— A SEEKER OF ADVENTURES. — A GIL BLAS OF

THE FRONTIER. A YOUNG MAN's ANTICIPATIONS

In the often- vaunted regions of the far West, several hundred miles beyond the Mississippi, extends a vast tract of uninhabited country, where there is neither to be seen the loghouse of the white man nor the wigwam of the Indian. It consists of great grassy plains, interspersed with forests and groves and clumps of trees, and watered by the

Arkansas, the Grand Canadian, the Red River, and all their tributary streams. Over these fertile and verdant wastes still roam the elk, the buffalo, and the wild horse, in all their native freedom. These, in fact, are the hunting-grounds of the various tribes of the far West. Thither repair the Osage, the Creek, the Delaware, and other tribes that have linked themselves with civilisation, and live within the vicinity of the white settlements. Here resort also the Pawnees, the Comanches, and other fierce and as yet independent tribes, the nomades of the prairies, or the inhabitants of the skirts of the Rocky Mountains. The region I have mentioned forms a debatable ground of these warring and vindictive tribes. None of them presume to erect a permanent habitation within its borders. Their hunters and '' braves" repair thither in numerous bodies during the season of game ; throw up their transient encampments, formed of light bowers, branches, and skins ; commit hasty slaughter among the innumerable herds that graze the prairies ;

and, having loaded themselves with venison and buffalo meat, retreat rapidly from the dangerous neighbourhood. These expeditions partake, always, of a warlike character ; the hunters are always armed for action, offensive and defensive, and are bound to practise incessant vigilance. Should they in their excursions meet the hunters of an adverse tribe, savage conflicts take place. Their encampments, too, are always subject to be surprised by wandering war parties, and their hunters, when scattered in pursuit of game, to be captured or massacred by lurking foes. Mouldering skulls and skeletons, bleaching in some dark ravine, or near the traces of a hunting-camp, occasionally mark the scene of a foregone act of blood, and let the wanderer know the dangerous nature of the region he is traversing. It is the purport of the following pages to narrate a month's excursion to these noted hunting-grounds, a part of which had not, as yet, been explored by white men.

arrived at Fort Gibson, a frontier post of the far West, situated on the Neosho, or Grand River, near its confluence with the Arkansas. I had been travelling for a month past with a small party from St. Louis, up the banks of the Missouri, and along the frontier line of agencies and missions that extend from the Missouri to the Arkansas. Our party was headed by one of the commissioners appointed by the Government of the United States to superintend the settlement of the Indian tribes migrating from the east to the west of the Mississippi. In the discharge of his duties, he was thus visiting the various outposts of civilisation. And here let me bear testimony to the merits of this worthy leader of our little band. He was a native of one of the towns of Connecticut ; a man in whom a course of legal practice and political life had not been able to vitiate an innate simplicity and benevolence of heart. The greater part of his days had been passed in the bosom of his family, and the society of deacons, elders, and select men, on the peaceful banks

of the Connecticut, when suddenly he had been called to mount his steed, shoulder his rifle, and mingle among stark hunters, backwoodsmen, and naked savages, on the trackless wilds of the far West.

Another of my fellow-travellers was Mr. L. ; an Englishman by birth, but descended from a foreign stock, and who had all the buoyancy and accommodating spirit of a native of the Continent. Having rambled over many countries, he had become, to a certain degree, a citizen of the world, easily adapting himself to every change. He was a man of a thousand occupations ; a botanist, a geologist, a hunter of beetles and butterflies, a musical amateur, a sketcher of no mean pretensions, in short, a complete virtuoso ; added to which, he was a very indefatigable, if not always a very successful, sportsman. Never had a man more irons in the fire ; and, consequently, never was a man more busy or more cheerful. My third fellow-traveller was one who had accompanied the former from Europe, and travelled with

him as his Telemachus ; being apt, like his prototype, to give occasional perplexity and disquiet to his Mentor. He was a young Swiss count, scarce twenty-one years of age, full of talent and spirit, but galliard in the extreme, and prone to every kind of wild adventure. Having made this mention of my comrades, I must not pass over unnoticed a personage of inferior rank, but of all-pervading and all-prevalent importance ; the squire, the groom, the cook, the tent-man, in a word, the factotum, and, I may add, the universal meddler and marplot, of our party. This was a little swarthy, meagre, wiry French Creole, named Antoine, but familiarly dubbed Tonish : a kind of Gil Bias of the frontier, who had passed a scrambling life, sometimes among white men, sometimes among Indians ; sometimes in the employ of traders, missionaries, and Indian agents ; sometimes mingling with the Osage hunters. We picked him up at St. Louis, near which he has a small farm, an Indian wife, and a brood of half-blood children. According to

A GIL BLAS OF THE FRONTIER. y

his own account, however, he had a wife in every tribe : in fact, if all that this little vagabond said of himself were to be believed, he was without morals, without caste, without creed, without country, and even without language, for he spoke a Babylonish jargon of mingled French, English, and Osage. He was, withal, a notorious braggart, and a liar of the first water. It was amusing to hear him vapour and gasconade about his terrible exploits and hairbreadth escapes in war and hunting. In the midst of his volubility, he was prone to be seized by a spasmodic gasping, as if the springs of his jaws were suddenly unhinged ; but I am apt to think it was caused by some falsehood that stuck in his throat, for I generally remarked that, immediately afterwards, there bolted forth a lie of the first maonitude.

Our route had been a pleasant one, quartering ourselves occasionally at the widely separated establishments of the Indian missionaries, but in general camping out in the fine groves that border the streams, and

sleeping under shelter of a tent. During the latter part of our tour, we had pressed forward, in hopes of arriving in time at Fort Gibson, to accompany the Osage hunters on their autumnal visit to the buffalo prairies. Indeed, the imagination of the young count had become completely excited on the subject. The grand scenery and wild habits of the prairies had set his spirits madding, and the stories that little Tonish told him of Indian braves and Indian beauties, of hunting buffaloes and catching wild horses, had set him all agog for a dash into savage life. He was a bold and hard rider, and longed to be scouring the hunting-grounds. It was amusing to his youthful anticipations of all that he was to see, and do, and enjoy, when mingling among the Indians, and participating in their hardy adventures ; and it was still more amusing to listen to the gasconadings of little Tonish, who volunteered to be his faithful squire in all his perilous undertakings ; to teach him how to catch the wild horses, bring down the buffalo, and win the

smiles of Indian princesses. - — " And if we can only get sight of a prairie on fire ! " said the young Count. " By gar, Til set one on fire myself!" cried the little Frenchman.

ANTICIPATION DISAPPOINTED. — NEW PLANS. — PRE-

The anticipations of a young man are prone to meet with disappointment. Unfortunately for the Count's scheme of wild campaigning, before we reached the end of our journeys we heard that the Osage hunters had set forth upon their expedition to the Buffalo grounds. The young Count still determined, if possible, to follow on their track, and overtake them ; and, for this purpose, stopped short at the Osage Agency, a few miles distant from Fort Gibson, to make enquiries and preparations. His travelling companion, Mr. L., stopped with him ; while the Commissioner and myself proceeded to Fort Gibson, followed by the faithful and veracious Tonish. I hinted to him his promises to follow the Count in his campaignings, but 1

NEW PLANS. li

found the little varlet had a keen eye to self-interest. He was aware that the Commissioner, from his official duties, would remain for a long time in the country, and be likely to give him permanent employment, while the sojourn of the Count would but be transient. The gasconading of the little braggart was suddenly, therefore, at an end. He spoke not another word to the young Count about Indians, buffaloes, and wild horses ; but, putting himself tacitly in the train of the Commissioner, jogged silently after us to the garrison. On arriving at the fort, however, a new chance presented itself for a cruise on the prairies. We learnt that a company of mounted rangers, or riflemen, had departed but three days previous, to make a wide exploring tour, from the Arkansas to the Red River, including a part of the Pawnee hunting grounds, where no party of white men had as yet penetrated. Here, then, was an opportunity of ranging over these dangerous and interesting regions under the safeguard of a powerful escort ;

protected, too, by privilege : for the Commissioner, in virtue of his office, could claim the services of this newly raised corps of riflemen ; and the very country they were to explore was destined for the settlement of some of the migrating tribes.

Our plan was promptly formed, and put into execution. A couple of Creek Indians were sent off express by the commander of Fort Gibson to overtake the rangers, and bring them to a halt until the Commissioner and his party should be able to join them. As we should have a march of three or four days through a wild country before we could overtake the company of rangers, an escort of fourteen mounted riflemen, under the command of a lieutenant, was assigned us.

We sent word to the young Count and Mr. L., at the Osage Agency, of our new plan and prospects, and invited them to accompany us. The Count, however, could not forego the delights he had promised himself in mingling with absolutely savage life. In reply, he agreed to keep with us

until we should come upon the trail of the Osage hunters, when it was his fixed resolve to strike off into the wilderness in pursuit of them ; and his faithful Mentor, though he groaned at the madness of the scheme, was too staunch a friend to desert him. A general rendezvous of our party and escort was appointed, for the following morning, at the Agency. We now made all arrangements for prompt departure. Our baggage had hitherto been transported in a light waggon, but we were now to break our way through an untravelled country, cut up by rivers, ravines, and thickets, where a vehicle of the kind would be a complete impediment. We were to travel on horseback, in hunters' style, and with as little encumbrance as possible. Our baggage, therefore, underwent a rigid and most abstemious reduction. Each one bestowed his scanty wardrobe in a pair of saddle-bags, and those by no means crammed : these, with his great-coat, were placed upon the steed he rode. The rest of the luggage was put on pack-horses. Each