Departure from Fort Osage--Modes of transportation--Pack-horses--Wagons--Walker and Cerre; their characters--Buoyant feelings on launchingupon the prairies--Wild equipments of the trappers--Their gambols andantics--Difference of character between the American and French trappers-- Agencyof the Kansas--General Clarke--White Plume, the Kansas chief--Night scene in atrader's camp--Colloquy between White Plume and the captain--Bee-hunters--Theirexpeditions--Their feuds with the Indians--Bargaining talent of White Plume IT WAS ON THE FIRST of May, 1832, that Captain Bonneville took his departure fromthe frontier post of Fort Osage, on the Missouri. He had enlisted a party of one hundredand ten men, most of whom had been in the Indian country, and some of whom wereexperienced hunters and trappers. Fort Osage, and other places on the borders of thewestern wilderness, abound with characters of the kind, ready for any expedition.
The ordinary mode of transportation in these great inland expeditions of the fur tradersis on mules and pack-horses; but Captain Bonneville substituted wagons. Though hewas to travel through a trackless wilderness, yet the greater part of his route would lieacross open plains, destitute of forests, and where wheel carriages can pass in everydirection. The chief difficulty occurs in passing the deep ravines cut through the prairiesby streams and winter torrents. Here it is often necessary to dig a road down the banks,and to make bridges for the wagons.
In transporting his baggage in vehicles of this kind, Captain Bonneville thought hewould save the great delay caused every morning by packing the horses, and the laborof unpacking in the evening. Fewer horses also would be required, and less riskincurred of their wandering away, or being frightened or carried off by the Indians. Thewagons, also, would be more easily defended, and might form a kind of fortification incase of attack in the open prairies. A train of twenty wagons, drawn by oxen, or by fourmules or horses each, and laden with merchandise, ammunition, and provisions, weredisposed in two columns in the center of the party, which was equally divided into a vanand a rear-guard. As subleaders or lieutenants in his expedition, Captain Bonnevillehad made choice of Mr. J. R. Walker and Mr. M. S. Cerre. The former was a native ofTennessee, about six feet high, strong built, dark complexioned, brave in spirit, thoughmild in manners. He had resided for many years in Missouri, on the frontier; had beenamong the earliest adventurers to Santa Fe, where he went to trap beaver, and wastaken by the Spaniards. Being liberated, he engaged with the Spaniards and SiouxIndians in a war against the Pawnees; then returned to Missouri, and had acted byturns as sheriff, trader, trapper, until he was enlisted as a leader by Captain Bonneville.
Cerre, his other leader, had likewise been in expeditions to Santa Fe, in which he hadendured much hardship. He was of the middle size, light complexioned, and though butabout twenty-five years of age, was considered an experienced Indian trader. It was agreat object with Captain Bonneville to get to the mountains before the summer heatsand summer flies should render the travelling across the prairies distressing; and beforethe annual assemblages of people connected with the fur trade should have broken up,and dispersed to the hunting grounds.
The two rival associations already mentioned, the American Fur Company and theRocky Mountain Fur Company, had their several places of rendezvous for the presentyear at no great distance apart, in Pierre's Hole, a deep valley in the heart of themountains, and thither Captain Bonneville intended to shape his course.
It is not easy to do justice to the exulting feelings of the worthy captain at finding himselfat the head of a stout band of hunters, trappers, and woodmen; fairly launched on thebroad prairies, with his face to the boundless West. The tamest inhabitant of cities, theveriest spoiled child of civilization, feels his heart dilate and his pulse beat high onfinding himself on horseback in the glorious wilderness; what then must be theexcitement of one whose imagination had been stimulated by a residence on thefrontier, and to whom the wilderness was a region of romance!
His hardy followers partook of his excitement. Most of them had already experiencedthe wild freedom of savage life, and looked forward to a renewal of past scenes ofadventure and exploit. Their very appearance and equipment exhibited a piebaldmixture, half civilized and half savage. Many of them looked more like Indians thanwhite men in their garbs and accoutrements, and their very horses were caparisoned inbarbaric style, with fantastic trappings. The outset of a band of adventurers on one ofthese expeditions is always animated and joyous. The welkin rang with their shouts andyelps, after the manner of the savages; and with boisterous jokes and light-heartedlaughter. As they passed the straggling hamlets and solitary cabins that fringe the skirtsof the frontier, they would startle their inmates by Indian yells and war-whoops, orregale them with grotesque feats of horsemanship, well suited to their halfsavageappearance. Most of these abodes were inhabited by men who had themselves been insimilar expeditions; they welcomed the travellers, therefore, as brother trappers, treatedthem with a hunter's hospitality, and cheered them with an honest God speed atparting.
