 21 The Pueblo and Bentz Fort We approached the gate of the Pueblo. It was a wretched species of fort of most primitive construction, being nothing more than large square enclosures surrounded by a wall of mud, miserably cracked and dilapidated. The slender pickets that surmounted it were half broken down, and the gate dangled on its wooden hinges so loosely that to open or shut it seemed likely to fling it down altogether. Two or three squalid Mexicans with their broad hats and their vile faces overgrown with hair were lounging about the bank of the river in front of it. They disappeared as they saw us approach, and as we rode up to the gate, a light, active little figure came out to meet us. It was our old friend, Richard. He had come from Fort Laramie on a trading expedition to Taos, but finding when he reached the Pueblo that the war would prevent him going farther, he was quietly waiting till the conquest of the country should allow him to proceed. He seemed to consider himself bound to do the honors of the place. Shaking us warmly by the hands, he led the way into the area. Here we saw his large Santa Fe wagon standing together. A few squazz and Spanish women, and a few Mexicans, as mean and miserable as the place itself, were lazily sauntering about. Richard conducted us to the state apartment of the Pueblo, a small mud room, very neatly finished, considering the material, and garnished with a crucifix, a looking glass, a picture of the virgin and a rusty horse pistol. There were no chairs, but instead of them a number of chests and boxes ranged about the room. There was another room beyond, less sumptuously decorated, and here three or four Spanish girls, one of them very pretty, were baking cakes at a mudfire place in the corner. They brought out a poncho which they spread upon the floor by way of tablecloth. A supper which seemed to us luxurious was soon laid out upon it, and folded buffalo robes were placed around it to receive the guests. Two or three Americans besides ourselves were present. We sat down Turkish fashion and began to inquire the news. Richard told us that about three weeks before, General Carney's army had left Betts Fort to march against Santa Fe, that when last heard from they were carrying the mountainous defiles that led to the city. One of the Americans produced a dingy newspaper containing an account of the battles of Palo Alto and Rezaca de la Palma. While we were discussing these matters, the doorway was darkened by a tall, shambling fellow who stood with his hands in his pockets, taking a leisurely survey of the premises before he entered. He wore brown home-spun pantaloons, much too short for his legs, and a bambooy knife stuck in his belt. His head and one eye were enveloped in a huge bandage of white linen. Having completed his observations, he came slouching in and sat down on a chest. Eight or ten more of the same stamp followed, and very coolly arranging themselves about the room began to stare at the company. Shaw and I looked at each other. We were forcibly reminded of the Oregon immigrants, though these unwelcome visitors had a certain glitter of the eye, and a compression of the lips which distinguished them from our old acquaintances in the prairie. They began to cataclyse us at once, inquiring whence we had come, and what we meant to do next, and what were our future prospects in life. The man with the bandaged head had met with an untoward accident a few days before. He was going down to the river to bring water, and was pushing through the young willows, which covered the low ground, when unawares upon a grisly bear, which, having just eaten a buffalo bull, had laid down to sleep off the meal. The bear rose on his hide legs and gave the intruder such a blow with his paw that he laid his forehead entirely bare, clawed off the front of his scalp, and narrowly missed one of his eyes. Fortunately, he was not in a very pugnacious mood, being surfited with his late meal. The man's companions, who were close to him, raised a shout, and the bear walked away, crushing down the willows in his leisurely retreat. These men belonged to a party of Mormons, who, out of a well-grounded fear of the other emigrants, had postponed leaving the settlements until all the rest were gone. On account of this delay, they did not reach Fort Laramie until it was too late to continue their journey to California. Hearing that there was good land at the head of the Arkansas, they crossed over under the guidance of Richard, and were now preparing to spend the winter at a spot about half a mile from the Pueblo. When we took leave of Richard, it was near sunset. Passing out of the gate, we could look down the little valley of the Arkansas, a beautiful scene, and doubly so to our eyes, so long accustomed to deserts and mountains. Tall woods lined the river with green meadows on either hand, and high bluffs quietly basking in the sunlight flanked the narrow valley. A Mexican on horseback was driving a herd of cattle toward the gate, and our little white tent, which the men had pitched under a large tree in the meadow, made a very pleasing feature in the scene. When we reached it, we found that Richard had sent a Mexican to bring us an abundant supply of green corn and vegetables, and invite us to help ourselves to whatever we wished from the fields around the Pueblo. The inhabitants were in daily apprehensions of an inroad from more formidable consumers than ourselves. Every year at the time when the corn begins to ripen, the Arapahos, to the number of several thousands, come and and camp around the Pueblo. The handful of white men who are entirely at the mercy of this swarm of barbarians, choose to make a merit of necessity. They come forward very cordially, shake them by the hand, and intimate that the harvest is entirely at their disposal. The Arapahos take them at their word, help themselves, most liberally, and usually turn their horses into the corn fields afterward. They have the foresight, however, to leave enough of the crops untouched to serve as an inducement for planting the fields again for their benefit in the next spring. The human race in this part of the world is separated into three divisions, arranged in the order of their merits. White men, Indians, and Mexicans, to the latter of whom the honorable title of whites is by no means conceded. In spite of the warm sunset of that evening, the next morning was a dreary and cheerless one. It rained steadily, clouds resting upon the very treetops. We crossed the river to visit the Mormon settlement. As we passed through the water, several trappers on horseback entered it from the other side. Their buckskin frocks were soaked through by the rain and clung fast to their limbs with a most clammy and uncomfortable look. The water was trickling down their faces and dropping from the ends of their rifles and from the traps which each carried at the pommel of his saddle. Horses and all they had a most disconsolate and woe-begone appearance which we could not help laughing at, forgetting how often we ourselves had been in a similar plight. After half an hour's riding, we saw the white wagons of the Mormons drawn up among the trees. Axes were sounding, trees were falling, and log huts going up along the edge of the woods and upon the adjoining meadow. As we came up, the Mormons left their work and seated themselves on the timber around us when they began earnestly to discuss points of theology, complain of the ill-usage they had received from the Gentiles, and sound a lamentation over the loss of their great temple at Nabu. After remaining with them an hour we rode back to our camp, happy that the settlements had been delivered from the presence of such blind and desperate fanatics. On the morning after this we left the Pueblo for Bent's fort. The conduct of Raymond had lately been less satisfactory than before, and we had discharged him as soon as we arrived at the former place so that the Karni ourselves included was now reduced to four. There was some uncertainty as to our future course. The trail between Bent's fort and the settlements, a distance computed at 600 miles, was at this time in a dangerous state, for since the passage of General Karni's army, great numbers of hostile Indians, chiefly Ponies and Comanches, had gathered about some parts of it. A little after this time they became so numerous and vicious that scarcely a single party, however large, passed between the fort and the frontier, without some token of their hostility. The newspapers at the time sufficiently display this state of things. Many men were killed and great numbers of horses and mules carried off. Not long since I met with a gentleman who during the autumn came from Santa Fe to Bent's fort when he found a party of seventy men who thought themselves too weak to go down to the settlements alone and were waiting there for a reinforcement. Though this excessive timidity fully proves the ignorance and credulity of the men, it may also evince the state of alarm which prevailed in the country. When we were there in the month of August, the danger had not become so great. There was nothing very attractive in the neighborhood. We supposed, moreover, that we might wait there half the winter without finding any party to go down with us, for Mr. Sublet and the others whom we had relied upon had, as Richard told us, already left Bent's fort. Thus far on our journey Fortune had kindly befriended us. We resolved therefore to take advantage of her gracious mood and trusting for a continuance of her favors to set out with Henry and DeLaurier and run the gauntlet of the Indians in the best way we could. Bent's fort stands on the river about seventy-five miles below the Pueblo. At noon of the third day we arrived within three or four miles of it, pitched our tent under a tree, hung our looking glasses against its trunk, and having made our primitive toilet road toward the fort. We soon came inside of it for it is visible from a considerable distance, standing with its high clay walls in the midst of the scorching plains. It seemed as if a swarm of locusts had invaded the country. The grass for miles around was cropped close by the horses of General Carney's soldiery. When we came to the fort we found that not only had the horses eaten up the grass, but their owners had made away with the stores of the little trading post so that we had great difficulty in procuring the few articles which we required for our homeward journey. The army was gone, the life and bustle passed away, and the fort was a scene of dull and lazy tranquility. A few invalid officers and soldiers sauntered about the area which was oppressively hot for the glaring sun was reflected down upon it from the high white walls around. The proprietors were absent, and we were received by Mr. Holt who had been left in charge of the fort. He invited us to dinner, where to our admiration we found a table laid with a white cloth with casters in the center and chairs placed around it. This unwonted repast concluded we rode back to our camp. Here as we lay smoking round the fire after supper we saw through the dusk three men approaching from the direction of the fort. They rode up and seated themselves near us on the ground. The foremost was a tall, well-formed man with a face and manner such as inspired confidence at once. He wore a broad hat of felt slouching and tattered and the rest of his attire consisted of a frock and leggings of buckskin rubbed with the yellow clay found among the mountains. At the heel of one of his moccasins was buckled a huge iron spur with a rowel five or six inches in diameter. His horse who stood quietly looking over his head had a rude Mexican saddle covered with a shaggy bearskin and furnished with a pair of wooden stirrups of most preposterous size. The next man was a very active little fellow about five feet and a quarter high but very strong and compact. His face was swarthy as a Mexicans and covered with a close curly black beard. An old greasy calico handkerchief was tied round his head and his close buckskin dress was blackened and polished by grease and hard service. The last who came up was a large, strong man dressed in the coarse homespun of the frontiers who dragged his long limbs over too lazy for the effort. He had a sleepy gray eye, a retreating chin, an open mouth and a protruding upper lip, which gave him an air of exquisite indolence and helplessness. He was armed with an old United States Jaeger, which redoubtable weapon, though he could never hit his mark with it, he was accustomed to cherish as the very sovereign of firearms. The first two men belonged to a party who had just come from California with a large band of horses which they had disposed of at Bents Fort. Monroe, the taller of the two, was from Iowa. He was an excellent fellow, open, warm-hearted and intelligent. Jim Gurney, the short man, was a Boston seller who had come in a trading vessel to California and taken the fancy to return across the continent. The journey had already made him an expert mountain man and he presented the extraordinary phenomenon of a seller who understood how to manage a horse. The third of our visitors, named Ellis, was a Missourian who had come out with a party of Oregon immigrants but having got as far as Bridges Fort he had fallen homesick, or as Jim avert, lovesick, and Ellis was just the man to be balked in a love adventure. He thought proper to join the California men and return homeward in their company. They now requested that they might unite with our party and make the journey to the settlements of the company with us. We readily assented, for we liked the appearance of the first two men and were very glad to gain so efficient a reinforcement. We told them to meet us on the next evening at a spot on the river side about six miles below the fort. Having smoked a pipe together our new allies left us and we lay down to sleep. End of Chapter 21 Chapter 22 of the Oregon Trail This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman Jr. Chapter 22 Tet Rouge the Volunteer The next morning, having directed DeLaurier to repair with his car to the place of meeting, we came again to the fort to make some arrangements for the journey. After completing these we sat down under a sort of perch to smoke with some Cheyenne Indians whom we found there. In a few minutes we saw an extraordinary little figure approach us in a military dress. He had a small round countenance garnished about the eyes with the kind of wrinkles commonly known as crow's feet and surrounded by an abundant crop of red curls with a little cap resting on the top of them. Altogether he had the look of a man more conversant with mint juleps and oyster suppers than with the hardships of prairie service. He came up to us and entreated we would take him home to the settlements saying that unless he went with us he should have to stay all winter at the fort. We liked our petitioners' appearance so little that we excused ourselves from complying with his request. At this he begged us so hard to take pity on him, looked so disconsolate and told so lamentable a story that at last we consented though not without many misgivings. The rugged Anglo-Saxon of our new recruits' real name proved utterly unmanageable on the lips of our French attendants and Henry Châtelon, after various abortive attempts to pronounce it, one day coolly christened him tête rouge in honor of his red curls. He had at different times been clerk of a Mississippi steamboat an agent in a trading establishment at Nauvoo, besides filling various other capacities in all of which he had seen much more of life than was good for him. In the spring, thinking that a summer's campaign would be an agreeable recreation, he had joined a company of St. Louis volunteers. There were three of us, said tête rouge, me and Bill Stevens and John Hopkins. We thought we would just go out with the army and when we had conquered the country we would get discharged and take our pay, you know, and go down to Mexico. They say there's plenty of fun going on there, then we could go back to New Orleans by way of Vera Cruz. But tête rouge, like many a stouter volunteer, had reckoned without his host. Fighting Mexicans was a less amusing occupation than he had supposed and his pleasure trip was disagreeably interrupted by brain fever, which attacked him when about halfway to Bentz Fort. He jolted along through the rest of the journey in a baggage wagon. When they came to the Fort he was taken out and left there, together with the rest of the sick. Bentz Fort does not supply the best accommodations for an invalid. Tete rouge's sick chamber was a little mud room where he and a companion attacked by the same disease were laid together with nothing but a buffalo robe between them and the ground. The assistant surgeon's deputy visited them once a day and brought them each a huge dose of Calamel, the only medicine according to his surviving victim which he was acquainted with. Tete rouge woke one morning and turning to his companion saw his eyes fixed upon the beams above with the stare of a dead man. At this the unfortunate volunteer lost his senses outright. In spite of the doctor, however, he eventually recovered, though between the brain fever and the Calamel his mind, originally none of the strongest, was so much shaken that it had not quite recovered its balance when we came to the Fort. In spite of the poor fellow's tragic story there was something so ludicrous in his appearance and the whimsical contrast between his very dress and his most unmilitary demeanor that we could not help smiling at them. We asked him if he had a gun. He said they had taken it from him during his illness and he had not seen it since. But perhaps he observed, looking at me with the beseeching air, you will lend me one of your big pistols if we should meet with any Indians. I next inquired if he had a horse. He declared he had a magnificent one and at Shaw's for inspection. He exhibited the outline of a good horse but his eyes were sunk in the sockets and every one of his ribs could be counted. There were certain marks too about his shoulders which could be accounted for by the circumstance that during Ted Rouge's illness his companions had seized upon the insulted charger and harnessed him to a cannon along with the draft horses. To Ted Rouge's astonishment we recommended him by all means if he could for a mule. Fortunately the people of the fort were so anxious to get rid of him that they were willing to make some sacrifice to affect the object and he succeeded in getting a tolerable mule in exchange for the broken down steed. A man soon appeared at the gate leading in the mule by a cord which he placed in the hands of Ted Rouge who, being somewhat afraid of his new acquisition, tried various flatteries and blandishments to him. The mule, knowing that she was expected to advance, stopped short in consequence and stood fast as a rock looking straight forward with immovable composure. Being stimulated by a blow from behind she consented to move and walked nearly to the other side of the fort before she stopped again. Hearing the bystanders laugh Ted Rouge plucked up spirit and tugged hard at the rope. The mule jerked backward, spun herself and made a dash for the gate. Ted Rouge, who clung manfully to the rope, went whisking through the air for a few rides when he let go and stood with his mouth open, staring after the mule who galloped away over the prairie. She was soon caught and brought back by a Mexican who mounted a horse and went in pursuit of her with his lasso. Having less displayed his capacity for prairie travel, Ted Rouge proceeded to supply himself with provisions and with this view he applied to a quartermaster's assistant who was in the fort. This official had a face as sour as vinegar, being in a state of chronic indignation because he had been left behind the army. He was as anxious as the rest to get rid of Ted Rouge. So, producing a rusty key, he opened a low door which led to a half subterranean apartment into which the two disappeared together. After some time they came out again. Ted Rouge greatly embarrassed by a multiplicity of paper parcels containing the different articles of his 40-day rations. They were consigned to the care of the lawyer, who about that time passed by with a cart on his way to the appointed place of meeting with Monroe and his companions. We next urged Ted Rouge to provide himself if he could with a gun. He accordingly made earnest appeals to the charity of various persons in the fort, but totally without success, a circumstance which did not greatly disturb us, since in the event of a skirmish he would be much more apt to do mischief to himself or his friends than to the enemy. When all these arrangements were completed, we saddled our horses and were preparing to leave the fort. When looking round we discovered that our new associate was in fresh trouble. A man was holding the mule forum in the middle of the fort while he tried to put the saddle on her back, but she kept stepping sideways round and round in a circle until he was almost in despair. It required some assistance before all his difficulties could be overcome. At length he clambered into the Black War saddle on which he was to have carried terror into the ranks of the Mexicans. Get up, said Ted Rouge. Come along now. Go along, will you? The mule walked deliberately forward out of the gate. Her recent conduct had inspired him with so much awe that he never touched her with his whip. We trotted forward toward the place of meeting, but before he had gone far we saw that Ted Rouge's mule who perfectly understood her rider had stopped and was quietly grazing in spite of his protestations at some distance behind. So, getting behind him, we drove him in the contumatious mule before us until we could see through the twilight the gleaming of a distant fire. Monroe, Jim, and Ellis were lying around it. Battles, packs, and weapons were scattered about and their horses picketed near them. Deloria was there, too, with our little cart. Another fire was soon blazing high. We invited our new allies to take a cup of coffee with us. When both the others had gone over to their side of the camp, Jim Gurney still stood by the blaze puffing hard at his little black pipe as short and weather-beaten as himself. Well, he said, here are eight of us. For them two boobies Ellis over Yonder and that new man of yours won't count for anything. We'll get through well enough. Never fear for that, unless the Comanches happen to get foul of us. End of Chapter 22 Chapter 23 of the Oregon Trail This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman, Jr. Chapter 23 Indian Alarms We began our journey for the frontier settlements on the 27th of August, and certainly a more ragamuffin cavalcade never was seen on the banks of the Upper Arkansas. Of the large and fine horses with which we had left the frontier in the spring not one remained, we had supplied their place with the rough bead of the prairie as hardy as mules and almost as ugly. We had also with us a number of the latter detestable animals. In spite of their strength and hardy hood, several of the band were already worn down by hard service and hard fare, and as none of them were shod, they were fast becoming foot sore. Every horse and mule had a cord of twisted bull hide coiled around his neck, which by no means added to the beauty of his appearance. Our saddles and all our equipments were by this time lamentably worn and battered, and our weapons had become dull and rusty. The dress of the riders corresponded with the dilapidated furniture of our horses, and of the whole party none made a more disreputable appearance than my friend and I. Shaw had for an upper garment an old red flannel shirt flying open in front and belted around him like a frock, while I, in absence of other clothing, was attired in a time-worn suit of leather. Thus happy and careless as so many beggars we crept slowly from day to day to the monotonous banks of the Arkansas. Ted Hodge gave constant trouble for he could never catch his mule, saddle her, or indeed do anything else without assistance. Every day he had some new ailment real or imaginary to complain of. At one moment he would be wobegon and disconsolate, and the next he would be visited with a violent flow of spirits to which he could only give vent by incessant laughing, whistling, and telling stories. When our resources failed we used to amuse ourselves by tormenting him, a fair compensation for the trouble he caused us. Ted Hodge rather enjoyed being laughed at, for he was an odd compound of weakness, eccentricity, and good nature. He made a figure worthy of a painter as he paced long before us, perched on the back of his mule and enveloped in a huge buffalo-robed coat which some charitable person had given him at the fort. Ted Hodge would have contained two men of his size, he chose, for some reason best known to himself, to wear inside out, and he never took it off, even in the hottest weather. It was fluttering all over with seams and tatters, and the hide was so old and rotten that it broke out every day in a new place. Just at the top of it a large pile of red curls was visible with his little cap set jointly and his seat in the saddle was no less remarkable than his person and equipment. He pressed one leg close against his mule's side and thrust the other out at an angle of 45 degrees. His pantaloons were decorated with a military red stripe of which he was extremely vain, but being much too short the whole length of his boots was usually visible below them. His blanket loosely rolled up and he carried it tied with a string. Four or five times a day it would fall to the ground. Every few minutes he would drop his pipe, his knife, his flint and steel or a piece of tobacco and have to scramble down to pick them up. In doing this he would contrive to get in everybody's way and as the most of the party were by no means remarkable for a fastidious choice of language a storm of anathemas would be showered upon him in half and jest until Ted Hooge would declare that there was no comfort in life and that he never saw such fellows before. Only a day or two after leaving Bent's Fort Henry Shatalon rode forward to hunt and took Ellis along with him. After they had been some time absent we saw them coming down the hill driving three dragoon horses which had escaped from their owners on the march or perhaps had given out and been abandoned. One of them was intolerable condition but the others were much emaciated and severely bitten by the wolves. Reduced as they were we carried two of them to the settlements and Henry exchanged the third with the Arapahos for an excellent mule. On the day after when we had stopped to rest at noon a long train of Santa Fe wagons came up and trailed slowly past us in their picturesque procession. They belonged to a trader named MacGuffin whose brother with a number of other men came over and sat down around us on the grass. The news they brought was none of the most pleasing complexion. According to their accounts the trail below was in a very dangerous state. They had repeatedly detected Indians prowling at night around their camps and the large party which had left Bent's Fort a few weeks previous to our own departure had been attacked and a man named Swan from Massachusetts had been killed. His companions had buried the body at his grave which was near a place called the Caches. The Indians had dug up and scalped him and the wolves had shockingly mangled his remains. As an offset to this intelligence they gave us the welcome information that the buffalo were numerous at a few days journey below. On the next afternoon as we moved along the bank of the river we saw the white tops of wagons on the horizon. It was some hours before we met them when they proved to be a train of clumsy ox wagons quite different from the rakeish vehicles of the Santa Fe traders and loaded with government stores for the troops. They all stopped and the drivers gathered around us in a crowd. I thought that the whole frontier might have been ransacked in vain to furnish men worse fitted to meet the dangers of the prairie. Many of them were mere boys fresh from the plow and devoid of knowledge and experience. In respect to the state of the trail that the Santa Fe men had told us in passing between the Pawnee fork and the caches their sentinels had fired every night at real or imaginary Indians. They said also that Ewing a young Kentuckian in the party that had gone down before us had shot an Indian who was prowling an evening about the camp. Some of them advised us to turn back and others to hasten forward as fast as we could. But they all seemed in such a state of anxiety and so little capable of cool judgment that we attached slight weight to what they said. They next gave us a more definite piece of intelligence. A large village of Arapahos was encamped on the river below. They represented them to be quite friendly, but some distinction was to be made between a party of 30 men traveling with oxen which were of no value in an Indian's eyes and a mere handful like ourselves with a tempting band of mules and horses. This story of the Arapahos therefore caused us some anxiety. Just after leaving the government wagons as Shaw and I were riding along a narrow passage between the river bank and a rough hill that pressed close upon it, we heard Ted Hoge's voice behind us. Hello! he called out. I say, stop the cart just for a minute, will you? What's the matter, Ted? asked Shaw as he came riding up to us with a grin of exultation. He had a bottle of molasses in one hand, and a large bundle of hides on the saddle before him, containing as he triumphantly informed us sugar, biscuits, coffee, and rice. These supplies he had obtained by a stratagem on which he greatly plumed himself, and he was extremely vexed and astonished that we did not fall in with his views of the matter. He had told Coates, the master wagoner, that the commissary at the fort had given him an order for sick rations directed to the master of any government train which he might meet upon the road. This order he had unfortunately lost, but he hoped that the rations would not be refused on that account as he was suffering from coarse fare and needed them very much. As soon as he came to camp that night, Ted Hoge repaired to the box at the back of the cart where Deloria used to keep his culinary apparatus, took possession of a saucepan, and after building a little fire on his own, set to work preparing a meal out of his ill-gotten booty. This done he seized on a tin plate and spoon and sat down under the cart to regal himself. His preliminary repast did not at all prejudice his subsequent exertions at supper, where in spite of his miniature dimensions he made a better figure than any of us. Indeed, about this time his appetite grew quite voracious. He began to thrive wonderfully. His small body visibly expanded and his cheeks, which when we first took him were rather yellow and cadaverous, now dilated in a wonderful manner and became ruddy in proportion. Ted Hoge in short began to appear like another man. Early in the afternoon of the next day, looking along the edge of the horizon in front, we saw that at one point it was faintly marked with pale indentations like the teeth of a saw, the nose rising between us and the sky caused this singular appearance. It wanted still two or three hours of sunset when we came opposite their camp. There were full two hundred lodges standing in the midst of a grassy meadow at some distance beyond the river, while for a mile around and on either bank of the Arkansas were scattered some fifteen hundred horses and mules grazing together in bands or wandering singly about the prairie. It was visible at once, for the vast expanse was unbroken by hills and there was not a tree or a bush to intercept the view. Here and there walked an Indian engaged in watching the horses. No sooner did we see them than Ted Hoge begged Deloria to stop the cart and hand him his little military jacket, which was stowed away there. In this he instantly invested himself, having for once laid the old buffalo coat aside, assumed a most battle, set his cap over his left eye with an air of defiance and earnestly and treated that somebody would lend him a gun or a pistol for only half an hour. Being called upon to explain these remarkable proceedings, Ted Hoge observed that he knew from experience what effect the presence of a military man in his uniform always had upon the mind of an Indian, and he thought the Arapahos ought to know that there was a soldier who was here on the Arkansas was a very different thing from meeting the same Indians among their native mountains. There was another circumstance in our favor. General Carney had seen them a few weeks before as he came up the river with his army, and renewing his threats in the previous year he told them that if they ever again touched the hair of a white man's head he would exterminate their nation. This placed them for the time in an admirable frame that had not yet disappeared. I was anxious to see the village and its inhabitants. We thought it also our best policy to visit them openly as if unsuspicious of any hostile design, and Shaw and I, with Henry Chattelon, prepared to cross the river. The rest of the party meanwhile moved forward as fast as they could in order to get as far as possible from our suspicious neighbors before night came on. The Arkansas at this point in the hills below is nothing but a broad sand bed over which a few scanty threads of water are swiftly gliding, now and then expanding into wide shallows. At several places during the autumn the water sinks into the sand and disappears altogether. At this season were it not for the numerous quick sands the river might be forwarded almost anywhere without difficulty, though its channel is often a quarter of a mile wide. Our horses jumped and wading through the water or galloping freely over the hard sand beds soon reached the other side. Here as we were pushing through the tall grass we saw several Indians not far off. One of them waited until we came up and stood for some moments in perfect silence before us, looking at us as scants with his little snake like eyes. Henry explained by signs what we wanted and the Indian, gathering his buffalo robe about his shoulders, led the way toward the village without speaking a word. The language of the Arapahose is so difficult and its pronunciation is so harsh and guttural that no white man it is said has ever been able to master it. Even Maxwell the trader, who has been most among them, is compelled to resort to the curious sign language common to most of the prairie tribes. With this Henry Chattalon was perfectly acquainted. Approaching the village we found the ground strewn with great piles of waist buffalo meat in incredible quantities. The lodges were pitched in a very wide circle. They resembled those of the Dakota in everything but cleanliness and neatness. Passing between two of them we entered the great circular area of the camp and instantly hundreds of Indians, men, women and children came flocking out of their habitations to look at us. At the same time the dogs all around the village set up a fearful baying. Our Indian guide walked toward the lodge of the chief. Here we dismounted and loosening the trail ropes from our horses' necks held them securely and sat down before the entrance with our rifles laid across our laps. The chief came out and shook us by the hand. He was a mean-looking fellow, very tall, thin-visaged and sinewy like the rest of the nation and with scarcely a vestige of clothing. We had not been seated for half a minute before a multitude of Indians came crowding around us from every part of the village and we were shut in by a dense wall of savage faces. Some of the Indians crouched around us on the ground. Others again sat behind them. Others, stooping, looked over their heads while many more stood crowded behind stretching themselves upward and peering over each other's shoulders to get a view of us. I looked in vain among this multitude to discover one manly or generous expression. All were wolfish, sinister and malignant and their complexions as well as their features, unlike those at the Dakota, were exceedingly bad. The chief who sat close to the entrance called to a squaw within the lodge who soon came out and placed a wooden bowl of meat before us. To our surprise, however, no pipe was offered. Having tasted of the meat as a matter of form, they opened a bundle of presents, tobacco, knives, vermillion and other articles which I had brought with me. At this there was a grin on every countenance in the rapacious crowd. Their eyes began to glitter and long, thin arms were eagerly stretched toward us on all sides to receive the gifts. The Arapahos set great value upon their shields, which they transmit carefully from father to son. I wished to get one of them and displaying a large piece of scarlet cloth together with some tobacco and a knife, I offered them to anyone who would bring me what I wanted. After some delay a tolerable shield was produced. They were very anxious to know what we meant to do with it, and Henry told them that we were going to fight their enemies, the Ponies. This instantly produced a visible impression in our favor, which was increased by the distribution of the presents. Among these was a large paper of alls, a gift appropriate for the women, and as we were anxious to see the beauties of the Arapaho village Henry requested that they might be called to receive them. A warrior gave a shout as if he were calling a pack of dogs together. The squaws, young and old, hags of eighty and girls of sixteen came running with screams and laughter out of the lodges, and as the men gave way for them they gathered round us and stretched out their arms, grinning with delight their native ugliness considerably enhanced by the excitement of the moment. Mounting our horses, which during the whole interview we had held close to us, we prepared to leave the Arapaho's. The crowd fell back on each side and stood looking on. When we were half across the camp an idea occurred to us. The Ponies were probably in the neighborhood of the caches. We might tell the Arapaho's of this and instigate them to send down a war party and cut them off, while we ourselves remained behind for a while and hunt the buffalo. At first thought this plan of setting our enemies to destroy one another seemed to us a masterpiece of policy, but we immediately recollected that should we meet the Arapaho warriors on the river below, they might prove quite as dangerous as the Ponies themselves. So, rejecting our plan as soon as it presented itself we passed out of the village on the farther side. We urged our horses rapidly through the grass which rose to their necks. Several Indians were walking through it at a distance, their heads just visible above its waving surface. It bore a kind of seed as sweet and nutritious as oats and our hungry horses in spite of whip and rain could not resist the temptation of snatching at this unwanted luxury as we passed along. When about a mile from the village I turned and looked back over the undulating ocean of grass. The sun was just set. The western sky was all in a glow and sharply defined against it on the extreme verge of the plain stood the numerous lodges of the Arapaho camp. Reaching the bank of the river we followed it for some distance farther until we discerned through the twilight the white covering of our little cart on the opposite bank. When we reached it we found a considerable number of Indians there before us. Four or five of them were seated in a row upon the ground, like so many half-starved vultures. Ted Houge in his uniform was holding a close colloquy with another by the side of the cart. His gesticulations, his attempts at sign-making and the contortions of his countenance were most ludicrous, and finding all these of no avail he tried to make the Indian understand him by repeating English words very loudly and distinctly again and again. The Indian sat with his eye fixed steadily upon him and in spite of the rigid immobility of his features it was clear at a glance that he perfectly understood his military companion's character and thoroughly despised him. The exhibition was more amusing than politic and Ted Houge was directed to finish what he had to say as soon as possible. Thus rebuked he crept under the cart and sat down there. Henry Chatalon stopped to look at him in his retirement and remarked in his quiet manner that the Indian would kill ten such men and laugh all the time. One by one our visitors rose and stalked away. As the darkness thickened we were saluted by dismal sounds. The wolves are incredibly numerous in this part of the country and the awful around the Arapaho camp had drawn such multitudes of them together that several hundred were howling in concert in our immediate neighbourhood. There was an island in the river or rather an oasis in the midst of the sands at about the distance of a gunshot and here they seemed gathered in the greatest numbers. A horrible discord of low mournful wellings mingled with ferocious howls arose from it incessantly for several hours after sunset. We could distinctly see the wolves running about the prairie within a few rods of our fire or bounding over the sand beds of the river and splashing through the water. There was not the slightest danger for they are the greatest cowards on the prairie. In respect to the human wolves in our neighbourhood we felt much less at ease. We seldom erected our tent except in bad weather and that night each man spread his buffalo robe upon the ground with his loaded rifle laid at his side or clasped in his arms. Our horses were picketed so close around us that one of them repeatedly stepped over me as I lay. We were not in the habit of placing a guard but every man that night was anxious and watchful. There was little sound sleeping in camp and some one of the party was on his feet during the greater part of the time. For myself I lay alternately waking and dozing until midnight. Ted Rouge was reposing close to the river bank and about this time when half asleep and half awake I was conscious that he shifted his position and crept on all fours under the cart. Soon after I fell into a sound sleep from which I was aroused by a hand shaking me by the shoulder. Looking up I saw Ted Rouge stooping over me with his face quite pale and his eyes dilated to their utmost expansion. What's the matter, said I? Ted Rouge declared that as he lay on the river bank something caught his eye which excited his suspicions so creeping under the cart for safety's sake he sat there and watched when he saw two Indians wrapped in white robes creep up the bank, seize upon two horses and lead them off. He looked so frightened and told his story in such a disconnected manner that I did not believe him and was unwilling to alarm the party. Still it might be true and in that case the matter required instant attention. There would be no time for examination and so directing Ted Rouge to show me which way the Indians had gone I took my rifle in obedience to a thoughtless impulse and left the camp. I followed the river back for two or three hundred yards listening and looking anxiously on every side. In the dark prairie on the right I could discern nothing to excite alarm and in the dusky bed of the river a wolf was bounding along in a manner which no Indian could imitate. I returned to the camp and when within sight of it saw that the whole party was aroused. Shaw called out to me that he had counted the horses and that every one of them was in his place. Ted Rouge being examined as to what he had seen only repeated his former story with many as separations and insisted that two horses were certainly carried off. At this Jim Gurney declared that he was crazy. Ted Rouge indignantly denied the charge on which Jim appealed to us. As we declined to give our judgment on so delicate a matter, the dispute grew hot between Ted Rouge and his accuser until he was directed to go to bed and not alarm the camp again if he saw the whole Arapaho village coming. End of Chapter 23 Chapter 24 of the Oregon Trail This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman Jr. Chapter 24 The Chase The country before us was now thrung with buffalo and a sketch of the manner of hunting that will not be out of place. There are two methods commonly practiced, running and approaching. The chase on horseback which goes by the name of running is the more violent and dashing mode of the two. Indeed, of all American wild sports, this is the wildest. Once among the buffalo the hunter, unless long use has made him familiar with the situation, dashes forward in utter recklessness and self-abandonment. He thinks of nothing, cares for nothing but the game. His mind is stimulated to the highest pitch yet intensely concentrated on one object. In the midst of the flying herd where the uproar and the dust are thickest it never wavers for a moment. He drops the rain and abandons his horse to his furious career. He levels his gun. The report sounds faint amid the thunder of the buffalo and when his wounded enemy leaps in vain fury upon him feeling like the fierce delight of a battlefield. A practiced and skillful hunter, well-mounted will sometimes kill five or six cows in a single chase loading his gun again and again as his horse rushes through the tumble. An exploit like this is quite beyond the capacities of a novice. In attacking a small band of buffalo or in separating a single animal from the herd and assailing it apart from the rest there is less excitement and less danger. With a bold and well-trained horse the hunter may ride so close to the buffalo that as they gallop side by side he may reach over and touch him with his hand. Nor is there much danger in this as long as the buffalo's strength and breath continue unabated. But when he becomes tired and can no longer run at ease when his tongue lolls out and foam flies from his jaws then the hunter had better keep it at a more respectful distance. Most brute may turn upon him at any instant and especially at the moment when he fires his gun. The wounded buffalo springs at his enemy the horse leaps violently aside and then the hunter has need of a tenacious seat in the saddle for if he is thrown to the ground there is no hope for him. When he sees his attack defeated the buffalo resumes his flight but if the shot be well directed he soon stops for a few moments he stands still and falls heavily upon the prairie. The chief difficulty in running buffalo as it seems to me is that of loading the gun or pistol at full gallop. Many hunters, for convenience sake carry three or four bullets in the mouth the powder is poured down the muzzle of the piece the bullet dropped in after it and the stock struck hard upon the pommel of the saddle and the work is done. The danger of this method is obvious should the blow on the pommel at home or should the ladder in the act of aiming start from its place and roll toward the muzzle the gun would probably burst and discharging many a shattered hand and worse casualties besides have been the result of such an accident. To obviate it some hunters make use of a ramrod usually hung by a string from the neck but this materially increases the difficulty of loading. The bows and arrows which the Indians use in running buffalo have many advantages for firearms and even white man occasionally employ them. The danger of the chase arises not so much from the onset of the wounded animal as from the nature of the ground which the hunter must ride over. The prairie does not always present a smooth level and uniform surface very often it is broken with hills and hollows intersected by ravines and in the remota parts studded by the stiff wild sage bushes. The most formidable obstructions however are the burrows of wild animals, wolves badgers and particularly prairie dogs with whose holes the ground for a very great extent is frequently honeycombed. In the blindness of the chase the hunter rushes over in unconscious of danger his horse at full career thrusts his leg deep into one of the burrows the bone snaps the rider is hurled forward to the ground and probably killed. Yet accidents in buffalo running happen less frequently than one would suppose. In the recklessness of the chase the hunter enjoys all the impunity of a drunken man and may ride in safety over the gullies and declivities where should he attempt to pass in his sober senses he would infallibly break his neck. The method of approaching being practiced on foot has many advantages over that of running. In the former one neither breaks down his horse and changes his own life. Instead of yielding to excitement he must be cool, collected and watchful. He must understand the buffalo observe the features of the country and the course of the wind and be well skilled moreover in using the rifle. The buffalo are strange animals sometimes they are so stupid and infatuated that a man may walk up to them in full sight on the open prairie and even shoot several of their number to make it necessary to retreat. Again at another moment they will be so shy and wary that in order to approach them the utmost skill, experience and judgment are necessary. Kit Carson I believe stands preeminent in running buffalo in approaching no man living can bear away the palm from Henry Shatelot. To resume the story after Tent Rouge had alarmed the camp no further disturbance occurred during the night the Arapahos did not attempt mischief or if they did the wakefulness of the party deterred them from affecting their purpose. The next day was one of activity and excitement. For about ten o'clock the men in advance shouted the gladdening cry of buffalo, buffalo and in the hollow of the prairie just below us a band of bulls were grazing. The temptation was irresistible and Shaw and I rode down upon them. We were badly mounted on our traveling horses but by hard lashing we overtook them and Shaw running long side of a bull shot into him both balls of his double-barreled gun. Looking round as I galloped past I saw the bull in his mortal fury rushing again and again upon his antagonist whose horse constantly leaped aside and avoided the onset. My chase was more protracted but at length I ran close to the bull and killed him with my pistols. Cutting off the tails of our victims by way of trophy we rejoined the party in about a quarter of an hour after we left it. Again and again that morning rang out the same welcome cry of buffalo, buffalo Every few moments in the broad meadows along the river we would see bands of bulls who, raising their shaggy heads would gaze in stupid amazement at the approaching horseman and then breaking into a clumsy gallop in a long line across the trail in front toward the rising prairie on the left. At noon the whole plain before us was alive with thousands of buffalo bulls, cows, and calves all moving rapidly as we drew near and far off beyond the river the swelling prairie was darkened with them to the very horizon. The party was in gayer spirits than ever. We stopped for a nooning near a grove beside. Tongues and hump ribs tomorrow said Shaw looking with contempt at the venison steaks which Deloria placed before us. Our meal finished we lay down under a temporary awning to sleep. A shout from Henry Shatalon aroused us and we saw him standing on the cartwheel stretching his tall figure to its full height while he looked toward the prairie beyond the river. Following the direction of his eyes we could clearly distinguish a large dark like the black shadow of a cloud passing rapidly over swell after swell of the distant plain. Behind it followed another of similar appearance, though smaller. Its motion was more rapid and it drew closer and closer to the first. It was the hunters of the Arapaho cab pursuing a band of buffalo. Shaw and I hastily sought and saddled our best horses and went plunging through sand and water to the father bank. We were too late. The hunters had already mingled with the herd and the work of slaughter was nearly over. When we reached the ground we found it strewn far and near with numberless black carcasses while the remnants of the herd scattered in all directions were flying away in terror and the Indians still rushing in pursuit. Many of the hunters however remained upon the spot and among the rest was our yesterday's acquaintance, a chief of the village. He had lighted by the side of a cow into which he had shot five or six arrows and his squaw who had followed him on horseback to the hunt was giving him a draft of water out of a canteen purchased or plundered from some volunteer soldier. Recrossing the river we overtook the party who were already on their way. We had scarcely gone a mile when an imposing spectacle presented itself. From the river bank on the right away over the swelling prairie on the left and in front as far as we could see extended one vast host of buffalo. The outskirts of the herd were within a quarter of a mile. In many parts they were crowded so densely together that in the distance their rounded backs presented a surface of uniform blackness but elsewhere they were more scattered and from amid the multitude rose little columns of dust where the buffalo were rolling on the ground. Here and there a great confusion was perceptible where a battle was going forward among the bulls. We could distinctly see them rushing against each other and hear the clattering of their horns and their horse bellowing. Shaw was riding at some distance in advance with Henry Shatalon. I saw him stop and draw the leather covering from his gun. Indeed with such a sight before us but one thing could be thought of. That morning I had used pistols in the chase. I had to find to try the virtue of a gun. DeLaurier had one and I rode up to the side of the cart. There he sat under the white covering biting his pipe between his teeth and grinning with excitement. "'Lend me your gun, DeLaurier,' said I. "'We, Monsieur, we,' said DeLaurier, tugging with might and main to stop the mule which seemed obstinately bent on going forward. Then everything but his moccasins disappeared as he crawled into the cart and pulled the gun to extricate it. "'Is it loaded?' I asked. "'We bien chargé. You'll kill, mon bourgeois. Yes, you'll kill. C'est un bon fusil.' I handed him my rifle and rode forward to Shaw. "'Are you ready?' he asked. "'Come on,' said I. "'Keep down that hollow,' said Henry, and then they won't see you till you get close to them.' The hollow was a kind of ravine very wide and shallow. Then we rode at a canter along the bottom until it became too shallow when we bent close to our horse's necks and then finding that it could no longer conceal us came out of it and rode directly toward the herd. It was within gunshot. Before its outskirts numerous grisly old bulls were scattered holding guard over their females. They glared at us in anger and astonishment, walked toward us a few yards and then turning slowly round retreated at a trot which afterward broke into a clumsy gallop. In an instant the main body caught the alarm. The buffalo began to crowd away from the point toward which we were approaching and a gap was opened in the side of the herd. We entered it still restraining our excited horses. Every instant the tumult was thickening. The buffalo pressing together in large bodies crowded away from us on every hand. In front and on either side we could see dark columns and masses half hidden by clouds of dust rushing along in terror and confusion and hear the tramp and clattering of ten thousand hoofs. That countless multitude of powerful brutes ignorant of their own strength were flying in a panic from the approach of two feeble horsemen. To remain quiet longer was impossible. Take that band on the left, said Shaw, I'll take these in front. He sprang off and I saw no more of him. A heavy Indian whip was fastened by a band to my wrist. I swung it into the air and lashed my horses flank with all the strength of my arm. Away she darted stretching close to the ground. I could see nothing but a cloud of dust before me but I knew that it concealed a band of many hundreds of buffalo. In a moment I was in the midst of the cloud half suffocated by the dust and stunned by the trampling of the flying herd but I was drunk with the chase of nothing but the buffalo. Very soon a long dark mass became visible looming through the dust. Then I could distinguish each bulky carcass, the hoofs flying out beneath, the short tails held rigidly erect. In a moment I was so close that I could have touched them with my gun. Suddenly, to my utter amazement the hoofs were jerked upward, the tails flourished in the air and amid a cloud of dust the buffalo seemed to sink into the earth before me. One vivid impression of that instant remains upon my mind. I remember looking down the backs of several buffalo dimly visible through the dust. We had run unawares upon a ravine. At that moment I was not the most accurate judge of depth and width but when I passed it on my return I found it about twelve feet deep and not quite twice as wide at the bottom. It was impossible to stop. So half sliding, half plunging down went the little mare. I believe she came down on her knees in the loose sand at the bottom. I was pitched forward violently against her neck and nearly thrown over her head among the buffalo who amid dust and confusion came tumbling in all around. The mare was on her feet in an instant and scrambling like a cat up the opposite side. I thought for a moment that she would have fallen back and crushed me but with a violent effort she clambered out and gained the hard prairie above. Glancing back I saw the huge head of a bull clinging as it were by the forefeet at the edge of the dusty gulf. At length I was fairly among the buffalo. They were less densely crowded than before and I could see nothing but bulls who always run at the rear of the herd. As I passed amid them they would lower their heads and turning as they ran attempt to gore my horse but as they were already at full speed there was no force set and as Pauline ran faster than they they were always thrown behind her in the effort. I soon began to distinguish cows amid the throng. One just in front of me seemed to my liking and I pushed close to her side. Dropping the reins I fired holding the muzzle of the gun within a foot of her shoulder. Quick as lightning she sprang at Pauline. The little mare dodged the attack and I lost sight of the wounded animal amid the tumultuous crowd. Immediately after I selected another and urging forward Pauline shot into her both pistols in succession. For a while I kept her in view but in attempting to load my gun lost sight of her also in the confusion. Believing her to be mortally wounded and unable to keep up with the herd I checked my horse. The crowd rushed onward. The dust and tumult passed away and on the prairie far behind the rest I saw a solitary buffalo galloping heavily. In a moment I and my victim were running side by side. My firearms were all empty and I had in my pouch nothing but rifle bullets too large for the pistols and too small for the gun. I loaded the ladder however but as often as I levelled it to fire the little bullets would roll out of the muzzle and the gun returned only a faint report like a squib as the powder harmlessly exploded. I galloped in front of the buffalo and attempted to turn her back but her eyes glared, her mane bristled and lowering her head she rushed at me with astonishing fierceness and activity. Again and again I rode before her and again and again she repeated her furious charge but little Pauline was in her element. She dodged her enemy at every rush until at length the buffalo stood still exhausted with her own efforts. She panted and her tongue hung lowling from her jaws. Riding to a little distance I alighted, thinking to gather a handful of dry grass to serve the purpose of wadding and load the gun at my leisure. No sooner were my feet on the ground than the buffalo came bounding in such a rage toward me that I jumped back again into the saddle with all possible dispatch. After waiting a few minutes more I made an attempt to ride up and stab her with my knife but the experiment proved such as no wise man would repeat. After a few hours at the seams of my buckskin pantaloons I jerked off a few of them and reloading my gun forced them down the barrel to keep the bullet in its place. Then approaching I shot the wounded buffalo through the heart. Sinking to her knees she rolled over lifeless on the prairie. To my astonishment I found that instead of a fat cow I had been slaughtering a stout earling bull. I opened his throat and cutting out his tongue tied it at the back of my saddle. My mistake was one which a more experienced eye than mine might easily make in the dust and confusion of such a chase. Then for the first time I had leisure to look at the scene around me. The prairie in front was darkened with the retreating multitude and on the other hand the buffalo came filing up in endless unbroken columns from the low plains upon the river. The Arkansas was three or four miles distant. I turned and moved slowly toward it. A long time passed before far down in the distance I distinguished the white covering of the cart and the little black specks of horsemen before and behind it. Drawing near I recognized Shaw's elegant tunic, the red flannel shirt conspicuous far off. I overtook the party and asked him what success he had met with. He had assailed a fat cow, shot her with two bullets and mortally wounded her. But neither of us were prepared for the chase that afternoon and Shaw like myself had no spare bullets in his pouch, so he abandoned the disabled animal to Henry Shattalon who followed, dispatched her with his rifle and loaded his horse with her meat. We encamped close to the river. The night was dark and as we lay down we could hear mingled with the howling of wolves and the hoarse bellowing of the buffalo like the ocean beating upon a distant coast. End of Chapter 24 Chapter 25 of the Oregon Trail This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman Jr. Chapter 25 The Buffalo Camp No one in the camp was more active than Jim Gurney and no one half so lazy as Ellis. Between these two there was a great antipathy. Ellis never stirred in the morning until he was compelled to, but Jim was always on his feet before daybreak, and this morning as usual the sound of his voice awakened the party. Get up you booby, up with you now you're fit for nothing but eating and sleeping. Stop your grumbling and come out of that buffalo robe or I'll pull it off for you. The wolves were interspersed with numerous expletives which gave them great additional effect. Ellis drawled out something in a nasal tone from among the folds of his buffalo robe then slowly disengaged himself rose into sitting posture stretched his long arms yawn hideously and finally raising his tall person erect stood staring round him to all the four quarters of the horizon. Deloria's fire was soon blazing mules loosened from their pickets were feeding in the neighboring meadow. When we sat down to breakfast the prairie was still in the dusky light of morning and as the sun rose we were mounted and on our way again. A white buffalo exclaimed one row I'll have that fellow said Shaw if I run my horse to death after him he threw the cover of his gun to Deloria and galloped out upon the prairie. Stop Mr. Shaw stop called out Henry Shaddleon you'll run down your horse for nothing it's only a white ox but Shaw was already out of hearing the ox who had no doubt straight away from some of the government wagon trains was standing beneath some low hills which bounded the plain in the distance not far from him a band of veritable buffalo bulls were grazing and startled at Shaw's approach they all broke into a run and went scrambling up the hillsides to gain the high prairie above and the bulls that had them in his haste and terror involved himself in a fatal catastrophe along the foot of the hills was a narrow strip of deep marshy soil into which the bull plunged and hopelessly entangled himself we all rode up to the spot the huge carcass was half sunk in the mud which flowed to his very chin and his shaggy mane was outstread upon the surface as we came near the bull began to struggle with a wryth, too in fro and in the energy of his fright and desperation would lift himself for a moment half out of the slough while the reluctant mire returned a sucking sound as he strained to drag his limbs from its tenacious depths we stimulated his exertions by getting behind him and twisting his tail nothing would do there was clearly no hope for him after every effort his heaving sides were more deeply embedded and the mire almost overflowed in his nostrils he lay still at length and looking round at us with a furious eye seemed to resign himself to his fate Ellis slowly dismounted and deliberately leveling his boasted Jaeger shot the old bull through the heart then he lazily climbed back again to his seat, pluming himself no doubt on having actually killed a buffalo that day the invincible Jaeger drew blood for the first and last time during the whole journey the morning was a bright and gay one and the air so clear that on the farthest horizon the outline of the pale blue prairie was sharply drawn against the sky Shaw felt in the mood for hunting he rode in advance of the party and before long we saw a file of bulls galloping at full speed upon a vast green swell of the prairie at some distance in front Shaw came scouring along behind them a raid in his red shirt which looked very well in the distance he gained fast on the fugitives and as the foremost bull was disappearing behind the summit of the swell we saw him in the act of assailing the hindmost a smoke sprang from the muzzle of his gun and floated away before the wind like a little white cloud the bull turned upon him and just then the rising ground concealed them both from view we were moving forward until about noon when we stopped by the side of the Arkansas that moment Shaw appeared riding slowly down the side of a distant hill his horse was tired and jaded and when he threw his saddle upon the ground I observed that the tails of two bulls were dangling behind it no sooner were the horses turned loose to feed than Henry asking one row to go with him took his rifle and walked quietly away Shaw, Ted Ouge and I sat down by the side of the cart to discuss the dinner which Deloria placed before us he had scarcely finished when we saw Monroe walking toward us along the river bank Henry he said had killed four fat cows and had sent him back for horses to bring in the meat Shaw took a horse for himself and another for Henry and he and Monroe left the camp together after a short absence all three of them came back their horses loaded with the choicest parts of the meat we kept two of the cows for ourselves and gave the others to Monroe and his companions Deloria seated himself on the grass before the pile of meat and worked industriously for some time to cut it into thin raw sheets for drying this is no easy matter but Deloria had all the skill of an Indian squaw long before night cords of raw hide were stretched around the camp and the meat was hung upon them to dry in the sunshine and pure air of the prairie our California companions were less successful at the work but they accomplished it after their own fashion and their side of the camp was soon garnished in the same manner as our own we meant to remain at this place long enough to prepare provisions for our journey to the frontier which, as we supposed, might occupy about a month had the distance been twice as great in the party ten times as large the unerring rifle of Henry Shatalon would have supplied meat enough for the whole within two days we were obliged to remain however until it should be dry enough for transportation so we erected our tent and made the other arrangements for a permanent camp the California men who had no such shelter contented themselves with arranging their packs on the grass around their fire in the meantime we had nothing to do but amuse ourselves our tent was within a rod of the river if the broad sand beds with a scanty stream of water coursing here and there along their surface deserved to be dignified with the name of river the vast flat plains on either side were almost on a level with the sand beds and they were bounded in the distance by low monotonous hills parallel to the course of the Arkansas all was one expanse of grass there was no wood in view except some trees and stunted bushes upon two islands which rose from amid the wet sands of the river yet far from being dull and tame this boundless scene was often a wild and animated one for twice a day at sunrise and at noon the buffalo came issuing from the hills slowly advancing in their grave processions to drink at the river all our amusements were too at their expense except an elephant I have seen no animal that can surpass a buffalo bull in size and strength and the world may be searched in vain to find anything of a more ugly aspect at first sight of him every feeling of sympathy vanishes no man who has not experienced it can understand with what keen relish one inflicts his death wound with what profound contentment of mind he beholds him fall the cows are much smaller and of a gentler appearance as becomes their sex while in this camp we form board to attack them leaving to Henry Shatalon who could better judge the quality the task of killing such as we wanted for use but against the bulls we waged an unrelenting war thousands of them might be slaughtered without causing any detriment to the species for their numbers greatly exceed those of the cows it is the hides of the latter alone which are used for purposes of commerce and for making the lodges of the Indians and the destruction among them is therefore altogether disproportion our horses were tired and we now usually hunted on foot the wide flat sand beds of the Arkansas as the reader will remember lay close by the side of our camp while we were lying on the grass after dinner smoking, conversing, or laughing at Tete Wouche one of us would look up and observe far out on the plains beyond the river certain black objects slowly approaching he would inhale a parting whiff from the pipe then rising lazily take his rifle which leaned against the cart throw over his shoulder the strap of his pouch and powder horn and with his moccasins in his hand walk quietly across the sand toward the opposite side of the river this was very easy for though the sands were about a quarter of a mile wide the water was nowhere more than two feet deep the father bank was about four or five feet high and quite perpendicular being cut away by the water in spring tall grass grew along its edge putting it aside with his hand and cautiously looking through it the hunter can discern the huge shaggy back of the buffalo slowly swaying to and fro as with his clumsy swinging gate he advances toward the water the buffalo have regular paths by which they come down to drink seeing at a glance along which of these his intended victim is moving the hunter crouches under the bank within fifteen or twenty yards it may be of the point where the path enters the river here he sits down quietly on the sand listening intently he hears the heavy monotonous tread of the approaching bull the moment after he sees a motion among the long weeds and grass just at the spot where the path is channeled through the bank an enormous black head is thrust out the horn is just visible amid the mass of tangled mane gliding half plunging down comes the buffalo upon the river bed below he steps out in full sight upon the sands just before him a runnel of water is gliding and he bends his head to drink you may hear the water as it gurgles down his capacious throat he raises his head and the drops trickle from his wet beard he stands with an air of stupid abstraction unconscious of the lurking danger noiselessly the hunter cocks his rifle as he sits upon the sand his knee is raised and his elbow rests upon it that he may level his heavy weapon with a steadier aim the stock is at his shoulder his eye ranges along the barrel still he is in no haste to fire the bull with slow deliberation begins his march over the sands to the other side he advances his foreleg and exposes to view a small spot denuded of hair just behind the point of his shoulder upon this the hunter brings the sight of his rifle to bear lightly and delicately his finger presses upon the hair trigger quick as thought the spiteful crack of the rifle responds to his slight touch and instantly in the middle of the bear spot appears a small red dot the buffalo shivers death has overtaken him he cannot tell from wence he does not fall but walks heavily forward as if nothing had happened yet before he has advanced far out upon the sand you see him stop he totters, his knees bend under him and his head sinks forward to the ground then his whole vast bulk sways to one side he rolls over on the sand and dies with a scarcely perceptible struggle way laying the buffalo in this manner and shooting them as they come to water is the easiest and laziest method of hunting them they may also be approached by crawling up ravines or behind hills or even over the open prairie this is often surprisingly easy but at other times it requires the utmost skill of the most experienced hunter henry shadowlon was a man of extraordinary strength and hardy-hood but I have seen him return to camp quite exhausted with his efforts his limbs scratched and wounded and his buckskin dress stuck full of thorns of the prickly pear among which he had been crawling sometimes he would lay flat upon his face and drag himself along in this position for many rods together on the second day of our stay at this place henry went out for an afternoon hunt Shaw and I remained in camp until, observing some bulls approaching the water upon the other side of the river, we crossed over to attack them we were so near, however, that before we could get under cover of the bank our appearance as we walked over the sands alarmed them turning round before coming within gunshot they began to move off to the right in a direction parallel to the river I climbed up the bank and ran after them they were walking swiftly and before I could come within gunshot distance they slowly wheeled about and faced toward me before they had turned far enough to see me, I had fallen flat on my face for a moment they stood and stared at the strange object upon the grass then turning away again they walked on as before and I, rising immediately ran once more in pursuit again they wheeled about and again I fell prostrate repeating this three or four times I came in length within a hundred yards of the fugitives and as I saw them turning again I sat down and leveled my rifle the center was the largest I had ever seen I shot him behind the shoulder his two companions ran off he attempted to follow but soon came to a stand and at length lay down as quietly as an ox chewing the cud cautiously approaching him I saw by his dull and jelly-like eye that he was dead when I began the chase the prairie was almost tenantless but a great multitude of buffalo had suddenly thronged upon it and looking up I saw within fifty rods a heavy dark column stretching to the right and left as far as I could see I walked toward them my approach did not alarm them in the least the column itself consisted entirely of cows and calves but a great many old bulls were ranging about the prairie on its flank and as I drew near they faced toward me with such a shaggy and ferocious look that I thought it best to proceed no farther indeed I was already within close rifle shot of the column and I sat down on the ground to watch their movements sometimes the hole would stand still their heads all facing one way then they would trot forward as if by a common impulse their hoofs and horns clattering together as they moved I soon began to hear at a distance on the left the sharp reports of a rifle again and again repeated and not long after a low and heavy sound succeeded which I recognized as the familiar voice of Shaw's double-barreled gun when Henry's rifle was at work there was always meat to be brought in I went back across the river for a horse and returning reached the spot where the hunters were standing the buffalo were visible on the distant prairie the living had retreated from the ground but ten or twelve carcasses were scattered in various directions Henry knife in hand stooping over a dead cow cutting away the best and fattest of the meat when Shaw left me he had walked down for some distance under the river bank to find another bull at length he saw the planes covered with a host of buffalo and soon after heard the crack of Henry's rifle ascending the bank he crawled through the grass which for a rod or two from the river was very high in rank he had not crawled far before to his astonishment he saw Henry standing erect upon the prairie almost surrounded by the buffalo Henry was in his appropriate element Nelson on the deck of the victory hardly felt a prouder sense of mastery than he quite unconscious that anyone was looking at him he stood at the full height of his tall strong figure one hand resting upon his side and the other arm leaning carelessly on the muzzle of his rifle his eyes were ranging over the dimpleage around him now and then he would select such a cow as suited him level his rifle and shoot her dead then quietly reloading he would resume his former position the buffalo seemed no more to regard his presence than if he were one of themselves the bulls were bellowing and budding at each other or else rolling about in the dust a group of buffalo would gather about the carcass of a dead cow snuffing at her wounds that would come behind those that had not yet fallen and endeavour to push them from the spot now and then some old bull would face toward Henry with an air of stupid amazement but none seemed inclined to attack or fly from him for some time Shaw lay among the grass looking in surprise at this extraordinary sight at length he crawled cautiously forward and spoke in a low voice to Henry who told him to rise and come on still the buffalo showed no sign of fear they remained gathered about their dead companions Henry had already killed as many cows as we wanted for use and Shaw kneeling behind one of the carcasses shot five bulls before the rest thought it necessary to disperse the frequent stupidity and infatuation of the buffalo seems the more remarkable from the contrast it offers to their wildness and wariness at other times Henry knew all their peculiarities he had studied them as a scholar studies his books and he derived quite as much pleasure from the occupation the buffalo were a kind of companions to him and as he said he never felt alone when they were about him he took great pride in his skill in hunting Henry was one of the most modest of men yet in the simplicity and frankness of his character it was quite clear that he looked upon his preeminence in this respect he was too palpable and well established ever to be disputed but whatever may have been his estimate of his own skill it was rather below than above that which others placed upon it the only time that I ever saw a shade of scorn dark in his face was when two volunteer soldiers who had just killed a buffalo for the first time undertook to instruct him as to the best method of approaching to borrow an illustration of his side of life an eaten boy might as well have sought to enlighten Porson on the formation of a Greek verb or a Fleet Street shopkeeper to instruct Chesterfield concerning a point of etiquette Henry always seemed to think that he had a sort of prescriptive right to the buffalo and to look upon them as something belonging peculiarly to himself nothing excited his indignation so much as any wanton destruction shooting a calf was a cardinal sin Henry Shatalon and Tete Rouge were the same age that is about thirty Henry was twice as large and fully six times as strong as Tete Rouge Henry's face was roughened by winds and storms Tete Rouge's was bloated by Sherry Cobbler's and Brandy Todd Henry talked of Indians and buffalo Tete Rouge of theaters and oyster sellers Henry had little life of hardship and privation Tete Rouge never had a whim which he would not gratify at the first moment he was able Henry moreover was the most disinterested man I ever saw while Tete Rouge though equally good-natured in his way cared for nobody but himself yet we would not have lost him on any account he admirably served the purpose of a jester in a feudal castle our camp would have been lifeless without him for the past week he was fattened in a most amazing manner and indeed this was not at all surprising since his appetite was most inordinate he was eating from morning till night half the time he would be at work cooking some private repast for himself and he paid a visit to the coffee pot eight or ten times a day his rueful and disconsolate face became jovial and rubicant his eyes stood out like a lobsters and his spirits which before were sunk to the depths of despondency were now elated in proportion all day he was singing whistling laughing and telling stories being mortally afraid of Jim Gurney he kept close in the neighborhood of hour ten as he had seen an abundance of low dissipated life and had a considerable fund of humor his anecdotes were extremely amusing especially since he never hesitated to place himself in a ludicrous point of view provided he could raise a laugh by doing so Tete Rouge however was sometimes rather troublesome he had an inveterate habit of pilfering provisions at all times of the day he set ridicule and utter defiance and being without a particle of self-respect he would never have given over his tricks even if they had drawn upon him the scorn of the whole party now and then indeed something worse than laughter fell to his share on these occasions he would exhibit much contrition but half an hour after we would generally observe him stealing round to the box at the back of the cart and slyly making off with the provisions which DeLaurier had laid by for supper he was very fond of smoking but having no tobacco of his own we used to provide him with as much as he wanted a small piece at a time at first we gave him half a pound together but this experiment proved an entire failure for he invariably lost not only the tobacco but the knife entrusted to him for cutting it and a few minutes after he would come to us with many apologies and beg for more we had been two days at this camp and some of the meat was nearly fit for transportation when a storm came suddenly upon us about sunset the whole sky grew as black as ink and the long grass at the river's edge bent and rose mournfully with the first gusts of the approaching hurricane Monroe and his two companions brought their guns and placed them under cover of our tent having no shelter for themselves they built a fire of driftwood that might have defied a cataract and wrapped in their buffalo robes sat on the ground around it to bide the fury of the storm DeLaurier ensconced himself under the cover of the cart Shaw and I together with Henry and Ted Rouge crowded into the little tent but first of all the dried meat was piled together and well protected by buffalo robes hidden firmly to the ground about nine o'clock the storm broke amid absolute darkness it blew agale and torrents of rain roared over the boundless expanse of open prairie our tent was filled with mist and spray beating through the canvas and saturating everything within we could only distinguish each other at short intervals by the dazzling flash of lightning which displayed the whole waste around us with its momentary glare we had our fears for the tent but for an hour or two it stood fast until at length the cap gave way before a furious blast the pole tore through the top and in an instant we were half suffocated by the cold and dripping folds of the canvas which fell down upon us seizing upon our guns we placed them erect in order to lift the saturated cloth above our heads in this disagreeable situation involved among wet blankets and buffalo robes for several hours of the night during which the storm would not abate for a moment but pelted down above our heads with merciless fury before long the ground beneath us became soaked with moisture and the water gathered there in a pool two or three inches deep so that for a considerable part of the night we were partially immersed in a cold bath in spite of all this tent ooze's flow of spirits did not desert him for an instant whistled and sung in defiance of the storm and that night he paid off the long arrears of ridicule which he owed us while we lay in silence and during the inflection with what philosophy we could muster Ted Rouge who was intoxicated with animal spirits was cracking jokes at our expense by the hour together at about three o'clock in the morning preferring the tyranny of the open night to such a wretched shelter we crawled out from beneath the fallen canvas the wind had abated but the rain fell steadily the fire of the California men still blazed amid the darkness and we joined them as they sat around it we made ready some hot coffee by way of refreshment but when some of the parties sought to replenish their cups it was found that Ted Rouge having disposed of his own share had privately abstracted the coffee pot and drank up the rest of the contents out of the spout in the morning to our great joy an unclouded sun rose upon the prairie we presented rather a laughable appearance for the cold and clammy buckskin saturated with water clung fast to our limbs the light wind and warm sunshine soon dried them again and then we were all encased in armor of intolerable rigidity roaming all day over the prairie and shooting two or three bulls were scarcely enough to restore to a pliancy besides Henry Shatalon Shaw and I were the only hunters in the party Monroe this morning made an attempt to run a buffalo but his horse could not come up to the game Shaw went out with him and being better mounted soon found himself in the midst of the herd seeing nothing but cows and calves around him he checked his horse an old bull came galloping on the open prairie at some distance behind and turning Shaw he rode across his path leveling his gun as he passed and shooting him through the shoulder into the heart the heavy bullets of Shaw's double-barreled gun made wild work wherever they struck a great flock of buzzards were usually soaring about a few trees that stood on the island just below our camp throughout the whole of yesterday we had noticed an eagle among them today he was still there and Tent Rouge declaring that he would kill the bird of America Monroe DeLoria's gun and set out on his unpatriotic mission as might have been expected the eagle suffered no great harm at his hands he soon returned saying that he could not find him but had shot a buzzard instead being required to produce the bird in proof of his assertion he said he believed he was not quite dead but he must be hurt from the swiftness with which he flew off if you want said Tent Rouge I'll go out and get one of his feathers plenty of them when I shot him just opposite our camp was another island covered with bushes and behind it was a deep pool of water while two or three considerable streams coursed over the sand not far off I was bathing at this place in the afternoon when a white wolf larger than the largest Newfoundland dog ran out from behind the point of the island and galloped leisurely over the sand not half a stone's throw distant I could plainly see his red eyes and the bristles about his snout he was an ugly scoundrel with a bushy tail, large head and a most repulsive countenance having neither rifle to shoot nor stone to pelt him with I was looking eagerly after some missile for his benefit when the report of a gun came from the camp and the ball threw up the sand just beyond him at this he gave a slight jump and stretched away so swiftly that he soon dwindled into a mere speck on the distant sand beds the number of carcasses that by this time were lying about the prairie all around us summoned the wolves from every quarter the spot where Shaw and Henry had hunted together soon became their favorite resort for here about a dozen dead buffalo were fermenting under the hot sun I used often to go over the river and watch them at their meal by lying under the bank it was easy to get a full view of them three different kinds were present there were the white wolves and the gray wolves both extremely large and beside these the small prairie wolves not much bigger than spaniels they would howl and fight in a crowd around a single carcass yet they were so watchful and their senses so acute that I never was able to crawl within a fair shooting distance whenever I attempted it they would all scatter at once and glide silently away through the tall grass the air above this spot was always full of buzzards whenever the wolves left a carcass they would descend upon it and cover it so densely that a rifle bullet shot at random among the garmentizing crowd would generally strike down two or three of them these birds would now be sailing by scores just about our camp their broad black wings seeming half transparent as they expanded them against the bright sky the wolves and the buzzards thickened about us with every hour and two or three eagles to the feast I killed a bull within rifle shot of the camp that night the wolves made a fearful howling close at hand and in the morning the carcass was completely hollowed out by these voracious feeders after we had remained four days at this camp we prepared to leave it we had for our own part about five hundred pounds of dried meat and the California men had prepared some three hundred more this consisted of the fattest parts of eight or nine cows a very small quantity only being taken from each and the rest abandoned to the wolves the pack animals were laden the horses were saddled and the mules harnessed to the cart even tent rouge was ready at last and slowly moving from the ground we resumed our journey eastward when we had advanced about a mile Shaw missed a valuable hunting knife and turned back in search of it we left it at the camp he approached the place cautiously fearful that Indians might be lurking about for a deserted camp is dangerous to return to he saw no enemy but the scene was a wild and dreary one the prairie was overshadowed by dull leaden clouds for the day was dark and gloomy the ashes of the fires were still smoking by the riverside the grass around them was trampled down by men and horses and strewn in the center of the camp our departure had been a gathering signal to the birds and beasts of prey Shaw assured me that literally dozens of wolves were prowling about the smoldering fires while multitudes were roaming over the prairie around they all fled as he approached some running over the sand beds and some over the grassy plains the vultures and great clouds were soaring overhead and the dead bull near the camp that had lighted upon it they flapped their broad wings and stretched upward their crested heads and long skinny necks fearing to remain yet reluctant to leave their disgusting feast as he searched about the fires he saw the wolves seated on the distant hills waiting for his departure having looked in vain for his knife he mounted again and left the wolves and the vultures to banquet freely upon the carrion of the camp in 1925