The
Consequence Is That They Are Less Hardy, Self-Dependent And
Game-Spirited Than The Mountaineer.
If the latter by chance comes
among them on his way to and from the settlements, he is like
A
game-cock among the common roosters of the poultry-yard.
Accustomed to live in tents, or to bivouac in the open air, he
despises the comforts and is impatient of the confinement of the
log-house. If his meal is not ready in season, he takes his
rifle, hies to the forest or prairie, shoots his own game, lights
his fire, and cooks his repast. With his horse and his rifle, he
is independent of the world, and spurns at all its restraints.
The very superintendents at the lower posts will not put him to
mess with the common men, the hirelings of the establishment, but
treat him as something superior.
There is, perhaps, no class of men on the face of the earth, says
Captain Bonneville, who lead a life of more continued exertion,
peril, and excitement, and who are more enamored of their
occupations, than the free trappers of the West. No toil, no
danger, no privation can turn the trapper from his pursuit. His
passionate excitement at times resembles a mania. In vain may the
most vigilant and cruel savages beset his path; in vain may rocks
and precipices and wintry torrents oppose his progress; let but a
single track of a beaver meet his eye, and he forgets all dangers
and defies all difficulties. At times, he may be seen with his
traps on his shoulder, buffeting his way across rapid streams,
amidst floating blocks of ice: at other times, he is to be found
with his traps swung on his back clambering the most rugged
mountains, scaling or descending the most frightful precipices,
searching, by routes inaccessible to the horse, and never before
trodden by white man, for springs and lakes unknown to his
comrades, and where he may meet with his favorite game. Such is
the mountaineer, the hardy trapper of the West; and such, as we
have slightly sketched it, is the wild, Robin Hood kind of life,
with all its strange and motley populace, now existing in full
vigor among the Rocky Mountains.
Having thus given the reader some idea of the actual state of the
fur trade in the interior of our vast continent, and made him
acquainted with the wild chivalry of the mountains, we will no
longer delay the introduction of Captain Bonneville and his band
into this field of their enterprise, but launch them at once upon
the perilous plains of the Far West.
2.
Departure from Fort Osage Modes of transportation Pack-
horses Wagons Walker and Cerre; their characters Buoyant feelings
on launching upon the prairies Wild equipments of the
trappers Their gambols and antics Difference of character between
the American and French trappers Agency of the Kansas General
Clarke White Plume, the Kansas chief Night scene in a trader's
camp Colloquy between White Plume and the captain Bee-
hunters Their expeditions Their feuds with the Indians Bargaining
talent of White Plume
IT WAS ON THE FIRST of May, 1832, that Captain Bonneville took
his departure from the frontier post of Fort Osage, on the
Missouri. He had enlisted a party of one hundred and ten men,
most of whom had been in the Indian country, and some of whom
were experienced hunters and trappers. Fort Osage, and other
places on the borders of the western wilderness, abound with
characters of the kind, ready for any expedition.
The ordinary mode of transportation in these great inland
expeditions of the fur traders is on mules and pack-horses; but
Captain Bonneville substituted wagons. Though he was to travel
through a trackless wilderness, yet the greater part of his route
would lie across open plains, destitute of forests, and where
wheel carriages can pass in every direction. The chief difficulty
occurs in passing the deep ravines cut through the prairies by
streams and winter torrents. Here it is often necessary to dig a
road down the banks, and to make bridges for the wagons.
In transporting his baggage in vehicles of this kind, Captain
Bonneville thought he would save the great delay caused every
morning by packing the horses, and the labor of unpacking in the
evening. Fewer horses also would be required, and less risk
incurred of their wandering away, or being frightened or carried
off by the Indians. The wagons, also, would be more easily
defended, and might form a kind of fortification in case of
attack in the open prairies. A train of twenty wagons, drawn by
oxen, or by four mules or horses each, and laden with
merchandise, ammunition, and provisions, were disposed in two
columns in the center of the party, which was equally divided
into a van and a rear-guard. As sub-leaders or lieutenants in his
expedition, Captain Bonneville had made choice of Mr. J. R.
Walker and Mr. M. S. Cerre. The former was a native of Tennessee,
about six feet high, strong built, dark complexioned, brave in
spirit, though mild in manners. He had resided for many years in
Missouri, on the frontier; had been among the earliest
adventurers to Santa Fe, where he went to trap beaver, and was
taken by the Spaniards. Being liberated, he engaged with the
Spaniards and Sioux Indians in a war against the Pawnees; then
returned to Missouri, and had acted by turns as sheriff, trader,
trapper, until he was enlisted as a leader by Captain Bonneville.
Cerre, his other leader, had likewise been in expeditions to
Santa Fe, in which he had endured much hardship. He was of the
middle size, light complexioned, and though but about twenty-five
years of age, was considered an experienced Indian trader. It was
a great object with Captain Bonneville to get to the mountains
before the summer heats and summer flies should render the
travelling across the prairies distressing; and before the annual
assemblages of people connected with the fur trade should have
broken up, and dispersed to the hunting grounds.
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