Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-03-05
A NARROW ESCAPE.
In the Front of a Stampede
Buffaloes.

Jean Darblaye, who Is now Mon
seldom recounts any adventures in which
he bore a prominent part; but he was
lately persuaded to toll the story of one
Of his experiences, which deserves wider
currency than it has yet had.
Jean was the son Of French canadian
parents, but was born at frontier post
in Northern Minnesota. At seven years
of age he was sent TO st. Louis to school,
and for eight years attended the Acad-
spring by boat to spend the summer
with his father at the post.
His time while at home was occupe ed
in athletic sports and. az he grew cid
er, in hunting. His comrades were In
dian boys, young Sioux, who taught him
TO shoot with bow and arrow. to ride
their stocky and often stubborn little
ponies, and to play at lacrosse. He used
also TO paint his face. and join them in
their mimic war dances, in which he
could yell as loudly as any OF his COM
panions. When Jean was fifteen years Of
age, his father moved westward and es-
tablished trading post on the Upper
Missouri, near the Bclted Buttes. Here
he bought furs in connection with the
Northwest Fur Company.
Jean left school. and for the next four
years assisted his father in buying and
trading Indian goods" for furs, and in
caring for the great bales in the store
room, which had to be 'camphored" and
"tobaccoed" 20 protect them from damp
ness and moths. When he was nine
teen years old, his father died OF a
wound received from a drunken Man
dan. Mr.. Darblaye's business affairs
were not in prosperous condition at
this time, and when his accounts with
the Fur Company we're settled there
were but few hundred dollars re-
naming for Jean.
Left to shift for himself, the young
frontiersman set to work at once
with an enterprise characteristic OF
his race. Feeling that he had OF
the means nor the experience to enable
him to successfully compete with the
agents of the Northwest Fur Comps
he went to st. Louis, and there made ar
rangements for the sale OF buffalo hides,
tongues and hump steak" He
engaged a boat to make regular
fall and spring trips to the Belt
ed Buttes region for the loads of hides
and meat which he proposed to furnish
to the st. Louis market.
Having purchased some improved
guns and other articles needful for his
undertaking, he went back to the Great
Bend of the Missouri, hired three half
breeds and their squaws as assistants,
and turned buffalo-hunter.
The young hunters first season was
prosperous one. He kept two yoke of
oxen, a wagon and a driver busy for six
weeks in hauling hides and meat TO the
store-house to be cured and stored.
Jean sent two boat-loads down the
river the first autumn, two the next
spring, and cleared about three hundred
dollars of each cargo. This amount he
regarded as a fair return for his labor
and investment, as risks were scarcely
counted in that region.
The months OF September and October
and of May and June were the periods
in which the great herds migrated be-
tween their summer pastures on the
high prairies OF the British possessions
and their winter fecdinglgrounds along
the Niobrara and the Platte. At those
times the country about Jeans head
quarters swarmed with buffalo.
Almost daily throughout these months
great herds OF buffalo crossed the river
above and below the young traders
block-house, and his most profitable
method Of hunting was to shoot them
from boat as they swan above his post
The dead bodies were foated down to
within few rods Of tho post stockade,
and hauled out upon the bank, where
they were skinned, and the tongues and
hump steaks cat from them. In this
manner buffaloes were killed and
brought down from points twenty, and
even thirty. miles distant
During the season when the buffaloes
were migrating, balf-breed scouts EN-.
ployed by Jean secured the hills and the
rolling prairics above the post. watch
ing for any herds which might be point
ing toward the river. or feeding in situ-
ations whence they could he stampeded
toward its waters.
While the scouts we're out, Jean and
his hunters were accustomed 10 remain
at some favorable point on the river.
with canoes and ponies NJ hand. II
there was time after scout came in TO
give warning. they padded 70 q point
Just above whore the herd was expected
to cross, and waited. But IL greater