第31章

TAKING FRENCH LEAVE

On the 8th of June, at eleven o'clock, we reached the South Fork of the Platte, at the usual fording place.For league upon league the desert uniformity of the prospect was almost unbroken; the hills were dotted with little tufts of shriveled grass, but betwixt these the white sand was glaring in the sun; and the channel of the river, almost on a level with the plain, was but one great sand-bed, about half a mile wide.It was covered with water, but so scantily that the bottom was scarcely hidden; for, wide as it is, the average depth of the Platte does not at this point exceed a foot and a half.

Stopping near its bank, we gathered bois de vache, and made a meal of buffalo meat.Far off, on the other side, was a green meadow, where we could see the white tents and wagons of an emigrant camp; and just opposite to us we could discern a group of men and animals at the water's edge.Four or five horsemen soon entered the river, and in ten minutes had waded across and clambered up the loose sand-bank.

They were ill-looking fellows, thin and swarthy, with care-worn, anxious faces and lips rigidly compressed.They had good cause for anxiety; it was three days since they first encamped here, and on the night of their arrival they had lost 123 of their best cattle, driven off by the wolves, through the neglect of the man on guard.This discouraging and alarming calamity was not the first that had overtaken them.Since leaving the settlements, they had met with nothing but misfortune.Some of their party had died; one man had been killed by the Pawnees; and about a week before, they had been plundered by the Dakotas of all their best horses, the wretched animals on which our visitors were mounted being the only ones that were left.They had encamped, they told us, near sunset, by the side of the Platte, and their oxen were scattered over the meadow, while the band of horses were feeding a little farther off.Suddenly the ridges of the hills were alive with a swarm of mounted Indians, at least six hundred in number, who, with a tremendous yell, came pouring down toward the camp, rushing up within a few rods, to the great terror of the emigrants; but suddenly wheeling, they swept around the band of horses, and in five minutes had disappeared with their prey through the openings of the hills.

As these emigrants were telling their story, we saw four other men approaching.They proved to be R.and his companions, who had encountered no mischance of any kind, but had only wandered too far in pursuit of the game.They said they had seen no Indians, but only "millions of buffalo"; and both R.and Sorel had meat dangling behind their saddles.

The emigrants re-crossed the river, and we prepared to follow.First the heavy ox-wagons plunged down the bank, and dragged slowly over the sand-beds; sometimes the hoofs of the oxen were scarcely wetted by the thin sheet of water; and the next moment the river would be boiling against their sides, and eddying fiercely around the wheels.

Inch by inch they receded from the shore, dwindling every moment, until at length they seemed to be floating far in the very middle of the river.A more critical experiment awaited us; for our little mule-cart was but ill-fitted for the passage of so swift a stream.

We watched it with anxiety till it seemed to be a little motionless white speck in the midst of the waters; and it WAS motionless, for it had stuck fast in a quicksand.The little mules were losing their footing, the wheels were sinking deeper and deeper, and the water began to rise through the bottom and drench the goods within.All of us who had remained on the hither bank galloped to the rescue; the men jumped into the water, adding their strength to that of the mules, until by much effort the cart was extricated, and conveyed in safety across.

As we gained the other bank, a rough group of men surrounded us.

They were not robust, nor large of frame, yet they had an aspect of hardy endurance.Finding at home no scope for their fiery energies, they had betaken themselves to the prairie; and in them seemed to be revived, with redoubled force, that fierce spirit which impelled their ancestors, scarce more lawless than themselves, from the German forests, to inundate Europe and break to pieces the Roman empire.Afortnight afterward this unfortunate party passed Fort Laramie, while we were there.Not one of their missing oxen had been recovered, though they had remained encamped a week in search of them; and they had been compelled to abandon a great part of their baggage and provisions, and yoke cows and heifers to their wagons to carry them forward upon their journey, the most toilsome and hazardous part of which lay still before them.

It is worth noticing that on the Platte one may sometimes see the shattered wrecks of ancient claw-footed tables, well waxed and rubbed, or massive bureaus of carved oak.These, many of them no doubt the relics of ancestral prosperity in the colonial time, must have encountered strange vicissitudes.Imported, perhaps, originally from England; then, with the declining fortunes of their owners, borne across the Alleghenies to the remote wilderness of Ohio or Kentucky; then to Illinois or Missouri; and now at last fondly stowed away in the family wagon for the interminable journey to Oregon.But the stern privations of the way are little anticipated.The cherished relic is soon flung out to scorch and crack upon the hot prairie.

We resumed our journey; but we had gone scarcely a mile, when R.

called out from the rear:

"We'll camp here."

"Why do you want to camp? Look at the sun.It is not three o'clock yet.""We'll camp here!"

This was the only reply vouchsafed.Delorier was in advance with his cart.Seeing the mule-wagon wheeling from the track, he began to turn his own team in the same direction.