The Arkansas advocate., 1835-03-06

could converse in Spanish, which he spoke tolerably well. He sang us the Marseflois and the Parisienne, and played the flute. He acted as tailor, and made hlnrelf blanket capote, and when We reached Santa Re turned confectioner. He was ore spe- < cllnen of he Frenchman. Old Charles, or Karl, was Prussian, born at Cologne, or some place near the border Of France. Fl was a perfect specimen of the old soldier-- and We made him cook primo. lie was dirty, shrewd, and thievish. He had fought both for and against Napoleon, and talked half a dozen languages all at once. For example, 'para questo, cat' He was more ot Frenehman, however, than any thing else. He was second specimen Then 1 there was Batiste something's little, im- beetle, one-eyed Canadian--useless as u pine stick, excep! 10 drive an old white 1 mule in pair of shafts, with little swivel ] behind, on which he sat a. straddle from morning ill night. remember (to exem- plify the man,) that. one day, being on guard in the heart of the Indian country, and wanting to light his pipe, he stuck
 straw iii the touch hole, clapped some tew | lng, when bang! went his old musket, with a bullet and dozen buckshot in her. He 1 used 10 sing us Canadian boat songs. 1 They might have sounded well 10 Thomas Moore, Esq. OH the St. Lawrence, but to me they are only one grade above an 0sage war song. Next came Antonio. tall. black, scowling Cataonian--lazy and use- less-and then a New Mexican Spaniard, whom i then thought the best rider had ever seen. After he joined us we soon had ali our mules broken, but before, we had some amusing scenes, and one or two bro- ken heads. A number of mules were pur chased, after NC had been three or four days from St. Louis, and such of the men as had no horses, undertook to ride them. They were perfectly unbroken, and for two or three mornings we had a most ridiculous scene. None of the men knew how to manage the animals, and they were gene rally no sooner on than of. One poor fel- low was no sooner on his mules back than he was seen describing somerset-pitch- ing probably in his fall plump upon his head. Another would gn up into the air as straight as an arrow, and alight oD his feet. Others would stick oil, and the mules ta- king the bit iii their teeth, would run a mile or two with them like iacarnate 6e,lds. IL Is very little use trying to ride a mule wit, an American saddle and bride. You want a deep Spanish saddle and heavy double cast bridle. with which you can break your animals law-and then you can ride.
 Alas, it Is sad to think how the thirty who composed that party have scattered. One was drowned the next winter in the moun i tans north of Santa Fe. Some are in that city--some are trapping some are in Ca lifornia-some are in Sonora--one at the copper mincs--some in Chihuahua -one in St. Juan de Dolor, or some other hacienda in the centre of Mexico-some are in Mis- souri--ene poor fellow was killed year or two since in the praire-others are heaven knows where. No two of them are left to- gether Yet such is our journey through the world. We rush onward the currents of circumstances whirl us away from our friends, and we see no more of them. We form new connections--and the cold hand of tune takes the memory of our old friends from us.
 I think it was on the tenth of September, that we finally left all settlements behind us. and took up our regular march toward the desert. It Is, if l remember alright, some thing like one hundred and seventy miles from Independence to the Council Grove, (so called because the Spanish and Ameri- can commissioners met there to settle the boundary line between Mexico and the U. States and having arrived at this grove, T al rtoI The grove itself is no way remarkable, ex- cept that It is nearly the last one on the road. Ii is principally hickory timber, and all the men were employed for day or two in making gun rods. Here we first began to stand guard, and blanket began already to be comfortable in the evening.
 am convinced that the whole country now forming the great American Desert, was once covered with water. This great prairie rises gradually from the Mississippi I to the Rocky Mountains-and even at the j Council Grove must be three or four hou- sand feet above the level of the sea. Yet there Is bluff above the grove, (whicl it. self is on a very small stream,) with low, perpendicular front, and some fifty feet bigh. l On tue face of this bluff are evident marks of the water, and on the summit are shells and waier-worn rocks in abundance. l have seen cavities in large rocks, on inc side of the Rocky Mountains, at least ten thousand feet above the sea, filled with lit. tie pebbles, manifestly washed in there-- and the valley of the Del Norte. on the sides of the mountains, to the height oftwo hundred feet above the level of the sream,
 (perhaps twice as mueh,) bears marks of a