USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 7
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Early in the morning after we reached the Platte, a long procession of squalid savages approached our camp. Each was on foot, leading his horse by a rope of bull-hide. His attire consisted merely of a scanty cinctureº and an old buffalo robe, tattered and begrimed by use, which hung
go over his shoulders. His head was close shaven, except a ridge of hair reaching over the crown from the center of
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THE PLATTE AND THE DESERT
the forehead, very much like the long bristles on the back of a hyena, and he carried his bow and arrows in his hand, while his meager little horse was laden with dried buffalo meat, the produce of his hunting. Such were the first specimens that we met - and very indifferent ones they 5 were - of the genuine savages of the prairie.
They were the Pawnees whom Kearsley had encoun- tered the day before, and belonged to a large hunting party known to be ranging the prairie in the vicinity. They strode rapidly past, within a furlong of our tents, 10 not pausing or looking toward us, after the manner of In- dians when meditating mischief or conscious of ill-desert. I went out and met them; and had an amicable confer- ence with the chief, presenting him with half a pound of tobacco, at which unmerited bounty he expressed much 15 gratification. These fellows, or some of their companions, had committed a dastardly outrage upon an emigrant party in advance of us. Two men, out on horseback at a distance, were seized by them, but lashing their horses, they broke loose and fled. At this the Pawnees raised the 20 yell and shot at them, transfixing the hindermost through the back with several arrows, while his companion gal- loped away and brought in the news to his party. The panic-stricken emigrants remained for several days in camp, not daring to even send out in quest of the dead body. 25
The reader will recollect Turner, the man whose nar- row escape was mentioned not long since. We heard that the men, whom the entreaties of his wife induced to go in search of him, found him leisurely driving along his re- covered oxen, and whistling in utter contempt of the Pawnee 35 nation. His party was encamped within two miles of us; but we passed them that morning, while the men were driving in the oxen, and the women packing their domestic utensils and their numerous offspring in the spacious patri- archal wagons. As we looked back we saw their caravan 35 dragging its slow length along the plain; wearily toiling on its way, to found new empires in the West.
Our New England climate is mild and equable compared with that of the Platte. This very morning, for instance, was close and sultry, the sun rising with a faint oppressive 40 heat; when suddenly darkness gathered in the west, and
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THE OREGON TRAIL
a furious blast of sleet and hail drove full in our faces, icy cold, and urged with such demoniac vehemence that it felt like a storm of needles. It was curious to see the horses; they faced about in extreme displeasure, holding 5 their tails like whipped dogs, and shivering as the angry gusts, howling louder than a concert of wolves, swept over us. Wright's long train of inules came sweeping round before the storm like a flight of brown snowbirds driven by a winter tempest. Thus we all remained sta- Io tionary for some minutes, crouching close to our horses' necks, much too surly to speak, though once the captain looked up from between the collars of his coat, his face blood-red, and the muscles of his mouth contracted by the cold into a most ludicrous grin of agony. He grumbled 15 something that sounded like a curse, directed, as we believed, against the unhappy hour when he had first thought of leaving home. The thing was too good to last long; and the instant the puffs of wind subsided we erected our tents, and remained in camp for the rest of a gloomy and lowering 30 day. The emnigrants also encamped near at hand. We, being first on the ground, had appropriated all the wood within reach; so that our fire alone blazed cheerily. Around it soon gathered a group of uncouth figures, shivering in the drizzling rain. Conspicuous among them were two 25 or three of the half-savage men who spend their reckless lives in trapping among the Rocky mountains, or in trading for the fur company in the Indian villages. They were all of Canadian extraction; their hard, weather-beaten faces and bushy mustaches looked out from beneath the hoods 30 of their white capôtesº with a bad and brutish expression, as if their owner might be the willing agent of any villainy. And such in fact is the character of many of these men.
On the day following we overtook Kearsley's wagons, and thenceforward, for a week or two, we were fellow- 35 travelers. Que good effect, at least, resulted from the alliance; it materially diminished the serious fatigue of standing guard; for the party being now more numerous, there were longer intervals between each man's turns of duty.
CHAPTER VII
THE BUFFALO
FOUR days on the Platte, and yet no buffalo! Last year's signs of them were provokingly abundant; and wood being extremely scarce, we found an admirable substitute in the bois de vache,º which burns exactly like peat, producing no unpleasant effects. The wagons one 5 morning had left the camp; Shaw and I were already on horseback, but Henry Chatillon still sat cross-legged by the dead embers of the fire, playing pensively with the. lock of his rifle, while his sturdy Wyandot pony stood quietly behind him, looking over his head. At last he got Io up, patted the neck of the pony (whom, from an exagger- ated appreciation of his merits, he had christened Five Hundred Dollar), and then mounted with a melancholy air.
" What is it, Henry ?" I5
"Ah, I feel lonesome; I never been here before; but I see away yonder over the buttes,° and down there on the prairie, black - all black with buffalo !"
In the afternoon he and I left the party in search of an antelope; until at the distance of a mile or two on the 20 right, the tall white wagonsº and the little black specks of horsemen were just visible, so slowly advancing that they seemed motionless; and far on the left rose the broken line of scorched, desolate sand-hills. The vast plain waved with tall rank grass that swept our horses' bellies; 25 it swayed to and fro in billows with the light breeze, and far and near antelope and wolves were moving through it, the hairy backs of the latter alternately appearing and disappearing as they bounded awkwardly along: while the antelope, with the simple curiosity peculiar to them, 30 would often approach us closely, their little horns and white throats just visible above the grass tops, as they gazed eagerly at us with their round black eyes.
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THE OREGON TRAIL
I dismounted, and amused myself with firing at the wolves. Henry attentively scrutinized the surrounding landscape; at length he gave a shout, and called on me to mount again, pointing in the direction of the sand-hills. 5 A mile and a half from us, two minute black specks slowly traversed the face of one of the bare glaring declivities, and disappeared behind the summit. "Let us go !" cried Henry, belaboring the sides of Five Hundred Dollar; and I following in his wake, we galloped rapidly through the :c rank grass toward the base of the hills.
From one of their openings descended a deep ravine, widening as it issued on the prairie. We entered it, and galloping up, in a moment were surrounded by the bleak sand-hills. Half of their steep sides were bare; the rest 15 were scantily clothed with clumps of grass, and various uncouth plants, conspicuous among which appeared the reptile-like prickly-pear. They were gashed with number- less ravines; and as the sky had suddenly darkened, and a cold gusty wind arisen, the strange shrubs and the dreary 20 hills looked doubly wild and desolate. But Henry's face was all eagerness. He tore off a little hair from the piece of buffalo robe under his saddle, and threw it up, to show the course of the wind. It blew directly before us. The game were therefore to windward, and it was necessary 25 to make our best speed to get round them.
We scrambled from this ravine, and galloping away through the hollows, soon found another, winding like a snake among the hills, and so deep that it completely con- cealed us. We rode up the bottom of it, glancing through 30 the shrubbery at its edge, till Henry abruptly jerked his rein, and slid out of his saddle. Full a quarter of a mile distant, on the outline of the farthest hill, a long procession of buffalo were walking, in Indian file, with the utmost gravity and deliberation; then more appeared, clambering 35 from a hollow not far off, and ascending, one behind the other, the grassy slope of another hill; then a shaggy head and a pair of short broken horns appeared issuing out of a ravine close at hand, and with a slow, stately step, one by one, the enormous brutes came into view, taking their 40 way across the valley, wholly unconscious of an enemy.
In a moment Henry was worming his way, lying flat on
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THE BUFFALO
the ground, through grass and prickly-pears,° toward his unsuspecting victims. He had with him both my rifle and his own. He was soon out of sight, and still the buffalo kept issuing into the valley. For a long time all was silent; I sat holding his horse, and wondering what 5 he was about, when suddenly, in rapid succession, came the sharp reports of the two rifles, and the whole line of buffalo, quickening their pace into a clumsy trot, gradually disappeared over the ridge of the hill. Henry rose to his feet, and stood looking after them.
"You have missed them," said I.
"Yes," said Henry; "let us go." He descended into the ravine, loaded the rifles, and mounted his horse.
We rode up the hill after the buffalo. The herd was out of sight when we reached the top, but lying on the 15 grass not far off, was one quite lifeless, and another vio- lently struggling in the death agony.
"You see I miss him !" remarked Henry. He had fired from a distance of more than a hundred and fifty yards, and both balls had passed through the lungs - the true mark in 20 shooting buffalo.
The darkness increased, and a driving storm came on. Tying our horses to the horns of the victims, Henry began the bloody work of dissection, slashing away with the science of a connoisseur, while I vainly endeavored to 25 imitate him. Old Hendrick recoiled with horror and in- dignation when I endeavored to tie the meat to the strings of rawhide, always carried for this purpose, dangling at the back of the saddle. After some difficulty we overcame his scruples; and heavily burdened with the more eligible 30 portions of the buffalo, we set out on our return. Scarcely had we emerged from the labyrinth of gorges and ravines, and issued upon the open prairie, when the pricking sleet came driving, gust upon gust, directly in our faces. It was strangely dark, though wanting still an hour of sun- 35 set. The freezing storm soon penetrated to the skin, but the uneasy trot of our heavy-gaited horses kept us warm enough, as we forced them unwillingly in the teeth of the sleet and rain, by the powerful suasion of our Indian whips. The prairie in this place was hard and level. A 40 flourishing colony of prairie dogs had burrowed into it in
IO
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THE OREGON TRAIL
every direction, and the little mounds of fresh earth around their holes were about as numerous as the hills in a corn- field; but not a yelp was to be heard; not the nose of a single citizen was visible; all had retired to the depths of 5 their burrows, and we envied thein their dry and com- fortable habitations. An hour's hard riding showed us our tent dimly looming through the storm, one side puffed out by the force of the wind, and the other collapsed in pro- portion, while the disconsolate horses stood shivering close Io around, and the wind kept up a dismal whistling in the boughs of three old half-dead trees above. Shaw, like a patriarch, sat on his saddle in the entrance, with a pipe in his mouth, and his arms folded, contemplating, with cool satisfaction, the piles of meat that we flung on the 15 ground before him. A dark and dreary night succeeded; but the sun rose with a heat so sultry and languid that the captain excused himself on that account from waylaying an old buffalo bull, who with stupid gravity was walking over the prairie to drink at the river. So much for the 20 climate of the Platte I
But it was not the weather alone that had produced this sudden abatement of the sportsmanlike zeal which the cap- tain had always professed. He had been out on the after- noon before, together with several members of his party; 25 but their hunting was attended with no other result than the loss of one of their best horses, severely injured by Sorel, in vainly chasing a wounded bull. The captain, whose ideas of hard riding were all derived from trans- atlantic sources, expressed the utmost amazement at the 30 feats of Sorel, who went leaping ravines, and dashing at full speed up and down the sides of precipitous hills, lash- ing his horse with the recklessness of a Rocky Mountain rider. Unfortunately for the poor animal, he was the prop- erty of R., against whoin Sorel entertained an unbounded 35 aversion. The captain himself, it seemed, had also at- tempted to "run" a buffalo, but though a good and prac- ticed horseman, he had soon given over the attempt, being astonished and utterly disgusted at the nature of the ground he was required to ride over.
40 Nothing unusual occurred on that day; but on the fol- lowing morning Henry Chatillon, looking over the oceanlike
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THE BUFFALO
expanse, saw near the foot of the distant hills something that looked like a band of buffalo. He was not sure, he said, but at all events, if they were buffalo, there was a fine chance for a race. Shaw and I at once determined to try the speed of our horses.
"Come, captain; we'll see which can ride hardest, a Yankee or an Irishman."
But the captain maintained a grave and austere counte- nance. He mounted his led horse, however, though very slowly; and we set out at a trot. The game appeared about Io three miles distant. As we proceeded the captain made various remarks of doubt and indecision; and at length de- clared he would have nothing to do with such a breakneck business; protesting that he had ridden plenty of steeple- chases in his day, but he never knew what riding was till 15 he found himself behind a band of buffalo day before yes- terday. "I am convinced," said the captain, "that 'run- ning' is out of the question.º Take my advice now and don't attempt it. It's dangerous, and of no use at all."
"Then why did you come out with us? What do you 20 mean to do ?"
"I shall 'approach,'" replied the captain.
"You don't mean to 'approach' with your pistols, do you ? We have all of us left our rifles in the wagons."
The captain seemed staggered at the suggestion. In 25 his characteristic indecision, at setting out, pistols, rifles, "running," and "approaching" were mingled in an inextri- cable medley in his brain. He trotted on in silence between us for a while; but at length he dropped behind, and slowly walked his horse back to rejoin the party. Shaw and I 30 kept on; when lo! as we advanced, the band of buffalo were transformed into certain clumps of tall bushes, dotting the prairie for a considerable distance. At this ludicrous termination of our chase, we followed the example of our late ally, and turned back toward the party. We were 35 skirting the brink of a deep ravine, when we saw Henry and the broad-chested pony coming toward us at a gallop.
" Here's old Papin and Frederic, down from Fort Lara- mie !" shouted Henry, long before he came up. We had for some days expected this encounter. Papin was the 40 bourgeois of Fort Laramie. He had come down the river
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THE OREGON TRAIL
with the buffalo robes and the beaver, the produce of the last winter's trading. I had among our baggage a letter which I wished to commit to their hands; so requesting Henry to detain the boats if he could until iny return, I set 5 out after the wagons. They were about four miles in ad- vance. In half an hour I overtook them, got the letter, trotted back upon the trail, and looking carefully, as I rode, saw a patch of broken, storm-blasted trees, and moving near them some little black specks like men and horses. to Arriving at the place, I found a strange assembly. The boats, eleven in number, deep-laden with the skins, hugged close to the shore, to escape being borne down by the swift current. The rowers, swarthy ignoble Mexicans, turned their brutish faces upward to look, as I reached the bank.
15 Papin sat in the middle of one of the boats upon the canvas covering that protected the robes. He was a stout, robust fellow, with a little gray eye, that had a peculiarly sly twinkle. "Frederic," also stretched his tall rawboned proportions close by the bourgeois, and "mountain-men "º
20 completed the group; some lounging in the boats, some strolling on shore; some attired in gayly painted buffalo robes, like Indian dandies; some with hair saturated with red paint, and beplastered with glue to their temples; and one bedaubed with vermilion upon his forehead and each 25 cheek. They were a mongrel race; yet the French blood seemed to predominate; in a few, indeed, might be seen the black snaky eye of the Indian half-breed, and one and all, they seemed to aim at assimilating themselves to their savage associates.
30 I shook hands with the bourgeois, and delivered the letter; then the boats swung round into the stream and floated away. They had reason for haste, for already the voyage from Fort Laramie had occupied a full month, and the river was growing daily more shallow. Fifty times a day 35 the boats had been aground; indeed, those who navigate the Platte invariably spend half their time upon sand-bars. Two of these boats, the property of private traders, after- ward separating from the rest, got hopelessly involved in the shallows, not very far from the Pawnee villages, and 40 were soon surrounded by a swarm of the inhabitants. They carried off everything that they considered valuable, includ-
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THE BUFFALO
ing most of the robes; and amused themselves by tying up the men left on guard, and soundly whipping them with sticks.
We encamped that night upon the bank of the river. Among the emigrants there was an overgrown boy, some 5 eighteen years old, with a head as round and about as large as a pumpkin, and fever-and-ague fits had dyed his face of a corresponding color. He wore an old white hat, tied under his chin with a handkerchief; his body was short and stout, but his legs of disproportioned and appalling length. 10 I observed him at sunset, breasting the hill with gigantic strides, and standing against the sky on the summit, like a colossal pair of tongs. In a moment after we heard him screaming frantically behind the ridge, and nothing doubt- ing that he was in the clutches of Indians or grizzly bears, 15 some of the party caught up their rifles and ran to the rescue. 'His outcries, however, proved .but an ebullitionº of joyous excitement; he had chased two little wolf pups to their burrow, and he was on his knees, grubbing away like a dog at the mouth of the hole, to get at them. 20
Before morning he caused more serious disquiet in the camp. It was his turn to hold the middle guard; but no sooner was he called up, than he coolly arranged a pair of saddle-bags under a wagon, laid his head upon them, closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and fell asleep. The guard on 25 our side of the camp, thinking it no part of his duty to look after the cattle of the emigrants, contented himself with watching our own horses and mnules; the wolves, he said, were unusually noisy; but still no mischief was anticipated until the sun rose, and not a hoof or horn was in sight ! 30 The cattle were gone ! While Tom was quietly slumbering, the wolves had driven them away.
Then we reaped the fruits of R.'s precious plan of travel- ing in company with emigrants. To leave them in their distress was not to be thought of, and we felt bound to 35 wait until the cattle could be searched for, and, if pos- sible, recovered. But the reader may be curious to know what punishment awaited the faithless Tom: By the wholesome law of the prairie, he who falls asleep on guard is condemned to walk all day, leading his horse by the 40 bridle, and we found much fault with our companions for
F
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THE OREGON TRAIL
not enforcing such a sentence on the offender. Never- theless, had he been of our own party, I have no doubt he would in like manner have escaped scot-free. But the emigrants went farther than mere forbearance: they de- 5 creed that since Tom couldn't stand guard without falling asleep, he shouldn't stand guard at all, and henceforward his slumbers were unbroken. Establishing such a premium on drowsiness could have no very beneficial effect upon the vigilance of our sentinels; for it is far from agreeable, after Io riding from sunrise to sunset, to feel your slumbers inter- rupted by the butt of a rifle nudging your side, and a sleepy voice growling in your car that you must get up, to shiver and freeze for three weary hours at midnight.
" Buffalo ! buffalo !" It was but a grim old bull, roam- 15 ing the prairie by himself in misanthropic seclusion; but there might be more behind the hills. Dreading the mo- notony and languor of the camp, Shaw and I saddled our horses, buckled our holsters in their places, and set out with Henry Chatillon in search of the game. Henry, not 20 intending to take part in the chase, but merely conducting us, carried his rifle with him, while we left ours behind as incumbrances. We rode for some five or six miles, and saw no living thing but wolves, snakes, and prairie dogs.
" This won't do at all," said Shaw.
25 " What won't do ?"
"There's no wood about here to make a litter for the wounded man; I have an idea that one of us will need something of the sort before the day is over."
There was some foundation for such an apprehension, 3º for the ground was none of the best for a race, and grew worse continually as we proceeded; indeed it soon became desperately bad, consisting of abrupt hills and deep hol- lows, cut by frequent ravines not easy to pass. At length, a mile in advance, we saw a band of bulls. Some were 35 scattered grazing over a green declivity, while the rest were crowded more densely together in the wide hollow below. Making a circuit to keep out of sight, we rode toward them until we ascended a hill within a furlong of them, beyond which nothing intervened that could 40 possibly screen us from their view. We dismounted be- hind the ridge just out of sight, drew our saddle-girths,
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THE BUFFALO
examined our pistols, and mounting again rode over the hill, and descended at a canter toward them, bending close to our horses' necks. Instantly they took the alarm; those on the hill descended; those below gathered into a mass, and the whole got in motion, shouldering each 5 other along at a clumsy gallop. We followed, spurring our horses to full speed; and as the herd rushed, crowd- ing and trampling in terror through an opening in the hills, we were close at their heels, half suffocated by the clouds of dust. But as we drew near, their alarm and Ic speed increased; our horses showed signs of the utmost fear, bounding violently aside as we approached, and re- fusing to enter among the herd. The buffalo now broke into several small bodies, scampering over the hills in different directions, and I lost sight of Shaw; neither of us 15 knew where the other had gone. Old Pontiac ran like a frantic elephant up hill and down hill, his ponderous hoofs striking the prairie like sledge-haminers. He showed a curious mixture of eagerness and terror, straining to overtake the panic-stricken herd, but constantly recoiling 20 in dismay as we drew near. The fugitives, indeed, offered no very attractive spectacle, with their enormous size and weight, their shaggy manes and the tattered remnants of their last winter's hair covering their backs in irregular shreds and patches, and flying off in the wind as they ran. 25 At length I urged my horse close behind a bull, and after trying in vain, by blows and spurring, to bring him along- side, I shot a bullet into the buffalo from this disadvanta- geous position. At the report, Pontiac swerved so much that I was again thrown a little behind the game. The 30 bullet, entering too much in the rear, failed to disable the bull, for a buffalo requires to be shot at particular points, or he will certainly escape. The herd ran up a hill, and I followed in pursuit. As Pontiac rushed headlong down on the other side, I saw Shaw and Henry descending the 35 hollow on the right, at a leisurely gallop; and in front, the buffalo were just disappearing behind the crest of the next hill, their short tails erect, and their hoofs twinkling through a cloud of dust.
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