University of Virginia Library

35. CHAPTER XXXV.

It was a little after one o'clock when we again
resumed our weary way-faring. The residue
of that day and the whole of the next were
spent in toilsome travel. Part of the way was
over stony hills, part across wide prairies, rendered
spongy and miry by the recent rain, and
cut up by brooks swollen into torrents. Our
poor horses were so feeble, that it was with difficulty
we could get them across the deep ravines
and turbulent streams. In traversing the
miry plains, they slipped and staggered at every
step, and most of us were obliged to dismount
and walk for the greater part of the way. Hunger
prevailed throughout the troop; every one
began to look anxious and haggard, and to feel
the growing length of each additional mile.
At one time, in crossing a hill, Beatte climbed
a high tree, commanding a wide prospect, and
took a look out, like a mariner from the masthead
at sea. He came down with cheering
tidings. To the left he had beheld a line of

forest stretching across the country, which he
knew to be the woody border of the Arkansas;
and at a distance he had recognised certain
landmarks, from which he concluded that we
could not be above forty miles distant from the
fort. It was like the welcome cry of land to
tempest-tossed mariners.

In fact we soon after saw smoke rising from
a woody glen at a distance. It was supposed
to be made by a hunting party of Creek or
Osage Indians from the neighbourhood of the
fort, and was joyfully hailed as a harbinger of
man. It was now confidently hoped that we
would soon arrive among the frontier hamlets
of Creek Indians, which are scattered along the
skirts of the uninhabited wilderness; and our
hungry rangers trudged forward with reviving
spirit, regaling themselves with savoury anticipations
of farm-house luxuries, and enumerating
every article of good cheer, until their mouths
fairly watered at the shadowy feasts thus conjured
up.

A hungry night, however, closed in upon a
toilsome day. We encamped on the border of
one of the tributary streams of the Arkansas,
amidst the ruins of a stately grove that had
been riven by a hurricane. The blast had torn
its way through the forest in a narrow column,
and its course was marked by enormous trees

shivered and splintered, and upturned, with
their roots in the air: all lay in one direction,
like so many brittle reeds broken and trodden
down by the hunter.

Here was fuel in abundance, without the labour
of the axe: we had soon immense fires
blazing and sparkling in the frosty air, and lighting
up the whole forest; but, alas! we had no
meat to cook at them. The scarcity in the
camp almost amounted to famine. Happy was
he who had a morsel of jerked meat, or even
the half picked bones of a former repast. For
our part, we were more lucky at our mess than
our neighbours; one of our men having shot a
turkey. We had no bread to eat with it, nor
salt to season it withal. It was simply boiled
in water; the latter was served up as soup, and
we were fain to rub each morsel of the turkey
on the empty salt bag, in hopes some saline particle
might remain to relieve its insipidity.

The night was biting cold; the brilliant moonlight
sparkled on the frosty crystals which covered
every object around us. The water froze
beside the skins on which we bivouacked, and
in the morning I found the blanket in which I
was wrapped covered with a hoar frost; yet I
had never slept more comfortably.

After a shadow of a breakfast, consisting of
turkey bones and a cup of coffee without sugar,

we decamped at an early hour; for hunger is a
sharp quickener on a journey. The prairies
were all gemmed with frost, that covered the
tall weeds and glistened in the sun. We saw
great flights of prairie hens, that hovered from
tree to tree, or sat in rows along the naked
branches, waiting until the sun should melt the
frost from the weeds and herbage. Our rangers
no longer despised such humble game, but turned
from the ranks in pursuit of a prairie hen as
eagerly as they formerly would go in pursuit of
a deer.

Every one now pushed forward, anxious to
arrive at some human habitation before night.
The poor horses were urged beyond their
strength, in the thought of soon being able to
indemnify them for present toil, by rest and ample
provender. Still the distances seemed to
stretch out more than ever, and the blue hills
pointed out as landmarks on the horizon, to recede,
as we advanced. Every step became a
labour; every now and then a miserable horse
would give out and lie down. His owner would
raise him by main strength, force him forward
to the margin of some stream, where there
might be a scanty border of herbage, and then
abandon him to his fate. Among those that
were thus left on the way, was one of the led
horses of the Count; a prime hunter, that had

taken the lead of every thing in the chase of
the wild horses. It was intended, however, as
soon as we should arrive at the fort, to send out
a party provided with corn, to bring in such of
the horses as should survive.

In the course of the morning, we came upon
Indian tracks, crossing each other in various directions,
a proof that we must be in the neighbourhood
of human habitations. At length, on
passing through a skirt of wood, we beheld two
or three log houses, sheltered under lofty trees
on the border of a prairie, the habitations of
Creek Indians, who had small farms adjacent.
Had they been sumptuous villas, abounding with
the luxuries of civilization, they could not have
been hailed with greater delight.

Some of the rangers rode up to them in quest
of food: the greater part, however, pushed forward
in search of the habitation of a white settler,
which we were told was at no great distance.
The troop soon disappeared among the trees,
and I followed slowly in their track; for, my
once fleet and generous steed, faltered under
me, and was just able to drag one foot after the
other, yet I was too wearv and exhausted to
spare him.

In this way we crept on, until, on turning
a thick clump of trees, a frontier farm house
suddenly presented itself to view, It was a low

tenement of logs, overshadowed by great forest
trees, but it seemed as if a very region of Cocaigne
prevailed around it. Here was a stable
and barn, and granaries teeming with abundance,
while legions of grunting swine, gobbling turkeys,
cackling hens and strutting roosters,
swarmed about the farm yard.

My poor jaded and half famished horse, raised
his head and pricked up his ears, at the well known
sights and sounds. He gave a chuckling inward
sound, something like a dry laugh; whisked his
tail, and made great leeway toward a corn crib,
filled with golden ears of maize, and it was with
some difficulty that I could control his course,
and steer him up to the door of the cabin. A
single glance within was sufficient to raise every
gastronomic faculty. There sat the Captain of
the rangers and his officers, round a three legged
table, crowned by a broad and smoking dish of
boiled beef and turnips. I sprang off of my
horse in an instant, cast him loose to make his
way to the corn crib, and entered this palace of
plenty. A fat good humoured negress received
me at the door. She was the mistress of the
house, the spouse of the white man, who was
absent. I hailed her as some swart fairy of the
wild, that had suddenly conjured up a banquet
in a desert; and a banquet was it in good sooth.
In a twinkling, she lugged from the fire a huge

iron pot, that might have rivalled one of the famous
flesh pots of Egypt, or the witches' caldron
in Macbeth. Placing a brown earthen dish
on the floor, she inclined the corpulent caldron
on one side, and out leaped sundry great morsels
of beef, with a regiment of turnips tumbling after
them, and a rich cascade of broth, overflowing
the whole. This she handed me with an ivory
smile that extended from ear to ear; apologizing
for our humble fare, and the humble style in
which it was served up. Humble fare! humble
style! Boiled beef and turnips, and an earthen
dish to eat them from! To think of apologizing
for such a treat to a half-starved man from the
prairies; and then such magnificent slices of
bread and butter! Head of Apicius, what a banquet!

“The rage of hunger” being appeased, I began
to think of my horse. He, however, like an
old campaigner, had taken good care of himself.
I found him paying assiduous attention to the
crib of Indian corn, and dexterously drawing
forth and munching the ears that protruded between
the bars. It was with great regret that
I interrupted his repast, which he abandoned
with a heavy sigh, or rather a rumbling groan.
I was anxious, however, to rejoin my travelling
companions, who had passed by the farm-house
without stopping, and proceeded to the banks of

the Arkansas; being in the hopes of arriving
before night at the Osage Agency. Leaving
the Captain and his troop, therefore, amidst the
abundance of the farm, where they had determined
to quarter themselves for the night, I
bade adieu to our sable hostess, and again pushed
forward.

A ride of about a mile brought me to where
my comrades were waiting on the banks of the
Arkansas, which here poured along between
beautiful forests. A number of Creek Indians,
in their brightly coloured dresses, looking like
so many gay tropical birds, were busy aiding
our men to transport the baggage across the
river in a canoe. While this was doing, our
horses had another regale from two great cribs
heaped up with ears of Indian corn, which stood
near the edge of the river. We had to keep a
check upon the poor half famished animals, lest
they should injure themselves by their voracity.

The baggage being all carried to the opposite
bank, we embarked in the canoe, and swam our
horses across the river. I was fearful, lest in
their enfeebled state, they should not be able to
stem the current; but their banquet of Indian
corn had already infused fresh life and spirit into
them, and it would appear as if they were cheered
by the instinctive consciousness of their approach
to home, where they would soon be at

rest, and in plentiful cuarters; for no sooner had
we landed and resumed our route, than they set
off on a hand-gallop, and continued so for a
great part of seven miles, that we had to ride
through the woods.

It was an early hour in the evening when we
arrived at the Agency, on the banks of the Verdigris
river, from whence we had set off about a
month before. Here we passed the night comfortably
quartered; yet, after having been accustomed
to sleep in the open air, the confinement
of a chamber was, in some respects,
irksome. The atmosphere seemed close, and
destitute of freshness; and when I woke in the
night and gazed about me upon complete darkness,
I missed the glorious companionship of
the stars.

The next morning after breakfast, I again set
forward in company with the worthy Commissioner,
for Fort Gibson, where we arrived much
tattered, travel-stained and weather-beaten, but
in high health and spirits;—and thus ended my
foray into the Pawnee Hunting Grounds.