USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 2
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xix
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Ashley at this time proceeded no farther west than the country about these streams, where with his men he passed the summer in trapping and in trading with the Indians. So great, however, were the advantages of the route worked out by him over any of those that had pre- viously been followed that it fast grew in favor with travellers from the East to points beyond the Rocky mountains. In 1824 Mr. Ashley made another expedition up the Platte and through the cleft in the mountains, which has since been generally called the South pass; then, advancing farther west to a lake to which he gave his own name, he there built a fort, in which he left about a hundred men. Two years afterward a six-pound cannon was hauled from the Missouri to this post, a distance of over twelve hundred miles; and in 1828 many wagons heavily laden performed the same journey. So successful was the business of Mr. Ashley and that of his successors, Messrs. Smith, Jackson, and Sublette,1 that many expeditions were made to the same region by different parties, some of whom carried their enterprises far down the rivers of the western slopes, while Smith himself twice crossed the continent to the Pacific. An expedition led by Pilcher in 1827 from Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, through the South pass to the Colorado, comprised forty- five men and more than a hundred horses; and one con- ducted by Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, the first leader to cross north of the settled provinces of Mexico, from the waters of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific, with wagons, numbered over a hundred men, with twenty wagons and many horses and mules, carrying merchandise from Missouri up the valley of the Platte to the countries of the Colorado and the Columbia. Two expeditions, made about this time by Mr. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, of Boston, overland to the Columbia, which, like that of Mr. Astor, contemplated the shipment of manufactured goods to the Pacific countries and the transport of furs to the United States and even to China, but which, owing chiefly to lack of sufficient capital, failed completely, were notable for including in their scope the export, not only of furs, but also of the salmon with which the rivers of the northwest
1 Mr. William Sublette.
XX
INTRODUCTION
abound, and which now form so important a part of the shipments from that region.
By this time the influences which near the beginning of the century had led to the emigration of hundreds of families from New England to western New York and to Ohio, and later of thousands of others from the more thickly settled states to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Michigan, began again to be felt in the formation in various parts of the union of societies for emigration to Oregon. Then began the procession across the great American desert of those caravans of "prairie schooners" that for upward of twenty years formed the most striking feature of civilized life in the country west of the Mississippi river, and whose route up the valley of the Platte and through the South pass began to be called the Oregon trail. Until 1843 the parties were so small, so ill provided with requisite supplies or so incompetently guided that they suffered much from hunger, thirst, fatigue, and dread of the Indians - few of them reaching the places of their destination, and the accounts of their experiences by those who returned to the United States being by no means such as to inspire others to follow them. Moreover, nothing like an assurance of protection, after they should have made their settlements, was afforded them by their government; for it must be remembered that under the provisions of the treaty of ISIS, by which the differences between Great Britain and America growing out of the war of 1812-1815 had been adjusted, all terri- tories and their waters claimed by either of these powers west of the Rocky mountains were to be free to the citizens of both countries for the space of ten years - a period subsequently indefinitely extended.
In 1842 General John C. Fremont was sent by the gov- ernment to make a careful survey of the route to the Pacific coast by the Platte and the South pass. Excitement in the United States with reference to the occupation of Oregon greatly increased when, in February, 1843, in response to a suggestion in a message from President Tyler, the senate passed a bill for the occupation and settlement of the ter- ritory of Oregon and for extending the laws of the United States to cover it. On the strength of the protection held out by this action, and of assurances from Dr. Marcus Whit-
XXI
INTRODUCTION
man, an Oregon missionary then revisiting the East, that a route practicable for wagons could be found from Fort Hall on the Lewis, beyond the Rocky mountains, to the Colun- bia, a thousand persons - men, women, and children - assembled at Westport, a well-known rendezvous, near the Missouri river, on the frontier of the state of Missouri, from which they began their march to Oregon, with a large number of wagons, horses, and cattle, in June, 1843. Of this remarkable expedition Mr. Greenhow, the scholarly historian of the Pacific countries, says : -
"They pursued the route along the banks of the Platte, and its northern branch, which had been carefully surveyed in the preceding year by Lieutenant Fremont, of the United States army, to the South Pass, in the Rocky Mountains; thence through the valleys of the Green and Bear rivers by the Hudson Bay Company's post, called Fort Hall, on the Lewis; and thence, in separate parties, to the Willamet valley, where they arrived in October. Their journey, of more than two thousand miles, was, of course, laborious and fatiguing; they were subjected to many difficulties and privations, and seven of their party died on the way, from sickness or accident. Their numbers and discipline, however, enabled them to set at defiance the Sioux and the Blackfeet, those Tartars of the American steppes, who could only gaze from a distance at the crowd of palefaces leaving the sunny valleys of the Mississippi for the rugged wilds of the Columbia. Upon the whole, the difficulties were less than had been anticipated, .. . and the success of the expedition encouraged a still greater number to follow in 1844, before the end of which year the number of American citizens in Oregon exceeded three thousand." - Greenhow, pp. 391-392.
This is the trail which, less than two years from the date last mentioned, Francis Parkman, lover of wild nature and enthusiastic student of Indian character, was following, notebook in hand, in the interest of American history.º
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From a Contemporary Mup
THE OREGON TRAIL
CHAPTER I
THE FRONTIER
LAST spring, 1846, was a busy season in the city of St. Louis.º 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 Fé.º Many of the emigrants, 5 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 Io the levee and passing up the Missouri, crowded with pas- sengers 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 twenty-eighth of April, on a tour of curiosity 15 and amusement to the Rocky mountains.º The boat was loaded until the water broke alternately over her guards. Her upper deck was covered with large wagonsº of a peculiar form, for the Santa Fé trade, and her hold was crammed with goods for the same destination. There were also the 20 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 25 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 pre- possessing in its appearance; yet, such as it was, it was destined to a long and arduous journey, on which the per- 30 severing reader will accompany it.
1
B
2
THE OREGON TRAIL
The passengers on board the Radnor corresponded with her freight. In her cabin were Santa Fé traders, gamblers, speculators, and adventurers of various descriptions, and her steerage was crowded with Oregon emigrants, "moun- 5 tain 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 Io 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. The Missouri is constantly changing its 15 course, wearing away its banks on one side, while it forms new ones on the other. Its channel is shifting continually. Islands are formed, and then washed away; and while the old forests on one side are undermined and swept off, a young growth springs up from the new soil upon the 20 other. With all these changes, the water is so charged with mud and sand that it is perfectly opaque, and in a few minutes deposits a sediment an inch thick in the bottom of a tumbler. The river was now high; but when we descended in the autumn it was fallen very low, and all 25 the secrets of its treacherous shallows were exposed to view. It was frightful to see the dead and broken trees, thick-set as a military abatis,º firmly imbedded in the sand, and all pointing downstream, ready to impale any unhappy steam- boat that at high water should pass over that dangerous 30 ground.
In five or six days we began to see signs of the great western movement° that was then taking place. Parties of emigrants, with their tents and wagons, would be en- camped on open spots near the bank, on their way to the 35 common rendezvous at Independence. On a rainy day, near sunset, we reached the landing of this place, which is situated some miles from the river, on the extreme frontier of Missouri. The scene was characteristic, for here were represented at one view the most remarkable 40 features of this wild and enterprising region. On the muddy shore stood some thirty or forty dark slavish-looking
3
THE FRONTIER
Spaniards, gazing stupidly out from beneath their broad hats. They were attached to one of the Santa Fé com- panies, whose wagons were crowded together on the banks above. In the midst of these, crouching over a smoldering fire, was a group of Indians, belonging to a remote Mexican 5 tribe. One or two French hunters from the mountains, with their long hair and buckskin dresses, were looking at the boat; and seated on a log close at hand were three men, with rifles lying across their knees. The foremost of these, a tall, strong figure, with a clear blue eye and an open, Io intelligent face, might very well represent that race of restless and intrepid pioneers whose axes and rifles have opened a path from the Alleghanies to the western prairies. He was on his way to Oregon, probably a more congenial field to him than any that now remained on this side the 15 great plains.
Early on the next morning we reached Kansas, about five hundred miles from the mouth of the Missouri. Here we landed, and leaving our equipments in charge of my good friend Colonel Chick, whose log-house was the sub- 20 stitute for a tavern, we set out in a wagon for Westport,º where we hoped to procure mules and horses for the journey.
It was a remarkably fresh and beautiful May morning. The rich and luxuriant woods, through which the miserable road conducted us, were lighted by the bright sunshine 25 and enlivened by a multitude of birds. We overtook on the way our late fellow-travelers, the Kansas Indians, who, adorned with all their finery, were proceeding home- ward at a round pace; and whatever they might have seemed on board the boat, they made a very striking and 30 picturesque feature in the forest landscape.
Westport was full of Indians, whose little shaggy ponies were tied by dozens along the houses and fences. Sacs and Foxes, with shaved heads and painted faces, Shawanoes and Delawares, fluttering in calico frocks and turbans, 35 Wyandots dressed like white men, and a few wretched Kansas wrapped in old blankets, were strolling about the streets, or lounging in and out of the shops and houses.
As I stood at the door of the tavern, I saw a remarkable- looking person coming up the street. He had a ruddy 40 face, garnished with the stumps of a bristly red beard and
THE OREGON TRAIL
mustache; on one side of his head was a round cap with a knob at the top, such as Scottish laborers sometimes wear; his coat was of a nondescript form, and made of a gray Scotch plaid, with the fringes hanging all about it; 5 he wore pantaloons of coarse homespun, and hob-nailed shoes; and to complete his equipment, a little black pipe was stuck in one corner of his mouth. In this curious attire, I recognized Captain C. of the British army, who, with his brother, and Mr. R., an English gentleman, was Io bound on a hunting expedition across the continent. I had seen the captain and his companions at St. Louis. They had now been for some time at Westport, making prepara- tions for their departure, and waiting for a reinforcement, since they were too few in number to attempt it alone. 15 They might, it is true, have joined some of the parties of emigrants who were on the point of setting out for Oregon and California; but they professed great disinclination to have any connection with the "Kentucky fellows."
The captain now urged it upon us that we should join 20 forces and proceed to the mountains in company. Feel- ing no greater partiality for the society of the emigrants than they did, we thought the arrangement an advanta- geous one, and consented to it. Our future fellow-travelers had installed themselves in a little log-house, where we 25 found them surrounded by saddles, harness, guns, pistols, telescopes, knives, and, in short, their complete appoint- ments for the prairie. R., who professed a taste for natural history, sat at a table stuffing a woodpecker; the brother of the captain, who was an Irishman, was splicing a trail- 3º rope on the floor. The captain pointed out, with much complacency, the different articles of their outfit. "You see," said he, "that we are all old travelers. I am con- vinced that no party ever went upon the prairie better pro- vided." The hunter whom they had employed, a surly- 35 looking Canadian, named Sorel, and their muleteer, an American from St. Louis, were lounging about the building. In a little log stable close at hand were their horses and mules, selected by the captain, who was an excellent judge. The alliance entered into, we left them to complete 40 their arrangements, while we pushed our own to all con- venient speed. The emigrants, for whom our friends pro-
5
THE FRONTIER
fessed such contempt, were encamped on the prairie about eight or ten miles distant, to the number of a thousand or more, and new parties were constantly passing out from Independence to join them. They were in great confu- sion, holding meetings, passing resolutions, and drawing 5 up regulations, but unable to unite in the choice of leaders to conduct them across the prairie. Being at leisure one day, I rode over to Independence. The town was crowded. A multitude of shops had sprung up to furnish the emi- grants and Santa Fé traders with necessaries for their Io journey; and there was an incessant hammering and banging from a dozen blacksmiths' sheds, where the heavy wagons were being repaired, and the horses and oxen shod. The streets were thronged with men, horses, and
mules. While I was in the town, a train of emigrant 15 wagons from Illinois passed through, to join the camp on the prairie, and stopped in the principal street. A multi- tude of healthy children's faces were peeping out from under the covers of the wagons. Here and there a buxom damsel was seated on horseback, holding over her sun- 20 burnt face an old umbrella or a parasol, once gaudy enough, but now miserably faded. The men, very sober-looking countrymen, stood about their oxen; and as I passed I noticed three old fellows, who, with their long whips in their hands, were zealously discussing the doctrine of 25 regeneration.º The emigrants, however, are not all of this stamp. Among them are some of the vilest outcasts in the country. I have often perplexed myself to divine the various motives that give impulse to this strange migra- tion; but whatever they may be, whether an insane hope 30 of a better condition in life, or a desire of shaking off re- straints of law and society, or mere restlessness, certain it is that multitudes bitterly repent the journey, and after they have reached the land of promise are happy enough to escape from it. 35
In the course of seven or eight days we had brought our preparations nearly to a close. Meanwhile our friends had completed theirs, and, becoming tired of Westport, they told us that they would set out in advance and wait at the crossing of the Kansas till we should come up. Ac- 40 cordingly R. and the muleteer went forward with the
6
THE OREGON TRAIL
wagon and tent, while the captain and his brother, to- gether with Sorel, and a trapper named Boisverd, who had joined them, followed with the band of horses. The commencement of the journey was ominous, for the cap- 5 tain was scarcely a mile from Westport, riding along in state at the head of his party, leading his intended buffalo horse by a rope, when a tremendous thunderstorm came o11, and drenched them all to the skin. They hurried on to reach the place, about seven miles off, where R. was to to have had the camp in readiness to receive thein. But this prudent person, when he saw the storm approach- ing, had selected a sheltered glade in the woods, where he pitched his tent, and was sipping a comfortable cup of coffee while the captain galloped for miles beyond through 15 the rain to look for him. At length the storm cleared away, and the sharp-eyed trapper succeeded in discovering his tent; R. had by this time finished his coffee, and was seated on a buffalo robe smoking his pipe. The captain was one of the most easy-tempered men in existence, so 20 he bore his ill-luck with great composure, shared the dregs of the coffee with his brother, and lay down to sleep in his wet clothes.
We ourselves had our share of the deluge. We were leading a pair of mules to Kansas when the storm broke. 25 Such sharp and incessant flashes of lightning, such stun- ning and continuous thunder, I had never known before. The woods were completely obscured by the diagonal sheets of rain that fell with a heavy roar, and rose in spray from the ground; and the streams rose so rapidly that we 30 could hardly ford them. At length, looming through the rain, we saw the log-house of Colonel Chick, who received us with his usual bland hospitality; while his wife, who, though a little soured and stiffened by too frequent attend- ance on camp-meetings,° was not behind him in hospitable
35 feeling, supplied us with the means of repairing our drenched and bedraggled condition. The storm, clearing away at about sunset, opened a noble prospect from the porch of the colonel's house, which stands upon a high hill. The sun streamed from the breaking clouds upon the swift and angry 40 Missouri, and on the immense expanse of luxuriant forest that stretched from its banks back to the distant bluffs.
7
THE FRONTIER
Returning on the next day to Westport, we received a message from the captain, who had ridden back to deliver it in person, but finding that we were in Kansas, had intrusted it with an acquaintance of his named Vogel, who kept a small grocery and liquor shop. Whisky by the way cir- 5 culates more freely in Westport than is altogether safe in a place where every man carries a loaded pistol in his pocket. As we passed this establishment, we saw Vogel's broad German face and knavish-looking eyes thrust from his door. He said he had something to tell us, and invited Io us to take a dram. Neither his liquor nor his message. was very palatable. The captain had returned to give us notice that R., who assumed the direction of his party, had determined upon another route from that agreed upon be- tween us; and instead of taking the course of the traders, º 15 to pass northward by Fort Leavenworth, and follow the path marked out by the dragoons" in their expedition of last summer. To adopt such a plan without consulting us, we looked upon as a very high-handed proceeding; but suppressing our dissatisfaction as well as we could, we 20 made up our minds to join them at Fort Leavenworth, where they were to wait for us.
Accordingly, our preparation being now complete, we attempted one fine morning to commence our journey. The first step was an unfortunate one. No sooner were 25 our animals put in harness than the shaft mule reared and plunged, burst ropes and straps, and nearly flung the cart into the Missouri. Finding her wholly uncontrollable, we exchanged her for another, with which we were furnished by our friend Mr. Boone of Westport, a grandson of Daniel 30 Boone,° the pioneer. This foretaste of prairie experience was very soon followed by another. Westport was scarcely out of sight when we encountered a deep muddy gully, of a species that afterward became but too familiar to us; and here for the space of an hour or more the cart stuck fast. 35
CHAPTER II
BREAKING THE ICE
BOTH Shaw and myself were tolerably inured to the vicissitudes of traveling. We had experienced them under various forms, and a birch canoe was as familiar to us as a steamboat. The restlessness, the love of wilds and 5 hatred of cities, natural perhaps in early years to every unperverted son of Adam, was not our only motive for undertaking the present journey. My companion hoped to shake off the effects of a disorder that had impaired a constitution originally hardy and robust; and I was anx- Io ious to pursue some inquiries relative to the character and usages of the remote Indian nations, being already familiar with many of the border tribes.
Emerging from the mud-hole where we last took leave of the reader, we pursued our way for some time along 15 the narrow track, in the checkered sunshine and shadow of the woods, till at length, issuing forth into the broad light, we left behind us the farthest outskirts of the great forest that once spread unbroken from the western plains to the shore of the Atlantic. Looking over an interven- 20 ing belt of shrubbery, we saw the green, oceanlike ex- panse of prairie, stretching swell over swell to the horizon
It was a mild, calm spring day; a day when one is more disposed to musing and reverie than to action, and the softest part of his nature is apt to gain the ascendency. 25 I rode in advance of the party, as we passed through the shrubbery, and as a nook of green grass offered a strong temptation, I dismounted and lay down there. All the trees and saplings were in flower, or budding into fresh leaf; the red clusters of the maple-blossoms and the rich 30 flowers of the Indian apple were there in profusion; and I was half inclined to regret leaving behind the land of gardens for the rude and stern scenes of the prairie and the mountains.
9
BREAKING THE ICE
Meanwhile the party came in sight out of the bushes. Foremost rode Henry Chatillon, our guide and hunter, a fine athletic figure, mounted on a hardy gray Wyandot pony. He wore a white blanket-coat, a broad hat of felt, moccasins, and pantaloons of deerskin, ornamented along 5 the seams with rows of long fringes. His knife was stuck in his belt; his bullet-pouch and powder-horn hung at his side, and his rifle lay before him, resting against the high pommel of his saddle, which, like all his equipments, had seen hard service, and was much the worse for wear. Shaw Ic followed close, mounted on a little sorrel horse, and leading a larger animal by a rope. His outfit, which resembled mine, had been provided with a view to use rather than ornament. It consisted of a plain, black Spanish saddle, with holstersº of heavy pistols, a blanket rolled up behind, and the trail- 15 rope attached to his horse's neck hanging coiled in front. He carried a double-barreled smooth-bore, while I boasted a rifle of some fifteen pounds' weight. At that time our attire, though far from elegant, bore some marks of civilization, and offered a very favorable contrast to the inimitable 20 shabbiness of our appearance on the return journey. A red flannel shirt, belted around the waist like a frock, then constituted our upper garment; moccasins had sup- planted our failing boots; and the remaining essential portion of our attire consisted of an extraordinary article, 25 manufactured by a squaw out of smoked buckskin. Our muleteer, Deslauriers, brought up the rear with his cart, waddling ankle-deep in the mud, alternately puffing at his pipe, and ejaculating in his prairie patoisº : "Sacré enfant de garceº !" as one of the mules would seem to recoil before 30 some abyss of unusual profundity. The cart was of the kind that one may see by scores around the market-place in Montreal, and had a white covering to protect the articles within. These were our provisions and a tent, with ammu- nition, blankets, and presents for the Indians. 35
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