The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-22 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

LIFE IN THE PRAIRIE.

(From England in the New World.)
In one of my transatlantic voyages in a steamer, I met
with a very singular man, a German by birth, who was on
his return from Europe to America. He was about thirty
years of age, of a rather small but active and wiry frame,
his features very handsome, of a chiselled and distinct
outline; his bright black eye never met yours, but
watched as you looked away, with penetrating keenness ;
the expression of his mouth was wild and somewhat sen-
sual, with two perfect rows of large teeth, white as ivory ;
his hair was black, worn long behind ; complexion fresh
and ruddy, but swarthed over by sun and wind. He was
never still, but kept perpetually moving to and fro, even
when seated, with the restlessness of a savage animal, al-
ways glancing round and behind, as though he expected,
but did not fear, some hidden fee. His voice was soft
and rather pleasing, very low, but as if suppressed with
effort. This strange being had been educated in a Ger-
man university, and was very well informed; the Euro-
pean languages were all equally familiar to him ; he spoke
them all well, but none perfectly, not even German; in
several Indian tongues he was more at home. When still
young he had left his country ; struggling out from the
down-trampled masses of the north of Europe, he went
to seek liberty in America. But even there the restraints
of law were too severe : so he went away for the Far
Wrest, where his passion for freedom might find full vent.
Hunting and trapping for some months on the upper
branches of the Missouri, he acquired money and influ-
ence enough to collect a few Indians and mules, and
drive a dangerous but profitable trade with the savage
tribes round about. In course of time his commerce
prospered sufficiently to enable him to assemble twenty-
four men, hunters, Canadian voyagers, and Indians, well
armed with rifles, with many mules and wagons laden
with the handiwork of the older states. He started with
his company in the beginning of April for the Rocky
Mountains, from Independence—the last western town,
originally settled by the Mormons. four miles from the
Missouri River. They travelled from twelve to fifteen
miles a-day through the " Bush" and over the Prairies,
and were soon beyond the lands of friendly or even neu-
tral tribes, among the dangerous haunts of treacherous
and warlike Blackfeet. By day and night the party were
ever on the watch ; though they rarely saw them, they
knew that enemies were all around. The moment there
was any apparent carelessness or irregularity in their
march, they were attacked with horrible whoop and yell ;
if there was sufficient time, they ranged their wagons
round, and used them as rests for their rifles, and for
protection from the bullets and arrows of the Indians.
Once they were suddenly surrounded by a more than usu-
ally numerous and determined body, all well mounted ;
there was no time to form the accustomed defence ; so
each man fell on his face ; the bowie knife, stuck in the
ground, gave him in its handle a rest for his aim, and the
hunter of the Prairie seldom shoots in vain ; but when he
fired he turned on his back to reload, thus always expos-
ing the smallest possible surface to the unskilful eye of
the Blackfoot marksman. Many of the assailants were
slain, and the survivors attacked openly no more. These
travellers carried no tents, sought no shelter; wrapped
in their blankets, they braved the wind, dew, and rain;
their rifle: gave them abundance of buffalo, deer, and
mountain sheep ; and they sometimes had the luxury of
wild potatoes, roots, and nuts. They did not burthen
themselves by taking with them spirits, salt, flour, food,
or luxury of any kind ; for their horses there were rich
and plentiful grasses. Sometimes, but that very rarely
happened, they ate their beasts of burthen. when the
chase had been for a long period unsuccessful; fuel was
not always to be had, arid then they were fain to devour
their meat raw. There is one great salt prairie, where
some white men lost their way, fainted, and died of thirst.
Occasionally these adventurers had lack of water ; but
when they had got five hundred miles on, and into the
Rocky Mountains, they found abundance, with many
mineral springs, some of them of rare virtues, and a few
sait lakes. The peaks of this grim range are here ten
thousand feet high, always white with snow ; but the
company, keeping in the gorges and the valleys, felt no
great cold at any time. They steered their course by the
compass through the wilderness. Besides the Blackfeet
they had fierce but seldom unprovoked enemies, in the
huge grizzly bears. Some of the hunters were dainty in
their food, and liked the flesh of this monster, and they
were very vain of his spoils, the rich fur and the terrible
claws : he can run very fast, and may be struck by many
a bullet before he drops and yields ; he knows no fear,
and never declines the combat when offered ; if he once
gets within reach to grasp, the hunter must perish; but,
somehow, these white men, weak in body, strong in mind,
in the end crush alike the stalwart and active Indian, and
the fierce and grizzly bear. For five hundred miles more
their way lay thrpugh these Rocky Mountains ; for six
hundred beyond them, they still steered for the north-
west, till they struck on the upper forks of the Columbia
River. Here they met with more friendly natives, and
some of a race mixed with French Canadian blood, be-
sides a few lonely hunters and trappers. Here and fur-
ther on they traded, and got great quantities of rich and
valuable furs, in exchange for their blankets, knives,
guns, and other products of civilization.
The burning of the prairies is one of the dangers and
hardships to which these traders are exposed. In the
autumn the tall rich grasses dry up and wither; the
slightest spark of fire suffices to set them alight, and then,
whichever way the wind may carry it, the flame only ends
with the mountain, the lake, or the river. The heat is
but for a few moments, as the blaze sweeps by, but it
leaves no living thing behind it, and the smoke is dense
and acrid. When the fire approaches no man mounts his
horse and trusts to its speed ; that would be in, vain ; but
they fire the prairie to leeward and follow the course of
the burning, till enough desolation lies between them and
their ravenous pursuer to starve it into tameness. The
German once found the blackened tract of the fire for nine
hundred miles, and could only obtain scanty grating for
his cattle by the borders of the lakes and rivers on his
route. In the year 1844 he was delayed much beyond his
usual time in collecting mules sufficient for his exNclition,
and could not start for Santa Fts till the middle of Septem-
ber. There is a low, hollow country, many miles in ex-
tent, about fifty days' journey on their road ; it is covered
with gravel, sand, a.id stone; there is no hill, rock, or
shelter of any kind ; it supports no animal or vegetable
life, for a strong withering wind sweeps over it, summer
and winter. The adventurers have named this hideous
place—probably from the wind—the Simoom. Great
caution is always taken to pass it before the winter begins ;
this year they were late, and the rigour of the season set
in very early ; and, when they were well advanced into
thedanger, a thick snow-storm fell. There was no track ;
the cattle moved painfully; they were without fuel, and
the stock of forage was soon exhausted. Many animals
dropped by the nay ; and, in one night, a hundred arid
sixty mules died from cold, weariness, and hunger. Then
the hunters, who had faced many great dangers and hard-
ships before, became appalled : for the snow still fell hea-
vily, and the way was far and dark before them. The
next morning they consulted together, and agreed to
abandon the convoy and hasten back to save their lives.
An old hunter, who had served long and faithfully, and
was known to be much esteemed by their leader, was cho-
sen to state this determination to him. The delegate
came forward, and, in a quiet but determined way,
declared the mutiny. As be spoke the German shot him
dead : the rest returned to their duty. Leaving orders to
his company to remain where they were, the leader, es-
corted by two Indians, rode back to the settlements: they
had but little food with them ; the journey was seven hun-
dred miles, and they had to cross many rapid, swollen
streams, but he arrived safely, prccured supplies, returned
to his people, and, after a prosperous expedition, they all
came back in safety. His narrative of these events was as
free from bravado as it was from the expression of human
feeling or romance. The adventurer, being now wealthy,
went to Europe, with the intention of settling, or at least
spending some time with his friends in Germany. He re-
mained in London for a month, where he met some con-
nexions who treated him with kindness. But the bond of
society proved intolerable to him ; he gave up his plan of
going home, and once again turned to seek the wild but
fascinating life of the prairie. This strange man was tho-
roughly well informed on all the political and social con.
4itions of the nations of the earth, in their poetry, philo.
sophy, and even their novels. He had read and thought
much ; with an anxious effort to overcome this love of sa-
vage life, he felt deeply the evil of yielding to its influence,
but succumbed. By this time he is again in the deep
gorges of the Rocky Mountains, or chasing the buffalo on
the prairies of the west.