Jacob The Dutch Yankee Was The Most Intelligent And The Most
Useful Of The Lot, And Was Unanimously Elected Cook For The
Party.
The Canadian Nelson was a hard-working good young
fellow, with a passionate temper.
Louis was a hunter by
profession, Gallic to the tip of his moustache - fond of
slapping his breast and telling of the mighty deeds of NOUS
AUTRES EN HAUT. Jim, the half-breed was Indian by nature -
idle, silent, treacherous, but a crafty hunter. William
deserves special mention, not from any idiosyncrasy of the
man, but because he was concerned soon after he joined us in
the most disastrous of my adventures throughout the
expedition.
To look at, William Nelson might have sat for the portrait of
Leatherstocking. He was a tall gaunt man who had spent his
youth bringing rafts of timber down the Wabash river, from
Fort Wayne to Maumee, in Ohio. For the last six years (he
was three-and-thirty) he had been trapping musk rats and
beaver, and dealing in pelts generally. At the time of our
meeting he was engaged to a Miss Mary something - the
daughter of an English immigrant, who would not consent to
the marriage until William was better off. He was now bound
for California, where he hoped to make the required fortune.
The poor fellow was very sentimental about his Mary; but,
despite his weatherbeaten face, hardy-looking frame, and his
'longue carabine,' he was scarcely the hero which, no doubt,
Miss Mary took him for.
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