University of Virginia Library

1. CHAPTER I.

At one of the sources of the Arkansas River—an inconsiderable
stream of limpid water, coming fresh and pure from the eastern
slope of the Rocky Mountains—a thousand miles beyond the permanent
habitations of the anglo-saxon race on the western continent,
an abode had been established by the little party whose adventures
are narrated in the ensuing pages.

The delta in which the settlement was located, had been accidentally
discovered; and it was in the vicinity of one of the hitherto
unexplored arid and desert regions, where the gloom of desolation
still abides, and where neither man nor beast may ever find the
means of subsistence.

But the delta itself was an oasis in the desert. When the eyes
of the devoted pioneer first rested on it, and as he gazed westward
from a lofty mound, he lifted up his hands and pronounced it “The
Happy Valley.” Standing as yet afar off, he dismissed the faithful
band of savages which had guided and guarded the party for many
weeks, and even months, in the wilderness.

In the dim distance, the huge mountain reared aloft its dark majestic
brow, indistinctly seen over the intervening forest which
shaded the translucent stream, as it brawled into the happy valley,
where all was peace and tranquility. But even the tops of the lofty
trees which surrounded the delta, and fringed the natural embankments
of the alluvial tract, teeming with luxuriant vegetation, seemed,
in the distance, to the weary traveller, as patches of dwarfed
shrubbery, repulsing rather than inviting the approach of weary

wanderers. It was by means of his telescope, that the leader of the
party had distinguished them from the illusory landscapes of the
mirage; and when he had drawn near enough to obtain a view of
the valley, he felt convinced that his journey was completed, and
that he had found a refuge, which if not inaccessible to others of
his race, was at least one not likely to be discovered by idle intruders.

The delta, or rich level land of Happy Valley, was a thousand
yards in diameter, and the location in the centre, selected for the
erection of buildings, was beyond the reach of arrows from the shelving
and timbered embankments surrounding it on every hand, rather
as natural defences than as menacing positions for the assaults
of an enemy. At the upper or western end of the delta, the stream
from the mountain was parted by an immense pile of rocks, and
flowed to the right and the left around the rich tract, constituting it
a green island, and united again at the lower end of the luxuriant
area, where it rushed leaping and foaming, between perpendicular
rocky embankments, after which it fell into a small and placid lake
beyond.

The materials for the buildings were abundantly supplied by a
tower of rock and mica, left standing in the midst of the area by
the convulsions of nature, and which had been worn smooth and
round by the torrents that had evidently assailed it at a former period.
At the base of this isolated deposit the party had pitched
their tents, in a small grove of persimmon trees, and without hesitation
or further delay, proceeded to erect the necessary houses for
their abode.

The party consisted of five white men and two white females,
one beautiful Indian woman, and two white children; the remainder
were very black negro slaves, ten in number, including men,
women and children. Having several wagons, drawn by horses,
and mules and oxen, they were not only provided with the necessary
implements of labor, but had a store of cereal provisions for their
maintenance during the ensuing winter, and until they could reap
the products of their first harvest in the wilderness.

The old tower was mostly demolished, and in its stead there arose

a substantial mansion impervious to attack. It consisted of a centre
building, thirty-five feet square, with wings of symmetrical but
of smaller dimensions. The wings were two stories high, while the
centre or main building had a third story, and was surmounted by
a round tower, resembling in some respects, while divested of its irregular
massive solidity, the one which had been placed there by
nature. Altogether there were twenty rooms in the building, besides
the hall of entrance. These, it is true, were mostly of rude
construction, although the soft rock easily yielded to the workmen;
but several were of better finish, and smoothly plastered with the
snowy lime made in the vicinity. The isinglass or mica, of perfect
transparency, sufficed for the windows, and the slate found at the
cliffs covered the roof. Finally, their habitation, after the incessant
labor of many weeks, was in a sufficient state of preparation for
their occupancy, and then they abandoned their tents, as they supposed,
forever.

The matter which claimed their attention next, was the palisade
for the enclosure of their cattle at night, and to guard against the
sudden inroads of savages and wild beasts. The forest at the upper
or western entrance of the delta, supplied the timber, and the
work was completed expeditiously, and without molestation. It was
circular in shape, equidistant from the mansion, the tower being the
centre, and was nine hundred feet in circumference, so that the
mean distance from the centre was fifty yards.

Jasper Roughgrove was the patriarch and leader of this little
band of wanderers. He was now past the meridian of life, and had
long mourned the woes inflicted by his fellow man in civil society.
He was an Englishman by birth, of good family, and had been educated
for the church; but being enamored of a lovely being at an
early period of his career, who subsequently fell a victim to one of
illustrious birth and position, the shock he experienced, resulted in
an abandonment of his previously conceived projects, and a determination
to spend the remainder of his days in a seclusion so remote
and impenetrable, that he should not again be within the vortex of
the evil temptations so rife and inextricable in the dense communities
which boast of their urbane refinements. Still adoring the object

of his early affection, notwithstanding she was a homeless wanderer,
with two cherub children, he became her husband, adopted
the innocent twins, and removed to America. From the port where
he landed, he proceeded to the great West, and ascended the valley
of the “Mad Missouri,” until he found a peaceful abode, then considered
beyond the limits of civilization. Here, for a season, he
experienced the tranquility and bliss he had sighed for; the few
emigrants that came into the region were very kind, and for a long
time the Indians were quite friendly. But there being no Eden
without its serpent, his repose was doomed to interruption. The
Indians stole away little William, and his mother pined and died.
Mary, however, the remaining child of his adoption, was a solace
for many years, and he awaited with composure and christian resignation,
the time when it might please a beneficent Providence to
waft him to his beloved Juliet, in the mansions of eternal rest.

But in process of time William was rescued from the Indians,
among whom he had been made a high chief. He was followed by
a beautiful Indian maiden, of fair complexion, who loved him, and
they were married, with the reluctant consent of Roughgrove.
And soon after this, Mary was wooed and won by a young physician,
who had sought the seclusion of the western wilds, from motives
similar, in some respects, to those which had impelled the clergyman.
This young man, Charles Glenn, having inherited some
wealth in one of the Southern States of the Confederacy, induced
the rest to accompany him thither, promising the full fruition of the
tranquility they longed for under the protection of the laws of his
country.

But Roughgrove, in Virginia, thought only of the grave of Juliet,
in the far West; Mary, the bride of Glenn, dwelt in fancy on
the loved wild-woods of her infancy—her birds and her flowers;
William disdained the conventionalities of organized communities,
and La-u-na, his bride, and daughter of a mighty chief, mourned
for the running waters, the quivering leaves, and the fresh breezes
of her native forests.

Therefore, after the experiment of the sojourn of a few years in
Virginia, Glenn consented to return to the West, and hence the expedition

to the base of the southern terminus of the Rocky Mountains.

The other individuals of the party consisted of little Juliet
Glenn, a beautiful child of seven years; Charles Roughgrove, the
son of William and La-u-na, of the same age; Biddy Rafferty, an
Irish nurse; Joe Beck, a young man of Irish extraction, who had
been Glenn's hired attendant in his first expedition; Sneak Punk, a
tall thin Vermonter, who had been found in the woods trapping and
hunting for gain, and had contracted to repair to Virginia with
Glenn, for a stipulated price. The remainder were slaves: Cæsar,
Pompey and Hannibal, their wives and children.

There were twelve horses, four mules, six oxen, eight cows, and a
few calves; two goats, eight sheep, and several pigs; a dozen chickens,
two hounds, one large spaniel, and one small mongrel; and the
living catalogue was completed with several kittens and a parrot.

The journey of more than a thousand miles by land, and nearly
as many by water, had been completed without serious accident, or
material detriment to the many articles which Glenn had provided
for their convenience in the wilderness. There had been no sickness;
and none of the stock had died or been lost. The Indians
who acted as guides and guards, had been selected by William,
among his old acquaintances in the forest, who still obeyed him as
their chief, and they were faithful to the end; stealing nothing, but
intimidating the prowling bands of the desert, who might have
otherwise compassed the destruction of the party. Daniel Boone,
now in the vale of years, whom they encountered on their way, had
journeyed with them several days, and acknowledged that he was
tempted, notwithstanding his age, to accompany them the whole distance
to the “undiscovered bourne,” they were in quest of. But
he intimated a purpose to find them at some future day.

Among the infinite variety of things transported beyond the desert,
was a pretty complete philosophical and chemical apparatus,
which Glenn deposited in the tower, over the centre building of the
mansion, which was to be appropriated as a laboratory, and had
been constructed partly with that design. It was likewise used as
a depository for their superfluous arms and ammunition.

One of the best rooms had been reserved as a library, and several
hundred volumes were tastefully arranged round the walls.

Near the base of the tower, a spring of pure water had flowed,
forming a small rivulet that wandered away towards the running
stream on the south side of the green area but was lost in the grass
or evaporated by the rays of the sun. This vein of living water
was secured by excavation, for the uses of the family, and now formed
a pool or well, in front of the building.

The main entrance of the house was on the south side, where the
first beams of the morning sun streamed through the narrow windows,
and gladdened the inmates with its genial greeting. And,
indeed, from the first glance at the features of the country surrounding
the valley, the conformation of the mountains on the west, and
the concurrent hills and curtains of woods on the north and east, it
was apparent that “Happy Valley” must be ever shielded from the
bleak winds of winter, and that its vegetation in that latitude, must
be in a great measure perennial.