CHAPTER XXII.
Wilderness of the Far West.- Great American Desert- Parched Seasons. -Black Hills.-
Rocky Mountains.- Wandering and Predatory Hordes. -Speculations on What May Be
the Future Population.-Apprehended Dangers.-A Plot to Desert.-Rose the Interpreter.-
His Sinister Character- Departure From the Arickara Village.
WHILE Mr. Hunt was diligently preparing for his arduous journey, some of his men
began to lose heart at the perilous prospect before them; but before we accuse them of
want of spirit, it is proper to consider the nature of the wilderness into which they were
about to adventure. It was a region almost as vast and trackless as the ocean, and, at
the time of which we treat, but little known, excepting through the vague accounts of
Indian hunters. A part of their route would lay across an immense tract, stretching north
and south for hundreds of miles along the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and drained by
the tributary streams of the Missouri and the Mississippi. This region, which resembles
one of the immeasurable steppes of Asia, has not inaptly been termed "the great
American desert." It spreads forth into undulating and treeless plains, and desolate
sandy wastes wearisome to the eye from their extent and monotony, and which are
supposed by geologists to have formed the ancient floor of the ocean, countless ages
since, when its primeval waves beat against the granite bases of the Rocky Mountains.
It is a land where no man permanently abides; for, in certain seasons of the year there
is no food either for the hunter or his steed. The herbage is parched and withered; the
brooks and streams are dried up; the buffalo, the elk and the deer have wandered to
distant parts, keeping within the verge of expiring verdure, and leaving behind them a
vast uninhabited solitude, seamed by ravines, the beds of former torrents, but now
serving only to tantalize and increase the thirst of the traveller.
Occasionally the monotony of this vast wilderness is interrupted by mountainous belts
of sand and limestone, broken into confused masses; with precipitous cliffs and
yawning ravines, looking like the ruins of a world; or is traversed by lofty and barren
ridges of rock, almost impassable, like those denominated the Black Hills. Beyond
these rise the stern barriers of the Rocky Mountains, the limits, as it were, of the
Atlantic world. The rugged defiles and deep valleys of this vast chain form sheltering
places for restless and ferocious bands of savages, many of them the remnants of
tribes, once inhabitants of the prairies, but broken up by war and violence, and who
carry into their mountain haunts the fierce passions and reckless habits of
desperadoes.
Such is the nature of this immense wilderness of the far West; which apparently defies
cultivation, and the habitation of civilized life. Some portions of it along the rivers may
partially be subdued by agriculture, others may form vast pastoral tracts, like those of
the East; but it is to be feared that a great part of it will form a lawless interval between
the abodes of civilized man, like the wastes of the ocean or the deserts of Arabia; and,
like them, be subject to the depredations of the marauder. Here may spring up new and
mongrel races, like new formations in geology, the amalgamation of the "debris" and
"abrasions" of former races, civilized and savage; the remains of broken and almost
extinguished tribes; the descendants of wandering hunters and trappers; of fugitives
from the Spanish and American frontiers; of adventurers and desperadoes of every
class and country, yearly ejected from the bosom of society into the wilderness. We are
contributing incessantly to swell this singular and heterogeneous cloud of wild
population that is to hang about our frontier, by the transfer of whole tribes from the
east of the Mississippi to the great wastes of the far West. Many of these bear with
them the smart of real or fancied injuries; many consider themselves expatriated
beings, wrongfully exiled from their hereditary homes, and the sepulchres of their
fathers, and cherish a deep and abiding animosity against the race that has
dispossessed them. Some may gradually become pastoral hordes, like those rude and
migratory people, half shepherd, half warrior, who, with their flocks and herds, roam the
plains of upper Asia; but others, it is to be apprehended, will become predatory bands,
mounted on the fleet steeds of the prairies, with the open plains for their marauding
grounds, and the mountains for their retreats and lurking-places. Here they may
resemble those great hordes of the North, "Gog and Magog with their bands," that
haunted the gloomy imaginations of the prophets. "A great company and a mighty host,
all riding upon horses, and warring upon those nations which were at rest, and dwelt
peaceably, and had gotten cattle and goods."
The Spaniards changed the whole character and habits of the Indians when they
brought the horse among them. In Chili, Tucuman, and other parts, it has converted
them, we are told, into Tartar-like tribes, and enabled them to keep the Spaniards out of
their country, and even to make it dangerous for them to venture far from their towns
and settlements. Are we not in danger of producing some such state of things in the
boundless regions of the far West? That these are not mere fanciful and extravagant
suggestions we have sufficient proofs in the dangers already experienced by the
traders to the Spanish mart of Santa Fe, and to the distant posts of the fur companies.
These are obliged to proceed in armed caravans, and are subject to murderous attacks
from bands of Pawnees, Camanches, and Blackfeet, that come scouring upon them in
their weary march across the plains, or lie in wait for them among the passes of the
mountains.
We are wandering, however, into excursive speculations, when our intention was
merely to give an idea of the nature of the wilderness which Mr. Hunt was about to
traverse; and which at that time was far less known than at present; though it still
remains in a great measure an unknown land. We cannot be surprised, therefore, that
some of the resolute of his party should feel dismay at the thoughts of adventuring into
this perilous wilderness under the uncertain guidance of three hunters, who had merely
passed once through the country and might have forgotten the landmarks. Their
apprehensions were aggravated by some of Lisa's followers, who, not being engaged
in the expedition, took a mischievous pleasure in exaggerating its dangers. They
painted in strong colors, to the poor Canadian voyageurs, the risk they would run of
perishing with hunger and thirst; of being cut off by war-parties of the Sioux who
scoured the plains; of having their horses stolen by the Upsarokas or Crows, who
infested the skirts of the Rocky Mountains; or of being butchered by the Blackfeet, who
lurked among the defiles. In a word, there was little chance of their getting alive across
the mountains; and even if they did, those three guides knew nothing of the howling
wilderness that lay beyond.
The apprehensions thus awakened in the minds of some of the men came well-nigh
proving detrimental to the expedition. Some of them determined to desert, and to make
their way back to St. Louis. They accordingly purloined several weapons and a barrel
of gunpowder, as ammunition for their enterprise, and buried them in the river bank,
intending to seize one of the boats, and make off in the night. Fortunately their plot was
overheard by John Day, the Kentuckian, and communicated to the partners, who took
quiet and effectual means to frustrate it.
The dangers to be apprehended from the Crow Indians had not been overrated by the
camp gossips. These savages, through whose mountain haunts the party would have
to pass, were noted for daring and excursive habits, and great dexterity in horse
stealing. Mr. Hunt, therefore, considered himself fortunate in having met with a man
who might be of great use to him in any intercourse he might have with the tribe. This
was a wandering individual named Edward Rose, whom he had picked up somewhere
on the Missouri - one of those anomalous beings found on the frontier, who seem to
have neither kin nor country. He had lived some time among the Crows, so as to
become acquainted with their language and customs; and was, withal, a dogged,
sullen, silent fellow, with a sinister aspect, and more of the savage than the civilized
man in his appearance. He was engaged to serve in general as a hunter, but as guide
and interpreter when they should reach the country of the Crows.
On the 18th of July, Mr. Hunt took up his line of march by land from the Arickara village,
leaving Mr. Lisa and Mr. Nuttall there, where they intended to await the expected arrival
of Mr. Henry from the Rocky Mountains. As to Messrs. Bradbury and Breckenridge,
they had departed some days previously, on a voyage down the river to St. Louis, with
a detachment from Mr. Lisa's party. With all his exertions, Mr. Hunt had been unable to
obtain a sufficient number of horses for the accommodation of all his people. His
cavalcade consisted of eighty-two horses, most of them heavily laden with Indian
goods, beaver traps, ammunition, Indian corn, corn meal and other necessaries. Each
of the partners was mounted, and a horse was allotted to the interpreter, Pierre Dorion,
for the transportation of his luggage and his two children. His squaw, for the most part
of the time, trudged on foot, like the residue of the party; nor did any of the men show
more patience and fortitude than this resolute woman in enduring fatigue and hardship.
The veteran trappers and voyageurs of Lisa's party shook their heads as their
comrades set out, and took leave of them as of doomed men; and even Lisa himself
gave it as his opinion, after the travellers had departed, they would never reach the
shores of the Pacific, but would either perish with hunger in the wilderness, or be cut off
by the savages.