In one of these, the Radnor, since snagged and lost, my friend and relative, Quincy A. Shaw, and myself, left St. Louis on the 28th of April, on a tour of curiosity and amusement to the Rocky Mountains. The boat was loaded until the water broke alternately over her guards. Her upper deck was covered with large weapons of a peculiar8 form, for the Santa Fe trade, and her hold was crammed9 with goods for the same destination. There were also the equipments and provisions of a party of Oregon emigrants, a band of mules10 and horses, piles of saddles and harness, and a multitude of nondescript articles, indispensable on the prairies. Almost hidden in this medley12 one might have seen a small French cart, of the sort very appropriately called a “mule11-killer” beyond the frontiers, and not far distant a tent, together with a miscellaneous assortment13 of boxes and barrels. The whole equipage was far from prepossessing in its appearance; yet, such as it was, it was destined14 to a long and arduous15 journey, on which the persevering16 reader will accompany it.
The passengers on board the Radnor corresponded with her freight. In her cabin were Santa Fe traders, gamblers, speculators, and adventurers of various descriptions, and her steerage was crowded with Oregon emigrants, “mountain men,” negroes, and a party of Kansas Indians, who had been on a visit to St. Louis.
Thus laden17, the boat struggled upward for seven or eight days against the rapid current of the Missouri, grating upon snags, and hanging for two or three hours at a time upon sand-bars. We entered the mouth of the Missouri in a drizzling18 rain, but the weather soon became clear, and showed distinctly the broad and turbid19 river, with its eddies20, its sand-bars, its ragged21 islands, and forest-covered shores. The Missouri is constantly changing its course; wearing away its banks on one side, while it forms new ones on the other. Its channel is shifting continually. Islands are formed, and then washed away; and while the old forests on one side are undermined and swept off, a young growth springs up from the new soil upon the other. With all these changes, the water is so charged with mud and sand that it is perfectly22 opaque23, and in a few minutes deposits a sediment24 an inch thick in the bottom of a tumbler. The river was now high; but when we descended25 in the autumn it was fallen very low, and all the secrets of its treacherous26 shallows were exposed to view. It was frightful27 to see the dead and broken trees, thick-set as a military abatis, firmly imbedded in the sand, and all pointing down stream, ready to impale28 any unhappy steamboat that at high water should pass over that dangerous ground.
In five or six days we began to see signs of the great western movement that was then taking place. Parties of emigrants, with their tents and wagons, would be encamped on open spots near the bank, on their way to the common rendezvous29 at Independence. On a rainy day, near sunset, we reached the landing of this place, which is situated30 some miles from the river, on the extreme frontier of Missouri. The scene was characteristic, for here were represented at one view the most remarkable31 features of this wild and enterprising region. On the muddy shore stood some thirty or forty dark slavish-looking Spaniards, gazing stupidly out from beneath their broad hats. They were attached to one of the Santa Fe companies, whose wagons were crowded together on the banks above. In the midst of these, crouching32 over a smoldering33 fire, was a group of Indians, belonging to a remote Mexican tribe. One or two French hunters from the mountains with their long hair and buckskin dresses, were looking at the boat; and seated on a log close at hand were three men, with rifles lying across their knees. The foremost of these, a tall, strong figure, with a clear blue eye and an open, intelligent face, might very well represent that race of restless and intrepid34 pioneers whose axes and rifles have opened a path from the Alleghenies to the western prairies. He was on his way to Oregon, probably a more congenial field to him than any that now remained on this side the great plains.
Early on the next morning we reached Kansas, about five hundred miles from the mouth of the Missouri. Here we landed and leaving our equipments in charge of my good friend Colonel Chick, whose log-house was the substitute for a tavern35, we set out in a wagon3 for Westport, where we hoped to procure36 mules and horses for the journey.
It was a remarkably37 fresh and beautiful May morning. The rich and luxuriant woods through which the miserable38 road conducted us were lighted by the bright sunshine and enlivened by a multitude of birds. We overtook on the way our late fellow-travelers, the Kansas Indians, who, adorned39 with all their finery, were proceeding40 homeward at a round pace; and whatever they might have seemed on board the boat, they made a very striking and picturesque41 feature in the forest landscape.
Westport was full of Indians, whose little shaggy ponies42 were tied by dozens along the houses and fences. Sacs and Foxes, with shaved heads and painted faces, Shawanoes and Delawares, fluttering in calico frocks, and turbans, Wyandottes dressed like white men, and a few wretched Kansas wrapped in old blankets, were strolling about the streets, or lounging in and out of the shops and houses.
As I stood at the door of the tavern, I saw a remarkable looking person coming up the street. He had a ruddy face, garnished43 with the stumps44 of a bristly red beard and mustache; on one side of his head was a round cap with a knob at the top, such as Scottish laborers45 sometimes wear; his coat was of a nondescript form, and made of a gray Scotch46 plaid, with the fringes hanging all about it; he wore pantaloons of coarse homespun, and hob-nailed shoes; and to complete his equipment, a little black pipe was stuck in one corner of his mouth. In this curious attire47, I recognized Captain C. of the British army, who, with his brother, and Mr. R., an English gentleman, was bound on a hunting expedition across the continent. I had seen the captain and his companions at St. Louis. They had now been for some time at Westport, making preparations for their departure, and waiting for a re-enforcement, since they were too few in number to attempt it alone. They might, it is true, have joined some of the parties of emigrants who were on the point of setting out for Oregon and California; but they professed48 great disinclination to have any connection with the “Kentucky fellows.”
The captain now urged it upon us, that we should join forces and proceed to the mountains in company. Feeling no greater partiality for the society of the emigrants than they did, we thought the arrangement an advantageous49 one, and consented to it. Our future fellow-travelers had installed themselves in a little log-house, where we found them all surrounded by saddles, harness, guns, pistols, telescopes, knives, and in short their complete appointments for the prairie. R., who professed a taste for natural history, sat at a table stuffing a woodpecker; the brother of the captain, who was an Irishman, was splicing50 a trail-rope on the floor, as he had been an amateur sailor. The captain pointed51 out, with much complacency, the different articles of their outfit5. “You see,” said he, “that we are all old travelers. I am convinced that no party ever went upon the prairie better provided.” The hunter whom they had employed, a surly looking Canadian, named Sorel, and their muleteer, an American from St. Louis, were lounging about the building. In a little log stable close at hand were their horses and mules, selected by the captain, who was an excellent judge.
The alliance entered into, we left them to complete their arrangements, while we pushed our own to all convenient speed. The emigrants for whom our friends professed such contempt were encamped on the prairie about eight or ten miles distant, to the number of a thousand or more, and new parties were constantly passing out from Independence to join them. They were in great confusion, holding meetings, passing resolutions, and drawing up regulations, but unable to unite in the choice of leaders to conduct them across the prairie. Being at leisure one day, I rode over to Independence. The town was crowded. A multitude of shops had sprung up to furnish the emigrants and Santa Fe traders with necessaries for their journey; and there was an incessant52 hammering and banging from a dozen blacksmiths’ sheds, where the heavy wagons were being repaired, and the horses and oxen shod. The streets were thronged53 with men, horses, and mules. While I was in the town, a train of emigrant1 wagons from Illinois passed through, to join the camp on the prairie, and stopped in the principal street. A multitude of healthy children’s faces were peeping out from under the covers of the wagons. Here and there a buxom54 damsel was seated on horseback, holding over her sunburnt face an old umbrella or a parasol, once gaudy55 enough but now miserably56 faded. The men, very sober-looking countrymen, stood about their oxen; and as I passed I noticed three old fellows, who, with their long whips in their hands, were zealously57 discussing the doctrine58 of regeneration. The emigrants, however, are not all of this stamp. Among them are some of the vilest59 outcasts in the country. I have often perplexed60 myself to divine the various motives61 that give impulse to this strange migration62; but whatever they may be, whether an insane hope of a better condition in life, or a desire of shaking off restraints of law and society, or mere63 restlessness, certain it is that multitudes bitterly repent64 the journey, and after they have reached the land of promise are happy enough to escape from it.
In the course of seven or eight days we had brought our preparations near to a close. Meanwhile our friends had completed theirs, and becoming tired of Westport, they told us that they would set out in advance and wait at the crossing of the Kansas till we should come up. Accordingly R. and the muleteers went forward with the wagon and tent, while the captain and his brother, together with Sorel, and a trapper named Boisverd, who had joined them, followed with the band of horses. The commencement of the journey was ominous65, for the captain was scarcely a mile from Westport, riding along in state at the head of his party, leading his intended buffalo66 horse by a rope, when a tremendous thunderstorm came on, and drenched67 them all to the skin. They hurried on to reach the place, about seven miles off, where R. was to have had the camp in readiness to receive them. But this prudent68 person, when he saw the storm approaching, had selected a sheltered glade69 in the woods, where he pitched his tent, and was sipping70 a comfortable cup of coffee, while the captain galloped71 for miles beyond through the rain to look for him. At length the storm cleared away, and the sharp-eyed trapper succeeded in discovering his tent: R. had by this time finished his coffee, and was seated on a buffalo robe smoking his pipe. The captain was one of the most easy-tempered men in existence, so he bore his ill-luck with great composure, shared the dregs of the coffee with his brother, and lay down to sleep in his wet clothes.
We ourselves had our share of the deluge72. We were leading a pair of mules to Kansas when the storm broke. Such sharp and incessant flashes of lightning, such stunning73 and continuous thunder, I have never known before. The woods were completely obscured by the diagonal sheets of rain that fell with a heavy roar, and rose in spray from the ground; and the streams rose so rapidly that we could hardly ford74 them. At length, looming75 through the rain, we saw the log-house of Colonel Chick, who received us with his usual bland76 hospitality; while his wife, who, though a little soured and stiffened77 by too frequent attendance on camp-meetings, was not behind him in hospitable78 feeling, supplied us with the means of repairing our drenched and bedraggled condition. The storm, clearing away at about sunset, opened a noble prospect79 from the porch of the colonel’s house, which stands upon a high hill. The sun streamed from the breaking clouds upon the swift and angry Missouri, and on the immense expanse of luxuriant forest that stretched from its banks back to the distant bluffs80.
Returning on the next day to Westport, we received a message from the captain, who had ridden back to deliver it in person, but finding that we were in Kansas, had intrusted it with an acquaintance of his named Vogel, who kept a small grocery and liquor shop. Whisky by the way circulates more freely in Westport than is altogether safe in a place where every man carries a loaded pistol in his pocket. As we passed this establishment, we saw Vogel’s broad German face and knavish-looking eyes thrust from his door. He said he had something to tell us, and invited us to take a dram. Neither his liquor nor his message was very palatable81. The captain had returned to give us notice that R., who assumed the direction of his party, had determined82 upon another route from that agreed upon between us; and instead of taking the course of the traders, to pass northward83 by Fort Leavenworth, and follow the path marked out by the dragoons in their expedition of last summer. To adopt such a plan without consulting us, we looked upon as a very high-handed proceeding; but suppressing our dissatisfaction as well as we could, we made up our minds to join them at Fort Leavenworth, where they were to wait for us.
Accordingly, our preparation being now complete, we attempted one fine morning to commence our journey. The first step was an unfortunate one. No sooner were our animals put in harness, than the shaft84 mule reared and plunged85, burst ropes and straps86, and nearly flung the cart into the Missouri. Finding her wholly uncontrollable, we exchanged her for another, with which we were furnished by our friend Mr. Boone of Westport, a grandson of Daniel Boone, the pioneer. This foretaste of prairie experience was very soon followed by another. Westport was scarcely out of sight, when we encountered a deep muddy gully, of a species that afterward87 became but too familiar to us; and here for the space of an hour or more the car stuck fast.
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1
emigrant
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| adj.移居的，移民的；n.移居外国的人，移民 | |
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emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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outfits
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| n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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crammed
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| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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medley
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| n.混合 | |
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assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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persevering
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| a.坚忍不拔的 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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drizzling
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| 下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的现在分词 ) | |
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turbid
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| adj.混浊的，泥水的，浓的 | |
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eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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opaque
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| adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的 | |
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sediment
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| n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物) | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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impale
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| v.用尖物刺某人、某物 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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30
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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smoldering
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| v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的现在分词 ) | |
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intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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garnished
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| v.给（上餐桌的食物）加装饰( garnish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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46
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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49
advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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50
splicing
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| n.编接（绳）；插接；捻接；叠接v.绞接( splice的现在分词 )；捻接（两段绳子）；胶接；粘接（胶片、磁带等） | |
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51
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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52
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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53
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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buxom
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| adj.（妇女）丰满的，有健康美的 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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zealously
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| adv.热心地；热情地；积极地；狂热地 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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vilest
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| adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 )；可耻的；极坏的；非常讨厌的 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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repent
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| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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sipping
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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72
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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stunning
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| adj.极好的；使人晕倒的 | |
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Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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80
bluffs
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| 恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁 | |
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palatable
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| adj.可口的，美味的；惬意的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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84
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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85
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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86
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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