CONTENTS
I THE FRONTIER
II BREAKING THE ICE
III FORT LEAVENWORTH
IV "JUMPING OFF"
V "THE BIG BLUE"
VI THE PLATTE AND THE DESERT
VII THE BUFFALO
VIII TAKING FRENCH LEAVE
IX SCENES AT FORT LARAMIE
X THE WAR PARTIES
XI SCENES AT THE CAMP
XII ILL LUCK
XIII HUNTING INDIANS
XIV THE OGALLALLA VILLAGR
XV THE HUNTING CAMP
XVI THE TRAPPERS
XVII THE BLACK HILLS
XVIII A MOUNTAIN HUNT
XIX PASSAGE OF THE MOUNTAINS
XX THE LONELY JOURNEY
XXI THE PUEBLO AND BENT'S FORT
XXII TETE ROUGE, THE VOLUNTEER
XXIII INDIAN ALARMS
XXIV THE CHASE
XXV THE BUFFALO CAMP
XXVI DOWN THE ARKANSAS
XXVII THE SETTLEMENTS
CHAPTER I
THE FRONTIER
Last spring, 1846, was a busy season in the City of St. Louis. Not
only were emigrants from every part of the country preparing for the
journey to Oregon and California, but an unusual number of traders
were making ready their wagons and outfits for Santa Fe. Many of the
emigrants, especially of those bound for California, were persons of
wealth and standing. The hotels were crowded, and the gunsmiths and
saddlers were kept constantly at work in providing arms and
equipments for the different parties of travelers. Almost every day
steamboats were leaving the levee and passing up the Missouri,
crowded with passengers on their way to the frontier.
In one of these, the Radnor, since snagged and lost, my friend and
relative, Quincy A. Shaw, and myself, left St. Louis on the 28th of
April, on a tour of curiosity and amusement to the Rocky Mountains.
The boat was loaded until the water broke alternately over her
guards. Her upper deck was covered with large weapons of a peculiar
form, for the Santa Fe trade, and her hold was crammed with goods for
the same destination. There were also the equipments and provisions
of a party of Oregon emigrants, a band of mules and horses, piles of
saddles and harness, and a multitude of nondescript articles,
indispensable on the prairies. Almost hidden in this medley one
might have seen a small French cart, of the sort very appropriately
called a "mule-killer" beyond the frontiers, and not far distant a
tent, together with a miscellaneous assortment of boxes and barrels.
The whole equipage was far from prepossessing in its appearance; yet,
such as it was, it was destined to a long and arduous journey, on
which the persevering reader will accompany it.
The passengers on board the Radnor corresponded with her freight. In
her cabin were Santa Fe traders, gamblers, speculators, and
adventurers of various descriptions, and her steerage was crowded
with Oregon emigrants, "mountain men," negroes, and a party of Kansas
Indians, who had been on a visit to St. Louis.
Thus laden, the boat struggled upward for seven or eight days against
the rapid current of the Missouri, grating upon snags, and hanging
for two or three hours at a time upon sand-bars. We entered the
mouth of the Missouri in a drizzling rain, but the weather soon
became clear, and showed distinctly the broad and turbid river, with
its eddies, its sand-bars, its ragged islands, and forest-covered
shores.
