Chapter 20

WE must move on; we have a long and rough journey before us.

　　Durham had old friends in New York, Fred Calthorpe hadletters to Colonel Fremont, who was then a candidate for thePresidency, and who had discovered the South Pass; and Mr.

　　Ellice had given me a letter to John Jacob Astor - THEAmerican millionaire of that day. We were thus well providedwith introductions; and nothing could exceed the kindness andhospitality of our American friends.

　　But time was precious. It was already mid May, and we hadeverything to get - wagons, horses, men, mules, andprovisions. So that we were anxious not to waste a day, buthurry on to St. Louis as fast as we could. Durham was tooill to go with us. Phoca had never intended to do so. Fred,Samson, and I, took leave of our companions, and travellingvia the Hudson to Albany, Buffalo, down Lake Erie, and acrossto Chicago, we reached St. Louis in about eight days. As asingle illustration of what this meant before railroads,Samson and I, having to stop a day at Chicago, hired a buggyand drove into the neighbouring woods, or wilderness, to huntfor wild turkeys.

　　Our outfit, the whole of which we got at St. Louis, consistedof two heavy wagons, nine mules, and eight horses. We hiredeight men, on the nominal understanding that they were to gowith us as far as the Rocky Mountains on a huntingexpedition. In reality all seven of them, before joining us,had separately decided to go to California.

　　Having published in 1852 an account of our journey, entitled'A Ride over the Rocky Mountains,' I shall not repeat thestory, but merely give a summary of the undertaking, with afew of the more striking incidents to show what travellingacross unknown America entailed fifty or sixty years ago.

　　A steamer took us up the Missouri to Omaha. Here wedisembarked on the confines of occupied territory. From nearthis point, where the Platte river empties into the Missouri,to the mouth of the Columbia, on the Pacific - which weultimately reached - is at least 1,500 miles as the crowflies; for us (as we had to follow watercourses and avoidimpassable ridges) it was very much more. Some five-and-forty miles from our starting-place we passed a small villagecalled Savannah. Between it and Vancouver there was not asingle white man's abode, with the exception of three tradingstations - mere mud buildings - Fort Laramie, Fort Hall, andFort Boise.

　　The vast prairies on this side of the Rocky Mountains weregrazed by herds of countless bison, wapiti, antelope, anddeer of various species. These were hunted by moving tribesof Indians - Pawnees, Omahaws, Cheyennes, Ponkaws, Sioux, &c.

　　On the Pacific side of the great range, a due west course -which ours was as near as we could keep it - lay across ahuge rocky desert of volcanic debris, where hardly anyvegetation was to be met with, save artemisia - a species ofwormwood - scanty blades of gramma grass, and occasionalosiers by river-banks. The rivers themselves often ranthrough canons or gulches, so deep that one might travel fordays within a hundred feet of water yet perish (some of ouranimals did so) for the want of a drop to drink. Game washere very scarce - a few antelope, wolves, and abundance ofrattlesnakes, were nearly the only living things we saw. TheIndians were mainly fishers of the Shoshone - or Great SnakeRiver - tribe, feeding mostly on salmon, which they spearedwith marvellous dexterity; and Root-diggers, who live uponwild roots. When hard put to it, however, in winter, thelatter miserable creatures certainly, if not the former,devoured their own children. There was no map of thecountry. It was entirely unexplored; in fact, Bancroft theAmerican historian, in his description of the Indian tribes,quotes my account of the Root-diggers; which shows how littlewas known of this region up to this date. I carried a smallcompass fastened round my neck. That and the stars (wetravelled by night when in the vicinity of Indians) were myonly guides for hundreds of dreary miles.

　　Such then was the task we had set ourselves to grapple with.

　　As with life itself, nothing but the magic powers of youthand ignorance could have cajoled us to face it with heedlessconfidence and eager zest. These conditions given, withhealth - the one essential of all enjoyment - added, thefirst escape from civilised restraint, the first survey ofprimordial nature as seen in the boundless expanse of theopen prairie, the habitat of wild men and wild animals, -exhilarate one with emotions akin to the schoolboy's rapturein the playground, and the thoughtful man's contemplation ofthe stars. Freedom and change, space and the possibilitiesof the unknown, these are constant elements of our day-dreams; now and then actual life dangles visions of thembefore our eyes, alas! only to teach us that the aspirationswhich they inspire are, for the most part, illusory.

　　Brief indeed, in our case, were the pleasures of novelty.

　　For the first few days the business was a continuous picnicfor all hands. It was a pleasure to be obliged to help toset up the tents, to cut wood, to fetch water, to harness themules, and work exactly as the paid men worked. The equalityin this respect - that everything each wanted done had to bedone with his own hands - was perfect; and never, from firstto last, even when starvation left me bare strength to liftthe saddle on to my horse, did I regret the necessity, ordesire to be dependent on another man. But the bloom soonwore off the plum; and the pleasure consisted not in doingbut in resting when the work was done.

　　For the reason already stated, a sample only of the dailylabour will be given. It may be as well first to bestow afew words upon the men; for, in the long run, our fellowbeings are the powerful factors, for good or ill, in all ourworldly enterprises.

　　We had two ordinary mule-drivers - Potter and Morris, alittle acrobat out of a travelling circus, a METIF or half-breed Indian named Jim, two French Canadians - Nelson andLouis (the latter spoke French only); Jacob, a Pennsylvanianauctioneer whose language was a mixture of Dutch, Yankee, andGerman; and (after we reached Fort Laramie) another Nelson -'William' as I shall call him - who offered his servicesgratis if we would allow him to go with us to California.

　　Jacob the Dutch Yankee was the most intelligent and the mostuseful of the lot, and was unanimously elected cook for theparty. The Canadian Nelson was a hard-working good youngfellow, with a passionate temper. Louis was a hunter byprofession, Gallic to the tip of his moustache - fond ofslapping his breast and telling of the mighty deeds of NOUSAUTRES EN HAUT. Jim, the half-breed was Indian by nature -idle, silent, treacherous, but a crafty hunter. Williamdeserves special mention, not from any idiosyncrasy of theman, but because he was concerned soon after he joined us inthe most disastrous of my adventures throughout theexpedition.

　　To look at, William Nelson might have sat for the portrait ofLeatherstocking. He was a tall gaunt man who had spent hisyouth bringing rafts of timber down the Wabash river, fromFort Wayne to Maumee, in Ohio. For the last six years (hewas three-and-thirty) he had been trapping musk rats andbeaver, and dealing in pelts generally. At the time of ourmeeting he was engaged to a Miss Mary something - thedaughter of an English immigrant, who would not consent tothe marriage until William was better off. He was now boundfor California, where he hoped to make the required fortune.

　　The poor fellow was very sentimental about his Mary; but,despite his weatherbeaten face, hardy-looking frame, and his'longue carabine,' he was scarcely the hero which, no doubt,Miss Mary took him for.

　　Yes, the novelty soon wore off. We had necessaries enough tolast to California. We also had enough unnecessaries tobring us to grief in a couple of weeks. Our wagons wereloaded to the roof. And seeing there was no road nor so muchas a track, that there were frequent swamps and small riversto be crossed, that our Comanche mules were wilder than theIndians who had owned them, it may easily be believed thatour rate of progress did not average more than six or sevenmiles a day; sometimes it took from dawn to dusk to cross astream by ferrying our packages, and emptied wagons, on suchrafts as could be extemporised. Before the end of afortnight, both wagons were shattered, wheels smashed, andaxles irreparable. The men, who were as refractory as theother animals, helped themselves to provisions, tobacco andwhisky, at their own sweet will, and treated ourremonstrances with resentment and contempt.

　　Heroic measures were exigent. The wagons were broken up andconverted into pack saddles. Both tents, masses ofprovisions, 100 lbs. of lead for bullets, kegs of powder,warm clothing, mackintoshes, waterproof sheeting, tarpaulins,medicine chest, and bags of sugar, were flung aside to wastetheir sweetness on the desert soil. Not one of us had everpacked a saddle before; and certainly not one of the muleshad ever carried, or to all appearances, ever meant to carry,a pack. It was a fight between man and beast every day -twice a day indeed, for we halted to rest and feed, and hadto unpack and repack our remaining impedimenta in payment forthe indulgence.

　　Let me cite a page from my diary. It is a fair specimen ofscores of similar entries.

　　'JUNE 24TH. - My morning watch. Up at 1 A.M. Roused the menat 3.30. Off at 7.30. Rained hard all day. Packs slippedor kicked off eighteen times before halt. Men grumbling.

　　Nelson and Jim both too ill to work. When adjusting pack,Nelson and Louis had a desperate quarrel. Nelson drew hisknife and nearly stabbed Louis. I snatched a pistol out ofmy holster, and threatened to shoot Nelson unless he shut up.

　　Fred, of course, laughed obstreperously at the notion of mycommitting murder, which spoilt the dramatic effect.

　　'Oh! these devils of mules! After repacking, they rolled,they kicked and bucked, they screamed and bit, as though wewere all in Hell, and didn't know it. It took four men topack each one; and the moment their heads were loosed, awaythey went into the river, over the hills, and across countryas hard as they could lay legs to ground. It was a cheerfulsight! - the flour and biscuit stuff swimming about in thestream, the hams in a ditch full of mud, the trailed pots andpans bumping and rattling on the ground until they were asshapeless as old wide-awakes. And, worst of all, the pack-saddles, which had delayed us a week to make - nothing nowbut a bundle of splinters.

　　'25TH. - What a night! A fearful storm broke over us. Allround was like a lake. Fred and I sat, back to back, perchedon a flour bag till daylight, with no covering but ourshooting jackets, our feet in a pool, and bodies streaminglike cascades. Repeated lightning seemed to strike theground within a few yards of us. The animals, wild withterror, stampeded in all directions. In the morning, lo andbehold! Samson on his back in the water, insensibly drunk.

　　At first I thought he was dead; but he was only dead drunk.

　　We can't move till he can, unless we bequeath him to thewolves, which are plentiful. This is the third time he hasserved us the same trick. I took the liberty to ram my heelthrough the whisky keg (we have kept a small one foremergencies) and put it empty under his head for a pillow.'

　　There were plenty of days and nights to match these, butthere were worse in store for us.

　　One evening, travelling along the North Platte river, beforereaching Laramie, we overtook a Mormon family on their way toSalt Lake city. They had a light covered wagon with hardlyanything in it but a small supply of flour and bacon. It wasdrawn by four oxen and two cows. Four milch cows weredriven. The man's name was Blazzard - a Yorkshireman fromthe Wolds, whose speech was that of Learoyd. He had only hiswife and a very pretty daughter of sixteen or seventeen withhim. We asked him how he became a Mormon. He answered:

　　'From conviction,' and entreated us to be baptized in thetrue faith at his hands. The offer was tempting, for thepretty little milkmaid might have become one of one's wiveson the spot. In truth the sweet nymph urged conversion morepersuasively than her papa - though with what views who shallsay? The old farmer's acquaintance with the Bible wasremarkable. He quoted it at every sentence, and was eloquentupon the subject of the meaning and the origin of the word'Bible.' He assured us the name was given to the Holy Bookfrom the circumstance of its contents having passed a synodof prophets, just as an Act of Parliament passes the House ofCommons - BY BILL. Hence its title. It was this historicalfact that guaranteed the authenticity of the sacred volume.

　　There are various reasons for believing - this is one ofthem.

　　The next day, being Sunday, was spent in sleep. In theafternoon I helped the Yorkshire lassie to herd her cattle,which had strayed a long distance amongst the rank herbage bythe banks of the Platte. The heat was intense, well over 120in the sun; and the mosquitos rose in clouds at every step inthe wet grass. It was an easy job for me, on my little grey,to gallop after the cows and drive them home, (it would havebeen a wearisome one for her,) and she was very grateful, andplayed Dorothea to my Hermann. None of our party wore anyupper clothing except a flannel shirt; I had cut off thesleeves of mine at the elbow. This was better for roughwork, but the broiling sun had raised big blisters on my armsand throat which were very painful. When we got back tocamp, Dorothea laved the burns for me with cool milk. Ah!

　　she was very pretty; and, what 'blackguard' Heine, asCarlyle dubs him, would have called 'naive schmutzig.' Whenwe parted next morning I thought with a sigh that before theautumn was over, she would be in the seraglio of Mr. BrighamYoung; who, Artemus Ward used to say, was 'the most marriedman he ever knew.'