Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-12-30
ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS.
A Crusoe of the snowy Desert.

CYusoe of the snowy Desert.
late in the autumn of the year 1851 Mr..
Baldwin Mollhausen, Prussian traveller,
nnrsuing his investigations in Northern
America, had occasion to make return
iourney across the Rocky Mountains to
The Missouri. He started with one CON-
nanion only, and with three horses and a
mule. for riding and for carrying bag
gage. Scanty fodder, and Indian treach-
sry' and the fearful cold Of those snowy
regions produced the first disasters of the
foriorn travellers by depriving them of
the services of all four animals. Their
last horse was killed by exposure to an
lev gale, at spot in the miserable wilder
ness known as Sandy Hill Creek. Here
their last means of getting forward failed
them and they were compelled 10 stop, at
period of the year when every succeed
Ing day might be expected to increase the
horrors OF the cold and the chances of
death by starvation in the prairie wastes.
They had with them a supply Of bad
buffalo meat, rice and Indian corn. On
this they existed miscrably for a few days,
until the post from Fort kearney to the
Plat River happened to pass them.
With all the will TO rescue both the
travellers the post did not possess the
power II was barely possible for the
persons in charge of it-their own lives
depending on their getting on rapidly, and
outstanding their provisions-to make
room for one man in their little vehicle
drawn by six mules. The other man
. would have no help for it but to remain
behind with the goods, alone in the will
derness, and keep himself alive, If pos
sibIe, in that dreadful position until the
post could send horses back for him from
the Catholic Mission, eighty or a hundred
miles Oft.
In this emergency-an emergency OF
life or death, if there ever was one-the
travellers agreed on drawing lots to decide
which man was to be rescued and which
man to remain. The lot 10 remain fell
on Mr. Mollhausen.
The post resumed its journey at once
with the rescued traveller squeezed into
the little carriage. Mr. Mollhausen
watched the departure of the vehicle until
twas out of sight, till he was left alone,
,he one living being in the white waste
The Crusoe of the Snowy Desert. He
had three chances, not of life but of
death-death by cold; death by the muir
derous treachery of savages; death by the
wilderness by night But he was brave
man and he faced his imminent perils and
bis awful loneliness with a stout heart
He was well supplied with arms and
ammunition; and the first thing he did
when the post left him was to look to
these. His next proceeding was to make
use of the snow on the earth TO keep out
the snow from the heavens by raising a
white wall firmly stamped around his lit.
lie tent. He then dragged up a supply of
wood from the river near at hand and
piled il before his door. His fireplace
was hollow in the ground in front OF
his bed of blankets and buffalo-robes The
food he possessed 10 cook by il consisted
of buffalo meat and rice. He had also
some coffee The provisions, on which
his feeble chance of life depended, he d.
yided into fourteen days rations, having
first calculated that in fourteen days at
the farthest he might look for help from
the Mission. The sum Of his preparations
was now complete. He fed his fire, set
on his food to cook and crept into his
blankets to wait for the coming OF night
the first night alone in the desert.
After time the silence and the solitude
weighed upon him so heavily that he
sought some kind Of comfort; but in that
lone situation even the sound Of his own
voice made him shudder. The sun sank
TO his setting behind snow-clouds: its last
rays were trembling redly over the will
derness Of white ground when the howl
OF the wolves came down upon him on
the icy wind They were assembled in d
rayine where the travellers last horse mad
fallen dead some days before. Nothing
was left of the animal but his polished
bones and the rings of his harness and
over these bare relics of their feast the
ravenous creatures wrangled and howled.
The deserted man, listeningto them in his
tent, tried 10 while away the uDspeakable
oppression 81 the dark hours by estimating
their varying numbers from the greater OF
lesser volume of the bowling sounds that
reached him. Exhaustion overpowered
his faculties while he yet remained at his
melancholy work. He slept until hunger
woke him the next day when the sun was
high again in the heavens
He cut a notch in the pole of his tent Il
mark that one day had passed. 1t was
then the 18th or 18th OF November; and
by Christmas he vainiy believed he would
be safe at the Mission The second day
was very weary, and his strength was
falling him already. When he dragged
up the wood and water TO his tent hi,
feet were lame, and he staggered like 1
drunken man.
Hopeless and hungry, be sat down on
ms bed, filled his pipe with willow leaves
The best substitute for tobacco that hs
Possessed, and smoked in the warmth o.
me fire, with his eyes on the boiling ket
ile into which he had thrown some maize
re was yet thus occupied when the dreary
vie" through the opening Of his tent wa