USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 5
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"Any chance for a bath, where you are?" called out Shaw, from a distance.
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The answer was not encouraging. 1 retreated through the willows, and rejoining my companion, we proceeded to push our researches in company. Not far on the right, a rising ground, covered with trees and bushes, seemed to sink down abruptly to the water, and give hope of 40 better success; so toward this we directed our steps.
D
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THE OREGON TRAIL
When we reached the place we found it no easy matter to get along between the hill and the water, impeded as we were by a growth of stiff, obstinate young birch trees, laced together by grape-vines. In the twilight, we now 5 and then, to support ourselves, snatched at the touch-me- not stem of some ancient sweet-brier. Shaw, who was in advance, suddenly uttered a somewhat emphatic monosyl- lable; and looking up I saw him with one hand grasping a sapling, and one foot immersed in the water, from which Io he had forgotten to withdraw it, his whole attention being engaged in contemplating the movements of a water- snake, about five feet long, curiously checkered with black and green, who was deliberately swimming across the pool. There being no stick or stone at hand to pelt him with, we 15 looked at him for a time in silent disgust; and then pushed forward. Our perseverance was at last rewarded; for several rods farther on, we emerged upon a little level grassy nook among the brushwood, and by an extraordi- nary dispensation of fortune, the weeds and floating sticks, 20 which elsewhere covered the pool, seemed to have drawn apart, and left a few yards of clear water just in front of this favored spot. We sounded it with a stick; it was four feet deep; we lifted a specimen in our closed hands; it seemed reasonably transparent, so we decided that the 25 time for action was arrived. But our ablutions were sud- denly interrupted by ten thousand punctures, like poisoned needles, and the humming of myriads of overgrown mos- quitoes, rising in all directions from their native mud and slime and swarming to the feast. We were fain to beat a 3º retreat with all possible speed.
We made toward the tents, much refreshed by the bath, which the heat of the weather, joined to our prejudices, had rendered very desirable.
" What's the matter with the captain ? Look at him !" 35 said Shaw. The captain stood alone on the prairie, swing- ing his hat violently around his head, and lifting first one foot and then the other, without moving from the spot. First he looked down to the ground with an air of supreme abhorrence; then he gazed upward with a perplexed and 40 indignant countenance, as if trying to trace the flight of an unseen enemy. We called to know what was the mat-
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THE "BIG BLUE"
ter; but he replied only by execrations directed against some unknown object. We approached, when our ears were saluted by a droning sound, as if twenty bee-hives had been overturned at once. The air above was full of large black insects, in a state of great commotion, and 5 multitudes were flying about just above the tops of the grass blades.
" Don't be afraid," called the captain, observing us recoil. "The brutes won't sting."
At this I knocked one down with my hat, and discovered 10 him to be no other than a "dor-bug"; and looking closer, we found the ground thickly perforated with their holes.
We took a hasty leave of this flourishing colony, and walking up the rising ground to the tents, found Deslauriers' We sat down around it, and 15 fire still glowing brightly. Shaw began to expatiate on the admirable facilities for bathing that we had discovered, and recommended the captain by all means to go down there before breakfast in the morning. The captain was in the act of remarking that he couldn't have believed it possible, when he sud- 20 denly interrupted himself, and clapped his hand to his cheek, exclaiming that "those infernal humbugs were at him again." In fact, we began to hear sounds as if bullets were humming over our heads. In a moment some- thing rapped me sharply on the forehead, then upon the 25 neck, and immediately I felt an indefinite number of sharp wiry claws in active motion, as if their owner were bent on pushing his explorations farther. I seized him, and dropped him into the fire. Our party speedily broke up, and we adjourned to our respective tents, where, closing the open- 30 ing fast, we hoped to be exempt from invasion. But all precaution was fruitless. The dor-bugs hummed through the tent, and marched over our faces until daylight; when, opening our blankets, we found several dozen clinging there with the utmost tenacity. The first object that met our 35 eyes in the morning was Deslauriers, who seemed to be apostrophizing his frying pan, which he held by the handle at arın's length. It appeared that he had left it at night by the fire; and the bottom was now covered with dor-bugs, firmly imbedded. Multitudes besides, curiously parched and 40 shriveled, lay scattered among the ashes.
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THE OREGON TRAIL
The horses and mules were turned loose to feed. We had just taken our seats at breakfast, or rather reclined in the classic mode, when an exclamation from Henry Cha- tillon, and a shout of aların from the captain, gave warn- sing of some casualty, and looking up, we saw the whole band of animals, twenty-three in number, filing off for the settlements, the incorrigible Pontiac at their head, jumping along with hobbled feet, at a gait much more rapid than graceful. Three or four of us ran to cut them Io off, dashing as best we might through the tall grass, which
was glittering with myriads of dewdrops. After a race of a mile or more, Shaw caught a horse. Tying the trail- rope by way of bridle round the animal's jaw, and leaping upon his back, he got in advance of the remaining fugi- 15 tives, while we, soon bringing them together, drove them in a crowd up to the tents, where each man caught and saddled his own. Then were heard lamentations and curses; for half the horses had broken their hobbles, and many were seriously galled by attempting to run in fetters.
20 It was late that morning before we were on the march; and carly in the afternoon we were compelled to encamp, for a thunder-gust came up and suddenly enveloped us in whirling sheets of rain. With much ado, we pitched our tents amid the tempest, and all night long the thunder 25 bellowed and growled over our heads. In the morning, light peaceful showers succeeded the cataracts of rain, that had been drenching us through the canvas of our tents. About noon, when there were 'some treacherous indications of fair weather, we got in motion again.
30 Not a breath of air stirred over the free and open prairie : the clouds were like light piles of cotton; and where the blue sky was visible, it wore a hazy and languid aspect. The sun beat down upon us with a sultry penetrating heat almost insupportable, and as our party crept slowly along 35 over the interminable level, the horses hung their heads as they waded fetloek deep through the mud, and the inen słouched into the easiest position upon the saddle. At last, toward evening, the old familiar black heads of thunder- clouds rose fast above the horizon, and the same deep mut- 40 tering of distant thunder that had become the ordinary accompaniment of our afternoon's journey began to roll
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THE "BIG BLUE"
hoarsely over the prairie. Only a few minutes elapsed before the whole sky was densely shrouded, and the prairie and some clusters of woods in front assumed a purple hue beneath the inky shadows. Suddenly from the densest fold of the cloud the flash leaped out, quivering again and 5 again down to the edge of the prairie; and at the same instant came the sharp burst and the long rolling peal of the thunder. A cool wind, filled with the smell of rain, just then overtook us, leveling the tall grass by the side of the path.
IO
"Come on; we must ride for it!" shouted Shaw, rush- ing past at full speed, his led horse snorting at his side. The whole party broke into full gallop, and made for the trees in front. Passing these, we found beyond them a meadow which they half inclosed. We rode pell-mell 15 upon the ground, leaped from horseback, tore off our sad- dles, and in a moment each man was kneeling at his horse's feet. The hobbles were adjusted and the animals turned loose; then, as the wagons came wheeling rapidly to the spot, we seized upon the tent-poles, and just as the 20 storm broke, we were prepared to receive it. It came upon us almost with the darkness of night; the trees, which were close at hand, were completely shrouded by the roaring torrents of rain.
We were sitting in the tent, when Deslauriers, with his 25 broad felt hat hanging about his ears, and his shoulders glistening with rain, thrust in his head.
" Voulez-vous du souper, tout de suite ? I can make a fire, sous la charetteº - I b'lieve so -- I try."
"Never mind supper, man; come in out of the rain." 30
Deslauriers accordingly crouched in the entrance, for modesty would not permit him to intrude farther.
Our tent was none of the best defense against such a cataract. The rain could not enter bodily, but it beat through the canvas in a fine drizzle, that wetted us just as 35 effectually. We sat upon our saddles with faces of the utmost surliness, while the water dropped from the vizors of our caps, and trickled down our cheeks. My india- rubber cloak conducted twenty little rapid streamlets to the ground; and Shaw's blanket-coat was saturated like a 40 sponge. But what most concerned us was the sight of
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THE OREGON TRAIL
several puddles of water rapidly accumulating; one in particular, that was gathering around the tent-pole, threat- ened to overspread the whole area within the tent, hold- ing forth but an indifferent promise of a comfortable 5 night's rest. Toward sunset, however, the storm ceased as suddenly as it began. A bright streak of clear red sky appeared above the western verge of the prairie, the hori- zontal rays of the sinking sun streamed through it and glittered in a thousand prismatic colors upon the dripping Io groves and the prostrate grass. The pools in the tent dwindled and sunk into the saturated soil.
But all our hopes were delusive. Scarcely had night set in, when the tumult broke forth anew. The thunder here is not like the tame thunder of the Atlantic coast. 15 Bursting with a terrific crash directly above our heads, it roared over the boundless waste of prairie, seeming to roll around the whole circle of the firmament with a peculiar and awful reverberation. The lightning flashed all night, playing with its livid glare upon the neighboring trees, 20 revealing the vast expanse of the plain, and then leaving us shut in as by a palpable wall of darkness.
It did not disturb us much. Now and then a peal awak- ened us, and made us conscious of the electric battle that was raging, and of the floods that dashed upon the stanch 25 canvas over our heads. We lay upon india-rubber cloths, placed between our blankets and the soil. For a while they excluded the water to admiration; but when at length it accumulated and began to run over the edges, they served equally well to retain it, so that toward the end of the night 3º we were unconsciously reposing in small pools of rain.
On finally awaking in the morning the prospect was not a cheerful one. The rain no longer poured in torrents; but it pattered with a quiet pertinacity upon the strained and saturated canvas. We disengaged ourselves from 35 our blankets, every fiber of which glistened with little bead- like drops of water, and looked out in vain hope of dis- covering some token of fair weather. The clouds, in lead- colored volumes, rested upon the dismal verge of the prairie, or hung sluggishly overhead, while the earth wore an aspect 40 no more attractive than the heavens, exhibiting nothing but pools of water, grass beaten down, and mud well
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THE "BIG BLUE"
trampled by our mules and horses. Our companions' tent, with an air of forlorn and passive misery, and their wagons in like manner, drenched and woe-begone, stood not far off. The captain was just returning from his morning's inspection of the horses. He stalked through 5 the mist and rain, with his plaid around his shoulders; his little pipe, dingy as an antiquarian relic, projecting from beneath his mustache, and his brother Jack at his heels.
"Good-morning, captain."
IO
"Good-morning to your honors," said the captain, affecting the Hibernian accent; but at that instant, as he stooped to enter the tent, he tripped upon the cords at the entrance, and pitched forward against the guns which were strapped around the pole in the center.
"You are nice men, you are !" said he, after an ejacu- lation not necessary to be recorded, "to set a man-trap before your door every morning to catch your visitors."
I5
Then he sat down upon Henry Chatillon's saddle. We tossed a piece of buffalo robe to Jack, who was looking 20 about in some embarrassment. He spread it on the ground, and took his seat, with a stolid countenance, at his brother's side.
"Exhilarating weather, captain !"
"Oh, delightful, 'delightful !" replied the captain. "I 25 knew it would be so; so much for starting yesterday at noon! I knew how it would turn out; and I said so at the time."
"You said just the contrary to us. We were in no hurry, and only moved because you insisted on it."
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"Gentlemen," said the captain, taking his pipe from his mouth with an air of extreme gravity, "it was no plan of mine. There is a man among us who is determined to have everything his own way. You may express your opinion; but don't expect him to listen. You may be as 35 reasonable as you like; oh, it all goes for nothing! That man is resolved to rule the roost, and he'll set his face against any plan that he didn't think of himself."
The captain puffed for a while at his pipe, as if meditat- ing upon his grievances; then he began again:
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"For twenty years I have been in the British army;
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THE OREGON TRAIL
and in all that time I never had half so much dissension, and quarreling, and nonsense, as since I have been on this cursed prairie. He's the most uncomfortable man l ever inet."
5 "Yes," said Jack; "and don't you know, Bill, how he drank up all the coffee last night, and put the rest by for himself till the morning !"
" He pretends to know everything," resumed the captain ; "nobody must give orders but him! It's, oh! we must Io do this; and, oh! we must do that; and the tent must be pitched here, and the horses must be picketed there; for nobody knows as well as he does."
We were a little surprised at this disclosure of domestic dissensions among our allies, for though we knew of their 15 existence, we were not aware of their extent. The per- secuted captain seeming wholly at a loss as to the course of conduct that he should pursue, we recommended him to adopt prompt and energetic measures; but all his mili- tary experience had failed to teach him the indispensable 20 lesson to be "hard," when the emergency requires it.
"For twenty years," he repeated, "I have been in the British army, and in that time I have been intimately acquainted with some two hundred officers, young and old, and I never yet, quarreled with any man. Oh, 'anything 25 for a quiet life !' that's my maxim."
We intimated that the prairie was hardly the place to enjoy a quiet life, but that, in the present circumstances, the best thing he could do toward securing his wished-for tranquillity, was immediately to put a period to the nui- 30 sance that disturbed it. But again the captain's easy good-nature recoiled from the task. The somewhat vigor- ous measures necessary to gain the desired result were utterly repugnant to him; he preferred to pocket his grier- ances, still retaining the privilege of grumbling about
35 them. "Oh, anything for a quiet life !" he said again, circling back to his favorite maxim.
But to glance at the previous history of our transatlantic confederates. The captain had sold his commission, and was living in bachelor ease and dignity in his paternal halls, 40 near Dublin.º He hunted, fished, rode steeple-chases, ran races, and talked of his former exploits. He was
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THE "BIG BLUE "
surrounded with the trophies of his rod and gun; the walls were plentifully garnished, he told us, with moose-horns and deer-horns, bear-skins and fox-tails; for the captain's double-barreled rifle had seen service in Canada and Jamaica; he had killed salmon in Nova Scotia, and trout, 5 by his own account, in all the streams of the three king- doms. But in an evil hour a seductive stranger came from London; no less a person than R., who, among other multitudinous wanderings, had once been upon the western prairies, and naturally enough was anxious to Io visit them again. The captain's imagination was inflamed by the pictures of a hunter's paradise that his guest held forth; he conceived an ambition to add to his other tro- phies the horns of a buffalo, and the claws of a grizzly bear; so he and R. struck a league to travel in company. 15 Jack followed his brother, as a matter of course. Two weeks on board the Atlantic steamer brought them to Boston; in two weeks more of hard traveling they reached St. Louis, from which a ride of six days carried them to the frontier; and here we found them, in the full tide of 20 preparation for their journey.
We had been throughout on terms of intimacy with the captain, but R., the motive power of our companions' branch of the expedition, was scarcely known to us. His voice, indeed, might be heard incessantly; but at camp he 25 remained chiefly within the tent, and on the road he either rode by himself, or else remained in close conversation with his friend Wright, the muleteer. As the captain left the tent that morning, I observed R. standing by the fire, and having nothing else to do, I determined to ascertain, if 30 possible, what manner of man he was. He had a book under his arm, but just at present he was engrossed in actively superintending the operations of Sorel, the hunter, who was cooking some corn-bread over the coals for break- fast. R. was a well-formed and rather good-looking man, 35 some thirty years old; considerably younger than the captain. He wore a beard and mustache of the oakum complexion, and his attire was altogether more elegant than one ordinarily sees on the prairie. He wore his cap on one side of his head; his checked shirt, open in front, 40 was in very neat order, considering the circumstances, and
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THE OREGON TRAIL
his blue pantaloons, of the John Bull cut, might once have figured in Bond street.º
"Turn over that cake, man ! turn it over, quick ! Don't you see it burning ?"
5 " It ain't half done," growled Sorel, in the amiable tone of a whipped bull-dog.
"It is. Turn it over, I tell you !"
Sorel, a strong, sullen-looking Canadian, who, from having spent his life among the wildest and most remote Io of the Indian tribes, had imbibed much of their dark, vindictive spirit, looked ferociously up, as if he longed to leap upon his bourgeois and throttle him; but he obeyed the order, coming from so experienced an artist.
"It was a good idea of yours," said I, seating myself 15 on the tongue of a wagon, "to bring Indian meal with you." "
" Yes, yes," said R., "it's good bread for the prairie - good bread for the prairie. I tell you that's burning again."
Here he stooped down, and unsheathing the silver- 20 mounted hunting-knife in his belt, began to perform the part of cook himself; at the same time requesting me to hold for a moment the book under his arm, which in- terfered with the exercise of these important functions. I opened it; it was Macaulay's Laysº; and I made some 25 remark, expressing my admiration of the work.
"Yes, yes; a pretty good thing. Macaulay can do better than that, though. I know him very well. I have traveled with him. Where was it we first met -at Da- mascusº? No, no; it was in Italy."
30 "So," said I, "you have been over the same ground with your countryman, the author of 'Eothen'º? There has been some discussion in America as to who he is. I have heard Milne's name mentioned."
" Milne's? Oh, no, no, no; not at all. It was King- 30 lake; Kinglake's the man. I know him very well; that is, I have seen him."
Here Jack C., who stood by, interposed a remark (a thing not common with him), observing that he thought the weather would become fair before twelve o'clock.
40 " It's going to rain all day," said R., "and clear up in the middle of the night."
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THE "BIG BLUE"
Just then the clouds began to dissipate in a very un- equivocal manner; but Jack, not caring to defend his point against so authoritative a declaration, walked away whistling, and we resumed our conversation.
"Borrow," the author of 'The Bible in Spain,' I presume 5 you know him, too ?"
" Oh, certainly; I know all those men. By the way, they told me that one of your American writers, Judge Story,° had died lately. I edited some of his works in London; not without faults, though."
IO
Here followed an erudite commentary on certain points of law, in which he particularly animadverted on the errors into which he considered that the judge had been betrayed. At length, having touched successively on an infinite variety of topics, I found that I had the happiness. 15 of discovering a man equally competent to enlighten me upon them all, equally an authority on matters of science or literature, philosophy or fashion. The part I bore in the conversation was by no means a prominent one; it was only necessary to set him going, and when he had 20 run long enough upon one topic, to divert him to another and lead him on to pour out his heaps of treasure in suc- cession.
" What has that fellow been saying to you ?" said Shaw, as I returned to the tent. "I have heard nothing but his 25 talking for the last half-hour."
R. had none of the peculiar traits of the ordinary "British snob"º; his absurdities were all his own, belonging to no particular nation or clime. He was possessed with an active devil that had driven him over land and sea, to no great pur- 30 pose, as it seemed ; for although he had the usual complement of eyes and ears, the avenues between these organs and his brain appeared remarkably narrow and untrodden. His energy was much more conspicuous than his wisdom; but his predominant characteristic was a magnanimous am- 35 bition to exercise on all occasions an awful rule and su- premacy, and this propensity equally displayed itself, as the reader will have observed, whether the matter in question was the baking of a hoe-cake or a point of international law. When such diverse elements as he and the easy- 40 tempered captain came in contact, no wonder some com-
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THE OREGON TRAIL
motion ensued; R. rode rough-shod, from morning till night, over his military ally.
At noon the sky was clear and we set out, trailing through Inud and slime six inches deep. That night we were spared 5 the customary infliction of the shower bath.
On the next afternoon we were moving slowly along, not far from a patch of woods which lay on the right. Jack C. rode a little in advance ;
The livelong day he had not spoke;
ro when suddenly he faced about, pointed to the woods, and roared out to his brother :
"O Bill, here's a cow !"
The captain instantly galloped forward, and he and Jack made a vain attempt to capture the prize; but the cow, 15 with a well-grounded distrust of their intentions, took refuge among the trees. R. joined them, and they soon drove her out. We watched their evolutions as they galloped around her, trying in vain to noose her with their trail-ropes, which they had converted into lariettesº for the 20 occasion. At length they resorted to milder measures, and the cow was driven along with the party. Soon after the usual thunderstorm came up, the wind blowing with such fury that the streams of rain flew almost hori- zontally along the prairie, roaring like a cataract. The 25 horses turned tail to the storm, and stood hanging their heads, bearing the infliction with an air of meekness and resignation ; while we drew our heads between our shoulders, and crouched forward, so as to make our backs serve as a penthouseº for the rest of our persons. Meanwhile the 30 cow, taking advantage of the tumult, ran off, to the great discomfiture of the captain, who seemed to consider her as his own especial prize, since she had been discovered by Jack. In defiance of the storm, he pulled his cap tight over his brows, jerked a huge buffalo pistol from his holster, 35 and set out at full speed after her. This was the last we saw of them for some time, the mist and rain making an impenetrable veil; but at length we heard the captain's shout, and saw him looming through the tempest, the picture of a Hibernian cavalier,° with his cocked pistol held
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THE "BIG BLUE"
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aloft for safety's sake, and a countenance of anxiety and excitement. The cow trotted before him, but exhibited evident signs of an intention to run off again, and the captain was roaring to us to head her. But the rain had got in behind our coat collars, and was traveling over our necks 5 in numerous little streamlets, and being afraid to move our heads, for fear of admitting more, we sat stiff and im- movable, looking at the captain askance, and laughing at his frantic movements. At last the cow made a sudden plunge and ran off; the captain grasped his pistol firmly, 10 spurred his horse, and galloped after, with evident designs of mischief. In a moment we heard the faint report, deadened by the rain, and then the conqueror and his victim reappeared, the latter shot through the body, and quite
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