Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1836-11-17
Correspondence Of the New York Commercial
Advertiser.
TIE FAR WEST.
RED Pre- SroSE. !
do Prairie. Sent, 1886. (

Since the date OF my last lettel
(Which was written in this very strange
place, and on the very rock where the
/" Great Spirit stood when he created
the first red man. and where he also
/" stood some centuries aftorward, and
~consecrated the pipe ofpcace, by taking
il from the rock and smoking il TO the
eongregated nations around him,")
have been b%enqueiting and surfeiiing-
my body on buffalo meat, and my mind
on the rich legends Of this hallowed
ground. Lifted up into the heavens on
this stately mound, whose top is famed
with air as light TO breathe as nitrous
oxide gas--and bivouacked on its very
ridge, (whero nought on earth is seen
in distance save the thousand treeless,
bushless, and needless, hills of grass,
and vivid green, which oil around me
vanish into an infnity OF blue and az
ure,) have | dwelt and here dwell L.
Stretched on our bear skins, my fellow
traveller and myselfhave here lain and
contemplated the splendid orrery ofthe
heavens with sad delight, that shook
me inthe end with terror, have | watch.
ed the swollen sun shooting dozen (too
fast for time upon the mystic horizon:
whose line was lost except as it was
marked in blue across his blood red
disk. Thus have We lain, night after
night, 1.-TWO congenial spirits, who
could draw pleasure from sublime con.
templstion,) and descanted on our own
insignifcance; we have closely drawn
our buffalo robes about us-talked ofthe
ills of lifa--of friends we have lost
of projects that had failed--of tho
painful steps we had TO retrace TO reach
our dear native land again I; we have
sighed in the melancholy Of the twi.
light when the busy winds were breath.
ing their last !; the chill of sable night
was lowering around us, and nought
ofnoise was heard but the silvery tones
of the bowling wolf, and the subterra-
neous whistle Of the busy gophirs, who
were ploughing and vaultipg the earth
beneath US. Thus have VIC seen whee-
led down, in the West, the gIories of
day, and in the next moment, ia the
East, ,beheld her silver majesty jut.
ting up above the horizon, with glo-
ny in her face that seemed again to fill
the world with JOY and g~ladness.
We have seer here, too, in oil It's
sublimity, the blnckening thunder storm
--the lightnings glare, and stood amidst
the Earring thunderbolts, that tore and
broke in awful rage about us, as they
rolled over the smooth soriace, with
naught but empty air to ent their ven
geance on. There is a sublime gran
| dcur in these scenes as they are pre-
scented here, which must be seen and
felt TO be understood. There is q ma
josty in the very ground that we Tread
| upon, that inspires with awe and reye-
renee /; and he must have the soul of u
brute, who could gallop his horse for a
whole day over swells and terraces OF
green, that rise continually ahead, and
tantalize (whcre hills peep DER hills,
and Alps on Alps rise) without feeling
his bosom swell with awe aud admira-
ton, and himself, as well as his thoughts
lifted up in sublimity when he rises the
last terrace, and sweeps his eye over
the wide. spread, blue, and pictured IN
fnity that lies around and beneath him.
Man feels here, and s~tartles at the
thrilling sensation, tho force of tHmitd-
| bic freedom his body and his mind
both seem to have entered a new ele-
ment-thc former as free as the very
winds il inhales, and the other as cx-
banded and infinite as the boundlcss
| imagery that is spread in distance
around him. Such is (ond it is feebly
| tola) the Cotcau du Prairie. | SIT here
| day after day, under the shade OF my
| robe, adding rapidly to the bulk OF my
manuscripts, which | already begin to
| fear the world viii say are spun out
| too long, and with too much OF poetry
about them. | said in my former let
ter. that the Indian muse dwelt here,
| and | have learned since that there is
poetry in the very air Of this place.
| So there are song, painting, ana CO.
0~uence. and the soul that is susceptible
cannot AVOID the inspiration. One
| thinks and writes here as he dreams
quick as lightning, and the very atmos-
phere is charged with subjects fresh
| and noveI, almost to explosion. The
very rock on which | sit TO write is the
summit of a precipice thirty feet high,
extending two miles in length, and po-
llshed as if a liquid glazing had been
poured I've its surface. BY my sloe'
in the solid rock, are the deep lmpres,
sed footsteps Of the "Great spirit
Fifteen inches in length, IN the form o.
the track of a large bird where ne
formerly stood when the Dloou y .no
buffalo that he was devouring ran in
10 the rocks and turned them red
AZ a few wards from me, leaps q beau
- I.Ia st,eam. from the top OF the