v Mrs. BETH L. VITOU 
 
 "gDHttS HISTORICAL SURVp 
 
 University of Illinois 
 at Urbana-Champaign 
 
 
 
Three Years 
 
 Among the Indians 
 
 and Mexicans 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/threeyearsamongiOOiljame 
 
GENERAL THOMAS JAMES 
 
 Reproduced from contemporary portrait by an unknown artist, by 
 
 courtesy of Mrs. Thomas Higginbotham of Maplewood, Missouri, 
 
 great-granddaughter of General James. 
 
Wqz HakeSibe Classics 
 
 THREE YEARS 
 
 AMONG THE INDIANS 
 
 AND MEXICANS 
 
 By General Thomas James 
 
 EDITED BY 
 MILO MILTON QUAIFE 
 
 R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 Christmas, 1953 
 
, PUBLISHERS' PREFACE 
 
 <*^-t<o- 
 
 =f 
 
 THIS fifty -first volume of the Lakeside Classics 
 marks another step in a unique publishing 
 venture. The acceptance by its readers volume 
 by volume of both content and format and the 
 fact that the essential purpose of the series has 
 been maintained are matters in which the Pub- 
 lishers take great pride. From the start it has 
 been the aim to present to the patrons and other 
 friends of the Press a volume of interesting read- 
 ing which would be the product of fine crafts- 
 manship aided by modern equipment and the use 
 of suitable materials of good quality. While we 
 do not wish to break with this tradition of fifty 
 years but rather keep to general characteristics 
 that will identify future volumes as part of a con- 
 tinuing series, yet we recognize that taste in 
 good bookmaking changes gradually over the 
 years. Just as we did twenty-five years ago with 
 the issue of the first volume of the second series, 
 so in this fifty -first volume we have made further 
 changes that reflect the passing of another 
 twenty -five years. 
 
 As recently as 1949 the Lanston Monotype 
 Company made the Bulmer face of type used 
 this year available for setting by machine. This 
 type was designed late in the eighteenth century 
 
viii Publishers 9 Preface 
 
 by the artist, William Martin, who cut single- 
 handedly, all of the punches for it, and it was 
 used with great skill by the London printer, 
 William Buhner. While Martin in his design 
 preserved the essential feeling of ff old face" he 
 tempered it by adopting some of the simplifying 
 characteristics of the ff modern face" which had 
 begun to find favor in the latter half of the 
 eighteenth century due to the influence of Bas- 
 kerville, Bodoni, and other type designers. The 
 black letter text heretofore used in the running 
 head has been dropped and the title page too 
 has been simplified by eliminating the rule bor- 
 der, although the traditional use of the text letter 
 with the imprint has been retained. 
 
 Progress in the art of paper making has reached 
 a point where pulp made from wood in place of 
 rags gives such promise of very long life that the 
 use of the former all rag content seems no longer 
 essential to insure permanence. This year the 
 S. D. Warren Company, who have furnished pa- 
 per for all previous volumes of the Classics, are 
 supplying a paper made with this new pulp and 
 we are confident that with respect to strength, 
 surface, workability and general appearance it 
 will be a worthy successor to the paper hereto- 
 fore used. 
 
 We hope our readers will be pleased with the 
 blue color of the binding cloth. The change is 
 
Publishers ' Preface ix 
 
 made, not because of any dissatisfaction with the 
 red (and before that the dark green) used on 
 previous volumes, but to set the new series apart 
 from its predecessors. It is gratifying to us that 
 this blue cloth too will be supplied by the Inter- 
 laken Mill who have furnished the cloth for all 
 volumes of the Classics. 
 
 This year we are presenting a narrative dealing 
 with the development of the West which is more 
 of a collector's rarity than most of the former 
 reprints. The circumstances contributing to this 
 rarity are described by Dr. Quaife in the historical 
 introduction which follows. We were fortunate 
 in locating one of the two then known copies in 
 the hands of our friend, that discriminating col- 
 lector of Americana, Mr. Everett D. Graff. For 
 the loan of his copy for our purpose we are 
 very grateful. 
 
 Thomas James' tale recites the trials and expe- 
 riences of another of those hardy pioneers whose 
 love of adventure and hope of profit led them 
 into usually hazardous and always exciting ad- 
 ventures. One cannot help admire their sterling 
 characteristics of fortitude and determination to 
 overcome all obstacles, and their ability to bear 
 almost unbelievable hardships. James' repeated 
 disappointments and his failure to win fortune 
 cannot detract from his contribution to the ex- 
 pansion of the frontier. 
 
x Publishers 9 Preface 
 
 We express our thanks to Dr. Quaife, the 
 eminent Americana scholar, for continuing to 
 act as editor, as well as to all those who gave him 
 help in his search for material and preparing it 
 for publication. 
 
 In entering on this third twenty-five year series 
 of the Lakeside Classics the Publishers can make 
 no promise of continuity of subject matter, either 
 as to time or place. Rather we can say again that 
 we will ff attempt to find a historical subject of 
 human interest, which because it has not been 
 previously published or because of its rarity will 
 come fresh to the average reader." 
 
 With the hope that the new Lakeside Classics 
 will continue to please the many friends of the 
 Press, we send our best wishes for Christmas 
 and the New Year. 
 
 The Publishers 
 Christmas, 1953 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Historical Introduction 
 
 XV 
 
 I. From St. Louis to the Three Forks 3 
 
 II. Trapping Beaver and Fighting 
 Blackfeet .... 
 
 56 
 
 III. Adventure to Santa Fe 
 
 100 
 
 IV. Sojourn at Santa Fe 
 
 149 
 
 V. Return to St. Louis . 
 
 179 
 
 VI. Adventure to the Comanches . 
 
 213 
 
 VII. The Homeward Journey . 
 
 257 
 
 Index 
 
 281 
 
 List of the Lakeside Classics . 
 
 295 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 General Thomas James . . . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Reproduction of original title page . . xxxvi 
 
 Map drawn to illustrate General James' 
 
 Upper Missouri Expedition of 1809-10 12 
 
 Map drawn to illustrate the Southwestern 
 
 Expeditions of General James . . 100 
 
 Fort Smith in 1853 114 
 
 View of Santa Fe in 1846 . . . . 146 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 GENERAL THOMAS JAMES, to whose nar- 
 rative the present volume of The Lakeside 
 Classics is devoted, pioneered on two widely sepa- 
 rated frontiers. As a member of the St. Louis 
 Missouri Fur Company's expedition of 1809-10 
 to the headwaters of the Missouri he was one of 
 the first Americans to traverse this then remote 
 area; and as a trader to Santa Fe and to the 
 Comanche Indians in the years 1821-23 he was 
 again one of the first Americans to traverse and 
 describe the southwestern area extending from 
 St. Louis to Santa Fe. 
 
 The reader of his old-age narrative of his trad- 
 ing experiences, reproduced in the present vol- 
 ume, has an enjoyable treat in store. General 
 James' experiences were frequently thrilling and 
 his recital of them is detailed and vivid. Although 
 his story was first published over a century ago, 
 for reasons which will presently be explained ex- 
 isting copies are exceedingly rare, and even copies 
 of the reprint edition issued in 1916 are difficult 
 to obtain. Although they may be found in numer- 
 ous reference libraries, it is probably safe to say 
 that but few of our present readers have ever 
 enjoyed the pleasure of reading General James' 
 narrative. 
 
xvi Historical Introduction 
 
 To orient them in its background is my present 
 agreeable task. General Thomas James was born 
 in Maryland, of Welsh parentage, November 4, 
 1782. 1 Some years later (the date undetermined) 
 his parents, Joseph Austin and Elizabeth (Hosten) 
 James, migrated to Kentucky where James, a 
 younger brother of Thomas, was born in 1798. 
 About the year 1803 the family removed from 
 Kentucky to the American Bottom of southern 
 Illinois. 2 
 
 The American Bottom was the fabulously rich 
 flood plain adjoining the eastern side of the Mis- 
 sissippi for 100 miles from about the vicinity of 
 Alton southward. Here, early in the seventeenth 
 century, adventurous French settlers had founded 
 the settlements of the Illinois country which 
 George Rogers Clark visited and occupied in 
 
 1 Details concerning the family history have been de- 
 rived from General James' own family Bible, now owned 
 by his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Joseph D. Casey of 
 Potosi, Missouri, and from other records in her posses- 
 sion, along with word-of-mouth knowledge handed down 
 from her mother. A genealogical chart prepared by her 
 and by Charles A. James of Amarillo, Texas, a great- 
 grandson of the General, which has been placed at my 
 disposal, supplies detailed data concerning the General's 
 descendants. The birth-date, given on the General's 
 tombstone as November 1, 1782, is recorded in the family 
 Bible as November 4. 
 
 2 The General's old-age narrative says ff in the year 
 1803 when [I was] twenty-two years of age." Obviously 
 there is a slight discrepancy between the date and the 
 age as thus stated. 
 
Historical Introduction xvii 
 
 1778. 3 When, somewhat later, American settlers 
 began to enter Illinois, they located, as a matter 
 of course, among their French predecessors in the 
 American Bottom, where James was to pass most 
 of his remaining life. 
 
 In 1807 as he tells us, but more probably in 
 
 1806. 4 now a mature man, he accompanied his 
 father on still another migration, this time to the 
 old French-American settlement of Florissant, on 
 the Missouri a short distance above St. Louis. 
 Here Joseph James acquired a strip of land on 
 the Common which now forms a portion of the 
 Seminary farm, and his name, along with those of 
 his sons, Thomas and John G. James, is signed to 
 a record of the parishioners on Feb. 16, 1814 
 endorsing a new code of parochial regulations. 5 
 John G. James married Julie Creely, and at his 
 
 3 Nominally subject to British rule prior to Clark's ad- 
 vent in their midst, the French cheerfully adhered to the 
 Revolutionary cause and even supplied, in large part, the 
 army which Clark led on his celebrated march to the 
 capture of Lieutenant Governor Hamilton at Vincennes, 
 in February, 1779. 
 
 4 He fixes the date as the year when the Lewis and 
 Clark Expedition returned to St. Louis. This was in 1806. 
 
 5 For data concerning the family at Florissant, see Rev. 
 Gilbert J. Garraghan, Saint Ferdinand de Florissant (Chi- 
 cago, 1923), 61-62. The fact that James, the younger 
 brother, did not sign the document affords a faint clue to 
 the date of the family migration from Maryland to Ken- 
 tucky. Presumably James was still a minor in 1814, which 
 would suggest that the removal to Kentucky must have 
 occurred in or subsequent to 1794. 
 
xviii Historical Introduction 
 
 death in 1834 left nine living children. One of 
 them, Samuel James, became a judge of the St. 
 Louis County Circuit Court, and lived out his 
 entire life in the house in which he was born, 
 built in 1817 at the corner of St. Louis and St. 
 Peter streets. It was of characteristic French con- 
 struction, standing amid grounds which com- 
 prised the entire square. 
 
 From the time of the Spanish regime, St. Louis 
 had been a center of the fur trade, and long in 
 advance of Lewis and Clark enterprising St. Louis 
 merchants had explored far up the Missouri and 
 dreamed of opening an overland highway to the 
 Pacific. Under American rule and a new govern- 
 ment that highway had now been found, and the 
 information which Lewis and Clark brought back 
 to St. Louis filled many frontiersmen with the 
 ambition to exploit the riches in furs whose exist- 
 ence the explorers had revealed. 
 
 Aside from a few lone individuals, the foremost 
 to embark in the new field of endeavor were the 
 group of St. Louis merchants and officials who in 
 the spring of 1809 associated themselves together 
 as partners in the St. Louis Missouri Fur Com- 
 pany. Their immediate incitement to this action 
 proceeded from one of the consequences of the 
 Lewis and Clark expedition, which had been ac- 
 companied on its return to St. Louis in 1806 by 
 the friendly Mandan chief, Shehaka. He had been 
 
Historical Introduction xix 
 
 conducted upon a tour to Washington to visit the 
 Great White Father, after which, in the summer 
 of 1807, a government expedition led by Nathan- 
 iel Pryor, one of Lewis and Clark's trusted sub- 
 ordinates, had undertaken to escort him in safety 
 to his North Dakota home. It had been attacked 
 by the Arikaras, however, and compelled to re- 
 turn to St. Louis with the unfortunate chieftain. 
 Now a more determined attempt to escort him 
 to his anxious subjects was about to be made by 
 the Government. 
 
 The founders of the Missouri Fur Company 
 now entered into a contract with the Government 
 to escort Shehaka to his Mandan home. To accom- 
 plish this, a formidable force of riflemen and voy- 
 ageurs, the former enrolled as a detachment of 
 Missouri Territorial Militia, was organized under 
 the command of Colonel Pierre Chouteau. Upon 
 the delivery of Shehaka to his followers the expe- 
 dition was to become transformed into a private 
 trading organization under the leadership of Man- 
 uel Lisa for the prosecution of the fur trade on 
 the headwaters of the Missouri. 
 
 Thomas James, already a seasoned frontiers- 
 man, enlisted as a rifleman for the expedition, and 
 to the relation of his exciting and financially dis- 
 astrous experiences the first two chapters of his 
 book are devoted. When the military aspect of the 
 expedition had been accomplished James was to 
 
xx Historica I In trodudion 
 
 continue as the leader of a small band of trappers 
 whose equipment and compensation were pro- 
 vided for in a contract which was entered upon 
 at St. Louis at the time of his enlistment. 
 
 The contract, signed on March 29, 1809, pro- 
 vided for three years of employment by James, 
 during which he was to perform such services as 
 might be required of him by the agents of the 
 Company. Details aside, he was to ff do and per- 
 form all these things which men engaged under 
 similar circumstances and with the same views 
 are bound to do and perform, obeying and exe- 
 cuting with promptness all lawful and reason- 
 able orders" which might be given him by his 
 employers. 
 
 Seldom if ever has a more unhappy contract 
 been made than the one between the Fur Com- 
 pany and the men (of whom James was but one) 
 who were to conduct its trapping operations. The 
 expedition had hardly started on its up-river voy- 
 age when discord and insubordination among its 
 members became rampant. To the student of the 
 American fur trade the reasons for this develop- 
 ment are sufficiently obvious. The fur trade was 
 a specialized calling whose methods of work and 
 standards of employment had become fixed by 
 two hundred years of practice. Indispensable to 
 its prosecution were the Canadian voyageurs, 
 whose patient endurance of hardship and sub- 
 
Historical Introduction xxi 
 
 mission to their employers finds but few counter- 
 parts in recorded history. 
 
 These men comprised one important half of the 
 expedition. At the opposite pole from them in 
 character and temperament was the group of 
 Americans to which James belonged. Individually 
 brave and pugnacious, they had no more concep- 
 tion of submission to their superiors than the wild 
 animals of the western Plains. Quickly tiring of 
 the scanty fare and monotonous toil which the 
 voyageurs accepted as a matter of course, they 
 resorted to riotous conduct, indulging in wild 
 threats against their employers and defying every 
 effort of the latter to enforce a state of discipline. 
 
 Such conduct could not fail to have its effect 
 upon the partners of the Company, as even James 
 recognized, despite his subsequent hostility to- 
 ward them. To what extent the misconduct of the 
 Americans justified the refusal of the partners to 
 fulfill the obligations they had assumed, we do not 
 attempt to determine. The reader will see for him- 
 self how bitterly James accused them of wholesale 
 dishonesty. Since they numbered many of the 
 foremost merchants of St. Louis, his accusations 
 were but little heeded in that community and even 
 as recently as 1916 the official of the Missouri 
 Historical Society seriously debated the propriety 
 of reprinting his narrative. For the present pub- 
 lishers and Editor no such scruple exists. The 
 
xxii Historical Introduction 
 
 American fur trade of a century and a half ago 
 was a hard-bitten calling, whose leaders enjoyed 
 no monopoly of honesty and fairness. James is en- 
 titled to a hearing no less than any other Ameri- 
 can, and his charges against the Company to such 
 credit as they may seem to the reader to deserve. 
 
 Back in St. Louis in 1810, penniless and beset 
 by law-suits, James went back to Pennsylvania 
 where he found himself a bride. Two years were 
 devoted to this sojourn, when he returned to the 
 West and from 1813 to 1815 engaged in trans- 
 porting goods by keel boat between Pittsburgh 
 and St. Louis. Although this calling was both 
 laborious and hazardous, the profits he reaped 
 from it were large. 
 
 Why he abandoned it is not recorded, but in 
 1815 he returned to the American Bottom to en- 
 ter upon a mercantile career. Harrisonville in 
 Monroe County, the scene of his operations, was 
 only a hamlet, but it was a shipping point for the 
 interior country and directly opposite the Mis- 
 souri town of Herculaneum, the entrepot of the 
 lead mines of eastern Missouri. 
 
 Save for occasional absences, James passed the 
 remainder of his life at Harrisonville and (subse- 
 quently) at near-by Monroe City. Old Harrison- 
 ville, where he began his mercantile career, was 
 gradually washed away by the Mississippi River, 
 and about the year 1840 the site was abandoned 
 
Historical Introduction xxiii 
 
 in favor of a new one a short distance inland. 
 Although in 1844 even this location was flooded 
 twelve feet deep, a third of a century later it was 
 still occupied, having several businesses and a 
 corresponding number of families. Today it is 
 a hamlet of about a dozen houses and a single 
 general country store. 
 
 The town site of old Harrisonville, originally 
 known as Carthage, was sold by John Edgar, a 
 well-known resident of Kaskaskia, to John Mc- 
 Knight and Thomas Brady of St. Louis. They 
 acquired extensive landholdings in St. Louis and 
 elsewhere, among them being the Harrisonville 
 property, of which James became the manager. 
 The Monroe County historian states that Fred- 
 erick Dent of St. Louis, the future father-in-law 
 of General U. S. Grant, owned an interest in the 
 store, to which he was a frequent visitor. 
 
 Eventually James opened a store in New Harri- 
 sonville, from which he subsequently removed 
 several miles farther inland to the farm of Andrew 
 Kinney, at the edge of the bluff which hems the 
 Mississippi bottom. Here a gulch, traversed by a 
 small stream which comes down from the higher 
 land to the flood plain, breaks the continuity of 
 the bluff. Half a mile or more up the gulch a 
 superb spring of living water issues from the rocky 
 side-wall to feed the little stream. Some rods below 
 it a dam, whose remains may still be seen, was 
 
xxiv Historical Introduction 
 
 built across the stream and the head of water thus 
 obtained was conducted to the mill, which was 
 erected at a widening of the gulch some rods still 
 farther down. 
 
 Here Joseph Kinney had settled in 1793 and 
 Andrew, one of his many sons, had subsequently 
 built the water mill, which was known by his 
 name. The date when James acquired it is un- 
 known, but it must have been soon after his re- 
 turn from his final trading expedition in 1823. 
 At any rate, he was appointed postmaster in 1827, 
 at which time and until his death twenty years 
 later the place was known as James' Mill. How, 
 or when, it acquired its present name of Monroe 
 City has not been learned. It now (1953) com- 
 prises a dozen or more houses strung along the 
 sides of the gulch, to which the name of ff City" 
 seems oddly inappropriate. 6 
 
 Despite a crushing burden of debt, incurred in 
 consequence of his trading expeditions to Santa 
 Fe and to the Comanches in 1821-23, James re- 
 tained the confidence and respect of his neigh- 
 bors. In 1825 they elected him to the State Legis- 
 lature, and in the same year he was elected 
 General of the Second Brigade, First Division of 
 
 6 On the map of Illinois published at Boston in 1850 
 and reproduced in Vol. I of the Lakeside Classics edition 
 of Governor Thomas Ford's History of Illinois, published 
 in 1945, it was still shown as "James' Mill Postoffice." 
 
Historical Introduction xxv 
 
 Illinois Militia. Both this office and the postmas- 
 tership were still retained by him in 1846, when 
 his narrative was published. Since he died the 
 following year, it seems certain he retained them 
 until the close of his life. 
 
 Two extensive absences from home, both re- 
 lated in this book, interrupted his long mercan- 
 tile career. In 1818, as he tells us, an inopportune 
 deficiency of water in the Ohio River so delayed 
 the shipment of a stock of goods he had pur- 
 chased in Baltimore that he was reduced to a state 
 of impending bankruptcy. In an effort to retrieve 
 his fortune he embarked with John McKnight 
 upon the trading expedition to Santa Fe which is 
 related in Chapters III to VI of his narrative. 
 From it posterity gained another thrilling story, 
 but the narrator reaped only fresh disaster and 
 a new burden of debt. 
 
 Faced anew with financial ruin, James made 
 still another effort to retrieve his fortune. In the 
 winter of 1822-23, again in association with John 
 McKnight, he launched the trading adventure to 
 the Comanches whose story he relates in the two 
 concluding chapters of his narrative : McKnight 
 lost his life and James lost the property he had 
 risked — obtained on credit at St. Louis, probably 
 on the strength of McKnight's financial standing. 
 
 Bereft of fortune but not of honor, James now 
 resigned himself to a life of poverty and humdrum 
 
xxvi Historical Introduction 
 
 toil in the effort to rear his family and discharge 
 his mountainous burden of debt. Both objectives 
 were finally achieved. Twenty years of effort, fa- 
 cilitated by the support of a considerate and help- 
 ful brother, enabled him to discharge his debts 
 and to bequeath to his children ff a good example 
 and an unsullied name." At the end, advanced in 
 years and broken in health, he harbored no bitter- 
 ness for his lot, rejoicing, instead, in the numerous 
 manifestations of respect conferred upon him by 
 his fellow citizens. Proof of his indomitable spirit 
 is seen in his statement almost at the close of his 
 life that but for his advanced age he would em- 
 bark anew upon the Indian trade, despite the 
 disasters he had formerly encountered. 
 
 An aspect of James' career which finds no men- 
 tion in his narrative deserves inclusion here. In 
 addition to his milling activities, for a quarter of 
 a century or more he practiced medicine in Mon- 
 roe County. How or when he learned this art we 
 have no record. Perhaps, like Rebecca Burlend, 
 whose narrative of life in pioneer Illinois, A True 
 Picture of Emigration, was published as the Lake- 
 side Classics volume for 1936, he acquired it by 
 the process of exercising a native aptitude. Pro- 
 longed training in the acquirement of special 
 skills was an unknown thing on the American 
 frontier, and one might practice medicine or any- 
 thing else for which he could obtain the approval 
 of his associates. 
 
Historical Introduction xxvii 
 
 James imparted his medical lore to his son, 
 Lewis, born in 1819, who continued to practice 
 at Monroe City until about the year 1868, when 
 he removed to Jefferson County, Missouri. Even- 
 tually he settled at near-by Racola, Washington 
 County, where he continued in practice until 
 within a few years of his death at an advanced 
 age in January, 1904. 7 Interesting evidence con- 
 cerning medical conditions in Missouri a century 
 ago is afforded by his admission — already a vet- 
 eran practitioner — to the St. Louis Medical Col- 
 lege in October, 1858, from which he was gradu- 
 ated in March, 1859, although he was not licensed 
 by the State Board until 1883. 
 
 Necessarily, having in view the circumstances 
 surrounding his life, General James' formal 
 schooling must have been meager. 8 The literary 
 excellence of his narrative, however, betrays no 
 hint of this, compelling the inference that he must 
 
 7 Although his published obituary gives his age at death 
 (January 16, 1904) as "84 years 2 months and 5 days," 
 Dr. James himself stated (in letter to Frank E. Stevens, 
 Oct. 21, 1902) that he would be eighty-three on the com- 
 ing Nov. 11, thus fixing his birthdate as Nov. 11, 1819. 
 In a letter to Stevens on Jan. 22, 1903 he stated that his 
 father had practiced medicine thirty years in Monroe 
 County. Mrs. Casey of Potosi has her grandfather's rec- 
 ord book of medical practice at Monroe City from 1849 
 to 1868, and his diploma from the St. Louis Medical 
 College in March, 1859. 
 
 8 The letters written by his son, Dr. Lewis James, to 
 Frank E. Stevens in 1902 and 1903 disclose, in like fash- 
 ion, his own meager schooling. 
 
xxviii Historical Introduction 
 
 have enjoyed the assistance of a collaborator in 
 composing it. This consideration led Judge Doug- 
 las, who edited the reprint edition published by 
 the Missouri Historical Society in 1916, to in- 
 quire of Dr. John F. Snyder, veteran historian 
 of southern Illinois, what he might know about 
 the matter. 9 
 
 In response, Dr. Snyder related that Nathaniel 
 Niles, a lawyer and resident of Belleville, had 
 written the narrative at General James' dictation. 
 Niles was born at Plainfield, New York, in 1817. 
 He studied law in New York City and about the 
 year 1840 migrated to Belleville, where he taught 
 school (Snyder was one of his pupils), practiced 
 law and politics, and as other side lines edited 
 a newspaper and served in the Mexican and the 
 Civil War. He was a devotee of literature, whose 
 years of retirement were chiefly passed in the 
 Belleville Library. 10 He was thus well equipped 
 
 9 Dr. Snyder died in 1921 in his ninety-first year. To 
 his industry in unraveling the puzzle, we owe our knowl- 
 edge of the terrible fate which overtook the sons of Gov- 
 ernor Thomas Ford. See first volume of the Lakeside 
 Classics edition of his History of Illinois, published in 
 1945, pp. XXIX-XXXIII. 
 
 10 Although Niles was a prominent citizen, the facts 
 concerning his career have been assembled only with dif- 
 ficulty. He enlisted for the Mexican War with the rank of 
 lieutenant in the Second Illinois Regiment in June, 1846, 
 and was absent from Illinois until late midsummer of 
 1847. His card in the Belleville Advocate announcing his 
 
Historical Introduction xxix 
 
 to ghost write General James' narrative, and we 
 can only regret that Dr. Snyder's statements con- 
 cerning his agency omit much we would like to 
 know. 
 
 General James was a man of positive temper 
 and his narrative does not spare the many per- 
 sons who incurred his dislike. Among these were 
 the missionaries whom he encountered and the 
 partners of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company 
 in whose employ he engaged for the expedition 
 of 1809-10 to the Upper Missouri. ^The book 
 had barely been issued from the press," wrote 
 Snyder to Judge Douglas, ff when it was severely 
 attacked by several newspapers — and I think the 
 old Missouri Republican was one of them. Niles 
 immediately suppressed it, gathered all the copies 
 he could secure and destroyed them. For a long 
 time it was a delicate subject to mention to him, 
 but in later years when it was mentioned, he did 
 
 resumption of legal practice is dated September 23, 1847. 
 He subsequently served one or more terms in the State 
 Legislature and for several terms (until 1861) as county 
 judge. For several years, during the fifties, he also owned 
 and edited the Belleville Advocate, which was the recog- 
 nized organ of the Republican Party in St. Clair County. 
 During much of the Civil War he was Colonel of the 130th 
 Illinois Regiment, which was mustered Oct. 25, 1862. A 
 letter denying the report that he had ghosted Governor 
 John Reynolds' books is in the 111. State Hist. Soc. Jour- 
 nal, IV, 92-94. He died in his eighty-fourth year, Sept. 
 16, 1900. 
 
xxx Historical Introduction 
 
 not swear so much but regarded it as a good 
 joke." 11 
 
 Thus the subsequent rarity of the original edi- 
 tion is explained, at least in part. Presumably the 
 attacks which induced its attempted suppression 
 emanated from the founders and friends of the 
 St. Louis Missouri Fur Company partners. But 
 it is impossible to believe that General James, who 
 lived until December, 1847, had any part in the 
 suppression, and Dr. Snyder's story affords no 
 explanation of what right Niles had to perpetrate 
 it. The book itself contains no hint of his agency 
 in producing it, nor any indication that any one 
 other than General James was responsible for it. 
 Unless Colonel Niles financed its publication, it is 
 not apparent why he should have manifested such 
 an active concern over its hostile reception. 
 
 Dr. Snyder states that the attacks upon the 
 book began at once following its publication and 
 that Niles ^immediately" suppressed the edition. 
 Since he was absent from the state from June, 
 1846 to about September, 1847, this implies that 
 the suppression must have been undertaken prior 
 to his departure. We do not know in what month 
 in 1846 the book was published, but the foregoing 
 would indicate that it must have been consider- 
 
 n Judge Douglas' Introduction to the Missouri His- 
 torical Society edition of James' narrative, p. 8. This 
 edition will be cited henceforth simply as "Douglas." 
 
Historical Introduction xxxi 
 
 ably prior to June, for the hostile criticisms to 
 have been published and Niles' destruction of the 
 edition to have been accomplished. Examination 
 of the file of the Missouri Republican, preserved 
 in the Missouri Historical Society Library, from 
 July. 1846 to July, 1847, and of the Belleville 
 Advocate file, preserved in the Belleville Public 
 Library, for a somewhat longer period, disclosed 
 no mention of James' book. 
 
 Dr. Snyder was a boy in 1846, and an octo- 
 genarian in 1916. Our general knowledge of the 
 fallibility of old-age memories apart, his short 
 statement to Judge Douglas contains several ob- 
 vious errors. Yet he was a much more competent 
 witness than the average one, and there seems no 
 reason to question his ascription of the literary 
 composition of James' narrative to Colonel Niles. 
 Why the latter, a lawyer and a disinterested per- 
 son, did not foresee the attacks which the bitter- 
 ness of General James' recital was bound to pro- 
 voke, and exert his personal influence and literary 
 skill to temper them, one can only wonder. 
 
 The book was printed in a small-town frontier 
 newspaper office. Because of General James' un- 
 fortunate loss of his journals, it is an old-age 
 narrative of memories which he had often related 
 to his friends before he undertook to secure their 
 publication. Although he possessed a keen mem- 
 ory, it was inevitable that with the passage of 
 
xxxii Historical Introduction 
 
 years and with repeated retellings his recollection 
 of events would undergo a certain amount of 
 change. That he was a man of strong feelings is 
 evident. That these operated to intensify his dis- 
 paragement of those who ill-treated him, or with 
 whom he quarreled, is a reasonable presumption. 
 This, of course, is regrettable, but whatever his 
 faults may have been he was a sturdy and patriotic 
 American. He dared the rigors of the northern 
 winters and the hardships of the southwestern 
 deserts. Dangers from the savages and from the 
 wilderness apart, the mere physical toil which his 
 expeditions involved is appalling to contemplate. 
 He was one among uncounted path breakers who 
 dared their lives in the effort to redeem America 
 from its former savage to its present civilized state. 
 He left to his children ff a good example and an 
 unsullied name." He toiled for a quarter of a cen- 
 tury to discharge his debts, and succeeded in 
 doing so. He died intestate on December 17, 
 1847, an d a few weeks later his brother obtained 
 letters of administration upon his estate, for 
 which he gave bond in the sum of $200. Un- 
 fortunately the itemized report which he was re- 
 quired to make to the court can no longer be 
 found among the county records. 12 
 
 12 General James and his wife, Catherine, are buried in 
 the old Catholic cemetery at Madonnaville, a short dis- 
 tance from Monroe City, where their graves and head- 
 
Historical Introduction xxxiii 
 
 Varying reports have been given of General 
 James' personal appearance. Dr. Snyder, who in 
 boyhood saw him several times, seventy years later 
 described him as "an ordinary looking man, six 
 feet tall, muscular, and of the coon-hunter type." 13 
 W. J. Ghent, his biographer in the Dictionary of 
 American Biography, however, declares that "his 
 portrait in the Douglas volume reveals . . . intel- 
 ligence, will, and candor, and refutes [the] un- 
 friendly characterization of him" by Dr. Snyder 
 which has just been cited. The Douglas portrait, 
 however, was "redrawn" from the photograph of 
 the original published by Stevens in his Black 
 Hawk War. Concerning it, Stevens' St. Louis 
 agent wrote in 1902: "He [the photographer] 
 could not bring out the yellow buttons and epau- 
 lettes at all. The face (as you see) is a regular 
 Andrew Jackson and he looks every inch a warrior 
 in the portrait, but the dark background and the 
 dark blue military coat would not take." 
 
 stones may still be seen. Regrettably, I did not learn of 
 this when I visited Monroe City. Mrs. Joseph D. Casey, 
 great-granddaughter of General James, who visited the 
 cemetery in April, 1953 informs me (letter of April 5) 
 that Madonnaville, although a very old settlement, is still 
 a tiny one, consisting mainly of a rock church, rock school, 
 and rock rectory, all made of native stone and quite nice. 
 The inscription on General James' headstone is con- 
 siderably eroded. 
 13 Douglas, 8. 
 
xxxiv Historical Introduction 
 
 In 1916, when Judge Douglas edited the Mis- 
 souri Historical Society edition of James' narra- 
 tive, he could learn of but two existing copies of 
 the book; one, the copy owned by the Society, 
 the other a copy which had been sold in Phila- 
 delphia in 1912, whose current possessor was un- 
 known. Several additional copies have since come 
 to light, one of them in the library of St. Louis 
 University. According to a contemporary news- 
 paper report it was sold by the University for $950 
 and immediately resold for $1150. Copies of the 
 1916 edition, which numbered but 365, are rela- 
 tively scarce, and command a price, when avail- 
 able, of $50 or more. 
 
 In editing the present edition I have utilized a 
 photostat copy of one of the rare original volumes 
 which the owner, Mr. Everett D. Graff of Win- 
 netka, Illinois has made available to the publish- 
 ers. I have also levied freely upon the extensive 
 editorial data included in the 1916 edition by 
 Judge Douglas. In view of the circumstances, re- 
 cited above, attending the production of the book, 
 I have deemed it undesirable to reproduce litera- 
 tim the inadvertent, errors and other crudities of 
 the original edition. Instead, I have eliminated 
 these whenever such procedure has seemed to me 
 to be desirable, and have substituted new chapter 
 heads for the resume of chapter contents in the 
 original edition. In short, I have endeavored to 
 
Historical Introduction xxxv 
 
 present General James' narrative to the reader in 
 an acceptable form as he himself would have de- 
 sired to achieve. The present introduction, along 
 with the illustrations, footnotes, and index formed 
 no part, of course, of the original edition. 
 
 Many individuals, some of them total strangers 
 to me, have contributed more or less importantly 
 to the performance of my editorial task. From 
 Mrs. Elleine Stones and her staff of workers in 
 the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit 
 Public Library I have received unfailing courtesies 
 and assistance. The Librarian of the Belleville 
 Public Library and Director Charles Van Ravens- 
 waay of the Missouri Historical Society accorded 
 access to the files of early Belleville and St. Louis 
 newspapers in their custody. Mrs. Joseph D. 
 Casey of Potosi, Mo., great-granddaughter of 
 General James, responded generously to my ap- 
 peal for family data and records in her possession. 
 Her sister, Mrs. Thomas Higginbotham of Maple- 
 wood, Mo., granted permission to photograph 
 the portrait of General James, now in her posses- 
 sion. Mr. Charles A. James of Amarillo, Texas, a 
 great-grandson, supplied a genealogical chart of 
 the family, compiled by himself and Mrs. Joseph 
 D. Casey. Mr. and Mrs. William B. Huckabay 
 of Monroe City, Illinois supplied local guidance 
 and helpful information upon my visit to that 
 place. 14 Mr. Gordon Hicks of Sycamore, Illinois 
 
xxxvi Historical Introduction 
 
 and his daughter Sarah of Chicago exerted them- 
 selves to find and send me the correspondence 
 had by Frank E. Stevens in 1902 over the pro- 
 cural of the copy of General James' portrait which 
 he reproduced in his Black Hawk War. ff We were 
 glad to help you," wrote Miss Hicks, ff as I am 
 sure my grandfather had to use this same method 
 to obtain many of his pictures for the Black Hawk 
 book." Mr, Eugene C. Ferris of Clarksville, 
 Arkansas and Mr. Horace Hutson of Spadra 
 supplied local information concerning the grave 
 of Matthew Lyon. Mrs. Lucille R. Wyant drew 
 for me the two maps which accompany General 
 James' narrative of his trading activities. Finally, 
 the publishers made possible my visit to the scenes 
 of the narrative and my wife, Letitia, in addition 
 to performing my secretarial work chaufTeured 
 me on the 2800-mile journey. To all of these, 
 along with numerous others who aided me in 
 various ways, my sincere appreciation is tendered. 
 
 M. M. Quaife. 
 
 14 They believe the residence they occupy, which stands 
 a short distance from the ruins of the mill, was formerly 
 the home of General James. 
 
THREE YEARS AMONG 
 
 THE 
 
 INDIANS AND MEXICANS. 
 
 BY GEN. THOMAS JAMES, 
 
 OF MONROE COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 
 
 WATERLOO, ILL. 
 
 PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE "WAR EAGLE." 
 — 
 
 1846. 
 
Three Years 
 
 Among the Indians 
 
 and Mexicans 
 
Three Years 
 
 Among the Indians 
 
 and Mexicans 
 
 Chapter I 
 From St. Louis to the Three Forks 
 
 I HAVE often amused myself and friends by 
 relating stories of my adventures in the West, 
 and am led to believe by the, perhaps, too 
 partial representations of those friends that my 
 life in the prairies and mountains for three 
 years is worthy of a record more enduring than 
 their memories.* I have passed a year and a half 
 on the headwaters of the Missouri and among 
 the gorges of the Rocky Mountains as a hunter 
 and a trapper and two years among the Spaniards 
 and Comanches. I have suffered much from 
 the inclemency of nature and of man, had many 
 "hair breadth 'scapes," and acquired consider- 
 able information illustrative of Indian and Mexi- 
 can character and customs. By a plain, un- 
 varnished tale of western life, of perils and of 
 hardships, I hope to amuse the reader who 
 delights in accounts of wild adventure, though 
 
 3 
 
4 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 found out of the pages of a novel and possessing 
 no attraction but their unadorned truthfulness. 
 I am now on the shady side of sixty, with mind 
 and memory unimpaired. If my reminiscences, as 
 recorded in the following pages, serve to awaken 
 my countrymen of the West and Southwest, now, 
 thank God, including Texas, to the importance 
 of peaceful and friendly relations with the most 
 powerful tribe of Indians on the continent, the 
 Comanches, I shall not regard the labor of pre- 
 paring these sheets as bestowed in vain. 1 
 
 x The Comanche tribe was an offshoot from the Sho- 
 shone of Wyoming, which was driven southward by the 
 pressure of the Sioux into the southern Great Plains area. 
 They were nomads whose chief economic dependence 
 was upon the buffaloes. By the Medicine Lodge Treaty 
 of 1867 they agreed to settle upon a reservation between 
 the Washita and the Red River in southwestern Okla- 
 homa, but not until they were finally subdued several 
 years later, as recorded in General Custer's My Life on the 
 Plains (the Lakeside Classics volume for 1952) did they 
 finally do so. Prior to this forced settlement, they ranged 
 widely, from the Platte River on the north to Durango in 
 Mexico on the south. The Comanches were never as 
 powerful as the author's statement suggests. But they 
 were superb horsemen and until their final subjection 
 there could be no settlement of the southern plains. In 
 1904 they numbered about 1400, attached to the Kiowa 
 Agency in Oklahoma. F. W. Hodge, Handbook of Ameri- 
 can Indians north of Mexico. 
 
 Texas was admitted to the Union, Dec. 29, 1845. Un- 
 less this statement is the product of subsequent revision 
 of the manuscript, it indicates that it must have been 
 wholly written in the year 1846. 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 5 
 
 In the year 1803, when twenty-two years of 
 age, I emigrated with my father from Kentucky 
 to Illinois. In the spring of 1807 we removed 
 from Illinois to Missouri, which were then both 
 Territories, and settled in the town of St. 
 Ferdinand, near St. Louis. 2 In the fall of this year 
 Lewis and Clark returned from Oregon and the 
 Pacific Ocean, whither they had been sent by 
 the administration of Jefferson in the first explo- 
 ring expedition west of the Rocky Mountains, 
 and their accounts of that wild region, with 
 those of their companions, first excited a spirit 
 of trafficking adventure among the young men 
 of the West. 3 They had brought with them from 
 
 2 St. Ferdinand, more commonly known as Florissant, 
 is in St. Louis County, about 17 miles northward of St. 
 Louis. It was founded during the American Revolution 
 and by the close of the century had become a settlement 
 of about 60 houses. Many of the residents engaged in the 
 western fur trade as associates of the "Mountain Men" of 
 the early nineteenth century. Illustrative of the Arcadian 
 simplicity of life at the beginning of the century is the 
 story that the first lock placed on a smoke-house door 
 by a resident created general indignation. In 1950 the 
 town had a population of about 3700; for details con- 
 cerning its history see Rev. Gilbert J. Garraghan, Saint 
 Ferdinand de Florissant 
 
 3 Lewis and Clark returned from their transcontinental 
 exploration in 1806. Although James evidently possessed 
 an uncommonly good memory, occasional slips in his 
 old-age narrative sometimes occur. The first attempt to 
 return Shehaka to his tribe was made in 1807 instead of 
 1808. 
 
6 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 the Upper Missouri a chief named Shehaka, of 
 the Mandan tribe of Indians. 4 This chief, in 
 company with Lewis and Clark, visited the 
 ff Great Father" at Washington City and re- 
 turned to St. Louis in the following spring (1807) 
 with Lewis, who, in the mean time had been ap- 
 pointed Governor of Missouri Territory. He sent 
 the Chief Shehaka up the Missouri with an escort 
 of about forty United States troops, under Capt. 
 Pryor. 5 On their arrival in the country of the 
 
 4 Shehaka, or Big White, was principal chief of the 
 lower Mandan village at the time of Lewis and Clark's 
 winter sojourn of 1804-1805. On November 12 he paid a 
 friendly visit to the explorers' winter camp, accompanied 
 by his squaw who, in addition to his child, ff pack'd about 
 100 lb of fine meet" as a present for the white men. Upon 
 the explorers' return from the Pacific in 1806 Shehaka 
 and his squaw accompanied them to St. Louis in order to 
 pay a visit to the President at Washington. The difficulty 
 attending their return is related by our author. After all 
 his troubles, Shehaka encountered a sad fate. His extrava- 
 gant tales of the wonders he had seen were treated with 
 contempt by his fellow tribesmen, since the Mandans, as 
 the traveler Brackenridge reports, "treat with ridicule 
 the idea of there being a greater or more numerous people 
 than themselves." Moreover, he had not won distinction 
 as a warrior, the one sure pathway to fame among the 
 American Indians. In 1812 Shehaka paid another visit to 
 St. Louis, accompanied by his wife and several warriors. 
 He was killed by a party of Gros Ventres (Minitaree), 
 apparently while returning from this visit. 
 
 5 Nathaniel Pryor of Kentucky was one of the four ser- 
 geants of the Lewis and Clark expedition. He was a capa- 
 ble man of excellent character, whose career was studded 
 with mishaps and disappointments. On February 27, 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 7 
 
 Arikaras, 6 a warlike tribe next east or this side 
 of the Mandans, they were attacked by the 
 former tribe, and eight or ten soldiers killed. 
 
 1807 he enlisted in the regular army with the rank of 
 ensign, serving until April 1, 1810. He then established 
 a trading post near Galena, Illinois, which was sacked by 
 a party of Winnebagoes at the opening of the War of 
 1812, Pryor escaping with his life but with the loss of all 
 his property. He subsequently rejoined the army, be- 
 coming a captain on October 1, 1814. He served under 
 Jackson at New Orleans, and according to General Sam 
 Houston ff a braver man never fought under your [Jack- 
 son's] eagles." Following the close of the war he again 
 engaged in the Indian trade, married an Osage woman, 
 and from 1820 on lived with that tribe. He died June 10, 
 1831. His grave, unmarked save for a marker erected 
 nearby by Mr. Thomas J. Harrison of Pryor, occupies a 
 secluded spot overlooking Pryor Creek, about five miles 
 southeast of Pryor, Oklahoma. 
 
 6 The Arikaras comprised the northerly division of the 
 Gaddoan family, which was scattered throughout the 
 Plains region from Texas northward. They eventually be- 
 came allied with the Mandans and the Hidatsa of Dakota. 
 They were disposed to be friendly to the whites when 
 Lewis and Clark encountered them in 1804-1805. They 
 subsequently had many disputes with the early traders, 
 following the repulse of Nathaniel Pryor's expedition of 
 1807. In 1823 they attacked the William H. Ashley party, 
 driving it back and killing a number of its members. 
 Colonel Henry Leavenworth, then in command of Fort 
 Atkinson near Omaha, led an expedition to punish them, 
 which was attended with but dubious results. However, 
 the Arikaras abandoned their villages near the mouth of 
 Grand River, eventually removing to the vicinity of the 
 Mandans at Fort Berthold, where General De Trobriand 
 encountered them in the later sixties. See his Army Life 
 in Dakota, the Lakeside Classics volume for 1941. 
 
8 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 This event so disheartened the rest that they 
 returned with Shehaka to St. Louis. 
 
 The Missouri Fur Company had just been 
 formed and they projected an expedition up the 
 Missouri and to the Rocky Mountains, which 
 was to start in the spring of the following year, 
 1809. 7 The company consisted of ten partners, 
 among whom was M. Gratiot, Pierre Menard, 
 Sam'l. Morrison, Pierre Chouteau, Manuel Lisa, 
 Major Henry, M. Labbadie, and Reuben Lewis. 
 Gov. Lewis was also said to have had an interest 
 in the concern. The company contracted with 
 him to convey the Mandan chief to his tribe 
 for the sum, as I was informed, of $10,000. 8 I en- 
 
 7 This was the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, whose 
 activities from 1809 to 1811 should not be confused with 
 later companies having similar names. In the 1916 edi- 
 tion of James' narrative, edited by Walter B. Douglas, the 
 articles of association of the Company are printed (pp. 
 
 250-55). 
 
 8 The contract, dated Feb. 24, 1809, is printed by Doug- 
 las, 267-70. It required the Fur Company to raise an 
 armed force of 125 men, under the command of Pierre 
 Chouteau, which should conduct Shehaka and his family 
 in safety to the Mandan towns. Until his arrival there, 
 the force was to constitute a body of the Missouri Terri- 
 torial Militia. Besides Shehaka's family, the family of 
 Rene Jessaume, a French Canadian who had served Lewis 
 and Clark in the capacity of interpreter and who had 
 accompanied Shehaka to Washington in the same capac- 
 ity, was to be conveyed to the Mandan towns. In return 
 for the faithful performance of its obligations the Com- 
 pany was to be paid $7000, and the Governor further 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 9 
 
 listed in this expedition, which was raised for 
 trading with the Indians and trapping for 
 beaver on the headwaters of the Missouri and 
 Columbia rivers. 
 
 The whole party, at starting, consisted of 350 
 men, of whom about one-half were Americans 
 and the remainder Canadian Frenchmen and 
 Creoles of Kaskaskia, St. Louis, and other places. 
 The French were all veteran voyageurs, thoroughly 
 inured to boating and trapping. Manuel Lisa, 
 called by the men ff Esaw", had enlisted many of 
 them in Detroit for this expedition, and hired 
 them by the year. We Americans were all private 
 adventurers, each on his own hook, and were led 
 into the enterprise by the promises of the Com- 
 pany, who agreed to subsist us to the trapping 
 grounds, we helping to navigate the boats, and 
 on our arrival there they were to furnish us each 
 with a rifle and sufficient ammunition, six good 
 beaver traps, and also four men of their hired 
 French, to be under our individual commands 
 for a period of three years. 9 
 
 agreed that no other person would be authorized by him to 
 ascend the Missouri above the mouth of the Platte prior 
 to the last day fixed for the departure of the expedition. 
 
 Chouteau's report upon his successful conduct of the 
 expedition is also printed by Douglas, 273-78. 
 
 9 The primary purpose of the Company was to prosecute 
 the fur trade; the delivery of Shehaka to his home was an 
 incidental objective. The contract of the Company with 
 the Government required it to raise a force of 125 men, 
 
10 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 By the terms of the contract each of us was 
 to divide one-fourth of the profits of our joint 
 labor with the four men thus to be appointed to 
 us. How we were deceived and taken in will be 
 seen in the sequel. The Company made us the 
 fairest promises in St. Louis, only to break 
 them in the Indian country. Lisa, or Esaw, or 
 Manuel as he was variously called, had the 
 principal command. 10 He was a Spaniard or 
 Mexican by birth, and bore a very bad reputation 
 in the country and among the Americans. He had 
 
 40 of whom should be Americans and "expert riflemen." 
 To this contingent, James, of course, belonged. The 
 French-Canadian voyageurs were expert canoe men, ac- 
 customed to extraordinary labor and scanty fare, who for 
 generations had constituted the backbone of the fur trade. 
 There is no reason to suppose that Lisa and Chouteau, 
 on this expedition, treated them in other than the cus- 
 tomary manner. To the American contingent, however, 
 proud frontiersmen and without experience in the fur 
 trade, such treatment was intolerable, as James' narrative 
 sufficiently shows. The great hiving ground of the voya- 
 geurs was French Quebec. By 1800, however, such western 
 places as Detroit and Mackinac had become lesser cen- 
 ters of supply. James' contract with the Fur Company is 
 printed by Douglas, pp. 271-72. 
 
 10 The commander of the military expedition was Chou- 
 teau. Upon the delivery of Shehaka, the party was to as- 
 sume its fur-trading character, under the leadership of 
 Lisa. Lisa was born at New Orleans, of Spanish parent- 
 age, Sept. 8, 1772. In early manhood he migrated to St. 
 Louis, which remained his home until his death, August 
 12, 1820. A controversial character, he was praised by 
 some contemporaries and derided by many. He acquired 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 1 1 
 
 been on the head-waters of the Missouri the 
 year before with a company of about fifty men 
 and had met with great success in catching 
 beaver and trading with the Indians. He had 
 built a fort, called Manuel's fort at the junction 
 or fork of the Big Horn and Yellowstone rivers, 
 and left a garrison of hunters in it when he re- 
 turned in the spring of this year and went into 
 the Missouri Fur Company. He was suspected of 
 having invited the Arikaras to attack the Govern- 
 ment troops under Capt. Pryor, with Shehaka 
 the year before, 11 for the purpose of preventing 
 the traders and trappers who were with the 
 troops from getting into the Upper Country. Mr. 
 Chouteau and Col. Menard acted jointly with 
 Lisa in conducting the expedition. I went as 
 steersman or captain of one of the barges, with 
 about twenty-four men, all Americans, under my 
 command. There were thirteen barges and keel 
 
 great influence over the Indians, which he explained by 
 saying that he treated them fairly instead of robbing 
 them. In 1807 he led an expedition to the Upper Missouri 
 which established a post, subsequently known as Fort 
 Manuel, on the Yellowstone at the mouth of the Big Horn 
 River. A man of great energy, he was perhaps the fore- 
 most pioneer in the fur trade of the Upper Missouri. Be- 
 tween 1807 and his death in 1820 he is said to have trav- 
 eled 26,000 miles by boat in the course of his numerous 
 up-river voyages. 
 
 n More correctly, two years before. James is here fol- 
 lowing his earlier error in stating that Captain Pryor's 
 expedition occurred in 1808, instead of 1807. 
 
12 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 boats in all. On my barge I had Doctor Thomas, 
 the surgeon of the company, and Reuben Lewis, 
 brother of Meriwether Lewis, the Governor. 
 
 We started from St. Louis in the month of 
 June, 1809, and ascended the Missouri by rowing, 
 pushing with poles, cordeling, or pulling with 
 ropes, warping, and sailing. My crew were light- 
 hearted, jovial men, with no care or anxiety for 
 the future and little fear of any danger. In the 
 morning we regularly started by daybreak and 
 stopped, generally, late at night. The partners, 
 or bourgeoises, as the French called them, were 
 in the forward barge, with a strong crew of hardy 
 and skilful voyageurs, and there Lisa and some of 
 his colleagues lorded it over the poor fellows most 
 arrogantly, and made them work as if their lives 
 depended on their getting forward with the 
 greatest possible speed. They peremptorily re- 
 quired all the boats to stop in company for the 
 night, and our barge being large and heavily 
 loaded, the crew frequently had great difficulty 
 in overtaking them in the evening. We occa- 
 sionally had races with some of the forward 
 barges, in which my crew of Americans proved 
 themselves equal in a short race to their more 
 experienced French competitors. 
 
 We thus continued, with nothing of interest 
 occurring, till we passed the Platte. Six weeks of 
 hard labor on our part had been spent when our 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 13 
 
 allotted provisions gave out and we were com- 
 pelled to live on boiled corn, without salt. At the 
 same time all the other boats were well supplied 
 and the gentlemen proprietors in the leading 
 barge were faring in the most sumptuous and 
 luxurious manner. The French hands were much 
 better treated on all occasions than the Ameri- 
 cans. The former were employed for a long period 
 at stated wages and were accustomed to such 
 service and such men as those in command of 
 them, while we were private adventurers for our 
 own benefit, as well as that of the Company, who 
 regarded us with suspicion and distrust. Many 
 Americans on the passage up the river, disgusted 
 with the treatment they received, fell off in small 
 companies and went back. At Cote Sans De- 
 ssein, opposite the mouth of the Osage, most of 
 them returned. 12 On reaching the Mandan coun- 
 try we numbered about ten Americans, having 
 
 12 Cote Sans Dessein received its name from a detached 
 limestone hill on the river bank at this point. Henry M. 
 Brackenridge in 1811 reported that the settlement con- 
 tained 13 French and 2 or 3 Indian families. In 1950 
 Cote Sans Dessein Township had a population of 600, 
 the village being no longer separately listed in the U.S. 
 census. Here, as earlier, James' statements concerning 
 numbers in the party are inaccurate. Instead of 350 at 
 the start, the actual number was barely half so large. 
 Douglas, p. 272, supplies a list of 31 deserters and of 12 
 men discharged for disability or incompetence. Many of 
 them had been given advances by the Company, totaling 
 about $3700. Some of them stole the canoe which Lisa 
 
14 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 started from St. Louis with about one hundred 
 and seventy-five and an equal number of French. 
 
 After passing the Platte River my crew were 
 worn down with hard labor and bad fare. Their 
 boiled corn, without salt or meat, did not 
 sustain them under the fatigue of navigating the 
 barge, and the contrast between their treatment 
 and that of the French enraged them. A meeting 
 was the result. The Company had on our barge 
 thirty barrels of pork, and one morning my 
 crew came to me in a body demanding some of 
 these provisions. I commanded them not to 
 break into the pork without permission, and 
 promised, if they would work and keep up till 
 noon, to procure some for dinner. 
 
 At noon, when we stopped, the men rolled up 
 a barrel of pork onto the deck and one of them, 
 named Cheek, bestrided it with a tomahawk, 
 crying out: ff Give the word, Captain." I forbade 
 them, as before, and went ashore to find Lewis, 
 who had left the boat at the begining of trou- 
 ble. 13 He said the pork was the Company's and 
 
 stated was taken along for the purpose of procuring pro- 
 visions for the men. It is evident that insubordination 
 was rampant among the American contingent of the 
 expedition. 
 
 13 This was Reuben Lewis, brother of Governor Meri- 
 wether Lewis and a member of the Fur Company. He re- 
 mained on the Upper Missouri in command of one of the 
 fur trade posts until 1812. Upon his return to St. Louis 
 he was appointed Indian agent to the Quapaws and the 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 15 
 
 told me not to touch it. I said the men would 
 and should have some of it, and went back to 
 the boat to give the "word" to Cheek. Lewis 
 hastened to the bourgeoises in their barge close 
 by, to give the alarm. I could see them in their 
 cabin, from the shore where I stood, playing 
 cards and drinking. Lewis entered with the news 
 that "James' crew were taking the provisions." 
 Manuel Lisa seized his pistols and ran out, fol- 
 lowed by the other partners. "What the devil," 
 said he to me, "is the matter with you and your 
 men?" "We are starving," said I, "and we must 
 have something better than boiled corn." At the 
 same time Cheek was brandishing his tomahawk 
 over the pork barrel and clamoring for the "word. " 
 "Shall I break it open, Captain? Speak the 
 word," he cried, while the rest of my crew were 
 drawn up in line on the boat, with rifles, ready 
 for action. The gentlemen bourgeoises yielded be- 
 fore this determined array and gave us a large 
 supply of pork; that is, as much as we pleased 
 to take. A few days after this we stopped to clean 
 out the barges, and the pork in ours was removed 
 to another and its place supplied with lead. 
 
 The Cheek who figured as ring-leader on this 
 occasion was a Tennesseean, about six feet high 
 and well-proportioned. His courage was equal 
 
 Cherokees. In 1820 he returned to his native Virginia, 
 where he died in 1844. 
 
16 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 to any enterprise, and his rashness and head- 
 strong obstinacy at last, in the Indian country, 
 cost him his life. I had on my barge a large, lazy, 
 and very impertinent Irishman, who was fre- 
 quently very sulky and remiss in his duties. I 
 was compelled one day to call him by name for 
 not working at the oars, saying to him he was 
 not rowing the weight of his head. The height 
 of disgrace among boatmen is to be publicly 
 named by the Captain. The Irishman took my 
 treatment in very ill humor and swore he would 
 have satisfaction for the insult. When the boat 
 stopped for breakfast, the men dispersed as 
 usual to get wood, and with them went Cheek 
 and my friend, the Irishman. Cheek returned 
 without him and informed me he had whipped 
 him "for saucing the Captain." I said: "Cheek 
 I can attend to my own fighting without your 
 assistance, or any other man's." "No, by G— d," 
 said he, "my Captain shan't fight while I am 
 about." The Irishman returned at length to the 
 boat, but was so badly hurt as to be unable to 
 work for several days. 
 
 The scenery of the Upper Missouri is so 
 familiar to the world as to render any particular 
 description unnecessary. As you ascend the 
 river the woods diminish in number and extent. 
 Beyond Council Bluffs, about 700 miles above 
 the mouth, they entirely disappear, except on the 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 17 
 
 river bottoms, which are heavily timbered. The 
 prairies were covered with a short, thick grass, 
 about three or four inches high. At this time the 
 game was very abundant. We saw elk and buffaloes 
 in vast numbers, and killed many of them. 
 Prairie dogs and wolves were also very numer- 
 ous. The Indians have thinned off the game 
 since that time, so much that their own sub- 
 sistence is frequently very scanty and they are 
 often in danger of starvation. Their range for 
 hunting now extends far down into the Comanche 
 country and Texas, and the buffaloes, their 
 only game of importance, are fast disappearing. 
 When these valuable animals are all gone, when 
 they are extinct on the west, as they are on the 
 east side of the Mississippi, then will the Indian 
 race, the aboriginals of that vast region, be near 
 their own extinction and oblivion. They cannot 
 survive the game and with it will disappear. 14 
 The western declivity of the Mississippi Valley 
 from the mountains to the Father of Waters is 
 nearly all one great plain, with occasional rocky 
 
 14 The practical extermination of the buffaloes a genera- 
 tion after these words were written is vividly narrated by 
 John R. Cook, The Border and the Buffalo, the Lakeside 
 Classics volume for 1938. The resistance offered by the 
 Plains Indians to the destruction is described in Mrs. 
 Margret I. Carrington's Absaraka, Home of the Crows, the 
 Lakeside Classics volume for 1950, and in General George 
 A. Custer's My Life on the Plains, the Lakeside Classics 
 volume for 1952. 
 
18 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 elevations. We saw hills at the foot of which 
 were large heaps of pumice stone, which had the 
 appearance of having been crumbled off from 
 above by the action of fire. The scenery of 
 Illinois or Missouri is a fair example of that of 
 the whole country west to the mountains. The 
 prairies here, however, are vaster and more 
 desolate. One extensive plain is usually presented 
 to the eye of the traveller, and stretches to the 
 horizon, without a hill, mound, tree, or shrub 
 to arrest the sight. 15 
 
 We continued our ascent of the river without 
 any occurrence of importance. Below Council 
 Bluffs we met Captain Crooks, 16 
 
 15 Since James was traveling up the river in a boat, he 
 lacked the opportunity to observe the Plains country 
 more adequately. For a much better description of it, see 
 General Custer's My Life on the Plains. 
 
 16 This was Ramsay Crooks, notable for a generation as 
 a leader of the American fur trade. Born in Scotland in 
 1787, he emigrated to Montreal at the age of sixteen and 
 by 1806 had found his way to St. Louis. In 1807, in part- 
 nership with Robert McClelland, he set out with a party 
 of 80 men for the Upper Missouri. En route they met 
 Nathaniel Pryor's men returning down river from their 
 defeat at the hands of the Arikaras, and abandoning the 
 original design Crooks established a trading post near 
 present-day Fort Calhoun, some twenty miles north of 
 Omaha. In 1809, still but twenty-two years of age, he led 
 a party of 40 men in the wake of the St. Louis Missouri 
 Fur Company expedition, but abandoned the venture in 
 consequence of the hostility of the Sioux. He was not 
 connected with Astor's American Fur Company at this 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 19 
 
 agent for John J. Astor, who was trading with 
 the Omahas. 17 Here all the few Americans re- 
 maining, with myself, were on the point of re- 
 turning. By the solicitations and promises of the 
 Company we were induced to continue with them. 
 The first Indians we saw were a party of 
 Omahas hunting; with them were two Sioux 
 chiefs. They sent forward a runner to their village 
 above and themselves came on board our boats. 
 We found the village at the mouth of the Jacques 
 River, perhaps twelve hundred miles, by its 
 course, from the mouth of the Missouri. 18 They 
 
 time. In 1810 the partnership with McClelland was dis- 
 solved and Crooks returned to Canada in time to join 
 Astor's famous Astorian expedition. His activities as 
 agent of Astor and as head of the American Fur Com- 
 pany subsequent to Astor's retirement from the fur trade 
 in 1834 would require a volume to narrate. In 1856 he 
 maintained that the band of Astorians which Robert 
 Stuart conducted overland in 1812, and which Crooks 
 accompanied, were the real discoverers of the noted 
 South Pass of the Rockies. 
 
 17 The Omaha tribe, of Siouan stock, was closely re- 
 lated to the Osage, Kansa, Ponca, and Quapaw tribes. In 
 the historic period the Omaha had chiefly resided in 
 eastern Nebraska, northward of the Platte to the vicinity 
 of southern South Dakota. In 1802 an epidemic of small 
 pox reduced the tribe to about 300 souls. It subsequently 
 increased to about 1300 in 1850, remaining stationary 
 thereafter for over half a century. In 1809, the population 
 of the tribe must have been materially less than this figure. 
 
 18 The James River of North and South Dakota, which 
 enters the Missouri some ten miles below the city of 
 Yankton. 
 
20 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 were of the Teton tribe, which is kindred with 
 the Sioux. 19 As we approached the bank, which 
 was lined with hundreds, they fired into the 
 water before the forward barge, and as we 
 landed they retreated with great rapidity, making 
 a startling noise with whistles and rattles. 
 
 After landing and making fast the boats, about 
 fifty savages took charge of them, as a guard. They 
 wore raven feathers on the head. Their bodies 
 were naked, save about the middle, and painted 
 entirely black. They presented, on the whole, a 
 most martial and warlike appearance in their 
 savage mode, and performed their office of 
 guarding the boats so well that not even a chief 
 was allowed to go onto them. Other Indians 
 came with buffalo skins to be used as palanquins 
 or litters for carrying the partners to their 
 council house: each was taken up and carried 
 off in state. I was compelled by some Indians to 
 
 19 The Teton Sioux was the western division of the 
 Sioux tribe, comprising over one-half its entire number. 
 Included in it were the Oglala, Sans Arc, Minneconjou, 
 Brule and other sub-divisions. Among their leaders in 
 the closing era of white-Indian warfare were such cele- 
 brated chiefs as Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and Crazy 
 Horse. They were the principal actors in all the nine- 
 teenth-century Indian wars of the northern Plains. In 
 1809 they were relatively unchanged by contact with the 
 whites. As yet they had made no treaty with the United 
 States, although they had participated in the wars of the 
 Revolution and of 1812. 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 21 
 
 go in the same style to the place of council. Here 
 was a large company of old men awaiting us, and 
 for dinner we had served up a great feast of dog's 
 meat, a great delicacy with the Indians. The 
 rich repast was served in forty-one wooden 
 bowls, as I counted them, and from each bowl a 
 dog's foot was hanging out, evidently to prove 
 that this rarity was not a sham but a reality. Not 
 feeling very desirous of eating of this particular 
 dainty, I stole out and was pulled by a young 
 Indian and invited to his wigwam. I went and 
 partook with him of buffalo meat. We stayed with 
 these hospitable savages two days. On arriving, 
 we found the British flag flying, but easily per- 
 suaded them to haul it down. The Hudson's Bay 
 Company had had their emissaries among them 
 and were then dealing with them precisely as 
 they are now dealing with the savages in our 
 territory of Oregon — namely: buying them up 
 with presents and promises, and persuading them 
 to act as allies of Britain in any future war with 
 the United States. 
 
 On the third day we left the friendly Tetons 
 and proceeded up the river as before. Captain 
 Chouteau had conceived a prejudice against 
 Cheek, and on one occasion ordered him to leave 
 the boats. Lewis conveyed the order to me. I 
 remonstrated against the cruelty of sending a man 
 adrift in a wilderness, 1400 miles from home. He 
 
22 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 insisted, and Cheek took his gun as if he was 
 going to obey. Lewis ordered him to leave the 
 gun behind, which he refused to do. Lewis then 
 commanded me to take it from him. I replied 
 that he or Chouteau might do that themselves. 
 The men of my boat flew to their arms, and 
 avowed their determination of defending Cheek 
 and sharing his fate. The order was not pursued 
 any further. Such rencounters and difficulties 
 between the Americans and the partners em- 
 bittered their hands against us, and ultimately 
 did us no good. Much of the ill treatment we 
 afterwards received from them was probably 
 owing to the reckless assertion of our indepen- 
 dence on every occasion and at every difficulty 
 that occurred. 
 
 After leaving the Teton village our boat again 
 failed of provisions, and by request of Lewis I 
 went ashore on the north bank with one of our 
 best hunters, named Brown, to kill some game. 
 We went up the river and in the evening killed 
 an elk, brought it to the river bank, and waited 
 there for the boats till morning. They came up 
 on the opposite shore and sent over a canoe to 
 take us and our game across. The wind rose 
 in the meantime and blew so strong as to raise 
 the waves very high, and render it dangerous for 
 us all to cross together in the same canoe. We 
 sent over the game and Brown and myself con- 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 23 
 
 tinued our course afoot, expecting to get aboard 
 when the boats crossed at some one of the river 
 bends. By the middle of the day the wind had 
 risen so high that the boats, with sails hoisted, 
 quickly went out of sight. We travelled on till 
 evening and struck a large bayou, which we 
 could not cross, and took the backward course 
 till we encamped within a mile of the spot where 
 we had stayed the night before. 
 
 The next morning we struck off from the 
 river into the prairie and took the best course 
 we could to reach the boats. Seven days elapsed, 
 however, before we overtook them. The wind 
 blew a strong breeze and drove the boats along 
 very rapidly. We killed another elk and some 
 small game, which subsisted us till the fifth day, 
 when our amunition gave out. Our moccasins 
 being worn out fell off, and our feet were per- 
 fectly cut up by the prickly pear, which abounds 
 on these prairies. At last, nearly famished and 
 worn down, sore, lame, and exhausted, we 
 found the boats. My crew had, in vain, requested 
 leave to wait for us, and we might have perished 
 before the bourgeoises would have slackened their 
 speed in the least on our account. We had a 
 narrow escape from starvation on this excursion, 
 and I was ever afterwards careful to have plenty 
 of amunition with me when I went out, as I 
 frequently did, on similar expeditions. 
 
24 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 In two days after this event we arrived at the 
 country of the Arikaras. On approaching their 
 village we took precautions against an attack. 
 A guard marched along the shore, opposite to 
 the boats, well armed. My crew composed a part 
 of this force. When within half a mile of the 
 village we drew up the cannon and prepared to 
 encamp. The whole village came out in a body, 
 as it seemed, to meet us. They had not come far 
 toward us when an old chief rode out at full 
 speed and with violent gestures and exclama- 
 tions warned and motioned back his countrymen 
 from before our cannon. The event of the year 
 before was fresh in his recollection. He supposed 
 we were about to inflict a proper and deserved 
 punishment for the attack on Captain Pryor's 
 troops and the murder of eight or ten of them, 
 the year before. This old chief drove back all 
 who were coming out to meet us. Captain 
 Chouteau then sent for the chief to come down 
 to his camp and hold a council. They refused 
 to comply with this request and appeared very 
 suspicious of our designs. After further negotia- 
 tion, they agreed to come to us and hold a 
 council if the Company's force would lay aside 
 their arms and turn the cannon in the opposite 
 direction. This was agreed to by the Company, 
 with the provision that a guard should be on 
 the ground, armed, during the conference. The 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 25 
 
 council was held, and Chouteau harangued them 
 on the crime committed against the government 
 the year before. They promised better conduct 
 for the future, but made no reparation, or 
 apology even, for the past. 
 
 In a few days we started forward through a 
 country marked by the same general features as 
 that described before. Thousands of buffaloes 
 covered the prairies on both sides of the river, 
 making them black as far as the eye could reach. 
 In ten or twelve days the boats reached the Man- 
 dan village, where I was awaiting them. I had sal- 
 lied out five days before on a hunting excursion, 
 and arrived at the village of the Mandans in ad- 
 vance of the boats. These are a poor, thieving, 
 spiritless tribe, tributary to the Gros Ventres, 
 who inhabit the country above them on the river. 
 
 The village is on the north side of the river. 20 
 The boats came up on the opposite shore. The 
 wind, as they arrived, blew a hurricane and lashed 
 
 20 The expedition arrived at the Mandan town on Sep- 
 tember 24, 1809. The sites of this village and that of the 
 Gros Ventres were in the vicinity of the mouth of Knife 
 River in west central North Dakota. In 1837 the Mandan 
 nation was almost exterminated by an epidemic of small 
 pox. For a vivid contemporary journal of this affliction 
 see Mississippi Valley Hist. Review, XVII, 278-99. The 
 neglect of the white visitors which the author comments 
 upon was probably occasioned by their absorption in the 
 return of their long-absent chief. Ordinarily the Mandans 
 were distinctly friendly toward the whites. 
 
26 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 the waves to a prodigious height. The Indians 
 saw their chief, Shehaka, on our boats, and were 
 almost frantic with joy and eagerness to speak 
 with him. They have a round canoe made of 
 hoops fastened together and a buffalo skin 
 stretched over them, very light and portable. 
 With these they rowed themselves across the tur- 
 bulent river, one moment lost from view between 
 the waves and the next riding over them like 
 corks. In these tubs of canoes they crossed the 
 stream to our boats. The natives made a jubilee 
 and celebration for the return of Shehaka and 
 neglected everything and everybody else. They 
 hardly saw or took the least notice of their white 
 visitors. The partners distributed the presents 
 sent by the government and we then made haste 
 to leave this boorish, inhospitable tribe. 
 
 We ascended the Missouri to the village of the 
 Gros Ventres, on the south side of the river, fif- 
 teen miles above that of the Mandans. Here we 
 found a far different race from the last ; a manly, 
 warlike, and independent tribe, who might well 
 be called for their daring and enterprising qual- 
 ities, the Gros-Coeurs or Big-Hearts, instead of 
 Big Bellies. Here was our place of stopping for a 
 short time, and of preparation for the business 
 which had brought us hither. On our arrival at 
 their village, four or five agents of the Hudson's 
 Bay Company were among them, but they imme- 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 27 
 
 diately crossed the river with their goods and 
 bore off to the northeast. 21 We suspected them of 
 inciting the Blackfeet against us, and many of our 
 company attributed our subsequent misfortunes 
 to their hostility. We afterwards heard that a 
 large army of these Indians were encamped at the 
 falls above. They traded regularly with the British 
 traders and procured of them their arms and 
 amunition. 
 
 We built a fort near the Gros Ventre village 
 and unloaded all the larger boats for the purpose 
 of sending them back to the settlements. 22 Hav- 
 
 21 These men were agents, not of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, but of its bitter rival, the North West Com- 
 pany of Montreal. 
 
 22 This fort should not be confused with Fort Lisa, built 
 by Lisa about 16 miles above Bellevue, Nebraska. The 
 present fort, long known as Manuel Lisa's fort, or the 
 Missouri Fur Company fort, was on the west bank of the 
 Missouri about 12 miles above Knife River. John Brad- 
 bury, the English traveler, who visited it in 1810, de- 
 scribed it as consisting of a square block-house, the lower 
 part of which was a room for furs, while the upper story 
 was utilized as living quarters for Reuben Lewis and some 
 of the hunters belonging to the establishment. There 
 were some small outhouses, and the whole was surrounded 
 by a 15-foot palisade. Attached to the fort was a "very 
 pretty garden in which were peas, beans, sallad, rad- 
 ishes, and other vegetables, under the care of a gardener, 
 an Irishman, who shewed it to me with much self-im- 
 portance." Bradbury praised his management, but ex- 
 pressed his regret that there were no potatoes. "Oh, 
 that does not signify," was the reply. "We can soon have 
 them; there is plenty just over the way." Upon further 
 
28 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 ing now arrived at our destination and being near 
 the beaver region, we, the Americans, ten in 
 number, requested the partners to furnish our 
 traps, ammunition, guns, and men according to 
 contract. But this they seemed to have forgotten 
 entirely, or intended never to fulfil. We found 
 ourselves taken in, cheated, chiseled, gulled, and 
 swindled in a style that has not, perhaps, been 
 excelled by Yankees or French, or men of any 
 other nation, at any time in the thirty-six years 
 that have passed over my head since this feat was 
 performed. A stock of old and worthless traps 
 had been brought up the river, apparently to be 
 put off on the Americans. They offered us these 
 traps, which we refused to take. They then en- 
 deavored to deprive us of the arms and ammuni- 
 tion belonging to them, in our possession, and 
 they succeeded in getting from most of us all the 
 guns and powder of theirs that we had. 
 
 Mine were taken from me, with the others, by 
 order of the partners. I do not know that all of 
 them consented to this nefarious proceeding. I 
 hope and should have expected that several of 
 
 inquiry, Bradbury learned that "just over the way" was a 
 post maintained by some British traders on the St. Peter's 
 River of Minnesota, some 200 or 300 miles distant. R. G. 
 Thwaites (Ed.), Early Western Travels, V, 156-57. Prince 
 Maximilian who visited the place in 1833, found the fort 
 had vanished but the site was still called "Manuel Lisa's 
 fort." 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 29 
 
 them would not sanction such conduct. But I 
 heard of no protest or opposition to the acts of 
 the majority, who behaved toward us with a want 
 of principle and of honor that would shame most 
 gentleman robbers of the highway. They seemed 
 determined to turn us out on the prairie and 
 among the Indians without arms, provisions, or 
 ammunition. Our situation, in that event, would 
 have nearly realized the one implied in the pop- 
 ular expression, ff a cat in hell without claws." 
 We were kept waiting two or three weeks without 
 employment or any provisions, except what we 
 purchased at most exorbitant prices. We bought 
 goods, knives, &x. of the Company on credit and 
 sold them to the Indians for provisions and in 
 this way were rapidly running in debt, which the 
 Company expected us to discharge to them in 
 beaver fur. Their object was to make the most out 
 of us without regard to their previous professions 
 and promises. 
 
 Finding myself, like most of my comrades, des- 
 titute of all means of support and sustenance, of 
 defense and offense, I looked around for some- 
 thing by which I could live in that wild region. 
 On arriving at the Gros Ventre village we had 
 found a hunter and trapper named Colter, who 
 had been one of Lewis & Clark's men, and had 
 returned thus far with them in 1806. Of him I 
 purchased a set of beaver traps for $120, a pound 
 
30 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 and a half of powder for $6, and a gun for $40. 
 Seeing me thus equipped, Liza, the most active, 
 the meanest and most rascally of the whole, of- 
 fered me new and good traps, a gun and ammuni- 
 tion. I told him he appeared willing enough to 
 help when help was not needed, and after I was, 
 provided at my own expense. I then selected two 
 companions, Miller and McDaniel, who had been 
 imposed on by the bourgeoises in the same manner 
 with myself, and in their company I prepared to 
 begin business. These two had, by good fortune, 
 brought with them six traps, two guns, and am- 
 munition of their own. We cut down a tree and of 
 the trunk made a canoe in which we prepared to 
 ascend to the Forks and headwaters of the Mis- 
 souri and the mountains. We were young and 
 sanguine of success. No fears of the future cloud- 
 ed our prospects and the adventures that lay be- 
 fore us excited our hopes and fancies to the high- 
 est pitch. No dangers daunted and no labors tired 
 us. 
 
 Before leaving the fort and my old companions, 
 I will relate a characteristic anecdote of Cheek, 
 who so soon after this expiated his follies by a 
 violent death. In an early part of the voyage, 
 when coming up the river about two months be- 
 fore, I had sent Cheek to draw our share of provi- 
 sions from the provision boat. Frangois Ride, 
 who dealt them out for the Company, offered 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 31 
 
 Cheek a bear's head, saying it was good enough 
 for ff you fellows," by this meaning the Ameri- 
 cans. Cheek returned to his boat in a great rage at 
 the insult, as he deemed it, and threatened to 
 whip him (Ride) for the said contumely on him- 
 self and fellow companions, as soon as he was out 
 'of government employ — that is, as soon as we 
 had delivered up Shehaka to the Mandans. The 
 matter passed on and I supposed was forgotten 
 by Cheek himself, until the fort was built and the 
 Americans were about separating, with many 
 grievances unredressed and wrongs unavenged. 
 Cheek, meeting Ride one morning on the bank of 
 the river, told him that he had promised to whip 
 him and that he could not break his word on any 
 account. He thereupon struck at the audacious 
 Frenchman who had presumed to call Americans 
 :f fellows," and offer them a bear's head. Ride 
 saved himself by running aboard one of the boats, 
 where he obtained a reinforcement. Cheek beat a 
 retreat, and a truce was observed by both parties 
 till nightfall. 
 
 I had encamped with Cheek and two others a 
 few hundred yards above the fort. We were all, 
 except Cheek, in the tent, about nine o'clock in 
 the evening, when Ride with a company, all armed 
 with pistols and dirks, came up and demanded to 
 see Cheek, saying that he had attacked him with- 
 in the lines of the fort, when he knew he could 
 
32 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 not fight without violating orders. I told him that 
 Cheek was not in the tent. "He is hid, the cow- 
 ardly rascal," cried Ride, and went to searching 
 the bushes. After he and his company were gone, 
 I found Cheek at Major Henry's tent, amusing 
 himself with cards and wine. I took him with me 
 to our own tent, fearing that Ride's company 
 might kill him if they found him that night. He 
 was silent while hearing my account and for some 
 minutes after entering our tent. He then spoke, 
 as if on maturest reflection, and said that he had 
 intended to have let Ride go with what he had 
 got, "but now I will whip him in the morning if I 
 lose my life by it." 
 
 In the morning he started, unarmed and 
 wrapped in his blanket, for the fort. I with a few 
 others followed to see fair play, which is ever a 
 jewel with the American. Cheek soon found Ride 
 and accosted him in front of the fort, informing 
 him that he had came down to accommodate him 
 with the interview which he had understood had 
 been sought for so anxiously the night before. 
 Ride said he was in liquor the night before, want- 
 ed to have nothing to do with him, and began to 
 make for the fort. "You must catch a little any 
 how," said Cheek, and springing towards Ride 
 like a wild cat, with one blow he felled him to the 
 earth. Captain Chouteau, who had seen the whole 
 proceeding from the fort, immediately rushed out 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 33 
 
 with about thirty of his men, all armed. ff Bring 
 out the irons, seize him, seize him!" cried Chou- 
 teau, frantic with passion and raging like a mad 
 bull. Cheek prudently retired to our company on 
 the bank of the river, a short distance, and said he 
 would die rather than be ironed. We were ready 
 to stand by him to the last. Chouteau now or- 
 dered his men to fire on us and the next moment 
 would have seen blood-shed and the death of 
 some of us had not Labbadie, Valle, Menard, Mor- 
 rison, Henry, and one of Chouteau's sons thrown 
 themselves between us and the opposite party 
 and thus prevented the execution of Chouteau's 
 order. 23 Him they forced back, struggling like a 
 mad child in its mother's arms, into the fort. 
 
 23 These men were partners of the Fur Company. Jean 
 Pierre Chouteau, military leader of the expedition, was a 
 son of Pierre Laclede, founder of St. Louis. Born in 1758, 
 he was brought to the new town as a child of six years by 
 his mother, and until his death in 1849 St. Louis remained 
 his home. He achieved wealth and prominence in the In- 
 dian trade, and until his retirement from active business 
 in 1820 was one of the City's most influential citizens. 
 
 Frangois Valle was born December 8, 1779 at Ste. 
 Genevieve, of which post his father was commandant. 
 After several years passed in school in Newark, N.J. he 
 returned to Missouri and about 1802 or 1803 went to the 
 Upper Missouri on a trading expedition where he re- 
 mained several years. 
 
 Pierre Menard was a native of Quebec who found his 
 way to Kaskaskia in early manhood, where he soon be- 
 came prominent. On the expedition of 1809 he served as 
 a captain of infantry, and following the delivery of Shehaka 
 
34 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 On the next day after this fracas, Miller, Mo 
 Daniel, and myself parted from our companions, 
 after agreeing to meet them again on the Forks or 
 headwaters of the Missouri, and started in our 
 canoe up the river. The river is very crooked in 
 this part and much narrower than we had found 
 it below. We came to a Mandan village on the 
 south side of the stream on the day of our depar- 
 ture from the fort. On arriving here, we were on 
 
 to his tribe Menard and Andrew Henry, early in 1810, 
 led the company of trappers to Three Forks of the Mis- 
 souri. Driven off by the Blackfeet, Henry crossed the 
 Rockies to the Upper Snake, while Menard returned to 
 Kaskaskia. He held several public offices, and until his 
 death in 1844 enjoyed practically universal esteem. Me- 
 nard County, Illinois, was named for him and in 1866 a 
 statue in his honor was erected on the State Capitol 
 grounds in Springfield. 
 
 William Morrison was a Pennsylvanian, born in 1763, 
 who removed to the French Illinois in early manhood, 
 where he soon became an influential citizen. As western 
 partner of his uncle, Guy Bryan of Philadelphia, he di- 
 rected the merchandising activities of the firm throughout 
 a vast area of country. In 1804 he undertook to open a trade 
 with New Mexico by sending Baptiste Lalande to Santa Fe. 
 
 Andrew Henry, another Pennsylvanian, was born about 
 1775. He came to Upper Louisiana in 1800. To escape 
 the Blackfeet, who were harassing the party Henry and 
 Menard led to Three Forks in 1810, Henry with a portion 
 of the command crossed the mountains, where they win- 
 tered (1810-11) on Henry's Fork of Snake River, return- 
 ing to St. Louis the following season. In 1822 he re- 
 sumed the fur trade, this time in association with William 
 H. Ashley. After wintering at the mouth of the Yellow- 
 stone, he pushed farther west, only once more to be at- 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 35 
 
 the north side of the river, and on account of the 
 violence of the wind did not cross to the village. 
 Late in the evening a woman in attempting to 
 cross in a skin canoe was overset in the middle of 
 the river. She was seen from the village, and im- 
 mediately a multitude of men rushed into the 
 water and seemed to run rather than swim to the 
 woman, whom they rescued from the water with 
 wonderful rapidity. Their dexterity in swimming 
 was truly astonishing to us. We pushed or rather 
 paddled on in a shower of rain till late that night 
 and encamped. In the morning we went on in a 
 snow-storm and in four days the ice floating in 
 the river prevented further navigation of the 
 stream with the canoe. 
 
 tacked and defeated by the Blackfeet near Great Falls, 
 Montana. Several subsequent expeditions were under- 
 taken, which we do not pause to recount. His later years 
 were devoted to mining activities. He died at his Wash- 
 ington County, Missouri, home, June 10, 1833. 
 
 Sylvestre Labbadie was born in St. Louis, February 19, 
 1779, and at this time was in his thirty -first year. In 1800, 
 when he was but twenty -one, he petitioned the Spanish 
 government for a land grant of some 14,000 acres in 
 present-day Franklin County, Missouri. He was success- 
 ful, and the title was subsequently confirmed by the 
 American government. The town of Labbadie is situated 
 on this grant. In 1806 Labbadie married a member of the 
 powerful Chouteau clan. He passed his life as a business 
 man in St. Louis, and among other activities is reputed 
 to have built the City's first saw-mill in 1818. He became 
 wealthy and retired from active business at an early age. 
 He died, July 25, 1849. 
 
36 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 We stopped on the south side of the river, built 
 a small cabin, banked it round with earth, and 
 soon made ourselves quite comfortable. This was 
 in the month of November. We had caught a few 
 beaver skins on our route from the Gros Ventre 
 village, and employed ourselves in making moc- 
 casins and leggins and in killing game, which was 
 very plenty all around us. Here we determined to 
 pass the winter and in the spring continue our 
 ascent of the Missouri to the Forks. On Christmas 
 day I froze my feet and became so disabled as to 
 be confined to the house, unable to walk. Miller 
 and McDaniel soon after started back for the fort 
 with our stock of beaver skins to exchange them 
 for ammunition. They were gone twice the length 
 of time agreed on for their stay. I began to con- 
 sume the last of my rations and should have suf- 
 fered for food had not a company of friendly In- 
 dians called at the cabin and bartered provisions 
 for trinkets and tobacco. 
 
 My next visitors were two Canadians and an 
 American named Ayers, from the fort, who were 
 going on with despatches for the main Company, 
 that was supposed to be at Manuel's fort at the 
 mouth of the Big Horn, a branch of the Yellow- 
 stone. These men informed me that Miller and 
 McDaniel had changed their mind: that they did 
 not intend to continue farther up the river, and 
 seemed to be in no haste to return to me. They 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 37 
 
 urged me to accompany them, and promised me 
 the use of one of their horses till my feet should 
 become well enough for me to walk. I consented 
 to go with them and prepared to leave my cabin. 
 Before doing so I buried the traps and other 
 accouterments of my two former companions in a 
 corner of the lodge, and peeling off the bark from 
 a log above them, I wrote on it: ff In this corner 
 your things lie" I learned on my return in the 
 spring that both of them had been killed, as was 
 supposed by the Arikaras. Their guns, traps, See. 
 were seen in the hands of some of that tribe, but 
 they were never heard of afterwards. 
 
 On the third of February, 1810, eight months 
 after my departure from St. Louis, I started from 
 my winter lodge, but I soon repented my under- 
 taking. The horses were all too weak to carry 
 more than the load appropriated to them, and I 
 was thus compelled to walk. My feet became very 
 sore and gave me great pain, while the crust on 
 the snow made the travelling of all of us both 
 slow and difficult. I suffered severely at starting 
 but gradually improved in strength and was able 
 in a few days to keep up with less torture to my- 
 self than at first. We ascended the south bank of 
 the river till we struck the Little Missouri, a 
 branch from the south. Here we found some In- 
 dians who advised us to keep up the banks of this 
 river for two days, and then, turning northward- 
 
38 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 ly, a half day's travel would bring us to the Gun- 
 powder River near its head. This is a branch of 
 the Yellowstone. 
 
 We travelled two days as directed and left the 
 Little Missouri in search of the river. 24 We missed 
 it entirely, on account of our travelling so much 
 slower than the Indians are accustomed to do. 
 Our two days' travel was not greater than one of 
 theirs. For five days we kept our course to the 
 north in an open plain, and in the heart of winter. 
 The cold was intense, and the wind from the 
 mountains most piercing. The snow blew directly 
 in our faces and ice was formed on our lips and 
 eyebrows. In this high latitude and in the open 
 prairies in the vicinity of the mountains, where 
 we then were, the winters are very cold. On the 
 first night we were covered where we lay to the 
 
 24 The directions given by the Indians were quite im- 
 possible, as the party was now to discover to its sorrow. 
 The Little Missouri, in its lower course, flows some sev- 
 enty miles due east to its junction with the Missouri. 
 Since James' party traveled slowly, it probably turned 
 northward in search of the Powder at some point of this 
 seventy-mile stretch. But the Powder lay still 100 miles 
 or more to the Southwest. Precisely where James and his 
 companions wandered upon leaving the Little Missouri 
 can only be surmised. They had been told by the Indians 
 to travel north, which would have brought them to the 
 Missouri shortly below or above the mouth of the Yel- 
 lowstone. Eventually, as the narrative shows, they as- 
 cended the Yellowstone to Lisa's establishment at the 
 mouth of the Big Horn. 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 39 
 
 depth of three feet by the snow. No game was to 
 be seen and we were destitute of provisions. For 
 five days we tasted not a morsel of food, and had 
 not even the means of making a fire. We saw not 
 a mound or hill, tree or shrub, not a beast nor a 
 bird, until the fifth day, when we descried afar off 
 a high mound. We were destitute, alone in that 
 vast, desolate, and to us limitless, expanse of 
 drifting snow, which the winds drove into our 
 faces and heaped around our steps. 
 
 Snow was our only food and drink, and snow 
 made our covering at night. We suffered dread- 
 fully from hunger. On the first and second days 
 after leaving the Little Missouri for the desert we 
 were now traversing, our appetites were sharper 
 and the pangs of hunger more intense than after- 
 wards. A languor and faintness succeeded, which 
 made travelling most laborious and painful. On 
 the fifth day we had lost so much strength and 
 felt such weakness for want of food that the most 
 terrible of deaths, a death by famine, stared us in 
 the face. The pangs and miseries we endured are 
 vividly described by Mr. Kendall, from actual ex- 
 perience, in his Santa Fe Expedition. 2 ^ 
 
 25 George W. Kendall's Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe 
 Expedition . . . was first published by the Harper Broth- 
 ers, New York, in a two-volume edition of over 800 pages. 
 The first volume and Chapter I of the second were re- 
 printed as the Lakeside Classics volume for 1929, the 
 length of the original narrative being too great for in- 
 
40 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 My feet, in addition to all other sufferings, now 
 became sore and more painful than ever. The men 
 had made for me a moccasin of skin taken from 
 the legs of a buffalo, which I wore with the hair 
 next to my feet and legs. I felt the blood gurgling 
 and bubbling in this casing at every step. We 
 were about to ward off starvation by killing a 
 horse and eating the raw flesh and blood, when 
 on the fifth day of our wandering in this wilder- 
 ness a mound was seen, as above mentioned, in 
 the distance. We reached and ascended it in the 
 evening, whence we saw woods and buffaloes be- 
 fore us. We hastened to kill several of these 
 noblest of all game animals, and encamped in the 
 woods, where we quickly made a fire and cut up 
 the meat. 
 
 We were all so voracious in our appetites as 
 not to wait for the cooking, but ate great quan- 
 tities nearly raw. The first taste stimulated our 
 languor and appetites to an ungovernable pitch. 
 We ate, and ate, and ate, as if there were no limit 
 to our capacity, and no quantity could satisfy us. 
 At length, when gorged to the full and utterly un- 
 able to hold any more, we gave out and sought 
 repose about midnight under our tents. But sleep 
 fled from our eyes, and in the morning we arose 
 
 elusion in its entirety in the series. Chapter 12, entitled 
 ^Starvation and relief" (pp. 356-58) contains the de- 
 scription of starvation to which James alludes. 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 41 
 
 without having rested, feverish and more fatigued 
 than when we supped and retired the night be- 
 fore. Our feet, limbs, and bodies were swollen 
 and bloated, and we all found ourselves laid up 
 on the sick list by our debauch on buffalo meat. 
 We had no desire to eat again on that day, and 
 remained in camp, utterly unable to travel, till 
 the next morning, when we started forward, trav- 
 elling slowly. We soon struck the river, which we 
 had suffered so much in seeking, and bent our 
 course up the stream, crossing its bends on the 
 ice. On one occasion, when saving distance by 
 cutting off a bend of the river, the horse carrying 
 my pack and worldly goods fell into an air hole 
 and would have instantly disappeared had I not 
 caught him by the tail and dragged him out to 
 some distance, with a risk to myself of plunging 
 under the ice into a rapid current that made me 
 shudder the moment I coolly looked at the dan- 
 ger. Hair-breadth escapes from death are so fre- 
 quent in the life of a hunter in this wild region as 
 to lose all novelty and may seem unworthy of 
 mention. I shall relate a few as I proceed, for the 
 purpose of showing the slight tenure the pio- 
 neer holds of life. And yet Boone, the prince of 
 the prairies, ff lived hunting up to ninety." Per- 
 haps pure air and continual exercise are more 
 than a counterbalance toward a long life, against 
 all the dangers of a hunter's and trapper's exist- 
 
42 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 ence, even among hostile savages, such as we were 
 now rapidly approaching. 
 
 We continued our course up the Yellowstone, 
 gradually recovering from the effects of our un- 
 natural surfeit and gross gormandizing of buffalo 
 meat. The country here is one immense, level 
 plain, and abounded, at this time, with large 
 herds of buffaloes, which subsisted on the buds of 
 trees and the grass which the powerful winds 
 laid bare of snow in many places. The river was 
 skirted on either side by woods. At last, after fif- 
 teen days of painful travel and much suffering, 
 we reached Manuel's fort at the mouth of the Big 
 Horn, where I found the most of my crew and a 
 small detachment of the Company's men, from 
 whom I had parted the previous fall. This fort, as 
 before mentioned, was built by Lisa in the spring 
 of 1808 and a small garrison left in it, who had re- 
 mained there ever since. 
 
 Here I found Cheek, Brown, Dougherty, 26 and 
 the rest of my crew rejoicing to see me. I was not 
 
 26 John Dougherty was born in Kentucky. When but 
 seventeen years old he migrated to St. Louis and in 1809 
 joined the Upper Missouri expedition of the St. Louis 
 Missouri Fur Company. In 1820 he was appointed U.S. 
 Indian agent with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth. 
 Although his station was several times removed, he con- 
 tinued in this office until 1837. The remainder of his life 
 was passed as a resident of Clay County, Missouri, where 
 he died at the age of seventy in 1861. A long and ap- 
 preciative eulogy by his friend and fellow townsman 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 43 
 
 a little surprised to find Col. Pierre Menard in 
 command, who was to have returned to St. Louis 
 from the fort at the Gros Ventre village, and Lisa 
 intended to take command of the party on the 
 headwaters of the Missouri. Such was the arrange- 
 ment at the commencement of the voyage. I soon 
 learned from the men what they supposed to be 
 the cause of the change. The next day after I left 
 the fort on the Missouri, in the fall, Cheek and 
 several Americans were in the office or marquee 
 of the Company, endeavoring to get their equip- 
 ments according to contract. Lisa was present. 
 Chouteau's name was mentioned in the course of 
 the conversation, when Cheek coolly remarked 
 that if he caught Chouteau a hundred yards from 
 camp he would shoot him. ff Cheek! Cheek!!" ex- 
 General Alexander W. Doniphan, published in the Liberty 
 Tribune, Jan. 4, 1861, is reprinted by Douglas, pp. 279- 
 81. In it, Doniphan states that Dougherty, by his many 
 years passed in the Indian country, possessed a fuller 
 knowledge of the "habits, manners, tasks, and peculiari- 
 ties" of the northwestern Indians, and a greater influence 
 over them, than any other white man had ever acquired; 
 "this did not result so much from his peculiar knowledge 
 of them as it did from the man himself — his face, his 
 physique, were perfect; a bright and intellectual eye; 
 and unvarying candor and directness in all his inter- 
 course with them, at once pleased, charmed, and over- 
 awed them." 
 
 After this characterization of the well-nigh perfect 
 Indian agent, one is saddened to read that Dougherty 
 was dismissed from office to make room for a victorious 
 "spoils" successor. 
 
44 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 claimed Lisa, "mind what you say." "I do that," 
 said Cheek, "and Lisa, I have heard some of our 
 boys say that if they ever caught you two hundred 
 yards from camp they would shoot you, and if 
 they don't I will. You ought not to expect any- 
 thing better from the Americans after having 
 treated them with so much meanness, treachery, 
 and cruelty as you have. Now Lisa," continued 
 he, "you are going to the Forks of the Missouri. 
 Mark my words, you will never come back alive." 
 Lisa's cheeks blanched at this bold and reckless 
 speech from a man who always performed his 
 promises, whether good or evil. He returned 
 to St. Louis and sent up Col. Menard in his 
 place. 
 
 Col. M. was an honorable, high-minded gen- 
 tleman, and he enjoyed our esteem in a higher 
 degree than any other member of the Company. 
 Lisa we thoroughly detested and despised, both 
 for his acts and his reputation. There were many 
 tales afloat concerning villainies said to have been 
 perpetrated by him on the frontiers. These may 
 have been wholly false or greatly exaggerated, 
 but in his looks there was no deception. Rascal- 
 ity sat on every feature of his dark-complexioned, 
 Mexican face — gleamed from his black, Spanish 
 eyes, and seemed enthroned in a forehead "vil- 
 lainous low." We were glad to be relieved of his 
 presence. 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 45 
 
 After remaining at this fort or camp a few days 
 we started westward for the Forks and mountains 
 in a company of thirty-two men, French and 
 Americans. On first arriving at the fort I had 
 learned that two of the men with an Indian chief 
 of the Snake tribe and his two wives and a son 
 had gone forward with the intention of killing 
 game for our company and awaiting our approach 
 on the route. Our second day's journey brought 
 us to an Indian lodge; stripped, and near by, we 
 saw a woman and boy lying on the ground, with 
 their heads split open, evidently by a tomahawk. 
 These were the Snake's elder wife and son, he 
 having saved himself and his younger wife by 
 flight on horseback. Our two men who had start- 
 ed out in company with him were not molested. 
 They told us that a party of Gros Ventres had 
 come upon them, committed these murders, and 
 passed on, as if engaged in a lawful and praise- 
 worthy business. 
 
 These last were the most powerful and warlike 
 Indians of that region. The poor Snake tribe, on 
 the contrary, were the weakest, and consequently 
 became the prey and victims of the others. They 
 inhabit the caves and chasms of the mountains 
 and live a miserable and precarious life in eluding 
 the pursuit of enemies. All the neighboring tribes 
 were at war with these poor devils. Every party 
 we met pretended to be out on an expedition 
 
46 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 against the Snakes, whom they frequently reduce 
 to slavery. 27 Thus the strong prey upon the weak 
 in savage as well as in civilized life. 
 
 Our course now lay to the northwest for the 
 Forks of the Missouri, which meet in latitude — 
 among the mountains, whence the last named 
 river runs directly north as high as latitude — 
 miles, where it turns to the south and southeast, 
 which last course it generally holds to its junc- 
 tion with the Mississippi. On the evening of the 
 day when we left Manuel's fort my friend Brown 
 became blind from the reflection of the sun on the 
 snow; his eyes pained him so much that he im- 
 plored us to put an end to his torment by shoot- 
 ing him. I watched him during that night for fear 
 he would commit the act himself. He complained 
 that his eyeballs had bursted, and moaned and 
 groaned most piteously. In the morning I opened 
 the swollen lids, and informed him to his great 
 joy that the balls were whole and sound. He could 
 now distinguish a faint glimmering of light. I led 
 him all that day and the next. On the third he 
 
 27 The name "Snake" was loosely applied, in the period 
 of early white contact, to certain subdivisions of the 
 widespread Shoshonean family, whose culture ranged 
 from the lowly Digger Indians of the Great Basin to the 
 settled Hopi of New Mexico and the Comanche, Bannock, 
 and other game-hunting tribes east of the Rockies. More 
 particularly, it was attached to the natives of eastern Ore- 
 gon. One notable member of the Snake, or Shoshone, family 
 was Sacajawea, heroine of the Lewis and Clark expedition. 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 47 
 
 had so far recovered that he could see, though 
 but indistinctly. 
 
 Our guide on this route was Colter, who thor- 
 oughly knew the road, having twice escaped over 
 it from capture and death at the hands of the In- 
 dians. 28 In ten or twelve days after leaving the 
 fort we entered an opening or gap in the moun- 
 tains, where it commenced snowing most vio- 
 lently and so continued all night. The morning 
 showed us the heads and backs of our horses just 
 
 28 John Goiter was a Virginian who joined the Lewis and 
 Clark expedition at Louisville in 1803. He proved to be 
 one of its most reliable members. When the expedition 
 arrived at Fort Mandan on its return journey in the sum- 
 mer of 1806, Colter asked to be discharged in order to 
 join with another trapper in a two-year hunt for beaver 
 skins, "determined," as Sergeant Ordway wrote, "to stay 
 until they made a fortune." Much of Colter's further ac- 
 tivities are related by our author. In 1807-1808, sent by 
 Lisa on a lone mission to the Blackfeet at the mouth of 
 the Big Horn, Colter visited the Yellowstone Park area 
 and became the white discoverer of this natural wonder- 
 land. Despite his indifference to danger, Colter eventu- 
 ally became surfeited and in 1810 returned to Missouri, 
 where he married and settled upon a farm near the pres- 
 ent-day hamlet of Dundee in Franklin County. He died 
 in November, 1813. James' subsequent relation of Colter's 
 thrilling escape is one of two contemporary accounts 
 obtained directly from Colter. For the other, see John 
 Bradbury's Travels, reprinted by Thwaites (Ed.), Early 
 Western Travels, V, 44-47. Bradbury's account was ob- 
 tained from Colter upon the arrival of the latter at St. 
 Louis in the spring of 1810. A recent biography of Colter 
 by Burton Harris is John Colter: His Years in the Rockies, 
 (New York, 1952). 
 
48 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 visible above the snow, which had crushed down 
 all our tents. We proceeded on with the greatest 
 difficulty. As we entered the ravine or opening of 
 the mountain the snow greatly increased in depth, 
 being in places from fifty to sixty feet on the 
 ground, a third of which had fallen and drifted in 
 that night. The wind had heaped it up in many 
 places to a prodigious height. The strongest 
 horses took the front to make a road for us, but 
 soon gave out and the ablest-bodied men took 
 their places as pioneers. A horse occasionally 
 stepped out of the beaten track and sank entirely 
 out of sight in the snow. By night we had made 
 about four miles for that day's travel. By that 
 night we passed the ravine and reached the Gal- 
 latin River, being the eastern fork of the Mis- 
 souri. 29 The river sweeps rapidly by the pass at 
 its western extremity, on each side of which the 
 mountains rise perpendicularly from the bank of 
 the river and apparently stopped our progress up 
 and down the east side of the stream. I forded it 
 and was followed by Dougherty, Weir 30 and 
 
 29 The party had crossed by way of the Bozeman Pass 
 from the Upper Yellowstone in the general vicinity of 
 Livingston to the Gallatin, the easterly member of the 
 trio of rivers which converge at Three Forks to form the 
 Missouri. Present-day U.S. Highway No. 10 parallels 
 their route more or less closely. 
 
 30 This was William Weir, another Kentuckian, who re- 
 moved to Missouri in early manhood and in 1809 joined 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 49 
 
 another, when Colter discovered an opening 
 through the mountain on the right or north side, 
 and through it led the rest of the company. We, 
 however, proceeded down the left bank of the 
 river till night, when we encamped and supped 
 (four of us) on a piece of buffalo meat about the 
 size of the two hands. 
 
 During this and the preceding day we suffered 
 from indistinct vision, similar to Brown's afflic- 
 tion on leaving the Big Horn. We all now became 
 blind, as he had been, from the reflection of the 
 sun's rays on the snow. The hot tears trickled 
 from the swollen eyes, nearly blistering the 
 cheeks, and the eyeballs seemed bursting from our 
 heads. At first, the sight was obscured as by a silk 
 veil or handkerchief, and we were unable to hunt. 
 Now we could not even see our way before us, and 
 in this dreadful situation we remained two days 
 and nights. Hunger was again inflicting its sharp 
 pangs upon us and we were upon the point of 
 killing one of the packhorses when on the fourth 
 day after crossing the Gallatin one of the men 
 killed a goose, of which, being now somewhat re- 
 
 the expedition about to set out for the Upper Missouri. 
 He remained in the Upper Country several years and is 
 characterized by Douglas as "an active, efficient man, 
 brave and skillful," who ranked with Dougherty and 
 Colter. After about a decade he settled in Missouri, liv- 
 ing in Cooper and (later) Crawford counties. He died at 
 his home in 1845. 
 
50 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 covered from our blindness, we made a soup and 
 stayed the gnavvings of hunger. The next day our 
 eyes were much better, and we fortunately killed 
 an elk, of which we ate without excess, being 
 taught by experience the dangers of gluttony 
 after a fast. 
 
 We continued on down the river and soon 
 came in sight of our comrades in the main body 
 on the right bank. They, like ourselves, had all 
 been blind, and had suffered more severely than 
 we from the same causes. They had killed three 
 dogs, one a present to me from an Indian, and 
 two horses to appease the demands of hunger, 
 before they had sufficiently recovered to take 
 sight on their guns. While in this distressed situa- 
 tion, enveloped by thick darkness at midday, 
 thirty Snake Indians came among them and left 
 without committing any depredation. Brown and 
 another, who suffered less than the others, saw 
 and counted these Indians, who might have 
 killed them all and escaped with their effects with 
 perfect impunity. Their preservation was wonder- 
 ful. When we overtook them they were slowly re- 
 covering from blindness, and we all encamped to- 
 gether with thankful and joyous hearts for our late 
 narrow escape from a painful and lingering death. 31 
 
 31 Lieutenant James H. Bradley, an intelligent and 
 scholarly soldier of the seventies in Montana, records 
 this account of his own experience with snow blindness: 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 51 
 
 ff I had designed to rejoin die command with my prisoners 
 [two deserters, of whom he had been sent in pursuit] but 
 found on getting up and going into the light that I was a 
 victim of snow-blindness. I had gone to the jail to give 
 orders about my prisoners when I discovered my sight 
 failing and was scarcely able to reach the hotel ere I be- 
 came totally blind. The loss of sight came with a feeling 
 such as is created by smoke in the eyes, that, if the case 
 is a severe one, soon increases into the most intense 
 burning pain. The eyes cannot bear the light and the 
 eyeballs seem to roll in liquid fire with a grating feeling 
 as though in contact with particles of sand. The tempta- 
 tion to bandage them or apply water is great, but should 
 be resisted, as the one heats the eyes and the other in- 
 creases the irritation, and the pain is only intensified. 
 This blindness seems mainly confined to high altitudes, 
 but I have heard of occasional cases as far south as the 
 plains of western Kansas . . . The Indians and even wild 
 animals are subject to it, and to the frequenter of our 
 western Plains a snow-blind rabbit or even a sage or 
 prairie chicken is no uncommon sight. A method of treat- 
 ment practiced by some of the northwestern Indians is to 
 drop into the corner of the eye a little skunk oil, which 
 they extract and preserve for this purpose. I have been 
 assured by old hunters who have tried it that it is a sov- 
 ereign remedy. But prevention is infinitely preferable to 
 cure, and may be effected by blackening the face to the 
 depth of an inch or more around the eyes close up to the 
 lids ... A bit of wet powder or lampblack, the soot off 
 the bottom of a kettle, a charred stick, or powdered char- 
 coal will accomplish this. ... In the month of May, 1867 
 I had 30 men out of a command of 40 disabled in this 
 manner as the result of one day's march through the 
 snow on a sunny day, myself being the greatest sufferer 
 as my duties compelled me to use my eyes most. The 
 number of the well was barely sufficient to attend to the 
 afflicted, and we lay several days almost defenseless in an 
 Indian country." Bradley's Journal. March 19, 1876, in 
 Montana Hist. Soc, Contributions, II, 143-44. 
 
52 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 We proceeded on in better spirits. On the next 
 day we passed a battlefield of the Indians, where 
 the skulls and bones were lying around on the 
 ground in vast numbers. The battle which had 
 caused this terrible slaughter took place in 1808, 
 the year but one before, between the Blackfeet 32 
 to the number of fifteen hundred on the one side, 
 and the Flatheads and Crows, numbering to- 
 gether about eight hundred, on the other. Colter 
 
 32 The Blackfoot Confederacy included the Blackfoot, 
 Piegan, and Blood tribes. They occupied much of the 
 area stretching from the North Saskatchewan River to 
 the headwaters of the Missouri and from about the Mon- 
 tana-North Dakota border westward to the Rockies. Pos- 
 session of the region was sharply contested by the Crows, 
 Sioux, and other tribes, with which they fought more or 
 less continually. When Lewis and Clark were returning 
 from the Pacific in the summer of 1806 Lewis had an 
 encounter with a small horse stealing band of Blackfeet 
 in which two of them were killed. Although some writers 
 attribute the subsequent hostility of the tribe to the whites 
 to this incident, others with more probability attribute 
 it to subsequent encounters, the first of these being the 
 battle of 1808 between the Crows and the Blackfeet in 
 which Colter more or less innocently figured. He had 
 been sent by Lisa on the lone mission already noted 
 (ante, p. 47.) to the forks of the Missouri to find the 
 Blackfeet and invite them to come to Lisa's fort to trade. 
 En route he fell in with a band of Crows, which was pres- 
 ently attacked by the Blackfeet. The latter, defeated in 
 the encounter, and seeing a white man fighting in the 
 ranks of the enemy, conceived a settled hostility toward 
 the Americans. Letter of Major Thomas Biddle to Gen. 
 Henry Atkinson, Oct. 29, 1819, in Am. State Papers, 
 Indian Aff., II, 201. 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 53 
 
 was in the battle on the side of the latter, and was 
 wounded in the leg, and thus disabled from stand- 
 ing. He crawled to a small thicket and there 
 loaded and fired while sitting on the ground. The 
 battle was desperately fought on both sides, but 
 victory remained with the weaker party. The 
 Blackfeet engaged at first with about five hundred 
 Flatheads, whom they attacked in great fury. The 
 noise, shouts, and firing brought a reinforcement 
 of Crows to the Flatheads, who were fighting with 
 great spirit and defending the ground manfully. 
 The Blackfeet, who are the Arabs of this region, 
 were at length repulsed, but retired in perfect 
 order and could hardly be said to have been de- 
 feated. The Flatheads are a noble race of men, 
 brave, generous and hospitable. They might be 
 called the Spartans of Oregon. 33 Lewis and Clark 
 had received much kindness from them in their 
 expedition to the Columbia, which waters their 
 
 33 The term Flatheads has been loosely applied to nu- 
 merous tribes, ranging from the Choctaw and the Cataw- 
 ba of the Southwestern United States to the Chinook and 
 allied tribes of the Lower Columbia Basin. The tribe to 
 which James applies the name were the Salish, who dwelt 
 on the upper waters of the Columbia, frequently crossing 
 the mountains in pursuit of game, when they became the 
 prey of the Blackfoot and other Plains-dwelling tribes. 
 Despite their name, they did not practice the head-flat- 
 tening custom followed by the tribes of the Lower Colum- 
 bia. Instead, they were called Flatheads because, in con- 
 trast to these tribes, they left their heads in their natural 
 condition, which thus were flat on top. 
 
54 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 country, and at the time of this well-fought bat- 
 tle Colter was leading them to Manuel's fort to 
 trade with the Americans, when the Blackfeet 
 fell upon them in such numbers as seemingly to 
 make their destruction certain. Their desperate 
 courage saved them from a general massacre. 
 
 The following day we reached the long sought 
 Forks of the Missouri, or the place of confluence 
 of the Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson rivers. 
 Here at last after ten months of travel we en- 
 camped, commenced a fort in the point made by 
 the Madison and Jefferson forks, and prepared 
 to begin business. 34 This point was the scene of 
 
 34 Lieutenant James H. Bradley, whose journal is quoted 
 ante, note 31, wrote on March 26, 1876: "Within sight 
 of our camp the mighty Missouri takes its rise . . . Both 
 from this circumstance and from the history connected 
 with it, the locality is one of the most interesting in Mon- 
 tana, it being here that the first fur trading establishment 
 on the Upper Missouri stood ... I was aware of the ex- 
 istence of this old fort and knew something of its history, 
 and was therefore induced to pass the afternoon making 
 personal search and diligent inquiry after any possible 
 remaining traces of it that would indicate the spot where 
 it had stood. Toward night I found what I had sought, 
 but too late to make personal examination of the little 
 that remains. The good people of that neighborhood call 
 it 'Lewis and Clark's Fort,' and relate to the interested 
 inquirer how these famous captains passed a winter in it 
 on their way across the continent, concealing in a cache 
 nearby a large amount of valuable property. This fabled 
 cache has given rise to an investigating spirit almost equal 
 to that once displayed in the search for the buried treas- 
 
From St. Louis to the Three Forks 55 
 
 Colter's escape in the fall of the year but one be- 
 fore, from the Indians and a death by torture ; an 
 event so extraordinary and thrilling, as he re- 
 lated it to me, that it deserves a brief narration. 
 
 ure of Captain Kidd, and a deal of useless digging has 
 been done in the neighborhood. 
 
 "In 1870 the outlines of the fort were still intact, from 
 which it appears that it was a double stockade of logs set 
 three feet deep, enclosing an area of about 300 feet square, 
 situated upon the tongue of land (at that point half a 
 mile wide) between the Jefferson and Madison rivers 
 about two miles above their confluence, upon the south 
 bank of a channel now called Jefferson Slough. Since 
 then the stream has made such inroads upon the land 
 that only a small portion of the fort — the southwest an- 
 gle — remains." Thus pass the works of man. Lieutenant 
 Bradley, a valiant soldier who both made and wrote Mon- 
 tana history, was killed in the Battle of the Big Hole a 
 year later, August 9, 1877. 
 
Chapter II 
 Trapping Beaver and Fighting Blackfeet 
 
 WHEN Colter was returning in 1807 with 
 Lewis and Clark from Oregon he met a 
 company of hunters ascending the Missouri, by 
 whom he was persuaded to return to the trapping 
 region, to hunt and trap with them. Here he was 
 found by Lisa in the following year, whom he 
 assisted in building the fort at the Big Horn. In 
 one of his many excursions from this post to the 
 Forks of the Missouri for beaver, he made the 
 wonderful escape adverted to in the last chapter, 
 which I give precisely as he related it to me. His 
 veracity was never questioned among us and his 
 character was that of a true American backwoods- 
 man. He was about thirty-five years of age, five 
 feet ten inches in height, and wore an open, in- 
 genuous, and pleasing countenance of the Daniel 
 Boone stamp. Nature had formed him, like Boone, 
 for hardy endurance of fatigue, privations, and 
 perils. 
 
 He had gone with a companion named Potts to 
 the Jefferson River, which is the most western of 
 the Three Forks, and runs near the base of the 
 mountains. They were both proceeding up the 
 river in search of beaver, each in his own canoe, 
 when a war party of about eight hundred Black- 
 56 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 57 
 
 foot Indians suddenly appeared on the east bank 
 of the river. The chiefs ordered them to come 
 ashore, and apprehending robbery only and 
 knowing the utter hopelessness of flight, and hav- 
 ing dropped his traps over the side of the canoe 
 from the Indians into the water, which was here 
 quite shallow, he hastened to obey their mandate. 
 On reaching the shore he was seized, disarmed, 
 and stripped entirely naked. Potts was still in his 
 canoe in the middle of the stream, where he re- 
 mained stationary, watching the result. Colter 
 requested him to come ashore, which he refused 
 to do, saying he might as well lose his life at once 
 as to be stripped and robbed in the manner Colter 
 had been. An Indian immediately fired and shot 
 him about the hip ; he dropped down in the canoe, 
 but instantly rose with his rifle in his hands. "Are 
 you hurt," said Colter. "Yes," said he, "too 
 much hurt to escape ; if you can get away, do so. 
 I will kill at least one of them." He leveled his 
 rifle and shot an Indian dead. In an instant at 
 least a hundred bullets pierced his body, and as 
 many savages rushed into the stream and pulled 
 the canoe, containing his riddled corpse, ashore. 
 They dragged the body up onto the bank and 
 with their hatchets and knives cut and hacked it 
 all to pieces, and limb from limb. The entrails, 
 heart, lungs, &c, they threw into Colter's face. 
 The relations of the killed Indian were furious 
 
58 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 with rage and struggled, with tomahawk in hand, 
 to reach Colter, while others held them back. He 
 was every moment expecting the death blow or 
 the fatal shot that should lay him beside his com- 
 panion. A council was hastily held over him and 
 his fate quickly determined upon. 
 
 He expected to die by torture, slow, linger- 
 ing, and horrible. But they had magnanimously 
 determined to give him a chance, though a slight 
 one, for his life. After the council a chief pointed 
 to the prairie and motioned him away with his 
 hand, saying in the Crow language, ff go — go 
 away." He supposed they intended to shoot him 
 as soon as he was out of the crowd and presented 
 a fair mark to their guns. He started in a walk and 
 an old Indian, with impatient signs and exclama- 
 tions, told him to go faster, and as he still kept a 
 walk the same Indian manifested his wishes by 
 still more violent gestures and adjurations. When 
 he had gone a distance of eighty or a hundred 
 yards from the army of his enemies he saw the 
 younger Indians throwing off their blankets, leg- 
 gins, and other incumbrances, as if for a race. 
 Now he knew their object. He was to run a race, 
 of which the prize was to be his own life and scalp. 
 
 Off he started with the speed of the wind. The 
 war-whoop and yell immediately arose behind 
 him, and looking back he saw a large company of 
 young warriors, with spears, in rapid pursuit. He 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 59 
 
 ran with all the strength that nature, excited to 
 the utmost, could give; fear and hope lent a su- 
 pernatural vigor to his limbs, and the rapidity of 
 his flight astonished himself. The Madison Fork 
 lay directly before him, five miles from his start- 
 ing place. He had run half the distance when his 
 strength began to fail and the blood to gush from 
 his nostrils. At every leap the red stream spurted 
 before him, and his limbs were growing rapidly 
 weaker and weaker. He stopped and looked back ; 
 he had far outstripped all his pursuers and could 
 get off if his strength would only hold out. One 
 solitary Indian, far ahead of the others, was rap- 
 idly approaching, with a spear in his right hand 
 and a blanket streaming behind from his left hand 
 and shoulder. 
 
 Despairing of escape, Colter awaited his pur- 
 suer and called to him in the Crow language to 
 save his life. The savage did not seem to hear him, 
 but letting go his blanket and seizing his spear 
 with both hands he rushed at Colter, naked and 
 defenseless as he stood before him, and made a 
 desperate lunge to transfix him. Colter seized the 
 spear near the head with his right hand, and 
 exerting his whole strength, aided by the weight 
 of the falling Indian, who had lost his balance in 
 the fury of the onset, he broke off the iron head 
 or blade which remained in his hand, while the 
 savage fell to the ground and lay prostrate and 
 
60 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 disarmed before him. Now was his turn to beg for 
 his life, which he did in the Crow language, and 
 held up his hands imploringly, but Colter was 
 not in a mood to remember the golden rule, and 
 pinned his adversary through the body to the 
 earth by one stab with the spear head. He quickly 
 drew the weapon from the body of the now dying 
 Indian, and seizing his blanket as lawful spoil, he 
 again set out with renewed strength, feeling, he 
 said to me, as if he had not run a mile. A shout 
 and yell arose from the pursuing army in his rear 
 as from a legion of devils, and he saw the prairie 
 behind him covered with Indians in full and rapid 
 chase. 
 
 Before him, if anywhere, was life and safety; 
 behind him, certain death; and running as never 
 man before sped the foot, except, perhaps, at the 
 Olympic Games, he reached his goal, the Madison 
 River, and the end of his five-mile heat. Dashing 
 through the willows on the bank, he plunged 
 into the stream and saw close beside him a beaver 
 house, standing like a coal-pit about ten feet 
 above the surface of the water, which was here of 
 about the same depth. This presented to him a 
 refuge from his ferocious enemies, of which he 
 immediately availed himself. Diving under the 
 water he arose into the beaver house, where he 
 found a dry and comfortable resting place on the 
 upper floor or story of this singular structure. 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 61 
 
 The Indians soon came up, and in their search for 
 him they stood upon the roof of his house of ref- 
 uge, which he expected every moment to hear 
 them breaking open. He also feared that they 
 would set it on fire. After a diligent search on that 
 side of the river, they crossed over, and in about 
 two hours returned again to his temporary habita- 
 tion, in which he was enjoying bodily rest, though 
 with much anxious foreboding. The beaver houses 
 are divided into two stories and will generally 
 accommodate several men in a dry and comfort- 
 able lodging. In this asylum Colter kept fast till 
 night. The cries of his terrible enemies had grad- 
 ually died away and all was still around him 
 when he ventured out of his hiding place by the 
 same opening under the water by which he had 
 entered and which admits the beavers to their 
 building. 
 
 He swam the river and hastened towards the 
 mountain gap or ravine, about thirty miles above 
 on the river, through which our company passed 
 in the snow with so much difficulty. Fearing that 
 the Indians might have guarded this pass, which 
 was the only outlet from the valley, and to avoid 
 the danger of a surprise, Colter ascended the 
 almost perpendicular mountain before him, the 
 tops and sides of which a great way down were 
 covered with perpetual snow. He clambered up 
 this fearful ascent about four miles below the gap, 
 
62 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 holding on by the rocks, shrubs, and branches of 
 trees, and by morning had reached the top. He 
 lay there concealed all that day, and at night pro- 
 ceeded on in the descent of the mountain, which 
 he accomplished by dawn. He now hastened on 
 in the open plain towards Manuel's fort on the 
 Big Horn, about three hundred miles ahead in 
 the northeast. He travelled day and night, stop- 
 ping only for necessary repose and eating roots 
 and the bark of trees, for eleven days. He reached 
 the fort, nearly exhausted by hunger, fatigue, and 
 excitement. His only clothing was the Indian's 
 blanket, whom he had killed in the race, and his 
 only weapon the same Indian's spear, which he 
 brought to the fort as a trophy. His beard was 
 long, his face and whole body were thin and 
 emaciated by hunger, and his limbs and feet 
 swollen and sore. The company at the fort did 
 not recognize him in this dismal plight until he 
 had made himself known. 
 
 Colter, now with me, passed over the scene of 
 his capture and wonderful escape, and described 
 his emotions during the whole adventure with 
 great minuteness. Not the least of his exploits was 
 the scaling of the mountain, which seemed to me 
 impassable, even by the mountain goat. As I 
 looked at its rugged and perpendicular sides I 
 wondered how he ever reached the top, a feat 
 probably never performed before by mortal man. 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 63 
 
 The whole affair is a fine example of the quick 
 and ready thoughtfulness and presence of mind 
 in a desperate situation, and the power of endur- 
 ance, which characterize the western pioneer. As 
 we passed over the ground where Colter ran his 
 race and listened to his story an indefinable fear 
 crept over all. We felt awestruck by the nameless 
 and numerous dangers that evidently beset us on 
 every side. Even Cheek's courage sank, and his 
 hitherto buoyant and cheerful spirit was depressed 
 at hearing of the perils of the place. He spoke 
 despondingly and his mind was uneasy, restless, 
 and fearful. ff I am afraid," said he, ff and I ac- 
 knowledge it. I never felt fear before but now I 
 feel it." A melancholy that seemed like a pre- 
 sentiment of his own fate possessed him, and to 
 us he was serious almost to sadness until he met 
 his death a few days afterwards from the same 
 Blackfeet from whom Colter escaped. 
 
 Colter told us the particulars of a second ad- 
 venture, which I will give to the reader. In the 
 winter, when he had recovered from the fatigues 
 of his long race and journey, he wished to recover 
 the traps which he had dropped into the Jefferson 
 Fork on the first appearance of the Indians who 
 captured him. He supposed the Indians were all 
 quiet in winter quarters, and retraced his steps to 
 the Gallatin Fork. He had just passed the moun- 
 tain gap and encamped on the bank of the river 
 
64 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 for the night and kindled a fire to cook his supper 
 of buffalo meat when he heard the crackling of 
 leaves and branches behind him in the direction 
 of the river. He could see nothing, it being quite 
 dark, but he quickly heard the cocking of guns 
 and instantly leaped over the fire. Several shots 
 followed and bullets whistled around him, knock- 
 ing the coals off his fire over the ground. 
 
 Again he fled for life, and the second time 
 ascended the perpendicular mountain which he 
 had gone up in his former flight, fearing now, as 
 then, that the pass might be guarded by Indians. 
 He reached the top before morning and resting 
 for the day descended the next night, and then 
 made his way with all possible speed to the fort. 
 He said that at the time he promised God Al- 
 mighty that he would never return to this region 
 again if he were only permitted to escape once 
 more with his life. He did escape once more, and 
 was now again in the same country courting the 
 same dangers which he had so often braved, and 
 that seemed to have for him a kind of fascination. 
 Such men, and there are thousands of them, can 
 only live in a state of excitement and constant 
 action. Perils and danger are their natural ele- 
 ment and their familiarity with them, and indif- 
 ference to their fate, are well illustrated in these 
 adventures of Colter. 
 
 A few days afterward, when Cheek was killed 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 65 
 
 and Colter had another narrow escape, he came 
 into the fort and said he had promised his Maker 
 to leave the country, and ff now" said he, throw- 
 ing down his hat on the ground, ff if God will only 
 forgive me this time and let me off I will leave the 
 country day after tomorrow, and be d — d if I 
 ever come into it again." He left, accordingly, in 
 company with young Bryant of Philadelphia, 
 whose father was a merchant of that city, and one 
 other whose name I forget. They were attacked 
 by the Blackfeet just beyond the mountains, but 
 escaped by hiding in a thicket, where the Indians 
 were afraid to follow them, and at night they pro- 
 ceeded towards the Big Horn, lying concealed in 
 the daytime. They reached St. Louis safely, and a 
 few years after I heard of Colter's death by jaun- 
 dice. 
 
 We arrived at the Forks of the Missouri on the 
 third day of April, 1810, ten months after leaving 
 St. Louis and two months and one day after quit- 
 ting my cabin above the Gros Ventre village. We 
 had now reached our place of business, trapping 
 for beaver, and prepared to set to work. Dough- 
 erty, Brown, Weir, and myself agreed to trap in 
 company on the Missouri between the Forks and 
 the Falls, which lie several hundred miles down 
 the river to the north from the Forks. We made 
 two canoes by hollowing out the trunks of two 
 trees, and on the third or fourth day after our 
 
66 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 arrival at the Forks we were ready to start on an 
 expedition down the river. 
 
 The rest of the Americans with a few French, 
 in all eighteen in number, determined to go up 
 the Jefferson River for trapping, and the rest of 
 the company under Col. Menard remained to 
 complete the fort and trading house at the Forks 
 between the Jefferson and Madison rivers. On 
 parting from Cheek he said in a melancholy tone : 
 Cf James, you are going down the Missouri, and it 
 is the general opinion that you will be killed. The 
 Blackfeet are at the Falls, encamped, I hear, and 
 we fear you will never come back. But I am afraid 
 for myself as well as you. I know not the cause, 
 but I have felt fear ever since I came to the Forks, 
 and I never was afraid of anything before. You 
 may come out safe, and I may be killed. Then you 
 will say, there was Cheek afraid to go with us 
 down the river for fear of death, and now he has 
 found his grave by going up the river. I may be 
 dead when you return." 
 
 His words made little impression on me at the 
 time, but his tragical end a few days afterwards 
 recalled them to my mind and stamped them on 
 my memory forever. I endeavored to persuade 
 him to join our party, while he was equally 
 urgent for me to join his, saying that if we went 
 in one company our force would afford more pro- 
 tection from Indians than in small parties, while 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 67 
 
 I contended that the fewer our numbers the better 
 would be our chance of concealment and escape 
 from any war parties that might be traversing the 
 country. We parted, never to meet again, taking 
 opposite directions and both of us going into the 
 midst of dangers. My company of four started 
 down the river and caught some beaver on the 
 first day. On the second we passed a very high 
 spur of the mountain on our right. The moun- 
 tains in sight on our left were not so high as those 
 to the east of us. On the third day we issued from 
 very high and desolate mountains on both sides 
 of us, whose tops are covered with snow through- 
 out the year, and came upon a scene of beauty 
 and magnificence combined, unequalled by any 
 other view of nature that I ever beheld. It really 
 realized all my conceptions of the Garden of 
 Eden. In the west the peaks and pinnacles of the 
 Rocky Mountains shone resplendent in the sun. 
 The snow on their tops sent back a beautiful re- 
 flection of the rays of the morning sun. From the 
 sides of the dividing ridge between the waters of 
 the Missouri and Columbia there sloped grad- 
 ually down to the bank of the river we were on, a 
 plain, then covered with every variety of wild 
 animals peculiar to this region, while on the east 
 another plain arose by a very gradual ascent and 
 extended as far as the eye could reach. These and 
 the mountain sides were dark with buffaloes, elk, 
 
68 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 deer, moose, wild goats, and wild sheep; some 
 grazing, some lying down under the trees, and 
 all enjoying a perfect millenium of peace and 
 quiet. On the margin the swans, geese, and peli- 
 cans cropped the grass or floated on the surface 
 of the water. The Cottonwood trees seemed to 
 have been planted by the hand of man on the 
 bank of the river to shade our way, and the pines 
 and cedars waved their tall, majestic heads along 
 the base and on the sides of the mountains. 
 
 The whole landscape was that of the most 
 splendid English park. The stillness, beauty, and 
 loveliness of this scene struck us all with inde- 
 scribable emotions. We rested on the oars and 
 enjoyed the whole view in silent astonishment 
 and admiration. Nature seemed to have rested 
 here, after creating the wild mountains and chasms 
 among which we had voyaged for two days. 
 Dougherty, as if inspired by the scene with the 
 spirit of poetry and song, broke forth in one of 
 Burns' noblest lyrics, which found a deep echo in 
 our hearts. We floated on till evening through 
 this most delightful country, when we stopped 
 and prepared supper on the bank of the river. We 
 set our traps and before going to rest for the night 
 we examined them and found a beaver in every 
 one, being twenty-three in all. In the morning we 
 were nearly as successful as before, and were 
 cheered with thoughts of making a speedy fortune. 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 69 
 
 We determined to remain in this second para- 
 dise as long as our pursuits would permit. We 
 skinned our beaver, ate breakfast, and started to 
 go farther down the river in search of a good 
 camp ground. Brown and Dougherty started in a 
 canoe before Weir and I were ready, and after 
 going about two hundred yards they struck a rock 
 concealed under the water, overturned the canoe, 
 and lost all our skins and ammunition except the 
 little powder in our horns and the few skins left 
 behind. They also lost their guns, but saved 
 themselves and the canoe. Weir and I soon fol- 
 lowed them, and we all encamped at the mouth 
 of a small creek on the left side of the river. Here 
 Weir and I remained while the two others went 
 back to the fort to procure other guns and ammu- 
 nition, taking with them one of our guns. They 
 reached the fort the first night, having saved a 
 great distance by crossing the country and cut- 
 ting off the bend of the river, which here makes a 
 large sweep to the east. They went up on the 
 west side, or that next to the mountains, waded 
 Jefferson's Fork and entered the fort late at night. 
 
 Early the next morning the whole garrison was 
 aroused by an alarm made by Valle and several 
 Frenchmen who came in as if pursued by enemies 
 and informed them that the whole party who had 
 gone up the Jefferson at the time of our departure 
 down the Missouri had been killed by the Indians, 
 
70 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 and that they expected an immediate attack on 
 the fort. The whole garrison prepared for resist- 
 ance. The next morning after Valle's arrival 
 Colter came in unhurt, with a few others, and 
 said there were no Indians near the fort. Colonel 
 Menard despatched Dougherty and Brown on 
 the same day to us with the request that we 
 should hasten to the fort to assist in its defense. 
 Being well mounted, they came up to our camp 
 as we were preparing dinner. Their faces were 
 pale with fright, and in great trepidation they 
 told us they had seen Indian signs on the route 
 from the fort — that a horse with a rope about his 
 neck had run up and snuffed around them as if in 
 search of his master, and then disappeared — that 
 an Indian dog had performed the same action. 
 
 Everything indicated that Indians were near, 
 and we hastened to depart for the fort. We pro- 
 ceeded up the creek near whose mouth we had 
 encamped, and were screened from view on the 
 north by the willows on our right. We had gone 
 very cautiously four miles when we left the river 
 and I perceived a small herd of buffaloes in the 
 creek bottom far to our right start bounding off 
 as if from pursuers in the rear, and immediately 
 after I descried through an opening in the willows 
 eight Indians walking rapidly across the plain in 
 the direction of our late camp. I informed the 
 others of my observation and Weir, horror-strick- 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 71 
 
 en, proposed immediate flight. I protested against 
 this course and no one seconded him, but we 
 were all alarmed and the chins and lips of some 
 quivered as they spoke. I said that we could not 
 all escape, having but two horses among us; that 
 we had, perhaps, seen the whole force of the In- 
 dians, and that they might not have seen us at all ; 
 that we could fight eight with success. I proposed 
 that, if attacked, we should make a breast-work of 
 our horses and two of us should fire upon them at 
 a hundred yards ; that the other two should fire at 
 fifty yards ; that the reloaded guns should despatch 
 the third couple ; and our knives and pistols finish 
 the seventh and eighth. 
 
 This Bobadil proposition revived their spirits 
 wonderfully, and they instantly dismissed all 
 thoughts of flight. 35 Weir and I ascended a small 
 height to watch the Indians, while the rest went 
 on with the horses, which travelled slowly with 
 packs. Here we saw the Indians go up to our de- 
 serted camp, the smoke from which had attracted 
 them thither. The smoke in this clear atmosphere 
 is visible to a great distance. The hunters said 
 they had seen the smoke from an ordinary fire in 
 the prairies for three hundred miles. We pro- 
 ceeded without pursuit, and at two o'clock the 
 
 35 In Ben Jonson's comedy "Every Man in his Humor," 
 Captain Bobadil is a cowardly adventurer who passes him- 
 self off on young and simple observers as a Hector. 
 
72 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 next morning we reached the Jefferson Fork, op- 
 posite the fort. Unwilling to risk the danger of an 
 attack by delay, we forded the river with great 
 difficulty and went towards the fort, whence some 
 dogs rushed upon us, barking furiously. I spoke 
 to the dogs, and a voice hailed us from the fort 
 with ff Who's there"? I answered promptly and 
 thus saved ourselves from a volley, for when we 
 entered the fort the whole garrison was drawn up 
 with fingers upon triggers. They were expecting 
 an attack every moment, and did not look for us 
 so soon. They were all in the greatest consterna- 
 tion. Lieutenant Immell, with those before men- 
 tioned of the trapping party up the river, had 
 come in and they supposed that all the rest had 
 been killed. 36 They had had a very narrow escape 
 
 36ff Emmel's Fork," a tributary of the Yellowstone, is 
 shown on Mrs. Carrington's map in Absaraka, reprinted 
 as the Lakeside Classics volume for 1950, and this por- 
 tion of Bridger's route from Fort Laramie to the Montana 
 mines is described on page 293. Another and in some 
 respects clearer depiction of Bridger's route is shown on 
 the map of Montana Territory drawn for the use of the 
 first Legislature in 1865, reproduced in the Society of 
 Montana Pioneers, Constitution ... p. XIII. Lieutenant 
 Michael Immell, for whom the stream was named, served 
 in the First U.S. Infantry from June, 1807 to October, 
 1808. Resigning his commission, he joined the Upper 
 Missouri expedition of 1809, and for many years there- 
 after was associated with Manuel Lisa's trading activities. 
 Major Stephen H. Long, leader of the U.S. exploring ex- 
 pedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1819-20, reported 
 that Immell's party was massacred in an encounter with 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 73 
 
 themselves, as all but Colter probably considered 
 it; he, with his large experience, naturally looked 
 upon the whole as an ordinary occurrence. 
 
 During the day others came in and we learned 
 from them the extent of our losses. The company, 
 consisting of eighteen, had proceeded up the 
 bank of the Jefferson, trapping, and on the third 
 day had pitched their tents for the night near the 
 river, and about forty miles from the fort. Cheek, 
 Hull, and Ayers were employed in preparing the 
 camp, while the rest had dispersed in various 
 directions to kill game when some thirty or forty 
 
 the Blackfeet. Benjamin O'Fallon, in reporting the affair 
 to General William Clark, stated: "In some respects he 
 was an extraordinary man. He was brave, uncommonly 
 large, and of great muscular strength. When timely ap- 
 prised of danger, he was a host in himself." H. M. Chit- 
 tenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West, I, 154. 
 
 One further, second-hand, report of Immell's death 
 was recorded by Lieutenant James H. Bradley in 1876. 
 An Indian had told the story some twenty years after the 
 event to Alexander Culbertson of the American Fur Com- 
 pany, who in turn repeated it to Bradley. 
 
 Immell's party, the story runs, had ascended the Yel- 
 lowstone almost to its source, obtaining a large stock of 
 furs. They were followed, however, by a large party of 
 Blood Indians, awaiting an opportunity to surprise the 
 trappers, who killed the entire party, capturing its furs 
 and other supplies. The story became current among the 
 trappers, and either from the remains they found or from 
 some other cause they fixed upon the mouth of this river 
 as the scene of the massacre, and in memory of the leader 
 named it Immell's River. Montana Hist. Soc. Contribu- 
 tions, II, 154-55. 
 
74 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Indians appeared on the prairie south of them, 
 running a foot and on horses toward the camp. 
 Valle and two men whose names I forget came 
 running up to Cheek and others and told them to 
 catch their horses and escape. This Cheek re- 
 fused to do, but, seizing his rifle and pistols, said 
 he would stay and abide his fate. ff My time has 
 come, but I will kill at least two of them, and then 
 I don't care." His gloomy forebodings were about 
 to be fulfilled through his own recklessness and 
 obstinacy. Ayers ran frantically about, paralyzed 
 by fear and crying: ff O God, O God, what can I 
 do." Though a horse was within his reach he was 
 disabled by terror from mounting and saving his 
 life. Courage and cowardice met the same fate, 
 though in very different manners. Hull stood 
 coolly examining his rifle as if for battle. The 
 enemy were coming swiftly toward them and 
 Valle and his two companions started off, pur- 
 sued by mounted Indians. The sharp reports of 
 Cheek's rifle and pistols were soon heard doing 
 the work of death upon the savages, and then a 
 volley of musketry sent the poor fellow to his 
 long home. 
 
 Lieutenant Immell and another came in from 
 hunting about dusk, ignorant of the fate of their 
 fellows, and seeing the tent gone they supposed 
 the place of the camp had been changed. Hearing 
 a noise at the river, Immell went down to the 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 75 
 
 bank, whence he saw through the willows on the 
 opposite side a camp of thirty Indian lodges, a 
 woman coming down to the river with a brass 
 kettle which he would have sworn was his own, 
 and also a white man bound by both arms to a 
 tree. He could not recognize the prisoner, but 
 supposed he was an American. On returning to 
 the place where Cheek had pitched his tent, he 
 saw his dead body without the scalp, lying where 
 he had bravely met his end. He then hastened to 
 the fort, where his arrival has been noticed before. 
 A greater part of the garrison, with myself, 
 started out on the morning of my coming in to go 
 in pursuit of the Indians up the river, and to bury 
 our dead. We found and buried the corpses of 
 our murdered comrades, Cheek and Ayers, the 
 latter being found in the river near the bank. Hull 
 was never heard of, and two others, Rucker and 
 Fleehart, were also missing, being killed or taken 
 prisoners by the Indians. An Indian was found 
 dead with two bullets in his body, supposed to be 
 from Cheek's pistol. The body was carefully con- 
 cealed under leaves and earth and surrounded by 
 logs. We followed the trail of the savages for two 
 days, when we missed it and gave up the chase. 
 Many of the men wished to pursue them into the 
 mountains, but Colonel Menard judged it im- 
 prudent to go farther in search of them, as we 
 should probably come upon an army, of which 
 
76 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 this party was but a detachment. He thought the 
 main body was very large and not distant from us 
 or the fort, and therefore determined to return 
 and await them there. We accordingly retraced 
 our steps to the fort and remained in it with our 
 whole force for several days, expecting an attack. 
 No attack was made, however, nor did an enemy 
 make his appearance afterwards, except in the 
 shape of white, grey, brown, and grizzly bears. 
 Seeing nothing of our enemies, the Blackfeet, we 
 soon became emboldened and ventured out of the 
 fort to hunt and trap, to the distance of about six 
 miles. In these short expeditions the men had 
 frequent encounters with bears, which in this 
 region are of enormous size, sometimes weighing 
 800 pounds each, and when wounded are the 
 most terribly ferocious and dangerous to the 
 hunter of all other animals. The African lion and 
 Bengal tiger are the only beasts of prey that in 
 ferocity and power can be compared with the 
 grey or grizzly bear of the Rocky Mountains. 
 These were the terrors of our men as much as 
 were the Indians, and they usually spoke of them 
 both as equally terrible and equally to be avoided. 
 The great strength of the bear, his swiftness and 
 utter insensibility to danger when wounded, ren- 
 der him as dangerous to the hunter as the lion or 
 the tiger. The first shot is seldom fatal upon him, 
 on account of the thickness of his skin and skull 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet Jj 
 
 and the great quantity of fat and flesh that en- 
 velope his heart and make an almost impene- 
 trable shield in front. I will relate a few adven- 
 tures with this North American king of beasts, 
 and then proceed with my narrative. 37 
 
 Weir, an American, was hunting on an island 
 in the Madison River a short distance from the 
 fort and came suddenly, in a buffalo path, upon 
 a white or grey bear. He fired at the monster, 
 wounded him in the breast, and then ran for his 
 life with the bear at his heels and saved himself 
 by plunging into the river. His pursuer laid him- 
 self down on the bank and in the last struggle of 
 death fell into the water, where he died. Weir 
 drew him out, took off the skin, and was cutting 
 and hanging up the meat when he heard the noise 
 of another bear in the thicket near by. He has- 
 tened to the fort for assistance and a party, with 
 me, went over to the island. When there, we sep- 
 
 37 Lewis and Clark first encountered the grizzly bear in 
 Montreal County in western North Dakota in the spring 
 of 1805. At this time the explorers were anxious to en- 
 counter them, having seen an abundance of their tracks. 
 Before many weeks their "anxiety" was more than satis- 
 fied and they were quite content to leave the grizzlies 
 alone, if only the latter would return the favor. Lewis, 
 even more emphatic than James, recorded that he would 
 rather encounter two Indians than one grizzly. The mod- 
 ern high power rifle long since turned the balance against 
 the grizzly and in favor of the hunter. Despite this ad- 
 vantage, shocking tales of sorry experiences with grizzlies 
 are still occasionally told. 
 
78 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 arated in our search and in beating about the 
 bushes I, with my dog, entered a narrow path 
 and had gone some distance when I saw the dog 
 ahead suddenly bristle up, bark, and walk lightly 
 as if scenting danger. I called to the men to come 
 up, and watched the dog. He soon found the 
 bear guarding a dead elk, which he and his dead 
 companion had killed and covered with leaves. 
 As soon as he saw the dog he plunged at him and 
 came furiously toward me, driving the dog before 
 him and snorting and raging like a mad bull. I 
 leveled my gun and snapped and then ran, with 
 the bear at my heels and his hot breath upon me. 
 I reached the river bank and turned short up a 
 path, in which I met my companions coming to 
 my call. They, however, seeing me running, were 
 panic stricken and took to their heels also. Thus 
 were we all in full retreat from Bruin, who crossed 
 the river and fled through the willows on the 
 other side. We heard him crashing his way for 
 many hundred yards. 
 
 On another occasion a party had wounded a 
 bear, which instantly gave chase and overtook a 
 Shawnee Indian in the company, named Luthe- 
 caw, who had stumbled over some brush and 
 fallen. He grasped the Indian by the double ca- 
 pote and coat collar and stood over him, while 
 we fired six shots into the bear, which fell dead 
 upon the Indian, who cried out that the bear was 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 79 
 
 crushing him to death, but arose unhurt as soon 
 as we removed the tremendous weight of the dead 
 monster from his body. His jaws were firmly 
 closed upon the Shawnee's capeau and coat col- 
 lar, who arose at last with ^sacre moste, Vest crazy 
 monte" — ff damn the bear, he almost mashed me." 
 
 We kept the flag flying a month, frequently 
 seeing Indians without getting an interview with 
 them, they always fleeing at our approach. We 
 then pulled down the flag and hoisted the scalp 
 of the Indian whom Cheek had killed. By this 
 time the fort was completed and put in a good 
 state of defense. We subsisted ourselves in the 
 meantime by hunting in small parties which 
 started out of the fort before day and went some 
 twenty or thirty miles, and after having killed a 
 buffalo or elk came back with the meat loaded on 
 the horses. 
 
 The grizzly bears frequently made their ap- 
 pearance and we killed great numbers of them. 
 A Yankee, named Pelton, was remarkable for his 
 contracted, narrow eyes, which resembled those 
 of a bear. He was a jovial, popular fellow, and had 
 greatly amused the company in coming up the 
 river by his songs and sermons. At every stopping 
 place he held a meeting for the mock trial of of- 
 fenders and exhorted us in the New England 
 style to mend our courses and eschew sin. He 
 had an adventure with a bear about this time 
 
80 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 which is worth relating. While trapping near the 
 fort with a small party, including myself, he was 
 watching his traps alone, a short distance from 
 us, when he heard a rustling in the bushes at his 
 right, and before turning around he was attacked 
 by a large bear, which grasped him by the breast, 
 bore him to the earth, and stood over him with his 
 head back and eyes fixed on his face as if observ- 
 ing his features. Pelton screamed and yelled in a 
 most unearthly manner, and his new acquaint- 
 ance, as if frightened by his appearance and 
 voice, leaped from over his body, stood and looked 
 at him a moment over his shoulder, growled, 
 and then walked off. We ran in the direction of 
 the cries and soon met Pelton coming towards us 
 in a walk, grumbling and cursing, with his head 
 down as if he had been disturbed in a comfortable 
 sleep, and altogether wearing an air of great dis- 
 satisfaction. He told us the story, and thought he 
 owed his escape to his bearish eyes which discon- 
 certed his friendly relation in the act of making a 
 dinner of him. 38 
 
 38 The waggish Pelton met a sorry fate. In the late sum- 
 mer of 1811 the overland Astorian party of Wilson P. 
 Hunt and Donald McKenzie encountered among the 
 friendly Snakes on the Lewis River a young American 
 ff who was deranged but who sometimes recovered his 
 reason." In his lucid intervals he stated that he was 
 Archibald Pelton, a native of Connecticut, who had as- 
 cended the Missouri as a member of Andrew Henry's 
 party, all of whom had been massacred except himself 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 81 
 
 The Indians, we thought, kept the game away 
 from the vicinity of the fort. Thus we passed the 
 time till the month of May, when a party of 
 twenty-one, of whom I was one, determined to go 
 up the Jefferson River to trap. By keeping to- 
 gether we hoped to repel any attack of the sav- 
 
 about three years before. Escaping, unperceived, from the 
 attackers, he had wandered about for some weeks until 
 he fell in with the friendly tribe in whose company the 
 Astorians found him. In the hope that contact with white 
 people would restore his reason, McKenzie conducted 
 him on to Astoria, where record of his further career 
 ceases. 
 
 Such was Pelton's own story, obviously incorrect in 
 several important particulars. When the trappers became 
 discouraged (as James relates) over the incessant attacks 
 of the Blackfeet, one group (in which James was num- 
 bered) returned to St. Louis. Another party, led by Hen- 
 ry, crossed the Rockies from the headwaters of the Yel- 
 lowstone to those of the Columbia, hoping thus to escape 
 their tormenters and continue their trapping operations. 
 The party passed the winter of 1810-11 in a fort on the 
 branch of Snake River which is still called Henry's Fork. 
 Although the natives proved friendly they were poverty- 
 stricken, and after undergoing severe privations the party 
 returned to St. Louis in the summer of 1811. 
 
 How Pelton became separated from his companions 
 must forever remain a mystery. His story of the massacre 
 suggests that in his befuddled state he was trying to tell 
 of the hostilities between the Blackfeet and the trappers. 
 Instead of three years, his sojourn among the Snakes 
 could hardly have lasted more than a few months at most. 
 For his story see Ross Cox, Adventures on the Columbia 
 River (New York, 1832), 60-61 ; Gabriel Franchere, Nar- 
 rative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of North America, 
 .. ., in Thwaites (Ed.), Early Western Travels, VI, 271. 
 
82 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 ages. We soon found the trapping in such num- 
 bers not very profitable, and changed our plan by 
 separating in companies of four, of whom two 
 men would trap while two watched the camp. In 
 this manner we were engaged until the fear of 
 Indians began to wear off and we all became more 
 venturous. 
 
 One of our company, a Shawnee half-breed 
 named Druyer, the principal hunter of Lewis and 
 Clark's party, went up the river one day and set 
 his traps about a mile from the camp. In the 
 morning he returned alone and brought back six 
 beavers. I warned him of his danger. ff I am too 
 much of an Indian to be caught by Indians," said 
 he. On the next day he repeated the adventure 
 and returned with the product of his traps, say- 
 ing: ff This is the way to catch beaver." On the 
 third morning he started again up the river to 
 examine his traps, when we advised him to wait 
 for the whole party, which was about moving far- 
 ther up the stream, and at the same time two 
 other Shawnees left us, against our advice, to kill 
 deer. 
 
 We started forward in company and soon 
 found the dead bodies of the last mentioned 
 hunters, pierced with lances, arrows, and bullets 
 and lying near each other. Farther on, about one 
 hundred and fifty yards, Druyer and his horse 
 lay dead, the former mangled in a horrible man- 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 83 
 
 ner; his head was cut off, his entrails torn out, 
 and his body hacked to pieces. We saw from the 
 marks on the ground that he must have fought in 
 a circle on horseback and probably killed some of 
 his enemies, being a brave man and well armed 
 with a rifle, pistol, knife, and tomahawk. We 
 pursued the trail of the Indians till night without 
 overtaking them, and then returned, having 
 buried our dead, with saddened hearts to the 
 fort. 39 
 
 39 George Drouillard was regarded by Lewis and Clark 
 as one of the most valuable members of their exploring 
 expedition. Following its conclusion, he returned to the 
 Upper Missouri in the employ of Manuel Lisa, and in 1810 
 met his death in the manner our author relates. Drouil- 
 lard's father was Pierre Drouillard of Detroit, where the 
 family has now resided for over two hundred years. Pierre 
 was for many years an official of the British Indian De- 
 partment at Detroit and during the Revolutionary period 
 was, of course, an enemy of the Americans, This fact 
 negatives the statement sometimes made that he was a 
 Kentuckian and a friend of George Rogers Clark. He was 
 born on Isle Orleans below Quebec in 1744 and was bur- 
 ied at Detroit, April 16, 1803. 
 
 Pierre married Angelica Descomps dit Labadie on Nov. 
 20, 1776 and children were born to the couple at Detroit 
 in 1778, 1780, 1781, 1783, 1784, and 1786. Prior to the 
 union with his white wife Drouillard had cohabited with 
 an Indian woman and a child (named Pierre) of their 
 union was baptized at Assumption Church in Sandwich 
 (opposite Detroit), Sept. 27, 1775. George Drouillard 
 was also the son of Pierre and an Indian woman. Since 
 Pierre served as interpreter to the Huron, it seems prob- 
 able that the mother belonged to this tribe. 
 
 In 1929 Miss Gertie Drouillard of Windsor brought to 
 
84 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Soon after this time Marie and St. John, my 
 two Canadian companions on the route from my 
 winter quarters on the Missouri to the Big Horn, 
 came to the fort at the Forks. Marie's right eye 
 was out and he carried the yet fresh marks of a 
 horrible wound on his head and under his jaw. 
 After I had left them at the Big Horn to come to 
 the Forks, they came on to the Twenty-five Yard 
 River, the most western branch of the Yellow- 
 stone, for the purpose of trapping. 40 One morn- 
 
 the Detroit Public Library a letter written by George 
 Drouillard from St. Louis, May 23, 1809 to his half-sister, 
 Marie Louise Parent (nee Drouillard) at Detroit. In it the 
 writer bewails the trouble he had encountered over the 
 shooting of a deserter in the Upper Country at the behest, 
 as he states, of Manuel Lisa (their employer). But for this, 
 and the subsequent trial at St. Louis he would have vis- 
 ited his Detroit home. The letter breathes the utmost 
 affection for his family, including ff all my brothers and 
 sisters" and tf our mama, whom I embrace" Evidently 
 this refers to Pierre Drouillard's white wife, and not to 
 George's Indian mother. The entire context strongly im- 
 plies that he had been reared as a member of the Pierre 
 Drouillard family. Compelled by lack of means to depart 
 upon another three-year engagement on the Upper Mis- 
 souri, as a member of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Com- 
 pany expedition in which James also enlisted, the writer 
 promises to pay his Detroit relatives a visit as soon as he 
 returns, ff all of whom I wish very much to see." 
 
 40 Twenty-five Yard River, otherwise known as Shields 
 River, enters the Yellowstone from the north in present- 
 day Park County, a few miles below Livingston, Montana. 
 At this point the northward-flowing Yellowstone turns 
 sharply eastward. John Shields, for whom the river is 
 named, was a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 85 
 
 ing, after setting his traps, Marie strolled out 
 into the prairie for game and soon perceived a 
 large white bear rolling on the ground in the 
 shade of a tree. Marie fired at and missed him. 
 The bear snuffed around him without rising, and 
 did not see the hunter until he had re-loaded, 
 fired again, and wounded him. His Majesty in- 
 stantly, with ears set back, flew towards his enemy 
 like an arrow, who ran for his life, reached a 
 beaver dam across the river, and seeing no escape 
 by land, plunged into the water above the dam. 
 The bear followed and soon proved himself as 
 much superior to his adversary in swimming as 
 in running. Marie dove and swam under the 
 
 Oddly enough, Clark named another stream for him, 
 Highvvood Creek, which enters the Missouri from the 
 south about midway between Fort Benton and Great Falls. 
 Shields River is scarcely large enough to be termed a 
 "branch" of the Yellowstone. Of it Lieutenant James H. 
 Bradley wrote in 1876: "Shield's river received its name 
 from Captain Clark in 1806, in honor of one of his men. 
 The trappers of early times have called it Twenty-five Yard 
 Creek, and it was a famous resort for them, abounding as it 
 did with innumerable beaver. Two reasons are assigned 
 for the name; its width, which isn't twenty-five yards, but 
 much less [but note that Captain Clark in 1806 described 
 it as 35 yards wide] : and the asserted fact that it rises only 
 twenty-five yards from the source of another stream, which 
 I can neither affirm nor deny. Many sharp conflicts oc- 
 curred here in olden times between the resolute trapper 
 bands that were wont to frequent this locality and the 
 vengeful Blackfeet who then lorded over it." Montana 
 Historical Soc, Contributions, II, 152. 
 
86 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 water as long as he could, when he rose to the 
 surface near the bear. He saved himself by diving 
 and swimming in this manner several times, but 
 his enemy followed close upon him and watched 
 his motions with the sagacity which distinguishes 
 these animals. At last he came up from under the 
 water directly beneath the jaws of the monster, 
 which seized him by the head, the tushes piercing 
 the scalp and neck under the right jaw and crush- 
 ing the ball of his right eye. In this situation, 
 with his head in the bear's mouth and he swim- 
 ming with him ashore, St. John, having heard his 
 two shots in quick succession, came running to 
 his rescue. St. John levelled his rifle and shot the 
 bear in the head, and then dragged out Marie 
 from the water, more dead than alive. I saw him 
 six days afterwards, with a swelling on his head 
 an inch thick, and his food and drink gushed 
 through the opening under his jaw made by the 
 teeth of his terrible enemy. 
 
 We made frequent hunting excursions in small 
 parties, in which nothing of consequence oc- 
 curred. Many of us had narrow escapes from In- 
 dians and still narrower from the grizzly and 
 white bears. Game became very scarce, and our 
 enemies seemed bent upon starving us out. We 
 all became tired of this kind of life, cooped up in 
 a small enclosure and in perpetual danger of 
 assassination when outside the pickets. The 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 87 
 
 Blackfeet manifested so determined a hatred and 
 jealousy of our presence that we could entertain 
 no hope of successfully prosecuting our business, 
 even if we could save our lives, in their country. 
 Discouraged by the prospect before us, most 
 of the Americans prepared to go back to the set- 
 tlements, while Colonel Henry and the greater 
 part of the company, with a few Americans, 
 were getting ready to cross the mountains and 
 go onto the Columbia beyond the vicinity of our 
 enemies. 
 
 A party which had been left at Manuel's fort 
 for the purpose had brought up one of the boats 
 and part of the goods from the cache on the Yel- 
 lowstone below the fort, as far as Clark's River, 
 where, on account of the rapidity of the current, 
 they had been compelled to leave them. Thither 
 Menard went with men and horses to get the 
 goods for the trip to the Columbia, and I accom- 
 panied him, with most of the Americans, on our 
 way back to civilized life and the enjoyments of 
 home. When we reached the Twenty-five Yard 
 River we met one hundred and fifty Indians of 
 the Gros Ventre tribe. One of the men, observing 
 a new calico shirt belonging to him around the 
 neck of an Indian, informed Menard of his sus- 
 picions that this party had robbed the cache (from 
 the French, cacher to hide) of the goods which 
 they had hidden in the earth near the bank of the 
 
88 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Yellowstone, in the fall before. 41 Menard ques- 
 tioned them, but they denied the theft, saying 
 they got the calico at the trading house. In the 
 evening they entrenched themselves behind 
 breastworks of logs and brush, as if fearing an 
 attack from us, and in the morning departed 
 on an expedition against the Snakes, of which 
 miserable nation, we heard afterwards, they 
 killed and took for slaves a large number. 
 Thus the whales of this wilderness destroy the 
 minnows. 
 
 Here we made three canoes of buffalo bull's 
 skins by sewing together two skins for each canoe 
 and then stretching them over a frame similar in 
 shape to a Mackinaw boat. Our canoe contained 
 three men, about sixty steel traps, five hundred 
 
 41 The Indian practice of concealing food supplies and 
 other goods in holes made in the ground for preservation 
 for future use was noted by the earliest white visitors to 
 the interior of the continent. So useful was the custom 
 that it was soon adopted by the white explorers and trad- 
 ers, and numerous descriptions of it are scattered through 
 the several Lakeside Classics volumes. Zenas Leonard's 
 narrative, the Classics volume for 1934, pp. 258-59, pro- 
 vides one interesting account of the construction of 
 caches by white trappers in 1835. Others are given by 
 Josiah Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies (the Classics 
 volume for 1926, pp. 56-58) ; Kit Carson's Autobiography 
 (the Classics volume for 1935, pp. 28-29) \ Alexander 
 Ross, Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Co- 
 lumbia River (the Classics volume for 1923, p. 196) ; and 
 General Philippe DeFrobriand, A rmy Life in Dakota (the 
 Classics volume for 1941, pp. 131-32). 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 89 
 
 beaver skins, our guns and ammunition, besides 
 other commodities. Nine of us started down the 
 river in these canoes and in two days reached 
 Clark's River, where the boat with the goods was 
 awaiting us. The rest went with the horses by 
 land. Clark's River enters the Yellowstone from 
 the south. Near its mouth we found an army of 
 the Crow nation encamped. 42 This is a wandering 
 tribe, like most of the Indians in this region, with- 
 out any fixed habitation. These were then at war 
 with the Blackfeet, whom they were seeking to 
 give battle. Having remained with us a few days, 
 they went off towards the south. 
 
 One of our hunters came into camp on the 
 evening of the day when they had departed and 
 informed us of a large force of Indians about four 
 miles to the north, stationed behind a breast-work 
 of rocks and earth near a cliff. These were sup- 
 posed to be Blackfeet, and early in the morning, 
 the land party with the horses having arrived, we 
 mustered our whole force and went out to attack 
 them in their entrenchment. We were all eager 
 for the fight, and advancing upon them in Indian 
 style we discovered instead of Blackfeet about a 
 hundred warriors of the Crow nation, who had 
 
 42 Clark's River is shown on some modern maps as 
 Clark's Creek. It rises in Yellowstone Park and after flow- 
 ing eastward some distance turns northward across Car- 
 bon County, Montana, entering the Yellowstone a few 
 miles below the village of Park City. 
 
go Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 been out on an expedition against the Blackfeet 
 and had just returned. They were a detachment 
 from the army which had left us the day before. 
 They marched into our camp on horseback, two 
 abreast, and there learning from us the news of 
 their comrades, they immediately crossed the 
 river in pursuit of them. 
 
 Their manner of crossing the river was sin- 
 gular, and reminded me of the roving Tartars. 
 They stripped themselves entirely naked and 
 every ten piled their accouterments together, 
 blankets, saddles, weapons, &c. on a tent skin 
 made of buffalo robes, and tying it up in a large 
 round bundle threw it into the river and plunged 
 after it, some swimming with these huge heaps, 
 floating like corks, and others riding the horses or 
 holding by the tails till they had all crossed the 
 river. Arrived on the opposite bank, which they 
 reached in little less time than I have taken to 
 describe their passage, they dressed, mounted 
 their horses, and marched off two and two as 
 before, and were quickly out of our sight. 
 
 Here we parted from our companions who 
 were going to the Columbia, and who returned 
 hence to the Forks with the goods and ammunition 
 for their trip, while we, the homeward bound, 
 continued our course down the river in the ca- 
 noes and the boat they had left to the fort on the 
 Big Horn. We remained here several days, re- 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 91 
 
 pairing a keel boat left by Manuel two years be- 
 fore, which we loaded with the goods from the 
 canoes, and then recommenced our descent of 
 the Yellowstone with the canoes and two boats. 
 Colonel Menard accompanied us in one of the 
 boats, and I with two companions kept to our 
 canoe in advance of the others for the purpose of 
 killing game. 
 
 On reaching the place of cacheing the goods 
 and leaving the boats on account of the ice the 
 year before, Menard verified his suspicions of the 
 Gros Ventres whom we met on the Twenty-five 
 Yard River. The pit containing the goods and 
 effects of the men had been opened and forty 
 trunks robbed of their contents. Another pit, 
 containing the Company's goods, had also been 
 opened, and the most valuable of its store left 
 by Menard had been taken off by the Gros 
 Ventres. They had also cut up and nearly de- 
 stroyed the boats. We repaired one with the 
 fragments of the other and then passed down the 
 river with three boats. I kept ahead, as before, in 
 my skin canoe. 
 
 This river is very rapid throughout its whole 
 course, and very shallow. We were now near the 
 Falls, which are difficult and dangerous of navi- 
 gation. In the morning I killed two buffaloes 
 with my pistol and rifle, and my two companions 
 killed two more, which we cut up and stowed 
 
92 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 away. We approached the Falls sooner than we 
 expected, and were directing our course to the 
 left side among the sunken rocks and breakers, 
 where we would certainly have been lost, when 
 we heard a gun behind us and saw the men on 
 the boats waving us with handkerchiefs to the 
 right. 43 We were barely able to gain the channel, 
 when the canoe shot down the descent with 
 wonderful rapidity. We flew along the water like 
 a sledge down an icy hill. My two companions 
 lay in the bottom of the canoe, which frequently 
 rebounded from the waves made by the rocks 
 under the water and stood nearly upright. The 
 waves washed over us and nearly filled the canoe 
 with water. 
 
 43 The Bad Lands of the Yellowstone extend from the 
 mouth of the Tongue River at Miles City to Glendive. 
 Throughout this area the river's course is marked by a 
 series of rapids. Our earliest account of them is the one 
 left by Captain Clark, who descended this portion of the 
 Yellowstone July 30-31, 1806. The first of these, about a 
 dozen miles below Miles City, Clark named Buffalo Shoals 
 "from the circumstance of one of these animals being in 
 them." The name is still retained on modern maps. 
 Clark's party felt compelled to let the canoes down by 
 hand for fear of being destroyed by striking upon sub- 
 merged rocks. He characterized the rapid as ff by far the 
 worst place" he had seen on the river from the Rocky 
 Mountains downward, a distance, by his calculation of 694 
 miles. James, like Clark in 1806, was passing hurriedly 
 down the river and his account of the descent is extremely 
 sketchy. His spirited description of the "Falls" evidently 
 applies to the Buffalo Rapid or Shoal. 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 93 
 
 The boats behind commenced the descent soon 
 after we had ended it in safety. They several 
 times struck, and one of them hung fast on a 
 concealed rock. We hauled our canoe ashore, 
 carried it above, and coming down to the foun- 
 dered boat and lighting it of part of its load, we 
 got it off the rocks. We now passed rapidly down 
 to the Missouri River, where I left my friendly 
 canoe and went aboard one of the boats. Here 
 my spirits were cheered with the near prospect 
 of home. I longed to see the familiar faces of 
 kindred and friends with a yearning of the heart 
 which few can realize who have not wandered, as 
 I had done, among savages and wild beasts and 
 made the earth my bed and the sky my canopy 
 for more than a year. My way homeward was 
 clear and comparatively safe; the tribes along 
 the river being friendly or, if hostile, unable to 
 annoy us as the Blackfeet had done so long in 
 the prairies. 
 
 In my wanderings on this expedition I saw 
 much of the Indians and their manner of living. 
 Those in this region were then more savage, less 
 degraded, and more virtuous than they are at 
 the present time. The white man and his fire 
 water have sadly demoralized them, thinned 
 their numbers, and will soon sink them into ob- 
 livion. They are no longer the proud, haughty, 
 simple minded warriors and orators that I found 
 
94 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 so many of them to be in i8o9-'io. Sunk in pov- 
 erty and intemperance, they are fast dwindling 
 away. I have seen some of the finest specimens 
 of men among our North American Indians. I 
 have seen chiefs with the dignity of real princes 
 and the eloquence of real orators, and braves 
 with the valor of the ancient Spartans. Their 
 manner of speaking is extremely dignified and 
 energetic. They gesticulate with infinite grace, 
 freedom, and animation. Their words flow delib- 
 erately, conveying their ideas with great force 
 and vividness of expression deep into the hearts 
 of their hearers. Among their speakers I recog- 
 nized all the essentials in manner of consummate 
 orators. I shall have occasion in the following 
 chapters to bring out some of their nobler quali- 
 ties in bolder relief than was possible in the pre- 
 ceding, on account of the more intimate relations 
 I afterwards formed with these children of na- 
 ture and the prairies. 
 
 In five days after entering the Missouri we de- 
 scended to the Gros Ventre village and our fort, 
 and were there joyfully received by our old com- 
 panions. Whiskey flowed like milk and honey in 
 the land of Canaan, being sold to the men by the 
 disinterested and benevolent gentlemen of the 
 Missouri Fur Company for the moderate sum of 
 twelve dollars per gallon, they taking in pay- 
 ment beaver skins at one dollar and a half each, 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 95 
 
 which were worth in St. Louis, six. Their prices 
 for every thing else were in about the same pro- 
 portion. Even at this price some of the men 
 bought whiskey by the bucket full and drank 
 
 " 'Till they forgot their loves and debts 
 And cared for grief na mair." 
 
 During the carousal an incident occurred that 
 nearly brought ruin upon us all. Three Shawnee 
 Indians in the company from Kaskaskia had 
 started from the Upper Yellowstone in a skin 
 canoe in advance, and had arrived a day or two 
 before us. On their way down, one of them, 
 named Placota, had wantonly killed a Crow In- 
 dian on the Yellowstone and a Gros Ventre on 
 the Missouri, about sixty miles above the village, 
 and taken their scalps. In his drunken fit Placota 
 brought out one of these scalps in full view of 
 the friendly Gros Ventres. Menard caught it out 
 of his hand and hid it from view. The Indians 
 became greatly excited, crowded around us, and 
 demanded to know whose scalp it was. Menard 
 then produced to them the scalp of the Indian 
 whom Cheek had killed, and which they had 
 seen before. They said this was a ff dry" and the 
 other a ff green" scalp. We at last and with great 
 difficulty pacified them and quieted their suspi- 
 cions. Placota, who was raging mad, by Menard's 
 orders was tied behind the trading house till he 
 
g6 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 became sober, when I released him on his prom- 
 ise of good behavior. 
 
 This tribe was then very powerful, having in 
 all five villages and mustering, in case of emer- 
 gency, as many as three thousand warriors. I 
 have already noticed their character and warlike 
 qualities. A singular custom prevails among them 
 of cutting off a finger or inflicting a severe wound 
 in remembrance of any severe misfortune. Few of 
 the men thirty years of age were without the 
 marks of these wounds, made on the death of 
 some near relation or on occasion of a defeat of 
 the nation in war. Some I saw with three and one 
 with four fingers cut off. I saw a young man be- 
 wailing the death of his father in a battle with 
 the Blackfeet. He had compelled his friends to 
 draw leather cords through the flesh under his 
 arms and on his back, and attaching three buffalo 
 skulls, weighing at least twenty-five pounds, to 
 the ends of the cords he dragged them over the 
 ground after him through the village, moaning 
 and lamenting in great distress. 
 
 At their meals, the Indians on the Missouri 
 throw the first piece of meat in the direction of 
 an absent friend. In smoking, they send the first 
 whiff upwards in honor of the Great Spirit, the 
 second downward as a tribute to their great 
 mother, the third to the right and the fourth to 
 the left, in thanks to the Great Spirit for the 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 97 
 
 game he sends them so abundantly on the bosom 
 of the earth. Their name for chief is kfl, the 
 same as that of the South American and Mexican 
 Indians. For knife they say messa; for horses, 
 cowalla. A comparison of their languages will 
 show an identity in their origin and race. They 
 secure their dead by setting four poles, forked at 
 the top and about twenty-five feet in height, in 
 the ground. On these they put a scaffold of 
 buffalo skin, fastened to the poles, and on this 
 the corpse is placed, covered by a buffalo skin 
 bound around it very tightly. In this way the 
 corpse is protected from the birds and beasts, 
 and thus it remains till the scaffold falls by de- 
 cay. The bones are then gathered by the relatives 
 and put into a common heap. I saw in the rear 
 of the Gros Ventre village an immense extent of 
 ground covered by these tombs in the air, and 
 near by was a heap of skulls and bones which 
 had fallen to the earth from these air graves. 
 
 After a few day's stay at the fort and village 
 we again started down the river with Colonel 
 Menard and two boats. We arrived at St. Louis 
 in the month of August, 1810, without any oc- 
 currence of interest on the voyage. We never got 
 our dues or anything of the least similitude to 
 justice from the Company. They brought me in 
 their debt two hundred dollars, and some of the 
 other Americans for still larger sums. The reader 
 
98 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 may ask how this could be. He can easily imag- 
 ine the process when he is told that the Com- 
 pany charged us six dollars per pound for pow- 
 der, three dollars for lead, six dollars for coarse 
 calico shirts, one dollar and a half per yard for 
 coarse tow linen for tents, the same for a com- 
 mon butcher knife, and so on, and allowed us 
 only what I have mentioned for our beaver skins, 
 our only means of payment. 
 
 Captain Lewis told me not to lay in any sup- 
 plies in St. Louis as the Company had plenty 
 and would sell them to me as cheaply as I could 
 get them in St. Louis, or nearly so, allowing only 
 for a reasonable profit. Lewis did not intend to 
 deceive us, and was chagrined at the villainous 
 conduct of the Company afterwards. This, with 
 the fraudulent violation of their contracts and 
 promises in the Indian country by this concern 
 makes up a piece of extortion, fraud, and swind- 
 ling that ought to consign the parties engaged in 
 it to eternal infamy. The heaviest blame must 
 rest on the unprincipled Lisa; but the rest of the 
 Company must suffer the stigma of having con- 
 nived at and profited by the villainy, if they did 
 not actually originate and urge it onward. I sued 
 them on my contract, and was the only one who 
 did so. After many delays and continuances from 
 term to term I was glad to get rid of the suits 
 and them by giving my note for one hundred 
 
Trapping Beaver, Fighting Blackfeet 99 
 
 dollars to the Company. 44 This, with my debt to 
 Colter, made me a loser to the amount of three 
 hundred dollars by one year's trapping on the 
 headwaters of the Missouri. Some of the Ameri- 
 cans, however, fared much worse, and were de- 
 terred from returning to the settlements at all 
 by their debts to the Company, which they were 
 hopeless of discharging by any ordinary business 
 in which they could engage. Such is one instance 
 of the kind and considerate justice of wealth to 
 defenseless poverty, beautifully illustrating the 
 truth of the sentiment uttered by somebody, 
 ff take care of the rich and the rich will take care 
 of the poor." 
 
 44 Douglas, in a footnote at this point, relates the out- 
 come of James' several suits. In September, 1810 William 
 Clark acting as agent for the Fur Company, sued James on 
 a note for $249.81. James countered with a suit against 
 the Company for breach of contract, claiming damages of 
 $750. After various continuances, both suits were dis- 
 missed, apparently by reason of the absence of witnesses. 
 In October, 1814 the Company again sued James on his 
 note, with no judgment shown on the records. In October, 
 1814 Colter's administrator sued James on a note for $140 
 given by James to Colter, Oct. 7, 1809. The case was 
 settled without a trial. 
 
Chapter III 
 Adventure to Santa Fe 
 
 A FTER my return from the Upper Missouri I 
 Jl\. went in the fall of 1810 to Pennsylvania, 
 where I remained two years and married. I re- 
 turned to St. Louis in the fall of 1813, procured 
 a keel boat, and with it navigated the Ohio and 
 Mississippi between Pittsburgh and St. Louis, 
 carrying goods for large profits. I continued in 
 this business till the fall of 1815, when I took a 
 stock of goods from McKnight 8c Brady 46 of St. 
 Louis and opened a store in Harrisonville, 46 
 
 45 John McKnight was a Virginian who with his partner, 
 Thomas Brady, arrived at St. Louis with a keel boat cargo 
 of merchandise. They became extensive holders of land at 
 East St. Louis, Harrisonville, and elsewhere. John 
 McKnight never married, but his parents, who with six 
 daughters and five sons settled in St. Louis, generously 
 endowed the town with McKnights. Robert McKnight, 
 who figures in the early Santa Fe trade, was one of John's 
 numerous brothers. Thomas Brady died near St. Louis, 
 Oct. 11, 1821. 
 
 46 Harrisonville was a village in the American Bottom, 
 about thirty miles south of St. Louis, in Monroe County, 
 Illinois. Prior to 1825 it was the seat of government of 
 Monroe County. Although a mere hamlet, it was a ship- 
 ping point for the interior country. The lack of railroads 
 and the recurrence of floods prevented the town from 
 growing. In 1916, according to Douglas, its population 
 was about 150. At the present time (1953) it consists of a 
 dozen or more houses and one general store. 
 
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Adventure to Santa Fe 101 
 
 Illinois, dividing profits equally among us. In 
 the fall of 1818 I went to Baltimore with letters 
 of recommendation and bought goods for cash 
 and on credit to the amount of seventeen thou- 
 sand dollars and brought them in wagons to 
 Pittsburgh, where I left them to await a rise of the 
 river, which was too low for navigation, and came 
 to St. Louis. My goods were not sent on till the 
 following spring, when they had fallen greatly in 
 price and the market was filled with a large supply. 
 I was unable to dispose of my stock even at cost. 
 I struggled on through the years 1819-20 with 
 the certain prospect of bankruptcy before my face, 
 amid the clamors of creditors, and without the 
 hope of extricating myself from impending ruin. 
 About this time Baum, Baird, and Chambers, with 
 some others, came to St. Louis from Santa Fe, 
 where they had been imprisoned by the Govern- 
 ment ever since the year 1810. 47 They, with Rob- 
 
 47 James' brief sketch of the early trade with Santa Fe is 
 considerably inadequate. For further information upon it 
 see I. J. Cox's f< Opening of the Santa Fe Trail" in Missouri 
 Hist. Rev., XXV, 30-66; Thomas M. Marshall's "St. 
 Vrain's Expedition to the Gila in 1826" in Southwestern 
 Hist. Quarterly, XIX, 251-60; and Archer B. Hulbert, 
 Southwest on the Turquoise Trail (Denver, 1933). James 
 Baird was a native of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, who removed 
 from Pittsburgh to St. Louis in 1810, where he started a 
 blacksmith shop. His disastrous venture to Santa Fe, in 
 association with William Chambers, Robert McKnight, 
 Peter Baum, and others was undertaken in 1812 instead 
 of 1810, as stated by James. Apparently it was directly 
 
102 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 ert, brother of John McKnight of the firm of Mc- 
 Knight and Brady, and eight others were the first 
 American Santa Fe traders that carried goods from 
 St. Louis to New Mexico. Immediately on reach- 
 ing Santa Fe their goods were confiscated by the 
 Governor, sold at public auction, and themselves 
 taken to Chihuahua and there thrown into prison, 
 where they were kept in more or less strict con- 
 finement for the space of ten years, being sup- 
 ported during that time by the proceeds of Mc- 
 
 inspired by Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike's report of his 
 1806-1807 expedition, which was issued as the Lakeside 
 Classics volume for 1925. In 1822, despite their nine-year 
 imprisonment in consequence of their first visit to Santa 
 Fe, Baird and Chambers organized a second expedition. 
 It started from St. Louis in the autumn, and in conse- 
 quence was compelled to winter at the crossing of the 
 Arkansas, eventually continuing on to Chihuahua. About 
 this time, apparently, Baird decided to throw in his lot 
 with the Mexicans. In October, 1826, then at El Paso, he 
 indited a long complaint to the President of the El Paso 
 District against the operations of Cerain St. Vrain's party 
 of American fur hunters. In it he stated that he had re- 
 sided fourteen years in Mexico, conveniently omitting 
 that nine of them had been passed as a prisoner, and had 
 acquired Mexican citizenship. Now, as a citizen of the 
 "Great Mexican Nation" he was revolted by the spectacle 
 of the lawless American "foreigners" who were despoiling 
 the country of its natural wealth, and urged that the regu- 
 lations prescribed by the Government be strictly enforced, 
 to the end that "we Mexicans may peacefully profit by the 
 goods with which the merciful God has been pleased to 
 enrich our soil." By his conduct Baird provided an affirm- 
 ative answer to the ancient question whether the Ethio- 
 pian can change his skin or the leopard his spots. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 103 
 
 Knight's goods, the Government allowing 18% 
 cents per day to each man. 
 
 This, I believe, was the second company of 
 Americans that ever entered Santa Fe. Clem. Mor- 
 gan, a Portuguese and very wealthy, made his way 
 thither at a very early day, while Louisiana be- 
 longed to Spain, and returned in safety, making 
 a good venture. 48 General Zebulon Pike was the 
 first American visitor to that country. He went in 
 the year 1806, and on his arrival was marched 
 
 48ff Clem Morgan" was Jacques Clamorgan, one of the 
 most enterprising St. Louis traders of his time. A good 
 deal of mystery still shrouds his career, for which Doug- 
 las, editor of the 1916 edition of James' narrative (pp. 
 293-94), suggests two explanations: the fact that he was 
 of alien blood from the French and Spanish inhabitants of 
 St. Louis; and the further fact that his way of life may 
 have scandalized them, since he maintained a harem of 
 negro or mulatto slave women, whom he emancipated 
 when they bore him children. 
 
 Although Clamorgan may have been part Portuguese, 
 his name is clearly Welsh. He came to St. Louis by way of 
 New Orleans in 1784, and died there, aged about eighty, 
 in November, 1814. He obtained extensive grants of land 
 from the Spanish government. He played the leading role 
 in the organization of the Missouri Company in 1794 for 
 trading on the Upper Missouri, and in 1807, past seventy 
 years of age, he headed an expedition to Santa Fe, the first 
 successful one ever sent from Missouri. Data brought to 
 light in comparatively recent years add considerably to 
 our knowledge of the exploring and trading activities of 
 Clamorgan and his Spanish associates. See A. P. Nasatir, 
 ef The Formation of the Missouri Company" in Mo. Hist. 
 Rev., XXV, 10-22; A. P. Nasatir, "John Evans, Explorer 
 and Surveyor," Idem, XXV, 432-60; A. P. Nasatir, 
 
104 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 through Mexico as a prisoner of war, but was soon 
 after released on demand of our Government. One 
 of his menwas detained thirteen years by the Span- 
 iards, and returned with Chambers to St. Louis. 
 Pike, in the beginning of our last war with Eng- 
 land, met a soldier's death at Queenston Heights. 49 
 The second company from the United States was 
 McKnight's and their treatment has been noticed. 
 The third was under the command of Auguste 
 Chouteau and DeMun of St. Louis, and was com- 
 posed entirely of French. They made a very un- 
 successful venture, being deprived of their goods 
 worth $40,000, without the least remuneration, 
 and themselves imprisoned for a short time. 50 
 
 "Jacques Clamorgan ; Colonial Promoter of the Northern 
 Border of New Spain" in New Mexico Hist. Rev., XVII, 
 101-12; and David Williams, "John Evans' Strange 
 Journey," in Am. Hist. Rev., LIX, 508-29. 
 
 49 Pike was killed at the storming of York (now Toron- 
 to), April 27, 1813. 
 
 50 A detailed account of this expedition is contained in 
 an extensive letter written by De Mun to Governor Wil- 
 liam Clark, November 25, 1817, which is printed in Amer- 
 ican State Papers; Foreign Affairs, IV, 211-13. Jules de 
 Mun was born of French parentage in San Domingo, April 
 25, 1782 and after experiencing a variety of vicissitudes 
 came with his mother to Ste. Genevieve in 1808. The ex- 
 pedition with Chouteau was undertaken in the autumn of 
 1815. Save for an eleven-year absence in Cuba (1819-30) 
 De Mun remained a resident of St. Louis until his death, 
 August 15, 1843, serving in later years as Register of the 
 U. S. Land Office and (subsequently) as Recorder of 
 Deeds. Data adapted from sketch by Douglas, pp. 294-95. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 105 
 
 I commanded the fourth expedition to Santa 
 Fe from the United States, and the first that was 
 made after the Mexican Revolution and the dec- 
 laration of their independence from Spain, and I 
 was the first American that ever visited tjie coun- 
 try and escaped a prison while there. John Mc- 
 Knight desired to go to Mexico to see his brother, 
 procure his release if he were still in prison, and 
 return with him to the States. The first informa- 
 tion he had received concerning Robert in ten 
 years came by his companions above named, who 
 had left him in the interior of Mexico. He pro- 
 posed that I should take my goods and accom- 
 pany him, and supposed that under Spanish pro- 
 tection we could go unmolested by the Govern- 
 ment. The hews of the Revolution had not yet 
 reached this country. This appeared to be the best 
 course to retrieve my affairs, and I prepared for 
 the journey by procuring a passport from Don 
 Luis de Onis, the Spanish Minister, counter- 
 signed by John Q. Adams, then Secretary of State 
 under Monroe. 
 
 I loaded a keel-boat with goods to the value of 
 $10,000 and laid in a large quantity of biscuit, 
 whiskey, flour, lead, and powder for trading with 
 the Indians on the route. I started from St. Louis 
 on the tenth of May, 1821, and descended the 
 Mississippi to the mouth of the Arkansas. The 
 company consisted, besides myself, of McKnight, 
 
106 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 my brother, John G. James, David Kirker, Wil- 
 liam Shearer, Alexander Howard, Benjamin Pot- 
 ter, John Ivy, and Frangois Malsaw, a Spaniard. 
 Two men joined us after starting, Frederick Hec- 
 tor at the mouth of the Ohio and James Wilson 
 in the Cherokee country, making eleven in all, 
 young and daring men, eager for excitement and 
 adventure. Ascending the Arkansas, the first 
 settlement we reached was Eau Post, inhabited 
 principally by French. 51 
 
 A few days afterwards we arrived in the coun- 
 try of the Quapaws, where we met with a French- 
 
 51 The American frontiersman mishandled the French 
 language with cheerful abandon. "Eau Post" was not 
 "Water Post," but was intended for the French term "au 
 Post," meaning at, or to the Post. In English it might be 
 spelled "O Post", as in Arent S. DePeyster's rhymed 
 speech of July 4, 1779 to the Ottawa Indians at l'Arbe 
 Croche, Michigan. Thus Peoria in Illinois became trans- 
 formed by the same chronicler into "Pey," and by the 
 furtraders generally into "Opa" or "Opee." James' "Eau 
 Post" was Arkansas Post; originally established by Henry 
 de Tonty in 1686, about forty miles above the mouth of the 
 Arkansas, it is the oldest white settlement in the Missis- 
 sippi Valley. In 1721 it was made the administrative cen- 
 ter of the Arkansas District, one of nine subdivisions of 
 the province of Louisiana. Following the admission of 
 Louisiana to statehood in 1812, Arkansas District was 
 joined with Missouri Territory. When the latter applied 
 for statehood in 1819, it became a separate territory with 
 Arkansas Post as the first Capital. During the Civil War a 
 Union army 30,000 strong, aided by Admiral Porter's fleet 
 of river ironclads, compelled the surrender of the Post on 
 January 11, 1863. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 107 
 
 man named Veaugean, an old man of considerable 
 wealth, who treated us with hospitality. His son 
 had just returned from hunting with a party of 
 Quapaws and had been attacked by the Pawnees, 
 who killed several of his Indian companions. Paw- 
 nee was then the name of all the tribes that are 
 now known as Comanches. I had never known or 
 heard of any Indians of that name before I visited 
 their country on my way to Santa Fe. The Amer- 
 icans previously knew them only as Pawnees. 52 
 
 The account brought by Veaugean's son sur- 
 prised me, as we had heard that all the Indians 
 on our route were friendly. Leaving Veaugean's, 53 
 we proceeded up the river through a very fertile 
 country. Dense and heavy woods of valuable tim- 
 ber lined both sides of the river, both below Eau 
 Post and above as far as we went, and the river 
 bottoms, which are large, were covered by exten- 
 sive cane-brakes, which appeared impenetrable 
 
 "Whatever the contemporary usage known to James 
 may have been, the Pawnees and the Comanches were en- 
 tirely distinct tribes. Among the stated objectives of Ze- 
 bulon M. Pike's 1806-1807 expedition were to establish 
 peace between the Pawnees of Kansas and the Osages, and 
 to open friendly relations with remoter Comanches and 
 other southwestern tribes. The Comanches were a branch 
 of the Shoshonean family and a comparatively recent off- 
 shoot from the Shoshone of Wyoming. The Pawnees be- 
 longed to the Caddoan family. Both were Plains Indians. 
 
 53 Veaugean's home was about four miles below Pine 
 Bluff, Arkansas. 
 
io8 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 evenby the rattlesnake. Small fields of corn, squash, 
 and pumpkins, cultivated by Indians, appeared in 
 view on the low banks of the river. 
 
 Since entering the Arkansas we had found the 
 country quite level ; after sailing and pushing about 
 three hundred miles from the mouth we now 
 reached the first high land near Little Rock, the 
 capital of the Territory, as established that spring. 
 The archives had not yet been removed from Eau 
 Post, the former capital. As we approached Little 
 Rock we beheld a scene of true western life and 
 character that no other country could present. 
 First we saw a large wood and stone building in 
 flames, and then about one hundred men, paint- 
 ed, masked, and disguised in almost every con- 
 ceivable manner, engaged in removing the town. 
 These men, with ropes and chains, would march 
 off a frame house on wheels and logs, place it 
 about three or four hundred yards from its for- 
 mer site, and then return and move off another 
 in the same manner. They all seemed tolerably 
 drunk, and among them I recognized almost every 
 European language spoken. They were a jolly set 
 indeed. Thus they worked amid songs and shouts, 
 until by night-fall they had completely changed 
 the site of their town. Such buildings as they 
 could not move they burned down, without a dis- 
 sentant voice. 
 
 The occasion of this strange proceeding was as 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 109 
 
 follows: The Territorial Court was then in ses- 
 sion at Diamond Hill, about thirty miles distant 
 on the river above, and the news had reached Lit- 
 tle Rock on the morning of our arrival that a suit 
 pending in this Court and involving the title to 
 the town, wherein one Russell of St. Louis was 
 the claimant, had gone against the citizens of Lit- 
 tle Rock and in favor of Russell. 54 The whole com- 
 munity instantly turned out en masse and in one 
 day and night Mr. Russell's land was disencum- 
 bered of the town of Little Rock. They coolly and 
 quietly, though not without much unnecessary 
 noise, took the town up and set it down on a 
 neighboring claim of the Quapaw tribe, and fire 
 removed what was irremovable in a more conven- 
 ient way. The free and enlightened citizens of 
 Little Rock made a change of landlords more rap- 
 idly than Bonaparte took Moscow. 
 
 Here I saw Matthew Lyon, then quite an old 
 man, canvassing for Congress. 55 He was a man of 
 
 54 In 1820 some Missourians laid out a town which they 
 named Arkopolis. William Russell, a Virginian who mi- 
 grated to St. Louis, claimed title to the ground and in 
 1821 he and associates laid out the town of Little Rock, 
 with consequences which James' party arrived in time to 
 witness. Russell's home at Ninth and Russell Streets, St. 
 Louis was still standing although in ruins, in 1916. A por- 
 tion of his private library is now owned by the Missouri 
 Historical Society. Douglas, 100-102. 
 
 56 Matthew Lyon's career and character deserve a much 
 longer recital than our present space permits. A native of 
 
no Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 some note in John Adams' administration, by 
 
 whom he was imprisoned under the Alien and 
 
 Sedition law. He came into Little Rock with the 
 
 judge and lawyers from Diamond Hill, the day 
 
 Ireland, he migrated to America in boyhood, paying the 
 cost of his passage by a three-year term of service. Extra- 
 ordinarily aggressive and energetic, and possessed of 
 marked talent for business affairs, he is remembered 
 chiefly for his stormy political career. He pioneered on 
 two frontiers-Lake Champlain-Vermont and Kentucky- 
 Arkansas — served actively in the Revolution, and long 
 years in Congress. A thorough-going democrat, he com- 
 monly maintained a critical attitude toward the party in 
 power, and from this much of his political and personal 
 vicissitudes stemmed. Defeated for reelection to Congress 
 and financially ruined, President Monroe in 1820 appoint- 
 ed him factor to the Cherokee Nation. 
 
 He established his headquarters at Spadra Bluff, which 
 in the subsequent era of settlement of Arkansas became a 
 popular point of debarkation for settlers who came up the 
 Arkansas by steamboat. Spadra became a thriving town, 
 the aspirant for the location of the county seat. In subse- 
 quent decades it was overshadowed by the present nearby 
 city of Clarksville, and it is now (1953) a mere hamlet. 
 
 Lyon died and was buried at Spadra Bluff, August 1, 
 1822, where his abandoned grave site may still be seen. In 
 1830 his remains were removed to Eddyville, Kentucky, for 
 reinterment. The local historian relates that in anticipa- 
 tion of such removal, Lyons had had a double coffin pre- 
 pared for his burial, one box inside the other with the 
 space between them filled with lime and the inner box 
 lined with beaten lead. At the reburial in 1830, when the 
 coffin was opened his face was seen for a brief moment as 
 natural as in life, when it crumbled to dust before the eyes 
 of the assembled family and friends. See Ella M. Lang- 
 ford, Johnson County Arkansas: the First Hundred Years 
 (Clarksville, 1921) pp. 9-10. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe ill 
 
 after the grand moving of the town. He rode a 
 mule, which had thrown him into a bayou, and 
 his appearance as he came in, covered with mud 
 from head to foot, was a subject of much laughter 
 for his companions and the town of Little Rock, 
 which had now begun to assume a look of some 
 age, being just twenty-four hours old. Lyon was 
 not returned to Congress and he died a few years 
 afterwards. In 1824 I saw his grave at Spadra, in 
 the Cherokee country, where he had kept a trad- 
 ing establishment. 
 
 Before I left Little Rock I procured a license to 
 trade with all the Indian tribes on the Arkansas 
 and its tributaries, from Secretary Charles Crit- 
 tenden, Governor Miller being out of the Terri- 
 tory. 56 I gave bond in the sum of $3000, with Judge 
 
 56 The newly-appointed Governor was Colonel James 
 Miller of New Hampshire who had won distinction as a 
 soldier in the War of 1812. At Lundy's Lane, when asked 
 by General Ripley if he could silence a British battery he 
 replied "I'll try sir," and successfully stormed the posi- 
 tion. Earlier in the war, as Colonel of the Fourth U. S. 
 Regiment, General Hull's sole regular force at Detroit, 
 Miller had won distinction as the victor of Mongaugon, the 
 only success in Hull's ill-fated campaign. His answer to 
 General Ripley at Lundy's Lane became an army slogan, 
 and the subject of subsequent textbook fame. Governor 
 Miller arrived in considerable state at Arkansas Post in a 
 barge which had been fitted up for the conveyance from 
 Pittsburgh at the close of December, 1819. Meanwhile 
 Robert Crittenden, the twenty-two year old Territorial 
 Secretary had assembled the Legislature on July 28 and 
 
112 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Scott 57 as security, to observe the laws of the Unit- 
 ed States, and it always appeared to me that I 
 was entitled to indemnity from my country for 
 the robberies which I suffered from the Indians. 
 My losses in this way were tremendous and have 
 weighed me down to the earth from that day to 
 this, the best portion of my life; but not one cent 
 have I ever been able to obtain from the justice of 
 Congress, whose laws I was bound to obey, whose 
 license from the hands of a government officer I 
 carried with me, and who by every rule of justice 
 was bound to protect me in a business which it 
 authorized by license and regulated by heavy 
 penalties. 
 
 Continuing our course up the river, we passed 
 through a more rocky and uneven country than 
 
 set the wheels of local government in motion. Governor 
 Miller was absent during much of his term of office, and 
 Crittenden, who continued as Secretary for ten years, 
 assumed the duties of acting-governor. He died in Vicks- 
 burg, Dec. 18, 1834, "exhausted by an argument of seven 
 hours' duration." Crittenden was a brother of John J. 
 Crittenden, noted Kentucky political leader. 
 
 57 Judge Andrew Scott was a native of Virginia. He be- 
 came a lawyer and about the year 1805 settled in Washing- 
 ton County, Missouri, which remained his home until his 
 appointment by President Monroe in 1818 as one of the 
 three judges of the Board of Governor and Judges of 
 Arkansas Territory. Unlike many such territorial appoin- 
 tees, Judge Scott was an able and sincere person, who 
 accepted and discharged the responsibilities of his posi- 
 tion. He died March 13, 1851 in Pope County, Arkansas. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 113 
 
 that below Little Rock. The Maumel Mountain, 
 some fifty or sixty miles above this town and a 
 mile from the south bank of the river, is a great 
 curiosity. 58 It rises six hundred feet above the level 
 of the river, and in shape resembles a coal-pit. A 
 large spring of fresh water gushes from the top 
 and runs down its side to the river. We now passed 
 through the country of the Cherokees, whose farms 
 and log houses made a fine appearance on the 
 banks of the river, and would compare favorably 
 with those of any western State. They were at this 
 time highly civilized and have since made great 
 advances in the arts. These were that part of the 
 nation called the Rogers party, who had just emi- 
 grated from the east to the west side of the Mis- 
 sissippi, and ultimately, about the year 1833, with 
 the powerful agency of the General Government, 
 caused the removal of the whole nation to this 
 country, where they are making rapid progress 
 in national prosperity. Their Delegate will take 
 his seat in our next Congress as Representative 
 of the first Indian Territory ever organized. If this 
 
 58 Thomas Nuttall, whose Journal of Travels into the 
 Arkansa Territory During the Year 18 1Q . . . was pub- 
 lished at Philadelphia in 1821, made two striking draw- 
 ings of the mamelle, which he described as presenting 
 "the appearance of a vast pyramid, hiding the summit in 
 the clouds." It is in Pulaski County, a few miles above 
 Little Rock, at the junction of Maumelle Creek with the 
 Arkansas. Note that here, as frequently elsewhere, James' 
 estimates of distances are inaccurate. 
 
114 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 nation shall form a nucleus for the preservation 
 of the race from annihilation, the cheerless pre- 
 dictions of the physiologists will be most fortu- 
 nately falsified, and the philanthropist will rejoice 
 in the perpetuation of the true Indian race and 
 character. 
 
 Fort Smith lies about six hundred miles from 
 the mouth of the Arkansas on the western con- 
 fines of the Cherokee country, and near that of 
 the Osages, which tribes were now at war with 
 each other. We stopped a few days at this post, 
 where we were well received by Lieutenant Scott 
 and the commandant, Major Bradford, who ex- 
 amined and approved our license. 59 The Major 
 
 59 Fort Smith was established in 1817 by Major Stephen 
 H. Long, who had been ordered to select a site for a mili- 
 tary post near the border of the Indian country. He chose 
 the point of land lying between the Poteau and the Ar- 
 kansas rivers, at the extreme western border of Arkansas. 
 It was named for General Thomas A. Smith, a Virginian, 
 who attained the rank of brigadier general in the War of 
 1812, and upon the reorganization of the army in 1815 
 was commissioned Colonel of the Rifle Regiment. 
 
 The first commandant of the fort was Major William 
 Bradford, whom James encountered. Its erection was car- 
 ried out under his supervision. The fort was a picketed 
 stockade, with blockhouses at the corners. A report of 
 September, 1820 shows that but two sides of the stockade 
 had been completed. Major Bradford commanded the fort 
 until 1822. He died at Fort Towson, Oct. 20, 1826. In 
 April, 1824 the garrison of Fort Smith was removed to 
 Fort Coffee, a few miles farther up die Arkansas. 
 
 Martin Scott, renowned for his markmanship, entered 
 

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 z 
 
 x 
 
 o < 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 115 
 
 was a small, stern-looking man, an excellent dis- 
 ciplinarian, and a gallant officer. He invited Mc- 
 Knight and me to make his house our home until 
 we had rested our company and put our guns in 
 good order preparatory to entering the Indian 
 country. He and his wife treated us with the ut- 
 most kindness and hospitality, and on leaving, 
 presented us a large supply of garden vegetables, 
 with a barrel of onions which we were not to broach 
 until we had killed our first buffalo, when we were 
 enjoined to have ff a general feast in honor of old 
 Billy Bradford." His kindness made a deep im- 
 pression on us. 
 
 We here tried to mark out our course for the 
 future, which we determined should be the Ar- 
 kansas to within sixty miles from Taos in New 
 Mexico, Baum having told me that this river was 
 navigable thus far, and the Canadian being too 
 shallow for our boat. Parting from the hospitable 
 old Major, we ascended the river to the Salt Fork, 
 which enters from the south, passing in our way 
 the Grand River, then called the Six Bulls, and 
 the Verdigris, at whose mouth Fort Gibson has 
 
 the army from Vermont in 1814 and served continuously 
 on the northwestern and other frontiers until he was 
 killed in the battle of Molino del Rey, Mexico, Sept. 8, 
 1847. The stories told of his markmanship are well-nigh 
 incredible. Colonel Randolph B. Marcy's Thirty Tears of 
 Army Life on the Border, published in 1866, devotes a 
 chapter to Scott's career. 
 
n6 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 since been built. 60 The waters of the Salt Fork are 
 very much saturated with salt, tasting like strong 
 brine where they enter the Arkansas. After this 
 we proceeded with great difficulty, and about thirty 
 miles above the Salt Fork our farther progress 
 was entirely stopped by the lowness of the water. 
 There being no prospect of a speedy rise in the 
 river at this time, which was the month of August, 
 we returned four miles to an Osage road, which 
 we had observed in going up, and here I sent 
 three men to the Osage village, which I knew 
 could not be far distant, for the purpose of open- 
 ing a trade with this tribe. In five or six days these 
 
 60 James' "Salt Fork" was the Cimarron River, which 
 rises in the Raton Mountains near the Colorado-New Mex- 
 ico border and flows generally southeasterly to its junc- 
 tion with the Arkansas in northeastern Oklahoma. His 
 "Grand River" was the Neosho, which rises in Morris 
 County in east-central Kansas, some distance south of 
 Wichita and joins the Arkansas close to the mouths of the 
 Cimarron and the Verdigris. 
 
 Fort Gibson was established by Colonel Matthew Ar- 
 buckle in April, 1824, about two miles above the mouth of 
 the Neosho. Jefferson Davis was stationed here during the 
 closing months of his regular army career in 1834-35. 
 Douglas (p. 107) relates a local legend to the effect that 
 the house Davis and his wife occupied at Fort Gibson was 
 for many years an object of great interest, and was finally 
 carried away, "even the foundation stones" by relic hunt- 
 ers. Their zeal was misapplied. Davis had no wife while 
 stationed at Fort Gibson. He married Miss Taylor (his first 
 wife) at Louisville following his resignation from the army, 
 and she died three months later at his Mississippi home, 
 never having seen, or been near, Fort Gibson. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 117 
 
 men returned to me with forty Osages and a Capt. 
 Pryor, formerly of the United States army. I men- 
 tioned him in the first chapter as the commander 
 of the escort of the Mandan chief, Shehaka. He was 
 a Sergeant in Lewis and Clark's expedition, and a 
 captain at the battle of New Orleans. On the re- 
 duction of the army after the war he was dis- 
 charged to make way for some parlor soldier and 
 sunshine patriot, and turned out in his old age 
 upon the "world's wide common." I found him 
 here among the Osages, with whom he had taken 
 refuge from his country's ingratitude and was 
 living as one of their tribe, where he may yet be 
 unless death has discharged the debt his country 
 owed him. 
 
 I took out some goods, and with McKnight, 
 my brother, and the Spaniard, Malsaw, accom- 
 panied Capt. Pryor and the Indians to their vil- 
 lage, to the southeast, which we reached in two 
 days. 61 Here we found our old friend, Major 
 Bradford, Hugh Glenn, from Cincinnati, with 
 
 61 This was in Mayes County, Oklahoma, on the west 
 side of the Verdigris River. It had been established by a 
 party of Osages early in the nineteenth century whom 
 Pierre Chouteau induced to leave their former home on 
 the Little Osage of Missouri when Manuel Lisa obtained 
 from the Spanish government the trade monopoly of the 
 Osages. In Oklahoma the band waged war upon the Cher- 
 okees and for many years proved a source of trouble to 
 the U. S. Government. Pryor Creek and the town of Pryor 
 preserve the memory of Captain Pryor's residence here. 
 
1 18 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 goods and about twenty men on his way to the 
 Spanish country, and also Capt. Barbour, an In- 
 dian trader from the mouth of the Verdigris, and 
 formerly of Pittsburgh. 62 I proposed to Glenn, 
 whom I shall have to mention unfavorably here- 
 after, to travel in company to the Spanish coun- 
 try; but he appearing averse to the arrangement, 
 I did not urge it upon him. 63 
 
 I bought twenty-three horses of the Osages at 
 
 62 Concerning Captain Barbour, but little has been 
 learned aside from what James records. Grant Foreman 
 states {Pioneer Days in the Southwest (Cleveland, 1926), 
 52), that he had a trading establishment in partnership 
 with George W. Brand, at the mouth of the Verdigris. 
 This was sold to Colonel A. P. Chouteau, probably shortly 
 before Barbour's descent to New Orleans and death, as re- 
 lated by James, post, p. 214, which occurred in 18*3. 
 Foreman, Ibid, 75. 
 
 63 Hugh Glenn, who figures prominently and unfavor- 
 ably in James' subsequent narration, was born of Scotch 
 ancestry in Berkeley County, Virginia (now West Vir- 
 ginia) January 7, 1788 and died in Cincinnati, May 28, 
 1833. He migrated to Kentucky in early manhood and 
 eventually established his permanent home in Cincinnati. 
 His active career was largely passed as a trader and army 
 contractor, in the course of which he made extensive 
 journeys throughout the western country. For some time 
 he maintained a trading post at the mouth of the Verdi- 
 gris River, and from nearby Fort Smith in 1821 he made 
 the journey to Santa Fe which figures in James' narrative. 
 He returned to St. Louis in July, 1822. Jacob Fowler of 
 Kentucky, who was second in command, kept a journal of 
 the expedition which was published in 1898 under the 
 editorship of Elliott Coues, and which sheds considerable 
 incidental light upon James' own experiences. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 119 
 
 high prices for packing my goods and agreed 
 with Barbour to cache (hide in the earth) my 
 heaviest and least portable goods near the Ar- 
 kansas, for him to take in the following spring 
 down to his store at the mouth of the Verdigris, 
 sell them, and account to me for the proceeds on 
 my return. I returned with my companions to the 
 river and carefully concealed my flour, whiskey, 
 lead, hardware, and other heavy goods. I showed 
 Capt. Pryor, who came up the next day with a 
 party of Osages going out on their fall hunt, the 
 place where I had hid these goods, and packing 
 the rest on my horses, we left the Arkansas to our 
 right, or the north, and travelled with Pryor and 
 the Indians for two days toward the southwest. 
 We then left them 64 and bore directly to the west 
 in the direction as pointed out to us by the In- 
 dians, of the Salt Plains and Shining Mountains. 
 In eleven days we struck the Salt Fork, men- 
 tioned before, and which is set down on the 
 latest maps as the Cimarron River. In the dis- 
 tance before us we discerned the bright moun- 
 tains before mentioned, which the Indians had 
 
 64 Pryor accompanied Glenn upon the latter's expedi- 
 tion to Santa Fe. Jacob Fowler's Journal of the Glenn ex- 
 pedition states that on June 22, 1822 Pryor and two 
 others left Glenn's party to join that of James. Coues, Fow- 
 ler's editor, fixes this departure, which occurred on the 
 return from Santa Fe, as taking place near Ford, Kansas, a 
 few miles east of Dodge City. 
 
120 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 directed us to pass in our route. We held on our 
 course for two days along the right bank of the 
 Salt Fork, over mounds and between hills of sand 
 which the wind had blown up in some places to 
 the height of one hundred feet. 65 Our progress 
 was very slow, the horses sometimes sinking to 
 their breasts in the sand. The bed of the river in 
 many places was quite dry, the water being lost 
 in the sand, and as we advanced it appeared cov- 
 ered over with salt, like snow. The water, mantled 
 over with salt, stood in frequent pools, from the 
 bottom of which we could scoop up that mineral 
 in bushels. The channel of the Salt River became 
 narrower and more shallow as we proceeded. The 
 sand so obstructed our progress that we crossed 
 
 65 From the Osage town in Mayes County, James' party 
 evidently traveled westward across Rogers (vicinity of 
 Claremore), Tulsa, and Osage counties to the Arkansas 
 somewhere above the mouth of the Cimarron. From here it 
 traveled generally westward to the "Shining Mountains" 
 in northern Major County, the narrative making it im- 
 possible to trace its course with any degree of precision. 
 Somewhere above the "Shining Mountains" James crossed 
 to the North Fork of the Canadian, which above its junc- 
 tion with Wolf Creek in northwestern Woodward County 
 is commonly called Beaver Creek, although James conti- 
 nues to call it the Canadian. General Custer's Camp Sup- 
 ply, which figures prominently in My Life on the Plains, the 
 Lakeside Classics volume for 1952, was at the junction of 
 Wolf and Beaver creeks, and the town of Supply, nearby, 
 still preserves its name. In ascending the Beaver (as we sup- 
 pose) James passed into the extreme northwestern exten- 
 sion of Oklahoma, formerly known as the Cherokee Strip. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 121 
 
 the river where traveling was less difficult, and 
 soon struck a branch of the Salt Fork, equally 
 impregnated with salt as the main stream. Large 
 crusts of salt lay at the water's edge. Proceeding 
 on we came to the Shining Mountains, and a high 
 hill evidently based upon salt. It stands near the 
 salt branch, the banks of which were composed of 
 salt rocks, from which the men broke off large 
 pieces with their tomahawks. Here, and in the 
 Salt River was enough of this valuable mineral to 
 supply the world for an indefinite period. 
 
 The Shining Mountains lay south of us about 
 four miles and had been visible for several days. 
 We visited them and found one of the greatest 
 curiosities in our country. I have never seen them 
 nor the salt plains in which they stand put down 
 on any map or described by any white man. 66 All 
 of our travellers in this region appear to have 
 passed to the north or south of them, as I have 
 never seen or heard of a description of them, ex- 
 cept by the Indians, who come here regularly and 
 in great force for salt. The mountains stand 
 separate from each other, are about three hun- 
 
 66 Unknown to James, John Bradbury's Journal of Trav- 
 els in the Interior of America in the years 1809, 1810, and 
 1811 . . . published in London in 1819, contained a de- 
 scription of the Grand Saline and the Shining Mountains, 
 as recorded by George C. Sibley, the U. S. Factor at Fort 
 Osage, who visited the area in the summer of 1811. For it 
 see Thwaites (Ed.), Early Western Travels, V, 191-94. 
 
122 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 dred feet in height, and are quite flat on the sum- 
 mit. They are composed, in part, of a shining, 
 semi-transparent rock which reflects the rays of 
 the sun to a great distance. It is soft, being easily 
 cut with a knife, and the hand is visible through 
 thin pieces of it when held in the sun light. They 
 extend about thirty miles on the left of Salt River 
 in a northwest and southeast direction, are all of 
 an equal height, containing an area on the top of 
 from ten rods to a hundred acres, and are en- 
 tirely destitute of timber. The tops of most of 
 them were inaccessible. With great difficulty we 
 ascended one of about ten acres in extent, from 
 which we saw along the tops of the others, they 
 all being on the same plane. We found the short 
 thin grass of the prairie below, but no shrub ex- 
 cept the prickly pear. The ground was covered 
 with immense quantities of buffalo manure, when 
 left there it would be vain to conjecture. The 
 substance from the ground was clay for upwards 
 of two hundred feet, then came the rock from 
 ten to twenty feet thick, projecting over the earth, 
 and the soil above was about ten feet in depth. 
 The rock is fast crumbling away by the action of 
 water, which seems to dissolve it, as we found 
 very few fragments at the foot of the mountains 
 and none of any considerable size. The whole 
 country was evidently at one time on a level with 
 these singular elevations. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 123 
 
 We continued our course up the bank of the 
 same branch of Salt River by which we had come. 
 Its water was now, after leaving the salt plains, 
 fresh and wholesome, and we travelled along its 
 bank two days, when finding it took us too much 
 to the north, we left it and bore to the southwest. 
 This was the sixth day after reaching the Salt 
 Fork, and seventeen after parting with Capt. 
 Pryor and the Osages. We killed seven buffaloes 
 after leaving the Shining Mountains, and dried 
 the meat. The carcasses of the buffaloes, attract- 
 ing the buzzards, with some old shoes and other 
 small articles left on the ground by the men, 
 served to discover us to a war party of Comanches 
 who were now on our trail. After leaving the 
 Salt Branch we travelled till near night without 
 finding wood or water and then bore again to the 
 northwest till we struck the Branch. We cooked 
 our meat with fuel of buffalo manure, which we 
 gathered for the purpose. 
 
 Towards morning we were all alarmed by the 
 barking of our dogs, followed by a clapping noise 
 and the sound of footsteps. We slept no more on 
 that night, and in the morning saw upwards of a 
 hundred Indians at a short distance coming with 
 the design of intercepting our horses, which were 
 some distance from the camp. One horse was 
 pierced by a lance. I exhibited the flag, which 
 diverted their course, and they came among us in 
 
124 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 a very hostile manner, seizing whatever they 
 could lay their hands on. The interpreter told us 
 they were a war party and advised me to make 
 peace with them by giving them presents. I did 
 so, distributing about three thousand dollars 
 worth of goods among them. 
 
 There were two chiefs in this party, one of 
 whom was friendly and the other, called the One- 
 eyed Chief, seemed determined to take our lives. 
 His party, however, was in a minority and soon 
 after went off. The friendly chief then came up to 
 me and on account of his interference in our be- 
 half demanded more presents, which I made to 
 him. He told me that if I came to the village I 
 should be well treated and implored me not to go 
 up the Arkansas. I afterwards learned that the 
 One-eyed Chief had left me with the purpose of 
 waylaying us on that river and taking our lives, 
 which was the reason of the friendly chief's ad- 
 vice. Those who were hostile, and they were the 
 whole of the One-eyed Chief's party, seemed per- 
 fectly infuriated against us. They scrutinized our 
 equipments, and said we had Osage horses and 
 were spies of that nation, with whom they were 
 then at war. At last we were rid of the presence of 
 these unpleasant visitors with many dismal ap- 
 prehensions for the future. 
 
 The friendly chief left a Mexican Indian, an 
 interpreter, with us as a guide. With him we 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 125 
 
 struck from the south branch of Salt River for the 
 north Fork of the Canadian, which the Indians 
 told us we should reach in one day's travel. Go- 
 ing in a direction west of south we struck the 
 river on the second day, having suffered dread- 
 fully for want of water. McKnight and I went for- 
 ward to find water and killed a buffalo. We drank 
 large draughts of the blood of this animal, which I 
 recollect tasted like milk. We found several ponds 
 of water, so tainted with buffalo manure as to 
 cause us to vomit on drinking of it. We missed 
 the party on that night and found them on the 
 next day, all sick from the water they had drunk, 
 and exhausted by previous fatigue and thirst. The 
 horses were nearly worn out by the same causes. 
 We traveled along the North Fork of the Cana- 
 dian for seven or eight days until we reached its 
 head in a large morass, or swamp, about two miles 
 wide and five or six long, situated in a valley 
 which gradually narrows and disappears at last 
 in the vast plain to the west. 67 We went up this 
 valley which was now dry, but in the spring is 
 filled with a rapid stream. We saw thousands of 
 buffaloes along its course and found a large pond 
 about an acre in extent, but the water was so 
 
 67 The North Canadian or Beaver rises much farther to 
 the west than the party had yet reached. James' own 
 further statement of the dry valley which in wet seasons 
 became a rapid stream is indicative of this. 
 
126 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 spoiled by manure as to sicken us all. After pass- 
 ing through this valley we bore for the Canadian 
 River towards the south and on the second day, 
 after intense suffering from thirst, we struck a fine 
 spring of fresh water. This was a rich source of 
 real refreshment and enjoyment. 
 
 Following the stream made by this spring, we 
 reached the Canadian and travelled up its course 
 for several days. We had encamped for the night 
 on the twenty-first day after meeting the Co- 
 manches who had robbed us on the branch of 
 Salt River, when we saw a great number of mount- 
 ed Indians coming over a rising ground in our 
 front, and at their head the friendly chief, who 
 advanced with outstretched hands crying tozuaue, 
 towaue, — ff good, good." Coming up, he embraced 
 me in the Indian custom, and requested me to go 
 with him to his village. 68 Here an Indian seized a 
 brass kettle and rode off with it. This act alarmed 
 me, and I asked the chief if he could protect my 
 property if I went with him. He said he could not, 
 and I declined his invitation for that night and re- 
 quested him to leave a body of trusty Indians, to 
 defend me till morning. He did so, and we were 
 not molested that night. 
 
 68 This encounter with the Comanches occurred some- 
 where in the Texas Panhandle. In the same general area 
 General Custer half a century later met and conquered 
 the descendants of the natives who robbed and terrorized 
 James' party. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 127 
 
 In the morning we marched with our guard 
 from the left bank of the river, where we had en- 
 camped, to the right bank, and in two miles 
 above we found the whole village of the Indians, 
 numbering a thousand lodges, situated in the 
 bottom near the base of a large mound. We were 
 met by one of the principal chiefs, whose looks 
 were to me ominous of evil. He was a little, vi- 
 cious-looking old man and eyed me most mali- 
 ciously. We were taken close to the foot of the 
 mound near this chief's lodge and there we en- 
 camped, having piled up my goods and covered 
 them with skins. The Indians then demanded 
 presents and about a thousand chiefs and war- 
 riors surrounded us. I laid out for them tobacco, 
 powder, lead, vermillion, calico, and other ar- 
 ticles, amounting to about $1,000 in value. This 
 did not satisfy them and they began to break 
 open my bales of cloth and divide my finest wool- 
 ens, designed for the Spanish market, among 
 them. After losing about $1000 more in this way, 
 I induced them to desist from further robbery. 
 
 The principal chief, named Big Star, now ap- 
 peared and said they had enough. They divided 
 the spoil among two or three thousand, of whom 
 all got some. They tore up the cloth into gar- 
 ments for the middle and blankets. They tied the 
 silk handkerchiefs to their hair as ornaments, 
 which streamed in the wind. This robbery over, I 
 
128 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 smoked with them and prepared to go on my 
 journey. This they forbade, and we were com- 
 pelled to stay over that day. We kept a strong 
 guard through the night on our goods and 
 horses. On the next morning they pretended 
 that another party had arrived who required 
 presents. This information was brought by a one- 
 eyed Spaniard who acted as interpreter and had 
 got from me as a present a whole suit of cloth and 
 a large supply of ammunition. He was the insti- 
 gator of this new demand. The Indians began to 
 gather around us and break open and drag about 
 the goods. The chiefs stood off, taking no part. I 
 then made them another set of presents, worth, 
 probably, a thousand dollars more. We now 
 hoped to be allowed to pass on and requested 
 leave to go, but they refused it and the friendly 
 chief advised us to stay. I had seen many savages, 
 but none so suspicious and little as these. They 
 seemed to regard us as spies in their country. We 
 staid with them the second day and night with- 
 out any further robbery than that I have men- 
 tioned. 
 
 On the third day of my stay, the One-eyed 
 Chief came into the village from the Arkansas, 
 where he had been, with a hundred men, await- 
 ing us with murderous designs. On his coming 
 in, the interpreter, Malsaw, ran to me, saying we 
 should certainly be killed, and the women and 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 129 
 
 children ran from their lodges like chickens be- 
 fore a hawk. I had made the Big Star chief my 
 friend by presenting him with a splendid sword. 
 He now came up and took me into the little old 
 chief's lodge, saying I would be shot if I remained 
 out. Our time seemed nearly come. In the dis- 
 tance we saw the One-eyed with his troop ap- 
 proaching, all painted black and armed with 
 guns, bows and arrows, and lances. We were 
 eleven against a hundred at least, perhaps thou- 
 sands. The Big Star sent a messenger to my 
 enemy and asked him what would satisfy him in 
 lieu of our lives.. He replied that he must have for 
 each of his men as much cloth as his outstretched 
 arms would once measure; an equal quantity of 
 calico; powder, lead, vermillion, knives, beads, 
 looking glasses, &c, and for himself the sword 
 which he had seen on the south branch of Salt 
 River. I sent him word that I had not the vermil- 
 lion, knives, beads, and looking glasses, nor the 
 sword, which I had presented to the Big Star. He 
 said the story about the sword was a lie, that I 
 had given it to Big Star to prevent him from get- 
 ting it, and that he would have it or my scalp, 
 and as to the other articles he would take cloth 
 instead of them. The Big Star here sent to his 
 lodge for the sword, and taking it in his hand, he 
 pressed its side to his heart and then handed it to 
 me, saying: f? Take it and send it to the One-eyed 
 
130 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Chief. You have no other way of saving your life 
 and the lives of your people." I did as he ad- 
 vised, and measured off about five hundred yards 
 of cloth and calicoe, of which the former cost me 
 seven dollars per yard in Baltimore, and sent 
 them to my deadly enemy. 
 
 This appeared to pacify him and again I pro- 
 posed to go on my way. To this they again ob- 
 jected, saying that the whole village would go 
 down the river in the morning, and we should 
 then be permitted to part from them and con- 
 tinue our course up the river as before meeting 
 with them. We had the horses brought up and 
 prepared that evening for an early start in the 
 morning. One-half kept guard while the rest of 
 our party endeavored to sleep. But there was no 
 rest for any of us on that most dismal night. This 
 was the third sleepless night which we had passed 
 with these ferocious savages, and we were nearly 
 worn down by fatigue, anxiety, and watching. 
 Before day-light a party of boys ascended the 
 mound in our rear, and from the top stoned our 
 company until they were dislodged and driven 
 down by the exertions of the friendly chief. Un- 
 certain of our fate and nearly exhausted, we 
 awaited in sullen patience the issue of events. The 
 sun as he rose seemed to wear an aspect of gloom 
 and every thing portended evil to our little band. 
 Six of my horses had been taken in the night, and 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 131 
 
 I ordered my men out to find and bring them 
 back. 
 
 The friendly chief now came to me with great 
 concern and dejection in his countenance and 
 begged of me not to leave my station or allow the 
 men to go out. ff Keep together," said he, ff or you 
 will be killed. The men that go out will be mur- 
 dered. Don't try to get back your horses." I saw 
 that the whole army were preparing to decamp, 
 and pulling down their lodges. Sometime after 
 sunrise I perceived about fifty of the chiefs and 
 older Indians going up onto the mound above us, 
 in our rear, followed by a multitude of young 
 warriors and boys. An old man turned and drove 
 them back : the two friendly chiefs did not go up. 
 Arrived at the top, this company formed the 
 circle, sat down, and smoked. Then one of their 
 number commenced what seemed to us, from his 
 gestures, to be a violent harangue designed to in- 
 flame their passions. I told my company that this 
 council would decide our fate. They asked me 
 how I knew this. ff If they come down," said I, 
 "friendly, we shall have nothing to fear; but if 
 sulky and out of humor, we have nothing to hope. 
 Put your guns in good order and be prepared for 
 the worst. We must sell our lives as dearly as pos- 
 sible." In this sentiment they all agreed with me, 
 and we prepared to meet our fate, whatever it 
 should be, like men. During this time the lodges, 
 
132 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 with the women and children, were fast disap- 
 pearing and the men assembling before us on 
 horseback and afoot, armed with guns, bows, and 
 lances. The council on the hill, after an hour's 
 consultation, descended, and we soon learned 
 that our deaths were determined upon. 
 
 Those Indians who before were sociable were 
 now distant and sulky. When spoken to by any 
 of us they made no answer. The friendly chief 
 and Big Star, who had taken no part in the coun- 
 cil, now came and shook hands and bade us fare- 
 well. I besought them to stay with us; shaking 
 their heads sorrowfully, they went away. The 
 press in front now greatly increased. Nearly two 
 thousand warriors stood before and around us 
 with the evident intention of making an attack, 
 and appeared to be awaiting the signal for the 
 onslaught. We stood in a circle with our backs to 
 the goods and saddles heaped up above all our 
 heads and with our rifles raised to our breasts 
 and our fingers on the triggers. We were also 
 armed with knives and tomahawks. Old Jemmy 
 Wilson seized an axe, having no gun, and swore 
 he would hew his way as far as he could. Thus we 
 stood, eleven against two thousand, with death 
 staring us in the face. All seemed unwilling to 
 commence the bloody work. The suspense was 
 awful. I stood between John McKnight and my 
 brother, and noticed their countenances. Mc- 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 133 
 
 Knight's face was white and his chin and lips 
 were quivering. My brother, as brave a man as 
 ever lived, looked desperate and determined. Not 
 a man but seemed bent to die in arms and fight- 
 ing, and none were overcome by fear. 
 
 Thus we stood near half an hour in deathly 
 silence; at length the White Bear warrior, a chief 
 dressed in a whole bear skin with the claws hang- 
 ing over his hands, rode swiftly towards us 
 through the crowd with his lance in his hand, as 
 if to annihilate us at once; but seeing the danger- 
 ous position he was in, he stopped short about 
 five paces from us and glared upon me with the 
 most deadly malignity. Finding he could not 
 reach me with his lance, he took out his pistol, 
 examined the priming, tossed out the powder 
 from the pan, re-primed, and again fixed his dev- 
 lish eyes full upon me. But he saw that I could 
 fire first, and he kept his pistol down. 
 
 Here McKnight first broke the dreadful si- 
 lence, saying, ff Let us commence. James, You 
 will be the first one killed — this suspense is worse 
 than death; the black chief is my mark." I said: 
 "No, McKnight, let us forbear as long as they 
 do ; for us to begin is folly in the extreme ; but as 
 soon as a gun is fired, we must fire, rush in, and 
 sell our lives as dearly as possible." Here Kirker 
 walked out with his gun over his head, gave it 
 up, and passed into the crowd unmolested. In a 
 
134 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 minute afterwards we heard a cry from a distance, 
 approaching nearer and nearer, of Tabbaho, 
 Tabbaho* This I supposed was on account of 
 Kirker's surrender. The cry increased and spread 
 throughout the crowd. Looking towards the 
 southwest, whence the cry arose, while the White 
 Bear's attention was withdrawn, I saw six horse- 
 men riding at full speed, and as they came nearer 
 we heard the words in Spanish, ff save them! save 
 them!" In a moment a Spanish officer rushed in- 
 to our arms, exclaiming: tf Thank God we are in 
 time; you are all safe and unhurt." He said that 
 he had heard of our danger by accident that 
 morning, and ridden twenty miles to save us. 
 
 All the circumstances of our rescue we learned 
 the next day. With joyous and thankful hearts 
 for our escape from a death that five minutes be- 
 fore seemed inevitable, we prepared to depart 
 with our preservers. I had bidden farew r ell, as I 
 thought forever, to my wife, child, home, and all 
 its endearments, and the thoughts of them were 
 now overpowering to me. The Spaniards asked 
 the Indians why they were going to kill us. They 
 answered, that the Spanish governor at Santa Fe 
 had commanded them not to let any Americans 
 pass, but that we were determined to go in spite 
 of them, so that to stop us and keep their prom- 
 ise to the Spanish Governor they thought they 
 
 * White men. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 135 
 
 were compelled to take our lives. The Spaniards 
 told them that this was under the government of 
 Spain, but that they were now independent and 
 free and brothers to the Americans. This was the 
 first news I had heard of the Mexican revolution. 
 
 The two friendly chiefs now returned, and I 
 showed the Spaniards our passport. The Indians 
 brought in and delivered up four of my horses. 
 The whole village, soon after the arrival of the 
 Spaniards, went down the river; and our party, 
 except Malsaw and myself, with two of the Span- 
 ish officers, started forward towards the Spanish 
 camp, about twenty miles distant. We four re- 
 mained behind to recover the two missing horses 
 and then followed our companions. We were lost, 
 at dark, among the cliffs bordering the river, 
 where we made fire for cooking our suppers and 
 encamped for the night. 
 
 Early the next morning we reached the Span- 
 ish encampment, where our party was awaiting 
 us. As we approached the camp there came out 
 to meet us a tall Indian of about seventy years of 
 age, dressed in the complete regimentals of an 
 American colonel, with blue coat, red sash, 
 white pantaloons, epaulets, and sword. He ad- 
 vanced with an erect, military air and saluted us 
 with great dignity and address. His eyes were 
 still bright and piercing, undimmed in the least 
 by age, and he had a high, noble forehead and 
 
136 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Roman nose. His whole port and air struck me 
 forcibly as those of a real commander and a hero. 
 After saluting us he handed me a paper which I 
 read as follows, as nearly as I now remember: 
 
 ^This is to certify that Cordaro, a Chief of the 
 f? Comanches, has visited the fort at Natchitoches 
 ^ with fifteen of his tribe; that he remained here two 
 t( weeks, and during the whole time behaved very 
 **well. It is my request that all Americans who meet 
 **kim or any of his tribe should treat him and them 
 ^with great respect and kindness, as they are true 
 f< friends oj the United States. 
 
 John Jameson. 
 f f £/. S. Indian Agent at Natchitoches on Red River" 
 
 This chief, Cordaro, was the cause of our being 
 then in existence. He told us he had promised 
 his f: great friend at Natchitoches" that he 
 would protect all Americans that came through 
 his country, and he very earnestly requested us 
 to inform his ff great friend" that he had been as 
 good as his word. On entering the encampment 
 we found about fifty Spaniards and three hun- 
 dred Comanche warriors, who had just returned 
 from an expedition against the Navahoes, a tribe 
 inhabiting the country west of Santa Fe and the 
 mountains, and who were then at war with the 
 Spaniards. On their return from this campaign 
 this party had come from Santa Fe with their 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 137 
 
 Comanche allies into their country to hunt for 
 buffaloes and had encamped the night before our 
 rescue from the Comanches on the spot where we 
 now found them. On the next morning a party of 
 Indians belonging to this band were hunting 
 their horses in the prairie and met another party 
 from the army below, who had us in custody, en- 
 gaged in the same manner, who informed them 
 that their countrymen had taken a company of 
 Americans prisoners and were going to kill them 
 all that morning and divide their goods among 
 the army; that the whole village was breaking up 
 and preparing to go down the Canadian, and 
 that the pulling down of the last lodge was to be 
 the signal for our massacre. 
 
 On hearing this, the first party hastened back 
 to their camp with the news, which brought out 
 most of the young warriors to come down for a 
 share of the plunder of my goods. The chief, 
 Cordaro,went instantly, on hearing this account, 
 to the Spanish officers, told them that a company 
 of Americans were to be murdered that morning 
 by his countrymen, mentioned the signal for the 
 attack, said he was too old to ride fast or he 
 would go himself to the rescue, and adjured them 
 to mount and ride without sparing the horses, as 
 not a moment was to be lost. Six of them mounted 
 and rode as Cordaro had told them to do, and 
 we saw their foaming steeds and heard the cry of 
 
138 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Tabbako — white men — just in time to save us from 
 extermination. A minute after would probably 
 have been too late. Our determined attitude 
 averted the blow and prolonged our time to the 
 last moment, when our deliverers appeared; but 
 without them, the next instant would have seen a 
 volley of shot and arrows lay most of us low and 
 the lance and tomahawk would have soon com- 
 pleted the work on us all. 
 
 Cordaro, the noble and true-hearted savage, 
 appeared to rejoice at our escape as much as we. 
 He desired particularly that his ff great friend" at 
 Natchitoches should hear of his agency in saving 
 us, and I had to promise him repeatedly that I 
 would surely inform Colonel Jameson, when I 
 saw him, of the manner in which his friend, Cor- 
 daro, had performed his promise, to him. If John 
 Jameson be still alive and this page meet his eye, 
 I shall have cause to felicitate myself in having at 
 last kept my word to my Comanche preserver. 69 
 
 69 Hollywood at its best can scarcely improve upon this 
 real life story. Somewhat extensive search among the more 
 probable sources of information has failed to disclose any 
 mention of Cordaro, and but one notice has been found of 
 John Jameson. On Sept. 5, 1818 the Secretary of War 
 addressed a circular letter to several governors and Indian 
 agents, among the latter being Jameson. Printed in Carter 
 (Ed.), Territorial Papers of the United. States, XV, 431. The 
 absence of Cordaro from the available records suggests the 
 possibility that he may have had another name than the 
 one James employs. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 139 
 
 We spent that day with Cordaro and the Span- 
 iards, and held a council or "talk" with them. 
 Cordaro made a speech dissuading me from go- 
 ing to Santa Fe on account of the treatment 
 which the Americans had always received from 
 the Government there. "They will imprison 
 you," said he to me, "as they have imprisoned all 
 Americans that ever went to Santa Fe. You will 
 meet the fate of all your countrymen before you." 
 The Spanish officers, who were all present at 
 this harangue, smiled and said there was no dan- 
 ger of any ill-treatment to us, now that they had 
 an independent government. Cordaro shook his 
 head incredulously and told them that we were 
 under his protection ; that he would himself go to 
 Santa Fe after we had arrived there, and if he 
 found us imprisoned he would immediately go to 
 war with them. "The Americans are my friends," 
 said he, "and I will not permit them to be hurt. I 
 have promised my great friend of Natchitoches to 
 protect all Americans that come through my 
 country." The Spaniards promised to treat us 
 well, but our protector seemed to be very suspi- 
 cious of them and evidently gave little faith to 
 their promises. 
 
 We found at this camp an excellent Spanish 
 interpreter, who spoke the Comanche language 
 as well as his own. By him I was informed that 
 the Indians took me for the Frenchman Vaugean, 
 
140 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 whom we had seen in the country of the Qua- 
 paws, a tribe of kin to the Osages, and who, while 
 hunting on the Canadian in the spring before 
 with a party of thirty French and Indians of the 
 former tribe, had been attacked by the Coman- 
 ches, who were defeated and driven back with 
 considerable loss. Vaugean, like myself, was a tall 
 man, and the Indians here and those we had met 
 before considered me the commander in this bat- 
 tle. The one-eyed interpreter had concealed this 
 fact from me, and we now had some difficulty in 
 satisfying the Indians that we were not the same 
 party who, with Vaugean, were in alliance with 
 their enemies, the Osages. The charge was fre- 
 quently renewed, but we at last succeeded in re- 
 pelling it and quieting their suspicions. 
 
 On the next day, the third day after meeting 
 with the Spanish officers, we parted with Cordaro, 
 who followed his countrymen down the Cana- 
 dian, with the Spanish force in his company. 
 Two of the Spanish officers remained to accom- 
 pany us to Santa Fe. They were all very gentle- 
 manly and liberal-minded men. One Spanish 
 citizen of Santa Fe had hired to return with me as 
 a guide. We once more took up our march along 
 the Canadian and over the immense plains by the 
 trail of the Spaniards we had just parted with. 
 The whole country here is one immense prairie. 
 I observed many huge granite rocks standing like 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 141 
 
 stone buildings, some of them one hundred feet 
 high. The earth seemed to have been washed 
 from around them and the prairie below to have 
 been formed by deposits of earth and crumbled 
 rocks from these and similar elevations. Some 
 were covered with earth and cedar trees, but 
 most of them were entirely bare. 
 
 In three days after leaving Cordaro we came in 
 sight of the Rocky Mountains, whose three prin- 
 cipal peaks, covered with perpetual snow, were 
 glittering in the sun. The most northern and 
 highest of these peaks is set down on the latest 
 map I have seen as ff James' Peak or Pike's." 
 General Pike endeavored to reach its top, but 
 without success. After my return I made a rough 
 map with a pen of this country for the use of 
 Senator Kane of Illinois, and in the next map 
 published by Government I saw my name affixed 
 to this peak, as I supposed, by the agency of Mr. 
 Kane. The peak bore no name known to our com- 
 pany when we saw it and I gave it none then or 
 afterwards. 70 
 
 70 Here James' memory is doubly confused. He had 
 been following the Canadian River across the Texas Pan- 
 handle into eastern New Mexico, and Pike's Peak was 200 
 miles or more to the northward. The mountains seen were 
 evidently much farther south, somewhere in New Mexico, 
 east of Sante Fe. 
 
 Pike's Peak was first ascended by an American, Dr. 
 Edwin James, the narrator of Major Stephen H. Long's 
 expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in July, 1820. Long 
 
142 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 In two days more we came to an old Spanish 
 fort, dismantled and deserted, which had been 
 built many years before in expectation of an in- 
 vasion from the United States. This was about 
 one hundred miles from Santa Fe. We soon en- 
 countered large herds of sheep, attended by 
 shepherds, and on the second day after passing 
 the fort came to a small town in a narrow ravine 
 on the Pecos River and at the foot of a high 
 cliff. 71 Here I became acquainted with an old 
 
 named the mountain (which Pike had made no effort to 
 ascend) in James' honor, and for some years it was known 
 indifferently as James' Peak and Pike's Peak. The coin- 
 cidence of identity of names is evidently responsible for 
 General James' confusion. 
 
 71 The Pecos River, some 800 miles long, rises in the 
 Rocky Mountains, in San Miguel County, New Mexico, 
 and runs southward and eastward, roughly paralleling the 
 course of the Rio Grande, to its junction with the latter 
 near the 101 of longitude. James' party had now passed 
 from the headwaters of the Canadian to those of the Pecos. 
 The town alluded to was La Cuesta. It lay in a deep valley, 
 enclosed by high rocks, through the bottom of which the 
 headwaters of the Pecos wound, with the village lying 
 "like a little fortress" on a lower step of the plateau. 
 Baldwin Mollhausen, who in 1853 accompanied the expe- 
 dition led by A. W. Whipple in search of a route for the 
 projected railroad to the Pacific, provides an interesting 
 picture of the town and its surroundings. See Diary of a 
 Journey from the Mississippi to the Coasts of the Pacific 
 (London, 1858), I, 316-20 and map. It was in La Cuesta 
 that Goerge W. Kendall and his party were captured in 
 1841 and saved from immediate execution through the 
 intercession of an influential citizen, Don Gregorio Vigil. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 143 
 
 Spaniard, named Ortise, who in his youth had 
 been captured by the Pawnees and sold to Chou- 
 teau of St. Louis, where he had learned French 
 and whence he returned home by the way of New 
 Orleans, St. Antonio in Texas, and the interior 
 of Mexico. He informed me more particularly 
 than I had yet heard of the Mexican Revolution, 
 and foretold that Iturbide would be elected Presi- 
 dent at the ensuing election. 72 
 
 We proceeded up the bank of the Pecos by a 
 narrow road, impassable for wagons. One of the 
 horses with all my powder and some of the most 
 valuable goods here fell down a precipice into a 
 beaver dam in the river. The horse was unin- 
 jured but the goods were nearly all spoiled. The 
 next town on our route was San Miguel, fifteen 
 miles from the last, an old Spanish town of about 
 
 Narrative of the Texan Sante Fe Expedition, the Lakeside 
 Classics volume for 1929, pp. 375-85. 
 
 72 Space is lacking to sketch the confused story of the 
 Mexican revolution. The independence achieved in 1821 
 was the culmination of a decade of confusion and tur- 
 moil, and the introduction of a sixty-three-year period of 
 further turmoil and warfare. Somewhat like our own 
 movement to create the present U.S. Constitution, the 
 Mexican movement for independence culminated in a 
 counter-reaction against the more radical revolutionists, 
 brought to successful conclusion by Iturbide, who was 
 elected Emperor by the first provincial Congress, July 21, 
 1822. Further dissension led to his abdication and de- 
 portation in April, 1823, followed by his return to Mexico 
 and his prompt execution, July 1, 1824. 
 
144 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 a hundred houses, a large church, and two mis- 
 erably-constructed flour mills. Here was the best 
 water-power for mills, and the country in the 
 vicinity abounded in the finest pine timber, I had 
 ever seen. But no attempt is made to improve the 
 immense advantages which nature offers. Every 
 thing that the inhabitants were connected with 
 seemed going to decay. 73 
 
 We left San Miguel on the following morning 
 with the alcalde and a company of Spaniards 
 bound for Santa Fe. We stopped at night at the 
 ancient Indian village of Pecos about fifteen miles 
 from San Miguel. I slept in the fort, which en- 
 closes two or three acres in an oblong, the sides of 
 which are bounded by brick houses three stories 
 high, and without any entrances in front. The 
 window frames were five feet long and three- 
 fourths of a foot in width, being made thus nar- 
 row to prevent all ingress through them. The 
 
 73 San Miguel was a considerable town and an important 
 point on the route of the Santa Fe traders. Here George 
 W. Kendall and his party were imprisoned, following 
 their capture in the summer of 1841, and here they wit- 
 nessed the summary execution by command of Governor 
 Armijo of Samuel Howland, another member of the ex- 
 pedition. See The Texan Santa Fe Expedition, the Lake- 
 side Classics volume for 1929, pp. 404-11. A view of the 
 town and its surroundings in 1846 is given in Wm. H. 
 Emory's Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort 
 Leavenworth in Missouri to San Diego in California, 30th 
 Cong., 1 sess., Exec. Doc. 41, p. 444. 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 145 
 
 lights were made of isinglass and each story was 
 supplied with similar windows. A balcony sur- 
 mounted the first and second stories and movable 
 ladders were used in ascending to them on the 
 front. We entered the fort by a gate which led 
 into a large square. On the roofs, which like those 
 of all the houses in Mexico are flat, were large 
 heaps of stones for annoying an enemy. I noticed 
 that the timbers, which extended out from the 
 walls about six feet and supported the balconies, 
 were all hewn with stone hatchets. The floors 
 were of brick, laid on poles, bark, and mortar. 
 The brick was burned in the sun and made much 
 larger than ours, being about two feet by one. 
 The walls were covered with plaster made of lime 
 and isinglass. 
 
 I was informed by the Spaniards and Indians 
 that this town and fort are of unknown antiquity, 
 and stood there in considerable splendor in the 
 time of the Conquerors. The climate being dry 
 and equable and the wood in the buildings the 
 best of pine and cedar, the towns here suffer but 
 little by natural decay. The Indians have lost all 
 tradition of the settlement of the town of Pecos. 74 
 
 74 The pueblo of Pecos has an ancient and slowly de- 
 clining history. In prehistoric times a series of puebloes 
 were scattered along the Pecos Valley from Anton Chico 
 to the northern end of the Pecos grant. At the time of 
 Coronado's visit (1541) the tribe was concentrated in a 
 great communal structure having 2000 to 2500 inhabit- 
 
146 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 It stood a remarkable proof of the advance made 
 by them in the arts of civilization before the 
 Spaniards came among them. All the houses are 
 well built and showed marks of comfort and re- 
 finement. The inhabitants, who were all Indians, 
 treated us with great kindness and hospitality. 
 In the evening I employed an Indian to take my 
 horses to pasture, and in the morning when he 
 brought them up I asked him what I should pay 
 him. He asked for powder and I was about to give 
 him some when the Spanish officer forbade me, 
 saying it was against the law to supply the In- 
 dians with ammunition. Arms are kept out of 
 their hands by their masters, who prohibit all 
 trade in those articles with any of the tribes 
 around them. 
 
 On the next day in the evening we came in 
 sight of Santa Fe, which presented a fine appear- 
 ance in the distance. It is beautifully situated on 
 a plain of dry and rolling ground, at the foot of a 
 high mountain, and a small stream which rises in 
 the mountain to the west runs directly through 
 the city. It contained a population at this time of 
 
 ants and popularly called Pecos. The great church, a 
 landmark on the Santa Fe Trail, was erected about the 
 year 1617. Epidemics and Apache and Comanche war- 
 fare reduced the population until in 1838 the 17 sur- 
 vivors abandoned the pueblo and removed to Jemez. 
 Data adapted from Hodge, Handbook of American Indians 
 North of Mexico. 
 
o < 
 
 00 <*. g 
 
 - fc-g 
 
 Z 5 5 
 uj 5< 
 
 < ^1 
 
 It 
 
 o "ts 
 
 > 1.=- 
 
 .> UJ n) 
 
 !±! j -o 
 
 * .5 
 2 o 
 
Adventure to Santa Fe 147 
 
 six thousand. The houses were all white-washed 
 outside and in, and presented a very neat and 
 pleasing sight to the eye of the traveller. They 
 are all flat on the roof and most of them one story 
 in height. There are five very splendid churches, 
 all Roman Catholic, which are embellished with 
 pictures, and ornaments of gold and silver in the 
 most costly style. The chalices were of pure gold 
 and candlesticks of silver. 
 
 The principal buildings, including the fort, are 
 built around the public square in the middle of 
 the city. The fort, which occupies the whole side 
 of this square, encloses about ten acres, and is 
 built on the plan of the Pecos fort above de- 
 scribed. There is an outer wall about eight feet 
 in height enclosing the buildings, which like 
 those at Pecos bound the inner square. The 
 whole was falling to decay and but few soldiers 
 were stationed in it. The farms are without fences 
 or walls, and the cattle, hogs, &c. have to be con- 
 fined during the raising and harvesting of crops. 
 They raise onions, peas, beans, corn, wheat, and 
 red pepper — the last a principal ingredient in 
 Spanish food. Potatoes and turnips were un- 
 known. I saw peach trees, but none of apples, 
 cherries, or pears. The gardens were enclosed. 
 
 The country is entirely destitute of rain except 
 in the months of June and July, when the rivers 
 are raised to a great height. A continual drought 
 
148 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 prevails throughout all the rest of the year, not 
 even relieved by dews. Consequently the ground 
 has to be irrigated by means of the many streams 
 which rise in the mountains and flow into the Rio 
 Grande, and for this purpose canals are cut 
 through every farm. Land that can be watered is 
 of immense value, while that which is not near 
 the streams is worthless. While in Santa Fe, a 
 Spaniard took me sixteen miles south, to show me 
 his farm of 15 acres, for which he had just paid 
 $100 per acre, and which lay conveniently to wa- 
 ter. Hogs and poultry are scarce, while sheep, 
 goats, and cattle are very abundant. 
 
Chapter IV 
 Sojourn at Santa Fe 
 
 I ENTERED Santa Fe on the first day of De- 
 cember, 1821, and immediately went with Or- 
 tise as interpreter to the Governor's palatia or 
 house, to whom I made known my object in visit- 
 ing his country and showed my passport. He re- 
 marked on reading it that they were entirely 
 independent of Spain, that the new government 
 had not laid any duties on imports, and gave me 
 permission to vend my goods. I rented a house, 
 and on the next day commenced business. In 
 about two weeks I took in $200, which I ad- 
 vanced to John McKnight for the expenses of his 
 journey to Durango, about sixteen hundred 
 miles south, where his brother Robert was living 
 after his enlargement from prison. They both re- 
 turned in the month of April following. Soon 
 after McKnight's departure, I heard of Hugh 
 Glenn's arrival at Taos, sixty miles north of 
 Santa Fe and was soon after favored with a visit 
 from him. He came down to Santa Fe, borrowed 
 $60 from me, and at the end of a week returned to 
 Taos. 
 
 About six weeks after I reached Santa Fe my 
 true friend and protector, Cordaro, came in ac- 
 cording to promise, with thirty of his tribe, to 
 
 149 
 
150 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 ascertain if we were at liberty. He was dressed in 
 his full regimentals and commanded the respect 
 of the Spanish officials, who behaved towards 
 him with great deference. By his request a coun- 
 cil was held, which convened in the Spanish 
 Council House on the public square and was at- 
 tended by the Spanish officers, magistrates, and 
 principal citizens of Santa Fe. Cordaro made the 
 speech for which he had caused the council to be 
 held. He expressed his pleasure at finding that 
 we and the Spaniards were friends, that he 
 would be pleased to see us always living together 
 like brothers, and hoped that the American trade 
 would come to his country as well as to the Span- 
 iards. He complained that we traded with their 
 enemies, the Osages, and furnished them with 
 powder, lead, and guns, but had no intercourse 
 with the Comanches. He hoped the government 
 of the United States would interfere and stop the 
 depredations of the Osages upon his nation. 
 ff They steal our horses and murder our people," 
 said he, ff and the Americans sell them the arms 
 and ammunition which they use in war upon us. 
 We want your trade, and if you will come among 
 us we will not cheat nor rob you. I have had a talk 
 with my nation and told them they had done a 
 great wrong in treating you as they did, and they 
 promised never to do so again. They say they will 
 pay you in horses and mules for the goods they 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 151 
 
 took from you on the Canadian, if you will only 
 come once more into our country. Come with 
 your goods among us; you shall be well treated. I 
 pledge you my word, the word of Cordaro, that 
 you shall not be hurt nor your goods taken from 
 you without full payment. Each of my nation 
 promises to give you a horse if you will come and 
 trade with us once more, and though poor, and 
 though I got none of your goods, yet will I give 
 you two of the best horses in the nation. Come to 
 our country once more and you shall find friends 
 among the Comanches. Come and you shall be 
 safe. Cordaro says it." 
 
 The old warrior spoke like an orator and 
 looked like a statesman. He appeared conscious 
 of the vast superiority of the whites, or rather of 
 the Americans, to his own race and desired the 
 elevation of his countrymen by adopting some of 
 our improvements and customs. For the Span- 
 iards he entertained a strong aversion and dis- 
 like; not at all mingled with fear, however, for he 
 spoke to them always as an equal or superior. 
 They refused to trade with his nation in arms 
 and had nothing besides which his people 
 wanted. Their remarkable disposition to treach- 
 ery appeared to be perfectly known to the old 
 chieftain. 
 
 After the council, Cordaro desired me to write 
 a letter for him to his great friend Colonel 
 
152 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Jameson of Natchitoches, and make known to 
 him the manner in which he had remembered his 
 promise to protect the Americans in his country 
 by saving me and my company from death at the 
 hands of his countrymen. I wrote the letter and 
 delivered it to him. On the next day we parted, 
 and I never saw him again. In my trip to the 
 Comanche country in 1824 I was informed by the 
 Indians that he went to Natchitoches with my 
 letter to Colonel Jameson, who gave him three 
 horses, loaded with presents. By this means he 
 returned to his country a rich man, and soon after 
 became sick and died. He was a sagacious, right- 
 hearted patriot and a brave warrior, who in dif- 
 ferent circumstances might have accomplished 
 the destiny of a hero and savior of his country. 
 
 I continued my trading, though without much 
 success on account of the scarcity of money. I 
 had seen enough of Mexican society to be thor- 
 oughly disgusted with it. I had not supposed it 
 possible for any society to be as profligate and 
 vicious as I found all ranks of that in Santa Fe. 1 ^ 
 The Indians are much superior to their Spanish 
 masters in all the qualities of a useful and meri- 
 torious population. 
 
 On the fifth of February a celebration took 
 place of Mexican Independence. 75 A few days be- 
 
 75 H. H. Bancroft (History of Arizona and New Mexico, 
 308-309) has an account of the celebration based upon 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 153 
 
 fore this appointed time, a meeting of the Span- 
 ish officers and principal citizens was held at the 
 house of the Alcalde to make arrangements for 
 the celebration. They sent for me, asked what 
 was the custom in my country on such occasions, 
 and requested my advice in the matter. I advised 
 them to raise a liberty pole, hoist a flag, and fire a 
 salute for each Province. They counted up the 
 provinces or states, and discovered that Mexico 
 contained twenty-one, including Texas. They 
 said they knew nothing of the rule of proceeding 
 in such cases and desired me to superintend the 
 work. I sent out men to the neighboring moun- 
 tains for the tallest pine that could be found. 
 They returned with one thirty feet long. I sent 
 them out again, and they brought in another 
 much longer than the first. I spliced these to- 
 gether, prepared a flag rope, and raised the whole, 
 as a liberty pole, about seventy feet high. 
 
 There was now great perplexity for a national 
 emblem and motto for the flag, none having yet 
 been devised, and those of Spain being out of the 
 question. I recommended the eagle, but they at 
 last agreed upon two clasped hands in sign of 
 brotherhood and amity with all nations. By day- 
 contemporary reports. The date was January 6, 1822. It 
 seems evident that James' narrative pictures his role in 
 the celebration as much more important than it actually 
 
154 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 light on the morning of the fifth I was aroused to 
 direct the raising of the flag. I arose and went to 
 the square, where I found about a dozen men 
 with the Governor, Don Facundo Melgares, 76 all 
 in a quandary, not knowing what to do. I in- 
 formed the Governor that all was ready for rais- 
 ing the flag, which honor belonged to him. ff Oh, 
 do it yourself," said he, ff you understand such 
 things." So I raised the first flag in the free and 
 independent State of New Mexico. As the flag 
 went up, the cannon fired and men and women 
 from all quarters of the city came running, some 
 half-dressed, to the public square, which was 
 soon filled with the population of this city. The 
 people of the surrounding country also came in, 
 and for five days the square was covered with 
 Spaniards and Indians from every part of the 
 Province. 
 
 During this whole time the city exhibited a 
 scene of universal carousing and revelry. All 
 classes abandoned themselves to the most reck- 
 less dissipation and profligacy. No Italian car- 
 
 76 Melgares was the last Spanish Governor of New Mexi- 
 co, serving in this capacity from 1818 to 1822. He was a 
 veteran soldier, and the official who in 1806 received 
 Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike and conducted him to Chi- 
 huahua. Pike was treated by him with utmost courtesy, 
 and parted from him "with the greatest friendship." — 
 See The Southwestern Expedition of Zebulon M. Pike, the 
 Lakeside Classics volume for 1925. 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 155 
 
 nival ever exceeded this celebration in thought- 
 lessness, vice, and licentiousness of every descrip- 
 tion. Men, women, and children crowded every 
 part of the city, and the carousal was kept up 
 equally by night and day. There seemed to be no 
 time for sleep. Tables for gambling surrounded 
 the square and continually occupied the atten- 
 tion of crowds. Dice and faro-banks were all the 
 time in constant play. I never saw any people so 
 infatuated with the passion for gaming. Women 
 of rank were seen betting at the faro-banks and 
 dice tables. They frequently lost all their money; 
 then followed the jewelry from their fingers, 
 arms, and ears: then the rebozo or sash edged 
 with gold which they wear over the shoulders 
 was staked and lost, when the fair gamesters 
 would go to their homes for money to redeem 
 the last pledge and, if possible, continue the play. 
 Men and women on all sides of me were thus 
 engaged, and were all equally absorbed in the 
 fluctuating fortunes of these games. The demon 
 of chance and of avarice seemed to possess them 
 all, to the loss of what little reason nature had 
 originally made theirs. One universal jubilee, like 
 bedlam broke loose, reigned in Santa Fe for five 
 days and nights. Freedom without restraint or 
 license was the order of the day; and thus did 
 these rejoicing republicans continue the celebra- 
 tion of their Independence, till nature was too 
 
156 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 much exhausted to support the dissipation any 
 longer. The crowds then dispersed to their 
 homes with all the punishments of excess with 
 which pleasure visits her votaries. 
 
 I saw enough during this five days' revelry to 
 convince me that the republicans of New Mexico 
 were unfit to govern themselves or anybody else. 
 The Indians acted with more moderation and 
 reason in their rejoicing than the Spaniards. On 
 the second day of the celebration a large com- 
 pany of men and women from San Felipe, an In- 
 dian town forty miles south of Santa Fe, marched 
 into the city, displaying the best-formed persons 
 I had yet seen in the country. 77 The men were a 
 head taller than the Spaniards around them, and 
 their women were extremely beautiful, with fine 
 figures and a graceful, elegant carriage. They 
 were all tastefully dressed in cotton cloth of their 
 own weaving and decorated with coral beads of a 
 brilliant red color. Many wore rich pearl neck- 
 laces and jewelry of great value. I was told by 
 
 77 The pueblo of San Felipe, on the west side of the Rio 
 Grande about thirty miles from Santa Fe, was visited by 
 Coronado in 1541. Lieutenant Pike visited it in 1807, 
 and his report contains an interesting account of the 
 place. He estimated the population at 1000 and was 
 astonished at the erudition of the priest, Father Rubi. 
 In Colonel Wm. H. Emory's Notes of a Military Recon- 
 noissance . . ., pp. 38 and 461, are two views of San Felipe 
 as it looked to the American conquerors in September, 
 1846. 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 157 
 
 Ortise that the ornaments of stone, silver, and 
 gold which some of these Indian ladies wore were 
 worth five hundred dollars. The red coral was 
 worth one hundred dollars per pound. Many of 
 the Indians, as the reader may suppose from this 
 description of their women, are very wealthy. 
 The men were also elegantly dressed in fine 
 cloth, manufactured by their own wives and 
 daughters. The Americans with their tariff and 
 ^protection of home industry," might learn a les- 
 son from these wise and industrious Indians. I 
 heard nothing among them of a tariff to protect 
 their ff domestic manufactures." They worked 
 and produced, and protection came of itself with- 
 out the curse of government interference. 
 
 This Indian company danced very gracefully 
 upon the public square to the sound of a drum 
 and the singing of the older members of their 
 band. In this exercise they displayed great skill 
 and dexterity. When intermingled in apparently 
 hopeless confusion in a very complicated figure, 
 so that the dance seemed on the point of breaking 
 up, suddenly at the tap of the drum each found 
 his partner and each couple their place without 
 the least disorder and in admirable harmony. 
 About the same time the Pecos Indians came into 
 the city, dressed in skins of bulls and bears. At a 
 distance their disguise was quite successful and 
 they looked like the animals which they counter- 
 
158 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 feited so well that the people fled, frightened at 
 their appearance, in great confusion from the 
 square. 
 
 I have spoken before in favorable terms of the 
 Mexican Indians. They are a nobler race of peo- 
 ple than their masters, the descendants of the 
 conquerors; more courageous and more gener- 
 ous; more faithful to their word and more in- 
 genuous and intellectual than the Spaniards. The 
 men are generally six feet in stature, well formed 
 and of an open, frank, and manly deportment. 
 Their women are very fascinating, and far supe- 
 rior in virtue, as in beauty, to the greater num- 
 ber of the Spanish females. I was informed that 
 all the tribes, the Utahs, the Navahoes, and 
 others inhabiting the country west of the moun- 
 tains to the Gulf of California, like those in Mex- 
 ico lived in comfortable houses, raised wheat and 
 corn, and had good mills for grinding their 
 grain. 78 I saw many specimens of their skill in the 
 
 78 James' information concerning the Navahoes was not 
 particularly accurate. A more accurate report is supplied 
 by Col. Wm. H. Emory in his Notes of a Military Recon- 
 noissance . . ., 30 Cong. 1 Sess., Exec. Doc. 41, p. 47; 
 ff I saw here [near Alberquerque] the hiding places of the 
 Navahoes, who, when few in number, wait for the night 
 to descend upon the valley and carry off the fruit, sheep, 
 women, and children of the Mexicans. When in numbers, 
 they come in daytime and levy their dues. Their retreats 
 and caverns are at a distance to the west [of the Rio 
 Grande] in high and inaccessible mountains, where troops 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 159 
 
 useful arts, and brought home with me some 
 blankets and counterpanes of Indian manufac- 
 ture of exquisite workmanship, which I have used 
 in my family for twenty-five years. They are gen- 
 erally far in advance of the Spaniards around 
 them in all the arts of civilized life, as well as in 
 the virtues that give value to national character. 
 In the latter part of February I received a de- 
 putation of fifty Indians from the Utah tribe on 
 
 of the United States will find great difficulty in overtak- 
 ing and subduing them, but where the Mexicans have 
 never thought of penetrating. Few in numbers, disdaining 
 the cultivation of the soil and even the rearing of cattle, 
 they draw all their supplies from the valley of the Del 
 Norte [the Rio Grande] . . . They are prudent in their 
 depredations, never taking so much from one man as to 
 ruin him. [Governor] Armijo never permitted the inhabit- 
 ants to war upon these thieves. The power he had of let- 
 ting these people loose on the Mexicans was the great 
 secret of his arbitrary sway over a people who hated and 
 despised him. Any offender against Armijo was pretty 
 sure to have a visit from the Navahoes." 
 
 At this time (1846) the tribe was supposed to number 
 about 7000 souls. Treaties made in 1846 and in 1849 
 requiring them to maintain peaceful relations with the 
 United States were ignored by the Navahoes until in 
 1863 Colonel Kit Carson was ordered to reduce them to 
 submission. He executed the task so thoroughly that 
 hostilities were ended permanently and the Navahoes be- 
 gan the adjustment to a peaceful way of life. Since 1863 
 their numbers have multiplied approximately ten times. 
 Although their reservation has repeatedly been enlarged, 
 the pressure of ever-increasing numbers upon the re- 
 sources of a predominantly pastoral economy presents a 
 problem which is seemingly unsolvable. 
 
160 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 the west side of the mountains. They came riding 
 into the city and paraded on the public square, 
 all well mounted on the most elegant horses I had 
 ever seen. The animals were of a very superior 
 breed, with their slender tapering legs and short, 
 fine hair, like our best blooded racers. They were 
 of almost every color, some spotted and striped 
 as if painted for ornament. The Indians alighted 
 at the Council House and sent a request for me 
 to visit them. On arriving I found them all await- 
 ing me in the Council House, with a company of 
 Spanish officers and gentlemen led hither by 
 curiosity. On entering I was greeted by the chief 
 and his companions, who shook hands with me. 
 The chief, whose name was Lechat, was a young 
 man of about thirty and of a right princely port 
 and bearing. He told me in the Spanish language, 
 which he spoke fluently, that he had come ex- 
 pressly to see me and have a talk with me. ff You 
 are Americans, we are told, and you have come 
 from your country afar off to trade with the 
 Spaniards. We want your trade. Come to our 
 country with your goods. Come and trade with 
 the Utahs. We have horses, mules, and sheep, 
 more than we want. We heard that you wanted 
 beaver skins. The beavers in our country are eating 
 up our corn. All our rivers are full of them. Their 
 dams back up the water in the rivers all along 
 their course from the mountains to the Big Wa- 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 161 
 
 ter. Come over among us and you shall have as 
 many beaver skins as you want." 
 
 Turning round and pointing to the Spaniards 
 in most contemptuous manner and with a scorn- 
 ful look, he said: "What can you get from these? 
 They have nothing to trade with you. They have 
 nothing but a few poor horses and mules, a little 
 puncha, and a little tola (tobacco and corn meal 
 porridge) not fit for any body to use. They are 
 poor — too poor for you to trade with. Come 
 among the Utahs if you wish to trade with profit. 
 Look at our horses here. Have the Spaniards any 
 such horses? No, they are too poor. Such as 
 these we have in our country by the thousand, 
 and also cattle, sheep, and mules. These Span- 
 iards," said he, turning and pointing his finger at 
 them in a style of contempt which John Randolph 
 would have envied, "What are they? What have 
 they? They wont even give us two loads of pow- 
 der and lead for a beaver skin, and for a good rea- 
 son. They have not as much as they want them- 
 selves. They have nothing that you want. We 
 have everything that they have, and many things 
 that they have not." 
 
 Here a Spaniard cried out: "You have no 
 money." Like a true stump orator, the Utah re- 
 plied, "and you have very little. You are depicca." 
 In other words, you are poor, miserable devils 
 and we are the true capitalists of the country. 
 
162 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 With this and much more of the same purport, 
 he concluded his harangue, which was delivered 
 in the most independent and lordly manner pos- 
 sible. He looked like a king upbraiding his sub- 
 jects for being poor, when they might be rich, 
 and his whole conduct seemed to me like beard- 
 ing a wild beast in his den. 
 
 The ^talk" being had, Lechat produced the 
 calama or pipe, and we smoked together in the 
 manner of the Indians. I sent to my store and 
 procured six plugs of tobacco and some handker- 
 chiefs which I presented to him and his company, 
 telling them when they smoked the tobacco with 
 their chiefs to remember the Americans, and 
 treat all who visited their country from mine as 
 they would their own brothers. The council now 
 broke up and the chief, reiterating his invitations 
 to me to visit his country, mounted his noble 
 steed and with his company rode out of the city, 
 singing and displaying the handkerchiefs I had 
 presented them from the ends of their lances as 
 standards. 
 
 They departed without the least show of re- 
 spect for the Spaniards, but rather with a strong 
 demonstration on the part of Lechat of contempt 
 for them. I noticed them at the council inquiring 
 of this chief with considerable interest what the 
 Navahoes were doing, and whether they were 
 preparing to attack the Spanish settlements. 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 163 
 
 They had been at war with this tribe for several 
 years, and seemed to fear that the Utahs might 
 take part in it as allies of the Navahoes, for which 
 reason they conducted themselves with the ut- 
 most respect and forbearance towards Lechat and 
 his band. 
 
 What was the immediate cause of this war, I 
 did not learn, but I saw and heard enough of it to 
 enlist my sympathies with the Navahoes. A few 
 days after the visit of the Utahs, I saw a solitary 
 Indian of that tribe crossing the public square in 
 the direction of the Governor's house, and driv- 
 ing before him a fat heifer. He went up to the 
 Governor's door, to whom he sent word that he 
 had a present for him, and was admitted. What 
 followed I learned from Ortise, an old alcalde, 
 with whom I boarded during the time of my stay 
 in Santa Fe. As he entered the room of the Gov- 
 ernor, the Navaho prostrated himself on his face. 
 The Governor stepped towards him and with a 
 spurning motion of the foot, which touched the 
 Indian's head, asked him who he was and what 
 he wanted. The poor Indian arose on his knees 
 and said he was a Navaho, and had come to im- 
 plore peace for his nation. "We are tired of war 
 and we want peace," said he; "our crops are de- 
 stroyed, our women and children are starving. 
 Oh! give us peace!" The Governor asked the in- 
 terpreter what he said, and being told, the Chris- 
 
164 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 tian replied: ff Tell him I do not want peace, I 
 want war." With this answer the Indian was dis- 
 missed, the Governor keeping his heifer. 
 
 The poor fellow came to my store, announced 
 his name and nation, and requested me to go 
 among his tribe and trade. He said the rivers were 
 full of beaver and beaver dams; that they had 
 horses and mules which they would exchange for 
 powder, lead, and tobacco. The Indians are desti- 
 tute of ammunition and guns, and Spanish laws 
 prohibit all trade with them in these articles. I 
 gave him several plugs of tobacco, a knife, and 
 other small articles, and told him when he went 
 back to his country to smoke my tobacco with 
 his chiefs and tell them if any Americans came 
 to their country to treat them like brothers. He 
 went off with a guard as far as the outposts on 
 the route to his country. But I have no doubt he 
 was murdered by the Spaniards long before 
 reaching his home. 
 
 About a week after this, sixteen Navaho chiefs 
 came into the town of St. James, sixty miles below 
 Santa Fe on the Del Norte, and requested the 
 commander of the fort to allow them to pass on to 
 the Governor at Santa Fe, saying that they had 
 come to make peace. The commander invited 
 them into the fort, smoked with them, and made a 
 show of friendship. He had placed a Spaniard on 
 each side of every Indian as they sat and smoked 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 165 
 
 in a circle, and at a signal each Indian was seized 
 by his two Spanish companions and held fast 
 while others despatched them by stabbing each 
 one to the heart. A Spaniard who figured in this 
 butchery showed me his knife, which he said had 
 killed eight of them. Their dead bodies were 
 thrown over the wall of the fort and covered with 
 a little earth in a gully. 
 
 A few days afterwards five more of the same 
 nation appeared on the bank of the river oppo- 
 site the town, and inquired for their countrymen. 
 The Spaniards told them they had gone on to 
 Santa Fe, invited them to come over the river, 
 and said they should be well treated. They 
 crossed, and were murdered in the same manner 
 as the others. There again appeared three In- 
 dians on the opposite bank, inquiring for their 
 chiefs. They were decoyed across, taken into the 
 town under the mask of friendship, and also mur- 
 dered in cold blood. In a few days two more ap- 
 peared, but could not be induced to cross, when 
 some Spanish horsemen went down the river to 
 intercept them. Perceiving this movement, they 
 fled and no more embassies came in. 
 
 The next news that came told of a descent 
 made by the Navahoes in great force, on the 
 settlements in the south, in which they killed all 
 of every age and condition, burned and de- 
 stroyed all they could not take away with them, 
 
166 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 and drove away the sheep, cattle, and horses. 
 They came from the south directly towards 
 Santa Fe, sweeping everything before them and 
 leaving the land desolate behind them. They re- 
 crossed the Del Norte below Santa Fe and passed 
 to the north, laid bare the country around the 
 town of Taos, and then disappeared with all their 
 booty. While this was going on, Melgares was 
 getting out the militia and putting nearly all the 
 inhabitants under arms, preparatory to an ex- 
 pedition. I was requested to go, but I preferred 
 to be a spectator in such a war. 
 
 The militia of Santa Fe, when on parade, beg- 
 gared all description. Falstaff 's company was well 
 equipped and well furnished compared with 
 these troops of Governor Melgares! Such a gang 
 of tatterdemalions I never saw before or since. 
 They were of all colors, with all kinds of dresses 
 and every species of arms. Some were bare- 
 headed, others bare-backed; some had hats with- 
 out rims or crowns, and some wore coats without 
 skirts; others again wore coats without sleeves. 
 Most of them were armed with bows and arrows. 
 A few had guns that looked as if they had been 
 imported by Cortez, while others had iron hoops 
 fastened to the ends of poles, which passed for 
 lances. The doughty Governor, Facundo Mel- 
 gares, on foot, in his cloak and chapeau de bras, 
 was reviewing this noble army. He was five feet 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 167 
 
 high, nearly as thick as he was long, and as he 
 waddled from one end of the line to the other I 
 thought of Alexander and Hannibal and Caesar, 
 and how their glories would soon be eclipsed by 
 this hero of Santa Fe. After him followed the Ad- 
 jutant in his jacket with red cuffs and collar, and 
 with his frog-sticker, called a sword, at his side. 
 He examined the bows and arrows, lances, and 
 other arms of these invincibles. He with the little 
 Governor seemed big with the fate of New Mex- 
 ico. At last when all was ready the Governor sent 
 them forth to the war and himself went to his 
 dinner. In the meantime where was the enemy — 
 the blood-thirsty Navahoes? They had returned 
 in safety to their own country with all their 
 plunder, and were even then far beyond the reach 
 of Governor Melgares' troop of scarecrows. 
 
 In the beginning of March, finding that trade 
 was dull and money very scarce in Santa Fe, I in- 
 quired for a better place of business and was ad- 
 vised by Ortise to go to Sonora on the Gulf of 
 California, where gold and silver was more abund- 
 ant than in New Mexico. I requested him to go 
 with me; he declined going himself but procured 
 his brother, whom I hired, to go as guide for $12 
 for each mule load. I packed up my goods, and 
 had got ready for the journey when Ortise came 
 in with a gloomy countenance and asked if I had 
 asked permission of the Governor to go to So- 
 
168 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 nora. I said I had not, and he advised me to see 
 him. 
 
 I went to his house, apprehensive of hostility, 
 and found the dignitary walking with a lordly air 
 up and down his piazza. As I approached, he 
 strutted away from me to the opposite end of the 
 gallery without deigning to notice me. I stood 
 and awaited his return, and as he came up, I 
 accosted him politely and said I could not sell my 
 goods in Santa Fe and had called to obtain his 
 permission to go with them to Sonora, where I 
 had understood money was more plenty than in 
 Santa Fe. "You can't go sir," growled His Ex- 
 cellency, and continued his promenade. I fol- 
 lowed and asked him why I could not go. He said 
 he had no orders to let me go. I asked him if he 
 had any orders to prevent me. He said no. I then 
 said: "You know that I have a passport from my 
 government, approved by the Spanish minister." 
 "Oh we have nothing to do with the Spanish 
 Government." "But you have something to do 
 with my Government. I shall start for Sonora, 
 and if you arrest or imprison me on my way, my 
 Government shall hear from me." 
 
 This appeared to agitate the little grandee and 
 set him to thinking for a moment. He paced to 
 and fro a while, stopped short, and asked how 
 I was going. "With Don Francisco Ortise, as 
 guide." At this he burst into a loud laugh. "Ho, 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 169 
 
 ho! Don Francisco will go with you, will he? 
 Well Don Thomas, you can go, but I will send 
 a party of soldiers with you to the outposts, and 
 if any Spaniard attempts to go farther with you I 
 will have him brought back in irons and thrown 
 into prison. You will have to pass through the 
 country of the Apaches, and you will be robbed, 
 perhaps murdered, if you have no Spaniard with 
 you. Now go, Don Thomas, now go — ha, ha, ha." 
 I now turned and left him. Ortise, whom I con- 
 sidered my friend, advised me by no means, to 
 make the attempt to reach Sonora without a 
 Spanish guide, and I gave up the project. I re- 
 garded this the result of a plot to detain me in Santa 
 Fe till spring, when they knew I was to return, 
 and would have to sell my goods at any price. 
 
 I went on the evening of my interview with the 
 Governor to the house of a sick lieutenant, where 
 I found the Adjutant and several other officers. 
 They asked, with a sly glance at each other, when 
 I was going to Sonora. ff I am not going." ff Why 
 so, we heard you were all ready to start. You 
 have a passport, have you not?" ff Yes," said I, 
 f: but the Governor threatens to imprison any 
 Spaniard that attempts to go with me. He has 
 imprisoned all my countrymen that came here 
 before me, and I suppose if he dared he would 
 imprison me." Here the sick lieutenant shook my 
 knee by way of caution, and the Adjutant leaped 
 
170 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 up, exclaiming: "If he dared! What do you mean 
 sir, be careful how you talk," and put his hand 
 on the butcher knife at his side, called a sword. I 
 had a dirk at my breast, as good a weapon as his, 
 and facing him I repeated: Cf Yes, if he dared; but 
 he dares not, nor dare any of you imprison me 
 while I observe your laws. You have robbed and 
 imprisoned all my countrymen heretofore, but 
 my Government will now stop this baseness and 
 cruelty to the Americans. If you violate my rights 
 while I have an American passport my Govern- 
 ment will avenge my wrongs on your heads." This 
 appeared to cool the Adjutant, who said we were 
 friends and that he would not tell the Governor. 
 ff Tell him or not, as you please," said I. 
 
 I wish for the honor of my country, or rather of 
 my Government, that the name of American citi- 
 zen were a better protection in a foreign country 
 than it is. Ancient Rome and modern England 
 are examples to us in this respect. A subject of 
 the English monarchy in a foreign country is sure 
 that any flagrant violation of his natural rights 
 will be avenged, if necessary, by the whole mili- 
 tary and naval power of his country. An English- 
 man, like an ancient Roman citizen, knows that 
 his Government will look after him and is sure 
 of protection. An American is sure of nothing. 
 His Government may, amid the turmoil of elec- 
 tioneering, demand him from his jailors, but it is 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 171 
 
 much more likely to overlook him entirely as be- 
 neath its regard. 
 
 The case of Robert McKnight, who returned 
 in April with John, his brother, from Durango, 
 after an imprisonment often years, was a remark- 
 able instance of the delinquency of our Govern- 
 ment in this particular. His goods had been con- 
 fiscated and himself and his companions thrown 
 into prison, where they remained ten years, and 
 during the whole time their own Government 
 was sleeping on their wrongs. No notice whatever 
 was taken of them, and when McKnight returned 
 to his country he was equally unsuccessful in 
 seeking redress. ff I will go back to Mexico," said 
 he, ef swear allegiance to their Government and 
 become a citizen. I have resided the prescribed 
 term of years, and there is a better chance for ob- 
 taining justice from the Mexicans, scoundrels as 
 they are, than from my own Government. I will 
 go and recover as a citizen of Mexico what I lost 
 as a citizen of the United States. My own Govern- 
 ment refuses to do me justice, and I will renounce 
 it forever. I would not raise a straw in its de- 
 fense." He accordingly returned to Mexico, 
 where he probably received remuneration for his 
 losses, and where he now lives a citizen of the 
 country. 79 
 
 79 The career of Robert McKnight has been noted in 
 Kit Carsorfs Autobiography, the Lakeside Classics volume 
 
172 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 While in Santa Fe I was a frequent visitor at the 
 house of the parish priest, a very gentlemanly, 
 intelligent man, where I often found an interest- 
 ing company assembled. I supped at his house on 
 one occasion with sixteen Spanish gentlemen of 
 education, and some of distinction. The conver- 
 sation happened to turn on the power and condi- 
 tion of the United States, and particularly on the 
 country west of the Mississippi. They said the 
 country west of this river once belonged to them, 
 and agreed that it would some day return to their 
 possession. They said that Spain had ceded it to 
 Bonaparte without their consent, and that it of 
 right belonged to Mexico. They also expressed 
 great dissatisfaction with the line of the Sabine, 
 alleging that it ought to have been and would yet 
 be the Mississippi instead of the former river. 
 
 I told them that my countrymen were also dis- 
 satisfied with the Sabine as the boundary. ff Ah," 
 exclaimed one, f f then we shall have little difficulty 
 
 for 1935, p. 8. McKnight returned to Mexico in 1824, 
 where he renounced his American citizenship, married in 
 Chihuahua, and spent the remainder of his life. For many 
 years he operated the Santa Rita de Cobra Copper Mines 
 in Grant County, New Mexico, one of his employes for a 
 time being youthful Kit Carson. The father of James 
 Ohio Pattie, whose narrative was published as the Lake- 
 side Classics volume for 1930, worked in the mines for & 
 time. McKnight's operations were finally broken up by 
 the Apaches in 1846, and he died in March of the same 
 year. 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 173 
 
 in changing it; both sides will be agreed." ff Not 
 so fast," said I, "we think the boundary ought to 
 have been the Rio Del Norte." "What!" said 
 they, "the Del Norte; that would take in Santa 
 Fe." "Yes, Seignors," said I, "we claim to the 
 Del Norte." "Never, never — you will never get it, 
 and if it ever comes to a trial of power between 
 Mexico and the States, we will have to the Missis- 
 sippi. You will be compelled to give it to us." 
 I told them to mark my words and said: "if ever 
 the boundary is changed you will see it go west- 
 ward and not to the east." 
 
 The spring was nearly gone and most of my 
 goods remained unsold. Money was very scarce, 
 and I had little prospect of selling them at any 
 price. I offered them at cost, and at last found a 
 purchaser of most of them in a Spaniard named 
 Pino, who paid me one thousand dollars in cash 
 and an equal sum in horses and mules. He bor- 
 rowed the money of Francisco Chavez, the father 
 of Antonio, who was murdered in the United 
 States by Mason, Brown, and McDaniel. The last 
 two were convicted of the murder on the testi- 
 mony of Mason and executed in St. Louis in 
 1844. 80 
 
 80 The murder of Chavez in April, 1843, was an inci- 
 dental consequence of the invasion of New Mexico by 
 the Texan expedition of 1841, whose narration by Geo. 
 W. Kendall was published as the Lakeside Classics vol- 
 
174 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 After this trade with Pino I had still on my 
 hands a large quantity of brown and grey cloths 
 which were unsaleable in the Spanish market, 
 blue and other colors being preferred. These 
 cloths I sold to Hugh Glenn, who again honored 
 me with a visit in the latter part of May, stayed 
 with me two weeks, borrowed forty dollars, in 
 addition to the sixty I had already loaned him, 
 and gave me his note for the money and goods, 
 which (the note) I have held to this day. He 
 
 ume for 1929. The people of Texas, embittered by the 
 failure of the expedition and the sufferings of its mem- 
 bers, cried aloud for vengeance, and plans for a new in- 
 vasion of New Mexico were made. The movement even- 
 tuated only in an attempt to waylay and plunder the 
 overland caravans engaged in the trade to Santa Fe and 
 Chihuahua, which by this time was conducted in large 
 part by Mexicans. 
 
 Despite the threats of the Texans, in February, 1843 
 Don Antonio Jose Chavez left Santa Fe for Independence 
 with but two wagons and five servants, carrying some 
 $10,000 or $12,000 in gold. On April 10, on the Little 
 Arkansas, well within the border of the United States, he 
 was waylaid by a band of fifteen cutthroats professing to 
 be Texas soldiers under command of John McDaniel. 
 Chavez was robbed and murdered, the miscreants casting 
 lots to determine which of them should serve as execu- 
 tioners. Ten of the fifteen who composed the party were 
 arrested, and upon their trial in St. Louis John McDaniel 
 and his brother David were sentenced to death and the 
 others to lesser penalties. The McDaniels were subse- 
 quently publicly hung. Data adapted from Ralph E. 
 Twitchell, The Leading Facts of New Mexico History (Cedar 
 Rapids, 1912), 83-84. 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 175 
 
 wanted the goods to sell to his company, who 
 were trapping near Taos, and promised to pay 
 me the money as soon as he reached St. Louis 
 and disposed of his beaver fur. Taking him for a 
 man of honor I treated him as such, to my own 
 loss. 
 
 I was now ready to depart for home, having 
 disposed, or got rid rather, of my goods and col- 
 lected all my debts except one from the Gov- 
 ernor. During the winter His Excellency had 
 sent His Excellency's secretary to my store for 
 some samples of cloth. The secretary, after taking 
 these with some shawls for the examination of 
 his master, returned and purchased goods for 
 His Excellency to the sum of eighty-three dollars 
 and told me to charge them to His Excellency. I 
 did so, and on the day before my departure I 
 called at His Excellency's house and found His 
 Excellency looking every inch a Governor, and 
 very pompously pacing the piazza as was the cus- 
 tom of His Excellency. I remarked that I was 
 going home. "Very well," said His Excellency, 
 "you can go;" and walked on. I awaited His Ex- 
 cellency's return and again remarked that I was 
 going home ; that I did not expect to return, and 
 would be thankful for the amount of His Excel- 
 lency's account with me. "I have not a dollar. 
 The Government has not paid me in ten years, 
 and how can I pay my creditors." I offered to 
 
176 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 take two mules. ff I have no more mules than I 
 want myself," said His Excellency. With this I 
 parted forever with Governor Melgares of New 
 Mexico. Ortise told me I could not sue him as he 
 was ff the head of the law." 81 
 
 Some time before this I saw a Spaniard who 
 had been imprisoned for more than a year and 
 was then set at liberty. He had just come from 
 the Commandant, whom he asked for the cause 
 of his imprisonment. ff You are at liberty now, are 
 you not?" ff Yes; but I wish to know why I have 
 been so long deprived of liberty." "You are at 
 liberty now, and that is enough for you to know," 
 said the Commandant, and this was all the satis- 
 faction the poor Spaniard could get. 
 
 81 The contrast between the pictures of Melgares drawn 
 by Pike and by James is difficult to reconcile. In part, 
 perhaps, it is explainable on the ground that Melgares 
 accorded Pike the courtesy due to a fellow army officer 
 while he looked upon James as a mere trader. Yet Wil- 
 liam Becknell, another Missouri trader who arrived in 
 Santa Fe at about the same time as James, found the 
 Governor exceedingly courteous. "The day after my ar- 
 rival [Nov. 1, 1821], he recorded, "I accepted an invita- 
 tion to visit the Governor, whom I found to be well in- 
 formed and gentlemanly in manners; his demeanor was 
 courteous and friendly. He asked many questions re- 
 specting my country, its people, their manner of living, 
 etc.; expressed a desire that the Americans would keep 
 up an intercourse with that country, and said that if any 
 of them wished to emigrate it would give him pleasure to 
 afford them every facility." Mo. Hist. Society, Colls., II, 
 no. 6, pp. 63-64. 
 
Sojourn at Santa Fe 177 
 
 The following will illustrate the summary meth- 
 od of administering justice in Santa Fe. There 
 were many American deserters in the city from 
 the fort at Natchitoches, some of whom had lived 
 here sixteen years, and were generally of bad 
 character. Robert McKnight had entrusted one 
 of these, named Finch, with a valuable sword to 
 sell for him. Finch pawned the sword for twelve 
 dollars, and seeing him with money I told Mc- 
 Knight he would never get anything for his sword 
 as Finch was spending the money he had raised 
 on it. "There is no danger," said he, "Finch 
 would not trifle with me." On the next day he de- 
 manded his sword or the money from Finch, who 
 refused to give him any satisfaction; whereupon 
 McKnight seized and dashed him about twelve 
 feet, head foremost against a door of the fort. I 
 interfered and saved Finch from any further in- 
 jury than a severe cut on his head. He then con- 
 fessed the fact of his having pawned the sword and 
 named the place where it could be found. 
 
 McKnight now went before the Alcalde, a stern 
 old Spaniard, who called his officer and handed 
 him his gold-headed cane as a warrant for bring- 
 ing up Finch, the sword, and the pawnee. They 
 all arrived, Finch with his head tied up in a hand- 
 kerchief, when the Alcalde took the sword from 
 the Spaniard who had taken it in pledge and asked 
 him if he knew for what purpose Finch had re- 
 
178 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 ceivecl it. He admitted that Finch told him at the 
 time of pawning it that he had received it to sell. 
 "Then," said the Alcalde, "if you had bought it, 
 though only for five dollars, you could now keep 
 it, but you had no right to take it in pawn;" and 
 thereupon handed the sword to McKnight as the 
 true owner. "But who will pay me my twelve dol- 
 lars?" said the bailee. "That lies between you 
 and Finch." "And what am I to get for my broken 
 head," said Finch. "I know nothing about that, 
 Finch," said the magistrate, "but if you do not 
 behave yourself better than you have done of late 
 I will drive you out of the Province." So McKnight 
 got his sword and a little revenge without having 
 a bill of costs or lawyer's fee to pay. 
 
 Most of my company had been engaged in trap- 
 ping during my stay in Santa Fe, and some had 
 gone far into the interior of Mexico. Collecting 
 such as remained, and in company with the Mc- 
 Knights, I now, on the first of June 1822, bade 
 adieu forever to the capital of New Mexico, and 
 was perfectly content never to repeat my visit to 
 it or any other part of the country. 
 
Chapter V 
 Return to St. Louis 
 
 I STARTED from Santa Fe with Hugh Glenn on 
 his return to Taos, whence he was to go with 
 me to St. Louis. On arriving at the Spanish vil- 
 lage of San Domingo, about thirty miles north of 
 Santa Fe and five from the Indian village of St. 
 John, 82 we stopped by invitation at the house of 
 the parish priest, where the principal citizens vis- 
 ited us during the evening. Here I was somewhat 
 astonished to hear Glenn, late at night, tell the 
 
 82 "St. John" was the pueblo of San Juan, which was 
 visited by Lieutenant Pike in March, 1807. Here he was 
 so well fed by the local priest that he had an attack "some- 
 thing like cholera morbus." The priest was an enthusiastic 
 florist and Pike was subjected to a "lecture" of almost 
 two hours on his favorite subject. See The Southwestern 
 Expedition of Zebulon M. Pike, the Lakeside Classics vol- 
 ume for 1925, pp. 131-35. 
 
 At San Domingo Pike was conducted through the 
 church, from whose flat roof he obtained a delightful 
 view of the village and its surroundings. Oddly enough, 
 "many young girls" chose the moment of Pike's visit to 
 the church to perform their religious devotions. Ibid, 
 146-48. When General Kearny reached New Mexico in 
 1846 the Indians of San Domingo accorded his party a 
 remarkable welcome ; their welcome by the women of the 
 place was no less enthusiastic, but since the Americans 
 knew no Spanish and the ladies no English the conversa- 
 tion was limited to "the artillery of the eyes." Colonel 
 Wm. H. Emory, Notes of a Military Reconnoissance. . . ., 
 37-38. 
 
 179 
 
180 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 priest that he wished to be baptised and join the 
 Church. He said in answer to the priest's ques- 
 tions that he had entertained this intention for a 
 long time before coming to this country; that he 
 had endeavored to instruct himself in relation to 
 the tenets of the Church, and produced a Catho- 
 lic book called the f Tious Guide." 
 
 The priest told him to reflect on the subject 
 and pray to the Almighty for light. In the morn- 
 ing Glenn appeared with a very sanctimonious 
 face and repeated his request. The priest ques- 
 tioned him on the Catholic faith and the novice 
 answered very intelligently. It being Sunday they 
 went to the Church to have the ceremony of bap- 
 tism performed on the new convert. Leroy, one of 
 his company, acted as god-father and the priest 
 procured a very respectable old lady of the place 
 to act as god-mother. The saintly Colonel Glenn 
 looked the very picture of sanctity during the 
 performance of the rite, and he afterwards made 
 a good penny by the operation. The people were 
 very fond of their new convert and showered hon- 
 ors and presents on Colonel Glenn. He was talk- 
 ing of coming back from the States with goods 
 for this market and many of the inhabitants en- 
 trusted him with mules and money to make pur- 
 chases for them, of which they never heard again. 
 Among his religious rewards was a lot of the 
 finest Indian blankets. The Colonel was a great 
 
Return to St. Louis 181 
 
 and good man among the people from this time 
 and bore the cross of his religion with edifying 
 humility. 
 
 On the next day we reached Taos, a small set- 
 tlement near the mountains, in a beautiful and 
 fertile valley through which the Rio Grande flows 
 and offers most valuable inducements to the man- 
 ufacturer by its water power; but none are here 
 found with sufficient enterprise to seize the offer. 
 The country in the hands of the Americans would 
 bloom like a garden, while now it languishes in a 
 state of half wilderness — half cultivation. 83 
 
 83 Taos, some sixty miles northeast of Santa Fe, com- 
 prises two separate towns about three miles apart. The 
 ancient Indian pueblo on a branch of the Taos River, 
 consisting chiefly of two huge several-storied dwellings, 
 was visited by the Spaniards as early as 1540. It was an 
 important center of Indian life and influence, figuring in 
 successive wars and revolts, notably the anti-American 
 rising of 1847 when Governor Charles Bent and other 
 Americans were slain. This was followed by an attack in 
 February upon the adobe-walled church by an American 
 army, when the Indians were defeated and 150 of them 
 killed. Subsequently 15 more were executed. 
 
 The other town, founded by the Spaniards before the 
 close of the seventeenth century, has been notable in re- 
 cent years as the center of a literary and art colony. In 
 the fur trade era Taos was a center of resort for the Ameri- 
 can trappers known as the "Mountain men." James Ohio 
 Pattie, whose Personal Narrative was reprinted as the 
 Lakeside Classics volume for 1930, arrived at Taos about 
 1824, and Kit Carson, who subsequently made the place 
 his home, in 1826. See his Autobiography, the Lakeside 
 Classics volume for 1935. 
 
182 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Leaving Taos with eighty-three horses and 
 mules, with Glenn and his company who had 
 about sixty, we travelled in one day halfway over 
 the mountains, stopping at night in the middle of 
 the pass. 84 Here we were overtaken by some Span- 
 iards with a mule load of bread, biscuit, sugar, 
 chocolate, and other delicacies, all sent as a pres- 
 ent to the godly Glenn by his god-mother. He 
 took them, I suppose, with pious thankfulness, 
 much as a hog takes the acorns that fall to him 
 from an oak tree — without ever looking up. On 
 my return to St. Louis I heard of Glenn's sneers 
 and ridicule of the clergy of New Mexico. The 
 truth concerning them was bad enough, but I was 
 astonished to hear them villified and abused by 
 the so lately converted Colonel Glenn. He changed 
 his religion more rapidly than his clothes, and 
 made each change a profitable speculation to 
 himself. Such pliability of conscience may serve 
 a temporary purpose to its fortunate possessor, 
 but I have found very few of my countrymen, 
 thank God, so base as to practise hypocrisy to the 
 alarming extent to which this sordid miscreant 
 carried its exercise. 
 
 84 Jacob Fowler's journal supplies contemporary details 
 of the route the party followed. From Taos it led to the 
 nearby mountains and thence up a creek eleven miles to 
 the forks, where camp was made for the night. The fur- 
 ther route is summarized by Coues, Fowler's editor, as 
 "over Chico Rico Mesa and thence along Two Butte 
 Creek to the Arkansaw on the Kansas-Colorado border." 
 
 
Return to St. Louis 183 
 
 On the next day we marched to the foot of the 
 mountain over which we had travelled for about 
 fifty miles with the utmost ease through a regular 
 and even pass with a very gradual ascent half the 
 distance and thence with an equally gradual de- 
 scent. There are three principal routes over the 
 mountains to New Mexico. One below San Mi- 
 guel, by which I went to Santa Fe, and which is 
 easily passable for a large army without danger of 
 surprise. The second, through which I was now 
 returning to the States, and the third, a few miles 
 to the north of this last and of Taos, are both ex- 
 cellent passes for travellers and emigrants, but 
 would not admit of an army in the face of an ene- 
 my. They are quite narrow and closed in by 
 mountains of a great height and by numerous de- 
 files which in possession of an enemy would pre- 
 sent great obstacles to an invading army. Mc- 
 Knight, who came through the northern pass, in- 
 formed me that it was much better than this, near 
 Taos. These three passes are all of slight eleva- 
 tion and present a gradual ascent and descent for 
 about fifty miles, of no difficulty to the passenger 
 and his teams. The most northern pass will prob- 
 ably become the great outlet of American emigra- 
 tion to California. 85 
 
 At the end of our two days' journey from Taos 
 we encamped at the foot of the mountain near 
 
 85 The famous Raton Pass, on the route leading from 
 Trinidad, Colorado southward toward Santa Fe and Taos. 
 
184 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 large piles of stones placed on each side of a ra- 
 vine or gully. These were in shape like immense 
 walls, from ten to sixty feet in length, about ten 
 wide, and from four to six feet in height. They 
 were the tombs of Comanche Indians who had 
 been massacred at this place many years before 
 by the Spaniards. An old man in Santa Fe whom 
 I employed about my store informed me of the 
 circumstances of this cold-blooded butchery, in 
 which he as a Spanish soldier took part. It hap- 
 pened when my informant was about twenty years 
 of age, which was a few years previous to our 
 Revolutionary War. According to his account the 
 Spaniards and Comanches had been at war with 
 each other for many years with various fortune on 
 both sides, when the Spanish authorities deter- 
 mined to offer peace to their enemies. For this 
 purpose they marched with a large army to this 
 place of tombs and encamped, whence they sent 
 out heralds to the Comanches with an invitation 
 to the whole nation to come in and smoke the 
 pipe of peace and bury the hatchet of war forever. 
 The unsuspecting Indians came in pursuant to 
 the invitation, and brought their women and chil- 
 dren to the number of several thousand. The 
 council was held and a solemn treaty formed 
 which one side hoped and expected would be in- 
 violate forever. They smoked the pipe of peace 
 and of brotherhood. Everything betokened last- 
 
Return to St. Louis 185 
 
 ing harmony, and for three days an apparently 
 friendly and cordial intercourse took place be- 
 tween the two powers. During this time the Span- 
 iards insidiously bought up all the bows and ar- 
 rows and other arms of the Indians at very high 
 prices, and the third day found these simple chil- 
 dren of nature stripped of their arms and entirely 
 defenseless in the midst of their treacherous ene- 
 mies. Then ensued a scene of murder exceeding 
 in atrocity even the celebrated slaughter of Glen- 
 coe which occurred in Scotland a few years before 
 this, and under very similar circumstances. 86 The 
 Spaniards, having surrounded the Indians, fell 
 suddenly, at a concerted signal, upon them and 
 killed all without regard to age or sex. The wom- 
 
 86 The Massacre of Glencoe in 1692 embittered the re- 
 lations between Scotland and England for a long period. 
 The Highland chiefs who were opposed to the revolu- 
 tionary settlement in accordance with which William and 
 Mary became rulers of England and Scotland were given 
 until Dec. 31, 1691 to take the oath of submission to the 
 new rulers. Those who should not do so by this date be- 
 came liable to the terrors of the law. Alexander MacDon- 
 ald of Glencoe held out until the last moment, when he 
 presented himself before an official of the Government 
 who was not qualified to administer the oath. Sir John 
 Dalrymple, the Under Secretary of State, determined to 
 make an example of MacDonald and a detachment of 
 soldiery perpetrated the "Massacre" on the night of 
 February 12-13, 1692 under circumstances of revolting 
 treachery. The affair gave rise to a ballad which was in- 
 cluded in the school readers in use as recently as the 
 present Editor's boyhood. 
 
186 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 en and children clung to their protectors, who 
 would not leave them and could not fight, and 
 thus they were all slaughtered together. The 
 bloody work continued most of the day and the 
 dead were left in large heaps over the ground. 
 The drain or gully between the stone walls ran 
 with blood on this terrible day, as the old Span- 
 iard told me, like a spring freshet. 
 
 Not a man, woman, or child was spared, and 
 my informant supposed that the example had de- 
 terred all the tribes of Comanches from making 
 war on the people of Santa Fe from that day to 
 this. The citizens of this town may have been ex- 
 empt from attack, but we have always heard of the 
 incursions of these tribes on the Spanish settle- 
 ments, and conduct like this of the Spaniards 
 near Taos would, and did, sow deep the seeds of 
 incurable hate which have frequently germinated 
 since in bloody retributions. The countrymen of 
 the slaughtered Indians afterwards erected the 
 stone walls near to which we were now encamped, 
 and which covered a large extent of ground, as 
 tombs and monuments for the dead. Their power 
 was greatly broken by the loss of so many war- 
 riors, and the nation was a long time in recover- 
 ing its former strength. 87 
 
 87 Jacob Fowler's journal for June 2, 1822, describing 
 the crossing of the mountain, continues: ff We found the 
 Rocks very troblesom amongst which we see a great 
 
Return to St. Louis 187 
 
 On the next morning after crossing the moun- 
 tain we entered the prairies, which were fre- 
 quently quite broken and uneven. The spurs of 
 the mountains were covered with pine and cedar. 
 Directing our course to the northeast, in four 
 days we struck the Arkansas a considerable dis- 
 tance from its head. On the next day, and the 
 seventh since leaving Taos, Colonel Glenn, who 
 marched in advance of me, sent back a man with 
 the news that the Comanches were ahead. I has- 
 tened forward with the McKnights and found 
 Glenn stretched out on his blanket in a cold sweat 
 and shaking with fear as if he had the ague. I 
 asked: "Where are the Indians?" ff Oh there they 
 are, hid behind that willow bar." I searched and 
 found nothing, when Glenn again cried out, ff Oh 
 there they are," pointing to two men riding 
 towards us on the opposite or north side of the 
 river, and also to a company of about two lodges, 
 or twelve Indians, going from us to the north- 
 west. I soon perceived that the two men first seen 
 were white, and one crossed the river to our com- 
 pany. They were a company of about twelve from 
 Boone's Lick, of whom one was named Cooper, 
 on their way to Santa Fe. 88 
 
 many Indean graves or large Piles of loos [s]tone throne 
 up in Heaps — about dark we got to the feet of the moun- 
 tain and about one mile farther Camped. . . ." 
 
 88 This was Colonel Benjamin Cooper of Boone's Lick 
 settlement. Cooper had first located here (then the last 
 
188 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Glenn, as much frightened as before, now in- 
 sisted that the Indians whom we had seen had 
 gone off to bring up their companions to attack 
 us in the night. He had his horses and mules tied 
 together and ordered his company to prepare for 
 action. I determined to allow my horses to sepa- 
 rate for grazing, and in looking for a good place 
 for herding them I espied and shot a buffalo un- 
 der the cliff. This brought up all my company 
 and a part of Glenn's to ascertain the cause of the 
 shot, while Glenn was crying out to them: ff Come 
 back, you'll all be killed by the Indians." When 
 I returned to the camp I told him to send some 
 of his men for a part of the buffalo, if he wanted 
 any meat. Cf No, I want no meat and I will not 
 travel with men so rash as to fire their guns while 
 so near the Indians." In the morning we took up 
 our march, with one of Cooper's party on his re- 
 turn to St. Louis, and with Glenn in advance, 
 who, intent on getting out of danger, soon out- 
 travelled us. About two o'clock one of his men 
 
 settlement up the Missouri) in 1808, but since the site of 
 the settlement was still Indian land, he was compelled to 
 remove. Two years later he returned, accompanied by 
 several others and the first marriage was celebrated this 
 same year in the home of Lindsay Carson, father of Kit 
 Carson. Houck, History of Missouri, III, 146. In the spring 
 of 1822 Cooper pioneered once more by leading a party 
 of fifteen of his Boone's Lick neighbors (among them two 
 of his nephews) on the expedition to Santa Fe on which 
 James, now returning to Missouri, encountered them. 
 
Return to St. Louis 189 
 
 returned at full speed, calling to us to hurry on — 
 "here are two thousand Pawnees." On overtak- 
 ing Glenn I found two Indians, who said the main 
 army would soon be with them. 
 
 I had brought with me from Taos two Mexican 
 Indians who wished to go to the United States. 
 Glenn, knowing that the Pawnees were at war 
 with the Spaniards, said these Mexicans would be 
 killed on the coming up of the Pawnee army, and 
 implored us to let them be killed "peaceably" 
 and not endanger the whole party by any unneces- 
 sary resistance. I replied that these Indians were 
 under my protection and should not be hurt. In 
 a short time we saw the whole army pouring over 
 the bend or knoll before us, which for half a mile 
 was red with them, all afoot except three, and 
 every man carrying a rope lasso or cabras in his 
 hand. Again did Glenn shake as with the ague, 
 and the cold sweat stood on his face in drops. 
 "Oh they are coming, they are coming," said he. 
 One of their three horsemen rode past our band, 
 then returned and halted at some distance as for 
 a parley. I told Glenn to get up from the ground 
 where he was lying and go out to speak with this 
 Indian. "No, no," said he, "we shall be shot 
 down if we go out there." The creature's 
 courage and senses seemed to have left him to- 
 gether. I went out with McKnight, shook hands 
 with the chiefs, and brought them in among our 
 
190 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 men, who spread buffalo skins on the ground for 
 their reception while I prepared the pipe which 
 we smoked together. 
 
 The leader of this army was a brother of the 
 head chief of the Pawnee nation, and one of the 
 finest formed and best looking men I have ever 
 seen. He was six feet in height, with large and 
 powerful limbs, a large head with a well devel- 
 oped front, and keen, dark hazel eyes. His man- 
 ner was dignified and commanding and he evi- 
 dently possessed the confidence of his tribe. There 
 was something in him that at once drew out my 
 heart towards him and secured my esteem and re- 
 spect. He was now going, he told me, down to the 
 country of the Comanches, Arapahoes, and other 
 tribes near the Salt Plains to conclude treaties of 
 peace. They had been out ten days from their 
 country and would have passed this place five 
 days before had not this chief been taken sick. 
 He now looked feverish and weak. 
 
 After smoking, the whole party of Indians, to 
 the number of one thousand, gathered around us 
 and four of them marched my Mexican friends 
 into the circle and placed them before the chief 
 above mentioned, who was sitting on the ground. 
 All the Indians except this chief declared that 
 these two were Mexicans and therefore their ene- 
 mies, and many called for their scalps. A Kiowa 
 chief made a violent speech against them. He, un- 
 
Return to St. Louis 191 
 
 derstanding the Spanish language, desired them 
 to speak with each other. They remaining silent, 
 he then requested me to make them speak. I ap- 
 peared not to understand, but said they were my 
 men and under my protection. The Kiowa then 
 walked close to the Mexicans and in a friendly 
 manner and confidential tone he said: ff You are 
 Spanish Indians, are you not? You can tell me; I 
 am your friend. You know I am a Kiowa; we are 
 not at war with you. We are friends. You are a 
 Spanish Indian are you not?" 
 
 The Mexicans looked like condemned crimi- 
 nals during this shower of questions and one of 
 them, looking up and meeting the eye of the Kio- 
 wa, slightly nodded an affirmative to the last 
 question. Instantly that chief clapped his hands 
 and exclaimed: ff Do you hear that, they ac- 
 knowledge it — they are Spaniards, these are the 
 men who have been murdering your women and 
 children; kill them — kill them." I placed myself 
 before the Mexicans to defend them and told the 
 Pawnee chiefs they should not be killed, and the 
 older chief cried out: ff Come, come, go and get 
 some wood and make fires. Kill some buffaloes 
 and get something to eat." This entirely changed 
 the current. Losing sight of their Mexican ene- 
 mies, they ran off with a shout in obedience to 
 their chief and scattered over the prairies on my 
 horses, which I loaned them. 
 
192 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Away they went in all directions and soon re- 
 turned with an abundance of buffalo meat. When 
 they had disappeared, the chief who had so soon 
 dispersed them looked at me with a smile and 
 said, pointing to the two Mexicans: ff They are 
 Spanish Indians I know; but they are with you 
 and shall not be hurt. Last winter my brother 
 went to Washington and saw our Great Father 
 there. He said a great many things to my brother 
 and made him a great many presents, and what 
 he said went into his ear, and my brother told it 
 again to me and it went into my ear and down to 
 my heart. Our Great Father told my brother to 
 treat all Americans well who visited his country, 
 and my brother promised the Great Father, in 
 the name of the whole nation, that we would do 
 as he wished us to do towards the Americans. 
 You and your friends are safe. You shall not be 
 hurt." 
 
 This chief told me of some of his exploits as a 
 warrior, one of which, then the latest, I will re- 
 late. His nation was at war with the Osages and 
 in the fall before he had approached near to one 
 of their largest villages with a war party, too small, 
 however, to risk an attack. He concealed himself 
 and his men behind a large mound in the prairie 
 at some distance from the village, and sent for- 
 ward eight well-mounted Pawnees to reconnoiter. 
 A large party of Osages gave chase to these eight, 
 
Return to St Louis 193 
 
 who retreated before them to the mound and then 
 separated, four going to the right and four to the 
 left around the mound, and were followed by 
 their enemies, who rushed blindly into the am- 
 buscade. Our hero, the Pawnee, now gave the 
 war whoop and fell upon the Osages, whose jaded 
 horses were unable to carry them out of danger. 
 A hundred of the Osages were killed in the fight, 
 or rather flight, and our hero, the Pawnee chief, 
 felt all the pride and pleasure of a Spartan in re- 
 lating the triumph of his craft and valor. 
 
 We encamped at night in company with the 
 Indians, the chief lying near me, and in the morn- 
 ing nothing had been disturbed. I made presents 
 of tobacco to the Indians and selecting one of my 
 best horses and a Spanish saddle, bridle, and rope, 
 and leading him up to the chief, who had no 
 horse of his own, I presented him with this one 
 and the trappings. The chief appeared ashamed 
 at not having anything to give in return, and 
 said: ff If you ever come again to my country, I 
 will have two horses ready for you." I told him to 
 treat all Americans well when visiting his coun- 
 try, and to protect them from their enemies. He 
 appeared greatly affected and at parting embraced 
 me with both arms. 
 
 After proceeding about a mile on our way we 
 saw about thirty Indians running towards us and 
 Glenn took another fright, said that these were 
 
194 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 coming to kill the two Mexicans, and again prayed 
 me to give them up "peaceably." I said "no," 
 and the McKnights swore they would die them- 
 selves rather than desert any of their comrades. 
 They, with the rest of my company, formed a cir- 
 cle around the Mexicans, while Glenn and his 
 men hurried forward and I stopped to speak with 
 the advancing Indians. These were a hunting 
 party belonging to the Pawnee army, who had 
 not seen us before, having just returned from 
 hunting, and now came to shake hands with us. 
 They overtook Glenn for the same friendly pur- 
 pose and then returned in high spirits to their 
 countrymen. Glenn now pushed on in a trot and 
 soon went out of my sight, where he has remained 
 from that day to this. He sold his fur in St. Louis, 
 went to Cincinnati, and cheated me out of his 
 debt to me, as I ought to have expected him to do 
 after his previous cowardice and hypocrisy. 
 
 We now kept our course down the Arkansas 
 and on the next day crossed to the north bank of 
 the river. One of my trunks fell into the river in 
 crossing, and some rhubarb dissolving, became 
 mixed with my shirts, journal, invoice, and other 
 papers in the trunk and entirely destroyed them. 
 The writing was obliterated from the papers and 
 my journal which I had kept since leaving home 
 was rendered useless. My memory, which was al- 
 ways very retentive of events and incidents, en- 
 
Return to St. Louis 195 
 
 ables me to supply this loss with sufficient ac- 
 curacy. 
 
 On the third day after parting with the Paw- 
 nees we found the prairie strewed with buffalo 
 skeletons, and saw at a distance in a bend of the 
 river a company of men wearing hats. I learned 
 afterwards that this was a company of traders 
 bound for Santa Fe who had been robbed by the 
 Osages. 89 Supposing it to be Glenn's company, I 
 passed on without hailing them and encamped at 
 night in a small grove in the edge of the prairie. 
 We secured the horses and prepared our camp 
 with care against an attack from Indians, who 
 were evidently in our vicinity. One-half of our 
 
 89 William Becknell, a pioneer of the Santa Fe trade, 
 made a successful journey to Taos and Santa Fe in 1821, 
 employing pack-horses. In 1822 he undertook a second 
 venture, this time with wagons, to Santa Fe. Instead, 
 however, of following the former route to the upper waters 
 of the Arkansas, near Dodge City, Kansas, he crossed 
 over to the Cimarron and thence to the Canadian, from 
 which he crossed the mountain pass to San Miguel. This 
 became the standard route of the Santa Fe Trail, to whose 
 establishment Becknell's fame is chiefly due. 
 
 The robbing of some of his men by the Osages, to 
 which James alludes, occurred on his second expedition 
 to Santa Fe in the summer of 1822. Colonel A. P. Chou- 
 teau, who was in the vicinity, interposed his influence to 
 recover the horses and guns taken, and to restrain the 
 savages from committing further outrages. Becknell's 
 Journal, in Mo. Hist. Society's Colls., II, No. 6, 65-66. 
 Apparently it was the same band of Osages to whom 
 James alludes post, p. 201-202. 
 
196 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 band slept while the rest stood as sentinels. In 
 the morning about an hour before day a sound of 
 violent crying and lamentation was heard, such 
 as is customary with the Indians when bewailing 
 the loss of a near relation. This is usually con- 
 tinued from early dawn till sun-rise, when they 
 end in a sobbing hiccough like that of children 
 after long crying. 
 
 A mounted Indian soon after daylight circled 
 around the camp and stopped at a distance of a 
 quarter of a mile. I cried out Mawhatonga (Long 
 Knife). The Indian repeated the word interroga- 
 tively, Mawhatonga ? The Indians call the whites 
 Long Knives, from their swords. On my answer- 
 ing howai (yes), this Indian came into our camp 
 and informed me that an Osage village was near by, 
 and that Chouteau, Tonish and Pelche, French 
 traders, were with them. 90 I started with the In- 
 
 90 This was Auguste Pierre Chouteau, son of Jean Pierre 
 who is noted ante, p. 33. Auguste Chouteau was born 
 in St. Louis, May 9, 1786. He graduated from the U.S. Mil- 
 itary Academy at West Point in 1804, and served briefly 
 under General Wilkinson on the southwestern frontier. In 
 1807 he resigned his commission to devote his remaining 
 life to the career of Indian trader. His principal activities 
 were among the Osages, whom his father had induced to 
 move to the Neosho in northeastern Oklahoma early in 
 the nineteenth century. Near present-day Salina, Mayes 
 County, he built a two-story log house (characterized as 
 a "palace" by one biographer), where he lived the life of 
 a semifeudal baron until his death in 1838. He married 
 at St. Louis in 1814 his cousin, Sophie Labbadie, by 
 
Return to St Louis 197 
 
 dian for the village and came in view of it on as- 
 cending a hill a short way from the camp, where 
 my companion went off at full speed, shouting at 
 the top of his voice, and soon brought out the 
 
 whom he reared a family of six children. In addition to 
 his white family he had various Indian consorts and half- 
 breed children, in keeping with the frequent custom of 
 Indian traders. In 1832 he conducted Washington Irving 
 and the English traveler, Charles J. Latrobe, on an ex- 
 tensive tour of the frontier which was productive of a 
 book by Irving and the material portion of another by 
 Latrobe. In 1815 Chouteau, in partnership with Jules De 
 Mun, conducted a trading adventure to the Upper Ar- 
 kansas, where they were seized by the Spanish authori- 
 ties, imprisoned at Santa Fe, and their property, valued 
 at $30,000, confiscated. 
 
 "Tonish" was Antoine De Hatre of Florissant, who 
 figures in Washington Irving's Tour of the Prairies and in 
 Charles J. Latrobe's The Rambler in North America. 
 Tonish accompanied Irving and Latrobe on the tour 
 (made from Fort Gibson in 1832) in the capacity of a 
 servant. Irving conceived a great dislike for Tonish, 
 which the latter repaid with studied insolence and con- 
 tempt for his famous employer. Douglas relates that a 
 granddaughter of Tonish living at Florissant told him 
 that Irving (in his book) had wronged her grandfather. 
 The concurrent testimony of Latrobe and of Henry L. 
 Ellsworth, who as U.S. Commissioner was the leader of 
 the expedition, supports this statement. Although but a 
 servant, Tonish was an exceedingly ingenious person, 
 whose mastery of the arts of frontier existence was well- 
 nigh perfect. See Latrobe's Rambler (London, 1835) and 
 Ellsworth's Journal, published at New York in 1937, en- 
 titled Washington Irving on the Prairie, 
 
 Pelche, the other trader mentioned, has not been 
 identified. 
 
198 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 whole village with Chouteau and other French 
 traders to meet me. A large company of Indians 
 passed me to meet the company with the horses 
 behind, and by their shouts and tumultuous rid- 
 ing gave my drove a stampede which made the 
 earth shake beneath them. 
 
 Chouteau invited me to breakfast with him, as- 
 suring me that my horses, which were now out of 
 sight, would be recovered. I partook with him of 
 a dish of coffee, the first I had tasted in twelve 
 months, and of bread and other luxuries of civili- 
 zation which brought before my mind all the com- 
 forts of home to which I had been so long a stranger. 
 After returning from Chouteau's marquee, about 
 noon, we discovered that four horses and several 
 articles belonging to me and McKnight and a keg 
 of Chouteau's powder had been stolen by the In- 
 dians. Chouteau raged and stormed like a mad 
 man and threatened to abandon the nation for- 
 ever and stop all the American trade with them 
 unless they produced the stolen articles and ab- 
 stained from molesting the property of his friends. 
 At last two of the horses were brought up. Chou- 
 teau commanded them to return the rest of the 
 missing goods, which, however, could not be 
 found. The conjuror now appeared with his wand 
 lined with bells, which he carried jingling through 
 the village. When he started, Chouteau remarked 
 that the lost goods would certainly be found by 
 
Return to St. Louis 199 
 
 him as the Indians had no hope of concealing 
 anything from their medicine man. The wand 
 carried him directly towards the place of con- 
 cealment, and the thieves to avoid detection soon 
 brought up the goods which they had fortunately 
 found. Two of my horses were lost beyond re- 
 covery. 
 
 I remained with Chouteau that day till evening 
 and was treated by him and his French compan- 
 ions like a brother. I saw a singular instance of 
 Indian revenge while here, which will illustrate 
 their stern and inflexible sense of wrong. An old 
 Osage was sitting on the ground when a younger 
 Indian with a rope in hand stopped before him 
 and said: f<r You struck me one blow when I was a 
 boy, I will now return it." The sitting Indian 
 without a murmur bent his head and body for- 
 ward to receive the justice which awaited him, 
 while the avenger of youthful wrongs drew two 
 large knots in his rope, and after swinging it 
 around his head several times, brought it down 
 with all his weight upon the back of his old ene- 
 my. The knots seemed to sink into his back their 
 whole depth. Leaping up in a furious rage, the 
 culprit rushed at the executioner, seized the rope, 
 and endeavored to wrest it from him, claiming 
 one blow in return. As the pain subsided they 
 became friends and thought no more of the old 
 feud. Cf An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," 
 
200 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 is strictly their motto. The blow which he had re- 
 ceived when a boy had rankled in this Indian's 
 heart for ten or twenty years, and now, having 
 paid it back with interest, he was satisfied and 
 happy. 
 
 Their method of curing diseases is very similar 
 to the operations of our animal magnetizers. The 
 conjuror or medicine man has an old cloth, which 
 they suppose possesses the charm and power to 
 restore health. With this magic cloth, assisted by 
 other Indians in the same exercise, he rubs the 
 patient from head to foot in a manner similar to 
 the passes of the magnetizers on their subjects. 
 This is continued until the patient acknowledges 
 himself relieved, or relief is proved to be hopeless. 
 
 My company started forward before me and I 
 remained behind till evening with Cunigam for 
 the purpose of finding the two missing horses, 
 which were among the best. Failing in this, I with 
 my companion followed in the track of the com- 
 pany. Before we had gone far a black cloud gath- 
 ered over our heads, with thunder and lightning 
 in terrific grandeur. We hastened forward till 
 night, when the storm broke upon us in torrents 
 of rain which deluged the earth. We lay in the 
 rain all night, and in the morning the river had 
 risen above the banks and nearly reached our 
 place of sleeping. The marks of the muddy water 
 and leaves were visible in a straight line on my 
 
Return to St. Louis 201 
 
 companion as he lay asleep in a gully which the 
 flood had washed without waking him. We saw, a 
 little distance off, our company, encamped on the 
 spot occupied by the Osages the night but one 
 before. 
 
 Pursuing our course down the river, we came 
 to the Little Arkansas, which enters the main 
 river from the north, and crossing it, we en- 
 camped on its bank which is here very high. The 
 river rose twenty feet during the night from the 
 heavy rains which had just fallen. 91 Here we left 
 the Arkansas, which goes to the south, after mak- 
 ing what is called the great northern bend. We 
 travelled to the northeast, the rain falling abun- 
 dantly, and came to a creek we were unable to 
 cross. We encamped on its bank for that night 
 and the next morning, before starting, some thir- 
 ty Osages came up with some goods which they 
 had stolen from a party of Santa Fe traders on the 
 Arkansas above, and offered to us for sale. Our 
 refusal to buy incensed them greatly and they 
 
 91 Floods such as this one are characteristic of the rivers 
 of this region. One such freshet at Fort Hays, Kansas, 
 which drowned several soldiers and imperiled Mrs. George 
 A. Custer, is noted in General Custer's My Life on the 
 Plains, the Lakeside Classics volume for 1952, pp. 95-96. 
 Here an insignificant "trickle" of water in a ravine sur- 
 rounding the fort was suddenly transformed into a raging 
 torrent. The Little Arkansas rises in Ellsworth County 
 near the center of Kansas and flows southeastward to its 
 junction with the Arkansas at Wichita. 
 
202 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 blustered and bullied around us until we showed 
 them plainly how little we were affected by their 
 bravado. One seized a belt of McKnight's, who 
 wrenched it out of his hands and struck him with 
 it a tremendous blow over the shoulder. 
 
 After these Indians left us, we pursued our 
 course on the trail of the Osages. The streams 
 were all full and difficult in crossing, and the 
 game exceedingly scarce. In ten or twelve days, 
 after severe suffering for want of food, we reached 
 the Neosho or Grand River, where we found corn 
 growing: this was just in the silk without any 
 grain on the ear. We boiled and ate the cob with 
 a hearty relish. Soon after this we were hailed by 
 Indians, who came from the north, and finding 
 we were whites, approached us in a friendly man- 
 ner and invited us to their village, two miles dis- 
 tant. They laughed at our last meal and promised 
 us something better than corn cobs. We fared 
 well with them on hominy, meat, and bread, 
 which last was made of flour furnished to them 
 by Mr. Sibley, the factor at Fiery-Prairie Fort. 92 
 
 92 Fort Osage, founded by General William Clark in 
 September, 1808 as the westernmost outpost of American 
 government. It was located on the south side of the Mis- 
 souri River near present-day Sibley, about twenty miles 
 east of Kansas City. Sibley, whose description of the 
 Saline in Arkansas has already been noted, (ante, p. 121) 
 was the factor or keeper of the U.S. Indian trading house, 
 at Fort Osage. He subsequently surveyed a road from 
 
Return to St. Louis 203 
 
 After smoking with these friendly Osages we 
 proceeded on our way, and with great difficulty 
 crossed the Neosho, which flowed with the rapid- 
 ity of a mill race. I hired some Indians to swim 
 our horses and goods, tied up in buffalo skins, 
 across, while we followed, some swimming and 
 others in skin boats towed by men and women in 
 the water. I was ferried over by two women and a 
 man, the former swimming with cords between 
 their teeth attached to the boat and the latter 
 pushing behind, by which means I was safely 
 landed on the shore. Here I found a new party of 
 Indians, who while our party was crossing the 
 river had stolen three of my horses. Continuing 
 our course we crossed a creek on a raft near the 
 White-hair's village, 93 which was deserted, and 
 
 Missouri to New Mexico, negotiated a number of treaties 
 with Indian tribes, and with his wife became a founder of 
 Lindenwood College at St. Charles, Missouri. 
 
 93 White Hair's village was on the west side of the Neo- 
 sho in Neosho County, Kansas, near present-day Shaw. 
 More precisely, it was on Section 16, Township 28, Range 
 19. See Wm. E. Connelley, Standard History of Kansas 
 and Kansans (Chicago, 1918), I, 225. This town was of 
 recent origin, having been settled about the year 1815. 
 Pike visited White Hair, then on the Osage in Missouri, 
 in 1806. Douglas states that he died in 1825 i n Vernon 
 County, Missouri, and that his grave was desecrated and 
 his bones carried away by white plunderers. An inter- 
 esting story concerning his name was related by Timothy 
 Flint in his Recollections (Boston, 1826, p. 155). The Chief 
 participated in the defeat of General St. Clair's army in 
 
204 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 in the evening of the third day after passing the 
 Neosho, we crossed the Missouri line. Here my 
 brother exclaimed: ff Thank God we are once 
 more in the United States." 
 
 We encamped for the night and lay down in 
 fancied security, without setting a guard, and in 
 the morning discovered that a large number of 
 the horses and mules had been stolen. We had 
 not seen any Indians for three days, but had been 
 followed by the prowling Osages, who had now 
 effected their design upon us. Thirty-eight of 
 my best horses and mules were missing. We fol- 
 lowed the thieves to the White-hair's village and 
 found that they had crossed the creek on our 
 rafts and were now beyond all pursuit. We re- 
 turned and proceeded on with the remains of my 
 drove. Our next stopping place was Chouteau's 
 trading house on the north side of the Osage 
 River, about six miles from our last, where we 
 found a hospitable reception from the French 
 traders. McKnight and I went to the factory or 
 government store a few miles above on the river 
 where we saw a few Indians, the factor, and an in- 
 terpreter, who advised me to go or send some 
 persons back to Grand River for my horses, where 
 
 western Ohio, Nov. 4, 1791. During the fight he grasped 
 a white soldier by the hair, when to his astonishment the 
 man fled, leaving only his white wig in the warrior's 
 hand. He regarded this as a charmed thing and subse- 
 quently wore it attached to his own scalp. 
 
Return to St. Louis 205 
 
 they would probably be found. 94 1 hired him and 
 an Indian, for forty dollars, to return with one of 
 my men to recover the stolen property. 
 
 In a few days they came back with the news 
 that the thieves had hastened on towards Cler- 
 mont's village on the Arkansas, where they had 
 probably concealed my chattels. 95 Giving them up 
 for lost, I returned to Chouteau's establishment 
 and endeavored to obtain a skiff for descending 
 the river. Most of my remaining horses were sore 
 
 94 Chouteau's trading house was on the Osage a short 
 distance above the junction with the Little Osage, near 
 the present-day town of Papinsville, Bates County, Mo. 
 A U.S. factory was located at Fort Osage in 1808, upon the 
 first establishment of that post. In the summer of 1821 
 the factory was removed to a new location on the Osage 
 in the vicinity of Chouteau's trading post. The following 
 year Congress abolished the entire factory system, and 
 along with it the new factory on the Osage. See Wm. W. 
 Graves, The First Protestant Osage Missions, 1820-1837 
 (Oswego, Kansas, 1949), 23, 108, 115. For a compre- 
 hensive account of the system of U.S. Government In- 
 dian trading houses see M. M. Quaife, Chicago and the 
 Old Northwest 1673-1835, (Chicago, 1913) Chap. XIII. 
 
 95 This was the village James had visited on his out- 
 ward journey as described ante, pp. 117-19. Clermont, who 
 was also called the "builder of towns," was reputed to 
 have four wives and thirty-seven children. Although the 
 practice of polygamy was commonplace among the In- 
 dians, the accuracy of the latter figure is highly improb- 
 able. Nuttall in 1819 (Journal of Travels ... in Thwaites 
 (Ed.), Early Western Travels, XIII, 237) characterized 
 Clermont as "shrewd and sagacious, and no way deficient 
 in Indian bravery and cunning." 
 
206 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 on the back or jaded so much as to be unable to 
 carry any burdens. We learned from a blacksmith 
 that there was a missionary station on the river a 
 few miles above, where a good skiff which he had 
 made could be procured. The two McKnights, 
 the blacksmith, and myself went up to the station, 
 where we found a small village of about fifty in- 
 habitants, old and young, and a dozen houses. 96 
 
 96 This was Harmony Mission, established in the summer 
 of 1821 on the north bank of the Osage in Prairie Town- 
 ship, Bates County, Missouri. More precisely, it occupied 
 sections 8, 9, and part of 17 in Prairie Township, T. 38, 
 R. 30. Immediately opposite, on the south side is Halley's 
 Bluff, a rocky formation 100 feet or more in height and 
 extending along the river bank for half a mile. Early in 
 the nineteenth century an onset of religious fervor in 
 New England and the North Atlantic states found ex- 
 pression in the establishment of foreign and domestic 
 missions. In 1817 the United Foreign Missionary Society 
 was formed in New York by representatives of the Con- 
 gregational, Presbyterian, and Dutch Reformed churches, 
 with the purpose of establishing missions among the In- 
 dians. The Federal Government encouraged the project, 
 and in the autumn of 1820 Union Mission was established 
 among the Osages in Mayes County, Oklahoma, \Vi miles 
 west of U.S. Highway 69 and about 5 miles northeast of 
 the town of Mazie, with Rev. Wm. F. Vaill as Superin- 
 tendent. Here the first school in Oklahoma was opened 
 in September, 1821, and the Child' 's Book, the first book 
 printed in Oklahoma, was published in 1835. 
 
 Harmony Mission was established by the Society the 
 same summer of 1821. It marked a determined effort to 
 Christianize and educate the Osages, and to persuade 
 them to adopt an agricultural economy. But slight suc- 
 cess was achieved, and in 1836 the Mission was aban- 
 
Return to St. Louis 207 
 
 A fine water mill was going up on the opposite, 
 or south, side of the river. 
 
 We found the owners of the skiff, related to 
 them our wants and misfortunes, and requested 
 the privilege of buying their skiff. They doubted 
 if they could spare the skiff. We went down to 
 the river and examined the subject of our negoti- 
 ation, which was a rough -made article, of the value 
 in St. Louis of about three dollars. "We have no 
 stuff to make another with, should we let this 
 go," said one of the missionaries. "I have some 
 planks," said the blacksmith, "the same as this was 
 made of, that you may have to make another if 
 you wish it. These men," continued he, "have 
 been very unfortunate, and by letting them have 
 the skiff you will do an act of charity. They can't 
 travel without it;" and I told them I would give 
 any reasonable price for the accommodation. 
 "Well," said the missionary, "what would you be 
 willing to give?" "Ten dollars." "Ho, ho! — I 
 couldn't take that for the skiff, even if I could 
 spare it. But we can't let it go, we want it for cross- 
 ing the river to the mill. I v(e)ow and declare I 
 can't spare it." "I will give you fifteen dollars," 
 said I. "Oh no," whined the philanthropist, "we 
 
 doned. A visitor to the site in 1918 reported that the only 
 remains of the Mission were "a large sink hole where the 
 well once was" and some stumps of black locust trees which 
 the missionaries had planted. Data adapted from Wm. W. 
 Graves, The First Protestant Osage Missions, 1820-1837. 
 
208 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 couldn't take that little, and besides I have no 
 nails to make another with." "I will make nails 
 for you," said the blacksmith, "that need not be 
 in your way," and again the benevolent trader 
 was headed. "But I v(e)ow I dont know how to 
 spare it," said he. I then offered twenty dollars in 
 specie. "Oh no," said the missionary, "the skiff 
 is worth more than that, but I don't think we can 
 spare it;" and here the negotiation ended, my 
 companions protesting that I had offered too 
 much already. 
 
 We went up to the village, where they had 
 three half-breed children under instruction, and 
 these were all their pupils or converts whom they 
 were paid by Government to instruct — truly a 
 disinterested company of men. Learning that we 
 had arrived from Mexico, a number of them gath- 
 ered around us with many questions concerning 
 that country, and one asked if they were not in 
 need of missionaries in that country and whether 
 much good could not be done and many converts 
 made there. Robert McKnight replied, "they 
 would convert you into the calaboose d — nd 
 quick, if you were to go among them ; you had 
 better stay here." We left then, shaking the dust 
 of the town from our feet and glad to get rid of 
 the canting sharpers. 97 
 
 97 The attitude of the missionaries toward the Indians 
 was sharply antagonistic to that of the traders. The former 
 
Return to St. Louis 209 
 
 We returned to the trading post, made a few 
 bark canoes, and proceeded down the river, part 
 of our company being in the canoes and the rest 
 afoot with the horses and goods. At the mouth of 
 the Osage, Rogers, the ferryman, informed us 
 that at the village of Cote Sans Dessein, on the op- 
 posite side of the Missouri, I could procure some 
 perogues of the French inhabitants there. I crossed 
 over to the village and purchased a canoe and 
 perogue for sixteen dollars; loaded them with 
 goods, and with the McKnights I hastened for- 
 ward to St. Louis. The rest of my company, 
 with the horses, joined me soon afterwards. I 
 here heard that Glenn had sold out his fur 
 and gone to Cincinnati. As I remarked before, 
 he has been among the missing to me ever 
 since. His note I will sell for one per cent, on 
 the principal. 
 
 I learned on the morning of my arrival at St. 
 Louis that Colonel Graham, the Indian Agent, 
 had just started for the Osage country to pay out 
 
 sought to induce them to adopt a settled agricultural 
 way of life, while the latter desired them to continue in 
 their hunting economy. In the present instance, James' 
 antipathy for the missionaries extended even to their 
 manner of speech. They were Yankees, he was a frontiers- 
 man of southern antecedents. It is difficult to believe that 
 they were as avaricious as the author pictures them. The 
 skiff which he wished to purchase was an absolute neces- 
 sity to the establishment, a fact which may explain their 
 refusal to sell it. 
 
210 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 annuities to the Osages. The two McKnights pur- 
 sued and overtook him, gave him a written state- 
 ment of my losses by that tribe, and claimed com- 
 pensation, which he undertook to obtain for me. 
 The Osages delivered up twenty-seven of my 
 horses and mules and said that these were all 
 they had taken. The agent took their word for the 
 fact against the written and sworn statements of 
 the McKnights, which could have been corrobo- 
 rated by the oaths of my whole company, and 
 neglected to retain the amount of what they had 
 cost me in Santa Fe, which was forty dollars each, 
 out of the annuities of the Osages, which were 
 then paid in money. He brought on the twenty- 
 seven which he recovered as far as the Osage 
 River in Missouri, where he left them at the house 
 of a man named Rogers, who wrote to inform me 
 in the winter following that they were dying with 
 hunger. Colonel Graham had turned them out to 
 go at large, and when two men whom I sent for 
 them arrived, only sixteen could be found. Four 
 mules which were unable to travel were left, and 
 only twelve horses and mules were brought back; 
 to recover which I expended much more than 
 their value. The agent, Colonel Graham, was 
 greatly culpable in not retaining the whole value 
 of the horses stolen out of the annuities of the 
 Osages. The claim was proved and might and 
 ought to have been secured by him. 
 
Return to St. Louis 211 
 
 In the latter part of July, 1822 I arrived at my 
 home in Monroe County, Illinois, after an absence 
 of fifteen months. I was supposed to be dead by 
 many, and my family were entertaining the most 
 alarming apprehensions for me. The husband and 
 the father only can appreciate the joy and rejoic- 
 ing which my coming occasioned and the cordial 
 welcome I received. After the hardships, expo- 
 sures, and wearing anxieties which I had endured 
 for more than a year I needed repose and relaxa- 
 tion, and I hoped to enjoy them for a short time. 
 But in this hope I was disappointed. My credi- 
 tors swarmed around me like bees, and were as 
 clamorous as a drove of hungry wolves. I had 
 brought from Santa Fe about $2500, the sole pro- 
 ceeds of my stock of $12000 with which I had left 
 St. Louis the year before. This sum I immediately 
 paid on my debts, and offered all my remaining 
 property to my creditors; but they wanted mon- 
 ey. The sheriff, the marshal, and constables im- 
 mediately beset me on every side and seized and 
 sold almost everything of mine that was levyable. 
 I worked and struggled bravely to emerge from 
 this thick cloud of difficulties. I drove a mill and 
 distillery and fattened a drove of hogs, for which 
 I could find no sale. The way was dark before me 
 and I found more real trouble and corroding care 
 in getting out of debt than I had experienced 
 among the savages. 
 
212 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 Man in civilized society frequently requires 
 more firmness of mind, constancy, fortitude, and 
 real strength of character than in the most criti- 
 cal and dangerous crisis of a savage state. The 
 poor man, struggling bravely against an accumu- 
 lation of debt and difficulty, I have always thought, 
 is entitled to more respect than the military chief- 
 tain, whose courage is only inflamed by the ex- 
 citements of war and ambition. Peace has its vic- 
 tories as well as war, and a high state of civiliza- 
 tion, as it has stronger temptations to evil and 
 higher though less pressing incitements to exer- 
 tion, so it requires more energy and determined 
 resolution of mind than any other condition of 
 human existence. Many a brave and true man in 
 the peaceful shades of private life will receive a 
 meed of honor equal to that of 
 
 "Great men battling with the storms of fate 
 And greatly falling with a falling State." 
 
Chapter VI 
 Adventure to the Comanches 
 
 SEEING no way of extricating myself from debt 
 ' by any regular employment at home, I cast 
 about for some other means of self preservation. 
 John McKnight, who was to me a true and faith- 
 ful friend, went to the mines 98 to obtain for me a 
 lucrative situation, but without success. He then 
 proposed to make another venture among the Co- 
 manches and endeavor to obtain from them the 
 fulfilment of Cordaro's promise to remunerate 
 my losses among his countrymen. McKnight was 
 sanguine of success and I fell in with his proposal. 
 We procured goods in St. Louis on credit to 
 the value of $5500, shipped them on a keel boat, 
 and the two McKnights, John and Robert, with 
 eight men, started with them in the fall of 1822 
 for the mouth of the Canadian, where I was to 
 meet them in the winter following. I went by land 
 to the place of rendezvous with a company of 
 twelve men, through the towns of Batesville, (now 
 Fredericktown) St. Francisville," and the Chero- 
 kee country, and joined McKnight in the latter 
 
 98 The lead mines of Washington County, some fifty 
 miles southwest of St. Louis. 
 
 "Fredericktown is in Madison County, Missouri, about 
 eighty miles south of St. Louis. Douglas (p. 191) identi- 
 fies James' St. Francisville as the settlement near St. 
 
 213 
 
214 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 part of February. We had five horses with packs 
 and travelled the whole route afoot. McKnight 
 had awaited us about six weeks. We found him 
 with the boat frozen up, about four miles above 
 the Canadian on the north side of the Arkansas 
 and about thirty miles below Barbour's trading 
 house. On going up to Barbour's, McKnight and 
 I found that he had secured the goods which we 
 had cached on the island above in my former trip ; 
 but that the flour was damaged when he took it 
 down to his house. He was just starting, when we 
 arrived, for New Orleans, with furs and peltry 
 on my keel boat, which I had left with him the 
 year before, and he promised to pay me, on his 
 return, for the boat and goods. I never saw him 
 again : he died on this trip in New Orleans. 
 
 The ice being now gone and our boat released, 
 we prepared for ascending the Canadian. Robert 
 McKnight, with most of the men, descended the 
 Arkansas with the boat to enter the Canadian 
 four miles below, while John, who was seldom 
 separated from me, with the horses and a few 
 men crossed the point and awaited them. After 
 joining them we travelled in sight of the boat till 
 we passed the falls about twenty-five miles from 
 the mouth, when we struck into the best farming 
 country I had ever seen; a beautiful land of prai- 
 
 Francois Church, near present-day Greenville, Wayne 
 County, about forty miles south of Fredericktown. 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 215 
 
 ries and woods in fine proportion. Below the falls 
 we passed a very salt spring. Elk, buffaloes, deer, 
 wild turkeys, and black bears were very abun- 
 dant, and we fared on the fat of the land. The 
 soil is extremely fertile, judging from the heavy 
 grass of the prairies and the large and valuable 
 timber of the woods, which were composed of 
 walnut, ash, hackberry, spice, pawpaw, and oaks 
 of a very heavy growth and of every species. The 
 Canadian is very crooked and bounded by exten- 
 sive bottoms. 
 
 After travelling five days through this fine re- 
 gion, we struck the North Fork of the Canadian 
 at its mouth. This river, like the other, is exceed- 
 ingly crooked, and numerous rapids greatly ob- 
 struct its navigation. Our ascent was slow and 
 difficult and the boat twice stopped at night with- 
 in a hundred yards of our encampment of the 
 night before, owing to the irregular course of the 
 stream. Our progress in the boat was at length 
 stopped entirely by a rapid which we could not 
 ascend. We made fast the boat to trees with strong 
 ropes, put our bear and deer skins into it, and 
 buried the heaviest hardware in the ground, where 
 it remains, probably, to this day, as I never re- 
 turned to its place of concealment. We made 
 three perogues, into which we put our remaining 
 goods, except such as could be packed on the 
 horses, and with them we continued our ascent 
 
216 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 of the Canadian North Fork. Game of every kind 
 known to the country was extremely plenty. We 
 killed on this and the main river about twenty 
 black bears, all of which we found in the hollows 
 of trees, where they had remained in a torpid 
 state all winter. In one tree four were found, a 
 she and three yearling cubs, which the men killed 
 with axes, after felling the tree and stopping up 
 the top to prevent their escape. 
 
 After proceeding with our perogues about ten 
 days the game became scarce and the company 
 began to suffer from want of food. We stopped, 
 and all sallied out to hunt. The first day fur- 
 nished but one wild turkey. The second and 
 third days produced nothing more, the turkey 
 subsisting us all for three days. John McKnight 
 and I then went about ten miles in search of 
 game and found a bear's track, but our pursuit 
 of the bear was unsuccessful. Returning by a dif- 
 ferent route from that by which we came, we 
 descried a herd of elk lying down in the prairie. 
 We crept on our hands and knees in the short 
 grass to within two hundred yards of them when 
 one discovered us, leaped up, snorted, and 
 brought the rest to their feet. I instantly fired and 
 wounded one, which we found and killed and re- 
 turned with a part of the meat to our compan- 
 ions, who were feasting on a wild horse. In the 
 morning, after bringing in the remainder of my 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 217 
 
 elk we pursued our journey and in a few days the 
 game became plentiful. 
 
 We had hitherto travelled through a very fer- 
 tile and beautiful country, which will in a few 
 years teem with a dense population. The prairies 
 are interspersed with valuable woodland, and 
 will make as fine a farming country as any in the 
 Union. 100 We now reached the vast and sterile 
 prairie west of the Cross Timbers, through the 
 northern end of which we had passed, and we 
 commenced our journey over the boundless 
 plains beyond them. 101 This is the region desig- 
 
 100 The North Canadian almost bisects Oklahoma, run- 
 ning in general southeastwardly from its northwestern 
 corner almost to its eastern border. Oklahoma City, near 
 the geographical center of the State, is on the North 
 Canadian. The passage of a century has amply realized 
 James' prophecy concerning the future development of 
 the area he had been traversing. 
 
 101 The Cross Timbers extended across west central 
 Oklahoma from about the Kansas border southwesterly to 
 the Brazos River in Texas. They are shown on Josiah 
 Gregg's map of the southwestern country in his Com- 
 merce of the Prairies, reprinted as the Lakeside Classics 
 volume for 1926. They may be seen also on maps 101 
 and 104 in James T. Adams' (Ed.), Atlas of American 
 History (New York, 1943). For George W. Kendall's vivid 
 account of the passage by the Texans through the Cross 
 Timbers in 1841 see his Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe 
 Expedition, the Lakeside Classics volume for 1929, Chap- 
 ter VI: "The immense western prairies are bordered for 
 hundred of miles on the eastern side by a narrow belt of 
 forest land well known to hunters and trappers under the 
 above name. The course of this range is nearly north and 
 
218 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 nated on the maps as the Great American Desert, 
 though it is very different from those plains of 
 sand in the Old World which bear that name. A 
 short grass grows here, but no timber except the 
 cottonwood and willows in the bends of the riv- 
 ers. Our path had before lain through fine groves 
 of oak, walnut, and ash as we issued from one 
 prairie and entered another, but now one vast 
 plain, extending on all sides to the horizon, pre- 
 sented no object to relieve the vision. 
 
 We soon discovered trails of Indians and came 
 upon a deserted camp of what seemed a Coman- 
 che war party about five hundred strong. As we 
 proceeded, the Indian signs increased. We next 
 struck an Osage camp, also deserted, which 
 seemed to have been made a few weeks before by 
 a war party or a horse-stealing party of Osages on 
 
 south, with a width ranging from thirty to fifty miles. 
 The growth of timber is principally small, gnarled post 
 oaks and blackjacks, and in many places the traveler will 
 find an almost impenetrable undergrowth of brier and 
 other thorny shrubs ... on the eastern side of the Cross 
 Timbers the country is varied by small prairies and clumps 
 of woodland, while on the western all is a perfect ocean 
 of prairie. The belt, therefore . . . appears to be an im- 
 mense natural hedge dividing the woodlands of the set- 
 tled portions of the United States from the open prairies 
 which have ever been the home and hunting ground of 
 the red man." Kendall, 139. For the contemporary concep- 
 tion of the Great American Desert see General Custer's 
 My Life on the Plains, the Lakeside Classics volume for 
 1952, Chap. I. 
 
Adventure to the Gomanches 219 
 
 their route northward from a plundering expedi- 
 tion against the Comanches. The country, as we 
 proceeded, became more and more sterile, the 
 grass shorter, and the timber on the river banks 
 smaller and more scarce than before. Travelling 
 on through a country nearly destitute of vegeta- 
 tion, in about ten days after passing the Osage 
 camp we arrived at the place of encampment of an 
 immense Indian force in the summer previous, as 
 we judged from the signs on the ground. The 
 river had now become too shallow to be navi- 
 gated any farther without great difficulty, even 
 by perogues. Here we stopped and commenced 
 the building of a fort. 
 
 One of the men, now a near neighbor of mine, 
 Justus Varnum, had taken a cold, so severe that 
 it affected his hip and back and prevented him 
 from walking. He was conveyed up the river in a 
 perogue for several weeks previous to our stop- 
 ping, and he had to be carried every night in a 
 blanket from the boat to the fires of the camp and 
 back again to the boats in the morning. One of 
 the men, when we had stopped to build a fort, 
 killed a large rattlesnake with the entire bodies of 
 two prairie dogs, larger than squirrels, contained 
 within the stomach of his snakeship. I advised 
 Varnum to try out the oil of the snake and rub it 
 on his joints as a remedy. He applied the oil as I 
 recommended, and in consequence became so 
 
220 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 limber and supple as to render walking painful to 
 him, when I told him to stop the applications. I 
 have frequently tried the same remedy for stiff- 
 ness of the joints and think it might be of service 
 in rheumatism. 
 
 The fort being nearly completed, 102 1 proposed 
 to go out with two men and find the Comanches, 
 in whose country we then were, and who, we 
 supposed from signs around us, could not be very 
 distant. John McKnight objected to my going 
 out, saying that he or I must remain with the men 
 and superintend the building of the fort, as his 
 brother Robert could not govern the company. 
 "You, James, " said he, "have a family. I have 
 none and therefore I can better afford to lose my 
 life than you. As we cannot both of us go, you 
 must remain." 
 
 102 Douglas (p. 197) locates this fort in Blaine County, 
 Oklahoma. Josiah Gregg states that after leaving the trad- 
 ing house of Auguste P. Chouteau (near Purcell in south- 
 ern Cleveland County) his party traveled eighty miles 
 along the ridge separating the Canadian from the North 
 Canadian where it came upon one of the most charming 
 prairie vales he ever beheld, which in their enthusiasm 
 they named Spring Valley. This was in 1831. "It was 
 somewhere along the border of this enchanting vale," 
 Gregg continues, "that a little picket fort was erected in 
 1822 by an unfortunate trader named McKnight, who 
 was afterwards betrayed and murdered by the faithless 
 Comanches." Commerce of the Prairies, Lakeside Classics 
 edition, 86-87. 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 221 
 
 At his urgent solicitation I acquiesced, though 
 unwillingly, in this arrangement and agreed with 
 him in the event of the river's rising before we 
 finished the fort to put the goods in the perogues 
 and ascend the stream a hundred miles, after 
 leaving a letter for him in a certain part of the 
 fort. I wished to get into the heart of the Coman- 
 che country with my goods, where I would sooner 
 be able to open a trade with the nation. McKnight 
 departed, according to our arrangement, towards 
 the south, in company with Potter, Ivy, and 
 Clark, the last of whom was an obstinate, disaf- 
 fected man, and went against the desire of 
 McKnight. He, poor fellow, never returned. He 
 found a soldier's death and a brave man's grave 
 from the hands of the Comanche warriors. He 
 was my friend — faithful and true to me — and I 
 mourned his loss as that of one whose place 
 could never be supplied to me or to society. I 
 learned soon after this the probable circum- 
 stances attending his death. 
 
 A few days after McKnight left us a heavy rain 
 fell, causing the river to rise, and we thereupon 
 abandoned the fort about half completed and 
 with our perogues and goods ascended about the 
 distance agreed, upon, where the low water 
 stopped our farther progress. We encamped and 
 commenced a fort in an excellent position where 
 
222 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 the timber was abundant. 103 We proceeded in 
 building the fort as expeditiously as possible, and 
 with great labor soon completed it and a trading 
 house, surrounded by stockades and defended by 
 our swivel, which we mounted on wheels in an 
 angle of the fort. Before this, however, Potter and 
 Ivy returned with the news that on the ninth day 
 after their departure they fell in with Comanches 
 and were conducted to one of their principal vil- 
 lages (the bands in camp are called by that name) 
 and that McKnight called a council with their 
 chiefs, but could not, for want of an interpreter, 
 make himself well understood, Potter knowing 
 less of the language than was supposed. McKnight 
 then gave them to understand that he had a good 
 interpreter in Spanish, referring to his brother 
 Robert, and requested leave to return to us for 
 him, in company with one man. The Indians per- 
 mitted him to start alone and kept the remaining 
 three as hostages. They gave him five days for 
 his journey to our camp and back to them, and 
 he left them with the promise to return on the 
 fifth day. 
 
 After his departure, Clark made known to 
 them by signs that McKnight's company had 
 
 103 One hundred miles above the Blaine County site of 
 the first fort would fix the second one on the Beaver Fork 
 of the North Canadian, somewhere in northwestern Okla- 
 homa. We are unable to identify the site with any degree 
 of assurance. 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 223 
 
 many guns and a cannon. This excited their fears 
 and they gave evident symptoms of alarm. On the 
 same day a party of Indians came in, as from a 
 hunt, and the Americans were told that two 
 Comanches of their village had just been killed 
 by Osages. The whole army then decamped and 
 removed fifteen miles farther south. The three 
 prisoners heard moaning and lamentation for the 
 deceased in two lodges during the whole night. 
 For seven days they kept awaiting McKnight, 
 when the Indians upbraided them with his failure 
 and pretended treachery, but permitted Potter 
 and Ivy to go out for the Spanish interpreter. 
 They came in, much surprised that McKnight 
 had not appeared. I instantly conjectured his 
 fate. A man sent by me down to the unfinished 
 fort returned with the information that the letter 
 I had left was still there. Robert McKnight re- 
 turned with Potter and Ivy to the Comanche vil- 
 lage, and here he charged the Indians with the 
 murder of his brother. His conduct among them 
 was like a mad man's, storming and raging with 
 no regard to consequences. At length they were 
 persuaded, on the assurance that I was at the 
 fort, to send out forty mounted warriors with 
 McKnight, while the rest remained as hostages. 
 On the third day after Robert McKnight went 
 out, I saw an Indian on a mound, surveying our 
 encampment. I hoisted the flag and fired the 
 
224 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 swivel, when he was soon joined by others, all 
 splendidly mounted on the best of horses, and I 
 noticed Robert McKnight on a mule in their 
 midst, and guarded. They stopped on the hill as 
 if waiting for a parley with us and I took my pis- 
 tols, placed a plume in my hat, and went out to 
 them. McKnight pointed me to their Chief, who 
 was a Towash, 104 and whom I invited into the 
 fort. He advanced with his band very cautiously 
 and when within two hundred yards of the fort 
 
 104 The Towash or Wichita Indians were probably re- 
 lated to the Pawnees, although their tribal history is 
 obscure. In the nineteenth century they were located on 
 the Red and Washita rivers, and their name has been left 
 to the Wichita Mountains of southern Oklahoma. Ac- 
 cording to Gregg (Commerce of the Prairies) they were 
 chiefly remarkable for the profuse tatooing of their bodies. 
 In 1834 General Henry Dodge conducted the Mounted 
 Dragoon Regiment on a campaign from Fort Gibson 
 among the southwestern tribes whose outward terminus 
 was reached at the Towash village, then on the north 
 fork of Red River, a short distance below its junction 
 with Elm Fork. Dodge apparently regarded them as Paw- 
 nees and in his address to them he stated that this was 
 the first time American officers had ever visited the Paw- 
 nees. The Towash were sometimes called Pawnee Picts, 
 although they bore no relation to the Piqua Indians and 
 according to some authorities none to the Pawnees. Gen- 
 eral James' expedition among them in 1823 was very 
 much a pioneer adventure for an American, although the 
 tribe had probably had long-established contacts with the 
 Spanish. The journal of General Dodge's expedition is 
 printed in Am. State Papers, Military Affairs, V, 377. An 
 extensive account of it is in Grant Foreman's Pioneer 
 Days in the Southwest. 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 225 
 
 alighted and walked around to the river bank, 
 looking for some traces of the Osages. Finding 
 none, but still suspicious, he entered the fort and 
 examined every nook and corner of it, and then 
 looked at my goods. He appeared satisfied and 
 called to his company, who rode up, but before 
 they would enter the fort they searched up and 
 down the river bank for vestiges of their enemies. 
 I entertained them with boiled buffalo meat 
 and while they were eating I inquired of Mc- 
 Knight if Big Star was at the village. He said no, 
 and that these were another tribe whom I had 
 not seen before. I remarked to him that I recog- 
 nised one Indian among them whom I had cer- 
 tainly seen before and had endeavored to hire as 
 an interpreter at the village where we were 
 robbed on my former trip. "His name," said I, "is 
 Whon (from the Spanish, John)." As I mentioned 
 his name the Indian raised his head, looked at 
 me, and instantly cast his eyes on the ground. 
 The Chief asked the interpreter what I had said, 
 and on hearing it asked me where I had seen 
 Whon. When I had told him of our former ac- 
 quaintance, he and Whon conversed together a 
 moment, when Whon arose and threw his arms 
 around my neck and asked in Spanish how I had 
 been. McKnight asked why he had not spoken to 
 him in Spanish, as he spoke it so well. He said he 
 had come to see if I was really the man spoken of 
 
226 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 by John McKnight, and that he had been com- 
 manded not to speak Spanish or let us know who 
 he was. John McKnight had told them as plainly 
 as he could by Potter that I had visited their 
 country the year before, and had now returned 
 because I had promised Cordaro that I would do 
 so, for the purpose of trading with them. 
 
 The Chief now told me that the nation would 
 not come to the fort to trade, on account of the 
 Osages, and I agreed to go with them in the 
 morning with goods to their village. McKnight 
 proposed in the night to put all the goods into 
 the boats and escape down the river, as they had 
 undoubtedly killed his brother and might do the 
 same deed upon us all. He was an impulsive, 
 passionate man, with but little cool reflection. 
 His courage in the midst of danger was of the 
 highest order and perfectly unyielding, but he 
 was unfit for a leader or guide in critical situa- 
 tions requiring coolness and presence of mind. I 
 refused to attempt an escape as utterly impracti- 
 cable, and the height of injustice to the men who 
 were in custody with the Comanches. In the 
 morning I started alone with four mules loaded 
 with goods and escorted by the Indians under 
 Alsarea for the village, where we arrived in the 
 evening and were met by the head chief about 
 two miles from the town. He appeared friendly, 
 and took the goods and deposited them in his 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 227 
 
 lodge. Potter and the other hostages were all in 
 safety and had been well treated. They informed 
 me that my old and formidable enemy, the One- 
 eyed Chief was in the village. 
 
 On the next morning I prepared for trading by 
 making presents, according to custom, of knives, 
 tobacco, cloths for breech garments, &c, which, 
 though a large heap when together, made a small 
 appearance when divided among all this band. 
 The trade then began. They claimed twelve arti- 
 cles for a horse. I made four yards of British 
 strouding at $5.50 per yard and two yards of cal- 
 ico at 62V2 cents to count three, and a knife, flint, 
 tobacco, looking-glass, and other small articles 
 made up the complement. They brought to me 
 some horses for which I refused the stipulated 
 price. They then produced others which were 
 really fine animals, worth at least $100 each in St. 
 Louis. I bought seventeen of these, but would 
 not take any more at the same price, the rest 
 being inferior. The refusal enraged the Chief, who 
 said I must buy them, and on my persisting in 
 my course, drove away the Indians from around 
 me and left me alone. After a short time he re- 
 turned with a request that I should buy some 
 buffalo and beaver skins, to which I acceded. He 
 went away and the women soon returned with 
 the fur and skins, of which I bought a much 
 larger quantity than I wished then to have on my 
 
228 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 hands. The Chief again came up and drove away 
 all my women customers, and I was again left 
 alone with the three who had come with Mc- 
 Knight. 
 
 No Indian came near me for the rest of the day, 
 and I sauntered around the village and amused 
 myself as well as I could till night-fall. During 
 this time and most of the night before I had heard 
 moaning, lamentations, and weeping from two 
 lodges on the outskirts of the village, on account 
 of the two Indians, killed, their countrymen said, 
 by Osages, but who undoubtedly met their death 
 from the hands of John McKnight, fighting des- 
 perately in his own defense. In the evening the 
 old chief in whose lodge I stayed entered my tent 
 with five old Indians, and all with a grave and 
 solemn air sat themselves down in silence. The 
 Chief, who was a little, low, flat-headed, and sim- 
 ple-looking old man, soon arose, took a pipe 
 which he filled with tobacco, and presented it to 
 each of his companions in succession. He passed 
 me by unnoticed and all regarded me with lower- 
 ing brows. This I knew portended evil, and I 
 feared the worst. After they had all smoked, the 
 Chief made them a speech in Comanche, which I 
 knew nothing of, and then turned to me and 
 spoke in Spanish fluently. I understood per- 
 fectly every word he uttered and heard him with 
 intense interest. He asked when I was going away. 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 229 
 
 I replied that I was an American and had come 
 from my own country, a great distance, to trade 
 with his people, because I had promised the 
 Chief Cordaro the year before that I would come ; 
 that I had done according to my promise and 
 brought them guns, powder, knives, tomahawks, 
 and other things which I knew his people wanted. 
 The Chief replied that they did not want to trade, 
 but wished me to go immediately out of their 
 country. "We are going to the N achat oshauwa, 
 (Red River) and you must leave us." I offered to 
 accompany them. "No, no," said he, "our meat 
 is scarce, the game is scarce; you must not go; 
 away! away! (waving his hand) go out of our 
 country." 
 
 I felt that my fate and that of my men rested 
 with this council, and that as they arose friendly 
 or hostile should we live or die the death of John 
 McKnight.This old Chief evidently wished me to 
 start on my way back to the fort, and intended 
 then to pursue me with his warriors and make my 
 scalp and goods the prizes of the race or the 
 spoil of the battle. I concealed all alarm in my 
 demeanor, and reaching back as I sat to a to- 
 bacco keg I broke off twelve plugs and took out of 
 a box six wampums, which are strings of long 
 beads, variously colored, and greatly prized by 
 the Indians. I then took out my calama or Indian 
 pipe and slowly filled it with tobacco, saying in 
 
230 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 an undertone and a musing manner, as if speak- 
 ing to myself as much as to them, "I shall have to 
 go back to my own country after coming all this 
 distance to trade with my red brethren, and when 
 I tell the people of my nation how our red 
 brothers have treated me they will never come 
 into this country. I have brought every thing 
 that my red brothers want for war or for peace, 
 guns and powder and ball and clothes for their 
 women, and now they are driving me out of their 
 country like a spy or a thief, instead of a friend 
 and brother as I am." 
 
 When I had lighted the pipe, I presented it 
 with one hand, and the two plugs of tobacco and 
 a wampum with the other, to the Chief, saying to 
 him: "This is better than you can get from the 
 Spaniards." I well knew the sacredness of this 
 offer, and that the Indian dare not offend the 
 Great Spirit by refusing a present of tobacco and 
 wampum, even from his bitterest enemy. The 
 chief hesitated long, but at last slowly raised his 
 hand, took my presents, and smoked the pipe. 
 Giving one puff to the skies, one to the earth, two 
 to the winds and waters on the right and left, 
 and then a few whiffs on his own and our ac- 
 counts, he returned the pipe to me. In the same 
 manner I presented it to an old Indian who sat 
 beside him, and who kept his head down and his 
 eyes shut. I held the presents close to his face for 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 231 
 
 some time, when the Chief spoke to him and he 
 slowly raised his hand without looking up, took 
 the presents, smelled of the tobacco, pressed it 
 to his heart, and raised his head with a smile. 
 The white man had gained the ascendant. The 
 scene changed and all was friendly welcome 
 where before was nothing but menacing and 
 frowning coldness. All the others now received 
 my presents and we smoked out the pipe in the 
 friendship and confidence of brothers. The Chief 
 then very earnestly asked me if I had seen the 
 Osages. I said, ff I have not, but you know that 
 this is their hunting ground and they may be in 
 the country." They said they knew this, and 
 some further conversation established our inti- 
 macy on a firm footing. The Chief then went out 
 into the village and proclaimed in a loud voice 
 that all should prepare to go next morning over 
 to the Canadian to trade with the Tabbahoes, 
 their white friends. Before this we were called 
 Americanos, which was a less familiar and 
 friendly appellation than the former. The procla- 
 mation was continued by the herald on horse- 
 back till late at night, each sentence ending with 
 Tabbahoes. "Get up your horses and make ready 
 to go over to the white man's and trade with the 
 Tabbahoes. They have come a great way and 
 brought us many good things — the Tabbahoes are 
 good." This was loudly sounded before my lodge, 
 
232 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 and throughout the village all was preparation, 
 joy, and gladness. 
 
 About sundown Potter entered our lodge with 
 the greatest alarm depicted on his countenance 
 and gave me a gun barrel which the One-eyed 
 Chief had just thrown down before him and told 
 him to carry to me. This was the last man on 
 earth that I desired to see, for I regarded him as 
 my most deadly and most dangerous enemy, 
 who had probably killed John McKnight and was 
 now seeking my blood. I asked Potter what else 
 he said, and as he answered, ff Nothing more," 
 he looked out and exclaimed: ff There he is now, 
 sitting on his horse. What shall I say to him?" 
 I walked out to my old enemy and offered my 
 hand. He took it with a steady and piercing look 
 into my very soul. I returned his glance with an 
 air of calm consideration and requested him to 
 alight and enter my lodge. He did so, after deliv- 
 ering his horse to a bystander. In the lodge I 
 motioned to him to be seated on a heap of skins. 
 He sat down in silence and deep gravity. I lighted 
 and smoked out the pipe with him in utter silence 
 and then took a silver gorget or breast-plate, and 
 with a ribbon attached I hung it around his neck 
 and placed two silver arm bands just above the 
 elbows and two upon his wrists. The warrior sub- 
 mitted to all this in passive and abstracted si- 
 lence, as if unconscious of what I was doing. I 
 
Adventure to the Gomanches 233 
 
 then put two plugs of tobacco, a knife, and wam- 
 pum in his lap, while he preserved the rigid and 
 inflexible appearance of a statue. I again lighted 
 the pipe and smoked with him, when he arose 
 without a word, went out, and rode off with great 
 rapidity. 
 
 In the morning all was confusion and busy 
 activity in the village, and one-half of the band 
 started for the fort before me. I followed with the 
 three men, and without a guard. In crossing a 
 creek near the village a horse became entangled 
 and I told the men to hasten on and take care of 
 the goods while I loosened the horse, which I did, 
 and on crossing the creek found sixty men drawn 
 up in two lines on either side, who closed around 
 me as I approached them. I asked the Chief — 
 who was Alsarea, the Towash — what he meant 
 by this conduct. (( Kesk, kesk, kinsable" said he, 
 "stop, stop; who knows but you are taking us 
 over to your fort to have us all killed by the 
 Osages?" I asked him if he ever knew me to lie. 
 He said he had not, but he knew that the Span- 
 iards were great liars. "That may be," said I, 
 "but the Americans never lie." "I do not know 
 the Americans," said he, "but I know that the 
 Spaniards are great liars." I then reiterated my 
 bold assertion of American veracity and said: 
 "When your tribe robbed me on the South Fork 
 and I promised to visit your village on the Cana- 
 
234 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 dian and trade with you, did I not go as I pro- 
 mised?" "Yes," said the Chief. "And when Cor- 
 daro came to see me in Santa Fe, I promised him 
 to go home and return with goods this year to 
 your country. You know this, and have I not per- 
 formed my promise?" ee Yes, you have," he said, 
 and asked if I had not seen Osages. 
 
 I told him I had not. With my words he ap- 
 peared but partially satisfied, and reluctantly 
 proceeded with me under a strong guard, but 
 promised that my mules, horses, and goods 
 should be secured. In this manner I traveled all 
 day, during which time the One-eyed spoke not 
 a word to me. Late in the evening we crossed the 
 Canadian and encamped on the bank. I was 
 marched to the head chief's lodge, where I found 
 the men at liberty and my horses, Sec, in good 
 order. I went into the lodge to prepare for pass- 
 ing the night as comfortably as possible and was 
 engaged in looking at my goods when my enemy, 
 the One-eyed, rode up and to my surprise ad- 
 dressed me fluently in the Spanish language. 
 This was the first time he had ever spoken to me. 
 The man who had done me more injury than any 
 other human being, from whose hands I had 
 twice narrowly escaped a bloody death, such, as I 
 had every reason to suppose, McKnight had suf- 
 fered from him, this man spoke to me kindly and 
 invited me to go with him to his lodge. 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 235 
 
 Suspecting treachery, I was loath to accept the 
 invitation, and while I was hesitating the old 
 chief came up and called me to him. On hearing 
 what the One-eyed wanted, he told me not to go, 
 because ?e he is a bad man." Again the One-eyed 
 came to me and repeated his request, which I re- 
 fused peremptorily, and he walked a few steps 
 away with an impatient, angry air ; then suddenly 
 turning around, he fixed his piercing black eye 
 intently upon me, walked up to me, and im- 
 plored, with a beseeching look and tones, that I 
 should go with him to his lodge. I saw that he was 
 unarmed, while I had two pistols, a tomahawk, 
 and knife in my belt, and could anticipate the 
 first hostile motion from him; also, that we were 
 four men in the midst of three thousand, and en- 
 tirely at their mercy should they design to do us 
 any injury. 
 
 I offered to visit the One-eyed on the following 
 morning. ef No, no," said he, "come now — oh! do 
 come — come with me," in a tone of supplication. 
 I, at length, yielded and walked on towards his 
 lodge till the village dogs attacked me so furi- 
 ously that he was obliged to dismount from his 
 horse to my defense. He then offered me a seat 
 on his horse, in front of him. I mounted behind 
 him as the safest position, when he applied the 
 whip and flew with me to his lodge, which we en- 
 tered and were received by one of his wives with 
 
236 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 smiles and glad welcoming. A wife of the One- 
 eyed took his horse as he alighted. 
 
 In the lodge I took a seat opposite that of the 
 Chief and facing his arms, which hung over his 
 bed or cot of buffalo robe. I could thus watch his 
 motions and foil any murderous design that he 
 might manifest by shooting him on the spot and 
 making my escape on his horse. He lighted a 
 pipe, however, and we smoked till his wife brought 
 in some buffalo meat, of which we ate, while she 
 apologized to me very kindly and politely for its 
 poorness. tf We have no marrow to cook with the 
 meat and the buffaloes are poor. It is the best we 
 have, and you are welcome," said this charming 
 squaw. The One-eyed only urged me to eat heart- 
 ily, and when the repast was over we again 
 smoked the pipe in silence. Shaking the ashes in- 
 to his hand, he slowly raised his head, looked 
 into my face, and asked if I knew him. I replied, 
 ff yes." ff Where did you first see me?" ff On the 
 Salt Fork of the Canadian." ff Where, the second 
 time?" ff At the village on the Canadian Fork." 
 ff Did you know then that I wanted to kill you?" 
 ff Yes, I knew it." ff True, I sought your life, and 
 but for Big Star, the head chief of the Ampireka 
 band, I should have killed you and your men. I 
 knew that you were traders with the Osages; you 
 had their horses, their ropes, their skins, their 
 saddles. The Osages had come and taken about 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 237 
 
 two hundred of our horses, and I went out with a 
 war party to recover them and punish the rob- 
 bers. We found them and fought a battle with 
 them, in which my brother was killed. My 
 brother was a great warrior, a good hunter, and a 
 good man. I loved my brother." 
 
 He then talked in a strain of mournful eulogy 
 of his brother, while the tears coursed down his 
 face, and he ended in violent weeping. Recover- 
 ing himself, he said that he had gone out on a 
 second expedition to revenge his brother's death, 
 when he overtook me on the Salt Fork of the Ca- 
 nadian and there intended to murder our com- 
 pany. He then put the ashes which he held in his 
 hand on the ground, and taking a handful of 
 earth from the fireplace covered the ashes with it, 
 patting it three times with his hand. Another 
 handful he used in the same manner, and then a 
 third, during which time he moaned and wept 
 violently; so much so that I was uneasy for my 
 own safety in this outbreak of grief. He then 
 looked up with an altered countenance and ex- 
 claimed: ff There, I have now buried my brother, 
 but I have found another. I will take you for my 
 brother," and in a transport of feeling he em- 
 braced me with the words: ff My brother, my 
 brother." 
 
 He then placed a charm around my neck, 
 which he said would protect me from all enemies. 
 
238 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 It had been his brother's, but when going into his 
 last battle with the Osages the owner left it be- 
 hind with his blanket, and therefore was killed. 
 He then asked if the Old Chief had tried to dis- 
 suade me from coming to his lodge, and on hear- 
 ing that he had, he said: ff He is an old fool: he 
 does not know whether he will kill you or not, 
 and he wants me to be your enemy so that he may 
 have my assistance should he determine to de- 
 stroy you. If he dreams a good dream he is pleas- 
 ant and friendly to you; if a bad one, he is grum 
 and gloomy and wishes me to join him in killing 
 you. He is an old fool. He and his men expect to 
 get back all the horses that you bought of them at 
 the village, and that was the reason of their sell- 
 ing so many of the best to you; but you are now 
 safe, you and your property. They shall not harm 
 you or take back any of the horses. Though my 
 men are few, yet every Indian in the nation fears 
 me. They shall treat you well. I will describe you 
 to all the nation so that whenever you come 
 among us you shall be safe from all danger. I will 
 tell them you are my brother." 
 
 We then conversed on various subjects, the 
 battles he had fought, his ideas of religion, Sec. 
 He bore proofs of his courage on his person, in 
 five wounds some of them large and dangerous. 
 An arrow had pierced his left eye and a lance his 
 side but owing to the charm, or medicine, which 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 239 
 
 he wore, his enemies had been unable to kill him. 
 He had been christened in the Spanish country, 
 and said: ff I believe, as you do, in the Great 
 Spirit. If I do well I shall go to a good place and 
 be happy. If I do badly I shall go to the bad place 
 and be miserable." 
 
 On taking leave I requested him to accompany 
 me to keep off the dogs. ( f Take my horse," said he. 
 ff But how shall I return him?" ff You will not re- 
 turn him, you will keep him, my brother, keep him 
 in remembrance of me." I left with a lighter heart 
 than I had brought to the lodge of the One-eyed 
 Chief. I counted much on the benefit of his friend- 
 ship, and subsequent events proved that I did not 
 overrate its advantages. I met the Old Chief on my 
 return, who asked me if I had bought the horse of 
 the One-eyed. His countenance fell on hearing 
 the manner of my acquiring the animal, and he 
 requested me to exchange for a fine spotted war 
 horse of his own, and then offered to give two for 
 that of ff my brother's." I refused the insidious 
 proposal, which was intended only to sow dis- 
 sension between me and my new friend, and the 
 Chief appeared very angry at his failure. 
 
 Early the following morning I saw the One- 
 eyed Chief coming with two ribs of buffalo meat, 
 and calling to me **moneta, moneta, (my brother) 
 your sister has sent some buffalo meat for your 
 breakfast." The chiefs of the army, who were all 
 
240 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 present and heard this unexpected salutation, 
 looked at each other in astonishment at this ex- 
 traordinary treatment of me by their greatest 
 brave, who so lately appeared so implacable in his 
 hostility to me. Their conduct towards me and 
 the men immediately changed. No guard was, 
 after this, kept over us, and we were treated with 
 respect and kindness. My powerful "brother," 
 put a new face on our affairs and very probably 
 saved us from the fate of McKnight. We now 
 proceeded towards the fort, the One-eyed rid- 
 ing by my side and talking very good hu- 
 moredly and with great animation on a variety 
 of topics. 
 
 About the middle of the day I noticed prepara- 
 tions making by the warriors as for battle. I asked 
 the One-eyed what this signified, and before he 
 could reply Alsarea rode up and exclaimed 
 "Osages, Osages, a heap," and asked me whether 
 I would stay, or go over to them. "I will stay," 
 said I. "Will you fight for us?" "I will," said I, 
 and the One-eyed laughed and said they were 
 only wild horses that had caused the alarm. I 
 ascended a mound with him, whence I could ob- 
 serve the manner of catching these animals. In an 
 incredibly short time one hundred were captured 
 and tamed so as to be nearly as subject to their 
 masters as domestic horses reared on a farm. A 
 small party of less than a hundred well-mounted 
 
Adventure to the Gomanches 241 
 
 Indians were in ambush, while a multitude scat- 
 tered themselves over the prairie in all directions 
 and drove the wild horses to the place where the 
 others were concealed, which was a deep ravine. 
 As soon as the wild drove were sufficiently near, 
 these last rushed among them and every Indian 
 secured his horse with his lasso or noosed rope, 
 which he threw around the neck of the animal 
 and by a sudden turn brought him to the ground 
 and there tied his heels together. This was the 
 work of a few minutes, during which both horses 
 and men were intermingled together in appar- 
 ently inextricable confusion. 
 
 The whole drove was taken at the first onset, 
 except a fine black stud which flew like the wind, 
 pursued by a hundred Indians, and in about two 
 hours was brought back tamed and gentle. He 
 walked close by the Indian who had captured 
 him, and who led him by a rope and wished to sell 
 him to me. I feared his wild look and dilated eye, 
 but his Indian master and protector said he was 
 gentle and gave me the end of the rope with 
 which he led him, when the noble animal imme- 
 diately came near to me as to a new friend and 
 master. He seemed by his manner to have ratified 
 the transfer and chosen me in preference to the 
 Indian. In twenty-four hours after their capture 
 these horses become tamed and ready for use, 
 and keep near to their owners as their only 
 
242 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 friends. I could perceive little difference between 
 them and our farm horses. 
 
 The Indians use their fleetest horses for catch- 
 ing the wild ones, and throw the lasso with great 
 dexterity over their necks, when by turning 
 quickly round and sometimes entangling their 
 feet in the rope they throw them on the ground 
 and then tie their legs together two and two, 
 after which they release the neck from the tight- 
 ened noose, which in a short time would produce 
 death by strangling. The sport is attended with 
 the wildest excitement and exceeds in interest 
 and enjoyment all other sports of the chase that 
 I ever saw. 
 
 A thunder shower now blew up and the army 
 stretched their lodges and encamped. After the 
 shower a war party of about seven hundred men 
 under the command of Alsarea started with me 
 for the fort, where we arrived about sundown. 
 Each Indian was armed with a short gun, a bow 
 and arrows, and a lance; some had pistols and 
 each had two horses, one of which he rode for 
 marching, and one, his war horse, which he led, 
 for the battle. Their appearance was formidable 
 indeed as they approached the fort, and some- 
 what alarmed the garrison. They encamped for 
 that night outside of the fort and in the morning 
 I made them presents with which they were 
 greatly pleased. At about ten o'clock the whole 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 243 
 
 Comanche army came in sight, when some of my 
 company were still more alarmed than they had 
 been the day before. Several who before starting 
 talked boastingly of making a razor strap of an 
 Indian's skin now lay in their tents quaking with 
 fear and sweating cold drops. This was the first 
 Indian army they had ever seen, and their cour- 
 age fast melted away before the spectacle. 
 ff Come out," said I to them, ff Now is your time 
 to get a razor strap." 
 
 The Comanches encamped in front of the fort 
 on a space a mile and a half in length and about 
 half a mile wide, and exhibited a friendly dispo- 
 sition. I traded with them for horses, mules, 
 beaver fur, and buffalo robes. The former I sent 
 as fast as I bought them to a drove about a mile 
 from the village, under charge of three men. 
 On the morning of the third day four Indians, 
 armed, went to the drove and took four of the 
 best horses, in spite of the resistance of the guard, 
 who were intimidated by their violence. I imme- 
 diately went to my ff brother," the One-eyed, and 
 informed him of the robbery. He mounted his 
 horse, with whip in hand, and in about two hours 
 returned with two of the stolen horses. In the 
 afternoon he brought back a third, and at night 
 came up with the fourth. His whip was bloody 
 and his face distorted with rage. He was in a 
 mood to make men tremble before him, when none 
 
244 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 but the boldest spirits would dare to cross his 
 path or oppose his will. After he had left the last 
 horse with me I heard his voice in every part of 
 the camp, proclaiming what the interpreter told 
 me was a warning for the protection of my pro- 
 perty. ff Your horses are yours," said he, ff to sell 
 or keep as you please; but when you once sell 
 them you cannot take them back. My brother has 
 come from afar to trade with you and brought 
 things that are good for you; and when you have 
 sold him your horses and got your pay, you must 
 not take them back." 
 
 After this I was not molested again in a similar 
 manner. The One-eyed Chief spent much of his 
 time in my trading house, and assisted me by his 
 advice and influence over the Indians. He allowed 
 me to judge of the horses for myself, but selected 
 the buffalo robes for me and settled their prices. I 
 bought many more of the latter than I brought 
 back with me, and might have purchased thou- 
 sands. One plug of tobacco, a knife, and a few 
 strings of beads, in all worth but little more than 
 a dime, bought one of these valuable skins or 
 robes, worth at least five dollars in any of the 
 States. 
 
 The Indians had with them a great many young 
 Spaniards as prisoners, one of whom, an excel- 
 lent interpreter, wished me to purchase him. I 
 offered the price of ten horses for him, but with- 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 245 
 
 out success. I gave him many presents, which, he 
 said, his masters took from him as soon as they 
 saw them, and he requested me to give him no 
 more, as said he, "It is of no use." He was an in- 
 telligent and interesting boy. 
 
 The Indians spent much time in drilling and 
 fighting mock battles. Their skill and discipline 
 would have made our militia dragoons blush for 
 their inferiority. They marched and counter- 
 marched, charged and retreated, rapidly and in 
 admirable order. Their skill in horsemanship is 
 truly wonderful, and I think is not surpassed by 
 that of the Cossacks or Mamelukes. I frequently 
 put a plug of tobacco on the ground for them to 
 pick up when riding at full speed. A dozen horse- 
 men would start in a line for the prize and if the 
 leader missed it, the second or third was always 
 successful in seizing it, when he took the rear to 
 give the others fair chance in the next race. 
 
 There were six Pawnees from the river Platte, 
 among these Comanches, one of whom came to 
 me and said he knew me. "Where did you ever 
 see me?" "At the Osage village," said he, "when 
 you were buying horses." I then recollected that 
 this Pawnee with several others had come into 
 the village to make a treaty. He knew O'Fallon 105 
 
 105 Benjamin O'Fallon was a son of James O'Fallon of 
 Ireland who came to America before the Revolutionary 
 War, in which he served as surgeon. In 1790 he married 
 
246 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 of Council Bluffs very well, and gave me some 
 news of the Upper Missouri and the traders there. 
 He went off and soon returned with several Co- 
 manches, and again talked about the Osages and 
 my trading with them. Perceiving his treacherous 
 purpose, I made no reply to his remarks, which 
 were as follows: "I saw you with the Osages; you 
 bought horses of the Osages. Do you know where 
 Osage village is? Is it not here?" marking on the 
 ground the courses of the Arkansas, the Grand, 
 and the Verdigris rivers, and pointing to the 
 place of their enemies' village. At last I told him I 
 knew nothing about the Osages or their villages, 
 which seemed to enrage him greatly, and he re- 
 Frances, youngest sister of Gen. George Rogers Clark. 
 Two sons, John and Benjamin, were born to this union. 
 John became a captain in the War of 1812 and in 1816 
 accompanied the force which built and garrisoned Fort 
 Howard at Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1818 he resigned 
 his commission and settled at St. Louis, where his uncle, 
 William Clark, was Territorial Governor and U.S. Super- 
 intendent of Indian Affairs. At St. Louis, O'Fallon be- 
 came extremely wealthy and through his many benefac- 
 tions a notable philanthropist. Benjamin, younger brother 
 of John, grew up at St. Louis, under the guardianship of 
 his uncle, Governor Clark. Under the latter's patronage 
 he entered upon the Indian trade, and in 1819 was ap- 
 pointed U.S. Agent for the Upper Missouri, making his 
 headquarters at the Council Bluffs. In 1829 he resigned 
 his agency and returned to St. Louis; he died, Dec. 17, 
 1842. "Honest and courageous, his bravery reaching the 
 point of fool-hardiness," he was a capable and efficient 
 Indian Agent. 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 247 
 
 iterated his assertions about having met me among 
 the hereditary enemies of the Pawnees and Co- 
 manches. 
 
 Seeing the evil suspicions produced by his talk 
 among the Indians and the necessity of putting 
 down the bad report without delay, I went to my 
 "brother" and told him the Pawnee was setting 
 his countrymen against me. He immediately 
 went with me to the head chief's lodge and had 
 my Pawnee enemy brought before him. Fixing 
 his dark eye upon him, the One-eyed Chief re- 
 garded him a moment in silence and then said: 
 "We have treated you well ever since you came 
 among us. You lied to us when you said that you 
 had seen the Svhite haired man' (meaning John 
 McKnight) at the village of the Osages. And now 
 you say you have seen my brother, too, among 
 the Osages. This is all a lie. You are trying to 
 make mischief between our people and my 
 brother, and if you say anything more against 
 him I will drive you out of the nation. You shall 
 not stay with us." The Pawnee trembled under 
 this rebuke and walked off in silence, with the 
 manner of a whipped spaniel. I heard no more 
 from him. 
 
 On one occasion my "brother" asked permis- 
 sion to bring, in the evening, a party of his friends 
 into the fort to dance, and I consenting to the 
 proposal, a party of forty, headed by the One- 
 
248 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 eyed, entered the fort and danced for several 
 hours to their own singing and the sound of bells 
 on a wand carried by their leader. They were 
 gorgeously attired in the height of Indian fashion 
 and bon ton. They wore eagle and owl feathers, 
 and were gaudily painted in every conceivable 
 manner. The One-eyed wore a showy head dress 
 of feather work, from under which the false hair 
 fell to the ground. They all danced with wonder- 
 ful agility and grace, and kept time better than 
 most dancers in more civilized and fashionable 
 life. At the close they danced backward out of the 
 gate, the chief in front driving them with his 
 wand, and they, in compliment to their host, 
 feigning reluctance to go. With a loud shout of 
 pleasure they at last went out together with 
 regularity and order. 
 
 At night we were aroused by shouting and 
 singing on all sides of the fort and we took our 
 arms to repel an attack. I saw hundreds of Indi- 
 ans, most of them young men, clambering up the 
 sides of the fort and trying the doors to get in. 
 The noise suddenly ceased and in the morning 
 the One-eyed told me that the young men had 
 taken the opportunity when the old men were 
 asleep to improve their acquaintance with me and 
 to get some presents of tobacco, as the dancing 
 party had done in the evening before, and that he 
 had quelled the disturbance and driven them off. 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 249 
 
 I heard among this party, both here and at the 
 village where I first met them, the sound of moan- 
 ing and loud wailing in two lodges, from a short 
 time before sun set till dark. I had made a present 
 of a gorget and arm bands to the Chief who be- 
 friended me so much on the Salt Fork of the 
 Canadian in my former expedition, and who was 
 now in the village. A young Indian came to me 
 one evening with the gorget and arm bands as a 
 token, and requested me to go and see this chief 
 in his tent. I went with the young man towards 
 the tent whence the sound of weeping was heard, 
 and when within thirty steps the messenger 
 stopped and looked at my feet. I noticed that he 
 was bare-footed. He took off my shoes and with 
 me approached the Chief, who was sitting in front 
 of his lodge with bare feet, like the spectators 
 who were standing deferentially around, and on 
 the ground I saw two women and two girls also 
 bare-footed, and smeared over the heads and 
 faces with mud and ashes. These were the same 
 whose voices I had heard on first entering 
 the Comanche village. They were now rolling 
 on the ground from side to side and weeping 
 violently. Occasionally they scattered ashes 
 over their heads and after short intervals of 
 quiet, arising from exhaustion, they would burst 
 out afresh in irrepressible fits of weeping and 
 sobbing. 
 
250 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 The Chief arose, took me aside, and said that I 
 could make these women stop crying. On my in- 
 quiring how I could do this, he replied: fe By cov- 
 ering them with cloth," meaning calico. I went to 
 the store and got four pieces of calico, with which 
 I returned and covered each with a piece. The 
 chief now spoke to them in his language, and 
 appeared to console them and remonstrated 
 against any further exhibition of grief. Their cry- 
 ing gradually subsided into deep, long drawn 
 sobs and hiccoughs, like those of children after 
 violent weeping. From this night forth I heard 
 their lamentations no more, and a few Indians 
 who had heretofore been cold and distant now be- 
 came friendly to me. I concluded that McKnight, 
 in fighting for his life, had killed the husbands of 
 the women and fathers of the two girls who were 
 thus lamenting, and that they required a token of 
 friendship from me as an atonement and sign of 
 reconciliation. 
 
 The Indians had now discovered their mistake ; 
 that in killing McKnight they had destroyed a 
 friend instead of an enemy, and all regarded me 
 more kindly on account of their own injustice to 
 my friend. The One-eyed Chief, who was prob- 
 ably foremost in the murder, had taken me to his 
 heart as his only brother and was now ready to 
 die for me to atone for depriving me of my bosom 
 friend, McKnight — "the white haired Tabbaho." 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 251 
 
 The Pawnee's tale of having seen McKnight at 
 the Osage village was, I suppose, the reason for 
 dispatching him; and in doing this they had met 
 with a desperate resistance from their victim, who 
 was well armed and a most excellent marksman. 
 
 The One-eyed did all in his power to recom- 
 pense me for his loss. He was my fast friend, and 
 exerted himself to the utmost to advance all my 
 interests and wishes. His wife daily sent to her 
 "brother" some delicacy, such as buffalo tongue, 
 carefully cooked by herself. I began to be recon- 
 ciled to a savage life and enamored with the sim- 
 plicity of nature. Here were no debts, no sheriffs 
 or marshals, no hypocrisies or false friendships. 
 With these simple children of the mountains and 
 prairies love and hate are honestly felt and exert- 
 ed in their full intensity. No half-way passions, 
 no interested feelings govern their attachments 
 to their friends. When once enlisted for or against 
 you, little short of Omnipotence can reverse the 
 Indian's position. He loves and hates with steady 
 persistence and consistency, and generally car- 
 ries his first feelings regarding you to his grave. 
 His revenge is sure, his love is true and disin- 
 terested. You can count upon either with cer- 
 tainty and need entertain no fear of being de- 
 ceived as to their operations. 
 
 A scouting war party on one occasion brought 
 in seven American horses, shod and branded, a 
 
252 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 tent, a kettle, an axe, and some other articles 
 which I knew must have belonged to a trading 
 party. They brought up the horses to the fort to 
 have the shoes taken off by our blacksmith, when 
 I charged them with the robbery of my country- 
 men. They denied the charge and said that they 
 had taken this spoil from a party of Osages with 
 whom they had had a battle, and exhibited, in 
 proof of their operations, two scalps as those of 
 their deadly enemies, the Osages. I learned at 
 Barbour's, on my return, that they told me the 
 truth. The Osages had robbed a Santa Fe com- 
 pany and were themselves attacked in the night 
 by a party they knew not of what tribe, who killed 
 two men and robbed them of the booty I have 
 mentioned. It was a fair instance of the biters be- 
 ing bitten, the game played by Prince Hal upon 
 Falstaff, who, after robbing four travellers was 
 attacked by the Prince and plundered of his 
 spoil. 
 
 From the warriors of this scouting party we 
 learned that the whole nation of Osages was very 
 near to us, being encamped on the Salt Fork at 
 the distance of about a day's journey, and they 
 advised us to leave our present position for one 
 of more safety. The Comanche chiefs held a 
 council of war, or grand talk, and determined to 
 go out and give battle to their enemies. On the 
 next day they sent all their women and children 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 253 
 
 up the river and went themselves, with their war- 
 riors, towards the Salt Fork in quest of the Osages. 
 When the last of the nation were about going, an 
 Indian came to me and claimed his horse, which 
 another Indian had sold to me without his au- 
 thority. I was about to give him the horse when 
 the One-eyed came up and inquired into the 
 case, which he decided at once in my favor and 
 told the claimant he must look to the Indian who 
 sold him for his indemnity. Not liking the law of 
 this decision, I paid the Indian for his horse and 
 he went away satisfied and highly pleased. 
 
 Before starting, the chiefs in a body came and 
 expressed great friendship for me and regret at 
 leaving me, as they were compelled to do. They 
 said they wanted the American trade, and united 
 in requesting me to encourage my countrymen to 
 visit them with goods and trade with them. Trade 
 with the Spaniards, they said, was unprofitable; 
 they had nothing to give them for their horses ex- 
 cept ammunition, and this they refused to sell to 
 the Indians. They wished the Americans to be 
 friendly and intimate with them, and complained 
 bitterly that we supplied their enemies, the 
 Osages, with arms and ammunition with which 
 they made war upon the Comanches. ef The 
 Osages," said they, ff get their powder, balls, and 
 guns from the Americans, but we can get none, or 
 very few from them; this is wrong, very wrong." 
 
254 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 The One-eyed and several other chiefs wished 
 to visit their Great Father, the President, and 
 have a talk with him. They would have offered to 
 accompany me to my "village" to see the Great 
 Father, but, said they, "You cannot defend us 
 from the Osages, the Cherokees, and the Choc- 
 taws. These nations are all at war with us, and we 
 should have to go through their country. But tell 
 our Great Father when you go back to your vil- 
 lage that we want him to stop these nations from 
 stealing our horses and killing our people, as 
 they have been doing for many years! Tell him to 
 protect us and send his people out to trade with 
 us. We will not hurt his people, but will defend 
 them when they come among us. We will be 
 brothers with the Americans." 
 
 The Chief of the Towashes told me that his 
 tribe lived on the headwaters of the Red River 
 and owned sixteen thousand horses which were 
 better than any I had bought of them. Judging 
 from those which his warriors rode, I could believe 
 what he said respecting the quality of their 
 horses. He wished me to visit his tribe and trade 
 with them. Many things did these wild chiefs tell 
 me to say for them to the Great Father when I 
 reached my "village," and all insisted very ear- 
 nestly that I should return to them in the Fall with 
 goods, and bring the answer of their Great Father 
 and all he said about them. "Then," said they, 
 
Adventure to the Comanches 255 
 
 "we will go back with you and talk with him face 
 to face." My "brother" told me to ascend the Red 
 River in the fall, and I should find the nation not 
 far from the three big mounds near the head of 
 that river, by which I suppose he meant some 
 spurs of the Rocky Mountains. "And when you 
 reach these mounds," said he, "you will see the 
 smoke from the grass that we will burn every day 
 so that you may find us. You can come with but 
 two men and you shall be safe. I will speak of you 
 to all the Comanches, and tell them you are my 
 brother and none will hurt you. You can travel 
 without fear through all our country. No one will 
 dare to injure you or take your property." 
 
 At parting with the chiefs they all embraced me 
 most affectionately. My "brother," especially, 
 showed all the feeling of a real brother. He threw 
 his arms around my neck and burst into tears. 
 Alsarea, the Towash, came to me last and sat 
 down with a grave and serious countenance. He 
 several times struck his breast and said his heart 
 was troubled. On my asking him the cause of his 
 trouble, he said: "When you came here, you had 
 twenty-three men and now you have but twenty- 
 two; one is dead. You say he was a good man." 
 "Yes," said I, "he was a very good man." "You 
 do not know how he was killed." "No, I do not, 
 but perhaps I shall know one day." "Many Co- 
 manches," said he, "are bad; many Quapaws 
 
256 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 are bad; many of the Arapahoes are bad; many 
 Towashes are bad, and so are many Pawnees. 
 Some of all these are bad and they all hunt in this 
 country. They might have killed the white-haired 
 man. He might have wounded a buffalo and been 
 killed by him. A rattlesnake might have bit him. 
 He is dead and you know not how. Here is my 
 war horse, Checoba. I give him to you. No horse 
 among the Comanches will catch him. He will 
 carry you away from every enemy and out of any 
 danger." With this he led up a splendid black 
 horse, worthy and fit to have borne a Richard 
 Cceur De Lion or a Saladin into their greatest 
 battles. No Arab could ever boast a finer animal 
 than this; the finest limbed, the best propor- 
 tioned, the swiftest, and the most beautiful I ever 
 saw. I brought him home, but before leaving the 
 wilderness his speed was greatly impaired by the 
 bite of a rattlesnake. 
 
Chapter VII 
 The Homeward Journey 
 
 A FTER parting with these simple children of 
 MX. nature we prepared for our departure home- 
 ward. On the next day after packing up the 
 goods we abandoned the fort and began to de- 
 scend the river in perogues and by land with the 
 horses. Those in the boats, who started before 
 the others with the horses, were to stop at the un- 
 finished fort one hundred miles below and there 
 await them. I travelled by land with the horses 
 and met with no occurrence worth mentioning 
 till the second day. Then commenced a series of 
 misfortunes and unavoidable accidents which 
 continued till I reached the settlements and 
 which destroyed all hope of profit from the ad- 
 venture/ and the consequences of which have 
 weighed upon me to this day with a crushing 
 weight. 
 
 As we travelled along the north bank of the 
 river a small herd of buffaloes suddenly rushed 
 out from the river bank on our left before the 
 horses and frightened many of them into a stam- 
 pedo, as the Spaniards call the thundering sound 
 of their stamping, flying hoofs on the prairie. A 
 few of the men rode after them and succeeded in 
 turning them back, but their shouts and use of 
 
 257 
 
258 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 the whips gave them another fright and they re- 
 turned into a stampede among the drove, and 
 thus spread the panic among them. 
 
 About one hundred ran off* at a furious rate on 
 the route of the river by which we had come. 
 Placing the best rider in my company on Che- 
 coba, I ordered him to try his best speed and 
 bottom in the pursuit. He started and ran sixteen 
 miles, where he headed the flying horses that had 
 become mingled with a wild drove, and he was 
 driving them all before him and Checoba when a 
 rattlesnake bit the noble animal on the fore foot. 
 Checoba immediately sickened and was brought 
 back with great difficulty. On the following morn- 
 ing his foot and leg were swelled, and he was very 
 lame and weak. I placed him in mud and water, 
 where he stood for several hours, when the swell- 
 ing subsided and he was much relieved. 
 
 By this accident I lost all the horses which ran 
 off in the stampedo and Checoba was materially 
 injured for life. I remained till the next morning, 
 when Checoba was able to travel, and I started 
 with him in advance of the company. Soon after 
 crossing a small branch, I saw an Indian about 
 two hundred yards ahead in the prairie, who rid- 
 ing onto a high mound, hailed me with the word 
 Tabbaho? As I replied, yes", I perceived several 
 Indians approaching me from the prairie and my 
 company behind also observed them. McKnight 
 
The Homeward Journey 259 
 
 and Adams hastened to reach me before the In- 
 dians, who came up friendly and spoke to us in 
 the Spanish language. As we three spoke Spanish 
 they took us for Spaniards and said that they 
 were of the Caddo tribe, who were in alliance 
 with the Comanches. Some of the latter tribe and 
 a number of Towashes were in their party, which 
 they said was on its march behind them. They 
 had just come out of a battle with the Osages, by 
 whom they had been defeated, and were proceed- 
 ing to tell us of the battle when I observed a party 
 of about two hundred Indians coming towards us 
 and also noticed a small grove a short distance 
 before us. 
 
 I ordered my party to hasten forward to this 
 grove and occupy it in advance of the Indians. 
 As they drove the horses forward, the rope which 
 held the pack on a horse which I had brought 
 from home with me got loose and was trod on by 
 the horses behind, which pulled the pack under 
 his belly. He started forward, kicking and pitch- 
 ing until he had got rid of his load, and then re- 
 turned at full speed among the drove, which 
 broke into another stampede. Off they flew, and 
 many of them ran entirely out of sight on the 
 level prairie, with the speed of birds on the wing. 
 I lost about thirty in this flight. 
 
 We reached the grove at the same time with 
 the Indians, who then discovered us to be Ameri- 
 
260 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 cans and not Spaniards, which greatly displeased 
 some. The Chief, however, was friendly. An In- 
 dian took up and examined McKnight's gun, 
 which he had left leaning against a tree, and rid- 
 ing into the crowd brandished it over his head, 
 exclaiming that we had stolen the horses; that 
 they ought to take them from us and kill us. The 
 old Chief ordered him to be silent, and he said if 
 they would not kill us he would go and bring 
 men who would do so, and started off in a gallop 
 towards the Canadian with McKnight's gun. 
 Many of the Indians charged us with having 
 stolen Checoba from Alsarea the Towash, and 
 seemed to believe the charge and to consider us 
 thieves who had been preying upon their coun- 
 trymen. One who appeared to be the most blood- 
 thirsty shot an arrow into the side of one of their 
 own horses near the lights. The horse bounded 
 forward and fell dead. This act excited them to 
 the highest pitch and the old Chief had great dif- 
 ficulty in protecting us from an attack. By an 
 harangue and a decisive course he at length as- 
 suaged their animosity and excitement. Their 
 late defeat by the Osages had embittered their 
 minds and pre-disposed them to view us with 
 suspicion. Seven men among them carried 
 wounds received in the late battle, and by re- 
 quest of the Chief I dressed these wounds with 
 salve and sticking plaster. 
 
The Homeward Journey 261 
 
 While I was thus engaged, I sent the men for- 
 ward a short distance, when they awaited me 
 with their rifles ready to return the fire of the 
 Indians. But they parted with us peaceably, and 
 the Chief with great cordiality entreated me to re- 
 turn to his country and trade with his tribe. 
 "We want," said he, "the friendship and trade of 
 the Americans." I always observed that the most 
 sagacious and far-seeing of the Comanche chief- 
 tains sincerely desired the friendship and alli- 
 ance of the Americans. A proper course towards 
 them will make them our fast friends and most 
 valuable allies. An opposite one will render them 
 most deadly and dangerous enemies, and espe- 
 cially so in the event of a war with England. A 
 course of justice, fairness, and liberality is the 
 only judicious one, and in dealing with them the 
 greatest tact and much knowledge of Indian 
 character is requisite for success in gaining their 
 confidence and securing their lasting esteem and 
 friendship. The Pawnees and all the tribes west 
 of the Osages, called by the national name of 
 Comanches, are all of the same original tribe, 
 though bearing various names, and all speak the 
 same language. They are in the strictest alliance 
 with each other and could probably muster a force 
 of forty or fifty thousand warriors at the time I 
 was among them. The United States should pro- 
 vide against the consequences of their hostility. 
 
262 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 After parting from the Caddo chief I sent the 
 company with the horses forward, and remained 
 behind with McKnight to watch against pursuit 
 by the Indians. Finding that we were not fol- 
 lowed, we hastened on and overtook the rest ot 
 the company and all reached the unfinished fort 
 in the afternoon, where we found the perogues 
 and swivel in charge of the men who had brought 
 them down the river and were awaiting us accord- 
 ing to arrangement. We travelled on in company 
 till nightfall, when the land party crossed the 
 river at a bend and encamped with the others in a 
 grove. We carefully secured our horses. On the 
 following morning as we issued from the timber 
 into the prairie a dead buffalo cow was seen with 
 her calf standing near her. We soon saw another 
 cow, lately killed by a party evidently in pursuit 
 of us. We travelled in company with the perogues, 
 that we might have the benefit of the swivel in 
 case of an attack. 
 
 In the Cross Timbers, which we reached in 
 four or five days after leaving the last-mentioned 
 fort, we again parted company with the perogues 
 and struck out into the prairie. Here we soon 
 afterwards observed a herd of buffaloes running 
 rapidly with their tongues hanging out of their 
 mouths, and also eight Indians mounted, who 
 did not perceive us. In three days we passed the 
 Cross Timbers and reached the long-grass prai- 
 
The Homeward Journey 263 
 
 ries on the east of them. Here the horse flies were 
 so numerous and ravenous as nearly to destroy 
 the horses, which were frequently covered en- 
 tirely by them. Many of the horses died and all 
 were wasting away under the inflictions of these 
 venomous insects. To avoid them, we travelled 
 only by night and slept by day. I took the direc- 
 tion by guess and in eight days, or rather nights, 
 we struck the Arkansas just five miles below the 
 three forks, where Fort Gibson now stands, and 
 the point which I was aiming to reach. 
 
 I went up to the forks where Barbour's trading 
 establishment was then situated and there ob- 
 tained a canoe. Barbour, I afterwards learned, 
 had died in New Orleans, whither he started 
 with my keel boat on my outward trip. We trav- 
 elled down the Arkansas to the mouth of the 
 Canadian, and found the rest of my company 
 with the perogues awaiting us at the salt works. 
 Here I took an account of my stock and found 
 that out of three hundred and twenty-three 
 horses and mules which I had purchased of the 
 Indians and started with for home, I had lost by 
 flies and stampedos just two hundred and fifty- 
 three, leaving but seventy-one now in my posses- 
 sion. These I allowed to rest one day and on the 
 next day lost five of them by a disease called the 
 feresy, which causes a swelling of the breast and 
 belly and generally terminates fatally. On the day 
 
264 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 and night following, eight or ten more of the 
 horses died and about twenty were sick with the 
 disease. 
 
 I was too anxious for my family and too desir- 
 ous of seeing them to delay my departure any 
 longer. Here, at the mouth of the Illinois River, a 
 branch of the Arkansas and near the mouth of the 
 Canadian, I left the few horses and mules re- 
 maining and the perogue containing the skins 
 and robes in charge of Adams & Denison. I never 
 saw them again and lost all — horses and mules, 
 beaver skins, and buffalo robes. I returned home 
 with five horses just the same number I had 
 started out with. Most of them died, and those 
 that lived were never accounted for to me. The 
 skins and robes were sold by James Adams, at 
 Eau Post in Arkansas, on the river of that name, 
 and the whole proceeds, amounting to a large 
 sum of my money, were embezzled by him, the 
 said Adams. He had been employed by McKnight 
 and was unknown to me. 
 
 In every respect, pecuniarily and otherwise, 
 this was a most unfortunate venture. I lost by it 
 my best and dearest friend, John McKnight, and 
 all the money I had invested in it with the vain 
 hope of being thereby set free from debt and 
 made an independent man. The object was a 
 great one, and the risk proportionably great. I 
 lost all that I had set upon the stake and was still 
 
The Homeward Journey 265 
 
 more deeply involved than before. A dreary fu- 
 ture lay ahead, but I determined to meet and 
 struggle with it like a man. 
 
 Leaving the river, in company with twelve men, 
 some afoot and some with horses, we directed 
 our course for the Cherokee country. We found 
 no game, and for several days all suffered severely 
 from hunger. We at length approached the Cher- 
 okee settlements, and I went forward alone, prom- 
 ising the men to have a meal prepared for them 
 at the house of John Rogers, a half-breed Chero- 
 kee chief. 106 When in sight of his place I met 
 Rogers and told him I wanted breakfast for my- 
 self and twelve men; that I had been among the 
 Comanches trading, and that my company was 
 coming up nearly starved. He replied that his 
 tribe had been at war that year with the Osages 
 and had raised but a small crop, and that he had 
 to pay one dollar per bushel for his bread. ff But," 
 said he, "I will get you something to eat," and 
 entering his house, requested his wife to prepare 
 breakfast for twelve men, and with a smile, 
 
 106 John Rogers, chief of the western Cherokees, was a 
 mixed-blood. James Hildreth, in 1834, described him as 
 "immensely rich," the owner of a large tract of land and 
 of so many cattle that he could not count them, besides 
 huge numbers of pigs and poultry. He was a half-brother 
 of Tiana, the Cherokee wife of Sam Houston. In 1838 
 Rogers sold 300 acres of land to the Government to serve 
 as the site of the new Fort Smith. 
 
266 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 "twelve hungry men at that." I noticed in his 
 house, all the usual furniture of our best farmers, 
 and he was evidently living well and comfort- 
 ably. 
 
 The men came up, and by their rough exteri- 
 ors, long beards and hair, lantern jaws, and lank 
 bodies they strongly impressed me with the idea 
 of a gang of famished wolves. They glared at Mrs. 
 Rogers while she was getting their breakfast like 
 so many cannibals, and had she not been very 
 quick in appeasing their appetites I cannot swear 
 but that they would have eaten her up. She, the 
 good woman, squaw though she was, exerted her- 
 self in our behalf like an angel of mercy, and in a 
 miraculously short time she set before us a noble 
 meal of bacon, eggs, corn bread, milk and coffee. 
 There was enough for us all and we arose filled, 
 leaving some on the table, not from politeness but 
 from inability to eat any more. "Well, Mr. Rog- 
 ers," said I, "what shall I pay you for our break- 
 fast?" "What," said he, laughing, "would be the 
 use of charging men who have just come out 
 of the woods and cannot possibly have any 
 money?" "No," said I, "I am not begging my 
 way. I will pay you with goods that I have." I 
 then drew out my stock and sold him twelve 
 dollars' worth, after paying for our meal. 
 
 The father and sister of Rogers now came in 
 and talked with us some time. The father, who 
 
The Homeward Journey 267 
 
 was a white man, said that his son John killed the 
 first Indian at the battle of the Horse-shoe, where 
 both served on the side of the Americans under 
 Jackson. 107 "The Creeks," said he, "always fight 
 till death. It takes one Cherokee for every Creek, 
 and of the whites a little more than one for one." 
 Both father and son spoke in the highest terms of 
 General Jackson, as a man, a soldier, and a com- 
 mander. 
 
 I requested provisions to subsist us till we 
 could get a supply, and obtained from him suffi- 
 cient to carry us to Matthew Lyon's trading house 
 at the Spadra. Below this is a large missionary 
 station, 108 which we were informed was well sup- 
 
 107 The battle of Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa 
 River in Alabama was fought March 27, 1814. General 
 Jackson with 2000 troops attacked the Creeks, 800 strong, 
 who were strongly entrenched. The Creeks stubbornly 
 refused to surrender and all but about 50 were killed. 
 The white loss was 49 dead and 157 wounded. The battle 
 permanently destroyed the military power of the Creeks. 
 
 108 The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions was organized in 1810 and two years later was 
 incorporated, with its headquarters in Boston. In 1826 
 the United Foreign Missionary Society (noted ante, p. 
 206) was merged with it. The general objective of the two 
 groups was the establishment of missions among the 
 Cherokees and other tribes of the Southwest. The Ameri- 
 can Board moved first, by establishing the Dwight Mis- 
 sion (named for President Timothy Dwight of Yale Col- 
 lege) in 1820. It was located on the west side of Illinois 
 River, about four miles above its junction with the Ar- 
 kansas, in Pope County, Arkansas, a short distance west 
 
268 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 plied with flour and meat, of which a boat load for 
 their use had lately arrived. "If you find the mis- 
 sionaries in good humor," said Mrs. Rogers, 
 "and do not go on the Lord's Day, you will be 
 able to get some provisions, but not without. I 
 was down at the station last week on Saturday 
 and stayed over Sunday. A Cherokee woman came 
 in on Sunday from Piney, twenty miles above on 
 the river, with some chickens to buy some sugar 
 and coffee for a poor woman who had been lately 
 confined. I interpreted for the woman, and went 
 to Brother Vaill and told him what the woman 
 wanted. I don't deal with the females, said he; 
 
 you must go to Sister . We went to the 
 
 sister that Brother Vaill had named, and she told 
 me that they neither bought nor sold on the 
 Lord's Day. "Then take the chickens as a gift," 
 said I, "and give the woman what she wants." 
 "We neither give nor take on the Lord's Day," 
 said she, and the poor woman had to go back 
 with her chickens, and so I advise you not to go 
 to the missionaries on the Lord's Day." 
 
 of present-day Russellville. A roadside marker on U.S. 
 Highway 64 now commemorates the Mission. As with 
 Harmony Mission among the Osages, Dwight Mission 
 was a considerable establishment. In 1829 the Mission 
 was removed to Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. An his- 
 torical marker west of Sallisaw on U.S. Highway 64 states 
 that the Mission site was at Nicksville Post Office. Graves, 
 in First Protestant Osage Missions, 220, identifies it as 
 about three miles south of Marble City. 
 
The Homeward Journey 269 
 
 I could hardly believe that bigotry and fanati- 
 cism could go so far as this until I found by experi- 
 ence, when I reached the station, that their 
 meanness was fully equal to all I had heard. We 
 left the hospitable house of the Cherokee chief 
 with many thanks and proceeded on our way. At 
 a short distance from the Spadra I was riding 
 alone in advance of the company when I met a 
 gentlemanly and intelligent half-breed Cherokee, 
 of whom I inquired if I could procure provisions 
 at that place. He said I could not, but invited me 
 to alight and take breakfast with him. ff There are 
 too many of us," said I, Cf twelve besides myself." 
 This did not daunt him, and he immediately ex- 
 tended his invitation to all, and the whole com- 
 pany accordingly entered his house and partook 
 of an excellent breakfast, such as that which his 
 brother had furnished us two days before. This 
 man was James, the brother of John Rogers, and 
 lived like him in comfort and elegance. His wife 
 was a handsome half-breed, whom I presented 
 with some articles of dress, against the wish of her 
 husband, who refused all pay for our breakfast. 
 He purchased of me goods to the amount of fif- 
 teen dollars and paid me the money for them. 
 
 We passed the Spadra that morning, where I 
 saw the grave of Matthew Lyon, a man who made 
 a considerable figure in politics in the Alien and 
 Sedition times of John Adams. "After life's fitful 
 
270 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 fever he sleeps well." At Piney I saw a number of 
 Indians, and inquired of them for provisions. 
 tf We are hungry," said I, "and have nothing to 
 eat." A negro woman said they were starving 
 themselves and could not help us to anything. I 
 told the man we should be compelled to fast until 
 we reached Webber's 109 or the missionaries. An old 
 Indian who stood behind me during this colloquy 
 caught hold of my arm as I started on and with a 
 sharp inquiring look into my eyes exclaimed: 
 "Nothing! nothing to eat?" "Nothing at all," 
 said I. "Come with me," said he. I followed him 
 about one hundred yards up the bank of a creek, 
 where he turned up a hollow and entered a cabin 
 under the brow of a hill; going to the chimney he 
 took from within it a stick holding three pieces of 
 bacon and gave me two of them. I offered him 
 money. "No," said he, "I take no money, but 
 when you meet a hungry Cherokee share with him 
 whatever you have, as I have shared with you." 
 
 10 Walter Webber, a mixed -blood Cherokee chief, lived 
 near the mouth of Illinois Creek in Pope County, Ar- 
 kansas. Nuttall, who visited him in 1819, described him 
 as ff a metif, who acts as an Indian trader, is also a chief 
 of the nation, and lives in ease and affluence, possessing a 
 decently furnished and well provided house, several negro 
 slaves, a large, well cleaned and well fenced farm; both 
 himself and his nephew, read, write and speak English." 
 Thwaites (Ed.) Early Western Travels, XIII, 181. The 
 village of Webber's Falls, Oklahoma, near where he sub- 
 sequently had a trading post, is named for him. 
 
The Homeward Journey 271 
 
 Such conduct as this, thought I, is practical 
 Christianity, call it by what name you please. 
 Parting with this warm-hearted Indian, we hast- 
 ened on towards the missionary station, which 
 we reached the next day. This was situated on 
 the north side of the river and was composed of 
 about one hundred persons, old and young, who 
 occupied some twenty buildings arranged in a 
 square. Here we hoped to obtain a full supply of 
 provisions, being informed that one hundred bar- 
 rels of pork and one hundred and fifty barrels of 
 flour had lately arrived for the use of the mission- 
 aries and their families. Entering the town I in- 
 quired for and found the head of the concern, 
 named Vaill 110 , laid before him our destitute con- 
 dition and misfortunes in the Comanche coun- 
 
 110 Rev. William Vaill, born in 1783, was a native of 
 Connecticut and a graduate of Yale College in 1806. He 
 was superintendent of Union Mission among the Osages, 
 located on the west side of Neosho River about five miles 
 northeast of the town of Mazie, Oklahoma. Vaill arrived 
 at the Mission on Feb. 18, 1821 and served as superin- 
 tendent until its abandonment in September, 1834. No 
 confirmation of his presence at Dwight Mission has been 
 found, and it seems probable that James, who may have 
 encountered him at Union Mission in Oklahoma on his 
 visit to the Osage town during his outward journey to 
 Santa Fe in 1821, in old age may have mistakenly at- 
 tributed the meeting to Dwight Mission. Upon the aban- 
 donment of Union Mission Vaill engaged in Home Mis- 
 sionary work in Illinois, where he died in 1865. Graves, 
 First Protestant Osage Missions, 243. 
 
272 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 try, and asked him for provisions enough to last 
 us to the settlements on the Little Red, seventy 
 miles below. "Well," said he, "I will speak to 
 Brother such a one about it," and went away for 
 that purpose. Another man soon came up and 
 asked me how much we wanted. I replied, 
 "About one hundred pounds of flour and fifty of 
 pork." "Well I vow and declare, I don't know 
 how we shall be able to spare it ; how much would 
 you be willing to give?" "Any reasonable price," 
 said I; "What do you ask? We are suffering from 
 hunger and must have provisions." 
 
 He left me, saying he would see Brother Vaill 
 about it and I waited an hour without seeing 
 either of them. I then searched out Brother Vaill 
 and repeated my request for provisions. He 
 vowed and declared that he did not think they 
 had more than enough "to do them the year 
 round." I then asked for one-half the quantity I 
 had named before. "We have a very large family, 
 and if we should get out we could not get any 
 more from the settlements." I said that what 
 little we wanted would not make more than one 
 meal for his family, and he could easily procure a 
 new supply to prevent any suffering. "Well," said 
 he, "what would you be willing to give?" "Set 
 your own price on your property," said I, "and 
 I will give it, as I cannot do without provisions." 
 He then went away, saying he would see the 
 others, naming them. 
 
The Homeward Journey 273 
 
 Robert McKnight now came from the black- 
 smith's shop, where he had got his mule shod on 
 the fore feet and had been charged for that serv- 
 ice the sum of two dollars. We concluded that 
 they knew the price of horseshoes, if not of flour 
 and pork. Again I sought out the "brethren," 
 Vaill and the other, reiterated to them our wants, 
 and requested relief as before: the eternal ques- 
 tion was again put, "What would you be willing 
 to give?" "Anything that you choose to ask," 
 said I. "We do not think we can spare any pro- 
 visions," said one. They were waiting for a bid 
 and I determined not to huckster with the cant- 
 ing hypocrites, nor gratify them by paying an 
 outrageously exorbitant price, which they were 
 expecting to get from my necessities. 
 
 Without further parley I left them and went up 
 to the bakery of the station, where some of my 
 company were trying to get some bread. I offered 
 to pay for whatever they could sell. "No, we can't 
 sell anything without Brother Vaill's permis- 
 sion." I offered to buy two or three bushels of 
 fragments of bread, which I noticed on the table 
 in a corner. "We use them in soups and for pud- 
 dings and do not waste anything." My men were 
 now furious and ready to take possession of the 
 bakery and divide it out among them. With great 
 difficulty I restrained them from this act. I told 
 them they would render us all infamous in the 
 settlements as robbers of missionaries, those holy 
 
274 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 men of God; that we should be regarded with 
 horror by all, wherever we went, if we preyed upon 
 these lamb-like and charitable Christians. I told 
 them we must go on and trust to Providence. 
 "What!" said McKnight, "travel on without pro- 
 visions when there are plenty of them here. I will 
 have some if need be by force." 
 
 I at length prevailed on them to start without 
 committing any depredation. When leaving the 
 town, I saw Vaill at a distance, rode up to him 
 and asked: "What are you doing here?" "We 
 are instructing the Indians in the Christian reli- 
 gion." "I think," said I, "you might learn some 
 of the principles of your religion from the Indians 
 themselves. An old Cherokee yesterday gave me 
 two out of three pieces of meat which he had, and 
 refused pay for them in money. He told me to do 
 the same by a Cherokee should I meet one in 
 want. Here you are afraid to put a price on your 
 flour and meat for fear of not charging enough. 
 You wish me to name an exorbitant price. You 
 wish to make the most out of me, and you shall 
 make nothing." He was saying that charity began 
 at home, he must provide for his own household, 
 and so forth, as I left him in disgust with his 
 meanness and hypocrisy. We now left the river 
 and bore eastwardly, and that evening killed a 
 turkey, upon which we lived two days and a half, 
 when we reached Little Red River, where we 
 
The Homeward Journey 275 
 
 procured an excellent dinner and a supply of food 
 from a settler whose name I forget. This was the 
 first meal we had eaten, sufficient to break our 
 fasts, since we had left James Rogers' house, five 
 days before. 
 
 From this place I hastened home without any 
 occurrence of note. My family was sick when I 
 arrived, and my creditors soon became more 
 clamorous than ever. Each endeavored to antici- 
 pate the others, and the executive officers of all 
 the courts, from the United States District Court 
 down to those of justices of the peace, swarmed 
 around me like insects in August. I gave up all 
 my property, even the beds upon which my chil- 
 dren were born, and after all was sold, though the 
 officers supposed there was enough to satisfy the 
 judgments against me, there yet remained a large 
 amount still due. The whole is now paid. In the 
 twenty years which have intervened, I discharged 
 all my debts on account of these two expeditions, 
 of which the narration is now closed. I lost by 
 them about the sum of twelve thousand dollars, 
 and after all the hardships I had endured found 
 myself poorer than ever. 
 
 The reader has been told how I incurred these 
 losses, most of which were, perhaps, under the 
 circumstances, to have been expected. I was the 
 first American that ever went among the Coman- 
 ches for the purpose of trading. Before my first 
 
276 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 trip among them their name was unknown to our 
 people. The Americans called them Pawnees and 
 knew them only by that name. They were then 
 wilder and more ignorant of our power than now, 
 when they have probably learned that we do not 
 all live in one village, and derived from their 
 kindred tribe, the Pawnees, and other neighbors, 
 a tolerably correct idea of our strength and num- 
 bers. Traders would now run very little risk of 
 the robberies which I suffered from them, and 
 probably none at all of being killed in time of 
 peace. The trade would now be profitable ; equally 
 so as when I was among them, and from the 
 greater cheapness of goods a greater profit could 
 be made, while the dangers would be far less. 
 Were it not for advancing age I should repeat the 
 adventures, notwithstanding their unfortunate 
 issues heretofore. 
 
 Age, however, forbids any further attempts to 
 retrieve my fortune in this manner. I have been 
 enabled through the real friendship of a brother 
 to support my family and give my children the 
 rudiments and foundation of an education; 
 which, though not such as I would have given 
 them had better fortune attended me, is suffi- 
 cient, if properly improved, to enable them to go 
 through the world with honor and usefulness. I 
 have uniformly endeavored to instill in their 
 minds principles of integrity and republicanism; 
 
The Homeward Journey 277 
 
 and for myself, to bequeath, as the richest in- 
 heritance I could leave them, a good example and 
 an unsullied name. With strong bodies and hab- 
 its of labor, with honor and intelligence, they 
 will succeed in a country of liberty and equal 
 rights to all/ 
 
 I have always been true to my country, and 
 uniformly studied to advance the interests of my 
 countrymen in all my transactions with the sav- 
 ages and Spaniards; and I have my reward in the 
 satisfaction derived from a consciousness and pa- 
 triotic discharge of duty on all occasions. At the 
 age of sixty-three, with broken health, I feel none 
 of the peevishness of age. I look forward cheer- 
 fully and hopefully on the coming days, without 
 
 rf Shuddering to feel their shadows o'er me creep, " 
 
 and rejoice, in my decline, over the rise and glori- 
 ous prospects of my country. I have the consola- 
 tion of being able to recall to my mind several 
 manifestations of the confidence and esteem of 
 my fellow-citizens, exerted towards me at a time 
 when the hand of misfortune bore heaviest upon 
 my head. They did me the honor in eighteen 
 hundred and twenty-five of electing me General 
 of the Second Brigade, First Division of the 
 Militia of Illinois, an office which I now hold. I 
 was also elected, in the same year, to represent 
 the county of Monroe in the Legislature of Illi- 
 
278 Among Indians and Mexicans 
 
 nois, of which I was a member for two sessions. I 
 was appointed Post Master in the same county in 
 eighteen hundred and twenty-seven and have 
 held the appointment ever since. I would men- 
 tion my agency in the Black Hawk War of 
 eighteen hundred and thirty-two, in which I 
 served as Major, were it not a war in which no 
 honor was gained by anyone, and the history of 
 which, for the credit of the country, ought never 
 to be written. 
 
 These proofs of the esteem of my countrymen 
 are gratifying and consoling amidst the difficul- 
 ties which have so long weighed me down, and 
 are evidence that a generous people will appre- 
 ciate the intrinsic character of a man, inde- 
 pendent of adventitious circumstances, the frowns 
 or the favors of fortune. 
 
Index 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adams, James, member of trading party, 259; embezzles 
 
 property, 264. 
 Alsarea, Tovvash chief, visits James' fort, 224-26; gift of 
 
 Checoba, 255-56, 260. 
 American Bottom, described, XVI-XVII. 
 American Government, failure to protect citizens, 170- 
 
 71. 
 
 Arbuckle, Col. Matthew, establishes Fort Gibson, 116. 
 
 Arikara Indians, history, 7; defeat Pryor party, 7; traders 
 visit, 24-25. 
 
 Arkansas River, Gen. James party ascends, 105-16; de- 
 scends, 187-201. 
 
 Arkansas Post (Eau Post), history, 107; capital of Ar- 
 kansas Territory, 108; goods sold at, 264. 
 
 Armijo, Governor, policy toward Navahoes, 159. 
 
 Ashley, William H., Arikaras defeat, 7; partner of An- 
 drew Henry, 34. 
 
 Ayer, , carries despatches, 36; killed, 73-75. 
 
 Barbour, Capt. , career, 118; transaction with Gen. 
 
 James, 119, 214; death, 214, 263. 
 Baum, Peter, pioneer Santa Fe trader, 101, 115. 
 Bears, hunted, 216. See also Grizzly Bears. 
 Beaver Creek (North Fork of Canadian), Gen. James' 
 
 party ascends, 120, 125; site of James' fort, 222. 
 Becknell, William, interview with Governor Melgares, 
 
 176; leads expeditions to Santa Fe, 195. 
 Baird, James, Santa Fe trader, 101; career, 102. 
 Big Horn River, Manuel's Fort at mouth, 36^ 42, 46, 49, 
 
 56,62, 64,87,90. 
 Big Star, Comanche chief, Gen. James encounters, 127- 
 
 32, 225, 236. 
 Big White. See Shehaka. 
 
 281 
 
282 Index 
 
 Blackfoot Indians, hostility toward traders, 34-35, 69-76, 
 87; history, 52; John Colter's encounters with, 56-65; 
 massacre Lieut. Immell's party, 72-73. 
 
 Black Hawk War, characterized, 276. 
 
 Boone's Lick Settlement, history, 187. 
 
 Bozeman Pass, traders traverse, 47-48; John Colter, 61- 
 
 64. 
 
 Brackenridge, Henry M., narrative cited, 13. 
 
 Bradbury, John, narrative cited, 47, 121; quoted, 27-28. 
 
 Bradford, Major William, career, 114; hospitality, 115; 
 
 at Osage village, 117. 
 Bradley, Lieut. James H., narrative quoted, 50-55, 73, 
 
 85. 
 
 Brady, Thomas, partner of Gen. James, 100, 102. 
 Brown, , fur trade employe, trapping activities, 22- 
 
 23, 42, 65-70; snow-blind, 46-47. 
 Buffaloes, extermination foretold, 17; encountered, 25, 
 
 125, 262; manure used as fuel, 123; stampede horses, 
 
 257-58. 
 Buffalo Shoals, named, 92. 
 
 Caches, Indians rob, 87, 91 ; Indians and traders use, 88; 
 Gen. James uses, 119, 214-15. 
 
 Caddo Indians, Gen. James' party encounters, 258-61 ; 
 warfare with Osages, 259-60. 
 
 Camp Supply, identified, 120. 
 
 Canadian River, Gen. James ascends, 126-42, 214-15. 
 See also Beaver Creek and Cimarron River. 
 
 Carousals, at Missouri Fur Company's (Manuel's) fort, 
 94-95; at Santa Fe, 152-56. 
 
 Carson, Col. Kit, subdues Navahoes, 159; works in cop- 
 per mine, 172. 
 
 Carson, Lindsay, father of Kit Carson, 188. 
 
 Casey, Mrs. Joseph D., aids Editor, XXVII, XXXIII, 
 XXXV. 
 
 Chambers, William, Santa Fe trader, 101. 
 
 Chavez, Antonio, murdered, 173-74. 
 
 Chavez, Francisco, son murdered, 173-74. 
 
Index 283 
 
 Checoba, horse, given to Gen. James, 255-56, 260; bitten 
 by rattlesnake, 256, 258. 
 
 Cheek, , fur trade employe, defies employers, 15-16, 
 
 21-22, 30-33; at Manuel's fort, 42; threatens 
 employers, 43-44; despondent, 6^ 66; killed, 64, 
 73-75- 
 
 Cherokee Indians, warfare with Osages, 114; with Co- 
 manches, 254; country of, traversed, 113-14, 265-75; 
 hospitality to traders, 265-67, 270; Dwight Mission to, 
 established, 267-68. 
 
 Chouteau, Col. Auguste Pierre, expedition to Santa Fe, 
 104; befriends traders, 195-99; career, 196-97; trading 
 houses of, 204-205, 220. 
 
 Chouteau, Col. Pierre, partner of St. Louis Missouri Fur 
 Company, 8; leads Upper Missouri expedition, XIX, 
 9-12; employes defy, 21-22, 30-33; threaten, 43-44; 
 influence over Osage Indians, 117, 196. 
 
 Cimarron (Salt Fork) River, Gen. James' party ascends, 
 116-25. 
 
 Clamorgan, Jacques, career, 103. 
 
 Clark, Gen. George Rogers, French settlers support, 
 XVII. 
 
 Clark, Capt. William, names Shields River, 84-85; de- 
 scends Yellowstone, 92; founds Fort Osage, 202. See 
 also Lewis and Clark expedition. 
 
 Clark, , fur trade employe, misconduct, 221-222. 
 
 Clark's River, traders reach, 87; identified, 89. 
 
 Clermont, Osage chief, career, 205. 
 
 Clermont's Village, Osage robbers seek refuge, 205. 
 
 Colter, John, sells equipment, 29-30; career, 47; guides 
 trading party, 47-55; encounters with Blackfeet, 
 52-64; indebtedness of Gen. James, 99. 
 
 Comanche Indians, history, 4, 7; Gen. James' party en- 
 counters, 123-40, 231-54; warfare with Osages, 150, 
 218-19, 236-37, 240, 245-47, 252-53; with Cherokees 
 and Choctaws, 254; mourning for dead, 228, 249-50; 
 Spaniards slaughter, 184-86; horsemanship, 245; allies 
 of Caddoes, 259; confusion with Pawnees, 275-76. 
 
284 Index 
 
 Cordaro, Comanche chief, friendship for Americans, 
 !35-39; visit to Santa Fe, 150-52; promise to repay 
 Gen. James, 213; Gen. James' promise to, 226, 229. 
 
 Cote Sans Dessein, history, 13. 
 
 Creek Indians, valor, 267. 
 
 Crittenden, Robert, career, 11-12. 
 
 Crooks, Ramsay, career, 18-19. 
 
 Crow Indians, battle with Blackfeet, 52-54; war-parties 
 encountered, 89-90. 
 
 Cross Timbers, described, 217-18; Gen. James' party 
 passes, 217, 262. 
 
 Cunnigam, , fur trade employe, 200-201. 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, myth concerning, 116. 
 
 De Mun, Jules, expedition to Santa Fe, 104, 197. 
 
 Denison, , goods entrusted to, 264. 
 
 Dougherty, John, career, 42-43; journey to Three Forks, 
 
 48-54; trapping activities, 65-70. 
 Douglas, Judge Walter B., edits Gen. James' narrative, 
 
 XXVIII-XXX, XXXIV, 8, 197, 203. 
 Drouillard (Druyer), George, member of trapping party, 
 
 82 ; killed, 82-83 ; career, 83-84. 
 Drouillard, Pierre, family history, 83-84. 
 Druyer, George. See George Drouillard. 
 Dwight Mission, history, 267-68; Gen. James' visit to, 
 
 267-74. 
 
 Eau Post. See Arkansas Post. 
 Emmell's (Immell's) River, identified, 72-73. 
 Emory, Col. William H., narrative quoted, 158-59, 
 179. 
 
 Famine, sufferings described, 39-41. 
 
 Feresy, kills horses, 263-64. 
 
 Ferris, Eugene C, aid acknowledged, XXXVI. 
 
 Fiery Prairie Fort. See Fort Osage. 
 
 Finch, , debtor of Robert McKnight, 177-78. 
 
Index 285 
 
 Flathead Indians, origin of name, 53. 
 
 Florissant, residence of James family, XVII-XVIII; his- 
 tory, 5. 
 
 Floods, frequency, 201-202. 
 
 French Illinois, residence of James family, XVI-XVII. 
 
 Fort Berthold, Arikaras remove to, 7. 
 
 Fort Gibson, established, 116. 
 
 Fort Lisa (above Bellevue, Neb.), built, 27. 
 
 Fort Smith, history, 114. 
 
 Fort Osage (Fiery Prairie Fort), founded, 202; U.S. fac- 
 tory at, 204-205. 
 
 Gallatin River, traders rendezvous on, 48-55. 
 
 Glencoe, Massacre of, 185. 
 
 Glenn, Hugh, expedition to Santa Fe, 117-19, 149; 
 career, 118; buys Gen. James' goods, 174-75; pre- 
 tended conversion, 179-82; cowardice, 187-94; return 
 home, 209. 
 
 Graff, Everett D., aid acknowledged, XXXIV. 
 
 Graham, Col., conduct of Indian Agency criticized, 209- 
 10. 
 
 Grand River. See Neosho River. 
 
 Gratiot, , Fur Company partner, 8. 
 
 Great American Desert, Gen. James' party enters, 218. 
 
 Gregg, Josiah, narrative quoted, 220; cited, 224. 
 
 Grizzly bears, encounters with, 76-86. 
 
 Gros Ventre (Minitaree, Big Belly) Indians, kill Shehaka, 
 6; traders visit, 25-26; kill Snake Indians, 45; hostili- 
 ties with, averted, 94-95 ; habits described, 96-97. 
 
 Harmony Mission, history, 206-207; Gen. James visits, 
 
 206-208. 
 Harris, Thomas J., marks grave of Nathaniel Pryor, 7. 
 Harrisonville, home of Gen. Thomas James, XXII-XXIII; 
 
 history, 100. 
 Hector, Frederick, fur trade employe, 106. 
 Henry, Andrew, Fur Company partner, 8; career, 34-35; 
 
 leads trading expedition, 80-81, 87. 
 
286 Index 
 
 Henry's Fork (of Snake), traders winter on, 34, 80-81; 
 name, 81. 
 
 Hicks, Gordon, aid acknowledged XXXVI. 
 
 Hicks, Sarah, aid acknowledged, XXXVI. 
 
 Higginbotham, Mrs. Thomas D., aid acknowledged, 
 XXXV. 
 
 Horses, on winter journey to Manuel's fort, 37-41 ; to 
 Three Forks, 47-48; Gen. James purchases, 118, 227; 
 stolen, 130-35, 198-99, 204-205, 210, 243-44; losses 
 enumerated, 263; of Utah Indians, described, 160-61; 
 Cordero promises repayment, 151; stampedes, 198, 
 257-59; wild horses captured, 240-42; horseflies at- 
 tack, 263. See also Checoba. 
 
 Horse-flies, attack horses, 263. 
 
 Horseshoe Bend battle, 267. 
 
 Howard, Alexander, fur trade employe, 106. 
 
 Huckabay, Mr. and Mrs. William B., aid acknowledged, 
 XXXV. 
 
 Hull, , disappearance, 73, 75. 
 
 Hutson, Horace, aid acknowledged, XXXVI. 
 
 Illinois River, horses left, 264. 
 
 Immell (Emmell), Michael, career, 72-73; encounter with 
 Blackfeet, 72-75. 
 
 Indians, economic dependence on buffaloes, 17; of Up- 
 per Missouri, characterized, 93-94; superiority to 
 Spaniards, 152, 156-63, 189-94; customs, 196, 199- 
 200. See also the several tribes. 
 
 Irving, Washington, feud with Tonish, 197. 
 
 Iturbide, President, role in Mexican Revolution, 143. 
 
 Ivy, John, fur trade employe, 106, 221, 223; as hostage, 
 223, 226. 
 
 James, Charles A., aid acknowledged, XXXV. 
 James, Dr. Edwin, name given to Pike's Peak, 141-42. 
 James, James. XVII. 
 
 James, John G., career, XVII-XVIII; member of Santa 
 Fe expedition, 106; bravery, 133. 
 
Index 287 
 
 James, Joseph Austin, career, XVI-XVII. 
 
 James, Dr. Lewis, career, XXVII. 
 
 James, Samuel, career, XVIII. 
 
 James, Gen. Thomas, career, XV-XXXVI; mercantile 
 activities, XXII-XXV, 100-101; difficulties with Fur 
 Company, XX-XXII, 12-16, 28-33, 97-99; conducts 
 mill, XXIII-XXIV; practices medicine, XXVI-XXVII; 
 debts, XXV, XXXII, 97-99, 101, 211, 257, 275; nar- 
 rative published, XXVIII-XXXII; rarity, XV, XXXIV; 
 burial place, XXXII-XXXIII ; expedition to Upper 
 Missouri, 5-99; hunting adventure, 22-23; traps on 
 Missouri River, 34-37, 65-87; journey to Manuel's 
 fort, 39-42; to Three Forks, 45-55; relates John Col- 
 ter's adventures, 56-65 ; journey from Three Forks to 
 St. Louis, 87-97; characterizes Upper Missouri Indians, 
 93-94; expedition to Santa Fe, 105-212; losses from, 
 211; sojourn at Santa Fe, 149-78; role in celebration 
 of Mexican Independence, 152-54; council with Utah 
 Indians, 159-62; visit to Sonora planned, 167-70; 
 interviews with Gov. Melgares, 149, 175-76; journey 
 from Santa Fe to St. Louis, 179-212; defends New 
 Mexican Indians, 189-94; journal destroyed, 194; dif- 
 ficulties with missionaries, 206-209, 271-74; expedi- 
 tion to Comanches, 213-75; losses from, 264-65; 
 trade with Comanches, 226-56; builds forts, 219-20, 
 222; abandons, 257; old-age reflections, 276-77; hon- 
 ors, 277-78. 
 
 Jameson, John, Indian agent, befriends Cordaro, 136, 
 138, 152. 
 
 Jefferson River, fort built, 54-55; John Colter's adven- 
 tures on, 56-64; trapping activities, 66-76. 
 
 Jessaume, Rene, returned to home, 8. 
 
 Kearny, Gen., reception at San Domingo, 179. 
 Kendall, George W., narrative quoted, 217-18. 
 Kinney, Andrew, mill of, XXIII-XXIV. 
 Kirker, David, fur trade employe, 106; deserts compan- 
 ions, 133. 
 
288 Index 
 
 Labbadie, Sylvestre, Fur Company partner, 8; career, 35. 
 
 La Cuesta, traders reach, 142. 
 
 Leavenworth, Col. Henry, expedition against Arikaras, 7. 
 
 Lechat, Utah chief, council with Gen. James, 160-62. 
 
 Lewis, Meriwether, estimate of grizzly bears, 77. 
 
 Lewis, Reuben, Fur Company partner, 8; fur-trade ac- 
 tivities, 14-15, 21-22, 27, 98. 
 
 Lewis and Clark expedition, incites fur traders, XVIII- 
 XIX, 5; encounters grizzly bears, 77. 
 
 Liberty pole, at Santa Fe, 153. 
 
 Lisa, Manuel, role in St. Louis Missouri Fur Company 
 activities, XIX, 8, 10-12, 15; career, 10-11; builds 
 forts, 27-28, 56; characterized, 30, 44, 98; employes 
 threaten, 43-44; monopoly of Osage trade, 117. See 
 also Manuel's fort and Manuel Lisa's fort. 
 
 Little Arkansas River, traders reach, 201. 
 
 Little Missouri River, traders ascend, 37-38. 
 
 Little Rock, history, 108-109. 
 
 Long, Major Stephen H., narrative cited, 72; founds Fort 
 Smith, 114. 
 
 Long-knives, Indian name for Americans, 196. 
 
 Luthecaw, , encounter with grizzly bear, 78-79. 
 
 Lyon, Matthew, career, 109-111; grave, XXXVI, 269. 
 
 McDaniel, David, murders Antonio Chavez, 173-74. 
 
 McDaniel, John, murders Antonio Chavez, 173-74. 
 
 McDaniel, , partner of Gen. James, 30, 34-37. 
 
 McKnight, John, partner of Gen. James, XXV, 213, 214; 
 career, 100; accompanies Santa Fe expedition, 105, 
 117; encounter with Comanches, 132-33; rescues 
 brother, 149, 171 ; defends Mexican Indians, 194; visits 
 Harmony Mission, 206; return to St. Louis, 209; seeks 
 payment for stolen property, 210; mission to Co- 
 manches, 220; death, 221, 228, 229, 234, 250, 264. 
 
 McKnight, Robert, brother of John McKnight, 100; 
 Spaniards imprison, 102, 105, 171 ; reunion with broth- 
 er, 149, 171; renounces American citizenship, 171-72; 
 sues debtor, 177-78; defends Mexican Indians, 194; 
 
Index 289 
 
 visits mission stations, 206-208, 273-74; seeks pay- 
 ment for stolen property, 210; member of expedition 
 to Comanches, 213-14, 222-25, 258-62; characterized, 
 226. 
 
 Madison River, fort built, 54-55; adventure of John 
 Goiter, 56-60. 
 
 Malsaw, Frangois, member of Santa Fe expedition, 106, 
 117, 128, 135. 
 
 Mamelle (Maumel) Mountain, described, 113. 
 
 Mandan Indians, traders visit, 25-26, 34-35. See also 
 Shehaka and St. Louis Missouri Fur Company. 
 
 Manuel's fort (at mouth of Big Horn) 36, 42, 56, 62, 87, 
 
 90-91. 
 Manuel Lisa's fort (Missouri Fur Company fort) (above 
 
 Knife River), built, 27-28; Gen. James at, 28-33; 
 
 traders visit, $Q^ 94-96. 
 Marie, , winter journey described, 36-42; encounter 
 
 with grizzly bear, 84-86. 
 
 Mason, , murderer of Antonio Chavez, 173. 
 
 Medicine, Gen. James practices, XXVI; Lewis James, 
 
 XXVII. 
 Medicine Lodge Treaty, 4. 
 Medicine men, activities described, 198-200. 
 Melgares, Gov. Facundo, Gen. James interviews, 149, 
 
 !75~76; relations with Lieut. Z. M. Pike, 154; reviews 
 
 militia, 166-67; arbitrary rule, 167-70; characterized, 
 
 176. 
 
 Menard, Pierre, Fur Company partner, 8; career, 33-34; 
 characterized, 44; leader of trading party, 43, 66, 75- 
 76, 87-97. 
 
 Mexicans, news of Revolution, 135; celebration of Inde- 
 pendence, 152-56; history of Revolution, 143; war- 
 fare with Navahoes, 158-59, 163-67; profligacy, 152, 
 !54~56; militia characterized, 166-67; administration 
 of justice, 176-78; Americans acquire Mexican citizen- 
 ship, 102, 171-72. 
 
 Miller, , partner of Gen. James, 30, 34-37. 
 
 Miller, Gov. James, career, 111-12. 
 
290 Index 
 
 Missions, to Indians. See Harmony, Dwight, and Union 
 Missions. 
 
 Missouri Fur Company Fort. See Manuel Lisa's fort. 
 
 Missouri Historical Society, publishes Gen. James' nar- 
 rative, XXVIII, XXX, XXXIV; aid acknowledged, 
 XXXI, XXXV. 
 
 Monroe City, home of Gen. Thomas James, XXII-XXVI. 
 
 Morrison, Samuel, Fur Company partner, 8. 
 
 Morrison, William, career, 34. 
 
 Navahoe Indians, warfare with Spanish, 136, 158-59, 
 
 163-67; characterized, 158-59; history, 159. 
 Neosho (Grand, Six Bulls) River, Gen. James' party reaches, 
 
 202; crossed, 203; Fort Gibson established on, 116. 
 Niles, Nathaniel, co-author of Gen. James' narrative, 
 
 XXVIII. 
 North Fork of Canadian River, Gen. James' party ascends, 
 
 215-22. See also Beaver Creek. 
 Nuttall, Thomas, narrative quoted, 113, 270. 
 
 O'Fallon, Benjamin, quoted, 73; career, 245-46. 
 
 Omaha Indians, history, 19. 
 
 One-eyed Chief, Comanche Indian, hostility, 124, 128- 
 30; interviews with, 232-39; adopts Gen. James as 
 "brother," 237; visits fort, 242-53; farewell message, 
 
 254-55. 
 
 Ortise, Francisco, Gen. James meets, 142-43; interpreter 
 for, 149; gives information, 167; employed, 167-69. 
 
 Osage Indians, warfare with Cherokees, 114; village 
 visited, 116-18, 197-98; warfare with Comanches, 
 150, 218-19, 225-26, 233-40, 245-47, 252-53; Paw- 
 nees defeat, 192-93; removal to Oklahoma, 196; rob 
 traders, 195, 198-99, 201-205, 251-52; missions estab- 
 lished, 206-207; Gen. James' claims against, 210; war- 
 fare with Caddoes, 259-60. 
 
 Pawnee Indians, history, 107; Gen. James encounters, 
 187-94, 245-47; warfare with Osages, 192-93; con- 
 
Index 291 
 
 fusion with Towash (Wichita) Indians, 224; cause 
 death of John McKnight, 251; allies of Comanches, 
 261 ; confusion with Comanches, 275-76. 
 
 Pawnee Pict Indians, 224. 
 
 Pecos Pueblo, traders pass, 144-46; history, 145-46; 
 delegation visits Santa Fe, 157-58. 
 
 Pecos River, traders reach, 142-43. 
 
 Pelche, , trader, 196-97. 
 
 Pelton, Archibald, encounter with grizzly bear, 78-79; 
 career, 79-80. 
 
 Pike, Lieut. Zebulon M., report of, incites Santa Fe trad- 
 ers, 101-102; expedition, 103-104; reception by Span- 
 iards, 179. 
 
 Pike's Peak, confusion over name, 141-42. 
 
 Pino, , buys Gen. James' goods, 173-74. 
 
 Placota, Shawnee, murders Indians, 95-96. 
 
 Potter, Benjamin, fur trade employe, 106, 221; inter- 
 preter, 222-23, 226, 232. 
 
 Potts, , Indians kill, 56-57. 
 
 Powder (Gunpowder) River, route via, 38. 
 
 Pryor, Nathaniel, career, 6-7; Arikaras defeat, 24; Gen. 
 James encounters, 117-19; joins expedition to Santa 
 Fe, 119. 
 
 Pryor, Okla., named for Nathaniel Pryor, 117. 
 
 Pryor Creek, named for Nathaniel Pryor, 117. 
 
 Pueblo Indians, characterized, 156-57. 
 
 Quahe, Letitia M., aid acknowledged, XXXVI. 
 
 Racola, home of Dr. Lewis James, XXVII. 
 
 Rattlesnake oil, as remedy, 218-19. 
 
 Reynolds, Gov. John, ghosting of books of, denied. XXIX. 
 
 Ride, Frangois, feud with Cheek, 30-33. 
 
 Rocky Mountains, operations of St. Louis Missouri Fur 
 
 Company, 46-87; traders reach, 141-42; cross, 182- 
 
 86; passes described, 183. 
 Rogers, John, Cherokee chief, hospitality to traders, 
 
 265-67. 
 
292 Index 
 
 Rogers, James, hospitality to traders, 269. 
 Russell, William, founds town, 109. 
 
 Sabine River, as boundary of U.S., 172-73. 
 
 St. Ferdinand. See Florissant. 
 
 St. James, Navahoes massacred at, 164-65. 
 
 St. John, , winter journey described, 36-42; en 
 
 counter with grizzly bear, 84-86. 
 
 St. Louis, fur trade center, XVIII. 
 
 St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, organized, XVIII-XIX 
 partners criticized, XX-XXII, XXIX-XXXI; Upper 
 Missouri expedition of, 5-99; mistreatment of em- 
 ployes, 10-15, 28-30, 98-99; builds forts, 27, 54~55 
 division of force, 87; return of, to St. Louis, 87-97. 
 
 Salt Fork River. See Cimarron River. 
 
 San Domingo Pueblo, reception of Lieut. Pike, 179 
 conversion of Hugh Glenn, 179-81. 
 
 San Felipe Pueblo, delegation visits Santa Fe, 156-57 
 
 San Juan (St. John) Pueblo, reception of Lieut. Pike, 179 
 
 San Miguel, traders pass, 143-44. 
 
 Santa Fe, history of trade, 101-104; Gen. James' expedi 
 tion to, 105-212; city described, 146-48; profligacy 
 of inhabitants, 152, 154-56; celebration of Mexican 
 Independence, 152-56; militia described, 166-67; ad 
 ministration of justice, 176-78. 
 
 Santa Fe Trail, route pioneered, 195. 
 
 Santa Rita de Cobra Copper Mines, 172. 
 
 Scott, Judge Andrew, career, 112. 
 
 Scott, Lieut. Martin, career, 114-15. 
 
 Shearer, William, fur trade employe, 106. 
 
 Shehaka (Big White), Mandan chief, returned to home, 
 XVIII-XIX, 5-9, 26. 
 
 Shields, John, river named for, 84-85. 
 
 Shields River, 84-85. 
 
 Shining Mountains, route via, 120, described, 121-22, 
 
 202. 
 Sibley, George C, describes Shining Mountains, 121, 
 202; U.S. Factor at Fort Osage, 202-203. 
 
Index 293 
 
 Sioux Indians, history, 20; traders encounter, 19-22. 
 
 Six Bulls River. See Neosho River. 
 
 Small Pox, epidemic destroys Mandans, 25. 
 
 Smith, Gen. Thomas A., Fort Smith named for, 114. 
 
 Snake Indians, neighboring tribes prey upon, 45-46, 88- 
 89; history, 46; friendship for Americans, 80-81. 
 
 Snow-blindness, sufferings from, 46-47, 49-51. 
 
 Snyder, Dr. John F., reports authorship of Gen. James' 
 narrative, XXVIII-XXXI. 
 
 South Pass, discovery, 19. 
 
 Spaniards, rescue Gen. James' party, 134-40; profligacy, 
 152, 154-56; superiority of Indians to, 158-62; war- 
 fare with Navahoes, 163-67; administration of justice, 
 176-78; massacre Comanches, 184-86; imprison trad- 
 ers, 101-102, 105, 171-72, 197; liars, 233; captives of 
 Comanches, 244-45. See also Mexicans. 
 
 Spadra, history, 110; traders pass, 269. 
 
 Stevens, Frank E., publishes portrait of General James, 
 XXXIII, XXXVI. 
 
 Stones, Mrs. Elleine, aid acknowledged, XXXV. 
 
 Taos, history, 180. 
 
 Teton Sioux, traders encounter, 19-22. 
 
 Texans, invade New Mexico, 173; threaten Santa Fe 
 
 traders, 174. 
 Three Forks, objective of trappers, 46-54; fort built, 54- 
 
 55 ; operations of trappers around, 56-87. 
 Tonish (Antoine DeHatre), characterized, 196-97. 
 Towash (Wichita) Indians, history, 224; visit Gen. James' 
 
 fort, 224-26, 233-56. See also Alsarea. 
 Twenty-five Yard River, name, 84-85. 
 
 Union Mission, history, 206. 
 
 U.S. Factory System, history, 205. 
 
 Utah Indians, council with Gen. James, 159-62. 
 
 Vaill, Rev. Wm. F. superintendent of Union Mission, 
 206, 268-74; career, 271. 
 
294 Index 
 
 Valle, Frangois, career, 33; encounter with Blackfeet, 
 69-74. 
 
 Van Ravensvvaay, Charles, aid acknowledged, XXXV. 
 
 Varnum, Justus, illness cured, 219-20. 
 
 Vaugean, , traders visit, 107; Gen. James mistaken 
 
 for son, 139-40. 
 
 Verdigris River, traders pass, 115; trading posts on, 118. 
 
 Voyageurs, Canadian, characterized, XX-XXI; em- 
 ployed by Fur Company, 9-13. 
 
 Webber, Walter, Cherokee chief, career, 270. 
 
 Weir, William, career 48-49; journey to Three Forks, 
 
 48-54 ; trapping activities 65-70 ; encounter with grizzly 
 
 bear, 77-78. 
 White Bear, Comanche chief, threatens traders, 133. 
 White Hair, Osage chief, career, 203-204. 
 White Hair's village, traders visit, 203. 
 Wichita Indians. See Towash Indians. 
 Wilson, James, fur trade employe, 106; bravery, 132. 
 Whon (John), Indian interpreter, visits fort, 225-26. 
 Wyant, Mrs. Lucille R., aid acknowledged, XXXVI. 
 
 Yellowstone River, traders ascend, 38-42; descend, 
 88-94; Bad Lands of, 91-93. See also Manuel's fort. 
 
Clje Hafeegfoe Classic* 
 
 Number Title Year 
 
 1. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin . 1903 
 
 2. Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the 
 
 United States from Washington to Lincoln 1904 
 
 3. Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the 
 
 United States from Johnson to Roosevelt . 1905 
 
 4. Fruits of Solitude by William Penn . . 1906 
 
 5. Memorable American Speeches 
 
 I. The Colonial Period 1907 
 
 6. Memorable American Speeches 
 
 II. Democracy and Nationality . 1908 
 
 7. Memorable American Speeches 
 
 III. Slavery 1909 
 
 8. Memorable American Speeches 
 
 IV. Secession, War, Reconstruction . . 1910 
 
 9. The Autobiography of Gurdon Saltonstall 
 
 Hubbard 1911 
 
 10. Reminiscences of Early Chicago .... 1912 
 
 11. Reminiscences of Chicago During the Forties 
 
 and Fifties 1913 
 
 12. Reminiscences of Chicago During the Civil 
 
 War 1914 
 
 13. Reminiscences of Chicago During the Great 
 
 Fire 1915 
 
 14. Life of Black Hawk 1916 
 
 15. The Indian Captivity of O. M. Spencer . . 1917 
 
 16. Pictures of Illinois One Hundred Years Ago 1918 
 
 17. A Woman's Story of Pioneer Illinois by Chris- 
 
 tiana Holmes Tillson 1919 
 
 18. The Conquest of the Illinois by George 
 
 Rogers Clark 1920 
 
 295 
 
296 The Lakeside Classics 
 
 Nu mber Title Tea r 
 
 19. Alexander Henry's Travels and Adventures 
 
 in the Years 1760-1776 1921 
 
 20. John Long's Voyages and Travels in the 
 
 Years 1768-1788 1922 
 
 21. Adventures of the First Settlers on the Ore- 
 
 gon or Columbia River by Alexander Ross 1923 
 
 22. The Fur Hunters of the Far West by Alex- 
 
 ander Ross 1924 
 
 23. The Southwestern Expedition of Zebulon M. 
 
 Pike 1925 
 
 24. Commerce of the Prairies by Josiah Gregg . 1926 
 
 25. Death Valley in '49 by William L. Manly . 1927 
 
 26. Bidwell's Echoes of the Past — Steele's In 
 
 Camp and Cabin 1928 
 
 27. Kendall's Texan Santa Fe Expedition . . 1929 
 
 28. Pattie's Personal Narrative 1930 
 
 29. Alexander Mackenzie's Voyage to the Pacific 
 
 Ocean in 1793 1931 
 
 30. Wau-Bun, The "Early Day" in the North- 
 
 West by Mrs. John H. Kinzie .... 1932 
 
 31. Forty Years a Fur Trader by Charles Larpen- 
 
 teur 1933 
 
 32. Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leon- 
 
 ard 1934 
 
 3^. Kit Carson's Autobiography 1935 
 
 34. A True Picture of Emigration by Rebecca 
 
 Burlend . . 1936 
 
 35. The Bark Covered House by William Nowlin 1937 
 
 36. The Border and the Buffalo by John R. Cook 1938 
 
 37. Vanished Arizona by Martha Summerhayes . 1939 
 
 38. War on the Detroit by Thomas Vercheres de 
 
 Boucherville and James Foster .... 1940 
 
The Lakeside Classics 297 
 
 Number Title Year 
 
 39. Army Life in Dakota by De Trobriand . . 1941 
 
 40. The Early Day of Rock Island and Daven- 
 
 port by J. W. Spencer and J. M. D. Bur- 
 rows 1942 
 
 41. Six Years with the Texas Rangers by James 
 
 B. Gillett 1943 
 
 42. Growing Up with Southern Illinois by Daniel 
 
 Harmon Brush 1944 
 
 43. A History of Illinois, Vol. I, by Gov. Thomas 
 
 Ford 1945 
 
 44. A History of Illinois, Vol. II, by Gov. 
 
 Thomas Ford 1946 
 
 45. The Western Country in the 17th Century by 
 
 Lamothe Cadillac and Pierre Liette. . . 1947 
 
 46. Across the Plains in Forty-nine by Reuben 
 
 Cole Shaw 1948 
 
 47. Pictures of Gold Rush California .... 1949 
 
 48. Absaraka by Mrs. Margaret I. Carrington . 1950 
 
 49. The Truth about Geronimo by Britton Davis 1951 
 
 50. My Life on the Plains by General George A. 
 
 Custer 1952 
 
 51. Three Years Among the Indians and Mexi- 
 
 cans by General Thomas James . . . . 1953