Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-04-20
wild Life in the West.


EoRzE as ARaTT TKARRE
The following stories about trappers il
the Far West are told by writer in ~
tie Year Round:
found in Puget Sound last con-
Meeting link between his day and ouIs, in
the person of an old chief. What thoughts
must have been running through the mind
of the cd man as he glanced over the
wonderful story of the seventy years which
had come and gone since John Vancouver
sailed with hisstately ship up Puget Sound,
[ know not For the leathern eountenances
of the Indians, like dead men, tell no tales.
The medals that Lewis and Clarke distri-
buted among the Indians at the mouth of
the Columbia river could still be some
times seen in the Ghino6S odges, though
that tribe had long disa pp .sared, with all
the Columbia and Willamette tribes, from
their old homes.
Old Astoria voyagers L sometimes
came across. The son OF that Pierre Do
rion, whose escape with his heroic Indian
mother, after the murder of his father, Is
so graphically portrayed by Irving, was
nv fellow traveller for weeks together be-
he was and the grandson of one-eyed
Concomoly, chief of the Chinooks, the
marriage of whose daughter TO the factor
of Astor is so amusingly related, trudged
side by side with me for many~a summer s
daS. Captain Bonneville was not to me,
as he is to many, shadowy abstract on,
invented By the novelist. on which to hang
many a quaint tale of love and war; ; but
was a hearty, genial veteran, no way back
ward to fight his battles over again when
he got a ready listener.
Some OF the trappers whom
[ knew are old men, aud it has been my
lot to know, among others, such men as
the celebrated Kit Carson, Jim Baker,
Jim Ridger and many others. Such men
we're almost universally Americans and
though they were not at all inimical to the
female Indian, yet they invariably enter
tanned implacable feuds against some par
ticular tribe. They had also their favor
ite tribe, against whom 1t was rank sedi-
tson TO sar = Single H0Sd - Crows kin 70
trusted" and old fellow would say roun1
the camp, his mouth filed with tobacco
Snakes amt no such count: but if ye
wants to get the meanest pizen-bad lot Of
Injuns, Just trap fall down to the Washoe
country, Just! :" And afterward YOU
would hear some other man give exactly
an opposite opinion On closer observa-
ton you would generally fnd that the
lauded tribe was the one whom he had
lived the longest among, TO which his squaw
belonged, of which was the easiest to strike
bargain with: for, generally speaking,
these mountain men are a very unreason-
able set when speaking on Indian matters.
"Old Pegeg Smith was
so called, to distinguish him from the nu-
merous Smiths of the West on account of
a wooden leg, which he had worn ever
since anybody remembered him. Old
Pegleg's day was over before | knew him,
and all | remember Of him was ! garTu-
lous old fellow in San Francisco, no way
backward to take a drink when he found
any one willing to invite him. His adven-
lures formed the subject matter of book
published some years ago; and if rightly
recollect, an article appeared IN one OF the
English magazines, about the same period.
On one occasion old Pegleg came down to
frontier brandy port, and there in few
weeks not only spent all the earnings OF
the past season, but had also run so far
in debt that his fine white horse, which
had been his companion for years, was
placed in pawn in the traders stables. 1t
was in vain that Smith begged its release.
Pleading proving vain, Pegleg tried to get
possession ofithe stable-key, but that at
| tempt also proved futile, until, at last, all
pacific methods failing, he resorted, as a
last expedient, to force. Waiting until
the trader was asleep. be hoped to the
stable door, applied his loaded rife to the
| key-hole, and in crack blew the lock off.
In another crack the trader, aroused BY
the noise. was on the ground but only il
time to see his debtor careering joyously
on the back of the white horse, over the
prairie, waving his cap. and galloping al
/ such a rate, as to put pursuit out OF the
question.
A remarkable man, but one much les;
/ known, was Albert Pleiffer. Like Carson
he was in the irregular Mexican cavalry
/ indeed, he was lieutenant colonel Of tho
same regiment. He was a man of a very
singular appearance His red beard grew
in patches, the intervening space appear
inc burned and discolored. This was ow.
ing to his having been poisoned by somt
of the Indians arrow-poisons years before
He wore blue goggles to shield his weak
ewes; vet, though they were weak, they
were bright, clear and quick. His face
was almost CHASTITY in its signs of suffering
and he walked stiff, with cane, being
SCARED with nearly twenty wounds, carry.
ing in his body some Indian souvenirs Of
bullets. and bearing two frightful marks
where an arrow had pierced directly
through his body, just below the heart
A native of Friesland, he came to the
United States some 80 years ago, and dur
inc all that time served as an Indian paci
6cator. fighter and trapper, or as guide
To masses in the mountains known only &c
i himself and the Indians. An acquaintance
of mine used to relate an anecdote o.
Pfeifer. They had started on tour to
gether, and as they rode along, the col
ouel' gave him various directions how tt
behave in case they were attacked by In
dians: finishing by saying, in his broker
English And now, don't forget, if M
be wounded. you kill me at once. for vii
not fall alive into dere Internal hands ; de,
torture one horribly. And if you be wound
ed, 1 kill yo1s, yOot see. Don't fail