+country, under Joseph Gale, who had previously been in the service of
+the Rocky Mountain Company, and of whom we shall learn more hereafter,
+while he set out for the Columbia to meet his vessel, and establish a
+salmon fishery. The fate of that enterprise has already been recorded.
+
+As for Bonneville, he made one more effort to reach the lower Columbia;
+failing, however, a second time, for the same reason as before--he could
+not subsist himself and company in a country where even every Indian
+refused to sell to him either furs or provisions. After being reduced to
+horse-flesh, and finding no encouragement that his condition would be
+improved farther down the river, he turned back once more from about
+Wallah-Wallah, and returned to the mountains, and from there to the east
+in the following year. A company of his trappers, however, continued to
+hunt for him east of the mountains for two or three years longer.
+
+The rivalry between the Rocky Mountain and American Companies was this
+year diminished by their mutually agreeing to confine themselves to
+certain parts of the country, which treaty continued for two years, when
+they united in one company. They were then, with the exception of a few
+lone traders, the only competitors of the Hudson's Bay Company, for the
+fur-trade of the West.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+1834. The Rocky Mountain Company now confined themselves to the country
+lying east of the mountains, and upon the head-waters and tributaries of
+the Missouri, a country very productive in furs, and furnishing
+abundance of game. But it was also the most dangerous of all the
+northern fur-hunting territory, as it was the home of those two nations
+of desperadoes, the Crows and Blackfeet. During the two years in which
+the company may have been said almost to reside there, desperate
+encounters and hair-breadth escapes were incidents of daily occurrence
+to some of the numerous trapping parties.
+
+The camp had reached the Blackfoot country in the autumn of this year,
+and the trappers were out in all directions, hunting beaver in the
+numerous small streams that flow into the Missouri. On a small branch of
+the Gallatin Fork, some of the trappers fell in with a party of Wyeth's
+men, under Joseph Gale. When their neighborhood became known to the
+Rocky Mountain camp, Meek and a party of sixteen of his associates
+immediately resolved to pay them a visit, and inquire into their
+experience since leaving rendezvous. These visits between different
+camps are usually seasons of great interest and general rejoicing. But
+glad as Gale and his men were to meet with old friends, when the first
+burst of hearty greeting was over, they had but a sorry experience to
+relate. They had been out a long time. The Blackfeet had used them
+badly--several men had been killed. Their guns were out of order, their
+ammunition all but exhausted; they were destitute, or nearly so, of
+traps, blankets, knives, everything. They were what the Indian and the
+mountain-man call "very poor."
+
+Half the night was spent in recounting all that had passed in both
+companies since the fall hunt began. Little sympathy did Wyeth's men
+receive for their forlorn condition, for sympathy is repudiated by your
+true mountaineer for himself, nor will he furnish it to others. The
+absurd and humorous, or the daring and reckless, side of a story is the
+only one which is dwelt upon in narrating his adventures. The laugh
+which is raised at his expense when he has a tale of woes to
+communicate, is a better tonic to his dejected spirits than the gentlest
+pity would be. Thus lashed into courage again, he is ready to declare
+that all his troubles were only so much pastime.
+
+It was this sort of cheer which the trapping party conveyed to Wyeth's
+men on this visit, and it was gratefully received, as being of the true
+kind.
+
+In the morning the party set out to return to camp, Meek and Liggit
+starting in advance of the others. They had not proceeded far when they
+were fired on by a large band of Blackfeet, who came upon them quite
+suddenly, and thinking these two trappers easy game, set up a yell and
+dashed at them. As Meek and Liggit turned back and ran to Gale's camp,
+the Indians in full chase charged on them, and rushed pell-mell into the
+midst of camp, almost before they had time to discover that they had
+surprised so large a party of whites. So sudden was their advent, that
+they had almost taken the camp before the whites could recover from the
+confusion of the charge.
+
+It was but a momentary shock, however. In another instant the roar of
+twenty guns reverberated from the mountains that rose high on either
+side of camp. The Blackfeet were taken in a snare; but they rallied and
+fell back beyond the grove in which the camp was situated, setting on
+fire the dry grass as they went. The fire quickly spread to the grove,
+and shot up the pine trees in splendid columns of flame, that seemed to
+lick the face of heaven. The Indians kept close behind the fire,
+shooting into camp whenever they could approach near enough, the
+trappers replying by frequent volleys. The yells of the savages, the
+noise of the flames roaring in the trees, the bellowing of the guns,
+whose echoes rolled among the hills, and the excitement of a battle for
+life, made the scene one long to be remembered with distinctness.
+
+Both sides fought with desperation. The Blackfoot blood was up--the
+trapper blood no less. Gale's men, from having no ammunition, nor guns
+that were in order, could do little more than take charge of the horses,
+which they led out into the bottom land to escape the fire, fight the
+flames, and look after the camp goods. The few whose guns were
+available, showed the game spirit, and the fight became interesting as
+an exhibition of what mountain white men could do in a contest of one to
+ten, with the crack warriors of the red race. It was, at any time, a
+game party, consisting of Meek, Carson, Hawkins, Gale, Liggit, Rider,
+Robinson, Anderson, Russel, Larison, Ward, Parmaley, Wade, Michael Head,
+and a few others whose names have been forgotten.
+
+The trappers being driven out of the grove by the fire, were forced to
+take to the open ground. The Indians, following the fire, had the
+advantage of the shelter afforded by the trees, and their shots made
+havoc among the horses, most of which were killed because they could not
+be taken. As for the trappers, they used the horses for defence, making
+rifle-pits behind them, when no other covert could be found. In this
+manner the battle was sustained until three o'clock in the afternoon,
+without loss of life to the whites, though several men were wounded.
+
+At three in the afternoon, the Blackfoot chief ordered a retreat,
+calling out to the trappers that they would fight no more. Though their
+loss had been heavy, they still greatly outnumbered the whites; nor
+would the condition of the arms and the small amount of ammunition left
+permit the trappers to pursue them. The Indians were severely beaten,
+and no longer in a condition to fight, all of which was highly
+satisfactory to the victors. The only regret was, that Bridger's camp,
+which had become aware during the day that a battle was going on in the
+neighborhood, did not arrive early enough to exterminate the whole band.
+As it was, the big camp only came up in time to assist in taking care of
+the wounded. The destruction of their horses put an end to the
+independent existence of Gale's brigade, which joined itself and its
+fortunes to Bridger's command for the remainder of the year. Had it not
+been for the fortunate visit of the trappers to Gale's camp, without
+doubt every man in it would have perished at the hands of the Blackfeet:
+a piece of bad fortune not unaccordant with that which seemed to pursue
+the enterprises set on foot by the active but unlucky New England
+trader.
+
+Not long after this battle with the Blackfeet, Meek and a trapper named
+Crow, with two Shawnees, went over into the Crow Country to trap on
+Pryor's River, a branch of the Yellowstone. On coming to the pass in the
+mountains between the Gallatin Fork of the Missouri and the great bend
+in the Yellowstone, called Pryor's Gap, Meek rode forward, with the
+mad-cap spirit strong in him, to "have a little fun with the boys," and
+advancing a short distance into the pass, wheeled suddenly, and came
+racing back, whooping and yelling, to make his comrades think he had
+discovered Indians. And lo! as if his yells had invoked them from the
+rocks and trees, a war party suddenly emerged from the pass, on the
+heels of the jester, and what had been sport speedily became earnest, as
+the trappers turned their horses' heads and made off in the direction of
+camp. They had a fine race of it, and heard other yells and war-whoops
+besides their own; but they contrived to elude their pursuers, returning
+safe to camp.
+
+This freak of Meek's was, after all, a fortunate inspiration, for had
+the four trappers entered the pass and come upon the war party of Crows,
+they would never have escaped alive.
+
+A few days after, the same party set out again, and succeeded in
+reaching Pryor's River unmolested, and setting their traps. They
+remained some time in this neighborhood trapping, but the season had
+become pretty well advanced, and they were thinking of returning to camp
+for the winter. The Shawnees set out in one direction to take up their
+traps, Meek and Crow in another. The stream where their traps were set
+was bordered by thickets of willow, wild cherry, and plum trees, and the
+bank was about ten feet above the water at this season of the year.
+
+Meek had his traps set in the stream about midway between two thickets.
+As he approached the river he observed with the quick eye of an
+experienced mountain-man, certain signs which gave him little
+satisfaction. The buffalo were moving off as if disturbed; a bear ran
+suddenly out of its covert among the willows.
+
+"I told Crow," said Meek, "that I didn't like to go in there. He laughed
+at me, and called me a coward. 'All the same,' I said; I had no fancy
+for the place just then--I didn't like the indications. But he kept
+jeering me, and at last I got mad and started in. Just as I got to my
+traps, I discovered that two red devils war a watching me from the
+shelter of the thicket to my left, about two rods off. When they saw
+that they war discovered they raised their guns and fired. I turned my
+horse's head at the same instant, and one ball passed through his neck,
+under the neck bone, and the other through his withers, just forward of
+my saddle.
+
+"Seeing that they had not hit me, one of them ran up with a spear to
+spear me. My horse war rearing and pitching from the pain of his wounds,
+so that I could with difficulty govern him; but I had my gun laid across
+my arm, and when I fired I killed the rascal with the spear. Up to that
+moment I had supposed that them two war all I had to deal with. But as I
+got my horse turned round, with my arm raised to fire at the other red
+devil, I encountered the main party, forty-nine of them, who war in the
+bed of the stream, and had been covered by the bank. They fired a volley
+at me. Eleven balls passed through my blanket, under my arm, which war
+raised. I thought it time to run, and run I did. Crow war about two
+hundred yards off. So quick had all this happened, that he had not
+stirred from the spot whar I left him. When I came up to him I called
+out that I must get on behind him, for my horse war sick and staggering.
+
+"'Try him again,' said Crow, who war as anxious to be off as I war. I
+did try him agin, and sure enough, he got up a gallop, and away we went,
+the Blackfeet after us. But being mounted, we had the advantage, and
+soon distanced them. Before we had run a mile, I had to dismount and
+breathe my horse. We war in a narrow pass whar it war impossible to
+hide, so when the Indians came up with us, as they did, while I war
+dismounted we took sure aim and killed the two foremost ones. Before the
+others could get close enough to fire we war off agin. It didn't take
+much urging to make my horse go then, for the yells of them Blackfeet
+spurred him on.
+
+"When we had run another mile I dismounted agin, for fear that my horse
+would give out, and agin we war overtaken. Them Blackfeet are powerful
+runners:--no better than us mountain-men, though. This time we served
+them just as we did before. We picked off two of the foremost, and then
+went on, the rest whooping after us. We war overtaken a third time in
+the same manner; and the third time two Blackfeet fell dead in advance.
+At this, they took the hint. Six warriors already gone for two white
+scalps and two horses; they didn't know how many more would go in the
+same way. And I reckon they had run about all they wanted to, anyway."
+
+It is only necessary to add that Meek and Crow arrived safely at camp;
+and that the Shawnees came in after a day or two all right. Soon after
+the whole command under Bridger moved on to the Yellowstone, and went
+into winter camp in the great bend of that river, where buffalo were
+plenty, and cotton-wood was in abundance.
+
+1835. Towards spring, however, the game had nearly all disappeared from
+the neighborhood of the camp; and the hunters were forced to follow the
+buffalo in their migration eastward. On one of these expeditions a party
+of six trappers, including Meek, and a man named Rose, made their camp
+on Clarke's fork of the Yellowstone. The first night in camp Rose had a
+dream with which he was very much impressed. He dreamed of shaking hands
+with a large white bear, which insisted on taking his right hand for
+that friendly ceremony. He had not given it very willingly, for he knew
+too much about bears in general to desire to be on very intimate terms
+with them.
+
+Seeing that the dream troubled Rose, who was superstitiously inclined,
+Meek resorted to that "certain medicine for minds diseased" which was
+in use in the mountains, and added to the distress of Rose his
+interpretation, in the spirit of ridicule, telling him that he was an
+adept in the matter of dreams, and that unless he, Rose, was very
+mindful of himself that day, he would shake hands with Beelzebub before
+he slept again.
+
+With this comforting assurance, Rose set out with the remainder of the
+party to hunt buffalo. They had proceeded about three miles from camp,
+Rose riding in advance, when they suddenly encountered a company of
+Blackfeet, nine in number, spies from a war party of one hundred and
+fifty, that was prowling and marauding through the country on the
+lookout for small parties from the camp of Bridger. The Blackfeet fired
+on the party as it came up, from their place of concealment, a ball
+striking Rose's right arm, and breaking it at the elbow. This caused his
+gun to fall, and an Indian sprang forward and raised it up quickly,
+aiming it at Meek. The ball passed through his cap without doing any
+other harm. By this time the trappers were made aware of an ambuscade;
+but how numerous the enemy was they could not determine. However, as the
+rest, who were well-mounted, turned to fly, Meek, who was riding an old
+mule that had to be beaten over the head to make it go, seeing that he
+was going to be left behind, called out lustily, "hold on, boys! There's
+not many of them. Let's stop and fight 'em;" at the same time pounding
+the mule over the head, but without effect. The Indians saw the
+predicament, and ran up to seize the mule by the bridle, but the moment
+the mule got wind of the savages, away he went, racing like a
+thoroughbred, jumping impediments, and running right over a ravine,
+which was fortunately filled with snow. This movement brought Meek out
+ahead.
+
+The other men then began to call out to Meek to stop and fight. "Run
+for your lives, boys," roared Meek back at them, "there's ten thousand
+of them; they'll kill every one of you!"
+
+The mule had got his head, and there was no more stopping him than there
+had been starting him. On he went in the direction of the Yellowstone,
+while the others made for Clarke's Fork. On arriving at the former
+river, Meek found that some of the pack horses had followed him, and
+others the rest of the party. This had divided the Indians, three or
+four of whom were on his trail. Springing off his mule, he threw his
+blankets down on the ice, and by moving them alternately soon crossed
+the mule over to the opposite side, just in time to avoid a bullet that
+came whistling after him. As the Indians could not follow, he pursued
+his way to camp in safety, arriving late that evening. The main party
+were already in and expecting him. Soon after, the buffalo hunters
+returned to the big camp, minus some pack horses, but with a good story
+to tell, at the expense of Meek, and which he enjoys telling of himself
+to this day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+1835. Owing to the high rate of pay which Meek was now able to command,
+he began to think of imitating the example of that distinguished order,
+the free trappers, to which he now belonged, and setting up a lodge to
+himself as a family man. The writer of this veracious history has never
+been able to obtain a full and particular account of our hero's earliest
+love adventures. This is a subject on which, in common with most
+mountain-men, he observes a becoming reticence. But of one thing we feel
+quite well assured: that from the time when the young Shoshonie beauty
+assisted in the rescue of himself and Sublette from the execution of the
+death sentence at the hands of her people, Meek had always cherished a
+rather more than friendly regard for the "Mountain Lamb."
+
+[Illustration: _THE FREE TRAPPER'S INDIAN WIFE._]
+
+But Sublette, with wealth and power, and the privileges of a Booshway,
+had hastened to secure her for himself; and Meek had to look and long
+from afar off, until, in the year of which we are writing, Milton
+Sublette was forced to leave the mountains and repair to an eastern city
+for surgical aid; having received a very troublesome wound in the leg,
+which was only cured at last by amputation.
+
+Whether it was the act of a gay Lothario, or whether the law of divorce
+is even more easy in the mountains than in Indiana, we have always
+judiciously refrained from inquiring; but this we do know, upon the word
+of Meek himself, no sooner was Milton's back turned, than his friend so
+insinuated himself into the good graces of his _Isabel_, as Sublette was
+wont to name the lovely Umentucken, that she consented to join her
+fortunes to those of the handsome young trapper without even the
+ceremony of serving a notice on her former lord. As their season of
+bliss only extended over one brief year, this chapter shall be entirely
+devoted to recording such facts as have been imparted to us concerning
+this free trapper's wife.
+
+"She was the most beautiful Indian woman I ever saw," says Meek: "and
+when she was mounted on her dapple gray horse, which cost me three
+hundred dollars, she made a fine show. She wore a skirt of beautiful
+blue broadcloth, and a bodice and leggins of scarlet cloth, of the very
+finest make. Her hair was braided and fell over her shoulders, a scarlet
+silk handkerchief, tied on hood fashion, covered her head; and the
+finest embroidered moccasins her feet. She rode like all the Indian
+women, astride, and carried on one side of the saddle the tomahawk for
+war, and on the other the pipe of peace.
+
+"The name of her horse was "All Fours." His accoutrements were as fine
+as his rider's. The saddle, crupper, and bust girths cost one hundred
+and fifty dollars; the bridle fifty dollars; and the musk-a-moots fifty
+dollars more. All these articles were ornamented with fine cut glass
+beads, porcupine quills, and hawk's bells, that tinkled at every step.
+Her blankets were of scarlet and blue, and of the finest quality. Such
+was the outfit of the trapper's wife, _Umentucken, Tukutey Undenwatsy_,
+the Lamb of the Mountains."
+
+Although Umentucken was beautiful, and had a name signifying gentleness,
+she was not without a will and a spirit of her own, when the occasion
+demanded it. While the camp was on the Yellowstone River, in the summer
+of 1835, a party of women left it to go in search of berries, which were
+often dried and stored for winter use by the Indian women. Umentucken
+accompanied this party, which was attacked by a band of Blackfeet, some
+of the squaws being taken prisoners. But Umentucken saved herself by
+flight, and by swimming the Yellowstone while a hundred guns were
+leveled on her, the bullets whistling about her ears.
+
+At another time she distinguished herself in camp by a quarrel with one
+of the trappers, in which she came off with flying colors. The trapper
+was a big, bullying Irishman named O'Fallen, who had purchased two
+prisoners from the Snake Indians, to be kept in a state of slavery,
+after the manner of the savages. The prisoners were Utes, or Utahs, who
+soon contrived to escape. O'Fallen, imagining that Umentucken had
+liberated them, threatened to whip her, and armed himself with a
+horsewhip for that purpose. On hearing of these threats Umentucken
+repaired to her lodge, and also armed herself, but with a pistol. When
+O'Fallen approached, the whole camp looking on to see the event,
+Umentucken slipped out at the back of the lodge and coming around
+confronted him before he could enter.
+
+"Coward!" she cried. "You would whip the wife of Meek. He is not here to
+defend me; not here to kill you. But I shall do that for myself," and
+with that she presented the pistol to his head. O'Fallen taken by
+surprise, and having every reason to believe she would keep her word,
+and kill him on the spot, was obliged not only to apologize, but to beg
+to have his life spared. This Umentucken consented to do on condition of
+his sufficiently humbling himself, which he did in a very shame-faced
+manner; and a shout then went up from the whole camp--"hurrah for the
+Mountain Lamb!" for nothing more delights a mountaineer than a show of
+pluck, especially in an unlooked for quarter.
+
+The Indian wives of the trappers were often in great peril, as well as
+their lords. Whenever it was convenient they followed them on their long
+marches through dangerous countries. But if the trapper was only going
+out for a few days, or if the march before him was more than usually
+dangerous, the wife remained with the main camp.
+
+During this year of which we are writing, a considerable party had been
+out on Powder River hunting buffalo, taking their wives along with them.
+When on the return, just before reaching camp, Umentucken was missed
+from the cavalcade. She had fallen behind, and been taken prisoner by a
+party of twelve Crow Indians. As soon as she was missed, a volunteer
+party mounted their buffalo horses in such haste that they waited not
+for saddle or bridle, but snatched only a halter, and started back in
+pursuit. They had not run a very long distance when they discovered poor
+Umentucken in the midst of her jubilant captors, who were delighting
+their eyes with gazing at her fine feathers, and promising themselves
+very soon to pluck the gay bird, and appropriate her trinkets to their
+own use.
+
+Their delight was premature. Swift on their heels came an avenging, as
+well as a saving spirit. Meek, at the head of his six comrades, no
+sooner espied the drooping form of the Lamb, than he urged his horse to
+the top of its speed. The horse was a spirited creature, that seeing
+something wrong in all these hasty maneuvers, took fright and adding
+terror to good will, ran with the speed of madness right in amongst the
+startled Crows, who doubtless regarded as a great "medicine" so fearless
+a warrior. It was now too late to be prudent, and Meek began the battle
+by yelling and firing, taking care to hit his Indian. The other
+trappers, emulating the bold example of their leader, dashed into the
+melee and a chance medley fight was carried on, in which Umentucken
+escaped, and another Crow bit the dust. Finding that they were getting
+the worst of the fight, the Indians at length took to flight, and the
+trappers returned to camp rejoicing, and complimenting Meek on his
+gallantry in attacking the Crows single-handed.
+
+"I took their compliments quite naturally," says Meek, "nor did I think
+it war worth while to explain to them that I couldn't hold my horse."
+
+The Indians are lordly and tyrannical in their treatment of women,
+thinking it no shame to beat them cruelly; even taking the liberty of
+striking other women than those belonging to their own families. While
+the camp was traveling through the Crow country in the spring of 1836, a
+party of that nation paid a visit to Bridger, bringing skins to trade
+for blankets and ammunition. The bargaining went on quite pleasantly for
+some time; but one of the braves who was promenading about camp
+inspecting whatever came in his way, chanced to strike Umentucken with a
+whip he carried in his hand, by way of displaying his superiority to
+squaws in general, and trappers' wives in particular. It was an unlucky
+blow for the brave, for in another instant he rolled on the ground, shot
+dead by a bullet from Meek's gun.
+
+At this rash act the camp was in confusion. Yells from the Crows, who
+took the act as a signal for war; hasty questions, and cries of command;
+arming and shooting. It was some time before the case could be explained
+or understood. The Crows had two or three of their party shot; the
+whites also lost a man. After the unpremeditated fight was over, and the
+Crows departed not thoroughly satisfied with the explanation, Bridger
+went round to Meek's lodge.
+
+"Well, you raised a hell of a row in camp;" said the commander, rolling
+out his deep bass voice in the slow monotonous tones which mountain men
+very quickly acquire from the Indians.
+
+"Very sorry, Bridger; but couldn't help it. No devil of an Indian shall
+strike Meek's wife."
+
+"But you got a man killed."
+
+"Sorry for the man; couldn't help it, though, Bridger."
+
+And in truth it was too late to mend the matter. Fearing, however, that
+the Crows would attempt to avenge themselves for the losses they had
+sustained, Bridger hurried his camp forward, and got out of their
+neighborhood as quickly as possible.
+
+So much for the female element in the camp of the Rocky Mountain
+trapper. Woman, it is said, has held the apple of discord, from mother
+Eve to Umentucken, and in consonance with this theory, Bridger,
+doubtless, considered the latter as the primal cause of the unfortunate
+"row in camp," rather than the brutality of the Crow, or the imprudence
+of Meek.
+
+But Umentucken's career was nearly run. In the following summer she met
+her death by a Bannack arrow; dying like a warrior, although living she
+was only a woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+1835. The rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Company seldom took place
+without combining with its many wild elements, some other more civilized
+and refined. Artists, botanists, travelers, and hunters, from the busy
+world outside the wilderness, frequently claimed the companionship, if
+not the hospitality of the fur companies, in their wanderings over
+prairies and among mountains. Up to the year 1835, these visitors had
+been of the classes just named; men traveling either for the love of
+adventure, to prosecute discoveries in science, or to add to art the
+treasure of new scenes and subjects.
+
+But in this year there appeared at rendezvous two gentlemen, who had
+accompanied the St. Louis Company in its outward trip to the mountains,
+whose object was not the procurement of pleasure, or the improvement of
+science. They had come to found missions among the Indians; the Rev.
+Samuel Parker and Rev. Dr. Marcus Whitman; the first a scholarly and
+fastidious man, and the other possessing all the boldness, energy, and
+contempt of fastidiousness, which would have made him as good a mountain
+leader, as he was an energetic servant of the American Board of Foreign
+Missions.
+
+The cause which had brought these gentlemen to the wilderness was a
+little incident connected with the fur trade. Four Flathead Indians, in
+the year 1832, having heard enough of the Christian religion, from the
+few devout men connected with the fur companies, to desire to know
+more, performed a winter journey to St. Louis, and there made inquiry
+about the white man's religion. This incident, which to any one
+acquainted with Indian character, would appear a very natural one, when
+it became known to Christian churches in the United States, excited a
+very lively interest, and seemed to call upon them like a voice out of
+heaven, to fly to the rescue of perishing heathen souls. The Methodist
+Church was the first to respond. When Wyeth returned to the mountains in
+1834, four missionaries accompanied him, destined for the valley of the
+Wallamet River in Oregon. In the following year, the Presbyterian Church
+sent out its agents, the two gentlemen above mentioned; one of whom, Dr.
+Whitman, subsequently located near Fort Walla-Walla.
+
+The account given by Capt. Bonneville of the Flatheads and Nez Perces,
+as he found them in 1832, before missionary labor had been among them,
+throws some light on the incident of the journey to St. Louis, which so
+touched the Christian heart in the United States. After relating his
+surprise at finding that the Nez Perces observed certain sacred days, he
+continues: "A few days afterwards, four of them signified that they were
+about to hunt. 'What!' exclaimed the captain, 'without guns or arrows;
+and with only one old spear? What do you expect to kill?' They smiled
+among themselves, but made no answer. Preparatory to the chase, they
+performed some religious rites, and offered up to the Great Spirit a few
+short prayers for safety and success; then having received the blessing
+of their wives, they leaped upon their horses and departed, leaving the
+whole party of Christian spectators amazed and rebuked by this lesson of
+faith and dependence on a supreme and benevolent Being. Accustomed as I
+had heretofore been to find the wretched Indian reveling in blood, and
+stained by every vice which can degrade human nature, I could scarcely
+realize the scene which I had witnessed. Wonder at such unaffected
+tenderness and piety, where it was least to have been sought, contended
+in all our bosoms with shame and confusion, at receiving such pure and
+wholesome instructions from creatures so far below us in all the arts
+and comforts of life.
+
+"Simply to call these people religious," continued Bonneville, "would
+convey but a faint idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which
+pervades their whole conduct. Their honesty is immaculate, and their
+purity of purpose, and their observance of the rites of their religion,
+are most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more like a nation
+of saints than a horde of savages."
+
+This was a very enthusiastic view to take of the Nez Perce character,
+which appeared all the brighter to the Captain, by contrast with the
+savage life which he had witnessed in other places, and even by contrast
+with the conduct of the white trappers. But the Nez Perces and Flatheads
+were, intellectually and morally, an exception to all the Indian tribes
+west of the Missouri River. Lewis and Clarke found them different from
+any others; the fur-traders and the missionaries found them different;
+and they remain at this day an honorable example, for probity and piety,
+to both savage and civilized peoples.
+
+To account for this superiority is indeed difficult. The only clue to
+the cause is in the following statement of Bonneville's. "It would
+appear," he says, "that they had imbibed some notions of the Christian
+faith from Catholic missionaries and traders who had been among them.
+They even had a rude calender of the fasts and festivals of the Romish
+Church, and some traces of its ceremonials. These have become blended
+with their own wild rites, and present a strange medley, civilized and
+barbarous."
+
+Finding that these people among whom he was thrown exhibited such
+remarkable traits of character, Captain Bonneville exerted himself to
+make them acquainted with the history and spirit of Christianity. To
+these explanations they listened with great eagerness. "Many a time," he
+says, "was my little lodge thronged, or rather piled with hearers, for
+they lay on the ground, one leaning over the other, until there was no
+further room, all listening with greedy ears to the wonders which the
+Great Spirit had revealed to the white man. No other subject gave them
+half the satisfaction, or commanded half the attention; and but few
+scenes of my life remain so freshly on my memory, or are so pleasurably
+recalled to my contemplation, as these hours of intercourse with a
+distant and benighted race in the midst of the desert."
+
+It was the interest awakened by these discourses of Captain Bonneville,
+and possibly by Smith, and other traders who happened to fall in with
+the Nez Perces and Flatheads, that stimulated those four Flatheads to
+undertake the journey to St. Louis in search of information; and this it
+was which resulted in the establishment of missions, both in western
+Oregon, and among the tribes inhabiting the country between the two
+great branches of the Columbia.
+
+The trait of Indian character which Bonneville, in his pleased surprise
+at the apparent piety of the Nez Perces and Flatheads, failed to
+observe, and which the missionaries themselves for a long time remained
+oblivious to, was the material nature of their religious views. The
+Indian judges of all things by the material results. If he is possessed
+of a good natural intelligence and powers of observation, he soon
+discovers that the God of the Indian is but a feeble deity; for does he
+not permit the Indian to be defeated in war; to starve, and to freeze?
+Do not the Indian medicine men often fail to save life, to win battles,
+to curse their enemies? The Indian's God, he argues, must be a good deal
+of a humbug. He sees the white men faring much better. They have guns,
+ammunition, blankets, knives, everything in plenty; and they are
+successful in war; are skillful in a thousand things the Indian knows
+nothing of. To be so blest implies a very wise and powerful Deity. To
+gain all these things they are eager to learn about the white man's God;
+are willing to do whatever is necessary to please and propitiate Him.
+Hence their attentiveness to the white man's discourse about his
+religion. Naturally enough they were struck with wonder at the doctrine
+of peace and good will; a doctrine so different from the law of blood by
+which the Indian, in his natural state, lives. Yet if it is good for the
+white men, it must be good for him; at all events he is anxious to try
+it.
+
+That is the course of reasoning by which an Indian is led to inquire
+into Christianity. It is a desire to better his physical, rather than
+his spiritual condition; for of the latter he has but a very faint
+conception. He was accustomed to desire a material Heaven, such a world
+beyond the grave, as he could only imagine from his earthly experience.
+Heaven was happiness, and happiness was plenty; therefore the most a
+good Indian could desire was to go where there should forevermore be
+plenty.
+
+Such was the Indian's view of religion, and it could be no other. Until
+the wants of the body have been supplied by civilization, the wants of
+the soul do not develop themselves: and until then the savage is not
+prepared to understand Christianity. This is the law of Nature and of
+God. Primeval man was a savage; and it was little by little, through
+thousands of years, that Christ was revealed. Every child born, even
+now, is a savage, and has to be taught civilization year after year,
+until he arrives at the possibility of comprehending spiritual religion.
+So every full grown barbarian is a child in moral development; and to
+expect him to comprehend those mysteries over which the world has
+agonized for centuries, is to commit the gravest error. Into this error
+fell all the missionaries who came to the wilds that lay beyond the
+Rocky Mountains. They undertook to teach religion first, and more simple
+matters afterward--building their edifice like the Irishman's chimney,
+by holding up the top brick, and putting the others under it. Failure
+was the result of such a process, as the record of the Oregon Missions
+sufficiently proves.
+
+The reader will pardon this digression--made necessary by the part which
+one of the gentlemen present at this year's rendezvous, was destined to
+take in the history which we are writing. Shortly after the arrival of
+Messrs. Parker and Whitman, rendezvous broke up. A party, to which Meek
+was attached, moved in the direction of the Snake River head-waters, the
+missionaries accompanying them, and after making two camps, came on
+Saturday eve to Jackson's Little Hole, a small mountain valley near the
+larger one commonly known as Jackson's Hole.
+
+On the following day religious services were held in the Rocky Mountain
+Camp. A scene more unusual could hardly have transpired than that of a
+company of trappers listening to the preaching of the Word of God. Very
+little pious reverence marked the countenances of that wild and motley
+congregation. Curiosity, incredulity, sarcasm, or a mocking levity, were
+more plainly perceptible in the expression of the men's faces, than
+either devotion or the longing expectancy of men habitually deprived of
+what they once highly valued. The Indians alone showed by their eager
+listening that they desired to become acquainted with the mystery of the
+"Unknown God."
+
+The Rev. Samuel Parker preached, and the men were as politely attentive
+as it was in their reckless natures to be, until, in the midst of the
+discourse, a band of buffalo appeared in the valley, when the
+congregation incontinently broke up, without staying for a benediction,
+and every man made haste after his horse, gun, and rope, leaving Mr.
+Parker to discourse to vacant ground.
+
+The run was both exciting and successful. About twenty fine buffaloes
+were killed, and the choice pieces brought to camp, cooked and eaten,
+amidst the merriment, mixed with something coarser, of the hunters. On
+this noisy rejoicing Mr. Parker looked with a sober aspect: and
+following the dictates of his religious feeling, he rebuked the
+sabbath-breakers quite severely. Better for his influence among the men,
+if he had not done so, or had not eaten so heartily of the tender-loin
+afterwards, a circumstance which his irreverent critics did not fail to
+remark, to his prejudice; and upon the principle that the "partaker is
+as bad as the thief," they set down his lecture on sabbath-breaking as
+nothing better than pious humbug.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER.]
+
+Dr. Marcus Whitman was another style of man. Whatever he thought of the
+wild ways of the mountain-men he discreetly kept to himself, preferring
+to teach by example rather than precept; and showing no fastidious
+contempt for any sort of rough duty he might be called upon to perform.
+So aptly indeed had he turned his hand to all manner of camp service on
+the journey to the mountains, that this abrogation of clerical dignity
+had become a source of solicitude, not to say disapproval and
+displeasure on the part of his colleague; and it was agreed between
+them that the Doctor should return to the states with the St. Louis
+Company, to procure recruits for the promising field of labor which they
+saw before them, while Mr. Parker continued his journey to the Columbia
+to decide upon the location of the missionary stations. The difference
+of character of the two men was clearly illustrated by the results of
+this understanding. Parker went to Vancouver, where he was hospitably
+entertained, and where he could inquire into the workings of the
+missionary system as pursued by the Methodist missionaries. His
+investigations not proving the labor to his taste, he sailed the
+following summer for the Sandwich Islands, and thence to New York;
+leaving only a brief note for Doctor Whitman, when he, with
+indefatigable exertions, arrived that season among the Nez Perces with a
+missionary company, eager for the work which they hoped to make as great
+as they believed it to be good.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+From the mountains about the head-waters of the Snake River, Meek
+returned, with Bridger's brigade to the Yellowstone country, where he
+fell into the hands of the Crows. The story as he relates it, is as
+follows:
+
+"I war trapping on the Rocky Fork of the Yellowstone. I had been out
+from camp five days; and war solitary and alone, when I war discovered
+by a war party of Crows. They had the prairie, and I war forced to run
+for the Creek bottom; but the beaver had throwed the water out and made
+dams, so that my mule mired down. While I war struggling in the marsh,
+the Indians came after me, with tremendous yells; firing a random shot
+now and then, as they closed in on me.
+
+"When they war within about two rods of me, I brought old _Sally_, that
+is my gun, to my face, ready to fire, and then die; for I knew it war
+death this time, unless Providence interfered to save me: and I didn't
+think Providence would do it. But the head chief, when he saw the
+warlike looks of _Sally_, called out to me to put down my gun, and I
+should live.
+
+"Well, I liked to live,--being then in the prime of life; and though it
+hurt me powerful, I resolved to part with _Sally_. I laid her down. As I
+did so, the chief picked her up, and one of the braves sprang at me with
+a spear, and would have run me through, but the chief knocked him down
+with the butt of my gun. Then they led me forth to the high plain on the
+south side of the stream. There they called a halt, and I was given in
+charge of three women, while the warriors formed a ring to smoke and
+consult. This gave me an opportunity to count them: they numbered one
+hundred and eighty-seven men, nine boys, and three women.
+
+"After a smoke of three long hours, the chief, who war named 'The Bold,'
+called me in the ring, and said:
+
+"'I have known the whites for a long time, and I know them to be great
+liars, deserving death; but if _you_ will tell the truth, you shall
+live.'
+
+"Then I thought to myself, they will fetch the truth out of me, if thar
+is any in me. But his highness continued:
+
+"'Tell me whar are the whites you belong to; and what is your captain's
+name.'
+
+"I said 'Bridger is my captain's name; or, in the Crow tongue,
+_Casapy_,' the 'Blanket chief.' At this answer the chief seemed lost in
+thought. At last he asked me--
+
+"'How many men has he?'
+
+"I thought about telling the truth and living; but I said 'forty,' which
+war a tremendous lie; for thar war two hundred and forty. At this answer
+The Bold laughed:
+
+"'We will make them poor,' said he; 'and you shall live, but they shall
+die.'
+
+"I thought to myself, 'hardly;' but I said nothing. He then asked me
+whar I war to meet the camp, and I told him:--and then how many days
+before the camp would be thar; which I answered truly, for I wanted them
+to find the camp.
+
+"It war now late in the afternoon, and thar war a great bustle, getting
+ready for the march to meet Bridger. Two big Indians mounted my mule,
+but the women made me pack moccasins. The spies started first, and after
+awhile the main party. Seventy warriors traveled ahead of me: I war
+placed with the women and boys; and after us the balance of the braves.
+As we traveled along, the women would prod me with sticks, and laugh,
+and say 'Masta Sheela,' (which means white man,) 'Masta sheela very poor
+now.' The fair sex war very much amused.
+
+"We traveled that way till midnight, the two big bucks riding my mule,
+and I packing moccasins. Then we camped; the Indians in a ring, with me
+in the centre, to keep me safe. I didn't sleep very well that night. I'd
+a heap rather been in some other place.
+
+"The next morning we started on in the same order as before: and the
+squaws making fun of me all day; but I kept mighty quiet. When we
+stopped to cook that evening, I war set to work, and war head cook, and
+head waiter too. The third and the fourth day it war the same. I felt
+pretty bad when we struck camp on the last day: for I knew we must be
+coming near to Bridger, and that if any thing should go wrong, my life
+would pay the forfeit.
+
+"On the afternoon of the fourth day, the spies, who war in advance,
+looking out from a high hill, made a sign to the main party. In a moment
+all sat down. Directly they got another sign, and then they got up and
+moved on. I war as well up in Indian signs as they war; and I knew they
+had discovered white men. What war worse, I knew they would soon
+discover that I had been lying to them. All I had to do then war to
+trust to luck. Soon we came to the top of the hill, which overlooked the
+Yellowstone, from which I could see the plains below extending as far as
+the eye could reach, and about three miles off, the camp of my friends.
+My heart beat double quick about that time; and I once in a while put my
+hand to my head, to feel if my scalp war thar.
+
+"While I war watching our camp, I discovered that the horse guard had
+seen us, for I knew the sign he would make if he discovered Indians. I
+thought the camp a splendid sight that evening. It made a powerful show
+to me, who did not expect ever to see it after that day. And it _war_ a
+fine sight any how, from the hill whar I stood. About two hundred and
+fifty men, and women and children in great numbers, and about a thousand
+horses and mules. Then the beautiful plain, and the sinking sun; and the
+herds of buffalo that could not be numbered; and the cedar hills,
+covered with elk,--I never saw so fine a sight as all that looked to me
+then!
+
+"When I turned my eyes on that savage Crow band, and saw the chief
+standing with his hand on his mouth, lost in amazement; and beheld the
+warriors' tomahawks and spears glittering in the sun, my heart war very
+little. Directly the chief turned to me with a horrible scowl. Said he:
+
+"'I promised that you should live if you told the truth; but you have
+told me a great lie.'
+
+"Then the warriors gathered around, with their tomahawks in their hands;
+but I war showing off very brave, and kept my eyes fixed on the
+horse-guard who war approaching the hill to drive in the horses. This
+drew the attention of the chief, and the warriors too. Seeing that the
+guard war within about two hundred yards of us, the chief turned to me
+and ordered me to tell him to come up. I pretended to do what he said;
+but instead of that I howled out to him to stay off, or he would be
+killed; and to tell Bridger to try to treat with them, and get me away.
+
+"As quick as he could he ran to camp, and in a few minutes Bridger
+appeared, on his large white horse. He came up to within three hundred
+yards of us, and called out to me, asking who the Indians war. I
+answered 'Crows.' He then told me to say to the chief he wished him to
+send one of his sub-chiefs to smoke with him.
+
+"All this time my heart beat terribly hard. I don't know now why they
+didn't kill me at once; but the head chief seemed overcome with
+surprise. When I repeated to him what Bridger said, he reflected a
+moment, and then ordered the second chief, called Little-Gun, to go and
+smoke with Bridger. But they kept on preparing for war; getting on their
+paint and feathers, arranging their scalp locks, selecting their arrows,
+and getting their ammunition ready.
+
+"While this war going on, Little-Gun had approached to within about a
+hundred yards of Bridger; when, according to the Crow laws of war, each
+war forced to strip himself, and proceed the remaining distance in a
+state of nudity, and kiss and embrace. While this interesting ceremony
+war being performed, five of Bridger's men had followed him, keeping in
+a ravine until they got within shooting distance, when they showed
+themselves, and cut off the return of Little-Gun, thus making a prisoner
+of him.
+
+"If you think my heart did not jump up when I saw that, you think wrong.
+I knew it war kill or cure, now. Every Indian snatched a weapon, and
+fierce threats war howled against me. But all at once about a hundred of
+our trappers appeared on the scene. At the same time Bridger called to
+me, to tell me to propose to the chief to exchange me for Little-Gun. I
+explained to The Bold what Bridger wanted to do, and he sullenly
+consented: for, he said, he could not afford to give a chief for one
+white dog's scalp. I war then allowed to go towards my camp, and
+Little-Gun towards his; and the rescue I hardly hoped for war
+accomplished.
+
+"In the evening the chief, with forty of his braves, visited Bridger
+and made a treaty of three months. They said they war formerly at war
+with the whites; but that they desired to be friendly with them now, so
+that together they might fight the Blackfeet, who war everybody's
+enemies. As for me, they returned me my mule, gun, and beaver packs, and
+said my name should be _Shiam Shaspusia_, for I could out-lie the
+Crows."
+
+In December, Bridger's command went into winter quarters in the bend of
+the Yellowstone. Buffalo, elk, and bear were in great abundance, all
+that fall and winter. Before they went to camp, Meek, Kit Carson,
+Hawkins, and Doughty were trapping together on the Yellowstone, about
+sixty miles below. They had made their temporary camp in the ruins of an
+old fort, the walls of which were about six feet high. One evening,
+after coming in from setting their traps, they discovered three large
+grizzly bears in the river bottom, not more than half a mile off, and
+Hawkins went out to shoot one. He was successful in killing one at the
+first shot, when the other two, taking fright, ran towards the fort. As
+they came near enough to show that they were likely to invade camp, Meek
+and Carson, not caring to have a bear fight, clambered up a cotton-wood
+tree close by, at the same time advising Doughty to do the same. But
+Doughty was tired, and lazy besides, and concluded to take his chances
+where he was; so he rolled himself in his blanket and laid quite still.
+The bears, on making the fort, reared up on their hind legs and looked
+in as if meditating taking it for a defence.
+
+The sight of Doughty lying rolled in his blanket, and the monster
+grizzlys inspecting the fort, caused the two trappers who were safely
+perched in the cotton-wood to make merry at Doughty's expense; saying
+all the mirth-provoking things they could, and then advising him not to
+laugh, for fear the bears should seize him. Poor Doughty, agonizing
+between suppressed laughter and growing fear, contrived to lie still
+however, while the bears gazed upward at the speakers in wonder, and
+alternately at the suspicious looking bundle inside the fort. Not being
+able to make out the meaning of either, they gave at last a grunt of
+dissatisfaction, and ran off into a thicket to consult over these
+strange appearances; leaving the trappers to enjoy the incident as a
+very good joke. For a long time after, Doughty was reminded how close to
+the ground he laid, when the grizzlys paid their compliments to him.
+Such were the every day incidents from which the mountain-men contrived
+to derive their rude jests, and laughter-provoking reminiscences.
+
+A few days after this incident, while the same party were trapping a few
+miles farther down the river, on their way to camp, they fell in with
+some Delaware Indians, who said they had discovered signs of Blackfeet,
+and wanted to borrow some horses to decoy them. To this the trappers
+very willingly agreed, and they were furnished with two horses. The
+Delawares then went to the spot where signs had been discovered, and
+tying the horses, laid flat down on the ground near them, concealed by
+the grass or willows. They had not long to wait before a Blackfoot was
+seen stealthily advancing through the thicket, confident in the belief
+that he should gain a couple of horses while their supposed owners were
+busy with their traps.
+
+But just as he laid his hand on the bridle of the first one, crack went
+the rifles of the Delawares, and there was one less Blackfoot thief on
+the scent after trappers. As soon as they could, after this, the party
+mounted and rode to camp, not stopping by the way, lest the main body of
+Blackfeet should discover the deed and seek for vengeance. Truly
+indeed, was the Blackfoot the Ishmael of the wilderness, whose hand was
+against every man, and every man's hand against him.
+
+The Rocky Mountain Company passed the first part of the winter in peace
+and plenty in the Yellowstone camp, unannoyed either by enemies or
+rivals. Hunting buffalo, feeding their horses, playing games, and
+telling stories, occupied the entire leisure of these months of repose.
+Not only did the mountain-men recount their own adventures, but when
+these were exhausted, those whose memories served them rehearsed the
+tales they had read in their youth. Robinson Crusoe and the Arabian
+Nights Entertainment, were read over again by the light of memory; and
+even Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was made to recite like a sensation
+novel, and was quite as well enjoyed.
+
+1836. In January, however, this repose was broken in upon by a visit
+from the Blackfeet. As their visitations were never of a friendly
+character, so then they were not bent upon pacific rites and ceremonies,
+such as all the rest of the world find pleasure in, but came in full
+battle array to try their fortunes in war against the big camp of the
+whites. They had evidently made great preparation. Their warriors
+numbered eleven hundred, got up in the top of the Blackfoot fashions,
+and armed with all manner of savage and some civilized weapons. But
+Bridger was prepared for them, although their numbers were so
+overwhelming. He built a fort, had the animals corraled, and put himself
+on the defensive in a prompt and thorough manner. This made the
+Blackfeet cautious; they too built forts of cotton-wood in the shape of
+lodges, ten men to each fort, and carried on a skirmishing fight for two
+days, when finding there was nothing to be gained, they departed,
+neither side having sustained much loss; the whites losing only two men
+by this grand Blackfoot army.
+
+Soon after this attack Bridger broke camp, and traveled up the
+Yellowstone, through the Crow country. It was while on this march that
+Umentucken was struck by a Crow, and Meek put the whole camp in peril,
+by shooting him. They passed on to the Big Horn and Little Horn rivers,
+down through the Wind River valley and through the South Pass to Green
+River.
+
+While in that country, there occurred the fight with the Bannacks in
+which Umentucken was killed. A small party of Nez Perces had lost their
+horses by the thieving of the Bannacks. They came into camp and
+complained to the whites, who promised them their protection, should
+they be able to recover their horses. Accordingly the Nez Perces started
+after the thieves, and by dogging their camp, succeeded in re-capturing
+their horses and getting back to Bridger's camp with them. In order to
+divert the vengeance of the Bannacks from themselves, they presented
+their horses to the whites, and a very fine one to Bridger.
+
+All went well for a time. The Bannacks went on their way to hunt
+buffalo; but they treasured up their wrath against the supposed white
+thieves who had stolen the horses which they had come by so honestly. On
+their return from the hunt, having learned by spies that the horses were
+in the camp of the whites, they prepared for war. Early one morning they
+made their appearance mounted and armed, and making a dash at the camp,
+rode through it with the usual yells and frantic gestures. The attack
+was entirely unexpected. Bridger stood in front of his lodge, holding
+his horse by a lasso, and the head chief rode over it, jerking it out of
+his hand. At this unprecedented insult to his master, a negro named Jim,
+cook to the Booshways, seized a rifle and shot the chief dead. At the
+same time, an arrow shot at random struck Umentucken in the breast, and
+the joys and sorrows of the Mountain Lamb were over forevermore.
+
+The killing of a head chief always throws an Indian war party into
+confusion, and negro Jim was greatly elated at this signal feat of his.
+The trappers, who were as much surprised at the suddenness of the
+assault as it is in the mountain-man's nature to be, quickly recovered
+themselves. In a few moments the men were mounted and in motion, and the
+disordered Bannacks were obliged to fly towards their village, Bridger's
+company pursuing them.
+
+All the rest of that day the trappers fought the Bannacks, driving them
+out of their village and plundering it, and forcing them to take refuge
+on an island in the river. Even there they were not safe, the guns of
+the mountain-men picking them off, from their stations on the river
+banks. Umentucken was well avenged that day.
+
+All night the Indians remained on the island, where sounds of wailing
+were heard continually; and when morning came one of their old women
+appeared bearing the pipe of peace. "You have killed all our warriors,"
+she said; "do you now want to kill the women? If you wish to smoke with
+women, I have the pipe."
+
+Not caring either to fight or to smoke with so feeble a representative
+of the Bannacks, the trappers withdrew. But it was the last war party
+that nation ever sent against the mountain-men; though in later times
+they have by their atrocities avenged the losses of that day.
+
+While awaiting, in the Green River valley, the arrival of the St. Louis
+Company, the Rocky Mountain and North American companies united; after
+which Captain Sublette and his brother returned no more to the
+mountains. The new firm was known only as the American Fur Company, the
+other having dropped its title altogether. The object of their
+consolidation was by combining their capital and experience to
+strengthen their hands against the Hudson's Bay Company, which now had
+an establishment at Fort Hall, on the Snake River. By this new
+arrangement, Bridger and Fontenelle commanded; and Dripps was to be the
+traveling partner who was to go to St. Louis for goods.
+
+After the conclusion of this agreement, Dripps, with the restlessness of
+the true mountain-man, decided to set out, with a small party of equally
+restless trappers, always eager to volunteer for any undertaking
+promising either danger or diversion, to look for the St. Louis Company
+which was presumed to be somewhere between the Black Hills and Green
+River. According to this determination Dripps, Meek, Carson, Newell, a
+Flathead chief named Victor, and one or two others, set out on the
+search for the expected company.
+
+It happened, however, that a war party of a hundred Crows were out on
+the trail before them, looking perhaps for the same party, and the
+trappers had not made more than one or two camps before they discovered
+signs which satisfied them of the neighborhood of an enemy. At their
+next camp on the Sandy, Meek and Carson, with the caution and vigilance
+peculiar to them, kept their saddles on their horses, and the horses
+tied to themselves by a long rope, so that on the least unusual motion
+of the animals they should be readily informed of the disturbance. Their
+precaution was not lost. Just after midnight had given place to the
+first faint kindling of dawn, their ears were stunned by the
+simultaneous discharge of a hundred guns, and the usual furious din of
+the war-whoop and yell. A stampede immediately took place of all the
+horses excepting those of Meek and Carson. "Every man for himself and
+God for us all," is the motto of the mountain-man in case of an Indian
+attack; nor did our trappers forget it on this occasion. Quickly
+mounting, they put their horses to their speed, which was not checked
+until they had left the Sandy far behind them. Continuing on in the
+direction of the proposed meeting with the St. Louis Company, they made
+their first camp on the Sweetwater, where they fell in with Victor, the
+Flathead chief, who had made his way on foot to this place. One or two
+others came into camp that night, and the following day this portion of
+the party traveled on in company until within about five miles of
+Independence Rock, when they were once more charged on by the Indians,
+who surrounded them in such a manner that they were obliged to turn back
+to escape.
+
+Again Meek and Carson made off, leaving their dismounted comrades to
+their own best devices. Finding that with so many Indians on the trail,
+and only two horses, there was little hope of being able to accomplish
+their journey, these two lucky ones made all haste back to camp. On
+Horse Creek, a few hours travel from rendezvous, they came up with
+Newell, who after losing his horse had fled in the direction of the main
+camp, but becoming bewildered had been roaming about until he was quite
+tired out, and on the point of giving up. But as if the Creek where he
+was found meant to justify itself for having so inharmonious a name, one
+of their own horses, which had escaped from the Crows was found quietly
+grazing on its banks, and the worn out fugitive at once remounted.
+Strange as it may appear, not one of the party was killed, the others
+returning to camp two days later than Meek and Carson, the worse for
+their expedition only by the loss of their horses, and rather an
+unusually fatigued and forlorn aspect.
+
+[Illustration: "INDIANS BY JOVE!"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+1836. While the resident partners of the consolidated company waited at
+the rendezvous for the arrival of the supply trains from St. Louis, word
+came by a messenger sent forward, that the American Company under
+Fitzpatrick, had reached Independence Rock, and was pressing forward.
+The messenger also brought the intelligence that two other parties were
+traveling in company with the fur company; that of Captain Stuart, who
+had been to New Orleans to winter, and that of Doctor Whitman, one of
+the missionaries who had visited the mountains the year previous. In
+this latter party, it was asserted, there were two white ladies.
+
+This exhilarating news immediately inspired some of the trappers,
+foremost among whom was Meek, with a desire to be the first to meet and
+greet the on-coming caravan; and especially to salute the two white
+women who were bold enough to invade a mountain camp. In a very short
+time Meek, with half-a-dozen comrades, and ten or a dozen Nez Perces,
+were mounted and away, on their self-imposed errand of welcome; the
+trappers because they were "spoiling" for a fresh excitement; and the
+Nez Perces because the missionaries were bringing them information
+concerning the powerful and beneficent Deity of the white men. These
+latter also were charged with a letter to Doctor Whitman from his former
+associate, Mr. Parker.
+
+On the Sweetwater about two days' travel from camp the caravan of the
+advancing company was discovered, and the trappers prepared to give them
+a characteristic greeting. To prevent mistakes in recognizing them, a
+white flag was hoisted on one of their guns, and the word was given to
+start. Then over the brow of a hill they made their appearance, riding
+with that mad speed only an Indian or a trapper can ride, yelling,
+whooping, dashing forward with frantic and threatening gestures; their
+dress, noises, and motions, all so completely savage that the white men
+could not have been distinguished from the red.
+
+The first effect of their onset was what they probably intended. The
+uninitiated travelers, including the missionaries, believing they were
+about to be attacked by Indians, prepared for defence, nor could be
+persuaded that the preparation was unnecessary until the guide pointed
+out to them the white flag in advance. At the assurance that the flag
+betokened friends, apprehension was changed to curiosity and intense
+interest. Every movement of the wild brigade became fascinating. On they
+came, riding faster and faster, yelling louder and louder, and
+gesticulating more and more madly, until, as they met and passed the
+caravan, they discharged their guns in one volley over the heads of the
+company, as a last finishing _feu de joie_; and suddenly wheeling rode
+back to the front as wildly as they had come. Nor could this first brief
+display content the crazy cavalcade. After reaching the front, they rode
+back and forth, and around and around the caravan, which had returned
+their salute, showing off their feats of horsemanship, and the knowing
+tricks of their horses together; hardly stopping to exchange questions
+and answers, but seeming really intoxicated with delight at the meeting.
+What strange emotions filled the breasts of the lady missionaries, when
+they beheld among whom their lot was cast, may now be faintly outlined
+by a vivid imagination, but have never been, perhaps never could be put
+into words.
+
+The caravan on leaving the settlements had consisted of nineteen laden
+carts, each drawn by two mules driven tandem, and one light wagon,
+belonging to the American Company; two wagons with two mules to each,
+belonging to Capt. Stuart; and one light two-horse wagon, and one
+four-horse freight wagon, belonging to the missionaries. However, all
+the wagons had been left behind at Fort Laramie, except those of the
+missionaries, and one of Capt. Stuart's; so that the three that remained
+in the train when it reached the Sweetwater were alone in the enjoyment
+of the Nez Perces' curiosity concerning them; a curiosity which they
+divided between them and the domesticated cows and calves belonging to
+the missionaries: another proof, as they considered it, of the superior
+power of the white man's God, who could give to the whites the ability
+to tame wild animals to their uses.
+
+But it was towards the two missionary ladies, Mrs. Whitman and Mrs.
+Spalding, that the chief interest was directed; an interest that was
+founded in the Indian mind upon wonder, admiration, and awe; and in the
+minds of the trappers upon the powerful recollections awakened by seeing
+in their midst two refined Christian women, with the complexion and
+dress of their own mothers and sisters. United to this startling effect
+of memory, was respect for the religious devotion which had inspired
+them to undertake the long and dangerous journey to the Rocky Mountains,
+and also a sentiment of pity for what they knew only too well yet
+remained to be encountered by those delicate women in the prosecution of
+their duty.
+
+Mrs. Whitman, who was in fine health, rode the greater part of the
+journey on horseback. She was a large, stately, fair-skinned woman,
+with blue eyes and light auburn, almost golden hair. Her manners were at
+once dignified and gracious. She was, both by nature and education a
+lady; and had a lady's appreciation of all that was courteous and
+refined; yet not without an element of romance and heroism in her
+disposition strong enough to have impelled her to undertake a
+missionary's life in the wilderness.
+
+Mrs. Spalding was a different type of woman. Talented, and refined in
+her nature, she was less pleasing in exterior, and less attached to that
+which was superficially pleasing in others. But an indifference to
+outside appearances was in her case only a sign of her absorption in the
+work she had taken in hand. She possessed the true missionary spirit,
+and the talent to make it useful in an eminent degree; never thinking of
+herself, or the impression she made upon others; yet withal very firm
+and capable of command. Her health, which was always rather delicate,
+had suffered much from the fatigue of the journey, and the constant diet
+of fresh meat, and meat only, so that she was compelled at last to
+abandon horseback exercise, and to keep almost entirely to the light
+wagon of the missionaries.
+
+As might be expected, the trappers turned from the contemplation of the
+pale, dark-haired occupant of the wagon, with all her humility and
+gentleness, to observe and admire the more striking figure, and more
+affably attractive manners of Mrs. Whitman. Meek, who never lost an
+opportunity to see and be seen, was seen riding alongside Mrs. Whitman,
+answering her curious inquiries, and entertaining her with stories of
+Blackfeet battles, and encounters with grizzly bears. Poor lady! could
+she have looked into the future about which she was then so curious, she
+would have turned back appalled, and have fled with frantic fear to the
+home of her grieving parents. How could she then behold in the gay and
+boastful mountaineer, whose peculiarities of dress and speech so much
+diverted her, the very messenger who was to bear to the home of her
+girlhood the sickening tale of her bloody sacrifice to savage
+superstition and revenge? Yet so had fate decreed it.
+
+When the trappers and Nez Perces had slaked their thirst for excitement
+by a few hours' travel in company with the Fur Company's and
+Missionary's caravan, they gave at length a parting display of
+horsemanship, and dashed off on the return trail to carry to camp the
+earliest news. It was on their arrival in camp that the Nez Perce and
+Flathead village, which had its encampment at the rendezvous ground on
+Green River, began to make preparations for the reception of the
+missionaries. It was then that Indian finery was in requisition! Then
+the Indian women combed and braided their long black hair, tying the
+plaits with gay-colored ribbons, and the Indian braves tied anew their
+streaming scalp-locks, sticking them full of flaunting eagle's plumes,
+and not despising a bit of ribbon either. Paint was in demand both for
+the rider and his horse. Gay blankets, red and blue, buckskin fringed
+shirts, worked with beads and porcupine quills, and handsomely
+embroidered moccasins, were eagerly sought after. Guns were cleaned and
+burnished, and drums and fifes put in tune.
+
+After a day of toilsome preparation all was ready for the grand
+reception in the camp of the Nez Perces. Word was at length given that
+the caravan was in sight. There was a rush for horses, and in a few
+moments the Indians were mounted and in line, ready to charge on the
+advancing caravan. When the command of the chiefs was given to start, a
+simultaneous chorus of yells and whoops burst forth, accompanied by the
+deafening din of the war-drum, the discharge of fire-arms, and the
+clatter of the whole cavalcade, which was at once in a mad gallop toward
+the on-coming train. Nor did the yelling, whooping, drumming, and firing
+cease until within a few yards of the train.
+
+All this demoniac hub-bub was highly complimentary toward those for whom
+it was intended; but an unfortunate ignorance of Indian customs caused
+the missionaries to fail in appreciating the honor intended them.
+Instead of trying to reciprocate the noise by an attempt at imitating
+it, the missionary camp was alarmed at the first burst and at once began
+to drive in their cattle and prepare for an attack. As the missionary
+party was in the rear of the train they succeeded in getting together
+their loose stock before the Nez Perces had an opportunity of making
+themselves known, so that the leaders of the Fur Company, and Captain
+Stuart, had the pleasure of a hearty laugh at their expense, for the
+fright they had received.
+
+A general shaking of hands followed the abatement of the first surprise,
+the Indian women saluting Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding with a kiss,
+and the missionaries were escorted to their camping ground near the Nez
+Perce encampment. Here the whole village again formed in line, and a
+more formal introduction of the missionaries took place, after which
+they were permitted to go into camp.
+
+When the intention of the Indians became known, Dr. Whitman, who was the
+leader of the missionary party, was boyishly delighted with the
+reception which had been given him. His frank, hearty, hopeful nature
+augured much good from the enthusiasm of the Indians. If his estimation
+of the native virtues of the savages was much too high, he suffered with
+those whom he caused to suffer for his belief, in the years which
+followed. Peace to the ashes of a good man! And honor to his associates,
+whose hearts were in the cause they had undertaken of Christianizing
+the Indians. Two of them still live--one of whom, Mr. Spalding, has
+conscientiously labored and deeply suffered for the faith. Mr. Gray, who
+was an unmarried man, returned the following year to the States, for a
+wife, and settled for a time among the Indians, but finally abandoned
+the missionary service, and removed to the Wallamet valley. These five
+persons constituted the entire force of teachers who could be induced at
+that time to devote their lives to the instruction of the savages in the
+neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+The trappers, and gentlemen of the Fur Company and Captain Stuart, had
+been passive but interested spectators of the scene between the Indians
+and the missionaries. When the excitement had somewhat subsided, and the
+various camps had become settled in their places, the tents of the white
+ladies were besieged with visitors, both civilized and savage. These
+ladies, who were making an endeavor to acquire a knowledge of the Nez
+Perce tongue in order to commence their instructions in the language of
+the natives, could have made very little progress, had their purpose
+been less strong than it was. Mrs. Spalding perhaps succeeded better
+than Mrs. Whitman in the difficult study of the Indian dialect. She
+seemed to attract the natives about her by the ease and kindness of her
+manner, especially the native women, who, seeing she was an invalid,
+clung to her rather than to her more lofty and self-asserting associate.
+
+On the contrary, the leaders of the American Fur Company, Captain Wyeth
+and Captain Stuart, paid Mrs. Whitman the most marked and courteous
+attentions. She shone the bright particular star of that Rocky Mountain
+encampment, softening the hearts and the manners of all who came within
+her womanly influence. Not a gentleman among them but felt her silent
+command upon him to be his better self while she remained in his
+vicinity; not a trapper or camp-keeper but respected the presence of
+womanhood and piety. But while the leaders paid court to her, the
+bashful trappers contented themselves with promenading before her tent.
+Should they succeed in catching her eye, they never failed to touch
+their beaver-skin caps in their most studiously graceful manner, though
+that should prove so dubious as to bring a mischievous smile to the blue
+eyes of the observant lady.
+
+But our friend Joe Meek did not belong by nature to the bashful brigade.
+He was not content with disporting himself in his best trapper's toggery
+in front of a lady's tent. He became a not infrequent visitor, and
+amused Mrs. Whitman with the best of his mountain adventures, related in
+his soft, slow, yet smooth and firm utterance, and with many a merry
+twinkle of his mirthful dark eyes. In more serious moments he spoke to
+her of the future, and of his determination, sometime, to "settle down."
+When she inquired if he had fixed upon any spot which in his imagination
+he could regard as "home" he replied that he could not content himself
+to return to civilized life, but thought that when he gave up "bar
+fighting and Injun fighting" he should go down to the Wallamet valley
+and see what sort of life he could make of it there. How he lived up to
+this determination will be seen hereafter.
+
+The missionaries remained at the rendezvous long enough to recruit their
+own strength and that of their stock, and to restore to something like
+health the invalid Mrs. Spalding, who, on changing her diet to dried
+meat, which the resident partners were able to supply her, commenced
+rapidly to improve. Letters were written and given to Capt. Wyeth to
+carry home to the States. The Captain had completed his sale of Fort
+Hall and the goods it contained to the Hudson's Bay Company only a
+short time previous, and was now about to abandon the effort to
+establish any enterprise either on the Columbia or in the Rocky
+Mountains. He had, however, executed his threat of the year previous,
+and punished the bad faith of the Rocky Mountain Company by placing them
+in direct competition with the Hudson's Bay Company.
+
+The missionaries now prepared for their journey to the Columbia River.
+According to the advice of the mountain-men the heaviest wagon was left
+at the rendezvous, together with every heavy article that could be
+dispensed with. But Dr. Whitman refused to leave the light wagon,
+although assured he would never be able to get it to the Columbia, nor
+even to the Snake River. The good Doctor had an immense fund of
+determination when there was an object to be gained or a principle
+involved. The only persons who did not oppose wagon transportation were
+the Indians. They sympathised with his determination, and gave him their
+assistance. The evidences of a different and higher civilization than
+they had ever seen were held in great reverence by them. The wagons, the
+domestic cattle, especially the cows and calves, were always objects of
+great interest with them. Therefore they freely gave their assistance,
+and a sufficient number remained behind to help the Doctor, while the
+main party of both missionaries and Indians, having bidden the Fur
+Company and others farewell, proceeded to join the camp of two Hudson's
+Bay traders a few miles on their way.
+
+The two traders, whose camp they now joined, were named McLeod and
+McKay. The latter, Thomas McKay, was the half-breed son of that
+unfortunate McKay in Mr. Astor's service, who perished on board the
+_Tonquin_, as related in Irving's ASTORIA. He was one of the bravest and
+most skillful partisans in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company.
+McLeod had met the missionaries at the American rendezvous and invited
+them to travel in his company; an offer which they were glad to accept,
+as it secured them ample protection and other more trifling benefits,
+besides some society other than the Indians.
+
+By dint of great perseverance, Doctor Whitman contrived to keep up with
+the camp day after day, though often coming in very late and very weary,
+until the party arrived at Fort Hall. At the fort the baggage was again
+reduced as much as possible; and Doctor Whitman was compelled by the
+desertion of his teamster to take off two wheels of his wagon and
+transform it into a cart which could be more easily propelled in
+difficult places. With this he proceeded as far as the Boise River where
+the Hudson's Bay Company had a small fort or trading-post; but here
+again he was so strongly urged to relinquish the idea of taking his
+wagon to the Columbia, that after much discussion he consented to leave
+it at Fort Boise until some future time when unencumbered by goods or
+passengers he might return for it.
+
+Arrived at the crossing of the Snake River, Mrs. Whitman and Mrs.
+Spalding were treated to a new mode of ferriage, which even in their
+varied experience they had never before met with. This new ferry was
+nothing more or less than a raft made of bundles of bulrushes woven
+together by grass ropes. Upon this frail flat-boat the passengers were
+obliged to stretch themselves at length while an Indian swam across and
+drew it after him by a rope. As the waters of the Snake River are rapid
+and often "dancing mad," it is easy to conjecture that the ladies were
+ill at ease on their bulrush ferry.
+
+On went the party from the Snake River through the Grand Ronde to the
+Blue Mountains. The crossing here was somewhat difficult but
+accomplished in safety. The descent from the Blue Mountains on the west
+side gave the missionaries their first view of the country they had come
+to possess, and to civilize and Christianize. That view was beautiful
+and grand--as goodly a prospect as longing eyes ever beheld this side of
+Canaan. Before them lay a country spread out like a map, with the
+windings of its rivers marked by fringes of trees, and its boundaries
+fixed by mountain ranges above which towered the snowy peaks of Mt.
+Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Rainier. Far away could be traced the course of
+the Columbia; and over all the magnificent scene glowed the red rays of
+sunset, tinging the distant blue of the mountains until they seemed
+shrouded in a veil of violet mist. It were not strange that with the
+reception given them by the Indians, and with this bird's-eye view of
+their adopted country, the hearts of the missionaries beat high with
+hope.
+
+[Illustration: DESCENDING THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.]
+
+The descent from the Blue Mountains brought the party out on the
+Umatilla River, where they camped, Mr. McLeod parting company with them
+at this place to hasten forward to Fort Walla-Walla, and prepare for
+their reception. After two more days of slow and toilsome travel with
+cattle whose feet were cut and sore from the sharp rocks of the
+mountains, the company arrived safely at Walla-Walla fort, on the third
+of September. Here they found Mr. McLeod, and Mr. Panbram who had charge
+of that post.
+
+Mr. Panbram received the missionary party with every token of respect,
+and of pleasure at seeing ladies among them. The kindest attentions were
+lavished upon them from the first moment of their arrival, when the
+ladies were lifted from their horses, to the time of their departure;
+the apartments belonging to the fort being assigned to them, and all
+that the place afforded of comfortable living placed at their disposal.
+Here, for the first time in several months, they enjoyed the luxury of
+bread--a favor for which the suffering Mrs. Spalding was especially
+grateful.
+
+At Walla-Walla the missionaries were informed that they were expected to
+visit Vancouver, the head-quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company on the
+Lower Columbia. After resting for two days, it was determined to make
+this visit before selecting places for mission work among the Indians.
+Accordingly the party embarked in the company's boats, for the voyage
+down the Columbia, which occupied six days, owing to strong head winds
+which were encountered at a point on the Lower Columbia, called Cape
+Horn. They arrived safely on the eleventh of September, at Vancouver,
+where they were again received with the warmest hospitality by the
+Governor, Dr. John McLaughlin, and his associates. The change from the
+privations of wilderness life to the luxuries of Fort Vancouver was very
+great indeed, and two weeks passed rapidly away in the enjoyment of
+refined society, and all the other elegancies of the highest
+civilization.
+
+At the end of two weeks, Dr. Whitman, Mr. Spalding, and Mr. Gray
+returned to the Upper Columbia, leaving the ladies at Fort Vancouver
+while they determined upon their several locations in the Indian
+country. After an absence of several weeks they returned, having made
+their selections, and on the third day of November the ladies once more
+embarked to ascend the Columbia, to take up their residence in Indian
+wigwams while their husbands prepared rude dwellings by the assistance
+of the natives. The spot fixed upon by Dr. Whitman for his mission was
+on the Walla-Walla River about thirty miles from the fort of that name.
+It was called _Waiilatpu_; and the tribe chosen for his pupils were the
+Cayuses, a hardy, active, intelligent race, rich in horses and pasture
+lands.
+
+Mr. Spalding selected a home on the Clearwater River, among the Nez
+Perces, of whom we already know so much. His mission was called
+_Lapwai_. Mr. Gray went among the Flatheads, an equally friendly tribe;
+and here we shall leave the missionaries, to return to the Rocky
+Mountains and the life of the hunter and trapper. At a future date we
+shall fall in once more with these devoted people and learn what success
+attended their efforts to Christianize the Indians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+1836. The company of men who went north this year under Bridger and
+Fontenelle, numbered nearly three hundred. Rendezvous with all its
+varied excitements being over, this important brigade commenced its
+march. According to custom, the trappers commenced business on the
+head-waters of various rivers, following them down as the early frosts
+of the mountains forced them to do, until finally they wintered in the
+plains, at the most favored spots they could find in which to subsist
+themselves and animals.
+
+From Green River, Meek proceeded with Bridger's command to Lewis River,
+Salt River, and other tributaries of the Snake, and camped with them in
+Pierre's Hole, that favorite mountain valley which every year was
+visited by the different fur companies.
+
+[Illustration: _THE BEAR IN CAMP._]
+
+Pierre's Hole, notwithstanding its beauties, had some repulsive
+features, or rather perhaps _one_ repulsive feature, which was, its
+great numbers of rattlesnakes. Meek relates that being once caught in a
+very violent thunder storm, he dismounted, and holding his horse, a fine
+one, by the bridle, himself took shelter under a narrow shelf of rock
+projecting from a precipitous bluff. Directly he observed an enormous
+rattlesnake hastening close by him to its den in the mountain.
+Congratulating himself on his snake-ship's haste to get out of the storm
+and his vicinity, he had only time to have one rejoicing thought when
+two or three others followed the trail of the first one. They were
+seeking the same rocky den, of whose proximity Meek now felt
+uncomfortably assured. Before these were out of sight, there came
+instead of twos and threes, tens and twenties, and then hundreds, and
+finally Meek believes thousands, the ground being literally alive with
+them. Not daring to stir after he discovered the nature of his
+situation, he was obliged to remain and endure the disgusting and
+frightful scene, while he exerted himself to keep his horse quiet, lest
+the reptiles should attack him. By and by, when there were no more to
+come, but all were safe in their holes in the rock, Meek hastily mounted
+and galloped in the face of the tempest in preference to remaining
+longer in so unpleasant a neighborhood.
+
+There was an old Frenchman among the trappers who used to charm
+rattlesnakes, and handling them freely, place them in his bosom, or
+allow them to wind about his arms, several at a time, their flat heads
+extending in all directions, and their bodies waving in the air, in the
+most snaky and nerve-shaking manner, to the infinite disgust of all the
+camp, and of Hawkins and Meek in particular. Hawkins often became so
+nervous that he threatened to shoot the Frenchman on the instant, if he
+did not desist; and great was the dislike he entertained for what he
+termed the "---- infernal old wizard."
+
+It was often the case in the mountains and on the plains that the camp
+was troubled with rattlesnakes, so that each man on laying down to sleep
+found it necessary to encircle his bed with a hair rope, thus
+effectually fencing out the reptiles, which are too fastidious and
+sensitive of touch to crawl over a hair rope. But for this precaution,
+the trapper must often have shared his blanket couch with this foe to
+the "seed of the woman," who being asleep would have neglected to "crush
+his head," receiving instead the serpent's fang in "his heel," if not
+in some nobler portion of his body.
+
+There is a common belief abroad that the prairie dog harbors the
+rattlesnake, and the owl also, in his subterranean house, in a more or
+less friendly manner. Meek, however, who has had many opportunities of
+observing the habits of these three ill-assorted denizens of a common
+abode, gives it as his opinion that the prairie dog consents to the
+invasion of his premises alone through his inability to prevent it. As
+these prairie dog villages are always found on the naked prairies, where
+there is neither rocky den for the rattlesnake, nor shade for the
+blinking eyes of the owl, these two idle and impudent foreigners,
+availing themselves of the labors of the industrious little animal which
+builds itself a cool shelter from the sun, and a safe one from the
+storm, whenever their own necessities drive them to seek refuge from
+either sun or storm, enter uninvited and take possession. It is probable
+also, that so far from being a welcome guest, the rattlesnake
+occasionally gorges himself with a young prairie-dog, when other game is
+not conveniently nigh, or that the owl lies in wait at the door of its
+borrowed-without-leave domicile, and succeeds in nabbing a careless
+field-mouse more easily than it could catch the same game by seeking it
+as an honest owl should do. The owl and the rattlesnake are like the
+Sioux when they go on a visit to the Omahas--the visit being always
+timed so as to be identical in date with that of the Government Agents
+who are distributing food and clothing. They are very good friends for
+the nonce, the poor Omahas not daring to be otherwise for fear of the
+ready vengeance on the next summer's buffalo hunt; therefore they
+conceal their grimaces and let the Sioux eat them up; and when summer
+comes get massacred on their buffalo hunt, all the same.
+
+But to return to our brigade. About the last of October Bridger's
+company moved down on to the Yellowstone by a circuitous route through
+the North Pass, now known as Hell Gate Pass, to Judith River, Mussel
+Shell River, Cross Creeks of the Yellowstone, Three Forks of Missouri,
+Missouri Lake, Beaver Head country, Big Horn River, and thence east
+again, and north again to the wintering ground in the great bend of the
+Yellowstone.
+
+The company had not proceeded far in the Blackfeet country, between Hell
+Gate Pass and the Yellowstone, before they were attacked by the
+Blackfeet. On arriving at the Yellowstone they discovered a considerable
+encampment of the enemy on an island or bar in the river, and proceeded
+to open hostilities before the Indians should have discovered them.
+Making little forts of sticks or bushes, each man advanced cautiously to
+the bank overlooking the island, pushing his leafy fort before him as he
+crept silently nearer, until a position was reached whence firing could
+commence with effect. The first intimation the luckless savages had of
+the neighborhood of the whites was a volley of shots discharged into
+their camp, killing several of their number. But as this was their own
+mode of attack, no reflections were likely to be wasted upon the
+unfairness of the assault; quickly springing to their arms the firing
+was returned, and for several hours was kept up on both sides. At night
+the Indians stole off, having lost nearly thirty killed; nor did the
+trappers escape quite unhurt, three being killed and a few others
+wounded.
+
+Since men were of such value to the fur companies, it would seem strange
+that they should deliberately enter upon an Indian fight before being
+attacked. But unfortunate as these encounters really were, they knew of
+no other policy to be pursued. They, (the American Companies,) were not
+resident, with a long acquaintance, and settled policy, such as
+rendered the Hudson's Bay Company so secure amongst the savages. They
+knew that among these unfriendly Indians, not to attack was to be
+attacked, and consequently little time was ever given for an Indian to
+discover his vicinity to a trapper. The trapper's shot informed him of
+that, and afterwards the race was to the swift, and the battle to the
+strong. Besides this acknowledged necessity for fighting whenever and
+wherever Indians were met with in the Blackfeet and Crow countries,
+almost every trapper had some private injury to avenge--some theft, or
+wound, or imprisonment, or at the very least, some terrible fright
+sustained at the hands of the universal foe. Therefore there was no
+reluctance to shoot into an Indian camp, provided the position of the
+man shooting was a safe one, or more defensible than that of the man
+shot at. Add to this that there was no law in the mountains, only
+license, it is easy to conjecture that might would have prevailed over
+right with far less incentive to the exercise of savage practices than
+actually did exist. Many a trapper undoubtedly shot his Indian "for the
+fun of it," feeling that it was much better to do so than run the risk
+of being shot at for no better reason. Of this class of reasoners, it
+must be admitted, Meek was one. Indian-fighting, like bear-fighting, had
+come to be a sort of pastime, in which he was proud to be known as
+highly accomplished. Having so many opportunities for the display of
+game qualities in encounters with these two by-no-means-to-be despised
+foes of the trapper, it was not often that they quarreled among
+themselves after the grand frolic of the rendezvous was over.
+
+It happened, however, during this autumn, that while the main camp was
+in the valley of the Yellowstone, a party of eight trappers, including
+Meek and a comrade named Stanberry, were trapping together on the
+Mussel Shell, when the question as to which was the bravest man got
+started between them, and at length, in the heat of controversy, assumed
+such importance that it was agreed to settle the matter on the following
+day according to the Virginia code of honor, _i.e._, by fighting a duel,
+and shooting at each other with guns, which hitherto had only done
+execution on bears and Indians.
+
+But some listening spirit of the woods determined to avert the danger
+from these two equally brave trappers, and save their ammunition for its
+legitimate use, by giving them occasion to prove their courage almost on
+the instant. While sitting around the camp-fire discussing the coming
+event of the duel at thirty paces, a huge bear, already wounded by a
+shot from the gun of their hunter who was out looking for game, came
+running furiously into camp, giving each man there a challenge to fight
+or fly.
+
+"Now," spoke up one of the men quickly, "let Meek and Stanberry prove
+which is bravest, by fighting the bear!" "Agreed," cried the two as
+quickly, and both sprang with guns and wiping-sticks in hand, charging
+upon the infuriated beast as it reached the spot where they were
+awaiting it. Stanberry was a small man, and Meek a large one. Perhaps it
+was owing to this difference of stature that Meek was first to reach the
+bear as it advanced. Running up with reckless bravado Meek struck the
+creature two or three times over the head with his wiping-stick before
+aiming to fire, which however he did so quickly and so surely that the
+beast fell dead at his feet. This act settled the vexed question. Nobody
+was disposed to dispute the point of courage with a man who would stop
+to strike a grizzly before shooting him: therefore Meek was proclaimed
+by the common voice to be "cock of the walk" in that camp. The pipe of
+peace was solemnly smoked by himself and Stanberry, and the tomahawk
+buried never more to be resurrected between them, while a fat supper of
+bear meat celebrated the compact of everlasting amity.
+
+It was not an unfrequent occurrence for a grizzly bear to be run into
+camp by the hunters, in the Yellowstone country where this creature
+abounded. An amusing incident occurred not long after that just related,
+when the whole camp was at the Cross Creeks of the Yellowstone, on the
+south side of that river. The hunters were out, and had come upon two or
+three bears in a thicket. As these animals sometimes will do, they
+started off in a great fright, running toward camp, the hunters after
+them, yelling, frightening them still more. A runaway bear, like a
+runaway horse, appears not to see where it is going, but keeps right on
+its course no matter what dangers lie in advance. So one of these
+animals having got headed for the middle of the encampment, saw nothing
+of what lay in its way, but ran on and on, apparently taking note of
+nothing but the yells in pursuit. So sudden and unexpected was the
+charge which he made upon camp, that the Indian women, who were sitting
+on the ground engaged in some ornamental work, had no time to escape out
+of the way. One of them was thrown down and run over, and another was
+struck with such violence that she was thrown twenty feet from the spot
+where she was hastily attempting to rise. Other objects in camp were
+upset and thrown out of the way, but without causing so much merriment
+as the mishaps of the two women who were so rudely treated by the
+monster.
+
+[Illustration: SATISFIED WITH BEAR FIGHTING.]
+
+It was also while the camp was at the Cross Creeks of the Yellowstone
+that Meek had one of his best fought battles with a grizzly bear. He was
+out with two companions, one Gardiner, and Mark Head, a Shawnee Indian.
+Seeing a very large bear digging roots in the creek bottom, Meek
+proposed to attack it, if the others would hold his horse ready to
+mount if he failed to kill the creature. This being agreed to he
+advanced to within about forty paces of his game, when he raised his gun
+and attempted to fire, but the cap bursting he only roused the beast,
+which turned on him with a terrific noise between a snarl and a growl,
+showing some fearful looking teeth. Meek turned to run for his horse, at
+the same time trying to put a cap on his gun; but when he had almost
+reached his comrades, their horses and his own took fright at the bear
+now close on his heels, and ran, leaving him alone with the now fully
+infuriated beast. Just at the moment he succeeded in getting a cap on
+his gun, the teeth of the bear closed on his blanket capote which was
+belted around the waist, the suddenness and force of the seizure turning
+him around, as the skirt of his capote yielded to the strain and tore
+off at the belt. Being now nearly face to face with his foe, the
+intrepid trapper thrust his gun into the creature's mouth and attempted
+again to fire, but the gun being double triggered and not set, it failed
+to go off. Perceiving the difficulty he managed to set the triggers with
+the gun still in the bear's mouth, yet no sooner was this done than the
+bear succeeded in knocking it out, and firing as it slipped out, it hit
+her too low down to inflict a fatal wound and only served to irritate
+her still farther.
+
+In this desperate situation when Meek's brain was rapidly working on the
+problem of live Meek or live bear, two fresh actors appeared on the
+scene in the persons of two cubs, who seeing their mother in difficulty
+seemed desirous of doing something to assist her. Their appearance
+seemed to excite the bear to new exertions, for she made one desperate
+blow at Meek's empty gun with which he was defending himself, and
+knocked it out of his hands, and far down the bank or sloping hillside
+where the struggle was now going on. Then being partially blinded by
+rage, she seized one of her cubs and began to box it about in a most
+unmotherly fashion. This diversion gave Meek a chance to draw his knife
+from the scabbard, with which he endeavored to stab the bear behind the
+ear: but she was too quick for him, and with a blow struck it out of his
+hand, as she had the gun, nearly severing his forefinger.
+
+At this critical juncture the second cub interfered, and got a boxing
+from the old bear, as the first one had done. This too, gave Meek time
+to make a movement, and loosening his tomahawk from his belt, he made
+one tremendous effort, taking deadly aim, and struck her just behind the
+ear, the tomahawk sinking into the brain, and his powerful antagonist
+lay dead before him. When the blow was struck he stood with his back
+against a little bluff of rock, beyond which it was impossible to
+retreat. It was his last chance, and his usual good fortune stood by
+him. When the struggle was over the weary victor mounted the rock
+behind him and looked down upon his enemy slain; and "came to the
+conclusion that he was satisfied with bar-fighting."
+
+But renown had sought him out even here, alone with his lifeless
+antagonist. Capt. Stuart with his artist, Mr. Miller, chanced upon this
+very spot, while yet the conqueror contemplated his slain enemy, and
+taking possession at once of the bear, whose skin was afterward
+preserved and stuffed, made a portrait of the "satisfied" slayer. A
+picture was subsequently painted by Miller of this scene, and was copied
+in wax for a museum in St. Louis, where it probably remains to this day,
+a monument of Meek's best bear fight. As for Meek's runaway horse and
+runaway comrades, they returned to the scene of action too late to be of
+the least service, except to furnish our hero with transportation to
+camp, which, considering the weight of his newly gathered laurels, was
+no light service after all.
+
+In November Bridger's camp arrived at the Bighorn River, expecting to
+winter; but finding the buffalo all gone, were obliged to cross the
+mountains lying between the Bighorn and Powder rivers to reach the
+buffalo country on the latter stream. The snow having already fallen
+quite deep on these mountains the crossing was attended with great
+difficulty; and many horses and mules were lost by sinking in the snow,
+or falling down precipices made slippery by the melting and freezing of
+the snow on the narrow ridges and rocky benches along which they were
+forced to travel.
+
+About Christmas all the company went into winter-quarters on Powder
+River, in the neighborhood of a company of Bonneville's men, left under
+the command of Antoine Montero, who had established a trading-post and
+fort at this place, hoping, no doubt, that here they should be
+comparatively safe from the injurious competition of the older
+companies. The appearance of three hundred men, who had the winter
+before them in which to do mischief, was therefore as unpleasant as it
+was unexpected; and the result proved that even Montero, who was
+Bonneville's experienced trader, could not hold his own against so
+numerous and expert a band of marauders as Bridger's men, assisted by
+the Crows, proved themselves to be; for by the return of spring Montero
+had very little remaining of the property belonging to the fort, nor
+anything to show for it. This mischievous war upon Bonneville was
+prompted partly by the usual desire to cripple a rival trader, which the
+leaders encouraged in their men; but in some individual instances far
+more by the desire for revenge upon Bonneville personally, on account of
+his censures passed upon the members of the Monterey expedition, and on
+the ways of mountain-men generally.
+
+About the first of January, Fontenelle, with four men, and Captain
+Stuart's party, left camp to go to St. Louis for supplies. At Fort
+Laramie Fontenelle committed suicide, in a fit of _mania a potu_, and
+his men returned to camp with the news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+1837. The fate of Fontenelle should have served as a warning to his
+associates and fellows. 'Should have done,' however, are often idle
+words, and as sad as they are idle; they match the poets 'might have
+been,' in their regretful impotency. Perhaps there never was a winter
+camp in the mountains more thoroughly demoralized than that of Bridger
+during the months of January and February. Added to the whites, who were
+reckless enough, were a considerable party of Delaware and Shawnee
+Indians, excellent allies, and skillful hunters and trappers, but having
+the Indian's love of strong drink. "Times were pretty good in the
+mountains," according to the mountain-man's notion of good times; that
+is to say, beaver was plenty, camp large, and alcohol abundant, if dear.
+Under these favorable circumstance much alcohol was consumed, and its
+influence was felt in the manners not only of the trappers, white and
+red, but also upon the neighboring Indians.
+
+The Crows, who had for two years been on terms of a sort of semi-amity
+with the whites, found it to their interest to conciliate so powerful an
+enemy as the American Fur Company was now become, and made frequent
+visits to the camp, on which occasion they usually succeeded in
+obtaining a taste of the fire-water of which they were inordinately
+fond. Occasionally a trader was permitted to sell liquor to the whole
+village, when a scene took place whose peculiar horrors were wholly
+indescribable, from the inability of language to convey an adequate idea
+of its hellish degradation. When a trader sold alcohol to a village it
+was understood both by himself and the Indians what was to follow. And
+to secure the trader against injury a certain number of warriors were
+selected out of the village to act as a police force, and to guard the
+trader during the 'drunk' from the insane passions of his customers. To
+the police not a drop was to be given.
+
+This being arranged, and the village disarmed, the carousal began. Every
+individual, man, woman, and child, was permitted to become intoxicated.
+Every form of drunkenness, from the simple stupid to the silly, the
+heroic, the insane, the beastly, the murderous, displayed itself. The
+scenes which were then enacted beggared description, as they shocked the
+senses of even the hard-drinking, license-loving trappers who witnessed
+them. That they did not "point a moral" for these men, is the strangest
+part of the whole transaction.
+
+When everybody, police excepted, was drunk as drunk could be, the trader
+began to dilute his alcohol with water, until finally his keg contained
+water only, slightly flavored by the washings of the keg, and as they
+continued to drink of it without detecting its weak quality, they
+finally drank themselves sober, and were able at last to sum up the cost
+of their intoxication. This was generally nothing less than the whole
+property of the village, added to which were not a few personal
+injuries, and usually a few murders. The village now being poor, the
+Indians were correspondingly humble; and were forced to begin a system
+of reprisal by stealing and making war, a course for which the traders
+were prepared, and which they avoided by leaving that neighborhood. Such
+were some of the sins and sorrows for which the American fur companies
+were answerable, and which detracted seriously from the respect that
+the courage, and other good qualities of the mountain-men freely
+commanded.
+
+[Illustration: THE GAME OF CACHE.]
+
+By the first of March these scenes of wrong and riot were over, for that
+season at least, and camp commenced moving back toward the Blackfoot
+country. After recrossing the mountains, passing the Bighorn, Clarke's,
+and Rosebud rivers, they came upon a Blackfoot village on the
+Yellowstone, which as usual they attacked, and a battle ensued, in which
+Manhead, captain of the Delawares was killed, another Delaware named Tom
+Hill succeeding him in command. The fight did not result in any great
+loss or gain to either party. The camp of Bridger fought its way past
+the village, which was what they must do, in order to proceed.
+
+Meek, however, was not quite satisfied with the punishment the Blackfeet
+had received for the killing of Manhead, who had been in the fight with
+him when the Camanches attacked them on the plains. Desirous of doing
+something on his own account, he induced a comrade named LeBlas, to
+accompany him to the village, after night had closed over the scene of
+the late contest. Stealing into the village with a noiselessness equal
+to that of one of Fennimore Cooper's Indian scouts, these two daring
+trappers crept so near that they could look into the lodges, and see the
+Indians at their favorite game of _Cache_. Inferring from this that the
+savages did not feel their losses very severely, they determined to
+leave some sign of their visit, and wound their enemy in his most
+sensitive part, the horse. Accordingly they cut the halters of a number
+of the animals, fastened in the customary manner to a stake, and
+succeeded in getting off with nine of them, which property they
+proceeded to appropriate to their own use.
+
+As the spring and summer advanced, Bridger's brigade advanced into the
+mountains, passing the Cross Creek of the Yellowstone, Twenty-five-Yard
+River, Cherry River, and coming on to the head-waters of the Missouri
+spent the early part of the summer in that locality. Between Gallatin
+and Madison forks the camp struck the great trail of the Blackfeet. Meek
+and Mark Head had fallen four or five days behind camp, and being on
+this trail felt a good deal of uneasiness. This feeling was not lessened
+by seeing, on coming to Madison Fork, the skeletons of two men tied to
+or suspended from trees, the flesh eaten off their bones. Concluding
+discretion to be the safest part of valor in this country, they
+concealed themselves by day and traveled by night, until camp was
+finally reached near Henry's Lake. On this march they forded a flooded
+river, on the back of the same mule, their traps placed on the other,
+and escaped from pursuit of a dozen yelling savages, who gazed after
+them in astonishment; "taking their mule," said Mark Head, "to be a
+beaver, and themselves great medicine men." "That," said Meek, "is what
+I call 'cooning' a river."
+
+From this point Meek set out with a party of thirty or forty trappers to
+travel up the river to head-waters, accompanied by the famous Indian
+painter Stanley, whose party was met with, this spring, traveling among
+the mountains. The party of trappers were a day or two ahead of the main
+camp when they found themselves following close after the big Blackfoot
+village which had recently passed over the trail, as could be seen by
+the usual signs; and also by the dead bodies strewn along the trail,
+victims of that horrible scourge, the small pox. The village was
+evidently fleeing to the mountains, hoping to rid itself of the plague
+in their colder and more salubrious air.
+
+Not long after coming upon these evidences of proximity to an enemy, a
+party of a hundred and fifty of their warriors were discovered encamped
+in a defile or narrow bottom enclosed by high bluffs, through which the
+trappers would have to pass. Seeing that in order to pass this war
+party, and the village, which was about half a mile in advance, there
+would have to be some fighting done, the trappers resolved to begin the
+battle at once by attacking their enemy, who was as yet ignorant of
+their neighborhood. In pursuance of this determination, Meek, Newell,
+Mansfield, and Le Blas, commenced hostilities. Leaving their horses in
+camp, they crawled along on the edge of the overhanging bluff until
+opposite to the encampment of Blackfeet, firing on them from the shelter
+of some bushes which grew among the rocks. But the Blackfeet, though
+ignorant of the number of their enemy, were not to be dislodged so
+easily, and after an hour or two of random shooting, contrived to scale
+the bluff at a point higher up, and to get upon a ridge of ground still
+higher than that occupied by the four trappers. This movement dislodged
+the latter, and they hastily retreated through the bushes and returned
+to camp.
+
+The next day, the main camp having come up, the fight was renewed. While
+the greater body of the company, with the pack-horses, were passing
+along the high bluff overhanging them, the party of the day before, and
+forty or fifty others, undertook to drive the Indians out of the bottom,
+and by keeping them engaged allow the train to pass in safety. The
+trappers rode to the fight on this occasion, and charged the Blackfeet
+furiously, they having joined the village a little farther on. A general
+skirmish now took place. Meek, who was mounted on a fine horse, was in
+the thickest of the fight. He had at one time a side to side race with
+an Indian who strung his bow so hard that the arrow dropped, just as
+Meek, who had loaded his gun running, was ready to fire, and the Indian
+dropped after his arrow.
+
+Newell too had a desperate conflict with a half-dead warrior, who having
+fallen from a wound, he thought dead and was trying to scalp. Springing
+from his horse he seized the Indian's long thick hair in one hand, and
+with his knife held in the other made a pass at the scalp, when the
+savage roused up knife in hand, and a struggle took place in which it
+was for a time doubtful which of the combatants would part with the
+coveted scalp-lock. Newell might have been glad to resign the trophy,
+and leave the fallen warrior his tuft of hair, but his fingers were in
+some way caught by some gun-screws with which the savage had ornamented
+his _coiffure_, and would not part company. In this dilemma there was no
+other alternative but fight. The miserable savage was dragged a rod or
+two in the struggle, and finally dispatched.
+
+Mansfield also got into such close quarters, surrounded by the enemy,
+that he gave himself up for lost, and called out to his comrades: "Tell
+old Gabe, (Bridger,) that old Cotton (his own sobriquet) is gone." He
+lived, however, to deliver his own farewell message, for at this
+critical juncture the trappers were re-inforced, and relieved. Still the
+fight went on, the trappers gradually working their way to the upper end
+of the enclosed part of the valley, past the point of danger.
+
+Just before getting clear of this entanglement Meek became the subject
+of another picture, by Stanley, who was viewing the battle from the
+heights above the valley. The picture which is well known as "The
+Trapper's Last Shot," represents him as he turned upon his horse, a fine
+and spirited animal, to discharge his last shot at an Indian
+pursuing, while in the bottom, at a little distance away, other Indians
+are seen skulking in the tall reedy grass.
+
+[Illustration: _THE TRAPPER'S LAST SHOT._]
+
+The last shot having been discharged with fatal effect, our trapper, so
+persistently lionized by painters, put his horse to his utmost speed and
+soon after overtook the camp, which had now passed the strait of danger.
+But the Blackfeet were still unsatisfied with the result of the contest.
+They followed after, reinforced from the village, and attacked the camp.
+In the fight which followed a Blackfoot woman's horse was shot down, and
+Meek tried to take her prisoner: but two or three of her people coming
+to the rescue, engaged his attention; and the woman was saved by seizing
+hold of the tail of her husband's horse, which setting off at a run,
+carried her out of danger.
+
+[Illustration: "AND THEREBY HANGS A TAIL."]
+
+The Blackfeet found the camp of Bridger too strong for them. They were
+severely beaten and compelled to retire to their village, leaving
+Bridger free to move on. The following day the camp reached the village
+of Little-Robe, a chief of the Peagans, who held a talk with Bridger,
+complaining that his nation were all perishing from the small-pox which
+had been given to them by the whites. Bridger was able to explain to
+Little-Robe his error; inasmuch as although the disease might have
+originated among the whites, it was communicated to the Blackfeet by Jim
+Beckwith, a negro, and principal chief of their enemies the Crows. This
+unscrupulous wretch had caused two infected articles to be taken from a
+Mackinaw boat, up from St. Louis, and disposed of to the
+Blackfeet--whence the horrible scourge under which they were suffering.
+
+This matter being explained, Little-Robe consented to trade horses and
+skins; and the two camps parted amicably. The next day after this
+friendly talk, Bridger being encamped on the trail in advance of the
+Blackfeet, an Indian came riding into camp, with his wife and daughter,
+pack-horse and lodge-pole, and all his worldly goods, unaware until he
+got there of the snare into which he had fallen. The French trappers,
+generally, decreed to kill the man and take possession of the woman. But
+Meek, Kit Carson, and others of the American trappers of the better
+sort, interfered to prevent this truly savage act. Meek took the woman's
+horse by the head, Carson the man's, the daughter following, and led
+them out of camp. Few of the Frenchmen cared to interrupt either of
+these two men, and they were suffered to depart in peace. When at a safe
+distance, Meek stopped, and demanded as some return for having saved the
+man's life, a present of tobacco, a luxury which, from the Indian's
+pipe, he suspected him to possess. About enough for two chews was the
+result of this demand, complied with rather grudgingly, the Indian
+vieing with the trapper in his devotion to the weed. Just at this time,
+owing to the death of Fontenelle, and a consequent delay in receiving
+supplies, tobacco was scarce among the mountaineers.
+
+Bridger's brigade of trappers met with no other serious interruptions on
+their summer's march. They proceeded to Henry's Lake, and crossing the
+Rocky Mountains, traveled through the Pine Woods, always a favorite
+region, to Lewis' Lake on Lewis' Fork of the Snake River; and finally up
+the Grovant Fork, recrossing the mountains to Wind River, where the
+rendezvous for this year was appointed.
+
+Here, once more, the camp was visited by a last years' acquaintance.
+This was none other than Mr. Gray, of the Flathead Mission, who was
+returning to the States on business connected with the missionary
+enterprise, and to provide himself with a helpmeet for life,--a
+co-laborer and sufferer in the contemplated toil of teaching savages the
+rudiments of a religion difficult even to the comprehension of an old
+civilization.
+
+Mr. Gray was accompanied by two young men (whites) who wished to return
+to the States, and also by a son of one of the Flathead chiefs. Two
+other Flathead Indians, and one Iroquois and one Snake Indian, were
+induced to accompany Mr. Gray. The undertaking was not without danger,
+and so the leaders of the Fur Company assured him. But Mr. Gray was
+inclined to make light of the danger, having traveled with entire safety
+when under the protection of the Fur Companies the year before. He
+proceeded without interruption until he reached Ash Hollow, in the
+neighborhood of Fort Laramie, when his party was attacked by a large
+band of Sioux, and compelled to accept battle. The five Indians, with
+the whites, fought bravely, killing fifteen of the Sioux, before a
+parley was obtained by the intervention of a French trader who chanced
+to be among the Sioux. When Mr. Gray was able to hold a 'talk' with the
+attacking party he was assured that his life and that of his two white
+associates would be spared, but that they wanted to kill the strange
+Indians and take their fine horses. It is not at all probable that Mr.
+Gray consented to this sacrifice; though he has been accused of doing
+so.
+
+No doubt the Sioux took advantage of some hesitation on his part, and
+rushed upon his Indian allies in an unguarded moment. However that may
+be, his allies were killed and he was allowed to escape, after giving up
+the property belonging to them, and a portion of his own.
+
+This affair was the occasion of much ill-feeling toward Mr. Gray, when,
+in the following year, he returned to the mountains with the tale of
+massacre of his friends and his own escape. The mountain-men, although
+they used their influence to restrain the vengeful feelings of the
+Flathead tribe, whispered amongst themselves that Gray had preferred his
+own life to that of his friends. The old Flathead chief too, who had
+lost a son by the massacre, was hardly able to check his impulsive
+desire for revenge; for he held Mr. Gray responsible for his son's life.
+Nothing more serious, however, grew out of this unhappy tragedy than a
+disaffection among the tribe toward Mr. Gray, which made his labors
+useless, and finally determined him to remove to the Wallamet Valley.
+
+There were no outsiders besides Gray's party at the rendezvous of this
+year, except Captain Stuart, and he was almost as good a mountaineer as
+any. This doughty English traveler had the bad fortune together with
+that experienced leader Fitzpatrick, of being robbed by the Crows in the
+course of the fall hunt, in the Crow country. These expert horse thieves
+had succeeded in stealing nearly all the horses belonging to the joint
+camp, and had so disabled the company that it could not proceed. In this
+emergency, Newell, who had long been a sub-trader and was wise in Indian
+arts and wiles, was sent to hold a talk with the thieves. The talk was
+held, according to custom, in the Medicine lodge, and the usual amount
+of smoking, of long silences, and grave looks, had to be participated
+in, before the subject on hand could be considered. Then the chiefs
+complained as usual of wrongs at the hands of the white men; of their
+fear of small-pox, from which some of their tribe had suffered; of
+friends killed in battle with the whites, and all the list of ills that
+Crow flesh is heir to at the will of their white enemies. The women too
+had their complaints to proffer, and the number of widows and orphans in
+the tribe was pathetically set forth. The chiefs also made a strong
+point of this latter complaint; and on it the wily Newell hung his hopes
+of recovering the stolen property.
+
+"It is true," said he to the chiefs, "that you have sustained heavy
+losses. But that is not the fault of the Blanket chief (Bridger.) If
+your young men have been killed, they were killed when attempting to rob
+or kill our Captain's men. If you have lost horses, your young men have
+stolen five to our one. If you are poor in skins and other property, it
+is because you sold it all for drink which did you no good. Neither is
+Bridger to blame that you have had the small-pox. Your own chief, in
+trying to kill your enemies the Blackfeet, brought that disease into the
+country.
+
+"But it is true that you have many widows and orphans to support, and
+that is bad. I pity the orphans, and will help you to support them, if
+you will restore to my captain the property stolen from his camp.
+Otherwise Bridger will bring more horses, and plenty of ammunition, and
+there will be more widows and orphans among the Crows than ever before."
+
+This was a kind of logic easy to understand and quick to convince among
+savages. The bribe, backed by a threat, settled the question of the
+restoration of the horses, which were returned without further delay,
+and a present of blankets and trinkets was given, ostensibly to the
+bereaved women, really to the covetous chiefs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+1837. The decline of the business of hunting furs began to be quite
+obvious about this time. Besides the American and St. Louis Companies,
+and the Hudson's Bay Company, there were numerous lone traders with whom
+the ground was divided. The autumn of this year was spent by the
+American Company, as formerly, in trapping beaver on the streams issuing
+from the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. When the cold weather
+finally drove the Fur Company to the plains, they went into winter
+quarters once more in the neighborhood of the Crows on Powder River.
+Here were re-enacted the wild scenes of the previous winter, both
+trappers and Indians being given up to excesses.
+
+On the return of spring, Bridger again led his brigade all through the
+Yellowstone country, to the streams on the north side of the Missouri,
+to the head-waters of that river; and finally rendezvoused on the north
+fork of the Yellowstone, near Yellowstone Lake. Though the amount of
+furs taken on the spring hunt was considerable, it was by no means equal
+to former years. The fact was becoming apparent that the beaver was
+being rapidly exterminated.
+
+However there was beaver enough in camp to furnish the means for the
+usual profligacy. Horse-racing, betting, gambling, drinking, were freely
+indulged in. In the midst of this "fun," there appeared at the
+rendezvous Mr. Gray, now accompanied by Mrs. Gray and six other
+missionary ladies and gentlemen. Here also were two gentlemen from the
+Methodist mission on the Wallamet, who were returning to the States.
+Captain Stuart was still traveling with the Fur Company, and was also
+present with his party; besides which a Hudson's Bay trader named
+Ematinger was encamped near by. As if actuated to extraordinary displays
+by the unusual number of visitors, especially the four ladies, both
+trappers and Indians conducted themselves like the mad-caps they were.
+The Shawnees and Delawares danced their great war-dance before the tents
+of the missionaries; and Joe Meek, not to be outdone, arrayed himself in
+a suit of armor belonging to Captain Stuart and strutted about the
+encampment; then mounting his horse played the part of an ancient
+knight, with a good deal of _eclat_.
+
+Meek had not abstained from the alcohol kettle, but had offered it and
+partaken of it rather more freely than usual; so that when rendezvous
+was broken up, the St. Louis Company gone to the Popo Agie, and the
+American Company going to Wind River, he found that his wife, a Nez
+Perce who had succeeded Umentucken in his affections, had taken offence,
+or a fit of homesickness, which was synonymous, and departed with the
+party of Ematinger and the missionaries, intending to visit her people
+at Walla-Walla. This desertion wounded Meek's feelings; for he prided
+himself on his courtesy to the sex, and did not like to think that he
+had not behaved handsomely. All the more was he vexed with himself
+because his spouse had carried with her a pretty and sprightly
+baby-daughter, of whom the father was fond and proud, and who had been
+christened Helen Mar, after one of the heroines of Miss Porter's
+_Scottish Chiefs_--a book much admired in the mountains, as it has been
+elsewhere.
+
+Therefore at the first camp of the American Company, Meek resolved to
+turn his back on the company, and go after the mother and daughter.
+Obtaining a fresh kettle of alcohol, to keep up his spirits, he left
+camp, returning toward the scene of the late rendezvous. But in the
+effort to keep up his spirits he had drank too much alcohol, and the
+result was that on the next morning he found himself alone on the Wind
+River Mountain, with his horses and pack mules, and very sick indeed.
+Taking a little more alcohol to brace up his nerves, he started on
+again, passing around the mountain on to the Sweetwater; thence to the
+Sandy, and thence across a country without water for seventy-five miles,
+to Green River, where the camp of Ematinger was overtaken.
+
+The heat was excessive; and the absence of water made the journey across
+the arid plain between Sandy and Green Rivers one of great suffering to
+the traveler and his animals; and the more so as the frequent references
+to the alcohol kettle only increased the thirst-fever instead of
+allaying it. But Meek was not alone in suffering. About half way across
+the scorching plain he discovered a solitary woman's figure standing in
+the trail, and two riding horses near her, whose drooping heads
+expressed their dejection. On coming up with this strange group, Meek
+found the woman to be one of the missionary ladies, a Mrs. Smith, and
+that her husband was lying on the ground, dying, as the poor sufferer
+believed himself, for water.
+
+Mrs. Smith made a weeping appeal to Meek for water for her dying
+husband; and truly the poor woman's situation was a pitiable one. Behind
+camp, with no protection from the perils of the desert and
+wilderness--only a terrible care instead--the necessity of trying to
+save her husband's life. As no water was to be had, alcohol was offered
+to the famishing man, who, however, could not be aroused from his stupor
+of wretchedness. Seeing that death really awaited the unlucky missionary
+unless something could be done to cause him to exert himself, Meek
+commenced at once, and with unction, to abuse the man for his
+unmanliness. His style, though not very refined, was certainly very
+vigorous.
+
+"You're a ---- pretty fellow to be lying on the ground here, lolling
+your tongue out of your mouth, and trying to die. Die, if you want to,
+you're of no account and will never be missed. Here's your wife, who you
+are keeping standing here in the hot sun; why don't _she_ die? She's got
+more pluck than a white-livered chap like you. But I'm not going to
+leave her waiting here for you to die. Thar's a band of Indians behind
+on the trail, and I've been riding like ---- to keep out of their way.
+If you want to stay here and be scalped, you can stay; Mrs. Smith is
+going with me. Come, madam," continued Meek, leading up her horse, "let
+me help you to mount, for we must get out of this cursed country as fast
+as possible."
+
+Poor Mrs. Smith did not wish to leave her husband; nor did she relish
+the notion of staying to be scalped. Despair tugged at her
+heart-strings. She would have sunk to the ground in a passion of tears,
+but Meek was too much in earnest to permit precious time to be thus
+wasted. "Get on your horse," said he rather roughly. "You can't save
+your husband by staying here, crying. It is better that one should die
+than two; and he seems to be a worthless dog anyway. Let the Indians
+have him."
+
+Almost lifting her upon the horse, Meek tore the distracted woman away
+from her husband, who had yet strength enough to gasp out an entreaty
+not to be left.
+
+"You can follow us if you choose," said the apparently merciless
+trapper, "or you can stay where you are. Mrs. Smith can find plenty of
+better men than you. Come, madam!" and he gave the horse a stroke with
+his riding-whip which started him into a rapid pace.
+
+The unhappy wife, whose conscience reproached her for leaving her
+husband to die alone, looked back, and saw him raising his head to gaze
+after them. Her grief broke out afresh, and she would have gone back
+even then to remain with him: but Meek was firm, and again started up
+her horse. Before they were quite out of sight, Meek turned in his
+saddle, and beheld the dying man sitting up. "Hurrah;" said he: "he's
+all right. He will overtake us in a little while:" and as he predicted,
+in little over an hour Smith came riding up, not more than half dead by
+this time. The party got into camp on Green River, about eleven o'clock
+that night, and Mrs. Smith having told the story of her adventures with
+the unknown trapper who had so nearly kidnaped her, the laugh and the
+cheer went round among the company. "That's Meek," said Ematinger, "you
+may rely on that. He's just the one to kidnap a woman in that way." When
+Mrs. Smith fully realized the service rendered, she was abundantly
+grateful, and profuse were the thanks which our trapper received, even
+from the much-abused husband, who was now thoroughly alive again. Meek
+failed to persuade his wife to return with him. She was homesick for her
+people, and would go to them. But instead of turning back, he kept on
+with Ematinger's camp as far as Fort Hall, which post was then in charge
+of Courtenay Walker.
+
+While the camp was at Soda Springs, Meek observed the missionary ladies
+baking bread in a tin reflector before a fire. Bread was a luxury
+unknown to the mountain-man,--and as a sudden recollection of his
+boyhood, and the days of bread-and-butter came over him, his mouth began
+to water. Almost against his will he continued to hang round the
+missionary camp, thinking about the bread. At length one of the Nez
+Perces, named James, whom the missionary had taught to sing, at their
+request struck up a hymn, which he sang in a very creditable manner. As
+a reward of his pious proficiency, one of the ladies gave James a
+biscuit. A bright thought struck our longing hero's brain. "Go back,"
+said he to James, "and sing another hymn; and when the ladies give you
+another biscuit, bring it to me." And in this manner, he obtained a
+taste of the coveted luxury, bread--of which, during nine years in the
+mountains he had not eaten.
+
+At Fort Hall, Meek parted company with the missionaries, and with his
+wife and child. As the little black-eyed daughter took her departure in
+company with this new element in savage life,--the missionary
+society,--her father could have had no premonition of the fate to which
+the admixture of the savage and the religious elements was step by step
+consigning her.
+
+After remaining a few days at the fort, Meek, who found some of his old
+comrades at this place, went trapping with them up the Portneuf, and
+soon made up a pack of one hundred and fifty beaver-skins. These, on
+returning to the fort, he delivered to Jo Walker, one of the American
+Company's traders at that time, and took Walker's receipt for them. He
+then, with Mansfield and Wilkins, set out about the first of September
+for the Flathead country, where Wilkins had a wife. In their company was
+an old Flathead woman, who wished to return to her people, and took this
+opportunity.
+
+The weather was still extremely warm. It had been a season of great
+drought, and the streams were nearly all entirely dried up. The first
+night out, the horses, eight in number, strayed off in search of water,
+and were lost. Now commenced a day of fearful sufferings. No water had
+been found since leaving the fort. The loss of the horses made it
+necessary for the company to separate to look for them; Mansfield and
+Wilkins going in one direction, Meek and the old Flathead woman in
+another. The little coolness and moisture which night had imparted to
+the atmosphere was quickly dissipated by the unchecked rays of the
+pitiless sun shining on a dry and barren plain, with not a vestige of
+verdure anywhere in sight. On and on went the old Flathead woman,
+keeping always in the advance, and on and on followed Meek, anxiously
+scanning the horizon for a chance sight of the horses. Higher and higher
+mounted the sun, the temperature increasing in intensity until the great
+plain palpitated with radiated heat, and the horizon flickered almost
+like a flame where the burning heavens met the burning earth. Meek had
+been drinking a good deal of rum at the fort, which circumstance did not
+lessen the terrible consuming thirst that was torturing him.
+
+Noon came, and passed, and still the heat and the suffering increased,
+the fever and craving of hunger being now added to that of thirst. On
+and on, through the whole of that long scorching afternoon, trotted the
+old Flathead woman in the peculiar traveling gait of the Indian and the
+mountaineer, Meek following at a little distance, and going mad, as he
+thought, for a little water. And mad he probably was, as famine
+sometimes makes its victims. When night at last closed in, he laid down
+to die, as the missionary Smith had done before. But he did not remember
+Smith: he only thought of water, and heard it running, and fancied the
+old woman was lapping it like a wolf. Then he rose to follow her and
+find it; it was always just ahead, and the woman was howling to him to
+show him the trail.
+
+Thus the night passed, and in the cool of the early morning he
+experienced a little relief. He was really following his guide, who as
+on the day before was trotting on ahead. Then the thought possessed him
+to overtake and kill her, hoping from her shriveled body to obtain a
+morsel of food, and drop of moisture. But his strength was failing, and
+his guide so far ahead that he gave up the thought as involving too
+great exertion, continuing to follow her in a helpless and hopeless kind
+of way.
+
+At last! There was no mistake this time: he heard running water, and the
+old woman _was_ lapping it like a wolf. With a shriek of joy he ran and
+fell on his face in the water, which was not more than one foot in
+depth, nor the stream more than fifteen feet wide. But it had a white
+pebbly bottom; and the water was clear, if not very cool. It was
+something to thank God for, which the none too religious trapper
+acknowledged by a fervent "Thank God!"
+
+For a long time he lay in the water, swallowing it, and by thrusting his
+finger down his throat vomiting it up again, to prevent surfeit, his
+whole body taking in the welcome moisture at all its million pores. The
+fever abated, a feeling of health returned, and the late perishing man
+was restored to life and comparative happiness. The stream proved to be
+Godin's Fork, and here Meek and his faithful old guide rested until
+evening, in the shade of some willows, where their good fortune was
+completed by the appearance of Mansfield and Wilkins with the horses.
+The following morning the men found and killed a fat buffalo cow,
+whereby all their wants were supplied, and good feeling restored in the
+little camp.
+
+From Godin's Fork they crossed over to Salmon River, and presently
+struck the Nez Perce trail which leads from that river over into the
+Beaver-head country, on the Beaver-head or Jefferson Fork of the
+Missouri, where there was a Flathead and Nez Perce village, on or about
+the present site of Virginia City, in Montana.
+
+Not stopping long here, Meek and his companions went on to the Madison
+Fork with the Indian village, and to the shores of Missouri Lake,
+joining in the fall hunt for buffalo.
+
+[Illustration: HORSE-TAIL FALL.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+"Tell me all about a buffalo hunt," said the writer to Joe Meek, as we
+sat at a window overlooking the Columbia River, where it has a beautiful
+stretch of broad waters and curving wooded shores, and talking about
+mountain life, "tell me how you used to hunt buffalo."
+
+"Waal, there is a good deal of sport in runnin' buffalo. When the camp
+discovered a band, then every man that wanted to run, made haste to
+catch his buffalo horse. We sometimes went out thirty or forty strong;
+sometimes two or three, and at other times a large party started on the
+hunt; the more the merrier. We alway had great bantering about our
+horses, each man, according to his own account, having the best one.
+
+"When we first start we ride slow, so as not to alarm the buffalo. The
+nearer we come to the band the greater our excitement. The horses seem
+to feel it too, and are worrying to be off. When we come so near that
+the band starts, then the word is given, our horses' mettle is up, and
+away we go!
+
+[Illustration: _A BUFFALO HUNT._]
+
+"Thar may be ten thousand in a band. Directly we crowd them so close
+that nothing can be seen but dust, nor anything heard but the roar of
+their trampling and bellowing. The hunter now keeps close on their heels
+to escape being blinded by the dust, which does not rise as high as a
+man on horseback, for thirty yards behind the animals. As soon as we are
+close enough the firing begins, and the band is on the run; and a
+herd of buffalo can run about as fast as a good race-horse. How they
+_do_ thunder along! They give us a pretty sharp race. Take care! Down
+goes a rider, and away goes his horse with the band. Do you think we
+stopped to look after the fallen man? Not we. We rather thought that war
+fun, and if he got killed, why, 'he war unlucky, that war all. Plenty
+more men: couldn't bother about him.'
+
+"Thar's a fat cow ahead. I force my way through the band to come up with
+her. The buffalo crowd around so that I have to put my foot on them, now
+on one side, now the other, to keep them off my horse. It is lively
+work, I can tell you. A man has to look sharp not to be run down by the
+band pressing him on; buffalo and horse at the top of their speed.
+
+"Look out; thar's a ravine ahead, as you can see by the plunge which the
+band makes. Hold up! or somebody goes to the d--l now. If the band is
+large it fills the ravine full to the brim, and the hindmost of the herd
+pass over on top of the foremost. It requires horsemanship not to be
+carried over without our own consent; but then we mountain-men are _all_
+good horsemen. Over the ravine we go; but we do it our own way.
+
+"We keep up the chase for about four miles, selecting our game as we
+run, and killing a number of fat cows to each man; some more and some
+less. When our horses are tired we slacken up, and turn back. We meet
+the camp-keepers with pack-horses. They soon butcher, pack up the meat,
+and we all return to camp, whar we laugh at each other's mishaps, and
+eat fat meat: and this constitutes the glory of mountain life."
+
+"But you were going to tell me about the buffalo hunt at Missouri Lake?"
+
+"Thar isn't much to tell. It war pretty much like other buffalo hunts.
+Thar war a lot of us trappers happened to be at a Nez Perce and Flathead
+village in the fall of '38, when they war agoin' to kill winter meat;
+and as their hunt lay in the direction we war going, we joined in. The
+old Nez Perce chief, _Kow-e-so-te_ had command of the village, and we
+trappers had to obey him, too.
+
+"We started off slow; nobody war allowed to go ahead of camp. In this
+manner we caused the buffalo to move on before us, but not to be
+alarmed. We war eight or ten days traveling from the Beaver-head to
+Missouri Lake, and by the time we got thar, the whole plain around the
+lake war crowded with buffalo, and it war a splendid sight!
+
+"In the morning the old chief harangued the men of his village, and
+ordered us all to get ready for the surround. About nine o'clock every
+man war mounted, and we began to move.
+
+"That war a sight to make a man's blood warm! A thousand men, all
+trained hunters, on horseback, carrying their guns, and with their
+horses painted in the height of Indians' fashion. We advanced until
+within about half a mile of the herd; then the chief ordered us to
+deploy to the right and left, until the wings of the column extended a
+long way, and advance again.
+
+"By this time the buffalo war all moving, and we had come to within a
+hundred yards of them. _Kow-e-so-te_ then gave us the word, and away we
+went, pell-mell. Heavens, what a charge! What a rushing and roaring--men
+shooting, buffalo bellowing and trampling until the earth shook under
+them!
+
+"It war the work of half an hour to slay two thousand or may be three
+thousand animals. When the work was over, we took a view of the field.
+Here and there and everywhere, laid the slain buffalo. Occasionally a
+horse with a broken leg war seen; or a man with a broken arm; or maybe
+he had fared worse, and had a broken head.
+
+"Now came out the women of the village to help us butcher and pack up
+the meat. It war a big job; but we war not long about it. By night the
+camp war full of meat, and everybody merry. Bridger's camp, which war
+passing that way, traded with the village for fifteen hundred buffalo
+tongues--the tongue being reckoned a choice part of the animal. And
+that's the way we helped the Nez Perces hunt buffalo."
+
+"But when you were hunting for your own subsistence in camp, you
+sometimes went out in small parties?"
+
+"Oh yes, it war the same thing on a smaller scale. One time Kit Carson
+and myself, and a little Frenchman, named Marteau, went to run buffalo
+on Powder River. When we came in sight of the band it war agreed that
+Kit and the Frenchman should do the running, and I should stay with the
+pack animals. The weather war very cold and I didn't like my part of the
+duty much.
+
+"The Frenchman's horse couldn't run; so I lent him mine. Kit rode his
+own; not a good buffalo horse either. In running, my horse fell with the
+Frenchman, and nearly killed him. Kit, who couldn't make his horse
+catch, jumped off, and caught mine, and tried it again. This time he
+came up with the band, and killed four fat cows.
+
+"When I came up with the pack-animals, I asked Kit how he came by my
+horse. He explained, and wanted to know if I had seen anything of
+Marteau: said my horse had fallen with him, and he thought killed him.
+'You go over the other side of yon hill, and see,' said Kit.
+
+"What'll I do with him if he is dead?" said I.
+
+"Can't you pack him to camp?"
+
+"Pack ----" said I; "I should rather pack a load of meat."
+
+"Waal," said Kit, "I'll butcher, if you'll go over and see, anyhow."
+
+"So I went over, and found the dead man leaning his head on his hand,
+and groaning; for he war pretty bad hurt. I got him on his horse,
+though, after a while, and took him back to whar Kit war at work. We
+soon finished the butchering job, and started back to camp with our
+wounded Frenchman, and three loads of fat meat."
+
+"You were not very compassionate toward each other, in the mountains?"
+
+"That war not our business. We had no time for such things. Besides,
+live men war what we wanted; dead ones war of no account."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+1838. From Missouri Lake, Meek started alone for the Gallatin Fork of
+the Missouri, trapping in a mountain basin called Gardiner's Hole.
+Beaver were plenty here, but it was getting late in the season, and the
+weather was cold in the mountains. On his return, in another basin
+called the Burnt Hole, he found a buffalo skull; and knowing that
+Bridger's camp would soon pass that way, wrote on it the number of
+beaver he had taken, and also his intention to go to Fort Hall to sell
+them.
+
+In a few days the camp passing found the skull, which grinned its threat
+at the angry Booshways, as the chuckling trapper had calculated that it
+would. To prevent its execution runners were sent after him, who,
+however, failed to find him, and nothing was known of the supposed
+renegade for some time. But as Bridger passed through Pierre's Hole, on
+his way to Green river to winter, he was surprised at Meek's appearance
+in camp. He was soon invited to the lodge of the Booshways, and called
+to account for his supposed apostacy.
+
+Meek, for a time, would neither deny nor confess, but put on his free
+trapper airs, and laughed in the face of the Booshways. Bridger, who
+half suspected some trick, took the matter lightly, but Dripps was very
+much annoyed, and made some threats, at which Meek only laughed the
+more. Finally the certificate from their own trader, Jo Walker, was
+produced, the new pack of furs surrendered, and Dripps' wrath turned
+into smiles of approval.
+
+Here again Meek parted company with the main camp, and went on an
+expedition with seven other trappers, under John Larison, to the Salmon
+River: but found the cold very severe on this journey, and the grass
+scarce and poor, so that the company lost most of their horses.
+
+On arriving at the Nez Perce village in the Forks of the Salmon, Meek
+found the old chief _Kow-e-so-te_ full of the story of the missionaries
+and their religion, and anxious to hear preaching. Reports were
+continually arriving by the Indians, of the wonderful things which were
+being taught by Mr. and Mrs. Spalding at Lapwai, on the Clearwater, and
+at Waiilatpu, on the Walla-Walla River. It was now nearly two years
+since these missions had been founded, and the number of converts among
+the Nez Perces and Flatheads was already considerable.
+
+Here was an opening for a theological student, such as Joe Meek was!
+After some little assumption of modesty, Meek intimated that he thought
+himself capable of giving instruction on religious subjects; and being
+pressed by the chief, finally consented to preach to _Kow-e-so-te's_
+people. Taking care first to hold a private council with his associates,
+and binding them not to betray him, Meek preached his first sermon that
+evening, going regularly through with the ordinary services of a
+"meeting."
+
+These services were repeated whenever the Indians seemed to desire it,
+until Christmas. Then, the village being about to start upon a hunt, the
+preacher took occasion to intimate to the chief that a wife would be an
+agreeable present. To this, however, _Kow-e-so-te_ demurred, saying that
+Spalding's religion did not permit men to have two wives: that the Nez
+Perces had many of them given up their wives on this account; and that
+therefore, since Meek already had one wife among the Nez Perces, he
+could not have another without being false to the religion he professed.
+
+To this perfectly clear argument Meek replied, that among white men, if
+a man's wife left him without his consent, as his had done, he could
+procure a divorce, and take another wife. Besides, he could tell him how
+the Bible related many stories of its best men having several wives. But
+_Kow-e-so-te_ was not easily convinced. He could not see how, if the
+Bible approved of polygamy, Spalding should insist on the Indians
+putting away all but one of their wives. "However," says Meek, "after
+about two weeks' explanation of the doings of Solomon and David, I
+succeeded in getting the chief to give me a young girl, whom I called
+Virginia;--my present wife, and the mother of seven children."
+
+After accompanying the Indians on their hunt to the Beaver-head country,
+where they found plenty of buffalo, Meek remained with the Nez Perce
+village until about the first of March, when he again intimated to the
+chief that it was the custom of white men to pay their preachers.
+Accordingly the people were notified, and the winter's salary began to
+arrive. It amounted altogether to thirteen horses, and many packs of
+beaver, beside sheep-skins and buffalo-robes; so that he "considered
+that with his young wife, he had made a pretty good winter's work of
+it."
+
+In March he set out trapping again, in company with one of his comrades
+named Allen, a man to whom he was much attached. They traveled along up
+and down the Salmon, to Godin's River, Henry's Fork of the Snake, to
+Pierre's Fork, and Lewis' Fork, and the Muddy, and finally set their
+traps on a little stream that runs out of the pass which leads to
+Pierre's Hole.
+
+Leaving their camp one morning to take up their traps, they were
+discovered and attacked by a party of Blackfeet just as they came near
+the trapping ground. The only refuge at hand was a thicket of willows on
+the opposite side of the creek, and towards this the trappers directed
+their flight. Meek, who was in advance, succeeded in gaining the thicket
+without being seen; but Allen stumbled and fell in crossing the stream,
+and wet his gun. He quickly recovered his footing and crossed over; but
+the Blackfeet had seen him enter the thicket, and came up to within a
+short distance, yet not approaching too near the place where they knew
+he was concealed. Unfortunately, Allen, in his anxiety to be ready for
+defense, commenced snapping caps on his gun to dry it. The quick ears of
+the savages caught the sound, and understood the meaning of it. Knowing
+him to be defenceless, they plunged into the thicket after him, shooting
+him almost immediately, and dragging him out still breathing to a small
+prairie about two rods away.
+
+And now commenced a scene which Meek was compelled to witness, and which
+he declares nearly made him insane through sympathy, fear, horror, and
+suspense as to his own fate. Those devils incarnate deliberately cut up
+their still palpitating victim into a hundred pieces, each taking a
+piece; accompanying the horrible and inhuman butchery with every
+conceivable gesture of contempt for the victim, and of hellish delight
+in their own acts.
+
+Meek, who was only concealed by the small patch of willows, and a pit in
+the sand hastily scooped out with his knife until it was deep enough to
+lie in, was in a state of the most fearful excitement. All day long he
+had to endure the horrors of his position. Every moment seemed an hour,
+every hour a day, until when night came, and the Indians left the place,
+he was in a high state of fever.
+
+About nine o'clock that night he ventured to creep to the edge of the
+little prairie, where he lay and listened a long time, without hearing
+anything but the squirrels running over the dry leaves; but which he
+constantly feared was the stealthy approach of the enemy. At last,
+however, he summoned courage to crawl out on to the open ground, and
+gradually to work his way to a wooded bluff not far distant. The next
+day he found two of his horses, and with these set out alone for Green
+River, where the American Company was to rendezvous. After twenty-six
+days of solitary and cautious travel he reached the appointed place in
+safety, having suffered fearfully from the recollection of the tragic
+scene he had witnessed in the death of his friend, and also from
+solitude and want of food.
+
+The rendezvous of this year was at Bonneville's old fort on Green River,
+and was the last one held in the mountains by the American Fur Company.
+Beaver was growing scarce, and competition was strong. On the disbanding
+of the company, some went to Santa Fe, some to California, others to the
+Lower Columbia, and a few remained in the mountains trapping, and
+selling their furs to the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall. As to the
+leaders, some of them continued for a few years longer to trade with the
+Indians, and others returned to the States, to lose their fortunes more
+easily far than they made them.
+
+Of the men who remained in the mountains trapping, that year, Meek was
+one. Leaving his wife at Fort Hall, he set out in company with a
+Shawnee, named Big Jim, to take beaver on Salt River, a tributary of the
+Snake. The two trappers had each his riding and his pack horse, and at
+night generally picketed them all; but one night Big Jim allowed one of
+his to remain loose to graze. This horse, after eating for some hours,
+came back and laid down behind the other horses, and every now and then
+raised up his head; which slight movement at length aroused Big Jim's
+attention, and his suspicions also.
+
+"My friend," said he in a whisper to Meek, "Indian steal our horses."
+
+"Jump up and shoot," was the brief answer.
+
+Jim shot, and ran out to see the result. Directly he came back saying:
+"My friend, I shoot my horse; break him neck;" and Big Jim became
+disconsolate over what his white comrade considered a very good joke.
+
+The hunt was short and not very remunerative in furs. Meek soon returned
+to Fort Hall; and when he did so, found his new wife had left that post
+in company with a party under Newell, to go to Fort Crockett, on Green
+River,--Newell's wife being a sister of Virginia's,--on learning which
+he started on again alone, to join that party. On Bear River, he fell in
+with a portion of that Quixotic band, under Farnham, which was looking
+for paradise and perfection, something on the Fourier plan, somewhere in
+this western wilderness. They had already made the discovery in crossing
+the continent, that perfect disinterestedness was lacking among
+themselves; and that the nearer they got to their western paradise the
+farther off it seemed in their own minds.
+
+Continuing his journey alone, soon after parting from Farnham, he lost
+the hammer of his gun, which accident deprived him of the means of
+subsisting himself, and he had no dried meat, nor provisions of any
+kind. The weather, too, was very cold, increasing the necessity for food
+to support animal heat. However, the deprivation of food was one of the
+accidents to which mountain-men were constantly liable, and one from
+which he had often suffered severely; therefore he pushed on, without
+feeling any unusual alarm, and had arrived within fifteen miles of the
+fort before he yielded to the feeling of exhaustion, and laid down
+beside the trail to rest. Whether he would ever have finished the
+journey alone he could not tell; but fortunately for him, he was
+discovered by Jo Walker, and Gordon, another acquaintance, who chanced
+to pass that way toward the fort.
+
+Meek answered their hail, and inquired if they had anything to eat.
+Walker replied in the affirmative, and getting down from his horse,
+produced some dried buffalo meat which he gave to the famishing trapper.
+But seeing the ravenous manner in which he began to eat, Walker inquired
+how long it had been since he had eaten anything.
+
+"Five days since I had a bite."
+
+"Then, my man, you can't have any more just now," said Walker, seizing
+the meat in alarm lest Meek should kill himself.
+
+"It was hard to see that meat packed away again," says Meek in relating
+his sufferings, "I told Walker that if my gun had a hammer I'd shoot and
+eat him. But he talked very kindly, and helped me on my horse, and we
+all went on to the Fort."
+
+At Fort Crockett were Newell and his party, the remainder of Farnham's
+party, a trading party under St. Clair, who owned the fort, Kit Carson,
+and a number of Meek's former associates, including Craig and Wilkins.
+Most of these men, Othello-like, had lost their occupation since the
+disbanding of the American Fur Company, and were much at a loss
+concerning the future. It was agreed between Newell and Meek to take
+what beaver they had to Fort Hall, to trade for goods, and return to
+Fort Crockett, where they would commence business on their own account
+with the Indians.
+
+Accordingly they set out, with one other man belonging to Farnham's
+former adherents. They traveled to Henry's Fork, to Black Fork, where
+Fort Bridger now is, to Bear River, to Soda Springs, and finally to Fort
+Hall, suffering much from cold, and finding very little to eat by the
+way. At Fort Hall, which was still in charge of Courtenay Walker, Meek
+and Newell remained a week, when, having purchased their goods and
+horses to pack them, they once more set out on the long, cold journey to
+Fort Crockett. They had fifteen horses to take care of and only one
+assistant, a Snake Indian called Al. The return proved an arduous and
+difficult undertaking. The cold was very severe; they had not been able
+to lay in a sufficient stock of provisions at Fort Hall, and game there
+was none, on the route. By the time they arrived at Ham's Fork the only
+atom of food they had left was a small piece of bacon which they had
+been carefully saving to eat with any poor meat they might chance to
+find.
+
+The next morning after camping on Ham's Fork was stormy and cold, the
+snow filling the air; yet Snake Al, with a promptitude by no means
+characteristic of him, rose early and went out to look after the horses.
+
+"By that same token," said Meek to Newell, "Al has eaten the bacon." And
+so it proved, on investigation. Al's uneasy conscience having acted as a
+goad to stir him up to begin his duties in season. On finding his
+conjecture confirmed, Meek declared his intention, should no game be
+found before next day night, of killing and eating Al, to get back the
+stolen bacon. But Providence interfered to save Al's bacon. On the
+following afternoon the little party fell in with another still smaller
+but better supplied party of travelers, comprising a Frenchman and his
+wife. These had plenty of fat antelope meat, which they freely parted
+with to the needy ones, whom also they accompanied to Fort Crockett.
+
+It was now Christmas; and the festivities which took place at the Fort
+were attended with a good deal of rum drinking, in which Meek, according
+to his custom, joined, and as a considerable portion of their stock in
+trade consisted of this article, it may fairly be presumed that the home
+consumption of these two "lone traders" amounted to the larger half of
+what they had with so much trouble transported from Fort Hall. In fact,
+"times were bad enough" among the men so suddenly thrown upon their own
+resources among the mountains, at a time when that little creature,
+which had made mountain life tolerable, or possible, was fast being
+exterminated.
+
+To make matters more serious, some of the worst of the now unemployed
+trappers had taken to a life of thieving and mischief which made enemies
+of the friendly Indians, and was likely to prevent the better disposed
+from enjoying security among any of the tribes. A party of these
+renegades, under a man named Thompson, went over to Snake River to steal
+horses from the Nez Perces. Not succeeding in this, they robbed the
+Snake Indians of about forty animals, and ran them off to the Uintee,
+the Indians following and complaining to the whites at Fort Crockett
+that their people had been robbed by white trappers, and demanding
+restitution.
+
+According to Indian law, when one of a tribe offends, the whole tribe is
+responsible. Therefore if whites stole their horses they might take
+vengeance on any whites they met, unless the property was restored. In
+compliance with this well understood requisition of Indian law, a party
+was made up at Fort Crockett to go and retake the horses, and restore
+them to their rightful owners. This party consisted of Meek, Craig,
+Newell, Carson, and twenty-five others, under the command of Jo Walker.
+
+The horses were found on an island in Green River, the robbers having
+domiciled themselves in an old fort at the mouth of the Uintee. In order
+to avoid having a fight with the renegades, whose white blood the
+trappers were not anxious to spill, Walker made an effort to get the
+horses off the island undiscovered. But while horses and men were
+crossing the river on the ice, the ice sinking with them until the water
+was knee-deep, the robbers discovered the escape of their booty, and
+charging on the trappers tried to recover the horses. In this effort
+they were not successful; while Walker made a masterly flank movement
+and getting in Thompson's rear, ran the horses into the fort, where he
+stationed his men, and succeeded in keeping the robbers on the outside.
+Thompson then commenced giving the horses away to a village of Utes in
+the neighborhood of the fort, on condition that they should assist in
+retaking them. On his side, Walker threatened the Utes with dire
+vengeance if they dared interfere. The Utes who had a wholesome fear not
+only of the trappers, but of their foes the Snakes, declined to enter
+into the quarrel. After a day of strategy, and of threats alternated
+with arguments, strengthened by a warlike display, the trappers marched
+out of the fort before the faces of the discomfitted thieves, taking
+their booty with them, which was duly restored to the Snakes on their
+return to Fort Crockett, and peace secured once more with that people.
+
+Still times continued bad. The men not knowing what else to do, went out
+in small parties in all directions seeking adventures, which generally
+were not far to find. On one of these excursions Meek went with a party
+down the canyon of Green River, on the ice. For nearly a hundred miles
+they traveled down this awful canyon without finding but one place where
+they could have come out; and left it at last at the mouth of the
+Uintee.
+
+This passed the time until March. Then the company of Newell and Meek
+was joined by Antoine Rubideau, who had brought goods from Santa Fe to
+trade with the Indians. Setting out in company, they traded along up
+Green River to the mouth of Ham's fork, and camped. The snow was still
+deep in the mountains, and the trappers found great sport in running
+antelope. On one occasion a large herd, numbering several hundreds, were
+run on to the ice, on Green River, where they were crowded into an air
+hole, and large numbers slaughtered only for the cruel sport which they
+afforded.
+
+But killing antelope needlessly was not by any means the worst of
+amusements practiced in Rubideau's camp. That foolish trader occupied
+himself so often and so long in playing _Hand_, (an Indian game,) that
+before he parted with his new associates he had gambled away his goods,
+his horses, and even his wife; so that he returned to Santa Fe much
+poorer than nothing--since he was in debt.
+
+On the departure of Rubideau, Meek went to Fort Hall, and remained in
+that neighborhood, trapping and trading for the Hudson's Bay Company,
+until about the last of June, when he started for the old rendezvous
+places of the American Companies, hoping to find some divisions of them
+at least, on the familiar camping ground. But his journey was in vain.
+Neither on Green River or Wind River, where for ten years he had been
+accustomed to meet the leaders and their men, his old comrades in
+danger, did he find a wandering brigade even. The glory of the American
+companies was departed, and he found himself solitary among his long
+familiar haunts.
+
+With many melancholy reflections, the man of twenty-eight years of age
+recalled how, a mere boy, he had fallen half unawares into the kind of
+life he had ever since led amongst the mountains, with only other men
+equally the victims of circumstance, and the degraded savages, for his
+companions. The best that could be made of it, such life had been and
+must be constantly deteriorating to the minds and souls of himself and
+his associates. Away from all laws, and refined habits of living; away
+from the society of religious, modest, and accomplished women; always
+surrounded by savage scenes, and forced to cultivate a taste for
+barbarous things--what had this life made of him? what was he to do with
+himself in the future?
+
+Sick of trapping and hunting, with brief intervals of carousing, he felt
+himself to be. And then, even if he were not, the trade was no longer
+profitable enough to support him. What could he do? where could he go?
+He remembered his talk with Mrs. Whitman, that fair, tall, courteous,
+and dignified lady who had stirred in him longings to return to the
+civilized life of his native state. But he felt unfit for the society of
+such as she. Would he ever, could he ever attain to it now? He had
+promised her he might go over into Oregon and settle down. But could he
+settle down? Should he not starve at trying to do what other men,
+mechanics and farmers, do? And as to learning, he had none of it; there
+was no hope then of "living by his wits," as some men did--missionaries
+and artists and school teachers, some of whom he had met at the
+rendezvous. Heigho! to be checkmated in life at twenty-eight, that would
+never do.
+
+At Fort Hall, on his return, he met two more missionaries and their
+wives going to Oregon, but these four did not affect him pleasantly; he
+had no mind to go with them. Instead, he set out on what proved to be
+his last trapping expedition, with a Frenchman, named Mattileau. They
+visited the old trapping grounds on Pierre's Fork, Lewis' Lake,
+Jackson's River, Jackson's Hole, Lewis River and Salt River: but beaver
+were scarce; and it was with a feeling of relief that, on returning by
+way of Bear River, Meek heard from a Frenchman whom he met there, that
+he was wanted at Fort Hall, by his friend Newell, who had something to
+propose to him.
+
+[Illustration: CASTLE ROCK.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+1840. When Meek arrived at Fort Hall, where Newell was awaiting him, he
+found that the latter had there the two wagons which Dr. Whitman had
+left at the points on the journey where further transportation by their
+means had been pronounced impossible. The Doctor's idea of finding a
+passable wagon-road over the lava plains and the heavily timbered
+mountains lying between Fort Hall and the Columbia River, seemed to
+Newell not so wild a one as it was generally pronounced to be in the
+mountains. At all events, he was prepared to undertake the journey. The
+wagons were put in traveling order, and horses and mules purchased for
+the expedition.
+
+"Come," said Newell to Meek, "we are done with this life in the
+mountains--done with wading in beaver-dams, and freezing or starving
+alternately--done with Indian trading and Indian fighting. The fur trade
+is dead in the Rocky Mountains, and it is no place for us now, if ever
+it was. We are young yet, and have life before us. We cannot waste it
+here; we cannot or will not return to the States. Let us go down to the
+Wallamet and take farms. There is already quite a settlement there made
+by the Methodist Mission and the Hudson's Bay Company's retired
+servants.
+
+"I have had some talk with the Americans who have gone down there, and
+the talk is that the country is going to be settled up by our people,
+and that the Hudson's Bay Company are not going to rule this country
+much longer. What do you say, Meek? Shall we turn American settlers?"
+
+"I'll go where you do, Newell. What suits you suits me."
+
+"I thought you'd say so, and that's why I sent for you, Meek. In my way
+of thinking, a white man is a little better than a Canadian Frenchman.
+I'll be ---- if I'll hang 'round a post of the Hudson's Bay Company. So
+you'll go?"
+
+"I reckon I will! What have you got for me to do? _I_ haven't got
+anything to begin with but a wife and baby!"
+
+"Well, you can drive one of the wagons, and take your family and traps
+along. Nicholas will drive the other, and I'll play leader, and look
+after the train. Craig will go also, so we shall be quite a party, with
+what strays we shall be sure to pick up."
+
+Thus it was settled. Thus Oregon began to receive her first real
+emigrants, who were neither fur-traders nor missionaries, but true
+frontiersmen--border-men. The training which the mountain-men had
+received in the service of the fur companies admirably fitted them to
+be, what afterwards they became, a valuable and indispensable element in
+the society of that country in whose peculiar history they played an
+important part. But we must not anticipate their acts before we have
+witnessed their gradual transformation from lawless rangers of the
+wilderness, to law-abiding and even law-making and law-executing
+citizens of an isolated territory.
+
+In order to understand the condition of things in the Wallamet Valley,
+or Lower Columbia country, it will be necessary to revert to the
+earliest history of that territory, as sketched in the first chapter of
+this book. A history of the fur companies is a history of Oregon up to
+the year 1834, so far as the occupation of the country was concerned.
+But its political history was begun long before--from the time (May
+11th, 1792) when the captain of a New England coasting and fur-trading
+vessel entered the great "River of the West," which nations had been
+looking for a hundred years. At the very time when the inquisitive
+Yankee was heading his little vessel through the white line of breakers
+at the mouth of the long-sought river, a British exploring expedition
+was scanning the shore between it and the Straits of Fuca, having wisely
+declared its scientific opinion that there was no such river on that
+coast. Vancouver, the chief of that expedition, so assured the Yankee
+trader, whose views did not agree with his own: and, Yankee-like, the
+trader turned back to satisfy himself.
+
+A bold and lucky man was Captain Gray of the ship _Columbia_. No
+explorer he--only an adventurous and, withal, a prudent trader, with an
+eye to the main chance; emulous, too, perhaps, of a little glory! It is
+impossible to conceive how he could have done this thing calmly. We
+think his stout heart must have shivered somewhat, both with
+anticipation and dread, as he ran for the "opening," and plunged into
+the frightful tumult--straight through the proper channel, thank God!
+and sailed out on to the bosom of that beautiful bay, twenty-five miles
+by six, which the great river forms at its mouth.
+
+We trust the morning was fine: for then Captain Gray must have beheld a
+sight which a discoverer should remember for a lifetime. This
+magnificent bay, surrounded by lofty hills, clad thick with noble
+forests of fir, and fretted along its margin with spurs of the
+highlands, forming other smaller bays and coves, into which ran streams
+whose valleys were hidden among the hills. From beyond the farthest
+point, whose dark ridge jutted across this inland sea, flowed down the
+deep, broad river, whose course and origin was still a magnificent
+mystery, but which indicated by its volume that it drained a mighty
+region of probable great fertility and natural wealth. Perhaps Captain
+Gray did not fully realize the importance of his discovery. If the day
+was fine, with a blue sky, and the purple shadows lying in among the
+hills, with smooth water before him and the foamy breakers behind--_if_
+he felt what his discovery was, in point of importance, to the world, he
+was a proud and happy man, and enjoyed the reward of his daring.
+
+The only testimony on that head is the simple entry on his log-book,
+telling us that he had named the river "_Columbia's River_,"--with an
+apostrophe, that tiny point intimating much. This was one ground of the
+American claim, though Vancouver, after Gray had reported his success to
+him, sent a lieutenant to explore the river, and then claimed the
+discovery for England! The next claim of the United States upon the
+Oregon territory was by virtue of the Florida treaty and the Louisiana
+purchase. These, and the general one of natural boundaries, England
+contested also. Hence the treaty of joint occupancy for a term of ten
+years, renewable, unless one of the parties to it gave a twelve-month's
+notice of intention to withdraw. Meantime this question of territorial
+claims hung over the national head like the sword suspended by a hair,
+which statesmen delight in referring to. We did not dare to say Oregon
+was ours, because we were afraid England would make war on us; and
+England did not dare say Oregon was hers, for the same reason. Therefore
+"joint-occupancy" was the polite word with which statesmen glossed over
+the fact that Great Britain actually possessed the country through the
+monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company. That company had a good thing so
+long as the government of Great Britain prevented any outbreak, by
+simply renewing the treaty every ten years. Their manner of doing
+business was such as to prevent any less powerful corporation from
+interfering with them, while individual enterprise was sure to be
+crushed at the start.
+
+But "man proposes and God disposes." In 1834, the Methodist Episcopal
+Board of Missions sent out four missionaries to labor among the Indians.
+These were two preachers, the Rev. Messrs. Jason and Daniel Lee, and two
+lay members, Cyrus Shepard and P.L. Edwards. These gentlemen were
+liberally furnished with all the necessaries and comforts of life by the
+Board, in addition to which they received the kindest attentions and
+consideration from the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at
+Vancouver. Their vessel, the _May Dacre_, Captain Lambert, had arrived
+safely in the river with the mission goods. The gentlemen at Vancouver
+encouraged their enterprise, and advised them to settle in the Wallamet
+valley, the most fertile tract of country west of the Rocky Mountains.
+Being missionaries, nothing was to be feared from them in the way of
+trade. The Wallamet valley was a good country for the mission--at the
+same time it was south of the Columbia River. This latter consideration
+was not an unimportant one with the Hudson's Bay Company, it being
+understood among those in the confidence of the British government, that
+in case the Oregon territory had to be divided with the United States,
+the Columbia River would probably be made the northern boundary of the
+American possessions.
+
+There was nothing in the character of the Christian Missionary's labor
+which the Hudson's Bay Company could possibly object to without a
+palpable violation of the Convention of 1818. Therefore, although the
+Methodist mission in the Wallamet Valley received a large accession to
+its numbers in 1837, they were as kindly welcomed as had been those of
+1834; and also those Presbyterian missionaries of 1836, who had settled
+in the "upper country."
+
+Three points, however, the Hudson's Bay Company insisted upon, so far
+as, under the treaty, they could; the Americans must not trade with the
+Indians, but confine themselves to agricultural pursuits and missionary
+labor, and keep on the south side of the Columbia.
+
+Not an immigrant entered Oregon in that day who did not proceed at once
+to Vancouver: nor was there one who did not meet with the most liberal
+and hospitable treatment. Neither was this hospitality a trifling
+benefit; to the weary traveler just arrived from a long and most
+fatiguing journey, it was extremely welcome and refreshing. At Vancouver
+was the only society, and the only luxurious living to be enjoyed on the
+whole Northwest coast.
+
+At the head of the first was Dr. John McLaughlin, already mentioned as
+the Chief Factor, and Deputy Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in
+Oregon, and all the Northwest. He was of Scotch origin, and Canadian
+birth, a gentleman bred, with a character of the highest integrity, to
+which were united justice and humanity. His position as head of the
+Hudson's Bay Company's affairs, was no enviable one during that period
+of Oregon history which followed the advent of Americans in the Wallamet
+Valley. Himself a British subject, and a representative of that powerful
+corporation which bent the British Government to its will, he was bound
+to execute its commands when they did not conflict too strongly with his
+consciousness of right and justice.
+
+As has been stated, the Methodist mission settlement was reinforced in
+1837, by the arrival of about twenty persons, among whom were several
+ladies, and a few children. These, like those preceding them, were first
+entertained at Fort Vancouver before proceeding to the mission, which
+was between fifty and sixty miles up the Wallamet, in the heart of that
+delightful valley. These persons came by a sailing vessel around Cape
+Horn, bringing with them supplies for the mission.
+
+In the two following years there were about a dozen missionary arrivals
+overland, all of whom tarried a short time at the American Company's
+rendezvous, as before related. These were some of them designed for the
+upper country, but most of them soon settled in the Wallamet valley.
+
+During these years, between 1834 and 1840, there had drifted into the
+valley various persons from California, the Rocky Mountains, and from
+the vessels which sometimes appeared in the Columbia; until at the time
+when Newell and Meek resolved to quit the mountains, the American
+settlers numbered nearly one hundred, men, women, and children. Of
+these, about thirty belonged to the missions; the remainder were
+mountain-men, sailors, and adventurers. The mountain-men, most of them,
+had native wives. Besides the Americans there were sixty Canadian
+Frenchmen, who had been retired upon farms by the Hudson's Bay Company;
+and who would probably have occupied these farms so long as the H.B.
+Company should have continued to do business in Oregon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+When it was settled that Newell and Meek were to go to the Wallamet,
+they lost no time in dallying, but packed the wagons with whatever they
+possessed in the way of worldly goods, topped them with their Nez Perce
+wives and half-breed children, and started for Walla-Walla, accompanied
+by Craig, another mountain-man, and either followed or accompanied by
+several others. Meek drove a five-in-hand team of four horses and one
+mule. Nicholas drove the other team of four horses, and Newell, who
+owned the train, was mounted as leader.
+
+The journey was no easy one, extending as it did over immense plains of
+lava, round impassable canyons, over rapid unbridged rivers, and over
+mountains hitherto believed to be only passable for pack trains. The
+honor which has heretofore been accorded to the Presbyterian
+missionaries solely, of opening a wagon road from the Rocky Mountains to
+the Columbia River, should in justice be divided with these two
+mountaineers, who accomplished the most difficult part of this difficult
+journey.
+
+Arrived at Fort Boise, a post of the Hudson's Bay Company, the little
+caravan stopped for a few days to rest and recruit their animals. With
+the usual courtesy of that Company, Mr. Payette, the trader in charge,
+offered Newell quarters in the fort, as leader of his party. To Meek and
+Craig who were encamped outside, he sent a piece of sturgeon with his
+compliments, which our incipient Oregonians sent back again with
+_their_ compliments. No Hudson's Bay distinctions of rank for them! No,
+indeed! The moment that an American commenced to think of himself as a
+settler on the most remote corner of American soil, that moment, as if
+by instinct, he began to defend and support his republicanism.
+
+After a few days' rest, the party went on, encountering, as might be
+expected, much difficulty and toil, but arriving safely after a
+reasonable time at the Columbia River, at the junction of the Umatilla.
+Here the wagons and stock were crossed over, and the party proceeded
+directly to Dr. Whitman's mission at Waiilatpu. Dr. Whitman gave them a
+friendly reception; killing for them, if not the fatted calf, the
+fattest hog he had; telling Meek at the same time that "fat pork was
+good for preachers," referring to Meek's missionary labors among the Nez
+Perces.
+
+During the three years since the commencement of the mission at
+Waiilatpu considerable advancement had been made in the progress of
+civilization among the Cayuses. Quite a number of Indian children were
+domesticated with Mrs. Whitman, who were rapidly acquiring a knowledge
+of housekeeping, sewing, reading, and writing, and farm labor. With Mrs.
+Whitman, for whom Meek still entertained great admiration and respect,
+he resolved to leave his little girl, Helen Mar; the fruit of his
+connexion with the Nez Perce woman who persisted in abandoning him in
+the mountains, as already related. Having thus made provision for the
+proper instruction of his daughter, and conferred with the Doctor on the
+condition of the American settlers in Oregon--the Doctor being an ardent
+American--Meek and his associates started once more for the Wallamet.
+
+At Walla-Walla Newell decided to leave the wagons, the weather having
+become so rainy and disagreeable as to make it doubtful about getting
+them over the Cascade Mountains that fall. Accordingly the goods were
+transferred to pack-horses for the remainder of the journey. In the
+following year, however, one of the wagons was brought down by Newell,
+and taken to the plains on the Tualatin River, being the first vehicle
+of the kind in the Wallamet Valley.
+
+On arriving at the Dalles of the Columbia, our mountain men found that a
+mission had been established at that place for the conversion of those
+inconscionable thieves, the Wish-ram Indians, renowned in Indian history
+for their acquisitiveness. This mission was under the charge of Daniel
+Lee and a Mr. Perkins, and was an offshoot of the Methodist Mission in
+the Wallamet Valley. These gentlemen having found the benighted
+condition of the Indians to exceed their powers of enlightment in any
+ordinary way, were having recourse to extraordinary efforts, and were
+carrying on what is commonly termed a _revival_; though what piety there
+was in the hearts of these savages to be revived, it would be difficult
+to determine. However, they doubtless hoped so to wrestle with God
+themselves, as to compel a blessing upon their labors.
+
+The Indians indeed were not averse to prayer. They could pray willingly
+and sincerely enough when they could hope for a speedy and actual
+material answer to their prayers. And it was for that, and that only,
+that they importuned the Christian's God. Finding that their prayers
+were not answered according to their desire, it at length became
+difficult to persuade them to pray at all. Sometimes, it is true, they
+succeeded in deluding the missionaries with the belief that they were
+really converted, for a time. One of these most hopeful converts at the
+Dalles mission, being in want of a shirt and capote, volunteered to
+"pray for a whole year," if Mr. Lee would furnish him with these truly
+desirable articles.
+
+It is no wonder that with such hopeless material to work upon the Dalles
+missionaries withdrew from them a portion of their zeal, and bestowed
+it, where it was quite as much needed, upon any "stray mountain-man" who
+chanced to be entertained "within their gates." Newell's party, among
+others, received the well-meant, but not always well-received or
+appreciated attentions of these gentlemen. The American mountaineer was
+not likely to be suddenly surprised into praying in earnest; and he
+generally had too much real reverence to be found making a jest in the
+form of a mocking-prayer.
+
+Not so scrupulous, however, was Jandreau, a lively French Canadian, who
+was traveling in company with the Americans. On being repeatedly
+importuned to pray, with that tireless zeal which distinguishes the
+Methodist preacher above all others, Jandreau appeared suddenly to be
+smitten with a consciousness of his guilt, and kneeling in the midst of
+the 'meeting,' began with clasped hands and upturned eyes to pour forth
+a perfect torrent of words. With wonderful dramatic power he appeared to
+confess, to supplicate, to agonize, in idiomatic French. His tears and
+ejaculations touched the hearts of the missionaries, and filled them
+with gladness. They too ejaculated and wept, with frequently uttered
+"Amens" and "hallelujahs," until the scene became highly dramatic and
+exciting. In the midst of this grand tableau, when the enthusiasm was at
+its height, Jandreau suddenly ceased and rose to his feet, while an
+irrepressible outburst of laughter from his associates aroused the
+astonished missionaries to a partial comprehension of the fact that they
+had been made the subjects of a practical joke, though they never knew
+to exactly how great an extent.
+
+The mischievous Frenchman had only recited with truly artistic power,
+and with such variations as the situation suggested, one of the most
+wonderful and effective tales from the _Arabian Nights Entertainment_,
+with which he was wont to delight and amuse his comrades beside the
+winter camp-fire!
+
+But Jandreau was called to account when he arrived at Vancouver. Dr.
+McLaughlin had heard the story from some of the party, and resolved to
+punish the man's irreverence, at the same time that he gave himself a
+bit of amusement. Sending for the Rev. Father Blanchet, who was then
+resident at Vancouver, he informed him of the circumstance, and together
+they arranged Jandreau's punishment. He was ordered to appear in their
+united presence, and make a true statement of the affair. Jandreau
+confessed that he had done what he was accused of doing--made a mock of
+prayer, and told a tale instead of offering a supplication. He was then
+ordered by the Rev. Father to rehearse the scene exactly as it occurred,
+in order that he might judge of the amount of his guilt, and apportion
+him his punishment.
+
+Trembling and abashed, poor Jandreau fell upon his knees and began the
+recital with much trepidation. But as he proceeded he warmed with the
+subject, his dramatic instinct asserted itself, tears streamed, and
+voice and eyes supplicated, until this second representation threatened
+to outdo the first. With outward gravity and inward mirth his two solemn
+judges listened to the close, and when Jandreau rose quite exhausted
+from his knees, Father Blanchet hastily dismissed him with an admonition
+and a light penance. As the door of Dr. McLaughlin's office closed
+behind him, not only the Doctor, but Father Blanchet indulged in a burst
+of long restrained laughter at the comical absurdities of this impious
+Frenchman.
+
+To return to our immigrants. On leaving the Dalles they proceeded on
+down the south side of the river as far as practicable, or opposite to
+the Wind Mountain. At this point the Indians assisted to cross them over
+to the north side, when they again made their way along the river as far
+as _Tea Prairie_ above Vancouver. The weather was execrable, with a
+pouring rain, and sky of dismal gray; December being already far
+advanced. Our travelers were not in the best of humors: indeed a
+saint-like amiability is seldom found in conjunction with rain, mud,
+fatigue, and an empty stomach. Some ill-natured suspicions were uttered
+to the effect that the Indians who were assisting to cross the party at
+this point, had stolen some ropes that were missing.
+
+Upon this dishonorable insinuation the Indian heart was fired, and a
+fight became imminent. This undesirable climax to emigrant woes was
+however averted by an attack upon the indignant natives with firebrands,
+when they prudently retired, leaving the travelers to pursue their way
+in peace. It was on Sunday that the weary, dirty, hungry little
+procession arrived at a place on the Wallamet River where the present
+town of Milwaukie is situated, and found here two missionaries, the Rev.
+Messrs. Waller and Beers, who were preaching to the Indians.
+
+Meek immediately applied to Mr. Waller for some provisions, and received
+for answer that it was "Sunday." Mr. Waller, however, on being assured
+that it was no more agreeable starving on Sunday than a week-day,
+finally allowed the immigrants to have a peck of small potatoes. But as
+a party of several persons could not long subsist on so short allowance,
+and as there did not seem to be any encouragement to expect more from
+the missionaries, there was no course left to be pursued but to make an
+appeal to Fort Vancouver.
+
+To Fort Vancouver then, Newell went the next day, and returned on the
+following one with some dried salmon, tea, sugar, and sea-bread. It was
+not quite what the mountain-men could have wished, this dependence on
+the Hudson's Bay Company for food, and did not quite agree with what
+they had said when their hearts were big in the mountains. Being
+patriotic on a full stomach is easy compared to being the same thing on
+an empty one; a truth which became more and more apparent as the winter
+progressed, and the new settlers found that if they would eat they must
+ask food of some person or persons outside of the Methodist Mission. And
+outside of that there was in all the country only the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and a few mountain-men like themselves, who had brought nothing
+into the country, and could get nothing out of it at present.
+
+There was but short time in which to consider what was to be done.
+Newell and Meek went to Wallamet Falls, the day after Newell's return
+from Vancouver, and there met an old comrade, Doughty, who was looking
+for a place to locate. The three made their camp together on the west
+side of the river, on a hill overlooking the Falls. While in camp they
+were joined by two other Rocky Mountain men, Wilkins and Ebbarts, who
+were also looking for a place to settle in. There were now six of the
+Rocky Mountain men together; and they resolved to push out into the
+plains to the west of them, and see what could be done in the matter of
+selecting homes.
+
+As for our hero, we fear we cannot say much of him here which would
+serve to render him heroic in criticising Yankee eyes. He was a
+mountain-man, and _that only_. He had neither book learning, nor a
+trade, nor any knowledge of the simplest affairs appertaining to the
+ordinary ways of getting a living. He had only his strong hands, and a
+heart naturally stout and light.
+
+His friend Newell had the advantage of him in several particulars. He
+had rather more book-knowledge, more business experience, and also more
+means. With these advantages he became a sort of "Booshway" among his
+old comrades, who consented to follow his lead in the important movement
+about to be made, and settle in the Tualatin Plains should he decide to
+do so.
+
+Accordingly camp was raised, and the party proceeded to the Plains,
+where they arrived on Christmas, and went into camp again. The hardships
+of mountain life were light compared to the hardships of this winter.
+For in the mountains, when the individual's resources were exhausted,
+there was always the Company to go to, which was practically
+inexhaustible. Should it be necessary, the Company was always willing to
+become the creditor of a good mountain-man. And the debtor gave himself
+no uneasiness, because he knew that if he lived he could discharge his
+indebtedness. But everything was different now. There was no way of
+paying debts, even if there had been a company willing to give them
+credit, which there was not, at least among Americans. Hard times they
+had seen in the mountains; harder times they were likely to see in the
+valley; indeed were already experiencing.
+
+Instead of fat buffalo meat, antelope, and mountain mutton, which made
+the plenty of a camp on Powder River, our carniverous hunters were
+reduced to eating daily a little boiled wheat. In this extremity, Meek
+went on an expedition of discovery across the highlands that border the
+Lower Wallamet, and found on Wappatoo (now Sauvis) Island, a Mr. and
+Mrs. Baldra living, who were in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+and drew rations from them. With great kindness they divided the
+provisions on hand, furnishing him with dried salmon and sea-bread, to
+which he added ducks and swans procured from the Indians. Poor and
+scanty as was the supply thus obtained, it was, after boiled wheat,
+comparative luxury while it lasted.
+
+1841. The winter proved a very disagreeable one. Considerable snow fell
+early, and went off with heavy rains, flooding the whole country. The
+little camp on the Tualatin Plains had no defence from the weather
+better than Indian lodges, and one small cabin built by Doughty on a
+former visit to the Plains; for Doughty had been one of the first of the
+mountain-men to come to the Wallamet on the breaking up of the fur
+companies. Indian lodges, or no lodges at all, were what the men were
+used to; but in the dryer climate of the Rocky Mountains it had not
+seemed such a miserable life, as it now did, where, for months together,
+the ground was saturated with rain, while the air was constantly charged
+with vapor.
+
+As for going anywhere, or doing anything, either were equally
+impossible. No roads, the streams all swollen and out of banks, the
+rains incessant, there was nothing for them but to remain in camp and
+wait for the return of spring. When at last the rainy season was over,
+and the sun shining once more, most of the mountain-men in the Tualatin
+Plains camp took land-claims and set to work improving them. Of those
+who began farming that spring, were Newell, Doughty, Wilkins, and
+Walker. These obtained seed-wheat from the Hudson's Bay Company, also
+such farming implements as they must have, and even oxen to draw the
+plow through the strong prairie sod. The wheat was to be returned to the
+company--the cattle also; and the farming implements paid for whenever
+the debtor became able. This was certainly liberal conduct on the part
+of a company generally understood to be opposed to American settlement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+1841. When spring opened, Meek assisted Newell in breaking the ground
+for wheat. This done, it became necessary to look out for some
+immediately paying employment. But paying occupations were hard to find
+in that new country. At last, like everybody else, Meek found himself,
+if not "hanging about," at least frequently visiting Vancouver. Poor as
+he was, and unpromising as looked the future, he was the same
+light-hearted, reckless, and fearless Joe Meek that he had been in the
+mountains: as jaunty and jolly a ragged mountaineer as ever was seen at
+the Fort. Especially he delighted in recounting his Indian fights,
+because the Company, and Dr. McLaughlin in particular, disapproved the
+American Company's conduct with the Indians.
+
+When the Doctor chanced to overhear Meek's stories, as he sometimes did,
+he would say "Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe,--(a habit the Doctor had of speaking
+rapidly, and repeating his words,)--Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe, you must leave off
+killing Indians, and go to work."
+
+"I can't work," Meek would answer in his impressively slow and smooth
+utterance, at the same time giving his shoulders a slight shrug, and
+looking the Doctor pleasantly in the face.
+
+During the summer, however, the United States Exploring Squadron, under
+Commodore Wilkes, entered the Columbia River, and proceeded to explore
+the country in several directions; and it was now that Meek found an
+employment suited to him; being engaged by Wilkes as pilot and servant
+while on his several tours through the country.
+
+On the arrival of three vessels of the squadron at Vancouver, and the
+first ceremonious visit of Dr. McLaughlin and his associates to
+Commodore Wilkes on board, there was considerable display, the men in
+the yards, saluting, and all the honors due to the representative of a
+friendly foreign power. After dinner, while the guests were walking on
+deck engaged in conversation, the talk turned upon the loss of the
+_Peacock_, one of the vessels belonging to the U.S. squadron, which was
+wrecked on the bar at the mouth of the Columbia. The English gentlemen
+were polite enough to be expressing their regrets at the loss to the
+United States, when Meek, who had picked up a little history in spite of
+his life spent in the mountains, laughingly interrupted with:
+
+"No loss at all, gentlemen. Uncle Sam can get another Peacock the way he
+got that one."
+
+Wilkes, who probably regretted the allusion, as not being consonant with
+the spirit of hospitality, passed over the interruption in silence. But
+when the gentlemen from Vancouver had taken leave he turned to Meek with
+a meaning twinkle in his eyes:
+
+"Meek," said he, "go down to my cabin and you'll find there something
+good to eat, and some first-rate brandy." Of course Meek went.
+
+While Wilkes was exploring in the Cowelitz Valley, with Meek and a
+Hudson's Bay man named Forrest, as guides, he one day laid down in his
+tent to sleep, leaving his chronometer watch lying on the camp-table
+beside him. Forrest, happening to observe that it did not agree with his
+own, which he believed to be correct, very kindly, as he supposed,
+regulated it to agree with his. On awakening and taking up his watch, a
+puzzled expression came over Wilkes' face for a moment, as he discovered
+the change in the time; then one of anger and disappointment, as what
+had occurred flashed over his mind; followed by some rather strong
+expressions of indignation. Forrest was penitent when he perceived the
+mischief done by his meddling, but that would not restore the
+chronometer to the true time: and this accident proved a serious
+annoyance and hindrance during the remainder of the expedition.
+
+After exploring the Cowelitz Valley, Wilkes dispatched a party under
+Lieutenant Emmons, to proceed up the Wallamet Valley, thence south along
+the old trail of the Hudson's Bay Company, to California. Meek was
+employed to pilot this party, which had reached the head of the valley,
+when it became necessary to send for some papers in the possession of
+the Commodore; and he returned to Astoria upon this duty. On joining
+Emmons again he found that some of his men had become disaffected toward
+him; especially Jandreau, the same Frenchman who prayed so dramatically
+at the Dalles.
+
+Jandreau confided to Meek that he hated Emmons, and intended to kill
+him. The next morning when Lieut. E. was examining the arms of the
+party, he fired off Jandreau's gun, which being purposely overcharged,
+flew back and inflicted some injuries upon the Lieutenant.
+
+"What do you mean by loading a gun like that?" inquired Emmons, in a
+rage.
+
+"I meant it to kill two Injuns;--one before, and one behind;" answered
+Jandreau.
+
+As might be conjectured Jandreau was made to fire his own gun after
+that.
+
+The expedition had not proceeded much farther when it again became
+necessary to send an express to Vancouver, and Meek was ordered upon
+this duty. Here he found that Wilkes had purchased a small vessel which
+he named the _Oregon_, with which he was about to leave the country. As
+there was no further use for his services our quondam trapper was again
+thrown out of employment. In this exigency, finding it necessary to make
+some provision for the winter, he became a gleaner of wheat in the
+fields of his more provident neighbors, by which means a sufficient
+supply was secured to keep himself and his small family in food until
+another spring.
+
+When winter set in, Meek paid a visit to the new mission. He had been
+there once before, in the spring, to buy an axe. Think, O reader, of
+traveling fifty or more miles, on horseback, or in a small boat, to
+procure so simple and necessary an article of civilized life as an axe!
+But none of the every-day conveniencies of living grow spontaneously in
+the wilderness--more's the pity:--else life in the wilderness would be
+thought more delightful far than life in the most luxurious of cities;
+inasmuch as Nature is more satisfying than art.
+
+Meek's errand to the mission on this occasion was to find whether he
+could get a cow, and credit at the same time: for the prospect of living
+for another winter on boiled wheat was not a cheerful one. He had not
+succeeded, and was returning, when at Champoeg he met a Mr. Whitcom,
+superintendent of the mission farm. A conversation took place wherein
+Meek's desire for a cow became known. The missionaries never lost an
+opportunity of proposing prayers, and Mr. Whitcom thought this a good
+one. After showing much interest in the condition of Meek's soul, it was
+proposed that he should pray.
+
+"_I_ can't pray: that's your business, not mine," said Meek pleasantly.
+
+"It is every man's business to pray for himself," answered Whitcom.
+
+"Very well; some other time will do for that. What I want now is a cow."
+
+"How can you expect to get what you want, if you wont ask for it?"
+inquired Whitcom.
+
+"I reckon I have asked you; and I don't see nary cow yet."
+
+"You must ask God, my friend: but in the first place you must pray to be
+forgiven for your sins."
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do. If you will furnish the cow, I'll agree to
+pray for half an hour, right here on the spot."
+
+"Down on your knees then."
+
+"You'll furnish the cow?"
+
+"Yes," said Whitcom, fairly cornered.
+
+Down on his knees dropped the merry reprobate, and prayed out his half
+hour, with how much earnestness only himself and God knew.
+
+But the result was what he had come for, a cow; for Whitcom was as good
+as his word, and sent him home rejoicing. And thus, with what he had
+earned from Wilkes, his gleaned wheat, and his cow, he contrived to get
+through another winter.
+
+Perhaps the most important personal event which distinguished this year
+in Meek's history, was the celebration, according to the rites of the
+Christian church, of his marriage with the Nez Perce woman who had
+already borne him two children, and who still lives, the mother of a
+family of seven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+1842. By the opening of another spring, Meek had so far overcome his
+distaste for farm labor as to put in a field of wheat for himself, with
+Doughty, and to make some arrangements about his future subsistence.
+This done, he was ready, as usual, for anything in the way of adventure
+which might turn up. This was, however, a very quiet summer in the
+little colony. Important events were brooding, but as yet results were
+not perceptible, except to the mind of a prophet. The Hudson's Bay
+Company, conformably to British policy, were at work to turn the balance
+of power in Oregon in favor of British occupation, and, unknown even to
+the colonists, the United States Government was taking what measures it
+could to shift the balance in its own favor. Very little was said about
+the subject of government claims among the colonists, but a feeling of
+suspense oppressed all parties.
+
+The work of putting in wheat and improving of farms had just begun to
+slacken a little, when there was an arrival in the Columbia River of a
+vessel from Boston--the _Chenamus_, Captain Couch. The _Chenamus_
+brought a cargo of goods, which were placed in store at Wallamet Falls,
+to be sold to the settlers, being the first successful attempt at trade
+ever made in Oregon, outside of the Hudson's Bay and Methodist Mission
+stores.
+
+When the Fourth of July came, the _Chenamus_ was lying in the Wallamet,
+below the Falls, near where the present city of Portland stands. Meek,
+who was always first to be at any spot where noise, bustle, or
+excitement might be anticipated, and whose fine humor and fund of
+anecdote made him always welcome, had borrowed a boat from Capt. Couch's
+clerk, at the Falls, and gone down to the vessel early in the morning,
+before the salute for the Glorious Fourth was fired. There he remained
+all day, enjoying a patriotic swagger, and an occasional glass of
+something good to drink. Other visitors came aboard during the day,
+which was duly celebrated to the satisfaction of all.
+
+Towards evening, a party from the Mission, wishing to return to the
+Falls, took possession of Meek's borrowed boat to go off with. Now was a
+good opportunity to show the value of free institutions. Meek, like
+other mountain-men, felt the distance which the missionaries placed
+between him and themselves, on the score of their moral and social
+superiority, and resented the freedom with which they appropriated what
+he had with some trouble secured to himself. Intercepting the party when
+more than half of them were seated in the boat, he informed them that
+they were trespassing upon a piece of property which for the present
+belonged to him, and for which he had a very urgent need. Vexed by the
+delay, and by having to relinquish the boat to a man who, according to
+their view of the case, could not "read his title clear," to anything
+either on earth or in heaven, the missionaries expostulated somewhat
+warmly, but Meek insisted, and so compelled them to wait for some better
+opportunity of leaving the ship. Then loading the boat with what was
+much more to the purpose--a good supply of provisions, Meek proceeded to
+drink the Captain's health in a very ostentatious manner, and take his
+leave.
+
+In the meantime, Dr. Marcus Whitman, of the Waiilatpu Mission, in the
+upper country, was so fearful of the intentions of the British
+government that he set out for Washington late in the autumn of 1842, to
+put the Secretary of State on his guard concerning the boundary
+question, and to pray that it might be settled conformably with the
+wishes of the Americans in Oregon.
+
+There was one feature, however, of this otherwise rather entertaining
+race for possession, which was becoming quite alarming. In all this
+strife about claiming the country, the Indian claim had not been
+considered. It has been already intimated that the attempt to civilize
+or Christianize the Indians of western Oregon was practically an entire
+failure. But they were not naturally of a warlike disposition, and had
+been so long under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company that there
+was comparatively little to apprehend from them, even though they felt
+some discontent at the incoming immigration.
+
+But with the Indians of the upper Columbia it was different; especially
+so with the tribes among whom the Presbyterian missionaries were
+settled--the Walla-Wallas, Cayuses, and Nez Perces, three brave and
+powerful nations, much united by intermarriages. The impression which
+these people had first made on the missionaries was very favorable,
+their evident intelligence, inquisitiveness, and desire for religious
+teachings seeming to promise a good reward of missionary labor. Dr.
+Whitman and his associates had been diligent in their efforts to
+civilize and Christianize them--to induce the men to leave off their
+migratory habits and learn agriculture, and the women to learn spinning,
+sewing, cooking, and all the most essential arts of domestic life. At
+the first, the novelty of these new pursuits engaged their interest, as
+it also excited their hope of gain. But the task of keeping them to
+their work with sufficient steadiness, was very great. They required,
+like children, to be bribed with promises of more or less immediate
+reward of their exertions, nor would they relinquish the fulfilment of a
+promise, even though they had failed to perform the conditions on which
+the promise became binding.
+
+By-and-by they made the discovery that neither the missionaries could,
+nor the white man's God did, confer upon them what they desired--the
+enjoyment of all the blessings of the white men--and that if they wished
+to enjoy these blessings, they must labor to obtain them. This discovery
+was very discouraging, inasmuch as the Indian nature is decidedly averse
+to steady labor, and they could perceive that very little was to be
+expected from any progress which could be achieved in one generation. As
+for the Christian faith, they understood about as much of its true
+spirit as savages, with the law of blood written in their hearts, could
+be expected to understand. They looked for nothing more nor less than
+the literal fulfilment of the Bible promises--nothing less would content
+them; and as to the forms of their new religion, they liked them well
+enough--liked singing and praying, and certain orderly observances, the
+chiefs leading in these as in other matters. So much interest did they
+discover at first, that their teachers were deceived as to the actual
+extent of the good they were doing.
+
+As time went on, however, there began to be cause for mutual
+dissatisfaction. The Indians became aware that no matter how many
+concessions their teachers made to them, they were still the inferiors
+of the whites, and that they must ever remain so. But the thought which
+produced the deepest chagrin was, that they had got these white people
+settled amongst them by their own invitation and aid, and that now it
+was evident they were not to be benefited as had been hoped, as the
+whites were turning their attention to benefiting themselves.
+
+As early as 1839, Mr. Smith, an associate of Mr. Spalding in the country
+of the Nez Perces, was forbidden by the high chief of the Nez Perces to
+cultivate the ground. He had been permitted to build, but was assured
+that if he broke the soil for the purpose of farming it, the ground so
+broken should serve to bury him in. Still Smith went on in the spring to
+prepare for ploughing, and the chief seeing him ready to begin, inquired
+if he recollected that he had been forbidden. Yet persisting in his
+undertaking, several of the Indians came to him and taking him by the
+shoulder asked him again "if he did not know that the hole he should
+make in the earth would be made to serve for his grave." Upon which
+third warning Smith left off, and quitted the country. Other
+missionaries also left for the Wallamet Valley.
+
+In 1842 there were three mission stations in the upper country; that of
+Dr. Whitman at Waiilatpu on the Walla-Walla River, that of Mr. Spalding
+on the Clearwater River, called Lapwai, and another on the Spokane
+River, called Cimakain. These missions were from one hundred and twenty
+to three hundred miles distant from each other, and numbered altogether
+only about one dozen whites of both sexes. At each of these stations
+there was a small body of land under cultivation, a few cattle and hogs,
+a flouring and saw mill, and blacksmith shop, and such improvements as
+the needs of the mission demanded. The Indians also cultivated, under
+the direction of their teachers, some little patches of ground,
+generally but a small garden spot, and the fact that they did even so
+much was very creditable to those who labored to instruct them. There
+was no want of ardor or industry in the Presbyterian mission; on the
+contrary they applied themselves conscientiously to the work they had
+undertaken.
+
+But this conscientious discharge of duty did not give them immunity from
+outrage. Both Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman had been rudely handled by
+the Indians, had been struck and spat upon, and had nose and ears
+pulled. Even the delicate and devoted Mrs. Spalding had been grossly
+insulted. Later the Cayuses had assailed Dr. Whitman in his house with
+war-clubs, and broken down doors of communication between the private
+apartments and the public sitting room. Explanations and promises
+generally followed these acts of outrage, yet it would seem that the
+missionaries should have been warned.
+
+Taking advantage of Dr. Whitman's absence, the Cayuses had frightened
+Mrs. Whitman from her home to the Methodist mission at the Dalles, by
+breaking into her bed-chamber at night, with an infamous design from
+which she barely escaped, and by subsequently burning down the mill and
+destroying a considerable quantity of grain. About the same time the Nez
+Perces at the Lapwai mission were very insolent, and had threatened Mr.
+Spalding's life; all of which, one would say, was but a poor return for
+the care and instruction bestowed upon them during six years of patient
+effort on the part of their teachers. Poor as it was, the Indians did
+not see it in that light, but only thought of the danger which
+threatened them, in the possible loss of their country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+1842-3. The plot thickened that winter, in the little drama being
+enacted west of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+The forests which clad the mountains and foot-hills in perpetual
+verdure, and the thickets which skirted the numerous streams flowing
+into the Wallamet, all abounded in wild animals, whose depredations upon
+the domestic cattle, lately introduced into the country, were a serious
+drawback to their natural increase. Not a settler, owning cattle or
+hogs, but had been robbed more or less frequently by the wolves, bears,
+and panthers, which prowled unhindered in the vicinity of their herds.
+
+This was a ground of common interest to all settlers of whatever
+allegiance. Accordingly, a notice was issued that a meeting would be
+held at a certain time and place, to consider the best means of
+preventing the destruction of stock in the country, and all persons
+interested were invited to attend. This meeting was held on the 2d of
+February, 1843, and was well attended by both classes of colonists. It
+served, however, only as a preliminary step to the regular "Wolf
+Association" meeting which took place a month later. At the meeting, on
+the 4th of March, there was a full attendance, and the utmost harmony
+prevailed, notwithstanding there was a well-defined suspicion in the
+minds of the Canadians, that they were going to be called upon to
+furnish protection to something more than the cattle and hogs of the
+settlers.
+
+After the proper parliamentary forms, and the choosing of the necessary
+officers for the Association, the meeting proceeded to fix the rate of
+bounty for each animal killed by any one out of the Association, viz:
+$3.00 for a large wolf; $1.50 for a lynx; $2.00 for a bear; and $5.00
+for a panther. The money to pay these bounties was to be raised by
+subscription, and handed over to the treasurer for disbursement; the
+currency being drafts on Fort Vancouver, the Mission, and the Milling
+Company; besides wheat and other commodities.
+
+This business being arranged, the real object of the meeting was
+announced in this wise:
+
+"_Resolved_,--That a committee be appointed to take into consideration
+the propriety of taking measures for the civil and military protection
+of this colony."
+
+A committee of twelve were then selected, and the meeting adjourned. But
+in that committee there was a most subtle mingling of all the
+elements--missionaries, mountain-men, and Canadians--an attempt by an
+offer of the honors, to fuse into one all the several divisions of
+political sentiment in Oregon.
+
+On the 2d day of May, 1843, the committee appointed March 4th to "take
+into consideration the propriety of taking measures for the civil and
+military protection of the colony," met at Champoeg, the Canadian
+settlement, and presented to the people their ultimatum in favor of
+organizing a provisional government.
+
+On a motion being made that the report of the committee should be
+accepted, it was put to vote, and lost. All was now confusion, various
+expressions of disappointment or gratification being mingled in one
+tempest of sound.
+
+When the confusion had somewhat subsided, Mr. G.W. LeBreton made a
+motion that the meeting should divide; those who were in favor of an
+organization taking their positions on the right hand; and those
+opposed to it on the left, marching into file. The proposition carried;
+and Joe Meek, who, in all this historical reminiscence we have almost
+lost sight of--though he had not lost sight of events--stepped to the
+front, with a characteristic air of the free-born American in his gait
+and gestures:--
+
+"Who's for a divide! All in favor of the Report, and an Organization,
+follow me!"--then marched at the head of his column, which speedily fell
+into line, as did also the opposite party.
+
+On counting, fifty-two were found to be on the right hand side, and
+fifty on the left,--so evenly were the two parties balanced at that
+time. When the result was made known, once more Meek's voice rang out--
+
+"Three cheers for our side!"
+
+It did not need a second invitation; but loud and long the shout went up
+for FREEDOM; and loudest and longest were heard the voices of the
+American "mountain-men." Thus the die was cast which made Oregon
+ultimately a member of the Federal Union.
+
+The business of the meeting was concluded by the election of a Supreme
+Judge, with probate powers, a clerk of the court, a sheriff, four
+magistrates, four constables, a treasurer, a mayor, and a captain,--the
+two latter officers being instructed to form companies of mounted
+riflemen. In addition to these officers, a legislative committee was
+chosen, consisting of nine members, who were to report to the people at
+a public meeting to be held at Champoeg on the 5th of July following. Of
+the legislative committee, two were mountain-men, with whose names the
+reader is familiar--Newell and Doughty. Among the other appointments,
+was Meek, to the office of sheriff; a position for which his personal
+qualities of courage and good humor admirably fitted him in the then
+existing state of society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+The immigration into Oregon of the year 1843, was the first since Newell
+and Meek, who had brought wagons through to the Columbia River; and in
+all numbered nearly nine hundred men, women, and children. These
+immigrants were mostly from Missouri and other border States. They had
+been assisted on their long and perilous journey by Dr. Whitman, whose
+knowledge of the route, and the requirements of the undertaking, made
+him an invaluable counselor, as he was an untiring friend of the
+immigrants.
+
+At the Dalles of the Columbia the wagons were abandoned; it being too
+late in the season, and the wants of the immigrants too pressing, to
+admit of an effort being made to cut out a wagon road through the heavy
+timber of the Cascade mountains. Already a trail had been made over them
+and around the base of Mount Hood, by which cattle could be driven from
+the Dalles to the settlements on the Wallamet; and by this route the
+cattle belonging to the train, amounting to thirteen hundred, were
+passed over into the valley.
+
+But for the people, especially the women and children, active and
+efficient help was demanded. There was something truly touching and
+pitiable in the appearance of these hundreds of worn-out, ragged,
+sun-burnt, dusty, emaciated, yet indomitable pioneers, who, after a
+journey of nearly two thousand miles, and of several months duration,
+over fertile plains, barren deserts, and rugged mountains, stood at
+last beside the grand and beautiful river of their hopes, exhausted by
+the toils of their pilgrimage, dejected and yet rejoicing.
+
+[Illustration: _WRECKED IN THE RAPIDS._]
+
+Much they would have liked to rest, even here; but their poverty
+admitted of no delay. The friends to whom they were going, and from whom
+they must exact and receive a temporary hospitality, were still
+separated from them a weary and dangerous way. They delayed as little as
+possible, yet the fall rains came upon them, and snow fell in the
+mountains, so as seriously to impede the labor of driving the cattle,
+and hunger and sickness began to affright them.
+
+In this unhappy situation they might have remained a long time, had
+there been no better dependence than the American settlers already in
+the valley, with the Methodist Mission at their head; for from them it
+does not appear that aid came, nor that any provision had been made by
+them to assist the expected immigrants. As usual in these crises, it was
+the Hudson's Bay Company who came to the rescue, and, by the offer of
+boats, made it possible for those families to reach the Wallamet. Not
+only were the Hudson's Bay Company's boats all required, but canoes and
+rafts were called into requisition to transport passengers and goods. No
+one, never having made the voyage of the Columbia from above the Dalles
+to Vancouver, could have an adequate idea of the perils of the passage,
+as it was performed in those days, by small boats and the flat-bottomed
+"Mackinaw" boats of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Canadian "voyageurs,"
+who handled a boat as a good rider governs a horse, were not always able
+to make the passage without accident: how, then, could the clumsy
+landsmen, who were more used to the feel of a plow handle than an oar,
+be expected to do so? Numerous have been the victims suddenly clutched
+from life by the grasp of the whirlpools, or dashed to death among the
+fearful rapids of the beautiful, but wild and pitiless, Columbia.
+
+The immigration of 1843 did not escape without loss and bereavement.
+Three brothers from Missouri, by the name of Applegate, with their
+families, were descending the river together, when, by the striking of a
+boat on a rock in the rapids, a number of passengers, mostly children of
+these gentlemen, were precipitated into the frightful current. The
+brothers each had a son in this boat, one of whom was lost, another
+injured for life, and the third escaped as by a miracle. This last boy
+was only ten years of age, yet such was the presence of mind and courage
+displayed in saving his own and a companion's life, that the miracle of
+his escape might be said to be his own. Being a good swimmer, he kept
+himself valiantly above the surface, while being tossed about for nearly
+two miles. Succeeding at last in grasping a feather bed which was
+floating near him, he might have passed the remaining rapids without
+serious danger, had he not been seized, as it were, by the feet, and
+drawn down, down, into a seething, turning, roaring abyss of water,
+where he was held, whirling about, and dancing up and down, striking now
+and then upon the rocks, until death seemed not only imminent but
+certain. After enduring this violent whirling and dashing for what
+seemed a hopelessly long period of time, he was suddenly vomited forth
+by the whirlpool once more upon the surface of the rapids, and,
+notwithstanding the bruises he had received, was able, by great
+exertion, to throw himself near, and seize upon a ledge of rocks. To
+this he clung with desperation, until, by dint of much effort, he
+finally drew himself out of the water, and stretched himself on the
+narrow shelf, where, for a moment, he swooned away. But on opening his
+eyes, he beheld, struggling in the foaming flood, a young man who had
+been a passenger in the wrecked boat with himself, and who, though
+older, was not so good a swimmer. Calling to him with all his might, to
+make his voice heard above the roar of the rapids, he at last gained his
+attention, and encouraged him to try to reach the ledge of rocks, where
+he would assist him to climb up; and the almost impossible feat was
+really accomplished by their united efforts. This done, young Applegate
+sank again into momentary unconsciousness, while poor exhausted Nature
+recruited her forces.
+
+But, although they were saved from immediate destruction, death still
+stared them in the face. That side of the river on which they had found
+lodgment, was bounded by precipitous mountains, coming directly down to
+the water. They could neither ascend nor skirt along them, for foot-hold
+there was none. On the other side was level ground, but to reach it they
+must pass through the rapids--an alternative that looked like an
+assurance of destruction.
+
+In this extremity, it was the boy who resolved to risk his life to save
+it. Seeing that a broken ledge of rock extended nearly across the river
+from a point within his reach, but only coming to the surface here and
+there, and of course very slippery, he nevertheless determined to
+attempt to cross on foot, amidst the roaring rapids. Starting alone to
+make the experiment, he actually made the crossing in safety, amid the
+thundering roar and dizzying rush of waters--not only made it once, but
+returned to assure his companion of its practicability. The young man,
+however, had not the courage to undertake it, until he had repeatedly
+been urged to do so, and at last only by being pursuaded to go before,
+while his younger comrade followed after, not to lose sight of him,
+(for it was impossible to turn around,) and directed him where to place
+his steps. In this manner that which appears incredible was
+accomplished, and the two arrived in safety on the opposite side, where
+they were ultimately discovered by their distressed relatives, who had
+believed them to be lost. Such was the battle which young Applegate had
+with the rocks, that the flesh was torn from the palms of his hands, and
+his whole body bruised and lacerated.
+
+So it was with sorrow, after all, that the immigrants arrived in the
+valley. Nor were their trials over when they had arrived. The worst
+feature about this long and exhausting journey was, that it could not be
+accomplished so as to allow time for recruiting the strength of the
+travelers, and providing them with shelter before the rainy season set
+in. Either the new arrivals must camp out in the weather until a log
+house was thrown up, or they must, if they were invited, crowd into the
+small cabins of the settlers until there was scarce standing room, and
+thus live for months in an atmosphere which would have bred pestilence
+in any other less healthful climate.
+
+Not only was the question of domiciles a trying one, but that of food
+still more so. Some, who had families of boys to help in the rough labor
+of building, soon became settled in houses of their own, more or less
+comfortable; nor was anything very commodious required for the
+frontiers-men from Missouri; but in the matter of something to eat, the
+more boys there were in the family, the more hopeless the situation.
+They had scarcely managed to bring with them provisions for their
+summer's journey--it was not possible to bring more. In the colony was
+food, but they had no money--few of them had much, at least; they had
+not goods to exchange; labor was not in demand: in short, the first
+winter in Oregon was, to nearly all the new colonists, a time of trial,
+if not of actual suffering. Many families now occupying positions of
+eminence on the Pacific coast, knew what it was, in those early days, to
+feel the pangs of hunger, and to want for a sufficient covering for
+their nakedness.
+
+Two anecdotes of this kind come to the writer's memory, as related by
+the parties themselves: the Indians, who are everywhere a begging race,
+were in the habit of visiting the houses of the settlers and demanding
+food. On one occasion, one of them came to the house of a now prominent
+citizen of Oregon, as usual petitioning for something to eat. The lady
+of the house, and mother of several young children, replied that she had
+nothing to give. Not liking to believe her, the Indian persisted in his
+demand, when the lady pointed to her little children and said, "Go away;
+I have nothing--not even for those." The savage turned on his heel and
+strode quickly away, as the lady thought, offended. In a short time he
+reappeared with a sack of dried venison, which he laid at her feet.
+"Take that," he said, "and give the _tenas tillicum_ (little children)
+something to eat." From that day, as long as he lived, that humane
+savage was a "friend of the family."
+
+The other anecdote concerns a gentleman who was chief justice of Oregon
+under the provisional government, afterwards governor of California, and
+at present a banker in San Francisco. He lived, at the time spoken of on
+the Tualatin Plains, and was a neighbor of Joe Meek. Not having a house
+to go into at first, he was permitted to settle his family in the
+district school-house, with the understanding that on certain days of
+the month he was to allow religious services to be held in the building.
+In this he assented. Meeting day came, and the family put on their best
+apparel to make themselves tidy in the eyes of their neighbors. Only one
+difficulty was hard to get over: Mr. ---- had only one shoe, the other
+foot was bare. But he considered the matter for some time, and then
+resolved that he might take a sheltered position behind the teacher's
+desk, where his deficiency would be hidden, and when the house filled
+up, as it would do very rapidly, he could not be expected to stir for
+want of space. However, that happened to the ambitious young lawyer
+which often does happen to the "best laid schemes of mice and men"--his
+went "all aglee." In the midst of the services, the speaker needed a cup
+of water, and requested Mr. ---- to furnish it. There was no refusing so
+reasonable a request. Out before all the congregation, walked the
+abashed and blushing pioneer, with his ill-matched feet exposed to view.
+This mortifying exposure was not without an agreeable result; for next
+day he received a present of a pair of moccasins, and was enabled
+thereafter to appear with feet that bore a brotherly resemblance to each
+other.
+
+About this time, the same gentleman, who was, as has been said, a
+neighbor of Meek's, was going to Wallamet Falls with a wagon, and Meek
+was going along. "Take something to eat," said he to Meek, "for I have
+nothing;" and Meek promised that he would.
+
+Accordingly when it came time to camp for the night, Meek was requested
+to produce his lunch basket. Going to the wagon, Meek unfolded an
+immense pumpkin, and brought it to the fire.
+
+"What!" exclaimed Mr. ----, "is that all we have for supper?"
+
+"Roast pumpkin is not so bad," said Meek, laughing back at him; "I've
+had worse fare in the mountains. It's buffalo tongue compared to ants or
+moccasin soles."
+
+And so with much merriment they proceeded to cut up their pumpkin and
+roast it, finding it as Meek had said--"not so bad" when there was no
+better.
+
+These anecdotes illustrate what a volume could only describe--the perils
+and privations endured by the colonists in Oregon. If we add that there
+were only two flouring mills in the Wallamet Valley, and these two not
+convenient for most of the settlers, both belonging to the mission, and
+that to get a few bushels of wheat ground involved the taking of a
+journey of from four to six days, for many, and that, too, over
+half-broken roads, destitute of bridges, it will be seen how difficult
+it was to obtain the commonest comforts of life. As for such luxuries as
+groceries and clothing, they had to wait for better times. Lucky was the
+man who, "by hook or by crook," got hold of an order on the Hudson's Bay
+Company, the Methodist Mission, or the Milling Company at the Falls.
+Were he thus fortunate, he had much ado to decide how to make it go
+farthest, and obtain the most. Not far would it go, at the best, for
+fifty per cent. profit on all sales was what was demanded and obtained.
+Perhaps the holder of a ten dollar draft made out his list of
+necessaries, and presented himself at the store, expecting to get them.
+He wanted some unbleached cotton, to be dyed to make dresses for the
+children; he would buy a pair of calf-skin shoes if he could afford
+them; and--yes--he would indulge in the luxury of a little--a very
+little--sugar, just for that once!
+
+Arrived at the store after a long, jolting journey, in the farm wagon
+which had crossed the continent the year before, he makes his inquiries:
+"Cotton goods?" "No; just out." "Shoes?" "Got one pair, rather
+small--wouldn't fit you." "What have you got in the way of goods?" "Got
+a lot of silk handkerchiefs and twelve dozen straw hats." "Any pins?"
+"No; a few knitting needles." "Any yarn?" "Yes, there's a pretty good
+lot of yarn, but don't you want some sugar? the last ship that was in
+left a quantity of sugar." So the holder of the draft exchanges it for
+some yarn and a few nails, and takes the balance in sugar; fairly
+compelled to be luxurious in one article, for the reason that others
+were not to be had till some other ship came in.
+
+No mails reached the colony, and no letters left it, except such as were
+carried by private hand, or were sent once a year in the Hudson's Bay
+Company's express to Canada, and thence to the States. Newspapers
+arrived in the same manner, or by vessel from the Sandwich Islands.
+Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, education was encouraged even from
+the very beginning; a library was started, and literary societies
+formed, and this all the more, perhaps, that the colony was so isolated
+and dependent on itself for intellectual pleasures.
+
+The spring of 1844 saw the colony in a state of some excitement on
+account of an attempt to introduce the manufacture of ardent spirits.
+This dangerous article had always been carefully excluded from the
+country, first by the Hudson's Bay Company, and secondly by the
+Methodist Mission; and since the time when a Mr. Young had been induced
+to relinquish its manufacture, no serious effort had been made to
+introduce it.
+
+It does not appear from the Oregon archives, that any law against its
+manufacture existed at that time: it had probably been overlooked in the
+proceedings of the legislative committee of the previous summer; neither
+was there yet any executive head to the Provisional Government, the
+election not having taken place. In this dilemma the people found
+themselves in the month of February, when one James Conner had been
+discovered to be erecting a distillery at the Falls of the Wallamet.
+
+It happened, however, that an occasion for the exercise of executive
+power had occurred before the election of the executive committee, and
+now what was to be done? It was a case too, which required absolute
+power, for there was no law on the subject of distilleries. After some
+deliberation it was decided to allow the Indian agent temporary power,
+and several letters were addressed to him, informing him of the calamity
+which threatened the community at the Falls. "Now, we believe that if
+there is anything which calls your attention in your official capacity,
+or anything in which you would be most cordially supported by the good
+sense and prompt action of the better part of community, it is the
+present case. We do not wish to dictate, but we hope for the best,
+begging pardon for intrusions." So read the closing paragraph of one of
+the letters.
+
+Perhaps this humble petition touched the Doctor's heart; perhaps he saw
+in the circumstance a possible means of acquiring influence; at all
+events he hastened to the Falls, a distance of fifty miles, and entered
+at once upon the discharge of the executive duties thus thrust upon him
+in the hour of danger. Calling upon Meek, who had entered upon his
+duties as sheriff the previous summer, he gave him his orders. Writ in
+hand, Meek proceeded to the distillery, frightened the poor sinner into
+quiet submission with a display of his mountain manners; made a bugle of
+the worm, and blew it, to announce to the Doctor his complete success;
+after which he tumbled the distillery apparatus into the river, and
+retired. Connor was put under three hundred dollar bonds, and so the
+case ended.
+
+But there were other occasions on which the Doctor's authority was put
+in requisition. It happened that a vessel from Australia had been in the
+river, and left one Madam Cooper, who was said to have brought with her
+a barrel of whisky. Her cabin stood on the east bank of the Wallamet,
+opposite the present city of Portland. Not thinking it necessary to send
+the sheriff to deal with a woman, the Doctor went in person, accompanied
+by a couple of men. Entering the cabin the Doctor remarked blandly, "you
+have a barrel of whisky, I believe."
+
+Not knowing but her visitor's intention was to purchase, and not having
+previously resided in a strictly temperance community, Madam Cooper
+replied frankly that she had, and pointed to the barrel in question.
+
+The Doctor then stepped forward, and placing his foot on it, said: "In
+the name of the United States, I levy execution on it!"
+
+At this unexpected declaration, the English woman stared wildly one
+moment, then recovering herself quickly, seized the poker from the
+chimney corner, and raising it over the Doctor's head, exclaimed--"In
+the name of Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland, I levy execution on
+you!"
+
+But when the stick descended, the Doctor was not there. He had backed
+out at the cabin door; nor did he afterwards attempt to interfere with a
+subject of the crown of Great Britain.
+
+On the following day, however, the story having got afloat at the Falls,
+Meek and a young man highly esteemed at the mission, by the name of Le
+Breton, set out to pay their respects to Madam Cooper. Upon entering the
+cabin, the two callers cast their eyes about until they rested on the
+whisky barrel.
+
+"Have _you_ come to levy on my whisky?" inquired the now suspicious
+Madam.
+
+"Yes," said Meek, "I have come to levy on it; but as I am not quite so
+high in authority as Doctor White, I don't intend to levy on the whole
+of it at once. I think about a quart of it will do me."
+
+Comprehending by the twinkle in Meek's eye that she had now a customer
+more to her mind, Madam Cooper made haste to set before her visitors a
+bottle and tin cup, upon which invitation they proceeded to levy
+frequently upon the contents of the bottle; and we fear that the length
+of time spent there, and the amount of whisky drank must have strongly
+reminded Meek of past rendezvous times in the mountains; nor can we
+doubt that he entertained Le Breton and Madam Cooper with many
+reminiscences of those times. However that may be, this was not the last
+visit of Meek to Madam Cooper's, nor his last levy on her whisky.
+
+Shortly after his election as sheriff he had been called upon to serve a
+writ upon a desperate character, for an attempt to kill. Many persons,
+however, fearing the result of trying to enforce the law upon
+desperadoes, in the then defenceless condition of the colony, advised
+him to wait for the immigration to come in before attempting the arrest.
+But Meek preferred to do his duty then, and went with the writ to arrest
+him. The man resisted, making an attack on the sheriff with a
+carpenter's axe; but Meek coolly presented a pistol, assuring the
+culprit of the uselessness of such demonstrations, and soon brought him
+to terms of compliance. Such coolness, united with a fine physique, and
+a mountain-man's reputation for reckless courage, made it very desirable
+that Meek should continue to hold the office of sheriff during that
+stage of the colony's development.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+1844. As has before been mentioned, the Indians of the Wallamet valley
+were by no means so formidable as those of the upper country: yet
+considering their numbers and the condition of the settlers, they were
+quite formidable enough to occasion considerable alarm when any one of
+them, or any number of them betrayed the savage passions by which they
+were temporarily overcome. Considerable excitement had prevailed among
+the more scattered settlers, ever since the reports of the disaffection
+among the up-country tribes had reached them; and Dr. White had been
+importuned to throw up a strong fortification in the most central part
+of the colony, and to procure arms for their defence, at the expense of
+the United States.
+
+This excitement had somewhat subsided when an event occurred which for a
+time renewed it: a house was plundered and some horses stolen from the
+neighborhood of the Falls. An Indian from the Dalles, named Cockstock,
+was at the bottom of the mischief, and had been committing or
+instigating others to commit depredations upon the settlers, for a year
+previous, because he had been, as he fancied, badly treated in a matter
+between himself and a negro in the colony, in which the latter had taken
+an unfair advantage of him in a bargain.
+
+[Illustration: A WILD INDIAN IN TOWN.]
+
+To crown his injuries Dr. White had caused a relative of his to be
+flogged by the Dalles chief, for entering the house of the Methodist
+missionary at that place, and tying him, with the purpose of flogging
+him. (It was a poor law, he thought, that would not work both ways.)
+
+In revenge for this insult Cockstock came to the Doctor's house in the
+Wallamet, threatening to shoot him at sight, but not finding him at
+home, contented himself for that time, by smashing all the windows in
+the dwelling and office of the Doctor, and nearly frightening to death a
+young man on the premises.
+
+When on the Doctor's return in the evening, the extent of the outrage
+became known, a party set out in pursuit of Cockstock and his band, but
+failed to overtake them, and the settlers remained in ignorance
+concerning the identity of the marauders. About a month later, however,
+a party of Klamath and Molalla Indians from the south of Oregon,
+numbering fifteen, came riding into the settlement, armed and painted in
+true Indian war-style. They made their way to the lodge of a Calapooya
+chief in the neighborhood--the Calapooyas being the Indians native to
+the valley. Dr. White fearing these mischievous visitors might infect
+the mind of the Calapooya chief, sent a message to him, to bring his
+friends to call upon him in the morning, as he had something good to say
+to them.
+
+This they did, when Dr. White explained the laws of the Nez Perces to
+them, and told them how much it would be to their advantage to adopt
+such laws. He gave the Calapooya chief a fine fat ox to feast his
+friends with, well knowing that an Indian's humor depends much on the
+state of his stomach, whether shrunken or distended. After the feast
+there was some more talk about the laws, in the midst of which the
+Indian Cockstock made his appearance, armed, and sullen in his demeanor.
+But as Dr. White did not know him for the perpetrator of the outrage on
+his premises, he took no notice of him more than of the others. The
+Molallas and Klamaths finally agreed to receive the laws; departing in
+high good humor, singing and shouting. So little may one know of the
+savage heart from the savage professions! Some of these Indians were
+boiling over with secret wrath at the weakness of their brethren in
+consenting to laws of the Agent's dictation; and while they were
+crossing a stream, fell upon and massacred them without mercy, Cockstock
+taking an active part in the murder.
+
+The whites were naturally much excited by the villainous and horrible
+affray, and were for taking and hanging the murderers. The Agent,
+however, was more cautious, and learning that there had been feuds among
+these Indians long unsettled, decided not to interfere.
+
+In February, 1844, fresh outrages on settlers having been committed so
+that some were leaving their claims and coming to stop at the Falls
+through fear, Dr. White was petitioned to take the case in hand. He
+accordingly raised a party of ten men, who had nearly all suffered some
+loss or outrage at Cockstock's hands, and set out in search of him, but
+did not succeed in finding him. His next step was to offer a reward of a
+hundred dollars for his arrest, meaning to send him to the upper country
+to be tried and punished by the Cayuses and Nez Perces, the Doctor
+prudently desiring to have them bear the odium, and suffer the
+punishment, should any follow, of executing justice on the Indian
+desperado. Not so had the fates ordained.
+
+About a week after the reward was offered, Cockstock came riding into
+the settlement at the Falls, at mid-day, accompanied by five other
+Indians, all well armed, and frightfully painted. Going from house to
+house on their horses, they exhibited their pistols, and by look and
+gesture seemed to defy the settlers, who, however, kept quiet through
+prudential motives. Not succeeding in provoking the whites to commence
+the fray, Cockstock finally retired to an Indian village on the other
+side of the river, where he labored to get up an insurrection, and
+procure the burning of the settlement houses.
+
+Meantime the people at the Falls were thoroughly alarmed, and bent upon
+the capture of this desperate savage. When, after an absence of a few
+hours, they saw him recrossing the river with his party, a crowd of
+persons ran down to the landing, some with offers of large reward to any
+person who would attempt to take him, while others, more courageous,
+were determined upon earning it. No definite plan of capture or concert
+of action was decided on, but all was confusion and doubt. In this frame
+of mind a collision was sure to take place; both the whites and Indians
+firing at the moment of landing. Mr. LeBreton, the young man mentioned
+in the previous chapter, after firing ineffectually, rushed unarmed upon
+Cockstock, whose pistol was also empty, but who still had his knife. In
+the struggle both fell to the ground, when a mulatto man, who had wrongs
+of his own to avenge, ran up and struck Cockstock a blow on the head
+with the butt of his gun which dispatched him at once.
+
+Thus the colony was rid of a scourge, yet not without loss which
+counterbalanced the gain. Young LeBreton besides having his arm
+shattered by a ball, was wounded by a poisoned arrow, which occasioned
+his death; and Mr. Rogers, another esteemed citizen, died from the same
+cause; while a third was seriously injured by a slight wound from a
+poisoned arrow. As for the five friends of Cockstock, they escaped to
+the bluffs overlooking the settlement, and commenced firing down upon
+the people. But fire-arms were mustered sufficient to dislodge them,
+and thus the affair ended; except that the Agent had some trouble to
+settle it with the Dalles Indians, who came down in a body to demand
+payment for the loss of their brother. After much talk and explanation,
+a present to the widow of the dead Indian was made to smooth over the
+difficulty.
+
+Meek, who at the time of the collision was rafting timber for Dr.
+McLaughlin's mill at the Falls, as might have been expected was appealed
+to in the melee by citizens who knew less about Indian fighting.
+
+A prominent citizen and merchant, who probably seldom spoke _of_ him as
+Mr. Meek, came running to him in great affright:--"Mr. Meek! Mr. Meek!
+Mr. Meek!--I want to send my wife down to Vancouver. Can you assist me?
+Do you think the Indians will take the town?"
+
+"It 'pears like half-a-dozen Injuns might do it," retorted Meek, going
+on with his work.
+
+"What do you think we had better do, Mr. Meek?--What do you advise?"
+
+"I think _you'd_ better RUN."
+
+In all difficulties between the Indians and settlers, Meek usually
+refrained from taking sides--especially from taking sides against the
+Indians. For Indian slayer as he had once been when a ranger of the
+mountains, he had too much compassion for the poor wretches in the
+Wallamet Valley, as well as too much knowledge of the savage nature, to
+like to make unnecessary war upon them. Had he been sent to take
+Cockstock, very probably he would have done it with little uproar; for
+he had sufficient influence among the Calapooyas to have enlisted them
+in the undertaking. But this was the Agent's business and he let him
+manage it; for Meek and the Doctor were not in love with one another;
+one was solemnly audacious, the other mischievously so. Of the latter
+sort of audacity, here is an example. Meek wanted a horse to ride out
+to the Plains where his family were, and not knowing how else to obtain
+it, helped himself to one belonging to Dr. White; which presumption
+greatly incensed the Doctor, and caused him to threaten various
+punishments, hanging among the rest. But the Indians overhearing him
+replied,
+
+"_Wake nika cumtux_--You dare not.--You no put rope round Meek's neck.
+He _tyee_ (chief)--no hang him."
+
+Upon which the Doctor thought better of it, and having vented his solemn
+audacity, received smiling audacity with apparent good humor when he
+came to restore the borrowed horse.
+
+As our friend Meek was sure to be found wherever there was anything
+novel or exciting transpiring, so he was sure to fall in with visitors
+of distinguished character, and as ready to answer their questions as
+they were to ask them. The conversation chanced one day to run upon the
+changes that had taken place in the country since the earliest
+settlement by the Americans, and Meek, who felt an honest pride in them,
+was expatiating at some length, to the ill-concealed amusement of two
+young officers, who probably saw nothing to admire in the rude
+improvements of the Oregon pioneers.
+
+"Mr. Meek," said one of them, "if you have been so long in the country
+and have witnessed such wonderful transformations, doubtless you may
+have observed equally great ones in nature; in the rivers and mountains,
+for instance?"
+
+Meek gave a lightning glance at the speaker who had so mistaken his
+respondent:
+
+"I reckon I have," said he slowly. Then waving his hand gracefully
+toward the majestic Mt. Hood, towering thousands of feet above the
+summit of the Cascade range, and white with everlasting snows: "When
+_I_ came to this country, Mount Hood was _a hole in the ground_!"
+
+It is hardly necessary to say that the conversation terminated abruptly,
+amid the universal cachinations of the bystanders.
+
+Notwithstanding the slighting views of Her British Majesty's naval
+officers, the young colony was making rapid strides. The population had
+been increased nearly eight hundred by the immigration of 1844, so that
+now it numbered nearly two thousand. Grain had been raised in
+considerable quantities, cattle and hogs had multiplied, and the farmers
+were in the best of spirits. Even our hero, who hated farm labor, began
+to entertain faith in the resources of his land claim to make him rich.
+
+Such was the promising condition of the colony in the summer of 1845.
+Much of the real prosperity of the settlers was due to the determination
+of the majority to exclude ardent spirits and all intoxicating drinks
+from the country. So well had they succeeded that a gentleman writing of
+the colony at that time, says: "I attended the last term of the circuit
+courts in most of the counties, and I found great respect shown to
+judicial authority everywhere; nor did I see a single _drunken juryman_,
+_nor witness_, _nor spectator_. So much industry, good order, and
+sobriety I have never seen in any community."
+
+While this was the rule, there were exceptions to it. During the spring
+term of the Circuit Court, Judge Nesmith being on the bench, a prisoner
+was arraigned before him for "assault with intent to kill." The witness
+for the prosecution was called, and was proceeding to give evidence,
+when, at some statement of his, the prisoner vociferated that he was a
+"d----d liar," and quickly stripping off his coat demanded a chance to
+fight it out with the witness.
+
+Judge Nesmith called for the interference of Meek, who had been made
+marshal, but just at that moment he was not to be found. Coming into the
+room a moment later, Meek saw the Judge down from his bench, holding the
+prisoner by the collar.
+
+"You can imagine," says Meek, "the bustle in court. But the Judge had
+the best of it. He fined the rascal, and made him pay it on the spot;
+while I just stood back to see his honor handle him. That was fun for
+me."
+
+The autumn of 1845 was marked less by striking events than by the energy
+which the people exhibited in improving the colony by laying out roads
+and town-sites. Already quite a number of towns were located, in which
+the various branches of business were beginning to develop themselves.
+Oregon City was the most populous and important, but Salem, Champoeg,
+and Portland were known as towns, and other settlements were growing up
+on the Tualatin Plains and to the south of them, in the fertile valleys
+of the numerous tributaries to the Wallamet.
+
+Portland was settled in this year, and received its name from the game
+of "heads you lose, tails I win," by which its joint owners agreed to
+determine it. One of them being a Maine man, was for giving it the name
+which it now bears, the other partner being in favor of Boston, because
+he was a Massachusetts man. It was, therefore, agreed between them that
+a copper cent should be tossed to decide the question of the
+christening, which being done, heads and Portland won.
+
+The early days of that city were not always safe and pleasant any more
+than those of its older rivals; and the few inhabitants frequently were
+much annoyed by the raids they were subject to from the now thoroughly
+vagabondized Indians. On one occasion, while yet the population was
+small, they were very much annoyed by the visit of eight or ten lodges
+of Indians, who had somewhere obtained liquor enough to get drunk on,
+and were enjoying a debauch in that spirit of total abandon which
+distinguishes the Indian carousal.
+
+Their performances at length alarmed the people, yet no one could be
+found who could put an end to them. In this dilemma the Marshal came
+riding into town, splendidly mounted on a horse that would turn at the
+least touch of the rein. The countenances of the anxious Portlanders
+brightened. One of the town proprietors eagerly besought him to "settle
+those Indians." "Very well," answered Meek; "I reckon it won't take me
+long." Mounting his horse, after first securing a rawhide rope, he
+"charged" the Indian lodges, rope in hand, laying it on with force, the
+bare shoulders of the Indians offering good _back-grounds_ for the
+pictures which he was rapidly executing.
+
+Not one made any resistance, for they had a wholesome fear of _tyee_
+Meek. In twenty minutes not an Indian, man or woman, was left in
+Portland. Some jumped into the river and swam to the opposite side, and
+some fled to the thick woods and hid themselves. The next morning,
+early, the women cautiously returned and carried away their property,
+but the men avoided being seen again by the marshal who punished
+drunkenness so severely.
+
+_Reader's query._ Was it Meek or the Marshal who so strongly disapproved
+of spreeing?
+
+_Ans._ It was the Marshal.
+
+The immigration to Oregon this year much exceeded that of any previous
+year; and there was the usual amount of poverty, sickness, and suffering
+of every sort, among the fresh arrivals. Indeed the larger the trains
+the greater the amount of suffering generally; since the grass was more
+likely to be exhausted, and more hindrances of every kind were likely
+to occur. In any case, a march of several months through an unsettled
+country was sure to leave the traveler in a most forlorn and exhausted
+condition every way.
+
+This was the situation of thousands of people who reached the Dalles in
+the autumn of 1845. Food was very scarce among them, and the
+difficulties to encounter before reaching the Wallamet just as great as
+those of the two previous years. As usual the Hudson's Bay Company came
+to the assistance of the immigrants, furnishing a passage down the river
+in their boats; the sick, and the women and children being taken first.
+
+Among the crowd of people encamped at the Dalles, was a Mr. Rector,
+since well known in Oregon and California. Like many others he was
+destitute of provisions; his supplies having given out. Neither had he
+any money. In this extremity he did that which was very disagreeable to
+him, as one of the "prejudiced" American citizens who were instructed
+beforehand to hate and suspect the Hudson's Bay Company--he applied to
+the company's agent at the Dalles for some potatoes and flour,
+confessing his present inability to pay, with much shame and reluctance.
+
+"Do not apologize, sir," said the agent kindly; "take what you need.
+There is no occasion to starve while our supplies hold out."
+
+Mr. R. found his prejudices in danger of melting away under such
+treatment; and not liking to receive bounty a second time, he resolved
+to undertake the crossing of the Cascade mountains while the more feeble
+of the immigrants were being boated down the Columbia. A few others who
+were in good health decided to accompany him. They succeeded in getting
+their wagons forty miles beyond the Dalles; but there they could move no
+further.
+
+In this dilemma, after consultation, Mr. Rector and Mr. Barlow agreed to
+go ahead and look out a wagon road. Taking with them two days'
+provisions, they started on in the direction of Oregon City. But they
+found road hunting in the Cascade mountains an experience unlike any
+they had ever had. Not only had they to contend with the usual obstacles
+of precipices, ravines, mountain torrents, and weary stretches of ascent
+and descent; but they found the forests standing so thickly that it
+would have been impossible to have passed between the trees with their
+wagons had the ground been clear of fallen timber and undergrowth. On
+the contrary these latter obstacles were the greatest of all. So thickly
+were the trunks of fallen trees crossed and recrossed everywhere, and so
+dense the growth of bushes in amongst them, that it was with difficulty
+they could force their way on foot.
+
+It soon became apparent to the road hunters, that two days' rations
+would not suffice for what work they had before them. At the first camp
+it was agreed to live upon half rations the next day; and to divide and
+subdivide their food each day, only eating half of what was left from
+the day before, so that there would always still remain a morsel in case
+of dire extremity.
+
+But the toil of getting through the woods and over the mountains proved
+excessive; and that, together with insufficient food, had in the course
+of two or three days reduced the strength of Mr. Barlow so that it was
+with great effort only that he could keep up with his younger and more
+robust companion, stumbling and falling at every few steps, and
+frequently hurting himself considerably.
+
+So wolfish and cruel is the nature of men, under trying circumstances,
+that instead of feeling pity for his weaker and less fortunate
+companion, Mr. Rector became impatient, blaming him for causing delays,
+and often requiring assistance.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROAD-HUNTERS.]
+
+To render their situation still more trying, rain began to fall heavily,
+which with the cold air of the mountains, soon benumbed their exhausted
+frames. Fearing that should they go to sleep so cold and famished, they
+might never be able to rise again, on the fourth or fifth evening they
+resolved to kindle a fire, if by any means they could do so. Dry and
+broken wood had been plenty enough, but for the rain, which was
+drenching everything. Neither matches nor flint had they, however, in
+any case. The night was setting in black with darkness; the wind swayed
+the giant firs over head, and then they heard the thunder of a falling
+monarch of the forest unpleasantly near. Searching among the bushes, and
+under fallen timber for some dry leaves and sticks, Mr. Rector took a
+bundle of them to the most sheltered spot he could find, and set himself
+to work to coax a spark of fire out of two pieces of dry wood which he
+had split for that purpose. It was a long and weary while before
+success was attained, by vigorous rubbing together of the dry wood, but
+it was attained at last; and the stiffening limbs of the road-hunters
+were warmed by a blazing camp-fire.
+
+The following day, the food being now reduced to a crumb for each, the
+explorers, weak and dejected, toiled on in silence, Mr. Rector always in
+advance. On chancing to look back at his companion he observed him to be
+brushing away a tear. "What now, old man?" asked Mr. R. with most
+unchristian harshness.
+
+"What would you do with me, Rector, should I fall and break a leg, or
+become in any way disabled?" inquired Mr. Barlow, nervously.
+
+"Do with you? _I would eat you!_" growled Mr. Rector, stalking on again.
+
+As no more was said for some time, Mr. R.'s conscience rather misgave
+him that he treated his friend unfeelingly; then he stole a look back at
+him, and beheld the wan face bathed in tears.
+
+"Come, come, Barlow," said he more kindly, "don't take affairs so much
+to heart. You will not break a leg, and I should not eat you if you did,
+for you haven't any flesh on you to eat."
+
+"Nevertheless, Rector, I want you to promise me that in case I should
+fall and disable myself, so that I cannot get on, you will not leave me
+here to die alone, but will kill me with your axe instead."
+
+"Nonsense, Barlow; you are weak and nervous, but you are not going to be
+disabled, nor eaten, nor killed. Keep up man; we shall reach Oregon City
+yet."
+
+So, onward, but ever more slowly and painfully, toiled again the
+pioneers, the wonder being that Mr. Barlow's fears were not realized,
+for the clambering and descending gave him many a tumble, the tumbles
+becoming more frequent as his strength declined.
+
+Towards evening of this day as they came to the precipitous bank of a
+mountain stream which was flowing in the direction they wished to go,
+suddenly there came to their ears a sound of more than celestial melody;
+the tinkling of bells, lowing of cattle, the voice of men hallooing to
+the herds. They had struck the cattle trail, which they had first
+diverged from in the hope of finding a road passable to wagons. In the
+overwhelming revulsion of feeling which seized them, neither were able
+for some moments to command their voices to call for assistance. That
+night they camped with the herdsmen, and supped in such plenty as an
+immigrant camp afforded.
+
+Such were the sufferings of two individuals, out of a great crowd of
+sufferers; some afflicted in one way and some in another. That people
+who endured so much to reach their El Dorado should be the most locally
+patriotic people in the world, is not singular. Mr. Barlow lived to
+construct a wagon road over the Cascades for the use of subsequent
+immigrations.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Early in 1846, Meek resigned his office of marshal of the colony, owing
+to the difficulty of collecting taxes; for in a thinly inhabited
+country, where wheat was a legal tender, at sixty cents per bushel, it
+was rather a burdensome occupation to collect, in so ponderous a
+currency; and one in which the collector required a granary more than a
+pocket-book. Besides, Meek had out-grown the marshalship, and aspired to
+become a legislator at the next June election.
+
+He had always discharged his duty with promptitude and rectitude while
+sheriff; and to his known courage might be attributed, in many
+instances, the ready compliance with law which was remarkable in so new
+and peculiar an organization as that of the Oregon colony. The people
+had desired not to be taxed, at first; and for a year or more the
+government was sustained by a fund raised by subscription. When at last
+it was deemed best to make collections by law, the Canadians objected to
+taxation to support an American government, while they were still
+subjects of Great Britain; but ultimately yielded the point, by the
+advice of Dr. McLaughlin.
+
+But it was not always the Canadians who objected to being taxed, as the
+following anecdote will show. Dr. McLaughlin was one day seated in his
+office, in conversation with some of his American friends, when the tall
+form of the sheriff darkened the doorway.
+
+"I have come to tax you, Doctor," said Meek with his blandest manner,
+and with a merry twinkle, half suppressed, in his black eyes.
+
+"To tax me, Mr. Jo. I was not aware--I really was not aware--I believed
+I had paid my tax, Mr. Jo," stammered the Doctor, somewhat annoyed at
+the prospect of some fresh demand.
+
+"Thar is an old ox out in my neighborhood, Doctor, and he is said to
+belong to you. Thar is a tax of twenty-five cents on him."
+
+"I do not understand you, Mr. Jo. I have no cattle out in your
+neighborhood."
+
+"I couldn't say how that may be, Doctor. All I do know about it, is just
+this. I went to old G----'s to collect the tax on his stock--and he's
+got a powerful lot of cattle,--and while we war a countin 'em over, he
+left out that old ox and said it belonged to you."
+
+"Oh, oh, I see, Mr. Jo: yes, yes, I see! So it was Mr. G----," cried the
+Doctor, getting very red in the face. "I do remember now, since you
+bring it to my mind, that _I lent Mr. G---- that steer six years ago_!
+Here are the twenty-five cents, Mr. Jo."
+
+The sheriff took his money, and went away laughing; while the Doctor's
+American friends looked quite as much annoyed as the Doctor himself,
+over the meanness of some of their countrymen.
+
+The year of 1846 was one of the most exciting in the political history
+of Oregon. President Polk had at last given the notice required by the
+Joint occupation treaty, that the Oregon boundary question must be
+settled.
+
+Agreeably to the promise which Dr. McLaughlin had received from the
+British Admiral, H.B.M. Sloop of war _Modeste_ had arrived in the
+Columbia River in the month of October, 1845, and had wintered there.
+Much as the Doctor had wished for protection from possible outbreaks,
+he yet felt that the presence of a British man-of-war in the Columbia,
+and another one in Puget Sound, was offensive to the colonists. He set
+himself to cover up as carefully as possible the disagreeable features
+of the British lion, by endeavoring to establish social intercourse
+between the officers of the _Modeste_ and the ladies and gentlemen of
+the colony, and his endeavors were productive of a partial success.
+
+During the summer, however, the United States Schooner _Shark_ appeared
+in the Columbia, thus restoring the balance of power, for the relief of
+national jealousy. After remaining for some weeks, the _Shark_ took her
+departure, but was wrecked on the bar at the mouth of the river,
+according to a prophecy of Meek's, who had a grudge against her
+commander, Lieut. Howison, for spoiling the sport he was having in
+company with one of her officers, while Howison was absent at the
+Cascades.
+
+It appears that Lieut. Schenck was hospitably inclined, and that on
+receiving a visit from the hero of many bear-fights, who proved to be
+congenial on the subject of good liquors, he treated both Meek and
+himself so freely as to render discretion a foreign power to either of
+them. Varied and brilliant were the exploits performed by these jolly
+companions during the continuance of the spree; and still more brilliant
+were those they talked of performing, even the taking of the _Modeste_,
+which was lying a little way off, in front of Vancouver. Fortunately for
+the good of all concerned, Schenck contented himself with firing a
+salute as Meek was going over the side of the ship on leaving. But for
+this misdemeanor he was put under arrest by Howison, on his return from
+the Cascades, an indignity which Meek resented for the prisoner, by
+assuring Lieut. Howison that he would lose his vessel before he got out
+of the river. And lose her he did. Schenck was released after the vessel
+struck, escaping with the other officers and crew by means of small
+boats. Very few articles were saved from the wreck, but among those few
+was the stand of colors, which Lieut. Howison subsequently presented to
+Gov. Abernethy for the colony.
+
+    There sinks the sun; like cavalier of old,
+      Servant of crafty Spain,
+    He flaunts his banner, barred with blood and gold,
+      Wide o'er the western main;
+    A thousand spear heads glint beyond the trees
+      In columns bright and long,
+    While kindling fancy hears upon the breeze
+      The swell of shout and song.
+
+    And yet not here Spain's gay, adventurous host
+      Dipped sword or planted cross;
+    The treasures guarded by this rock-bound coast
+      Counted them gain nor loss.
+    The blue Columbia, sired by the eternal hills
+      And wedded with the sea,
+    O'er golden sands, tithes from a thousand rills,
+      Boiled in lone majesty--
+
+    Through deep ravine, through burning, barren plain,
+      Through wild and rocky strait,
+    Through forest dark, and mountain rent in twain
+      Toward the sunset gate;
+    While curious eyes, keen with the lust of gold,
+      Caught not the informing gleam,
+    These mighty breakers age on age have rolled
+      To meet this mighty stream.
+
+    Age after age these noble hills have kept,
+      The same majestic lines;
+    Age after age the horizon's edge been swept
+      By fringe of pointed pines.
+    Summers and Winters circling came and went,
+      Bringing no change of scene;
+    Unresting, and unhasting, and unspent,
+      Dwelt Nature here serene!
+
+    Till God's own time to plant of Freedom's seed,
+      In this selected soil;
+    Denied forever unto blood and greed,
+      But blest to honest toil.
+    There sinks the sun; Gay cavalier no more!
+      His banners trail the sea,
+    And all his legions shining on the shore
+      Fade into mystery.
+
+    The swelling tide laps on the shingly beach,
+      Like any starving thing;
+    And hungry breakers, white with wrath, upreach,
+      In a vain clamoring.
+    The shadows fall; just level with mine eye
+      Sweet Hesper stands and shines,
+    And shines beneath an arc of golden sky,
+      Pinked round with pointed pines.
+
+    A noble scene! all breadth, deep tone, and power,
+      Suggesting glorious themes;
+    Shaming the idler who would fill the hour
+      With unsubstantial dreams.
+    Be mine the dreams prophetic, shadowing forth
+      The things that yet shall be,
+    When through this gate the treasures of the North
+      Flow outward to the sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+The author of the following, "poem" was not either a dull or an
+unobservant writer; and we insert his verses as a comical bit of natural
+history belonging peculiarly to Oregon.
+
+    ADVENTURES OF A COLUMBIA SALMON.
+
+    What is yon object which attracts the eye
+    Of the observing traveler, who ascends
+    Columbia's waters, when the summer sky
+    In one soft tint, calm nature's clothing blends:
+    As glittering in the sunbeams down it floats
+    'Till some vile vulture on its carcase gloats?
+
+    'Tis a poor salmon, which a short time past,
+    With thousands of her finny sisters came,
+    By instinct taught, to seek and find at last,
+    The place that gave her birth, there to remain
+    'Till nature's offices had been discharged,
+    And fry from out the ova had emerged.
+
+    Her Winter spent amongst the sheltered bays
+    Of the salt sea, where numerous fish of prey,
+    With appetite keen, the number of her days
+    Would soon have put an end to, could but they
+    Have caught her; but as they could not, she,
+    Spring having come, resolved to quit the sea:
+
+    And moving with the shoal along the coast, at length
+    She reached the outlet of her native river,
+    There tarried for a little to recruit her strength,
+    So tried of late by cold and stormy weather;
+    Sporting in playful gambols o'er the banks and sands,
+    Chasing the tiny fish frequenting there in bands.
+
+    But ah, how little thought this simple fish,
+    The toils and perils she had yet to suffer,
+    The chance she ran of serving as a dish
+    For hungry white men or for Indian's supper,--
+    Of enemies in which the stream abounded,
+    When lo! she's by a fisher's net surrounded.
+
+    Partly conscious of her approaching end,
+    She darts with meteoric swiftness to and fro,
+    Striking the frail meshes, within which she's penned,
+    Which bid defiance to her stoutest blow:
+    To smaller compass by degrees the snare is drawn,
+    When with a leap she clears it and is gone.
+
+    Once more at large with her companions, now
+    Become more cautious from her late escape,
+    She keeps in deeper water and thinks how
+    Foolish she was to get in such a scrape;
+    As mounting further up the stream, she vies
+    With other fish in catching gnats and flies.
+
+    And as she on her way did thus enjoy
+    Life's fleeting moments, there arose a panic
+    Amongst the stragglers, who in haste deploy
+    Around their elder leaders, quick as magic,
+    While she unconscious of the untimely rout,
+    Was by a hungry otter singled out:
+
+    Vigorous was the chase, on the marked victim shot
+    Through the clear water, while in close pursuit
+    Followed her amphibious foe, who scarce had got
+    Near enough to grasp her, when with turns acute,
+    And leaps and revolutions, she so tried the otter,
+    He gave up the hunt with merely having bit her.
+
+    Scarce had she recovered from her weakness, when
+    An ancient eagle, of the bald-head kind,
+    Winging his dreary way to'rds some lone glen,
+    Where was her nest with four plump eaglets lined,
+    Espied the fish, which he judged quite a treat,
+    And just the morsel for his little ones to eat:
+
+    And sailing in spiral circles o'er the spot,
+    Where lay his prey, then hovering for a time,
+    To take his wary aim, he stooped and caught
+    His booty, which he carried to a lofty pine;
+    Upon whose topmost branches, he first adjusted
+    His awkward load, ere with his claws he crushed it.
+
+    "Ill is the wind that blows no person good"--
+    So said the adage, and as luck would have it,
+    A huge grey eagle out in search of food,
+    Who just had whet his hunger with a rabbit,
+    Attacked the other, and the pair together,
+    In deadly combat fell into the river.
+
+    Our friend of course made off, when she'd done falling
+    Some sixty yards, and well indeed she might;
+    For ne'er, perhaps, a fish got such a mauling
+    Since Adam's time, or went up such a height
+    Into the air, and came down helter-skelter,
+    As did this poor production of a melter.
+
+    All these, with many other dangers, she survived,
+    Too manifold in this short space to mention;
+    So we'll suppose her to have now arrived
+    Safe at _the Falls_, without much more detention
+    Than one could look for, where so many liked her
+    Company, and so many Indians spiked her.
+
+    And here a mighty barrier stops her way:
+    The tranquil water, finding in its course
+    Itself beset with rising rocks, which lay
+    As though they said, "retire ye to your source,"
+    Bursts with indignant fury from its bondage, now
+    Rushes in foaming torrents to the chasm below.
+
+    The persevering fish then at the foot arrives,
+    Laboring with redoubled vigor mid the surging tide,
+    And finding, by her strength, she vainly strives
+    To overcome the flood, though o'er and o'er she tried;
+    Her tail takes in her mouth, and bending like a bow
+    That's to full compass drawn, aloft herself doth throw;
+
+    And spinning in the air, as would a silver wand
+    That's bended end to end and upwards cast,
+    Headlong she falls amid the showering waters, and
+    Gasping for breath, against the rocks is dashed:
+    Again, again she vaults, again she tries,
+    And in one last and feeble effort--dies.
+
+There was, in Oregon City, a literary society called the "Falls
+Association," some of whose effusions were occasionally sent to the
+_Spectator_, and this may have been one of them. At all events, it is
+plain that with balls, theatres, literary societies, and politics, the
+colony was not afflicted with dullness, in the winter of 1846.
+
+But the history of the immigration this year, afforded, perhaps, more
+material for talk than any one other subject. The condition in which the
+immigrants arrived was one of great distress. A new road into the valley
+had been that season explored, at great labor and expense, by a company
+of gentlemen who had in view the aim to lessen the perils usually
+encountered in descending the Columbia. They believed that a better pass
+might be discovered through the Cascade range to the south, than that
+which had been found around the base of Mount Hood, and one which should
+bring the immigrants in at the upper end of the valley, thus saving them
+considerable travel and loss of time at a season of the year when the
+weather was apt to be unsettled.
+
+With this design, a party had set out to explore the Cascades to the
+south, quite early in the spring; but failing in their undertaking, had
+returned. Another company was then immediately formed, headed by a
+prominent member of society and the legislature. This company followed
+the old Hudson's Bay Company's trail, crossing all those ranges of
+mountains perpendicular to the coast, which form a triple wall between
+Oregon and California, until they came out into the valley of the
+Humboldt, whence they proceeded along a nearly level, but chiefly barren
+country to Fort Hall, on the Snake River.
+
+The route was found to be practicable, although there was a scarcity of
+grass and water along a portion of it; but as the explorers had with
+great difficulty found out and marked all the best camping grounds, and
+encountered first for themselves all the dangers of a hitherto
+unexplored region, most of which they believed they had overcome, they
+felt no hesitation in recommending the new road to the emigrants whom
+they met at Fort Hall.
+
+Being aware of the hardships which the immigrants of the previous years
+had undergone on the Snake River plains, at the crossing of Snake River,
+the John Day, and Des Chutes Rivers, and the passage of the Columbia,
+the travelers gladly accepted the tidings of a safer route to the
+Wallamet. A portion of the immigration had already gone on by the road
+to the Dalles; the remainder turned off by the southern route.
+
+Of those who took the new route, a part were destined for California.
+All, however, after passing through the sage deserts, committed the
+error of stopping to recruit their cattle and horses in the fresh green
+valleys among the foot-hills of the mountains. It did not occur to them
+that they were wasting precious time in this way; but to this indulgence
+was owing an incredible amount of suffering. The California-bound
+travelers encountered the season of snow on the Sierras, and such
+horrors are recorded of their sufferings as it is seldom the task of
+ears to hear or pen to record. Snow-bound, without food, those who died
+of starvation were consumed by the living; even children were eaten by
+their once fond parents, with an indifference horrible to think on: so
+does the mind become degraded by great physical suffering.
+
+The Oregon immigrants had not to cross the lofty Sierras; but they still
+found mountains before them which, in the dry season, would have been
+formidable enough. Instead, however, of the dry weather continuing, very
+heavy rains set in. The streams became swollen, the mountain sides heavy
+and slippery with the wet earth. Where the road led through canyons, men
+and women were sometimes forced to stem a torrent, breast high, and cold
+enough to chill the life in their veins. The cattle gave out, the
+wagons broke down, provisions became exhausted, and a few persons
+perished, while all were in the direst straits.
+
+The first who got through into the valley sent relief to those behind;
+but it was weeks before the last of the worn, weary, and now
+impoverished travelers escaped from the horrors of the mountains in
+which they were so hopelessly entangled, and where most of their worldly
+goods were left to rot.
+
+The Oregon legislature met as usual, to hold its winter session, though
+the people hoped and expected it would be for the last time under the
+Provisional Government. There were only two "mountain-men" in the House,
+at this session--Meek and Newell.
+
+In the suspense under which they for the present remained, there was
+nothing to do but to go on in the path of duty as they had heretofore
+done, keeping up their present form of government until it was
+supplanted by a better one. So passed the summer until the return of the
+"Glorious Fourth," which, being the first national anniversary occurring
+since the news of the treaty had reached the colony, was celebrated with
+proper enthusiasm.
+
+It chanced that an American ship, the _Brutus_, Capt. Adams, from
+Boston, was lying in the Wallamet, and that a general invitation had
+been given to the celebrationists to visit the ship during the day. A
+party of fifty or sixty, including Meek and some of his mountain
+associates, had made their calculations to go on board at the same time,
+and were in fact already alongside in boats, when Captain Adams singled
+out a boat load of people belonging to the mission clique, and inviting
+them to come on board, ordered all the others off.
+
+This was an insult too great to be borne by mountain-men, who resented
+it not only for themselves, but for the people's party of Americans to
+which they naturally belonged. Their blood was up, and without stopping
+to deliberate, Meek and Newell hurried off to fetch the twelve-pounder
+that had a few hours before served to thunder forth the rejoicings of a
+free people, but with which they now purposed to proclaim their
+indignation as freeman heinously insulted. The little twelve-pound
+cannon was loaded with rock, and got into range with the offending ship,
+and there is little doubt that Capt. Adams would have suffered loss at
+the hands of the incensed multitude, but for the timely interference of
+Dr. McLaughlin. On being informed of the warlike intentions of Meek and
+his associates, the good Doctor came running to the rescue, his white
+hair flowing back from his noble face with the hurry of his movements.
+
+"Oh, oh, Mr. Joe, Mr. Joe, you must not do this! indeed, you must not do
+this foolish thing! Come now; come away. You will injure your country,
+Mr. Joe. How can you expect that ships will come here, if they are fired
+on? Come away, come away!"
+
+And Meek, ever full of waggishness, even in his wrath, replied:
+
+"Doctor, it is not that I love the Brutus less, but my dignity more."
+
+"Oh, Shakespeare, Mr. Joe! But come with me; come with me."
+
+And so the good Doctor, half in authority, half in kindness, persuaded
+the resentful colonists to pass by the favoritism of the Boston captain.
+
+Meek was reelected to the legislature this summer, and swam out to a
+vessel lying down at the mouth of the Wallamet, to get liquor to treat
+his constituents; from which circumstance it may be inferred that while
+Oregon was remarkable for temperance, there were occasions on which
+conviviality was deemed justifiable by a portion of her people.
+
+Thus passed the summer. The autumn brought news of a large emigration
+_en route_ for the new territory; but it brought no news of good import
+from Congress. On the contrary the bill providing for a territorial
+government for Oregon had failed, because the Organic Laws of that
+territory excluded slavery forever from the country. The history of its
+failure is a part and parcel of the record of the long hard struggle of
+the south to extend slavery into the United States' territories.
+
+Justly dissatisfied, but not inconsolable, the colony, now that hope was
+extinguished for another season, returned to its own affairs. The
+immigration, which had arrived early this year, amounted to between four
+and five thousand. An unfortunate affray between the immigrants and the
+Indians at the Dalles, had frightened away from that station the Rev.
+Father Waller; and Dr. Whitman of the Waiilatpu mission had purchased
+the station for the Presbyterian mission, and placed a nephew of his in
+charge. Although, true to their original bad character, the Dalles
+Indians had frequently committed theft upon the passing emigration, this
+was the first difficulty resulting in loss of life, which had taken
+place. This quarrel arose out of some thefts committed by the Indians,
+and the unwise advice of Mr. Waller, in telling the immigrants to
+retaliate by taking some of the Indian horses. An Indian can see the
+justice of taking toll from every traveler passing through his country;
+but he cannot see the justice of being robbed in return; and Mr. Waller
+had been long enough among them to have known this.
+
+Finding that it must continue yet a little longer to look after its own
+government and welfare, the colony had settled back into its wonted
+pursuits. The legislature had convened for its winter session, and had
+hardly elected its officers and read the usual message of the Governor,
+before there came another, which fell upon their ears like a
+thunderbolt. Gov. Abernethy had sent in the following letter, written at
+Vancouver the day before:
+
+     FORT VANCOUVER, Dec. 7, 1847.
+
+     _George Abernethy, Esq._;
+
+     SIR:--Having received intelligence, last night, by special express
+     from Walla-Walla, of the destruction of the missionary settlement
+     at Waiilatpu, by the Cayuse Indians of that place, we hasten to
+     communicate the particulars of that dreadful event, one of the most
+     atrocious which darkens the annals of Indian crime.
+
+     Our lamented friend, Dr. Whitman, his amiable and accomplished
+     lady, with nine other persons, have fallen victims to the fury of
+     these remorseless savages, who appear to have been instigated to
+     this appalling crime by a horrible suspicion which had taken
+     possession of their superstitious minds, in consequence of the
+     number of deaths from dysentery and measles, that Dr. Whitman was
+     silently working the destruction of their tribe by administering
+     poisonous drugs, under the semblance of salutary medicines.
+
+     With a goodness of heart and benevolence truly his own, Dr. Whitman
+     had been laboring incessantly since the appearance of the measles
+     and dysentery among his Indian converts, to relieve their
+     sufferings; and such has been the reward of his generous labors.
+
+     A copy of Mr. McBean's letter, herewith transmitted, will give you
+     all the particulars known to us of this indescribably painful
+     event.
+
+     Mr. Ogden, with a strong party, will leave this place as soon as
+     possible for Walla-Walla, to endeavor to prevent further evil; and
+     we beg to suggest to you the propriety of taking instant measures
+     for the protection of the Rev. Mr. Spalding, who, for the sake of
+     his family, ought to abandon the Clear-water mission without delay,
+     and retire to a place of safety, as he cannot remain at that
+     isolated station without imminent risk, in the present excited and
+     irritable State of the Indian population.
+
+     I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
+
+     JAMES DOUGLAS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+1842-7. Doubtless the reader remembers the disquiet felt and expressed
+by the Indians in the upper country in the year 1842. For the time they
+had been quieted by presents, by the advice of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+and by the Agent's promise that in good time the United States would
+send them blankets, guns, ammunition, food farming implements, and
+teachers to show them how to live like the whites.
+
+In the meantime, five years having passed, these promises had not been
+kept. Five times a large number of whites, with their children, their
+cattle, and wagons, had passed through their country, and gone down into
+the Wallamet Valley to settle. Now they had learned that the United
+States claimed the Wallamet valley; yet they had never heard that the
+Indians of that country had received any pay for it.
+
+They had accepted the religion of the whites believing it would do them
+good; but now they were doubtful. Had they not accepted laws from the
+United States agent, and had not their people been punished for acts
+which their ancestors and themselves had always before committed at
+will? None of these innovations seemed to do them any good: they were
+disappointed. But the whites, or Bostons, (meaning the Americans) were
+coming more and more every year, so that by-and-by there would be all
+Bostons and no Indians.
+
+Once they had trusted in the words of the Americans; but now they knew
+how worthless were their promises. The Americans had done them much
+harm. Years before had not one of the missionaries suffered several of
+their people, and the son of one of their chiefs, to be slain in his
+company, yet himself escaped? Had not the son of another chief, who had
+gone to California to buy cattle, been killed by a party of Americans,
+for no fault of his own? Their chief's son was killed, the cattle robbed
+from his party, after having been paid for; and his friends obliged to
+return poor and in grief.
+
+To be sure, Dr. White had given them some drafts to be used in obtaining
+cattle from the immigration, as a compensation for their losses in
+California; but they could not make them available; and those who wanted
+cattle had to go down to the Wallamet for them. In short, could the
+Indians have thought of an American epithet to apply to Americans, it
+would have been that expressive word _humbug_. What they felt and what
+they thought, was, that they had been cheated. They feared greater
+frauds in the future, and they were secretly resolved not to submit to
+them.
+
+So far as regarded the missionaries, Dr. Whitman and his associates,
+they were divided; yet as so many looked on the Doctor as an agent in
+promoting the settlement of the country with whites, it was thought best
+to drive him from the country, together with all the missionaries.
+Several years before Dr. Whitman had known that the Indians were
+displeased with his settlement among them. They had told him of it: they
+had treated him with violence; they had attempted to outrage his wife;
+had burned his property; and had more recently several times warned him
+to leave their country, or they should kill him.
+
+Not that all were angry at him alike, or that any were personally very
+ill-disposed towards him. Everything that a man could do to instruct and
+elevate these savage people, he had done, to the best of his ability,
+together with his wife and assistants. But he had not been able, or
+perhaps had not attempted, to conceal the fact, that he looked upon the
+country as belonging to his people, rather than to the natives, and it
+was this fact which was at the bottom of their "bad hearts" toward the
+Doctor. So often had warnings been given which were disregarded by Dr.
+Whitman, that his friends, both at Vancouver and in the settlements, had
+long felt great uneasiness, and often besought him to remove to the
+Wallamet valley.
+
+But although Dr. Whitman sometimes was half persuaded to give up the
+mission upon the representations of others, he could not quite bring
+himself to do so. So far as the good conduct of the Indians was
+concerned, they had never behaved better than for the last two years.
+There had been less violence, less open outrage, than formerly; and
+their civilization seemed to be progressing; while some few were
+apparently hopeful converts. Yet there was ever a whisper in the
+air--"Dr. Whitman must die."
+
+The mission at Lapwai was peculiarly successful. Mrs. Spalding, more
+than any other of the missionaries, had been able to adapt herself to
+the Indian character, and to gain their confidence. Besides, the Nez
+Perces were a better nation than the Cayuses;--more easily controlled by
+a good counsel; and it seemed like doing a wrong to abandon the work so
+long as any good was likely to result from it. There were other reasons
+too, why the missions could not be abandoned in haste, one of which was
+the difficulty of disposing of the property. This might have been done
+perhaps, to the Catholics, who were establishing missions throughout the
+upper country; but Dr. Whitman would never have been so false to his own
+doctrines, as to leave the field of his labors to the Romish Church.
+
+Yet the division of sentiment among the Indians with regard to religion,
+since the Catholic missionaries had come among them, increased the
+danger of a revolt: for in the Indian country neither two rival trading
+companies, nor two rival religions can long prosper side by side. The
+savage cannot understand the origin of so many religions. He either
+repudiates all, or he takes that which addresses itself to his
+understanding through the senses. In the latter respect, the forms of
+Catholicism, as adapted to the savage understanding, made that religion
+a dangerous rival to intellectual and idealistic Presbyterianism. But
+the more dangerous the rival, the greater the firmness with which Dr.
+Whitman would cling to his duty.
+
+There were so many causes at work to produce a revolution among the
+Indians, that it would be unfair to name any one as _the_ cause. The
+last and immediate provocation was a season of severe sickness among
+them. The disease was measles, and was brought in the train of the
+immigration.
+
+This fact alone was enough to provoke the worst passions of the savage.
+The immigration in itself was a sufficient offense; the introduction
+through them of a pestilence, a still weightier one. It did not signify
+that Dr. Whitman had exerted himself night and day to give them relief.
+Their peculiar notions about a medicine-man made it the Doctor's duty to
+cure the sick; or made it the duty of the relatives of the dead and
+dying to avenge their deaths.
+
+Yet in spite of all and every provocation, perhaps the fatal tragedy
+might have been postponed, had it not been for the evil influence of
+one Jo Lewis, a half-breed, who had accompanied the emigration from the
+vicinity of Fort Hall. This Jo Lewis, with a large party of emigrants,
+had stopped to winter at the mission, much against Dr. Whitman's wishes;
+for he feared not having food enough for so many persons. Finding that
+he could not prevent them, he took some of the men into his employ, and
+among others the stranger half-breed.
+
+This man was much about the house, and affected to relate to the Indians
+conversations which he heard between Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, and Mr.
+Spalding, who with his little daughter, was visiting at Waiilatpu. These
+conversations related to poisoning the Indians, in order to get them all
+out of the way, so that the white men could enjoy their country
+unmolested. Yet this devil incarnate did not convince his hearers at
+once of the truth of his statements; and it was resolved in the tribe to
+make a test of Dr. Whitman's medicine. Three persons were selected to
+experiment upon; two of them already sick, and the third quite well.
+Whether it was that the medicine was administered in too large
+quantities, or whether an unhappy chance so ordered it, all those three
+persons died. Surely it is not singular that in the savage mind this
+circumstance should have been deemed decisive. It was then that the
+decree went forth that not only the Doctor and Mrs. Whitman, but all the
+Americans at the mission must die.
+
+On the 22d of November, Mr. Spalding arrived at Waiilatpu, from his
+mission, one hundred and twenty miles distant, with his daughter, a
+child of ten years, bringing with him also several horse-loads of grain,
+to help feed the emigrants wintering there. He found the Indians
+suffering very much, dying one, two, three, and sometimes five in a day.
+Several of the emigrant families, also, were sick with measles and the
+dysentery, which followed the disease. A child of one of them died the
+day following Mr. Spalding's arrival.
+
+Dr. Whitman's family consisted of himself and wife, a young man named
+Rodgers, who was employed as a teacher, and also studying for the
+ministry, two young people, a brother and sister, named Bulee, seven
+orphaned children of one family, whose parents had died on the road to
+Oregon in a previous year, named Sager, Helen Mar, the daughter of Joe
+Meek, another little half-breed girl, daughter of Bridger the
+fur-trader, a half-breed Spanish boy whom the Doctor had brought up from
+infancy, and two sons of a Mr. Manson, of the Hudson's Bay Company.
+
+Besides these, there were half-a-dozen other families at the mission,
+and at the saw-mill, twenty miles distant, five families more--in all,
+forty-six persons at Waiilatpu, and fifteen at the mill, who were among
+those who suffered by the attack. But there were also about the mission,
+three others, Jo Lewis, Nicholas Finlay, and Joseph Stanfield, who
+probably knew what was about to take place, and may, therefore be
+reckoned as among the conspirators.
+
+While Mr. Spalding was at Waiilatpu, a message came from two Walla-Walla
+chiefs, living on the Umatilla River, to Dr. Whitman, desiring him to
+visit the sick in their villages, and the two friends set out together
+to attend to the call, on the evening of the 27th of November. Says Mr.
+Spalding, referring to that time: "The night was dark, and the wind and
+rain beat furiously upon us. But our interview was sweet. We little
+thought it was to be our last. With feelings of the deepest emotion we
+called to mind the fact, that eleven years before, we crossed this trail
+before arriving at Walla-Walla, the end of our seven months' journey
+from New York. We called to mind the high hopes and thrilling interests
+which had been awakened during the year that followed--of our successful
+labors and the constant devotedness of the Indians to improvement. True,
+we remembered the months of deep solicitude we had, occasioned by the
+increasing menacing demands of the Indians for pay for their wood, their
+water, their air, their lands. But much of this had passed away, and the
+Cayuses were in a far more encouraging condition than ever before." Mr.
+Spalding further relates that himself and Dr. Whitman also conversed on
+the danger which threatened them from the Catholic influence. "We felt,"
+he says, "that the present sickness afforded them a favorable
+opportunity to excite the Indians to drive us from the country, and all
+the movements about us seemed to indicate that this would soon be
+attempted, if not executed." Such was the suspicion in the minds of the
+Protestants. Let us hope that it was not so well founded as they
+believed.
+
+The two friends arrived late at the lodge of _Stickas_, a chief, and
+laid down before a blazing fire to dry their drenched clothing. In the
+morning a good breakfast was prepared for them, consisting of beef,
+vegetables, and bread--all of which showed the improvement of the
+Indians in the art of living. The day, being Sunday, was observed with
+as much decorum as in a white man's house. After breakfast, Dr. Whitman
+crossed the river to visit the chiefs who had sent for him, namely,
+_Tan-i-tan_, _Five Crows_, and _Yam-ha-wa-lis_, returning about four
+o'clock in the afternoon, saying he had taken tea with the Catholic
+bishop and two priests, at their house, which belonged to _Tan-i-tan_,
+and that they had promised to visit him in a short time. He then
+departed for the mission, feeling uneasy about the sick ones at home.
+
+Mr. Spalding remained with the intention of visiting the sick and
+offering consolation to the dying. But he soon discovered that there was
+a weighty and uncomfortable secret on the mind of his entertainer,
+_Stickas_. After much questioning, _Stickas_ admitted that the thought
+which troubled him was that the Americans had been "decreed against" by
+his people; more he could not be induced to reveal. Anxious, yet not
+seriously alarmed,--for these warnings had been given before many
+times,--he retired to his couch of skins, on the evening of the 29th,
+being Monday--not to sleep, however; for on either side of him an Indian
+woman sat down to chant the death-song--that frightful lament which
+announces danger and death. On being questioned they would reveal
+nothing.
+
+On the following morning, Mr. Spalding could no longer remain in
+uncertainty, but set out for Waiilatpu. As he mounted his horse to
+depart, an Indian woman placed her hand on the neck of his horse to
+arrest him, and pretending to be arranging his head-gear, said in a low
+voice to the rider, "Beware of the Cayuses at the mission." Now more
+than ever disturbed by this intimation that it was the mission which was
+threatened, he hurried forward, fearing for his daughter and his
+friends. He proceeded without meeting any one until within sight of the
+lovely Walla-Walla valley, almost in sight of the mission itself, when
+suddenly, at a wooded spot where the trail passes through a little
+hollow, he beheld two horsemen advancing, whom he watched with a
+fluttering heart, longing for, and yet dreading, the news which the very
+air seemed whispering.
+
+The two horsemen proved to be the Catholic Vicar General, Brouillet,
+who, with a party of priests and nuns had arrived in the country only a
+few months previous, and his half-breed interpreter, both of whom were
+known to Mr. Spalding. They each drew rein as they approached, Mr.
+Spalding immediately inquiring "what news?"
+
+"There are very many sick at the Whitman station," answered Brouillet,
+with evident embarrassment.
+
+"How are Doctor and Mrs. Whitman?" asked Spalding anxiously.
+
+"The Doctor is ill--is dead," added the priest reluctantly.
+
+"And Mrs. Whitman?" gasped Spalding.
+
+"Is dead also. The Indians have killed them."
+
+"My daughter?" murmured the agonized questioner.
+
+"Is safe, with the other prisoners," answered Brouillet.
+
+"And then," says Spalding in speaking of that moment of infinite horror,
+when in his imagination a picture of the massacre, of the anguish of his
+child, the suffering of the prisoners, of the probable destruction of
+his own family and mission, and his surely impending fate, all rose up
+before him--"I felt the world all blotted out at once, and sat on my
+horse as rigid as a stone, not knowing or feeling anything."
+
+While this conversation had been going on the half-breed interpreter had
+kept a sinister watch over the communication, and his actions had so
+suspicious a look that the priest ordered him to ride on ahead. When he
+had obeyed, Brouillet gave some rapid instructions to Spalding; not to
+go near the mission, where he could do no good, but would be certainly
+murdered; but to fly, to hide himself until the excitement was over. The
+men at the mission were probably all killed; the women and children
+would be spared; nothing could be done at present but to try to save his
+own life, which the Indians were resolved to take.
+
+The conversation was hurried, for there was no time to lose. Spalding
+gave his pack-horse to Brouillet, to avoid being encumbered by it; and
+taking some provisions which the priest offered, struck off into the
+woods there to hide until dark. Nearly a week from this night he arrived
+at the Lapwai mission, starved, torn, with bleeding feet as well as
+broken heart. Obliged to secrete himself by day, his horse had escaped
+from him, leaving him to perform his night journeys on foot over the
+sharp rocks and prickly cactus plants, until not only his shoes had been
+worn out, but his feet had become cruelly lacerated. The constant fear
+which had preyed upon his heart of finding his family murdered, had
+produced fearful havoc in the life-forces; and although Mr. Spalding had
+the happiness of finding that the Nez Perces had been true to Mrs.
+Spalding, defending her from destruction, yet so great had been the
+first shock, and so long continued the strain, that his nervous system
+remained a wreck ever afterward.
+
+[Illustration: MOUNT HOOD FROM THE DALLES.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+1847. When Dr. Whitman reached home on that Sunday night, after parting
+with Mr. Spalding at the Umatilla, it was already about midnight; yet he
+visited the sick before retiring to rest; and early in the morning
+resumed his duties among them. An Indian died that morning. At his
+burial, which the Doctor attended, he observed that but few of the
+friends and relatives of the deceased were present but attributed it to
+the fear which the Indians have of disease.
+
+Everything about the mission was going on as usual. Quite a number of
+Indians were gathered about the place; but as an ox was being butchered,
+the crowd was easily accounted for. Three men were dressing the beef in
+the yard. The afternoon session of the mission school had just
+commenced. The mechanics belonging to the station were about their
+various avocations. Young Bulee was sick in the Doctor's house. Three of
+the orphan children who were recovering from the measles, were with the
+Doctor and Mrs. Whitman in the sitting-room; and also a Mrs. Osborne,
+one of the emigrants who had just got up from a sick bed, and who had a
+sick child in her arms.
+
+[Illustration: _MASSACRE OF REV. DR. WHITMAN OF THE PRESBYTERIAN
+MISSION._]
+
+The Doctor had just come in, wearied, and dejected as it was possible
+for his resolute spirit to be, and had seated himself, bible in hand,
+when several Indians came to a side door, asking permission to come in
+and get some medicine. The Doctor rose, got his medicines, gave them
+out, and sat down again. At that moment Mrs. Whitman was in an
+adjoining room and did not see what followed. _Tam-a-has_, a chief
+called "the murderer," came behind the Doctor's chair, and raising his
+tomahawk, struck the Doctor in the back of the head, stunning but not
+killing him.
+
+Instantly there was a violent commotion. John Sager, one of the adopted
+children, sprang up with his pistol in his hand, but before he could
+fire it, he too was struck down, and cut and hacked shockingly. In the
+meantime Dr. Whitman had received a second blow upon the head, and now
+laid lifeless on the floor. Cries and confusion filled the house.
+
+At the first sound, Mrs. Whitman, in whose ears that whisper in the air
+had so long sounded, began in agony to stamp upon the floor, and wring
+her hands, crying out, "Oh, the Indians, the Indians!" At that moment
+one of the women from an adjoining building came running in, gasping
+with terror, for the butchery was going on outside as well, and
+_Tam-a-has_ and his associates were now assisting at it. Going to the
+room where the Doctor lay insensible, Mrs. Whitman and her terrified
+neighbor dragged him to the sofa and laid him upon it, doing all they
+could to revive him. To all their inquiries he answered by a whispered
+"no," probably not conscious what was said.
+
+While this was being done, the people from every quarter began to crowd
+into the Doctor's house, many of them wounded. Outside were heard the
+shrieks of women, the yells of the Indians, the roar of musketry, the
+noise of furious riding, of meeting war-clubs, groans, and every
+frightful combination of sound, such as only could be heard at such a
+carnival of blood. Still Mrs. Whitman sat by her husband's side, intent
+on trying to rouse him to say one coherent word.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the struggle, and she heard some one exclaim
+that two of her friends were being murdered beneath the window. Starting
+up, she approached the casement to get a view, as if by looking she
+could save; but that moment she encountered the fiendish gaze of Jo
+Lewis the half-breed, and comprehended his guilt. "Is it _you_, Jo, who
+are doing this?" she cried. Before the expression of horror had left her
+lips, a young Indian who had been a special favorite about the mission,
+drew up his gun and fired, the ball entering her right breast, when she
+fell without a groan.
+
+When the people had at first rushed in, Mrs. Whitman had ordered the
+doors fastened and the sick children removed to a room up stairs.
+Thither now she was herself conveyed, having first recovered
+sufficiently to stagger to the sofa where lay her dying husband. Those
+who witnessed this strange scene, say that she knelt and prayed--prayed
+for the orphan children she was leaving, and for her aged parents. The
+only expression of personal regret she was heard to utter, was sorrow
+that her father and mother should live to know she had perished in such
+a manner.
+
+In the chamber were now gathered Mrs. Whitman, Mrs. Hayes, Miss Bulee,
+Catharine Sager, thirteen years of age, and three of the sick children,
+besides Mr. Rogers and Mr. Kimble. Scarcely had they gained this retreat
+when the crashing of windows and doors was heard below, and with whoops
+and yells the savages dashed into the sitting-room where Doctor Whitman
+still lay dying. While some busied themselves removing from the house
+the goods and furniture, a chief named _Te-lau-ka-ikt_, a favorite at
+the mission, and on probation for admission into the church,
+deliberately chopped and mangled the face of his still breathing teacher
+and friend with his tomahawk, until every feature was rendered
+unrecognizable.
+
+The children from the school-house were brought into the kitchen of the
+Doctor's house about this time, by Jo Lewis, where, he told them, they
+were going to be shot. Mr. Spalding's little girl Eliza, was among them.
+Understanding the native language, she was fully aware of the terrible
+import of what was being said by their tormentors. While the Indians
+talked of shooting the children huddled together in the kitchen,
+pointing their guns, and yelling, Eliza covered her face with her apron,
+and leaned over upon the sink, that she might not see them shoot her.
+After being tortured in this manner for some time, the children were
+finally ordered out of doors.
+
+While this was going on, a chief called _Tamt-sak-y_, was trying to
+induce Mrs. Whitman to come down into the sitting-room.
+
+She replied that she was wounded and could not do so, upon which he
+professed much sorrow, and still desired her to be brought down, "If you
+are my friend _Tamt-sak-y_, come up and see me," was her reply to his
+professions, but he objected, saying there were Americans concealed in
+the chamber, whom he feared might kill him. Mr. Rogers then went to the
+head of the stairs and endeavored to have the chief come up, hoping
+there might be some friendly ones, who would aid them in escaping from
+the murderers. _Tamt-sak-y_, however, would not come up the stairs,
+although he persisted in saying that Mrs. Whitman should not be harmed,
+and that if all would come down and go over to the other house where the
+families were collected, they might do so in safety.
+
+The Indians below now began to call out that they were going to burn the
+Doctor's house. Then no alternative remained but to descend and trust to
+the mercy of the savages. As Mrs. Whitman entered the sitting-room,
+leaning on one arm of Mr. Rogers, who also was wounded in the head, and
+had a broken arm, she caught a view of the shockingly mutilated face of
+her husband and fell fainting upon the sofa, just as Doctor Whitman gave
+a dying gasp.
+
+Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Hayes now attempted to get the sofa, or settee, out
+of the house, and had succeeded in moving it through the kitchen to the
+door. No sooner did they appear in the open door-way than a volley of
+balls assailed them. Mr. Rogers fell at once, but did not die
+immediately, for one of the most horrid features in this horrid butchery
+was, that the victims were murdered by torturing degrees. Mrs. Whitman
+also received several gunshot wounds, lying on the settee. Francis
+Sager, the oldest of her adopted boys, was dragged into the group of
+dying ones and shot down.
+
+The children, who had been turned out of the kitchen were still huddled
+together about the kitchen door, so near to this awful scene that every
+incident was known to them, so near that the flashes from the guns of
+the Indians burnt their hair, and the odor of the blood and the burning
+powder almost suffocated them.
+
+At two o'clock in the afternoon the massacre had commenced. It was now
+growing dusk, and the demons were eager to finish their work. Seeing
+that life still lingered in the mangled bodies of their victims, they
+finished their atrocities by hurling them in the mud and gore which
+filled the yard, and beating them upon their faces with whips and clubs,
+while the air was filled with the noise of their shouting, singing, and
+dancing--the Indian women and children assisting at these orgies, as if
+the Bible had never been preached to them. And thus, after eleven years
+of patient endeavor to save some heathen souls alive, perished Doctor
+and Mrs. Whitman.
+
+In all that number of Indians who had received daily kindnesses at the
+hands of the missionaries, only two showed any compassion. These two,
+_Ups_ and _Madpool_, Walla-Wallas, who were employed by the Doctor, took
+the children away from the sickening sights that surrounded them, into
+the kitchen pantry, and there in secret tried to comfort them.
+
+When night set in the children and families were all removed to the
+building called the mansion-house, where they spent a night of horror;
+all, except those who were left in Mrs. Whitman's chamber, from which
+they dared not descend, and the family of Mr. Osborne, who escaped.
+
+On the first assault Mr. and Mrs. Osborne ran into their bedroom which
+adjoined the sitting-room, taking with them their three small children.
+Raising a plank in the floor, Mr. O. quickly thrust his wife and
+children into the space beneath, and then following, let the plank down
+to its place. Here they remained until darkness set in, able to hear all
+that was passing about them, and fearing to stir. When all was quiet at
+the Doctor's house, they stole out under cover of darkness and succeeded
+in reaching Fort Walla-Walla, after a painful journey of several days,
+or rather nights, for they dared not travel by day.
+
+Another person who escaped was a Mr. Hall, carpenter, who in a hand to
+hand contest with an Indian, received a wound in the face, but finally
+reached the cover of some bushes where he remained until dark, and then
+fled in the direction of Fort Walla-Walla. Mr. Hall was the first to
+arrive at the fort, where, contrary to his expectations, and to all
+humanity, he was but coldly received by the gentleman in charge, Mr.
+McBean.
+
+Whether it was from cowardice or cruelty as some alleged, that Mr.
+McBean rejoiced in the slaughter of the Protestant missionaries, himself
+being a Catholic, can never be known. Had that been true, one might have
+supposed that their death would have been enough, and that he might
+have sheltered a wounded man fleeing for his life, without grudging him
+this atom of comfort. Unfortunately for Mr. McBean's reputation, he
+declined to grant such shelter willingly. Mr. Hall remained, however,
+twelve hours, until he heard a report that the women and children were
+murdered, when, knowing how unwelcome he was, and being in a half
+distracted state, he consented to be set across the Columbia to make his
+way as best he could to the Wallamet. From this hour he was never seen
+or heard from, the manner of his death remaining a mystery to his wife
+and their family of five children, who were among the prisoners at
+Waiilatpu.
+
+When Mr. Osborne left the mission in the darkness, he was able only to
+proceed about two miles, before Mrs. Osborne's strength gave way, she
+lately having been confined by an untimely birth; and he was compelled
+to stop, secreting himself and family in some bushes. Here they
+remained, suffering with cold, and insufficient food, having only a
+little bread and cold mush which they had found in the pantry of the
+Doctor's house, before leaving it. On Tuesday night, Mrs. O. was able to
+move about three miles more: and again they were compelled to stop. In
+this way to proceed, they must all perish of starvation; therefore on
+Wednesday night Mr. O. took the second child and started with it for the
+fort, where he arrived before noon on Thursday.
+
+Although Mr. McBean received him with friendliness of manner, he refused
+him horses to go for Mrs. Osborne and his other children, and even
+refused to furnish food to relieve their hunger, telling him to go to
+the Umatilla, and forbidding his return to the fort. A little food was
+given to himself and child, who had been fasting since Monday night.
+Whether Mr. McBean would have allowed this man to perish is uncertain:
+but certain it is that some base or cowardly motive made him
+exceedingly cruel to both Hall and Osborne.
+
+While Mr. Osborne was partaking of his tea and crackers, there arrived
+at the fort Mr. Stanley, the artist, whom the reader will remember
+having met in the mountains several years before. When the case became
+known to him, he offered his horses immediately to go for Mrs. Osborne.
+Shamed into an appearance of humanity, Mr. McBean then furnished an
+Indian guide to accompany Mr. O. to the Umatilla, where he still
+insisted the fugitives should go, though this was in the murderer's
+country.
+
+A little meat and a few crackers were furnished for the supper of the
+travelers; and with a handkerchief for his hatless head and a pair of
+socks for his child's naked feet, all furnished by Mr. Stanley, Mr.
+Osborne set out to return to his suffering wife and children. He and his
+guide traveled rapidly, arriving in good time near the spot where he
+believed his family to be concealed. But the darkness had confused his
+recollection, and after beating the bushes until daylight, the unhappy
+husband and father was about to give up the search in despair, when his
+guide at length discovered their retreat.
+
+The poor mother and children were barely alive, having suffered much
+from famine and exposure, to say nothing of their fears. Mrs. Osborne
+was compelled to be tied to the Indian in order to sit her horse. In
+this condition the miserable fugitives turned toward the Umatilla, in
+obedience to the command of McBean, and were only saved from being
+murdered by a Cayuse by the scornful words of the guide, who shamed the
+murderer from his purpose of slaughtering a sick and defenceless family.
+At a Canadian farm-house, where they stopped to change horses, they were
+but roughly received; and learning here that _Tamt-sak-y's_ lodge was
+near by, Mrs. Osborne refused to proceed any farther toward the
+Umatilla. She said, "I doubt if I can live to reach the Umatilla; and if
+I must die, I may as well die at the gates of the Fort. Let us, then,
+turn back to the Fort."
+
+To this the guide assented, saying it was not safe going among the
+Cayuses. The little party, quite exhausted, reached Walla-Walla about
+ten o'clock at night, and were at once admitted. Contrary to his former
+course, Mr. McBean now ordered a fire made to warm the benumbed
+travelers, who, after being made tolerably comfortable, were placed in a
+secret room of the fort. Again Mr. Osborne was importuned to go away,
+down to the Wallamet, Mr. McBean promising to take care of his family
+and furnish him an outfit if he would do so. Upon being asked to furnish
+a boat, and Indians to man it, in order that the family might accompany
+him, he replied that his Indians refused to go.
+
+From all this reluctance, not only on the part of McBean, but of the
+Indians also, to do any act which appeared like befriending the
+Americans, it would appear that there was a very general fear of the
+Cayuse Indians, and a belief that they were about to inaugurate a
+general war upon the Americans, and their friends and allies. Mr.
+Osborne, however, refused to leave his family behind, and Mr. McBean was
+forced to let him remain until relief came. When it did come at last, in
+the shape of Mr. Ogden's party, _Stickas_, the chief who had warned Mr.
+Spalding, showed his kind feeling for the sufferers by removing his own
+cap and placing it on Mr. Osborne's head, and by tying a handkerchief
+over the ears of Mr. Osborne's little son, as he said, "to keep him
+warm, going down the river." Sadly indeed, did the little ones who
+suffered by the massacre at Waiilatpu, stand in need of any Christian
+kindness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+1847. A full account of the horrors of the Waiilatpu massacre, together
+with the individual sufferings of the captives whose lives were spared,
+would fill a volume, and be harrowing to the reader; therefore, only so
+much of it will be given here as, from its bearing upon Oregon history,
+is important to our narrative.
+
+The day following the massacre, being Tuesday, was the day on which Mr.
+Spalding was met and warned not to go to the mission, by the Vicar
+General, Brouillet. Happening at the mission on that day, and finding
+the bodies of the victims still unburied, Brouillet had them hastily
+interred before leaving, if interment it could be called which left them
+still a prey to wolves. The reader of this chapter of Oregon history
+will always be very much puzzled to understand by what means the
+Catholic priests procured their perfect exemption from harm during this
+time of terror to the Americans. Was it that they were French, and that
+they came into the country _only_ as missionaries of a religion adapted
+to the savage mind, and not as settlers? Was it at all owing to the fact
+that they were celibates, with no families to excite jealous feelings of
+comparison in the minds of their converts?
+
+Through a long and bitter war of words, which followed the massacre at
+Waiilatpu, terrible sins were charged upon the priests--no less than
+inciting the Indians to the murder of the Protestants, and winking at
+the atrocities of every kind committed by the savages. Whether they
+feared to enter into the quarrel, and were restrained from showing
+sympathy solely by this fear, is a question only themselves can
+determine. Certain it is, that they preserved a neutral position, when
+to be neutral was to seem, if not to be, devoid of human sympathies.
+That the event would have happened without any other provocation than
+such as the Americans furnished by their own reckless disregard of
+Indian prejudices, seems evident. The question, and the only question
+which is suggested by a knowledge of all the circumstances, is whether
+the event was helped on by an intelligent outside influence.
+
+It was quite natural that the Protestants should wonder at the immunity
+from danger which the priests enjoyed; and that, not clearly seeing the
+reason, they should suspect them of collusion with the Indians. It was
+natural, too, for the sufferers from the massacre to look for some
+expression of sympathy from any and all denominations of Christians; and
+that, not receiving it, they should have doubts of the motives which
+prompted such reserve. The story of that time is but an unpleasant
+record, and had best be lightly touched upon.
+
+The work of death and destruction did not close with the first day at
+Waiilatpu. Mr. Kimble, who had remained in the chamber of the Doctor's
+house all night, had suffered much from the pain of his broken arm. On
+Tuesday, driven desperate by his own sufferings, and those of the three
+sick children with him, one of whom was the little Helen Mar Meek, he
+resolved to procure some water from the stream which ran near the house.
+But he had not proceeded more than a few rods before he was shot down
+and killed instantly. The same day, a Mr. Young, from the saw-mill, was
+also killed. In the course of the week, Mr. Bulee, who was sick over at
+the mansion, was brutally murdered.
+
+Meanwhile the female captives and children were enduring such agony as
+seldom falls to the lot of humanity to suffer. Compelled to work for the
+Indians, their feelings were continually harrowed up by the terrible
+sights which everywhere met their eyes in going back and forth between
+the houses, in carrying water from the stream, or moving in any
+direction whatever. For the dead were not removed until the setting in
+of decay made it necessary to the Indians themselves.
+
+The goods belonging to the mission were taken from the store-room, and
+the older women ordered to make them up into clothing for the Indians.
+The buildings were plundered of everything which the Indians coveted;
+all the rest of their contents that could not be made useful to
+themselves were destroyed. Those of the captives who were sick were not
+allowed proper attention, and in a day or two Helen Mar Meek died of
+neglect.
+
+Thus passed four or five days. On Saturday a new horror was added to the
+others. The savages began to carry off the young women for wives. Three
+were thus dragged away to Indian lodges to suffer tortures worse than
+death. One young girl, a daughter of Mr. Kimble, was taken possession of
+by the murderer of her father, who took daily delight in reminding her
+of that fact, and when her sorrow could no longer be restrained, only
+threatened to exchange her for another young girl who was also a wife by
+compulsion.
+
+Miss Bulee, the eldest of the young women at the mission, and who was a
+teacher in the mission school, was taken to the Umatilla, to the lodge
+of _Five-Crows_. As has before been related, there was a house on the
+Umatilla belonging to _Tan-i-tan_, in which were residing at this time
+two Catholic priests--the Vicar-General Brouillet, and Blanchet, Bishop
+of Walla-Walla. To this house Miss Bulee applied for protection, and
+was refused, whether from fear, or from the motives subsequently
+attributed to them by some Protestant writers in Oregon, is not known to
+any but themselves. The only thing certain about it is, that Miss Bulee
+was allowed to be violently dragged from their presence every night, to
+return to them weeping in the morning, and to have her entreaties for
+their assistance answered by assurances from them that the wisest course
+for her was to submit. And this continued for more than two weeks, until
+the news of Mr. Ogden's arrival at Walla-Walla became known, when Miss
+Bulee was told that if _Five-Crows_ would not allow her to remain at
+their house altogether, she must remain at the lodge of _Five-Crows_
+without coming to their house at all, well knowing what _Five-Crows_
+would do, but wishing to have Miss Bulee's action seem voluntary, from
+shame perhaps, at their own cowardice. Yet the reason they gave ought to
+go for all it is worth--that they being priests could not have a woman
+about their house. In this unhappy situation did the female captives
+spend three most miserable weeks.
+
+In the meantime the mission at Lapwai had been broken up, but not
+destroyed, nor had any one suffered death as was at first feared. The
+intelligence of the massacre at Waiilatpu was first conveyed to Mrs.
+Spalding by a Mr. Camfield, who at the breaking out of the massacre,
+fled with his wife and children to a small room in the attic of the
+mansion, from the window of which he was able to behold the scenes which
+followed. When night came Mr. Camfield contrived to elude observation
+and descend into the yard, where he encountered a French Canadian long
+in the employ of Dr. Whitman, and since suspected to have been privy to
+the plan of the murders. To him Mr. Camfield confided his intention to
+escape, and obtained a promise that a horse should be brought to a
+certain place at a certain time for his use. But the Canadian failing
+to appear with his horse, Mr. C. set out on foot, and under cover of
+night, in the direction of the Lapwai mission. He arrived in the Nez
+Perce country on Thursday. On the following day he came upon a camp of
+these people, and procured from them a guide to Lapwai, without,
+however, speaking of what had occurred at Waiilatpu.
+
+The caution of Mr. Camfield relates to a trait of Indian character which
+the reader of Indian history must bear in mind, that is, the close
+relationship and identity of feeling of allied tribes. Why he did not
+inform the Nez Perces of the deed done by their relatives, the Cayuses,
+was because in that case he would have expected them to have sympathized
+with their allies, even to the point of making him a prisoner, or of
+taking his life. It is this fact concerning the Indian character, which
+alone furnishes an excuse for the conduct of Mr. McBean and the Catholic
+priests. Upon it Mr. Camfield acted, making no sign of fear, nor
+betraying any knowledge of the terrible matter on his mind to the Nez
+Perces.
+
+On Saturday afternoon Mr. C. arrived at Mrs. Spalding's house and
+dismissed his guide with the present of a buffalo robe. When he was
+alone with Mrs. Spalding he told his unhappy secret. It was then that
+the strength and firmness of Mrs. Spalding's character displayed itself
+in her decisive action. Well enough she knew the close bond between the
+Nez Perces and Cayuses, and also the treachery of the Indian character.
+But she saw that if affairs were left to shape themselves as Mr.
+Camfield entreated they might be left to do, putting off the evil
+day,--that when the news came from the Cayuses, there would be an
+outbreak.
+
+The only chance of averting this danger was to inform the chiefs most
+attached to her, at once, and throw herself and her family upon their
+mercy. Her resolution was taken not an hour too soon. Two of the chiefs
+most relied upon happened to be at the place that very afternoon, one of
+whom was called _Jacob_, and the other _Eagle_. To these two Mrs.
+Spalding confided the news without delay, and took counsel of them.
+According to her hopes, they assumed the responsibility of protecting
+her. One of them went to inform his camp, and give them orders to stand
+by Mrs. S., while the other carried a note to Mr. Craig, one of our
+Rocky Mountain acquaintances, who lived ten miles from the mission.
+
+_Jacob_ and _Eagle_, with two other friendly chiefs, decided that Mrs.
+S. must go to their camp near Mr. Craig's; because in case the Cayuses
+came to the mission as was to be expected, she would be safer with them.
+Mrs. S. however would not consent to make the move on the Sabbath, but
+begged to be allowed to remain quiet until Monday. Late Saturday evening
+Mr. Craig came down; and Mrs. Spalding endeavored with his assistance to
+induce the Indians to carry an express to Cimikain in the country of the
+Spokanes, where Messrs. Walker and Eells had a station. Not an Indian
+could be persuaded to go. An effort, also, was made by the heroic and
+suffering wife and mother, to send an express to Waiilatpu to learn the
+fate of her daughter, and if possible of her husband. But the Indians
+were none of them inclined to go. They said, without doubt all the women
+and children were slain. That Mr. Spalding was alive no one believed.
+
+The reply of Mrs. S. to their objections was that she could not believe
+that they were her friends if they would not undertake this journey, for
+the relief of her feelings under such circumstances. At length _Eagle_
+consented to go; but so much opposed were the others to having anything
+done which their relations, the Cayuses, might be displeased with, that
+it was nearly twenty-four hours before _Eagle_ got leave to go.
+
+On Monday morning a Nez Perce arrived from Waiilatpu with the news of
+what the Cayuses had done. With him were a number of Indians from the
+camp where Mr. Camfield had stopped for a guide, all eager for plunder,
+and for murder too, had not they found Mrs. Spalding protected by
+several chiefs. Her removal to their camp probably saved her from the
+fate of Mrs. Whitman.
+
+Among those foremost in plundering the mission buildings at Lapwai were
+some of the hitherto most exemplary Indians among the Nez Perces. Even
+the chief, first in authority after Ellis, who was absent, was prominent
+in these robberies. For eight years had this chief, Joseph, been a
+member of the church at Lapwai, and sustained a good reputation during
+that time. How bitter must have been the feelings of Mrs. Spalding, who
+had a truly devoted missionary heart, when she beheld the fruit of her
+life's labor turned to ashes in her sight as it was by the conduct of
+Joseph and his family.
+
+Shortly after the removal of Mrs. Spalding, and the pillaging of the
+buildings, Mr. Spalding arrived at Lapwai from his long and painful
+journey during which he had wandered much out of his way, and suffered
+many things. His appearance was the signal for earnest consultations
+among the Nez Perces who were not certain that they might safely give
+protection to him without the consent of the Cayuses. To his petition
+that they should carry a letter express to Fort Colville or Fort
+Walla-Walla, they would not consent. Their reason for refusing seemed to
+be a fear that such a letter might be answered by an armed body of
+Americans, who would come to avenge the deaths of their countrymen.
+
+To deprive them of this suspicion, Mr. Spalding told them that as he
+had been robbed of everything, he had no means of paying them for their
+services to his family, and that it was necessary to write to
+Walla-Walla for blankets, and to the Umatilla for his horses. He assured
+them that he would write to his countrymen to keep quiet, and that they
+had nothing to fear from the Americans. The truth was, however, that he
+had forwarded through Brouillet, a letter to Gov. Abernethy asking for
+help which could only come into that hostile country armed and equipped
+for war.
+
+Late in the month of December there arrived in Oregon City to be
+delivered to the governor, sixty-two captives, bought from the Cayuses
+and Nez Perces by Hudson's Bay blankets and goods; and obtained at that
+price by Hudson's Bay influence. "No other power on earth," says Joe
+Meek, the American, "could have rescued those prisoners from the hands
+of the Indians;" and no man better than Mr. Meek understood the Indian
+character, or the Hudson's Bay Company's power over them.
+
+The number of victims to the Waiilatpu massacre was fourteen. None
+escaped who had not to mourn a father, brother, son, or friend. If "the
+blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," there ought to arise on
+the site of Waiilatpu a generation of extraordinary piety. As for the
+people for whom a noble man and woman, and numbers of innocent persons
+were sacrificed, they have returned to their traditions; with the
+exception of the Nez Perces, who under the leadership of their old
+teacher Mr. Spalding, have once more resumed the pursuits of civilized
+and Christianized nations.
+
+The description of Waiilatpu at the present time given on the following
+page, is from "_All Over Oregon and Washington_" by the author of this
+book.
+
+"Waiilatpu is just that--a creek-bottom--the creeks on either side of it
+fringed with trees; higher land shutting out the view in front;
+isolation and solitude the most striking features of the place. Yet here
+came a man and a woman to live and to labor among the savages, when all
+the old Oregon territory was an Indian country. Here stood the station
+erected by them: _adobe_ houses, a mill, a school-house for the Indians,
+shops, and all the necessary appurtenances of an isolated settlement.
+Nothing remains to-day but mounds of earth, into which the _adobes_ were
+dissolved by weather, after burning.
+
+"A few rods away, on the side of the hill, is a different mound: the
+common grave of fourteen victims of savage superstition, jealousy, and
+wrath. It is roughly inclosed by a board fence, and has not a shrub or a
+flower to disguise its terrible significance. The most affecting
+reminders of wasted effort which remain on the old Mission-grounds are
+the two or three apple-trees which escaped the general destruction, and
+the scarlet poppies which are scattered broadcast through the
+creek-bottom near the houses. Sadly significant it is that the flower
+whose evanescent bloom is the symbol of unenduring joys, should be the
+only tangible witness left of the womanly tastes and labors of the
+devoted Missionary who gave her life a sacrifice to ungrateful Indian
+savagery.
+
+"The place is occupied, at present, by one of Dr. Whitman's early
+friends and co-laborers, who claimed the Mission-ground, under the
+Donation Act, and who was first and most active in founding the seminary
+to the memory of a Christian gentleman and martyr. On the identical spot
+where stood the Doctor's residence, now stands the more modern one of
+his friend; and he seems to take a melancholy pleasure in keeping in
+remembrance the events of that unhappy time, which threw a gloom over
+the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+1847-8. When the contents of Mr. Douglas' letter to the governor became
+known to the citizens of the Wallamet settlement, the greatest
+excitement prevailed. On the reading of that letter, and those
+accompanying it, before the House, a resolution was immediately
+introduced authorizing the governor to raise a company of riflemen, not
+to exceed fifty in number, to occupy and hold the mission station at the
+Dalles, until a larger force could be raised, and such measures adopted
+as the government might think advisable. This resolution being sent to
+the governor without delay, received his approval, when the House
+adjourned.
+
+A large meeting of the citizens was held that evening, which was
+addressed by several gentlemen, among whom was Meek, whose taste for
+Indian fighting was whetted to keenness by the aggravating circumstances
+of the Waiilatpu massacre, and the fact that his little Helen Mar was
+among the captives. Impatient as was Meek to avenge the murders, he was
+too good a mountain-man to give any rash advice. All that could be done
+under the existing circumstances was to trust to the Hudson's Bay
+Company for the rescue of the prisoners, and to take such means for
+defending the settlements as the people in their unarmed condition could
+devise.
+
+The legislature undertook the settlement of the question of ways and
+means. To raise money for the carrying out of the most important
+measures immediately, was a task which after some consideration was
+entrusted to three commissioners; and by these commissioners letters
+were addressed to the Hudson's Bay Company, the superintendent of the
+Methodist mission, and to the "merchants and citizens of Oregon." The
+latter communication is valuable as fully explaining the position of
+affairs at that time in Oregon. It is dated Dec. 17th, and was as
+follows:
+
+     GENTLEMEN:--You are aware that the undersigned have been charged by
+     the legislature of our provisional government with the difficult
+     duty of obtaining the necessary means to arm, equip, and support in
+     the field a force sufficient to obtain full satisfaction of the
+     Cayuse Indians, for the late massacre at Waiilatpu, and to protect
+     the white population of our common country from further aggression.
+
+     In furtherance of this object they have deemed it their duty to
+     make immediate application to the merchants and citizens of the
+     country for the requisite assistance.
+
+     Though clothed with the power to pledge, to the fullest extent, the
+     faith and means of the present government of Oregon, they do not
+     consider this pledge the only security to those who, in this
+     distressing emergency, may extend to the people of this country the
+     means of protection and redress.
+
+     Without claiming any special authority from the government of the
+     United States to contract a debt to be liquidated by that power,
+     yet, from all precedents of like character in the history of our
+     country, the undersigned feel confident that the United States
+     government will regard the murder of the late Dr. Whitman and his
+     lady, as a national wrong, and will fully justify the people of
+     Oregon in taking active measures to obtain redress for that
+     outrage, and for their protection from further aggression.
+
+     The right of self-defence is tacitly acknowledged to every body
+     politic in the confederacy to which we claim to belong, and in
+     every case similar to our own, within our knowledge, the general
+     government has promptly assumed the payment of all liabilities
+     growing out of the measures taken by the constituted authorities,
+     to protect the lives and property of those who reside within the
+     limits of their districts.
+
+     If the citizens of the States and territories, east of the Rocky
+     mountains, are justified in promptly acting in such emergencies,
+     who are under the immediate protection of the general government,
+     there appears no room for doubt that the lawful acts of the Oregon
+     government will receive a like approval.
+
+     Though the Indians of the Columbia have committed a great outrage
+     upon our fellow citizens passing through their country, and
+     residing among them, and their punishment for these murders may,
+     and ought to be, a prime object with every citizen of Oregon, yet,
+     as that duty more particularly devolves upon the government of the
+     United States, and admits of delay, we do not make this the
+     strongest ground upon which to found our earnest appeal to you for
+     pecuniary assistance. It is a fact well known to every person
+     acquainted with the Indian character, that, by passing silently
+     over their repeated thefts, robberies, and murders of our
+     fellow-citizens, they have been emboldened to the commission of the
+     appalling massacre at Waiilatpu. They call us women, destitute of
+     the hearts and courage of men, and if we allow this wholesale
+     murder to pass by as former aggressions, who can tell how long
+     either life or property will be secure in any part of this country,
+     or what moment the Willamette will be the scene of blood and
+     carnage.
+
+     The officers of our provisional government have nobly performed
+     their duty. None can doubt the readiness of the patriotic sons of
+     the west to offer their personal services in defence of a cause so
+     righteous. So it now rests with you, gentlemen, to say whether our
+     rights and our fire-sides shall be defended, or not.
+
+     Hoping that none will be found to falter in so high and so sacred a
+     duty, we beg leave, gentlemen, to subscribe ourselves,
+
+     Your servants and fellow-citizens,
+     JESSE APPLEGATE,
+     A.L. LOVEJOY,
+     GEO. L. CURRY,
+     _Commissioners_.
+
+A similar letter had been addressed to the Hudson's Bay Company, and to
+the Methodist mission. From each of these sources such assistance was
+obtained as enabled the colony to arm and equip the first regiment of
+Oregon riflemen, which in the month of January proceeded to the Cayuse
+country. The amount raised, however, was very small, being less than
+five thousand dollars, and it became imperatively necessary that the
+government of the United States should be called upon to extend its aid
+and protection to the loyal but distressed young territory.
+
+In view of this necessity it was resolved in the legislature to send a
+messenger to carry the intelligence of the massacre to Gov. Mason of
+California, and through him to the commander of the United States
+squadron in the Pacific, that a vessel of war might be sent into the
+Columbia River, and arms and ammunition borrowed for the present
+emergency, from the nearest arsenal. For this duty was chosen Jesse
+Applegate, Esq., a gentleman who combined in his character and person
+the ability of the statesman with the sagacity and strength of the
+pioneer. Mr. Applegate, with a small party of brave men, set out in
+midwinter to cross the mountains into California, but such was the depth
+of snow they encountered that traveling became impossible, even after
+abandoning their horses, and they were compelled to return.
+
+The messenger elected to proceed to the United States was Joseph L.
+Meek, whose Rocky Mountain experiences eminently fitted him to encounter
+the dangers of such a winter journey, and whose manliness, firmness, and
+ready wit stood him instead of statesmanship.
+
+On the 17th December Meek resigned his seat in the House in order to
+prepare for the discharge of his duty as messenger to the United States.
+On the 4th of January, armed with his credentials from the Oregon
+legislature, and bearing dispatches from that body and the Governor to
+the President, he at length set out on the long and perilous expedition,
+having for traveling companions Mr. John Owens, and Mr. George
+Ebbarts--the latter having formerly been a Rocky Mountain man, like
+himself.
+
+At the Dalles they found the first regiment of Oregon Riflemen, under
+Major Lee, of the newly created army of Oregon. From the reports which
+the Dalles Indians brought in of the hostility of the Indians beyond the
+Des Chutes River it was thought best not to proceed before the arrival
+of the remainder of the army, when all the forces would proceed at once
+to Waiilatpu. Owing to various delays, the army, consisting of about
+five hundred men, under Colonel Gilliam, did not reach the Dalles until
+late in January, when the troops proceeded at once to the seat of war.
+
+The reports concerning the warlike disposition of the Indians proved to
+be correct. Already, the Wascopams or Dalles Indians had begun robbing
+the mission at that place, when Colonel Lee's arrival among them with
+troops had compelled them to return the stolen property. As the army
+advanced they found that all the tribes above the Dalles were holding
+themselves prepared for hostilities. At Well Springs, beyond the Des
+Chutes River, they were met by a body of about six hundred Indians to
+whom they gave battle, soon dispersing them, the superior arms and
+equipments of the whites tending to render timid those tribes yet
+unaccustomed to so superior an enemy. From thence to Waiilatpu the
+course of the army was unobstructed.
+
+In the meantime the captives had been given up to the Hudson's Bay
+Company, and full particulars of the massacre were obtained by the army,
+with all the subsequent abuses and atrocities suffered by the prisoners.
+The horrible details were not calculated to soften the first bitterness
+of hatred which had animated the volunteers on going into the field. Nor
+was the appearance of an armed force in their midst likely to allay the
+hostile feelings with which other causes had inspired the Indians. Had
+not the captives already been removed out of the country, no influence,
+not even that of the Hudson's Bay Company, could have prevailed to get
+them out of the power of their captors then. Indeed, in order to treat
+with the Cayuses in the first place, Mr. Ogden had been obliged to
+promise peace to the Indians, and now they found instead of peace, every
+preparation for war. However, as the army took no immediate action, but
+only remained in their country to await the appearance of the
+commissioners appointed by the legislature of Oregon to hold a council
+with the chiefs of the various tribes, the Cayuses were forced to
+observe the outward semblance of amity while these councils were
+pending.
+
+Arrived at Waiilatpu, the friends and acquaintances of Dr. Whitman were
+shocked to find that the remains of the victims were still unburied,
+although a little earth had been thrown over them. Meek, to whom, ever
+since his meeting with her in the train of the fur-trader, Mrs. Whitman
+had seemed all that was noble and captivating, had the melancholy
+satisfaction of bestowing, with others, the last sad rite of burial upon
+such portions of her once fair person as murder and the wolves had not
+destroyed. Some tresses of golden hair were severed from the brow so
+terribly disfigured, to be given to her friends in the Wallamet as a
+last and only memorial. Among the State documents at Salem, Oregon, may
+still be seen one of these relics of the Waiilatpu tragedy.
+
+Not only had Meek to discover and inter the remains of Dr. and Mrs.
+Whitman, but also of his little girl, who was being educated at the
+mission, with a daughter of his former leader, Bridger.
+
+This sad duty performed, he immediately set out, escorted by a company
+of one hundred men under Adjutant Wilcox, who accompanied him as far as
+the foot of the Blue Mountains. Here the companies separated, and Meek
+went on his way to Washington.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+1848. Meek's party now consisted of himself, Ebbarts, Owens, and four
+men, who being desirous of returning to the States took this
+opportunity. However, as the snow proved to be very deep on the Blue
+Mountains, and the cold severe, two of these four volunteers became
+discouraged and concluded to remain at Fort Boise, where was a small
+trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company.
+
+In order to avoid trouble with the Indians he might meet on the western
+side of the Rocky mountains, Meek had adopted the red belt and Canadian
+cap of the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company; and to this precaution
+was owing the fact of his safe passage through the country now all
+infected with hostility caught from the Cayuses. About three days'
+travel beyond Fort Boise, the party met a village of Bannack Indians,
+who at once made warlike demonstrations; but on seeing Meek's costume,
+and receiving an invitation to hold a 'talk', desisted, and received the
+travelers in a friendly manner. Meek informed the chief, with all the
+gravity which had won for him the name of "_shiam shuspusia_" among the
+Crows in former years, that he was going on the business of the Hudson's
+Bay Company to Fort Hall; and that Thomas McKay was a day's march behind
+with a large trading party, and plenty of goods. On the receipt of this
+good news, the chief ordered his braves to fall back, and permit the
+party to pass. Yet, fearing the deception might be discovered, they
+thought it prudent to travel day and night until they reached Fort Hall.
+
+At this post of the Hudson's Bay Company, in charge of Mr. Grant, they
+were kindly received, and stopped for a few hours of rest. Mr. Grant
+being absent, his wife provided liberally for the refreshment of the
+party, who were glad to find themselves even for a short interval under
+a roof, beside a fire and partaking of freshly cooked food. But they
+permitted themselves no unnecessary delay. Before night they were once
+more on their way, though snow had now commenced to fall afresh,
+rendering the traveling very difficult. For two days they struggled on,
+their horses floundering in the soft drifts, until further progress in
+that manner became impossible. The only alternative left was to abandon
+their horses and proceed on snow-shoes, which were readily constructed
+out of willow sticks.
+
+Taking only a blanket and their rifles, and leaving the animals to find
+their way back to Fort Hall, the little party pushed on. Meek was now on
+familiar ground, and the old mountain spirit which had once enabled him
+to endure hunger, cold, and fatigue without murmuring, possessed him
+now. It was not without a certain sense of enjoyment that he found
+himself reduced to the necessity of shooting a couple of pole-cats to
+furnish a supper for himself and party. How long the enjoyment of
+feeling want would have lasted is uncertain, but probably only long
+enough to whet the appetite for plenty.
+
+To such a point had the appetites of all the party been whetted, when,
+after several days of scarcity and toil, followed by nights of emptiness
+and cold, Meek had the agreeable surprise of falling in with an old
+mountain comrade on the identical ground of many a former adventure, the
+head-waters of Bear River. This man, whom Meek was delighted to meet,
+was Peg-leg Smith, one of the most famous of many well-known
+mountain-men. He was engaged in herding cattle in the valley of Thomas'
+Fork, where the tall grass was not quite buried under snow, and had with
+him a party of ten men.
+
+Meek was as cordially received by his former comrade as the unbounded
+hospitality of mountain manners rendered it certain he would be. A fat
+cow was immediately sacrificed, which, though not buffalo meat, as in
+former times it would have been, was very good beef, and furnished a
+luxurious repast to the pole-cat eaters of the last several days.
+Smith's camp did not lack the domestic element of women and children,
+any more than had the trapper's camps in the flush times of the
+fur-trade. Therefore, seeing that the meeting was most joyful, and full
+of reminiscences of former winter camps, Smith thought to celebrate the
+occasion by a grand entertainment. Accordingly, after a great deal of
+roast beef had been disposed of, a dance was called for, in which white
+men and Indian women joined with far more mirth and jollity than grace
+or ceremony. Thus passed some hours of the night, the bearer of
+dispatches seizing, in true mountain style, the passing moment's
+pleasure, so long as it did not interfere with the punctilious discharge
+of his duty. And to the honor of our hero be it said, nothing was ever
+allowed to interfere with that.
+
+Refreshed and provided with rations for a couple of days, the party
+started on again next morning, still on snow-shoes, and traveled up Bear
+River to the head-waters of Green River, crossing from the Muddy fork
+over to Fort Bridger, where they arrived very much fatigued but quite
+well in little more than three days' travel. Here again it was Meek's
+good fortune to meet with his former leader, Bridger, to whom he related
+what had befallen him since turning pioneer. The meeting was joyful on
+both sides, clouded only by the remembrance of what had brought it
+about, and the reflection that both had a personal wrong to avenge in
+bringing about the punishment of the Cayuse murderers.
+
+Once more Meek's party were generously fed, and furnished with such
+provisions as they could carry about their persons. In addition to this,
+Bridger presented them with four good mules, by which means the
+travelers were mounted four at a time, while the fifth took exercise on
+foot; so that by riding or walking, turn about, they were enabled to get
+on very well as far as the South Pass. Here again for some distance the
+snow was very deep, and two of their mules were lost in it. Their course
+lay down the Sweetwater River, past many familiar hunting and camping
+grounds, to the Platte River. Owing to the deep snows, game was very
+scarce, and a long day of toil was frequently closed by a supperless
+sleep under shelter of some rock or bank, with only a blanket for cover.
+At Red Buttes they were so fortunate as to find and kill a single
+buffalo, which, separated from the distant herd, was left by Providence
+in the path of the famished travelers.
+
+On reaching the Platte River they found the traveling improved, as well
+as the supply of game, and proceeded with less difficulty as far as Fort
+Laramie, a trading post in charge of a French trader named Papillion.
+Here again fresh mules were obtained, and the little party treated in
+the most hospitable manner. In parting from his entertainer, Meek was
+favored with this brief counsel:
+
+"There is a village of Sioux, of about six hundred lodges, a hundred
+miles from here. Your course will bring you to it. Look out for
+yourself, and don't make a Gray muss of it!"--which latter clause
+referred to the affair of 1837, when the Sioux had killed the Indian
+escort of Mr. Gray.
+
+When the party arrived at Ash Hollow, which they meant to have passed in
+the night, on account of the Sioux village, the snow was again falling
+so thickly that the party had not perceived their nearness to the
+village until they were fairly in the midst of it. It was now no safer
+to retreat than to proceed; and after a moment's consultation, the word
+was given to keep on. In truth, Meek thought it doubtful whether the
+Sioux would trouble themselves to come out in such a tempest, and if
+they did so, that the blinding snow-fall was rather in his favor. Thus
+reasoning, he was forcing his mule through the drifts as rapidly as the
+poor worried animal could make its way, when a head was protruded from a
+lodge door, and "Hallo, Major!" greeted his ear in an accent not
+altogether English.
+
+On being thus accosted, the party came to a halt, and Meek was invited
+to enter the lodge, with his friends. His host on this occasion was a
+French trader named Le Bean, who, after offering the hospitalities of
+the lodge, and learning who were his guests, offered to accompany the
+party a few miles on its way. This he did, saying by way of explanation
+of this act of courtesy, "The Sioux are a bad people; I thought it best
+to see you safe out of the village." Receiving the thanks of the
+travelers, he turned back at night-fall, and they continued on all night
+without stopping to camp, going some distance to the south of their
+course before turning east again, in order to avoid any possible
+pursuers.
+
+Without further adventures, and by dint of almost constant travel, the
+party arrived at St. Joseph, Mo., in safety, in a little over two
+months, from Portland, Oregon. Soon afterwards, when the circumstances
+of this journey became known, a steamboat built for the Missouri River
+trade was christened the _Joseph L. Meek_, and bore for a motto, on her
+pilot-house, "The quickest trip yet," in reference both to Meek's
+overland journey and her own steaming qualities.
+
+As Meek approached the settlements, and knew that he must soon be thrown
+into society of the highest official grade, and be subjected to such
+ordeals as he dreaded far more than Indian fighting, or even traveling
+express across a continent of snow, the subject of how he was to behave
+in these new and trying positions very frequently occurred to him. He,
+an uneducated man, trained to mountain life and manners, without money,
+or even clothes, with nothing to depend on but the importance of his
+mission and his own mother wit, he felt far more keenly than his
+careless appearance would suggest, the difficulties and awkwardness of
+his position.
+
+"I thought a great deal about it," confesses the Col. Joseph L. Meek of
+to-day, "and I finally concluded that as I had never tried to act like
+anybody but myself, I would not make myself a fool by beginning to ape
+other folks now. So I said, 'Joe Meek you always have been, and Joe Meek
+you shall remain; go ahead, Joe Meek!'"
+
+In fact, it would have been rather difficult putting on fine gentleman
+airs, in that old worn-out hunting suit of his, and with not a dollar to
+bless himself. On the contrary, it needed just the devil-may-care temper
+which naturally belonged to our hero, to carry him through the remainder
+of his journey to Washington. To be hungry, ill-clad, dirty, and
+penniless, is sufficient in itself for the subduing of most spirits; how
+it affected the temper of the messenger from Oregon we shall now learn.
+
+When the weary little party arrived in St. Joseph, they repaired to a
+hotel, and Meek requested that a meal should be served for all, but
+frankly confessing that they had no money to pay. The landlord, however,
+declined furnishing guests of his style upon such terms, and our
+travelers were forced to go into camp below the town. Meek now bethought
+himself of his letters of introduction. It chanced that he had one from
+two young men among the Oregon volunteers, to their father in St Joseph.
+Stopping a negro who was passing his camp, he inquired whether such a
+gentleman was known to him; and on learning that he was, succeeded in
+inducing the negro to deliver the letter from his sons.
+
+This movement proved successful. In a short space of time the gentleman
+presented himself, and learning the situation of the party, provided
+generously for their present wants, and promised any assistance which
+might be required in future. Meek, however, chose to accept only that
+which was imperatively needed, namely, something to eat, and
+transportation to some point on the river where he could take a steamer
+for St. Louis. A portion of his party chose to remain in St. Joseph, and
+a portion accompanied him as far as Independence, whither this same St.
+Joseph gentleman conveyed them in his carriage.
+
+While Meek was stopping at Independence, he was recognized by a sister,
+whom he had not seen for nineteen years; who, marrying and emigrating
+from Virginia, had settled on the frontier of Missouri. But he gave
+himself no time for family reunion and gossip. A steamboat that had been
+frozen up in the ice all winter, was just about starting for St. Louis,
+and on board of this he went, with an introduction to the captain, which
+secured for him every privilege the boat afforded, together with the
+kindest attention of its officers.
+
+When the steamer arrived in St. Louis, by one of those fortuitous
+circumstances so common in our hero's career, he was met at the landing
+by Campbell, a Rocky Mountain trader who had formerly belonged to the
+St. Louis Company. This meeting relieved him of any care about his
+night's entertainment in St. Louis, and it also had another effect--that
+of relieving him of any further care about the remainder of his journey;
+for, after hearing Meek's story of the position of affairs in Oregon and
+his errand to the United States, Campbell had given the same to the
+newspaper reporters, and Meek, like Byron, waked up next morning to find
+himself famous.
+
+[Illustration: MEEK AS STEAMBOAT RUNNER.]
+
+Having telegraphed to Washington, and received the President's order to
+come on, the previous evening, our hero wended his way to the levee the
+morning after his arrival in St. Louis. There were two steamers lying
+side by side, both up for Pittsburg, with runners for each, striving to
+outdo each other in securing passengers. A bright thought occurred to
+the moneyless envoy--he would earn his passage!
+
+Walking on board one of the boats, which bore the name of _The
+Declaration_, himself a figure which attracted all eyes by his size and
+outlandish dress, he mounted to the hurricane deck and began to
+harrangue the crowd upon the levee, in the voice of a Stentor:
+
+"This way, gentlemen, if you please. Come right on board the
+_Declaration_. I am the man from Oregon, with dispatches to the
+President of these United States, that you all read about in this
+morning's paper. Come on board, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to
+hear the news from Oregon. I've just come across the plains, two months
+from the Columbia River, where the Injuns are killing your missionaries.
+Those passengers who come aboard the _Declaration_ shall hear all about
+it before they get to Pittsburg. Don't stop thar, looking at my old
+wolf-skin cap, but just come aboard, and hear what I've got to tell!"
+
+The novelty of this sort of solicitation operated capitally. Many
+persons crowded on board the _Declaration_ only to get a closer look at
+this picturesque personage who invited them, and many more because they
+were really interested to know the news from the far off young territory
+which had fallen into trouble. So it chanced that the _Declaration_ was
+inconveniently crowded on this particular morning.
+
+After the boat had got under way, the captain approached his roughest
+looking cabin passenger and inquired in a low tone of voice if he were
+really and truly the messenger from Oregon.
+
+"Thar's what I've got to show for it;" answered Meek, producing his
+papers.
+
+"Well, all I have to say is, Mr. Meek, that you are the best runner this
+boat ever had; and you are welcome to your passage ticket, and anything
+you desire besides."
+
+Finding that his bright thought had succeeded so well, Meek's spirit
+rose with the occasion, and the passengers had no reason to complain
+that he had not kept his word. Before he reached Wheeling his popularity
+was immense, notwithstanding the condition of his wardrobe. At
+Cincinnati he had time to present a letter to the celebrated Doctor
+----, who gave him another, which proved to be an 'open sesame' wherever
+he went thereafter.
+
+On the morning of his arrival in Wheeling it happened that the stage
+which then carried passengers to Cumberland, where they took the train
+for Washington, had already departed. Elated by his previous good
+fortune our ragged hero resolved not to be delayed by so trivial a
+circumstance; but walking pompously into the stage office inquired, with
+an air which must have smacked strongly of the mock-heroic, if he "could
+have a stage for Cumberland?"
+
+The nicely dressed, dignified elderly gentleman who managed the business
+of the office, regarded the man who proffered this modest request for a
+moment in motionless silence, then slowly raising the spectacles over
+his eyes to a position on his forehead, finished his survey with
+unassisted vision. Somewhat impressed by the manner in which Meek bore
+this scrutiny, he ended by demanding "who are you?"
+
+Tickled by the absurdity of the tableau they were enacting, Meek
+straightened himself up to his six feet two, and replied with an air of
+superb self assurance--
+
+"I am Envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the Republic
+of Oregon to the Court of the United States!"
+
+After a pause in which the old gentleman seemed to be recovering from
+some great surprise, he requested to see the credentials of this
+extraordinary envoy. Still more surprised he seemed on discovering for
+himself that the personage before him was really a messenger from Oregon
+to the government of the United States. But the effect was magical. In a
+moment the bell-rope was pulled, and in an incredibly short space of
+time a coach stood at the door ready to convey the waiting messenger on
+his way to Washington.
+
+In the meantime in a conversation with the stage agent, Meek had
+explained more fully the circumstances of his mission, and the agent had
+become much interested. On parting, Meek received a ticket to the Relay
+House, with many expressions of regret from the agent that he could
+ticket him no farther.
+
+"But it is all the same," said he; "you are sure to go through."
+
+"Or run a train off the track," rejoined Meek, as he was bowed out of
+the office.
+
+It happened that there were some other passengers waiting to take the
+first stage, and they crowded into this one, glad of the unexpected
+opportunity, but wondering at the queer looking passenger to whom the
+agent was so polite. This scarcely concealed curiosity was all that was
+needed to stimulate the mad-cap spirits of our so far "conquering hero."
+Putting his head out of the window just at the moment of starting, he
+electrified everybody, horses included, by the utterance of a war-whoop
+and yell that would have done credit to a wild Camanche. Satisfied with
+the speed to which this demoniac noise had excited the driver's prancing
+steeds, he quietly ensconced himself in his corner of the coach and
+waited for his fellow passengers to recover from their stunned
+sensations. When their complete recovery had been effected, there
+followed the usual questioning and explanations, which ended in the
+inevitable lionizing that was so much to the taste of this sensational
+individual.
+
+On the cars at Cumberland, and at the eating-houses, the messenger from
+Oregon kept up his sensational character, indulging in alternate fits of
+mountain manners, and again assuming a disproportionate amount of
+grandeur; but in either view proving himself very amusing. By the time
+the train reached the Relay House, many of the passengers had become
+acquainted with Meek, and were prepared to understand and enjoy each new
+phase of his many-sided comicality.
+
+The ticket with which the stage agent presented him, dead-headed him
+only to this point. Here again he must make his poverty a jest, and joke
+himself through to Washington. Accordingly when the conductor came
+through the car in which he, with several of his new acquaintances were
+sitting, demanding tickets, he was obliged to tap his blanketed
+passenger on the shoulder to attract his attention to the "ticket, sir!"
+
+"_Ha ko any me ca, hanch?_" said Meek, starting up and addressing him in
+the Snake tongue.
+
+"Ticket, sir!" repeated the conductor, staring.
+
+"_Ka hum pa, hanch?_" returned Meek, assuming a look which indicated
+that English was as puzzling to him, as Snake to other people.
+
+Finding that his time would be wasted on this singular passenger, the
+conductor went on through the train; returning after a time with a fresh
+demand for his ticket. But Meek sustained his character admirably, and
+it was only through the excessive amusement of the passengers that the
+conductor suspected that he was being made the subject of a practical
+joke. At this stage of affairs it was privately explained to him who
+and what his waggish customer was, and tickets were no more mentioned
+during the journey.
+
+On the arrival of the train at Washington, the heart of our hero became
+for a brief moment of time "very little." He felt that the importance of
+his mission demanded some dignity of appearance--some conformity to
+established rules and precedents. But of the latter he knew absolutely
+nothing; and concerning the former, he realized the absurdity of a
+dignitary clothed in blankets and a wolf-skin cap. 'Joe Meek I must
+remain,' said he to himself, as he stepped out of the train, and glanced
+along the platform at the crowd of porters with the names of their
+hotels on their hat-bands. Learning from inquiry that Coleman's was the
+most fashionable place, he decided that to Coleman's he would go,
+judging correctly that it was best to show no littleness of heart even
+in the matter of hotels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+1848. When Meek arrived at Coleman's it was the dinner hour, and
+following the crowd to the dining saloon, he took the first seat he came
+to, not without being very much stared at. He had taken his cue and the
+staring was not unexpected, consequently not so embarrassing as it might
+otherwise have been. A bill of fare was laid beside his plate. Turning
+to the colored waiter who placed it there, he startled him first by
+inquiring in a low growling voice--
+
+"What's that boy?"
+
+"Bill of fare, sah," replied the "boy," who recognized the Southerner in
+the use of that one word.
+
+"Read!" growled Meek again. "The people in _my_ country can't read."
+
+Though taken by surprise, the waiter, politely obedient, proceeded to
+enumerate the courses on the bill of fare. When he came to game----
+
+"Stop thar, boy!" commanded Meek, "what kind of game?"
+
+"Small game, sah."
+
+"Fetch me a piece of antelope," leaning back in his chair with a look of
+satisfaction on his face.
+
+"Got none of that sah; don't know what that ar' sah."
+
+"Don't know!" with a look of pretended surprise. "In _my_ country
+antelope and deer ar' small game; bear and buffalo ar' large game. I
+reckon if you haven't got one, you haven't got the other, either. In
+that case you may fetch me some beef."
+
+The waiter disappeared grinning, and soon returned with the customary
+thin and small cut, which Meek eyed at first contemptuously, and then
+accepting it in the light of a sample swallowed it at two mouthfuls,
+returning his plate to the waiter with an approving smile, and saying
+loud enough to be overheard by a score of people----
+
+"Boy, that will do. Fetch me about four pounds of the same kind."
+
+By this time the blanketed beef-eater was the recipient of general
+attention, and the "boy" who served him comprehending with that
+quickness which distinguishes servants, that he had no ordinary
+backwoodsman to deal with, was all the time on the alert to make himself
+useful. People stared, then smiled, then asked each other "who is it?"
+loud enough for the stranger to hear. Meek looked neither to the right
+nor to the left, pretending not to hear the whispering. When he had
+finished his beef, he again addressed himself to the attentive "boy."
+
+"That's better meat than the old mule I eat in the mountains."
+
+Upon this remark the whispering became more general, and louder, and
+smiles more frequent.
+
+"What have you got to drink, boy?" continued Meek, still unconscious.
+"Isn't there a sort of wine called--some kind of _pain_?"
+
+"Champagne, sah?"
+
+"That's the stuff, I reckon; bring me some."
+
+While Meek drank his champagne, with an occasional aside to his faithful
+attendant, people laughed and wondered "who the devil it was." At
+length, having finished his wine, and overhearing many open inquiries as
+to his identity, the hero of many bear-fights slowly arose, and
+addressing the company through the before-mentioned "boy," said:
+
+"You want to know who I am?"
+
+"If you please, sah; yes, if you please, sah, for the sake of these
+gentlemen present," replied the "boy," answering for the company.
+
+"Wall then," proclaimed Meek with a grandiloquent air quite at variance
+with his blanket coat and unkempt hair, yet which displayed his fine
+person to advantage, "I am Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
+Plenipotentiary from the Republic of Oregon to the Court of the United
+States!"
+
+With that he turned and strode from the room. He had not proceeded far,
+however, before he was overtaken by a party of gentlemen in pursuit.
+Senator Underwood of Kentucky immediately introduced himself, calling
+the envoy by name, for the dispatch from St. Louis had prepared the
+President and the Senate for Meek's appearance in Washington, though it
+had not advised them of his style of dress and address. Other gentlemen
+were introduced, and questions followed questions in rapid succession.
+
+When curiosity was somewhat abated, Meek expressed a wish to see the
+President without delay. To Underwood's question as to whether he did
+not wish to make his toilet before visiting the White House, his reply
+was, "business first, and toilet afterwards."
+
+"But," said Underwood, "even your business can wait long enough for
+that."
+
+"No, that's your mistake, Senator, and I'll tell you why: I can't dress,
+for two reasons, both good ones. I've not got a cent of money, nor a
+second suit of clothes."
+
+The generous Kentuckian offered to remove the first of the objections
+on the spot, but Meek declined. "I'll see the President first, and hear
+what he has to say about my mission." Then calling a coach from the
+stand, he sprang into it, answering the driver's question of where he
+would be taken, with another inquiry.
+
+"Whar should a man of _my_ style want to go?--to the White House, of
+course!" and so was driven away amid the general laughter of the
+gentlemen in the portico at Coleman's, who had rather doubted his
+intention to pay his respects to the President in his dirty blankets.
+
+He was admitted to the Presidential mansion by a mulatto of about his
+own age, with whom he remembered playing when a lad, for it must be
+remembered that the Meeks and Polks were related, and this servant had
+grown up in the family. On inquiring if he could see the President, he
+was directed to the office of the private Secretary, Knox Walker, also a
+relative of Meek's on the mother's side.
+
+On entering he found the room filled with gentlemen waiting to see the
+President, each when his turn to be admitted should arrive. The
+Secretary sat reading a paper, over the top of which he glanced but once
+at the new comer, to ask him to be seated. But Meek was not in the humor
+for sitting. He had not traveled express for more than two months, in
+storm and cold, on foot and on horseback, by day and by night, with or
+without food, as it chanced, to sit down quietly now and wait. So he
+took a few turns up and down the room, and seeing that the Secretary
+glanced at him a little curiously, stopped and said:
+
+"I should like to see the President immediately. Just tell him if you
+please that there is a gentleman from Oregon waiting to see him on very
+important business."
+
+At the word _Oregon_, the Secretary sprang up, dashed his paper to the
+ground, and crying out "Uncle Joe!" came forward with both hands
+extended to greet his long lost relative.
+
+"Take care, Knox! don't come too close," said Meek stepping back, "I'm
+ragged, dirty, and--lousy."
+
+[Illustration: "TAKE CARE, KNOX."]
+
+But Walker seized his cousin's hand, without seeming fear of the
+consequences, and for a few moments there was an animated exchange of
+questions and answers, which Meek at last interrupted to repeat his
+request to be admitted to the President without delay. Several times the
+Secretary turned to leave the room, but as often came back with some
+fresh inquiry, until Meek fairly refused to say another word, until he
+had delivered his dispatches.
+
+When once the Secretary got away he soon returned with a request from
+the President for the appearance of the Oregon messenger, all other
+visitors being dismissed for that day. Polk's reception proved as
+cordial as Walker's had been. He seized the hand of his newly found
+relative, and welcomed him in his own name, as well as that of messenger
+from the distant, much loved, and long neglected Oregon. The interview
+lasted for a couple of hours. Oregon affairs and family affairs were
+talked over together; the President promising to do all for Oregon that
+he could do; at the same time he bade Meek make himself at home in the
+Presidential mansion, with true southern hospitality.
+
+But Meek, although he had carried off his poverty and all his
+deficiencies in so brave a style hitherto, felt his assurance leaving
+him, when, his errand performed, he stood in the presence of rank and
+elegance, a mere mountain-man in ragged blankets, whose only wealth
+consisted of an order for five hundred dollars on the Methodist mission
+in New York, unavailable for present emergencies. And so he declined the
+hospitalities of the White House, saying he "could make himself at home
+in an Indian wigwam in Oregon, or among the Rocky Mountains, but in the
+residence of the chief magistrate of a great nation, he felt out of
+place, and ill at ease."
+
+Polk, however, would listen to no refusal, and still further abashed his
+Oregon cousin by sending for Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Walker, to make his
+acquaintance. Says Meek:
+
+"When I heard the silks rustling in the passage, I felt more frightened
+than if a hundred Blackfeet had whooped in my ear. A mist came over my
+eyes, and when Mrs. Polk spoke to me I couldn't think of anything to say
+in return."
+
+But the ladies were so kind and courteous that he soon began to see a
+little, though not quite plainly while their visit lasted. Before the
+interview with the President and his family was ended, the poverty of
+the Oregon envoy became known, which led to the immediate supplying of
+all his wants. Major Polk was called in and introduced; and to him was
+deputed the business of seeing Meek "got up" in a style creditable to
+himself and his relations. Meek avers that when he had gone through the
+hands of the barber and tailor, and surveyed himself in a full length
+mirror, he was at first rather embarrassed, being under the impression
+that he was being introduced to a fashionable and decidedly good-looking
+gentleman, before whose overpowering style he was disposed to shrink,
+with the old familiar feeling of being in blankets.
+
+But Meek was not the sort of man to be long in getting used to a
+situation however novel or difficult. In a very short time he was _au
+fait_ in the customs of the capital. His perfect frankness led people to
+laugh at his errors as eccentricities; his good looks and natural
+_bonhomie_ procured him plenty of admirers; while his position at the
+White House caused him to be envied and lionized at once.
+
+On the day following his arrival the President sent in a message to
+Congress accompanied by the memorial from the Oregon legislature and
+other documents appertaining to the Oregon cause. Meek was introduced to
+Benton, Oregon's indefatigable friend, and received from him the kindest
+treatment; also to Dallas, President of the Senate; Douglas, Fremont,
+Gen. Houston, and all the men who had identified themselves with the
+interests of the West.
+
+It should be stated that only a short time previous to the Waiilatpu
+massacre a delegate had left Oregon for Washington, by ship around Cape
+Horn, who had been accredited by the governor of the colony only, and
+that the legislature had subsequently passed resolutions expressive of
+their disapproval of "secret factions," by which was meant the mission
+party, whose delegate Mr. Thornton was.
+
+It so happened that, by reason of the commander of the _Portsmouth_
+having assumed it to be a duty to convey Mr. Thornton from La Paz, where
+through the infidelity of the Captain of the _Whitton_, he was stranded,
+he was enabled to reach the States early in the Spring, arriving in fact
+a week or two before Meek reached Washington. Thus Oregon had two
+representatives, although not entitled to any: nor had either a right to
+a seat in either House; yet to one this courtesy was granted, while the
+two together controlled more powerful influences than were ever before
+or since brought to bear on the fate of any single territory of the
+United States. While Mr. Thornton sat among Senators as a sort of
+consulting member or referee, but without a vote; Meek had the private
+ear of the President, and mingled freely among members of both Houses,
+in a social character, thereby exercising a more immediate influence
+than his more learned coadjutor.
+
+In the meantime our hero was making the most of his advantages. He went
+to dinners and champagne suppers, besides giving an occasional one of
+the latter. At the presidential levees he made himself agreeable to
+witty and distinguished ladies, answering innumerable questions about
+Oregon and Indians, generally with a veil of reserve between himself and
+the questioner whenever the inquiries became, as they sometimes would,
+disagreeably searching. Again the spirit of perversity and mischief led
+him to make his answers so very direct as to startle or bewilder the
+questioner.
+
+On one occasion a lady with whom he was promenading a drawing-room at
+some Senator's reception, admiring his handsome physique perhaps, and
+wondering if any woman owned it, finally ventured the question--was he
+married?
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Meek, with emphasis, "I have a wife and several
+children."
+
+"Oh dear," exclaimed the lady, "I should think your wife would be _so_
+afraid of the Indians!"
+
+"Afraid of the Indians!" exclaimed Meek in his turn; "why, madam, she is
+an Indian herself!"
+
+No further remarks on the subject were ventured that evening; and it is
+doubtful if the lady did not take his answer as a rebuke to her
+curiosity rather than the plain truth that it was.
+
+Meek found his old comrade, Kit Carson, in Washington, staying with
+Fremont at the house of Senator Benton. Kit, who had left the mountains
+as poor as any other of the mountain-men, had no resource at that time
+except the pay furnished by Fremont for his services as guide and
+explorer in the California and Oregon expeditions; where, in fact, it
+was Carson and not Fremont who deserved fame as a path-finder. However
+that may be, Carson had as little money as men of his class usually
+have, and needed it as much. So long as Meek's purse was supplied, as it
+generally was, by some member of the family at the White House, Carson
+could borrow from him. But one being quite as careless of money as the
+other, they were sometimes both out of pocket at the same time. In that
+case the conversation was apt to take a turn like this:
+
+_Carson._ Meek, let me have some money, can't you?
+
+_Meek._ I haven't got any money, Kit.
+
+_Carson._ Go and get some.
+
+_Meek._ ---- it, whar am I to get money from?
+
+_Carson._ Try the "contingent fund," can't you?
+
+Truth to tell the contingent fund was made to pay for a good many things
+not properly chargeable to the necessary expenditures of "Envoy
+Extraordinary" like our friend from Oregon.
+
+The favoritism with which our hero was everywhere received was something
+remarkable, even when all the circumstances of his relationship to the
+chief magistrate, and the popularity of the Oregon question were
+considered. Doubtless the novelty of having a bear-fighting and
+Indian-fighting Rocky Mountain man to lionize, was one great secret of
+the furore which greeted him wherever he went; but even that fails to
+account fully for the enthusiasm he awakened, since mountain-men had
+begun to be pretty well known and understood, from the journal of
+Fremont and other explorers. It could only have been the social genius
+of the man which enabled him to overcome the impediments of lack of
+education, and the associations of half a lifetime. But whatever was the
+fortunate cause of his success, he enjoyed it to the full. He took
+excursions about the country in all directions, petted and spoiled like
+any "curled darling" instead of the six-foot-two Rocky Mountain trapper
+that he was.
+
+In June he received an invitation to Baltimore, tendered by the city
+council, and was received by that body with the mayor at its head, in
+whose carriage he was conveyed to Monument Square, to be welcomed by a
+thousand ladies, smiling and showering roses upon him as he passed. And
+kissing the roses because he could not kiss the ladies, he bowed and
+smiled himself past the festive groups waiting to receive the messenger
+from Oregon. Music, dining, and the parade usual to such occasions
+distinguished this day, which Meek declares to have been the proudest of
+his life; not denying that the beauty of the Baltimore ladies
+contributed chiefly to produce that impression.
+
+On the fourth of July, Polk laid the corner stone of the National
+Monument. The occasion was celebrated with great _eclat_, the address
+being delivered by Winthrop, the military display, and the fire-works in
+the evening being unusually fine. In the procession General Scott and
+staff rode on one side of the President's carriage, Col. May and Meek
+on the other,--Meek making a great display of horsemanship, in which as
+a mountain-man he excelled.
+
+[Illustration: _A MOUNTAIN-MAN IN CLOVER._]
+
+A little later in the summer Meek joined a party of Congressmen who were
+making campaign speeches in the principal cities of the north. At
+Lowell, Mass., he visited the cotton factories, and was equally
+surprised at the extent of the works, and the number of young women
+employed in them. Seeing this, the forewoman requested him to stop until
+noon and see the girls come out. As they passed in review before him,
+she asked if he had made his choice.
+
+"No," replied the gallant Oregonian, "it would be impossible to choose,
+out of such a lot as that; I should have to take them all."
+
+If our hero, under all his gaity smothered a sigh of regret that he was
+not at liberty to take _one_--a woman like those with whom for the first
+time in his life he was privileged to associate--who shall blame him?
+The kind of life he was living now was something totally different to
+anything in the past. It opened to his comprehension delightful
+possibilities of what might have been done and enjoyed under other
+circumstances, yet which now never could be done or enjoyed, until
+sometimes he was ready to fly from all these allurements, and hide
+himself again in the Rocky Mountains. Then again by a desperate effort,
+such thoughts were banished, and he rushed more eagerly than before into
+every pleasure afforded by the present moment, as if to make the present
+atone for the past and the future.
+
+The kindness of the ladies at the White House, while it was something to
+be grateful for, as well as to make him envied, often had the effect to
+disturb his tranquility by the suggestions it gave rise to. Yet he was
+always demanding it, always accepting it. So constantly was he the
+attendant of his lady cousins in public and in private, riding and
+driving, or sauntering in the gardens of the presidential mansion, that
+the less favored among their acquaintances felt called upon to believe
+themselves aggrieved. Often, as the tall form of our hero was seen with
+a lady on either arm promenading the gardens at evening, the question
+would pass among the curious but uninitiated--"Who is that?" And the
+reply of some jealous grumbler would be--"It is that ---- Rocky Mountain
+man," so loud sometimes as to be overheard by the careless trio, who
+smothered a laugh behind a hat or a fan.
+
+And so passed that brief summer of our hero's life. A great deal of
+experience, of sight-seeing, and enjoyment had been crowded into a short
+few months of time. He had been introduced to and taken by the hand by
+the most celebrated men of the day. Nor had he failed to meet with men
+whom he had known in the mountains and in Oregon. His old employer,
+Wilkes, who was ill in Washington, sent for him to come and tell "some
+of those Oregon lies" for his amusement, and Meek, to humor him,
+stretched some of his good stories to the most wonderful dimensions.
+
+But from the very nature of the enjoyment it could not last long; it was
+too vivid and sensational for constant wear. Feeling this, he began to
+weary of Washington, and more particularly since he had for the last few
+weeks been stopping away from the White House. In one of his restless
+moods he paid a visit to Polk, who detecting the state of his mind asked
+laughingly----
+
+"Well, Meek, what do you want now?"
+
+"I want to be franked."
+
+"How long will five hundred dollars last you?"
+
+"About as many days as there ar' hundreds, I reckon."
+
+"You are shockingly extravagant, Meek. Where do you think all this money
+is to come from?"
+
+"It is not my business to know, Mr. President," replied Meek, laughing,
+"but it _is_ the business of these United States to pay the expenses of
+the messenger from Oregon, isn't it?"
+
+"I think I will send you to the Secretary of War to be franked, Meek;
+his frank is better than mine. But no, stay; I will speak to Knox about
+it this time. And you must not spend your money so recklessly, Meek; it
+will not do--it will not do."
+
+Meek thanked the President both for the money and the advice, but gave a
+champagne supper the next night, and in a week's time was as
+empty-handed as ever.
+
+The close of the session was at hand and nothing had been done except to
+talk. Congress was to adjourn at noon on Monday, August 14th, and it was
+now Saturday the 12th. The friends of Oregon were anxious; the two
+waiting Oregonians nearly desperate. On this morning of the 12th, the
+friends of the bill, under Benton's lead, determined upon obtaining a
+vote on the final passage of the bill; resolving that they would not
+yield to the usual motions for delay and adjournments, but that they
+would, if necessary, sit until twelve o'clock Monday.
+
+Saturday night wore away; the Sabbath morning's sun arose; and at last,
+two hours after sunrise, a consultation was held between Butler, Mason,
+Calhoun, Davis, and Foote, which resulted in the announcement that no
+further opposition would be offered to taking the vote upon the final
+passage of the Oregon bill. The vote was then taken, the bill passed,
+and the weary Senate adjourned, to meet again on Monday for a final
+adjournment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+1848-9. The long suspense ended, Meek prepared to return to Oregon, if
+not without some regrets, at the same time not unwillingly. His restless
+temper, and life-long habits of unrestrained freedom began to revolt
+against the conventionality of his position in Washington. Besides, in
+appointing officers for the new territory, Polk had made him United
+States Marshal, than which no office could have suited him better, and
+he was as prompt to assume the discharge of its duties, as all his life
+he had been to undertake any duty to which his fortunes assigned him.
+
+On the 20th of August, only six days after the passage of the
+territorial bill, he received his papers from Buchanan, and set off for
+Bedford Springs, whither the family from the White House were flown to
+escape from the suffocating air of Washington in August. He had brought
+his papers to be signed by Polk, and being expected by the President
+found everything arranged for his speedy departure; Polk even ordering a
+seat for him in the upcoming coach, by telegraph. On learning this from
+the President, at dinner, when the band was playing, Meek turned to the
+leader and ordered him to play "Sweet Home," much to the amusement of
+his lady cousins, who had their own views of the sweets of a home in
+Oregon. A hurried farewell, spoken to each of his friends separately,
+and Oregon's new Marshal was ready to proceed on his long journey toward
+the Pacific.
+
+The occasion of Polk's haste in the matter of getting Meek started, was
+his anxiety to have the Oregon government become a fact before the
+expiration of his term of office. The appointment of Governor of the new
+territory had been offered to Shields, and declined. Another commission
+had been made out, appointing General Joseph Lane of Indiana, Governor
+of Oregon, and the commission was that day signed by the President and
+given to Meek to be delivered to Lane in the shortest possible time. His
+last words to the Marshal on parting were--"God bless you, Meek. Tell
+Lane to have a territorial government organized during my
+administration."
+
+Of the ten thousand dollars appropriated by Congress "to be expended
+under the direction of the President, in payment for services and
+expenses of such persons as had been engaged by the provisional
+government of Oregon in conveying communications to and from the United
+States; and for purchase of presents for such Indian tribes as the peace
+and quiet of the country required"--Thornton received two thousand six
+hundred dollars, Meek seven thousand four hundred, and the Indian tribes
+none. Whether the President believed that the peace and quiet of the
+country did not require presents to be made to the Indians, or whether
+family credit required that Meek should get the lion's share, is not
+known. However that may be, our hero felt himself to be quite rich, and
+proceeded to get rid of his superfluity, as will hereafter be seen, with
+his customary prodigality and enjoyment of the present without regard to
+the future.
+
+Before midnight on the day of his arrival at the springs, Meek was on
+his way to Indiana to see General Lane. Arriving at the Newburg landing
+one morning at day-break, he took horse immediately for the General's
+residence at Newburg, and presented him with his commission soon after
+breakfast. Lane sat writing, when Meek, introducing himself, laid his
+papers before him.
+
+"Do you accept?" asked Meek.
+
+"Yes," answered Lane.
+
+"How soon can you be ready to start?"
+
+"In fifteen minutes!" answered Lane, with military promptness.
+
+Three days, however, were actually required to make the necessary
+preparations for leaving his farm and proceeding to the most remote
+corner of the United States territory.
+
+At St. Louis they were detained one day, waiting for a boat to
+Leavenworth, where they expected to meet their escort. This one day was
+too precious to be lost in waiting by so business-like a person as our
+hero, who, when nothing more important was to be done generally was
+found trying to get rid of his money. So, on this occasion, after having
+disburdened himself of a small amount in treating the new Governor and
+all his acquaintances, he entered into negotiations with a peddler who
+was importuning the passengers to buy everything, from a jack-knife to a
+silk dress.
+
+Finding that Nat. Lane, the General's son, wanted a knife, but was
+disposed to beat down the price, Meek made an offer for the lot of a
+dozen or two, and thereby prevented Lane getting one at any price. Not
+satisfied with this investment, he next made a purchase of three whole
+pieces of silk, at one dollar and fifty cents per yard. At this stage of
+the transaction General Lane interfered sufficiently to inquire "what he
+expected to do with that stuff?"
+
+"Can't tell," answered Meek; "but I reckon it is worth the money."
+
+"Better save your money," said the more prudent Lane. But the
+incorrigible spendthrift only laughed, and threatened to buy out the
+Jew's entire stock, if Lane persisted in preaching economy.
+
+At St. Louis, besides his son Nat., Lane was met by Lieut. Hawkins, who
+was appointed to the command of the escort of twenty-five riflemen, and
+Dr. Hayden, surgeon of the company. This party proceeded to Leavenworth,
+the point of starting, where the wagons and men of Hawkins' command
+awaited them. At this place, Meek was met by a brother and two sisters
+who had come to look on him for the first time in many years. The two
+days' delay which was necessary to get the train ready for a start,
+afforded an opportunity for this family reunion, the last that might
+ever occur between its widely separated branches, new shoots from which
+extend at this day from Virginia to Alabama, and from Tennessee to
+California and Oregon.
+
+By the 10th of September the new government was on its way to Oregon in
+the persons of Lane and Meek. The whole company of officers, men, and
+teamsters, numbered about fifty-five; the wagons ten; and riding-horses,
+an extra supply for each rider.
+
+The route taken, with the object to avoid the snows of a northern
+winter, was from Leavenworth to Santa Fe, and thence down the Rio Grande
+to near El Paso; thence northwesterly by Tucson, in Arizona; thence to
+the Pimas village on the Gila River; following the Gila to its junction
+with the Colorado, thence northwesterly again to the Bay of San Pedro in
+California. From this place the company were to proceed by ship to San
+Francisco; and thence again by ship to the Columbia River.
+
+On the Santa Fe trail they met the army returning from Mexico, under
+Price, and learned from them that they could not proceed with wagons
+beyond Santa Fe. The lateness of the season, although it was not
+attended with snow, as on the northern route it would have been,
+subjected the travelers nevertheless to the strong, cold winds which
+blow over the vast extent of open country between the Missouri River and
+the high mountain range which forms the water-shed of the continent. It
+also made it more difficult to subsist the animals, especially after
+meeting Price's army, which had already swept the country bare.
+
+On coming near Santa Fe, Meek was riding ahead of his party, when he had
+a most unexpected encounter. Seeing a covered traveling carriage drawn
+up under the shade of some trees growing beside a small stream, not far
+off from the trail, he resolved, with his usual love of adventure, to
+discover for himself the character of the proprietor. But as he drew
+nearer, he discovered no one, although a camp-table stood under the
+trees, spread with refreshments, not only of a solid, but a fluid
+nature. The sight of a bottle of cognac induced him to dismount, and he
+was helping himself to a liberal glass, when a head was protruded from a
+covering of blankets inside the carriage, and a heavy bass voice was
+heard in a polite protest:
+
+"Seems to me, stranger, you are making free with my property!"
+
+"Here's to you, sir," rejoined the purloiner; "it isn't often I find as
+good brandy as that,"--holding out the glass admiringly,--"but when I
+do, I make it a point of honor not to pass it."
+
+"May I inquire your name, sir?" asked the owner of the brandy, forced to
+smile at the good-humored audacity of his guest.
+
+"I couldn't refuse to give my name after that,"--replacing the glass on
+the table,--"and I now introduce myself as Joseph L. Meek, Esq.,
+Marshal of Oregon, on my way from Washington to assist General Lane in
+establishing a territorial Government west of the Rocky Mountains."
+
+"Meek!--what, not the Joe Meek I have heard my brothers tell so much
+about?"
+
+"Joe Meek is my name; but whar did your brothers know me?" inquired our
+hero, mystified in his turn.
+
+"I think you must have known Captain William Sublette and his brother
+Milton, ten or twelve years ago, in the Rocky Mountains," said the
+gentleman, getting out of the carriage, and approaching Meek with
+extended hand.
+
+A delighted recognition now took place. From Solomon Sublette, the owner
+of the carriage and the cognac, Meek learned many particulars of the
+life and death of his former leaders in the mountains. Neither of them
+were then living; but this younger brother, Solomon, had inherited
+Captain Sublette's wife and wealth at the same time. After these
+explanations, Mr. Sublette raised the curtains of the carriage again,
+and assisted to descend from it a lady, whom he introduced as his wife,
+and who exhibited much gratification in becoming acquainted with the
+hero of many a tale recited to her by her former husband, Captain
+Sublette.
+
+In the midst of this pleasant exchange of reminiscences, the remainder
+of Meek's party rode up, were introduced, and invited to regale
+themselves on the fine liquors with which Mr. Sublette's carriage proved
+to be well furnished. This little adventure gave our hero much pleasure,
+as furnishing a link between the past and present, and bringing freshly
+to mind many incidents already beginning to fade in his memory.
+
+At Santa Fe, the train stopped to be overhauled and reconstructed. The
+wagons having to be abandoned, their contents had to be packed on
+mules, after the manner of mountain or of Mexican travel and
+transportation. This change accomplished, with as little delay as
+possible, the train proceeded without any other than the usual
+difficulties, as far as Tucson, when two of the twenty-five riflemen
+deserted, having become suddenly enamored of liberty, in the dry and
+dusty region of southern Arizona.
+
+Lieutenant Hawkins, immediately on discovering the desertion, dispatched
+two men, well armed, to compel their return. One of the men detailed for
+this duty belonged to the riflemen, but the other was an American, who,
+with a company of Mexican packers, had joined the train at Santa Fe, and
+was acting in the capacity of pilot. In order to fit out this volunteer
+for the service, always dangerous, of retaking deserting soldiers, Meek
+had lent him his Colt's revolvers. It was a vain precaution, however,
+both the men being killed in attempting to capture the deserters; and
+Meek's pistols were never more heard of, having fallen into the
+murderous hands of the runaways.
+
+Drouth now began to be the serious evil with which the travelers had to
+contend. From the Pimas villages westward, it continually grew worse,
+the animals being greatly reduced from the want both of food and water.
+At the crossing of the Colorado, the animals had to be crossed over by
+swimming, the officers and men by rafts made of bulrushes. Lane and Meek
+being the first to be ferried over, were landed unexpectedly in the
+midst of a Yuma village. The Indians, however, gave them no trouble,
+and, except the little artifice of drowning some of the mules at the
+crossing, in order to get their flesh to eat, committed neither murders
+nor thefts, nor any outrage whatever.
+
+[Illustration: _GOVERNOR LANE AND MARSHAL MEEK ENROUTE TO OREGON._]
+
+It was quite as well for the unlucky mules to be drowned and eaten as
+it was for their fellows to travel on over the arid desert before them
+until they starved and perished, which they nearly all did. From the
+Colorado on, the company of Lieut. Hawkins became thoroughly
+demoralized. Not only would the animals persist in dying, several in a
+day, but the soldiers also persisted in deserting, until, by the time he
+reached the coast, his forlorn hope was reduced to three men. But it was
+not the drouth in their case which caused the desertions: it was rumors
+which they heard everywhere along the route, of mines of gold and
+silver, where they flattered themselves they could draw better pay than
+from Uncle Sam's coffers.
+
+The same difficulty from desertion harassed Lieutenant-Colonel Loring in
+the following summer, when he attempted to establish a line of posts
+along the route to Oregon, by the way of Forts Kearney, Laramie, and
+through the South Pass to Fort Hall. His mounted rifle regiment dwindled
+down to almost nothing. At one time, over one hundred men deserted in a
+body: and although he pursued and captured seventy of them, he could not
+keep them from deserting again at the first favorable moment. The bones
+of many of those gold-seeking soldiers were left on the plains, where
+wolves had stripped the flesh from them; and many more finally had rude
+burial at the hands of fellow gold-seekers: but few indeed ever won or
+enjoyed that for which they risked everything.
+
+On arriving at Cook's wells, some distance beyond the Colorado, our
+travelers found that the water at this place was tainted by the body of
+a mule which had lost its life some days before in endeavoring to get at
+the water. This was a painful discovery for the thirsty party to make.
+However, there being no water for some distance ahead, General Lane
+boiled some of it, and made coffee of it, remarking that "maggots were
+more easily swallowed cooked than raw!"
+
+And here the writer, and no doubt, the reader too, is compelled to make
+a reflection. Was the office of Governor of a Territory at fifteen
+hundred dollars a year, and Indian agent at fifteen hundred more, worth
+a journey of over three thousand miles, chiefly by land, even allowing
+that there had been no maggots in the water? _Quien sabe?_
+
+Not far from this locality our party came upon one hundred wagons
+abandoned by Major Graham, who had not been able to cross the desert
+with them. Proceeding onward, the riders eventually found themselves on
+foot, there being only a few animals left alive to transport the baggage
+that could not be abandoned. So great was their extremity, that to
+quench their thirst the stomach of a mule was opened to get at the
+moisture it contained. In the horror and pain of the thirst-fever, Meek
+renewed again the sufferings he had undergone years before in the
+deserts inhabited by Diggers, and on the parched plains of the Snake
+River.
+
+About the middle of January the Oregon Government, which had started out
+so gaily from Fort Leavenworth, arrived weary, dusty, foot-sore,
+famished, and suffering, at William's Ranch on the Santa Anna River,
+which empties into the Bay of San Pedro. Here they were very kindly
+received, and their wants ministered to.
+
+At this place Meek developed, in addition to his various
+accomplishments, a talent for speculation. While overhauling his
+baggage, the knives and the silk which had been purchased of the
+_peddler_ in St. Louis, were brought to light. No sooner did the
+senoritas catch a glimpse of the shining fabrics than they went into
+raptures over them, after the fashion of their sex. Seeing the state of
+mind to which these raptures, if unheeded, were likely to reduce the
+ladies of his house, Mr. Williams approached Meek delicately on the
+subject of purchase. But Meek, in the first flush of speculative
+shrewdness declared that as he had bought the goods for his own wife, he
+could not find it in his heart to sell them.
+
+However, as the senoritas were likely to prove inconsolable, Mr.
+Williams again mentioned the desire of his family to be clad in silk,
+and the great difficulty, nay, impossibility, of obtaining the much
+coveted fabric in that part of the world, and accompanied his remarks
+with an offer of ten dollars a yard for the lot. At this magnificent
+offer our hero affected to be overcome by regard for the feelings of the
+senoritas, and consented to sell his dollar and a-half silks for ten
+dollars per yard.
+
+In the same manner, finding that knives were a desirable article in that
+country, very much wanted by miners and others, he sold out his dozen or
+two, for an ounce each of gold-dust, netting altogether the convenient
+little profit of about five hundred dollars. When Gen. Lane was informed
+of the transaction, and reminded of his objections to the original
+purchase, he laughed heartily.
+
+"Well, Meek," said he, "you were drunk when you bought them, and by ----
+I think you must have been drunk when you sold them; but drunk or sober,
+I will own you can beat me at a bargain."
+
+Such bargains, however, became common enough about this time in
+California, for this was the year memorable in California history, of
+the breaking out of the gold-fever, and the great rush to the mines
+which made even the commonest things worth their weight in gold-dust.
+
+Proceeding to Los Angelos, our party, once more comfortably mounted,
+found traveling comparatively easy. At this place they found quartered
+the command of Maj. Graham, whose abandoned wagons had been passed at
+the _Hornella_ on the Colorado River. The town, too, was crowded with
+miners, men of every class, but chiefly American adventurers, drawn
+together from every quarter of California and Mexico by the rumor of the
+gold discovery at Sutter's Fort.
+
+On arriving at San Pedro, a vessel--the _Southampton_, was found ready
+to sail. She had on board a crowd of fugitives from Mexico, bound to San
+Francisco, where they hoped to find repose from the troubles which
+harassed that revolutionary Republic.
+
+At San Francisco, Meek was surprised to meet about two hundred
+Oregonians, who on the first news of the gold discovery the previous
+autumn, had fled, as it is said men shall flee on the day of
+judgment--leaving the wheat ungathered in the fields, the grain unground
+in the mills, the cattle unherded on the plains, their tools and farming
+implements rusting on the ground--everything abandoned as if it would
+never more be needed, to go and seek the shining dust, which is vainly
+denominated "filthy lucre." The two hundred were on their way home,
+having all either made something, or lost their health by exposure so
+that they were obliged to return. But they left many more in the mines.
+
+Such were the tales told in San Francisco of the wonderful fortunes of
+some of the miners that young Lane became infected with the universal
+fever and declared his intention to try mining with the rest. Meek too,
+determined to risk something in gold-seeking, and as some of the
+teamsters who had left Fort Leavenworth with the company, and had come
+as far as San Francisco, were very desirous of going to the mines, Meek
+fitted out two or three with pack-horses, tools, and provisions, to
+accompany young Lane. For the money expended in the outfit he was to
+receive half of their first year's profits. The result of this venture
+was three pickle-jars of gold-dust, which were sent to him by the hands
+of Nat. Lane, the following year; and which just about reimbursed him
+for the outlay.
+
+At San Francisco, Gen. Lane found the U.S. Sloop of War, the _St.
+Mary's_; and Meek insisted that the Oregon government, which was
+represented in their persons, had a right to require her services in
+transporting itself to its proper seat. But Lane, whose notions of
+economy extended, singularly enough, to the affairs of the general
+government, would not consent to the needless expenditure. Meek was
+rebellious, and quoted Thornton, by whom he was determined not to be
+outdone in respect of expense for transportation. Lane insisted that his
+dignity did not require a government vessel to convey him to Oregon. In
+short the new government was very much divided against itself, and only
+escaped a fall by Meek's finding some one, or some others, else, on whom
+to play his pranks.
+
+The first one was a Jew peddler who had gentlemen's clothes to sell. To
+him the Marshal represented himself as a United States Custom officer,
+and after frightening him with a threat of confiscating his entire
+stock, finally compromised with the terrified Israelite by accepting a
+suit of clothes for himself. After enjoying the mortification of spirit
+which the loss inflicted on the Jew, for twenty-four hours, he finally
+paid him for the clothes, at the same time administering a lecture upon
+the sin and danger of smuggling.
+
+The party which had left Leavenworth for Oregon nearly six months
+before, numbering fifty-five, now numbered only seven. Of the original
+number two had been killed, and all the rest had deserted to go to the
+mines. There remained only Gen. Lane, Meek, Lieut. Hawkins and Hayden,
+surgeon, besides three soldiers. With this small company Gen. Lane went
+on board the _Jeanette_, a small vessel, crowded with miners, and
+destined for the Columbia River. As the _Jeanette_ dropped down the Bay,
+a salute was fired from the _St. Mary's_ in honor of Gen. Lane, and
+appropriated to himself by Marshal Meek, who seems to have delighted in
+appropriating to himself all the honors in whatever circumstances he
+might be placed; the more especially too, if such assumption annoyed the
+General.
+
+After a tedious voyage of eighteen days the _Jeanette_ arrived in the
+Columbia River. From Astoria the party took small boats for Oregon City,
+a voyage of one hundred and twenty miles; so that it was already the 2d
+of March when they arrived at that place, and only one day was left for
+the organization of the Territorial Government before the expiration of
+Polk's term of office.
+
+On the 2d of March Gen. Lane arrived at Oregon City, and was introduced
+to Gov. Abernethy, by Marshal Meek. On the 3d, there appeared the
+following--
+
+     PROCLAMATION.
+
+     In pursuance of an act of Congress, approved the 14th of August, in
+     the year of our Lord 1848, establishing a Territorial Government in
+     the Territory of Oregon:
+
+     I, Joseph Lane, was, on the 18th day of August, in the year 1848,
+     appointed Governor in and for the Territory of Oregon. I have
+     therefore thought it proper to issue this, my proclamation, making
+     known that I have this day entered upon the discharge of the duties
+     of my office, and by virtue thereof do declare the laws of the
+     United States extended over, and declared to be in force in said
+     Territory, so far as the same, or any portion thereof may be
+     applicable.
+
+     Given under my hand at Oregon City, in the Territory of Oregon,
+     this 3d day of March, Anno Domini 1849.
+
+     JOSEPH LANE.
+
+Thus Oregon had one day, under Polk, who, take it all in all, had been a
+faithful guardian of her interests.
+
+In the month of August, 1848, the _Honolulu_, a vessel of one hundred
+and fifty tons, owned in Boston, carrying a consignment of goods to a
+mercantile house in Portland, arrived at her anchorage in the Wallamet,
+_via_ San Francisco, California. Captain Newell, almost before he had
+discharged freight, commenced buying up a cargo of flour and other
+provisions. But what excited the wonder of the Oregonians was the fact
+that he also bought up all manner of tools such as could be used in
+digging or cutting, from a spade and pickaxe, to a pocket-knife. This
+singular proceeding naturally aroused the suspicions of a people
+accustomed to have something to suspect. A demand was made for the
+_Honolulu's_ papers, and these not being forthcoming, it was proposed by
+some of the prudent ones to tie her up. When this movement was
+attempted, the secret came out. Captain Newell, holding up a bag of
+gold-dust before the astonished eyes of his persecutors, cried out--
+
+"Do you see that gold? ---- you, I will depopulate your country! I know
+where there is plenty of this stuff, and I am taking these tools where
+it is to be found."
+
+This was in August, the month of harvest. So great was the excitement
+which seized the people, that all classes of men were governed by it.
+Few persons stopped to consider that this was the time for producers to
+reap golden harvests of precious ore, for the other yellow harvest of
+grain which was already ripe and waiting to be gathered. Men left their
+grain standing, and took their teams from the reapers to pack their
+provisions and tools to the mines.
+
+Some men would have gladly paid double to get back the spades, shovels,
+or picks, which the shrewd Yankee Captain had purchased from them a week
+previous. All implements of this nature soon commanded fabulous prices,
+and he was a lucky man who had a supply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+1850-4. The Territorial law of Oregon combined the offices of Governor
+and Indian Agent. One of the most important acts which marked Lane's
+administration was that of securing and punishing the murderers of Dr.
+and Mrs. Whitman. The Indians of the Cayuse tribe to whom the murderers
+belonged, were assured that the only way in which they could avoid a war
+with the whites was to deliver up the chiefs who had been engaged in the
+massacre, to be tried and punished according to the laws of the whites.
+Of the two hundred Indians implicated in the massacre, five were given
+up to be dealt with according to law. These were the five chiefs,
+_Te-lou-i-kite_, _Tam-a-has_, _Klok-a-mas_, _Ki-am-a-sump-kin_, and
+_I-sa-i-a-cha-lak-is_.
+
+These men might have made their escape; there was no imperative
+necessity upon them to suffer death, had they chosen to flee to the
+mountains. But with that strange magnanimity which the savage often
+shows, to the astonishment of Christians, they resolved to die for their
+people rather than by their flight to involve them in war.
+
+Early in the summer of 1850, the prisoners were delivered up to Gov.
+Lane, and brought down to Oregon City, where they were given into the
+keeping of the marshal. During their passage down the river, and while
+they were incarcerated at Oregon City, their bearing was most proud and
+haughty. Some food, more choice than their prisoner's fare, being
+offered to one of the chiefs at a camp of the guard, in their transit
+down the Columbia, the proud savage rejected it with scorn.
+
+"What sort of heart have you," he asked, "that you offer food to me,
+whose hands are red with your brother's blood?"
+
+And this, after eleven years of missionary labor, was all the
+comprehension the savage nature knew of the main principle of
+Christianity,--forgiveness, or charity toward our enemies.
+
+At Oregon City, Meek had many conversations with them. In all of these
+they gave but one explanation of their crime. They feared that Dr.
+Whitman intended, with the other whites, to take their land from them;
+and they were told by Jo Lewis, the half-breed, that the Doctor's
+medicine was intended to kill them off quickly, in order the sooner to
+get possession of their country. None of them expressed any sorrow for
+what had been done; but one of them, _Ki-am-a-sump-kin_, declared his
+innocence to the last.
+
+In conversations with others, curious to gain some knowledge of the
+savage moral nature, _Te-lou-i-kite_ often puzzled these students of
+Indian ethics. When questioned as to his motive for allowing himself to
+be taken, _Te-lou-i-kite_ answered:
+
+"Did not your missionaries tell us that Christ died to save his people?
+So die we, to save our people!"
+
+Notwithstanding the prisoners were pre-doomed to death, a regular form
+of trial was gone through. The Prosecuting Attorney for the Territory,
+A. Holbrook, conducted the prosecution: Secretary Pritchett, Major
+Runnels, and Captain Claiborne, the defence. The fee offered by the
+chiefs was fifty head of horses. Whether it was compassion, or a love of
+horses which animated the defence, quite an effort was made to show
+that the murderers were not guilty.
+
+The presiding Justice was O.C. Pratt--Bryant having resigned. Perhaps we
+cannot do better than to give the Marshal's own description of the trial
+and execution, which is as follows: "Thar war a great many indictments,
+and a great many people in attendance at this court. The Grand Jury
+found true bills against the five Indians, and they war arraigned for
+trial. Captain Claiborne led off for the defence. He foamed and ranted
+like he war acting a play in some theatre. He knew about as much law as
+one of the Indians he war defending; and his gestures were so powerful
+that he smashed two tumblers that the Judge had ordered to be filled
+with cold water for him. After a time he gave out mentally and
+physically. Then came Major Runnels, who made a very good defence. But
+the Marshal thought they must do better, for they would never ride fifty
+head of horses with them speeches.
+
+Mr. Pritchett closed for the defence with a very able argument; for he
+war a man of brains. But then followed Mr. Holbrook, for the
+prosecution, and he laid down the case so plain that the jury were
+convinced before they left the jury-box. When the Judge passed sentence
+of death on them, two of the chiefs showed no terror; but the other
+three were filled with horror and consternation that they could not
+conceal.
+
+After court had adjourned, and Gov. Lane war gone South on some business
+with the Rogue River Indians, Secretary Pritchett came to me and told me
+that as he war now acting Governor he meant to reprieve the Indians.
+Said he to me, 'Now Meek, I want you to liberate them Indians, when you
+receive the order.'
+
+'Pritchett,' said I, 'so far as Meek is concerned, he would do anything
+for you.'
+
+This talk pleased him; he said he 'war glad to hear it; and would go
+right off and write the reprieve.'
+
+'But,' said I, 'Pritchett, let us talk now like men. I have got in my
+pocket the death-warrant of them Indians, signed by Gov. Lane. The
+Marshal will execute them men, as certain as the day arrives.'
+
+Pritchett looked surprised, and remarked--'That war not what you just
+said, that you would do anything for me.'
+
+Said I, 'you were talking then to Meek,--not to the Marshal, who always
+does his duty.' At that he got mad and left.
+
+When the 3d of June, the day of execution, arrived, Oregon City was
+thronged with people to witness it. I brought forth the five prisoners
+and placed them on a drop. Here the chief, who always declared his
+innocence, _Ki-am-i-sump-kin_, begged me to kill him with my knife,--for
+an Indian fears to be hanged,--but I soon put an end to his entreaties
+by cutting the rope which held the drop, with my tomahawk. As I said
+'The Lord have mercy on your souls,' the trap fell, and the five Cayuses
+hung in the air. Three of them died instantly. The other two struggled
+for several minutes; the Little Chief, _Tam-a-has_, the longest. It was
+he who was cruel to my little girl at the time of the massacre; so I
+just put my foot on the knot to tighten it, and he got quiet. After
+thirty-five minutes they were taken down and buried."
+
+Thus terminated a tragic chapter in the history of Oregon. Among the
+services which Thurston performed for the Territory, was getting an
+appropriation of $100,000, to pay the expenses of the Cayuse war. From
+the Spring of 1848, when all the whites, except the Catholic
+missionaries, were withdrawn from the upper country, for a period of
+several years, or until Government had made treaties with the tribes
+east of the Cascades, no settlers were permitted to take up land in
+Eastern Oregon. During those years, the Indians, dissatisfied with the
+encroachments which they foresaw the whites would finally make upon
+their country, and incited by certain individuals who had suffered
+wrongs, or been punished for their own offences at the hands of the
+whites, finally combined, as it was supposed from the extent of the
+insurrection, and Oregon was involved in a three years Indian war, the
+history of which would fill a volume of considerable size.
+
+When Meek returned to Oregon as marshal, with his fine clothes and his
+newly acquired social accomplishments, he was greeted with a cordial
+acknowledgment of his services, as well as admiration for his improved
+appearance. He was generally acknowledged to be the model of a handsome
+marshal, when clad in his half-military dress, and placed astride of a
+fine horse, in the execution of the more festive duties of marshal of a
+procession on some patriotic occasion.
+
+But no amount of official responsibility could ever change him from a
+wag into a "grave and reverend seignior." No place nor occasion was
+sacred to him when the wild humor was on him.
+
+At this same term of court, after the conviction of the Cayuse chiefs,
+there was a case before Judge Pratt, in which a man was charged with
+selling liquor to the Indians. In these cases Indian evidence was
+allowed, but the jury-room being up stairs, caused a good deal of
+annoyance in court; because when an Indian witness was wanted up stairs,
+a dozen or more who were not wanted would follow. The Judge's bench was
+so placed that it commanded a full view of the staircase and every one
+passing up or down it.
+
+A call for some witness to go before the jury was followed on this
+occasion, as on all others, by a general rush of the Indians, who were
+curious to witness the proceedings. One fat old squaw had got part way
+up the stairs, when the Marshal, full of wrath, seized her by a leg and
+dragged her down flat, at the same time holding the fat member so that
+it was pointed directly toward the Judge. A general explosion followed
+this _pointed_ action, and the Judge grew very red in the face.
+
+[Illustration: MEEK AS UNITED STATES MARSHAL.]
+
+"Mr. Marshal, come within the bar!" thundered the Judge.
+
+Meek complied, with a very dubious expression of countenance.
+
+"I must fine you fifty dollars," continued the Judge; "the dignity of
+the Court must be maintained."
+
+When court had adjourned that evening, the Judge and the Marshal were
+walking toward their respective lodgings. Said Meek to his Honor:
+
+"Why did you fine me so heavily to-day?"
+
+"I _must_ do it," returned the Judge. "I must keep up the dignity of the
+Court; I must do it, if I pay the fines myself."
+
+"And you _must_ pay all the fines you lay on the marshal, of course,"
+answered Meek.
+
+"Very well," said the Judge; "I shall do so."
+
+"All right, Judge. As I am the proper disbursing officer, you can pay
+that fifty dollars to me--and I'll take it now."
+
+At this view of the case, his Honor was staggered for one moment, and
+could only swing his cane and laugh faintly. After a little reflection,
+he said:
+
+"Marshal, when court is called to-morrow, I shall remit your fine; but
+don't you let me have occasion to fine you again!"
+
+After the removal of the capital to Salem, in 1852, court was held in a
+new building, on which the carpenters were still at work. Judge Nelson,
+then presiding, was much put out by the noise of hammers, and sent the
+marshal more than once, to request the men to suspend their work during
+those hours when court was in session, but all to no purpose. Finally,
+when his forbearance was quite exhausted, he appealed to the marshal for
+advice.
+
+"What shall I do, Meek," said he, "to stop that infernal noise?"
+
+"Put the workmen on the Grand Jury," replied Meek.
+
+"Summon them instantly!" returned the Judge. They were summoned, and
+quiet secured for that term.
+
+At this same term of court, a great many of the foreign born settlers
+appeared, to file their intention of becoming American citizens, in
+order to secure the benefits of the Donation Law. Meek was retained as a
+witness, to swear to their qualifications, one of which was, that they
+were possessed of good moral characters. The first day there were about
+two hundred who made declarations, Meek witnessing for most of them. On
+the day following, he declined serving any longer.
+
+"What now?" inquired the Judge; "you made no objections yesterday."
+
+"Very true," replied Meek; "and two hundred lies are enough for me. I
+swore that all those mountain-men were of 'good moral character,' and I
+never knew a mountain-man of that description in my life! Let Newell
+take the job for to-day."
+
+The "job" was turned over to Newell; but whether the second lot was
+better than the first, has never transpired.
+
+During Lane's administration, there was a murder committed by a party of
+Indians at the Sound, on the person of a Mr. Wallace. Owing to the
+sparse settlement of the country, Governor Lane adopted the original
+measure of exporting not only the officers of the court, but the jury
+also, to the Sound district. Meek was ordered to find transportation for
+the court _in toto_, jury and all. Boats were hired and provisioned to
+take the party to the Cowelitz Landing, and from thence to Fort
+Steilacoom, horses were hired for the land transportation.
+
+The Indians accused were five in number--two chiefs and three slaves.
+The Grand Jury found a true bill against the two chiefs, and let the
+slaves go. So few were the inhabitants of those parts, that the marshal
+was obliged to take a part of the grand jury to serve on the petite
+jury. The form of a trial was gone through with, the Judge delivered his
+charge, and the jury retired.
+
+It was just after night-fall when these worthies betook themselves to
+the jury-room. One of them curled himself up in a corner of the room,
+with the injunction to the others to "wake him up when they got ready
+to hang them ---- rascals." The rest of the party spent four or five
+hours betting against monte, when, being sleepy also, they waked up
+their associate, spent about ten minutes in arguing their convictions,
+and returned a verdict of "guilty of murder in the first degree."
+
+The Indians were sentenced to be hung at noon on the following day, and
+the marshal was at work early in the morning preparing a gallows. A rope
+was procured from a ship lying in the sound. At half-past eleven
+o'clock, guarded by a company of artillery from the fort, the miserable
+savages were marched forth to die. A large number of Indians were
+collected to witness the execution; and to prevent any attempt at
+rescue, Captain Hill's artillery formed a ring around the marshal and
+his prisoners. The execution was interrupted or delayed for some
+moments, on account of the frantic behavior of an Indian woman, wife of
+one of the chiefs, whose entreaties for the life of her husband were
+very affecting. Having exhausted all her eloquence in an appeal to the
+nobler feelings of the man, she finally promised to leave her husband
+and become his wife, if he, the marshal, would spare her lord and chief.
+
+She was carried forcibly out of the ring, and the hanging took place.
+When the bodies were taken down, Meek spoke to the woman, telling her
+that now she could have her husband; but she only sullenly replied, "You
+have killed him, and you may bury him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+While Meek was in Washington, he had been dubbed with the title of
+Colonel, which title he still bears, though during the Indian war of
+1855-56, it was alternated with that of Major. During his marshalship he
+was fond of showing off his titles and authority to the discomfiture of
+that class of people who had "put on airs" with him in former days, when
+he was in his transition stage from a trapper to a United States
+Marshal.
+
+While Pratt was Judge of the District Court, a kidnaping case came
+before him. The writ of _habeas corpus_ having been disregarded by the
+Captain of the _Melvin_, who was implicated in the business, Meek was
+sent to arrest him, and also the first mate. Five of the _Melvin's_
+sailors were ordered to be summoned as witnesses, at the same time.
+
+Meek went on board with his summons, marched forward, and called out the
+names of the men. Every man came up as he was summoned. When they were
+together, Meek ordered a boat lowered for their conveyance to Oregon
+City. The men started to obey, when the Captain interfered, saying that
+the boat should not be taken for such a purpose, as it belonged to him.
+
+"That is of no consequence at all," answered the smiling marshal. "It is
+a very good boat, and will suit our purpose very well. Lower away, men!"
+
+The men quickly dropped the boat. As it fell, they were ordered to man
+it. When they were at the oars, the mate was then invited to take a seat
+in it, which he did, after a moment's hesitation, and glancing at his
+superior officer. Meek then turned to the Captain, and extended the same
+invitation to him. But he was reluctant to accept the courtesy,
+blustering considerably, and declaring his intention to remain where he
+was. Meek slowly drew his revolver, all the time cool and smiling.
+
+"I don't like having to urge a gentleman too hard," he said, in a
+meaning tone; "but thar is an argument that few men ever resist. Take a
+seat, Captain."
+
+The Captain took a seat; the idlers on shore cheered for "Joe
+Meek"--which was, after all, his most familiar title; the Captain and
+mate went to Oregon City, and were fined respectively $500 and $300; the
+men took advantage of being on shore to desert; and altogether, the
+master of the _Melvin_ felt himself badly used.
+
+About the same time news was received that a British vessel was
+unloading goods for the Hudson's Bay Company, somewhere on Puget Sound.
+Under the new order of affairs in Oregon, this was smuggling. Delighted
+with an opportunity of doing the United States a service, and the
+British traders an ill turn, Marshal Meek immediately summoned a _posse_
+of men and started for the Sound. On his way he learned the name of the
+vessel and Captain, and recognized them as having been in the Columbia
+River some years before. On that occasion the Captain had ordered Meek
+ashore, when, led by his curiosity and general love of novelty, he had
+paid a visit to this vessel. This information was "nuts" to the marshal,
+who believed that "a turn about was fair play."
+
+With great dispatch and secrecy he arrived entirely unexpected at the
+point where the vessel was lying, and proceeded to board her without
+loss of time. The Captain and officers were taken by surprise and were
+all aghast at this unlooked for appearance. But after the first moment
+of agitation was over, the Captain recognized Meek, he being a man not
+likely to be forgotten, and thinking to turn this circumstance to
+advantage, approached him with the blandest of smiles and the most
+cordial manner, saying with forced frankness--
+
+"I am sure I have had the pleasure of meeting you before. You must have
+been at Vancouver when my vessel was in the river, seven or eight years
+ago. I am very happy to have met with you again."
+
+"Thar is some truth in that remark of yours, Captain," replied Meek,
+eyeing him with lofty scorn; "you _did_ meet me at Vancouver several
+years ago. But I was nothing but 'Joe Meek' at that time, and you
+ordered me ashore. Circumstances are changed since then. I am now
+Colonel Joseph L. Meek, United States Marshal for Oregon Territory; and
+you sir, are only a ---- smuggler! Go ashore, sir!"
+
+The Captain saw the point of that concluding "go ashore, sir!" and
+obeyed with quite as bad a grace as 'Joe Meek' had done in the first
+instance.
+
+The vessel was confiscated and sold, netting to the Government about
+$40,000, above expenses. This money, which fell into bad hands, failed
+to be accounted for. Nobody suspected the integrity of the marshal, but
+most persons suspected that he placed too much confidence in the
+District Attorney, who had charge of his accounts. On some one asking
+him, a short time after, what had become of the money from the sale of
+the smuggler, he seemed struck with a sudden surprise:
+
+"Why," said he, looking astonished at the question, "thar was barly
+enough for the officers of the court!"
+
+This answer, given as it was, with such apparent simplicity became a
+popular joke; and "barly enough" was quoted on all occasions.
+
+The truth was, that there was a serious deficiency in Meek's account
+with the Government, resulting entirely from his want of confidence in
+his own literary accomplishments, which led him to trust all his
+correspondence and his accounts to the hands of a man whose talents were
+more eminent than his sense of honor. The result of this misplaced
+confidence was a loss to the Government, and to himself, whom the
+Government held accountable. Contrary to the general rule of disbursing
+officers, the office made him poor instead of rich; and when on the
+incoming of the Pierce administration he suffered decapitation along
+with the other Territorial officers, he was forced to retire upon his
+farm on the Tualatin Plains, and become a rather indifferent tiller of
+the earth.
+
+The breaking out of the Indian war of 1855-6, was preceded by a long
+period of uneasiness among the Indians generally. The large emigration
+which crossed the plains every year for California and Oregon was one
+cause of the disturbance; not only by exciting their fears for the
+possession of their lands, but by the temptation which was offered them
+to take toll of the travelers. Difficulties occurred at first between
+the emigrants and Indians concerning stolen property. These quarrels
+were followed, probably the subsequent year, by outrages and murder on
+the part of the Indians, and retaliation on the part of volunteer
+soldiers from Oregon. When once this system of outrage and retaliation
+on either side, was begun, there was an end of security, and war
+followed as an inevitable consequence. Very horrible indeed were the
+acts perpetrated by the Indians upon the emigrants to Oregon, during the
+years from 1852 to 1858.
+
+But when at last the call to arms was made in Oregon, it was an
+opportunity sought, and not an alternative forced upon them, by the
+politicians of that Territory. The occasion was simply this. A party of
+lawless wretches from the Sound Country, passing over the Cascade
+Mountains into the Yakima Valley, on their way to the Upper Columbia
+mines, found some Yakima women digging roots in a lonely place, and
+abused them. The women fled to their village and told the chiefs of the
+outrage; and a party followed the guilty whites and killed several of
+them in a fight.
+
+Mr. Bolin, the Indian sub-agent for Washington went to the Yakima
+village, and instead of judging of the case impartially, made use of
+threats in the name of the United States Government, saying that an army
+should be sent to punish them for killing his people. On his return
+home, Mr. Bolin was followed and murdered.
+
+The murder of an Indian agent was an act which could not be overlooked.
+Very properly, the case should have been taken notice of in a manner to
+convince the Indians that murder must be punished. But, tempted by an
+opportunity for gain, and encouraged by the somewhat reasonable fears of
+the white population of Washington and Oregon, Governor G.L. Curry, of
+the latter, at once proclaimed war, and issued a call for volunteers,
+without waiting for the sanction or assistance of the general
+Government. The moment this was done, it was too late to retract. It was
+as if a torch had been applied to a field of dry grass. So
+simultaneously did the Indians from Puget Sound to the Rocky Mountains,
+and from the Rocky Mountains to the southern boundary of Oregon send
+forth the war-whoop, that there was much justification for the belief
+which agitated the people, that a combination among the Indians had been
+secretly agreed to, and that the whites were all to be exterminated.
+
+Volunteer companies were already raised and sent into the Indian
+country, when Brevet Major G.O. Haller arrived at Vancouver, now a part
+of the United States. He had been as far east as Fort Boise to protect
+the incoming immigration; and finding on his return that there was an
+Indian war on hand, proceeded at once to the Yakima country with his
+small force of one hundred men, only fifty of whom were mounted. Much
+solicitude was felt for the result of the first engagement, every one
+knowing that if the Indians were at first successful, the war would be
+long and bloody.
+
+Major Haller was defeated with considerable loss, and notwithstanding
+slight reinforcements, from Fort Vancouver, only succeeded in getting
+safely out of the country. Major Raines, the commanding officer at
+Vancouver, seeing the direction of events, made a requisition upon
+Governor Curry for four of his volunteer companies to go into the field.
+Then followed applications to Major Raines for horses and arms to equip
+the volunteers; but the horses at the Fort being unfit for service, and
+the Major unauthorized to equip volunteer troops, there resulted only
+misunderstandings and delays. When General Wool, at the head of the
+Department in San Francisco, was consulted, he also was without
+authority to employ or receive the volunteers; and when the volunteers,
+who at length armed and equipped themselves, came to go into the field
+with the regulars, they could not agree as to the mode of fighting
+Indians; so that with one thing and another, the war became an exciting
+topic for more reasons than because the whites were afraid of the
+Indians. As for General Wool, he was in great disfavor both in Oregon
+and Washington because he did not believe there ever had existed the
+necessity for a war; and that therefore he bestowed what assistance was
+at his command very grudgingly. General Wool, it was said, was jealous
+of the volunteers; and the volunteers certainly cared little for the
+opinion of General Wool.
+
+However all that may be, Col. Meek gives it as his opinion that the old
+General was right. "It makes me think," said he, "of a bear-fight I once
+saw in the Rocky Mountains, where a huge old grizzly was surrounded by a
+pack of ten or twelve dogs, all snapping at and worrying him. It made
+him powerful mad, and every now and then he would make a claw at one of
+them that silenced him at once."
+
+The Indian war in Oregon gave practice to a number of officers, since
+become famous, most prominent among whom is Sheridan, who served in
+Oregon as a Lieutenant. Grant himself, was at one time a Captain on that
+frontier. Col. Wright, afterwards Gen. Wright, succeeded Major Raines at
+Vancouver, and conducted the war through its most active period. During
+a period of three years there were troops constantly occupied in trying
+to subdue the Indians in one quarter or another.
+
+As for the volunteers they fared badly. On the first call to arms the
+people responded liberally. The proposition which the Governor made for
+their equipment was accepted, and they turned in their property at a
+certain valuation. When the war was over and the property sold, the men
+who had turned it in could not purchase it without paying more for it in
+gold and silver than it was valued at when it was placed in the hands of
+the Quartermaster. It was sold, however, and the money enjoyed by the
+shrewd political speculators, who thought an Indian war a very good
+investment.
+
+Meek was one of the first to volunteer, and went as a private in Company
+A. On arriving at the Dalles he was detailed for special service by Col.
+J.W. Nesmith, and sent out as pilot or messenger, whenever any such
+duty was required. He was finally placed on Nesmith's staff, and given
+the title of Major. In this capacity, as in every other, he was still
+the same alert and willing individual that we have always seen him, and
+not a whit less inclined to be merry when an opportunity offered.
+
+While the army was in the Yakima country, it being an enemy's country,
+and provisions scarce, the troops sometimes were in want of rations. But
+Meek had not forgotten his mountain craft, and always had something to
+eat, if anybody did. One evening he had killed a fat cow which he had
+discovered astray, and was proceeding to roast a twenty-pound piece
+before his camp-fire, when a number of the officers called on him. The
+sight and savory smell of the beef was very grateful to them.
+
+"Major Meek," said they in a breath, "we will sup with you to-night."
+
+"I am very sorry, gentlemen, to decline the honor," returned Meek with a
+repetition of the innocent surprise for which he had so often been
+laughed at, "but I am very hungry, and thar is barly enough beef for one
+man!"
+
+On hearing this sober assertion, those who had heard the story laughed,
+but the rest looked rather aggrieved. However, the Major continued his
+cooking, and when the beef was done to a turn, he invited his visitors
+to the feast, and the evening passed merrily with jests and camp
+stories.
+
+After the army went into winter-quarters, Nesmith having resigned, T.R.
+Cornelius was elected Colonel. One of his orders prohibited firing in
+camp, an order which as a good mountaineer the Major should have
+remembered. But having been instructed to proceed to Salem without
+delay, as bearer of dispatches, the Major committed the error of firing
+his gun to see if it was in good condition for a trip through the
+enemy's country. Shortly after he received a message from his Colonel
+requesting him to repair to his tent. The Colonel received him politely,
+and invited him to breakfast with him. The aroma of coffee made this
+invitation peculiarly acceptable--for luxuries were scarce in camp--and
+the breakfast proceeded for some time very agreeably. When Meek had
+breakfasted, Colonel Cornelius took occasion to inquire if the Major had
+not heard his order against firing in camp. "Yes," said Meek. "Then,"
+said the Colonel, "I shall be obliged to make an example of you."
+
+While Meek stood aghast at the idea of punishment, a guard appeared at
+the door of the tent, and he heard what his punishment was to be, "Mark
+time for twenty minutes in the presence of the whole regiment."
+
+"When the command "forward!" was given," says Meek, "you might have seen
+somebody step off lively, the officer counting it off, 'left, left.' But
+some of the regiment grumbled more about it than I did. I just got my
+horse and my dispatches and left for the lower country, and when I
+returned I asked for my discharge, and got it."
+
+And here ends the career of our hero as a public man. The history of the
+young State, of which he is so old a pioneer furnishes ample material
+for an interesting volume, and will sometime be written by an abler than
+our sketchy pen.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+
+
+
+OUR
+CENTENNIAL INDIAN WAR
+
+AND THE
+LIFE OF GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The reader of the foregoing pages can hardly have failed to observe,
+that the region east of the Big Horn Mountains, including the valleys of
+the Yellowstone, Big Horn, Powder, and Rosebud Rivers, was the favorite
+haunt of the Rocky Mountain hunters and trappers--the field of many of
+their stirring adventures and hardy exploits. Here was the "hunters'
+paradise," where they came to secure game for food and to feed their
+animals on the nutritious bark of the cottonwoods; here they assembled
+at the Summer rendezvous, to exchange their peltries for supplies; and
+here, ofttimes, was established their winter camp, with its rough cheer,
+athletic sports, and wild carousals.
+
+Here, also, between the plains and the mountains, was the dark and
+sanguinary ground where terrific and deadly combats were fought between
+the Delawares, Iroquois, Crows, and Blackfeet, and between the trappers
+and Indians; and here, fifty years later, were enacted scenes of warfare
+and massacre which cast a gloom over the festivities of our Centennial
+anniversary.
+
+The recent campaign against the hostile Sioux was over the identical
+ground where the fur-traders roamed intent on beaver-skins and
+adventure; and it is believed that some account thereof, and a sketch of
+the renowned Indian fighter who perished on the Little Big Horn, may
+appropriately supplement the story of the Mountain-men.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+   Our Centennial War with the Sioux--Scene of the Campaign--General
+     Aspect of the Country--The hostile Indians and their
+     Grievances--The People of the Frontier--The Treaty of 1868--The
+     Invasion of the Black Hills--Sitting Bull--Immediate Causes of the
+     War--The Indians Warned and Threatened--The Warning Disregarded--An
+     Appeal to Arms--Bishop Whipple on the Roaming Indians,      7
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+   General Crook's First Expedition--The March Northward--Reynolds
+     Follows a Trail--Camp of Crazy Horse Discovered and Attacked--The
+     Battle of Powder River--Return to Fort Fetterman--Crook's Second
+     Expedition--On the Head Waters of Tongue River--Friendly
+     Crows--Battle of the Rosebud--Retreat to Goose Creek Camp,      20
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+   Gen. Terry's Expedition--March from Fort Lincoln--Rendezvous on the
+     Yellowstone--The Montana Column--Reno's Scouting Party Discovers a
+     Trail--The Seventh Cavalry Start up the Rosebud--Custer Discovers
+     an Indian Village and Advances to Attack,      26
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+   Gibbon's Troops Cross the Yellowstone--March up the Big Horn--A
+     Smoke Cloud--An Omen of Victory--Crow Scouts--Indians in Front--A
+     Night's Bivouac on the Little Big Horn--Site of a deserted
+     Village--Evidences of Conflict--A breathless Scout--Intrenched
+     Cavalry--Reno Relieved--"Where is Custer?"      30
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+   Custer's last Battle--Revelations of the Battle-field--Theories as
+     to the Engagement--Custer and His Officers--Capt. Tom
+     Custer--Boston Custer--Armstrong Reed--Burial of the Slain--Retreat
+     to the Yellowstone--Story of Custer's Scout "Curley"--Death of
+     Custer,      35
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+   Reno's Battles--His Charge down the Valley, and Retreat to the
+     Bluffs--Benteen's Battalion--A terrific Assault--Holding the
+     Fort--Volunteer Water Carriers--Removal of Indian Village--Approach
+     of Terry--Statements of Benteen and Godfrey--A Scout's Narrative,
+     40
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+   Kill Eagle at Sitting Bull's Camp--His Account of the Battles with
+     Custer and Reno--"We have Killed them all"--What Buck Elk Saw,
+     52
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+   Criticisms on the Conduct of Reno and Benteen--Reno's Defence--What
+     Benteen Says--Gen. Sheridan on the Custer Disaster,      56
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+   The Midsummer Campaign--Adventures of a Scouting Party--Running the
+     Gauntlet--Indian Allies--Hazardous Service--Junction of Terry and
+     Crook--Following the Trail--At the Mouth of Powder River--Crook
+     Starts for the Black Hills--Short Rations--Battle of Slim
+     Buttes--The Chief American Horse--Deadwood--Terry at Glendive
+     Creek--A Chase after Sitting Bull--Close of the Campaign--Long
+     Dog's Reconnoitering Party,      62
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+   Autumn on the Yellowstone--Gallant Defence of a Wagon Train--A
+     Letter from Sitting Bull--A Flag of Truce--Col. Miles and Sitting
+     Bull Have a "Talk" between the Lines--An Exciting Scene--The
+     Council Disperses--The Troops Advance--A Battle and its
+     Results--Escape of Sitting Bull--Surrender of Chiefs as Hostages,
+     70
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+   Terry and Crook at the Sioux Agencies--The Agency Indians Disarmed
+     and Dismounted--A Gleam of Daylight--What became of the Ponies--Red
+     Cloud Deposed--Spotted Tail Declared Chief Sachem--Gen. Crook's
+     Address to His Troops,      77
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+   Winter Operations--Crook's Expedition--Col. McKenzie on the
+     Trail--A Night's March--A Charge down a Canyon--Destruction of a
+     Cheyenne Village--Life at the Tongue River Cantonment--Miles'
+     Excursion Northward--Capture of Sitting Bull's Camp--An Unfortunate
+     Affair--Massacre of Five Chiefs--Treacherous Crows--Winter March
+     Southward--Desperate Battle in the Wolf Mountains--Defeat of Crazy
+     Horse--Red Horse Surrenders--His Story of the Big Horn
+     Battles--Spotted Tail's Mission--Surrender of Roman Nose, Standing
+     Elk and Crazy Horse,      81
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+   George A. Custer--Early Youth--Cadet Life--From West Point to Bull
+     Run--On Kearny's Staff--Wades the Chickahominy--On McClellan's
+     Staff--Antietam--On Pleasonton's Staff--Aldie--A General at
+     Gettysburg--Pursues Lee--Falling Waters--Wounded--Cavalry
+     Engagement at Brandy Station--Marriage,      90
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+   A Raid toward Richmond--With Sheridan in the Shenandoah
+     Valley--Opequan Creek--Fisher's Hill--Commander of the Third
+     Division--Fight with Rosser--Sheridan's Army Surprised--Defeat and
+     Victory--The Cavalry at Cedar Creek--The last great Raid,      98
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+   The last Struggle for Richmond--Custer at Dinwiddie and Fire
+     Forks--Petersburg Evacuated--The Pursuit of
+     Lee--Jetersville--Sailor's Creek--Appomattox--A Flag of
+     Truce--Custer's Address to His Soldiers--The Great Parade--A Major
+     General--Texas--Negotiation with Romero,      106
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+   The Seventh Cavalry--Hancock's Expedition--Tricky Indians--A Scout
+     on the Plains--Camp Attacked by Indians--A Fight for the Wagon
+     Train--The Kidder Massacre--Court Martialed--Sully's
+     Expedition--Battle of the Washita--Death of Black Kettle--Fate of
+     Major Elliot--Night Retreat--March to Fort Cobb--Lone Wolf and
+     Satanta--After the Cheyennes--Captive Women Recovered,      113
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+   The Yellowstone Expedition--Road-hunters--A Siesta--Dashing
+     Indians--A Trap--Fearful Odds--Rapid Volleys--Attack
+     Renewed--Reinforcements--The Foe Repulsed--A Tragedy--The Revenge
+     of Rain in the Face--Another Fight--Assigned to Fort Lincoln--Mrs.
+     Custer,      121
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+   The Campaign of 1876--The Dakota Column--The Babcock
+     Investigation--The Congressional Committee--Grant's
+     Displeasure--Appeal to the President--Custer's last Campaign,
+     126
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+   Reminiscences of General Custer--Personal Characteristics,      132
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+   The Indian Commission of 1876--Purchase of the Black Hills--Indian
+     Orators--Speeches of Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Blue Teeth, Running
+     Antelope, Two Bears, Red Feather, Swan, White Ghost, etc.,      138
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE SIOUX COUNTRY.]
+
+
+
+
+THE INDIAN WAR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SIOUX TRIBES--CAUSES OF THE WAR.
+
+
+The scene of the campaign against the hostile Indians in 1876, was the
+rugged, desolate, and partially unexplored region lying between the Big
+Horn and Powder Rivers, and extending from the Big Horn Mountains
+northerly to and beyond the Yellowstone River. This region is the most
+isolated and inaccessible of any lying east of the Rocky Mountains, and
+is admirably adapted for Indian warfare and defense. Several rivers,
+tributaries of the Yellowstone, flow through it, and it abounds in
+creeks, ravines, and canyons. It is the hereditary country of the Crows,
+who for generations defended it against marauding tribes of Blackfeet.
+
+A vivid description of the general aspect of the country and of the
+hardships and perils of our soldiers, has been given by Col. Nelson A.
+Miles, of the Fifth Infantry, in a letter written from the mouth of the
+Powder River. "No service," he says, "is more thankless or dangerous
+than contending against these treacherous savages, and if you will come
+out and learn the real sentiment of the army, you will find the officers
+of the army the strongest advocates of any peace policy that shall be
+just and honorable. You will find us out here, five hundred miles from
+railroad communication, in as barren, desolate and worthless a country
+as the sun shines upon--volcanic, broken, and almost impassable--so
+rugged as to make our granite hills of Vermont and New Hampshire appear
+in comparison as pleasant parks. Jagged and precipitous cliffs; narrow
+and deep arroyos filled with massive boulders; alkali water, or for
+miles and miles none at all; and vegetation of cactus and sage-bushes,
+will represent to you, feebly indeed, the scene of the present campaign,
+in which we are contending against the most powerful, warlike, and
+best-armed body of savages on the American Continent, armed and mounted
+partly at the expense of the Government, and fully supplied with the
+most improved magazine guns and tons of metallic ammunition."
+
+"The brave mariner," wrote a newspaper correspondent, "on the trackless
+ocean without compass, is no more at the mercy of wind and wave than
+Terry's army, out upon this vast trackless waste, is at the mercy of his
+guides and scouts. The sun rises in the east, shines all day upon a vast
+expanse of sage-brush and grass, and, as it sets in the west, casts its
+dull rays into a thousand ravines that neither man nor beast can cross.
+The magnet always points north; but whether one can go either north or
+south can be decided only by personal effort. An insignificant turn to
+the wrong side of a little knoll or buffalo-wallow ofttimes
+imperceptibly leads the voyager into ravine after ravine, over bluff
+after bluff, until at last he stands on the edge of a yawning canyon,
+hundreds of feet in depth and with perpendicular walls. Nothing is left
+for him to do but to retrace his steps and find an accessible route."
+
+The hostile Indians with whom our soldiers have had to contend are no
+despicable foe; on the contrary they are quite able, in frontier
+warfare, to cope with disciplined troops. They fight in bodies, under
+skilled leaders, and have regular rules which they observe in battle, on
+their marches, and in their camps. "They have systems of signalling and
+of scouting, of posting sentinels and videttes, and of herding their
+animals." They are remarkably expert horsemen, and are so dependent on
+their steeds, that "a Sioux on foot is a Sioux warrior no longer." Gen.
+Crook testifies to their adroitness and skill as follows:--
+
+     "When the Sioux Indian was armed with a bow and arrow he was more
+     formidable, fighting as he does most of the time on horseback, than
+     when he came into possession of the old fashioned muzzle loading
+     rifle. But when he came into possession of the breech loader and
+     metallic catridge, which allows him to load and fire from his horse
+     with perfect ease, he became at once ten times more formidable.
+     With the improved arms I have seen our friendly Indians, riding at
+     full speed, shoot and kill a wolf, also on the run, while it is a
+     rare thing that our troops can hit an Indian on horseback though
+     the soldier may be on his feet at the time.
+
+     "The Sioux is a cavalry soldier from the time he has intelligence
+     enough to ride a horse or fire a gun. If he wishes to dismount, his
+     hardy pony, educated by long usage, will graze around near where he
+     has been left, ready when his master wants to mount either to move
+     forward or escape. Even with their lodges and families they can
+     move at the rate of fifty miles per day. They are perfectly
+     familiar with the country, have their spies and hunting parties out
+     all the time at distances of from twenty to fifty miles each way
+     from their villages, know the number and movements of all the
+     troops that may be operating against them, just about what they can
+     probably do, and hence can choose their own times and places of
+     conflict or avoid it altogether."
+
+The primary causes of the hostilities of the Indians which made this
+campaign and previous ones against them necessary, extend far back and
+are too numerous to be here fully stated. The principal Indian
+grievances however, for which the government is responsible, are a
+failure to fulfil treaties, encroachment on reserved territories, and
+the dishonesty of agents. Col. Miles speaks of our relationship with the
+Indians for the last fifty years, as the dark page in our history,
+which, next to African slavery, has done more to disgrace our
+government, blacken our fair name, and reflect upon our civilization,
+than aught else. It has, he says, been a source of corruption and a
+disturbing element, unconfined to any one political party or class of
+individuals.
+
+Wendell Phillips asserts that the worst brutality which prurient malice
+ever falsely charged the Indian with, is but weak imitation of what the
+white man has often inflicted on Indian men, women and children; and
+that the Indian has never lifted his hand against us until provoked to
+it by misconduct on our part, compared with which, any misconduct of his
+is but dust in the balance.
+
+The great difference in the condition and character of the Indians over
+the Canada line and our own, can only be accounted for by the different
+treatment they have received. The Canadian Indians are, on the whole, a
+harmless, honest people, who, though they are gradually disappearing
+before the white man, bear him no ill-will, but rather the contrary.
+Bishop Whipple of Minnesota, an earnest advocate of the peace policy,
+draws the following contrast:--
+
+     "Here are two pictures--on one side of the line a nation has spent
+     $500,000,000 in Indian war; a people who have not 100 miles between
+     the Atlantic and the Pacific which has not been the scene of an
+     Indian massacre; a government which has not passed twenty years
+     without an Indian war; not one Indian tribe to whom it has given
+     Christian civilization; and which celebrates its centennial year
+     by another bloody Indian war. On the other side of the line there
+     is the same greedy, dominant Anglo-Saxon race, and the same
+     heathen. They have not spent one dollar in Indian war; they have
+     had no Indian massacres. Why? In Canada the Indian treaty calls
+     these men 'the Indian subjects of her Majesty.' When civilization
+     approaches them they are placed on ample reservations; they receive
+     aid in civilization; they have personal rights of property; they
+     are amenable to law and are protected by law; they have schools,
+     and Christian people delight to give them their best men to teach
+     them the religion of Christ. We expend more than one hundred
+     dollars to their one in caring for Indian wards."
+
+The results of the Indian disturbances, whatever their causes, have
+borne heavily on the hardy and enterprising settlers along the border.
+Of these citizens Gen. Crook says:--
+
+     "I believe it is wrong for a Government as great and powerful as
+     ours not to protect its frontier people from savages. I do not see
+     why a man who has the courage to come out here and open the way for
+     civilization in his own country, is not as much entitled to the
+     protection of his Government as anybody else. I am not one of those
+     who believe, as many missionaries sent out here by well-meaning
+     eastern socities do, that the people of the frontiers are
+     cut-throats, thieves, and murderers. I have been thrown among them
+     for nearly 25 years of my life, and believe them to compare
+     favorably in energy, intelligence and manhood with the best of
+     their eastern brethren. They are mercilessly plundered by Indians
+     without any attempt being made to punish the perpetrators, and when
+     they ask for protection, they are told by some of our peace
+     commissioners sent out to make further concessions to the Indians,
+     that they have no business out here anyhow. I do not deny that my
+     sympathies have been with the frontier people in their unequal
+     contest against such obstacles. At the same time I do not wish to
+     be understood as the unrelenting foe of the Indian."
+
+The Sioux Indians, embracing several tribes, are the old Dakotahs, long
+known as among the bravest and most warlike aboriginals of this
+continent. They were steadily pushed westward by the tide of
+civilization to the Great Plains north of the Platte, where they claimed
+as their own all the vast region west of the Missouri as far as they
+could roam or fight their way. They resisted the approach of all
+settlers and opposed the building of the Pacific Railroad.
+
+In 1867, Congress sent out four civilians and three army officers as
+Peace Commissioners, who, in 1868, made a treaty with the Sioux, whereby
+for certain payments or stipulations, they agreed to surrender their
+claims to a vast tract of country, to live at peace with their
+neighbors, and to restrict themselves to a territory bounded south by
+Nebraska, west by the 104th meridian, and north by the 46th parallel of
+latitude--a territory as large as the State of Michigan. "They had the
+solemn pledge of the United States that they should be protected in the
+absolute and peaceable possession of the country thus set apart for
+them; and the constitution makes such treaties the highest of all
+authorities, and declares that they are binding upon every citizen."
+
+In the western part of the Sioux territory, lying between the two forks
+of the Cheyenne River, is the Black Hills country with an area of four
+or five thousand square miles. Of the interior of this region up to 1874
+nothing was known excepting from the indefinite reports of hunters who
+had penetrated therein. The arrival at a trading post of Indians who
+offered gold-dust for sale which they said was procured at the Black
+Hills, caused much excitement; and a military expedition of 1200 men was
+sent from Fort Lincoln in July 1874, to explore the Hills and ascertain
+if gold existed there. As was expected, no hostile enemy were
+encountered by the large expedition which thus invaded the Indian
+territory. A few lodges of Indians were met in the Hills, and they ran
+away notwithstanding friendly overtures were made. An attempt was made
+to lead the pony of one mounted Indian to headquarters, but he got away,
+and a shot was fired after him which, says General Custer, wounded
+either the Indian or his pony as blood was found on the ground.
+
+The geologists of the expedition reported that there was gold in the
+Black Hills, and miners and others began to flock thither. In 1875,
+troops were sent to remove the trespassers on the Indian reservation,
+but as fast as they compelled or persuaded the miners to go away others
+came to fill their places; and at the present date there are more
+settlers there than ever before.
+
+Of the treaty of 1868 and the so-called peace policy then inaugurated
+various opinions are entertained. Gen. Sherman, a member of the
+commission, in his report for 1876, says:--
+
+     "The commission had also to treat with other tribes at the south;
+     viz,--the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas and Commanches; were engaged
+     for two years in visiting and confering with these scattered bands;
+     and finally, in 1868, concluded many treaties, which were the best
+     possible at that date, and which resulted in comparative peace on
+     the Plains, by defining clearly the boundaries to be thereafter
+     occupied by the various tribes, with the annuities in money,
+     provisions, and goods to be paid the Indians for the relenquishment
+     of their claims to this vast and indefinite region of land. At this
+     time the Sioux nation consisted of many distinct tribes, and was
+     estimated at 50,000, of whom some 8,000 were named as hostiles.
+
+     "These Indians, as all others, were under the exclusive
+     jurisdiction of the Indian Bureau, and only small garrisons of
+     soldiers were called for at the several agencies, such as Red Cloud
+     and Spotted Tail on the head of the White Earth River in Nebraska
+     (outside their reservation), and at Standing Rock, Cheyenne, and
+     Crow Creek on the Missouri River, to protect the persons of the
+     agents and their employes. About these several agencies were
+     grouped the several bands of Sioux under various names, receiving
+     food, clothing, etc., and undergoing the process of civilization;
+     but from the time of the Peace Commission of 1868 to the date of
+     this report, a number of Sioux, recognized as hostile or 'outlaws,'
+     had remained out under the lead of Sitting Bull and a few other
+     chiefs."
+
+     "The so-called peace policy," says Bishop Whipple, "was commenced
+     when we were at war. The Indian tribes were either openly hostile,
+     or sullen and turbulent. The new policy was a marvellous success. I
+     do honestly believe that it has done more for the civilization of
+     the Indians than all which the Government has done before. Its only
+     weakness was that the system was not reformed. The new work was
+     fettered by all the faults and traditions of the old policy. The
+     nation left 300,000 men living within our own borders without a
+     vestige of government, without personal rights of property, without
+     the slightest protection of person, property, or life. We persisted
+     in telling these heathen tribes that they were independent nations.
+     We sent out the bravest and best of our officers, some who had
+     grown gray in the service of the country; men whose slightest word
+     was as good as their bond--we sent them because the Indians would
+     not doubt a soldier's honor. They made a treaty, and they pledged
+     the nation's faith that no white man should enter that territory. I
+     do not discuss its wisdom. The Executive and Senate ratified it....
+     A violation of its plain provisions was an act of deliberate
+     perjury. In the words of Gen. Sherman, 'Civilization made its own
+     compact with the weaker party; it was violated, but not by the
+     savage.' The whole world knew that we violated that treaty, and the
+     reason of the failure of the negotiations of last year was that our
+     own commissioners did not have authority from Congress to offer the
+     Indians more than one-third of the sum they were already receiving
+     under the old treaty."
+
+     "The Sioux Nation," says Gen. Crook, in his report of Sept. 1876,
+     "numbers many thousands of warriors, and they have been encouraged
+     in their insolent overbearing conduct by the fact, that those who
+     participated in the wholesale massacre of the innocent people in
+     Minnesota during the brief period that preceded their removal to
+     their present location, never received adequate punishment
+     therefor. Following hard upon and as the apparent result of the
+     massacre of over eighty officers and men of the army at Fort Phil
+     Kearney, the Government abandoned three of its military posts, and
+     made a treaty of unparalleled liberality with the perpetrators of
+     these crimes, against whom any other nation would have prosecuted a
+     vigorous war.
+
+     "Since that time the reservations, instead of being the abode of
+     loyal Indians holding the terms of their agreement sacred, have
+     been nothing but nests of disloyalty to their treaties and the
+     Government, and scourges to the people whose misfortune it has been
+     to be within the reach of the endurance of their ponies. And in
+     this connection, I regret to say, they have been materially aided
+     by sub-agents who have disgraced a bureau established for the
+     propagation of peace and good will, man to man.
+
+     "What is the loyal condition of mind of a lot of savages, who will
+     not allow the folds of the flag of the country to float over the
+     very sugar, coffee and beef, they are kind enough to accept at the
+     hands of the nation to which they have thus far dictated their own
+     terms? Such has been the condition of things at the Red Cloud
+     Agency.
+
+     "The hostile bands roamed over a vast extent of country, making the
+     Agencies their base of supplies, their recruiting and ordinance
+     depots, and were so closely connected by intermarriage, interest
+     and common cause with the Agency Indians, that it was difficult to
+     determine where the line of peaceably disposed ceased and the
+     hostile commenced. They have, without interruption, attacked
+     persons at home, murdered and scalped them, stolen their stock--in
+     fact violated every leading feature in the treaty. Indeed, so great
+     were their depredations on the stock belonging to the settlers,
+     that at certain times they have not had sufficient horses to do
+     their ordinary farming work--all the horses being concentrated on
+     the Sioux Reservation or among the bands which owe allegiance to
+     what is called the Sioux Nation. In the winter months these
+     renegade bands dwindle down to a comparatively small number; while
+     in summer they are recruited by restless spirits from the different
+     reservations, attracted by the opportunity to plunder the
+     frontiersman, so that by midsummer they become augmented from small
+     bands of one hundred to thousands.
+
+     "In fact, it was well known that the treaty of 1868 had been
+     regarded by the Indians as an instrument binding on us but not
+     binding on them. On the part of the Government, notwithstanding the
+     utter disregard by the Sioux of the terms of the treaty, stringent
+     orders, enforced by military power, had been issued prohibiting
+     settlers from trespassing upon the country known as the Black
+     Hills. The people of the country against whom the provisions of the
+     treaty were so rigidly enforced naturally complained that if they
+     were required to observe this treaty, some effort should be made to
+     compel the Indians to observe it likewise.
+
+     "The occupation by the settlers of the Black Hills country had
+     nothing to do with the hostilities which have been in progress. In
+     fact, by the continuous violations by these Indians of the treaty
+     referred to, the settlers were furnished with at least a reasonable
+     excuse for such occupation, in that a treaty so long and
+     persistently violated by the Indians themselves, should not be
+     quoted as a valid instrument for the preventing of such occupation.
+     Since the occupation of the Black Hills there has not been any
+     greater number of depredations committed by the Indians than
+     previous to such occupation; in truth, the people who have gone to
+     the Hills have not suffered any more and probably not as much from
+     Indians, as they would had they remained at their homes along the
+     border."
+
+     "In 1868," says Wm. R. Steele, delegate from Wyoming, "the United
+     States made a treaty with the Sioux Nation, which was a grave
+     mistake, if it was not a national dishonor and disgrace; that
+     treaty has been the foundation of all the difficulties in the Sioux
+     country. In 1866, Gen. Pope established posts at Fort Phil Kearney,
+     Reno, and Fort Smith, so as to open the road to Montana and protect
+     the country and friendly Crows from the hostile Sioux. In keeping
+     these posts and opening that road, many men, citizens and soldiers,
+     had been killed. Notable among the actions that had taken place was
+     the massacre of Fetterman and his command at Fort Phil Kearney; and
+     yet after these men had sacrificed their lives, the Government went
+     to work and made a treaty by which it ignominiously abandoned that
+     country to these savages, dismantling its own forts, and leaving
+     there the bones of men who had laid down their lives in the
+     wilderness. Was it to be wondered at, under these circumstances,
+     that Sitting Bull and his men believed they were superior to the
+     general government? Any body who knows anything about Indian
+     nature knows that the legitimate result of that cowardly policy of
+     peace at any price, was to defer only the evil day which has now
+     come upon us. Since that time the Sioux have been constantly
+     depredating on the frontiers of Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana, and
+     more men have fallen there in the peaceful vocations of civil life,
+     without a murmur being heard, than fell under the gallant Custer.
+     The friendly Crows have been raided with every full moon; so with
+     the Shoshones; and at last these outrages have become so great and
+     so long continued that even the peaceable Indian Department could
+     not stand them any longer, and called on the military arm of the
+     Government to punish these men."
+
+     President Grant, in his message of December, 1876, uses the
+     following language:--"A policy has been adopted towards the Indian
+     tribes inhabiting a large portion of the territory of the United
+     States, which has been humane, and has substantially ended Indian
+     hostilities in the whole land, except in a portion of Nebraska, and
+     Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana territories, the Black Hills region,
+     and approaches thereto. Hostilities there have grown out of the
+     avarice of the white man, who has violated our treaty stipulations
+     in his search for gold. The question might be asked, why the
+     Government had not enforced obedience to the terms of the treaty
+     prohibiting the occupation of the Black Hills region by whites? The
+     answer is simple. The first immigrants to the Black Hills were
+     removed by troops, but rumors of rich discoveries of gold took into
+     that region increased numbers. Gold has actually been found in
+     paying quantity, and an effort to remove the miners would only
+     result in the desertion of the bulk of the troops that might be
+     sent there to remove them."
+
+The causes and objects of the military operations against the Sioux in
+1876, as stated by the Secretary of War in a letter to the President
+dated July 8th, 1876, were in part as follows:--
+
+     "The present military operations are not against the Sioux nation
+     at all, but against certain hostile parts of it which defy the
+     Government, and are undertaken at the special request of the bureau
+     of the Government charged with their supervision, and wholly to
+     make the civilization of the remainder possible. No part of these
+     operations are on or near the Sioux reservation. The accidental
+     discovery of gold on the western border of the Sioux reservation
+     and the intrusion of our people thereon have not caused this war,
+     and have only complicated it by the uncertainty of numbers to be
+     encountered. The young warriors love war, and frequently escape
+     their agents to go to the hunt or war path--their only idea of the
+     object of life. The object of these military expeditions was in the
+     interest of the peaceful parts of the Sioux nation, supposed to
+     embrace at least nine-tenths of the whole, and not one of these
+     peaceful treaty Indians has been molested by the military
+     authorities."
+
+Of the hostile Indians referred to by the Secretary of War, Hon. E.P.
+Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reported Nov. 1st, 1875:--"It
+will probably be found necessary to compel the Northern non-treaty
+Sioux, under the leadership of Sitting Bull, who have never yet in any
+way recognized the United States Government, except by snatching rations
+occasionally at an agency, and such outlaws from the several agencies as
+have attached themselves to these same hostiles, to cease marauding and
+settle down, as the other Sioux have done, at some designated point."
+
+Soon afterwards, Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins addressed the
+Commissioner respecting these Indians, as follows:--"The true policy in
+my judgment is to send troops against them in winter, the sooner the
+better, and whip them into subjection. They richly merit punishment for
+their incessant warfare and their numerous murders of white settlers and
+their families, or white men whenever found unarmed."
+
+Early in December, by the advice of the Secretary of the Interior,
+Commissioner Smith directed that runners be sent out to notify "said
+Indian Sitting Bull, and others outside their reservation, that they
+must move to the reservation before the 31st day of January, 1876; that
+if they neglect or refuse so to move, they will be reported to the War
+Department as hostile Indians, and that a military force will be sent to
+compel them to obey the order of the Indian officer." Respecting this
+order to the Indians, Bishop Whipple, in a letter to the _New York
+Tribune_, says:--
+
+     "There was an inadequate supply of provisions at the agencies that
+     Fall, and the Indians went out to their unceded territory to hunt.
+     They went as they were accustomed to do--with the consent of their
+     agents and as provided by the treaty. * * * The Indians had gone a
+     way from the agencies to secure food, and skins for clothing. The
+     United States had set apart this very country as a hunting-ground
+     for them forever. Eight months after this order to return or be
+     treated as hostile, Congress appropriated money for the seventh of
+     thirty installments for these roaming Indians. It was impossible
+     for the Indians to obey the order. No one of the runners sent out
+     to inform the Indians, was able to return himself by the time
+     appointed; yet Indian women and children were expected to travel a
+     treeless desert, without food or proper clothing, under the penalty
+     of death."
+
+As the order and warning were disregarded by the Indians, the Secretary
+of the Interior notified the Secretary of War, Feb. 1st, 1876, that "the
+time given him (Sitting Bull) in which to return to an agency having
+expired, and advices received at the Indian Office being to the effect
+that Sitting Bull still refuses to comply with the direction of the
+Commissioner, the said Indians are hereby turned over to the War
+Department for such action on the part of the army as you may deem
+proper under the circumstances."
+
+By direction of Lieut. General Sheridan, Commander over the vast extent
+of territory included in the Military Division of Missouri, Brig. Gen.
+George Crook, Commander of the Department of the Platte, an officer of
+great merit and experience in Indian fighting, now undertook to reduce
+these Indian outlaws to subjection, and made preparations for an
+expedition against them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+BATTLES OF THE POWDER AND ROSEBUD.
+
+
+General Crook started from Fort Fetterman, W.T., March 1st, 1876, at the
+head of an expedition composed of ten companies of the 2d and 3d Cavalry
+under Col. J.J. Reynolds, and two companies of the 4th Infantry, with
+teamsters, guides, etc., amounting in all to nearly nine hundred men.
+His course was nearly north, past the abandoned Forts Reno and Phil.
+Kearney to Tongue River. He descended this river nearly to the
+Yellowstone, scouted Rosebud River, and then changed his course to the
+south-east toward Powder River. At a point on the head of Otter Creek,
+Crook divided his command, and sent Col. Reynolds with six companies of
+cavalry and one day's rations to follow the trail of two Indians
+discovered that day in the snow.
+
+Col. Reynolds moved at 5 P.M. of the 16th, and at 4.20 A.M., after a
+night's march of thirty miles, was near the forks of Powder River. The
+following extracts are copied from a letter written to the _New York
+Tribune_:--
+
+     "A halt was called here and the column took shelter in a ravine. No
+     fires were allowed to be kindled, nor even a match lighted. The
+     cold was intense and seemed to be at least 30 deg. below zero. The
+     command remained here till about 6 o'clock, doing their uttermost
+     to keep from freezing, the scouts meantime going out to
+     reconnoitre. At this hour they returned, reporting a larger and
+     fresher trail leading down to the river which was about four miles
+     distant. The column immediately started on the trail. The approach
+     to the river seemed almost impracticable. Before reaching the final
+     precipices which overlooked the riverbed, the scouts discovered
+     that a village lay in the valley at the foot of the bluffs. It was
+     now 8 o'clock. The sun shone brightly through the cold frosty air.
+
+     "The column halted, and Noyes's battalion, 2d Cavalry, was ordered
+     up to the front. It consisted of Company I, Capt. Noyes, and
+     Company K, Capt. Egan. This battalion was ordered to descend to the
+     valley, and while Egan charged the camp, Noyes was to cut out the
+     herd of horses feeding close by and drive it up the river. Capt.
+     Moore's battalion of two companies was ordered to dismount and
+     proceed along the edge of the ridge to a position covering the
+     eastern side of the village opposite that from which Egan was to
+     charge. Capt. Mills's battalion was ordered to follow Egan
+     dismounted, and support him in the engagement which might follow
+     the charge.
+
+     "These columns began the descent of the mountain, through gorges
+     which were almost perpendicular. Nearly two hours were occupied in
+     getting the horses of the charging columns down these rough sides
+     of the mountain, and even then, when a point was reached where the
+     men could mount their horses and proceed toward the village in the
+     narrow valley beneath, Moore's battalion had not been able to gain
+     its position on the eastern side after clambering along the edges
+     of the mountain. A few Indians could be seen with the herd, driving
+     it to the edge of the river, but nothing indicated that they knew
+     of our approach.
+
+     "Just at 9 o'clock Capt. Egan turned the point of the mountain
+     nearest the river, and first in a walk and then in a rapid trot
+     started for the village. The company went first in column of twos,
+     but when within 200 yards of the village the command 'Left front
+     into line' was given, and with a yell they rushed into the
+     encampment. Capt. Noyes had in the meantime wheeled to the right
+     and started the herd up the river. With the yell of the charging
+     column the Indians sprang up as if by magic and poured in a rapid
+     fire from all sides. Egan charged through and through the village
+     before Moore's and Mills's battalions got within supporting
+     distance, and finding things getting very hot, formed his line in
+     some high willows on the south side of the camp, from which he
+     poured in rapid volleys upon the Indians.
+
+     "Up to this time the Indians supposed that one company was all they
+     had to contend with, but when the other battalions appeared,
+     rapidly advancing, deployed as skirmishers and pouring in a galling
+     fire of musketry, they broke on all sides and took refuge in the
+     rocks along the side of the mountain. The camp, consisting of 110
+     lodges, with immense quantities of robes, fresh meat, and plunder
+     of all kinds, with over 700 head of horses were in our possession.
+     The work of burning immediately began, and soon the whole
+     encampment was in flames.
+
+     "After the work of destruction was completed the whole command
+     moved rapidly up the river twenty miles to Lodgepole Creek. This
+     point was reached at nightfall by all except Moore's battalion and
+     Egan's company. Company E was the rear guard, and assisted Major
+     Stanton and the scouts in bringing up the herd of horses; many of
+     these were shot on the road, and the remainder reached camp about 9
+     P.M. These troops had been in the saddle for 36 hours, with the
+     exception of five hours during which they were fighting, and all,
+     officers and men, were much exhausted.
+
+     "Upon arriving at Lodgepole, it was found that General Crook and
+     the other four companies and pack-train had not arrived, so that
+     everybody was supperless and without a blanket. The night,
+     therefore, was not a cheerful one, but not a murmur was heard. The
+     tired men lay upon the snow or leaned against a tree, and slept as
+     best they could on so cold a night. Saturday, at noon, General
+     Crook arrived. In the meantime a portion of the herd of horses had
+     straggled into the ravines, and fallen into the hands of the
+     Indians."
+
+The village thus destroyed was that of Crazy Horse, one of the avowedly
+hostile chiefs. "He had with him," wrote Gen. Crook, "the Northern
+Cheyennes, and some of the Minneconjous--probably in all one-half of the
+Indians off the reservations." The Indian loss was unknown. Four of
+Reynolds' men were killed, and six men including one officer were
+wounded. The whole force subsequently returned to Fort Fetterman,
+reaching there March 26th.
+
+The results of this expedition were neither conclusive or satisfactory.
+Therefore, Gen. Sheridan determined to proceed more systematically by
+concentric movements. He ordered three distinct columns to be prepared
+to move to a common centre, where the hostiles were supposed to be, from
+Montana, from Dakota, and from the Platte. The two former fell under the
+command of Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Commander of the Department of Dakota,
+and the latter under Gen. Crook. These movements were to be
+simultaneous, so that Indians avoiding one column might be encountered
+by another.
+
+Gen. Crook marched from Fort Fetterman on the 29th of May, with two
+battalions of the 2d and 3d Cavalry under Lieut. Col. W.B. Royall, and a
+battalion of five companies of the 4th and 9th Infantry under Major
+Alex. Chambers, with a train of wagons, pack-mules, and Indian scouts,
+all amounting to 47 officers and 1,000 men present for duty. This
+expedition marched by the same route as the preceding one, to a point on
+Goose Creek, which is the head of Tongue River, where a supply camp was
+established on June 8th. During the preceding night a party of Sioux
+came down on the encampment, and endeavored to stampede the horses,
+bringing on an engagement which resulted in the discomfiture and retreat
+of the enemy. On the 14th, a band of Shoshones and Crows--Indians
+unfriendly to the Sioux--joined Crook, and were provided with arms and
+ammunition.
+
+The aggressive column of the expedition resumed the march forward on the
+morning of the 16th, leaving the trains parked at the Goose Creek camp.
+The infantry were mounted on mules borrowed from the pack-train, and
+each man carried his own supplies consisting of only three days' rations
+and one blanket. At night, after marching about 35 miles, the little
+army encamped between high bluffs at the head waters of Rosebud River.
+
+At 5 A.M. on the morning of the 17th the troops started down the valley
+of the Rosebud, the Indian allies marching in front and on the flanks.
+After advancing about seven miles successive shots were heard in front,
+the scouts came running in to report Indians advancing, and Gen. Crook
+had hardly time to form his men, before large numbers of warriors fully
+prepared for a fight were in view.
+
+The battle which ensued was on both banks of the Rosebud, near the upper
+end of a deep canyon having sides which were steep, covered with pine,
+and apparently impregnable, through which the stream ran. The Indians
+displayed a strong force at all points, and contested the ground with a
+tenacity which indicated that they were fighting for time to remove
+their village, which was supposed to be about six miles down the Rosebud
+at the lower end of the canyon, or believed themselves strong enough to
+defeat their opponents.
+
+The officers and men of Crook's command behaved with marked gallantry
+during the engagement. The Sioux were finally repulsed in their bold
+onset, and lost many of their bravest warriors; but when they fled they
+could not be pursued far without great danger owing to the roughness of
+the country. The Indian allies were full of enthusiasm but not very
+manageable, preferring to fight independently of orders. Crook's losses
+were nine soldiers killed, and twenty-one wounded, including Capt. Henry
+of the 3d Cavalry. Seven of the friendly Indians were wounded, and one
+was killed.
+
+Gen. Crook was satisfied that the number and quality of the enemy
+required more men than he had, and being encumbered with wounded he
+concluded to retreat. The night was passed on the battle-field, and the
+next day he started for his camp on Goose Creek, which was reached June
+19th. Couriers were sent to Fort Fetterman for reinforcements and
+supplies, and the command remained inactive for several weeks awaiting
+their arrival.
+
+The battle of the Rosebud was fought not very far from the scene of
+Custer's defeat a few days later, and Gen. Crook concludes that his
+opponents were the same that Custer and Reno encountered.
+
+"It now became apparent," says Gen. Sheridan in his report "that Gen.
+Crook had not only Crazy Horse and his small band to contend with, but
+that the hostile force had been augmented by large numbers of the young
+warriors from the agencies along the Missouri River, and the Red Cloud
+and Spotted Tail agencies in Nebraska, and that the Indian agents at
+these agencies had concealed the fact of the departure of these
+warriors, and that in most cases they continued to issue rations as
+though they were present."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TERRY'S EXPEDITION--OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN.
+
+
+General Terry left Fort Abraham Lincoln on the Missouri River, May 17th
+1876, with his division, consisting of the 7th Cavalry under Lieut. Col.
+George A. Custer, three companies of infantry, a battery of Gatling
+guns, and 45 enlisted scouts. His whole force, exclusive of the
+wagon-train drivers, numbered about 1000 men. His march was westerly,
+over the route taken by the Stanley expedition in 1873.
+
+On the 11th of June, Terry reached the south bank of the Yellowstone at
+the mouth of Powder River, where by appointment he met steamboats, and
+established his supply camp. A scouting party of six companies of the
+7th Cavalry under Major M.A. Reno was sent out June 10th, which ascended
+Powder River to its forks, crossed westerly to Tongue River and beyond,
+and discovered, near Rosebud River, a heavy Indian trail about ten days
+old leading westward toward Little Big Horn River. After following this
+trail a short distance Reno returned to the Yellowstone and rejoined his
+regiment, which then marched, accompanied by steamboats, to the mouth of
+Rosebud River where it encamped June 21st. Communication by steamboats
+and scouts had previously been opened with Col. John Gibbon, whose
+column was at this time encamped on the north side of the Yellowstone,
+near by.
+
+Col. Gibbon of the 7th Infantry had left Fort Ellis in Montana about the
+middle of May, with a force consisting of six companies of his regiment,
+and four companies of the 2d Cavalry under Major J.S. Brisbin. He had
+marched eastward down the north bank of the Yellowstone to the mouth of
+the Rosebud, where he encamped about June 1st.
+
+Gen. Terry now consulted with Gibbon and Custer, and decided upon a plan
+for attacking the Indians who were believed to be assembled in large
+numbers near Big Horn River. Custer with his regiment was to ascend the
+valley of the Rosebud, and then turn towards Little Big Horn River,
+keeping well to the south. Gibbon's troops were to cross the Yellowstone
+at the mouth of Big Horn River, and march up the Big Horn to its
+junction with the Little Big Horn, to co-operate with Custer. It was
+hoped that the Indians would thus be brought between the two forces so
+that their escape would be impossible.
+
+Col. Gibbon's column was immediately put in motion for the mouth of the
+Big Horn. On the next day, June 22d, at noon, Custer announced himself
+ready to start, and drew out his regiment. It consisted of 12 companies,
+numbering 28 officers and 747 soldiers. There were also a strong
+detachment of scouts and guides, several civilians, and a supply train
+of 185 pack mules. Gen. Terry reviewed the column in the presence of
+Gibbon and Brisbin, and it was pronounced in splendid condition. "The
+officers clustered around Terry for a final shake of the hand, the last
+good-bye was said, and in the best of spirits, filled with high hopes,
+they galloped away--many of them to their death."
+
+Gen. Terry's orders to Custer were as follows:--
+
+
+     CAMP AT THE MOUTH OF ROSEBUD RIVER,}
+                         June 22d, 1876.}
+
+     _Lieut. Col. Custer, 7th Cavalry._
+
+     COLONEL: The Brigadier General Commanding directs that as soon as
+     your regiment can be made ready for the march, you proceed up the
+     Rosebud in pursuit of the Indians whose trail was discovered by
+     Major Reno a few days ago. It is, of course, impossible to give any
+     definite instructions in regard to this movement, and, were it not
+     impossible to do so, the Department Commander places too much
+     confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon
+     you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in
+     contact with the enemy. He will, however, indicate to you his own
+     views of what your action should be, and he desires that you should
+     conform to them unless you shall see sufficient reason for
+     departing from them. He thinks that you should proceed up the
+     Rosebud until you ascertain definitely the direction in which the
+     trail above spoken of leads. Should it be found (as it appears to
+     be almost certain that it will be found) to turn towards the Little
+     Big Horn, he thinks that you should still proceed southward perhaps
+     as far as the head waters of the Tongue, and then turn toward the
+     Little Big Horn, feeling constantly, however, to your left, so as
+     to preclude the possibility of the escape of the Indians to the
+     south or south-east by passing around your left flank. The column
+     of Col. Gibbon is now in motion for the mouth of the Big Horn. As
+     soon as it reaches that point it will cross the Yellowstone, and
+     move up at least as far as the forks of the Big and Little Big
+     Horn. Of course its future movements must be controlled by
+     circumstances as they arise; but it is hoped that the Indians, if
+     up on the Little Big Horn, may be so nearly inclosed by the two
+     columns that their escape will be impossible. The Department
+     Commander desires that on your way up the Rosebud you should
+     thoroughly examine the upper part of Tulloch's Creek, and that you
+     should endeavor to send a scout through to Col. Gibbon's column
+     with information of the result of your examination. The lower part
+     of this creek will be examined by a detachment from Col. Gibbon's
+     command. The supply steamer will be pushed up the Big Horn as far
+     as the forks of the river are found to be navigable for that space,
+     and the Department Commander, who will accompany the column of Col.
+     Gibbon, desires you to report to him there not later than the
+     expiration of the time for which your troops are rationed, unless
+     in the meantime you receive further orders. Respectfully, &c.,
+
+     E.W. SMITH, Captain 18th Infantry,
+
+     Acting Assistant Adjutant General.
+
+After proceeding southerly up the Rosebud for about seventy miles,
+Custer, at 11 P.M. on the night of the 24th, turned westerly towards
+Little Big Horn River. The next morning while crossing the elevated land
+between the two rivers, a large Indian village was discovered about
+fifteen miles distant, just across Little Big Horn River. Custer with
+characteristic promptness decided to attack the village at once.
+
+One company was escorting the train at the rear. The balance of the
+force was divided into three columns. The trail they were on led down to
+the stream at a point some distance south of the village. Major Reno,
+with three companies under Capt. T.H. French, Capt. Myles Moylan, and
+Lieut. Donald Mclntosh, was ordered to follow the trail, cross the
+stream, and charge down its north bank. Capt. F.W. Benteen, with his own
+company and two others under Capt. T. B. Weir and Lieut. E.S. Godfrey,
+was sent to make a detour to the south of Reno. The other five companies
+of the regiment, under the immediate command of Custer, formed the right
+of the little army.
+
+On reaching the river Reno crossed it as ordered, and Custer with his
+five companies turned northerly into a ravine running behind the bluffs
+on the east side of the stream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+GIBBON'S MARCH UP THE BIG HORN RIVER.
+
+
+The supply steamer Far West with Gen. Terry and Col. Gibbon on board,
+which steamed up the Yellowstone on the evening of June 23d, overtook
+Gibbon's troops near the mouth of the Big Horn early on the morning of
+the 24th; and by 4 o'clock P.M. of the same day, the entire command with
+the animals and supplies had been ferried over to the south side of the
+Yellowstone. An hour later the column marched out to and across
+Tulloch's Creek, and then encamped for the night.
+
+At 5 o'clock on the morning of the 25th, (Sunday) the column was again
+in motion; and after marching 22 miles over a country so rugged as to
+task the endurance of the men to the utmost, the infantry halted for the
+night. Gen. Terry, however, with the cavalry and the battery pushed on
+14 miles further in hopes of opening communication with Custer, and
+camped at midnight near the mouth of the Little Big Horn.
+
+Scouts sent out from Terry's camp early on the morning of the 26th
+discovered three Indians, who proved to be Crows who had accompanied
+Custer's regiment. They reported that a battle had been fought and that
+the Indians were killing white men in great numbers. Their story was not
+fully credited, as it was not expected that a conflict would occur so
+soon, or believed that serious disaster could have overtaken so large a
+force.
+
+The infantry, which had broken camp very early, now came up, and the
+whole column crossed the Little Big Horn and moved up its western
+valley. It was soon reported that a dense heavy smoke was resting over
+the southern horizon far ahead, and in a short time it became visible to
+all. This was hailed as a sign that Custer had met the Indians, defeated
+them, and burned their village. The weary foot soldiers were elated and
+freshened by the sight, and pressed on with increased spirit and speed.
+
+Custer's position was believed to be not far ahead, and efforts were
+repeatedly made during the afternoon to open communication with him; but
+the scouts who attempted to go through were met and driven back by
+hostile Indians who were hovering in the front. As evening came on,
+their numbers increased and large parties could be seen on the bluffs
+hurrying from place to place and watching every movement of the
+advancing soldiers.
+
+At 8:40 in the evening the infantry had marched that day about 30 miles.
+The forks of the Big Horn, the place where Terry had requested Custer to
+report to him, were many miles behind and the expected messenger from
+Custer had not arrived. Daylight was fading, the men were fatigued, and
+the column was therefore halted for the night. The animals were
+picketed, guards were set, and the weary men, wrapped in their blankets
+and with their weapons beside them, were soon asleep on the ground.
+
+Early on the morning of the 27th the march up the Little Big Horn was
+resumed. The smoke cloud was still visible and apparently but a short
+distance ahead. Soon a dense grove of trees was reached and passed
+through cautiously, and then the head of the column entered a beautiful
+level meadow about a mile in width, extending along the west side of the
+stream and overshadowed east and west by high bluffs. It soon became
+apparent that this meadow had recently been the site of an immense
+Indian village, and the great number of temporary brushwood and willow
+huts indicated that many Indians beside the usual inhabitants had
+rendezvoused there. It was also evident that it had been hastily
+deserted. Hundreds of lodge-poles, with finely-dressed buffalo-robes and
+other hides, dried meat, stores, axes, utensils, and Indian trinkets
+were left behind; and in two tepees or lodges still standing, were the
+bodies of nine Indians who had gone to the "happy hunting-grounds."
+
+Every step of the march now revealed some evidence that a conflict had
+taken place not far away. The dead bodies of Indian horses were seen,
+and cavalry equipments and weapons, bullet-pierced clothing, and
+blood-stained gloves were picked up; and at last the bodies of soldiers
+and their horses gave positive proof that a disastrous battle had taken
+place. The Crow Indians had told the truth.
+
+The head of the column was now met by a breathless scout, who came
+running up with the intelligence that Major Reno with a body of troops
+was intrenched on a bluff further on, awaiting relief. The soldiers
+pushed ahead in the direction pointed out, and soon came in sight of men
+and horses intrenched on top of a hill on the opposite or east side of
+the river. Terry and Gibbon immediately forded the stream and rode
+toward the group. As they approached the top of the hill, they were
+welcomed by hearty cheers from a swarm of soldiers who came out of
+their intrenchments to meet their deliverers. The scene was a touching
+one. Stout-hearted soldiers who had kept bravely up during the hours of
+conflict and danger now cried like children, and the pale faces of the
+wounded lighted up as hope revived within them.
+
+The story of the relieved men briefly told was as follows:--After
+separating from Custer about noon, June 25th, (as related in the last
+chapter) Reno proceeded to the river, forded it, and charged down its
+west bank toward the village, meeting at first with but little
+resistance. Soon however he was attacked by such numbers as to be
+obliged to dismount his men, shelter his horses in a strip of woods, and
+fight on foot. Finding that they would soon be surrounded and defeated,
+he again mounted his men, and charging upon such of the enemy as
+obstructed his way, retreated across the river, and reached the top of a
+bluff followed closely by Indians. Just then Benteen, returning from his
+detour southward, discovered Reno's perilous position, drove back the
+Indians, and joined him on the hill. Shortly afterward, the company
+which was escorting the mule train also joined Reno. The seven companies
+thus brought together had been subsequently assailed by Indians; many of
+the men had been killed and wounded, and it was only by obstinate
+resistance that they had been enabled to defend themselves in an
+entrenched position. The enemy had retired on the evening of the 26th.
+
+After congratulations to Reno and his brave men for their successful
+defence enquiries were made respecting Custer, but no one could tell
+where he was. Neither he or any of his men had been seen since the fight
+commenced, and the musketry heard from the direction he took had ceased
+on the afternoon of the 25th. It was supposed by Reno and Benteen that
+he had been repulsed, and retreated northerly towards Terry's troops.
+
+A search for Custer and his men was immediately began, and it revealed a
+scene calculated to appal the stoutest heart. Although neither Custer or
+any of that part of his regiment which he led to combat were found alive
+to tell the tale, an examination of their trail and the scene of
+conflict enabled their comrades to form some idea of the engagement in
+which they perished.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CUSTER'S LAST BATTLE.
+
+
+General Custer's trail, from the place where he left Reno's and turned
+northward, passed along and in the rear of the crest of hills on the
+east bank of the stream for nearly three miles, and then led, through an
+opening in the bluff, down to the river. Here Custer had evidently
+attempted to cross over to attack the village. The trail then turned
+back on itself, as if Custer had been repulsed and obliged to retreat,
+and branched to the northward, as if he had been prevented from
+returning southerly by the way he came, or had determined to retreat in
+the direction from which Terry's troops were advancing.
+
+Several theories as to the subsequent movements of the troops have been
+entertained by persons who visited the grounds. One is, that the
+soldiers in retreating took advantage of two ravines; that two companies
+under Capt. T.W. Custer and Lieut. A. E. Smith, were led by Gen. Custer
+up the ravine nearest the river, while the upper ravine furnished a line
+of retreat for the three companies of Capt. G.W. Yates, Capt. M.W.
+Keogh, and Lieut. James Calhoun. At the head of this upper ravine, a
+mile from the river, a stand had been made by Calhoun's company; the
+skirmish lines were marked by rows of the slain with heaps of empty
+cartridge shells before them, and Lieuts. Calhoun and Crittenden lay
+dead just behind the files. Further on, Capt. Keogh had fallen
+surrounded by his men; and still further on, upon a hill, Capt. Yates'
+company took its final stand. Here, according to this theory, Yates was
+joined by what remained of the other two companies, who had been
+furiously assailed in the lower ravine; and here Gen. Custer and the
+last survivors of the five companies met their death, fighting bravely
+to the end.
+
+Another theory of the engagement is, that Custer attempted to retreat up
+the lower ravine in columns of companies; that the companies of Custer
+and Smith being first in the advance and last in the retreat, fell first
+in the slaughter which followed the retrograde movement; that Yates'
+company took the position on the hill, and perished there with Custer
+and other officers; and that the two other companies, Keogh's and
+Calhoun's, perished while fighting their way back towards Reno--a few
+reaching the place where Custer first struck the high banks of the
+river.
+
+Still another theory is, that the main line of retreat was by the upper
+ravine; that Calhoun's company was thrown across to check the Indians,
+and was the first annihilated. That the two companies of Capt. Custer
+and Lieut. Smith retreated from the place where Gen. Custer was killed
+into the lower ravine, and were the last survivors of the conflict.
+
+Near the highest point of the hill lay the body of General Custer, and
+near by were those of his brother Captain Custer, Lieut. Smith, Capt.
+Yates, Lieut. W. V. Riley of Yates' company, and Lieut. W.W. Cooke. Some
+distance away, close together, were found another brother of Gen.
+Custer--Boston Custer, a civilian, who had accompanied the expedition
+as forage master of the 7th Cavalry--and his nephew Armstrong Reed, a
+youth of nineteen, who was visiting the General at the time the
+expedition started, and accompanied it as a driver of the herd of cattle
+taken along. The wife of Lieut. Calhoun was a sister of the Custer's,
+and she here lost her husband, three brothers, and a nephew.
+
+Other officers of Custer's battalion killed but not already mentioned,
+were Asst. Surgeon L.W. Lord, and Lieuts. H.M. Harrington, J.E. Porter,
+and J.G. Sturgis. The last named was a West Point graduate of 1875, and
+a son of General S.D. Sturgis, the Colonel of the 7th Cavalry, who had
+been detained by other duties when his regiment started on this
+expedition. The bodies of the slain were rifled of valuables and all
+were mutilated excepting Gen. Custer, and Mark Kellogg--a correspondent
+of the _New York Herald_. Gen. Custer was clad in a buckskin suit; and a
+Canadian--Mr. Macdonald--was subsequently informed by Indians who were
+in the fight, that for this reason he was not mangled, as they took him
+to be some brave hunter accidentally with the troops. Others believe
+that Custer was passed by from respect for the heroism of one whom the
+Indians had learned to fear and admire.
+
+The dead were buried June 28th, where they fell, Major Reno and the
+survivors of his regiment performing the last sad rites over their
+comrades.
+
+A retreat to the mouth of Big Horn River was now ordered and
+successfully effected, the wounded being comfortably transported on mule
+litters to the mouth of the Little Big Horn, where they were placed on a
+steamboat and taken to Fort Lincoln. Gibbon's Cavalry followed the
+Indians for about ten miles, and ascertained that they had moved to the
+south and west by several trails. A good deal of property had been
+thrown away by them to lighten their march, and was found scattered
+about. Many of their dead were also discovered secreted in ravines a
+long distance from the battle field.
+
+At the boat was found one of Custer's scouts, who had been in the
+fight--a Crow named Curley; his story was as follows:--
+
+     "Custer kept down the river on the north bank four miles, after
+     Reno had crossed to the south side above. He thought Reno would
+     drive down the valley, to attack the village at the upper end,
+     while he (Custer) would go in at the lower end. Custer had to go
+     further down the river and further away from Reno than he wished on
+     account of the steep bank along the north side; but at last he
+     found a ford and dashed for it. The Indians met him and poured in a
+     heavy fire from across the narrow river. Custer dismounted to fight
+     on foot, but could not get his skirmishers over the stream.
+     Meantime hundreds of Indians, on foot and on ponies, poured over
+     the river, which was only about three feet deep, and filled the
+     ravine on each side of Custer's men. Custer then fell back to some
+     high ground behind him and seized the ravines in his immediate
+     vicinity. The Indians completely surrounded Custer and poured in a
+     terrible fire on all sides. They charged Custer on foot in vast
+     numbers, but were again and again driven back.
+
+     "The fight began about 2 o'clock, and lasted almost until the sun
+     went down over the hills. The men fought desperately, and after the
+     ammunition in their belts was exhausted went to their saddlebags,
+     got more and continued the fight. Custer lived until nearly all his
+     men had been killed or wounded, and went about encouraging his
+     soldiers to fight on. He got a shot in the left side and sat down,
+     with his pistol in his hand. Another shot struck Custer in the
+     breast, and he fell over. The last officer killed was a man who
+     rode a white horse--believed to be Lieut. Cooke, as Cooke and
+     Calhoun were the only officers who rode white horses.
+
+     "When he saw Custer hopelessly surrounded he watched his
+     opportunity, got a Sioux blanket, put it on, and worked up a
+     ravine, and when the Sioux charged, he got among them and they did
+     not know him from one of their own men. There were some mounted
+     Sioux, and seeing one fall, he ran to him, mounted his pony, and
+     galloped down as if going towards the white men, but went up a
+     ravine and got away. As he rode off he saw, when nearly a mile from
+     the battle field, a dozen or more soldiers in a ravine, fighting
+     with Sioux all around them. He thinks all were killed, as they were
+     outnumbered five to one, and apparently dismounted. The battle was
+     desperate in the extreme, and more Indians than white men must have
+     been killed."
+
+The following extract is from a letter written to Gen. Sheridan by Gen.
+Terry at his camp on the Big Horn, July 2d:--
+
+     "We calculated it would take Gibbon's command until the 26th to
+     reach the mouth of the Little Big Horn, and that the wide sweep I
+     had proposed Custer should make would require so much time that
+     Gibbon would be able to co-operate with him in attacking any
+     Indians that might be found on the stream. I asked Custer how long
+     his marches would be. He said they would be at the rate of about 30
+     miles a day. Measurements were made and calculations based on that
+     rate of progress. I talked with him about his strength, and at one
+     time suggested that perhaps it would be well for me to take
+     Gibbon's cavalry and go with him. To the latter suggestion he
+     replied:--that, without reference to the command, he would prefer
+     his own regiment alone. As a homogeneous body, as much could be
+     done with it as with the two combined. He expressed the utmost
+     confidence that he had all the force that he could need, and I
+     shared his confidence. The plan adopted was the only one which
+     promised to bring the infantry into action, and I desired to make
+     sure of things by getting up every available man. I offered Custer
+     the battery of Gatling guns, but he declined it, saying that it
+     might embarrass him, and that he was strong enough without it. The
+     movements proposed by General Gibbon's column were carried out to
+     the letter, and had the attack been deferred until it was up, I
+     cannot doubt that we should have been successful."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+RENO'S BATTLES ON THE LITTLE BIG HORN.
+
+
+After the battle in which Lieut. Col. Custer lost his life, the command
+of the 7th Cavalry regiment devolved on Major Reno. The following is a
+copy of Reno's official report to Gen. Terry, excepting that a few
+unimportant paragraphs are omitted. It is dated July 5th, 1876.
+
+     "The regiment left the camp at the mouth of Rosebud River, after
+     passing in review before the department commander, under command of
+     Brevet Major General G.A. Custer, Lieutenant Colonel, on the
+     afternoon of the 22d of June, and marched up the Rosebud 12 miles
+     and encamped. 23d--Marched up the Rosebud, passing many old Indian
+     camps, and following a very large lodge-pole trail, but not fresh,
+     making 33 miles. 24th--The march was continued up the Rosebud, the
+     trail and signs freshening with every mile until we had made 28
+     miles, and we then encamped and waited for information from the
+     scouts. At 9.25 P.M., Custer called the officers together, and
+     informed us that beyond a doubt the village was in the valley of
+     the Little Big Horn, and that to reach it, it was necessary to
+     cross the divide between the Rosebud and Little Big Horn, and it
+     would be impossible to do so in the daytime without discovering our
+     march to the Indians; that we would prepare to move at 11 P.M. This
+     was done, the line of march turning from the Rosebud to the right,
+     up one of its branches, which headed near the summit of the divide.
+
+     "About 2 A.M. of the 25th, the scouts told him that he could not
+     cross the divide before daylight. We then made coffee and rested
+     for three hours, at the expiration of which time the march was
+     resumed, the divide crossed, and about 8 A.M. the command was in
+     the valley of one of the branches of the Little Big Horn. By this
+     time Indians had been seen, and it was certain that we could not
+     surprise them, and it was determined to move at once to the attack.
+
+     "Previous to this no division of the regiment had been made since
+     the order was issued on the Yellowstone, annulling wing and
+     battalion organizations. General Custer informed me he would assign
+     commands on the march. I was ordered by Lieut. W.W. Cooke,
+     Adjutant, to assume command of Companies M, A, and G; Capt. Benteen
+     of Companies H, D, and K; Custer retaining C, E, F, I, and L, under
+     his immediate command; and Company B, Capt. McDougall, being in
+     rear of the pack train. I assumed command of the companies assigned
+     to me, and without any definite orders, moved forward with the rest
+     of the column, and well to its left. I saw Benteen moving further
+     to the left, and, as they passed, he told me he had orders to move
+     well to the left, and sweep everything before him; I did not see
+     him again until about 2:30 P.M. The command moved down the creek
+     towards the Little Big Horn Valley. Custer with five companies on
+     the right bank; myself and three companies on the left bank; and
+     Benteen further to the left, and out of sight.
+
+     "As we approached a deserted village, in which was standing one
+     tepee, about 11 A.M., Custer motioned me to cross to him, which I
+     did, and moved nearer to his column, until about 12:30 A.M., when
+     Lieut. Cooke came to me and said the village was only two miles
+     ahead and running away. To 'move forward at as rapid a gait as I
+     thought prudent and to charge afterward, and that the whole outfit
+     would support me.' I think those were his exact words. I at once
+     took a fast trot, and moved down about two miles, when I came to a
+     ford of the river. I crossed immediately, and halted about ten
+     minutes or less, to gather the battalion, sending word to Custer
+     that I had everything in front of me, and that they were strong.
+
+     "I deployed, and, with the Ree scouts on my left, charged down the
+     valley, driving the Indians with great ease for about 2-1/2 miles.
+     I, however, soon saw that I was being drawn into some trap, as they
+     certainly would fight harder, and especially as we were nearing
+     their village, which was still standing; besides, I could not see
+     Custer or any other support; and at the same time the very earth
+     seemed to grow Indians, and they were running toward me in swarms,
+     and from all directions. I saw I must defend myself, and give up
+     the attack mounted. This I did, taking possession of a point of
+     woods, which furnished near its edge a shelter for the horses;
+     dismounted, and fought them on foot, making headway through the
+     woods. I soon found myself in the near vicinity of the village, saw
+     that I was fighting odds of at least five to one, and that my only
+     hope was to get out of the woods, where I would soon have been
+     surrounded, and gain some high ground. I accomplished this by
+     mounting and charging the Indians between me and the bluffs on the
+     opposite side of the river. In this charge First Lieut. Donald
+     McIntosh, Second Lieut. Benjamin H. Hodgson, and Acting Assistant
+     Surgeon J. M. De Wolf were killed.
+
+     "I succeeded in reaching the top of the bluff, with a loss of the
+     three officers and 29 enlisted men killed, and seven men wounded.
+     Almost at the same time I reached the top, mounted men were seen to
+     be coming toward us, and it proved to be Capt. Benteen's battalion,
+     Companies H, D, and K; we joined forces, and in a short time the
+     pack train came up. As senior my command was then Companies A, B,
+     D, G, H, K, and M, about 380 men; and the following
+     officers:--Captains Benteen, Weir, French, and McDougall, First
+     Lieutenants Godfrey, Mathey, and Gibson, Second Lieutenants
+     Edgerly, Wallace, Varnum, and Hare, and A.A. Surgeon Porter. First
+     Lieut. De Rudio was in the dismounted fight in the woods, but
+     having some trouble with his horse did not join the command in the
+     charge out, and hiding himself in the woods, joined the command
+     after nightfall of the 26th.
+
+     "Still hearing nothing of Custer, and with this reinforcement, I
+     moved down the river in the direction of the village, keeping on
+     the bluffs. We had heard firing in that direction, and knew it
+     could only be Custer. I moved to the summit of the highest bluff,
+     but seeing and hearing nothing, sent Capt. Weir, with his company,
+     to open communication with the other command. He soon sent back
+     word by Lieut. Hare that he could go no further, and that the
+     Indians were getting around him. At this time he was keeping up a
+     heavy fire from his skirmish line. I at once turned everything back
+     to the first position I had taken on the bluff, and which seemed to
+     me the best. I dismounted the men, had the horses and mules of the
+     pack train driven together in a depression, put the men on the
+     crests of the hills making the depression, and had hardly done so
+     when I was furiously attacked. This was about 6 P.M. We held our
+     ground, with the loss of 18 enlisted men killed and 46 wounded,
+     until the attack ceased, about 9 P.M.
+
+     "As I knew by this time their overwhelming numbers, and had given
+     up any support from the portion of the regiment with Custer, I had
+     the men dig rifle-pits; barricaded with dead horses, mules, and
+     boxes of hard bread, the opening of the depression toward the
+     Indians in which the animals were herded; and made every exertion
+     to be ready for what I saw would be a terrific assault the next
+     day. All this night the men were busy, and the Indians holding a
+     scalp dance underneath us in the bottom and in our hearing.
+
+     "On the morning of the 26th I felt confident that I could hold my
+     own, and was ready as far as I could be, when at daylight, about
+     2:30 A.M., I heard the crack of two rifles. This was the signal for
+     the beginning of a fire that I have never seen equaled. Every rifle
+     was handled by an expert and skilled marksman, and with a range
+     that exceeded our carbine; and it was simply impossible to show any
+     part of the body, before it was struck. We could see, as the day
+     brightened, countless hordes of them pouring up the valley from out
+     the village, and scampering over the high points toward the places
+     designated for them by their chiefs, and which entirely surrounded
+     our position. They had sufficient numbers to completely encircle
+     us, and men were struck on the opposite sides of the lines from
+     which the shots were fired. I think we were fighting all the Sioux
+     nation, and also all the desperados, renegades, half-breeds and
+     squaw men, between the Missouri and the Arkansas and east of the
+     Rocky Mountains. They must have numbered at least 2,500 warriors.
+
+     "The fire did not slacken until about 9:30 A.M., and then we
+     discovered that they were making a last desperate attempt, which
+     was directed against the lines held by Companies H and M. In this
+     attack they charged close enough to use their bows and arrows, and
+     one man lying dead within our lines was touched by the 'coup stick'
+     of one of the foremost Indians. When I say the stick was only about
+     10 or 12 feet long, some idea of the desperate and reckless
+     fighting of these people may be understood. This charge of theirs
+     was gallantly repulsed by the men on that line led by Capt.
+     Benteen. They also came close enough to send their arrows into the
+     line held by Companies D and K, but were driven away by a like
+     charge of the line, which I accompanied. We now had many wounded,
+     and the question of water was vital, as from 6 P.M. of the previous
+     evening until now, 10 A.M. (about 16 hours) we had been without it.
+     A skirmish line was formed under Capt. Benteen, to protect the
+     descent of volunteers down the hill in front of his position to
+     reach the water. We succeeded in getting some canteens, although
+     many of the men were hit in doing so.
+
+     "The fury of the attack was now over, and to my astonishment the
+     Indians were seen going in parties toward the village. But two
+     solutions occurred to us for this movement--that they were going
+     for something to eat, more ammunition (as they had been throwing
+     arrows), or that Custer was coming. We took advantage of this lull
+     to fill all vessels with water, and soon had it by the camp kettle
+     full; but they continued to withdraw, and all firing ceased, save
+     occasional shots from sharpshooters, sent to annoy us about the
+     water. About 2 P.M. the grass in the bottom was set on fire, and
+     followed up by Indians who encouraged its burning, and it was
+     evident it was done for a purpose, which purpose I discovered,
+     later on, to be the creation of a dense cloud of smoke, behind
+     which they were packing and preparing to move their tepees.
+
+     "It was between 6 and 7 P.M. that the village came out from behind
+     the clouds of smoke and dust. We had a close and good view of them,
+     as they filed away in the direction of the Big Horn Mountains,
+     moving in almost perfect military order. The length of the column
+     was fully equal to that of a large division of the cavalry corps of
+     the Army of the Potomac, as I have seen it on its march.
+
+     "We now thought of Custer, of whom nothing had been seen and
+     nothing heard since the firing in his direction about 6 P.M. on the
+     eve of the 25th, and we concluded that the Indians had gotten
+     between him and us, and driven him toward the boat, at the mouth of
+     Little Big Horn River; the awful fate that did befall him never
+     occurring to any of us as within the limits of possibilities.
+     During the night I changed my position, in order to secure an
+     unlimited supply of water, and was prepared for their return,
+     feeling sure they would do so, as they were in such numbers. But
+     early in the morning of the 27th, and while we were on the _qui
+     vive_ for Indians, I saw with my glass a dust some distance down
+     the valley. There was no certainty for some time what they were,
+     but finally I satisfied myself they were cavalry, and if so could
+     only be Custer, as it was ahead of the time that I understood that
+     General Terry could be expected. Before this time, however, I had
+     written a communication to Gen. Terry, and three volunteers were to
+     try and reach him (I had no confidence in the Indians with me, and
+     could not get them to do anything). If this dust were Indians, it
+     was possible they would not expect any one to leave. The men
+     started, and were told to go as near as was safe to determine if
+     the approaching column was white men, and to return at once in case
+     they found it so; but if they were Indians to push on to General
+     Terry. In a short time we saw them returning over the high bluff
+     already alluded to; they were accompanied by a scout who had a note
+     from Terry to Custer, saying, 'Crow scouts had come to camp saying
+     he had been whipped, but it was not believed.' I think it was about
+     10:30 A.M. that General Terry rode into my lines, and the fate of
+     Custer and his brave men was soon determined by Capt. Benteen
+     proceeding with his company to the battle ground.
+
+     "The wounded in my lines were, during the afternoon and eve of the
+     27th, moved to the camp of General Terry; and at 5 A.M. of the
+     28th, I proceeded with the regiment to the battle ground of Custer,
+     and buried 204 bodies, including the following named citizens:--Mr.
+     Boston Custer, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Kellogg. The following named
+     citizens and Indians, who were with my command, were also
+     killed:--Charles Reynolds (guide and hunter); Isaiah (colored)
+     interpreter; Bloody Knife (who fell from immediately by my side);
+     Bob-tailed Bull and Stab of the Indian scouts.
+
+     "After following over his trail, it is evident to me that Custer
+     intended to support me by moving further down the stream, and
+     attacking the village in flank; that he found the distance to the
+     ford greater than he anticipated; that he did charge, but his march
+     had taken so long, although his trail shows he moved rapidly, that
+     they were ready for him; that Companies C and I, and perhaps part
+     of Company E, crossed to the village or attempted it at the charge
+     and were met by a staggering fire; and that they fell back to
+     secure a position from which to defend themselves; but they were
+     followed too closely by the Indians to permit him to form any kind
+     of a line. I think had the regiment gone in as a body, and from the
+     woods in which I fought advanced on the village, its destruction
+     was certain; but he was fully confident they were running, or he
+     would not have turned from me. I think (after the great number of
+     Indians that were in the village) that the following reasons
+     obtained for the misfortune: His rapid marching for two days and
+     one night before the fight, attacking in the day time at 12 M. and
+     when they were on the _qui vive_, instead of early in the morning;
+     and lastly, his unfortunate division of the regiment into three
+     commands.
+
+     "During my fight with the Indians I had the heartiest support from
+     officers and men, but the conspicuous services of Brevet Colonel
+     F.W. Benteen, I desire to call attention to especially, for if ever
+     a soldier deserved recognition by his government for distinguished
+     services, he certainly does.
+
+     "The harrowing sight of the dead bodies crowning the height on
+     which Custer fell, and which will remain vividly in my memory until
+     death, is too recent for me not to ask the good people of this
+     country whether a policy that sets opposing parties in the field,
+     armed, clothed, and equipped by one and the same government, should
+     not be abolished. All of which is respectfully submitted."
+
+The following is Capt. Benteen's account of his detour to the south and
+junction with Reno:--
+
+     "I was sent with my battalion to the left to a line of bluffs about
+     five miles off, with instructions to look for Indians and see what
+     was to be seen, and if I saw nothing there to go on, and when I had
+     satisfied myself that it was useless to go further in that
+     direction to rejoin the main trail. After proceeding through a
+     rough and difficult country, very tiring on the horses, and seeing
+     nothing, and wishing to save the horses unnecessary fatigue, I
+     decided to return to the main trail. Before I had proceeded a mile
+     in the direction of the bluffs I was overtaken by the chief
+     trumpeter and the sergeant major, with instructions from Gen.
+     Custer to use my own discretion, and in case I should find any
+     trace of Indians, at once to notify Gen. Custer.
+
+     "Having marched rapidly and passed the line of bluffs on the left
+     bank of a branch of the Little Big Horn which made into the main
+     stream about two and a half miles above the ford crossed by Col.
+     Reno's command, as ordered, I continued my march in the same
+     direction. The whole time occupied in this march was about an hour
+     and a half. As I was anxious to regain the main command, as there
+     was no signs of Indians, I then decided to rejoin the main trail,
+     as the country before me was mostly of the same character as that I
+     had already passed over, without valley and without water, and
+     offering no inducement for the Indians. No valleys were visible,
+     not even the valley where the fight took place, until my command
+     struck the river.
+
+     "About three miles from the point where Reno crossed the ford, I
+     met a sergeant bringing orders to the commanding officer of the
+     rear guard, Capt. McDougall, to hurry up the pack trains. A mile
+     further I was met by my trumpeter, bringing a written order from
+     Lieut. Cooke, the adjutant of the regiment, to this
+     effect:--'Benteen, come on; big village; be quick; bring packs:'
+     and a postscript saying, 'Bring packs.' A mile or a mile and a half
+     further on I first came in sight of the valley and Little Big Horn.
+     About twelve or fifteen dismounted men were fighting on the plains
+     with Indians, charging and recharging them. This body numbered
+     about 900 at this time. Col. Reno's mounted party were retiring
+     across the river to the bluffs. I did not recognize till later what
+     part of the command this was, but was clear they had been beaten. I
+     then marched my command in line to their succor.
+
+     "On reaching the bluff I reported to Col. Reno, and first learned
+     that the command had been separated and that Custer was not in that
+     part of the field, and no one of Reno's command was able to inform
+     me of the whereabouts of Gen. Custer. While the command was
+     awaiting the arrival of the pack mules, a company was sent forward
+     in the direction supposed to have been taken by Custer. After
+     proceeding about a mile they were attacked and driven back. During
+     this time I heard no heavy firing, and there was nothing to
+     indicate that a heavy fight was going on, and I believe that at
+     this time Custer's immediate command had been annihilated."
+
+In a letter addressed to the _Army and Navy Journal_, Lieut. E.L.
+Godfry, of Benteen's battalion, gives the following information:--
+
+     "Captain Benteen was some six miles from the scene of action when
+     he received Lieut. Cooke's note; he had no intimation that the
+     battle had begun, of the force of the Indians, or plan of attack.
+     Benteen pushed ahead; the packs followed, and not until he reached
+     the high bluffs over-looking the river valley and near to where the
+     troops afterwards were besieged did he know of the battle or
+     immediate presence of the troops to the enemy; he could only hear
+     occasional shots, not enough to intimate that a battle was going
+     on. Soon after reaching this point two volleys were heard down the
+     river where Gen. Custer was, but his force was not in sight. Soon
+     after this Reno and Benteen joined. By accident Benteen's column
+     constituted a reserve. It was well it was so. As soon as
+     dispositions were made on the bluff, Weir's company was sent to
+     look for Gen. Custer. He went to a high point about three-quarters
+     of a mile down the river, from which he had a good view of the
+     country. From it could be seen Custer's battle field, but there was
+     nothing to indicate the result. The field was covered with Indians.
+     He was recalled from the place; the packs closed up; ammunition was
+     issued and the command moved down the river to, if possible, join
+     Custer. Upon reaching this high point we could see nothing, hear
+     nothing, to indicate Custer's vicinage. But immediately the Indians
+     started for us."
+
+The following is the narrative of George Herndon, a scout, published in
+the _New York Herald_:--
+
+     "At 11 P.M., June 24th, Custer followed the scouts up the
+     right-hand fork of the Rosebud. About daylight we went into camp,
+     made coffee, and soon after it was light the scouts brought Custer
+     word that they had seen the village from the top of a divide that
+     separates the Rosebud from Little Big Horn River. We moved up the
+     creek until near its head, and concealed ourselves in a ravine. It
+     was about three miles from the head of the creek where we then were
+     to the top of the divide where the Indian scouts said the village
+     could be seen, and after hiding his command, General Custer with a
+     few orderlies galloped forward to look at the Indian camp. In about
+     an hour he returned, and said he could not see the Indian village,
+     but the scouts and a half-breed guide said they could distinctly
+     see it some 15 miles off. Custer had 'officers' call' blown, gave
+     his orders, and the command was put in fighting order. The scouts
+     were ordered forward, and the regiment moved at a walk. After going
+     about three miles the scouts reported Indians ahead, and the
+     command then took the trail.
+
+     "Our way lay down a little creek, a branch of the Little Big Horn,
+     and after going some six miles we discovered an Indian lodge ahead
+     and Custer bore down on it at a stiff trot. In coming to it we
+     found ourselves in a freshly-abandoned Indian camp, all the lodges
+     of which were gone except the one we saw, and on entering it we
+     found it contained a dead Indian. From this point we could see into
+     the Little Big Horn valley, and observed heavy clouds of dust
+     rising about five miles distant. Many thought the Indians were
+     moving away, and I think Custer believed so, for he sent word to
+     Reno, who was ahead, to push on the scouts rapidly and head for the
+     dust. Reno took a steady gallop down the creek bottom three miles
+     to where it emptied into the Little Big Horn, and found a natural
+     ford across Little Big Horn River. He started to cross, when the
+     scouts came back and called out to him to hold on, that the Sioux
+     were coming in large numbers to meet him. He crossed over, however,
+     formed his companies on the prairie in line of battle, and moved
+     forward at a trot, but soon took a gallop.
+
+     "The valley was about three-fourths of a mile wide. On the left a
+     line of low, round hills, and on the right the river bottom,
+     covered with a growth of cottonwood trees and bushes. After
+     scattering shots were fired from the hills and a few from the river
+     bottom, and Reno's skirmishers had returned the shots, he advanced
+     about a mile from the ford, to a line of timber on the right, and
+     dismounted his men to fight on foot. The horses were sent into the
+     timber, and the men formed on the prairies and advanced toward the
+     Indians. The Indians, mounted on ponies, came across the prairies
+     and opened a heavy fire on the soldiers. After skirmishing for a
+     few minutes Reno fell back to his horses in the timber. The Indians
+     moved to his left and rear, evidently with the intention of cutting
+     him off from the ford. Reno ordered his men to mount and move
+     through the timber. Just as the men got into the saddle the Sioux,
+     who had advanced in the timber, fired at close range and killed one
+     soldier. Reno then commanded the men to dismount, and they did so;
+     but he soon ordered them to mount again and moved out on the open
+     prairie. The command headed for the ford, pressed closely by
+     Indians in large numbers, and at every moment the rate of speed
+     was increased, until it became a dead run for the ford. The Sioux,
+     mounted on their swift ponies, dashed up by the side of the
+     soldiers and fired at them, killing both men and horses. Little
+     resistance was offered, and it was a complete route to the ford.
+
+     "I did not see the men at the ford, and do not know what took place
+     further than a good many were killed when the command left the
+     timber. Just as I got out my horse stumbled and fell, and I was
+     dismounted--the horse running away after Reno's command. I saw
+     several soldiers who were dismounted, their horses having been
+     killed or having run away. There were also some soldiers mounted
+     who had remained behind. In all there was as many as 13 men, three
+     of whom were wounded. Seeing no chance to get away, I called on
+     them to come into the timber and we would stand off the Indians.
+     They wanted to go out, but I said 'No, we can't get to the ford,
+     and, besides, we have wounded men and must stand by them.' They
+     still wanted to go, but I told them I was an old frontiersman,
+     understood Indians, and, if they would do as I said, I would get
+     them out of the scrape, which was no worse than scrapes I had been
+     in before. About half of the men were mounted, and they wanted to
+     keep their horses with them; but I told them to let them go, and
+     fight on foot. We stayed in the bush about three hours, and I could
+     hear heavy firing below in the river, apparently about two miles
+     distant. I did not know who it was, but knew the Indians were
+     fighting some of our men, and learned afterward it was Custer's
+     command. Nearly all the Indians in the upper end of the valley drew
+     off down the river, and the fight with Custer lasted about one
+     hour, when the heavy firing ceased.
+
+     "When the shooting below began to die away I said to the boys,
+     'Come, now is the time to get out; the Indians will come back, and
+     we had better be off at once.' Eleven of the 13 said they would go,
+     but two staid behind. I deployed the men as skirmishers, and we
+     moved forward on foot toward the river. When we had got nearly to
+     the river we met five Indians on ponies, and they fired on us. I
+     returned the fire and the Indians broke, and we forded the river,
+     the water being breast-deep. We finally got over, wounded men and
+     all, and headed for Reno's command, which I could see drawn up on
+     the bluffs along the river about a mile off. We reached Reno in
+     safety. We had not been with Reno more than 15 minutes when I saw
+     the Indians coming up the valley from Custer's fight. Reno was
+     then moving his whole command down the ridge toward Custer. The
+     Indians crossed the river below Reno and swarmed up the bluff on
+     all sides. After skirmishing with them Reno went back to his old
+     position which was on one of the highest points along the bluffs.
+     It was now about 5 P.M., and the fight lasted until it was too dark
+     to see to shoot. As soon as it was dark, Reno took the packs and
+     saddles off the mules and horses and made breastworks of them. He
+     also dragged the dead horses and mules on the line and sheltered
+     the men behind them. Some of the men dug rifle pits with their
+     butcher knives and all slept on their arms.
+
+     "At the peep of day the Indians opened a heavy fire and a desperate
+     fight ensued, lasting until 10 A.M. The Indians charged our
+     position three or four times, coming up close enough to hit our men
+     with stones, which they threw by hand. Captain Benteen saw a large
+     mass of Indians gathering on his front to charge, and ordered his
+     men to charge on foot and scatter them. Benteen led the charge, and
+     was upon the Indians before they knew what they were about and
+     killed a great many. They were evidently surprised at this
+     offensive movement. I think in desperate fighting Benteen is one of
+     the bravest men I ever saw. All the time he was going about through
+     the bullets, encouraging the soldiers to stand up to their work and
+     not let the Indians whip them. He never sheltered his own person
+     once during the battle, and I do not see how he escaped being
+     killed. The desperate charging and fighting was at about 1 P.M.,
+     but firing was kept up on both sides until late in the afternoon.
+
+     "I think the Indian village must have contained about 6,000 people,
+     fully 3,000 of whom were warriors. The Indians fought Reno first
+     and then went to fight Custer, after which they came back to finish
+     Reno. Hordes of squaws and old, gray-haired Indians were roaming
+     over the battle-field howling like mad. The squaws had stone
+     mallets, and mashed in the skulls of the dead and wounded. Our men
+     did not kill any squaws, but the Ree Indian scouts did. The bodies
+     of six squaws were found in the little ravine. The Indians must
+     have lost as many men in killed and wounded as the whites did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+KILL EAGLE'S NARRATIVE.
+
+
+A vivid account of Custer's last battle has been given by an Indian
+named Kill Eagle, who was in Sitting Bull's village on the day of the
+fight as, he claims, a non-combatant. Kill Eagle was head chief of the
+Cheyenne River Agency Indians who had become much dissatisfied. Capt.
+Poland, formerly commander of the troops at Standing Rock, says that the
+Indians there were "abominably starved during the winter and spring of
+1875--the authorities having failed to deliver the rations due them; and
+in May and June 1876, the Indians received practically nothing except
+two issues of beef and ground corn, called meal, but so coarse that one
+peck yielded but a quart of meal."
+
+Early in May, Kill Eagle entered the military post with a party of
+warriors, gave a dance, demanded rations, and proclaimed "that he owned
+the land the post was built on, the timber and stone which had been used
+in its construction, and that he would have the Great Father pay for all
+these things; that his people were starving and they could get no food
+from the agent." The post commander told them he could do nothing for
+them. Kill Eagle's party manifested sulliness, and demonstrated their
+defiance by firing off pistols in the air as they marched outside of
+the garrison. A few days later the post commander was informed that
+Kill Eagle had started for the hostile camp with about thirty lodges.
+
+In September, Kill Eagle came near the post and sent word that he
+intended to kill all the soldiers unless they crossed the river. The
+troops were under arms all night anticipating an attack, but none was
+made. Subsequently Kill Eagle surrendered to the authorities, and gave
+them an account of his wanderings during the summer. A letter written at
+Standing Rock described his story as follows:--
+
+     "He commences with the date at which he left this agency, last
+     spring, with 26 lodges, for the purpose of hunting buffalo and
+     trading with the hostile Indians. He speaks of having heard reports
+     that troops were going out to punish the hostiles, but thought he
+     would have time to do his hunting and trading and get out of the
+     way before a battle occurred. They were obliged to hunt, as they
+     were starving at the agency, and were very successful.
+
+     "On the seventh day they arrived at Sitting Bull's village, where a
+     feast and numerous presents of ponies and robes were given them.
+     Efforts were made to induce Kill Eagle and his band to join in the
+     contemplated movements and hostilities, but evidently without much
+     success. They were desirous of getting back again to the protecting
+     arms of their agency, but were unable to escape from the meshes of
+     the wily Sitting Bull. They found, too late, that for them there
+     was no escape; their horses were either shot or stolen, and wounds
+     and insults were showered upon them from every side. In the
+     meantime the forces of Crook were approaching, and with his people
+     Kill Eagle succeeded in escaping temporarily from the hostiles. He
+     claims to have been distant some forty or fifty miles from the
+     scene of the Rosebud fight, and relates many of the incidents which
+     he was able subsequently to gather from the participants. He places
+     the loss of the Indians in the Rosebud fight at four dead, left on
+     the field, and twelve that were brought to camp. He places the
+     wounded at as high as 400, and says they had 180 horses killed,
+     besides those that were captured.
+
+     "He next comes to the fight on the Little Big Horn, and describes
+     the Indian village, which was six miles long and one wide. He then
+     speaks of Custer's approach and fight with its tragic details as an
+     unwilling spectator, rather than a participant, who, during its
+     progress, remained quietly in his lodge in the centre of the Indian
+     village. The fight with Reno commenced about noon, the Indians all
+     rushing to oppose his advance, until the approach of Custer toward
+     the lower end of the village was announced, when the wildest
+     confusion prevailed throughout the camp. Lodges were struck and
+     preparations made for instant flight. Vast numbers of Indians left
+     Reno's front and hastened to the assistance of their red brethren
+     engaged with Custer, who was steadily forced back and surrounded
+     until all were swept from the field by the repeated charges of the
+     Indians.
+
+     "He described the firing at this point as simply terrific, and
+     illustrated its force by clapping his hands together with great
+     rapidity and regularity. Then came a lull in the fearful storm of
+     iron hail and his hands were still again. The storm beat fast and
+     furious as the thought of some loved one nerved the arm of each
+     contending trooper. Then the movement of his hands slackened and
+     gradually grew more feeble. A few scattering shakes, like the rain
+     upon a window pane, and then the movement ceased as the last of
+     Custer's band of heroes went down with the setting sun.
+
+     "It was dusk as the successful combatants returned to camp littered
+     with their dead and wounded. 'We have killed them all,' they said,
+     'put up your lodges where they are.' They had just began to fix
+     their lodges that evening, when a report came that troops were
+     coming from toward the mouth of the creek. When this report came,
+     after dark, the lodges were all taken down and they started up the
+     creek. 'I told my men,' says Kill Eagle, 'to keep together, and we
+     would try and get away. Some one told on me, and they said let us
+     kill him and his band, we have lost many young men to-day, and our
+     hearts are bad. We travelled all night and next day; after crossing
+     the Greasy Grass we encamped near the foot of the White Mountains.
+     That night, when I was asleep, I heard a man calling. I woke up my
+     people and this man proved to be a Cheyenne Indian, belonging to a
+     party that had been off on the war-path in the White Mountains.'
+
+     "It was not to the Indians a bloodless victory. Fourteen had fallen
+     in front of Reno, thirty-nine went down with Custer, and fourteen
+     were dead in camp. Horses and travoises were laden with their
+     wounded on every hand and in countless numbers. One band alone of
+     Ogallallas had twenty-seven wounded on travoises, and thirty-eight
+     thrown across horses. There were no white men in the fight or on
+     the field. The bugle calls were sounded by an Indian. No prisoners
+     were taken. The troops were all killed on the east side; none
+     crossed the river."
+
+Little Buck-Elk, an Uncapapa chief who came into Fort Peck in September,
+said that he was present at the fight with Custer, and that eleven
+different tribes were engaged in it. "The Indians were as thick as bees
+at the fight, and there were so many of them that they could not all
+take part in it. The soldiers were all brave men and fought well; some
+of them, when they found themselves surrounded and overpowered, broke
+through the lines and tried to make their escape, but were pursued and
+killed miles from the battle ground. The Indians captured six battle
+flags. No soldiers were taken alive, but after the fight the women went
+among the dead bodies and robbed and mutilated them. There were plenty
+of watches and money taken, which the young warriors are wearing in
+their shirts and belts."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AN ATTACK IN THE REAR.
+
+
+Major Reno's conduct on the first day of the fighting on the Little Big
+Horn, has been severely criticised by several of Gen. Custer's personal
+friends; and one of them, Gen T.L. Rosser, in a letter addressed to Reno
+and published in the _Army and Navy Journal_, blames him for taking to
+the timber when his "loss was little or nothing." "You had," he says,
+"an open field for cavalry operations, and I believe that if you had
+remained in the saddle and charged boldly into the village, the shock
+upon the Indians would have been so great that they would have been
+compelled to withdraw their attacking force from Custer, who, when
+relieved, could have pushed his command through to open ground, where he
+could have manoeuvred his command, and thus greatly have increased his
+chances of success." It would seem as if this and similar criticisms
+were sufficiently answered by Reno's report; and by his reply to Rosser,
+which is given in part below:--
+
+     "After reading all your letter I could no longer look upon it as a
+     tribute of a generous enemy, since through me you had attacked as
+     brave officers as ever served a government, and with the same
+     recklessness and ignorance of circumstances as Custer is charged
+     with in his attacks upon the hostile Indians. Both charges--the one
+     made against him and the one made by you against us--are equally
+     untrue, You say:--'I feel Custer would have succeeded had Reno,
+     with all the reserve of seven companies, passed through and joined
+     Custer after the first repulse;' and after confessing that you are
+     firing at long range say further: 'I think it quite certain that
+     Custer had agreed with Reno upon a place of junction in case of the
+     repulse of either or both detachments; and, instead of an effort
+     being made by Reno for such a junction, as soon as he encountered
+     heavy resistance he took refuge in the hills and abandoned Custer
+     and his gallant comrades to their fate.
+
+     "As I shall show, both the premises are false, and consequently all
+     the conclusions of your letter fall to the ground. * * * The only
+     official orders I had from Custer were about five miles from the
+     village, when Cooke gave me his orders in these words: 'Custer says
+     to move at as rapid a gait as you think prudent, and to charge
+     afterwards, and you will be supported by the whole outfit.'
+
+     "No mention of any plan, no thought of junction, only the usual
+     orders to the advance guard to attack by the charge. When the enemy
+     was reached I moved to the front at a fast trot, and at the river
+     halted ten minutes or less to gather the battalion. I sent word to
+     Custer that I had the enemy in my front very strong, and then
+     charged, driving the reds before me about three miles or less, to
+     within a short distance of their village, supposing my command,
+     consisting of 120 officers and men and about 25 scouts and guards,
+     followed by the columns under Custer. The stream was very crooked,
+     like a letter S in its wanderings, and on the side on which the
+     village was it opened out into a broad bottom, perhaps half or
+     three-quarters of a mile wide. The stream was fringed, as usual,
+     with the trees of the plains--a growth of large cottonwood, and on
+     the opposite side was a range of high bluffs which had been cut
+     into very deep ravines.
+
+     "As I neared the village the Indians came out in great numbers, and
+     I was soon convinced I had at least ten to one against me, and was
+     forced on the defensive. This I accomplished by taking possession
+     of a point of woods where I found shelter for my horses. I fought
+     there dismounted, and made my way to within 200 yards of the
+     village, and firmly believe that if, at that moment, the seven
+     companies had been together the Indians could have been driven from
+     their village. As we approached near their village they came out in
+     overwhelming numbers, and soon the small command would have been
+     surrounded on all sides, to prevent which I mounted and charged
+     through them to a position I could hold with the few men I had.
+
+     "You see by this I was the advance and the first to be engaged and
+     draw fire, and was consequently the command to be supported, and
+     not the one from which support could be expected. All I know of
+     Custer from the time he ordered me to attack till I saw him buried,
+     is that he did not follow my trail, but kept on his side of the
+     river and along the crest of the bluffs on the opposite side from
+     the village and from my command; that he heard and saw my action I
+     believe, although I could not see him; and it is just here that the
+     Indians deceived us. All this time I was driving them with ease,
+     and his trail shows he moved rapidly down the river for three miles
+     to the ford, at which he attempted to cross into their village, and
+     with the conviction that he would strike a a retreating enemy.
+     Trumpeter Martin, of Co. H, who the last time of any living person
+     heard and saw Gen. Custer, and who brought the last order his
+     adjutant ever penciled, says he left the General at the summit of
+     the highest bluff on that side, and which overlooked the village
+     and my first battle-field, and as he turned, Gen. Custer raised his
+     hat and gave a yell, saying they were asleep in their tepees and
+     surprised, and to charge. * * *
+
+     "The Indians made him over confident by appearing to be stampeded,
+     and, undoubtedly, when he arrived at the ford, expecting to go with
+     ease through their village, he rode into an ambuscade of at least
+     2,000 reds. My getting the command of the seven companies was not
+     the result of any order or prearranged plan. Benteen and McDougal
+     arrived separately, and saw the command on the bluffs and came to
+     it. They did not go into the bottom at all after the junction. They
+     attempted to go down the trail of Gen. Custer, but the advance
+     company soon sent back word they were being surrounded. Crowds of
+     reds were seen on all sides of us, and Custer's fate had evidently
+     been determined. I knew the position I had first taken on the bluff
+     was near and a strong one. I at once moved there, dismounted, and
+     herded the pack train, and had but just time to do so when they
+     came upon me by thousands. Had we been twenty minutes later
+     effecting the junction not a man of that regiment would be living
+     to-day to tell the tale."
+
+Another writer attacks both Reno and Benteen, accusing one of incapacity
+and utter demoralization during the attack of the Indians, and the other
+of wilful disobedience. "That he (Benteen) should have, as his own
+testimony confesses, deliberately disobeyed the _peremptory order of
+Custer_ to 'Come on,' argues either a desire to sacrifice Custer, or an
+ignorance of which his past career renders him incapable. Custer told
+him to 'Come on,' and he reported to Reno." In order, as he says, to
+"vindicate the reputation of a noble man from unjust aspersions," this
+writer further declares, that "had Reno fought as Custer fought, and had
+Benteen obeyed Custer's orders, the battle of the Little Big Horn might
+have proved Custer's last and greatest Indian victory."
+
+Of the writer last quoted, the _Army and Navy Journal_ says:--"With
+reckless pen he thrusts right and left, careless of reputations,
+regardless of facts, darkening the lives of other men, in the vain hope
+that one name may shine more brightly on the page of history * * *
+Nothing but the most absolute demonstration, accompanied by the proof,
+would justify such statements as he has made, and this he has not given.
+The reports of anonymous newspaper correspondents, and an _ex parte_
+statement of the conclusions drawn from letters, of which we have not so
+much as the names of the writers, is not proof on which to base
+criticisms affecting character and reputation."
+
+Capt. Benteen, Brevet Colonel U.S.A., who has been a captain in the 7th
+Cavalry since its organization in 1866, at which date Gen. Custer was
+appointed its Lieut. Colonel, in a letter to the _Army and Navy Journal_
+uses the following language:--
+
+"Col. Reno and I thought during the siege of June 25th and 26th, at the
+Little Big Horn, that he, Reno, was the abandoned party, and spoke of it
+as another 'Major Elliot[B] affair'; thinking that General Custer had
+retreated to the mouth of the river, where the steamboat was supposed to
+be, and that Reno's command was left to _its_ fate. I am accused of
+disobeying Custer's orders. Nothing is further from the truth in point
+of fact; and I do not think the matter of sufficient importance to
+attempt to vindicate myself, but can rest contentedly under the ban when
+I have the consoling belief that the contrary is so well known by all my
+military superiors and comrades."
+
+    [B] Major Joel H. Elliot of the 7th Cavalry, and 19 of his command,
+    were missing after the Battle of the Washita in Nov., 1868. Their
+    dead bodies were found some weeks later.
+
+Lieut. Gen. Sheridan, in his report for 1876, expresses his views of the
+Custer disaster as follows:--
+
+     "As much has been said in regard to the misfortune that occurred to
+     General Custer and the portion of his regiment under his immediate
+     command in this action, I wish to express the conviction I have
+     arrived at concerning it. From all the information that has reached
+     me, I am led to believe that the Indians were not aware of the
+     proximity of Custer until he had arrived within about eight or nine
+     miles of their village, and that then their scouts who carried the
+     intelligence back to the valley were so closely followed up by
+     Custer, that he arrived on the summit of the divide overlooking the
+     upper portion of the village, almost as soon as the scouts reached
+     it. As soon as the news was given, the Indians began to strike
+     their lodges and get their women and children out of the way--a
+     movement they always make under such circumstances. Custer, seeing
+     this, believed the village would escape him if he awaited the
+     arrival of the four companies of his regiment--still some miles in
+     his rear. Only about 75 or 100 lodges or tepees could be seen from
+     the summit or divide, and this, probably, deceived him as to the
+     extent of the village. He therefore directed Major Reno, with three
+     companies, to cross the river and charge the village, while he,
+     with the remaining five companies, would gallop down the east bank
+     of the river behind the bluff and cut off the retreat of the
+     Indians. Reno crossed and attacked gallantly with his three
+     companies--about 110 men--but the warriors, leaving the women to
+     strike the lodges, fell on Reno's handful of men and drove them
+     back to and over the river with severe loss.
+
+     "About this time Custer reached a point about three and a half or
+     four miles down the river, but instead of finding a village of 75
+     or 100 lodges, he found one of perhaps from 1500 to 2000, and
+     swarming with warriors, who brought him to a halt. This, I think,
+     was the first intimation the Indians had of Custer's approach to
+     cut them off, for they at once left Reno and concentrated to meet
+     the new danger. The point where Custer reached the river, on the
+     opposite side of which was the village, was broken into choppy
+     ravines, and the Indians, crossing from Reno, got between the two
+     commands, and as Custer could not return, he fell back over the
+     broken ground with his tired men and tired horses (they had ridden
+     about 70 miles with but few halts) and became, I am afraid, an easy
+     prey to the enemy. Their wild, savage yells, overwhelming numbers,
+     and frightening war paraphernalia, made it as much as each trooper
+     could do to take care of his horse, thus endangering his own safety
+     and efficiency. If Custer could have reached any position
+     susceptible of defence, he could have defended himself; but none
+     offered itself in the choppy and broken ravines over which he had
+     to pass, and he and his command were lost without leaving any one
+     to tell the tale.
+
+     "As soon as Custer and his gallant officers and men were
+     exterminated and the scenes of mutilation by the squaws commenced,
+     the warriors returned to renew the attack upon Reno; but he had
+     been joined by Captain Benteen and the four companies of the
+     regiment that were behind when the original attack took place, and
+     the best use had been made of the respite given by the attack on
+     Custer, to entrench their position.
+
+     "Had the 7th Cavalry been kept together, it is my belief it would
+     have been able to handle the Indians on the Little Big Horn, and
+     under any circumstances it could have at least defended itself; but
+     separated as it was into three distinct detachments, the Indians
+     had largely the advantage in addition to their overwhelming
+     numbers. If Custer had not come upon the village so suddenly, the
+     warriors would have gone to meet him, in order to give time to the
+     women and children to get out of the way, as they did with Crook
+     only a few days before, and there would have been, as with Crook,
+     what might be designated a rearguard fight--a fight to get their
+     valuables out of the way, or in other words, to cover the escape of
+     their women, children and lodges."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE MIDSUMMER CAMPAIGN.
+
+
+After regaining his position at the mouth of the Big Horn River, Gen.
+Terry called for reinforcements and additional troops were at once put
+in motion for his camp; but as they had to be collected from all the
+various stations on the frontier--some of them very remote from
+railroads--considerable time elapsed before their arrival.
+
+During this period, the bands which had broken off from the main body of
+hostiles, and the young men at the agencies, continued their old and
+well-known methods of warfare, stealing horses on the frontier and
+killing small parties of citizens; while the constant communication by
+the hostiles with the Indians at the agencies made it evident that
+supplies of food and ammunition were being received. To prevent this,
+Gen. Sheridan deemed it necessary that the military should control the
+agencies, and at his request, the Secretary of the Interior, July 22d,
+authorized the military to assume control of all the agencies in the
+Sioux country.
+
+About the same date Medicine Cloud, a chief, who had been sent from Fort
+Peck, in May, with a message to Sitting Bull inviting him to visit Fort
+Peck with a view to reconciliation, returned to the agency. To the
+invitation, Sitting Bull had replied:--
+
+"Tell him I am coming before long to his post to trade. Tell him I did
+not commence. I am getting old, and I did not want to fight, but the
+whites rush on me, and I am compelled to defend myself. But for the
+soldiers stationed on the Rosebud, I with my people would have been
+there before that. If I was assured of the protection of the Great
+Father, I would go to Fort Peck for the purpose of making peace. I and
+others want the Black Hills abandoned, and we will make peace."
+
+While awaiting reinforcements, Generals Terry and Crook were separated
+by about 100 miles of rough territory, the hostile Indians were between
+them, and for reliable communication with each other it was necessary to
+send around by the rear nearly 2000 miles. The carrying of dispatches
+direct was a work of the most arduous and perilous nature, and in doing
+it, and in reconnoitering, brave and gallant deeds were performed.
+
+On the 6th of July, Gen. Crook sent out Lieut. Sibley of the 2nd Cavalry
+with 25 mounted troops and two guides, Gerard and Baptiste, to
+reconnoiter the country to the front, and learn if possible the
+movements of the enemy and the whereabouts of Terry's division. The
+party marched all night, and in the morning were near where the Little
+Big Horn debouches from the mountains. Here, from an eminence, they
+espied a large body of Indians marching eastward as though meditating an
+attack on the camp at Goose Creek. Concealing themselves as well as they
+could, they watched the movements of the enemy; but a great shout soon
+warned them that their trail had been discovered, and hundreds of
+savages immediately set out to follow it, uttering terrific cries.
+
+The fugitives galloped toward the mountains, and seemed to outrun their
+pursuers; but about noon, while going through a ravine, a sudden volley
+was fired upon them from the surrounding slopes, and many Indians
+charged down upon them. They wheeled, and took refuge in the woods, but
+three horses were already wounded. Taking the ammunition from the
+saddles, and leaving their horses tied to the trees to divert the enemy,
+they now moved stealthily and unseen from the ground, and escaped behind
+adjacent rocks; then they climbed over steep and slippery places till
+exhausted, and while halting for a rest knew by the repeated firing that
+their horses were undergoing an attack.
+
+All that night they toiled among the mountains, and on the morning of
+the 9th reached Tongue River. As they had left their rations behind,
+they suffered much from hunger, and two of the men were so weak they
+could not ford the deep stream, and remained behind. When near the camp
+one of the guides went ahead for assistance, and a company of cavalry
+brought in the exhausted men.
+
+Having urgent occasion to communicate with Gen. Crook, Gen. Terry, by
+the promise of a large reward, induced a professional scout to make an
+attempt to reach him, but he soon returned unsuccessful. No other scout
+would undertake the task, and as a last resort a call for volunteers was
+made, in response to which, 12 soldiers promptly offered their services
+for the hazardous duty without hope of pecuniary reward. Three of these,
+Privates Wm. Evans, Benjamin F. Stewart, and Joseph Bell, of the 17th
+Infantry, were selected. They set out on the 9th of July, reached
+Crook's camp on the 12th; and returned on the 25th accompanied by three
+Crow Indians who had arrived from Terry's camp on the 19th. The three
+soldiers were thanked by their commander, in a General Order, "for a
+deed reflecting so much credit on the Service."
+
+Partial reinforcements having reached Gen. Crook, on the 16th of July he
+broke camp and moved gradually along the hills toward Tongue River. On
+the 3d of August, just before sunset, an additional regiment, the 5th
+Cavalry, ten companies, under Col. W. Merritt, "marched into camp with
+their supply wagons close on their heels, presenting a fine appearance,
+despite the fatigue and dust of the march."
+
+Gen. Crook's fighting force now numbered about 2000 men. Among them were
+over 200 Shoshone and Ute Indians, sworn enemies to the Sioux, led by
+Washakie, a well known Shoshone chief. These Indians were thus spoken of
+by a correspondent who saw them at Fort Bridger, drawn up in line before
+starting to join Gen. Crook:--
+
+     "In advance of the party was a swarthy temporary chief, his face
+     covered with vertical white streaks. In his right hand, hanging to
+     the end of a window-blind rod, were the two fingers of a dead
+     Sioux. Another rod had a white flag nailed to it--a precaution
+     necessary to preserve them from being fired upon in proceeding to
+     the seat of war. The faces of the rest had on a plentiful supply of
+     war paint. Once in line, they struck up a peculiar grunting sound
+     on a scale of about five notes. One of the braves, afflicted with a
+     malady peculiar to the Caucasian race, began to brag what he'd do
+     when he got to the seat of war, winding up in broken English, 'Me
+     little mad now; bime by me heap mad.' Old Washakie, their chief,
+     wants to die in battle, and not in bed."
+
+On the 5th of Aug., Gen. Crook cut loose from his wagon trains and
+started in pursuit of the Indians who, it was ascertained, had left the
+foot of the Big Horn Mountains, July 25th, and moved eastward. His route
+was north-easterly, across the Panther Mountains to Rosebud River. On
+the 8th of Aug. the troops were ten miles north of the battle-ground of
+June 17th, and near the site of a deserted village. The country west of
+the Rosebud had been burned over, and a trail recently traveled by large
+numbers of Indians led down the valley. Upon this trail the march was
+continued.
+
+Meantime, Gen. Terry had been reinforced by six companies of the 5th
+Infantry under Col. Nelson A. Miles, six companies of the 22d Infantry
+under Lt. Col. Otis, and other detachments, until his command numbered
+about the same as Gen. Crook's. On the 25th of July, he started for the
+mouth of the Rosebud and there established a base of operations. On the
+8th of Aug., with his troops and a train of 225 wagons with supplies for
+30 days, he moved down the west bank of the Rosebud; and on the 10th,
+when 35 miles from its mouth, made a junction with Crook's command. Col.
+Miles with the 5th Infantry was sent back to the mouth of the Rosebud to
+patrol the Yellowstone, aided by steamboats, and intercept the Indians
+should they attempt to cross the river.
+
+The trail which Gen. Crook had been following now turned from the
+Rosebud eastward, and its pursuit was promptly and steadily continued by
+the united forces. It led the troops across to Powder River and down its
+valley. On the 17th of August they were encamped near the mouth of
+Powder River, on both sides of the stream; and here the two commands
+separated on the 24th of August.
+
+As the principal Indian trail had turned eastward toward the Little
+Missouri, Gen. Crook's column took up the pursuit in that direction. On
+the 5th of Sept, when on the headwaters of Heart River, a small party
+of Indians were discovered going eastward,--the first hostile Indians
+seen since leaving Tongue River.
+
+The trail had now scattered so that it could be followed no longer, and
+Crook decided to push for the Black Hills settlements. His troops were
+nearly out of food, and suffering from want of clothing, and bad
+weather. Cold rains prevailed, and camp life with no tents, few
+blankets, and half rations, bore hard on the soldiers. Meat was scarce
+and some of the horses were killed to supply food.
+
+On the 7th of Sept., Capt. Anson Mills with 150 men and a pack-train,
+was sent ahead with directions to obtain food at the Black Hills
+settlements about 100 miles distant, and to return to the hungry column
+as soon as possible. Gerard, the scout, accompanied the detachment, and
+on the evening of the 8th, he discovered a hostile village of 40 lodges
+and several hundred ponies. Capt. Mills retreated a few miles, hid his
+men in a ravine, and at daybreak next morning dashed into the village.
+The Indians were completely surprised and fled to the surrounding hills,
+from which they exchanged shots with their assailants. The lodges were
+secured, with their contents consisting of large quantities of dried
+meat and other food, robes, and flags and clothing taken from Custer and
+his men. 140 ponies were also among the spoils.
+
+A small party of the Indians had taken possession of a narrow ravine or
+canyon near the village, and in trying to dislodge them several soldiers
+were wounded. By direction of Gen. Crook, who had reached the field with
+reinforcements, the Indians in the ravine were informed that if they
+would surrender they would not be harmed. An old squaw was the first to
+take advantage of the offer, and was followed by 15 women and children,
+and, lastly, by three warriors, one of whom, the chief American Horse,
+had been mortally wounded.
+
+Later in the day, before the troops had left the village, the Indians
+appeared in force and began a vigorous attack. Infantry were at once
+thrown out along the slope of the bluffs and, "about sundown it was a
+very inspiring sight to see this branch of the command with their long
+Springfield breech-loaders drive the enemy for a mile and a half to the
+west, and behind the castellated rocks." The captives in camp said the
+attacking Indians were reinforcements from the camp of Crazy Horse
+further west. This engagement is known as the battle of Slim Buttes. Our
+losses during the day were three killed, and 11 wounded including Lieut.
+Von Leuttroitz.
+
+During the march of Sept. 10th a number of Indians came down on the
+rear, but were repulsed with a loss of several killed and wounded. Three
+soldiers were wounded in this skirmish.
+
+The remainder of this long and difficult march was successfully
+accomplished. On the 16th, Gen. Crook reached Deadwood, a Black Hills
+settlement, and was cordially received by the inhabitants. In a speech
+made by the General on this occasion, he said:--
+
+     "Citizens: while you welcome me and my personal staff as the
+     representatives of the soldiers who are here encamped upon the
+     Whitewood, let me ask you, when the rank and file pass through
+     here, to show that you appreciate their admirable fortitude in
+     bearing the sufferings of a terrible march almost without a murmur,
+     and to show them that they are not fighting for $13 per month, but
+     for the cause--the proper development of our gold and other mineral
+     resources, and of humanity. This exhibition of your gratitude need
+     not be expensive. Let the private soldier feel that he is
+     remembered by our people as the real defender of his country."
+
+After parting with Gen. Crook, Aug. 24th, Gen. Terry crossed the
+Yellowstone and marched down its left bank, his object being to
+intercept the Indians Crook was following if they attempted to cross the
+river. On the 27th he left the river, and moved northerly into the
+buffalo range where hunting parties were detailed who secured
+considerable game. The country was parched, the small streams dry, and
+water scarce. A scouting party made a detour to the north and west, but
+no Indians could be found. On the 5th of Sept. the whole command was at
+the mouth of Glendive Creek, where a military post had been established.
+
+Gen. Terry now decided to close the campaign and distribute his troops
+to their winter quarters. The Montana column under Col. Gibbon started
+on the return march to Fort Ellis, 400 miles distant; Lieut. Col. Otis
+of the 22d Infantry, with his command, remained at Glendive Creek, to
+build a stockade and co-operate with Col. Miles, who was establishing a
+winter post at the mouth of Tongue River; and Gen. Terry with the
+balance of the troops started for Fort Buford at the mouth of the
+Yellowstone.
+
+Hearing that Sitting Bull with a large band had recently crossed to the
+north side of the Missouri River near Fort Peck, Terry sent Reno with
+troops--then en route to Fort Buford--in pursuit. Reno marched to Fort
+Peck, and thence to Fort Buford, but encountered no Indians. A
+reconnoitering party under Long Dog had been near Fort Peck, and that
+chief passed one night at the agency. They did not want rations or
+annuities, but desired plenty of ammunition, for which they were ready
+to exchange 7th Cavalry horses, arms and equipments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AUTUMN ON THE YELLOWSTONE.
+
+
+On the 10th of October, as a train escorted by two companies of the 6th
+Infantry was carrying supplies from Glendive Creek to the cantonment at
+the mouth of Tongue River, it was attacked by Indians, and was obliged
+to return to Glendive with a loss of sixty mules.
+
+Lieut. Col. Otis was in command at Glendive, and on the 14th he again
+started out the train and personally accompanied it. The train consisted
+of 86 wagons, 41 of which were driven by soldiers, who had taken the
+places of as many citizen teamsters too demoralized by the recent attack
+to continue in the service. The military escort numbered with officers
+196 men. The following interesting narrative of subsequent events is
+from the report of Col. Otis:--
+
+     "We proceeded on the first day 12 miles, and encamped on the broad
+     bottom of the Yellowstone River, without discovering a sign of the
+     presence of Indians. During the night a small thieving party was
+     fired upon by the pickets, but the party escaped, leaving behind a
+     single pony, with its trappings, which was killed. At dawn of day,
+     upon the 15th, the train pulled out in two strings, and proceeded
+     quietly to Spring Creek, distant from camp about three miles, when
+     I directed two mounted men to station themselves upon a hill beyond
+     the creek, and watch the surrounding country until the train should
+     pass through the defile. The men advanced at swift pace in proper
+     direction, and when within 50 yards of the designated spot, they
+     received a volley from a number of concealed Indians, when
+     suddenly men and Indians came leaping down the bluff. The men
+     escaped without injury to person, although their clothing was
+     riddled with bullets. I quickly advanced on the skirmish line,
+     which drove out 40 or 50 Indians, and making a similar movement on
+     the opposite flank, passed through the gorge and gained the high
+     table land. Here, three or four scouts, sent out by Colonel Miles,
+     from Tongue River, joined us. They had been driven into the Tongue
+     upon the previous evening, there corraled, had lost their horses
+     and one of their number, and escaped to the bluffs under cover of
+     the darkness. The dead scout was found and buried.
+
+     "The train proceeded along the level prairie, surrounded by the
+     skirmish line, and the Indians were coming thick and fast from the
+     direction of Cabin Creek. But few shots were exchanged, and both
+     parties were preparing for the struggle which it was evident would
+     take place at the deep and broken ravine at Clear Creek, through
+     which the train must pass. We cautiously entered the ravine, and
+     from 150 to 200 Indians had gained the surrounding bluffs to our
+     left; signal fires were lighted for miles around, and extended far
+     away on the opposite side of the Yellowstone. The prairies to our
+     front were fired, and sent up vast clouds of smoke. We had no
+     artillery, and nothing remained to us except to charge the bluffs.
+     Company C, of the 17th Infantry, and Company H, of the 22d
+     Infantry, were thrown forward upon the run, and gallantly scaled
+     the bluffs, answering the Indian yell with one equally as
+     barbarous, and driving back the enemy to another ridge of hills. We
+     then watered all the stock at the creek, took on water for the men,
+     and the train slowly ascended the bluffs.
+
+     "The country now surrounding us was broken. The Indians continued
+     to increase in numbers, surrounded the train, and the entire escort
+     became engaged. The train was drawn up in four strings, and the
+     entire escort enveloped it by a thin skirmish line. In that
+     formation we advanced, the Indians pressing every point, especially
+     the rear, Company C, 17th, which was only able to follow by
+     charging the enemy, and then retreating rapidly toward the train,
+     taking advantage of all the knolls and ridges in its course. The
+     flanks, Companies G, 17th, and K and G, 22d, were advanced about
+     1000 yards, and the road was opened in the front, by Company H,
+     22d, by repeated charges.
+
+     "In this manner we advanced several miles, and then halted for the
+     night upon a depression of the high prairie, the escort holding the
+     surrounding ridge. The Indians now had attempted every artifice.
+     They had pressed every point of the line, had run their fires
+     through the train, which we were compelled to cross with great
+     rapidity, had endeavored to approach under cover of smoke, when
+     they found themselves overmatched by the officers and men, who,
+     taking advantage of the cover, moved forward and took them at close
+     range. They had met with considerable loss, a good many of their
+     saddles were emptied, and several ponies wounded. Their firing was
+     wild in the extreme, and I should consider them the poorest of
+     marksmen. For several hours they kept up a brisk fire and wounded
+     but three of our men.
+
+     "Upon the morning of the 16th, the train pulled out in four
+     strings, and we took up the advance, formed as on the previous day.
+     Many Indians occupied the surrounding hills, and soon a number
+     approached, and left a communication upon a distant hill. It was
+     brought in by Scout Jackson, and read as follows:--
+
+
+     "YELLOWSTONE."
+
+     "I want to know what you are doing traveling on this road? you
+     scare all the buffalo away. I want to hunt on the place. I want you
+     to turn back from here: if you don't I will fight you again. I want
+     you to leave what you have got here, and turn back from here.
+
+     "I am your friend, SITTING BULL.
+
+     "I mean all the rations you have got and some powder; I wish you
+     would write as soon as you can."
+
+"I directed the Scout Jackson to inform the Indians that I had nothing
+to say in reply, except that we intended to take the train through to
+Tongue River, and that we should be pleased to accommodate them at any
+time with a fight. The train continued to proceed, and about eight
+o'clock the Indians began to gather for battle.
+
+"We passed through the long, narrow gorge, near Bad Route Creek, when we
+again watered the stock, and took in wood and water, consuming in this
+labor about an hour's time. When we had pulled up the gentle ascent, the
+Indians had again surrounded us, but the lesson of the previous day
+taught them to keep at long range, and there was but little firing by
+either party. I counted 150 Indians in our rear, and from their
+movements and position I judged their numbers to be between 300 and
+500. After proceeding a short distance, a flag of truce appeared on the
+left flank, borne by two Indians, whom I directed to be allowed to enter
+the lines. They proved to be Indian scouts from Standing Rock Agency,
+bearing dispatches from Lieut. Col. Carlin, of the 17th Infantry,
+stating that they had been sent out to find Sitting Bull, and to
+endeavor to influence him to proceed to some military post and treat for
+peace.
+
+"These scouts informed me that they had that morning reached the camp of
+Sitting Bull and Man-afraid-of-his-horse, near the mouth of Cabin Creek,
+and that they had talked with Sitting Bull, who wished to see me outside
+the lines. I declined the invitation, but professed a willingness to see
+Sitting Bull within my own lines. The scouts left me, and soon returned
+with three of the principal soldiers of Sitting Bull--the last named
+individual being unwilling to trust his person within our reach. The
+chiefs said that their people were angry because our train was driving
+away the buffalo from their hunting grounds, that they were hungry and
+without ammunition, and that they especially wished to obtain the
+latter; that they were tired of war, and desired to conclude a peace.
+
+"I informed them that I could not give them ammunition, that had they
+saved the amount already wasted upon the train it would have supplied
+them for hunting purposes for a long time, that I had no authority to
+treat with them upon any terms whatever, but they were at liberty to
+visit Tongue River, and there make known conditions. They wished to know
+what assurance I could give them of their safety should they visit that
+place, and I replied that I could give them nothing but the word of an
+officer. They then wished rations for their people, promising to proceed
+to Fort Rock immediately, and from thence to Tongue River. I declined to
+give them rations, but finally offered them as a present 150lb. of hard
+bread and two sides of bacon, which they gladly accepted. The train
+moved on, and the Indians fell to the rear. Upon the following day I saw
+a number of them from Cedar Creek, far away to the right, and after that
+time they disappeared entirely.
+
+"Upon the evening of the 18th I met Col. Miles encamped with his entire
+regiment on Custer Creek. Alarmed for the safety of the train, he had
+set out from Tongue River upon the previous day."
+
+While Col. Otis was thus gallantly advancing with his train, Col. Miles,
+of the 5th Infantry, fearing for its safety, had crossed the Yellowstone
+before daybreak on the 17th and started toward Glendive. He met Col.
+Otis, as above stated, on the evening of the 18th; and on being informed
+of the attack on the train, started in pursuit of the enemy. On the
+21st, when about eight miles beyond Cedar Creek, a large number of
+Indians appeared in front of the column, and two of them, bearing a
+white flag, rode up to the line. They proved to be the Standing Rock
+ambassadors who had met Col. Otis; and brought word that Sitting Bull
+wished a conference with Col. Miles. Lieut. H.R. Bailey accompanied the
+two friendly Indians to the hostile camp, and there arranged with
+Sitting Bull's white interpreter for a meeting to take place between the
+lines.
+
+The troops rested on their arms in line of battle while Col. Miles with
+a few officers rode forward and halted about half way between the two
+forces. Sitting Bull with a dozen unarmed warriors presently emerged
+from the hostile lines and walked slowly forward in single file. Col.
+Miles' party dismounted and advanced to meet them, and the council
+began. The scene was picturesque and exciting; and the occasion one of
+much anxiety to the troops who remembered the assassination of Gen.
+Canby--especially so when dozens of armed warriors rode forward and
+surrounded the little group.
+
+The "talk" was long and earnest; the Indians wanted an "old-fashioned
+peace," with privileges of trade--especially in ammunition, and demanded
+the discontinuing of supply trains and the abandonment of Fort Buford.
+Col. Miles explained that he could only accept surrender on the terms
+of absolute submission to the U.S. Government. At evening the conference
+was adjourned to the next day, and the parties separated as quietly as
+they had assembled.
+
+In the morning Col. Miles moved his command north, so as to intercept
+retreat in that direction. At about 11 A.M., Sitting Bull, Pretty Bear,
+Bull Eagle, John, Standing Bear, Gall, White Bull and others, came
+forward, marching abreast, and met Col. Miles and several officers on a
+knoll half way between the opposing lines. The Indians asked to be let
+alone, and professed a wish for peace, but such a peace as Col. Miles
+could not concede. "After much talk by the various chiefs, Sitting Bull
+was informed once and for all that he must accept the liberal conditions
+offered by the Government or prepare for immediate hostilities; and the
+council dispersed--Sitting Bull disappearing like a shadow in the crowd
+of warriors behind him."
+
+     "The scene," wrote a correspondent of the _Army and Navy Journal_,
+     "was now most animated. Col. Miles sent for his company commanders,
+     and they came charging over the field to receive his final
+     instructions. On the other side, the Sioux leaders rode hither and
+     thither at full speed in front of their line, marshaling their men
+     and haranguing them, calling on them to be brave. Sitting Bull's
+     interpreter, Bruey, rode back to ask why the troops were following
+     him? He was answered by Col. Miles, that the non-acceptance of the
+     liberal terms offered was considered an act of hostility, and he
+     would open fire at once. The whole line then advanced in skirmish
+     order. One company occupied a knoll on the left with the 3-inch
+     gun, the first shell from which was greeted with a hearty cheer
+     from the advancing line. The Indians tried their old tactics and
+     attempted rear and flank attacks from the ravines, but they found
+     those vital points well protected by companies disposed _en
+     potence_, which poured in a torrent of lead wherever an Indian
+     showed himself. The firing then became general along the whole
+     line. Some of the sharpest shooting was done by the Sioux, and many
+     officers only escaped "close calls" by the ends of their hair. Two
+     enlisted men were wounded. Finally, Sitting Bull, finding his old
+     plan of battle frustrated by that solid infantry skirmish line
+     advancing upon him with the relentless sternness of fate, began a
+     general and precipitate retreat."
+
+The pursuit was resolutely kept up. The Indians fled down Bad Route
+Creek and across the Yellowstone, a distance of 42 miles, abandoning
+tons of dried meat, lodge-poles, camp equipments, ponies, etc. The
+troops on foot followed rapidly, not stopping to count the dead or
+gather the plunder; and the result was, that on the 27th of October five
+principal chiefs surrendered themselves to Col. Miles, on the
+Yellowstone, opposite the mouth of Cabin Creek, as hostages for the
+surrender of their whole people, represented as between 400 and 500
+lodges, equal to about 2,000 souls. The hostages were sent under escort
+to Gen. Terry, at St. Paul, and the Indians were allowed five days in
+their then camp to gather food, and thirty days to reach the Cheyenne
+Agency on the Missouri River, where they were to surrender their arms
+and ponies, and remain either as prisoners of war or subject to
+treatment such as is usually accorded to friendly Indians.
+
+Sitting Bull was not among the chiefs who surrendered; during the
+retreat, they said, he had slipped out, with thirty lodges of his own
+special followers, and gone northerly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+TERRY AND CROOK AT THE SIOUX AGENCIES.
+
+
+The disarming and dismounting of the Sioux Agency Indians being deemed
+necessary as a precautionary measure, to prevent the hostile Indians
+from receiving constant supplies of arms, ammunition, and ponies from
+their friends at the agencies, General Sheridan directed Generals Crook
+and Terry to act simultaneously in accomplishing that object. The
+friendly and unfriendly Indians at the agencies were so intermixed, that
+it seemed impossible to discriminate between them.
+
+After refitting at the Black Hills, Gen. Crook proceeded to the Red
+Cloud Agency, and found the Indians there in a dissatisfied mood and
+probably about to start to join the hostile bands. They had moved out
+some 25 miles from the agency, and refused to return although informed
+that no more rations would be given them till they did so.
+
+At daylight, Oct. 22d, Col. Mackenzie, the post commander, with eight
+companies of the 4th and 5th Cavalry, surrounded the Indian camp
+containing 300 lodges, and captured Red Cloud and his whole band, men,
+squaws and ponies without firing a shot, and marched them into the
+agency dismounted and disarmed. The Indians at Spotted Tail Agency were
+also disarmed and dismounted.
+
+Gen. Crook had an interview with Spotted Tail, and being satisfied that
+he was the only important Sioux leader who had remained friendly, he
+deposed Red Cloud, and declared Spotted Tail, his rival, the "Sachem of
+the whole Sioux Nation, by the grace of the Great Father the President.
+As the representative of the latter, Gen. Crook invested him with the
+powers of a grand chief, and in token thereof presented him his
+commission as such, written upon a parchment scroll tied with richly
+colored ribbons. Spotted Tail's heart was very glad."
+
+"The line of the hostile and the peaceably disposed," wrote Gen. Crook
+at this time, "is now plainly drawn, and we shall have our enemies only
+in the front in the future. I feel that this is the first gleam of
+daylight we have had in this business."
+
+Meantime Gen. Terry, with the 7th Cavalry and local garrisons, was
+disarming and dismounting the Indians at the Standing Rock and Cheyenne
+River Agencies. The following is a copy of his report to Gen. Sheridan,
+written at Standing Rock, Oct. 25th:--
+
+     "Colonel Sturgis left Lincoln on the 20th, Major Reno on the 21st,
+     and each arrived here on the afternoon of the 22d. Sturgis
+     immediately commenced dismounting and disarming the Indians at Two
+     Bears' camp, on the left bank of the river, and Lieut. Col. Carlin,
+     with his own and Reno's forces, dismounted and disarmed them at
+     both camps on this side. Owing partially to the fact that before I
+     arrived at Lincoln news was sent the Indians here, it is said, by
+     Mrs. Galpin, that we were coming, and our purpose stated; but
+     principally, I believe, that some time since, owing to the failure
+     of the grass here, the animals were sent to distant grazing places
+     many miles away, comparatively only a few horses were found. I,
+     therefore, the next morning, called the chiefs together, and
+     demanded the surrender of their horses and arms, telling them that
+     unless they complied their rations would be stopped, and also
+     telling them that whatever might be realized from the sale of the
+     property taken would be invested in stock for them. They have
+     quietly submitted, and have sent out to bring in their animals.
+     Some have already arrived, and we have now in our possession 700.
+     More are arriving rapidly, and I expect to double that number. I
+     have kept the whole force here until now for the effect its
+     presence produces.
+
+     "I shall start Sturgis to-morrow morning for Cheyenne, leaving Reno
+     until Carlin completes the work here. Only a few arms have yet been
+     found or surrendered, but I think our results are satisfactory. Not
+     a shot was fired on either side of the river. Of course no surprise
+     can now be expected at Cheyenne. The desired effect will be
+     attained there by the same means as those employed here."
+
+The late Sioux Commissioners, who made a treaty for the Black Hills in
+Sept. 1876, gave their pledge that all _friendly_ Indians would be
+protected in their persons and property. Bishop Whipple comments on the
+dismounting of the Indians as follows:--
+
+     "In violation of these pledges 2,000 ponies were taken from
+     Cheyenne and Standing Rock Agencies. No inventory was kept of
+     individual property. Of 1,100 ponies taken at Standing Rock, only
+     874 left Bismark for Saint Paul. No provision was made to feed them
+     on the way. The grass had burned on the prairie and there was
+     several inches of snow on the ground. The small streams were
+     frozen, and no water was to be had until they reached the James
+     River. There was no grass, and no hay could be purchased until they
+     reached the Cheyenne River, more than ten days' travel, and then
+     nothing until they reached Fort Abercrombie. No wonder that there
+     were only 1,200 ponies out of 2,000 that left Abercrombie, and that
+     of these only 500 reached St. Paul. The wretched, dying brutes were
+     made the subject of jest as the war horses of the Dakota. Many died
+     on the way, many were stolen, and the remnant were sold in St.
+     Paul. It was worse than the ordinary seizure of property without
+     color of law. It was not merely robbery of our friends. It was
+     cruel. The Indians are compelled to camp from 10 to 40 miles away
+     from the agency to find fuel. They have to cross this distance in
+     the coldest weather to obtain their rations, and without ponies
+     they must cross on foot, and some of them may perish."
+
+Gen. Crook issued at Red Cloud Agency his General Orders, No. 8--in part
+as follows:--
+
+
+     HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PLATTE, IN THE FIELD,}
+                    CAMP ROBINSON, NEB., Oct. 24th, 1876.}
+
+     "The time having arrived when the troops composing the Big Horn and
+     Yellowstone Expedition are about to separate, the Brigadier-General
+     commanding addresses himself to the officers and men of the
+     command, to say:--
+
+     "In the campaign now closed he has been obliged to call upon you
+     for much hard service and many sacrifices of personal comfort. At
+     times you have been out of reach of your base of supplies; in most
+     inclement weather you have marched without food and slept without
+     shelter. In your engagements you have evinced a high order of
+     discipline and courage, in your marches wonderful powers of
+     endurance, and in your deprivations and hardships, patience and
+     fortitude.
+
+     "Indian warfare is, of all warfare, the most trying, the most
+     dangerous, and the most thankless; not recognized by the high
+     authority of the United States Congress as war, it still possesses
+     for you the disadvantages of civilized warfare with all the
+     horrible accompaniments that barbarians can invent and savages can
+     execute. In it, you are required to serve without the incentive to
+     promotion or recognition; in truth, without favor or hope of
+     reward.
+
+     "The people of our sparsely settled frontier, in whose defence this
+     war is waged, have but little influence with the powerful
+     communities in the East; their representatives have little voice in
+     our national councils, while your savage foes are not only the
+     wards of the nation, supported in idleness, but objects of sympathy
+     with a large number of people otherwise well informed and
+     discerning. You may, therefore, congratulate yourselves that in the
+     performance of your military duty you have been on the side of the
+     weak against the strong, and that the few people there are on the
+     frontier will remember your efforts with gratitude."
+
+Gen. Crook's losses during the campaign extending from May 27th to Oct.
+24th, were 12 killed, 32 wounded (most of whom subsequently returned to
+duty), one death by accident and one by disease.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE WINTER OF 1876-7.
+
+
+After leaving Red Cloud, Gen. Crook marched to Fort Fetterman and
+organized a new column for a winter expedition against the enemy.
+Subsequently, with a force of ten companies of cavalry under Col.
+Mackenzie, eleven companies of infantry and four of artillery under
+Lieut. Col. R.I. Dodge, and about 200 Indian allies, some of whom were
+friendly Sioux enlisted at Red Cloud Agency, Gen. Crook advanced to old
+Fort Reno, head of Powder River, where a cantonment had been built.
+
+Hearing that a band of Cheyenne Indians were encamped among the Big Horn
+Mountains to the southwest, Gen. Crook, Nov. 23d, sent Col. Mackenzie
+with his cavalry and the Indian allies to hunt them up. At noon, Nov.
+24th, after marching some 30 miles along the base of the mountains
+toward the Sioux Pass, Mackenzie met five of seven Indian scouts who had
+been sent ahead the evening previously. These scouts reported that they
+had discovered the camp of the Cheyennes at a point in the mountains
+about 20 miles distant, and that the other two scouts had remained to
+watch the camp.
+
+A night's march was decided upon and, at sunset, after a halt of three
+hours, the command moved forward toward the village; but owing to the
+roughness of the country, it was daylight when they reached the mouth
+of a canyon leading to and near the village. Through this canyon the
+column advanced, crossing several deep ravines, and when within a mile
+of the camp the order to charge was given. The Indian allies, who were
+in front, rushed forward howling and blowing on instruments, and some of
+them subsequently ascended the side of the canyon and occupied a high
+bluff opposite to and overlooking the village.
+
+The surprise was nearly complete; but some of the Cheyennes, whom the
+scouts had reported as being engaged in a war dance, sounded the alarm
+on a drum, and began firing on the advancing column. The inhabitants
+immediately deserted their lodges, taking nothing but their weapons with
+them, and took refuge in a net-work of very difficult ravines beyond the
+upper end of the village. A brisk fight for about an hour ensued, after
+which skirmishing was kept up until night. The village of 173 lodges and
+their entire contents were destroyed, about 500 ponies were captured,
+and the bodies of 25 Indians killed in the engagement were found. Col.
+Mackenzie's loss was Lieut. J.A. McKinney and six men killed, and
+twenty-two men wounded.
+
+On the 4th of Dec., Gen. Crook left Fort Reno with his whole force, and
+moved down Little Powder River, intending to form at its junction with
+Powder River a supply camp from which to operate against the Indians.
+Subsequently, however, he crossed over to the Belle Fourche River, and,
+Dec. 22d, started for Fort Fetterman where he arrived Dec. 29th. The
+weather during this homeward march was at times intensely cold, and the
+men and horses suffered considerably thereby.
+
+While Gen. Crook was thus looking for and harassing the Indians in the
+Powder River country, the isolated garrison of the Tongue River
+cantonment, further north, were not idle. An excursion northward in
+search of Sitting Bull was led by Col. Miles, the post-commander, and as
+reports as to the location of the Indians were conflicting and their
+trails obscured by snow, he divided his force, and sent Lieut. Frank D.
+Baldwin with three companies of the 5th Infantry to the north of the
+Missouri, while he examined the the Mussel Shell and Dry Forks country.
+
+On the 7th of Dec., Lieut. Baldwin discovered Sitting Bull's band, and
+followed the Indians to the Missouri River, where they crossed and for a
+short time resisted the crossing of the troops. The Indians then
+retreated south, but were overtaken in the Redwood country and attacked,
+Dec. 18th. Their camp of 122 lodges was captured and burned with its
+contents, and 60 mules and horses were taken. The Indians escaped, but
+carried off little property except what they had on their backs. Lieut.
+Baldwin's command marched on this expedition over 500 miles--walking on
+one occasion 73 miles in 48 hours--and endured the cold of a Montana
+winter with great fortitude.
+
+A very unfortunate affair occurred at the Tongue River cantonment,
+within a few hundred yards of the parade-ground, Dec. 16th. The
+following is from Col. Miles' report thereof:--
+
+     "As five Minneconjou chiefs were coming in, bearing two white
+     flags, followed by twenty or thirty other Indians, and were passing
+     by the Crow Indian camp, the five in advance were surrounded by
+     twelve Crows and instantly killed. The act was an unprovoked,
+     cowardly murder. The Crows approached them in a friendly manner,
+     said "How," shook hands with them, and when they were within their
+     power and partly behind a large wood pile, killed them in a most
+     brutal manner. Upon hearing the first shot, both officers and men
+     rushed out and tried to save the Minneconjous, but could not reach
+     them in time. The Crows were aware of the enormity of their crime,
+     as they saw that the Minneconjous had a flag of truce, and they
+     were told to come back. They were warned the day before against
+     committing any act of violence against messengers or other parties
+     coming in for friendly purposes. They tried to hide the flag of
+     truce and, taking advantage of the momentary excitement, while
+     efforts were being made to open communication and bring back the
+     others, who were following, and who became alarmed and fled to the
+     bluffs, the guilty Crow Indians jumped upon their ponies and fled
+     to their agency in Montana. The only thing that can be said in
+     defence of the Crows is, that a false report was made by one of the
+     Crow women that the Sioux had fired upon her, and that within the
+     last few months some of their number had lost relatives killed by
+     the Sioux in the vicinity of the Rosebud. These Indians have
+     claimed to be friends of the white man for years, have been
+     frequently in the Government employ, and were brought down to fight
+     such outlaws as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
+
+     "Those killed were believed to be Bull Eagle, Tall Bull, Red ----,
+     Red Cloth, and one other prominent chief of the Sioux nation. I am
+     unable to state the object of Bull Eagle's coming, but am satisfied
+     he came with the best of motives. I can only judge from the
+     following:--When he surrendered on the Yellowstone, after the
+     engagement on Cedar Creek, he was the first to respond to my
+     demands, and, I believe, was largely instrumental in bringing his
+     people to accept the terms of the Government. When I had received
+     five of the principal chiefs as hostages, and was about parting
+     with him, I told him, if he had any trouble in going in, or his
+     people hesitated or doubted that the Government would deal fairly
+     and justly with them, to come back to me, and I would tell him what
+     to do; that if he would come back to my command, I would be glad to
+     see him and, so long as he complied with the orders of the
+     Government, he could be assured of the friendship of its officers.
+     I could not but regard him with respect, as he appeared in every
+     sense a chief, and seemed to be doing everything in his power for
+     the good of his people, and endeavoring to bring them to a more
+     peaceful condition. He appeared to have great confidence in what I
+     told him; I gave him five days to obtain meat; during that time he
+     lost three favorite ponies, which were brought to this place.
+     During my absence he came in, bringing five horses that had strayed
+     or been stolen from some citizens in the vicinity, and requested
+     his own. He also inquired if he could send up to the Big Horn
+     country for the remainder of his people, and take them in on the
+     pass I had given him. He was informed by the commanding officer,
+     Gen. Whistler (whom he had known for years before), that he could,
+     and was told to send for them. Whether he had met with some trouble
+     in taking his people in to their agency, and had returned, as I had
+     told him, for directions, or had gathered up his people, and in
+     passing had come in to apprise me of the fact, I know not; but
+     there is every reason to believe that the above mentioned
+     circumstances gave rise to his motives and prompted his actions.
+
+     "The Crows were immediately disarmed, twelve of their ponies taken
+     from them, and other considerations, together with a letter
+     explaining the whole affair, were sent to the people and friends of
+     those killed, as an assurance that no white man had any part in the
+     affair, and that we had no heart for such brutal and cowardly acts.
+
+     "It illustrates clearly the ferocious, savage instincts of even the
+     best of these wild tribes, and the impossibility of their
+     controlling their desire for revenge when it is aroused by the
+     sight of their worst enemies, who have whipped them for years and
+     driven them out of this country. Such acts are expected and
+     considered justifiable among these two tribes of Indians, and it is
+     to be hoped that the Sioux will understand that they fell into a
+     camp of their ancient enemies, and did not reach the encampment of
+     this command."
+
+In January, 1877, Col. Miles with 350 of his troops marched southerly
+sixty miles up the Tongue River, and on the evening of the 7th
+discovered a large Indian village. Skirmishing ensued, and on the next
+day 1000 well-armed warriors appeared in front, and a battle was fought.
+The battle-ground was very rough and broken, and a heavy snow storm came
+on during the fight. The Indians fought with desperation; but our
+troops had been so admirably arranged that they succeeded in gaining a
+decisive victory. The following is Col. Miles' report of the affair:--
+
+     "I have the honor to report that this command fought the hostile
+     tribes of Cheyenne and Ogallala Sioux, under Crazy Horse, in
+     skirmishes on the 1st, 3d, and 7th of January, and in a five hours'
+     engagement on the 8th inst. Their camp, consisting of some 500
+     lodges, extended three miles along the valley of Tongue River,
+     below Hanging Woman's Creek. They were driven through the canyons
+     of the Wolf or Panther Mountains, in the direction of Big Horn
+     Mountains. Their fighting strength outnumbered mine by two or three
+     to one, but by taking advantage of the ground we had them at a
+     disadvantage, and their loss is known to be heavy. Our loss is
+     three killed and eight wounded. They fought entirely dismounted,
+     and charged on foot to within fifty yards of Captain Casey's line,
+     but were taken in front and flank by Captain Butler's and
+     Lieutenant McDonald's companies. They were whipped at every point
+     and driven from the field, and pursued so far as my limited
+     supplies and worn down animals would carry my command."
+
+The following additional particulars are derived from a letter to the
+_Army and Navy Journal_:--
+
+     "On the 5th January, Indian signs grew thicker and thicker. Miles
+     of hastily abandoned war lodges were passed. The country became
+     very rough. The valley of the Tongue grew narrower, the stream more
+     tortuous, and the hills on both sides loftier and more precipitous,
+     until the valley shrank into a prolonged and winding canyon. At
+     short distances, jutting bluffs made narrow passes which offered
+     points of vantage to the savage enemy. The gorges of the Wolf
+     Mountains had been reached.
+
+     "On the 6th, the march was through a large war camp, recently and
+     hurriedly abandoned. Unusual heat was followed by snow. In the
+     evening there was snow and hail driven by a cruel wind, and by 5
+     P.M. it was pitch dark. On the evening of the 7th, the scouts
+     captured four Cheyenne squaws, a youth, and three young children.
+     Two hundred Indians made a dash at the scouts, shot two of their
+     horses and made a desperate effort to take them. Casey opened a
+     musketry fire on the Indians, and darkness supervening, they
+     withdrew.
+
+     "Next morning the fight was renewed shortly after daylight. The
+     Indians charged down the valley in large force, close up to the
+     skirmish line, but failed to make any impression. They then turned
+     their attention to the flanks, and began to swarm on the bluffs to
+     the right. The action then became general. The Indians were in
+     strong force, and tried every point of the line. The hills and
+     woods resounded with their cries and the high-pitched voices of the
+     chiefs giving their orders.
+
+     "It is the opinion of some who have had years of experience in
+     Indian fighting, that there has rarely, if ever, been a fight
+     before in which the Sioux and Cheyenne showed such determination
+     and persistency, where they were finally defeated. They had chosen
+     their ground; and it has since been learned that they expected to
+     make another Custer slaughter. The Cheyenne captives, in the hands
+     of the troops, sang songs of triumph during the entire fight, in
+     anticipation of a speedy rescue and the savage orgies of a
+     massacre."
+
+In a complimentary order to his troops, dated Jan. 31st, Col. Miles
+says:--
+
+     "Here in the home of the hostile Sioux, this command, during the
+     past three months, has marched 1200 miles and fought three
+     engagements--besides affairs of less importance. * * * Fortunate
+     indeed is the officer who commands men who will improvise boats of
+     wagon beds, fearlessly dash out into the cold and turbid waters,
+     and amid the treacherous current and floating ice, cross and
+     recross the great Missouri; who will defy the elements on these
+     bleak plains in a Montana winter; and who have in every field
+     defeated superior numbers."
+
+The dismounting and disarming policy was kept up at the Agencies through
+the winter. Several bands came in and surrendered--among them that of
+Red Horse, who had been actively hostile. This chief thus describes the
+engagement on the Little Big Horn. The "brave officer" referred to is
+said to be Capt. T.H. French, of Reno's battalion.
+
+     "On the morning of the attack, myself and several women were out
+     about a mile from camp gathering wild turnips. Suddenly one of the
+     women called my attention to a cloud of dust rising in the
+     neighborhood of the camp. I soon discovered that troops were making
+     an attack. We ran for the camp, and when I got there I was sent for
+     at once to come to the council-lodge. I found many of the council
+     men already there when I arrived. We gave directions immediately
+     for every Indian to get his horse and arms; for the women and
+     children to mount the horses and get out of the way, and for the
+     young men to go and meet the troops.
+
+     "Among the troops was an officer who rode a horse with four white
+     feet. The Indians have fought a great many tribes of people, and
+     very brave ones, too, but they all say that this man was the
+     bravest man they had ever met. I don't know whether this man was
+     General Custer or not. This officer wore a large-brimmed hat and
+     buckskin coat. He alone saved his command a number of times by
+     turning on his horse in the retreat. In speaking of him, the
+     Indians call him the 'man who rode the horse with four white feet.'
+
+     "After driving this party back, the Indians corraled them on top of
+     a high hill, and held them there until they saw that the women and
+     children were in danger of being made prisoners by another party of
+     troops which just then made its appearance below. The word passed
+     among the Indians like a whirlwind, and they all started to attack
+     the new party, leaving the troops on the hill. When we attacked the
+     other party, we swarmed down on them and drove them in confusion.
+     No prisoners were taken. All were killed. None were left alive even
+     for a few minutes. These troopers used very few of their
+     cartridges. I took a gun and a couple of belts off two dead men.
+     Out of one belt two cartridges were gone; out of the other five.
+
+     "It was with captured ammunition and arms that we fought the other
+     body of troops. If they had all remained together they would have
+     hurt us very badly. The party we killed made five different starts.
+     Once we charged right in until we scattered the whole of them,
+     fighting among them hand to hand. One band of soldiers was right in
+     the rear of us when they charged. We fell back, and stood for one
+     moment facing each other. Then the Indians got courage and started
+     for them in a solid body. We went but a little distance when we
+     spread out and encircled them. All the time I could see their
+     officers riding in front, and hear them shouting to their men. We
+     finished up the party right there in the ravine.
+
+     "The troops up the river made their first attack, skirmishing a
+     little while after the fight commenced with the other troops below
+     the village. While the latter fight was going on we posted some
+     Indians to prevent the other command from forming a junction. As
+     soon as we had finished the fight we all went back to massacre the
+     troops on the hill. After skirmishing around awhile we saw the
+     walking soldiers coming. These new troops making their appearance
+     was the saving of the others. An Indian started to go to Red Cloud
+     Agency that day, and when a few miles from camp discovered dust
+     rising. He turned back and reported that a large herd of buffalo
+     was approaching the camp, and a short time after he reported this
+     the camp was attacked by troops."
+
+In February, Spotted Tail, with a body-guard of 200 warriors, started
+out to visit his roaming brethren as a peacemaker; and through his
+influence, or for other reasons, all the hostile bands, it is believed,
+except Sitting Bull's, have accepted the terms offered by the Government
+and surrendered their arms and ponies. One band of about 1000 encircled
+the Indian camp at Spotted Tail Agency, April 16th, and after
+discharging their guns in the air by way of salutation, surrendered to
+Gen. Crook. Roman Nose, whose village was destroyed at Slim Buttes,
+indicated his desire for peace in a short speech and by laying his rifle
+at the feet of the General. Five days later, 500 Cheyennes, with 600
+ponies, came into Red Cloud Agency. Their village near Sioux Pass had
+been destroyed in November, and they were in a destitute and pitiable
+condition.
+
+Crazy Horse and his band of 900 Indians surrendered at Red Cloud, May
+5th. They appeared to be in a comfortable condition and had 2000 ponies.
+
+At the latest date, Sitting Bull and his band were reported moving
+toward Canada. If they return south, Col. Miles will be prepared to give
+them a suitable reception.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+
+George Armstrong Custer, son of Emmanuel H. Custer, a hard-working,
+enterprising farmer, was born at New Rumley, Harrison County, Ohio,
+December 5th, 1839. He grew up into an active, athletic, and amiable
+youth, acquired a fair English education, and at the age of sixteen
+years engaged in teaching school near his native town.
+
+Having determined to go to West Point if possible, young Custer
+addressed a letter on the subject to Hon. John A. Bingham, Member of
+Congress from his district, to whom he was personally unknown, and
+subsequently called on him. The result was that he entered West Point
+Academy as a cadet in 1857. The official notification of his appointment
+was signed by Jefferson Davis, President Buchanan's secretary of war.
+
+As a cadet, Custer did not achieve a brilliant record either for
+scholarship or good behavior. This was not owing to any want of
+intelligence or quickness of comprehension, but rather to a love of
+mischief and hatred of restraint. During the four years of his academic
+term he spent 66 Saturdays in doing extra guard duty as penance for
+various offences; and he graduated in 1861, at the foot of a class of
+34.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER.]
+
+His stay terminated with a characteristic incident. He chanced one
+day when officer of the guard to come upon two angry cadets, who from
+words had come to blows, and were just ready to settle their difficulty
+with their fists. Custer pushed through the crowd of spectators who
+surrounded the combatants, but instead of arresting them, as was his
+duty, he restrained those who were endeavoring to restrain them, and
+called out:--
+
+"Stand back, boys; let's have a fair fight."
+
+His appeal was heard by Lieuts. Hazen and Merritt, and he was placed
+under arrest and kept back to be court-martialed, while the rest of his
+class, (excepting such as had already resigned to join the Southern
+army) departed for active service. The court-martial was however cut
+short, through the exertions of his fellow cadets at Washington, by a
+telegraphic order summoning him there.
+
+Custer reported to the Adjutant-General of the Army at Washington, July
+20th, and was by him introduced to Gen. Scott. The company (G, 2nd
+Cavalry) to which he had been assigned, with the rank of 2nd lieutenant,
+was at this time near Centerville, and as he was to join it, Gen. Scott
+entrusted to him some dispatches for Gen. McDowell who commanded the
+troops in the field. A night's ride on horseback took him to the army,
+the dispatches were delivered, and then he joined his company before
+daybreak just as they were preparing to participate in the battle of
+Bull Run. In this battle, however, the cavalry took but little part; in
+the frantic retreat that followed, Custer's company was among the last
+to retire, and did so in good order, taking with them Gen. Heintzelman
+who was wounded.
+
+After Gen. McClellan took command of the army, Custer's company was
+attached to Gen. Phil Kearny's brigade, and that general detailed Custer
+as his aid-de-camp, and afterwards as assistant adjutant-general, which
+position he held till deprived of it by a general order prohibiting
+officers of the regular army from serving on the staffs of volunteer
+officers.
+
+About this time he obtained leave of absence on account of ill health,
+and visited his sister, Mrs. Reed, at her home in Monroe, Michigan; and
+it is said that through her entreaties and influence he then gave up the
+habit of using strong drinks, which, in common with many of his fellow
+officers, he had acquired during his brief army life near Washington.
+Thenceforth, through the remainder of his life, he drank no intoxicating
+liquor.
+
+Returning to the army in Feb. 1862, he was assigned to the 5th Cavalry,
+and when the enemy evacuated Manassas he participated in the advance on
+that place, and led the company which drove the hostile pickets across
+Cedar Run.
+
+When the Army of the Potomac was transferred to the Peninsula, Custer's
+company was among the first to reach Fortress Monroe, and it then
+marched to Warwick. Here he was detailed as assistant to the chief
+engineer, on Gen. W.F. Smith's staff; he served in that capacity during
+the siege of Yorktown, and planned the earthwork nearest the enemy's
+lines. At the battle of Williamsburg, where he acted as aid-de-camp to
+Gen. Hancock, he effected the capture of a battle-flag--the first taken
+by the Army of the Potomac.
+
+When the army was encamped near the Chickahominy River, late in May,
+Custer accompanied Gen. Barnard, the chief engineer of the army, on a
+reconnoisance outside the picket line to the bank of the river; and at
+the request of his superior, he dismounted, jumped into the river, and
+waded across the stream--the object being to ascertain the depth of the
+water, which in some places came nearly up to his shoulders. On reaching
+the opposite bank he examined the ground for some distance, and
+discovered, unseen by them, the position of the enemy's pickets. Barnard
+reported to McClellan that the river was fordable, and how he had
+ascertained that it was so. McClellan sent for Custer, and was so
+pleased with his appearance and courageous act that he transferred him
+to his own staff; and in June, Custer received from the Secretary of War
+his appointment as additional aid-de-camp, with the rank of captain
+during the pleasure of the President. Previously to this he had crossed
+the Chickahominy at daybreak with a company of infantry, attacked the
+enemy's picket post, and captured prisoners and arms.
+
+Custer served on McClellan's staff through all of the Peninsular
+campaign; and after the battles of Gaines' Mills, Fair Oaks, Malvern
+Hill, etc., retreated with him to the protection of the gunboats at
+Harrison's Landing on the James River. Subsequently, after the
+withdrawal of the army from the Peninsula and the defeat of Banks and
+Pope in Virginia, he was McClellan's aid-de-camp in the Maryland
+campaign which closed with the battle of Antietam. When McClellan was
+superseded by Burnside, Nov. 10th, 1862, Custer accompanied his chief to
+Washington, and subsequently visited his friends in Ohio and Michigan.
+His staff position as captain ceased with the retirement of McClellan,
+and he was now a first lieutenant, commissioned July 17th, 1862.
+
+In April, 1863, Custer rejoined his company which was with Gen. Hooker's
+army near Fredericksburg, and took part in the battle of
+Chancellorsville. In June he was on the staff of Gen. Pleasonton, then
+chief of the cavalry corps, and was conspicuous at Beverly Ford and
+other places across the Rappahannock where Stuart's cavalry were met and
+roughly handled.
+
+At the battle of Aldie, Virginia, Custer distinguished himself in the
+charge made by Kilpatrick's cavalry. The onset was irresistible; the
+Confederate forces were driven back in confusion, and Custer's
+impetuosity carried him far within their lines, from which he was
+allowed to escape in consequence, he believed, of the similarity of his
+hat to those worn by the Confederates. For his gallantry in this action,
+Custer was promoted at one bound from a first lieutenant to a
+brigadier-general.
+
+Gen. Custer was now assigned to the command of a Michigan brigade in
+Kilpatrick's division, the 1st, 5th, 6th and 7th Cavalry, and joined his
+command at Hanover, Md., June 29th. The next day he was engaged in a
+skirmish with Stuart's cavalry, and attracted the attention of all by
+the peculiarity of his dress. He wore a broad-brimmed, low-crowned felt
+hat; loose jacket and trowsers of velveteen, the former profusely
+trimmed with gold-braid and the latter tucked into high boots; a blue
+shirt, with turnover collar on either corner of which was an embroidered
+star; and a flaming neck-tie.
+
+The battle of Gettysburg was now in progress, and on the 2nd of July
+Custer distinguished himself, and won the respect of his officers, by
+charging the enemy at the head of a company of his troops, having his
+horse shot under him. The next day his brigade was actively engaged,
+and the charge of the 1st Michigan Cavalry, supported by a battery, is
+designated by Custer as one of the most brilliant and successful
+recorded in the annals of warfare.
+
+After the battle Gen. Lee retreated rapidly toward the Potomac, and the
+cavalry moving by different routes harassed him continually, capturing
+trains and prisoners. The following paragraph is copied from Headley's
+"History of the Civil War."
+
+     "Kilpatrick clung to the rebel army with a tenacity that did not
+     allow it a moment's rest. At midnight, in a furious thunder storm,
+     he charged down the mountain through the darkness with unparalleled
+     boldness, and captured the entire train of Elwell's division, eight
+     miles long. At Emmettsburg, Haggerstown, and other places, he smote
+     the enemy, with blow after blow. Buford, Gregg, Custer, and others,
+     performed deeds which, but for the greater movements that occupied
+     public attention, would have filled the land with shouts of
+     admiration. In fact, the incessant protracted labors of the cavalry
+     during this campaign, rendered it useless for some time."
+
+Custer's brigade came upon the enemy's rear guard at Falling Waters, and
+the 6th Michigan made a gallant charge which was repulsed with
+considerable loss; but after a two hours' fight the enemy was driven to
+the river; Gen. Pettegrew and 125 of his men were killed, and 1500 were
+taken prisoners; cannon and battle-flags were also captured.
+
+When the cavalry crossed the Rappahannock in September, pushing back
+Stuart's cavalry to Brandy Station, Culpepper C.H., and across the
+Rapidan, Custer, as usual, was with the advance, and in one engagement
+was slightly wounded by a piece of a shell--the first and only time he
+was wounded during the war. After a short vacation in consequence of his
+wound, he rejoined his command in season to accompany the advance of
+cavalry to and across the Rapidan in October; and when Mead's army was
+forced back across the Rappahannock, he assisted in covering the
+retreat. The following description of the engagement at Brandy Station
+is also copied from Headley:--
+
+     "Pleasonton, with the cavalry, remained behind to watch the enemy,
+     and then slowly retired toward the retreating army. Buford had been
+     forced back more rapidly than Kilpatrick, whose command--with Davis
+     over the right brigade, and Custer over the left--fell back more
+     slowly. When the latter reached Brandy Station, he found the
+     former, ignorant of his movements, was far in advance, leaving his
+     right entirely exposed. To make matters worse Stuart had passed
+     around his left, so that Kilpatrick, with whom was Pleasonton
+     himself, was suddenly cut off. The gallant leader saw at a glance
+     the peril of his position, and, riding to a slight eminence took a
+     hasty survey of the ground before him. He then gave his orders, and
+     three thousand swords leaped from their scabbards, and a long, loud
+     shout rolled over the field.
+
+     "With a heavy line of skirmishers thrown out, to protect his flanks
+     and rear, he moved in three columns straight on the rebel host that
+     watched his coming. At first, the well-closed columns advanced on a
+     walk, while the batteries of Pennington and Elder played with
+     fearful precision upon the hostile ranks. He thus kept on, till
+     within a few hundred yards of the rebel lines, when the band struck
+     up "Yankee Doodle." The next instant, a hundred bugles pealed the
+     charge, and away, with gleaming sabres and a wild hurrah, went the
+     clattering squadrons. As they came thundering on, the hostile lines
+     parted, and let them pass proudly through. Buford was soon
+     overtaken, and a line of battle formed; for the rebels, outraged to
+     think they had let Kilpatrick off so easy, reorganized, and now
+     advanced to the attack.
+
+     "A fierce cavalry battle followed, lasting till after dark.
+     Pleasonton, Buford, Kilpatrick, Custer and Davis again and again
+     led charges in person. It seemed as if the leaders on both sides
+     were determined to test, on the plains of Brandy Station, the
+     question of superiority between the cavalry; for the charges on
+     both sides were of the most gallant and desperate character. The
+     dark masses would drive on each other, through the deepening gloom,
+     with defiant yells, while the flashing sabres struck fire as they
+     clashed and rung in the fierce conflict. At length the rebels gave
+     it up, and our cavalry, gathering up its dead and wounded, crossed
+     the Rappahannock."
+
+In the spirited encounter near Buckland's Mills, Oct. 19th, in which
+Stuart, aided by a flank attack from Fitz Hugh Lee, worsted Kilpatrick
+by force of numbers, Custer's brigade bore the brunt of the attack, and
+did most of the fighting on our side. This fight terminated the active
+campaign of 1863 for Custer's brigade, which subsequently guarded the
+upper fords of the Rapidan.
+
+On the 9th of February, 1864, Gen. Custer was married at Monroe,
+Michigan, to Miss Elizabeth Bacon, only daughter of Judge Daniel S.
+Bacon of Monroe. When he rejoined his command at Stevensburg a few days
+later, his wife accompanied him, and she remained in camp till the
+opening of the spring campaign of 1864. The marriage was, as far as
+Custer was concerned, the consequence of love at first sight, and ever
+proved to be for both parties a happy one.
+
+Late in February, 1864, Gen. Custer crossed the Rapidan with 1500
+cavalry in light marching order, flanking Lee's army on the west, and
+pushed rapidly ahead to within four miles of Charlottesville, where he
+found his progress arrested by a far superior force. He then turned
+northward toward Stannardsville where he again encountered the enemy,
+and after skirmishing, returned to his camp followed by some hundreds of
+refugees from slavery. This raid was designed to draw attention from a
+more formidable one led by Kilpatrick at the same time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+In the spring of 1864, Gen. Grant was placed at the head of all the
+Union armies; Gen. Sheridan was called to command the cavalry corps in
+place of Gen. Pleasonton; and Custer with his brigade was transferred to
+the First division under Torbert.
+
+In May, the Army of the Potomac once more advanced to the Rapidan and
+crossed it. In the battle of the Wilderness, owing to the character of
+the field, the cavalry were compelled to remain almost idle spectators,
+but subsequently, at Spottsylvania C.H., Torbert's division was
+seriously engaged.
+
+On the 9th of May, Gen. Sheridan started out on his first great cavalry
+raid toward Richmond. At Beaverdam Station he inflicted great damage on
+the railroads, destroyed much property, and liberated 400 Union
+prisoners on their way to Richmond. Continuing his march, he found, at
+Yellow Tavern a few miles north of Richmond, Stuart's cavalry drawn up
+to oppose his passage. A spirited fight ensued, resulting in the death
+of Stuart and the dispersion of his troops. Our cavalry pressed on down
+the road to Richmond, and Custer's brigade attacked and carried the
+outer line of defenses, and took 100 prisoners. The second line of
+works was too strong to be taken by cavalry, and Sheridan was obliged to
+retreat. Beating off assailants both in front and rear he crossed the
+Chickahominy, pushed southward to Haxall's Landing on the James River,
+and then leisurely returned by way of White House and Hanover C.H. to
+Grant's army, arriving in time to be present at the sanguinary battle of
+Cool Arbor.
+
+On the 9th of June, Custer accompanied Sheridan on a raid around Lee's
+army. They struck the railroad at Trevilian's, drove off a large force
+of the enemy and broke up a long section of the road. Retracing their
+steps to Trevilian's, they had there a spirited contest with Fitz Hugh
+Lee, and then drew off and rejoined Gen. Grant. During this raid
+Sheridan lost over 700 men, and captured 400 prisoners.
+
+In the autumn of 1864, two divisions of cavalry under Torbert were with
+Sheridan's army operating in the Shenandoah Valley. Custer's brigade was
+in the First division, commanded by Merritt. Averill commanded the
+Second division.
+
+Having received from Gen. Grant the order, "Go in"--the only
+instructions which Grant deemed it necessary to give--Sheridan, Sept.
+19th, attacked the Confederate forces at Opequan Creek. The artillery
+opened along the whole line, the columns moved steadily forward, and
+Gen. Early soon discovered that Sheridan was in earnest. Early's
+position was a strong one, and he stubbornly held it until the cavalry
+bugles were heard on his right, as the firm-set squadrons bore fiercely
+down. Rolled up before the impetuous charge, the rebel line at length
+crumbled into fragments, and the whole army broke in utter confusion and
+was sent "whirling through Winchester," followed until dark by the
+pursuing cavalry. 3000 prisoners were taken.
+
+Three days later Sheridan attacked Early at Fisher's Hill--a strong
+position to which he had retired--and again forced him to retreat with a
+loss of 1100 men taken prisoners. The cavalry pursued so sharply and
+persistently, that Early left the valley and took refuge in the
+mountains where cavalry could not operate.
+
+On the 26th of Sept., Custer was transferred from the command of the
+Michigan brigade in the First division to the head of the Second
+division; but before he was able to reach his new command, he was placed
+at the head of the Third division, with which he had formerly been
+connected under Kilpatrick.
+
+When Sheridan moved back through the valley from Port Republic to
+Strasburg, sparing the houses, but burning all the barns, mills and
+hay-stacks, and driving off all the cattle, his rear was much harassed
+by the rebel cavalry under Gen. Rosser--a class-mate of Custer's at West
+Point; and on the night of Oct. 8th, Sheridan ordered Torbert to "start
+out at daylight, and whip the rebel cavalry or get whipped himself."
+Accordingly on the next morning the cavalry, led on by Merritt and
+Custer and supported by batteries, swept boldly out to attack a larger
+force drawn up in battle array. At the first charge upon them Rosser's
+men broke and fled, but subsequently rallied, and were again pushed back
+and utterly routed. Rosser lost all his artillery but one piece, and
+everything else which was carried on wheels, and was pursued to Mt.
+Jackson, 26 miles distant. Of this affair, Gen. Torbert reported:--
+
+     "The First Division captured five pieces of artillery, their
+     ordnance, ambulance, and wagon trains, and 60 prisoners. The Third
+     Division captured six pieces of artillery, all of their headquarter
+     wagons, ordnance, ambulance, and wagon trains. There could hardly
+     have been a more complete victory and rout. The cavalry totally
+     covered themselves with glory, and added to their long list of
+     victories the most brilliant one of them all, and the most decisive
+     the country has ever witnessed."
+
+On the 15th of Oct., Sheridan started on a flying visit to Washington,
+leaving his army encamped on three ridges or hills. The crest nearest
+the enemy was held by the Army of West Virginia under Crook; half a mile
+to the rear of this was the second one, held by the 19th Corps under
+Emory; and still further to the rear, on the third crest, was the 6th
+Corps under Gen. Wright, who commanded the whole army during Sheridan's
+absence. The cavalry under Torbert lay to the right of the 6th Corps.
+
+Gen. Early, having resolved to surprise and attack the Union army,
+started out his troops on a dark and foggy night, and advanced
+unperceived and unchallenged in two columns along either flank of the
+6th Corps. The march was noiseless; and trusty guides led the steady
+columns through the gloom, now pushing through the dripping trees and
+now fording a stream, till at length, an hour before day-break, Oct.
+18th, Early's troops, shivering with cold, stood within 600 yards of
+Crook's camp. Two of Crook's pickets had come in at 2 A.M. and reported
+a heavy, muffled tramp heard at the front; but though some extra
+precautions were taken, no one dreamed that an attack would be made.
+
+Crook's troops, slumbering on unconscious of danger, were awakened at
+daybreak by a deafening yell and the crack of musketry on either flank;
+following which, charging lines regardless of the pickets came
+immediately on over the breastworks. The surprise was complete, and
+after a brief struggle the Army of West Virginia was flying in confusion
+toward the second hill occupied by the 19th Corps. Emory attempted to
+stop the progress of the enemy, but they got in his rear, and his
+command soon broke and fled with the rest toward the hill where the 6th
+Corps lay.
+
+Gen. Wright formed a new line of battle, and repulsed a tremendous
+charge of the enemy, thus obtaining time to cover the immense crowd of
+fugitives that darkened the rear. A general retreat was then begun and
+continued in good order till 10 A.M. when, the enemy having ceased to
+advance, Wright halted and commenced reorganizing the scattered troops.
+The cavalry, being at the rear and extreme right, had not suffered in
+the first assault on the Union army, but they were subsequently
+transferred to the left flank, and did brave service in covering the
+retreat of the infantry.
+
+Meanwhile Sheridan, returning from Washington, had slept at Winchester
+20 miles distant, and in the morning rode leisurely toward his army. The
+vibrations of artillery at first surprised him, and he soon became aware
+that a heavy battle was raging and that his army was retreating. Dashing
+his spurs into his horse he pushed madly along the road, and soon left
+his escort far behind. Further on he met fugitives from the army, who
+declared that all was lost. As the cloud of fugitives thickened he
+shouted, as he drove on and swung his cap, "Face the other way, boys; we
+are going back to our camp; we are going to lick them out of their
+boots." The frightened stragglers paused, and then turned back.
+
+On arriving at the front, where the work of reorganization was already
+well advanced, Sheridan inspired his men with new courage by his
+appearance and words. For two hours he rode back and forth in front of
+the line, encouraging the troops; and when the order was given, "The
+entire line will advance, etc.," the infantry went steadily forward upon
+the enemy. Early's front was soon carried, while his left was partly
+turned back; and after much desperate fighting, his astonished troops
+turned and fled in utter confusion over the field.
+
+     "As they streamed down into the Middletown meadow," says Headley,
+     "Sheridan saw that the time for the cavalry had come, and ordered a
+     charge. The bugles pealed forth their stirring notes, and the
+     dashing squadrons of Custer and Merritt came down like a clattering
+     tempest on the right and left, doubling up the rebel flanks, and
+     cleaving a terrible path through the broken ranks. Back to, and
+     through our camp, which they had swept like a whirlwind in the
+     morning, the panic-stricken rebels went, pellmell, leaving all the
+     artillery they had captured, and much of their own, and strewing
+     the way with muskets, clothing, knapsacks, and everything that
+     could impede their flight. The infantry were too tired to continue
+     the pursuit, but the cavalry kept it up, driving them through
+     Strasburg to Fisher's Hill, and beyond, to Woodstock, sixteen miles
+     distant."
+
+After the battle of Cedar Creek and during the winter of 1864--5,
+Sheridan's army, including Custer's division, remained inactive,
+occupying cantonments around Winchester.
+
+On the 27th of Feb., Sheridan started out on his last great raid, taking
+with him Gen. Merritt as chief of cavalry, the First and Third divisions
+of cavalry under Generals Devin and Custer, artillery, wagons, and
+pack-mules. The raiding column, including artillerymen and teamsters,
+numbered 10,000 men.
+
+Moving rapidly up the Shenandoah Valley over the turnpike road, they
+passed many villages without halting or opposition, and on the 29th,
+approached Mount Crawford, where Rosser with 400 men disputed the
+passage over a stream and attempted to burn the bridge; but Col.
+Capehart of Custer's command, which was in advance, by a bold dash drove
+Rosser away and saved the bridge.
+
+Custer now pushed on to Waynesboro' and finding Early intrenched there,
+immediately attacked him. The result, as told by Sheridan, was as
+follows:--
+
+     "Gen. Custer found Gen. Early in a well chosen position, with two
+     brigades of infantry, and some cavalry under Rosser, the infantry
+     occupying breastworks. Custer, without waiting for the enemy to get
+     up courage over the delay of a careful reconnaissance, made his
+     dispositions for attack at once. Sending three regiments around the
+     left flank of the enemy, Custer with the other two brigades, partly
+     mounted and partly dismounted, at a given signal attacked and
+     impetuously carried the enemy's works; while the Eight New York and
+     the First Connecticut cavalry, who were formed in columns of fours,
+     charged over the breastworks, and continued the charge through the
+     streets of Waynesboro', sabring a few men as they went along, and
+     did not stop until they had crossed the South Fork of the
+     Shenandoah, (which was immediately in Early's rear) where they
+     formed as foragers, and with drawn sabres held the east bank of the
+     stream. The enemy threw down their arms and surrendered, with
+     cheers at the suddenness with which they had been captured."
+
+Sixteen hundred prisoners, 11 pieces of artillery, 200 loaded wagons,
+and 17 battle-flags were captured single-handed by Custer at
+Waynesboro', while his own loss was less than a dozen men. Vast amounts
+of public property were subsequently destroyed. The prisoners were sent
+to Winchester under guard.
+
+Pushing on across the Blue Ridge in a heavy rain during the night after
+Early's defeat, Custer, still in the van, approached Charlottesville the
+next afternoon, and was met by the authorities, who surrendered to him
+the keys of the public buildings as a token of submission. The balance
+of the column soon came up, and two days were spent in destroying
+bridges, mills, and the railroad leading to Lynchburg.
+
+Sheridan now divided his command, and sent Merritt and Devin to destroy
+the canal from Scottsville to New Market, while he and Custer tore up
+the railroads as far west as Amherst C.H. The columns united again at
+New Market on the James River; and as the enemy had burned the bridges
+so they could not cross to the south side, they moved eastward behind
+Lee's army, destroying bridges, canals, railroads and supplies, thus
+inflicting a more serious blow to the confederate cause than any
+victories by land or sea gained during the last campaign. Then they
+swept around by the Pamunkey River and White House, and joined Grant's
+besieging army in front of Petersburg, March 27th. They encamped on the
+extreme left of the lines, close to their old comrades of the Second
+Division of cavalry, (now under Gen. Crook) who here again came under
+Sheridan's command.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+The final struggle for the possession of Richmond and Petersburg was now
+commenced by an extension of the Union lines westward, Grant's object
+being to attack the right flank of the Confederates.
+
+On the 29th of March, Sheridan, with his cavalry, moved southwest to
+Dinwiddie C.H., where Devin's and Crook's divisions halted for the
+night. Custer was some distance in the rear protecting the train. In the
+morning, Devin pushed the enemy back northerly to their intrenchments at
+Five Forks; but being unable to advance further, he returned to
+Dinwiddie C.H. Gen. Warren, with the 5th Infantry Corps, had meantime
+been put under Sheridan's command as a support to the cavalry, but had
+not yet come up.
+
+The next day, 31st, Lee's troops attacked Warren unexpectedly, and drove
+two of his divisions back upon a third, where their advance was stopped;
+and with the assistance of Humphrey's 2nd Corps, the enemy were driven
+back into their entrenched position along the White Oak road. Then the
+rebel infantry moved westward along the road to Five Forks, and attacked
+Devin, who, earlier in the day, had advanced to Five Forks and carried
+that position. Devin was driven out in disorder and forced back, and
+after some difficulty rejoined Crook's division at Dinwiddie C. H. The
+confederates now assailed Sheridan with a superior force, but could make
+no headway, and during the night they withdrew.
+
+Meantime Custer, and Gen. McKenzie with 1,000 additional cavalry, had
+joined Sheridan, and Warren was within supporting distance. At daybreak
+the cavalry advanced steadily on the enemy, and by noon had driven them
+behind their works at Five Forks, and were menacing their front. Warren
+was now ordered forward, and after more delay than Sheridan deemed
+necessary, he reached his assigned position and charged furiously
+westward on the enemy's left flank. Custer and Devin at the same time
+charged their right flank and front. Thus assailed by double their
+numbers the rebel infantry fought on with great gallantry and fortitude;
+but at length their flank defenses were carried by Warren's troops, and
+simultaneously the cavalry swept over their works. A large portion of
+the enemy surrendered, and the balance fled westward, pursued by Custer
+and McKenzie; 5,000 prisoners were taken.
+
+The next morning, Sunday, April 2nd, at daybreak, a general assault was
+made by Grant's army upon the defences of Petersburg, and some of them
+were carried. Lee telegraphed to Davis that Richmond must be evacuated;
+and by night the Confederate rule in that city was ended, and Davis and
+his Government on the way by railroad to Danville. Lee's troops withdrew
+from Richmond and Petersburg the same night, and marched rapidly
+westward to Amelia C.H. on the Danville railroad, where they halted,
+April 4th and 5th, to gather supplies of food from the country.
+
+Meantime, the Union army was pursuing the retreating Confederates and
+making every effort to prevent their escape. Custer and Devin moved
+southwesterly toward Burkesville destroying the railroad, and then
+joined Crook, McKenzie, and the 5th Corps at Jetersville five miles west
+of Amelia C.H. Sheridan intrenched his infantry across the railroad,
+supported them by his cavalry, and felt prepared to stop the passage of
+Lee's whole army. Lee, however, finding his way to Danville thus
+blocked, moved northerly around Sheridan's left, and thence westerly
+toward Farmville on the Appomattox River. Gen. Davies, of Crook's
+division, made a reconnoisance and struck Lee's train moving ahead of
+his troops, destroying wagons, and taking prisoners. A fight followed,
+and Davies fell back to Jetersville where nearly the whole army was then
+concentrated.
+
+On the morning of the 6th, Crook, Custer, and Devin started out in
+pursuit. Crook, who was in advance, was ordered to attack the trains,
+and if the enemy was too strong, another division was to pass him, while
+he held fast and pressed the enemy, and attack at a point further
+on--thus alternating until some vulnerable point was found. Crook came
+upon Lee's columns near Deatonsville, and charged upon them, determined
+to detain them at any cost. Crook was finally repulsed, but his action
+gave Custer time to push ahead, and strike further on at Sailor's Creek.
+Crook and Devin came promptly to Custer's support, and he pierced the
+line of march, destroyed 400 wagons, and took many prisoners. Elwell's
+division was separated from Lee, who was further ahead, and being
+enclosed between the cavalry in front and the infantry on their rear,
+the troops threw down their arms and surrendered.
+
+That evening Lee crossed the Appomattox at Farmville, and tried to burn
+the bridges behind him, but troops arrived in season to save one of
+them. Lee halted five miles beyond Farmville, intrenched himself, and
+repulsed an attack from the infantry. At night he silently resumed his
+retreat.
+
+On the morning of the 7th, Custer and Devin, under Merritt, were sent on
+a detour to the left, to cut off retreat toward Danville should it be
+attempted; while Crook forded the Appomattox and attacked a train. On
+the 8th, Sheridan concentrated the cavalry at Prospect Station, and sent
+Merritt, Custer, and Devin swiftly ahead 28 miles to Appomattox Station,
+where, he had learned from scouts, were four trains loaded with supplies
+for Lee, just arrived from Lynchburg.
+
+Gen. Custer took the lead, and on reaching the railroad station he
+skillfully surrounded and captured the trains. Then, followed by Devin,
+he hurried on five miles further to Appomattox C.H., where he confronted
+the van of Lee's army, immediately attacked it, and by night had turned
+it back on the main column, and captured prisoners, wagons, guns, and a
+hospital train. The balance of the cavalry hurried up, and a position
+was taken directly across the road, in front of Lee's army.
+
+By a forced march the infantry under Griffin and Ord, supporting the
+cavalry, reached the rear of Sheridan's position by daybreak the next
+morning. Grant and Mead were pressing closely on Lee's rear, and Lee saw
+there was no escape for him unless he could break through the cavalry
+force which he supposed alone disputed his passage. He therefore ordered
+his infantry to advance. The result of this charge, the last one made
+by the Army of Virginia, is thus described in Greeley's "_American
+Conflict_":--
+
+     "By Sheridan's orders, his troopers, who were in line of battle
+     dismounted, gave ground gradually, while showing a steady front, so
+     as to allow our weary infantry time to form and take position. This
+     effected, the horsemen moved swiftly to the right, and mounted,
+     revealing lines of solid infantry in battle array, before whose
+     wall of gleaming bayonets the astonished enemy recoiled in blank
+     despair, as Sheridan and his troopers, passing briskly around the
+     rebel left, prepared to charge the confused, reeling masses. A
+     white flag was now waved by the enemy before Gen. Custer, who held
+     our cavalry advance, with the information that they had concluded
+     to surrender."
+
+The next day, April 9th, Gen. Custer, who had been brevetted
+Major-General after the battle of Cedar Creek, issued the following
+complimentary order to his troops:--
+
+
+           HEAD-QUARTERS THIRD CAVALRY DIVISION.}
+     APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, VA., April 9, 1865.}
+
+     SOLDIERS OF THE THIRD CAVALRY DIVISION:--
+
+     With profound gratitude toward the God of battles, by whose
+     blessings our enemies have been humbled and our arms rendered
+     triumphant, your Commanding General avails himself of this his
+     first opportunity to express to you his admiration of the heroic
+     manner in which you have passed through the series of battles which
+     to-day resulted in the surrender of the enemy's entire army.
+
+     The record established by your indomitable courage is unparalleled
+     in the annals of war. Your prowess has won for you even the respect
+     and admiration of your enemies. During the past six months,
+     although in most instances confronted by superior numbers, you have
+     captured from the enemy, in open battle, 111 pieces of field
+     artillery, 65 battle-flags, and upward of 10,000 prisoners of war
+     including seven general officers. Within the last ten days, and
+     included in the above, you have captured 46 field-pieces of
+     artillery and 37 battle-flags. You have never lost a gun, never
+     lost a color, and have never been defeated; and notwithstanding the
+     numerous engagements in which you have borne a prominent part,
+     including those memorable battles of the Shenandoah, you have
+     captured every piece of artillery which the enemy has dared to
+     open upon you. The near approach of peace renders it improbable
+     that you will again be called upon to undergo the fatigues of the
+     toilsome march, or the exposure of the battle-field; but should the
+     assistance of keen blades wielded by your sturdy arms be required
+     to hasten the coming of that glorious peace for which we have been
+     so long contending, the General Commanding is firmly confident
+     that, in the future as in the past, every demand will meet a hearty
+     and willing response.
+
+     Let us hope that our work is done, and that blessed with the
+     comforts of peace, we may be permitted to enjoy the pleasures of
+     home and friends. For our comrades who have fallen, let us ever
+     cherish a grateful remembrance. To the wounded and to those who
+     languish in Southern prisons, let our heartfelt sympathy be
+     tendered.
+
+     And now, speaking for myself alone, when the war is ended and the
+     task of the historian begins; when those deeds of daring which have
+     rendered the name and fame of the Third Cavalry Division
+     imperishable are inscribed upon the bright pages of our country's
+     history, I only ask that my name may be written as that of the
+     Commander of the Third Cavalry Division.
+
+Lee's flag of truce at Appomattox--a white towel--and also the table on
+which Grant and Lee signed the capitulation agreement, were presented to
+Mrs. Custer by Gen. Sheridan, and are now in her possession. In a letter
+accompanying them Sheridan wrote, that he "knew of no person more
+instrumental in bringing about this most desired event than her own most
+gallant husband."
+
+In the great parade of the Army of the Potomac at Washington in May
+1865, Sheridan's cavalry were at the head of the column; and the Third
+Division, first in peace as it had been first in war, led the advance.
+Custer, now a Major-General of volunteers, at the age of 26 years, rode
+proudly at the head of his troopers, a prominent figure in the stirring
+pageant, and the observed of all beholders. He had put off for the
+occasion his careless dashing style of dress, and wore, with becoming
+dignity, the full regulation uniform of a Major-General.
+
+Shortly after the parade, Custer was sent to Texas, where he had command
+of a cavalry division at Austin, but no active service became necessary.
+In March, 1866, he was mustered out of service as a Major-General, and
+took rank as a Captain, assigned to the 5th Cavalry, U.S.A. Soon
+afterward, he applied to Senor Romero, Minister from Mexico, for a
+position as chief of President Juarez's cavalry, in his struggle with
+Maximilian. He presented a letter of introduction from General Grant in
+which he was spoken of in the most complimentary terms. Romero was
+anxious to secure his services, and made him liberal offers; but as
+Custer could not obtain leave of absence from his Government, the
+contemplated arrangement was not completed.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+In July, 1866, Custer received from Andrew Johnson, a commission as
+Lieut. Col. of the 7th Cavalry--a new regiment; and after accompanying
+the President on his famous tour through the country, he proceeded to
+Fort Riley, Kansas.
+
+In the spring of 1867, an expedition under Gen. Hancock marched from
+Fort Riley to Fort Larned near the Arkansas River, and the 7th Cavalry,
+under Lieut. Col. Custer, accompanied it. The dissatisfied Indians had
+been invited by the Indian agent to meet Hancock in council at Fort
+Larned, and had agreed to do so; but as they failed to appear at the
+appointed time, Hancock started for a village of Sioux and Cheyenne
+Indians, distant some 30 miles from the fort. On the way he met several
+of the chiefs, and they agreed to hold a council at Hancock's camp on
+the next day, April 14th. As none of the chiefs came, as promised,
+Hancock again started for their village, and soon came upon several
+hundred Indians drawn up in battle array directly across his path. The
+troops were immediately formed in line of battle, and then the General,
+with some of his officers and the interpreter, rode forward and invited
+the chiefs to a meeting between the lines, which were half a mile apart.
+The invitation was accepted; several chiefs advanced to the officers,
+and a friendly interview was holden--all seeming pleased at the peaceful
+turn things had taken. The result of the "talk" was an arrangement for a
+council to be held at Hancock's headquarters after he had camped near
+the Indian village, toward which both parties then proceeded. It was
+ascertained on reaching it that the women and children had been sent
+away; and during the night the warriors, unobserved by the white men,
+also fled, leaving their lodges and stores.
+
+Mistrusting something of the kind, Custer, with the cavalry, had during
+the night stealthily surrounded the village, and on entering it later
+found it deserted. Pursuit of the Indians was commenced, but their trail
+soon scattered so it could not be followed. After burning the deserted
+village, the expedition returned to Fort Hayes, where the 7th Cavalry
+wintered.
+
+The next summer, Custer with several companies of his regiment and 20
+wagons, was sent on a long scouting expedition to the southward in
+search of Indians. Leaving Fort Hayes in June, he proceeded to Fort
+McPherson on the Platte River, and thence to the forks of the Republican
+River in the Indian country. From this place he sent Major J.A. Elliott,
+on the 23d of June, with ten men and one guide, to carry despatches to
+Gen. Sherman at Fort Sedgwick, 100 miles distant. The wagons, escorted
+by cavalry, were also started the same day to procure supplies from Fort
+Wallace, about the same distance away in an opposite direction.
+
+Early the next morning, an attack was made on the camp, but the soldiers
+rallied so promptly and effectively that the Indians soon withdrew.
+Interpreters were then sent toward them, who arranged for a council
+which was held near by. After an unsatisfactory interview, Custer
+returned to his camp and started in pursuit of the Indians, but was
+unable to overtake them.
+
+On the fifth day after his departure, Major Elliott returned in safety
+to the camp. He had traveled only by night, and had seen no Indians. The
+wagon train was not so fortunate. It reached Fort Wallace safely, and
+started to return escorted by 48 troopers. On the way it was attacked by
+a large number of Indians, who for three hours kept up a running fight
+around the circle. The wagons moved forward in two strings, with the
+cavalry horses between them for safety, and the dismounted soldiers
+defended them so successfully that their progress forward was
+uninterrupted. Meanwhile Custer, fearing for the safety of the train,
+had sent out cavalry to meet it; and their approach caused the Indians
+to cease from their attack and withdraw. The balance of the journey was
+safely accomplished.
+
+Resuming his march, Custer again struck the Platte, some distance west
+of Fort Sedgwick. Here he learned by telegraph that Lieut. Kidder with
+ten men and an Indian scout had started from Fort Sedgwick, with
+despatches for Custer directing him to proceed to Fort Wallace, shortly
+after Major Elliott had left the fort. As Kidder had not returned and
+Custer had not seen him, fears for his safety were entertained, and
+Custer immediately started for his late camp at the forks of the
+Republican. On the way thither some of his men deserted, and being
+followed and refusing to surrender, were fired upon, and three were
+wounded.
+
+On reaching the camp, an examination was made by the Indian guide, and
+it was ascertained that Kidder's party had arrived there in safety, and
+continued on towards Fort Wallace, over the trail made by the wagons. In
+the morning Custer started in pursuit, and by noon it became evident by
+the tracks of their horses, that Kidder's party had been hard chased for
+several miles. Further on one of their horses was found, shot dead; and
+at last the mutilated and arrow-pierced bodies of the 12 men were found
+lying near each other. They had been chased, overtaken, and killed by
+the savages. They were buried in one grave, and the troops proceeded to
+Fort Wallace.
+
+Custer had been ordered to report to Gen. Hancock at Fort Wallace, and
+receive further orders from him; but on arriving there he found that the
+General had retired to Fort Leavenworth. The location of Fort Wallace
+was isolated and remote from railroads, and as the stock of provisions
+was low, Custer decided to go for supplies. He started on the evening of
+July 15th, with 100 men, and arrived at Fort Hayes on the morning of
+July 18th, having marched 150 miles, with a loss of two men who had been
+surprised by Indians. He then proceeded to Fort Harker, 60 miles further
+on, and after making arrangements for the supplies, obtained from Gen.
+Smith permission to visit his wife, who was at Fort Riley, 90 miles
+distant by rail.
+
+Soon after this Custer was arraigned before a court-martial, charged
+with leaving Fort Wallace without orders, and making a journey on
+private business, during which two soldiers were killed; also for
+over-tasking his men on the march, and for cruelty while quelling a
+mutiny. After trial, he was pronounced guilty of a breach of discipline
+in making a journey on private business (which he earnestly denied) and
+acquitted of the other charges. His sentence was a suspension of pay and
+rank for a year, during which period he remained in private life, while
+his regiment was engaged in an expedition under Gen. Sully.
+
+In October, 1868, Custer was recalled into service, and joined his
+regiment at Fort Dodge on the Arkansas River. Early in Nov., a winter
+campaign against the Indians was commenced. Gen. Sully, with the 7th
+Cavalry, detachments of infantry, and a large supply train, marched to
+the borders of the Indian country and established a post called Camp
+Supply.
+
+On the 23d of Nov., Custer with his regiment of about 800 men started
+out in a snow storm on a scout for the enemy. The next day a trail was
+discovered and pursued, and at night the troops were in the valley of
+the Washita River, and near an Indian village which had been seen from a
+distance. The village was stealthily surrounded, and at daybreak an
+attack was made simultaneously by several detachments.
+
+The Indians were taken entirely by surprise. The warriors fled from the
+village, but took shelter behind trees, logs, and the bank of the
+stream, and fought with much desperation and courage, but were finally
+driven off. The village was captured with its contents, including 50
+squaws and children who had remained safely in the lodges during the
+fight. Some 800 ponies were also captured. On questioning the squaws,
+one of them said that she was a sister of the Cheyenne chief Black
+Kettle, that it was his village that had been captured, and that
+several other Indian villages were located within ten miles--the nearest
+one being only two miles distant.
+
+Before Custer had time to retreat, hostile Indians--reinforcements from
+the other villages--arrived in such numbers as to surround the captured
+village, which Custer and his men occupied; and an attack was begun
+which continued nearly all day. The Indians were finally driven away.
+The village and its contents were burned. The captives were allowed to
+select ponies to ride on, and the balance of the drove were shot. The
+retreat was begun by a march forward, as if to attack the next village.
+The Indians fled; and after dark Custer moved rapidly back toward Supply
+Camp, taking the captives along as prisoners of war.
+
+In this engagement, known as the Battle of the Washita, Major Elliott,
+Capt. Hamilton, and 19 privates were killed, and three officers and 11
+privates wounded. Captains Weir, Benteen, T.W. Custer, and Lieut. Cook,
+participated in this fight. It was estimated that at least 100 Indians
+were killed, among whom was the noted chief Black Kettle.
+
+The death of Black Kettle was much regretted by many white people. Gen.
+Harney said respecting him:--"I have worn the uniform of my country 55
+years, and I know that Black Kettle was as good a friend of the United
+States as I am." Col. A.G. Boone, a member of the recent Indian
+Commission, who had known Black Kettle for years, said tearfully:--"He
+was a good man; he was my friend; he was murdered."
+
+Early in Dec., the 7th Cavalry and a Kansas cavalry regiment,
+accompanied by Gen. Sheridan and staff, again started out to look for
+Indians. The recent battle-ground was revisited, and then the force
+proceeded along the valley of the Washita, finding the sites of several
+villages which appeared to have been lately and hastily removed. Large
+numbers of lodge poles, and robes, utensils, and stores were left
+behind; and a broad trail, leading down the river toward Fort Cobb, 100
+miles distant, showed the direction their owners had taken when
+frightened away from their winter retreat. A pursuit of the trail was
+commenced, but it soon branched. The troops continued on, and when
+within 20 miles of Fort Cobb, Indians appeared in front with a flag of
+truce. They proved to be Kiowas led by Lone Wolf, Satanta, and other
+chiefs.
+
+A council was held, and both parties agreed to proceed together to Fort
+Cobb; and the Indians agreed that they would then remain on their
+reservation. On the way to the fort, many of the Indians slipped away,
+and as Custer then supposed (erroneously) that Lone Wolf and Satanta had
+been engaged in the recent battle and might also escape, he placed them
+under guard and took them to Fort Cobb, where they were held as hostages
+for the return of the roaming Kiowas, who finally came in on learning
+that Sheridan had determined to hang their chiefs if they failed to do
+so.
+
+Soon after this, Little Robe--a Cheyenne chief, and Yellow Bear--a
+friendly Arapahoe, were visiting at Fort Cobb, and at Custer's
+suggestion Sheridan permitted him with a small party to go with these
+chiefs as a peace ambassador. The mission was successful as far as the
+Arapahoes were concerned, and as its result the whole tribe returned to
+their reservation.
+
+The effort to arrange with the Cheyennes proving unavailing, Custer with
+800 men started, March, 1869, in pursuit of them. On the 13th of March
+he arrived in the vicinity of several Cheyenne villages, one of which
+belonged to Little Robe. Several councils were held with the chiefs; and
+it was ascertained that two white women who had been recently captured
+in Kansas were held as captives in one of the villages. For this reason
+Custer could not attack the Indians, who were still intractable, and had
+to continue negotiations with them. They refused to release the women
+unless a large ransom was paid.
+
+Custer subsequently seized four of the chiefs, and threatened to hang
+them if the white women were not given up unconditionally. This threat
+produced the desired effect, and the women were surrendered. Custer then
+marched to the supply camp, taking with him the captured chiefs, who
+begged for freedom as the white women had been given up. Their friends
+also entreated for their release; but Custer assured them that the
+Washita prisoners and the captive chiefs would not be liberated until
+the Cheyennes returned to their reservation. This they promised to do,
+and subsequently kept their word.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+A treaty having been made with the Indians and peace restored, the 7th
+Cavalry enjoyed a long season of rest. In the autumn of 1870, it was
+broken into detachments and distributed to different posts. Custer, with
+two companies, was assigned to a post at Elizabethtown, Ky., 40 miles
+from Louisville, and in this isolated place he remained two years.
+During this period of inaction he engaged in literary pursuits and wrote
+an account of his life on the Plains. He also joined in a buffalo-hunt
+given on the Plains in honor of the Russian Grand Duke Alexis, and after
+the hunt he and Mrs. Custer accompanied the Duke in his travels through
+the Southern States.
+
+In March, 1873, the 7th Cavalry was ordered to Dakota, and in May was
+encamped at Fort Rice far up the Missouri. Here also were assembled
+other soldiers, and in July the so-called Yellowstone Expedition,
+commanded by Gen. D.S. Stanley, started out on its mission, which was to
+escort and protect the engineers and surveyors of the Northern Pacific
+Railroad. The march was westward to the Yellowstone and up its valley,
+accompanied part of the way by steamboats. The country was rough and
+broken, and the wagon trains were got forward with much difficulty. It
+was Custer's custom to go ahead every day with a small party of
+road-hunters, to pick out and prepare the most suitable road for the
+train.
+
+On the 4th of Aug., when opposite the mouth of Tongue River, as Custer
+and his advance party of about 100 men were enjoying a noon-day siesta
+in a grove on the bank of the river, they were aroused by the firing of
+the pickets. A few Indians had made a dash to stampede the horses which
+were grazing near by, and failing in this, were riding back and forth as
+if inviting pursuit. The soldiers speedily mounted, and Custer with 20
+men followed the Indians, who retreated slowly, keeping out of the reach
+of shot.
+
+After going nearly two miles the retreating Indians faced about as if to
+attack, and simultaneously, 300 mounted warriors emerged from a forest
+and dashed forward. Custer's men immediately dismounted, and while five
+of them held the horses, the remainder, with breech-loading carbines,
+awaited the enemy's charge. Several rapid volleys were sufficient to
+repulse the Indians, and cause them to take shelter in the woods from
+which they came.
+
+Just then the remainder of Custer's men came up, and the whole force
+retreated to the resting place they had so lately vacated. The horses
+were sheltered in the timber, and the men took advantage of a natural
+terrace, using it as a breastwork. The Indians had followed them
+closely, and now made persistent but unsuccessful attempts to drive them
+from their position. Being defeated in this, they next tried to burn
+them out by setting fire to the grass. After continuing their assault
+for several hours, the Indians withdrew at the approach of the main
+column, and Custer and the fresh troops chased them several miles.
+
+[Illustration: COUNTING HIS COUPS.]
+
+The same day, two elderly civilians connected with the expedition were
+murdered while riding in advance of the main column. Nearly two years
+later, Charles Reynolds, a scout subsequently killed at the battle of
+the Little Big Horn, while at Standing Rock Agency, heard an Indian who
+was "counting his _coups_," or in other words rehearsing his great
+achievements, boast of killing two white men on the Yellowstone. From
+his description of the victims and the articles he exhibited, Reynolds
+knew that he was the murderer of the two men.
+
+The name of this Indian was Rain in the Face. He was subsequently
+arrested by Captains Yates and Custer, and taken to Fort Lincoln where
+he was interviewed by Gen. Custer and finally confessed the deed. He was
+kept a close prisoner in the guardhouse for several months, but managed
+to escape, and joined Sitting Bull's band. It is thought by some that he
+was the identical Indian who killed Gen. Custer, and that he did it by
+way of revenge for his long imprisonment. There seems to be no real
+foundation for this theory; but the "Revenge of Rain in the Face" will
+probably go down to posterity as an historical truth, as it has already
+been immortalized in verse by one of our most gifted poets, who seems,
+however, to have overlooked the fact that Gen. Custer's body was not
+mutilated.
+
+A week after the affair on the Yellowstone a large Indian trail was
+discovered leading up the river, and Custer was sent in pursuit. On
+arriving near the mouth of Big Horn River, it was discovered that the
+enemy had crossed the Yellowstone in "bull boats." As Custer had no
+means of getting across, he camped for the night. Early the next
+morning he was attacked by several hundred warriors, some of whom had
+doubtless recrossed the river for that purpose. Sitting Bull was
+commander of the Indians, and large numbers of old men, squaws, and
+children were assembled on the high bluffs and mounds along the river to
+witness the fight. After considerable skirmishing Custer ordered his
+troops to charge, and as they advanced the Indians fled, and were
+pursued some distance.
+
+In these two engagements our loss was four men killed, and two were
+wounded. Custer's horse was shot under him. There was no further trouble
+with the Indians, and the expedition returned to Fort Rice about the 1st
+of October. Later in the autumn, Gen. Custer was assigned to the command
+of Fort Lincoln, on the Missouri River, opposite the town of Bismark.
+
+In the summer of 1874, a military expedition to explore the Black Hills
+was decided on, and Gen. Custer was selected to command it. The column
+of 1,200 troops, escorting a corps of scientists, etc., started from
+Fort Lincoln, July 1st, moved southwesterly about 250 miles to the Black
+Hills, and then explored the region. No trouble was experienced with
+Indians, and the expedition returned to Fort Lincoln in September.
+
+Mrs. Custer had accompanied her husband to the Plains when he first went
+thither, and excepting when he was engaged in some active campaign or
+both were East, she shared with him the hardships, privations, and
+pleasures of frontier life. Mrs. Champney, speaking of her in the
+_Independent_, says:--"She followed the general through all his
+campaigns, her constant aim being to make life pleasant for her husband
+and for his command. General Custer's officers were remarkably attached
+to him; to a man they revered and admired his wife. She was with him not
+only in the idleness of summer camp-life, when the days passed in a
+_dolce far niente_ resembling a holiday picnic; but in ruder and more
+dangerous enterprises she was, as far as he would permit, his constant
+companion."
+
+When Gen. Custer was ordered to Fort Lincoln Mrs. Custer went there with
+him; that retired post was their home for the remainder of his life, and
+when he started out on his last campaign she parted with him there.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+When a campaign against the roaming hostile Indians was decided on in
+1876, Lieut. Col. Custer was naturally selected as the leader of the
+Dakota column, which was organized at Fort Lincoln, and mainly composed
+of his regiment.
+
+About this time a Congressional committee at Washington were
+investigating the charges against Gen. Belknap, who had recently
+resigned the office of Secretary of War. Many persons were called to
+testify; and while Custer was actively engaged in organizing the Sioux
+expedition, he received a telegraphic summons to appear before the
+committee.
+
+On the receipt of the summons, Custer telegraphed to Gen. Terry, the
+Department Commander, informing him of the fact, stating that what he
+knew as to any charges against the War Department was only from hearsay
+evidence, and asking his advice as to what he had better do. Terry, who
+was a lawyer as well as a soldier, in reply informed Custer that his
+services were indispensable, and that he feared it would delay the
+expedition if he had to go to Washington. He suggested that if Custer
+knew nothing of the matter, he might perhaps get excused from going
+there.
+
+After hearing from Terry, Custer telegraphed to the chairman of the
+committee as follows;--
+
+     "While I hold myself in readiness to obey the summons of your
+     committee, I telegraph to state that I am engaged upon an important
+     expedition, intended to operate against the hostile Indians, and I
+     expect to take the field early in April. My presence here is very
+     necessary. In view of this, would it not be satisfactory for you to
+     forward to me such questions as may be necessary, allowing me to
+     return my replies by mail."
+
+As the committee would not consent to the plan proposed, Custer went to
+Washington, and was detained there on this business about one month. He
+was severely cross-examined, but the result showed that he knew but
+little of the matter in controversy. All he could say of his own
+knowledge was, that a contractor had turned over to him at Fort Lincoln
+a quantity of grain, which he suspected had been stolen from the Indian
+Department, as the sacks bore the Indian brand. He had at first refused
+to receive the grain, and had informed the Department commander of his
+suspicions. He had received in reply an order to accept the grain; and
+he believed that the order emanated from the Secretary of War, and so
+testified before the committee. On returning west, he learned from Gen.
+Terry that he alone was responsible for the order to receive the grain;
+and thereupon, Custer telegraphed the fact to Mr. Clymer, and
+added:--"As I would not knowingly do injustice to any individual, I ask
+that this telegram may be appended to and made part of my testimony
+before your committee."
+
+On being discharged by the committee, Custer, for the third time it is
+said, called at the White House, hoping to remove the wrong impression
+and misunderstanding as to his action before the committee which, he
+had learned from private sources, the President had received and still
+entertained. He did not however succeed in getting an interview, and it
+is said that Gen. Grant even refused to see him.
+
+Leaving the White House, Custer proceeded to the office of Gen. Sherman,
+and learned that the General had gone to New York, but was expected back
+that evening. Custer then took the train for Chicago, and on arriving
+there was halted by Gen. Sheridan who had received from Gen. Sherman a
+telegram dated May 2nd, as follows:--
+
+     "I am this moment advised that General Custer started last night
+     for Saint Paul and Fort Abraham Lincoln. He was not justified in
+     leaving without seeing the President or myself. Please intercept
+     him at Chicago or Saint Paul, and order him to halt and await
+     further orders. Meanwhile let the expedition from Fort Lincoln
+     proceed without him."
+
+Gen. Custer was of course greatly surprised on learning that such a
+telegram had been received, and he immediately telegraphed to Gen.
+Sherman a statement of the circumstances under which he left Washington.
+He reminded the General that at their last interview he had stated that
+he would start west May 1st, and had been told in reply that it was the
+best thing he could do; he said further that he had every reason to
+believe, that in leaving Washington when he did he was acting in
+accordance with the General's advice and wishes; and in conclusion, he
+reminded the General of his promise that he should go in command of his
+regiment, and asked that justice might be done him. Receiving no answer
+to this message, he again telegraphed to Sherman asking as a favor that
+he might proceed to Fort Lincoln where his family was. In reply, Sherman
+telegraphed as follows:--
+
+     "Before receipt of yours, I had sent orders to Gen. Sheridan, to
+     permit you to go to Fort Lincoln on duty, but the President adheres
+     to his conclusion that you are not to go on the expedition."
+
+Sherman's orders to Sheridan were as follows:--
+
+     "I have received your despatch of to-day, announcing Gen. Custer's
+     arrival. Have just come from the President, who orders that Gen.
+     Custer be allowed to rejoin his post, to remain there on duty, but
+     not to accompany the expedition supposed to be on the point of
+     starting against the hostile Indians, under Gen. Terry."
+
+General Custer accordingly started for Fort Lincoln, and on arriving at
+Saint Paul, May 6th, he addressed the following letter to President
+Grant:--
+
+     "TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT, through Military Channels:
+
+     I have seen your order transmitted through the General of the army,
+     directing that I be not permitted to accompany the expedition about
+     to move against hostile Indians. As my entire regiment forms a part
+     of the proposed expedition, and as I am the senior officer of the
+     regiment on duty in this Department, I respectfully but most
+     earnestly request that while not allowed to go in command of the
+     expedition, I may be permitted to serve with my regiment in the
+     field. I appeal to you as a soldier to spare me the humiliation of
+     seeing my regiment march to meet the enemy and I not to share its
+     dangers."
+
+This appeal to the President was forwarded by Gen. Terry with the
+following communication:--
+
+     "In forwarding the above, I wish to say expressly, that I have no
+     desire to question the orders of the President, or of my military
+     superiors. Whether Lieut. Col. Custer shall be permitted to
+     accompany my column or not, I shall go in command of it. I do not
+     know the reasons upon which the orders already given rest; but if
+     those reasons do not forbid it, Lieut, Col. Custer's services would
+     be very valuable with his command."
+
+It may be well to state here the probable causes of the unfriendly
+feeling which Gen. Grant at this period manifested toward one whom he
+had "endorsed to a high degree" ten years previously. The Congressional
+committee hitherto mentioned, had been appointed by the Opposition
+members of the House, and some of its proceedings had, doubtless,
+annoyed and vexed the President. Gen. Babcock had been on his staff
+during the war, and enjoyed his friendship and support even after the
+damaging disclosures respecting the sale of the post-tradership at a
+western fort. Attempts had also been made about this time to injure
+Grant's administration, by seeking to identify it with the frauds which
+had been discovered, or which were suspected, and he naturally
+considered those who volunteered information to the committee as
+unfriendly to himself.
+
+It was currently reported that Custer telegraphed to the committee's
+chairman, that an investigation into the post-traderships upon the Upper
+Missouri would reveal a state of things quite as bad as at Fort Sill;
+and that in consequence of this communication he was summoned before the
+committee.
+
+But whatever the causes of Gen. Grant's unfriendliness, or the cruelty
+charged upon him for showing his displeasure as he did, the result of
+Gen. Custer's appeal was creditable to the President. Custer resumed his
+position as Terry's trusted coadjutor in fitting out the expedition, and
+finally marched from Fort Lincoln as commander of his regiment. It was
+no disgrace to him that Terry accompanied the column, and the best
+feeling always existed between the two officers. The junction with the
+Montana troops was contemplated at the time, and their commander, Col.
+Gibbon, would have ranked Lieut. Col. Custer when their forces united.
+Some commanding general had usually accompanied previous expeditions
+into the Indian country, and it seems probable that Gen. Terry would
+have participated in the campaign under any circumstances. Besides, it
+does not appear from Custer's despatch to Sheridan, that he had been
+promised more than the command of his regiment.
+
+The history of the campaign, and the story of the disastrous battle in
+which Gen. Custer lost his life have been given in preceding chapters.
+His action in attacking the Indians before the arrival of Gibbon's
+troops has been the subject of controversy, and by some few even his
+motives have been impugned. The following paragraphs relative thereto
+are from the editorial columns of the _Army and Navy Journal_:--
+
+     "It was not in Terry's instructions, and it clearly was not in his
+     mind, that Custer, if he came "in contact with the enemy," should
+     defer fighting him until the infantry came up. * * * There could be
+     no justification whatever for any plan of operations which made an
+     attack dependent upon a junction between Custer and Gibbon, after
+     three or four days' march from different points.
+
+     "It has been asserted that, smarting under the wounds which
+     preceding events had inflicted upon his pride, Custer dashed
+     recklessly into this affair for the purpose of eclipsing his
+     superior officers in the same field, regardless of cost or
+     consequences. This, it seems to us, is going much too far. Custer
+     was doubtless glad of the opportunity to fight the battle alone,
+     and was stimulated by the anticipation of a victory which,
+     illuminating his already brilliant career, would make him outshine
+     those put on duty over him in this campaign. But his management of
+     the affair was probably just about what it would have been under
+     the same circumstances, if he had had no grievance. His great
+     mistake was in acting in mingled ignorance of, and contempt for his
+     enemy. He regarded attack and victory in this instance as
+     synonymous terms, the only point being to prevent the escape of the
+     foe. Under this fatal delusion he opened the engagement, with his
+     command divided into four parts, with no certainty of co-operation
+     or support between any two of them. Neither ambition, nor wounded
+     vanity, prompted these vicious and fatal dispositions, nor were
+     they due to lack of knowledge of the principles of his profession."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.
+
+(CONCLUDED.)
+
+
+As the foregoing biography of Gen. Custer has been confined chiefly to
+his military career, it may be well in conclusion to give some account
+of his personal characteristics; and this can be best done in the
+language of those who knew him well. A gentleman who accompanied Gen.
+Custer on the Yellowstone and Black Hills expeditions, contributed to
+the _New York Tribune_ the following:--
+
+     "Gen. Custer was a born cavalryman. He was never more in his
+     element than when mounted on Dandy, his favorite horse, and riding
+     at the head of his regiment. He once said to me, 'I would rather be
+     a private in the cavalry than a line officer in the infantry.' He
+     was the personification of bravery and dash. If he had only added
+     discretion to his valor he would have been a perfect soldier. His
+     impetuosity very often ran away with his judgment. He was impatient
+     of control. He liked to act independently of others, and take all
+     the risk and all the glory to himself. He frequently got himself
+     into trouble by assuming more authority than really belonged to his
+     rank. It was on the Yellowstone expedition where he came into
+     collision with Gen. Stanley, his superior officer, and was placed
+     under arrest and compelled to ride at the rear of his column for
+     two or three days, until Gen. Rosser, who fought against Custer in
+     the Shenandoah Valley during the war but was then acting as
+     engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad, succeeded in effecting a
+     reconciliation. Custer and Stanley afterward got on very well, and
+     perhaps the quarrel would never have occurred if the two generals
+     had been left alone to themselves without the intervention of camp
+     gossips, who sought to foster the traditional jealousy between
+     infantry and cavalry. For Stanley was the soul of generosity, and
+     Custer did not really mean to be arrogant; but from the time when
+     he entered West Point to the day when he fell on the Big Horn, he
+     was accustomed to take just as much liberty as he was entitled to.
+
+     "For this reason, Custer worked most easily and effectively when
+     under general orders, when not hampered by special instructions, or
+     his success made dependent on anybody else. Gen. Terry understood
+     his man when, in the order directing him to march up the Rosebud,
+     he very liberally said: 'The Department Commander places too much
+     confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon
+     you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in
+     contact with the enemy.' But Gen. Terry did not understand Custer
+     if he thought he would wait for Gibbon's support before attacking
+     an Indian camp. Undoubtedly he ought to have done this; but with
+     his native impetuosity, his reckless daring, his confidence in his
+     own regiment, which had never failed him, and his love of public
+     approval, Custer could no more help charging this Indian camp, than
+     he could help charging just so many buffaloes. He had never learned
+     to spell the word 'defeat;' he knew nothing but success, and if he
+     had met the Indians on the open plains, success would undoubtedly
+     have been his; for no body of Indians could stand the charge of the
+     7th Cavalry when it swept over the Plains like a whirlwind. But in
+     the Mauvaises Terres and the narrow valley of the Big Horn he did
+     it at a fearful risk.
+
+     "With all his bravery and self-reliance, his love of independent
+     action, Custer was more dependent than most men on the kind
+     approval of his fellows. He was even vain; he loved display in
+     dress and in action. He would pay $40 for a pair of troop boots to
+     wear on parade, and have everything else in keeping. On the
+     Yellowstone expedition he wore a bright red shirt, which made him
+     the best mark for a rifle of any man in the regiment. I
+     remonstrated with him for this reckless exposure, but found an
+     appeal to his wife more effectual, and on the next campaign he wore
+     a buckskin suit. He formerly wore his hair very long, letting it
+     fall in a heavy mass upon his shoulders, but cut it off before
+     going out on the Black Hills, producing quite a change in his
+     appearance. But if vain and ambitious, Custer had none of those
+     great vices which are so common and so distressing in the army. He
+     never touched liquor in any form; he did not smoke, or chew, or
+     gamble. He was a man of great energy and remarkable endurance. He
+     could outride almost any man in his regiment, I believe, if it were
+     put to a test. When he set out to reach a certain point at a
+     certain time, you could be sure that he would be there if he killed
+     every horse in the command. He was sometimes too severe in forcing
+     marches, but he never seemed to get tired himself, and he never
+     expected his men to be so. In cutting our way through the forests
+     of the Black Hills, I have often seen him take an ax and work as
+     hard as any of the pioneers. He was never idle when he had a
+     pretext for doing anything. Whatever he did he did thoroughly. He
+     would overshoot the mark, but never fall short. He fretted in
+     garrison sometimes, because it was too inactive; but he found an
+     outlet here for his energies in writing articles for the press.
+
+     "He had a remarkable memory. He could recall in its proper order
+     every detail of any action, no matter how remote, of which he was a
+     participant. He was rather verbose in writing, and had no gifts as
+     a speaker; but his writings interested the masses from their close
+     attention to details, and from his facility with the pen as with
+     the sword in bringing a thing to a climax. As he was apt to overdo
+     in action, so he was apt to exaggerate in statement, not from any
+     wilful disregard of the truth, but because he saw things bigger
+     than they really were. He did not distort the truth; he magnified
+     it. He was a natural optimist. He took rose-colored views of
+     everything, even of the miserable lands of the Northern Pacific
+     Railroad. He had a historical memory, but not a historical mind. He
+     was no philosopher; he could reel off facts from his mind better
+     than he could analyze or mass them. He was not a student, nor a
+     deep thinker. He loved to take part in events rather than to brood
+     over them. He was fond of fun, genial and pleasant in his manner; a
+     loving and devoted husband. It was my privilege to spend two weeks
+     in his family at one time, and I know how happy he was in his
+     social relations."
+
+The following rambling remarks are accredited to a general, whose name
+is not given:--
+
+     "The truth about Custer is, that he was a pet soldier, who had
+     risen not above his merit, but higher than men of equal merit. He
+     fought with Phil Sheridan, and through the patronage of Sheridan he
+     rose; but while Sheridan liked his valor and dash he never trusted
+     his judgment. He was to Sheridan what Murat was to Napoleon. While
+     Sheridan is always cool, Custer was always aflame. Rising to high
+     command early in life, he lost the repose necessary to success in
+     high command. * * * Then Custer must rush into politics, and went
+     swinging around the circle with Johnson. He wanted to be a
+     statesman, and but for Sheridan's influence with Grant, the
+     republicans would have thrown him; but you see we all liked Custer,
+     and did not mind his little freaks in that way any more than we
+     would have minded temper in a woman. Sheridan, to keep Custer in
+     his place, kept him out on the Plains at work. He gave him a fine
+     command--one of the best cavalry regiments in the service. The
+     colonel, Sturgis, was allowed to bask in the sunshine in a large
+     city, while Custer was the real commander. In this service Custer
+     did well, and vindicated the partiality of Sheridan as well as the
+     kind feelings of his friends. * * * The old spirit which sent
+     Custer swinging around the circle revived in him. He came East and
+     took a prominent part in reforming the army. This made feeling, and
+     drew upon Custer the anger of the inside forces of the
+     administration.
+
+     "Then he must write his war memoirs. Well, in these memoirs he
+     began to write recklessly about the army. He took to praising
+     McClellan as the greatest man of the war, and, coming as it did
+     when the democrats began to look lively, it annoyed the
+     administration. Grant grew so much annoyed that even Sheridan could
+     do no good, and Custer was disgraced. Technically it was not a
+     disgrace. All that Grant did was to put Terry, a general, over
+     Custer, a lieutenant-colonel, who had his regiment all the same;
+     but all things considered, it was a disgrace."
+
+The following is from an article by Gen. A.B. Nettleton, published in
+the _Philadelphia Times_:--
+
+     "It must be remembered that in fighting with cavalry, which was
+     Custer's forte, instantaneous quickness of eye--that is, the
+     lightning-like formation and execution of successive correct
+     judgments on a rapidly-shifting situation--is the first thing, and
+     the second is the power of inspiring the troopers with that
+     impetuous yet intelligent ardor with which a mounted brigade
+     becomes a thunderbolt, and without which it remains a useless mass
+     of horses and riders. These qualities Gen. Custer seemed to me to
+     manifest, throughout the hard fighting of the last year of the war,
+     to a degree that was simply astounding, and in a manner that marked
+     him as one of the few really great cavalry commanders developed by
+     the wars of the present century. Of fear, in the sense of dread of
+     death or of bodily harm, he was absolutely destitute, yet his love
+     of life and family and home was keen and constant, leaving no room
+     in his nature for desperation, recklessness, or conscious rashness.
+     In handling his division under Sheridan's general oversight, he
+     seemed to act always on the belief that in campaigning with
+     cavalry, when a certain work must be done, audacity is the truest
+     caution. In action, when all was going well and success was only a
+     question of time or of steady 'pounding,' Gen. Custer did not
+     unnecessarily expose himself, but until the tide of battle had been
+     turned in the right direction, and especially when disaster
+     threatened, the foremost point in our division's line was almost
+     invariably marked by the presence of Custer, his waving division
+     tri-color and his plucky staff.
+
+     "A major-general of wide and splendid fame at twenty-five, and now
+     slain at thirty-six, the gallant Custer had already lived long if
+     life be measured by illustrious deeds."
+
+The following is from a sketch of Gen. Custer published in the _Army and
+Navy Journal_:--
+
+     "Custer was passionately addicted to active and exciting sports as
+     the turf and hunting. He was a splendid horseman and a lover of the
+     horse; he attended many American race-meetings and ran his own
+     horses several times in the West. His greyhounds and staghounds
+     went with him at the head of his regiment, to be let slip at
+     antelope or buffalo. With rifle or shotgun he was equally expert,
+     and had killed his grizzly bear in the most approved fashion. * * *
+     Bold to rashness; feverish in camp, but cool in action; with the
+     personal vanity of a carpet knight, and the endurance and
+     insensibility to fatigue of the hardiest and boldest rough rider; a
+     prince of scouts; a chief of guides, threading a trackless prairie
+     with unerring eye of a native and the precision of the needle to
+     the star; by no means a martinet, his men were led by the golden
+     chain of love, admiration and confidence. He had the proverbial
+     assurance of a hussar, but his personal appearance varied with
+     occasion. During the war he was 'Custer of the golden locks, his
+     broad sombrero turned up from his hard-bronzed face, the ends of
+     his crimson cravat floating over his shoulder, gold galore
+     spangling his jacket sleeves, a pistol in his boot, jangling spurs
+     on his heels, and a ponderous claymore swinging at his side.' And
+     long after, when he roamed a great Indian fighter on the Plains,
+     the portrait was only slightly changed. The cavalry jacket was
+     exchanged for the full suit of buckskin, beautifully embroidered by
+     Indian maidens; across his saddle rested a modern sporting rifle,
+     and at his horse's feet demurely walked hounds of unmixed breed.
+     Again, within a few months, he appears in private society as an
+     honored guest; scrupulously avoiding anything like display, but in
+     a quiet conventional suit of blue, with the 'golden locks' closely
+     shorn, and the bronzed face pale from recent indisposition, he
+     moves almost unnoticed in the throng."
+
+The faithful correspondent who perished with Gen. Custer on the Little
+Big Horn portrayed him thus:--
+
+     "A man of strong impulses, of great hearted friendships and bitter
+     enmities; of quick, nervous temperament, undaunted courage, will,
+     and determination; a man possessing electric mental capacity, and
+     of iron frame and constitution; a brave, faithful, gallant soldier,
+     who has warm friends and bitter enemies; the hardest rider, the
+     greatest pusher; with the most untiring vigilance overcoming
+     seeming impossibilities, and with an ambition to succeed in all
+     things he undertakes; a man to do right, as he construes right, in
+     every case; one respected and beloved by his followers, who would
+     freely follow him into the 'jaws of hell.'"
+
+Gen. Custer's last battle "will stand in history as one of the most
+heroic engagements ever fought, and his name will be respected so long
+as chivalry is applauded and civilization battles against barbarism."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE SIOUX TREATY OF 1876--INDIAN ORATORS.
+
+
+In 1875, the Black Hills country had acquired a white population and an
+importance which rendered its possession and control by the Government
+desirable and necessary; and an attempt was made to treat with the
+Indians for its purchase, but without success.
+
+In 1876, Congress expressed its determination to appropriate nothing
+more for the subsistence of the Sioux Indians unless they made certain
+concessions, including the surrender of the Black Hills, and entered
+into some agreement calculated to enable them to become self-supporting.
+Geo. W. Manypenny, H. C. Bullis, Newton Edmunds, Rt. Rev. H.B. Whipple,
+A.G. Boone, A.S. Gaylord, J.W. Daniels, and Gen. H.H. Sibley, were
+appointed commissioners to negotiate for the concessions demanded. The
+following is an extract from their instructions under which they
+acted:--
+
+     "The President is strongly impressed with the belief that the
+     agreement which shall be best calculated to enable the Indians to
+     become self-supporting is one which shall provide for their
+     removal, at as early a day as possible, to the Indian Territory.
+     For the past three years they have been kept from starvation by
+     large appropriations for their subsistence. These appropriations
+     have been a matter not of obligation but of charity, and the
+     Indians should be made to understand distinctly that they can hope
+     for continued appropriations only by full submission to the
+     authority and wishes of the Government, and upon full evidence of
+     their disposition to undertake, in earnest, measures for their own
+     advancement and support."
+
+The first council was held Sept. 7th, at Red Cloud agency, with chiefs
+and headmen representing 4,901 Indians then at the agency. Red Cloud and
+other chiefs met the commissioners with warm welcomes, and said with
+deep earnestness:--"We are glad to see you; you have come to save us
+from death." The conditions required by Congress were then submitted to
+the Indians, with the assurance that the commissioners had no authority
+to change them in any particular; but that they were authorized to
+devise a plan to save their people from death and lead them to
+civilization. The plan decided on was then carefully explained and
+interpreted, and a copy of the agreement given to the Indians to take to
+their own council. Other councils were held Sept. 19th and 20th, and
+after mutual explanations the agreement was signed.
+
+Subsequently, the commissioners visited Spotted Tail agency, Standing
+Rock agency, Cheyenne River agency, Crow Creek agency, Lower Brule
+agency, and Santee agency. At all of these agencies the agreement was
+made plain to the Indians, and after due deliberation and considerable
+discussion, duly signed. The following are extracts from the report of
+the commissioners:--
+
+     "While the Indians received us as friends, and listened with kind
+     attention to our propositions, we were painfully impressed with
+     their lack of confidence in the pledges of the Government. At times
+     they told their story of wrongs with such impassioned earnestness
+     that our cheeks crimsoned with shame. In their speeches, the
+     recital of the wrongs which their people had suffered at the hands
+     of the whites, the arraignment of the Government for gross acts of
+     injustice and fraud, the description of treaties made only to be
+     broken, the doubts and distrusts of present professions of
+     friendship and good-will, were portrayed in colors so vivid and
+     language so terse, that admiration and surprise would have kept us
+     silent had not shame and humiliation done so. Said a chief to a
+     member of our commission:--'I am glad to see you, you are our
+     friends, but I hear that you have come to move us. Tell your people
+     that since the Great Father promised that we should never be
+     removed we have been moved five times.' He added, with bitter
+     irony, 'I think you had better put the Indians on wheels so you can
+     run them about wherever you wish.'
+
+     "The present condition of the Sioux Indians is such as to awaken
+     the deepest sympathy. They were our friends. If many of this
+     powerful tribe have been changed to relentless foes, we must not
+     forget that it is the simple outcome of our own Indian
+     training-school. Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry, and others, use
+     these words:--
+
+     'The moment the war of the rebellion was over, thousands of our
+     people turned their attention toward the treasures of Montana. The
+     Indian was forgotten. It did not occur to any man that this poor,
+     despised red man was the original discoverer, and sole occupant for
+     many centuries, of every mountain seamed with quartz and every
+     stream whose yellow sand glittered in the noonday sun. He asked to
+     retain only a secluded spot where the buffalo and elk could live,
+     and that spot he would make his home. The truth is, no place was
+     left for him. If the lands of the white men are taken, civilization
+     justifies him in resisting the invader. Civilization does more than
+     this--it brands him as a coward and a slave if he submits to the
+     wrong. If the savage resists, civilization, with the Ten
+     Commandments in one hand and the sword in the other, demands his
+     immediate extermination. That he goes to war is not astonishing. He
+     is often compelled to do so. Wrongs are borne by him in silence
+     that never fail to drive civilized men to deeds of violence. * * *
+     But it is said that our wars with them have been almost constant.
+     Have we been uniformly unjust? We answer unhesitatingly, 'yes.'"
+
+     "General Stanley in 1870 writes from Dakota, that he is 'ashamed to
+     appear any longer in the presence of the chiefs of the different
+     tribes of the Sioux, who inquire why we do not do as we promised,
+     and in their vigorous language aver that we have lied.' Sitting
+     Bull, who had refused to come under treaty relations with the
+     Government, based his refusal in these words, sent to the
+     commission of which Assistant Secretary Cowen was chairman:
+     'Whenever you have found a white man who will tell the truth, you
+     may return, and I shall be glad to see you.'"
+
+     "It has been claimed that all Indians found outside of their
+     reservation shall be regarded as hostile. Gen. Sheridan, June 29th,
+     1869, says in an official order, that all Indians outside the
+     well-defined limits of the reservation are under the original and
+     exclusive jurisdiction of the military authority, _and as a rule
+     will be considered hostile_. This order is the more surprising to
+     us when we remember that the treaty made by General Sherman and
+     others expressly provided that these Indians might hunt upon the
+     unceded territory; and we find that so late as its last session
+     Congress appropriated $200,000 to be used in part for the payment
+     of the seventh of thirty installments '_for Indians roaming_.' We
+     repeat that, under this treaty, it is expressly provided that the
+     Indians may hunt in the unceded territory north and west of the
+     Sioux reservation, and until last year they had the right to hunt
+     in Western Nebraska. We believe that our failure to recognize this
+     right has led to many conflicts between the citizens and army of
+     the United States and the Indians."
+
+     "In 1874, the late lamented Gen. Custer made an expedition to the
+     Black Hills. It was done against the protest of the Indians and
+     their friends, and in plain, direct violation of the treaty. Gold
+     was discovered, white men flocked to the El Dorado. Notwithstanding
+     the gross violation of the treaty, no open war ensued. If our own
+     people had a sad story of wrongs suffered from the Indians, we must
+     not forget that the Indians, who own no telegraph-lines, who have
+     no press and no reporters, claimed that they, too, had been the
+     victims of lawless violence, and had a country of untold value
+     wrested from them by force.
+
+     "The charge is made that the agency Indians are hostile, and that
+     they have furnished ammunition and supplies to the Indians with
+     Sitting Bull. There is water-navigation for 3,000 miles through
+     this territory, and an unguarded border of several hundred miles
+     along the Canadian frontier. So long as the Indians will sell
+     buffalo-robes at a low price and pay two prices for guns, the greed
+     of white men will furnish them. It is gross injustice to the agents
+     and the Interior Department to accuse them of furnishing arms and
+     ammunition for Indians to fight our army and murder our citizens.
+
+     "Of the results of this year's war we have no wish to speak. It is
+     a heart-rending record of the slaughter of many of the bravest of
+     our army. It has not only carried desolation and woe to hundreds of
+     our own hearthstones, but has added to the cup of anguish which we
+     have pressed to the lips of the Indian. We fear that when others
+     shall examine it in the light of history, they will repeat the
+     words of the officers who penned the report of 1868:--'The results
+     of the year's campaign satisfied all reasonable men that the war
+     was useless and expensive.'
+
+     "We hardly know how to frame in words the feelings of shame and
+     sorrow which fill our hearts as we recall the long record of the
+     broken faith of our Government. It is made more sad, in that the
+     rejoicings of our centennial year are mingled with the wail of
+     sorrow of widows and orphans made by a needless Indian war, and
+     that our Government has expended more money in this war than all
+     the religious bodies of our country have spent in Indian missions
+     since our existence as a nation.
+
+     "After long and careful examination we have no hesitation in
+     recommending that it is wise to continue the humane policy
+     inaugurated by President Grant. The great obstacle to its complete
+     success is that no change has been made in the laws for the care of
+     Indians. The Indian is left without the protection of law in
+     person, or property, or life. He has no personal rights. He has no
+     redress for wrongs inflicted by lawless violence. He may see his
+     crops destroyed, his wife or child killed. His only redress is
+     personal revenge. * * * In the Indian's wild state he has a rude
+     government of chiefs and headmen, which is advisory in its
+     character. When located upon reservations under the charge of a
+     United States agent, this government is destroyed, and we give him
+     nothing in its place.
+
+     "We are aware that many of our people think that the only solution
+     of the Indian problem is in their extermination. We would remind
+     such persons that there is only One who can exterminate. There are
+     too many graves within our borders over which the grass has hardly
+     grown, for us to forget that God is just. The Indian is a savage,
+     but he is also a man. He is one of the few savage men who clearly
+     recognize the existence of a Great Spirit. He believes in the
+     immortality of the soul. He has a passionate love for his
+     children. He loves his country. He will gladly die for his tribe.
+     Unless we deny all revealed religion, we must admit that he has the
+     right to share in all the benefits of divine revelation. He is
+     capable of civilization. Amid all the obstacles, the wrongs, and
+     evils of our Indian policy, there are no missions which show richer
+     rewards. Thousands of this poor race, who were once as poor and
+     degraded as the wild Sioux, are to-day civilized men, living by the
+     cultivation of the soil, and sharing with us in those blessings
+     which give to men home, country, and freedom. There is no reason
+     why these men may not also be led out of darkness to light."
+
+The following is a synopsis of the arrangement agreed on by the
+commissioners and Indians:--
+
+     The Sioux surrender all claim to so much of their reservation as
+     lies west of the 103d meridian of longitude, and to so much of it
+     as lies between the North and South Forks of the Cheyenne River
+     east of said meridian; also all claim to any country lying outside
+     of their reservation. Cannon Ball River and its south branch are to
+     be the northern boundary of the reservation. Three wagon or other
+     roads may be maintained across the reservation from the Missouri
+     River to the Black Hills. All subsistence and supplies which may be
+     hereafter provided, are to be delivered on or near the Missouri
+     River. A delegation of chiefs and leading men from each band shall
+     visit the Indian Territory, with a view to selecting therein a
+     permanent home for the Indians. If such delegation shall make a
+     selection satisfactory to the Indians they represent and to the
+     United States, then the Indians are to remove to the selected
+     country within one year, select allotments as soon as possible
+     afterwards, and use their best efforts to cultivate the same. They
+     are in all things to submit themselves to such beneficent plans as
+     the Government may provide for them in the selection of a permanent
+     home where they may live like white men.
+
+     The United States agree to furnish subsistence to the Sioux until
+     such time as they shall become self-supporting--rations to be
+     issued to heads of families; and in case the Indians are located on
+     lands suitable for cultivation, and educational facilities are
+     afforded by the Government, the issue of rations is to be
+     conditioned on the performance of labor by the Indians and the
+     attendance of their children at school. Assistance in the way of
+     schools and instruction in the agricultural and mechanical arts, as
+     provided by the treaty of 1868, is guaranteed; and the building of
+     comfortable houses on allotments in severalty is provided for. The
+     Sioux are declared amenable to the laws of the United States; and
+     Congress shall secure to them an orderly government and protect
+     individual property, person, and life. The agreement not to be
+     binding on either party till approved by Congress and the
+     President.
+
+With the exception of the Santees, the Indians on the Missouri River
+objected to visiting the Indian Territory, and were exempted from that
+part of the agreement by a supplementary clause. A delegation of 90
+Indians from the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies visited the Indian
+Territory in October as provided in the agreement. The following is from
+the report of Commissioners Boone and Daniels who accompanied the
+delegation:--
+
+     "While travelling through the Territory, Spotted Tail took special
+     pains to inform us that he was not pleased with anything that came
+     within his observation, and his part of the delegation, with but
+     few exceptions, were not disposed to express themselves in any
+     other way. Many of the Red Cloud party were well pleased. Their
+     chief said 'his Great Father asked him to go and find a place where
+     his children could live by cultivating the land. This was the
+     country, and he should go back and tell his people so.' The
+     manual-labor school of 120 scholars at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
+     agency, was of more interest to them and gave them more pleasure
+     than anything else seen on the journey. They manifested much
+     interest in the progress of civilization among the Sac and Fox, and
+     when passing the Creek country, the delegation was received by
+     these tribes with generous hospitality and a hearty welcome. When
+     we were at Okmulgee, the capital of the Creek Nation, they were
+     invited to the council-house by the Creek chief, where he made a
+     very friendly speech to them. The following is a copy thereof:--
+
+     "To the Sioux, my brethren:--I am well pleased to see you here in
+     the Mus-koke Nation, brethren of the same race as ourselves. I was
+     told a long time ago of my red brethren, the Sioux, that were
+     living in the far Northwest. I had heard of the name of your tribe
+     and of many of your leading chiefs. I have heard of your great men,
+     great in war, and great in council. I have heard of your trouble on
+     account of the intrusion of the white men on your reservation in
+     search of gold. I have heard that the United States Government had
+     determined to remove you from your present home, and, perhaps it
+     might be, to this Indian Territory, to the west of us. When I heard
+     that you might possibly come to this Territory, which has been 'set
+     apart for the home of the Indians forever,' I was glad. I would
+     like to have all our red brethren settled in this Territory, as we
+     have provided in our treaty. We, the Creeks and Cherokees, have the
+     same kind of title and patent for our lands from the United States,
+     which guarantees this Territory to us for a home, under our own
+     form of government, by people of our own race, as long as 'grass
+     grows and water runs.' And I think, therefore, we shall live
+     forever on our lands. I should like--and I express the wish of our
+     people--that every Indian tribe should come here and settle on
+     these lands, that this Territory may become filled up with Indians,
+     to the exclusion of others who may be inimical to our race and
+     interests. We believe our right to our soil and our government,
+     which is best suited to our peculiar necessities, would be safer if
+     all our race were united together here. This is my earnest wish.
+     Then I think the rising generation could be educated and civilized,
+     and, what is still better, christianized, which, I believe, would
+     be the greatest benefit of all. This would be to our mutual benefit
+     and good. I know I express the minds of our people when I give you
+     this welcome to our life of a higher civilization, which is better
+     than the old life so long led by our race in the past."
+
+At the councils held at the different agencies, the chiefs and principal
+men made numerous speeches, which conveyed a good idea of Indian views
+and feelings, and were often able and eloquent. The balance of this
+chapter will be filled up with extracts from some of these speeches.
+
+     _Red Cloud Agency._ FAST BEAR:--My good friends, you have come here
+     to ask me for something, and I have come here to-day to answer. You
+     ask me to give up the mountains that are to the north of us, and I
+     answer yes to that question. I give them up. You are here also to
+     ask me to take a journey to look at a country, and I also answer
+     yes to that question. I consent for my young men to go down there
+     and see that country; but they must look at it in silence, and come
+     back in silence. When they have seen the country I will consider
+     it. If it is good I will consider it so; if bad I will consider
+     that it is bad. Do you understand, my friends, what I last said to
+     you? We do not agree to go there to live before we have seen the
+     country.
+
+     YOUNG-MAN-AFRAID-OF-HIS-HORSE:--My father shook hands with the
+     Dakotas peacefully on the Platte River. I have been brought up here
+     from a boy until I got to be a chief. The soldiers have no business
+     in this country at all. I wish to tell you plainly that I have been
+     very much ashamed ever since the soldiers came here. This is my
+     country, and I have remained here with my women and children eating
+     such things as the Great Father has sent us. I am going to ask the
+     Great Father for a great many things, things that will make me
+     rich. I am going to ask for so much that I am afraid the Great
+     Father will not consent to give it to me. I want you to tell the
+     Great Father that I, and all the men like me, and the children, are
+     going to ask him for a great many things, and we expect to have
+     food, and blankets to wear as long as we live.
+
+     BLACK COAL:--This place here is a place of peace, where we and our
+     people have lived together happily, and behaved ourselves, and we
+     do not understand why so many soldiers have come here among us. We
+     have never had any trouble and have behaved ourselves, and wish to
+     have the soldiers sent away as soon as possible, and leave us in
+     peace. The people that live here have both minds and hearts and
+     good sense, but it seems as if the Great Father all at once thought
+     differently, and speaks of us as people that are very bad.
+
+     RED CLOUD:--The commissioners have both brains and hearts. The
+     Great Father has sent you here to visit me and my people, and I
+     want that you should help us. We see a great many soldiers here in
+     our country. We do not like to see them here. I want you to have
+     pity upon us, and have them all taken away. I understand all the
+     ways of the whites. I know that everything that has been said has
+     been written down, and I should like to have a fair copy of that
+     made and given to me.
+
+     LITTLE WOUND:--I always considered that when the Great Father
+     borrowed the country for the overland road that he made an
+     arrangement with us that was to last fifty years as payment for
+     that privilege, and yesterday another arrangement was mentioned
+     concerning the Black Hills, and the words that I heard from the
+     Great Father and from the commissioners from the Great Council made
+     me cry. The country upon which I am standing is the country upon
+     which I was born, and upon which I heard that it was the wish of
+     the Great Father and of the Great Council that I should be like a
+     man without a country. I shed tears. I wish that the chief men
+     among you that have come here to see me would help me, and would
+     change those things that do not suit me.
+
+     _Spotted Tail Agency._ SPOTTED TAIL:--My friends that have come
+     here to see me; you have brought to us words from the Great Father
+     at Washington, and I have considered them now for seven days, and
+     have made up my mind. This is the fifth time that you have come. At
+     the time of the first treaty that was made on Horse Creek--the one
+     we call the "great treaty"--there was provision made to borrow the
+     overland road of the Indians, and promises made at the time of the
+     treaty, though I was a boy at the time; they told me it was to last
+     fifty years. These promises have not been kept. All the words have
+     proved to be false. The next conference was the one held with Gen.
+     Manydear, when there were no promises made in particular, nor for
+     any amount to be given to us, but we had a conference with him and
+     made friends and shook hands. Then after that there was a treaty
+     made by Gen. Sherman. He told us we should have annuities and goods
+     from that treaty for thirty-five years. He said this, but yet he
+     didn't tell the truth. He told me the country was mine, and that I
+     should select any place I wished for my reservation and live in it.
+     My friends, I will show you well his words to-day. * * * I see that
+     my friends before me are men of age and dignity. I think that each
+     of you have selected somewhere a good piece of land for himself,
+     with the intention of living on it, that he may there raise up his
+     children. My people, that you see here before you, are not
+     different; they also live upon the earth and upon the things that
+     come to them from above.
+
+     My friends, this seems to me to be a very hard day, and we have
+     come upon very difficult times. This war did not spring up here in
+     our land; this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great
+     Father who came to take our land from us without price, and who, in
+     our land, do a great many evil things. We have a store-house to
+     hold our provisions the Great Father sends us, but he sends very
+     little provisions to put in our store-house. When our people become
+     displeased with their provisions and have gone north to hunt in
+     order that they might live, the Great Father's children are
+     fighting them. It has been our wish to live in our country
+     peaceably, but the Great Father has filled it with soldiers who
+     think only of our death. It seems to me there is a better way than
+     this. When people come to trouble, it is better for both parties to
+     come together without arms and talk it over and find some peaceful
+     way to settle it. My friends, you have come to me to-day, and
+     mentioned two countries to me. One of them I know of old--the
+     Missouri River. It is not possible for me to go there. When I was
+     there before we had a great deal of trouble. I left also 100 of my
+     people buried there. The other country you have mentioned is one I
+     have never seen since I was born, but I agree to go and look at it.
+     When men have a difficult business to settle it is not possible it
+     should be well settled in one day; it takes at least twelve months
+     to consider it.
+
+     SPOTTED TAIL:--(_Second Council._) This war has come from
+     robbery--from the stealing of our land. My friends, I wish to tell
+     the Great Father "Let us consider this matter." There are on both
+     sides a great many widows and a great many orphans. Let us consider
+     who is to take care of these. This matter has not been begun with
+     judgment; and I think it is displeasing to the Great Spirit. The
+     Great Father sent you out here to buy our land and we have agreed
+     together to that, but with one understanding:--That it shall be the
+     end, also, of this war. We have always been peaceful friends of the
+     Great Father, and shall remain at peace with him; but all at once a
+     whirlwind has passed over our land, and the ammunition has been
+     locked up so that we cannot get it to hunt game to live upon. Now
+     we shake hands and make peace and wish it to be unlocked so we can
+     buy ammunition. You know this trouble does not please the Great
+     Spirit, and I want you to help me to blot it out.
+
+     BAPTISTE GOOD:--You have come here with considerations that will
+     make my people live, and my heart is glad. When Gen. Sherman came
+     to make a treaty with my people, I was also glad. That was like
+     the birth of a child. I wish you would tell the Great Father we
+     need implements to work with, and wagons for two horses. I have
+     worn out my fingers working without implements. I have planted
+     corn, and I am happy to say it has grown up and produced fruit. The
+     white minister has come here to teach me, but I don't think it is
+     done properly. I would like to have some female ministers come
+     dressed in black to receive the girls in one house and teach them,
+     and have white male ministers in black hat and coat to teach the
+     boys in another house separately.
+
+     BLUE TEETH:--Just such men as you came to make the treaty with me.
+     They showed me a road to walk in, and I showed my people and
+     advised them according to their words, and they were glad. But the
+     things they promised me didn't turn out as they promised them. I am
+     the man that heard the promises made. Spotted Tail told you about
+     that yesterday, according to my direction, but I was hiding myself.
+     I want the man pointed out that is going to talk to the Great
+     Father. [Judge Gaylord is pointed out.] You see that pipe: take it,
+     [handing to Judge Gaylord a pipe and tobacco-pouch.] The Great
+     Spirit gave me that pipe. He told me to point it to my mother, the
+     earth, when I prayed. I wish you to take it to the Great Father at
+     Washington, and tell him a man that made a speech here presented it
+     to him, and ask him to be merciful to him and help him to live.
+     Tell him this is my country, and for him to have pity upon me and
+     not move me away from it. I want to live here always.
+
+     _Standing Rock Agency._ JOHN GRASS:--Look well at me with both eyes
+     and listen to me with both ears. I have considered the words you
+     have brought me, and I am ready to answer you. The chiefs you see
+     here have all come to the same conclusion. You have brought words
+     to the chiefs here that will bring life to their children; that
+     will make their children live; they answer _how_ [signifying their
+     approval] to that. And now since they have ceded their country to
+     you, they want to tell you of certain things that they shall want
+     in the future.
+
+     RUNNING ANTELOPE:--When people shake hands and talk, they talk in
+     earnest. I want you to look on this man Kill Eagle, with his people
+     who are prisoners here. He is one of us and is our kindred. Kindred
+     living with each other love each other, and when they get into
+     trouble they help each other out, and we look on these Indians the
+     same as white. He went out to the hostile camp, held his gun,
+     witnessed a fight, and came back. I want before the sun sets to see
+     these men released. I am an old man, and I ask these things as a
+     favor.
+
+     In regard to this store. I have been to see the Great Father, and
+     the white people are wealthy. Even they have stores one right
+     against the other, touching each other. When a man goes in a store
+     and finds something he wants and cannot obtain it as cheaply as he
+     desires, he goes into another, and so on until he gets what he
+     wants and at the proper price. We want to do so here.
+
+     TWO BEARS:--Hail Great Spirit, and hail my friends who I see here,
+     and hail Great Father! My heart is this day made glad by seeing you
+     here. You prayed to the Great Spirit and that made our hearts glad.
+     I was the chief owner of this country, but the Great Father turned
+     it over to his young men. This was a hard thing for him to do to
+     me; now that he proposes to pay me for it I am very glad. I am of
+     the fifth generation of the Sioux Indians, and the sixth generation
+     is growing up around me. I want the Government to provide for the
+     same number of generations in the future. I am making this trade
+     with the Great Father, and I am not a white man and am not able to
+     live like a white man. They eat but little, but I am not able to
+     get along with a little yet. The Great Spirit fed me, and fed me in
+     large quantities. I eat all day, and eating great quantities has
+     become a habit with me. I am afraid of frightful things; I am
+     afraid of bad things; I am afraid of a battle. I like good things,
+     and straightforward dealings. For two winters I was starving and
+     have eaten a great number of my horses and dogs. In consequence of
+     this starvation many of our people fled from the agency in search
+     of food, and while they were out one of them got into trouble.
+     [referring to Kill Eagle.]
+
+     MAD BEAR:--I am an Indian, a poor, miserable Indian, but if I
+     should do as has been done by us, the Great Spirit would dislike,
+     and hate me, and for that reason I cannot do these things. Men,
+     civilians, that we have had for agents would steal our food, steal
+     things that were sent to us. It is the fault of the white men that
+     this is done. They select men that belong to the ring. When one
+     agent is removed they select his friend to succeed him, and so the
+     stealing goes on. The matter of their traders alone is enough to
+     drive the Indians hostile. It would drive a white man hostile to be
+     treated as we are treated, and to be charged prices as our traders
+     charge us for goods. If an Indian succeeds in getting a dollar he
+     takes it to the store to trade, and what he receives in return for
+     it amounts to probably half a dime. We want the monopoly of trading
+     stores stopped. The work, the labor, everything is monopolized by
+     white men, who have everything their own way. It is hard to be an
+     Indian chief. Our young men do not listen to us--they will not mind
+     us.
+
+     FOOL DOG:--The Great Spirit created these men and they expect to
+     raise children after them. Generations are not to stop here, they
+     are still to go on living, and we look to you for help and
+     assistance. I am an Indian, and am looked on by the whites as a
+     foolish man; but it must be because I follow the advice of the
+     white man.
+
+     LONG SOLDIER:--The Great Spirit called me forth to be a chief, and
+     this day I say _how_ to you. The Great Father has asked me for a
+     portion of my country and has made me an offer in return for it. I
+     am very glad to get what has been offered to me, and I therefore
+     say _how_ to your proposition. I am a very suspicious man and
+     always suspect people of some evil designs when they talk to me,
+     and therefore remain at home. My father, who has instructed me to
+     be a friend of the whites, is still living, and I want him to share
+     in the benefits that arise from the sale of the Black Hills.
+
+     TWO BEARS:--My friends, to-day we have talked together with smiles
+     on our faces, and we are going to sign this paper with the
+     understanding that everything in it is true, and that we are not
+     deceiving each other. My children are very poor and very ignorant,
+     and they don't know anything about weights and measures, and if you
+     are going to issue my rations by weight I want you to give good
+     measure. In signing this agreement I don't sign it myself; I have a
+     young man who is my hope for the future. Although I touch the pen
+     myself, I touch it for my son, who is to be my successor.
+
+     DRAG WOOD:--I am an old man and my bones are getting sore, and I
+     want my son to sign this agreement with me.
+
+     WOLF NECKLACE:--I never want to leave this country; all my
+     relatives are lying here in the ground, and when I fall to pieces I
+     am going to fall to pieces here.
+
+     _Cheyenne River Agency._ LONG MANDAN:--I am glad of one thing; the
+     Great Father knows that this is my country, and before he takes it
+     from me he is going to ask my permission. Our people are poor, they
+     have nothing in their lodges, and if you will visit them you would
+     feel disposed to bring many things to them to-day. My friends, when
+     I went to Washington I went into your money-house, and I had some
+     young men with me, but none of them took any money out of that
+     house while I was with them. At the same time, when your Great
+     Father's people come into my country, they go into my money-house
+     and take money out. More than that, they commit depredations on us;
+     and stole fifty head of horses and took them away from me. If the
+     Great Father was not a great man and was not a man that had great
+     power and a good man, I should have been mad; but he is a great man
+     and a good man, and that is the reason that I have not been
+     offended at him. I would much rather have gone to Washington with
+     my people and have signed this treaty there. I do not want to spend
+     a great deal of money for the Great Father, but at the same time I
+     know that the Great Father is wealthy. I want to tap the telegraph
+     that is over the river, and talk to the Great Father in that way,
+     and to have him answer me in the same way. I want him to give me
+     plenty of mowing-machines, and I would like very much to have a
+     good blacksmith. I will show you something to-day that I have done
+     in this country in the way of farming; a large pumpkin that I have
+     sent to be brought here to show you. My friends, you may think that
+     I never raised it when you see it, but I want to show it to you,
+     and have sent for it.
+
+     RED FEATHER:--The Great Father asked me in regard to the missions
+     and churches and schools, and told me I must take hold of that and
+     assist him. There were two ministers here, and I regarded them as
+     two canes to walk upon and help me up with. There is one thing that
+     the people of the Great Father have that I do not want, and that is
+     whisky. I do not want any whisky on my reservation. Whenever a man
+     drinks whisky he loses his senses, and that is the reason why I
+     object to it.
+
+     DUCK:--The soldiers that are fighting have killed a great many
+     people on both sides, and have made many widows and orphans on both
+     sides. I am sorry to know that anybody was killed on either side.
+     All the badness and all the trouble that has occurred here
+     formerly, I gather it up in my hand and throw it away; tell the
+     Great Father that. Look at this people; they are poor people; they
+     have a hard time to get what little furs and hides they have; but
+     when we take them to the stores we do not get enough for them. If
+     you are not afraid of me, and do not think I am fooling with you,
+     I would like to have you attend to this hide business, and see that
+     we get $6 apiece for them.
+
+     WHITE BULL:--I see, my friends, the soldiers standing here about
+     me. They are people whose business it is to die, but we think
+     better things for them. We have given them the Black Hills; we wish
+     they would go there and dig gold without being afraid of anybody.
+
+     _Crow Creek Agency._ WHITE GHOST:--Around and about the hills on
+     the prairies there are a great many dead people lying, but the
+     Great Father has decided to give us a good price for the hills;
+     therefore it is--because the Great Father is strong--that we are
+     willing to give them up. We live right near a trading-post, and we
+     become poor because we have not money to buy those things we want.
+     I do not wish you to think that I am finding fault or out of
+     temper. I merely say the things I am instructed to say. My people
+     wish to have it understood that they do not wish to have any
+     soldiers sent here or any soldier for an agent. I must tell
+     everything that I am instructed to say; they are all here listening
+     to see whether I say everything, and I must say all that I have
+     been told. We would like to have Mr. Premeau appointed for
+     interpreter. He is a white man, a man that understands the
+     language, and does not drink whisky. My people think that the flour
+     that is sent here for them is sent for them to eat, and they are
+     not pleased that it is fed to the pigs about the agency; and they
+     wish me to mention that we take a hide to the store, quite a large
+     one, and receive an order for three dollars' worth of goods. For
+     this large beef-hide we get one piece of leather the width of three
+     fingers, for a belt; it is not worth more than fifty cents. That
+     does not please us.
+
+     Last summer when I went to the council for the Black Hills, I had a
+     pipe with me. I told them, in reference to the Black Hills, that we
+     were bound by giving and receiving the pipe, the same as white
+     people when they make an oath in court and swear upon the Bible,
+     and if the party took the pipe that was offered to him in council
+     and held it in his hand everything went well, and if he did not
+     speak the truth always some evil would spring up in connection with
+     it. Last summer the pipe was given in council, and what do you
+     think of the matter now? Have the promises been kept, or has the
+     violation of them caused war and bloodshed? I have for a long time
+     known the ways of your people in dealing with us and taking away
+     our country, and I know that they have been such as to make us
+     miserable. You have driven away our game and our means of
+     livelihood out of the country, until now we have nothing left that
+     is valuable except the hills that you ask us to give up. When we
+     give these up to the Great Father we know that we give up the last
+     thing that is valuable either to us or the white people; and
+     therefore my people wish me to say that, as long as two Indians are
+     living, we expect them to have the benefit of the price paid for
+     these lands.
+
+     My friend, [to the chairman,] I am going to give you a pipe.
+     Perhaps we are deceiving each other in this matter, perhaps we are
+     not going to be truthful, and shall commit a great sin, but I for
+     my part am trying to speak the truth.
+
+     RUNNING BEAR:--I look upon you as you sit before me, and I see that
+     there are no boys among you; that you are all men of age, and I am
+     glad to see it. I am very old, very near the time when I shall lie
+     down in the earth. Therefore if you have really come to help us we
+     are very happy. I will speak now about myself. I am an orphan.
+     Before my father died he told me that my country was very valuable.
+     You say you are going to give me rations by weight; I do not know
+     anything about that; I think it will take me at least twelve years
+     to understand it. It is only yesterday that the people of my
+     generation were laid in the ground, and I am the only one left. My
+     father, who is now dead, went to the Great Father's house and
+     talked with him there. The people have now given you the Black
+     Hills, and we for our part would like to go to our Great Father's
+     house and hear how much money he proposes to give us in return.
+     Again, the whisky that the white people have and carry about with
+     them is very bad. We hear that our people who are living up to the
+     north of us drink a great deal of whisky. We do not like it at all.
+     My friends, I am going to ask you for something that I want. I do
+     not think it possible that you have come out here to ask me for
+     something without paying me for it. I do not consider myself very
+     rich. You white people come out here with a great many pockets in
+     your clothes. Probably the person who sent you told you what to do
+     with the things in your pockets. I would like to have you take up a
+     collection. Each of you put your hands in your pockets and take out
+     ten cents and give it to me to buy something at the store. You are
+     not particularly modest in asking for the things you want, and I
+     see no reason why I should not ask for the things that I want. Do
+     you think I do right in asking you?
+
+     You are a chief, [to the chairman.] I, also, am a chief. I have
+     lived here now 13 years. I do not remember even a bad word that I
+     have said; perhaps the Great Father does. In every country there
+     are men who are skillful in talking in council. I am such a man
+     myself. I also have been instructed. This medal that you see, was
+     put about my neck by a Catholic priest, and yet, notwithstanding I
+     am so honored, you talk to me about issuing rations by weight. I am
+     astonished at you. You are advanced in years; I am also advanced in
+     years.
+
+     WHITE BEAR:--I wonder if you know that I planted a field out here.
+     I raised pumpkins as large as this chair and corn taller than I am,
+     and after I had done that my father took my field away to plant
+     oats in. I wonder if you know that. Tell the Great Father that
+     there is only one store here, and all the young men are shedding
+     tears about it. If they had mowing-machines, such as they could
+     ride upon, to ride around their country and cut hay, they would be
+     able to earn something; but the agent considers that the country
+     belongs to him personally, and cuts all the hay. My friends, I
+     would like to have our agent, before the sun goes down, climb up
+     into the second story of the warehouse and take down all the teepee
+     cloths and blankets that he has there, and divide them among the
+     people.
+
+     DOG BACK:--I am not anybody in particular. Although I am not very
+     strong and a man of no special importance, I took a claim, and
+     planted, and considered that I was watching my own hay and grass. I
+     am the man that has been trying to live in the way that I have been
+     told, but this summer a great many white men have come there and
+     cut my wood, and killed the fowls and animals I have raised, and
+     disturbed me in many ways. I do not wish to make any disturbance
+     about it, but I have been trying to do as the Great Father advised
+     us, and it seems to me that these people who come and do such
+     things to me are lawless people. I have nobody to help me, but you
+     come here to-day from the Great Father, and I have told you these
+     things in the hope that you will help me.
+
+     _Santee Agency._ HAKEWASTE:--I am an Indian and was born naked. I
+     now wear the same kind of clothes as the white man. Old Wabashaw
+     told me that the President wanted us to work, and for that reason
+     I have dressed in this way, but what you have been explaining to me
+     I know nothing about. I have only been six years a chief in this
+     land. You can see how we are situated here; that we have done part
+     of what the President told us to do; you see little patches of
+     corn, &c. As old man Wabashaw is buried here we would all like to
+     live here. We will all do what you ask of us in the treaty. We own
+     nothing, and have nothing to depend upon. When the President makes
+     up his mind to do a thing he generally does it, but we do not want
+     to go to that territory to the south.
+
+     WAMAMSA:--The Lord above rules everything, and he has given us a
+     nice mild day for our council. We have prayed for land and
+     churches, and as we now have three churches I think the Lord has
+     taken good care of us and has answered our prayers. Look at these
+     young men. You have not seen any Indians during your travels
+     dressed in that way. We are not getting along very well--not as
+     well as we should. Twice now we have had Quakers for agents, and we
+     are going down hill all the time; getting into the ground.
+
+     HUSASA:--I have been blind for four years, but I can hear what is
+     said. When any one comes from Washington to see us we ought to be
+     thankful to him. When we lived at Redwood we made the treaty, and
+     it was mentioned that we were to draw annuities and money for fifty
+     years, and for that reason we put ourselves in the wrong place and
+     suffer for it to-day. There are only three chiefs left now, and all
+     we have to do is to throw ourselves into the arms of the Great
+     Father. We are all pretty badly off. When people used to come here
+     from Washington, Wabashaw was here to speak, but now he is lying in
+     the ground and we are all the time looking that way at him. A great
+     many of us have no wagons or oxen or anything to work with. I have
+     nothing but an old wagon that is not fit for use, and am as poor as
+     if I had not sold any land to the President. The Indians' minds are
+     not very long and we forget a thing in a very short time. You have
+     told us what to do. We have got it all in our ears and ought to be
+     proud of it.
+
+     The President said that he would take good care of us, and now here
+     I am blind and have not got a wagon fit to use. Although I am
+     blind, if I had a wagon the women or some of the boys could bring
+     me water when I am thirsty.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious typographical errors and printer errors have been corrected
+without comment.
+
+On page 158, the word "Py" was changed to "By" in the phrase: "Py ----,
+who did shoot...."
+
+With the exception of obvious errors, inconsistencies in the author's
+spelling, punctuation, use of hyphens, and use of quotation marks have
+been retained as in the original publication. Inconsistencies include,
+but are not limited to the following:
+
+  gayety/ gaiety
+  Ogallala/ Ogallalla
+  Camanche/ Commanches
+
+In the original publication, italics are used inconsistently in the
+illustration captions. They are reproduced here as they appear in the
+original.
+
+Unconventional spelling has been retained in words such as (but not
+limited to) the following:
+
+  befel
+  enlightment
+  Milwaukie
+  carniverous
+  conveniencies
+  conformably
+  kidnaped/ kidnaping
+  reconnoisance
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
+AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER***
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