USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 32
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
105 : 28. absanth. Wormwood, a very bitter herb.
107 : 37. par' flèche. Rawhide.
109 : 7. Chugwater. A stream flowing north into Lara- mie creek
110 : 16. Capuchin friar. A Franciscan monk, dis- tinguished from members of other orders by wearing the long, pointed cowl of St. Francis.
110 : 26. Irving's Astoria. An account, by Washington Irving, of the famous attempt of John Jacob Astor, a New York fur merchant, to establish at the mouth of the Co- lumbia river, in 1811, a trading post from which to handle the fur trade of the Northwest.
114 : 29. Fort Pierre. On the west bank of the Missouri, nearly opposite the point where Pierre, the capital of South Dakota, is now situated.
126 : 27. King Philip, Pontiac, and Tecumseh. Indian chiefs who at different times attempted unsuccessfully to lead their forces through extended campaigns against the whites. Philip, sachem of the Pokanokets, in Massachusetts, who, in 1675 headed the great war known by his name, was killed at Mount Hope August 12, 1676, after his tribe had been nearly annihilated. Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, near the river of that name, who, after the English in 1760 had displaced the French in the Northwest, organized a con-" spiracy among the various Indian tribes with the purpose of murdering the English garrisons at all points, and who showed a high degree of generalship in carrying on his
350
NOTES
campaign against the whites, especially in a five-months siege of Detroit, was finally deserted by his followers and in 1766 was obliged to submit to British rule. Tecumseh, a celebrated chief of the Shawnees, in Olio, who about 1805 attempted to organize all the Western Indians in a con- federacy against the whites, was unable to hold them to- gether after the defeat of a considerable force of them, un- der his brother at Tippecanoe, by General Harrison, in 1811.
129 : 17. Semper paratus. Always prepared.
130 : 22. Le Borgne. Tlie One-eyed.
134 : 10. Meneaska. White inan.
136 : 38. Salvator Rosa (1615-1673). An Italian artist whose best works, delineations of nature in her roughness and desolation, with accessories of savage or ascetic life, are remarkable for their wildness, loneliness, and gloom.
137 : 18. West. Benjamin West (1738-1820), an Ameri- can artist who, having gained a considerable reputation in Philadelphia and New York, chiefly as a painter of por- traits, went in 1760 to Italy, where he visited the chief art capitals, painting several important pictures at Rome. The Vatican, in that city, the principal residence of the head of the Roman Catholic church, and the most magnificent palace in Christendom, contains the finest existing collection of objects of art, among them the famous marble statue of Apollo discovered at Antium about 1503, and known by the name of the gallery (Belvedere) in which it was placed. This statue, which represents the god at the moment of his victory over the python, is considered the most perfect model of manly beauty.
147 : 4. Leatherstocking. A soubriquet given to Nathan- iel Bumpo, a skilful backwoodsman in Cooper's series of novels called the Leatherstocking Tales.
150 : S. Mount Laramie. Laramie peak, the highest
351
NOTES
point in the Laramie range of the Rocky mountains, which bounds the Laramie plains on the east.
150 : 41. Sacré. A favorite imprecation among the French frontiersmen.
159 : 6. locust. In the United States the harvest-fly is improperly called a locust.
163 : 10. genius loci.
Spirit of the place.
163 : 21. Frascati's. A well-known high-class restaurant in Oxford street, London.
163 : 21. Trois Frères Provençaux is a celebrated restau- rant in Paris, the income from which is said to have been greatly increased through the curiosity of the public to see a swallow painted upon the ceiling by an artist to conceal a bad spot made by the cork of his champagne bottle.
163 : 24. Tom Crawford. Thomas J. Crawford, a mem- ber of the well-known family who for years were the only ones to entertain travellers to the White mountains, and in the '40's the most famous of all the proprietors of the Crawford house, built by his father and an elder brother, at the head of the Crawford Notch. The whole Crawford family were remarkable for their size and strength. All the bridle-paths on the western side of the mountains were made by them, and for many years they were the only guides who dared to conduct visitors to the summit.
178 : 33. Et haec. "And perhaps even it will please you to remember this" - a quotation from Vergil's Aeneid.
181 : 3. Taos. An old Mexican town about fifty miles north of Santa Fé, of considerable importance in the '40's.
196 : 23. Sancho Panza. The squire of Don Quixote, in the famous novel of that name by Cervantes, - a short, pot-bellied peasant, with small legs, whom the other guests at an inn tossed in a blanket because, following the example of his illustrious master, he refused to pay his reckoning.
352
NOTES
For the complete account of the amusing incident referred to, see the chapter of Don Quixote, In Which are Contained the Innumerable Troubles Which the brave Don Quixote and his Good Squire Sancho Panza endured in the Inn Which to his Misfortune he took to be a Castle.
197 : 15. Frémont's Expedition. Report of the exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the year 1843-1844, by Brevet Captain J. C. Frémont, of the topographical engineers, under the orders of Colonel J. J. Abert, Chief of the Topo- graphical Bureau. Printed by order of the Senate of the United States. Washington, Gales, and Seaton, printers, 1845, 695 pp .; plates, maps. Parkman's route corresponded very closely with that taken by the Pathfinder in 1842.
200 : 31. General Kearny's army. As told in the second paragraph of Chapter XVI.
207 : 18. Bent's fort. A post of Bent and St. Vrain's trad- ing company, well known in the '40's and, like St. Vrain's fort, one hundred and seventy-five miles northwest of it, shown on all the maps of the period, on the Upper Arkansas, about seventy-five miles below Pueblo. Captain Frémont, in his account of his second expedition across the plains, says that, finding himself short of supplies at the mouth of the river Fontainequibouit in July, 1843, he despatched Kit Carson, who had accompanied him on his first expedition and whom, fortunately, he now found at Pueblo, a short dis- tance above that river on the Arkansas, " to Mr. Charles Bent, whose principal post is on the Arkansas river about seventy- five miles below Fontaine-qui-Bouit," for additional animals.
208 : 2. howitzer. A short, light, large-bore cannon.
210 : 29. basilisk. Having the power of the basilisk, a fabulous serpent, whose breath and even whose look was believed to be fatal.
353
NOTES
212 : 5. " if . . laughter." From Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield.
216 : 31. beetling. Overhanging.
217 : 36. assented. This word is here used incorrectly; it should be consented.
234 : 11. nom de guerre. War-name; pseudonym.
236 : 12. St. Peter's. The cathedral of St. Peter in Rome, the most famous ecclesiastical edifice in the world, the vast plaza in front of which, half surrounded by the curving col- onnades that extend from each side of the majestic pile, is packed with humanity whenever, as on the occasion men- tioned in the text, any great religious festival is celebrated within.
236 : 16. Mount Etna. In the island of Sicily, the largest active volcano in Europe.
236 : 20. Passionist convent. The Passionists are an order of monks founded in 1720. Pope Clement XIV. be- stowed upon them the church of Saints John and Paul, on the Cælian hill, in Rome.
236 : 24. melancholy Coliseum. A gigantic ruin in Rome, the greatest amphitheatre ever erected by Roman magnificence, capable of holding 100,000 spectators. De- signed to furnish a place for amusements for the Roman populace, it was dedicated with shows in which 5000 ani- mals were killed. It witnessed innumerable gladiatorial combats and fights with wild beasts, and was the scene of the martyrdom of a number of early Christians.
236 : 25. Eternal city. Rome. " When falls the Coli- seum, Rome shall fall, and when Rome falls, the world."
236 : 26. glaciers of the Splügen. Though known to the Romans, the Splügen pass, from the Rhine valley of the Swiss canton of Grisons, through the Alps, at an elevation of nearly 7000 feet, to the valleys of Lombardy, was of a 2 A
354
NOTES
dangerous character on account of frequent heavy ava lanches from the melting glaciers above, until the construc- tion by the Austrian government, in 1812-1834, of a road 24 miles long and 14} feet wide throughout, and passing in many places through galleries of solid masonry erected for the protection of travellers against the avalanches.
236 : 28. birthplace of the Rhine. The Rhine, one of the most important rivers of Europe, is formed by the union at Reichenau, in the canton of Grisons, in the Swiss Alps, of the Nearer and the Farther Rhine, which are fed by a large number of rivulets issuing from glaciers more than 7000 feet above sea-level, and flowing through a region of great natural interest.
236 : 30. valley of Andeer. The whole canton of Gri- sons is an assemblage of mountains intersected by narrow valleys, the most important of which lie along the course of the Rhine. Andeer, in the valley that takes its name from the town, is probably no larger now, with its population of 583, than it was when Parkman visited it in the '40's.
241 : 3. Scott, Sir Walter (1771-1832). A Scottish writer, author of the Waverley novels and of many famous poems, whose powers of description in both prose and verse have rarely been equalled.
245 : 27. dishabille. Undress; negligent dress.
245 : 39. Shakspere, William (1564-1616). Acknowł- edged as the world's greatest writer. "There is nothing within the compass of poetry in which he has not either achieved supremacy or shown that supremacy lay within his power; there is no situation of human fortune or emo- tion of the human bosom for which he has not the right word; if he cannot be described as of imagination all com- pact, it is only because his observation is still more extraordi- nary. His art is as consummate as his genius, and save
355
NOTES
when he wrote or planned in haste, impeccable." - Garnet and Gosse, History of English Literature. Shakespeare's best-known works are his plays.
245 : 39. Byron, Lord George Gordon Noel (1788- 1823). An English poet of great versatility and power, whose popularity in Parkman's time was far greater than it is now. In this connection it is of interest to note that of the twenty- eight quotations with which the twenty-seven chapters of The Oregon Trail are embellished in the edition of 1849, one each was from Shelley, Dryden, Macaulay, Goldsmith, Butler, and an unknown writer; four each were from Bryant, Shakespeare, and Scott; and no fewer than nine from Byron.
246 : 1. worst of the three. Parkman's characterization of Byron in the lines that follow is just, as well as severe.
248 : 39. Mr. Mackenzie, Donald (1783-1851). A Ca- nadian fur trader who, having been employed for several years in the service of the Northwestern company, became in 1809 a partner of John Jacob Astor in his project for establishing a trade in furs west of the Rocky mountains. Crossing the continent with Mr. Astor's overland party, a journey of much difficulty and danger, he remained at As- toria, at the mouth of the Columbia river, until the surrender of that post to the British in 1814. Then, having sold out his share of the enterprise, he again traversed the wilderness to the Mississippi and on to New York. In 1821 he entered the service of the Hudson Bay company, and was at once commissioned chief factor. In 1832, having amassed a fortune, he returned to the United States; and, when he was consulted by Parkman on the eve of the historian's journey to the mountains, was residing, at the age of sixty- two, at Mayville, N.Y., - one of the best living authorities on matters pertaining to the Indian countries.
356
NOTES
248 : 40. Captain Wyeth. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, of Bos. ton, who had led several large parties of traders over the Oregon trail. See Introduction, p. xix.
249 : 28. biped. An animal having two feet.
250 : 35. apocryphal. False; from Apocrypha, the name given to a collection of books included in the Bible by some bodies of Christians, but the validity of which is disputed by others
251 : 8. Gochè's Hole. The name hole was applied by the frontiersmen to any deep basin among the hills.
252 : 41. Pueblo. An old Indian town on the Upper Arkansas about seventy-five miles above Bent's fort - now the most important railroad centre in Colorado, after Den- ver.
254 : 31. General Kearny's march. Up the Arkansas, in his expedition against Santa Fé.
254 : 32. General Taylor's victories at Matamoras. Gen- cral Zachary Taylor, then in command on the Arkansas frontier, having been instructed by the secretary of war to defend the recently annexed territory of Texas from " for- eign invasion and Indian incursions," proceeded in March, 1846, to the banks of the Rio Grande, where he established himself at Fort Brown, opposite the Mexican town of Mata- moras. Returning thither from an expedition to strengthen the defences of his depot of supplies at Point Isabel, twenty- five miles to the east, he was attacked on May S at Palo Alto (tall woods) eight miles from Matamoras by a force of 6000 Mexicans who had crossed the river in his absence, and who, after five hours of fighting, were driven back with a loss of about 100 men, while the American loss was 4 killed and 40 wounded. The Mexicans took up a position at Resaca de la Palma (ravine of the palm), three miles from Mata- moras, to resist the further advance of the Americans; but
357
NOTES
on May 9 they were routed after a short conflict and were driven across the river. On May 18 Matamoras was oc- cupied by General Taylor without resistance.
254 : 36. California. It must be remembered that the state of California was not admitted to the Union until 1850.
255 : 6. ponchos. Garments worn by Spanish-Ameri- cans, having the shape of a blanket and with a slit for the head to pass through.
255 : 41. Paganini. Nicolo Paganini (1784-1840), a gifted and eccentric Italian musician who, between 1818 and 1834, created wild excitement in the capitals of Italy, Germany, France, and England by performing phenomenal feats upon the violin, notably that of playing a military " sonata " entitled " Napoleon " upon a single string. The effects that he was able to produce from his instrument are said to have been at once startling and unearthly.
259 : 28. Long's peak. One of the highest peaks of the Rocky mountains, in Colorado, about 48 miles northwest of Denver; named in honor of Colonel Stephen H. Long, who was for several years in charge of government surveys in the Mississippi valley.
-
259 : 41. Scylla and Charybdis. The first a promontory of southern Italy, at the entrance of the strait which divides the mainland from the island of Sicily, and regarded by the ancients as especially dangerous to sailors; the second a whirlpool opposite the entrance to the harbor of Messina in that island, and dangerous even to vessels of the present time.
260 : 36. St. Patrick. Patron saint of Ireland; said to have exterminated the snakes in that island.
261 : 19. M. St. Vrain. St. Vrain's fort, one of the posts of Bent and St. Vrain's trading company, was occupied as late as July, 1843, when Captain John C. Frémont visited it on
358
NOTES
his second expedition across the Western plains. " This fort," says Captain Frémont in his history of the expedition, "is situated on the South forke of the Platte, immediately under the mountains, about seventeen miles east of Long's peak. ... At the fort we found Mr. St. Vrain, who received us with much kindness and hospitality. Maxwell [see note on " Maxwell the trader," p. 271] had spent the last two or three years between this fort and the village of Taos; and here he was at home and among his friends."
262 : 29. Pike's peak. A summit of the Rocky moun- tains in Colorado, over 14,000 feet in height above the sea, and named in honor of General Zebulon M. Pike, who dis- covered it in 1806. The summit, a nearly level expanse of somne forty acres, affords one of the grandest views on the North American continent.
263 : 21. Des sauvages! The savages!
264 : 7. Childe Harold. The most popular of Lord Byron's poems, depicting the wanderings of its misanthropic author through Europe and the East, abounds in descriptive passages of surpassing power.
264 : 37. Naples. A city on the west coast of Italy, the beauty of whose sky and bay as seen from the heights above the town have been celebrated by ancient and modern writers and by innumerable painters. Around the precipi- tous shores of Capri, an island at the mouth of the bay, the water, fifty feet deep, is of a transparent blue.
267 : 3. Turkish fashion. Cross-legged, on the floor.
267 : 6. march against Santa Fé. At that moment Gen- eral Kearny was in command of the city, having captured it two days before - August 18, 1846.
267 : 10. Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. See note on General Taylor's victories, on p. 356.
269 : 22. Nauvoo. A city founded on the west bank of
1
359
NOTES
the Mississippi river, in Illinois, by the Mormons in 1840, after their expulsion from Ohio on account of their offen- sive religious practices. The temple that they erected there of polished limestone was a low elliptical structure 130 feet long and 90 feet wide, with dome-shaped roof. They were obliged to abandon it when, as the result of the repeal of their charter by the state legislature in 1845, and of trouble with the surrounding people, they were obliged to move on to Iowa.
270 : 40. The proprietors. Messrs. Bent and St. Vrain.
271 :14. rowel. The wheel of a spur, with sharp points upon the circumference.
271 : 30. yager. A rifle formerly carried by light in- fantry and now superseded by guns of a more effective type.
273 : 12. mint juleps. A beverage composed of spirits and water with ice and mint.
273 : 25. Tête Rouge. Red Head.
274 : 6. Vera Cruz. A seaport town of Mexico, on the southwest shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and about eight hundred miles from New Orleans.
274 : 21. calomel. A compound of mercury and chlorine formerly much used as a medicine.
276 : 32. contumacious. Stubborn.
283 : 28. Maxwell the trader. L. Maxwell, of Kaskaskia, accompanied Captain John C. Frémont as hunter on his famous expeditions up the Platte to the South pass in 1842 and 1843-1844. In his account of the expedition of 1842 Captain Frémont relates how the leader of a band of two or three hundred Arapahoes that had suddenly descended upon a small detachment of his force was on the point of being picked off by Maxwell, when he recognized the savage as an Indian in whose village he " had resided as a trader a year or two previously," and " shouted to him in the Indian
360
NOTES
language, ' You're a fool, don't you know me?' " whereupon the Indian, startled at the unexpected sound of his own language from a white man, swerved his horse a little and passed like an arrow. Then, riding up to Captain Frémont, he gave him his hand, striking his breast, and exclaiming " Arapaho! "
287 : 32. asseverations. Emphatic assertions.
290 : 20. Kit Carson. Christopher Carson (1809-1868), an American frontiersman who had spent eight years as hunter for Bent's fort, had served as guide for Frémont in his Rocky mountain explorations, made shortly before Parkman crossed the plains. He was an officer in the gov- ernment service in the Mexican and Civil wars, and was instrumental in bringing about many treaties with the Indians.
291 : 40. canteen. A vessel used by soldiers for holding drink.
292 : 33. "Oui ... fusil." "Yes, well loaded; you'll kill, my boss; yes, you'll kill - it is a good gun."
301 : 25. runnel. A rivulet.
303 : 41. Nelson, Lord Horatio (1758-1805). "The great- est naval hero that England ever produced," admiral of the British fleet which in the battle of Trafalgar near the Straits of Gibraltar gained a notable victory over the combined fleets of France and Spain. His own ship, the Victory, broke the line of the enemy, but not before Nelson had been mortally wounded. He lived long enough to know that twenty of the enemy's ships had struck their colors, his last words being, " Thank God, I have done my duty."
305 : 4. Eton. A famous English public school, founded by Henry IV. in 1440, in which the course of in- struction has always been mainly classical.
305 : 5. Porson, Richard (1759-1808). "One of the best
361
NOTES
Greek scholars and critics of his age," professor of Greek at Cambridge university.
305 : 7. Chesterfield, Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope (1694- 1773). An English author and courtier distinguished for his wit and politeness. His reputation as a writer rests chiefly upon his letters to his son, the style of which has been much admired.
305 : 18. sherry cobblers, brandy toddy. Beverages com- posed of spirits and water, sweetened.
306 : 33. ensconced. Sheltered.
311 : 4. Cimarron. A river which, rising among the Raton mountains, near the boundary between Colorado and New Mexico, first runs eastward, entering Kansas near its southwestern angle, several times crossing the southern boundary of that state and finally passing into the Indian Territory, in which it empties into the Arkansas. The trail by the Upper Arkansas pursued by General Kearny was much shorter.
311 : 6. Price's Missouri regiment. The force under Colonel Sterling Price, who had recently resigned his seat in Con- gress as a representative from Missouri to enter the war, was made up of one Missouri regiment of cavalry, one mounted extra battalion, and one battalion of Mormon infantry-in all, twelve hundred men, with several pieces of artillery.
311 : 20. Doniphan's regiment. In October, 1846, Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, then in command of all the American forces in New Mexico, was ordered by General Kearny to invade the rich country of the Navajo Indians on the western and northern borders of New Mexico, and punish them for recent depredations on the frontier settle- ments of the territory, where they had driven away ten thousand cattle, killed seven or eight men, and taken many women and children captives.
362
NOTES
311 : 24. Sacramento. A river of Mexico, from a rocky hill on the banks of which Colonel Doniphan, with a force of 500 Americans, dislodged 4220 Mexicans.
312 : 8. Chihuahua. Capital of the Mexican province of the same name; which Colonel Doniphan, after the suc- cessful issue of his expedition against the Navajos, was sent to reduce.
313 : 13. Springfield carbines. Short, light muskets or rifles, from the United States armory at Springfield, Mass., much used by cavalry in the '40's.
317 : 32. puerile. Silly.
320 : 25. perturbation. Disquietude; trouble.
322 : 7. cavalcade. A procession of horsemen.
323 : 31. carriages. The vehicles mentioned in Chapter I. as " large wagons of a peculiar form for the Santa Fé trade."
330 : 23. fusillade. A simultaneous discharge of fire- arms.
333 : 36. Kansas Landing. Now Kansas City.
334 : 29. Planters' House. The best known of the old hotels of St. Louis, now occupying a new building on the old site.
335 : 42. railroads and steamboats. The first railroad to reach the Mississippi - at Rock Island - was not completed to that point till 1854 - eight years after the return of Parkman from his journey to the Rockies.
Printed in the United States of America.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.