Chapter 2

2.

Departure from Fort Osage Modes of transportation Pack-

horses Wagons Walker and Cerre; their characters Buoyant feelings

on launching upon the prairies Wild equipments of the

trappers Their gambols and antics Difference of character between

the American and French trappers Agency of the Kansas General

Clarke White Plume, the Kansas chief Night scene in a trader's

camp Colloquy between White Plume and the captain Bee-

hunters Their expeditions Their feuds with the Indians Bargaining

talent of White Plume

IT WAS ON THE FIRST of May, 1832, that Captain Bonneville took

his departure from the frontier post of Fort Osage, on the

Missouri. He had enlisted a party of one hundred and ten men,

most of whom had been in the Indian country, and some of whom

were experienced hunters and trappers. Fort Osage, and other

places on the borders of the western wilderness, abound with

characters of the kind, ready for any expedition.

The ordinary mode of transportation in these great inland

expeditions of the fur traders is on mules and pack-horses; but

Captain Bonneville substituted wagons. Though he was to travel

through a trackless wilderness, yet the greater part of his route

would lie across open plains, destitute of forests, and where

wheel carriages can pass in every direction. The chief difficulty

occurs in passing the deep ravines cut through the prairies by

streams and winter torrents. Here it is often necessary to dig a

road down the banks, and to make bridges for the wagons.

In transporting his baggage in vehicles of this kind, Captain

Bonneville thought he would save the great delay caused every

morning by packing the horses, and the labor of unpacking in the

evening. Fewer horses also would be required, and less risk

incurred of their wandering away, or being frightened or carried

off by the Indians. The wagons, also, would be more easily

defended, and might form a kind of fortification in case of

attack in the open prairies. A train of twenty wagons, drawn by

oxen, or by four mules or horses each, and laden with

merchandise, ammunition, and provisions, were disposed in two

columns in the center of the party, which was equally divided

into a van and a rear-guard. As sub-leaders or lieutenants in his

expedition, Captain Bonneville had made choice of Mr. J. R.

Walker and Mr. M. S. Cerre. The former was a native of Tennessee,

about six feet high, strong built, dark complexioned, brave in

spirit, though mild in manners. He had resided for many years in

Missouri, on the frontier; had been among the earliest

adventurers to Santa Fe, where he went to trap beaver, and was

taken by the Spaniards. Being liberated, he engaged with the

Spaniards and Sioux Indians in a war against the Pawnees; then

returned to Missouri, and had acted by turns as sheriff, trader,

trapper, until he was enlisted as a leader by Captain Bonneville.

Cerre, his other leader, had likewise been in expeditions to

Santa Fe, in which he had endured much hardship. He was of the

middle size, light complexioned, and though but about twenty-five

years of age, was considered an experienced Indian trader. It was

a great object with Captain Bonneville to get to the mountains

before the summer heats and summer flies should render the

travelling across the prairies distressing; and before the annual

assemblages of people connected with the fur trade should have

broken up, and dispersed to the hunting grounds.

The two rival associations already mentioned, the American Fur

Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, had their several

places of rendezvous for the present year at no great distance

apart, in Pierre's Hole, a deep valley in the heart of the

mountains, and thither Captain Bonneville intended to shape his

course.

It is not easy to do justice to the exulting feelings of the

worthy captain at finding himself at the head of a stout band of

hunters, trappers, and woodmen; fairly launched on the broad

prairies, with his face to the boundless West. The tamest

inhabitant of cities, the veriest spoiled child of civilization,

feels his heart dilate and his pulse beat high on finding himself

on horseback in the glorious wilderness; what then must be the

excitement of one whose imagination had been stimulated by a

residence on the frontier, and to whom the wilderness was a

region of romance!

His hardy followers partook of his excitement. Most of them had

already experienced the wild freedom of savage life, and looked

forward to a renewal of past scenes of adventure and exploit.

Their very appearance and equipment exhibited a piebald mixture,

half civilized and half savage. Many of them looked more like

Indians than white men in their garbs and accoutrements, and

their very horses were caparisoned in barbaric style, with

fantastic trappings. The outset of a band of adventurers on one

of these expeditions is always animated and joyous. The welkin

rang with their shouts and yelps, after the manner of the

savages; and with boisterous jokes and light-hearted laughter. As

they passed the straggling hamlets and solitary cabins that

fringe the skirts of the frontier, they would startle their

inmates by Indian yells and war-whoops, or regale them with

grotesque feats of horsemanship, well suited to their halfsavage

appearance. Most of these abodes were inhabited by men who had

themselves been in similar expeditions; they welcomed the

travellers, therefore, as brother trappers, treated them with a

hunter's hospitality, and cheered them with an honest God speed

at parting.

And here we would remark a great difference, in point of

character and quality, between the two classes of trappers, the

"American" and "French," as they are called in contradistinction.

The latter is meant to designate the French creole of Canada or

Louisiana; the former, the trapper of the old American stock,

from Kentucky, Tennessee, and others of the western States. The

French trapper is represented as a lighter, softer, more

self-indulgent kind of man. He must have his Indian wife, his

lodge, and his petty conveniences. He is gay and thoughtless,

takes little heed of landmarks, depends upon his leaders and

companions to think for the common weal, and, if left to himself,

is easily perplexed and lost.

The American trapper stands by himself, and is peerless for the

service of the wilderness. Drop him in the midst of a prairie, or

in the heart of the mountains, and he is never at a loss. He

notices every landmark; can retrace his route through the most

monotonous plains, or the most perplexed labyrinths of the

mountains; no danger nor difficulty can appal him, and he scorns

to complain under any privation. In equipping the two kinds of

trappers, the Creole and Canadian are apt to prefer the light

fusee; the American always grasps his rifle; he despises what he

calls the "shot-gun." We give these estimates on the authority of

a trader of long experience, and a foreigner by birth. "I

consider one American," said he, "equal to three Canadians in

point of sagacity, aptness at resources, self-dependence, and

fearlessness of spirit. In fact, no one can cope with him as a

stark tramper of the wilderness."

Beside the two classes of trappers just mentioned, Captain

Bonneville had enlisted several Delaware Indians in his employ,

on whose hunting qualifications he placed great reliance.

On the 6th of May the travellers passed the last border

habitation, and bade a long farewell to the ease and security of

civilization. The buoyant and clamorous spirits with which they

had commenced their march gradually subsided as they entered upon

its difficulties. They found the prairies saturated with the

heavy cold rains, prevalent in certain seasons of the year in

this part of the country, the wagon wheels sank deep in the mire,

the horses were often to the fetlock, and both steed and rider

were completely jaded by the evening of the 12th, when they

reached the Kansas River; a fine stream about three hundred yards

wide, entering the Missouri from the south. Though fordable in

almost every part at the end of summer and during the autumn, yet

it was necessary to construct a raft for the transportation of

the wagons and effects. All this was done in the course of the

following day, and by evening, the whole party arrived at the

agency of the Kansas tribe. This was under the superintendence of

General Clarke, brother of the celebrated traveller of the same

name, who, with Lewis, made the first expedition down the waters

of the Columbia. He was living like a patriarch, surrounded by

laborers and interpreters, all snugly housed, and provided with

excellent farms. The functionary next in consequence to the agent

was the blacksmith, a most important, and, indeed, indispensable

personage in a frontier community. The Kansas resemble the Osages

in features, dress, and language; they raise corn and hunt the

buffalo, ranging the Kansas River, and its tributary streams; at

the time of the captain's visit, they were at war with the

Pawnees of the Nebraska, or Platte River.

The unusual sight of a train of wagons caused quite a sensation

among these savages; who thronged about the caravan, examining

everything minutely, and asking a thousand questions: exhibiting

a degree of excitability, and a lively curiosity totally opposite

to that apathy with which their race is so often reproached.

The personage who most attracted the captain's attention at this

place was "White Plume," the Kansas chief, and they soon became

good friends. White Plume (we are pleased with his chivalrous

soubriquet) inhabited a large stone house, built for him by order

of the American government: but the establishment had not been

carried out in corresponding style. It might be palace without,

but it was wigwam within; so that, between the stateliness of his

mansion and the squalidness of his furniture, the gallant White

Plume presented some such whimsical incongruity as we see in the

gala equipments of an Indian chief on a treaty-making embassy at

Washington, who has been generously decked out in cocked hat and

military coat, in contrast to his breech-clout and leathern

legging; being grand officer at top, and ragged Indian at bottom.

White Plume was so taken with the courtesy of the captain, and

pleased with one or two presents received from him, that he

accompanied him a day's journey on his march, and passed a night

in his camp, on the margin of a small stream. The method of

encamping generally observed by the captain was as follows: The

twenty wagons were disposed in a square, at the distance of

thirty-three feet from each other. In every interval there was a

mess stationed; and each mess had its fire, where the men cooked,

ate, gossiped, and slept. The horses were placed in the centre of

the square, with a guard stationed over them at night.

The horses were "side lined," as it is termed: that is to say,

the fore and hind foot on the same side of the animal were tied

together, so as to be within eighteen inches of each other. A

horse thus fettered is for a time sadly embarrassed, but soon

becomes sufficiently accustomed to the restraint to move about

slowly. It prevents his wandering; and his being easily carried

off at night by lurking Indians. When a horse that is "foot free"

is tied to one thus secured, the latter forms, as it were, a

pivot, round which the other runs and curvets, in case of alarm.

The encampment of which we are speaking presented a striking

scene. The various mess-fires were surrounded by picturesque

groups, standing, sitting, and reclining; some busied in cooking,

others in cleaning their weapons: while the frequent laugh told

that the rough joke or merry story was going on. In the middle of

the camp, before the principal lodge, sat the two chieftains,

Captain Bonneville and White Plume, in soldier-like communion,

the captain delighted with the opportunity of meeting on social

terms with one of the red warriors of the wilderness, the

unsophisticated children of nature. The latter was squatted on

his buffalo robe, his strong features and red skin glaring in the

broad light of a blazing fire, while he recounted astounding

tales of the bloody exploits of his tribe and himself in their

wars with the Pawnees; for there are no old soldiers more given

to long campaigning stories than Indian "braves."

The feuds of White Plume, however, had not been confined to the

red men; he had much to say of brushes with bee hunters, a class

of offenders for whom he seemed to cherish a particular

abhorrence. As the species of hunting prosecuted by these

worthies is not laid down in any of the ancient books of venerie,

and is, in fact, peculiar to our western frontier, a word or two

on the subject may not be unacceptable to the reader.

The bee hunter is generally some settler on the verge of the

prairies; a long, lank fellow, of fever and ague complexion,

acquired from living on new soil, and in a hut built of green

logs. In the autumn, when the harvest is over, these; frontier

settlers form parties of two or three, and prepare for a bee

hunt. Having provided themselves with a wagon, and a number of

empty casks, they sally off, armed with their rifles, into the

wilderness, directing their course east, west, north, or south,

without any regard to the ordinance of the American government,

which strictly forbids all trespass upon the lands belonging to

the Indian tribes.

The belts of woodland that traverse the lower prairies and border

the rivers are peopled by innumerable swarms of wild bees, which

make their hives in hollow trees and fill them with honey tolled

from the rich flowers of the prairies. The bees, according to

popular assertion, are migrating like the settlers, to the west.

An Indian trader, well experienced in the country, informs us

that within ten years that he has passed in the Far West, the bee

has advanced westward above a hundred miles. It is said on the

Missouri, that the wild turkey and the wild bee go up the river

together: neither is found in the upper regions. It is but

recently that the wild turkey has been killed on the Nebraska, or

Platte; and his travelling competitor, the wild bee, appeared

there about the same time.

Be all this as it may: the course of our party of bee hunters is

to make a wide circuit through the woody river bottoms, and the

patches of forest on the prairies, marking, as they go out, every

tree in which they have detected a hive. These marks are

generally respected by any other bee hunter that should come upon

their track. When they have marked sufficient to fill all their

casks, they turn their faces homeward, cut down the trees as they

proceed, and having loaded their wagon with honey and wax, return

well pleased to the settlements.

Now it so happens that the Indians relish wild honey as highly as

do the white men, and are the more delighted with this natural

luxury from its having, in many instances, but recently made its

appearance in their lands. The consequence is numberless disputes

and conflicts between them and the bee hunters: and often a party

of the latter, returning, laden with rich spoil, from one of

their forays, are apt to be waylaid by the native lords of the

soil; their honey to be seized, their harness cut to pieces, and

themselves left to find their way home the best way they can,

happy to escape with no greater personal harm than a sound

rib-roasting.

Such were the marauders of whose offences the gallant White Plume

made the most bitter complaint. They were chiefly the settlers of

the western part of Missouri, who are the most famous bee hunters

on the frontier, and whose favorite hunting ground lies within

the lands of the Kansas tribe. According to the account of White

Plume, however, matters were pretty fairly balanced between him

and the offenders; he having as often treated them to a taste of

the bitter, as they had robbed him of the sweets.

It is but justice to this gallant chief to say that he gave

proofs of having acquired some of the lights of civilization from

his proximity to the whites, as was evinced in his knowledge of

driving a bargain. He required hard cash in return for some corn

with which he supplied the worthy captain, and left the latter at

a loss which most to admire, his native chivalry as a brave, or

his acquired adroitness as a trader.