sSxSsxssssS^
 
 ROBERT ERNEST COWAN
 
 YOSEMITE FALLS.
 
 THE 
 
 GREAT WEST 
 
 AND 
 
 PACIFIC COAST; 
 
 OR, 
 
 FIFTEEN THOUSAND MILES BY STAGE-COACH, AMBULANCE, HORSE- 
 BACK, RAILROAD, AND STEAMER ACROSS THE CONTINENT 
 AND ALONG THE PACIFIC SLOPE THROUGH THE ROCKY 
 MOUNTAINS, DOWN THE COLUMBIA RIVER, OVER 
 THE SIERRA NEVADAS AMONG INDIANS, 
 MORMONS, MINERS AND MEXICANS. 
 
 BY ORDER OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Witl) a Map of Entire Route and Eigljt full-page Engravings, 
 
 BEING SKETCHES OF MEN AND THINGS FROM NEW YORK TO ST. Louis IN 
 
 MISSOURI, KANSAS, NEBRASKA, COLORADO, DAKOTA, WYOMING, UTAH, 
 
 MONTANA, IDAHO, OREGON, WASHINGTON, CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA, 
 
 NEVADA, MEXICO, AND CENTRAL AMERICA. WITH A 
 
 CHAPTER OF ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS AND SETTLERS. 
 
 BY JAMES F. RUSLING, 
 
 BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL U. S. V. 
 
 
 " I hear the tread of pioneers, 
 Of nations yet to be ; 
 The first low wash of waves, where soon 
 Shall roll a human sea." 
 
 SHELDON & COMPANY, NEW YORK. 
 
 CROCKER & STICKNEY, BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 H. W. KELLY, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 BRYAN, BRAND & CO., ST. LOUIS, MO. 
 P. W. GARFIELD, CLEVELAND, OHIO. 
 
 M. M. BURNHAM, SYRACUSE, N. Y, 
 A. ROMAN & CO., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
 
 OF 
 
 i. A COLORED MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, MEXICO, AND 
 CENTRAL AMERICA ; WITH GEN'L RUSLING'S ROUTE 
 INDICATED BY A HEAVY BLACK DOTTED LINE. 
 
 In a, pocket an the front cover. 
 
 a. THE YOSEMITE FALLS, - - Frontispiece. 
 
 3. PLAINS INDIANS, - - - - V Page 54 
 
 4. THE TWIN LAKES (SOUTH PARK), - - - " 104 
 
 5. BRIGHAM YOUNG, - .'". " 178 
 
 6. AN OREGON INDIAN, - " 344 
 
 7. MOUNT HOOD (OREGON), 17,400 FEET HIGH, " 356 
 
 8. THE YOSEMITE VALLEY (FROM THE FOOT OF MARI- 
 
 POSA TRAIL), - "442 
 
 9. A BIG TREE IN CALIFORNIA (THREE MEN ON HORSE- 
 
 BACK CAN RIDE INSIDE OF IT), - - "46* 
 
 ight', 1877, by James F. Rusting. 
 
 * if r ' ' - ', *'',,'- 
 
 - , . . , , f , 
 
 '',,' ' , . ' , .',''.'
 
 Q 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 "T~N the summer of 1866, having lately concluded a tour 
 *- of inspection through the West and South, and 
 awaiting orders in Washington, it was my fortune one 
 morning to receive the following : 
 
 " QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, ) 
 " WASHINGTON, D. C., July 10, 1866. ) 
 
 "GENERAL: You will immediately enter upon a 
 tour of inspection of the affairs of the Quartermaster's 
 Department, as administered at Fort Leavenworth, 
 Kansas, and thence west via Denver City and Salt Lake 
 City to the Pacific Coast, inspecting all intermediate 
 Posts while en route. At Denver City you will confer 
 with Brevet Col. Howard, A. Q. M., as to the practica- 
 bility of breaking up that depot, and removing the 
 stores to other points where needed. Thence to Salt 
 Lake City, where a rigid inspection is needed. Thence 
 to San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 " Upon reaching the Pacific Coast, you will confer 
 with the Commanding General and Chief Quartermaster 
 of the Military Division of the Pacific, and having pro- 
 cured necessary information relative to the locality, 
 importance, etc. of the various Posts, you will proceed 
 upon a careful inspection throughout California, Oregon, 
 
 &S6096
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 Nevada, and Washington and Arizona Territories. 
 Upon completing this duty, you will return to this city, 
 via the Isthmus, and report in person to the Quarter- 
 master-General. 
 
 " It will he necessary to keep this Office fully in- 
 formed, in advance, as to your probable whereabouts, so 
 that instructions may be telegraphed to you at the 
 stations where you are on duty when necessary. 
 
 " You are authorized to take a clerk with you. 
 * * * * * * 
 
 " Yery respectfully, 
 
 " Your ob't. serv't., 
 
 "M. 0. MEIGS, 
 " Quartermaster-General, | 
 "Brevet Maj.-Gen., U. S. A." \ 
 " Brevet Brig.- Gen. James F. Ruslvng, \ 
 ''Inspector Q. M. Dep't" \ 
 
 These, my orders, were subsequently endorsed as 
 follows : 
 
 " HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMT, ) 
 ""WASHINGTON, D. 0., July 18, 1866. ) 
 " Commanding officers will, on the requisition of 
 Gen. Rusling, furnish the necessary escorts to enable 
 him to make the within directed inspections. 
 
 "By command of Lieut.-Gen. Grant, 
 
 " GEO. K. LEET, 
 "Ass't. Adft.-Gen." 
 
 The general object of this tour, perhaps I should 
 explain, in a word, was to examine into the condition of 
 our various depots and posts West, and consider then
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 bases and routes of supply, with a view to reducing if 
 possible the enormous expenditures, that then every- 
 where prevailed there. How well or ill this was accom- 
 plished, it is not for me to say, nor is this volume the 
 place my Reports at the time speaking for themselves.* 
 The route thus roughly indicated was long, and in 
 parts reputed dangerous ; but for years I had cherished 
 a desire to see something of that vast region in the sun- 
 set, and here at length was the golden opportunity. I 
 need scarcely say, therefore, that I obeyed my orders 
 with alacrity, and in the execution of them was absent 
 in all about a twelvemonth. During that period, cross- 
 ing the continent to San Francisco, among the Moun- 
 tains, along the Pacific Coast, and thence home by the 
 Isthmus, I travelled in all over 15,000 miles, as per 
 accompanying Map ; of which about 2,000 were by rail- 
 road, 2,000 by stage-coach, 3,000 by ambulance or on 
 horseback, and the remainder by steamer. This book, 
 now, is the rough record of it all, written at odd 
 hours since, as occasion offered. Much of this jour- 
 ney, of course, was over the old travelled routes, so well 
 described already by Bowles, Richardson, Nordhoff, and 
 others. But several hundred miles of it, along and 
 among the Rocky Mountains, a thousand or so through 
 Utah and Idaho, and perhaps two thousand or more 
 through Southern California and Arizona, were through 
 regions that most overland travellers never see ; and here, 
 
 * Mostly published by Congress in 1867-8, and among the Pub. 
 Docs, for those years.
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 at least, I trust something was gleaned of interest and 
 profit to the general reader. Moreover, my official 
 orders gave me access to points not always to be reached, 
 and to sources of information not usually open ; so that 
 it was my duty, as well as pleasure, to see and hear as 
 much of the Great West and the Pacific Coast every- 
 where, as seemed practicable in such a period. 
 
 The completion of the Pacific Railroad, it will be 
 noted, made this long tour of mine, by stage-coach and 
 ambulance, through the Great West and along the 
 Pacific Coast, about the last, if not the last, of its kind 
 possible ; and, therefore, under all the circumstances, it 
 has seemed not unfitting to give these pages to the 
 world. 
 
 Writing only for the general public, it will be 
 noticed, I have tried everywhere to avoid all military 
 and official details, as far as practicable, and to confine 
 myself mainly to what would seem of interest, if not 
 value, to everybody. So, too, I have aimed to bridge 
 the interval from 1866-7 to 1877 by such additional 
 facts as appeared necessary; but without, however, 
 modifying my own observations and experiences mate- 
 rially. If some persons, and some localities, are spoken 
 of more flatteringly (or less) than usual, it is at least 
 with truthfulness and candor, as things seemed to me. 
 No doubt errors of fact have been committed, but 
 these were not intended ; and some of these, of course, 
 were simply unavoidable in a book like this. ' So, too, 
 as to style, no pretension whatever is made ; but I claim
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 merely an honest endeavor to convey some useful, if not 
 interesting information currente calamo, in the readiest 
 way possible, and a generous public will forgive much 
 accordingly. 
 
 In brief, if what is here roughly said will lead any 
 American to a better love of his country, or to a truer 
 pride in it, or any foreigner to a kindlier appreciation of 
 
 the Republic, verily I have iny reward. 
 
 J. F.R.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 New York to Fort Riley^ Kansas. 
 
 Across America. Off July 24, 1866. West by Erie Railroad. The 
 Great West. Northern New Jersey. Western New York. 
 Ohio. Miami Valley. Indiana and Illinois. Buckeye . 
 Hoosier and Sucker. Cincinnati and St. Louis vs. Chicago. St. 
 Louis redimvus. Missouri. Her Germans and Vineyards. The 
 Missouri River. Leaven worth. Lawrence and Topeka. Valley 
 of the Kansas. Junction City. Kansas Generally. Her fine 
 Building-stone. Her Scenery. Her Enterprise and Thrift. 
 " Fall Leaf " and the Delawares. A Big Chief and his Exploits. 
 The Pottawatomies. Returning from a Buffalo Hunt. 
 The Indian in Kansas. 21-32 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 From the Kansas to the Platte. 
 
 Gompagnons du Voyage. Afloat on the Plains. Travelling by 
 Ambulance. Camping-out. Outfit and Escort. The " divides." 
 The Platte itself. The Grasshoppers. Prairie-chickens and 
 other Game. Prairie Dogs. A Happy Family. The Little 
 Blue. The Pawnees and Indian rumors generally. Virginia 
 Station and Big Sandy. The Settlers en route. A Pennsylvania 
 Dutchman Westernized. Life on Fancy Creek. Rev. Mr. 
 Silvers of Wild Cat Creek. A Pioneer Missionary. . 83-39.
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Up the Platte to Denver. 
 
 The Union Pacific Railroad. The Overland Stage Company. Mr. 
 Ben Holladay. An Enterprising Missourian. Concord Coaches 
 and Teams. Stage Stations. Meals en route. The Drivers 
 generally. Fellow-passengers. Col. B. f an ex-Lieut.-Governor 
 turned Sutler. A Swiss Artist. A Doctor of Divinity. A New 
 Tork Banker and his Patriotic Wife. The Weather. Life on 
 a Stage-Coach, outside Day and Night. The Scenery generally. 
 Magnificent Sunsets. A particularly fine one. . 40-46 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Up the Platte to Denver (concluded). 
 
 The Platte Valley in general. Its Features and Resources. The 
 Platte River itself. The Canon Cedars. Want of Timber. 
 Costly Fuel, Grain, etc. at Fort Sedgwick. Scenery of the 
 Plains generally. Buffalo and their Range. A Ride after 
 Antelope. Lost on the Plains. Buffalo Trails. The Settlers 
 generally. Kearney City, Julesburg, etc. The Ranches. 
 Fort Wicked. Wagon-trains. Prairie Schooners. Bull- 
 drivers. Sioux Indians. " Big Injun" stories generally. 47-57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Denver and the Mines. 
 
 Denver itself. A Mountain City. Her Growth and Enterprise. 
 Judge Gale and her Gamblers. Bishop Randall. Her want of 
 Trees and Shrubbery. Metropolis of Colorado. Gov. Gum- 
 ming. Hints of Judge Lynch. Reception of Gen. Sherman and 
 Brother. Golden City. The Snowy Range. Central City. Its 
 Population and Pluck. Placer Mining. Quartz Lodes. 
 Gregory Mine. A Good Superintendent vs. & Poor One. Col- 
 orado Ores in general. A new " process" wanted. Watered 
 Stock Companies. " Freezing Out." Mining Statistics. The 
 Coming Mineralogist. Idaho City. The Saratoga of Colorado. 
 Georgetown and Mill City. Clear Creek and ride back to 
 Denver. Miners Slang." You Bet." .... 58-74
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Among the Mountains. 
 
 First View of Rocky Mountains. Above and Across them to Fort 
 Garland. Rumors of Indians. A Stormy Divide. "Dirty 
 Woman's Ranch." Castle Rock. Buttes. Monument Creek. 
 Garden of the Gods. Pike's Peak. Soda Springs. Colorado 
 City. Canon City. Fontaine qui Bouilli. Irrigation. Pueblo. 
 The Arkansas, Greenhorn, and Huerfano, and their Valleys. 
 Mexican Laborers. Hincklin's Ranch. Sangre del Christo 
 Pass. Views from Summit. Descent into San Luis Park. 
 Sangre del Christo Creek. A Mule-back Ride. Trout Fishing. 
 Snow-squalls and a Cold " Camp." Mexicans and Bronchos. 
 Culebra. A Mexican Bailie. Don Jesus. A Dancing Peo- 
 ple 75-93 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Among the Mountains (continued). 
 
 The Parks of the Rocky Mountains. San Luis Park particularly. 
 The Backbone of the Continent. The Rio Grande and its Bot- 
 toms. Fine Trout-streams. Snow Squalls. Sierra Blanca. 
 Russell's Ranch. Good Specimen of a Colorado Pioneer. 
 Homan's Park. Kerber's Ranch. A Dairy in the Heart of the 
 Rocky Mountains. Hospitable Germans. Camping-out on the 
 Summit. Poncho Pass and Creek. Absence of Game. A Bad 
 Road. The Arkansas again. South Park. Leutze's Painting in 
 the Capitol. Mexican vs. Yankee. Salt Works. Duck Shoot- 
 ing. Fair Play. South Platte. Placer Mining. Buckskin 
 Joe. Judge Costello and his Hotel. The Newspapers again. 
 Elections of 1866. Rocky Mountain Eagle. Down the South 
 Tlatte. A Good Road. Bradford's Hill. The Plains again. 
 The Mule Kate. A Gold and Silver Mining Company. A 
 Little Fun! 95-113 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Indians Gen. Sherman Kit Carson, etc. 
 
 Sherman and Utes in Council at Fort Garland. Sherman and the 
 Arrapahoes. Gov. dimming and Ute Treaty. Indian Ponies.
 
 XU CONTENTS. 
 
 Ute Costumes. Ute Village. Boy Braves. Indian Dogs. 
 Indian Profanity. Lost at Night among them. Something of 
 an Adventure. A Scary Situation. Wellington. The Treaty 
 itself. Ooray. Ancantash. Shauno. Speech of Gov. Cum- 
 ming. Kit Carson as Interpreter. Ooray '6 Cute Replies. 
 Indian Presents. " Swopping." Jack Cox. Ute Dance by 
 Moonlight on the banks of the Rio Grande. Ute Squaws. 
 The Average Indian. Kit Carson. His Personal Appearance 
 and Character. His Life and Adventures. Kit on Fremont. 
 Sherman on Kit Carson. Kit on the Indian Question. The 
 Chivington Massacre, etc.: Sherman's Opinion of New Mexico, etc. 
 Sumner's Ditto. Sherman as a Talker and Smoker. 114-143 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Denver to Salt Lake. 
 
 Rocky Mountains from Denver. Off for the Pacific. Mountain 
 Mud- wagons. Laporte. Gen. Dodge. The Foot-hills. Vir- 
 ginia Dale. Miners going East to Winter. Willow Spring. 
 An Indian Scare. Stampedes. Old Fort Halleck. Laramie 
 Plains. North Platte and Valley. Bridger's Pass. Across the 
 Summit. Sulphur Springs. Bitter Creek Country. Alkaa 
 Region. A Delirium Tremens Passenger. A Square Meal at 
 Laclede. A Driver's Opinion of Bitter Creek. Green River. 
 Church Butte. Rocky Mountain Stories. Stage-coaching Phi- 
 losophically Considered. Something about Smoking. A Mus- 
 tang Team and a Runaway. Fort Bridger and Judge Carter. 
 Sage-hens. Marmion and the Bible in a Cabin. Echo Canon. 
 Mormon Campaign, 1857-8. Weber Valley. Mormons. 
 Parley's Canon. Salt Lake City. A Hearty Sleep. . 143-163 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 At Salt Lake City. 
 
 Salt Lake House. Beauty of the City. Rasselas' Happy Valley. 
 A Sunday at the Tabernacle. A Mormon Missionary. Their 
 Sacrament. George Q. Cannon and his Address. Exercises 
 generally. Mountain Fever. Hot Sulphur Springs. City- 
 wall. Mormon Militia Muster. The Review. Their Lieuten-
 
 CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 ant-General Commanding and Brigadier-Generals. A Dubious 
 if not Menacing Military Body. Interview with Brigham 
 Young. A Talk about Southern Utah. He " Disremembers* 
 rather Suspiciously. His Views on Religion, Polygamy, Utah, 
 etc. His Personal Appearance and Character. Mormon 
 Theatre. Brigham and his Family Present. General Audi- 
 ence. Polygamy and its Effects 164r-182 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Mormon Outrages Polygamy^ etc. 
 
 Previous Impressions. A Recent Outrage. Dr. Robinson's Case. 
 Proceedings in the U. S. District Court. An Atrocious Mur- 
 der. The Church Implicated. A Vigilance Committee Pro- 
 posed. Shrewdness of Brigham Young. His Telegram to 
 Sherman. It Paid the Saints. The Logical Fruit of Mormon- 
 ism. Bad Teachings of Leaders. Gentiles vs. Mormons. 
 Remarkable Statements of a U. S. Judge. He Believes in 
 Thugs and Danites. His Views of Dr. Robinson's Case. 
 Mormon Juries. Brassfield's Case. The Mountain Meadow 
 Massacre. Brigham Young Responsible. Andrew Johnson on 
 Utah. Growth of Polygamy. Its Practical Workings. A 
 Second Wife on the Rampage. Polygamous Children. No 
 Free Schools. Foulness of Polygamy. The Jury Trouble 
 
 again. Judge 's Remedy. U. S. Troops essential there. 
 
 Pacific Railroad unlikely to solve the Problem soon. Brigham 
 Young's Successor. His Cowardice Personally. A Brave Offi- 
 cial. The High Council of the Church overrules Federal 
 Decisions, etc 183-198 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Mormonism in General. 
 
 Mormon Industry and Thrift. Their System of Irrigation. Small 
 Farms. Good Homes. No Drunkenness or Gambling. Salt 
 Lake City again. Mormonism itself. A Colonization Scheme, 
 rather than Religion. The Bishops Sharp Business Men. The 
 Tendency of Mormon Teachings. Mormon Disloyalty. Mormon 
 Women. Polygamy an Insult to Civilization. A Crime against 
 Humanity. It should be Stamped Out, sans Ceremony, and 
 Instanter. . 199-205
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Salt Lake to Boise City. 
 
 Ben Holliday again. His Great Stage Lines. Wells, Fargo & Co. 
 Profits and Losses. His Appearance and Character. Off for 
 the Columbia. Great Salt Lake. Brigham Young's Islands and 
 Canons. Hot Springs. Ogden City. Bishop West. Joseph 
 Young. Brigham City. A Ute Brave. Ute Squaws. Brigham 
 Young's Indian Policy. Bear River. The Country generally. 
 Bad Water. Malade Station. Indians and Wolves. Snake 
 River. Subterranean Stream and Cascade. Great American 
 Falls. Barren Country. Valley of the Boise. The Ride gen- 
 erally. Square Meals. Mr. Superintendent Halsey. A Live 
 Man 206-222 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Boise City to the Columbia. 
 
 Idaho. Bo's"; City. Miners. Saloons. Specie and " Dust" . 
 Greenbacks. John Chinaman. An Idaho Dogberry vs. Judge 
 Lynch. Idaho generally. Fort Boise. A Lucky Paymaster. 
 " Swinging Round the Circle." Off for the Columbia. Burnt 
 River and Powder River and their Valleys. Snake River again. 
 Farewell Bend. Steamboating on the Snake. Bituminous 
 Coal. Oregon. Baker City. Grand Ronde Valley. Le Grande. 
 Crossing the Blue Mountains. Mules vs. Horses. Le Grande 
 River. Scenery. A Corkscrew Road. "Jordan a Hard Road 
 to Travel." Freight Trains and Teamsters. Some " Horse" 
 Philosophy. Bull-whackers as a Class. Ox-teams. A Hard 
 Pull. Break-downs. " Meacham's." A Live Oregonian. 
 Pikes and Confederates. Caught in a Snow Storm. A Fine 
 View. " Crawfords." "Well's Springs." A Sick Horse. 
 Umatilla River. Indian Reservation. Fine Water-power 
 John Wilful. A Specimen Idahoan. Good-bye to Stage-coach- 
 ing, etc 223-249 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Down the Columbia. 
 
 Umatilla. Indians. A Mr. Micawber. Steamboats. Capt. Stump. 
 Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The Columbia and its
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Tributaries. Indians. " Calico " Horses. Celilo. Railroad 
 Portages. Shooting the Rapids in a Steamboat. The Dalles. 
 Upper Cascades. Lower Cascades. Wild and Picturesque 
 River Scenery. Cascade Mountains. Canon of the Columbia. 
 Castle Rock. Mount Hood. Hood from the Columbia. 
 Quick Changes of Climate. Coast Region and Rains. Fellow- 
 passengers. 250-260 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Fort Vancouver to San Francisco. 
 
 Vancouver. Gen. Steele. About Sherman. The Truth as to 
 Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. A True Army Bachelor. 
 Isothermal Lines. Superb Hood again. Portland. Her Enter- 
 prise and Importance. Yankee Doodle vs. John Bull. Puget 
 Sound. Oregonians generally. John Chinaman. His Good 
 Qualities. Off for San Francisco by Steamer. Mountain Views 
 from Mouth of Willamette. Jefferson, Hood, Adams, and St. 
 Helen's. Astoria. Rain and Fog. Bar of the Columbia. Fort 
 Stevens and Cape Disappointment. Crossing the Bar. The 
 Oriflamme and Capt. Conner. Sea Sickness. Bad Weather. 
 A Rough Voyage. Off 'Frisco. All hail, the Golden 
 Gate ! 261-275 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 San Francisco. 
 
 Her Position Geographically. Her Great Bay. Location of City 
 faulty. Her Sand-hills. Her Sea-wall. Her Great Commerce. 
 Some Statistics. The View from Telegraph Hill. Her Prog- 
 ress and Energy. Bad Climate. Her Rainy Winters. Her 
 Earthquakes. Her Raw Summers. Montgomery Street. Her 
 Public Buildings. Private Residences. Flower Gardens. 
 Wind-mills. The Representative Californian. Montgomery 
 Street Dames. Her Sabbaths. Jewish Synagogue. Starr 
 King's Church. Other Churches. Society generally. . 276-289 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 San Francisco (continued). 
 
 Greenbacks vs. Gold and Silver. General Prices. Loyalty of the
 
 XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 Coast. Anxious for Alaska. Christmas and New Year's. 
 Lucky Army Officers. Adventure on the Bay. Oakland. Cliff 
 House and Sea Lions. " Ben Butler " and " Gen. Grant." Fine 
 Ride. Ups and Downs of California Life. Eccentric Oscar H. 
 Things Improving 290-299 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 San Francisco (concluded). 
 
 The Heathen Chinee. Their Numbers, Costumes, Habits, etc. 
 Eager to Learn Melican Ways. Pigeon English. Grand Ban- 
 quet. Their Graceful Manners. Their Great Companies. 
 Their Talent for Organization and Business. They run the 
 Mission Mills and build the Pacific Railroad. An Evening in 
 the Chinese Quarter. Their Theatre and Orchestra. A Lottery 
 Office. The Barbary Coast. An Augean Stable. Their Gam- 
 bling Houses. Chinese New Year. Their Hospitality and 
 Politeness. Good Bankrupt Law. Their Josh-Houses aad 
 Religion. The Chinese Problem generally. Good Ground for 
 Missionary Work. Fiat Justitia. .... 300-321 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 San Francisco to Los Angelas. 
 
 Off for Los Angelos. A Race with the Golden Age. A Pacific Sea 
 Coast Scenes. Santa Barbara*. Spanish Missions. San 
 Pedro. San Diego. Her Harbor. John Phoenix. A Deserted 
 Village. The County Jail. Climate. Business. Whale-fish- 
 ing. San Pedro again. Wilmington. Gen. Banning. A Rep- 
 resentative Californian. The Village Barber. The Los Angelos 
 Plains. Rancheros. Wild Geese, etc. Acequias. Los Angelos 
 and its Suburbs. Population. Climate. Sundays. Vine- 
 yards. " Don Benito " Wilson. His Noble Ranch. His Orange 
 Groves, Vineyards, Wine-cellars, etc. Cheap Lands. . 322-338 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 Wilmington to Fort Yurna. 
 
 Outfit. Getting Off. Anaheim. German Enterprise. Santa Anna 
 River. Laguna Grande. A Spanish Hacienda. Buena Vista. 
 Villacito. Colorado Desert. Carissa Creek. Desolate Land
 
 CONTENTS. XV11 
 
 scapes. Sand Storms. Mirage. The Laguna. Alamo. Pilot 
 Knob. The Country generally. Stage Stations. Carissa 
 Creek again. A Stray Texan. Bill of Fare. Indians. A 
 Border Outrage. Gambling Charley. Mexican Exiles. Max- 
 imilian. " Inside " and " Outside." .... 339-354 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Fort Yuma to Tucson. 
 
 Fort Tuma itself. Arizona City. Rio Colorado. Difficult Navi- 
 gation. High River Freights. A Yuma Sand Storm. The 
 Thermometer at Yuma. Yuma Indians. Old Pasquol. Good 
 Missionary Ground. Gov. McCormick, etc. " Outfit." Off 
 for Tucson. Gila City. The Gila itself. General Scenery. 
 Gila Bottoms. Bunch-grass and Mesquite Trees. Arizona 
 Settlers. Gila Bend. Maricopa Desert. A Dangerous Canon. 
 Painted Rocks. The Country generally. Big Cactus. Mari- 
 copa and Pimo Indians. Well-to-do Aborigines. Indian 
 Traders. Pimo Wigwams. Our then Indian Policy. Good 
 Roads. Sparse Population. Big Cactus and Bunch-grass. 
 Picacho and Point of Mountains. Climate. Apaches, 
 etc 355-373 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Tucson to Prescott. 
 
 Tucson. Misses a " Sensation." Population. A Mexican Padre. 
 High Prices. The Santa Cruz. Climate. Apaches. Black- 
 birds. Rip Van Winkle Town. Headquarters of Military Dis- 
 trict. Route of Supplies. Libertad and Guaymas Routes. 
 Copper and Silver Mines. Church a,t San Xavier. Maricopa 
 Wells again. Freshets in the Gila and Salado. Col. Critten- 
 den, etc. An Out-of-the-way Place. A Fortunate Discovery. 
 Crossing the Gila. Brave Louis Heller. Mules on a Swim. 
 Grossing the Salado. Fort McDowell. Down the Salado. 
 Among the Apaches. Poor Cavalry-horses. A Blind Road. 
 The Agua Frio. White Tanks. A Supperless Night. Up 
 the Hassayampa. A Hard Road to Travel. Arizona Quick- 
 sands. No Hurry for Population or Business. Roads and 
 Bridges Wanted 374-389
 
 xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Tucson to Prescott (continued). 
 
 Wickenburg. The Vulture Mine. A Fine Quartz-mill. A Valu- 
 able Mining Property. San Francisco Mountains. Singular 
 Eoads. Skull Valley. Sparse Population. Apaches and Tav- 
 apais. Bell's Canon. Indian Attacks generally. The Inter- 
 vening Country. Ancient Ruins and Broken Pottery. A Huge 
 Acequia. Work for Antiquarians. Good Bottoms along the 
 Salado and Gila. A Railroad Much Needed. . . 390-396 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 Prescott, the Apaches, etc. 
 
 Prescott. A New-England-like Village. An Army Officer's Opinion, 
 Location, Plan, Buildings, etc. A Barber's Opinion. Her 
 Gold and Silver Mines. Her Quartz-mills Idle. Mining Opera- 
 tions " Sick." Her Advantages, however. Capital of Arizona. 
 Population of Territory. The Indians. The Apaches gener- 
 ally. Their brave Exploits. Good Horse-thieves. Their shrewd 
 Strategy. Their Captive Children. A Raid near Prescott. 
 Their Pursuit to Hell Canon and beyond. Gen. Irviu Gregg. 
 A Fight with the Apaches. A Dangerous District. A Typical 
 Emigrant. Aztec Remains. A Fine Wild Turkey. Fort 
 Whipple. A Costly Post. An Expensive Flag-staff, etc. 
 Hail, Cavalry Gregg ! 397-408 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 Prescott to Los Angelos. 
 
 Off for Los Angelos. Williamson's Valley. Wild Game. Juniper 
 Mountain. Rock Springs. Cottonwood Canon. Beale's 
 Springs. A Desolate Country. Sage-brush and Grease-wood. 
 Want of Water. Indians again. Sublime Scenery. Union 
 Pass. Rio Colorado again. Mojave Indians. Our Indian Pol- 
 icy then. Fort Mojave. A Rude Post. A Pittsburg Lady 
 " Roughing it " there. Hardy ville. Adjacent Mines. Mr. 
 Hardy himself. Costly Transportation the Great Drawback to 
 Arizona. The Colorado should be Utilized. Beaver Lake. 
 A Desert Country again. Changes of Elevation. Heat and
 
 CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 Rattlesnakes. Interesting Bed-fellows. Pai-Ute Hill. A 
 Break-down. Camp Rock Springs. Our Frontier Posts gener- 
 ally. Soda Lake. A Weary and Anxious Sunday. An Indian 
 Scare. Mojave River. Strange Anomalies in Arizona and 
 Southern California. A Dismal Ranchman. Camp Cady. 
 Cajon Pass. San Bernardino. The Los Angelos Plains again. 
 " Out of the Wilderness." Back to 'Frisco by Sea. . 409-434 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 San Francisco to Virginia City. 
 
 Off for Sacramento. Fellow-passengers. Children. Sacramento 
 River. Sacramento City. Thence by Railroad. Country gen- 
 erally. The Wheat Fields and Live Oaks. The Foot-hills. 
 Placer Mining. Water-ditches. Hydraulic Mining. Changes 
 in Climate. Central Pacific Railroad. Cisco. The Sierra 
 Nevadas. Deep Snows still, May 17th. Snow-sheds. John 
 Chinaman again. Donner Lake. The Truckee. The Qeiger 
 Grade. Sunday in Nevada. A Noted Revivalist. Virginia 
 City. The Comstock Lode. Silver Mining generally. The 
 Sutro Tunnel. Mining a Risky Business. . . . 425-436 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 Virginia City to Stockton. 
 
 Return by Placerville. Carson City. Carson River and Valley. 
 The Sierras again. Mountain Turnpikes. A Rough Night's 
 Travel. Crossing the Summit. An Ambitious Mather and her 
 Gertrude Jane. A Morning Ride. Lake Tahoe. Splendid. 
 Stage-driving. Placerville. Sacramento City again. Califor- 
 nia's Wealth of Roses, etc. Country to Stockton. Live Oaks. 
 Wheat-fields. Vineyards. Flocks and Herds. Wind-mills. 
 Stockton itself 437-442 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 Stockton to the Ybsemite. 
 
 Off for the Yo-sem-i-te. Wheat-fields again. The Stanislaus and 
 Tuolomne. The Coast Range. Coulterville. A Horseback 
 Ride. Mustang Pony. My Guide. Bower Cave. " Black's."
 
 XX CONTENTS. 
 
 A Romantic Trail. Up arid Over the Sierras. Floundering 
 through the Snows. First View of the Tosemite. Fording 
 Mountain Torrents. Descent into the Valley. " Hutchings'." 
 A Ramble through the Yosemite. A Fissure in the Sierras. 
 Its Lofty Walls. Snowbanks above ; Strawberries below. 
 Waterfalls. Bridal Veil Fall. El Capitan. Tosemite Fall. 
 Merced River. The Lake and Domes. South Fork. Prof. 
 Whitney and Party. The Cascades. Vernal Fall. Rainbows. 
 
 Nevada Fall. Mt. Broderick. Sentinel Peak. Cathedral 
 Rocks. The Valley generally 443-455 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 The Yosemite to San Francisco. 
 
 Prof. Whitney again. The Mariposa Trail. Inspiration Point. 
 A Sublime View. The Hermitage. The Snow again. A 
 Grizzly Bear and Cubs. The Sugar Pines. The South Merced. 
 " Clark's." Galen Clark himself. Mariposa Big Trees. 
 Grizzly Giant, etc. The Species generally. California's Duty. 
 
 Mariposa. A Sleepy Town. Honitos. Bear Valley. The 
 Coast Range and Mt. Diabolo. Stockton again. Back to San 
 Francisco. . . . 456-465 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 San Francisco to New York. 
 
 Bide to San Jose. Off for New York. The Weather. Delightful 
 Voyaging. The Constitution. Fellow-passengers. Cape St. 
 Lucas. Manzanillo. Acapulco. A Mexican Sea-port. 
 " Greasers." Good Divers. Sights Ashore. The Cathedral. 
 The Old Spanish Fort. Off for Panama. Panama itself. 
 Location. Business and People. Railroad to Aspinwall. 
 Breakdown in a Jungle. Tropical Scenery. The Railroad 
 itself. The Natives. Aspinwall. The Rising Star. New Pas- 
 sengers. Caribbean Sea. Cuba. Gulf Stream. Sandy Hook. 
 Home again. " Adios." 466-477 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Advice to Emigrants and Settlers. 478 
 
 APPENDIX 487-503 
 
 INDEX. . 505
 
 THE GREAT WEST 
 
 AND 
 
 THE PACIFIC COAST. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 FROM NEW YORK TO FORT RILEY, KANSAS. 
 
 ACROSS America, from New York to San Francisco, 
 may be roughly estimated as three thousand miles. 
 The first third of this occupied us only about three days 
 and three nights, though the whole trip consumed just less 
 than a twelve-month. From New York to St. Louis, 
 via Cincinnati, was our first stage, and of course by rail- 
 road. We left New York, Tuesday, July 24, 1866, by 
 the Erie Railway, and on the following Thursday after- 
 noon reached St. Louis in time for a late dinner. Tarry- 
 ing here a day or two, to pick up some information about 
 the Plains, we passed on to Leavenworth ; and thence, 
 after a longer pause to Fort Riley. The Union Pacific 
 Railroad, Eastern Division (or Kansas Pacific, as it is 
 .now generally called), halted then at "Waumega. some 
 thirty miles from Fort Riley, whence we reached Riley 
 by stage-coach. The coach itself was a lumbering^ 
 weather-beaten vehicle, with sorry teams of horses; it 
 was a hot August afternoon, with rolling clouds of dust;
 
 22 THE GREAT WEST 
 
 we had nine passengers inside and three outside, with 
 freight and baggage everywhere ; and altogether this 
 little stage-ride was a good initiation into the mysteries 
 and miseries of stage-coaching across the continent. 
 
 From "New York to St. Louis is already a series of 
 towns and cities, with the country as a whole well settled 
 up, for America. The Great West, it is soon seen, is no 
 longer the valley of Ohio and the prairies of Illinois. It 
 has long since crossed the Mississippi, and emigrated 
 beyond the Missouri. What used to be called the " West" 
 has already become the centre ; and " out west" now 
 means Kansas or Colorado, if anything at all. The Erie 
 road, with its broad-gauge coaches, takes you through 
 the picturesque, as well as rich and fertile regions of 
 northern New Jersey, and western New York, whence 
 the ride through Ohio, down the lovely valley of the 
 Miami to Cincinnati, is substantially as through a garden. 
 Over much of this region, it is plain to be seen, New 
 England has left her mark, never to be eifaced. Her 
 school-houses and churches, her intelligence and thrift, 
 are all reproduced (only slightly westernized), and one 
 can see that he is in Yankee-land still at a glance. You 
 might know it, by the omnipresence of white paint and 
 green blinds, if nothing else. You see it in the average 
 inhabitant and detect it in his speech. And yet it is 
 Yankee-land, with enlarged freedom and independence 
 of thought and action, and therefore doubly welcome. 
 Southern Indiana and Illinois, you find rapidly filling 
 up ; but they still seem much behind that sunny heart 
 of Ohio, the Miami Talley. Populated largely by the 
 overflow from Kentucky and Tennessee chiefly the 
 " poor whites" of those former slave states the results 
 are everywhere unmistakable. Evidently, even to the 
 passing traveller, the average Hoosier or Sucker, as yet.
 
 CHICAGO 23 
 
 is much behind the average Buckeye, and he will find 
 it a hard task to overtake him. The lineal descendant 
 of the Cavalier and the Corncracker, how can he expect 
 to compete successfully with the regular representative 
 of the Roundhead and the Yankee ? 
 
 Cincinnati and St. Louis strike you as large and 
 growing cities ; but they do not impress you like Chicago, 
 at least as she did before the great fire. They seem to 
 have taken Quaker Philadelphia, as their type and model, 
 rather than buoyant New York. Many of their streets, 
 you find similarly named, and a like atmosphere per- 
 vades much of their business. In talking with their 
 magnates of trade and finance, you note a conservative 
 tone, that illy accords with your ideas of the West, and 
 you are inclined to wonder whether the far-famed push 
 and pluck of that romantic region are not myths after 
 all. Buffalo and Toledo, Cleveland and Chicago, how- 
 ever, would soon undeceive you especially, Chicago. 
 The push and drive, the enterprise and elan of New 
 York, that are reproduced so well along our northern tier 
 of cities, all culminated at Chicago at least before the 
 fire until she seemed New York incarnate or even 
 intensified. The metropolis and brain of the northwest, 
 how a day in her busy streets braced and inspired one ! 
 With all her brave memories of the past, no wonder she 
 still believes enthusiastically in herself, and even in her 
 ashes doubted not her future \ 
 
 St. Louis, long her rival in trade, we found just 
 beginning to recover from the benumbing effects of 
 slavery and the rebellion. The rebellion, sealing up her 
 railroads and extinguishing her down-river trade, had 
 given her a bad set back. But she was already fast pick- 
 ing up the broken threads of her commerce, and was 
 again preparing to contend with Chicago for the palm of
 
 24: 8T. LOUIS 
 
 supremacy. Seated on the Mississippi, with a vast 
 river trade up and down, and an immense region back 
 of her, her geographical position could scarcely be sur- 
 passed, and no doubt she has a grand and noble future 
 before her. Her levees, we found, thronged with steam- 
 ers, some up for New Orleans 1,200 miles south ; others 
 for Fort Benton 3,100 miles north and west. Her pop- 
 ulation already exceeded a quarter of a million. Her 
 suburbs were steadily filling up, in spite of numerous 
 sinkholes in the limestone formation there. Her streets 
 were already well gridironed with horse-railroads. Her 
 facilities for business were large and increasing. And 
 with her vast system of rivers, north to the British Do- 
 minion and south to the gulf, and her rapidly develop- 
 ing back country even to the Rocky Mountains and 
 New Mexico nature seems to have destined her to 
 become the great and abiding metropolis of all that 
 region. Her vast bridge and tunnels were not yet 
 begun, but she was already prophesying great things for 
 the future. 
 
 From St. Louis, three hundred miles through Mis- 
 souri, to Leaven worth, Kansas, you find a noble region, 
 that needs only a live population to make it a garden. 
 It is mostly rich rolling prairie, but with more timber 
 and streams than in Illinois, and with limestone abound- 
 ing nearly everywhere. All along the route, it was 
 plain to be seen, Missouri had suffered sadly from slavery. 
 Both in population and business, in town and country, 
 clearly " the trail of the serpent" had been over her all. 
 But the wave of immigration, now that slavery was dead, 
 had already reached her, and we found its healthful cur 
 rents everywhere overflowing her bottoms and prairies. 
 The new-comers seemed to be largely Yankee and Ger- 
 man, almost everywhere. France once so predominant
 
 MISSOURI LEAVENWOBTH 25 
 
 here, was already supplanted by Germany, and the Teu- 
 ton bade fair to rule Missouri soon, even then. At Her- 
 mann, where we stopped for dinner, a German Hebe 
 tendered us excellent native wine, and the culture of the 
 grape, we learned, had already become a leading indus- 
 try of this section of the state. The sturdy Rhine-men, 
 as true to freedom as in the days of Tacitus, were already 
 everywhere planting vineyards, and in the near future 
 were sure of handsome returns from petty farms, that our 
 old time u Pikes " and " Border Ruffians " would have 
 starved on. Throughout the ride, the Missouri or Big- 
 Muddy, as the Indians call it, was often in sight, a broad 
 tawny stream ; and many of its bends and reaches were 
 so beautiful, that it hardly seemed to deserve that savage 
 criticism of Bayard Taylor's, as being " too lazy to wash 
 itself." Its banks as a rule are higher and better, than 
 those of the Mississippi anywhere below Cairo, and its 
 bottom lands seemed unsurpassed in fertility. 
 
 Leaven worth, on the Missouri, where it takes a final 
 bend north, was still the entrepot for New Mexico and 
 the plains. Omaha had already tapped the Colorado 
 and Utah trade and travel, and has since mainly absorbed 
 them, by the completion of the Union Pacific railroad. 
 But Leavenworth still had a large trade and travel of her 
 own, as a point of departure for New Mexico and the 
 Plains, and seemed destined to maintain it. Only a 
 decade or so before, she was without a house or inhabit- 
 ant ; but now she claimed thirty-thousand people, and 
 was rapidly increasing. We found many handsome 
 stores and elegant residences everywhere going up. 
 Her streets were fast being graded and macadamized, and 
 the guttering especially was most solid and substantial. 
 She had several daily papers already, with weekly 
 editions of a large circulation. Many of her stores were 
 a
 
 26 LAWBENCE TOPEKA JUNCTION CITY 
 
 doing a wholesale business of a million of dollars 
 annually. A fine Catholic church was being erected, 
 which when completed promised to be the chief ornament 
 of the city. But the largest and showiest building there 
 then was a combined brewery and dance house, which 
 augured badly for the town. Off on the suburbs of the 
 city, we passed a park of wagons or " prairie-schooners," 
 acres in extent, tangible evidence that we had already 
 struck the commerce of the Plains. 
 
 By Lawrence and Topeka, already towns of several 
 thousand people, over the historic plains of Kansas, we 
 sped along up the valley of the Kaw or Kansas to 
 Waumega ; and thence, as I have said, by stage to Fort 
 Biley. Junction City, just beyond Fort Riley, at the 
 confluence of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers, we 
 found to be a hamlet of several hundred people, and 
 already growing rapidly. It had been projected, with 
 the expectation that the railroad would bend north here, 
 and ascending the Republican go thence to Denver, 
 which would have made Junction the last station and 
 grand depot for all New Mexico and much of the Rocky 
 Mountain region. But, as it had been decided afterwards 
 to keep on up the Smoky Hill instead, Junction had 
 missed of much of its importance. Its location, how- 
 ever, was good, at the confluence thus of two rivers ; 
 and with its single street of straggling houses, of all 
 Btyles of architecture, and in every stage of construction, 
 it was a good specimen of a frontier town, in the first 
 year of its settlement. 
 
 The country as a whole, thus far through Kansas, 
 much surpassed our expectations. Not only were the 
 broad bottoms of the Kaw everywhere dotted with 
 farms, but even the high rolling prairies beyond were 
 fast settling up. Of course, settlements grew more
 
 KANSAS GENERALLY 27 
 
 scattering the farther we progressed westward ; but they 
 were always in sight and everywhere rapidly increasing. 
 Herds of horses and cattle grazed along the bottoms, and 
 grouse and sage-hens whirred up by the roadside as we 
 sped along. At one point, a brace of oxen, yoked 
 together, got upon the track, and our engine mangled the 
 poor beasts dreadfully before they escaped. The road, 
 as yet, was poorly ditched, and without fences on either 
 side, so that horses and cattle strayed across it quite at 
 will. The wheat-crop had everywhere been fair, and 
 Indian corn was promising to be magnificent. Corn had 
 looked well, all through Ohio and Indiana, Illinois and 
 Missouri ; but in the Kansas bottoms it was superb in its 
 " embattled glory," and seemed to be a great favorite 
 with the farmers. Indeed, Kansas, both in soil and 
 climate, is a rare state, and well worth to freedom all the 
 blood and treasure she cost us. True she lacks timber ; 
 but so far she had got along, and the weight of testimony 
 seemed everywhere to be that her growth of timber 
 improved with the reclamation and settlement of the 
 country. The Indian was everywhere retiring before 
 the pale faces, and the autumnal fires ceasing with his 
 departure, bushes and trees soon appeared, and we heard 
 repeated instances of springs even breaking out, where 
 none had been known before. As an offset to her want 
 of timber, coal had been discovered in many places, and 
 all through the valley of the Kaw, she has a cream-colored 
 limestone in the bluffs, that works up beautifully for 
 building purposes. When first quarried, it is so soft that 
 a common hand-saw or chisel can dress it into any shape 
 desired ; but exposure to the atmosphere soon hardens it, 
 and then it continues so. In appearance it resembles 
 the Milwaukee free-stone, that used to make Michigan 
 Avenue, Chicago, so handsome and stately, and as a
 
 28 SCENERY AND POPULATION 
 
 building material will prove immensely valuable through 
 all Southern Kansas. At Junction City it was being 
 got out by machinery, and fashioned into blocks by horse- 
 power. A company controlled the business, and as they 
 could furnish this elegant stone at a much less cost than 
 lumber or brick, they were anticipating very handsome 
 profits. 
 
 The scenery of Kansas possesses many points of inter- 
 est, but as a whole lacks grandeur and sublimity. The 
 view from Prospect Ridge, back of Leavenworth, up and 
 down the Missouri, is good ; but the landscape from 
 Indian Point, near Junction City, up the Smoky Hill, 
 has more scope and variety, and was the finest we saw. 
 Here, and at other points, are some superb specimens of 
 river terraces. We counted four and five separate 
 " benches," as they call them there, or terraces, in many 
 places, and the ancient water-marks of past geologic ages 
 seemed very evident. The rounded appearance of the 
 country generally, cropping out here and there into 
 rough and misshapen ridges, indicated pretty clearly the 
 former water-line, and we often interested ourselves in 
 tracing it for miles. 
 
 Kansas, of course, abounds in enterprise and thrift. 
 Saved to freedom by Sharpe's rifles and the Bible, she 
 invested largely in the school-house and the church, and 
 already reaps her fit reward. Her Yankees whittle away 
 just as cutely as they used to in New England, and her 
 Western men spread themselves hugely as elsewhere. 
 Since the war, she had received quite a large accession of 
 population from our ex-officers and soldiers. We found 
 specimens of the Boys in Blue scattered almost everywhere, 
 and usually they were doing well. A fine esprit du corps 
 animated them, and will keep them knit together for the 
 future. At various points we found them just " squatted "
 
 FALL-LEAF AND GEN. JACKSON 29 
 
 on a quarter-section, and with the very rudest surround- 
 ings, but ever plucky and hopeful. At Junction we met 
 a late Paymaster, U. S. Yol's., who was half-owner of the 
 chief grocery and liquor-store, as well as partner in a 
 stone-quarry, and was about establishing a National Bank. 
 He was a man of spirit and enterprise, and seemed to 
 have enough surplus energy left for several more 
 employments. 
 
 At Leavenworth, up at the old Fort, we saw our first 
 Indians a party of Delawares. They consisted of Fall- 
 Leaf, war-chief of the Delawares, his nephew General 
 Jackson, and a handful of other braves. They were 
 dressed in the usual rough costume of the border, but 
 with an eagle-feather or two in their broad-brimmed som- 
 breros trailing in the wind. Fall-Leaf was a noble speci- 
 men of the Indian in a half-civilized state. He was a 
 brawny, athletic, powerful fellow, five feet eleven inches 
 high, weighed one hundred and ninety-six pounds, and 
 was fifty-five years old. A perfect mass of bone and muscle, 
 without an ounce of superfluous flesh, his frame was a 
 sight to look upon especially the massive splendor of his 
 neck and chest. A Hercules of the Plains, we could well 
 believe the stories told of his great strength and powers 
 of endurance. General Jackson was a lithe, light-built 
 man, about thirty-six years of age, and in physique 
 almost the opposite of his brawny uncle. Three of them 
 had just been engaged as guides to a military expedition 
 about leaving for the Indian country, and a fourth was 
 going along as interpreter. Fall-Leaf had long served the 
 government, with marked fidelity, as guide on the Plains 
 and in the far Indian country, and received one hundred 
 and fifty dollars per month and rations when absent on 
 euch duty. He was familiar with the whole country 
 west, as far as the Kocky Mountains, and southward to
 
 30 THE DELAWAKES 
 
 New -Mexico, and was reputed as invaluable in his way. 
 He told me the Delawares numbered about a thousand 
 souls yet, and had stood at those figures for several years. 
 They occupy a Reservation of several thousand acres on 
 the Missouri just below Leavenworth, and are engaged 
 generally in farming and stock-raising. They have a 
 church, pretty generally attended, and a good school, well- 
 patronized. He said his people were fully impressed 
 with the importance of education and religion, and gen- 
 erally there was an earnest desire among them to have 
 their children learn all " Pale-Face ways." He said he 
 took a drink of " fire-water " himself occasionally, on cold 
 or wet days, and rather liked it ; but that, as a rule, 
 drunkenness was on the decrease among the Delawares, 
 and he was glad of it. He had a wife and eight children, 
 and said they allowed " only one wife at a time in his tribe." 
 He said he was born far away toward the rising sun, on a 
 river among the mountains ; and when I showed him a 
 map, he immediately pointed out the head-waters of the 
 Delaware. When I told him I had just come from there, 
 and that my " wigwam " stood upon its banks, he seemed 
 greatly interested. The first steamboat he ever saw, was 
 many years before at St. Louis, and he thought it "Very 
 good," because " It went itself ! Puff ! Puff ! No paddle ! " 
 His first locomotive, was quite recently at Leavenworth, 
 and he thought it " Much good ! "Went whiz ! Beat buf- 
 falo or pony 1 " Of the telegraph, he said, " I no under- 
 stand ; but very much good ! Heap swift ! Like arrow or 
 bullet between wide places ; only heap better ! " 
 
 He said, the Delawares believed in the Great Maiii- 
 tou, who made earth, and sky, and everything ; but many 
 did not believe in the Evil Manitou. He himself seem- 
 ed to be a pretty good Universalist. He thought God 
 "very much good," and could'nt imagine how any lesser
 
 A GALLANT INDIAN 31 
 
 being could interfere with Him. " Perhaps, Evil Mani- 
 tou somewhere ; but Fall- Leaf know only Good Manitou." 
 He admitted some of his people believed in spirits ; but 
 he himself had never seen any, and was skeptical on the 
 whole subject. Some medicine-men, he said, claimed to 
 have seen them, and to be able to control them ; but he 
 thought the whole thing " a heap humbug." 
 
 Fall-Leaf, as I have said, was then War Chief of the 
 Delawares. In his time he had been quite a noted war- 
 rior, and was proud of his reputation for bravery and 
 prowess. His last fight against the Plains Indians had 
 been about two years before, when he covered the retreat 
 of a squad of infantry, from a body of mounted Chey- 
 ennes and Arrapahoes, and brought them all safely off. 
 His last fight at the head of the Delawares had been 
 some ten years before, when with less than fifty warriors 
 he encountered and fought, over two hundred Pawnees, 
 and whipped them well. Altogether, he supposed, he 
 had killed and scalped two or three hundred Indians, in 
 his time ; but never a pale-face. He was a dignified and 
 quiet enough looking Red Skin to talk to through an inter- 
 preter, and occasionally would grunt out a little broken 
 English himself; but when roused, and with the fury 
 of battle upon him, no doubt he would be an ugly cus- 
 tomer to deal with. His face was full of smothered force 
 and fire, of latent power and fierceness, like a tamed 
 tiger's ; and notwithstanding his peaceful demeanor, he 
 all the while suggested that a single war-whoop, or a 
 scalping-knife flashing through the air, would speedily 
 transform the gentle Fall-Leaf into a hideous savage again. 
 Beyond Topeka we passed St. Mary's, a Catholic 
 Mission among the Pottawotamies. These Indians had a 
 Reservation there then thirty miles square, of as fine land 
 as there was in Kansas. Stock-raising seemed to be their
 
 32 THE POTT AW ATOMIES 
 
 chief occupation, though they had some fields well 
 fenced, and their corn crops were looking well. They 
 lived in one-story log-cabins, and by dint of years of 
 hard work the missionaries had succeeded in reducing 
 them to a sort of semi- civilization ; but the aborigine 
 survived still, and cropped out fearfully everywhere. It 
 was an anomaly and an anachronism to see them driving 
 teams and threshing grain ; and they themselves seemed 
 to confess it by their awkwardness. Beyond Manhattan- 
 ville we met en route a large party of them braves, 
 squaws and papooses returning from a Buffalo hunt on 
 the Plains. Some were in wagons with their spoils of 
 buffalo meat and robes ; but the majority went careering 
 along on horseback. Most of them were in semi-civilized 
 costume, not much rougher than an average borderer, 
 though their head-gear usually ran much to feather. A 
 few of their young squaws were decidedly pretty and 
 piquant, and, as they ambled by on their gaily-caparison- 
 ed ponies, created quite a sensation among us ; but the 
 older ones were hideous looking hags. 
 
 In all this part of Kansas, the Indian had already had 
 his day, and everywhere was being fast eliminated. The 
 valleys of the Kaw and its two chief tributaries, the Repub- 
 lican and Smoky Hill, had already heard the whistle of 
 the white man's locomotive, and the whole region there 
 was beginning to shake with the tread of the onward 
 march of civilization. As " Bleeding Kansas," she had 
 had her dark days ; but these, happily, were past, and 
 the tide wave of eastern immigration was now surging 
 and swelling all up and down her borders. We met 
 cheery voices and friendly hands at every stage of pro- 
 gress ; and could not but bid Kansas a hearty God-speed 
 as we journeyed on.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM THE KANSAS TO THE PLATTE. 
 
 IT was the middle of August, before I was ready to 
 leave Fort Riley ; and now a word about my compa- 
 gnons du voyage. These were two, Mr. J. D. L. of Boston, 
 my well-tried clerk and friend ; and Dr. B. E. M. of New 
 
 York, then recently Ass't. Editor : Magazine. 
 
 Mr. L. had been with me for several years in the field 
 and at post; was active, intelligent, alert; and was as 
 capital a shot, as he was rare a penman. Dr. M. I knew 
 but slightly ; but he came well-recommended, as a 
 litterateur and gentleman, and I was glad to have his 
 company. He had been considerable of a traveller in 
 Europe, and was now desirous of crossing the Continent 
 to San Francisco, whence he might go over to Japan 
 and China. Another gentleman had also talked mucli 
 of joining us ; but his heart failed him at the last hour, 
 and he preceded us to California, via the Isthmus. 
 
 My inspections at Leaven worth and Riley being com- 
 pleted, we left Fort Riley just after sunrise Aug. 16th, and 
 soon were fairly afloat on the Plains, and off for the 
 Pacific. Hitherto the railroad had still served to con- 
 nect us with the East. But now we bade good-bye to 
 cars and locomotives, and did not see them again until 
 we heard their tramp and whistle two thousand miles 
 away, in the canon of the Columbia. " Afloat," I think, 
 2*
 
 34 GETTING UNDEB WAT 
 
 is the only right word for the Plains ; because the first 
 impression they give you is that of the sea, so vast is 
 their extent, and even the wagons that cross them huge, 
 lumbering, fore-and-aft vehicles, with from eight to ten 
 yoke of oxen each in border parlance are called " Prairie- 
 Schooners." 
 
 My orders were to proceed from Fort Riley on the 
 Kaw or Kansas, to Fort Kearney on the Platte ; and, as 
 the shortest and most direct route, we were now off, 
 across the country, in execution of them. Our route lay 
 northwest across the high " divide" between the Kansas 
 and the Platte, through central Kansas; and as there 
 was no stage-line here, we had to go by ambulance. 
 Neither was there any well-defined road ; but we were 
 told that at Marysville, some sixty miles north, we could 
 strike the great Overland Route, from Atchison, Mo. and 
 afterwards travel westward by that. Our " outfit " 
 consisted of one ambulance for ourselves, one army- 
 wagon for our escort of five infantry-men, and another 
 for baggage, forage, and rations. Our friends at Riley 
 knew little about the intervening country, except that 
 Indians were reported there ; and as their cavalry was 
 all out scouting, could furnish only the infantry escort, 
 as above. Even this seemed small; but we were all 
 well-armed ourselves ; and what with our repeating rifles 
 and revolvers, few as we were, felt good for fifty red 
 skins or more, come as they would. 
 
 For the first seventy-five miles or so, we were seldom 
 out of sight of scattered ranches ; but long before reaching 
 Fort Kearney some two hundred and thirty miles from 
 Riley they had dwindled away to only the occasional 
 stage-stations, every ten or twelve miles or so apart. 
 Along the creeks and streams, we found farms rapidly 
 springing up ; but the " divides " between these were
 
 CAMPING OUT DIVIDES 35 
 
 generally barren and withered up. Oftentimes we could 
 find no water for ten or twelve miles, and wood was 
 even rarer. Of course, we " camped-out " during the 
 whole trip, and frequently had to carry our necessary fire- 
 wood fifteen and twenty miles. In the spring, all these 
 " divides," as well as the bottoms, are clothed with 
 luxuriant verdure > but in summer, the rainless atmos- 
 phere there sweeps over them, like a sirocco, and every- 
 thing soon perishes. At night, we found the air grew 
 rapidly cold, and we shivered under our blankets ; but 
 in the middle of the day, the sun fairly blazed from a 
 cloudless sky, and I have seldom felt its effects more 
 severely. When we struck the Overland Route, we 
 found its roadway a mass of impalpable dust, black and 
 stifling. With the breeze dead-ahead, or athwart our 
 course, we got along very well; but when it chopped 
 around behind us, the black prairie soil rose in clouds, 
 and our poor mules suffered terribly. Two of them, 
 indeed, died outright, from heat and dust, before reach- 
 ing the Platte, though we drove very carefully, seldom 
 averaging over thirty-five miles per day. Evidently this 
 part of Kansas must grow more trees, and thus secure 
 more rain and moisture, before these high "divides" 
 or ridges between the Kansas and the Platte will amount 
 to much for farming purposes. 
 
 After a week of travelling like this, our first sight of 
 the Platte, with its broad and luxuriant bottoms waving 
 with verdure, was refreshing to the eye. Our jaded 
 animals snuffed the water and grass afar off, and of their 
 own accord broke into a trot as we neared them. We 
 struck the river at Yalley Ranche, a collection of a dozen 
 or so sod-houses, some seven or eight miles below Fort 
 Kearney. The Platte here is a mile or more wide, and 
 looks like a noble stream ; but it is shallow and treach-
 
 36 THE PLATTE GBASSHOPPEKS 
 
 erous with shoals and quicksands, as well as tainted 
 with alkali, and altogether is about as thorough a 
 swindle as a river can well be. Its northern bank was 
 still fringed with cottonwoods, but its southern had 
 scarcely a bush to break the monotony. Ascending it 
 to Fort Kearney, we found its broad bottoms literally 
 swarming with countless millions of Plains grasshoppers. 
 They really covered the ground, a moving army ; they 
 filled the air, coming in all directions, their white wings 
 twinkling like a snow-squall. Egypt's plague of locusts 
 could scarcely have been worse, for they swept a broad 
 tract of country clean of everything, as they moved 
 eastward. We found the settlers complaining of them 
 bitterly, as the greatest pests of the region, destroying 
 all vegetation and forbidding all attempts at farming, 
 some seasons. Said a butternut Missourian, in speaking 
 of them: "The pesky varmints! They eat up all my 
 corn, and tobacco. And then when I cussed 'em for it, 
 they coolly sat on the Shanghai-fence thar, and squirted 
 tobacco juice at me ! " But they have been almost as 
 bad in other new states, at first, and it was thought the 
 advance of our line of settlements would soon subdue or 
 extirpate them. 
 
 On leaving Blley, we had anticipated some good 
 shooting en route / but game generally proved rare, or 
 else quite shy. Prairie-chickens or grouse abounded 
 until we got beyond the settlements, when they disap- 
 peared almost entirely. They are a timid bird, and hard 
 to approach on foot ; but on horseback or in a wagon 
 you may get close upon them very easily. Feeding in 
 the grass or reeds, in small flocks, at the first sound they 
 pop their heads up erect, as if inviting the sportsman to 
 crack away at them. This we did continually from our 
 ambulance or behind it, and seldom went into camp the
 
 GROUSE PKAERIE-DOGS 37 
 
 first few days without prairie-chickens enough for all. 
 We expected to see deer and buffalo, but were unable to 
 catch sight of even one, being too far east yet. As we 
 approached the Platte, we saw a solitary antelope, gazing 
 at us from a distant bluff; but when we drew nearer he 
 wheeled about and dashed quickly out of sight among its 
 sand-hills. Doves and cow-birds appeared in quite con- 
 siderable numbers when we struck the Overland Route, 
 and, of course, the crow or buzzard also the omni- 
 present scavenger of the Plains. Our first prairie-dogs 
 turned up on the Little Blue, just beyond Thompson's. 
 Here was quite a village of the little fellows, with their 
 sentinels duly out ; but as we came nearer, the alarm 
 was sounded, and soon " whisk" went a hundred tails, as 
 they plunged head downwards into their holes. A few 
 noses peeped cautiously out as we drove by; but the 
 most of their dogships continued perdu. Just above 
 one hole a diminutive owl still stood guard in the deep- 
 ening twilight, and the settlers insisted that the old yarn' 
 about the prairie-dog, the owl, and the rattlesnake being 
 tenants in common all keeping house in one and the 
 same hole is really true. We overheard our teamsters 
 (all old Plainsmen) disputing about this one night, 
 around their camp-fire, as we lay awake ; but their final 
 conclusion, and the weight of frontier testimony, seemed 
 to be in favor of this Happy Family. 
 
 Of Indians we heard a great deal, but saw 
 none. Rumors of them increased as we moved north 
 and west; but, if about, they gave us a wide berth. 
 At Virginia Station, about half way, the station-keeper 
 reported the Pawnees in force on the Little Blue ; and at 
 Big Sandy the last stage-driver through from Fort Kearny 
 reported Fort Reno taken, Fort Lararnie besieged and 
 Kearny itself in danger. He said, one settler had already 
 
 ^86096
 
 38 RUMOES OF INDIANS 
 
 been lanced and killed on the Little Blue ; that the Pawnees 
 there six hundred lodges strong were moody and hos- 
 tile ; and, as our party was too small for effective resistance 
 advised our return. Farther on we found ranches here 
 and there abandoned, with the crops left growing ; and 
 one day we descried a solitary horseman in the distance 
 galloping rapidly towards us, that we were sure must be 
 a red skin. But as he came nearer he proved to be a 
 settler's half-grown boy, who had been up the road several 
 miles helping a neighbor move. He, too, had heard " Big 
 Injun" stories, but said his people did not mind them 
 much. These reports, at first, I confess, were rather 
 startling, as we had no idea of losing our scalps ; but as 
 our safe advance day by day exploded one after another 
 of them, we soon became quite skeptical on the Indian 
 question. The chief effect was to increase our prudence 
 and vigilance. We looked well to our arms morning and 
 evening, and seldom halted, even briefly, without posting a 
 guard. In due time we reached and passed the valley of the 
 Little Blue without seeing a Pawnee they had all gone oft 
 a fortnight before to the Republican and Smoky Hill to 
 hunt buffalo and finally arrived at Fort Kearney in 
 safety. There they laughed at the idea of Indians south 
 or east of them, but confessed to ugly reports about 
 Reno and Laramie. Ultimately, as we got farther west, 
 these also proved false ; and our conclusion as to Big 
 Injun stories in general, was not very favorable. 
 
 The few settlers along the route consisted chiefly of 
 New Englanders, with a goodly sprinkling of Germans. 
 They generally had milk and eggs to sell, but seldom 
 butter or vegetables. We camped one night on Fancy 
 Creek, near a Mr. Segrist's, where we got tomatoes and 
 onions, HS well as eggs and milk ; and as we had shot 
 several prairie-chickens during' the day, we supped
 
 SPECIMEN SETTLEKS. 39 
 
 luxuriously. Our mess-kit was rather a primitive affair, 
 not much to speak of, and our cook quite a worthless 
 fellow, as it turned out; but L. developed a talent 
 that way very surprising, and so we got along comforta- 
 bly. This Segrist himself was quite a character in his 
 way. A Pennsylvania Dutchman by birth, he was bred 
 in Indiana, but emigrated to Fancy Creek during the 
 Kansas troubles, to help save the territory to freedom. 
 Squatting on a quarter-section there, he first built him- 
 self a log-cabin, and then subsequently enlarged and 
 improved this by a "lean-to;" now he had just com- 
 pleted a good two-story stone house, of magnesian lime- 
 stone, and aspired to luxury. He had flocks and herds 
 well about him ; he was a hearty, cheery man, not afraid 
 of hard work, nor a spice of danger; and, it was plain 
 to be seen, would soon be a rich man, if he kept on. 
 Of course, he was a Republican in politics, and took the 
 St. Louis Westliche Post. 
 
 On Wild-Cat Creek, the first day out from Fort 
 Kiley, we struck a Mr. Silvers, who proved to be a 
 minister of the United Brethren. He had a half-section 
 of land there, and his son-in-law as much more just 
 adjoining. They were both living in rude shanties put 
 up by themselves, but seemed happy and contented. 
 During the war, he had sent one son to the army, and 
 when Price invaded Kansas he himself shouldered his 
 Plains rifle, and marched to the defence of Lawrence 
 and Topeka. When at home, he worked upon his farm ; 
 but he had a frontier circuit, with preaching places a 
 hundred miles in every direction, which took him away 
 most of the time. He seemed to be a veritable mission- 
 ary, looking up the lost sheep scattered along the Border, 
 and we bade him God-speed. His " gude wife" gave 
 us a bowl of buttermilk fresh from the churn, and we 
 paid her in the latest eastern newspapers.
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 TJP THE PLATTE TO DENVER. 
 
 fTlHE Union ' Pacific Railroad had then just reached 
 -J- Fort Kearney from Omaha, and was the sensation of 
 the hour. With a large force of men, it was being pushed 
 rapidly up the north bank of the Platte ; but as our road 
 lay up the south bank, we did not cross to see it. There 
 was little to prevent its rapid progress of a mile and even 
 two miles per day, as the Platte valley ascends gradually, 
 and for railroad purposes is almost everywhere practically a 
 level. We now dismissed our ambulance and escort, with 
 instructions to return to Fort Riley, and transferred our- 
 selves, bag and baggage, to Holliday's Overland Stages, 
 which here connected with the railroad. 
 
 This stage-line was long one of the first enterprises of 
 America, and, as the forerunner of the railroad did its 
 part well in carrying civilization across the continent. 
 It was then owned and controlled by Mr. Ben Holliday, 
 an enterprising Missourian, but then living in New 
 York. It had originally fallen into his hands for debt, 
 but he had since greatly enlarged and extended it. It 
 then ran from Fort Kearney to Denver, with branches to 
 the mining regions ; thence across the Rocky Mountains 
 to Salt Lake ; * thence through Idaho to the Columbia, 
 with branches through Montana ; extending in all, nearly 
 three thousand miles, employing six thousand horses and 
 * The line thense to California was run by Wells, Fargo & Co.
 
 OVERLAND STAGES- 41 
 
 mules, and more than three hundred coaches. He paid 
 his general superintendent ten thousand dollars per year ; 
 his division superintendents, half that ; and lesser 
 employees proportionately. His hay, and grain, and pro- 
 visions, he had to haul hundreds of miles, distributing 
 them along the route, and his fuel frequently one hundred 
 and fifty. To offset all this, he carried the U. S. Mail, 
 daily each way, and for this service alone received over 
 half a million of dollars per year from the government. 
 In addition, his passenger fares from Fort Kearney to 
 Denver were one hundred and fifty dollars ; to Salt Lake, 
 three hundred ; to Nevada, four hundred and fifty; to 
 California, five hundred ; and to Idaho and Montana, 
 about the same. 
 
 "We found his stages to be our well-known Concord 
 coaches, and they quite surpassed our expectations, both 
 as to comfort and to speed. They were intended for 
 nine inside three seats full and as many more out- 
 side, as could be induced to get on. Their teams were 
 either four or six horses, depending on the roads, and 
 the distance between stations. The animals them- 
 selves were our standing wonder; no broken-down 
 nags, or half-starved Rosinantes, like our typical stage- 
 horses east; but, as a rule, they were fat and fiery, 
 and would have done credit to a horseman anywhere. 
 Wiry, gatney, as if feeling their oats thoroughly, 
 they often went off from the stations at a full gallop ; 
 at the end of a mile or so would settle down to a 
 square steady trot ; and this they would usually keep up 
 right along until they reached the next station. These 
 " stations " varied from ten to twelve miles apart, 
 depending on water and grass, and consisted of the 
 rudest kind of a shanty or sod-house ordinarily. Here 
 we would find another team, ready harnessed, prancing
 
 42 STAGE-DBIVEES AS A CLASS 
 
 to be gone, and in fifteen minutes or so would be off on 
 the road again. Halts were made twice a day for meals, 
 forty minutes eacb, and with this exception we kept 
 bowling ahead night and day. Our meals were fair for 
 the region ; generally coffee, beef-steak or bacon, potatoes, 
 and saleratus-biscuit hot ; but the prices one dollar 
 and one dollar and a half per meal seemed extortionate. 
 In this way, we often made ten and twelve miles per 
 hour, while on the road ; and seldom drove less than one 
 hundred, and one hundred and twenty-five miles, per day 
 and night. 
 
 "We talked a good deal, or essayed to, with the drivers ; 
 but as a rule, they were a taciturn species. Off the box 
 they were loquacious enough ; but when mounted, with 
 four or six in hand, they either thought it unprofessional 
 to talk, or else were absorbed too much in their business. 
 I remarked this to a Division Superintendent, when he 
 replied, " You bet ! A talking driver is like a whistling 
 girl or crowing hen, always of no account!" They 
 each had their drive of fifty or sixty miles, up one day, 
 and back the next, and to the people along the route 
 were important personages. Many we found were from 
 New Hampshire, and Western New York. Usually 
 they were a roving class ; but when they once settled 
 down to stage-driving, they seldom left it permanently. 
 There seemed to be a fascination about the life, hard as 
 it was, and we found many of these Jehus who had been 
 driving for years, and never expected to quit it. They 
 were fond of tobacco and whiskey, and rolled out pon- 
 derous oaths, when things did not go to suit them ; but 
 as a rule, they were hearty and generous fellows, and 
 were doing the world good service. As bearers of the 
 U. S. Mail, they felt themselves kings of the road, and 
 were seldom loth to show it. " Clar the road ! Git out
 
 FELLOW-PASSENGERS 43 
 
 of the way thar with your bull-teams!" was a frequent 
 salutation, when overtaking or meeting wagon-trains ; and 
 if this was not complied with quickly, they made little hes- 
 itation in running into the oxen, and swearing till all was 
 blue. I have a vivid recollection of one instance of the 
 kind, when we ran into an ox-team, and the justly exasper- 
 ated teamster sent us his compliments, in the shape of 
 a bullet whizzing through the air, as we whirled away 
 again. 
 
 In fellow-passengers we were remarkably lucky. Col. B. 
 was a good specimen of the ups and downs of an av- 
 erage Westerner. He was a graduate of West Point, or 
 at least had been a cadet there, and afterwards served 
 some years in the Eegular Army. Eetiring to civil life, 
 he subsequently was elected Lieut. -Governor of a western 
 state, and afterwards became Governor the incumbent 
 dying. When the war broke out, he turned up as Colonel 
 of a volunteer regiment; and now, like the Irishman, 
 having been "promoted backward," was vegetating as 
 sutler at a post on the Plains. He was a man of rare 
 wit and intelligence, of infinite jest and humor (his own 
 worst enemy), and we were sorry to part when he reached 
 his post. Then we had a Swiss artist, M. Buchser, sent 
 over by his government to make a grand painting il- 
 lustrative of our late war, embracing our most famous 
 statesmen and generals, for the Capitol at Berne. Hav- 
 ing a month or two of leisure, he was spending it 
 wisely in making a run to the Plains and the Kocky 
 Mountains. Now he was hurrying on to join Gen. 
 Sherman at Julesburg, whence he was to accompany him 
 and his brother, the Ohio Senator, on a tour of inspec- 
 tion to Fort Laramie, Buford, Denver, and then east 
 again via the Arkansas. He was a close observer, had 
 travelled much on both continents, and was very chatty
 
 44 OUTSIDE ON A STAGE-COACH 
 
 and companionable, speaking EDglish like a native. He 
 sketched constantly en route, making " studies" of the 
 Platte valley from the top of the stage-coach, and when 
 we parted at Fort McPherson, it was with the mutual 
 hope of meeting again at Denver. Next we had a 
 Doctor of Divinity from Illinois, of the Methodist per- 
 suasion, en route to Golden City and the Mountains, in 
 search of health, and to look after certain mining inter- 
 ests of some company in the east. Then we had a 
 banker from New York, of copperhead tendencies, bound 
 for Idaho City, also in quest of mines ; but his wife was 
 a staunch Republican, and more than offset his political 
 heresies. We had others besides, merchants, miners, 
 telegraph-men, etc., and really not one disagreeable 
 person. 
 
 As to the weather, we found that intensely hot in 
 the middle of the day (it being the last of August and 
 first of September), but the mornings and evenings were 
 delightful, and the nights always superb. Most of the 
 passengers preferred the inside ; but Dr. M. and I 
 chose the outside, which with some inconveniences had 
 its advantages after all. By day it gave us a wider view 
 of the country; and at night we used to give our 
 blankets a " shake down" on the flat top (first borrowing 
 an armful of hay from some station), and then go lux- 
 uriously to sleep. At first when we tried this, not 
 understanding the philosophy of the situation, we came 
 near rolling off when the coach would pitch into a chuck- 
 hole, or give a lurch from heel to port ; but we soon 
 learned to boom ourselves on, with a rope or strap 
 from railing to railing, and thus managed to secure 
 not a little of " tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy 
 sleep," while our fellow-passengers down below (nine 
 inside), packed like sardines in a box, got seldom a wink.
 
 A. WIND 8TOBM 45 
 
 The most of the time, the moon was at the full or about 
 that, and superb in her unveiled glory. The sky was 
 packed with a myriad of stars, far beyond what we ever 
 see east. The air, pure and, dry, free from both dew 
 and frost, was a perpetual tonic to lungs and brain. 
 Every hundred miles or so we stopped over a day or two 
 to inspect some Military Post, and so got rested. The 
 scenery from day to day was ever fresh and changing, 
 abounding in new sensations. And, in short, in all my 
 experiences of life, I have few pleasanter recollections 
 than in thus staging it outside, across the Plains, and up 
 the Platte to Denver. One night, however, a wind- 
 storm from the summit of the Rocky Mountains struck 
 us, and for hours raged furiously raw and gusty, pierc- 
 ing to the bone. But at midnight we rolled into Fort 
 Morgan, and halting in its hospitable quarters, waited 
 until the wind blew itself out. 
 
 The sunsets now and then were magnificent, and one 
 particularly beyond Fort Sedgwick or Julesburg deserves 
 further mention. We were rolling rapidly along, when 
 the sun went down behind a cloud, that formed the huge 
 segment of a circle on the horizon, and from around and 
 behind this his rays came flashing forth with a beauty 
 a glory and a gorgeousness that we had never seen 
 equalled. Heavy, sombre clouds hung about the west, 
 while over head and off to the east they thinned out into 
 fleec}' mottled masses almost invisible, until his reflected 
 rays illuminated them. Up among these, across the 
 whole dome of the heavens, the colors flamed and went, 
 as tremulous as a maiden's blushes now crimson and 
 gold, then purple and violet, and now again a dreamy, 
 hazy, half-pink, half rosy light, that baffles description. 
 I had seen gorgeous sunsets elsewhere on the Hudson, 
 among the Alleghanies, by the sea but never any so
 
 46 MAGNIFICENT SUNSETS. 
 
 full of glory and majesty, and sublimity as this. The 
 fleecy masses overhead seemed to hang in curtains, one 
 behind the other, like the top scenes at a theatre, and 
 the shifting light playing about among them added to 
 the illusion. Nature seemed here to enrobe the heavens 
 in her most magnificent and gorgeous tapestry, as if 
 trying to show what glorious fabrics her noiseless looma 
 could weave; and over all brooded that mysterious 
 silence of the Plains, that seems like the hush of eternity. 
 It must have been some such scene, that flamed through 
 the poet's brain when he wrote : 
 
 " All the west was washed with fire ; 
 Great clouds were standing round the setting sun, 
 Like gaping caves, fantastic pinnacles, 
 Citadels throbbing in their own fierce light, 
 Tall spires that came and went like spires of flame, 
 Cliffs quivering with fire-snow, and peaka 
 Of piled gorgeonsness, and rocks of fire 
 A- tilt and poised, bare beaches, crimson seas." 
 
 A singular part of it all was, that passengers in the 
 next stage-coach, a hundred miles east, were struck with 
 the same magnificent sunset, and followed us into Denver 
 with similar accounts of its grandeur and sublimity, at 
 the point where they had been.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 UP THE FLATTE TO DENVEB (Concluded). 
 
 THE Platte Valley itself is a great furrow or groove 
 in the heart of the Plains proper, extending substan- 
 tially due west from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains. 
 On the line of our tier of northern cities, and so in the 
 track of northern ideas across the continent, it is as if 
 nature intended it for a great natural highway, and already 
 it had come to its fulfilment. Its early selection by our 
 army of emigrants to Colorado, Utah, California, etc., 
 was because of its supplying the three great desiderata of 
 wood, water and grass, better than any other route ; and 
 its easy grades, as well as accumulating trade and travel, 
 made it the predestined pathway of the Pacific Railroad. 
 It varies in breadth from five to ten miles, and is bounded 
 on either side by abrupt bluffs two or three hundred feet 
 high, whence outstretch the Plains proper. Extending 
 from the foot of these bluffs, for a mile or more usually, is 
 a level plateau or " bench " (in Plains parlance), composed 
 of sand and gravel, and worthless for agricultural pur- 
 poses from want of moisture. To be sure, during the 
 spring a meagre herbage is sustained here, but long 
 before summer ends everything green parches and withers 
 up. Then come the bottoms proper, on either side of 
 the river, of rich loam and clay, which produce grass in 
 goodly quantities all summer, and we saw no reason why 
 they should not also grow most cereals and vegetables.
 
 48 THE PLATTE ITSELF 
 
 Perhaps it is too far north for Indian corn ; but wheat, 
 barley, oats and rye ought to flourish there, except in 
 localities where the soil may be too strongly impreg- 
 nated with alkali or soda. Their natural adaptation, how- 
 ever, is for grass, and I apprehend we shall soon have our 
 flocks and herds, by the acre, feeding all up and down 
 by the Platte. When you reach the North Platte the 
 valley of course subdivides, and yon continue on up the 
 valley of the South Platte to Denver. The fertile and 
 cultivable bottoms, of course, narrow as you ad- 
 vance ; nevertheless, they maintain a considerable breadth 
 nearly everywhere, despite encroaching bluffs, and 
 around and beyond Denver are made highly productive 
 by occasional irrigation as needed. Utilize the unfailing 
 waters of the Platte by windmills or otherwise, as they 
 do their streams in Italy, Egypt and China, and the 
 Platte valley throughout its length will yet become a 
 garden. 
 
 The Platte itself to the eye is a broad and lusty 
 stream, and in places, as near Fort McPherson, expands 
 into a sea of islands, most refreshing to behold after days 
 of dusty travel. But while in volume sufficient for a 
 first-class river, its banks are so shifting and its sand-bars 
 so numerous and variable, that it has always proved prac- 
 tically unnavigable, notwithstanding our western rivers 
 swarm with stern- wheelers, many of which it is said onlj 
 require a respectable ditch or half decent dew. Un- 
 bridged and without ferries, we found it crossed only at 
 a few well-defined fords, and even these were so cursed 
 by quicksands, that trains in crossing stood in great danger 
 of bringing up at Jeddo or Pekin. Its waters were con- 
 sidered heal thy and sweet, notwithstanding a trace of alka- 
 li, and with all its shortcomings, it seemed nevertheless a 
 perfect God-send to that particular region. Its banks and
 
 COSTLY SUPPLIES 4:9 
 
 islands were usually fringed with cottonwoods and pop- 
 lars, and furnished almost the only supply of fuel" to pass- 
 ing emigrants and travellers. The settled residents there, 
 however, the station-keepers and ranchmen, depended 
 more on the stunted cedars, that abounded generally in all 
 the ravines and canons, with which the side-bluffs of the 
 valley are more or less seamed. Here also they procured 
 the most of their lumber, and from here supplied thou- 
 sands of ties for the Union Pacific Railroad. We were 
 surprised to find these cedars so abundant in the canons, 
 where nothing tree-like was visible until you entered. 
 Then we found the whole bottom and sides frequently 
 lined with them to the top; but there they abruptly 
 ceased, as if close shaven by the winds, which in certain 
 months sweep over the Plains mercilessly. 
 
 In both wood and lumber, however, we found the 
 Platte valley sadly lacking, and the whole Plains country 
 generally. Good peat had been found at Julesburg, and 
 bituminous coal was reported near Fort Morgan ; but 
 our posts were depending for both fuel and lumber mainly 
 on the Platte and its side canons. At Fort Sedgwick, 
 near Julesburg, they had been hauling wood nearly a 
 hundred miles, at a cost to the government of over a 
 hundred dollars per cord, there being none nearer or 
 cheaper. Lumber cost one hundred and seventeen dol- 
 lars per thousand, and shingles fifteen dollars per thou- 
 sand, and were held cheap at that. The year before, 
 lumber had cost two hundred and five dollars per thousand, 
 and shingles in proportion. Grain (corn and oats) was 
 wagoned from the Missouri, and cost the government, put 
 down at Sedgwick, about seven dollars per bushel. Hay 
 was cut in the vicinity, and cost thirty-four dollars per 
 ton. Recently they had made a contract with shrewd 
 operators in Denver, for lumber at ninety dollars per 
 3
 
 50 GOOD GRAZING REGION 
 
 thousand, and wood at forty-six dollars per cord, both to 
 come from the Rocky Mountains, over two hundred miles 
 away ; but the contractors availed themselves of cheap 
 freights by eastward-bound wagon-trains, otherwise 
 returning empty. At Julesburg, we were told, there was 
 not a tree even for fifty miles ; formerly there had been a 
 scrubby cottonwood, on the south bank of the Platte there 
 a lone star in solitary splendor which was regularly 
 shown to tourists as one of its lions. But this had 
 recently fallen down and floated away, and now Julesburg 
 mourned its loss as " the last of the Mohicans." There 
 was some talk of erecting a monument to its memory ; 
 but even this would have to be of " adobe," as stone was 
 equally a rarity there. 
 
 Down in the valley proper, the field of vision is lim- 
 ited by the side bluffs, and you see but comparatively 
 little of the country generally. But ascend the bluffs on 
 either side, and the vast ocean of the Plains stretches 
 boundlessly before you not flat, but billowy with swells 
 and ridges, an illimitable plateau, with only here and 
 there a solitary " butte," sharply defined against the clear 
 sky. In spring this whole vast extent is a wilderness of 
 verdure and flowers ; but the summer skies, untempered 
 by rain, as elsewhere said, scorch and burn the ground to 
 cinders, and long before autumn comes all vegetation 
 there practically perishes. Even the hardy buffalo-grass 
 becomes brown and tinder-like, and the only grazing there 
 is in the canons and valleys. Nevertheless our Plains have 
 hitherto sustained buffalo by the million, and do it still, 
 although these shaggy monsters have of late mostly 
 disappeared from the Platte region. We did not see one 
 in our entire trip to Denver ; but a friend, who came 
 through a month or so later, over the Smoky Hill route, 
 where there was less travel, reported buffalo there yet by
 
 A RIDE AFTER ANTELOPE 51 
 
 the horizon full the whole country being substantially 
 black with them. The short and sweet buffalo-grass is 
 indigenous through all this region, and is said to be 
 nutritious, even when dried up, the year round. What a 
 magnificent range for stock these great Plains will yet 
 afford, when the country becomes more thickly settled up ! 
 Much of this region is marked on the old maps as the 
 " Great American Desert ; " but from all we saw and 
 heard I doubt not, as a whole, it will yet become the 
 great stock-raising and dairy region of the Republic, 
 whence we shall export beef and mutton, leather and 
 wool, in exchange for cloth and steel.* 
 
 We had several fine rides with- brother-officers among 
 the canons and bluffs while stopping over to inspect our 
 military posts en route, and a grand gallop one bright 
 September morning over the Plains and far away after 
 antelope. In the canons and along the bluffs we started 
 plenty of jack-rabbits ; but the antelope were shy and 
 apparently always on the run, so much so we could never 
 get within shot of them. We formed a long line across 
 the country, and as we swept forward started two or 
 three small herds ; but they were all too fleet for Uncle 
 Sam's coursers. Subsequently we halted, and lying 
 down tried the old hunter's trick of enticing them with 
 a handkerchief on a ramrod, with our rifles ready to 
 blaze away as they drew near ; but they were too cun- 
 ning to be caught by any such rascally flag-of-truce 
 arrangement, and it seemed a shame to attempt it. The 
 ride itself, however, was a great satisfaction, full of 
 excitement, exhilaration, enjoyment. The sky was a 
 perfect sapphire, without cloud or haze. The clear 
 atmosphere braced one's nerves like wine, and revealed 
 distant objects with a pre-Raphaelite distinctness. A 
 
 * See Appendix.
 
 52 THE BUFFALO AS AN ENGINEER 
 
 pyramid-like " butte," off to the southwest, seemed near 
 at hand, though more than twenty miles away. The 
 ground was baked hard, with a thin covering of dry-grass, 
 except in the occasional buffalo-wallows ; and altogether 
 our horses seemed to enjoy the gallop quite as much as 
 we did ourselves. There was just a spice of danger iu 
 the ride, too, as Indians were reported prowling about, but 
 none appeared. We left the Platte with its bluffs and 
 canons behind us, and out into the boundless Plains we 
 rode, on and on, and only drew rein when we discovered 
 that we had lost our reckoning, and were without a com- 
 pass. The person charged with providing this had 
 forgotten it, and suddenly we found ourselves at sea, 
 without guide or headland. Fortunately we had the 
 well-worn buffalo- trails, that there run almost due north 
 and south the old paths over which they formerly went 
 to and from the Platte for water and following up one 
 of these, after an hour or two, we found ourselves in 
 sight of the river again. These " trails " are no wider 
 than ordinary cow-paths, but they are worn deep into the 
 soil, and show by their great number and depth what 
 countless herds of buffalo must have roamed here in other 
 days. They are a sure guide up and down the bluffs, 
 many of which are so precipitous that safe ascent or 
 descent elsewhere seems impossible. Bat the buffalo, by 
 a wise instinct, seems to have hit just the right point, and 
 deserves credit for such skillful engineering. 
 
 The population of the Platte Valley was yet mostly 
 in futuro. The little in esse was grouped sparsely 
 around the several Military posts Forts Kearney, 
 McPherson, Sedgwick and Morgan the intervening 
 stage-stations, and at Julesburg. The largest hamlet, 
 perhaps five hundred inhabitants or so, was near Fort 
 Kearney, having grown up on the outskirts of that post,
 
 KANCHMEN AND THEIB HOMES 53 
 
 and bearing the same name. Julesburg consisted of a 
 blacksmith-shop, a grocery, a billiard-saloon, and a half- 
 dozen houses all of adobe. It was on the South Platte, at 
 the point of crossing for the Utah and Montana travel, 
 which here bore away northwest for Bridger's Pass, and 
 so did a considerable business already in canned-fruits 
 and tangle-foot whiskey. A year afterwards, it was the 
 terminus for awhile of the Union Pacific Eailroad, 
 went up speedily to two or three thousand inhabitants, 
 and figured largely in eastern journals. But, presently, 
 with the ongoing of the railroad, its importance ceased, 
 and its inhabitants, 
 
 " Folded their tents like the Arabs, 
 And silently stole away." 
 
 The stage-stations usually had a ranch or two adjoining, 
 though these grew more infrequent, as we got farther 
 west. These were only rude huts of sod or adobe, 
 with dirt-roofs, divided into two apartments one for 
 sleeping purposes, and the other for a cross-roads grocery. 
 The stock on hand usually consisted largely of tobacco, 
 canned-fruits and vegetables, and the worst varieties of 
 " needle-gun" whiskey, warranted to kill a mile away. 
 Hay and wood were also kept on hand, for sale to passing 
 trains, and many ranchmen managed thus to pick up 
 considerable money in the course of the year. Generally 
 two men occupied a ranch thus together, though some- 
 times squaws were found serving as "brevet"-wi ves. Much 
 of their time was spent, especially at night, in playing 
 "poker," "old-sledge," "seven- up," etc. for the want 
 of something else to do ; and a newspaper, a Congressional 
 speech, or even a Pub. Doc., was always welcome. 
 Farther west, the stage-stations and ranch-huts were 
 built more substantially, and often were regularly
 
 54: WAGON-TRAINS AND TEAMSTERS 
 
 bastioned and loop-holed for a siege. One of the most 
 notable of these was Fort Wicked, about half-way between. 
 Julesburg and Denver. It was built of sods and adobe, 
 with a thick wall of the same on three sides, and was 
 really an arrow and bullet-proof block-house. A year or 
 so before, it had been attacked by a party of Cheyennes 
 and Arrapahoes ; but the owner and his men showed 
 fight killed several of the red-skins, and put the rest 
 to flight whereupon some one christened the place 
 " Fort Wicked," and the name stuck. 
 
 Wagon-trains going west or returning east, we met 
 frequently, but not to the extent we anticipated. They 
 usually consisted of from ten to twenty wagons each, 
 with from eight to twelve pairs of mules or yokes of 
 oxen to each wagon. Going up from the " River," as 
 the Missouri was always called, these trains being loaded 
 all had their full complement of wagon-masters, team- 
 sters, cooks, etc. But, returning empty, several wagons 
 were often coupled together the surplus employees stop- 
 ping over in the mines. By day, these trains stretched 
 their huge length along, the great white-sheeted wagons 
 or " prairie-schooners" carrying each from ten to twelve 
 thousand pounds ; but, at night, their wagons were 
 formed into a " corral," with the animals inside to pre- 
 vent the Indians stampeding them, and the picturesque 
 effect of such encampments was always pleasing. Even 
 here on the Plains, about the last place we would sup- 
 pose, the inherent aristocracy of human nature cropped 
 out distinctly. The lords of the lasher excellence were 
 the stage-drivers. The next most important, the horse 
 or mule teamsters; and the lowest, the "bull-drivers." 
 The horse or mule teams made from twelve to fifteen 
 miles per day; the ox-trains eight to ten. For real 
 vagabondage, pure and simple, life with one of these
 
 PLAINS INDIANS.
 
 SIOUX INDIANS 55 
 
 trains seemed hard to beat. An Arab of the desert, or a 
 Gaucho of the pampas, could ask for nothing more 
 nomadic. And if anybody is sick of Sybaris, and anx- 
 ious to get away from all trace of civilization, here is the 
 place for him. It seemed to be going down to "bed- 
 rock " in the social scale, and afforded a splendid oppor- 
 tunity to study first principles. A school-friend of mine, 
 a man of fine culture, tried it formerly, and his experi- 
 ences were racy and rare. Subsequently, as miner, land 
 agent, speculator, and lawyer, at Pike's Peak and 
 Denver, he made two or three fortunes and lost them ; 
 then emigrated to San Francisco, where he made another 
 as army contractor ; and then wisely forsook the fickle 
 goddess, and settled in New York. 
 
 Rumors of impending troubles with the Indians 
 thickened as we advanced. The settlers and stage-people 
 said the Indians appeared but little on the road, which was 
 a sure sign that a storm was brewing. Further they 
 said the tribes had had a grand pow-wow recently 
 on the Smoky Hill and the Republican, in which they had 
 agreed to bury the hatchet and make common cause 
 against the pale-faces. Subsequently, later in the 
 autumn, they did attack some stations on the Smoky 
 Hill route, and a stage or two on the Platte route ; but 
 we reached Denver unmolested. East of Julesburg, at 
 Baker's ranch, we passed an encampment of Sioux, per- 
 haps two or three hundred, papooses and all, in cone- 
 shaped wigwams, evidently the original of our army 
 "Sibley." While changing horses, we strolled into 
 several of their wigwams, and found them full of braves, 
 squat upon their hams, intently engaged in playing cards. 
 In Indian pantomime, they warmly invited us to partici- 
 pate, but we were obliged to decline the distinguished 
 honor. The squaws were mostly at work on moccasins
 
 56 A FRIGHTENED GERMAN 
 
 or blankets, and their tawny little papooses (stark naked, 
 except a breech-cloth) were either practising with bows 
 and arrows, or " lying around loose." The entire party 
 seemed utterly poverty-stricken, even to their ponies and 
 dogs, and, generally, about as wretched as human beings 
 could well be. Their main provisions seemed to be 
 rusty army-rations, which had recently been issued to 
 them at one of our neighboring posts, and without these 
 they would have been practically destitute. Dirty, 
 squalid, indecent, and half-starving, they seemed but 
 little removed above the brute creation, and gave a terri- 
 ble shock to all preconceived ideas about the " Noble 
 Red Man," if we had any. They were the first real 
 savages pure and simple we had met, and our poetry 
 and romance, born of Cooper and Longfellow, shivered 
 at the spectacle. Some miles farther on, we encountered 
 two young "bucks," gaily attired in blankets, beads, 
 feathers, etc., jogging along on their ponies to the camp 
 at Baker's. They had given a big scare to a poor Ger- 
 man we overtook a blacksmith, travelling alone from 
 station to station, in a light two-mule buggy, to shoe the 
 Company's horses. The appearance of our coach, how- 
 ever, made him feel his scalp more secure, and falling in 
 behind he followed us up for miles, singing at the top of 
 his voice " Annie, dear Annie of the vale ! " Our stage 
 was full inside and out, and we were all well-armed in 
 fact, fairly bristled with repeating-rifles and revolvers 
 and had we been attacked no doubt would have given a 
 good account of ourselves. Our experiences up to 
 Denver, however, inclined us to be somewhat skeptical on 
 the Indian question, and our subsequent observations did 
 not greatly change this. The whole region, indeed, seemed 
 to be over-sensitive on the subject. The air was every- 
 where thick with rumors, that one by one disappeared as
 
 INDIAN BUMOR8. 57 
 
 we advanced, and we hardly knew which to wonder at 
 the more the veracity or credulity of the Plains. In fact, 
 that prince of romancers, Baron Munchausen, seemed to 
 preside over the country, or the people to be his lineal 
 descendants, almost everywhere. 
 3*
 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 DENVER AND THE MINES. 
 
 WE reached Denver Sept. 5th, and remained there 
 several days. Approaching by the South Platte, 
 you catch sight of the town a mile or two away, when 
 crossing a "divide," and are surprised at its size and 
 importance. Ten years before, there was not an inhabit- 
 ant there ; but now she claimed seven thousand or more, 
 and boasted with reason, of two hundred and fifty houses 
 erected that year. Moreover, the new buildings were 
 chiefly of brick or stone, while the old ones were log or 
 frame. At the junction of the South Platte and Cherry 
 Creek her streets are well-laid out, mostly at right-angles, 
 and for suburbs she has the boundless Plains. Appa- 
 rently on a plateau, she is nevertheless really a mountain 
 city ; for at St. Louis you are only three hundred feet 
 above the sea, at Omaha nine hundred feet, while at 
 Denver you have got up imperceptibly to four thousand 
 feet above the sea, or higher than our average Allegha- 
 nies. Her climate is pure and dry, without rain or frost 
 for many months in the year the paradise of consump- 
 tives and for scenery, she has the ever-glorious Rocky 
 Mountains. Already she had six churches, two 
 seminaries, two daily papers, a banking-house with a 
 business of twelve millions a year, a II. S. Mint, a theatre, 
 and hotels and saloons unnumbered, though these last it 
 was thought were diminishing. Until recently, gambling-
 
 DENVER CITY HER BORDER BISHOP 59 
 
 hells had also flourished openly on her streets, with their 
 usual concomitants of drunkenness and affrays. But 
 some months before, a Judge Gale backed by a strong 
 public opinion had taken hold of the gamblers, and 
 squelched them effectually. Like other " peculiar insti- 
 tutions," they died hard, raising large sums of money to 
 prolong their evil life threatening some men and brib- 
 ing, or trying to bribe, others; but Judge Lynch came 
 to the support of Judge Gale, with the counter-threat of 
 " a cottonwood limb and a rope," and so gamblers ceased 
 to rule in Denver. The happy change was freely com- 
 mented on, and now that it had come, people wondered 
 why they had endured the blacklegs so long. Denver 
 was now evidently aspiring to better things to " sweeter 
 manners, purer laws." Her merchants and bankers 
 were building themselves homes, sending east for their 
 families, and settling down, as if to stay. Though not 
 so law-abiding and Sabbath-loving, as our eastern cities, 
 yet her churches were well-attended ; and her Episcopal 
 Bishop (Randall), we found scouring the country with all 
 the earnestness and zeal of an old-time missionary, or 
 Methodist itinerant. Band and gown, stole and chasuble, 
 and other ritualistic millenary, he affected but little j 
 but he preached Christ and Him crucified with a tender- 
 ness and power, that touched all hearts, and Colorado 
 already had come to love and honor him. " Seek ye first 
 the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these 
 things shall be added unto you," was his text for as 
 sound and appropriate a discourse the Sabbath we were 
 in Denver, as we had heard in a long while. Every 
 sentence struck home, like a rapier or a bullet, at some sin 
 most prevalent in Colorado, and Denver might well 
 " make a note of it." Subsequently we heard of him in 
 the mines and among the mountains, preaching in quartz-
 
 60 HER GROWTH AND ENTERPRISE 
 
 mills and by the roadside wherever he could gather a 
 handful of hearers always engaged in the Master's 
 work, and always leaving a deep impression behind 
 him. 
 
 Denver, with water and coal both near, yet had neither 
 water nor gas works then, and scarcely a tree or shrub 
 growing anywhere. Numerous trees had been planted, 
 and much shrubbery ; but the long and rainless -summers 
 had proven too much for them. The winter before, a 
 company had been chartered to bring water from the 
 mountains, for irrigating and other purposes, and they 
 already had one ditch completed three or four feet 
 wide, by one or two deep and were projecting others. 
 This one irrigated several farms, turned a grist-mill or 
 two, and then, with a branch to the fair-grounds, emptied 
 into the Platte. But Denver must have such ditches, all 
 around and through her, if she wants trees and shrub- 
 bery and then she may have streets and suburbs unsur- 
 passed anywhere. Salt Lake, we afterwards found, had 
 done this ; and Denver will, when she has once been 
 well scourged by fire. Then she was powerless against 
 the fire-fiend, and a large conflagration well under way 
 would have swept the town.* 
 
 Though the largest town in Colorado, and of com- 
 manding influence there, yet Denver we found was not 
 the capital, but Golden City instead a hamlet of five 
 hundred inhabitants or so, fifteen miles farther west, at 
 the base of the mountains. The Territorial Legislature 
 convened there every winter, as required by law ; but 
 immediately adjourned to Denver, where all business 
 was really transacted, and where the governor and 
 other territorial officers resided, when not absent in the 
 states, as some often were. In location, Denver itself 
 * See Appendix.
 
 AN ELECTION IMBROGLIO 61 
 
 was, no doubt a geographical blunder, as the business of 
 the country was really among the mines and mountains ; 
 but as gold had been first discovered here, it got the 
 start, and bade fair to maintain its supremacy. The 
 sharpest and shrewdest men in Colorado, we found were 
 all settled here. All enterprises, of much pith and 
 moment, began and ended here. All capital centred 
 here. And Denver brains and Denver capital, it was 
 plain to see, ruled and controlled our whole Rocky 
 Mountain region, north to Dacotah and south to New 
 Mexico. 
 
 Denver had two real "sensations," while we were 
 there one, the alleged usurpation of Gov. Gumming, 
 the other the arrival of Gen. Sherman. It seemed 
 there had been a territorial election, for delegate to 
 Congress, and the returns not being clear, Gov. 
 dimming assumed to give the certificate of election to 
 Hunt, an Andrew Johnson man, rather than to Chilcott, 
 a radical Republican notwithstanding the Board of 
 Canvassers decided otherwise. The governor claimed 
 that the law and facts were with him, but the Board of 
 Canvassers protested to the contrary, and popular opinion 
 seemed to sustain them. There was a breezy time in 
 Denver for awhile. The papers savagely denounced 
 the governor's conduct, as an outrage and usurpation, 
 and fell into a vein of coarse vituperation they seemed 
 incapable of before. The saloons were filled with 
 excited crowd? at night; knots gathered on the streets 
 by day ; and presently, one morning out came the papers 
 with the old-time suggestion of " a cottonwood limb and 
 a rope," if His Excellency did not .yield. An explosion 
 was now hourly expected, but it did not come. Denver 
 evidently had grown in grace. The mob-spirit of her 
 early days could not be revived, and all good citizens
 
 62 GOV. GUMMING AND GEN. SHERMAN 
 
 rejoiced to see it. No doubt she liked Judge Lynch 
 still; but she liked Eastern immigration and English 
 capital better, and would do nothing to startle either. 
 The governor wisely appeared in public but little, and 
 for several nights found it convenient to sleep elsewhere 
 than at home. Finally, it was given out, that the 
 military were on his side, as in duty bound, and the 
 storm presently blew over. Subsequently it appeared, 
 that said military consisted of only two officers, without 
 a single soldier ; but His Excellency attributed his safety 
 to them, all the same. General Sherman's arrival im- 
 mediately after was just in the nick of time. It followed 
 on the heels of the election imbroglio, and was a good 
 salve to the public sore. All Denver turned out to 
 welcome him and his distinguished brother (the Ohio 
 Senator), and a cavalcade of horsemen and carriages met 
 them miles away. Next night there was a reception, 
 banquet, speeches, ball, etc. and hundreds assembled to 
 do them honor. There was a lamentable lack of ladies ; 
 but brighter, keener men, you could find nowhere. 
 What there were of ladies, were intelligent and sprightly, 
 and all were richly attired and adorned ; but Denver 
 needed more of them. Everybody vied in doing 
 Sherman honor, as a great soldier who had fought nobly 
 for the country. They did not know his views yet on 
 the Indian question, which a few months afterwards 
 they denounced so severely. By an ambulance tour of 
 two thousand miles, from post to post, through the heart 
 of the Indian country, he was trying to study the Indian 
 question for himself, as the great question of his Military 
 Division ; and yet Denver, fond of contracts, claimed to 
 understand that qucestio vexata better than he ! 
 
 We left Denver one bright September morning for 
 Central City and the Mines. A stage ran daily, but
 
 GOLDEN CITT AND THE MOUNTAINS 63 
 
 wanting to travel more leisurely we went by ambulance. 
 Across the Platte, and over the Plains again for fifteen 
 miles, brought us to the mountains and Golden City, just 
 within the foothills. Clear Creek dashes through the 
 " city," a broad swift stream, furnishing fine water-pow- 
 er for several mills already, with plenty to spare for more. 
 Coal, iron, lead, copper and kaolin were said to exist in 
 the mountains adjacent, and this water-power was therefore 
 justly esteemed very valuable. Four or five miles farther 
 on, the mountains seem to close up a solid rampart be- 
 fore you ; but suddenly the road shifts and at Gate City, 
 through a narrow rocky canon you again pass on. The 
 road here follows up a diminutive mountain stream, cross- 
 ing and re-crossing its bed every few yards, and by a 
 very sinuous course slowly makes its way forward between 
 abrupt masses of red and purple rock, that everywhere 
 seemed to block its progress. Farther on, the hills open 
 out, and wild currant and gooseberry-bushes appear, with 
 pines and firs here and there many charred by former 
 fires. The road gets wilder the farther you proceed, and 
 the mountain views become more and more superb. 
 Yon catch glimpses of the great Snowy Range from time 
 to time ; but after awhile you cross the first range, and 
 then you have the great white-capped Sierra almost always 
 before you. Three peaks there are especially superb Old 
 Chief, Squaw and Papoose their white and glittering 
 summits flashing gloriously in the sunshine. Sometimes 
 we got long views of the Snowy Range, for miles on. 
 miles ; and then again, deep down in some wild gorge, its 
 rocky sides would suddenly expand, and there would stand 
 these three grand peaks projected against the clear sky, 
 framed in like a picture. A right " kingly spirit throned 
 among the hills," Old Chief seemed to be keeping watch 
 and ward over these Rocky Mountain fastnesses in solemn
 
 64 CENTRAL CITY 
 
 and solitary grandeur ; but the Yankee and the miner 
 had been too much for him. 
 
 "We dined en route, getting a good meal for seventy- 
 five cents, and reached the Conner House at Central 
 City, about 6 p. M., forty miles from Denver. What a 
 strange place was this, and how surprising it all seemed ! 
 A busy, active, bustling town, with all the appliances 
 of eastern civilization, in the very heart of the Rocky 
 Mountains our ultima thule but a few years ago ! Or, 
 rather, four towns Black Hawk, Gregory Gulch, Moun- 
 tain City, and Central City all now grown into one. 
 It never was any place for a town ; but there had to be 
 one there, and so American genius and pluck went to 
 work and created it. Imagine a narrow, winding moun- 
 tain-gorge, with Clear Creek flashing through it, with 
 scarcely" standing-room on either side for an antelope 
 even, and you have about all Nature has done for a town- 
 site there. Yet our miners had stuck mills, and stores, 
 and saloons, and dwelling-houses, and churches here, 
 almost everywhere, in the most delightful and picturesque 
 confusion. Some were astride of Clear Creek, as if 
 wading up stream. Others were propped up on its edges, 
 as if about to topple in. Others again were mounted on 
 lofty stilts, all along the mountain side, as if just ready 
 to start and walk away. About and through them all, 
 following the general course of Clear Creek, wound one 
 long and narrow street too narrow for side-walks and 
 here in this bizarre place, walled in on all sides by the 
 Rocky Mountains, lived and flourished six thousand souls, 
 all apparently busy and well-to-do with banks, schools, 
 churches, newspapers, telegraphs, theatres, and pretty 
 much all the institutions and destitutions of modern 
 society. There only remained one need, a railroad, and 
 that was already in contemplation, down Clear Creek to
 
 A LIVE MINING TOWN 65 
 
 Golden City, and so away to Denver. This would bring 
 the ores and coal together at Golden City, for fuel was 
 becoming scarce among the mines ; would save much of 
 the cost of travel and transportation by the wild moun- 
 tain roads ; and be a great blessing to the mining regions 
 every way.* After tea, we strolled through the town for 
 a mile or more, and found the streets full to overflowing. 
 The theatres were crowded, and the drinking and gam- 
 bling-saloons in full blast ; yet the streets were compara- 
 tively orderly. The population seemed of a better class 
 than one would suppose, all things considered. There 
 were scarcely any women, it is true, and what there were 
 had better been elsewhere, as a rule ; but the men 
 carried keen, clear-cut, energetic faces, that well explained 
 the enterprise and elan of this audacious town. Of 
 foreigners, there were far fewer than one ordinarily meets 
 east, and the Americans as a rule were athletic and live 
 men fit to be the pioneers of empire. The inevitable 
 African, of course, cropped out here and there ; but 
 usually he had risen from the dignity of a barber or a 
 bootblack, to be a merchant or a miner. Everybody talked 
 of "feet,'' and "claims," and "dust;" and bets were 
 made, and drinks paid for, in " ounces" and parts of an 
 ounce, as determined by the universal scales arid weights. 
 Greenbacks were still taken, but they were regarded as 
 a depreciated currency, unworthy of the Mines and 
 Mountains. 
 
 Indications of mining operations appeared first at 
 Denver, where gold was first discovered at the junction 
 of the South Platte and Cherry Creek. But the " dig- 
 gings," or placer mines, here were soon worked out, and 
 then the miners naturally ascended Cherry Creek tc 
 Clear Creek, and so into the heart of the mountains. All 
 * This road since built and now in operation.
 
 66 PLACER AND QUARTZ MINES 
 
 along North Clear Creek, yon see where the stream has 
 been turned aside, and its bed "panned" over, and as we 
 approached Black Hawk we found a few miners still 
 humbly at work this way. But placer-mining in 
 Colorado had mostly been abandoned as no longer profit- 
 able, and now the chief labor and capital were applied 
 to the quartz mines the parents of the " diggings." 
 These seemed to occur, more or less, all through the 
 Rocky Mountains, wherever quartz cropped out; but 
 the richest of them thus far had been found in the nar- 
 row defile about Central City. The sides of the ranges 
 there had been " prospected " all over, until they seemed 
 honey-combed or like pepper-boxes, so ragged and torn 
 were they with the process. Here and there they were 
 divided up into infinitesimal lots, rudely enclosed, 
 embracing a few hundred feet or so, denoting mining 
 " claims." Many of these had shafts sunk some distance, 
 with a board np, proclaiming name of mine and the 
 ownership thereof, but others were without these. The 
 favorite mine in Colorado just then seemed to be the 
 Gregory Consolidated, near Central City. We went 
 down into this some three hundred feet, exploring its 
 various galleries, and it seemed to be all that was repre- 
 sented. The gold here was so much diffused through the 
 quartz as to be imperceptible to the eye, and was further 
 mingled badly with silver, copper, and sulphur. The 
 company had erected no mill as yet, but were contenting 
 themselves with developing the lode, and getting out 
 "pay-ore." Their plan was to sink the main shaft 
 straight down on the lode, and every twenty feet or so 
 follow up the indications by lateral galleries, to see 
 whether the vein held out or not. So far it was doing 
 well, and the ore continued of an excellent quality. But 
 it was so difficult to reduce, there was no mill in Col-
 
 SILVER MINING IN GENERAL 67 
 
 orado that could save a fair proportion of the gold ; so 
 that what ore they cared to work was shipped east, or to 
 Swansea, Wales, even, for reduction. The superintend- 
 ent of the mine was a sturdy young Englishman, once a 
 humble miner with his pick and candle, but afterwards 
 sub-superintendent of a great silver mine in Mexico, and 
 now for two or three years here a man of rare energy 
 and intelligence. No wonder the stock of the Gregory 
 Consolidated was steadily rising, with such a policy and 
 such a superintendent. Too many of the companies organ- 
 ized in the east were pursuing just the contrary course. 
 They were putting up mills at once at great expense, 
 with steam engines and stamps complete, and then 
 when they came to sink down upon their veins, lo ! they 
 had no " pay-ore" there, or at least none worth working. 
 A signal instance of this had occurred a year or two 
 before. A New York Wall street Company had been 
 organized, on a broad basis, and with great expectations. 
 With a West Point ex-army officer superintendent and 
 plenty of capital, their stock soon went soaring up like a 
 rocket ; but presently it came down again like a stick 
 a la their superintendent during the war. He erected a 
 splendid mill of dressed stone at a cost of thousands of 
 dollars, and went in wildly for all the latest and most 
 improved machinery ; but when afterwards he came to 
 test their lode thoroughly, alas ! he discovered they had 
 only a poor sickly trace of ore, that soon " petered out," 
 and so that fine company of gold and silver miners 
 incontinently collapsed or, as Mr. Mantilini would have 
 said, " went to the demnition bow-wows ! " Machinery 
 that cost the company thirty-three thousand dollars in 
 New York, was afterwards sold by the Colorado sheriff 
 for thirteen hundred dollars, to pay freight bills; and 
 other property in proportion. Other instances were
 
 68 COLORADO ORES 
 
 reported to us, but none quite so bad as this. But from 
 the large number of mills and mines standing idle 
 fully fifty per cent., it seemed we could well believe 
 that mining machinery could be bought cheaper in Col- 
 orado than New York, and that steam-engines and 
 boilers were a drug. A foundry-man beyond Golden 
 City, we were told, found it more profitable to buy up 
 old machinery and recast it, than to work a rich iron 
 mine, though the former was scattered through the 
 mountains and the latter was just at his door. 
 
 The trouble with the Colorado ores was, they were 
 refractory siilphurets, which we had not yet learned how 
 to reduce at a profit. They assayed very readily two 
 hundred and even three hundred dollars per ton, or more ; 
 but when you came to mill them out in large quantities, 
 .you were lucky if you got twenty-five or thirty dollars 
 per ton. The problem Colorado then wanted solved was 
 how to desulphurize these rich ores of hers at a profit. 
 Various "processes" were continually being tried at 
 great expense, but none of them seemed yet to be the 
 "success" she desired. Stamp-mills, with copper-plate 
 and quicksilver amalgamators, seemed to be the process 
 in use generally, though not saving over twenty-five per 
 cent, of the precious metals usually. Many companies 
 were using these and saving their " talings," or refuse, 
 with the expectation of yet realizing goodly sums from 
 working the " talings " over by some new process by- 
 and-by. A "process" just introduced was saving from 
 twenty-five to fifty per cent more from these " talings : " 
 but it was too costly for general use, or, perhaps, to pay. 
 Individual mine-owners and the lighter companies seemed 
 mostly to have suspended, or like Mr. Micawber to be 
 waiting for "something to turn up" for the strong 
 companies to go on. and find the much coveted " new pro-
 
 BOGUS COMPANIES 69 
 
 cess," when they would resume operations. Another 
 trouble evidently was the great number of companies 
 organized to sell stock east, rather than to mine success- 
 fully. Companies, with a property worth a hundred 
 thousand dollars, had frequently issued stock for a million, 
 and of course could not expect to make regular dividends 
 on such an overplus. On a basis of a hundred thousand 
 dollars, or real value, with an experienced honest super- 
 intendent, they might have got along well, if content to 
 creep at first and walk afterwards. But as a rule they 
 had preferred to "water" their stock, after the most 
 approved Sangrado method ; and the result, after a year 
 or two's operations, was disappointed stockholders and 
 the old, old cry of " bogus " and " wild-cat." Many of 
 the companies, too, were heavily in debt, and what was 
 called in Colorado parlance ''freezing out" was taking 
 place largely. That is to say, a company gives a mortgage 
 for say twenty thousand dollars on property worth per- 
 haps a hundred thousand, or at least represented by that 
 amount of stock. "When due it is not met, the treasury 
 being empty, and the stockholders discouraged from 
 want of dividends, or by " bear " reports about the mine ; 
 whereupon the mortgage is foreclosed, and the " bear " 
 directors buy the property in for a song, thus " freezing 
 out " the feebler and more timid brethren. This opera- 
 tion may lack the essential feature of old-fashioned hon- 
 esty, but is no doubt a paying one pecuniarily for the 
 new owners, who can now well afford to go bravely on. 
 " Others may sink ; but what's the odds, so we apples 
 swim ! " 
 
 No doubt Colorado is rich, immensely rich, in 
 mineral resources gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, etc., 
 but she was scarcely making much decided headway as a 
 mining community, so far as could be seen, in 1866.
 
 70 YIELD OF MINES 
 
 Considerable of her population, indeed, had gone off to 
 Montana and Idaho, to the reputed rich gold-fields 
 there, and many of the rest were waiting patiently for 
 the Pacific Railroad and a market. Great results were 
 anticipated from the oncoming of the railroad, and it is to 
 be hoped she has realized them. Her yield of the pre- 
 cious metals in 1862, it was estimated by good authority, 
 amounted to ten millions of dollars ; but in 1863 it fell 
 to eight millions, in 1864 to five millions, and in 1865 to 
 four millions. Ross Browne, in 1866, in his report of Min- 
 eral Resources of the United States, with characteristic 
 exaggeration, estimated her yield for that year at seventeen 
 millions ; but more accurate observers regarded this as a 
 California joke, and pronounced his estimate at least four 
 or five times too high. The large yield in 1862 repre- 
 sented the maximum from gulch or placer mining, and 
 the soft outcroppings of the quartz veins. But in 1866 
 placer mining, as I have said, had mostly ceased, 
 and our quartz-miners had to go down so deep, and then 
 got only the hardest and most refractory sulphurets, that 
 the business greatly languished. Yet, it was plain to be 
 seen, the gold and the silver were all there, in inexhaus- 
 tible quantities, practically speaking ; or as Mr. Lincoln 
 once remarked, in speaking of our western mines, " We 
 there hold the Treasury of the world ! " All Colorado 
 wanted, as elsewhere said, was the right " process " to 
 subdue these rebellious sulphurets and compel them to 
 release their imprisoned deities. Science surely holds the 
 key somewhere, and waits only the coming man to hand 
 it over to him. Millions of our countrymen are watch- 
 ing and praying for him. A half a continent calls for him. 
 And when this coming man does come, who shall estimate 
 the untold treasures he will here unlock and outpour 
 upon the world ! He will but have to strike the naked
 
 THE SARATOGA OF COLORADO 71 
 
 rocks, and abundant streams of wealth will gush forth. 
 He will but have to touch the rugged mountain sides, 
 and gold and silver by the million will obey his bidding 
 enough not only to pay our own National Debt, but the 
 National Debts of the world. Let Colorado, then, be of 
 good courage. The Pacific Railroad will cheapen sup- 
 plies, and swell the volume of her immigration. The 
 Yankee hand and brain are busily at work, conning over 
 her knotty problem ; and we may be sure, that the right 
 hour will bring the necessary man. 
 
 From Central City we crossed the range at an alti- 
 tude of nine thousand feet above the sea, and thence 
 descended to Idaho, on South Clear Creek. A tine hotel 
 here, in good view of the Snowy range, boasted itself 
 the best in Colorado, and we found none better. Here 
 also were several fine mineral springs, that bubble up 
 quite near to each other, and yet are all of different tem- 
 peratures. A bath-house had been erected, where you 
 might take a plunge in hot or cold water, as you chose ; 
 the walks were romantic, with a possibility of deer or bear ; 
 the sights, what with ravine, and ridge, and peak, were 
 magnificent ; and Idaho, already something of a sum- 
 mer resort, expected yet to become the Saratoga of 
 Colorado. Up South Clear Creek, above Idaho, were 
 the new mining districts of Georgetown and Mill City, 
 then but recently discovered and reputed quite rich ; 
 but we had not time to visit them. Down South Clear 
 Creek, and thence to Denver, is a wild and surprising 
 ride of forty-five miles, that well repays you. Much of 
 the way Clear Creek roars and tumbles by the roadside, 
 with the rocky walls of its canon towering far above 
 you ; and when at length you cross the last range and 
 prepare to descend, you catch a distant view of Denver 
 and the Plains, that has few if any equals in all that
 
 72 A SUPERB LANDSCAPE 
 
 region. The sun was fast declining, as we rounded the 
 last crag or shoulder of the range, and the Plains out- 
 stretched, illimitable, everlasting were all before us, 
 flooded with light as far as the eye could reach, while the 
 mountains already in shade were everywhere projecting 
 their lengthening shadows across the foot-hills, like grim 
 phantoms of the night. A cloudless sky overarched the 
 whole. Denver gleamed and sparkled in the midst 
 twenty miles away, the brightest jewel of the Plains; 
 and beyond, the Platte flashed onward to the east a 
 thread of silver. It was a superb and glorious scene, 
 and for an hour afterward, as we descended the range, 
 we caught here and there exquisite views of it, through 
 the opening pine and fir trees, that transferred to canvas 
 would surely have made the fortune of any painter. 
 With our Pacific Railroad completed, our artists must 
 take time to study up the Rocky Mountains, with all 
 their fine effects of light and shade of wide extent and far 
 perspective, of clear atmosphere, blue sky, and purple 
 haze and then their landscapes may well delight and 
 charm the world. 
 
 Mining is, of course, the chief business of all that 
 region, from the Missouri to the Mountains, and the 
 habits and customs of the miner prevail everywhere. He 
 digs and tunnels pretty much as he wills under roads, 
 beneath houses, below towns and all things, more or 
 less, are made subservient to his will. His free-and-easy 
 ways mark social and political life, and his slang half 
 Mexican, half miner is everywhere the language of the 
 masses. A " square" meal is his usual phrase for a full 
 or first-rate one. A " shebang" means any structure, 
 from a hotel to a shanty. An " outfit" is a very general 
 term, meaning anything you may happen to have, from 
 a stamp-mill complete to a tooth-pick a suit of clothea
 
 MINEKS' SLANG 73 
 
 or a revolver a twelve-ox team or a velocipede. A 
 "divide" means a ridge or water-shed between two 
 valleys or depressions. A " canon" is Mexican or Span- 
 ish for a deep detile or gorge in the mountains. A 
 " ranch," ditto, means a farm, or a sort of half-tavern 
 and half -farm, as the country needs there. To " vamose 
 the ranch" means to clear out, to depart, to cut stick, to 
 absquatulate. A "corral," ditto, means an enclosed 
 horse or cattle-yard. To "corral" a man or stock, 
 therefore, means to corner him or it. To go down to 
 " bed-rock," means the very bottom of things. " Panned- 
 out" means exhausted, used-up, bankrupt. " Pay-streak" 
 means a vein of gold or silver quartz, that it will pay to 
 work. When it ceases to pay, it is said to " peter out." 
 Said a miner one day at dinner, at a hotel in Central 
 City, to a traveller from the east, "I say, stranger," 
 pointing to a piece of meat by his side, " is there a pay- 
 streak in that beef thar ? " He wanted to know if there 
 was a piece of it worth eating or not. The short phrase 
 " You bet ! " is pure Californice, and has followed our 
 miners thence eastward across the continent. We struck 
 it first on the Missouri, and thence found it used every- 
 where and among all classes, to express by different 
 intonations a great variety of meanings. For example, 
 meeting a man you remark : 
 
 " It is a fine day, my friend ! " 
 
 He answers promptly and decidedly, " You let ! " 
 
 You continue, "It is a great country you have out 
 here ! " 
 
 He responds, " You BET ye ! " sharp and quick. 
 
 "A good many mills standing idle, though ! " 
 
 " Wa'll, yes, too many of them ! You bet ! " with a 
 knowing shake of the head. 
 
 " Miners making much now-a~days ? " 
 4
 
 T4 "YOU BET." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! Some of us, a heap ! You bet ! " rather 
 timid. 
 
 " Going back to the states one of these days ! " 
 
 "When I make my pile! You BET!" firm and 
 decided. 
 
 " Get married then, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Won't I ? Just that ! You BET ye \ " with his hat 
 up, his eyes wide open, and his face all aglow with 
 honest pride and warm memory of " The girl I left 
 behind me ! " 
 
 In Central City they told us a story of a miner, who 
 was awakened one night by a noise at his window, and 
 found it to be a burglar trying to get in. Slipping 
 quietly out of bed, he waited patiently by the window 
 until the sash was well up, and the burglar tolerably in, 
 when he placed his revolver against the fellow's head, 
 and sententiously remarked, "Now you git/" The 
 story ran, the burglar looking quietly up surveyed the 
 situation, with the cold steel against his brow, and as 
 sententiously replied, as he backed out and dropped to 
 the ground, " You BET 1 "
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Plains after awhile became somewhat of a bore, 
 - they are so vast and outstretched, and you long for 
 a change, something to break the monotony. To us 
 this came one evening, just beyond Fort Morgan, when 
 a hundred and fifty miles away, just peeping above the 
 horizon, we descried the cone-like summit of Long's 
 Peak, all pink and rosy in the sunset. " Driver, isn't 
 that the Mountains ? " said some one. " You bet ! " 
 was his answer, of course. " 'Tisn't often you can see 
 the Peak this fur ; but it is mighty clar to-day ! " The 
 night soon afterwards shut down upon us, during which 
 we bowled rapidly along from station to station, and the 
 next morning were early awake. Soon the sun rose 
 bright and clear ; but the air was keen, with a stiff 
 breeze eastward in our teeth. We were down in a wide 
 depression of the Plains ; but presently we rose up out 
 of it, and as we struck the summit of the " divide," lo, 
 the Rocky Mountains were before us in all their 
 grandeur and sublimity. To the north rose Long's Peak, 
 fourteen thousand feet above the sea, heaven-kissing, 
 but with his night-cap still on ; to the south, was Pike's 
 Peak, eleven thousand feet above the sea, snow-crowned; 
 while between, a hundred miles or more, swelled and 
 towered the Mountains at the base mere foot-hills, then 
 ridge mounting on ridge and peak on peak, until over
 
 76 CAMPING OUT AGAIN 
 
 and above all the Snowy Range cropped out sublime. 
 Patches of pines dotted their surface here and there, 
 but the general effect was that of nakedness and barren- 
 ness. Clouds hung about their summits, or lingered 
 along their sides ; but the uprising sun soon dissipated 
 these, or sent them careering aloft, as if bound for 
 heaven. In the course of the morning we whirled into 
 Denver, and there for a week or more by sunlight, by 
 moonlight the Mountains were ever before us, in all 
 their thousand varieties of tint and shadow. They 
 never seemed precisely the same. Some new point 
 was ever looming up, or flashing out and yet they 
 always realized one's best conceptions of beauty, grandeur, 
 vastness, and sublimity. 
 
 Subsequently, accepting an invitation to accompany 
 Gen. Sherman and Gov. Gumming to Southern Col- 
 orado and an Indian treaty there, we spent nearly a 
 month among the Rocky Mountains, following down 
 their eastern base and crossing them to Fort Garland, some 
 two hundred and fifty miles, and thence returning to 
 Denver again through the heart of them, via San Luis 
 Park, Homan's Park, and South Park. This trip we 
 made by ambulance, camping out at night, and rationing 
 ourselves, as there were no stages on the route and very 
 few settlements. Our little party, by the addition of 
 officers and others at Denver, had swelled to seven, 
 exclusive of cook and teamsters. Our "outfit" con- 
 sisted of two four-horse ambulances and an army-wagon, 
 with spare animals for saddle or other purposes, as 
 occasion required. We took a tent along, but seldom 
 had occasion to use it. We had blankets and buffalo 
 robes for the night ; some stray books and magazines for 
 the day, when weary of the scenery ; pipes and tobacco 
 for all ; and other supplies, it seemed, ad infinitum. In
 
 INDIAJNT EUMOE8 AGAIN 77 
 
 the matter of arms, what with our repeating- rifles and 
 revolvers for Indians, and a brace of fowling-pieces for 
 game, our ambulances were travelling arsenals. And 
 from reports on leaving Denver, (Sept. 13th) we did 
 not know but we should want all, and more. With the 
 usual exaggeration of the border, the story current 
 there was, that a Mexican belonging to one of the settle- 
 ments down below had quarrelled with a Ute about a 
 squaw, and wound up by killing him ; that the Utes 
 were consequently up in arms, stealing stock and murder- 
 ing the inhabitants ; that Fort Garland was already 
 practically besieged ; and that the United States was of 
 "no account, no how," because we did not send more 
 troops to Colorado. However, we started for Garland, 
 well-armed as above ; we did not meet a hostile Indian 
 on the way ; and when we arrived there, we found there 
 hadn't been a settler molested, or mule stolen ; and the 
 whole yarn had come from a Ute found dead, supposed 
 killed by lightning. When first discovered, near one 
 of the settlements, the Utes were considerably ruffled ; 
 but when the post-surgeon at Garland and their medi- 
 cine-man had examined him and found no marks of 
 violence, the chiefs laid their heads together and sagely 
 concluded the Great Spirit had called him. 
 
 Our course from Denver was about due South, 
 following the trend of the mountains, and always near 
 them. For several days our road was substantially ovei 
 Fremont's old trail of 1843, across the high "divide" 
 between the Platte and Arkansas, and so down the 
 dashing Fontaine qui Bout to the Arkansas. This 
 "divide", bears an unenviable reputation, as a storm- 
 region. Coloradoans aver, that it rains, hails, snows, or 
 blows there, when it is fair weather all around it, and wo 
 were warned of it accordingly. It is a high rolling
 
 78 THE BUTTE BEGK)N 
 
 region, running well up into the mountains, with Pike's 
 Peak frowning over it, and I suppose the configuration 
 of the country is such as to attract and concentrate 
 storms there. We made haste to get across it, but sure 
 enough encountered both rain and hail, though we found 
 the country both north and south of it basking in a 
 dreamy, autumnal atmosphere, that seemed like the very 
 wine of life. That night we camped near " Dirty 
 Woman's Ranch," close into the mountains, and slept 
 delightfully in a hay-yard. The sun went down in a 
 cloudless sky, transfiguring the snow-clad summit of 
 Pike's Peak with a glory all its own, whose pink and 
 crimson faded into purple, and this again to blue, as the 
 day died out. So, too, the rest of the range, from purple 
 and blue, came out sharp and black against the star-thick 
 sky, and night shut down upon the Plains with scarcely 
 a sound to break the silence. 
 
 During the day, the blank monotony of the Plains 
 was broken by numerous " buttes," some of which were 
 very surprising. The chief one. " Castle-Rock," was an 
 abrupt precipitous mass, well bastioned and castellated, 
 that rose sheer into the air several hundred feet, as if 
 the work of hammer and trowel. At a distance, it 
 seemed almost squarelj' perpendicular, but two of our 
 party, who had galloped on ahead, found an accessible 
 path to the summit on its southeast side. As we drove 
 up abreast of it, we descried them on its dizzy edge, but 
 took them to be eagles or buzzards, until they out with 
 their handkerchiefs and fired off their pistols. The smoke 
 curled away on the breezy air, but the sound was 
 inaudible down by the roadside as we drove by. These 
 " buttes" dot the country over there for miles, standing 
 solitary and alone wholly disconnected from each other 
 and are a strange feature of the Rocky Mountain 
 region.
 
 GARDEN OF THE GODS 79 
 
 The next day we struck Monument Creek and fol- 
 lowed this down to the Fontaine qui Bout. Here the 
 country for miles is marked by great masses of sandstone 
 and limestone, chiseled by wind and rain into the most 
 fantastic shapes and forms. Some are slender columns of 
 gray or red rock, a hundred feet or more in height, worn 
 and smooth ; while others are cut and carved so curiously, 
 that it seems they must be the deft handiwork of man. 
 Right under the shadow of Pike's Peak, they seem to 
 culminate, and here is Colorado's famous Garden of the 
 Gods. Entering from the roadside we passed through 
 a little ravine, that rapidly widened into a bijou of a valley, 
 and there near its centre uprose two tremendous rocks, 
 red dashed with gray, six hundred feet long by two 
 hundred high, tapering to a knife-like edge. They were 
 both inaccessible to man, but the elements had bored a 
 hole through the summit of one, that looked for all the 
 world as if a round shot or shell had knocked its way 
 through there. A score of swallows were twittering about 
 this, as we passed by, and their nests were visible all up 
 and down the rocks. A little distance off stood three red 
 sandstones, ten or twelve feet in diameter, by a hundred 
 or more high, like the surviving columns of some ruined 
 temple one somewhat splintered and shattered, but the 
 others still uplifting their capitals sublime against the 
 sky. Farther on the whole country here is studded for 
 miles, with these wedge-shaped and columnar masses of 
 red and gray rock, some even on a grander scale, as 
 though it were a cemetery of Titans, marked by Cyclopean 
 tombstones. It is a vast meadow, rich with herbage, 
 with Monument Creek meandering through it, vocal 
 with the song of birds, the whole lying close up under 
 the overshadowing Mountains ; while over all, breaking 
 sharp and clear against the faultless sky, stands Pike's
 
 80 NATUBAL SODA SPBINGS 
 
 Peak, imperial in his majesty, dark below with pines and 
 firs, but his bald head crowned with eternal snows, 
 looking calmly down, as if God's sentinel keeping watch 
 and ward over all below. Altogether the grouping of 
 the landscape there is very fine, as if the gods had done 
 their best ; and on the glorious morning when we saw it, 
 beneath a perfect September sky, we thought Colorado 
 had indeed here much to be supremely proud of. 
 
 Some three miles farther on, near the banks of the 
 Fontaine qui Bout, which here comes boiling down from 
 the foot of Pike's Peak, there are several fine natural 
 soda-springs. They come bubbling up on either side 
 of the stream from the far depths below, and their over- 
 flow during the long ages has deposited large rocks of 
 calcareous tufa or carbonate of soda all about them. We 
 tried this soda-water, and found it as cool, and as sharp 
 and titillating as that from a city-fountain ; and when 
 treated with an acid, it effervesced and vanished quite as 
 
 freely. H and B tried it with lemons and 
 
 whiskey and reported their cocktails quite unequalled 
 since leaving New York. Col. Chivington, of Sand Creek 
 memory, had recently purchased these springs and the 
 land adjacent for three thousand dollars ; but he was now 
 asking ten thousand, though there had not been a dollar 
 expended for improvements yet. Combined with Pike's 
 Peak, the Garden of the Gods, and all the unique and 
 romantic scenery from there to Denver, as well as the 
 general Plains and Mountains, the investment did not 
 seem to be a bad one, and no doubt will pay handsomely 
 some day. But it was then waiting the completion of 
 the Pacific Railroad, and the in-pouring of population, 
 that all Coloradoans then devoutly hoped and prayed for.* 
 
 * I believe these are now called Colorado Springs, and much 
 resorted to, and Manitou is somewhere about the Garden of the Gods.
 
 COLORADO CITY 81 
 
 Just beyond the Soda Springs, stood or rather slept 
 Colorado City. "We had been so unfortunate as to break 
 our ambulance-tongue in pulling out of a mud-hole, and 
 halted there to have a new one made. In the days of 
 1857-60, when mining centred at Pike's Peak, Colorado 
 City was the Denver of southwestern Colorado, and 
 must have been a place of considerable importance. 
 But the " diggings" there long since gave out, and C. C. 
 was now in a bad way. Corner-lots were for sale, dirt- 
 cheap. It had plenty of empty shanties, but scarcely 
 any population ; and what it had, were the sleepiest-look- 
 ing Coloradoans we had yet seen anywhere. The 
 " hotel" or tavern, was forlorn and dirty ; the people, idle 
 and listless ; and the " City," as a whole, was evidently 
 hastening fast to the status of Goldsmith's Deserted 
 Village. Cafion City, farther up in the mountains, they 
 told us. was even worse off having no inhabitants at all. 
 It had good buildings, some even of brick and stone, 
 equal indeed to any in Colorado ; but all stood empty, 
 like "some banquet-hall deserted," and the once busy 
 " City" was now as silent as Thebes or Petrae. Such is 
 life in our mining regions. Population comes and goes, 
 as restless as the sea, according as the " diggings" promise 
 good " pay-dirt" or bad. And what are prosperous and 
 busy centres this year, next year may become empty and 
 deserted.* At sunset we went into camp on the banks 
 of the Fontaine qui Bout, while a snow-squall was 
 careering around Pike's Peak. Several of these had 
 been prancing about his summit during the afternoon, 
 and about five P. M., one of them swept down over the 
 
 * The Denver and Santa Fe narrow-gauge railroad, now in opera- 
 tion, following the mountains down, has doubtless done much to 
 revive and stimulate this whole region again. But it halts, I believe 
 at Pueblo for the present. 
 
 4*
 
 82 COLORADO FARMING 
 
 foothills and valley, with far out-stretched wings, giving 
 us a taste of its icy breath as we journeyed by. At sun- 
 set the hues along the mountains and among the snow- 
 peaks were magnificent and glorious ; but the air became 
 keen and nipping as night fell, and all the evening we 
 hugged the fire closely. Just before dark, while supper 
 was cooking, two or three of us tried the Fontaine qui 
 Bout for trout, and caught not a nibble even ! 
 
 Soon after leaving Colorado City the mountains trend 
 away to the southwest, while the road to Fort Garland 
 continues on down the Fontaine qui Bout to the Ar- 
 kansas. Fording this at Pueblo, and subsequently its 
 two aifluents, the Greenhorn and the Huerfano, you 
 again strike the mountains, a hundred miles farther 
 south, at the foot of Sangre del Christo Pass. The high 
 ridges or "divides" between all of these streams are 
 barren and sterile, to an extent little imagined in the 
 east ; but the streams themselves are bordered by broad 
 valleys, rich and fertile, that as a rule need only irri- 
 gation to produce luxuriantly. In some seasons they do 
 not require even this, as their proximity to the moun- 
 tains aifords them rains enough. Still, no farmer is safe 
 there without his system of acequias or water-ditches, to 
 irrigate if necessary ; and we found these everywhere 
 constructed, if not in use, where settlements had been 
 made. In all of these valleys we already had scattered 
 ranches some of them very large and raised wheat, 
 barley, corn, oats, etc. in considerable quantities. Col- 
 orado had formerly imported all her grain and flour 
 from the Missouri, at an enormous cost ; but latterly she 
 had drawn large supplies from these fertile valleys, and 
 in '66 considered herself about self-sustaining. Not 
 more than one-tenth, or less, of her arable land here, 
 however, seemed to be under cultivation, and agricul-
 
 ZAN HINCKLIN'S ESTATE 83 
 
 ture even then was of the rudest and simplest. The 
 ranchemen were mainly Americans or Germans, but the 
 labor was all performed by Mexican peons, subjected for 
 generations to but one remove from slavery. It was the 
 threshing season, and in many places we saw them tread- 
 ing out their wheat and barley by mules, with a Greaser 
 on the back of each, lazily whiffing his cigarrito, while 
 his donkey dozed around. Elsewhere, their threshing 
 done, we saw them winnowing their grain by hand, as the 
 breeze chanced along. We did not see or hear of a 
 threshing-machine or a fanning-mill in the whole region 
 -there, and doubt if there was one. The Mexicans do 
 not comprehend these nineteenth century new-fangled 
 notions, and will have none of them. They prefer by 
 far their old-time dolce far niente. festina lente is 
 their national maxim, and your thorough-bred peon 
 would choose a broncho rather than a locomotive any 
 day. And naturally enough, the American settlers here, 
 we found, were mostly from the south, and during the 
 war had been none too ardent for the Union. 
 
 Most of the farms here were large in size, and in 
 crossing the Greenhorn we passed through a noble 
 ranch, twelve miles wide by eighteen long, owned by a 
 Mr. Zan Hincklin. In '65 he sold his crop of grain for 
 eighty thousand dollars, and in '66 expected to do even 
 better. He had on hand a thousand horses, three thou- 
 sand head of cattle, and six thousand sheep, all of which 
 he grazed the year round. He lived very plainly, in a 
 rude adobe hut, that we should think hardly fit for a 
 canal-laborer east ; but was as hospitable and generous 
 as a prince. We had scarcely gone into camp, on the 
 banks of the rippling Greenhorn, before he sent us over 
 butter, eggs, and vegetables, and bade us welcome to his 
 heart and home. He acquired his great estate by marry-
 
 84 BANG RE DEL CHKISTO PASS 
 
 ing one of the half-breed daughters of the celebrated 
 John Brent, who used to hunt and trap all through this 
 region, and who lived so long among the Indians that he 
 became himself half Red-Skin. He died possessed of vast 
 tracts of land here, acquired chiefly through trading 
 with the Indians, but his children it appeared, as a rule, 
 had turned out poorly. One of his sons had returned to 
 Indian life, joining a wandering tribe, and others still 
 hung about the settlements, of small account to anybody. 
 From the Arkansas, the country gradually but con- 
 stantly ascends, until you strike the mountains again at 
 the foot of Sangre del Christo Pass. Here you follow 
 up a dashing rivulet, that courses away to the Huerfano, 
 and advantage is taken of a depression in the main 
 ridge to cross into San Luis Park. "We camped the 
 night before in a sheltered nook among the foot-hills, 
 surrounded on three sides by gnarled pinon trees, while 
 the fourth opened on a little plateau sloping down to a 
 noisy brook, that afforded water and grass in abundance. 
 The next morning we breakfasted early, and were off up 
 the Pass soon after sunrise. The morning air was 
 nipping, and as we advanced we found the mists rolling 
 down the mountains, and so off over the PJains eastward. 
 The teams being a little slow that morning in packing 
 up and getting off, some of us concluded to walk on ; 
 but we had not proceeded far, before some one suggested 
 this might be dangerous, as Indians were reported about, 
 and our arms were all behind in the ambulances. 
 Halting, therefore, for the rest to come up, two of us 
 then secured our Spencers and six-shooters, and mount- 
 ing one a horse and the other a mule pushed on ahead 
 again. The ascent, though gentle, we found nevertheless 
 very constant, and gradually the ambulances dropped 
 much behind. The road led over a shelving plateau,
 
 GRAND AND SUBLIME VIEWS 85 
 
 and up a pretty sharp hill, and then plunged by a rapid 
 descent into a little valley again. Here we met several 
 men, with a drove of indifferent cattle and sheep, en 
 route from Culebra to Denver and a market. Climbing 
 out of this valley, we struck a sharp ascent, that led 
 southward along and up the ridge, and then turning 
 west by south struck straight across the summit. As 
 we raised the summit, a keen, fierce wind met us from 
 the west, and soon set our teeth to chattering in unison 
 with it. On the tip-top we found a contractor's train, 
 en route to Fort Garland with supplies, doubling up 
 ox-teams and doing its " level best " to forge slowly 
 ahead. The summit or ridge, the tip-top of the Rocky 
 Mountains the very backbone of America here we 
 found only a few hundred yards across ; and then we 
 came out on the western slope, with all the glories of 
 the San Luis Park nestling at our feet, or uprising 
 gorgeously before us. Below, the Park lay wrapped in 
 a dreamy haze, with the Sangre del Christo creek flash- 
 ing onward through it ; above, peak on peak huge, 
 snow-white, and sublime rimmed it round, as with a 
 crown. Over all, hung one of those blue and faultless 
 skies, for which the Rocky Mountains are so world- 
 famous, with the sun sweeping majestically through it, 
 while God himself seemed ready to speak on every side. 
 This was to the west. Turning to the east, the view 
 there seemed, if possible, even more grand and sublime. 
 Peak and ridge, plateau and foot-hill, stretched away 
 beneath us ; in the distance the brace of Spanish Peaks, 
 two bold " buttes" passed the day before, shot up 
 abruptly six thousand feet into the sky, from the dead 
 level of the Plains around them; while beyond and 
 around to the dim horizon, east, north, and south, for 
 hundreds of miles, outstretched the illimitable Plains.
 
 86 KOOKY MOUNTAIN SCENERY 
 
 The elevation of the Pass is given, as about ten thousand 
 feet above the sea. At our feet, the fog was breaking 
 up and rolling off eastward in sullen masses, which the 
 morning sun gilded with glory, or here and there 
 pierced through and through down to the earth beneath. 
 Soon it passed away into airy clouds, careering along 
 the sky, and presently vanished altogether. And then 
 the Plains! The Plains! How their immense out- 
 stretch absorbed and overwhelmed the eye ! It was not 
 the ocean, but something much grander and vaster, than 
 even the ocean seems. If you could view the sea from 
 the same altitude, doubtless the impression would be 
 much the same. But what is the loftiest mast-head, 
 compared with the summit of Sangre del Christo ? The 
 grandeur and sublimity of the scene awed one into 
 silence, as if in the presence of Deity himself, and the 
 great and holy thoughts of that hour well repaid us for 
 all our toil and fatigue. Say what we may, there is 
 something gracious and ennobling in such mountain 
 scenery, which men can illy dispense with. How it 
 deepens and widens one's feelings ! How it broadens 
 and uplifts one's thoughts! How it strengthens 
 emboldens one's manhood! What Switzerland is to 
 Europe, and New England to the Atlantic States, this 
 and more, the whole Rocky Mountain region will yet 
 become to America. 
 
 Descending the mountains westward, a ride of a mile 
 or two brought us to a spring, where a Mexican was 
 taking his noon-day meal of tortillas, while his inevita- 
 ble mule was cropping the grass near by. H. dis- 
 mounted and scooped up a drink with his hands, Indian 
 fashion, but I was not yet thirsty enough for that. A 
 mile or two farther, still descending, brought us to the 
 head of Sangre del Christo creek, a dashing rivulet fed
 
 A COKKSCBEW CREEK 87 
 
 by snqw streams, that runs thence to the Rio Grande. A 
 winding defile or canon, of steady though not very rapid 
 descent, affords a bed-way down the Pass and out into 
 the San Luis Park, and down this the wild little creek 
 shoots very serpentinely. It crosses the road no less than 
 twenty-six times in ten miles, and constantly reminds 
 you of the famous Yankee fence, which was made up of 
 such crooked rails, that when the pigs crept through it 
 they never exactly knew whether they were inside or out ! 
 We jogged leisurely down the creek, until we judged we 
 were some six or seven miles from the summit, and 
 perhaps half way down the mountain, when we halted 
 for the teams to come up. The wind blew sharply up the 
 Pass still, though it was now much after noon, and we 
 found the shelter of a neighboring ravine very welcome. 
 Here we unsaddled our animals, and turned them loose 
 to graze. They fed up and down the ravine, cropping 
 the rich herbage there, but would never stray over a 
 hundred yards or so away, when they would turn and graze 
 back to us again. On such mountain trips saddle-animals 
 become attached to their riders, and will seldom leave of 
 their own accord. So, also, they are unerring sentinels, 
 and always announce the approach of Indians or others 
 with a neigh or bray. Building a royal fire with the dry 
 fir-trees there, we next spread our saddle-blankets on the 
 ground, and then with our saddles under our heads, and 
 our feet Indian-fashion to the fire, smoked and talked 
 until the rest arrived. About two p. M. I noticed Kate 
 (rny mule) stop grazing and snuff the air, very inquir- 
 ingly ; presently, with a whisk of her tail and a salutatory 
 bray,, she darted down the ravine, as if thoroughly satis- 
 fied ; and in a minute or two along came the ambulances, 
 with our friends chilled through, despite their robes and 
 blankets. All tumbled out to stretch their benumbed
 
 88 TROUT FISHING 
 
 limbs, and we ate lunch around our impromptu fire 
 grouped very picturesquely. 
 
 Meanwhile about everybody nearly had got " trout 
 on the brain." We had caught frequent glimpses of 
 the speckled beauties, as we crossed Sangre del Christo 
 creek or rode along its banks, and concluded to go into 
 camp early, so as to try our luck with a fly or two. A 
 good camping place was found a mile or two farther on, 
 near the foot of the Pass, and here while supper was pre- 
 paring, several of us rigged up our lines and started off. 
 H. and I were most unfortunate; we whipped the 
 stream up and down quite a distance, but came back 
 fishless. H. caught a bite, and I several nibbles, but 
 neither of us landed a trout. We could see plenty of 
 them, young dandies, darting about in the black pools, 
 or, old fogies, floating along by the banks; but they 
 were Arcadian in their tastes, and disdained the fancy 
 flies we threw them. Dr. M. and L., however, 
 had better luck. The spirit of good Isaak Walton 
 seemed to rest upon and abide with them. They caught 
 a dozen or more, of handsome mountain trout, weighing 
 from two to three pounds each, and the next morning 
 when brought on our rude table for breakfast, hot and 
 smoking from the fire, nothing could have been more 
 savory and delicious. Gen. B. and L. turned cooka 
 for the occasion, and judged by the result Dehnonico 
 might have envied them. Their broiled trout, fresh 
 from the brook and now piping hot, buttered and steam- 
 ing, assailed both eye and palate at once, and we 
 awarded them the palm, nem. con. 
 
 The weather that day, from noon on, had grown 
 steadily colder, though the sun shone unclouded most of 
 the time, and before we got our camp well pitched a 
 snow-squall struck us. The flakes came thick and fast
 
 MEXICAN EMIGRANTS 89 
 
 for awhile, but presently passed away, though more or 
 less continued sifting downward until nightfall. Farther 
 up the Pass, around the crest of the mountains, snow- 
 squalls marched and countermarched most of the after- 
 noon, and at sunset the air grew nippingly cold, even 
 down where we were. We soon pitched our tent, and 
 built a glorious fire in front of it ; but that not sufficing, 
 supper once over, we carried our sheet-iron cooking-stove 
 inside, and all huddled about that. "When bed- time came, 
 blankets, buffalo-robes and great-coats were all in demand ; 
 yet in spite of all, we passed a sorry night of it, and morn- 
 ing dawned at last much to our relief. 
 
 We reached Fort Garland next day (Sept. 20) about 
 one, P. M., without meeting a single Indian, either hostile 
 or friendly. Denver, as before said, had warned us to be 
 on our guard, and we tried to be ; but all reported dan- 
 gers vanished as we advanced Munchausen after Mun- 
 chausen exploding in turn. From the Huerfano across 
 the mountains to Garland, some fifty miles or more, there 
 was but a single ranch, and scarcely anybody on the road. 
 A Mexican on foot and another on a donkey were emi- 
 grating to the Huerfano, and at one point we encoun- 
 tered a whole family similarly engaged. Paterfamilias, 
 whiffing his cigarito, led a diminutive broncho (Mexican 
 for jackass) about the size of a spring calf, on which sat 
 his household gods, to wit, his Senora also smoking, 
 with a child before and another behind her all of them 
 astride. Another broncho of about the same size followed 
 on behind, loaded down with clothing, bedding, and 
 various domestic utensils until there was but little to be 
 seen of him except his legs. What the locomotive is to 
 the Yankee, and the horse to the borderer, that the 
 broncho is to the Mexican, and the two seem alike fitted 
 for each other and inseparable. His patient little beast
 
 90 
 
 costs but little, and when stopping browses by the way- 
 side the best it may, while Don Quixote himself sits 
 basking in the sunshine. The serene and infinite content 
 of a Mexican peon, as he sits thus wrapped in his 
 poncho or serape, sucking his everlasting cigarrito, no 
 American can imagine. His dignity is as perfect as that 
 of a Castilian ; but the stolidity of his brain, who shall 
 describe ? 
 
 Some fifteen miles or so from Fort Garland, in the 
 heart of the San Luis Park, lies San Luis de Culebra, a 
 hamlet of five or six hundred people, and I believe, the 
 most considerable " city," there. You strike the Park 
 proper some distance east of Fort Garland, and from there 
 to Culebra the country is substantially a dead-level. Cu- 
 lebra was then a genuine Mexican town without an atom 
 of the Yankee in or about it, and seemed a thousand years 
 old, it was so sleepy, though comparatively a new settle- 
 ment. Its houses were all one-story adobes, with chim- 
 neys in the corner, in the true Mexican style, and were 
 all grouped about a central " plaza," of course, or the 
 town would not be Mexican. All Southern Colorado, it 
 will be remembered, formerly belonged to New Mexico, 
 and hence these Mexican settlements here and beyond. 
 The people raised wheat, barley, and oats to some extent ; 
 but depended on their flocks and herds chiefly for sup- 
 port. We entered Culebra at dark, amidst a multitudi- 
 nous chorus of dogs, and halted at the house of Capt. D. 
 a bright German, formerly an officer of New Mexican 
 Volunteers, but who had recently married a Culebra 
 senorita and settled there. He gave us an excellent sup- 
 per, after which we all adjourned to a " bailie," or Mexi- 
 can Ball, gotten up especially in honor of Gen. Sherman 
 and Gov. Gumming, but which Sherman was unable to 
 attend. Several of his staff-officers, however, and the
 
 A MEXICAN BATLLE 91 
 
 governor were present, and these with the rest of us 
 made up quite a party. These bailies are great institu- 
 tions among the New Mexicans, who retain all the old 
 Spanish fondness for music and dancing, and are ready 
 for a " bailie," any time. The Culebrans had already had 
 two or three that week, but got up the Sherman-Gum- 
 ming one on short notice and in grand style. The only 
 thing necessary was to engage a room and music, and 
 send a runner through the village, to announce a bailie 
 was on the tapis, and the whole population men, women, 
 children, dogs, and fleas were sure to be there. At the 
 primitive hour of eight P. M. the people began to assem- 
 ble, and by nine p. M. the bailie was in full blast. The 
 ball-room itself was an adobe building, one-story high, 
 perhaps fifty feet long by thirty wide, with a dirt floor, 
 and seats all around. At the farther end was a rude bar, 
 with a transparency over it, bearing the motto, "Lim- 
 onade and Egg-nog," at which each cavalier was 
 expected to treat his lady from time to time. Near 
 this was a rough platform for the musicians, who con- 
 sisted of three or four violinists, led by an irrepressible 
 guitarist blind and quite a character in his way. As 
 the evening progressed, he worked himself up into an 
 ecstacy of enthusiasm, and then, with his eyes "in fine 
 phrensy rolling," improvised words to every piece they 
 played. He appeared perfectly absorbed and carried away 
 with playing and singing, and when a dance ended seemed 
 quite exhausted. No bone-ist, or tambourine-ist, in a 
 troupe of minstrels east, ever performed with more thor- 
 ough and reckless abandon. His head was thrown back ; 
 his eye-balls rolled wildly : his coarse, matted, coal-black 
 hair swept his shoulders : his long and bony fingers 
 fairly flew up and down his quivering guitar : while his 
 shrill, piping, tenor voice rose and fell above the music, in
 
 92 8ENORS AND 8ENOEITA8 
 
 thorough unison with the general scene. Later in the 
 evening, after frequent potations of egg-nog, Don Jesus, 
 (for that was his name) became immensely funny, and his 
 gyrations amused us greatly. 
 
 With the first sound of the violins, the couples took 
 the floor, and kept it up vigorously to the " wee sma' 
 hours." The older people participated less, but young 
 and old were all there, apparently the whole population, 
 in their best " bib and tucker." Women came carrying 
 their infants, and others held the babies while their mothers 
 danced. The younger people, down to mere boys and 
 girls, of course, all danced. First came some slow, 
 stately Spanish dances ; but presently they slid into 
 schottisches and polkas, and performed these with a vigor 
 worthy of New York or Paris. Many present were 
 dressed humbly, and but few comparatively were well 
 dressed ; but ornaments abounded, and the bailie or 
 fandango seemed to put all on an equality. Most of our 
 party selected partners, and soon were lost in the maze and 
 whirl. True, they could not speak a word of Spanish, nor 
 their senoritas any English ; but that did not matter, as 
 the Mexicans regard it as a mark of ill-breeding to converse 
 while dancing. Their manner of saluting each other, 
 when first they met, was unique and original, to wit : 
 the sexes poked their heads over each other's shoulders, 
 and took a good old fashioned hug. Throughout the 
 evening, of course, there was a total absence of inde- 
 corum. As a whole, they seemed to be honest, simple 
 folk, who took life as it came, without fret or worriment, 
 and enjoyed themselves greatly. There was less beauty 
 among the women, but more intelligence among the men, 
 than we expected ; their hospitality was hearty and 
 generous they did their best to give us a pleasant 
 evening ; and altogether the bailie at Culebra was an
 
 MEXICAN BEDS. 93 
 
 event long to be remembered. I left Gov. C. at 11 p. 
 M., looking on and enjoying it, and went to sleep on a 
 good wool bed the only kind used there in a comfort- 
 able room, for the first time since leaving Denver.
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 AMONG THE MOUNTAINS (Continued). 
 
 next day from Culebra to Fort Gar- 
 JL\ land, we proceeded thence subsequently up the 
 Park to the Indian treaty on the Rio Grande ; and from 
 there via Hornan's Park and Poncho Pass north to Fair 
 Play in South Park. These " parks," so called, are a 
 peculiar feature of the Rocky Mountains and play an 
 important part in the scenery. There are five of them 
 North, Middle, South, Homan's, and San Luis of 
 which we passed through the last three. They consti- 
 tute in reality a great system of plateaus or valleys, 
 morticed as it were into the very heart of the mountains, 
 from twenty-five to fifty miles long by half as many wide, 
 disconnected by intervening ranges, yet all alike in their 
 general features. One of the main ranges of the Rocky 
 Mountains bounds them on the east ; but the main range, 
 the real Sierra Nevada or Mother Range the great 
 Snowy Range or real water-shed of the continent, divid- 
 ing the waters of the Pacific from those of the Atlantic 
 runs along the west. True, this is disputed by enthusi- 
 astic Coloradoans ; but the facts seem nevertheless, as 
 above. The North Platte, South Platte, Arkansas, and 
 Rio Grande, all take their rise there, and piercing the 
 eastern range flow thence to the Atlantic or the Gulf, 
 while no considerable stream flows thence to the Pacific. 
 Kit Carson, whom we met at Fort Garland, the best
 
 SAN LUIS PARK 95 
 
 geographer of that region, took this view of the subject, 
 and I humbly concur. 
 
 The largest of these Parks, by far, is the San Luis, 
 and we found it fairly gridironed with trout streams, and 
 rimmed around with mountains. Its general elevation is 
 from six to seven thousand feet above the sea, with its 
 surrounding peaks and ridges about as much more, which 
 is too cold for Indian corn, though the other cereals 
 such as wheat, barley, oats, etc. may readily be grown 
 there. Yolcanic agencies have had much to do with its 
 formation, as its wide-spread igneous rocks and pebbles 
 still plainly show. Along the Rio Grande and its numer- 
 ous affluents wide bottoms have been formed, that are 
 very rich the very washings of the mountains; but else* 
 where you have only rocks and gravel, sage-brush and 
 grease-wood. It contains no timber, except a fringe of 
 cotton woods and poplars along most of the larger 
 streams ; but cedar, pine, and fir are found in the neigh- 
 boring canons and mountains. Cattle and other live 
 stock find good grazing in summer along the streams, 
 and in winter they were said to thrive well on the 
 coarse bunch-grass, with which the surrounding canons 
 all abound. The broad bottoms of the Eio Grande, wav- 
 ing with tall grass and fatter than the prairies of Illinois, 
 ought to make magnificent meadows, and will some day 
 when more of our Anglo-Saxon population overflows 
 there. The population of the Park was grouped mainly in 
 two or three Mexican hamlets, and was computed by Kit 
 Carson (then Colonel of New Mexico Volunteers and 
 Post Commandant at Fort Garland) at about five or six 
 thousand only. A noted citizen of Denver, who owned 
 a large part of the Park, had reported it to us as about 
 twenty thousand. Not that he intended to be inexact; 
 but his imagination was naturally very vivid, and his Ian-
 
 96 TEOUT FISHING AGAIN 
 
 guage apt to be poetic. In purchasing property there, 
 under an old Spanish grant, he certainly acquired any 
 quantity of magnificent mountain, and a wide stretch of 
 plain ; but we suspected, he would wait some time before 
 he saw his money back again. 
 
 Our general ride up the San Luis Park, and so 
 through Homan's to Poncho Pass, was unique and perfect 
 in its way. Our route on leaving Fort Garland was first 
 across several mountain brooks, where the trout were so 
 abundant, that the soldiers at the fort caught them with 
 blankets and feasted on them at will, and then directly 
 up the Park, with the Sierra Blanca or Snowy Range 
 towering on our right. Striking the Rio Grande, we 
 found it alive with geese and ducks, and when we 
 went into camp, L. our champion sportsman 
 caught several noble trout, weighing from five to six 
 pounds each. Singularly enough, the streams flowing to 
 the Rio Grande all abound in trout, while those going to 
 the Mississippi, we were told, all lack them. "We halted 
 two days here, attending the Indian Treaty before alluded 
 to, and then proceeded on. At Fort Garland, we were 
 advised to return to Denver by the same route we had 
 come, as the season was already advancing and nobody 
 had come through by Poncho Pass since the previous 
 spring. Moreover, the trail was reported impracticable for 
 ambulances, and even Kit Carson shook his head, unless 
 we went by pack-mules. But as the pack-mules were 
 not to be had, and we were all averse to returning over 
 the old route, we resolved to push ahead by Poncho 
 Pass, and get through the mountains that way, if possi- 
 ble. From the Treaty-Ground, our route lay nearly due 
 north, with the snowy crest and peaks of the Sierra Blanca 
 on our right and about parallel. Bidding our friends 
 good-bye, we set out early (Sept. 24), with the wind dead-
 
 8IERKA BLANCA 97 
 
 ahead and bitter cold. Toward noon, the weather mode- 
 rated somewhat ; but snow-squalls chased each other along 
 the mountains all day, and once we counted nine in view 
 one careering along behind the other at the same time. 
 Now and then one would expand its wings, and sweep 
 across the Park ; and several times in the course of the 
 day we were thus in the midst of real winter. The range 
 to the west was more or less broken into foot-hills and 
 ridges ; but the Sierra Blauca to the right seemed a solid 
 rampart, rugged, inaccessible, sublime. Its serrated crest, 
 white with perpetual snow, rose five or six thousand feet 
 above the level of the Park ; its tree-line was distinctly 
 marked, as with a rule ; and the whole seemed so near 
 and so gorgeous, when the sunset swallowed up the snow- 
 squalls, that we could scarcely realize it was yet miles 
 away. As we got farther up the Park, the soil grew 
 thinner, and more volcanic in its origin ; but we crossed 
 several handsome streams, that might be made to irrigate 
 considerable land there. 
 
 "We found only one ranch, however, north of Fort 
 Garland a Mr. Russell's, at the extreme north-eastern 
 end of the Park. "We camped there one night, and 
 found the proprietor to be a good specimen of the average 
 Coloradoan. Born in Illinois and bred a blacksmith, the 
 gold-fever had taken him to California, where he worked 
 partly in the mines and partly at his trade. "When he 
 failed in the mines, as he usually did, he again resorted 
 to his trade ; and had he stuck to his anvil, he verily 
 believed, he would have been well-off long before. But 
 as soon as he had hammered out a little money, his evil 
 genius led him back to the " diggings ; " and so he had 
 wandered all up and down our mining regions Califor- 
 nia, Nevada, Colorado, etc., until 1861, when he found 
 himself in Denver, without a cent in his pockets. Mining 
 5
 
 98 AN AVEKAGE BOKDEKER 
 
 happened to be dull there, a regiment of volunteers was 
 then forming for service against the Indians, and so he 
 turned soldier. Before his three years were up, he had 
 saved a moderate " pile," and when he was finally 
 mustered out and discharged, he came here and 
 " squatted " on a quarter-section. The money saved 
 while thus soldiering started him in farming, and he now 
 thought his future secure. This was his first year there, 
 but he had got along very well so far. The Indians had 
 not disturbed him, though frequently there, and his 
 Mexican peons had proved faithful laborers, though a 
 little slow. He had raised fine crops of oats, barley, and 
 potatoes, which he would sell to the garrison at Garland 
 at good prices ; but his wheat was a failure he feared, 
 for want of sufficient warmth. He had a good adobe 
 house, which he meant to enlarge and improve, and a 
 fine flock of sheep, besides considerable cattle. The 
 worst feature of his ranch was, that he had to irrigate ; 
 but he said he had plenty of water for this, and the cost 
 was small. His nearest neighbor was eighteen miles off, 
 and that was too near ; his post-office, sixty miles ; and 
 church, two hundred. It is strange, that men can be 
 content to bury themselves thus, in the heart of a wilder- 
 ness, when God and nature are so bountiful elsewhere. 
 It is the everlasting itching, I suppose, that we Ameri- 
 cans have for change, which comes to little good after 
 all. No doubt plenty of Coloradoans would emigrate to 
 the moon, or even to Le Terrier, if there were a practica- 
 ble " trail " there. 
 
 The next day crossing a low ridge, through a forest 
 of gnarled cedars, we entered Homan's Park, and found 
 it to be nearly a duplicate of the San Luis, on a smaller 
 scale. It is about thirty miles long, by perhaps half as 
 many wide, and its essential features are about the same
 
 HOMAN'S PARK 99 
 
 as those of the San Luis, though its soil seemed deeper 
 and more generous. About half way up, a lusty moun- 
 tain-stream crosses from west to east, lined with cotton- 
 woods, and here four Germans had each " pre-empted " 
 a quarter-section, all lying together. They had all been 
 officers of Colorado Volunteers, and when mustered out 
 came and " squatted " here together, in this picturesque 
 little valley. The last year of their service, being 
 stationed at Fort Garland, they had been up that way 
 on a scout after Indians ; and, falling in love with the 
 Park, selected it for their future homes. One of them 
 was married, and his wife a tidy young German woman 
 kept house for all. They began operations the pre- 
 vious year, and already had accomplished large results. 
 They put in seven thousand dollars as joint-capital, and 
 with this purchased all the necessary animals, implements, 
 provisions, seeds etc., to start well with. Among the 
 rest, they bought a hundred and forty cows, which the 
 following spring brought them in nearly as many calves, 
 all of which they were now raising. Pasturage was 
 abundant in summer, and in the winter the adjoining 
 canons supplied bunch-grass, etc. They milked all their 
 cows, and converted the milk into butter and cheese, 
 which two items alone had paid their current expenses 
 so far, with a small margin over. A sluice-way from the 
 brook carried the water into their milk-house, where 
 instead of tin or earthen pans, they had long milk-troughs 
 hollowed out of logs, around which the water flowed, 
 and then passed back into the stream again. A bowl of 
 buttermilk, that they tendered us, fresh from the churn, 
 was an unlooked-for luxury in the heart of the Rocky 
 Mountains, that none of us could refuse. The ensuing 
 winter they proposed to build a water-churn, and sc 
 make their friendly brook serve them still further.
 
 100 ENTERPRISING GERMANS 
 
 They had had tolerable crops of barley, oats, and 
 potatoes, all of which that could be spared they were 
 husbanding for seed the coming year. They had tried 
 some corn and wheat, but neither had matured well, and 
 they would hardly venture them again. Their butter 
 and cheese they sold to the miners over in South Park, 
 and some they sent even to Denver and a market. They 
 called their place Kerber*s Ranch, after their leading 
 partner, who seemed to be a live Dutchman all over. 
 Of course, we had to stop to dinner, though it was not 
 yet noon ; and when that meal was announced, they 
 conducted us to a table Denver might have envied. 
 Trout, venison, grouse, krout, with all the vegetables of 
 the season, and lager-beer home-brewed, made up a 
 meal not to be despised anywhere, least of all in the 
 fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains. They had seen no 
 officers and hardly any body else, for months, and would 
 take no pay for anything ; but gratefully accepted an 
 armful of " literature," as we bade them good-bye the 
 last of our newspapers, magazines, and books still left 
 from our supply on leaving Denver. Their nearest 
 neighbor was eighteen miles off, and nearest post-office 
 seventy-five. To Denver was a hundred and fifty miles, 
 and it took a team a month or more to go there and 
 return via, Poncho Pass. They pronounced the Pass, in 
 response to our eager inquiries, entirely practicable, with 
 careful driving, if we crossed by daylight ; and with their 
 kindest wishes, we went on our way rejoicing. 
 
 Some miles after leaving Kerber's, we began to ascend 
 the mountain, but the ascent was so gradual you scarcely 
 noiiced it. There was no well-defined road any where 
 only an old Indian trail for saddle .and pack animals, 
 along which only a few wagons had ever passed before. 
 We continued to ascend until dusk, hoping to reach and
 
 PONCHO PASS 101 
 
 cross the summit before going into camp ; but after sun- 
 set, the trail became so faint and our animals so leg-weary, 
 we were compelled to halt at the first wood and water 
 we came to. This we did on the bank of a beautiful 
 stream, that washed the base of a high bluff or rather 
 " butte," and rushed thence via Homan's Park to the 
 Rio Grande. Several of us had rode on ahead on horse- 
 back, but the teams did not get up until after dark. 
 Meanwhile, we had gathered wood, and built a roaring 
 fire ; and when the rest arrived, we soon had camp pitched, 
 and the coffee boiling. We had shot some ducks on the 
 Rio Grande, and brought along some excellent beef-steaks ; 
 and these H. and L. now broiled before the fire, on sharp- 
 ened sticks, in a style the Parker House could hardly 
 have beaten. We found excellent grass here, although 
 so far up the Pass, and our poor tired animals cropped it 
 eagerly. The moon was at the full that night, and the 
 sky cloudless ; but before morning the air grew bitter 
 cold. We shivered through the night, in spite of our 
 blankets and buffalo-robes; and the next morning at 
 breakfast, the ice formed in our tin-cups between the 
 intervals of eating and drinking. We were camped, in 
 fact, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, at a height 
 of nine or ten thousand feet above the sea, with snow- 
 peaks all about us, and the only wonder is that we got 
 through the night so well. For the first time since leav- 
 ing Denver, we felt a sense of loneliness and danger ; 
 and the occasional yelping of the wolves around us, in 
 the still midnight air, did little to allay this. Our ani- 
 mals, also, seemed fretful and uneasy, and we suspected 
 Indians about, but nothing came of it. We looked well 
 to our arms before retiring, and talked much of the night 
 away it was so cold ; and the next morning broke camp 
 early, and were off up the Pass again.
 
 102 A HARD EOAD TO TRAVEL 
 
 A. half an hour's ride or so brought us to the summit, 
 which surprised us, as the ascent had been so gentle all 
 the way up from Kerber's far less than that of Sangre 
 del Christo from Fort Garland. The view from the sum- 
 mit we found limited, compared with that from Sangre 
 del Christo ; and soon after we descended into a sheltered 
 nook knee deep in grass, with wood and water both just 
 at hand, where we had been advised to camp the night 
 before, if able to reach it. Following the banks of a dimin- 
 utive brook, we descended gradually to Poncho Creek ; 
 and here our really bad road began. So far, the Pass 
 had been excellent, all things considered, and we were 
 astonished at its bad reputation ; but after we crossed 
 Poncho Creek, and got started down its wild canon, we 
 soon found ample cause for it all. A narrow defile, with 
 precipitous banks on either side from five hundred to a 
 thousand feet high, furnished the only road-way, which 
 here found room first on one side of the creek and then 
 on the other, the best it could, and in many places it had 
 to take to the bed of the creek itself, in order to round 
 the rocky bluffs. The trouble with the Pass was, it had 
 had no work done on it, and needed grading badly at 
 several points. A few hundred dollars judiciously 
 expended would have made it much superior to Sangre 
 del Christo, we all thought. It is not so high by a thou- 
 sand feet or more, nor nearly so steep, and we judged it 
 would yet become one of the favorite routes to and from 
 San Luis Park. 
 
 While the teams were working through, L. and I 
 passed on ahead, with our rifles at our saddle-bows, 
 hoping to start a bear or shoot a buck-tail deer, but saw no 
 game of any kind. Our experience among the mountains 
 on this trip, indeed, was unfavorable to the stirring 
 accounts we had heard and road of great game there.
 
 VALLEY OF THE ARKANSAS 103 
 
 The lack of trees there, except in the canons, and 
 especially of nut-bearing trees, and likewise of fruit- 
 bearing bushes, must be unfavorable to animal life, as a 
 rule, and I doubt if there ever was much there, except an 
 occasional deer or bear, eagle or buzzard. We were sur- 
 prised to find so few birds, and scarcely any squirrels, 
 except a little red species no bigger than our ground-squir- 
 rels east. We met two of Kerber's teams toiling wearily 
 up the Pass, as we descended it, and gave them the first 
 news they had had from the ranch in weeks. We 
 got several miles ahead, before we knew it, and did not 
 halt until we reached the foot of the Pass, where it 
 debouches into the valley of the Little Arkansas. It was 
 an hour or more before the ambulances overtook us, and 
 then we received a rough account of their experiences. 
 In several places, they had had to lash ropes around them 
 and edge them along the hillsides the best they could. 
 In others, they only managed to keep them on their 
 wheels by walking and pushing very carefully, and 
 so finally got through safe and sound. The wagon, 
 however, being heavier and clumsier, had capsized badly, 
 and they had driven ahead and left it, with instruc- 
 tions to follow on as soon as possible. Crossing the 
 valley of the little Arkansas and a high range beyond, 
 late in the afternoon we descended into the valley of 
 the Arkansas proper, and at sunset went into camp on its 
 banks, near Sch wander's ranch. The Arkansas, we found, 
 was here already a very considerable stream, but we 
 forded it without difficulty. Our unfortunate wagon, 
 perhaps it should be added, got along after dark, much 
 the worse for wear ; and jaded and weary with the day's 
 journey, we were glad to pass a quiet night of it. 
 
 The next morning we crossed another lofty range, the 
 ascent of which was wild and picturesque, and thence 
 5*
 
 104 SOUTH PARK 
 
 descended into South Park. Less in size than the San 
 Luis, and more broken in surface, the South Park never- 
 theless has the same general characteristics, though more 
 nearly circular. Its enclosing mountains are abrupt and 
 bold, and the views from many points are very striking 
 and charming. Passing out of it to Denver, we ascended 
 the range from which Leutze is said to have conceived 
 his well-known painting in the Capitol at "Washington, 
 " Westward the star of Empire takes its way." The facts 
 are little like the painting aforesaid, because no emigrant 
 train would ever attempt to pass over such an impossible 
 road, as Leutze has painted : but the landscape from the 
 point referred to is nevertheless noble and grand. The 
 range there, I believe, is about eight thousand feet above 
 the sea. South Park, at your feet, extends say, thirty 
 miles north and south, by twenty east and west ; down 
 in its bosom nestles a necklace of exquisite little lakes, 
 with streams flashing onward from the mountains to 
 them ; while beyond all along the west, in fact runs 
 the perpetual Snowy Range, notched and peaked, clear 
 cut and beautiful against the sky, though not so 
 grand and stately as we had seen it farther south. To the 
 north of the road the range shoots up nearly a thousand 
 feet higher, but the view from there did not compensate 
 us for our toil in ascending it. The whole view here, 
 though fine in its way, lacks breadth and sublimity, as 
 a specimen of Rocky Mountain scenery, and Leutze would 
 have done better (in my judgment) had he gone to Sangre 
 del Christo or perhaps Poncho Pass. The sky and gen- 
 eral coloring of his painting are good ; but how inade- 
 quately, how feebly they express the exquisite, serenity 
 and unapproachable glory of the Mountains ! Bierstadt's 
 skies, though thought impossible east, are nearer to the
 
 MEXICAN VS. YANKEE 105 
 
 truth, as our critics will yet learn, when they come to 
 know more of Colorado. 
 
 In South Park, we had struck a new civilization, the 
 evidences of which grew constantly more apparent. The 
 Mexican and the herder had given way to the Yankee and 
 the miner, and the contrast was most striking. Ranches 
 and settlements were more numerous, and the spirit of en- 
 terprise was everywhere observable. First we struck some 
 saline springs, where extensive salt-works had already 
 been erected, and they were reported to be paying well. 
 They were said to furnish a superior article of salt, at a 
 less price than it could be imported from the east, and the 
 company expected thus to monopolize the salt-market 
 of Colorado and the adjoining regions. Beyond these, 
 ranches thickened up all the way to Fair Play, and we 
 found some splendid duck-shooting in the marshes, that 
 now and then skirted the road. Some of the flocks, 
 however, carried off an immense amount of lead, or else H. 
 and L. were indifferent shots we were never quite able to 
 decide which. They were our champion sportsmen, and 
 though they bagged a number of fine ducks en route, 
 they never were entirely satisfied. They both fired 
 simultaneously at a great flock that rose up as we drove 
 by, and when none dropped H. protested, " I know I hit 
 a dozen that time, but these confounded Rocky Moun- 
 tain ducks don't know what shot is. They fly away with 
 enough honest lead in them to kill an ordinary eastern 
 duck twice over." L. of course, confirmed this, and 
 adduced the abundant feathers as proof of their joint 
 achievement. B. suggested that the Indians had charmed 
 their fowling-pieces, and meekly inquired of H, " Didn't 
 the ducks carry off your shot-pouch also ? " At Fair 
 Play, in the northwest corner of the Park, we found a 
 mining town of four or five hundred inhabitants, appa-
 
 106 FAIR PLAT 
 
 rently busy and prosperous. Timber grew plentifully in 
 the neighboring canons, and now adobe huts gave place 
 to frame and log shanties. The South Platte skirts the 
 town, and is already a considerable stream here, although 
 it cannot be far away from its source. At Fair Play it 
 heads north up into the great Snowy Range, or water shed 
 of the continent, which feeds it perpetually, and runs 
 thence east to join the North Platte near Fort MePher- 
 son, where we had struck it by stage-coach a month 
 before. Good " gold diggings " had been found here long 
 before, and its entire banks about Fair Play have been 
 dug over, " panned out," and ransacked generally. They 
 presented a torn and ragged appearance, as if a 
 young earthquake or two had recently broken out there, 
 and this was not materially improved by the long and 
 high flumes then going up. When these were com- 
 pleted, they expected to turn the Platte considerably 
 aside, and to find rich " placer mines " in its sand-bars 
 and bed again. The principal mining then in South 
 Park, however, was farther up the Platte, at Empire, 
 Buckskin Joe, and other euphoneously named places, 
 none of which had we time to visit. The business gen- 
 erally seemed to be settling down to quartz-mining, as at 
 Black-Hawk and Central City, and to be passing more 
 and more into the hands of Companies. We met 
 several huge boilers on the road, en route to various mills, 
 and it seemed marvellous how they could ever wagon 
 them so far across the Plains, and up into the very heart 
 of the Mountains. Progress with them must have been 
 slow and tedious anywhere ; but when they struck a 
 slough, or reached the mountain ranges, then came the 
 whacks and oaths. 
 
 Judge Costello, of the Fair Play House, entertained 
 us while there, and gave us excellent .accommodations.
 
 STRIKE NEWSPAPERS AGAIN 107 
 
 There had been several inches of snow at Fair Play a few 
 days before, and arriving just at nightfall after a long 
 day's drive, we felt the cold very keenly. But the Judge 
 soon had a roaring fire blazing on his hearth, and wel- 
 comed us to Fair Play right royally. In due time he 
 gave us a substantial dinner, piping hot roast-beef, 
 chicken-fricasee, potatoes with their jackets on, dried- 
 apple-pie and coffee a meal that seemed supremely 
 Sybaritic, after " roughing it" by the roadside for over a 
 fortnight. We did ample justice to it, having breakfast- 
 ed nearly twelve hours before, and then adjourned to a 
 common bed-room, where we smoked and read the papers 
 until midnight. We had seen none since leaving Den- 
 ver, nearly a month before ; but Judge C. happened to 
 have just received a large supply, which we devoured 
 eagerly. The elections in California and Oregon had 
 just been held, and the North was again rocking with 
 enthusiasm. Andrew Johnson's apostacy, it was clear, 
 promised to be a losing game after all. The spirit of a 
 free people at last was aroused, as after the firing on 
 Sumter, and evidently the nation meant again neither 
 to be bribed nor scared. True, the November elections 
 were yet to come ; but we took increased faith in the 
 virtue and intelligence of the masses, and rejoiced that 
 Congress was still true to Liberty. Absence from " the 
 states" is a great purifier of one's political ideas. We see 
 things at home clearer, and reverence the Union more, 
 the farther we get away from New York and Washington. 
 We forgot all the wretched hair-splitting east, by one 
 side or the other ; and came to love only the old flag, in 
 its highest and best significance, as the symbol of free- 
 dom and justice, for each and for all men, the broad 
 continent across and the wide world over. 
 
 The next morning, a young miner invited us out to
 
 108 A PLUCKY EAGLE 
 
 take a look at a fine specimen of the American black- 
 eagle, which he had caught a few days before, while 
 u prospecting" along the Snowy Range. He was com- 
 paratively a young bird still, yet measured some six feet 
 from tip to tip of wings, and was as brave and fierce as a 
 tiger. He was kept chained by the leg in a dark stable ; 
 but he was as wide awake as he could be, and screamed 
 and flew savagely at every one who came near him. It 
 was intended to forward him to the great Fair soon to be 
 held at St. Louis, as a specimen of the feathered tribe 
 from Colorado, where no doubt he created a sensation. 
 His eyes were bright and keen as a falchion, and his 
 talons ugly looking grappling-irons. So, too, his legs 
 were massive, compact columns, that seemed made for 
 strength and endurance. And altogether he was not a 
 bad representative of the Rocky Mountains, where his 
 species have their birth-place and home. 
 
 From Fair Play we descended the South Platte direct 
 to Denver, following the course of the river wherever 
 practicable. In some places, its narrow and precipitous 
 canons prevented this, but we always returned to its 
 banks again as soon as possible. Some miles from Fair 
 Play, we passed several gems of lakes, which H. declared 
 to be " the natural home of the wild-duck ; " but though 
 the ducks were there, he failed to bag any, greatly to his 
 disgust. L. more fortunate, got one, and killed several 
 others, but failed to reach them because of the marshes. 
 Our road led over several ranges, some of them quite pre- 
 cipitous, but in the main followed the windings of the 
 Platte, as before said. Here and there the wild canons, 
 through which the Platte sped like an arrow, became 
 picturesque in the extreme. Frequently our course ahead 
 seemed barred by impenetrable fastnesses, yet somehow 
 we always got through. High and rocky cliffs towered
 
 KOCET MOUNTAIN KOADS 109 
 
 all about us, and all up and down these, wherever they 
 could secure a foothold, the fir, pine, maple, ash, etc. grew 
 densely. As we neared Denver, ranches became more 
 frequent, and saw-mills multiplied, the lumber from 
 which was shipped far and near, among the mines and 
 across the Plains, even to Julesburg and Fort Biley. The 
 road in the main was a natural way ; but here and there it 
 had been blasted out of the bluff, or built up on the 
 edge of the Platte, at large expense, and I believe is a 
 chartered turnpike from Fair Play down. The Platte 
 alone makes such a road practicable, and South Park and 
 all its dependencies would be virtually inaccessible, were it 
 not for this great natural highway into the very heart of 
 the Mountains. Altogether, it is a remarkably good road, 
 all things considered, and so are the majority of the roads 
 there. As a rule, they follow the streams that seem to lead 
 almost everywhere among the ranges, as if purposely 
 chiseled out from the beginning, as future pathways of 
 civilization. Our miners, taking the hint, carry their roads 
 over heights, and through depths, and among peaks, that 
 would appal most eastern engineers, and thus enable us 
 to conquer nature in her mightiest strongholds. 
 
 The last day out from Denver, we ascended Bradford's 
 Hill our last serious climb about noon. This is in 
 reality the first range of the mountains, and gets itself 
 up to some 8,000 feet above the sea ; but is yet termed a 
 "Hill," in Colorado parlance. We all got out or dis- 
 mounted and walked up, to relieve our worn animals, and 
 became well blown ourselves before reaching the summit 
 the atmosphere grew so rare. As we rounded its western 
 shoulder, we caught a grand view of the Snowy Range 
 again, solemn and sublime over and above all intervening 
 peaks and ridges ; but with one accord, all hastened for- 
 ward to behold once more the Plains, the Plains ! Yes,
 
 BBADFOED'S HILL 
 
 there they were, in all their immeasurable extent ! "We 
 were out of the Mountains our long jaunt almost over. 
 No more canons. No more forests. No more snow- 
 squalls. No more rides, hour by hour, through narrow 
 valleys and defiles, where the whole man feels " cabined, 
 cribbed, confined." No. There were the Plains, illimit- 
 able, grand, in all their immensity and sublimity. "We 
 thought the view from Sangre del Christo fine, and so it 
 is ; but as a view of the Plains proper, without the Moun- 
 tains thrown in, this view from Bradford's Hill, I think, 
 perhaps surpasses it. There is no end to the vast outstretch 
 and outlook, and in the serene atmosphere of that region 
 the eye ranges over it all with an ease and freedom, only 
 equalled by the eagle himself when poised in mid air. 
 To say that the Plains are visible for miles on miles 
 north, south, east is but a feeble description of the 
 wonderful panorama, that there unfolds before you. To 
 the south appeared Castle Rock and its sister buttes, that 
 we had passed three weeks before, looking now like mole- 
 hills beneath us. Issuing from the Mountains at our feet, 
 we could trace the South Platte and Cherry Creek to 
 where they unite near Denver, and then follow the Platte 
 on and on to the east, till lost in the far horizon. Denver 
 lay like a toy-city, seemingly at the base of the Mountains, 
 though really twenty miles away. Over all, was one of 
 those perfect days, 
 
 " So cool, so calm, BO bright, 
 The bridal of the earth and sky." 
 
 as old George Herbert wrote, which no Bostonian or 
 Gothamite ever truly witnesses with not a cloud or haze 
 even visible, the air so pure it was joy to breathe it and 
 ecstacy to gaze abroad through it. Verily, here in 
 Colorado, if anywhere.
 
 MULE KATE HI 
 
 " The sky is a drinking cup, 
 That was overturned of old, 
 And it pours into the eyes of men 
 Its wine of airy gold ; 
 We drink that wine all day 
 Till the last drop is drained up, 
 And are lighted off to bed, 
 By the jewels in the cup." 
 
 Off to the southwest, just shouldering over the range, 
 presently a white cloud loomed up, no bigger than a 
 man's hand ; but the dry atmosphere east was too much 
 for it, and it faded away as fast as it toppled over. As 
 we stood gazing at the immensity before us, some one 
 incidentally said, " I think I now understand how Balboa 
 felt, when from the summit of the Andes he beheld the 
 Pacific ; " and it is a good illustration of the identity of 
 thought under like circumstances, that half-a-dozen others 
 quickly responded, " You bet ! Just thinking of the 
 same thing ! " 
 
 We reached Denver the same evening, jaded and 
 travel-stained, but full of enthusiasm over our trip among 
 the mountains. We had traversed nine counties, some 
 as large as a moderate state east, and been absent nearly a 
 month in all. We had been reported captured and slain 
 by the Indians, as much as two or three times, but from 
 first to last did not see a hostile aborigine. We drove 
 the same animals down and back, over five hundred 
 miles continuously, without the loss of a mule, and sel- 
 dom made less than thirty or forty miles a day, when on 
 the road. Our ambulances proved very convenient and 
 serviceable, but in crossing the ranges or in bad canons I 
 always preferred a mule. My favorite was Kate, a 
 noble jenny, as large as a horse and a splendid walker, 
 that carried me over many a mile delightfully. She was 
 as gentle as a kitten, and as faithful as a dog it some-
 
 112 A LITTLE FUN. 
 
 times seemed almost as knowing as a man obeying 
 every whim of her rider, and following him everywhere. 
 If any mule ever attains immortality and a sort of heaven 
 hereafter, surely Kate deserves to. In crossing the 
 ranges or threading the canons thus, on horse or mule 
 back, several of us would often get miles ahead, and the 
 time thus gained afforded ample leisure for observation 
 and reflection. "We were seldom at a loss for conversa- 
 tion, there was so much to investigate and discuss ; but 
 when all else failed, we amused ourselves by organizing 
 (on paper) two monster Mining Companies, with fabulous 
 capitals, in which we divided off and took stock. I believe 
 I belonged to the Grand Sangre del Christo Rocky Moun- 
 tain Mutual Benefit Gold and Silver Mining Association ; 
 capital, $20,000,000 ! H. and C. and others constituted 
 a rival company, with like assets and name equally 
 pretentious. We set up these financial fictions early in 
 the trip, when somebody fell to talking about " feet ; " 
 and what with selling " short," operating for a " rise," 
 " corraling the market," " declaring dividends," and abus- 
 ing each others' " Company," they served to while away 
 many an idle interval. The last afternoon out, we " con- 
 solidated," shook hands over the " union," elected a full 
 " Board of Officers," and adjourned to receive our "joint 
 dividends," at New York ; but hitherto have never been 
 BO fortunate as to get a " quorum " together there, and 
 doubt now if we ever will.
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE INDIANS GEN. 8HEKMAN KIT OAE8ON, ETC. 
 
 AT Fort Garland, in San Louis Park, Sept 21st, Gov. 
 Gumming, Gen. Sherman, and the famous Kit Car- 
 son (then Bv't. Brig. Gen. U. S. Yols.), met in council, 
 concerning the Utes and the Indian question generally. 
 Sherman, as elsewhere intimated, was then in the 
 midst of a long tour by ambulance, through the 
 heart of the Indian country embraced in his then 
 Military Division, and as he had already travelled 
 about 1200 miles, with no escort except a couple 
 of staff-officers and the necessary teamsters, without 
 seeing a hostile Red Skin, he was getting to be somewhat 
 skeptical on the whole Indian subject. The grand Treaty 
 with the Utes was to come off Sept. 22d and 23d on the 
 banks of the Rio Grande, some thirty miles northwest 
 from Fort Garland ; but as Sherman had decided to leave 
 Garland on the 22d for his return east via the Arkansas, 
 a preliminary council was called at Fort Garland on the 
 21st. Runners had been sent out a day or two before, 
 and the Big Chiefs of the Utes kept arriving all that 
 day. The council was held late in the afternoon, in a 
 large room back of the commandant's quarters. The 
 chiefs were grouped on one side of the room, squat upon 
 their haunches, grave and dignified ; while on the other 
 sat Sherman in loose uniform, puffing a cigar, with Gov. 
 Gumming on one side and Kit Carson on the other.
 
 114 COUNCIL WITH THE UTES 
 
 Carson served as interpreter, speaking Mexican well, 
 which the chiefs mostly understood. After some pre- 
 liminary skirmishing, Sherman said he had called them 
 together to ascertain whether the Utes were willing to 
 quit their nomadic life and settle down on a Reserva- 
 tion. He urged this upon them, as their true interest, 
 if they wished to maintain their tribal existence, and 
 said he had only come among them to promote their 
 happiness and welfare. He added, he had recently been 
 visiting many other tribes with the same object and pur- 
 poses, and as a friend to their race was convinced their 
 only hope for the future lay in going on a Reservation. 
 The chiefs debated the matter among themselves for 
 awhile, and presently made answer, that they thanked the 
 Big Warrior for his suggestions and approved them ; but 
 that their young men were opposed to such a policy, and 
 they feared it would be difficult to persuade the Utes of 
 its wisdom, until the Cheyennes and Comanches 
 their hereditary foes had first adopted it. The coun- 
 cil lasted an hour or more, with much skillful fencing 
 and adroit diplomacy on the part of Ooray and Ancan- 
 tash, the head-chiefs ; but this was the substance of all 
 that Sherman could worm out of them. He tried to 
 explain and reason with them in various ways, but at 
 last broke up the council in disgust, and blurted out in 
 his peculiar way, as he strode back to his quarters, 
 " They will have to freeze and starve a little more, I 
 reckon, before they will listen to common sense ! " Sub- 
 sequently he told us of a council that he had held about a 
 fortnight or so before, at Fort Laramie or somewhere up 
 there, with the Arrapahoes or the Sioux. He had urged 
 upon the chiefs, that their white brothers were opposed 
 to war and desired peace, and he hoped there would be 
 no more bloodshed in that region between the Red
 
 INDIAN PONIES 115 
 
 Man and the Pale Face. The chiefs presently replied, 
 with a wariness worthy of Talleyrand, that they recipro- 
 cated his Quaker sentiments, and would do all in their 
 power to enforce them ; but that their young men were 
 rash and fiery sometimes, and it might be difficult 
 to hold them in. " Well, then," said Sherman to the 
 interpreter, firing up, " Tell the rascals so are mine / and if 
 another white man is scalped in all this region, it will be 
 impossible to hold mine in." The chiefs saw the point, 
 and no doubt sagely concluded they would have trouble, 
 if ever they got Tecumseh Sherman fairly after them. 
 
 The grand Treaty with the Utes came oft', as I have 
 said, Sept. 22d and 23d, on the banks of the Eio Grande, 
 some thirty miles or so northwest from Fort Garland. We 
 left Garland early in the morning by ambulance, and reach- 
 ed the treaty ground soon after noon. Gov. Gumming and 
 Indian Agent Hunt had preceded us, and on arriving we 
 found them just sitting down to discuss a Rio Grande trout, 
 nearly as large as an eastern shad. The Utes had pitched 
 their lodges a mile or so away, in a bend of the river, 
 but they were constantly passing to and fro on horseback 
 and afoot. Apparently none of them ever walked, if he 
 could afford the luxury of a pony, and often one puny 
 pony was made to carry two or three lubberly fellows at 
 a time. Evidently the Plains Indians are as averse to 
 walking, as the traditional Texan, who is said never to 
 leave his door-sill without mounting a mustang. These 
 Ute ponies are hardy, sagacious little fellows, some of them 
 very handsome, and are of course, the lineal descendants 
 of the wild horses of the Plains. Ooray, their head 
 chief, rode a bright little bay, that would have taken a 
 first-class premium almost anywhere. Of course, they 
 get no grain, but subsist exclusively on grass. They 
 constitute their owners' chief wealth, and a Ute will part
 
 116 A UTE PRINCES c 
 
 with almost anything sooner than his pony. Braves, 
 squaws, papooses, all ride astride, and generally at a gallop. 
 They seldom use the spur, but rarely mount without a 
 whip, and this they keep going pretty steadily while on 
 the road. Their saddles are rude affairs of wood, with 
 very short stirrups ; but their bridles are better made, 
 and usually have some kind of an iron bit, if at all 
 obtainable. 
 
 In the course of the afternoon, hundreds of the 
 Indians thronged our little camp, in all varieties of 
 costume, though chiefly in breech-cloth and blanket or 
 buffalo-robe. Both sexes dress much alike, and at first 
 it was difficult to distinguish one from the other, though 
 you soon came to know the squaws from their smaller 
 stature. The paraphernalia of some of them was ludi- 
 crous in the extreme. One young buck had managed to 
 secure an old-style artillery hat, with long scarlet horse- 
 hair plume, and a dilapidated white shirt ; and as he 
 strutted about in these (only these and nothing more !) 
 considered himself wholly en regie. Another, the 
 princess and beauty of the tribe, a dirty belle of seven- 
 teen, resplendent in paint and feathers, was arrayed in 
 much gorgeousness of beads and buckskin, and whiffed 
 her cigarritos by the hour together. During the morn- 
 ing she had ridden her thirty miles, man-fashion, with 
 the chiefs from Fort Garland, and in the afternoon she 
 lolled about camp in magnificent indolence. Her laugh 
 was rich and musical, and she seemed indeed quite a pet 
 with the tribe. 
 
 The afternoon was passed in preliminary arrange- 
 ments for the Treaty, and towards evening a number of 
 us walked over to the Indian village to return our calls. 
 We found it to consist of perhaps three hundred wig- 
 wams, arranged pretty regularly in streets, and contain-
 
 AN INDIAN VILLAGE 117 
 
 ing in all some twelve hundred souls. The wigwams or 
 lodges were made of skins and hides, stretched over 
 circularly inclined poles rude originals evidently of our 
 army Sibley tents with an opening at the top for the 
 smoke to escape through. At the door were planted 
 their spears or lances, and shields ; inside, on skins or 
 blankets, the braves were fast asleep or playing cards ; 
 without, the youngsters were playing ball or practicing 
 with the bow and arrows. "We wandered through the 
 streets until nightfall, striking up a talk or barter in our 
 broken Ute the best we could, and had some interesting 
 experiences. Just then the village was all agog with 
 excitement and joy. The day before, their Agent had 
 given them several beeves, which they had at once 
 slaughtered and partly eaten; the surplus was now 
 hanging all about on lariats and poles, curing in the diy 
 atmosphere. " Jerked-beef," I suppose, our Plains-men 
 would call it. A flock of sheep had also been given 
 them, and the squaws were now busy "corraling" these, 
 as we happened along. A few refractory ewes refused 
 to enter the corral a slight enclosure of brush and 
 these were being hotly pursued by the boy-braves and 
 dogs. The dogs headed them off on all sides, while the 
 boys lassoed them one after another, until the squaws 
 came up and caught them. It was fine practice for the 
 lasso, and the youngsters seemed to enjoy it greatly. 
 Dogs abounded everywhere. Each wigwam seemed to 
 have a goodly supply, and the village at large a brigade 
 besides. They were small wolfish-looking curs, as a rule, 
 and the most vociferous and incessant yelpers I ever 
 listened to. They had no regular bark only a wild 
 yelp, like their savage ancestors, the cayotes of the 
 Plains. It is only the civilized dog, that " bays deep- 
 mouthed welcome" that has a full, open " bark" and
 
 118 INDIAN DOGS AND PROFANITY 
 
 this he loses when he relapses to savagery again. There 
 was no moving anywhere about the village, without 
 having a score or more of them yelping at your heels ; 
 but this seemed to be the extent of their hostile inten- 
 tions. When they became rather noisier than usual, 
 some passing squaw would dash at them with a stick 
 and a shower of " God dams," and that would scatter 
 them for the time. Most of our Indians have all learned 
 to swear the rough oaths of the Border, and always 
 swear in English, as they have no corresponding words 
 iii their own language. In describing cavalry, they put 
 the thumb and forefinger of one hand on the .palm of the 
 other, and then move them along in imitation of a 
 gallop. In speaking of ox-trains, they stretch out their 
 arms, and say, "Whoa-Haw! Git!" But when they 
 come to mule-teams, they invariably speak of them as 
 " God dams ! Go 'long ! " because of the copious oaths 
 our teamsters hurl at them. Indeed, the average Indian 
 always speaks of the donkey, as a " God dam," and 
 thinks that the correct name. These Utes in general, I 
 must say, seemed to be much more thrifty and comforta- 
 ble than we had anticipated, though doubtless some of 
 this was due to the recent generous issue of supplies by 
 the Agent. 
 
 Our party scattered pretty well through the village, 
 one after another halting to palaver with acquaintances 
 we had picked up ; but as it grew dark, we gradually 
 drifted together and prepared to return. Dr. M. was still 
 bargaining with a chief for a fancy shield he wanted as 
 a souvenir, when the rest began moving off, and begged 
 me to wait a minute until he was through. Several 
 minutes passed by, and then his bargaining ended in 
 failure the Big Chief refusing to " swop" their uni- 
 versal word for selling or trading. Then we started to
 
 LOST AMONG THE UTES 119 
 
 overtake the rest, but they had passed out of view in the 
 deepening twilight, and though we hallooed to them could 
 get no answer the hubbub of the village evidently 
 drowning our voices. Emerging from the wigwams, we 
 soon discovered, that neither of us had taken any proper 
 notes of the landmarks, as we came over, being busy 
 talking with the rest, and consequently neither knew the 
 way back. Here was a pretty predicament, surely, for 
 two ambitious young men cast away in a village of a 
 thousand savages, unable to speak a sentence of their 
 language intelligibly or they ours, night already come, 
 and no hint of how to extricate ourselves. To make it 
 doubly absurd, we presently discovered, that onr only 
 belligerent weapons, whether for offence or defence, con- 
 sisted of a Rogers' penknife apiece. We had been so 
 remiss, as to leave camp without our revolvers a precau- 
 tion that no Mountain or Plains-man ever neglects. 
 While pondering the " situation," we luckily caught sight 
 of the Sierra Blanca glistening in the moonlight, and as 
 we knew this to be southeast of our camp we concluded 
 our route lay toward it. We set off accordingly, and 
 had made perhaps a quarter of a mile, across sloughs now 
 dry and through the rank grass, when one of us suggested, 
 that we could not be going right, or our camp-fires would 
 appear. This seemed reasonable, the country was so 
 level ; so a halt was ordered, while we scanned the 
 horizon for fires elsewhere. Presently far away to the 
 left, we descried a fire blazing loftily up, and concluded 
 this must be ours, and that our comrades had put on extra 
 fuel to guide us the better home. The direction seemed 
 wrong, judging by the position of the Sierra Blanca ; but 
 as it was the only fire visible, except those at the Indian 
 village, we concluded it must be ours, and changing our 
 course struck for it accordingly. A trudge of a mile or
 
 120 BATHER EXCITING SITUATION 
 
 more, with an occasional tumble into a dry slough, at 
 length brought us to the fire, when to our disappointment 
 we found it to be only the camp-fire of two rough-looking 
 customers, who said they were out "prospecting" for 
 mines. They said they had reached there just at night- 
 fall, from a long trip through the Mountains, and as yet 
 had seen nothing 1 of our camp, and of course knew nothing 
 of its whereabouts. Two Utes were squatted before the 
 fire, who they said had just rode over from the village, 
 and we asked one of the men, who had been talking with 
 them in Mexican, to inquire the way to " Kit Carson's 
 Camp" for us. He did so, and the Indians jumping up 
 responded, they would conduct us there. We thought 
 now we were in luck, surely, and thanking the miners 
 for their kindness prepared to follow our copper-colored 
 friends. Unloosing a little pony, that was picketed near 
 by, they both clambered upon him, and then with grunts 
 and mutterings to each other, of which we only under- 
 stood an occasional " God dam," they rode along ahead 
 for perhaps a quarter of a mile, when suddenly they 
 turned round on the pony without stopping, chattered 
 and gibbered away at us for a minute or two like monkeys, 
 and then with a wild whoop, that for a moment quite 
 dazed us, galloped wildly oif toward the Indian village. 
 We were now worse off than ever, and our affaire 
 were evidently coming to a crisis. Of course, we halted 
 again, and called another " council of war." M. advised 
 going back to the miners' camp-fire, and trusting our for- 
 tunes for the night with them. I objected that we knew 
 nothing about them ; that they were suspicious looking 
 customers anyhow hadn't the air of genuine miners; 
 and suggested that we camp down where we were, on the 
 banks of a bayou, as there was plenty of dry wood there 
 for a fire, and when morning came we would hunt up the 
 6
 
 MAEK TAPLEY'S PHILOSOPHY 121 
 
 Rio Grande, and follow it down to our lost camp. He 
 assented to this, but on reflection I further suggested, 
 whether it wouldn't be better, after all, to go boldly into 
 the Indian village, and govern ourselves by circumstances. 
 "We knew Ooray and Ancantash, the head chiefs, and why 
 not ask for them ? If we could find them, our troubles 
 would be over. If we couldn't, at the worst, we could 
 claim the hospitality of some other chieftain, and quarter 
 for the night in a Ute wigwam. I urged that the Indians 
 already knew where we were anyhow, and also knew that 
 we were unarmed and lost ; that it would be disagreeable 
 to hear their arrows whizzing around us there, or per- 
 haps be scalped and tossed into the bayou before morning ; 
 and that, in short, I would risk the Utes, if he would. 
 M. approved the plan, as the best we could do under such 
 dismal circumstances ; so oif we trudged again for the 
 Indian village, which by that time we were beginning to 
 wish we had never seen. We tried to keep our courage 
 up by discussing Mark Tapley, and his philosophy of the 
 "jolly;" but the result could hardly be called a success. 
 Perhaps the two braves who had so suddenly deserted us, 
 with such unearthly whoops, were lying in wait for us 
 somewhere ahead ! Perhaps the next step we would 
 hear an arrow whiz by, or over us perchance through us ! 
 Nevertheless, I remember also a ludicrous feeling at the 
 idea after escaping unscathed from the rebellion of 
 falling ignominiously there, on the banks of the Del Norte, 
 by the hand of a Ute, with only a pocket-knife to defend 
 myself with ! 
 
 However, we proceeded cautiously forward, with 
 many a halt and " hist," and presently without molest- 
 ation reached the village again. The dogs, of course, 
 challenged our approach with a multitudinous yelping, 
 as before : but some friendly squaws appeared, and 
 6
 
 122 YOUNG CHIEF WELLINGTON 
 
 soon dispersed them with a copious shower of " God 
 dams." Approaching a lodge in which we saw a 
 immber of Indians reclining around a fire, we tried to 
 make them understand, that we were lost and wanted 
 to find the way to " Kit Carson's Camp ; " but met with 
 the same poor success as before. Then we inquired for 
 Ooray and Ancantash, but they either did not comprehend, 
 or else were unwilling to bother with us, as their only 
 answer was a grunt " Ugh " or a stare. Evidently, on 
 reflection, they concluded we were bores, for they soon 
 resumed their pipes, and the low drawling song they were 
 crooning when we entered. "We tried two or three more 
 lodges, with the same result, and had about made up our 
 minds to camp down for the night, where we were, when 
 M. suggested that we try one more wigwam, and if 
 we failed there to give it up. This seemed almost provi- 
 dential ; for as we entered the lodge-door, up sprang a lithe 
 young chief, whom we had met during the day, and came 
 smiling toward us with the greeting, "How, Gen-eral! 
 How, Doc-tor ! Know me ? Me, Wellington ! " (How is all 
 the Indian has learned yet of How do you do ? or How are 
 you ?) Greasy and dirty as the fellow was, we could 
 have hugged him with delight ; for now we knew our 
 troubles were all over. We answered him, " O yes ! 
 Know Wellington, of course ! In our wigwam to-day ! 
 But lost now ! No find wigwam ! Kit Carson's Camp ? " 
 He comprehended our lingo, and " the situation." in a 
 moment, and quickly replied, " Yes ! Wellington go ! " 
 and then, with an eye to the main chance, shrewdly 
 added, "How much?" We answered, "Two paint, 
 and some tobacco." He held up three fingers, and bar- 
 gainingly responded, " Three paint, and 'baccy a heap ? " 
 By " paint " he meant little packages of Indian paint 
 blue, vermillion, yellow such as some in camp had
 
 SAFE AT LAST 123 
 
 brought along for barter, and we readily acceded to his 
 terms. As it was growing late, he asked another young 
 buck to go along, who demanded the same term's, which 
 of course we cheerfully granted. Then they took up 
 their bows and arrows, drew their blankets around their 
 shoulders, and bidding the rest " J>ueno noche " we moved 
 off. 
 
 "We soon observed, that they were conducting us 
 toward the Sierra Blanca, in the same direction that we 
 took originally. "We questioned Wellington about this, 
 but he persisted it was right; and so we pushed on, 
 though not without some misgivings. A half hour or so, 
 however, brought us safely to camp, where we found our 
 friends discussing our absence, and wondering what had 
 become of us. "We cautioned each other to say nothing 
 about our adventure ; but the joke was too good to keep, 
 and the facts all came out in the course of the evening, as 
 we sat around the camp-fire and smoked our fatigue away. 
 However tame it may read now, it was exciting and 
 romantic enough at the time, and I record it here for the 
 moral involved, to wit : 1. Mind your topography, on 
 leaving camp ; 2. Never quit camp, without your rifle or 
 revolver ! 
 
 Of course, we paid "Wellington and his friend their 
 paint and tobacco, and dismissed them with hearty 
 thanks. "We won their hearts by inviting them both to 
 lunch next day, and continued fast friends during the 
 rest of our stay there. 
 
 The next day (Sept. 23d) having been set apart for 
 the Treaty, Indians of both sexes and all ages at an early 
 hour began to swarm through our encampment. All, of 
 course, were naturally on hand, to hear the Big Talk and 
 share the many presents. The chiefs and braves were 
 there first, gorgeous in paint and feathers; but long
 
 124 OOEAT AND OTHEB OHIEFS- 
 
 before the Council assembled, the poor squaws also 
 arrived, freighted with their papooses. The spot selected 
 was a sloping lawn on the banks of the Rio Grande, and 
 but a short distance therefrom. Blankets were spread on 
 the grass for the Commissioners and head chiefs : the 
 young chiefs and braves formed a rude circle around 
 these ; and beyond these still were the women and chil- 
 dren. The four leading men seemed to be Ooray, Arrow, 
 Sha-wa-she-wit, Blue Flower, Aucantash, and Chi-chis- 
 na-sau-no, also abbreviated into Shauno. The head chief 
 of the tribe, and the finest looking Indian we had yet 
 seen, was Ooray. He was a medium sized, athletic look- 
 ing man, of about forty, with as fine an eye and head, as 
 you will see anywhere. Moreover, he was very neat and 
 clean in his person, as if he believed in the saving virtues 
 of soap and water something wonderful for a Red Skin. 
 Two or three years before, he had made the tour of 
 Washington and the East, and to-day wore the handsome 
 silver medal, that President Lincoln then gave him. Kit 
 Carson said he had made good use of this eastern trip, 
 and being already a rising man, the knowledge and experi- 
 ence then acquired had since raised him to the king-ship, 
 notwithstanding his want of age several of the chiefs 
 being older, but none so shrewd as he. The head-warrior, 
 however, was Ancantash, and he was certainly one of the 
 coolest and bravest looking men I ever met. He was a 
 reticent, reflective, but very observant man, with many 
 of the calm characteristics of our own Grant, and no 
 doubt is quite as desperate and obstinate a fighter in his 
 small way. Kit Carson cited instances of his prowess, that 
 showed supreme manhood and courage ; but there is not 
 room for them here. Shauno, taller and more diguified, 
 had a face and form much like Tecumseh's, and altogether
 
 THE TEE ATT ITSELF 125 
 
 was about as fine a looking specimen of the savage as 
 history makes mention of. 
 
 The Council opened, as usual, with a general smoke, 
 the pipe being passed for a whiff or two from one to 
 another all around, and then Gov. Gumming proceeded 
 to address his copper-colored friends. He said the Great 
 Father at "Washington had made him Big Agent for Col- 
 orado*, and as such he had come down from Denver, to 
 bring them their annual presents, hear their grievances, 
 if any, and have a general talk about their future welfare. 
 This was interpreted by Kit Carson into Mexican, with 
 profuse pantomime, after the Indian fashion, and then 
 reinterpreted by Ooray into Ute for the benefit of his red 
 brethren. It was received with a general grunt of satis- 
 faction all round, and then Ooray replied : 
 
 ",Good ! Let the Big Chief speak on !" 
 
 " Our Father at Washington has many children, both 
 white and red, and the Great Spirit bids him regard all 
 alike. He has watched his red children, the Utes, a long 
 time, and generally found them peaceable and friendly. 
 Therefore, he loves them very much, and is pained to see 
 them diminishing in numbers from year to year. He 
 thinks this is because of their wars with other tribes, and 
 increasing scarcity of game, and believes if they would 
 settle down in one place, like his pale-face children, they 
 would be much better off. Then they could raise cattle, 
 and sheep, and barley, and have comfort and plenty 
 always." 
 
 To which, Ooray : 
 
 " True ! So ; a heap ! Utes got plenty now. Hunt 
 give. Bat soon all gone, and then Utes starve a heap. 
 Long time ago, Utes always had plenty. On the prairie, 
 
 * As Governor he wag ex-officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs 
 there.
 
 126 GEN. CUMMING SPEAKS 
 
 antelope and buffalo, so many Ooray can't count. In the 
 mountains, deer and bear, everywhere. In the streams, 
 trout, duck, beaver, everything. Good Manitou gave all 
 to red man ; Utes happy all the year. White man came, 
 and now Utes go hungry a heap. Game much go every 
 year hard to shoot now. Old man often weak for want 
 of food. Squaw and papoose cry. Only strong brave live. 
 White man grow a heap ; Red man no grow soon die 
 all." 
 
 To which, Gov. C. : 
 
 " Our Great Father knows all this, and it grieves him 
 very much. . But he can think of no way to remedy it, 
 except by the Utes quitting their wandering life, and set- 
 tling down on a Reservation. If they will do this, and will 
 stop fighting the Cheyennes and Comanches, he will have 
 a good Reservation set apart for them, with water, wood, 
 and grass in abundance. He will give them cattle, sheep, 
 seeds, and implements. And he will send good white 
 men among them, to teach them farming, etc. By this 
 means, the Utes will soon have houses and fields, flocks 
 and herds, the same as white men, and all will be better 
 off and happier. 
 
 To which, Ooray : 
 
 " Yes ! So ! Much true ! Ooray and Big-Chief under- 
 stand, and know Utes must go on Reservation some day 
 raise beef, pony, and barley or perish. But young 
 braves no understand ; hard to make 'em. Some, too, 
 say, if Utes go on Reservation, Cheyennes and Coman- 
 ches enemies of Utes always will know where to find. 
 Then some night, when Utes all asleep, will come like a 
 squaw and kill a heap. Utes hate Cheyenne Comanche 
 Goddam!" 
 
 " But our Great Father will prevent that. He will
 
 OOEAT REPLIES 127 
 
 build forts, and station his blue coats near you, and they 
 will keep off the Cheyennes and Comanches." 
 
 When this was interpreted to Ooray, for the first 
 time he lost his savage dignity, and laughed outright. 
 "When he reinterpreted it to the TJtes, there was a gen- 
 eral chorus of laughter, which lasted several minutes. 
 Evidently, they had little respect for the average soldier 
 of the Plains, whether infantry or cavalry. Presently, 
 however, Ooray recovering his dignity replied : 
 
 " Why don't our Great Father's blue-coats keep oif 
 the Cheyennes and Comanches some now ? Last snow 
 the Comanches came right by the forts, found the Utes 
 in one place, and killed many. Utes killed Comanches 
 ba( k a heap. Now Utes move about much hunt buffalo 
 on the prairie build wigwam in the mountains fish in 
 Del Norte. Utes stop not in one place, and Comanches 
 no find. But Utes settle down ; then Comanches come 
 and kill. Tell Great Father, Cheyennes and Comanches 
 go on Reservation^^ / then Utes will. But Comanches 
 first." 
 
 This was about the same answer substantially, that 
 they had given Gen. Sherman down at Fort Garland ; 
 and with all his diplomacy, Gov. C. could not extract 
 more from them. There was a deal of good common 
 sense in it, too the instinct of self-preservation and 
 the governor could not help admitting this, much as he 
 desired to enforce the views of the Government. He 
 rehashed his arguments, and presented them anew in 
 various ways ; but to all of them, Ooray steadily made 
 answer : 
 
 " Ooray has spoken ! " And there the matter ended. 
 
 Subsequently, after some considerable talk with his 
 brother chiefs, Ooray resumed : 
 
 " Suppose Utes go on Reservation, and bad pale-face
 
 128 
 
 A SHARP INDIAN- 
 
 come and shoot Indian ; what will our Great Father do 
 then ? " 
 
 " Why," answered Gov. C., " Onr Great Father will 
 have him arrested and tried in his courts ; and, if found 
 guilty, will hang him. If the Great Father's own 
 brother, he would hang him all the same." 
 
 Ooray had great difficulty in understanding this. 
 Gen. Carson had to repeat and explain it a number of 
 times, before he could comprehend what a court and jury 
 were, and even then he seemed somewhat dazed. Doubt- 
 less he found it hard to believe, that we would hang any 
 white man for killing an Indian, let alone our Great 
 Father's brother, after what he had seen and heard of law 
 and justice on the border. But after much questioning 
 back and forth, he appeared to catch some glimpse of the 
 idea, and after pondering it awhile, sorrowfully an- 
 swered : 
 
 " Yes ! So ! Ooray comprehend ! Much good ! Bui 
 my people no comprehend. No make them now." 
 
 He seemed to think there was no use, in even trying 
 to get such an idea into their heads, and communicated 
 to them some short answer, which apparently satisfied 
 them. 
 
 Again, after much deliberation, he warily asked : 
 
 " Suppose pale-face steal pony from red-man, what 
 will Great Father do ! " 
 
 To which Gov. C. : 
 
 " He will compel the pale-face to restore the pony. 
 And if the thief can't be found, and his red children 
 prove their loss, the Great Father will pay for it in goods 
 or money." 
 
 This seemed to give great satisfaction, when he first 
 interpreted it ; but presently the chiefs became excited, 
 and a hot discussion spread among them. Kit Carson
 
 A FUTURE LOGAN 129 
 
 said, as well as he could make out, they were canvassing 
 among themselves, whether on the same principle the 
 government would not compel them to restore or pay for 
 what they stole from the whites ; and as their thefts were 
 evidently much the larger, they speedily directed Ooray 
 to dodge this question, without further talk. 
 
 There was some other desultory conversation, and 
 much repetition necessarily ; but the above is about the 
 substance of it all. The council lasted two or three 
 hours, and finally wound up with a dignified expression 
 of thanks by Ooray, for the interest the Great Father 
 and Gov. C. took in them. This was followed by a 
 general expression of " Bueno ! Bueno ! "* by the rest 
 of the Indians, and so the pow-wow ended. The 
 governor managed his side of the affair with much 
 shrewdness and ability, but failed to secure the positive 
 pledges the government so much desired. On the other 
 hand, Ooray certainly conducted himself with great 
 dignity and good sense, for an " untutored savage," and 
 fully realized our old-time notions of an Indian chieftain. 
 Should he live, he will yet make a figure among the 
 Indians, and go down to history as a Logan or a Red- 
 Jacket. His trip to Washington, he told me, convinced 
 him, it was idle for his people to contend with the pale- 
 faces, and his counsels were always for peace and civili- 
 zation. Subsequently, some months afterwards, when 
 the Utes rose in hostilities against his advice, he deliber- 
 ately repaired to Fort Garland and gave himself up, 
 refusing to have anything to do with the tribe, until they 
 laid down their arms again. All honor and praise to 
 this dusky son of the Plains and Mountains ! 
 
 After the council broke up, there came a grand distri- 
 bution of presents, the most sensible of which were a 
 
 * Good! good I 
 6*
 
 130 BARTERING WITH INDIANS 
 
 flock of sheep and a small herd of cattle. The balance 
 amounted to but little in a practical point of view, 
 though the Utes of course were delighted with their 
 beads, paint, scarlet blankets, gilt trinkets, etc. The 
 Agents seemed to deal fairly and honestly by their savage 
 wards, and I doubt not Mr. Hunt (since Gov. of Colorado) 
 did his duty in the premises very faithfully. 
 
 During the day, and indeed most of the time we 
 were there, there was considerable bartering going on 
 between some of us and the Indians, though in a petty 
 way. We were eager for Indian relics and trophies, to 
 send East as souvenirs, and they were equally eager for 
 some articles we possessed ; so that barter was not diffi- 
 cult. Neither party knew much, if any, of the language 
 of the other, but the bargaining went steadily on for all 
 that. The Utes came into camp, with such articles as 
 they wished to dispose of. If we desired them and had 
 anything to exchange, we laid it on the ground, and then 
 pointing to the Indian articles uttered the classic word 
 " Swop ? " If they assented, the bargain ended, and the 
 exchange took place immediately. But if they refused, 
 or wanted more, they shook their heads and answered 
 " No swop ! " These words, " Swop " and " No swop," 
 are about the only English necessary in trading with 
 them, and we found them current everywhere among our 
 Indians, from the Missouri to the Pacific. In this way, 
 our party succeeded in securing -a few lances and shields, 
 bows and arrows, grizzly-bear skins, buffalo-robes, etc., 
 though their stock of skins had been mostly disposed of 
 to the regular traders some time before. We found 
 them, as a rule, fond of trading, and keen at a bargain, 
 but averse to parting with their ponies or their bows and 
 arrows. Their ponies they held in special regard, and 
 asked extravagant prices for them. Their bows and
 
 JACK COX 131 
 
 arrows were made of tough, elastic wood, very scarce in 
 that region, and they were loth to sell them, except for 
 a pistol or a "carabina." In this matter of trading, how- 
 ever, a young chief named Jack Cox seemed to be a 
 marked exception. He had a handsome wolf-skin quiver, 
 beautifully finished and embroidered the finest we saw 
 there and I was desirous of securing it, if he cared to 
 part with it. Various offers were tendered him, but all 
 were refused. He had set his heart on one of our repeat- 
 ing-rifles, and his constant answer was, as he patted the 
 barrel, "Me take carabina! Nothing else!" Subse- 
 quently, others pressed him with various offers ; but they 
 could not shake his resolution. At last he rose up, as if 
 vexed and irritated, and pointing to a group of Utes, who 
 were crowding around all eager for barter, indignantly 
 exclaimed, "Mean Indian swop pony, bow, quiver, 
 robe, any thing ! Jack Cox no swop ! " Instinctively I 
 handed him a pipe, and begged him to join in a smoke. 
 Accepting the courtesy, he sat down again, and as he 
 spoke a little broken English we managed to talk some 
 on several subjects. But, all the while, he watched the 
 " swopping," that was going on about him, and when 
 he saw any one about to make what he considered a 
 foolish or bad bargain, he would sneer at his want of 
 judgment, and set all the rest of the Indians to laughing 
 at him a trick which usually broke up the bargain. 
 Subsequently, he went off to the village for a fancy buf- 
 falo robe, which he said he would " swop " me for some- 
 thing that pleased him, and kept his promise by return- 
 ing with it an hour or so afterwards. This Jack Cox 
 was a bright, shrewd young fellow lithe, sinewy and 
 straight as an arrow about seventeen or eighteen years 
 of age ; and, if he live, will doubtless yet distinguish 
 himself among the Utes. He was already much deferre4
 
 132 AN INDIAN DANCE 
 
 to among those of his age, and was decidedly the keenest 
 one among them. He had heard of "Washington and the 
 east, and asked many curious questions concerning them. 
 I inquired if he would not like to make a trip east, as 
 Ooray and others had done. He answered, after reflect- 
 ing a little : 
 
 " How long be gone ? " 
 
 I replied at hap-hazard : 
 
 " Perhaps five snows," meaning five years. 
 
 He rejoined, 
 
 "O, no! No! Not five snows! One snow ! Then 
 Jack Cox go ! " 
 
 He interested us very much at the tune, and we all 
 augured well of his future. 
 
 The same evening Wellington and Jack Cox sent 
 word, that they were going to have a Big Dance over at 
 the village, and invited us all over. Accordingly soon 
 after dark their tom-toms began to beat, and at about 
 8 P. M., several of us walked thither. The dance had 
 already commenced, on a natural lawn that sloped down 
 from the village to the Rio Grande. Here were perhaps a 
 hundred or so young braves, with hand locked in hand and 
 shoulder pressed to shoulder, moving slowly round in a 
 circle facing inward, while back of them were gathered 
 the whole village gazing on. Two or three of them beat 
 time on rude drums or tom-toms, while all joined in a 
 wild chant or song. The music was barbarous, and their 
 movements not much of a dance ; but they went through 
 it all with much gravity and earnestness, whatever they 
 meant by it. Jack Cox left the crowd as we approached, 
 and invited us to participate, which several did. One 
 was allowed to beat the tom-tom, as a special favor ; but 
 his performance proved to be not a " success," as he 
 failed to keep time. We spent an hour with them, and
 
 TTTE8 IN GENERAL 133 
 
 no doubt the Utes will long remember the occasion, 
 when their pale-face friends from the east danced with 
 them by moonlight on the banks of the Rio Grande. 
 Altogether, it was rather a unique experience, and we 
 wondered what would come next. As we strolled back 
 to camp, the moon had mounted above the Sierra Blanca, 
 and was flooding the whole Park with a sea of light. 
 The notched and jagged peaks of the Mountains all 
 about us, tipped with snow, glittered in her beams. And 
 the hour and the place seemed, for all the world, more 
 like a chapter from fairy land, than sober reality. 
 
 As already intimated, we found some striking charac- 
 ters among the Utes Ooray, Ancantash, Jack Cox, etc. 
 but they were few and far between. The great mass of 
 the tribe were small, undersized men, with coarse, animal 
 faces, that looked as if they went hungry half the time, 
 if not more. Their dress in general consisted of the 
 usual breech-cloth, a blanket or buffalo-robe, and deer- 
 skin leggings and moccasins. The nights and mornings 
 were already sharp and chilly ; but they had a knack of 
 twisting a robe or blanket about them, even when on 
 horseback at a gallop, that I have never seen equalled, and 
 they declared they were not uncomfortable. In winter, 
 however, especially their winter, we would suppose they 
 must suffer from the weather severely. They seemed to 
 treat their poor squaws about as shabbily as all other 
 Indians that is to say, about as bad as bad can be. 
 They compelled them to wait upon and serve them on 
 every possible occasion, no matter how degrading. In 
 coming to and going from our encampment, the braves 
 always galloped or trotted along on horseback, while the 
 squaws as a rule trudged wearily by on foot, with their 
 papooses at their backs. It was the squaws, who made 
 their bows and arrows, spears and shields dressed their
 
 134 THEIR POOR SQUAWS 
 
 skins pitched and struck camp saddled and unsaddled 
 their ponies and, in short, performed all other menial or 
 laborious offices, that Indian life is heir to. They carried 
 their papooses strapped to a board, with a wicker-work 
 at the top to protect the child's head the whole swung 
 over the shoulders or across the forehead by a rude thong. 
 This board was made round at the lower end, to rock 
 backward and forward when necessary, and thus serve as 
 a sort of cradle. In camp it is hung up on a tree, which 
 places the child out of danger, while at the same time the 
 wind sways it to and fro. On the march, the whole dan- 
 gles from the mother's shoulder. Some of these Ute 
 cradles were quite neatly adorned with paint and bead- 
 work, and made as soft and cosy as buck-skin and buffalo- 
 robe or beaver-fur could make them. The papooses 
 occupying them, with their jet-black eyes and copper- 
 colored cheeks, seemed to be model babies ; for they never 
 even whimpered. The wretched and degraded condition 
 of their women, however, is everywhere the reproach of 
 savage life. There was a forlorn and hopeless look in the 
 faces of these Ute squaws, as if all their womanhood 
 was crushed out, that would have touched a heart of 
 stone. A father, we are told, may chastise any of his 
 children, but a mother only her daughters. She must 
 not lay a finger on a boy-brave, on pain of death ; and 
 this is only a specimen of her disabilities. On the whole, 
 I must say, we were not favorably impressed with Ute 
 life, as a rule. It had its romantic features, but their uni- 
 versal " shiftlessness," their long matted hair sweeping 
 loosely about their faces or hanging in heavy plaits around 
 their shoulders, their general squalor, raggedness and 
 dirt, and above all, their neglect and abuse of their poor 
 squaws all made a bad impression and dispelled many 
 of the poetic ideas about the " Noble Red Man," " Lo,
 
 KIT CAESON 135 
 
 the poor Indian, etc." that we cherish in the east. In 
 spite of our preconceived notions, we could not help 
 regarding the great majority of them, as but little above 
 the wild animals, that roam over the Plains and through 
 the Mountains with them ; and as a whole for all practi- 
 cal purposes of citizenship infinitely below the colored 
 race, even of the cotton states. Of course, there were 
 eome noble exceptions, such as Ooray and Ancantash, but 
 then they only proved the rule. In point of intellect 
 and character, and promise of improvement, the African 
 will certainly beat the Red Man all to pieces, as the 
 future will show. Nevertheless, I must say, we found 
 the Utes truthful and honest in their way, and Kit Car- 
 son a good judge credited them with being the bravest 
 and best Red Skins he had ever met, in all his wide wan- 
 derings. 
 
 I have spoken several times of Kit Carson, and as he is 
 a real historical character, perhaps can not conclude this 
 chapter better, than with a word or two more in regard to 
 him. We met him first at Fort Garland, where we found 
 him in command of a battalion of New Mexico Volunteers, 
 and Brevet Brigadier-General. .When the war broke 
 out, and most of our troops were withdrawn from the 
 Plains and Mountains, he applied to Mr. Lincoln for 
 permission to raise a Regiment of Volunteers in New 
 Mexico, to protect our settlements there, and the " good 
 President" very properly granted it. At the head of 
 these, Kit did excellent service during the war, on one 
 occasion taking 9,000 Navajoes prisoners with less than 
 600 men, and at its close was ordered to Fort Garland 
 and given command of a wide region there. We found 
 him in log quarters, rough but comfortable, with his 
 Mexican wife and half-breed children around him. We 
 had expected to see a small and wiry man, weather-
 
 136 HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE 
 
 beaten and reticent ; but met a medium sized, rather 
 stoutish, florid, and quite talkative person instead. He 
 certainly bore the marks of exposure, but none of that 
 extreme " roughing it," that we had anticipated. In age, 
 he seemed to be about forty-five. His head was a 
 remarkably good one, with the bumps of benevolence 
 and reflection well developed. His eye was mild and 
 blue, the very type of good nature, while his voice was 
 as soft and sympathetic as a woman's. He impressed 
 you at once as a man of rare kindliness and charity, such 
 as a truly brave man ought always to be. As simple as 
 a child, but brave as a lion, he soon took our hearts by 
 storm, and grew upon our regard all the while we were 
 with him. He talked and smoked far into the night 
 each evening we spent together, and we have no room 
 here for a tithe of what he told us. Born in Kentucky, 
 he emigrated to the Plains and Mountains when a child, 
 and attached himself to a party of trappers and hunters, 
 when he was so small that he couldn't set a trap. When 
 he became older, he turned trapper himself, and as such 
 wandered all over our possessions, from the Missouri to 
 the Pacific, and from British America to Mexico. Next 
 he became a government scout and guide, and as such 
 piloted Fremont and others all over the Plains and through 
 the Mountains. He confirmed the accounts, we had heard, 
 that Fremont, as an explorer, was somewhat of a charlatan, 
 and said the worst time the Pathfinder ever had was, 
 when on one of his expeditions, he disregarded his (Kit's) 
 advice, and endeavored to force the Mountains northwest 
 of where Fort Garland now stands. Kit told him he 
 could not get through or over them at that period of the 
 year, and, when Fremont nevertheless insisted on pro- 
 ceeding, he resigned as guide. The Pathfinder, however, 
 went sternly forward, but got caught in terrible snow-
 
 SHERMAN'S OPINION OF HIM 137 
 
 stovms. and presently returned, with half of his men and 
 animals perished outright, from cold and hunger. Subse- 
 quently, Kit became a U. S. Indian Agent, and one of 
 the best we ever had. Familiar with their language and 
 customs, he frequently spent months together among them, 
 without seeing a white man, and indeed became sort of 
 half Indian himself. In talking, I observed, that he fre- 
 quently hesitated for the right English word ; but when 
 speaking bastard Spanish (Mexican) or Indian, he was as 
 fluent as a native. Both Mexican and Indian, however, 
 are largely pantomime, which may have helped him along 
 somewhat. The Utes seemed to have the greatest 
 possible confidence in him, and invariably called him 
 simply " Kit." Said Sherman, while at Garland, " These 
 Red Skins think Kit twice as big a man as me. 
 Why his integrity is simply perfect. They know it, and 
 they would believe him and trust him any day before 
 me." And Kit returned this confidence, by being their 
 most steadfast and unswerving friend. He declared all 
 our Indian troubles were caused originally by bad white 
 men, and was terribly severe on the barbarities of the 
 Border. He said he was once among the Indians for two 
 or three years exclusively, and had seen an Indian kill 
 his brother even, for insulting a white man in the old 
 times. He protested, that in all the peculiar and ingen- 
 ious outrages for which the Indians had been so much 
 abused of late years, they were only imitating or im- 
 proving on the bad example of wicked white men. His 
 anathemas of Col. Chivington, and the Sand Creek mas- 
 sacre of 1864, were something fearful to listen to. He 
 pleaded for the Indians, as " pore ignorant creatures," 
 whom we were daily despoiling of their hunting grounds 
 and homes, and his denunciations of the outrages and
 
 138 THE SAND CEEEK MASSACRE 
 
 wrongs we had heaped upon them were sometimes really 
 eloquent. 
 
 Said he, " To think of that dog Chivington, and his 
 hounds, up thar at Sand Creek ! Whoever heerd of 
 sich doings among Christians ! The pore Injuns had our 
 flag flyin over 'em, that same old stars and stripes thar 
 we all love and honor, and they'd bin told down to Den- 
 ver, that so long as they kept that flyin they'd be safe. 
 "Well, then, here come along that durned Chivington and 
 his cusses. They'd bin out several days huntin hostile 
 Injuns, and couldn't find none no whar, and if they had, 
 they'd run from them, you bet ! So they just pitched into 
 these friendlies, and massfr-creed them yes, sir, literally 
 masssL-creed them in cold blood, in spite of our flag thar 
 women and little children even ! Why, Senator Fos- 
 ter told me with his own lips, (and him and his committee 
 investigated this, you know), that that thar d d mis- 
 creant and his men shot down squaws, and blew the 
 brains out of little innocent children even pistoled little 
 babies in the arms of their dead mothers, and worse than 
 this! And y^ call these civilized men Christians ; and 
 the Injuns savages, du ye ? 
 
 " I tell ye what ; I don't like a hostile Red Skin any bet- 
 ter, than you du. And when they are hostile, I've fit 
 'em fout 'em as hard as any man. But I never yit 
 drew a bead on a squaw or papoose, and I loathe and hate 
 the man who would. 'Tain't nateral for brave men to kill 
 women and little children, and no one but a coward or a 
 dog would do it. Of course, when we white men du sich 
 awful things, why these pore ignorant critters don't know 
 no better, than to follow suit. Poor things ! I've seen as 
 much of 'em as any white man livin, and I can't help but 
 pity 'ein ! They'll all soon be gone anyhow." 
 
 Poor Kit ! He has already " gone " himself to his
 
 SHERMAN ON NEW MEXICO, ETC. 139 
 
 long home. But the Indians had no truer friend, and he 
 would wish no prouder epitaph, than this. He and Sher- 
 man were great friends, and evidently had a genuine 
 regard for each other. They had known each other in 
 California in '49, when Sherman was a banker there, and 
 Kit only an Indian guide. In '65, when Kit was at Leav- 
 en worth on a visit, Sherman sent for him to come down 
 to St. Louis, and they spent some time together very 
 pleasantly. Now Sherman returned his visit, by coming 
 to Fort Garland, iu the heart of the Rocky Mountains. 
 It will be betraying no secret to say, that Sherman had 
 but a poor opinion of the Plains country, especially of 
 New Mexico and Arizona ; for he did not hesitate to say 
 so anywhere. "While at Garland, he told the following 
 good story one night, as we all sat smoking around the 
 lire, and he will pardon me for repeating it here. He 
 said the Quartermaster General during the summer had 
 written him several letters, calling his attention to the 
 enormous cost of our posts on the Plains, in New Mexico, 
 etc., and begging him if possible to suggest some plan, 
 that would reduce expenses, etc. " At first," said Sher- 
 man, "I paid no attention to these letters, because I 
 could not help the matter. The Posts were there 
 established by order of the Hon. Secretary of War and 
 he knew it. Moreover, the people would have them 
 there, and I could not help it, if they did cost a ' heap.' 
 Above all, I was ordered to keep them up, and I always 
 obey orders ; so what could I do ? So, at first, I did 
 not answer his letters, but let him write away ! But 
 finally they got to coming so thick and long, that one 
 day I sat down and replied, that the Posts were all 
 there, and ordered there, as he knew, and we were 
 bound to supply them, no matter what it cost. But 
 that, in my judgment, of the whole vast region there,
 
 140 GEN. SUMNER DITTO 
 
 the greater portion was not worth a Confederate note 
 to us, and never would be ; and if he wished my opin- 
 ion as to the best way of reducing expenses, I would 
 respectfully recommend, that the United States sell 
 New Mexico, and all the region round about, to Max- 
 imilian for $15,000,000, and lend him the greenbacks to 
 pay with ! 
 
 "I must say, the government don't seem to have 
 considered my recommendation favorably yet. But 
 neither have I received any more letters from the Q. 
 M. Gen'l. So, I suppose, he is satisfied ! " 
 
 He told this with infinite gusto, as if he enjoyed the 
 joke hugely, and presently added : 
 
 "The idea, however, wasn't wholly my own, but 
 was suggested by an old story we used to hear about 
 Gen. Sumner. You knew Sumner, I suppose, in 
 the East ? We used to call him Bull Sumner, in old 
 times, because he was so obstinate, and so thoroughly a 
 soldier. Well, some years ago, he was sent out to com- 
 mand in New Mexico, and he certainly entered upon his 
 duties with great alacrity and enthusiasm. He was 
 going to explore the country, he said, make known its 
 vast resources, pacify the Red Skins, induce immigration, 
 settle up the country, and thus do away with our costly 
 Posts, and all that. Of course, he was sincere in the 
 matter always was sincere one of the honestest men 
 I ever knew. So, he went to work, and for two or 
 three years worked hard, summer and winter did a 
 vast amount of work. But, finally, he came to the 
 same conclusion I have viz. that the whole region was 
 worthless and reported to the Secretary of War, that 
 in his judgment, the wisest thing we could do, would be 
 to buy out the New Mexicans and pay them to emigrate 
 to old Mexico, if possible and then throw the whole
 
 SHEKMAN PERSONALLY. 141 
 
 country open (and keep it open) to the buffalo and the 
 Indians ! 
 
 " Sumner, they say, recommended this seriously, and 
 thought it a good thing. But I have never heard that 
 the government agreed with him, any more than it will 
 with me ! " 
 
 These were the stories substantially ; but it is impos- 
 sible to give the twinkle of his eye, the jocular toss of 
 his head, and the serio-comic twitch of his many-wrinkled 
 features, as he got them off. Meanwhile he smoked 
 furiously, and kept up that everlasting long stride of his 
 up and down the floor, with his hands deep in his 
 trowsers' pockets, as if he would never weary. Sherman 
 is a great talker and smoker, arid beyond doubt a great 
 man and original thinker in many ways. At the Denver 
 banquet, he made a better speech than his distinguished 
 brother (the Senator from Ohio) ; and it is no wonder he 
 outwitted Joe Johnston, and smashed Hood as he pleased, 
 when " marching through Georgia." Neither is it any 
 wonder, when you come to scan him closely, that he 
 should sometimes err a little, as he did at Raleigh. 
 Evidently, with all his great talents, now and then he 
 needs a "governor" to steady him, as much as any 
 other steam-engine does. Then, he is a hundred horse- 
 power or more ; and as General of the Army, long may he 
 live! 
 
 The Treaty over, we returned to Denver through 
 the heart of the Mountains, as related in the preceding 
 chapter ; and now for Salt Lake and beyond.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DENYEK TO SALT LAKE. 
 
 inROM Denver, we shipped eastward by express the 
 J- 1 various Indian trophies, we had secured shields, 
 lances, bows and arrows, grizzly bear-skins, etc. and rested 
 for a day or two. We found the weather there hot and 
 oppressive, compared with what we had experienced in 
 the Mountains, and the change to the dry atmosphere of 
 the one, from the moist air of the other, affected us very 
 sensibly. Here they were still wearing summer clothing, 
 though in the Mountains we needed our great-coats, and 
 Denver mocked at winter as weeks yet to come. From 
 Denver the Mountains as a whole seemed grander than 
 ever ; and the view of them at sunset from our hotel win- 
 dows could scarcely be finer, as the snowy range and 
 the heaven-kissing peaks one by one faded away, through 
 orange, crimson and purple into night. The majesty and 
 grandeur of the general range impress one more there 
 at Denver, I think, than elsewhere ; and then, there is 
 always something new about these mighty Mountains 
 they never seem the same for an hour together. A dif- 
 ference of clouds, or of atmosphere, or of your own point 
 of vision, makes all the difference in the world ; and to me, 
 I confess, the Rocky Mountains from Denver were always 
 a constant joy and perpetual delight. So calm, so grand, 
 so superb, such stately rest, such profound peace. As if 
 they upheld the sky, and steadied the earth, and did it
 
 OFF FOR THE PACIFIC 143 
 
 easily. If there be no God, no being of infinite wisdom 
 and goodness, there ought to be one, to account for the 
 might and majesty, the beauty and sublimity, with which 
 the universe is filled, when it might so easily have been 
 monotonous and commonplace. 
 
 Finally, Oct. 4th, we closed up our duties at Denver, 
 and started for Salt Lake. The stage left at 8 p. M., and 
 after much hearty hand-shaking and kindly good-byes, we 
 were at last off for the Pacific. For the first time we fully 
 realized, that we had definitely cut loose from the Atlan- 
 tic States, and had a long and toilsome trip now before 
 us. I remember a feeling of sadness, as this conviction 
 came sharply upon me ; but we were soon whirling across 
 the Platte, and off for Laporte. The fare through to 
 Salt Lake, some 600 miles, with 25 pounds of baggage, 
 was $150, currency ; meals extra, at $1,00 and $1,50 each. 
 Our coach, " Red Rupert," was a mountain mud-wagon, 
 with a low canvas top, so as to be less liable to capsize in 
 crossing the range, than a regular Concord Coach, and 
 was intended for ten passengers nine inside and one 
 outside. As we had only half that number of passengers, 
 however, we thought we would get along very comforta- 
 bly. "We had gamey, spirited horses, that carried us along 
 quite rapidly, until near midnight, when we stuck fast in a 
 mudhole, and all hands were ordered up to help shift bag- 
 gage and lift the coach out. Next morning early we rolled 
 into Laporte, having made seventy-five miles since leav- 
 ing Denver. It was a bright clear morning, with a crisp 
 bracing air, and we sat down to an excellent breakfast of 
 fried elk, potatoes, eggs, etc., as hungry as wolves. In 
 the corner of the room, at a rude table, sat a little bearded 
 man, eyeing us occasionally as he bent over his maps and 
 papers, whose face seemed familiar ; and presently I rec- 
 ognized him as Gen. Dodge, an old acquaintance of war
 
 144: VIRGINIA DALE 
 
 times in Tennessee in 1864. Now he was Chief Engi- 
 neer of the Union Pacific Railroad, and was here compar- 
 ing maps and surve} 7 s, to see whether they couldn't find 
 a shorter route to Salt Lake, than the somewhat circuit- 
 ous one by Bridger's Pass. He recognized me about the 
 same moment, and we had a hearty hand-shake and chat 
 over old times. 
 
 Past Laporte, our road speedily entered the foot-hills, 
 or " hog-backs " as the Coloradoans call them ; and all day 
 long we were bowling ahead, either between or across 
 these. These abrupt ridges hid our view of the Plains 
 and Mountains usually, so that the day's ride as a whole 
 proved dull and monotonous. We were well armed, but 
 saw no Indians, nor any game worth mentioning. It 
 was plain, that the road was gradually ascending, but 
 there were no sharp ascents, and but little to indicate, 
 that we were actually crossing the Rocky Mountains. 
 The country, as a whole, was rocky and barren in 
 the extreme. Here and there the old red sandstone 
 cropped out, and had been fashioned by the elements 
 into all sorts of curious forms, which travellers had named 
 Castle Rock, Steamboat Rock, Indian Chief, etc. The 
 day's ride ended at Virginia Dale, where we got a tolera- 
 ble dinner, and found an exquisite little valley, as if 
 nature was trying just there quite to outdo herself. 
 Abrupt mountains tower all around and shut it in like a 
 picture, while the entrance to and exit from the vale are 
 bold and precipitous. With its limpid stream, green 
 sward, and bristling pines, it seemed like an oasis in the 
 desert of the foot-hills there ; and a party of miners 
 encamped there for the night, en route from Montana to 
 the States, appeared to enjoy its freshness and beauty to 
 the full. We met several such parties of miners between 
 Denver and Salt Lake, all bound east to winter, expect-
 
 MINERS RETURNING EAST 14:5 
 
 ing to return in the spring. They said the difference in 
 the cost of living would more than pay them for the trip, 
 while at the same time they would be with their fami- 
 lies and friends. They moved in parties of a dozen or 
 so, and said they considered themselves safe against all 
 hostile comers, whether Road Agents or Indians. They 
 were all well-mounted, and literally bristling with rifles, 
 revolvers, and bowie-knives. Their baggage and " traps " 
 generally were usually piled high on pack-horses or mules, 
 that they drove along ahead of them. They all carried 
 their own provisions, and when night came camped down 
 by the nearest stream, where there was wood, water, and 
 grass. Such a life has its hardships and risks, but is not 
 without its enjoyments also ; and many an eastern cock- 
 ney might well envy the big-bearded, bronzed, weather- 
 beaten, but apparently thoroughly happy fellows, that we 
 met en route. 
 
 We left Yirginia Dale about 6 p. M. and the same 
 night about 10 p. M. reached "Willow Springs, one of the 
 most desolate stage-stations on the road. It was a raw 
 chilly night, and while the stage-men were changing 
 horses, all of the passengers except myself got out and 
 strolled off to the station-house a hundred yards or so 
 away to get warm. Weary with the stage ride of two 
 days and nights continuously, I remained half-dozing in 
 the coach, wrapped in my buffalo-robe, when suddenly I 
 was aroused by a distant noise, that grew rapidly loud- 
 er and nearer, and presently came thundering down 
 the road directly toward the station. While ponder- 
 ing what it could be, half-sleepy still, all at once the sta- 
 tion-keeper, who was helping with the horses, broke out 
 with: 
 
 " I say, Tom (our driver), hark ! Do you hear that 3 n 
 
 " Yes, Billy ! What the deuce is it ? "
 
 146 AN INDIAN SCARE 
 
 " Why, good heavens, it must be the infernal Injuns, 
 ehure as you live ! The d d Red Skins, I reckon, hev 
 jest stampeded that Government-train down the road 
 thar; and they'll all be yer, licketty split, quicker than 
 lightnin', you bet ! " 
 
 I was wide awake in a second, now. They pushed 
 the horses quickly back into the stable, and shouted to 
 me to seize all the arms and hurry to the station-house. 
 I was not certain, that it was not better to stand by the 
 coach, and " fight it out on that line," come what might ; 
 but concluded the stage-men knew more about such 
 encounters than I did, and so followed their directions. 
 Out I tumbled, gathered up all the rifles and revolvers I 
 could lay my hands on, and rushed to the station-house, 
 shouting li Indians ! Indians ! " Soon the driver and 
 stock-tenders came running in from the stable, as fast as 
 their legs could carry them ; and for a few mi mutes we 
 thought we had the Indians upon us at last, sure enough. 
 The pluck of the party, I must say, was admirable. 
 L. and M. stood to their guns. Nobody thought of 
 flight or surrender. But all quickly resolved, as we 
 grasped our rifles and revolvers, to make the best 
 stand we could, and to fight it out in that shanty, if it 
 took all summer. But presently, as the mules thundered 
 up the road and past us, just as we were about to fire on 
 one of their pursuers, we saw him tumble from his horse 
 all sprawling, as it stumbled across a chuck-hole, and as 
 he gathered himself up heard him break out swearing in 
 good vigorous English, that stamped him as a Pale Face 
 beyond a question. The swearing probably saved his 
 life, however objectionable otherwise, and we were soon 
 at his side. We found him more stunned, than hurt, 
 and presently his comrades succeeded in stopping the 
 herd. They were unable to say what had caused the
 
 STAMPEDES 
 
 147 
 
 stampede ; but as no Indians appeared, we were soon off 
 on the road again. 
 
 These " stampedes" of animals are not uncommon on 
 the Plains, and sometimes prove very embarrassing. A 
 herd of mules, well stampeded, will run for miles, over 
 every thing that opposes them, until they tire themselves 
 thoroughly out. Had we been on the road, they would 
 probably have stampeded our stage-horses thundering 
 up so behind us and then there would have been a 
 break-neck race by night, among the Rocky Mountains, 
 that would have been rather exciting, not to say more. 
 It is a favorite trick of the Indians, when they want to 
 steal stock, to stampede them thus at night, and then run 
 off the scattered animals. A large freight-train, that we 
 subsequently heard of, had lost all its mules a few nights 
 before by such a stampede, and been compelled to send 
 back to the nearest settlement for others. 
 
 Thence on to the North Platte, our route wound over and 
 between foot-hills and ridges, where the general ascent 
 was indeed perceptible, but never difficult. One by one 
 we flanked the main ranges, and at old Fort Halleck, 
 8,000 feet above the sea, found a natural depression or 
 canon through the Mountains, in the absence of which 
 a wagon-road there would be seemingly impossible. It 
 really appeared, as if nature had cleft the range there 
 expressly to accommodate the oncoming future ; and we 
 swung through it, and so down to the North Platte, at a 
 steady trot. Here and there, in crossing the ridges, we 
 caught exquisite glimpses of snowy peaks off to the west, 
 and of the far-stretching Laramie Plains off to the east ; 
 but the country, as a whole, was barren and desolate. 
 We reached the North Platte just at dusk, having made 
 104 miles in the last 24 hours. This seemed a good 
 day's drive, considering we were crossing the Rocky
 
 148 THE NORTH PLATTE 
 
 Mountains; but it was not quite up to the reg- 
 ular schedule. We had hoped to get down into the 
 Flatte valley before dark, but daylight left us before we 
 reached the station. We had caught long stretches of 
 the valley, as we came over the ridges and down the 
 bluffs ; but darkness fell so suddenly, we saw little of it 
 close at hand. Parts of it, we were told, are well 
 adapted to farming, and nearly all of it could be made 
 cultivable by proper irrigation ; but it seemed too cold 
 for anything but grass, and the more hardy cereals. No 
 doubt it could be made available for grazing purposes, 
 and the canons of the neighboring Mountains would 
 afford shelter and grass for winter. Antelope and elk 
 were reported quite abundant still in the valley. We 
 saw a herd of antelope feeding quietly, a mile away, 
 soon after we struck the valley, and at the station they 
 gave us elk-steaks for dinner "fried," of course, as 
 usual. Gold was reported in the Mountains beyond, 
 but little had been done there yet in the way of mining. 
 No doubt the Rocky Mountains are penetrated nearly 
 everywhere by gold-bearing veins, and where these crop 
 out, and water runs, " placer mines " more or less lucra- 
 tive will be found. We found the North Platte a very 
 considerable stream, though readily fordable then and 
 there. It had already come a long distance through and 
 out of the Mountains, and now struck eastward by Fort 
 Laramie, for its long journey through the Plains to the 
 Missouri. What a delightfully lazy, dreamy, lotus-eating 
 voyage it would be, to embark upon its waters in an 
 Indian canoe, far up among the Mountains, and float 
 thence day by day, and week after week, adown the 
 Missouri, via the Mississippi, to the sea ! 
 
 At North Platte, we changed our mountain mud- 
 wagon, for a coach lighter and less top-heavy still, and
 
 CROSSING THE SUMMIT 149 
 
 pushed on continuing to ascend. We left Colorado near 
 Fort Halleck, and were now in Wyoming. At Bridger's 
 Pass, we were at last fairly across the Rocky Mountains 
 had left the east and the Atlantic slope behind us and 
 turned our faces fully Pacificwards. The North Platte 
 was the last stream flowing east, and about 3 A. M., after 
 leaving it we struck the headwaters of Bitter Creek, a 
 tributary of Green River, that flows thence via the great 
 Rio Colorado and the Gulf of California two thousand 
 miles away to the Pacific. The Rocky Mountains, the 
 great water-shed of the continent, were thus over and 
 past ; but we had crossed the summit so easily we were 
 not aware of it, until our driver informed us. Our first 
 introduction to the Pacific slope was hardly an agreeable 
 one. At our great elevation the night was bitterly cold, 
 and we had shivered through its long hours, in spite of 
 our blankets and buffalo-robes. Routed out at 3 A. M., 
 for breakfast, we straggled into the stage-station at Sul- 
 phur Springs, cold and cross, to find only dirty alkali 
 water to wash in, and the roughest breakfast on the table 
 we had seen yet, since leaving the States. Coffee plain, 
 saleratus-biscuit hot, and salt pork fried only this and 
 nothing more made up the charming variety, and we 
 bolted it all, I fear, as surlily as bears. A confused 
 recollection of cold, and discomfort, and misery, is all 
 that remains in my memory now of that wretched station 
 at Sulphur Springs, and may I never see the like again ! 
 Long before daylight we were off on the road again, 
 and now had fairly enterejd the Desert of the Mountains, 
 the famous or infamous " Bitter Creek Country," accursed 
 of all who cross the continent. Here, when the sun got 
 fairly up, the sharp keen winds of the night hours 
 changed to hot sirocco breezes, that laden with the alkali 
 dust there became absolutely stifling. Alkali or soda
 
 150 BITTER CREEK COUNTRY 
 
 the basis of common soap abounds throughout all this 
 region for two or three hundred miles, and literally 
 curses all nature everywhere. It destroys all vegetation, 
 except sage-brush and grease-wood, and exterminates all 
 animals, except cayotes and Indians. The Indians even 
 mostly desert the country, and how the cayotes manage 
 to " get on" is a wonder and astonishment. The wheels 
 of our coach whirled the alkali into our faces by day and 
 by night, in a fine impalpable dust, that penetrated 
 everywhere eyes, ears, nose, mouth and made all 
 efforts at personal cleanliness a dismal failure. The only 
 results of our frequent ablutions were chapped hands 
 and tender faces our noses, indeed, quite peeling off. 
 In. many places the alkali effloresced from the soil, and at 
 a little distance looked like hoar-frost. It polluted the 
 streams, giving the water a dirty milky hue and disgust- 
 ing taste, and in very dry seasons makes such streams rank 
 poison to man and beast. The plains of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, after the vengeance of Jehovah smote them, 
 could not have been much worse than this Desert of the 
 Mountains ; and good John Pierpont must certainly have 
 had some such region in his mind's eye, when he wrote 
 so felicitously : 
 
 " There the gaunt wolf sits on his rock and howls, 
 
 And there in painted pomp the savage Indian prowls." 
 
 One wretched day, while traversing this region, one of 
 our passengers, from whom we expected better things, 
 unable to " stand the pressure " longer, indulged too 
 freely in Colorado whiskey ; and that night we had to 
 fight the delirium, tremens, as well. He tried several 
 times to jump out of the coach, and made the night hid- 
 eous with his screams ; but we succeeded finally in getting 
 him down under one of the seats, and thus carried him
 
 BATHER BAD EEGION 151 
 
 safely along. As if to add to onr misfortunes, soon after 
 midnight one of our thorough-braces broke, and then we 
 had to go bumping along on the axle-tree for ten or 
 twelve miles, until we reached the next station. This 
 no doubt was a good antidote to John Barleycorn j but 
 it scarcely improved our impressions of " Bitter Creek." 
 
 At Laclede, in the heart of the Bitter Creek Country, 
 we halted one day for dinner, and were agreeably sur- 
 prised by getting a very good one. This station had 
 once been famed for the poorness of its fare, and so great 
 were the complaints of passengers, that Mr. Holliday 
 resolved to take charge of this and several others himself. 
 He imported flour and vegetables from Denver or Salt 
 Lake, and employed hunters on the Platte to shoot ante- 
 lope and elk, and deliver them along at -these stations as 
 required. The groceries, of course, had all to come from 
 the Missouri or the Pacific. We found a tidy, middle- 
 aged, Danish woman in charge at Laclede a Mormon 
 imported from Salt Lake and she gave us the best meal 
 we had eaten since leaving Laporte or Denver. We com- 
 plimented her on the table, and on the general cleanli- 
 ness and neatness of the station ; and she seemed much 
 gratified, as she had a right to be. 
 
 Our ride through the Bitter Creek region, as a whole, 
 however, was thoroughly detestable, and how the slow- 
 moving emigrant and freight trains ever managed to 
 traverse it was surprising. The bleaching bones of 
 horses, mules, and oxen whitened every mile of it, and 
 the very genius of desolation seemed to brood over the 
 landscape. Nevertheless, the station-keepers averred, there 
 were canons back of the bluffs, where grass grew freely ; 
 and they pointed to their winter's supply of hay in stack, 
 as proof of this. So, too, at Black Buttes station, we 
 found good bituminous coal burning in a rude grate, and
 
 152 OOAL AND PETROLEUM 
 
 were shown a bluff a hundred yards away where it was 
 mined. Elsewhere we heard of petroleum " showing " 
 well, and one day I suggested to our driver, that as the 
 Creator never made anything uselessly, there must be 
 some compensation here after all. 
 
 " Bother, stranger ! " he rejoined ; " The Almighty'd 
 nothin to du with this yer region. 'Tother fellar (point- 
 ing downward) made Bitter Creek, ef it ever war made 
 at all ; tho, I reckin, it war just left ! " 
 
 " But what about the coal ? " I said. 
 
 " Dunno ef there's enny thar ! But ef thar be, Prov- 
 idence only 'lowed it, jist to help in the last conflagger- 
 ration you bet ! He did n't mean enny human critter 
 to live yer, and mine it not by a long shot you bet ! " 
 
 At several points, however, we observed the bluffs 
 abounded in slate shales, and other coal-bearing earths ; 
 and as we suspected then, the Union Pacific Railroad 
 has already developed a vast deposit of coal there. Bit- 
 ter Creek itself flowed sluggishly by us for a day or so, 
 and was a little miserable stream, that just managed to 
 crawl usually at the bottom of a deep gulch or abrupt 
 canon its chalky color proclaiming its alkali taint even 
 before you tasted it. We must have followed it for 
 a hundred miles or more, and yet it continued very 
 nearly the same in size throughout. What water it 
 drained in one locality was largely evaporated in another, 
 and its wretched, villainous character made it everywhere 
 an eye-sore, instead of a pleasing feature in the land- 
 scape as it should have been. But enough of Bitter 
 Creek, and its God-forsaken region. 
 
 Past Green river, here a considerable stream, we 
 entered the Butte region, and one evening just before 
 sunset approached Church Butte, the most famous of 
 them all. It was too late in the day to explore it, but \ve
 
 CHURCH BUTTE 153 
 
 had a grand view of it in the shifting sunlight, as we 
 drove slowly by. On the box with the driver, a portion 
 of it was pointed out, that resembled a colossal Dutchman, 
 about lifting to his mouth a foaming beaker. Further 
 on, as we rolled westward, the Teuton faded out, and the 
 church-like character of the Butte more fully appeared. 
 Seen from the west, it presents a very wonderful likeness 
 to an old-time cathedral, of the Gothic type, and at a dis- 
 tance might well be taken for the crumbling ruins of some 
 such edifice, though of cyclopean proportions. Porch, 
 nave, dome, caryatides, fluted columns, bas-reliefs, broken 
 roof and capitals all are there in shapes more or less per- 
 fect, and the illusion was very striking in the shadowy 
 twilight. The Butte itself, like most others there, is a 
 vast mass of sandstone, covered with tenacious blue clay, 
 both of which are being constantly chiseled down by wind 
 and rain. These buttes all seemed either to have been 
 upheaved from the dead level around them, or else to 
 be the surviving portions of great mountain chains, from 
 which the earth has been washed or blown away, leaving 
 their skeletons so to speak behind in solitary gran- 
 deur. The latter theory seemed more probable, judging 
 by the general direction of the buttes themselves. Much 
 of the scenery about here for a hundred miles or 
 so, was enlivened by sandstone bluffs, cut and chiseled 
 by the elements into castles, fortresses, etc., that frowned 
 majestically at us in the distance ; but we were only too 
 glad to quit their grandeur and sublimity, that turned 
 only to barren rocks as we approached, and to hail some 
 signs of cultivation again as we neared Fort Bridger. No 
 doubt the wind has been an important agency in fashion- 
 ing all these, though scarcely to the extent that is claimed 
 by some travellers. In Bowies' " Across the Continent" 
 he tells a story about a wind-storm down in Colorado, 
 7*
 
 154 LIFE IN A STAGE-COACH 
 
 that dashed the sand against a window so furionsly, that 
 a common pane of glass was converted into " the most 
 perfect of ground glass," in a single night ! "We met a 
 good many Coloradoans, who were laughing at this 
 " yarn," and were told to set it down among other good 
 " Itocky Mountain' stories. The fact is, people who live 
 out there on those vast Plains, or among those great 
 Mountains, become demoralized with the amplitude of 
 everything ; and when they attempt to narrate, uncon- 
 sciously I suppose get to exaggerating. Not inten- 
 tionally ; of course not. But bigness "rules the hour," 
 and we early learned to distrust and discount largely 
 most of the extraordinary stories we heard. 
 
 We reached Fort Bridger late at night (Oct. 8th), 
 and found ourselves pretty well jaded, both in body and 
 mind. "We had been four days and nights continuously 
 on the road since leaving Denver, and in that time had 
 made four hundred and eighty miles. This was the 
 hardest ride by stage-coach we had had yet, and alto- 
 gether was a pretty fair test of one's power of endurance. 
 We became so accustomed to the coach, that we could 
 fall asleep almost any time ; but slumber in a stage-coach, 
 or rather " mountain mud-wagon," is only a poor 
 apology for "tired nature's sweet restorer," after all. 
 The first night out, there being but five of us, four each 
 " pre-empted " a corner, while the fifth man " camped 
 down" on the middle seat. Along about 11 P. M. we 
 struck a piece of extra good road, the conversation grad- 
 ually wound up, each settled back into his great-coat and 
 robe, and presently we were all fairly off into dreamland. 
 A half hour or so rolls by, when bump goes the coach 
 against an obstinate rock, or chuck into a malicious mud- 
 hole ; your neighbor's head comes bucking against you, 
 or you go bucking wildly against him; the man on
 
 ITS MYSTERIES AND MISERIES 155 
 
 the middle seat rolls off and wakes up, with a growl 
 or objurgation, that seems half excusable ; your friends 
 on the front seat get their legs tangled and twisted up 
 with yours, or you get yours twisted and tangled up 
 with theirs you don't exactly know which ; and, in 
 short, everybody wakes up chaotic and confused, not to 
 say dismal and cross. Of course you try it again after a 
 while, you wrap your robes still better about you, you 
 adjust your legs more carefully than before, and settling 
 down again into your corner, think now you will surely 
 get a good sleep. However, you hardly get to nodding 
 fairly, before there comes a repetition of your former dis- 
 mal experiences, and so the night wears on like a hideous 
 dream. A series of unusual' jolts and bumps disgusts 
 every one with even the attempt to sleep, and presently 
 all hands drift into a general talk or smoke. The his- 
 tory of one night is the wretched history of all only 
 each successive one, as you advance, becomes " a little 
 more so." Long before reaching Fort Bridger, we were 
 in a sort of a half-comatose condition, with every bone 
 aching, and every inch of flesh sore, and with the romance 
 of stage-coaching gone from us forever. Now, if a man's 
 body were made of india-rubber, or his arms and legs 
 were telescopic, so as to lengthen out and shorten 
 up, perhaps such continuous travelling would not be 
 so bad. But, as it is, I confess, it was a great weariness 
 to the flesh, and looking back on it now, with the Pacific 
 Railroad completed its express trains and palace-cars iq 
 motion I don't really see how poor human nature man- 
 aged to endure it. Conversation is a good thing p&r se^ 
 but most men converse themselves out in a day or two. 
 So, a good joke or a popular song helps to fill the hiatus 
 somewhat, and accordingly we buried "John Brown,' 1 
 and " Rallied round the flag," and " Marched through
 
 156 SOMETHING ABOUT SMOKING 
 
 Georgia," day after day, -until they got to be a " bore,' 
 even to the most severely patriotic among us. Our only 
 constant and unfailing friends were our briar-wood pipes, 
 and what a corps de reserve they were ! Possibly smok- 
 ing has its evils I don't deny it but no man has thor- 
 oughly tested the heights and depths of life, or shall I 
 say its altitudes and profundities, its joys and its sorrows, 
 its mysteries and miseries especially stage-coaching 
 who has not bowed at the shrine of Killykinnick, and 
 puffed and whiffed as it pleased him. There is such 
 comfort, and solace, and philosophy in it, when sojourn- 
 ing on the Plains, or camped down among the Mountains, 
 or cast away in a stage-coach, that all the King Jameses 
 and Dr. T^psks in the universe, I suspect, will never 
 be able to overcome or abolish it. 
 
 Our horses were usually steady-going enough, the 
 splendid teams of the Plains ; but one night, just before 
 reaching Fort Bridger, we had a team of fiery California 
 mustangs, never geared up but once before, and, of course, 
 they ran away. The road was slightly descending, but 
 pretty smooth, -and for the time our heavy, lumbering 
 mountain mud-wagon went booming along, like a ship 
 under full sail. Presently, too, the lead-bars broke, and 
 as they came rattling down on the heels of the leaders, 
 we had every prospect for awhile of a general over-turn 
 and smash-up. But our driver, a courageous skillful Jehu, 
 " put down the brakes," and at length succeeded in halt- 
 ing his runaways, just as we approached a rocky precipice, 
 over which to have gone would have been an ugly piece 
 of business. We expected an upset every minute, with 
 all its attending infelicities ; but luckily escaped. 
 
 "We halted at Fort Bridger two or three days, to in- 
 spect this post and consider its bearings, and so became 
 pretty well rested up again. Some miles below the
 
 FOET BEIDGEK- 157 
 
 Fort, Green River subdivides into Black's and Smith's 
 Forks, and the valleys of both of these we found contained 
 much excellent land. Judge Carter, the sutler and post- 
 master at Bridger, and a striking character in many ways, 
 already had several large tracts under cultivation, by way 
 of experiment, and the next year he expected to try 
 more. His grass was magnificent ; his oats, barley, and 
 potatoes, rery fair ; but his wheat and Indian corn 
 wanted more sunshine. The post itself is 7,000 feet 
 above the sea, and the Wahsatch Mountains just beyond 
 were reported snow-capped the year round. Black's 
 Fork runs directly through the parade-ground, in front 
 of the officers' quarters, and was said to furnish snperb 
 trout-fishing in season. In summer, it seemed to us, 
 Bridger must be a delightful place ; but in winter, rather 
 wild and desolate. Apart from the garrison, the only 
 white people there, or near there, were Judge Carter and 
 his emplo} r ees. A few lodges of Shoshones, the famous 
 Jim Bridger with them, were encamped below the Fort ; 
 but they were quiet and peaceable. The Government 
 Reservation there embraced all the best lands for many 
 miles, and practically excluded settlements ; otherwise no 
 doubt quite a population would soon spring up. Sage- 
 hens abounded in the neighboring " divides," and we 
 bagged several of them during a day's ride by ambulance 
 over to Smith's Fork and return. "We found them larger 
 and darker, than the Kansas grouse or prairie-chicken ; 
 but no less rich and gamey in taste. Maj. Burt, in com- 
 mand at Bridger, was an enthusiastic sportsman ; but our 
 ambulance broke down seven miles out, and we had to 
 foot it back after dark. 
 
 We were now in Utah proper, and Judge Carter was 
 Probate Judge of the young county there. A Virginian 
 by birth, from near Fairfax Court-House, he enlisted in
 
 158 JUDGE CARTES ECHO CANON 
 
 the army at an early age, and served as a private for 
 awhile in Florida. It was a romantic freak, and his 
 friends soon had him discharged ; but he still continued 
 with the army, as purveyor or sutler. Subsequently, 
 he accompanied our troops to California ; but afterwards 
 returned east, and followed Albert Sidney Johnston to 
 Utah in 1858. When in that year Fort Bridger was 
 established, he was appointed sutler, and had continued 
 there ever since. Gradually his sutler-store had grown 
 to be a trade-store with the Indians, and passing emi- 
 grants ; and in 1866 he reported his sales at $100,000 per 
 year, and increasing. He was a shrewd, intelligent man, 
 with a fine library and the best eastern newspapers, who 
 had seen a vast deal of life in many phases on both sides 
 of the continent, and his hospitality was open-handed 
 and generous even for a Virginian. 
 
 "We left Fort Bridger October 12th, at 10 P.M., in the 
 midst of gusty winds that soon turned to rain, and 
 reached Salt Lake City the next night about midnight ; 
 distance 120 miles. We halted for breakfast at the head 
 of Echo Canon, and were at a loss to account for the air 
 of neatness and refinement, that pervaded the rude 
 station, until we noticed Scott's Marmion and the Bible 
 lying on a side shelf. Two nice looking ladies waited on 
 the table, and it is safe to conclude a taste for literature 
 and religion will keep people civilized and refined almost 
 anywhere. Echo Canon itself proved to be a narrow rocky 
 defile, some thirty miles long through the heart of the moun- 
 tains there, with a little brawling creek flowing through it. 
 Its red sandstone walls mostly tower above you for several 
 hundred feet, and in places quite overhang the road. 
 Here in 1857-8, Brigham Young made his famous stand 
 against the United States, and flooded the canon by 
 damming the creek at various points. The remains of
 
 HOW NOT TO DO IT 159 
 
 his dam, and of various rude fortifications, were still 
 perceptible ; but Judge Carter reported them all of small 
 account, as Johnston's engineers knew of at least two 
 other passes, by either of which they could have flanked 
 the Mormon position, and so entered the valley. He 
 said, our troops should have marched at once on Salt 
 Lake, without halting at Bridger as they did ; but the 
 Mormons showed fight, and our commanding officer 
 not liking the looks of things called a council of war, 
 after which, of course, we did nothing. Councils of war, 
 it is well-nigh settled, never do. Clive, that brave 
 soldier of his time, never held a council of war but 
 once, and then made his fortune by disregarding its deci- 
 sion. When Sidney Johnston assumed command, late 
 in the fall of 1857, he had no orders to advance ; and, 
 therefore, inferred he was wanted merely to maintain the 
 status quo ! Accordingly he made haste to do nothing, 
 and soon after went into winter-quarters. Meanwhile, 
 Brigham unmolested by our show of force waxed fat 
 and kicked. The next spring a compromise was effected, 
 which like most other " compromises " decided nothing, 
 and left the " saints " as saucy as ever. Judge C. knew all 
 the men of that troubled period well, especially Army peo- 
 ple ; and said he had long thought, that the reason why 
 the troops were not ordered forward was, because Davis, 
 Floyd, & Co., were already looking ahead to secession in 
 the near future, and did not care to establish coercion as a 
 precedent. They feared such a precedent might be quo- 
 ted against their own " sovereign " States, in such a con- 
 tingency, and so managed to have the Army instructed 
 How not to do it, until Brigham found a convenient loop- 
 hole, and crept out of the scrape himself. Verily, the 
 ways of politicians are " past finding out ! " 
 
 Past Echo Canon, we struck Weber Yalley, and here
 
 160 WEBER VALLEY 
 
 found ourselves at last thoroughly among the Mormons, 
 Fine little farms dotted the valley everywhere, and the 
 settlements indeed were so numerous, that much of the 
 valley resembled rather a scattered village. The little 
 Weber River passes down the valley, on its way to Great 
 Salt Lake, and its waters had everywhere been diverted, 
 and made to irrigate nearly every possible acre of ground. 
 Fine crops of barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, etc., appeared 
 to have been gathered, and cattle and sheep were grazing 
 on all sides. The people looked like a hardy, industrious, 
 thrifty race, well fitted for their stern struggle with the 
 wilderness. Everybody was apparently well-fed and 
 well-clad, though the women had a worn and tired look, 
 as if they led a dull life and lacked sympathy. Children 
 of all ages and sizes nocked about the gates and crowded the 
 doorways, and to all appearances they were about the same 
 frolicking youngsters that we have east, though they seemed 
 less watched and cared for. Near the head of the valley, 
 we saw several coal-drifts that had already been worked 
 considerably, and were told that these mines supplied all 
 the coal then used in Utah, though it was though! coal 
 would soon be found elsewhere. It was of a soft bitu- 
 minous character, far from first-class, but nevertheless 
 invaluable in the absence of something better. 
 
 Just at dark, we found ourselves at the head of 
 Parley's Canon, and still several miles distant from Salt 
 Lake City. Snow-flakes had sifted lazily downward all 
 day, but at night-fall they changed to sleet, which 
 thickened presently into a regular snow-storm, and soon 
 the roads usually so good became heavy and slushy. In 
 many places the track was merely a roadway, quarried 
 out of the rocky bluffs, with a swollen and angry rivulet 
 below*; and as we wound cautiously along this, both the 
 coach and horses were constantly slipping and sliding
 
 IN A SNOW STORM 161 
 
 Only a week before, in a similar snow-storm, the stage- 
 horses lost their foot-hold here, and a crowded coach 
 team and all went crashing down into the creek below. 
 I had no fancy for this sort of an experience ; but when, 
 soon after dark, we saw the driver light up his side-lamps 
 for the first time since leaving the Missouri, I con- 
 cluded that our chances for an " upset " at last were 
 perhaps improving. L. got nervous, and being some- 
 what mathematical in his turn of mind, fell to calculating 
 how far it was down to the water and rocks, and what 
 would be the probable results of plunging down there 
 quite miscellaneously. But I was half sick and thor- 
 oughly tired out in that worn and jaded condition, 
 where a man becomes fairly indifferent as to what may 
 happen and at length, as L. averred, went soundly to 
 sleep, though I had no recollection afterwards of any- 
 thing but dozing. I only know that when the horses 
 again struck a trot, as we began to descend the canon 
 westward, I roused up shivering with cold ; and was only 
 too glad, when far away in the distance our driver pointed 
 out the lights of Salt Lake City, twinkling through the 
 darkness. It seemed then, as if the coach never would get 
 there. But at last the farms thickened into suburbs, and 
 the houses into streets, and a little before midnight we 
 drew up and halted at the Salt-Lake House. A smart- 
 looking colored man, acting both as porter and night- 
 clerk, showed us to a comfortable room, and I need 
 scarcely say we retired at once. What a luxury it was, 
 to get between clean sheets once more, and stretch our 
 cramped up limbs wholly out again, ad libitum! No 
 one but an Overland stage-passenger can fully appreciate 
 the downy comfort of a bed, or truly sleep almost the 
 sleep that knows no waking. How we did sleep and 
 stretch o.urselves, and stretch ourselves and sleep that
 
 162 A Q OD SLEEP. 
 
 night ! It seemed almost as if to sleep was the chief end 
 of life, and we made the most of our pillows accord- 
 ingly.
 
 CHAPTEK X. 
 
 AT SALT LAKE CITY. 
 
 OUR first day in Salt Lake city (Oct. 14) was Sun- 
 day, and of course we rose late I to find myself 
 stiff and ill. A package of letters from the east, and a 
 bath near noon, set me up somewhat, and when the gong 
 sounded at 1, P. M. we went down to dinner. Here 
 everything was profuse and excellent, the vegetables and 
 fruits especially. But apart from the table, the Salt Lake 
 House proved indifferent, though the only hotel in the 
 city. Its rooms were small and dingy, and its appoint- 
 ments of the plainest, though its rates for every thing 
 were all-sufficient. The policy of the saints had been 
 opposed to Gentile travel, and hence no hotels at all were 
 allowed at first. But subsequently Brighain Young built 
 the Salt Lake House, and leased it to a Mr. Little our 
 three-wived landlord and that paid so well, he was about 
 erecting a new and enlarged one, commensurate with the 
 wants and business of the city. 
 
 After dinner, as the sun was out brilliantly and the air 
 bracing, we concluded to take a short stroll. Our snow- 
 storm of the day before in the mountains had been only 
 an affair of an inch or two here, and what had fallen was 
 already fast disappearing. A walk of a square or two 
 soon revealed the unique and wonderful beauty of this 
 far-famed town. Its streets, eight rods wide with broad 
 foot-walks, cross each other at right angles, and down
 
 164 SALT LAKE CITT 
 
 each side course clear and rippling streams, fresh from 
 the neighboring mountains. These spacious streets 
 divide the city into squares or blocks of ten acres each, 
 which are in turn subdivided into homestead lots of an 
 acre and a quarter each, except in the heart of the city, 
 where of course it is built up pretty solidly for several 
 blocks. Standing back from the street in these goodly 
 lots are their houses, built of frame or adobe, usually 
 only one story high but sometimes two, and with as 
 many doors ordinarily as the owner has wives. These 
 were literally embowered in shrubbery and fruit trees, the 
 grounds having been made wondrously fertile by irriga- 
 tion, and as we walked along we could see the apple, 
 peach, plum, pear, and apricot trees loaded down with 
 their ripening fruit. The snow of the day before did not 
 seem to have injured any of them materially, it was so 
 unseasonable and soon gone. So, too, roses and flowers 
 in rich profusion crowned the door-yards, while the gar- 
 dens beyond seemed heaped with vegetables exquisite in 
 their perfection and development. Lofty mountains, 
 their snow-capped summits glittering in the sun-light, 
 rimmed the valley in, whichever way you turned ; 
 while in the distance, tranquil as a sapphire, flashed the 
 expanse of Great Salt Lake. To the traveller worn with 
 stage-coaching, or weary from Bitter Creek, no wonder 
 Salt Lake seems like Kasselas's Happy Valley, or Para- 
 dise Regained. Imagine to yourself a valley say fifty 
 miles north and south, by thirty east and west, crowned 
 above with snow-clad peaks, thick below with clustering 
 farms, its interlacing streams flashing in the sun-light, 
 with a fair city of fifteen or twenty thousand people 
 gleaming in the midst, embowered in fruit and shade- 
 trees, and you may form some conception of the prospect 
 that greets you, as you rattle iown the "Wahsatch range,
 
 AT THE MORMON TABERNACLE 165 
 
 and out into the valley of Great Salt Lake. I doubt 
 if there is a more picturesque or charming scene any- 
 where, not excepting the descent from the Alps into 
 Italy. You involuntarily thank heaven, that "Bitter 
 Creek" is over and past, and congratulate yourself on 
 having struck civilization once more, Mormon though it 
 be. 
 
 "We took in much of this scene, as we strolled along, 
 with senses keenly alive to its beauties and felicities. 
 Flowers never seemed more fragrant; fruits never so 
 luscious. In the clear atmosphere how the mountains 
 glowed and towered ! How crisp and elastic was the 
 air ! How the blood went coursing through one's veins ! 
 The streets seemed alive with people, and as they were 
 moving mainly in one direction we followed on, and 
 presently found ourselves at the Mormon Tabernacle. 
 This was an odd-looking, oblong structure, built of adobe, 
 and with no pretence evidently to any of the known 
 orders of architecture. Its side-walls were low, and 
 between these sprang the roof in a great semi-circle, with 
 narrow prison-like windows near the line where the walls 
 and roof came together. Outside, the walls were of the 
 usual dun adobe color; inside, plain white the whole 
 utterly devoid of ornamentation whatever. The organ 
 and choir occupied the end near the street ; opposite was 
 a raised platform, extending entirely across the audience- 
 room, and on this sat fifty or more plain-looking men 
 the priests and chief dignitaries of " the Church of Jesus 
 Christ of Latter Day Saints." The audience consisted 
 of perhaps two thousand people men women, and 
 children all dressed respectably, and though the 
 average of intelligence was not high, yet as a whole they 
 were a better appearing people than we had been led to 
 expect. This edifice was their old tabernacle ; the new
 
 166 A MORMON PKEACHEB 
 
 tabernacle, an enormous structure on much the same 
 plan, but with a capacity of ten or twelve thousand 
 souls, was not yet completed, though well under way. 
 Their great Temple had not yet progressed beyond the 
 foundation stones, and there seemed to be much doubt 
 whether it ever would. Its plan, however, is on /t 
 magnificent scale, and if ever completed, it will doubtless 
 be one of the greatest edifices on the continent. 
 
 Religious services had already begun, and we found 
 a Mr. Nicholson, a returned missionary from England, 
 expatiating at the desk with much fervor. We were too 
 late for his text, but found hiin discussing at length the 
 evidences and undeniability of their peculiar doctrines. 
 He was a fluent, but vapid speaker, and, with all our curi- 
 osity to hear him, soon became very tiresome. The gist 
 of his argument was, that the saints knew for themselves, 
 in their own hearts, that Horrnonism was true, and, 
 therefore, that no Gentile (or outside unbeliever) could 
 possibly disprove it. He said, " My brethren, we know 
 our doctrines to be true, yea and amen, forever. They 
 have come to us by express revelation from heaven, and 
 we have tested them in our own experience ; and, there- 
 fore, to argue against them is the same as to argue 
 against the multiplication-table, or to doubt logic itself. 
 Yes, our priesthood, from Brother Brigham down, is 
 God's own appointed succession, and whoever rejects its 
 teachings will be damned for time and eternity." He 
 iterated and reiterated these crude and common-place 
 ideas for an hour or more ad nauseam, until finally 
 Brigham Young (who presided) stopped him, and ordered 
 the sacrament administered. This consisted only of bread 
 and water, passed through the audience, everybody par- 
 taking of the elements. This over, singing followed, in 
 which all participated, the chief functionaries leading.
 
 A SHARP MORMON 167 
 
 Now came another " returned missionary," whose name 
 we missed. He talked for twenty minutes or more, in a 
 very loose and rambling way, about the work in England 
 and Wales, and evidently was regarded as a rather " weak 
 brother," to say the least of him. The next speaker was 
 George Q. Cannon, a leading dignitary of the church, 
 and a man of decided parts in many ways. He is an 
 Englishman by birth, and for awhile after arriving here 
 served Brigham Young as secretary. Now he was a 
 stout, hearty looking man, in his prime, with good fron- 
 tal developments, and impressed us as the smartest 
 Mormon on the platform Brigham, perhaps, excepted. 
 He spoke for nearly an hour, delivering a calm, connected, 
 methodical address, and evidently moved his audience 
 deeply. The substance of his discourse was, that they as 
 a church were blessed beyond and above all other churches, 
 because they had a genuine priesthood, appointed by 
 God himself, and in constant communication with Him. 
 " Other churches," he said, " in their decadence had 
 dropped this doctrine, and accordingly had lost their 
 spirituality and power. But Joseph Smith, in the ful- 
 ness of time, found the Book of Mormon, where God 
 had concealed it, and so became His vice-gerent on 
 earth. Brother Joseph selected Brigham Young, Heber 
 Kimball, and Orson Pratt, as his co-workers, and through 
 these and others Jehovah now communicates his unchang- 
 ing will to the children of men. These great and good 
 men speak not themselves, but the Holy Ghost in and 
 through them. What we shall speak, we know not, nor 
 how we shal} speak it ; but God inspires our hearts and 
 tongues. Ofttimes we are moved to declare things, that 
 are seemingly incredible. If left to ourselves, we would 
 prefer not to declare them. But Jehovah speaks 
 through us we are but his mouth-pieces and what are
 
 168 MORMON SERMONS 
 
 we to do ? We must proclaim His solemn revelations, 
 and to-day I tell you, brothers, what Brother Brigharn 
 has often said before, that the time is not distant nay, 
 is near at hand when the North and South will both 
 call upon Brigham Young and his holy priesthood to 
 come and help them re-establish free constitutional gov- 
 ernment there. We, here in Utah, have the only free 
 and Christian government upon the earth, and God has 
 revealed it to us, that His holy church shall yet occupy 
 and possess the continent. Some of you may doubt this, 
 and Gentiles especially may mock at and deride it. But 
 Jehovah has so spoken it, to Brother Brigham and others, 
 and many now here will yet live to see this fulfilled. 
 Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words shall 
 not fail, saith the Lord ! " All this, and much more of 
 the same purport, he uttered with the greatest solemnity, 
 as if devoutly believing it, and his audience received it 
 with a hearty chorus of " amens." There was more sing- 
 ing, and then Brigham, who had presided over the meet- 
 ing as a sort of moderator, dismissed the congregation 
 with the usual benediction. We had hoped to hear him 
 speak also, as their great chief and leader ; but he was 
 ailing that day, and so disappointed us. 
 
 The speaking, as a whole, scarcely rose above medioc- 
 rity, except perhaps Mr. Cannon's. It was noisy and 
 common-place, without logic or symmetry, and would 
 have provoked most eastern audiences to ridicule, rather 
 than led to conviction. Mr. Cannon evinced much 
 natural ability ; but all seemed quite illiterate, their 
 rhetoric limping badly, and their pronouns and verbs 
 marrying very miscellaneously. But little was said about 
 their " peculiar institution " of polygamy, though it was 
 alluded to once or twice, and its sacredness assumed. 
 The singing was strong and emotional, and swept through
 
 THE MOUNTAIN FEVER 169 
 
 the tabernacle a mighty wave of praise. Of course, it 
 lacked culture ; but then there were passionate and 
 glowing hearts back of it, for all sang " with the spirit," 
 if not " with the understanding also." Their fine organ 
 we missed hearing, as it was then out of order. A new 
 and much larger one was building for the new taberna- 
 cle, by workmen from abroad, and this it was claimed 
 was going to be bigger, if not better, than the great one 
 at Boston. Let the Hub look to her laurels ! 
 
 The next morning I found myself down, with what 
 is termed out there the Mountain Fever. And so this 
 was the explanation of what had troubled me occasionally, 
 even before leaving Denver. I had struggled desperately 
 against it for a fortnight, but now surrendered at discretion, 
 and was taken to Camp Douglas the military post north 
 of the city where I found sympathizing comrades and a 
 hearty welcome. This Mountain Fever seems to be an 
 ugly combination of the bilious and typhoid, with the 
 ague thrown in, and often pays its respects to overland 
 travellers, unless they are very careful. In my own case it 
 yielded readily to calomel and quinine, but only after lib- 
 eral and repeated doses of each. For over a fortnight 
 I wrestled with it there, sometimes hardly knowing 
 which would conquer ; but a resolute determination not 
 " to shuffle off this mortal coil " in Utah, if I could help 
 it, and a kind providence at last brought me safely 
 through. At first, this loss of time was greatly regretted, 
 as I was eager to complete my duties at Salt Lake, and 
 push on ; but ultimately, I was not sorry, as it afforded 
 an opportunity to observe and study the Utah problem, 
 much more fully than I should otherwise have done. 
 
 My first day out again, a beautiful October day and 
 perfect of its kind, the Post-Surgeon advised a ride in the 
 open air. Accordingly Major Grimes, the Post-Quarter-
 
 170 HOT SULPHUR SPRINGS 
 
 master, brought round his buggy, and together we drove 
 down to the city, and thence out to the hot Sulphur 
 Springs. These are on the Bear River road, some two 
 or three miles north of the city. The water here bursts 
 out of the ground at the foot of a bluff or mountain, as 
 thick as a man's leg, and runs thence in a considerable 
 stream to Great Salt Lake. It has a strong sulphur 
 color and taste, and a temperature sufficient for a warm 
 bath. Some miles farther north there are other Springs 
 we were told hot enough to boil an egg. In the 
 bath-house adjoining, we found a number of men and 
 boys enjoying the luxury of a sulphur plunge, and the 
 place appeared to be a considerable resort already, 
 especially on Sundays. Most passing travellers and miners 
 endeavor here to get rid of the accumulated dirt of their 
 journey hitherward, and to depart cleaner if not better men. 
 A refreshment-saloon near by furnished superb apples 
 and peaches fresh from the trees, and most other Ameri- 
 can edibles, including our inevitable " pies ; " but no 
 drinkables, except tea and coffee. The patrons of the 
 springs, it was said, complained bitterly of Brigham's 
 stern, prohibitory liquor laws, but with little result. 
 Even in Salt Lake City itself, a town of fifteen or 
 twenty thousand souls, (1866), there were but two or 
 three drinking-saloons, and these, we were told, were either 
 owned or strictly regulated by the church i. e. Brigham 
 Young. Whatever else the saints may be, Brigham 
 intends that they shall at least not be drunkards, if he 
 can help it. 
 
 Returning we drove by the ruins of the old city-wall, 
 erected by the Mormons soon after they settled here, of 
 concrete and adobe, as a defence against the Indians. 
 The growth of the town and the disappearance of the 
 Indians, rendered it useless years ago, and it was now fast
 
 MOKMON MILITIA MUSTER 171 
 
 Calling to pieces, though no doubt of service in its day. 
 It was one of Mr. Buchanan's Salt Lake scarecrows in 
 1857, but would not have stood a half-dozen shots from 
 an ordinary field-piece, or even mountain-howitzer. The 
 labor of erecting it, however, must have been prodigious, 
 as it enclosed originally several square miles, and its 
 remains even now speak well for the industry and enter-- 
 prise of the saints in those early times. 
 
 Thursday, Nov. 1st. was a great gala-day at Salt 
 Lake, and we were fortunate to be there still. It was 
 the chief day of their annual militia muster, and the 
 whole country-side apparently turned out. The place 
 selected was a plateau west of the Jordan, some three 
 miles from Salt Lake city. Proceeding thither, we found 
 a rather heterogenous encampment, with not much of 
 the military about it, except in name. The officers were 
 mainly in uniform, but the men generally in civilian dress, 
 and many without either arms or accoutrements. As we 
 passed through the encampment, they were all out at 
 company drill. Of course, there were many awkward 
 squads, but the so-called officers were the awkwardest of 
 all. In many instances, they were unable to drill their 
 men in the simplest evolutions ; but stood stupidly by, 
 in brand-new coats, resplendent with brass-buttons, while 
 some corporal or private, in civilian dress, " put the 
 company through ! " 
 
 Soon after noon, a cloud of dust and a large accom- 
 panying concourse of people heralded the approach of the 
 chief Mormon dignitaries in carriages. The flag of 
 the " State of Deseret" floated in the advance ; then 
 came the standard of the old Nauvoo Legion ; and as the 
 procession neared the parade-ground, the " Lieutenant- 
 General Commanding the Militia of Utah" and a brilliant 
 staff (chiefly of Brigadier-Generals) moved out to meet
 
 172 BRIGADIER-GENERALS ABUNDANT 
 
 and escort the hierarchs in. In the carriages, were most 
 of the leading Mormons then at Salt Lake. Brigham 
 himself was reported absent sick, but he sent his state- 
 carriage instead, with Bishops Kimball and Cannon in it. 
 The Lieutenant-General and staff, with the carriages 
 following, now rode by in review, after which the troops 
 formed column and marched by in review. They moved 
 by company front, and being near the reviewing station, 
 we made a rough count as they straggled by, and 
 estimated the total force at about a thousand infantry, 
 five hundred cavalry, and a battery of artillery. The 
 cavalry was tolerably mounted ; but the artillery was 
 "horsed" with mules, and consisted of mere howitzers, 
 no two of like calibre. The personnel of the force was 
 certainly good ; but everything betrayed an utter lack of 
 discipline and drill. Nevertheless the Mormon officials 
 seemed greatly elated by the martial array, and much 
 disposed to exaggerate its numbers. Having been 
 introduced to his excellency the Commander-in-chief, 
 " Lieutenant-General etc.," I took occasion incidentally 
 to ask him how many troops were on the field. He 
 replied, he could not exactly tell, but he "reckoned" 
 about three thousand ! Afterwards, in reply to a similar 
 question, his Adjutant-General a son-in-law of Brigham 
 Young's, and, of course, a Brigadier-General answered, 
 he guessed about four thousand ! Other Mormon digni- 
 taries computed them at from five to six thousand, even. 
 I said nothing, of course, about my own passing " count ; " 
 but on returning to Camp Douglas, found it substantially 
 confirmed by a very accurate count, made by another 
 TT. S. officer present, who had a better opportunity. . 
 
 The true status of this Salt Lake militia appears pretty 
 clearly, I judge, from the following conversation with 
 the said Lieutenant-General. We were pHll " on the
 
 REAL CHARACTER OF MILITIA 173 
 
 field," atd I had casually asked him, whether this was 
 the militia of the Church or of the Territory ? 
 
 " O, of the Territory, of course ! " he replied, with a 
 smile that was child-like and bland. 
 
 " But its officers are all Mormons, and its men mostly 
 so, I believe ? " 
 
 " Why, yes, sir ! " sobering down. 
 
 " Its chief officers, especially, I observe, are men 
 
 high in the church, like yourself, Generals C and 
 
 Y , and others I see here ; are they not ? " 
 
 " Well, yes sir ! " becoming more grave. 
 
 " Are these troops, then, the quota of Utah, or only 
 of a single county ? " 
 
 " Only of Salt Lake County. The other counties have 
 similar organizations, but smaller ; and all are required 
 to spend at least three days per year in camp, for drill and 
 review." 
 
 " To whom, however, does your militia report ? " 
 
 " To myself only. By act of the Territorial Legisla- 
 ture, I am Commander-in-Chief of the Utah Militia, and 
 of course they take orders only from me." 
 
 " Then his excellency, the governor of the Territory, 
 though its chief executive, has no power to call out the 
 territorial militia, or in any way to control it ? " 
 
 " Why, no no sir ! I believe not ! " very hesi- 
 tatingly, and as if a good deal confused. 
 
 By this time, he began to see the drift of things 
 somewhat, and suddenly remembered he had important 
 business elsewhere. This was not surprising ; for had he 
 not already virtually acknowledged, that this whole mi- 
 litia force such as it is was nothing more nor less, than 
 an auxiliary of the Mormon church, organized and held 
 well in hand to do her bidding ? Gov. Durkee, the ter- 
 ritorial governor, a few days afterwards confirmed this
 
 A MENACE TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 view of the subject, and added, that in his judgment this 
 militia was a standing menace to our authority in Utah, 
 and would make us trouble there yet. He said, in his 
 last Annual Message, he had called the attention of the 
 Legislature to its anomalous character, and recommended 
 that the militia laws be amended, so that the troops 
 should report to him, and that he be provided with the 
 usual staff Adjutant-General, Quartermaster-General, 
 Inspector-General, etc. the same as in all our other Ter- 
 ritories. The Legislature, however, being wholly Mor- 
 mon, paid no attention to his recommendations, and he did 
 not suppose it would very soon. No doubt this militia 
 from its Lieutenant-General commanding, down, is a mere 
 creature of Brigham Young's Mormon in composition 
 and organization Mormon in spirit and purpose Mor- 
 mon in body, brain, and soul and what Brother Brig- 
 ham proposes to do with it, it remains for our good- 
 natured Uncle Samuel yet to see. In case of a future 
 collision in Utah, between United States and Mormon 
 authority, we shall probably soon learn. 
 
 Two days afterwards the encampment broke up, and 
 the troops marched into Salt Lake City, and so past the 
 Bee-Hive House, for Brigham's inspection in person. 
 Having business with his excellency or reverence (which- 
 ever you choose to call him), accompanied by Major 
 Grimes, I called that morning, and thus chanced upon 
 quite an assemblage of their chiefs and dignitaries. 
 Among them, were Heber C. Kimball, George Q. Cannon, 
 Bishop West, Lieut.-Gen. Wells, Brig.-Gen. Clawson, 
 Brig.-Gen. Young, (Brigham, Jr.), Col. Young another 
 son and others, whose names were not noted. Brigham 
 himself met us at the door, with an ease and dignity that 
 well became him, and after shaking hands very cordially, 
 introduced us all around. Our object was to obtain
 
 INTERVIEW WITH BKIGHAM YOUNG 175 
 
 certain information for the "War Department, about 
 the region between Salt Lake and the Rio Colorado (then 
 little known), with a view to supplying Camp Douglas, 
 and possibly Fort Bridger also, by that route hereafter, 
 if practicable, via the Gulf of California. The Salt 
 Lake merchants and others had given us a mass of facts, 
 or supposed facts, concerning it ; but we had been told, 
 that the Church had made surveys and maps of all the 
 country between, and that Brigham Young knew more 
 about the region there, than any other white man living. 
 The problem was to extract his information, for the 
 public benefit, if possible. I began by congratulating 
 him on ihe general appearance of industry and thrift in 
 Utah the wide-spread evidences of their prosperity 
 (which one might safely do) and then, having thus 
 paved the way, casually asked him why it was, that with 
 all their shrewdness and intelligence, they still persisted 
 in wagoning their goods and merchandise twelve hundred 
 miles from the Missouri, across the Plains and Mountains, 
 when they might strike navigation it was alleged on 
 the Colorado at less than half that distance? He 
 answered instantly, with perfect frankness, as if delighted 
 with the question : 
 
 "It is extraordinary, surely ! For ten year now, and 
 more, I've bin tryin' to talk it into our people, that the 
 Colorado is our true route. But Californy has done 
 nuthin to open it, or draw us toward her, while New 
 York keeps tight hold of us ; and it is mighty hard to 
 change the course of trade and travel." And then he 
 added, by way of comment, " When things git set, it 
 takes a heap to alter 'em, you bet ! " which was certainly 
 excellent " horse-sense," to say the least of it. A philo- 
 sopher not even the elder Weller could have said it 
 better. We discussed the subject very generally for
 
 176 HE " DISEEMEMBERS." 
 
 some minutes, he appearing full of interest ; but presently, 
 when I began to inquire more minutely about the 
 intervening country, its roads, resources, distances, etc., 
 suddenly, with a flash of intelligence, he seemed to 
 divine some sinister object, and at once began to " disre- 
 member" (his own word) nearly everything asked him. 
 He was positive there were no maps or surveys of that 
 region in the Record Office of the Church, though 
 subsequently I received copies of several there ; and 
 drew back into his shell on the subject generally, as far 
 as possible. One of the Bishops present, not perceiving 
 the studied ignorance of his chief, answered several of 
 the questions, which Brigham " disremembered," but 
 presently caught his cue and relapsed into silence. On 
 most other topics, Brigham talked with much fluency 
 and politeness ; but as to Southern Utah, we soon found 
 he had no idea of giving any information he could sup- 
 press, and so changed the conversation. We talked for 
 perhaps an hour, on a variety of. subjects, and he 
 impressed me as anything but an ignorant man, though 
 slimly educated. He believed their religion to be the 
 latest revelation of God's will to man, and that it would 
 yet reform or supplant all others. He thought " plurality 
 of wives" a Divine arrangement, and essential to Utah, 
 whatever it might be elsewhere. It had given them the 
 most frugal and thrifty, the most honest and moral 
 population on the earth ; and what more could be desired ? 
 If Congress didn't like it, they could lump it. God 
 Almighty would stand by them. He said, Utah now 
 numbered about a hundred thousand souls, and they were 
 rapidly increasing. They had gained three thousand 
 that year (1866), by immigration alone, mostly English 
 and Welsh; some years they got more, seldom less. He 
 said their soil and climate were all that could be desired,
 
 HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE 177 
 
 and claimed that by judicious irrigation they could beat 
 the world, especially in fruits and vegetables. He thought 
 they had coal, iron, and salt in abundance ; but did not 
 believe their gold and silver amounted to much, and hoped 
 to Heaven they never would. Subsequently, I learned 
 from other sources, that silver and copper had been dis- 
 covered in considerable richness, at Rush Valley and 
 elsewhere; but mining operations in Utah, as yet, had 
 been feeble. The Church was averse to an influx of 
 Gentile miners, for obvious reasons ; and, accordingly, did 
 all she could to discourage mining, as a business. 
 
 This conversation, though lacking in the results de- 
 sired, yet afforded an opportunity for observing Brig- 
 ham pretty well. Though then about sixty-five, he 
 looked at least ten years younger, and evidently had 
 many years hard work in him yet. He was of medium 
 height, stoutly built every way, and of late years inclin- 
 ing to corpulency. His hair was a sandy red, now well 
 sprinkled with gray, and somewhat disposed to curl. 
 His eyes, a pale blue, were resolute and sagacious ; but 
 had a steely look in them at times, that might mean any 
 depth of cruelty or tyranny. His nose, though not so 
 pronounced as his career would indicate, was never- 
 theless very characteristic ; while his mouth, though 
 large and firm, had less of the animal about it, than would 
 naturally be expected. His under-jaw would, perhaps, 
 strike you more than any other one feature. Heavy and 
 strong, full and massive, it looked like cast-iron, and at 
 times, when he talked of Congress or of his enemies, it 
 would shut with a snap like a gigantic nut-cracker. His 
 dress was plain black, and his manners altogether unex- 
 ceptionable. His position as head of the Mormon 
 people has bred the habit of power, while his contact 
 with representative men from abroad has imparted much 
 8*
 
 178 THE AUTOCRAT OF UTAH 
 
 of the elegance and suaviter in modo of the man 
 of the world ; so that he would pass for a pretty 
 good dipbmat almost anywhere. To take Brigham 
 Young for a fool, or a mere fanatic, it was plain to be 
 seen, would be a great mistake. It is true, he knows 
 nothing about grammar or rhetoric, and but little about 
 the dictionary ; but his knowledge of all the country there, 
 and of human nature, we found to be full and exact, and 
 no man west of the Rocky Mountains knows better how 
 make a good bargain, or fill a paying contract. However 
 illiterate, he has patience, shrewdness, cunning, and 
 abundance of hard common-sense " horse-sense," aa 
 we used to say of Grant in the army and doubtless 
 would have made his way in the world, in whatever 
 sphere he happened to drop. If he had not become 
 " Brother Brigham," great hierarch of the Mormon 
 Church and autocrat of all Utah, worth $25,000,000 in. 
 his own right, (as reported), owning countless lands and 
 herds, no doubt he would have gravitated into a first- 
 class hotel-keeper, or a money king on Wall Street, or a 
 great railroad- contractor, or something of that sort, 
 requiring keen perceptions and fine executive abilities. 
 To deny hirn some such qualities, is evidently preposter- 
 ous. Discredit him in every way ; call him charlatan 
 and humbug, if you please ; the fact still remains, that 
 he has changed an isolated desert into a land flowing 
 with milk and honey, and created a community of a 
 hundred thousand souls devoted to his will, holding their 
 lives and fortunes absolutely at his bidding and surely 
 no mere imbecile, or blunderer, could have achieved such 
 results. 
 
 We saw Brigham again, a few days afterwards, one night 
 at the theatre. The Salt Lake Theatre is really a fine build- 
 ing, and very creditable to the city. Its scenery, and ap-
 
 BHIGHAM YOUNG.
 
 HIS NUMEROUS WIVES 179 
 
 pointments generally, are unsurpassed in this country, 
 outside of a few of our great cities East, and but few of 
 our play-houses indeed equal it even there. Nearly every- 
 thing about it has been imported from England, at large 
 expense, and Englishmen in the main manage it now. 
 The play the night we were there was of the kind jclept 
 Moral Drama, but it was put on the stage with consid- 
 erable ability. Two " stars " from San Francisco took 
 the leading characters ; the minor ones were sustained by 
 the stock-company, most of whom were Mormon resi- 
 dents of Salt Lake. Among these a sprightly looking 
 girl of seventeen was pointed out to us, as a daughter of 
 Brigham Young's, though on the bills 'she bore a high- 
 sounding theatrical name. "What corresponds to the 
 " pit " in most theatres, is their dress-circle, and this was 
 well-filled with families chiefly women and children. 
 The rest of the theatre was occupied mostly by Gentiles 
 and soldiers. What impressed one particularly, was the 
 domestic or family character of the whole thing, Men, 
 women, and children, were all there, down to the last 
 baby, and young misses came and went at will, quite 
 unattended, as at church East. Between the acts, pater- 
 familias and all munched their apples and nuts, and prom- 
 enaded about quite ad libitum; but during the performance 
 everything was very decorous. In the very centre 
 of the house were four long seats, handsomely upholstered, 
 and " reserved " for Mrs. Brigham Young. There were 
 " sixteen of her," as poor Artemus Ward used to say, 
 there that night, all ordinary looking women, apparently 
 from thirty-five to fifty years of age, and dressed rather 
 plainly. A fine large rocking-chair, abreast of the seats, 
 was pointed out to us as Brigham's place when he sits with 
 them. Ordinarily he occupies a private box, with his 
 favorite wife, and did so that evening with his deaj
 
 180 HIS MANY CHILDREN 
 
 Amelia. He paid but little attention to the play, but 
 most of the time was sweeping the audience with an 
 opera-glass, or conversing with a gentleman by his side. 
 Mrs. Amelia was well-dressed, but not richly, and was 
 scarcely better looking than the other sixteen, whom she 
 had displaced in Brigham's affections. Evidently the 
 Prophet has no taste for female beauty, or else is indiffer- 
 ent to it. Sometimes, between the acts, he comes down 
 and chats a little with his domestic flock below, but 
 retires to his box again' when the play resumes. That 
 evening, however, he continued faithful throughout to 
 Mrs. Amelia. 
 
 Flanking the stage were two long seats, upholstered 
 somewhat better than the rest, and here sat some twenty 
 or more of Brigham's children of all sizes and both 
 sexes. They were mostly maidens from ten to fifteen 
 years of age, though some were only prattling infants on 
 their mothers' knees. They were better dressed and 
 brighter looking, than most of the young people present ; 
 but the sight was a singular one for the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, and in Christian America. Altogether, Brigham 
 was said to have- over fifty children mostly girls. 
 Heber Kimball was credited with about the same number, 
 but his were chiefly boys whereat he was inclined to 
 joke Brigham. Their wives so-called, were reported at 
 the same number, about twenty-five each. Recently 
 Brigham had said, that he had " about a dozen or twenty, 
 he was not certain which it was nobody's business but 
 his own." But public opinion at Salt Lake credited him 
 with twenty-five or more, regular and " brevet " together, 
 when we were there ; and he has probably increased the 
 number one or two per year, ever since. 
 
 Our main object, however, in going to the Theatre, 
 was to get a good look at the general audience. On the
 
 A SALT LAKE AUDIENCE GENERALLY. 181 
 
 surface, I must say, this was genteel and respectable. 
 There was no fashion or "style" about it, of course; 
 but the people as a whole were well-dressed always 
 comfortably and in the main looked contented and well- 
 to-do. Here and there a woman's face however, showed, 
 unmistakable signs of grief and anguish ; but there were 
 not nearly so many\)f these, as might be expected. What 
 the women's faces chiefly lacked, was that air of spright- 
 liness and grace, of culture and refinement, that charac- 
 terizes the majority of theatre-going ladies East and 
 elsewhere. There was an ugly subdued look about many 
 of them, as if they felt themselves trodden down and 
 inferior to the men much such as we used to see in the 
 negro's face down South and too little of that calm, 
 masterful, rounded equipoise of self-respect, which is the 
 true glory of either man or woman. Prolong polygamy 
 for a century, with all such downward forces constantly 
 at work, and what may not our Utah dames and damsels 
 become ? The men, on the other hand, looked heavy and 
 coarse, and while there were keen sharp faces among them, 
 here and there, that could have belonged only to men of 
 character anywhere, yet in too many instances the animal 
 was evidently creeping over them, and in the end would 
 surely predominate. It was pitiful to think how inexora- 
 bly their higher nature must suffer, if polygamy contin- 
 ued, unless all history is false, and physiology a lie. But 
 there are somfe things, that need not be said ; it is enough 
 to intimate them.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MOKMON OUTRAGES POLYGAMY, ETC. 
 
 AS to the alleged outrages and wrongs by Mormong 
 against Gentiles, we found public opinion at Salt 
 Lake much divided. The Mormons, as a class, of course, 
 all repudiated and denied them ; while the Gentiles, as 
 a class, were equally earnest in affirming them. Before 
 arriving there, we were very skeptical on this subject ; 
 but before leaving, and afterwards, heard so many ugly 
 stories, that we were compelled to believe somewhat in 
 them. It is a delicate subject to touch at all, and I 
 would fain avoid it ; but no account of Salt Lake would 
 be complete without some allusion thereto. Space would 
 fail me to speak of them at length ; so that I shall con- 
 tent myself with recording only a case or two, and from 
 them the reader must judge for himself. The Mountain 
 Meadow massacre, and the Brassfield murder, were old 
 stories ; but just previous to our arrival, a party of Gen- 
 tiles had been threatened with drowning in the Jordan, 
 and indeed, while we were there, the atrocious murder 
 of Dr. Robinson occurred. The editor of the little 
 Vidette, the plucky Gentile paper then at Salt Lake, 
 was one of the Gentiles above referred to, and his story 
 was that a band of masked men seized them on the street 
 one night, and taking them out to the Jordan tied them 
 Land and foot, and then gave them the option either to 
 leave Utah in one week, or to be tossed in and drowned.
 
 LEAVE UTAH OK DBOWN 183 
 
 Their only offence was, that they had been too bitter 
 against Mormonism, and Salt Lake they were informed 
 was " an unhealthy place " for such people. They all 
 agreed, we believe, to emigrate. But the Vidette man, 
 on getting home, concluded such a promise under duress 
 was not very binding, and proceeded to strengthen his 
 conclusion by securing a guard from Camp Douglas.. 
 Loaded down with revolvers, he went about his business 
 as usual in the day time, but at night kept within doors, 
 and so far had remained unmolested. The others, how- 
 ever, as a whole, thought it safer to keep their agreement, 
 and accordingly duly quitted Utah. 
 
 The murder of Dr. Robinson (Oct. 22d), it must be 
 admitted, was a cold-blooded atrocity, worthy only of 
 fanatics or savages. He had come to Salt Lake origin- 
 ally, as Surgeon or Ass't-Surgeon of a regiment of volun- 
 teers, ordered there from California during the war, to 
 replace the Regulars sent east. When his regiment was 
 mustered out, he concluded to settle at Salt Lake, and 
 soon after " pre-empted " the quarter-section containing 
 the Hot Sulphur Springs. Associating a Dr. Williamson 
 with him, who had also been in the army, they put up a 
 bath-house and refreshment-saloon at the Springs, and by 
 liberal advertising were soon in a fair way to make some 
 money. Now, all at once, two Mormons living near sud- 
 denly discovered that the property belonged to them, 
 although they had never claimed it before, or regularly 
 " pre-empted " it, or made any " permanent improve- 
 ment" there, as required by our pre-emption laws. They 
 accordingly brought suit in ejectment against Messrs. 
 Robinson and Williamson, in the U. S. District Court 
 there ; but before the cause reached trial, became con- 
 vinced there was nothing in their case, and concluded to 
 abandon it. Now, however, Salt Lake City itself step-
 
 184 DB. ROBINSON'S MURDER 
 
 ped in as plaintiff in the cause, and claimed the Springs 
 also as corporation property, by virtue of some old ordi- 
 nance, though two or three miles beyond the city 
 limits. Immediately, without waiting for the Court, 
 Messrs. R. and "W. were declared trespassers, and the 
 Mayor ordered the city police to eject them from 
 the premises, which was done one night by tearing down 
 the buildings over their heads, and dragging them both 
 off bodily. This summary proceeding, no better than a 
 riot, naturally created much excitement among the Gen- 
 tiles, and was still being talked of when we reached Salt 
 Lake. Meanwhile, Dr. Robinson took it very coolly, and 
 moving into Salt Lake, opened an office for practice 
 there, proposing to abide the judgment of the Court. 
 Shortly, however, before this could be reached, he was 
 roused up one night by a man at his door, with the 
 plausible story, that a friend down the street had broker, 
 his leg and needed his immediate services, being already 
 in great agony. His wife, newly married, fearing treach- 
 ery, begged him not to go. But the Doctor felt bound 
 by the vows of his profession, and while proceeding 
 forth upon this supposed errand of mercy and benevo- 
 lence, he was waylaid on one of the most public streets, 
 knocked down, and shot through the head, three or four 
 times, as if his assassins meant to make sure work of 
 their victim. From the testimony of those awakened by 
 the shots and his loud outcries, it appeared there were 
 over a half a dozen of his assassins and their accessories 
 some doing the bloody work, while others stood guard 
 on the adjacent corners and yet not one of them was 
 arrested, though it was a bright moonlight night, and A 
 fresh fall of snow on the ground. The city police, when 
 sought, were all found collected at the Central Police 
 Station, as if purposely out of the way, and no serious or
 
 MORMONS IMPLICATED 185 
 
 concerted attempt was made to track the murderers. 
 His watch was untouched ; his pockets, imrifled ; there 
 was no evidence that he had a personal enemy ; and the 
 almost universal conviction of the Gentiles then at Salt 
 Lake was, that he had fallen a victim to the Mormons, at 
 the bidding or instigation of the Church they preferring 
 to end their action of ejectment thus summarily, rather 
 than abide " the law's delay," or its " glorious uncertain- 
 ties." Subsequently, a leading Mormon, a son-in-law 
 of Brigham Young's, admitted to me, indeed, that Rob- 
 inson had probably been " silenced " by some ignorant or 
 bigoted brother ; but repudiated, of course, all connection 
 of the Church therewith, or responsibility therefor. 
 
 The morning after the assassination, as the facts 
 got known, the Gentile population became greatly excited, 
 and for a day or two there was hot talk of a " Vigilance 
 Committee," etc. Happily, however, this last suggestion 
 was abandoned, or the Mormons would have extermina- 
 ted them, as they outnumbered the Gentiles fully six to 
 one in the city, and immensely more than that outside 
 in the Territory. To pacify them, however, a coroner's 
 inquest was ordered, and, as the excitement grew, the 
 City Government came out ostentatiously with a reward of 
 $2,000, for the apprehension and conviction of the mur- 
 derers. So intense was the feeling, Brigham Young 
 himself thought it wise to start a private subscription, and 
 raised $7,000 more among the Mormon merchants and 
 "tender-footed" Gentiles. The sturdier Gentiles, how- 
 ever, and many of the U. S. officials, refused to have any 
 thing to do with this; and one, at least, of the U. S. 
 Judges, when asked to sign it, unhesitatingly branded 
 the whole movement, as only " a cheat and swindle to 
 throw dust into the eyes of people East." It was, how- 
 ever, a shrewd dodge, worthy of such an old fox, and
 
 186 SHREWD DODGE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG 
 
 Brigham immediately telegraphed to Gen. Sheiman, at 
 St. Louis, then commanding that Department, "We 
 have offered $9,000 reward for Dr. Robinson's murderers. 
 The church nothing to do with it!" No doubt, 
 when interrogated by tourists about such outrages and 
 wrongs hereafter, he will refer to that " $9,000 reward," 
 for many a day, with great unction, and extol his saints 
 to the skies accordingly. Of course, it was perfectly safe 
 to "subscribe" it; for it was never meant, that any 
 body should be caught. The coroner's inquest made a 
 show of sitting several days, but nothing came of their 
 labors. Some Gentiles, indeed, went so far as to retain 
 Ex-Gov. Weller, of California, who happened then to 
 be at Salt Lake, and he prosecuted the inquiry with 
 some vigor ; but the verdict of the jury was, "Killed by 
 some person or persons unknown." The effect of it all 
 was, to deepen the sense of insecurity in the minds of all 
 Gentiles there, as to both person and property, and to 
 intensify the general feeling against Mormonism, which 
 we found everywhere throughout Colorado, Idaho, Ore- 
 gon, Nevada, and the Pacific Coast generally. It became 
 at once another wall of division, another root of bitter- 
 ness, between Gentiles and Mormons throughout all that 
 region ; and will be sure to be treasured up " as wrath 
 against a day of wrath," when that dark day comes. And 
 justice, against even Brighamdom, we may depend, will 
 not sleep forever. 
 
 Mrs. Robinson, it should be added, subsequently 
 returned to her friends in California, and Dr. Williamson 
 left for the East, both abandoning their undoubted prop- 
 erty, after such convincing arguments. The City imme- 
 diately leased the Springs and their appurtenances for 
 $2,000 per year ; and thus this cruel assassination was
 
 THE FRUIT OF MORMON TEACHING 187 
 
 apparently a "paying" operation for the Saints, what- 
 ever may be its barbarism, or however others fared. 
 
 This case I have given somewhat in detail, because it 
 occurred under my own eye so to speak and I endeav- 
 ored to sift its facts pretty thoroughly for myself. In 
 my Official Report on Utah, attention was called to it ; and 
 whatever else may be said or thought of it, one thing 
 seems clear, to wit, that such unlawful and wicked acts 
 are but the logical fruit of the habitual teachings of the 
 Mormon chiefs and leaders. Said Brigham Young some 
 time before, in one of his pulpit discourses, " Brethren, 
 if any body comes here, and goes to interfere with our 
 lands or women, my advice is to send 'em to hell across 
 lots." Said the editor of the Salt Lake Telegraph, the 
 chief Mormon paper there, one day in my hearing, " If a 
 man comes here, and don't like our institutions, all he 
 has to do is to leave. If he stops here, and minds his own 
 business, he will get along well enough nobody will 
 molest him. But if he goes to denouncing President 
 Young, or interfering with our domestic relations, of 
 course he will get into trouble mighty quick, you bet ! " 
 I thought that a fair statement of their position ; but 
 failed to see wherein it differed from the hideous despot- 
 ism down South, which we had just had to break as with 
 a rod of iron, and dash in pieces as a potter's vessel. He 
 indignantly denied, that Gentiles were ordinarily ill- 
 treated or tabooed ; but his own statement, it seemed to 
 me, confessed away the whole case substantially of Gen- 
 tile vs. Mormon, involving as it does a thorough surren- 
 der of our cherished freedom of speech and of the press. 
 This editor was a bluff and hearty Englishman, about 
 forty years of age, and was reported engaged to a daugh- 
 ter of Brigham Young's, only about seventeen. The cur- 
 rent criticism of him was, that he really believed no more
 
 188 WHAT A U. S. JUDGE THINKS 
 
 in Mormonism, than the most incorrigible Gentile but 
 he had found the institution, or rather " destitution," (as 
 Theodore Parker called its " twin relic," and would much 
 more have branded &), to " pay," and so eulogized and 
 defended it. 
 
 Perhaps I can not do better, than relate just here a 
 rather remarkable conversation I had with a high judi- 
 cial officer of the Territory, on this and kindred subjects. 
 He had been there several years, was a man of ability and 
 character, and I give the conversation at length, because 
 it seemed trustworthy, and also because it will probably 
 answer a variety of questions the reader may want to ask. 
 It took place in his own chambers, while I was at Salt 
 Lake ; and as no injunction of secrecy was imposed, or 
 apparently desired, I see no objections to publishing it. 
 He said he had come to Utah unprejudiced against the 
 Mormons, but at length had become convinced, however 
 reluctantly, that they had a secret organization call- it 
 " Thugs," " Danites," " Destroying Angels," or what you 
 will whose sworn duty it was to " put out of the way'' 
 any person, who became hostile or obnoxious to their 
 views or interests. For a long while after coming there, 
 he had refused to credit this ; but at length was compelled 
 to, by the most indubitable evidence, to wit, his own 
 multiplied observations and experiences as a U. S. judge. 
 He continued : 
 
 " I can't help believing, sir that poor Dr. Robinson 
 was killed in this way, and when Brigham Young's 
 hypocritical subscription-paper, for a reward for the 
 arrest of the assassins, was presented for my signature, 
 I indignantly spurned it. I told the committe in charge, 
 that it was only another of Brigham's tricks to throw 
 dust into the eyes of the people at "Washington, and 1 
 would have nothing to do with it."
 
 MORMON JURIES 
 
 "Do you think his murderers will ever be discov- 
 ered?" 
 
 "Suppose they are, they will never be convicted. 
 No Mormon jury would convict a brother Mormon, in 
 such a case, even if indicted, as everybody knows here. 
 I know very well who murdered poor Brassfield some 
 time ago, and where the Church sent him abroad to keep 
 him out of the way. I suppose England would return 
 him, under our extradition laws, if requested. But 
 cui l)ono ? Our juries here are all summoned by the 
 Mormon sheriffs, and the jurors, of course, are either 
 Mormons, or dough-face Gentiles, worse than Mormons ; 
 so that, it would be hopeless to expect a righteous 
 verdict." 
 
 " Then you really think, the accounts we get East of 
 outrages and crimes by Mormons, against Gentiles or 
 apostate Mormons, are, on the whole, true ? " 
 
 " Why, yes, I am sorry to say, I fear so the most 
 of them as true as holy writ. But the half of them 
 never come to light. ' Dead men tell no tales.' And 
 what do we know of the mysteries and miseries of their 
 barbarous polygamy ? " 
 
 "Do you think Brigham Young has much to do with 
 such outrages ? " 
 
 " In some cases, yes, directly. In others, only 
 indirectly, by his sermons and addresses. No doubt he 
 advised, or at least suggested, the 'taking off' of Brass- 
 field and Dr. Robinson, to save trouble and serve as 
 examples. So, also, he was directly responsible for the 
 Mountain Meadow massacre, that occurred several years 
 ago, when a whole train of Gentile emigrants, en route 
 to California, were murdered in cold blood, and their 
 property and little children distributed around among 
 the Mormons. They had offended the Saints while
 
 190 THE MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE 
 
 passing through Salt Lake, and this was their revenge. 
 This murder by wholesale they have always charged 
 upon the Indians ; but I myself have seen the secret 
 orders for their massacre, signed ' By order of President 
 Young, D. H. Wells, Adj't.-Gen.' I was in Washing- 
 ton in the autumn of 1865, and was at the White- 
 House one day, when these orders were shown to Andrew 
 Johnson. He took the tattered and discolored papers to 
 the window, scanned them closely for awhile, and when 
 he returned them said, with much feeling, it was " high 
 time something was done to dean, out such scoundrels." 
 It was a generous impulse, while it lasted, and he meant 
 it, too. But subsequently, when I saw him again, in the 
 winter, he had become embroiled with Congress, and 
 dismissed the Utah question with the curt remark, that 
 there was " practical polygamy in Massachusetts too, as 
 well as Utah." The property of these Mountain 
 Meadow emigrants, I repeat, was divided up, and 
 distributed around among the Mormons. Some of their 
 furniture is in Salt Lake now, and can readily be identi- 
 fied. Many of their mules were sold by Capt. H. 
 subsequently our delegate to Congress to the U. S. 
 Quartermaster then here, and the proceeds shared by 
 himself, Young, Wells, and others. There is plenty of 
 evidence of all this, that I can put my finger on at any 
 time ; but it would be ridiculous to submit it to a Mor- 
 mon jury, with any hope of a conviction now. And so, 
 the case rests." 
 
 " I suppose, this also is why our anti-polygamy laws 
 prove to be a failure ? " 
 
 " Certainly, sir ! It is an old adage, ' Dog won't eat 
 dog ! ' There didn't use to be much polygamy here. 
 But as soon as Congress made it a misdemeanor and a 
 crime, Brigham and his Bishops set to work to get as
 
 POLYGAMY ITS PRACTICAL WORKINGS 191 
 
 many of their people into it as possible, so as to make the 
 enforcement of the new law difficult, if not well nigh 
 impracticable. They argued very shrewdly, ' You can't 
 indict and try a whole people.' Polygamy, indeed, used 
 to be only a matter of taste, and but little talked about ; 
 but now it is constantly preached, as a civil and religious 
 duty, and all who can support more than one wife are 
 proceeding to take others. The women objected a good 
 deal, at first, and do still ; but they were told, it was a 
 New Revelation, ' thus saith the Lord,' and submission 
 would make them ' Queens in Heaven ' etc., and so they 
 yielded. What else could they do in these mountain 
 fastnesses, with Gown and Sword both against them ? " 
 
 "Well, judge, you must have seen a good deal of 
 the ' peculiar institution.' What are its practical 
 workings ? " 
 
 " Bad, and only bad every way. It tends to make 
 the men petty despots and mere animals, of course, while 
 it degrades American women to the level of the Oriental 
 harem. Their husbands, so-called, already habitually 
 think and speak of them, as their ' women' not wives as 
 you may have noticed, as a part of their goodly possessions, 
 somewhat more esteemed perhaps than their flocks and 
 herds, but not so much more either. Affection, sympa- 
 thy, confidence the finer instincts and feelings all true 
 delicacy between husband and wife are fast dying out, 
 and we have nothing half so good to show for them. 
 Sometimes, however, a first wife gets the bit into her 
 teeth, and then the others have to stand around, or leave. 
 Per contra, sometimes the first wife herself gets ejected. 
 One of Heber Kimball's sons married a second wife some 
 time ago, and soon after she persuaded his first wife a 
 wife of many years, with several children to vacate, by 
 three shots from a revolver, and then installed herself as
 
 192 ITS SHAMELESSNESS 
 
 first wife instead ! No doubt, the Saints have many 
 a little " unpleasantness," like this, to mar their do- 
 mestic felicity ; but they hush them up, and keep quiet 
 about it." 
 
 " "What about their polygamous children ? " 
 
 " Why, they are inferior of course, in many ways, ex 
 necessitate, as the fruits of such a practice always are, 
 and must be. Go to the City Cemetery, and you will 
 find it a perfect Golgotha of infant graves. If not feeble 
 and tainted already in constitution, they must speedily 
 become so ; or else all History is false, and Science a 
 slander." 
 
 " And yet those we have seen on the road, and about 
 the streets here, seem bright and spry enough." 
 
 "N"o doubt. It is a good climate, and there has not 
 been time enough yet. But, then, have you considered the 
 whole foul brood of downward influences at work here, and 
 what must be the logical result in due season, by the very 
 nature of things ? Why, with our population of a hun- 
 dred thousand souls, we have not a Free School yet in all 
 Utah, and outside of this city scarcely a x&AooZ-House. 
 Here, we have a few Ward Schools; but the teachers are 
 inferior, and the rates of tuition, cost of books etc., so 
 high, that only the children of the better classes can 
 attend. Brigham Young has a school of his own, in his 
 seraglio grounds, where his numerous progeny are taught 
 music, dancing, and some of the commoner branches ; but 
 the great bulk of our rising generation here are growing 
 up in a state of ignorance and superstition so dense, as to 
 be absolutely inconceivable elsewhere. So, too, many of 
 the Saints have two or more sisters for wives, at the same 
 time. Others, again, marry their own blood-cousins, and 
 some even their own step-daughters. And instances 
 exist, where they have had mother and daughter foi
 
 JUDGE 5 S REMEDY 193 
 
 wives, at the same time. Now, where all this is to end, 
 it seems to me, it is not difficult to predict, unless Nature 
 suspends her laws, and Evil becomes our Good." 
 
 "It is certainly very shocking, judge. But what do 
 you propose to do about it ? " 
 
 " Well, I would do something, or at at least try to. 
 I have thought a good deal about it, since I got my eyes 
 open ; and, first of all, I would have Congress authorize 
 and instruct the U. S. Marshal here to summon the jurors 
 for the II. S. Courts direct. By some strange oversight, 
 I suspect by Mormon intrigue (for they watch Congress 
 closely, and boast they control it on all Utah matters 
 usually), this was omitted in our Organic Act, and 
 consequently our jury-lists are now taken from the 
 county-lists, which are of course made up by Mormon 
 sheriffs. Therefore, all open and avowed Gentiles, who 
 have any back-bone in them, are left off, and we get 
 nobody in our U. S. jury-boxes even, except Mormons and 
 doughface Gentiles. Of course, such juries won't indict 
 or convict for polygamy, or any other offence worth men- 
 tioning, if a Mormon is to be mulcted for it. But if our 
 jurors were summoned by our Marshal direct, out of the 
 whole body of the Territory, as they are everywhere else, I 
 believe, he could take good care to put only reliable 
 citizens on the lists, and thus give us juries that would 
 indict and convict in all necessary or flagrant cases.* 
 
 * Senator Wade's Bill (1867) met the Utah Question somewhat 
 
 like this, and I suspect Judge had a finger in it. So, Senator 
 
 Cragin's Bill subsequently, and others since. The present imbro- 
 glio in Utah hinges on this Jury Question, more than anything else, 
 and Congress ought to settle it speedily, on a just and right basis. 
 Judge McKean may be in the wrong technically ; but substantially, 
 he is fighting for truth and justice, and if he lacks the necessary 
 weapons, should be furnished them. This is what Senator Freling- 
 huysen's Bill, now pending, (1874) proposes well to do.
 
 194 THE RAILROAD AS A REMEDY 
 
 " But would the Saints meekly consent to be thus 
 overslaughed, and ignored ? " 
 
 " Of course, not ! The first verdict we got and attempted 
 to enforce, there would be a riot, or threatened riot, and 
 then we would have to fall back on the Military. The 
 Utah Militia, of course, could not be depended on ; for it is 
 all officered and controlled by the creatures of the Church. 
 Therefore, we would have to call on the United States, 
 and it would be for Uncle Sam to decide at last. This, 
 of course, would necessitate an increase of troops here ; 
 for, if the garrison were small, the Saints might make 
 trouble. But give us a couple of batteries, a regiment 
 of cavalry, and say two regiments of infantry, such as 
 Sherman * went marching through Georgia ' with ; and 
 Brighamdom can be made to obey the laws, the same as 
 Dixie, or be ground to powder." 
 
 "But, judge, will not the Pacific Railroad solve the 
 problem in a more excellent way peaceably and quietly 
 by bringing in such an influx of Gentiles, that Mor- 
 monisra will be neutralized ? This is what we all hope 
 East?" 
 
 " Perhaps so, if this ' influx' is big enough, and good 
 enough. But, you see, the Saints claim to have pre- 
 empted about all the land here, that is worth anything, 
 and they won't sell or lease to Gentiles, unless the Church 
 says so. Besides, with the heavy immigration the Mor- 
 mons are constantly receiving about three thousand 
 this year, to next to nothing by the Gentiles, and their 
 naturally rapid increase, I fear they will keep greatly 
 ahead of all outsiders, who won't be likely to come and 
 stay long where they will be ostracised and outlawed. It 
 isn't natural, that they should. Won't it be the same, as 
 it was down South before the war, and has been ever 
 since ? Northern brain and capital wouldn't go there,
 
 BRIGHAM'S SUCCESSOR 195 
 
 and won't, because they believe in perfect freedom of 
 speech and of the press absolute security of person and 
 property and won't settle where these are wanting. 
 How then can we expect them to emigrate here, where 
 we have no true enjoyment of either ? What sensible 
 man would come to Utah, or bring his wife and children 
 here, when he could go just as well to Colorado or Mon- 
 tana, Oregon or California, and escape the dismal draw- 
 backs we have here ? I admit I have great hopes of the 
 Railroad, in time ; and yet I confess, I fear, our qucestio 
 vexata here in Utah, like its " twin" question down in 
 Dixie, will find its solution only in gunpowder, if it is 
 to find it soon. When nothing else will do, I have great 
 faith in the moral power of bayonets especially, when 
 used on the right side." 
 
 "But, judge, is not Brigham Young the main cohe- 
 sive power ; and when he dies, what then ? " 
 
 " Well, when that happens they may split up, on the 
 question of his successor ; but I suspect Brighara is too 
 shrewd and far-seeing for that. He already has Brigharn 
 Young, Jr., his smartest son, in training for the succes- 
 sion sent him missionary to England, and now he is a 
 Brigadier-General in the Mormon Militia here and the 
 probability is, a "Revelation" will designate him for the 
 Presidency, if death don't come too suddenly. Brigham 
 will undoubtedly keep the succession in his own family, 
 if he can ; but he will not hesitate a moment to designate 
 some other person, if the seeming interests of the Church 
 require it. Of course, he is very illiterate ; but he is a 
 very able and sagacious man, for all that devoted to 
 Mormonism, and "dangerous" in every sense of that 
 word." 
 
 " Have you no fear of him, yourself, judge ? You 
 speak your mind pretty plainly."
 
 196 THE HIGH COUNCIL OF THE CHURCH 
 
 "No, I think not. He would hardly strike so high. 
 Besides he is reputed to be a coward, personally, and I 
 guess that is so. I have seen him charged with compli- 
 city in the Mountain Meadow massacre, and his shirking 
 and cringing then was pitiful. No doubt, my life is 
 always in danger here, more or less, as would be that of 
 any other upright and fearless judge. Indeed, I have 
 good reason to know, that they cordially hate me. After 
 Dr. Robinson's assassination a friendly Mormon came to 
 me at night, and told me confidentially my turn would 
 come next. But I keep indoors after dark, or else go out 
 only in company, or when heavily armed, and am pre- 
 pared to sacrifice my life, if need be, at any time. I have 
 lived too long in this world, to be much afraid of leaving 
 it ; and I don't know as I could die better anyhow, than 
 in upholding and enforcing the laws of my country here 
 in Utah." 
 
 u Do your Courts ever meet with real opposition to 
 their ordinary courses of procedure ? " 
 
 " Why, no not formally ; though I never have much 
 confidence in a verdict, where one of the parties is a 
 Gentile. Where plaintiff and defendant are both Mor- 
 mons, our verdicts are usually righteous enough ; though 
 these are liable to be overruled or set aside, by the High 
 Council of the Church a body of irresponsible ecclesias- 
 tics, of course, unknown to the laws. This Council is 
 composed of Brigham Young, and a number of the chief 
 dignitaries of the Church, and is often appealed to by 
 " big " Mormons, when the civil courts have gone against 
 them." 
 
 " No ! Really \ But is not this mere rumor, judge ? " 
 
 "No, indeed! I could cite several such cases, but 
 will only trouble you with one. Not long ago, down in 
 one of our Southern counties, a laboring man a Mor-
 
 A CASE OF APPEAL 197 
 
 mon was working in a barn, for and with a Mormon 
 Bishop. In some way or other, they got into a quarrel, 
 which ended in a fight, and in the course of this the 
 Bishop hurt the poor fellow very badly. Among other 
 things, he struck him with a pitchfork, harpooning him 
 so to speak through the leg, so that the poor man 
 was laid up for months, and made a cripple indeed for 
 life. After his recovery, the outrage was so atrocious, 
 and the community so generally with him, he mustered 
 up courage enough to bring an action against the Bishop. 
 The cause was tried in the Probate or County Court, 
 where of course, all were Mormons. But the jurors, 
 being neighbors of the injured man and cognizant of all 
 the facts, resolved to do justice, and accordingly without 
 much delay returned a verdict for $3,500 damages. The 
 Bishop being rich, as the high dignitaries all are, appealed 
 the case to my court, where I, after a full hearing, of 
 course, affirmed the judgment of the court below, with 
 heavy costs. 
 
 "Well, now, I supposed this settled the case, as 
 there was no higher court here. But judge of my 
 astonishment, when some weeks after the plaintiff came 
 to me one day, and said the Bishop had further appealed 
 the case to the High Council of the Church, where they 
 had tried it over again, and awarded him only $1,000 
 damages ; and he wanted to know if this was right and 
 " good law " here ? Of course, I could do nothing for 
 him myself, with the facts in that shape. But I referred 
 him to one of our Gentile lawyers here, and told him if 
 he would put the case in his hands, and have the facts 
 brought regularly before me, so that I could get hold of 
 the matter judicially, I would soon teach this "High 
 Council of the Church- ' a lesson, as to their rights and 
 duties, as against a United States Court, that they would
 
 198 HIS STATEMENTS CORROBORATED. 
 
 be apt to remember for awhile. He thanked me, and 
 took my advice. But before the papers got regularly 
 before me, the Mormons somehow got wind of the matter, 
 and hastened to settle with the man. I believe they 
 gave him $2,000, or something like that, and I suppose 
 frightened him into silence. Now, to think once of 
 these insolent villains, presuming without law and in 
 violation of law to review and overrule the solemn 
 decision of a United States Court ! I tell you, it made 
 my Quaker blood boil, when I heard of it.* I would 
 just like to have laid my hands on that " High Council 
 of the Church," in a case like that. I feel right sure, I 
 would have taught Brigham Young and his lawless 
 associates a wholesome lesson, they wouldn't have for- 
 gotten very soon, if it had cost me my life to do it." 
 
 There was something grand and heroic almost 
 sublime about this man's talk at times, and I only 
 reproduce it here very faintly. He knew I was 
 seeking official facts, and doubtless unburdened his 
 whole soul to me. He had had unusual opportunities 
 for observation ; he seemed to be well-informed ; and 
 certainly was thoroughly honest. Further than this, I 
 cannot vouch for him, but report the conversation sub- 
 stantially as it occurred, from notes made the same even- 
 ing. I must, however, do him the justice to add, that 
 his views in the main were everywhere corroborated by 
 almost all the Federal officers I met both civil and mil- 
 itary as well as the vast majority of Gentile settlers, 
 throughout all that region. Such were the views of 
 Judge ; and subsequent events there, it must be con- 
 fessed, have pretty well illustrated them. 
 
 * He was originally from Pennsylvania.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 MOKMONISM IN GENERAL. 
 
 IN the two previous chapters, I have discussed Utah 
 pretty thoroughly, touching most of the mooted ques- 
 tions there; and now, to sum up. Without doubt, it 
 must be said of the people of Utah, that they are an indus- 
 trious, frugal, and thrifty race. By their wonderful sys- 
 tem of irrigation, they have converted the desert there 
 into a garden, and literally made the wilderness, " bloom 
 and blossom as the rose." Their statistics (1866) showed, 
 that they had already constructed over a thousand miles 
 of irrigating canals and ditches, watering 150,000 acres 
 of land, at a cost of nearly $2,000,000. Each family has 
 its own few acres, and these are cultivated so thoroughly, 
 that the total annual product is surprising. In Salt Lake 
 City many families almost live on their acre-and-a 
 quarter lots, and many of their farms elsewhere do not 
 exceed forty or fifty acres, with many much smaller. 
 "With their system of careful culture and general double- 
 cropping, one man cannot well manage over ten or twelve 
 acres per year ; nor is more necessary for an ordinary 
 family, the land proves so bountiful. Fifty and sixty 
 bushels of wheat per acre, we were told, was not an unu- 
 sual yield. So, since leaving the Missouri, we had nowhere 
 seen more comfortable and apparently well-to-do homes. 
 We must say, they were much superior to the average 
 homes of our people in Colorado. Evidently, these
 
 200 ITS PRODUCTS, SOBRIETY AND THRIFT 
 
 Utahans had come there to stay, and from the first had 
 " governed themselves accordingly ; " while the Colora- 
 doans, it was plain, were too many of them, only " birds 
 of passage," like so much of our population in the West 
 generally. Their towns and villages are well laid out, 
 and in the main neatly built. In the country, their little 
 farms are well-fenced or walled, with comfortable adobe 
 houses clustering with vines and flowers, or surrounded 
 with fruit and shade trees, while a throng of hay and 
 grain-stacks encircle their barns. So, too, the Mormons, 
 whatever else may be said of them, are certainly a sober 
 race of people. Many of them no doubt keep liquor 
 about their premises, and drink when they choose to ; 
 but drunkenness as a vice, or habitual drinking as a 
 practice, is unknown in Utah, comparatively speaking. 
 So, too, they allow no gambling there, except " on the 
 sly ; " and no houses of prostitution, unless you regard 
 every " much-married " Mormon's as such, which it 
 seems hardly fair to do the women considered. On the 
 whole, it is safe to say, that the Mormons deserve marked 
 commendation and praise for what they have accomplish- 
 ed in Utah, in redeeming a. barren wilderness and build- 
 ding up a prosperous community there, and full credit 
 should be awarded them accordingly. They brag con- 
 stantly, and largely, about Great Salt Lake City, and 
 surely they have a right to. In the essential points of 
 beauty, comfort, cleanliness, and good order, it has few 
 equals, and perhaps no superiors of its age and size any- 
 where, and all things considered is indeed a perfect mir- 
 acle for Utah. In the very heart of the great internal 
 basin of the continent, and the centre of a busy and thriv- 
 ing people, it really seemed to be a natural metropolis 
 there, and was everywhere talked of as the future work- 
 shop and mart of that region.
 
 ITS BISHOPS, KEEN BUSINESS MEN 201 
 
 On the other hand, it is due to truth to say, that 
 impartial as I tried to be, the more I studied affairs 
 there, the more Mormonism impressed me as, in many 
 respects, a huge mass of thorough iniquity. It did not 
 strike me as a Religion at all, per se, and I suspect there 
 is less of the purely " religious" about it, than any other 
 ecclesiastical organization on the earth. Their sermons 
 were not so much theological discourses, as they were 
 sectarian stump-speeches. The whole Church, " so- 
 called," struck me ordinarily, as a coarse utilitarianism, 
 not to say rude materialism. Their missionaries seemed 
 to be sent out, not so much to spread the gospel (even 
 according to J. Smith and B. Young), as to induce and 
 hasten immigration to Utah. It is true, they have Bish- 
 ops and other subordinate clergy ; but their main duty 
 appeared to be to preside over and direct colonization, 
 rather than to cure souls. They had indeed their regular 
 dioceses ; but these were so arranged as to make the 
 Bishop the chief man in each town or settlement, and 
 judging by those we saw these dignitaries were selected 
 rather for their shrewd business talents, than any special 
 piety or virtue. They were almost invariably sharp smart 
 Americans, while the great majority of the Mormons 
 were English, Welsh, Danes, etc., of the very lowest and 
 poorest classes. In every community, the Bishop's word 
 was law and gospel, as he claimed to receive " revela- 
 tions" direct from heaven on most knotty questions, and 
 he virtually inspired and directed all its business. Usu- 
 ally he owned the mill, store, and hotel, and he who con- 
 trols these three essentials of a new community ordinarily 
 controls the community itself. Observation shows, that 
 nearly everybody in a new country becomes mortgaged, 
 sooner or later, to the miller, store-keeper, or hotel-keeper ; 
 and hence as the Bishops are all three of these in one, 
 o*
 
 202 THE CHURCH AN IMMIGRATION AGENCY 
 
 their chances for amassing wealth are simply enormous. 
 The result is, that all or nearly all of the Mormon Bishops 
 have become immensely rich, while Brigham himself is 
 reported worth a fabulous amount in his own right, inde- 
 pendently of the vast property he holds, as " Trustee in 
 trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."* 
 Indeed, to sum it up in one word, the whole institution 
 of Mormonism polygamy and all apart from its theo- 
 logical aspects, impresses you rather as a gigantic organi- 
 zation for collecting and consolidating a population, and 
 thus settling up a Territory rapidly, whatever else it may 
 be ; and its success, in this respect, has certainly been 
 notable and great. 
 
 As a whole, the Mormons are no doubt a very igno- 
 rant, and, therefore, very bigoted people, and the* whole 
 tendency of their pulpit-teachings is to lawlessness and 
 violence, so far as Gentiles are concerned. They affect to 
 despise mere intellect and sentiment, and to pride them- 
 selves on being plain-spoken and practical. They will 
 not " fellowship' 5 with open and avowed Gentiles, if they 
 can avoid it ; and boldly proclaim their hostility to and 
 contempt for the Government of the United States, as on 
 the Sunday we were at their Tabernacle. No doubt, if 
 opportunity offered, they would assail or embarrass it, 
 though now they are more wary and circumspect, than 
 they were before the South learned a lesson on this score. 
 So, Brigham Young is governor de facto in Utah, and 
 has been always, no matter who is governor de jure, and 
 will be, while that other " twin relic of barbarism," polyg- 
 amy, endures. The evidence on all these points, I must 
 say, seemed fairly overwhelming, though no more can 
 be given here. So, too, they believe, or affect to believe, 
 
 * His account in the Bank of England was said to be fourth on the 
 list, in point of magnitude, and his wealth estimated any where from 
 $25,000,000 to $50,000,000.
 
 ITS BAD RESULTS GENERALLY 203 
 
 that the United States dares not touch their " peculiar 
 institution," and brand all our laws against it as acts of 
 " National wickedness," " Federal tyranny," invasions 
 of their " sacred rights," etc. It seemed to me, that we 
 had heard such complaints before; but not from a part of 
 the country, that led us to respect them greatly, when 
 reiterated there in Utah. The true test is, what are the 
 results to Humanity, and how do they affect us as a 
 People? And I am sure, the answer in all candor must 
 be, a bigoted and seditious race of men, a degraded and 
 inferior class of women, an ignorant and degenerate herd 
 of children ; and does not the inevitable, and inexorable, 
 logic of things necessitate just these ? If these be the 
 elements of progress and the seeds of empire, then Utah 
 should be let alone ; if otherwise, then let us lay the 
 strong hand of the Government upon her, and teach her 
 respect for and obedience to the laws, the same as all 
 other parts of the Union. 
 
 No doubt their poor women are already relapsing into a 
 condition, that is truly pitiable, as elsewhere intimated, and 
 their tendency must be rapidly to the worse. Evidently 
 the Saints take care to seclude them from Gentile gaze, 
 as much as possible ; but a more dreary, homely, pokey 
 set of women, as a whole, were never seen. I may have 
 been unfortunate, but in all Utah, I did not see a truly 
 happy and sunny countenance, or noble and serene, on a 
 mature Mormon woman ; nor did I anywhere hear of 
 one, who would fully realize our old and fond ideal of 
 
 " A perfect woman nobly planned, 
 To warn, to comfort, and command ; 
 And yet a spirit still and bright 
 With something of an angel's light ! " 
 
 But, what else could be expected in a country, where 
 a husband signifies only the fractional part of a man,
 
 204 POLYGAMY A BARBARISM 
 
 and a wife any number of women you please ? Beyond 
 controversy, their "peculiar institution" of polygamy 
 is a " relic of barbarism " yea, verily, a " twin-relic " 
 to slavery as the Republican party in 1856-60 had the 
 manliness and courage to pronounce it. " Peculiar " insti- 
 tutions, of whatever character, have no business in a 
 republic ; they mean inequality, and inevitably tend to 
 violence and disorder. No doubt, had Abraham Lincoln 
 lived, when we had finished our first "twin" right 
 thoroughly, he would have found a way to look well 
 after the other. We owe this to our mothers and sisters, 
 to our wives and daughters, 
 
 " The graces and the loves, that make 
 The music of the march of life 
 
 to all of womankind, the broad continent across and 
 the wide world over ; and Congress should take care, that 
 we lend not the sanction of our flag to this hideous crime, 
 an hour longer than we must. Our age, so far, has largely 
 honored itself, in honoring and respecting womankind, and 
 it is too late now to let Christian America barbarize any 
 portion of herself, with the exploded savagery of pagan- 
 dom. We must have freedom of speech and of the 
 press there, security of person and property absolute 
 and perfect the same as in New York or Massachu- 
 setts, or our flag is a lie. We must maintain and execute 
 our national laws against polygamy, the same as every- 
 where else, no matter who opposes, or our government 
 is a sham. And if Mormon juries wont do this, refusing 
 to indict or convict, and nothing else will do, so that we 
 have to fall back on the bayonet, why then I see nothing 
 in Utah so sacred, that we should not give Brighamdom 
 the bayonet, the same as we did Jeffdom. I believe in 
 the Pacific Railroad, and hope much from its civilizing and
 
 LET DS ENFORCE THE LAWS. 205 
 
 refining influences ; I have great faith in the locomotive 
 
 and the telegraph ; but I also believe, with Judge in 
 
 " the moral power of bayonets, when nothing else will 
 suffice especially when used on the right side." "We 
 have just had to use them against one " twin-relic," when 
 nothing else would do, in spite of our Railroads there ; 
 now let them charge down upon the other, if Utah will 
 not obey the laws, and that right speedily. Were 
 Mormonism merely a religion, as a republic we should 
 be the last to touch it. But polygamy, its baleful flower 
 and fruit, and the source of all Utah's woes, is an unmit- 
 igated barbarism ; an outrage and crime, not only against 
 woman, but humanity ; an organized insult to the Chris- 
 tianity and civilization of the age ; and we Americans, of 
 this generation, owe it to ourselves and to history, to end 
 it to stamp it out if need be sans ceremony and 
 instanter. Let us not dally with it, as we did with South- 
 ern slavery. Else may God, in his just wrath, break us 
 again with a rod of iron, or haply dash us in pieces as a 
 potter's vessel. Let Congress and the President but do their 
 duty in the premises, and Brigham Young I predict will 
 receive a " new revelation," that will quickly end the 
 whole trouble. The power is with them, and History 
 will hold them justly responsible.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SALT LAKE TO BOIS^ CITY, IDAHO. 
 
 IT was our intention originally to proceed from Salt 
 Lake to San Francisco direct, via Nevada ; but our long 
 sojourn at Salt Lake induced us to go via Boise City and 
 the Columbia instead. When arranging for our depar- 
 ture, we happened to meet Mr. Ben Holliday, the great 
 stage-proprietor of the Plains there, and he advised us 
 to inspect Idaho first, or we would be caught there in 
 winter. He was then temporarily at Salt Lake, on one 
 of his semi-annual inspections of his vast stage-lines. 
 The Pacific Railroad has supplanted these now, in the 
 main ; but they were then the only means of rapid 
 transit, and a great and important agency of civilization 
 throughout all that region. His line of stages com- 
 menced then at Fort Kearney on the Platte, and ran 
 thence to Denver, about five hundred miles; thence to 
 Central City, in the heart of the Colorado mines, about 
 forty miles ; returning to Denver, thence along and 
 across the Rocky and Wahsatch Mountains to Salt Lake, 
 about six hundred miles; thence through Idaho and 
 Oregon, to LFmatilla on the Columbia, about seven 
 hundred miles, with a branch at Bear River, through 
 Montana to Virginia City, about four hundred miles 
 more. In all, his stage-lines then footed up about two 
 thousand two hundred and forty miles, through the 
 great frontier heart of the continent. From Kearney to
 
 OVEBLAND STAGE COMPANY AGAIN 207 
 
 Salt Lake, he ran a daily stage each way; over the 
 balance of his routes, only a tri- weekly. From Salt Lake 
 to California, about seven hundred and fifty miles more, 
 there was also a daily stage each way, but this line was 
 owned and run by Wells, Fargo & Co., then and still the 
 great Express Company of the Pacific Coast. Mr. Holli- 
 day, in anticipation of the Railroad, with his wonted 
 sagacity, was just completing the sale and transfer of all 
 his stage-lines to Wells, Fargo & Co., whose stage- 
 business alone thus became one gigantic enterprise, 
 reaching from the Missouri to the Pacific, and from Salt 
 Lake to the Columbia. What a prodigious undertaking ! 
 How colossal in its proportions ! It was estimated that 
 these lines would then foot up over three thousand miles, 
 and to operate them would require about five hundred 
 coaches, and fully ten thousand horses and mules, first 
 and last. Mr. Holliday said his lines had been very 
 profitable some years, but in others again he had lost 
 heavily. Sometimes the Indians stole or destroyed a 
 quarter of a million's worth of his property per annum, 
 and then again his expenses were always necessarily 
 enormous. Stations had to be erected and maintained, 
 ten or fifteen miles apart, along all the routes. Grain 
 had to be hauled, in the main, from either the Missouri 
 or Salt Lake, although Colorado and Idaho had begun 
 to yield something. Hay had to be transported often 
 fifty miles, and fuel sometimes a hundred and fifty. He 
 paid his General Superintendent ten thousand dollars per 
 year, and his Washington Agent about the same; his 
 Division Superintendents about half that sum ; his 
 drivers and station-keepers from seventy-five to a hundred 
 dollars per month and their board ; and then there were 
 ten thousand and one incidental expenses besides. One 
 would have supposed, that the oversight and management
 
 208 BEN. HOLLIDAT HIMSELF 
 
 of his vast stage-enterprises would have been enough for 
 one man to carry. But, in addition, he owned and ran 
 a line of steam-ships on the Pacific from San Francisco 
 to Oregon and Alaska, another to Lower California and 
 Mexico, and was planning to get more business still. 
 He was a man apparently of about forty-five, tall and thin, 
 of large grasp and quick perceptions, of indifferent health 
 but indomitable will, fiery and irascible when crossed, and 
 a Westerner all through. Apparently he carried his vast 
 business very jauntily, without much thought or care ; but 
 he crossed the continent twice each year, from end to end 
 of his stage-routes, and saw for himself how matters 
 were getting on. When he went through thus, extra 
 teams and coaches were always held in readiness, and he 
 had made the quickest Overland trip recorded. Time 
 was everything with him then ; horse-flesh and expense 
 nothing. Once he drove from Salt Lake to the 
 Missouri, over twelve hundred miles, in six days and a 
 half, and made the total trip from San Francisco in 
 twelve days. The locomotive beats this now, but nothing 
 else could. The usual schedule-time was about twenty 
 days ; but it often took two or three more. 
 
 Mr. Holladay, however, was beginning to show signs 
 of his hard work, and on this trip had found it necessary 
 to bring his physician along with him. Subsequently, we 
 met him in San Francisco, still an invalid, but as hard at 
 work as ever, and there seemed to be no end to his teem- 
 ing schemes. Of course, we found these great stage- 
 lines not always popular, because they were rapacious 
 monopolies, ex necessitate. Nevertheless, on the whole, 
 they accomplished a great work in their day ; and, all 
 things considered, did it cheaply and well. They have 
 a history of their own, full of incident and adventure, 
 that will read like romance a few years hence ; and the
 
 GREAT SALT LAKE 209 
 
 man who will gather up all the facts, and give us a full 
 account of them, will do the future a real service. 
 Now, if ever, is the time to do this ; for the Railroad 
 has already done away with the main lines, and soon 
 over all our American stage-coaching will be written 
 " Ichabod" its glory has departed. 
 
 Mr. Halsey, Mr. Holladay's general superintendent at 
 Salt Lake, was about going to Boise City to look after 
 stage-affairs generally, and politely invited us to share 
 his special coach. I was still feeble, and it was some 
 days before I could leave ; but finally Nov. Tth, we 
 bade good-bye to Camp Douglas and Salt Lake, and 
 were off for the Columbia. Once out of the city, our 
 route struck due north, and skirted the shores of Great 
 Salt Lake for a day or so. This great inland sea, fifty 
 miles long by twenty wide, was on our left, while to the 
 right rose abrupt mountains barren to the summit. The 
 Lake itself was surrounded by marshes, abounding in 
 water-fowl, and just then afforded excellent duck-shooting 
 to frequent parties from the city. It was dotted with 
 islands, several of them large and mountainous, which 
 furnished rich pasturage for large herds of horses and 
 cattle, belonging chiefly to Brigham Young. These 
 beautiful islands had been " granted" to him by the 
 Utah Legislature, as well as the exclusive right to 
 numerous streams and canons in other parts of the Ter- 
 ritory, that were esteemed especially valuable. Among 
 others, they had granted to him City Creek canon, which 
 contained about the only valuable timber within many 
 miles of Salt Lake City, and now every man, who chop- 
 ped a load of wood there, had to pay tribute to Brother 
 Brigham to the tune of one dollar per cord. Along the 
 base of the mountains, we frequently came across hot 
 Sulphur Springs, steaming in the sharp November air,
 
 210 OGDEN CITY 
 
 and Mr. Halsey pointed out several said to be hot enough 
 to boil an egg. The sulphur and heat from them de- 
 stroyed all vegetation around them, and also for a consid- 
 erable distance along the issuing streams, that flowed 
 thence into Great Salt Lake. Every few miles we 
 crossed dashing rivulets, that came roaring and foaming 
 out of the canons, all making their way ultimately to the 
 Lake the common reservoir of all that basin. Great 
 Salt Lake drains many hundreds of square miles there, 
 receiving streams from all directions, but giving out 
 none. Its only relief is evaporation, which of course 
 must be enormous during the long and dry summer 
 there. Hence its saltiness and great specific gravity, a 
 man floating in it it is said very readily. Its volume 
 that year was greater than usual, owing it was thought to 
 a heavy rain-fall ; but this year (1873), I see it reported as 
 several feet higher, than ever before. This would seem 
 to confirm the favorite theory of many pioneers, that as 
 the country became settled up and cultivated, the average 
 rain-fall constantly increased. Between the mountains 
 and the Lake, along its whole extent, there was usually 
 a fine broad plateau of land, and this was dotted thickly 
 with farms to Ogden and beyond. 
 
 Ogden, now the stopping point on the Pacific Kail- 
 road for Salt Lake City, and about forty miles north of 
 it, was then a smart little town of perhaps 1200 inhabit- 
 ants, and rapidly growing larger. It was Salt Lake 
 City over again, on a reduced scale, but evidently pat- 
 terning after it, both in plan and detail. Its streets were 
 broad and rectangular ; its irrigating streams, clear and 
 cold from the neighboring canons ; its houses, adobe or 
 frame ; and its yards and gardens, a mass of beauty and 
 luxuriance. A general air of industry and thriftiness 
 pervaded the little community. Everybody appeared to
 
 BISHOP WEST 211 
 
 be constantly at work, though not very hard work. And, 
 indeed, so far as material comfort was concerned, there 
 seemed little ground for criticism. The supervisor and 
 main-spring of the whole was Bishop West a burly 
 active man of forty, with . three buxom wives, and a 
 house-full of well-graduated children. He was a live, 
 go-ahead business man, with little or nothing of the 
 sacerdotal about him owned the mill, store, and hotel 
 there, and managed them all with rare shrewdness and 
 energy. His hotel was a comfortable two-story adobe 
 house, with shingle roof, and was remarkably well kept 
 for a country tavern, all things considered. He was a 
 heavy contractor with the stage-line, to deliver grain 
 along at the stations between Salt Lake and Boise City, 
 and Mr. Halsey concluded to stop over one night to see 
 and confer with him. He received us with generous 
 hospitality, and was soon conversing freely upon all mat- 
 ters relating to Utah, aside from Mormonism. He little 
 suspected then the good luck in store for him, by the oncom- 
 ing of the Pacific Railroad, which has doubtless made 
 him a millionaire, if he was not approaching that before. 
 Salt Lake was then depending on the Railroad coming 
 there, and doubtless was grievously disappointed, when 
 it left her " out in the cold " forty miles to the South.* 
 The Bishop's partner in many of his operations was 
 Mr. Joseph Young, the eldest son, I believe, of Brigham. 
 He happened at Ogden that night, and we saw consider- 
 able of him. Mr. Halsey said he was " some married " 
 already, having four wives, and as he was still a compar- 
 atively young man about thirty-five might have a 
 good many more yet. He was a tall, well-knit, resolute 
 
 * But she has already filled this gap with a branch Road, which 
 ultimately she will push north to the Columbia, and south to the 
 Gulf of California.
 
 212 MR. JOSEPH YOUNG 
 
 looking young fellow ; but did not seem to be overly wel. 
 stocked with brains or judgment. Nevertheless, in addi- 
 tion to his investments with Bishop West, he owned saw- 
 mills in the mountains beyond Salt Lake, and was a heavy 
 contractor with the stage-company besides for supplies 
 elsewhere. He spoke carelessly, not to say disrespect- 
 fully, about Mormon affairs in general, and left the 
 impression, that he might abjure the faith some day yet, 
 when the fit occasion came. Brigham, it appears, had dis- 
 carded him for the succession some time before, in favor 
 of his younger brother, Brigham, Jr., who was said to 
 be a much abler and discreeter man ; and this, it was 
 thought, had something to do with " Joe's" free and 
 easy thinking. 
 
 From Ogden to Brigham City, about half way to 
 Bear River, the country continued much the same, except 
 that the mountains trended away more to the east, and 
 the plateau thence to the Lake consequently became 
 broader. Settlements continued most of the way, but 
 the farms grew more scattered, and ran more to grazing. 
 "Wherever a stream issued from the canons, it had been 
 caught up and carried far up and down the plateau, to 
 irrigate a wide breadth of land, and its application 
 appeared always to have met with a generous return. 
 Brigham City was a clever little town, of a thousand 
 inhabitants or so, and in its general plan and make up 
 was as much like Ogden as two peas. It lies on a higher 
 bench or plateau, however, and affords a much finer 
 prospect of the bottom country below. "We halted there 
 for dinner, and while waiting in the office a Ute Indian 
 came in, with a noble wild goose for sale, that he had 
 just shot in the marshes. He was a splendidly built 
 young fellow, with nothing in the way of clothing, how- 
 ever, except a ragged blanket and the inevitable breech-
 
 BRIGHAM CITY 213 
 
 cloth. His feet and limbs were entirely naked, and 
 would have served well as models for a Belvidere 
 Apollo. It was a cold raw day, with alternating rain 
 ^nd sleet, and no wonder the poor wretch mumbled, 
 " Me cold ; much cold ! " as he huddled up to the fire. 
 He sold his goose for two " bits," and the last we saw of 
 him he was purchasing " smoke-tobacco" at the nearest 
 store. "We saw many lodges of Utes, while en route from 
 Ogden to Bear Kiver, and they all seemed to be pitiably 
 off. As we left Brigham City, we observed a dozen 
 squaws or more loitering around a slaughter-house on its 
 outskirts, waiting to secure the entrails or other refuse, 
 that the butchers might throw away. Just beyond, sev- 
 eral more crossed the road, loaded down with great bun- 
 dles of sage-brush, that they had been out gathering for 
 fuel, while their " braves" loafed at home. " Mr. Lo" (the 
 poor Indian ! ), as our borderers satirically call him, in 
 brief, has certainly sadly deteriorated in Utah, whatever 
 he may be elsewhere. These Utes seemed to be a taller 
 and better class of savages naturally, than their cousins 
 on the Rio Grande ; but from contact with the Mormons 
 they were fast disappearing, and would soon become 
 extinct. Brigham Young was credited with saying, with 
 his wonted shrewdness, " I can kill more injuns with a 
 sack of flour, than a keg of gunpowder ;" and no doubt 
 he was correct. When left to themselves, as children of 
 nature, they manage to get along somehow, on the old 
 principle of " root pig, or die ! " But when they mix 
 with the whites, they acquire our habits and tastes in 
 part, without learning how safely to gratify or benefit by 
 them ; and consequently, when left to themselves again, 
 sicken and die. 
 
 From Brigham City to Bear River, the country was 
 wilder and more unsettled ; but ranches the true fore-
 
 214: BEAK KIVEK 
 
 runners of settlements were starting up in various 
 places. The mountain streams were smaller and fewer, 
 but still there were enough to irrigate thousands of broad 
 acres there yet, and to spare. Indeed, the whole country 
 from Salt Lake to Bear River, as a rule, needs only pop- 
 ulation, to become prosperous and flourishing. The 
 mountain streams did not seem to be a quarter utilized ; 
 and, apart from these, vast tracks of land were unused, 
 where grazing would certainly prove profitable. 
 
 We crossed Bear Hirer, here a broad deep stream, on 
 a rude bridge, and were now fairly off for Boise City. 
 Here, eighty-three miles from Salt Lake, the road forked 
 one branch going to Virginia City, Montana, and the 
 other continuing on to Boise. The Montana travel was 
 then much the larger, and the stages thus far went full. 
 But the Idaho travel was light most of her miners 
 preferring the Columbia as a base. From Bear River 
 quite through to Boise, the country as a whole proved 
 wild and sterile, with but little to recommend it, until we 
 struck the valley of the Boise. There were some good 
 grazing lands here and there, judging by the " bunch " 
 grass ; but Idaho, as a rule, seemed to be a high volcanic 
 plateau, barren and desert-like. Much of it reminded us 
 of Bitter Creek, though here there was less alkali 
 and old red sand-stone. There were no settlements any- 
 where, except the isolated stage-stations, and but little 
 travel beyond the tri-weekly stages. The lonely sta- 
 tions occurred as usual, every ten or fifteen miles , but 
 they were most dreary and dismal habitations, as a rule. 
 They were built generally of stone, laid up loosely with 
 clay, and often their only fuel was sage-brush and grease- 
 wood about the last apology for fuel on the earth. 
 The whole region seemed destitute of timber, until you 
 reached the Boise, and even here there was not much to
 
 A BARKEN REGION 215 
 
 brag of. Good wholesome water seemed to be equally 
 rare, and even at the stage-stations where they had dug 
 for it, the water was often very unpalatable. We passed 
 three stations, one after the other, one day, where Mr. 
 Halsey knew the water to be bad, without essaying to 
 drink, and finally became so thirsty that when we 
 reached the next station, all hands sung out to the 
 station-keepers : 
 
 " I say, men, what kind of water have you here ? " 
 
 " "Wall, strangers," was the reply, " Honor bright, it 
 is not much to brag of ! It is a heap alkali, and right 
 smart warm ; but we manage to drink it, when it cook 
 a little. It's altogether, you see, in gitten used to it; you 
 bet!" 
 
 But as we hadn't got " used to it " yet, and hadn't 
 time to wait, we concluded to pass on to the next station. 
 At most of the stations, the only persons were two stock- 
 tenders or stable-hands, and sometimes only one. At 
 Malade, however, as we halted there one cold and blustering 
 night, we were agreeably surprised to find a blazing fire 
 and an excellent meal, that gained all the more b} T contrast 
 with the forlorn and cheerless stations, that greeted us 
 elsewhere. A neat and tidy woman, with an instinct 
 of true refinement about her, was the simple explana- 
 tion. But how she came to drop down into that desolate 
 station, with a husband and two or three children, 
 will always remain one of the inexplicable mysteries of 
 the Universe to me. 
 
 We were now on the old and well-travelled Emigrant 
 Trail from the Missouri to Oregon. But emigration that 
 way had mostly ceased, and the general unattractiveness 
 of the country was shown, by its leaving no settlements 
 behind. Much of the route had always been a natural 
 road across the plateaus ; but in crossing the " divides"
 
 216 CATOTES OR WOLVES 
 
 and descending into the abrupt valleys, considerable dig 
 ging and blasting had been done- here and there. We 
 neither saw nor heard of any Indians, and I judge the 
 country as a whole was always too barren and desolate 
 to support any thing but wolves. Night after night we 
 heard these howling around us, and sometimes by day 
 a single cayote would skulk across the road ; but they 
 took good care to give our Remingtons and Spencers 
 a wide berth. How the cayotes or wolves of these 
 plateaus, and of the Plains, manage to live, it is hard to 
 say. There seems little for them to subsist on ordinarily. 
 And yet camp where you will at night, an hour after- 
 wards the whole surrounding landscape becomes vocal 
 with them. First,it is a solitary yelp, and then a con- 
 stantly widening chorus, until thousands of the cowards 
 seem to be on the bark. One night we got out to walk, 
 over a piece of extra bad road, and as we rounded a rocky 
 point toward the coming station, suddenly a score or 
 more of them opened on us at once. It was pitchy 
 dark, and the suddenness of their onset certainly startled 
 us ; but we sent them our compliments in the direction 
 of the sound, from a Spencer carbine and two revolvers, 
 and that was the last we heard of them. The Indiana 
 sometimes counterfeit their howling, in order to take 
 travellers unawares ; but otherwise, however startling, 
 there seemed to be little real danger about it, as they 
 seldom or never attack a man. 
 
 "We crossed Snake River on a rude ferry-boat, stage 
 and all, and found it to be there some two or three hun- 
 dred yards wide, by perhaps forty feet deep. Its banks 
 were abrupt its water of the same pea-green, as that at 
 Niagara. It was skirted by narrow bottoms on either 
 side, and then came precipitous basaltic walls, hundreds 
 of feet high, to the plateau above. This plateau again
 
 SNAKE KIVER AND ITS BOTTOMS 217 
 
 was of the same sterile character, as the country already 
 passed over devoid of animal and vegetable life, except 
 wolves, sage-brush and grease-wood, and even these didn't 
 seem much inclined to flourish there. The Snake itself 
 seemed to be an abrupt cut, through the heart of a- vast 
 volcanic plateau, as if following in the track of some 
 ancient earthquake. 
 
 Snake River Station was on the north side, just at 
 the foot of the high basaltic bluff, which here rears its 
 majestic front six hundred feet or more perpendicularly 
 into the air. Half way up, a small river bursts forth, 
 and descends in a beautiful cascade two or three hundred 
 feet, whence it rushes like an arrow down the broken, 
 rocky hillside, and so off to the Snake itself. This fleecy 
 waterfall, against the black basaltic bluff, is the first 
 object that strikes you, as you descend into the valley 
 of the Snake, and is a charming feature of the landscape 
 just there. Our route lay along the Snake for many 
 miles, and at several other points we observed similar 
 cascades, on both sides of the river, though none so large 
 or lofty as this. The conclusion seems inevitable, that 
 subterranean streams, having their sources in the far 
 away Mountains, pervade all this barren region ; and 
 could these be tapped and brought to the surface, all 
 these plateaus might be made cultivable and fertile. No 
 doubt a way of doing this, by artesian-wells or otherwise, 
 will be found in the future, when the continent fills up 
 more, and Idaho becomes necessary. But these cascades 
 could be utilized immediately, to irrigate much of the 
 bottoms of the Snake at trifling expense, if anybody chose 
 to settle there. These bottoms, as a rule, appeared very 
 rich ; but in the absence of rain there for months, were 
 no better than a dust heap. At Snake River Station, 
 indeed, attempts had been made to raise potatoes, and 
 
 10
 
 218 GREAT AMERICAN FALLS 
 
 other garden vegetables, and the results seemed encour- 
 aging. No doubt, rye, oats, barley, and flax might be 
 grown there thus very readily ; but probably the region 
 is too elevated, and too far north, for the more delicate 
 cereals to succeed well. 
 
 The great American Falls of Snake River were 
 twenty miles or so farther up, and, much to our regret, 
 we failed to reach them. Mr. Halsey intended taking 
 us that way, but he was already overdue in Boise, and 
 as I myself had lost a fortnight by illness at Salt Lake, 
 and the weather was threatening, we concluded to 
 hasten on. These falls have been described by some 
 travellers, as much superior to Niagara ; but the 
 station-keeper at Snake River said he had visited them 
 the previous spring, and they seemed to him to be only 
 about a hundred feet or so in height in all. He 
 described them, as consisting of two Falls the first 
 about twenty-five feet high, with foaming rapids to the 
 second or main fall, which itself then goes down per- 
 haps seventy-five feet or so more. He said, however, that 
 a party of soldiers, from an adjacent post, had measured 
 them only a few weeks before, and they reported them 
 as one hundred and ninety-four feet high in all, by 
 perhaps two hundred yards wide, and with the black 
 basaltic walls of the canon rising some six hundred feet 
 above them still, on either side. During seasons of 
 high water, this would make them quite worthy, indeed, 
 of their great reputation. But the volume of water 
 there for many months in the year must be so small, 
 that it is to be doubted whether they ordinarily 
 approach the grandeur and sublimity of majestic old 
 Niagara. However, Idahoans set great store by these 
 Falls, as the chief wonder of all that region ; and as the
 
 VALLEY OF THE -BOISE 219 
 
 country just there has little else to brag of, perhaps it is 
 well not to gainsay them. 
 
 From the Snake to the Boise, as already intimated, 
 the country was, if anything, still more barren and 
 desolate, than the region we had just passed over. In 
 some places, it was strewn thick for miles with black 
 volcanic stones and rocks, glazed and scarred by ancient 
 fires, with no signs of ordinary animal or vegetable life 
 anywhere. In such localities, the wolves disappeared, 
 and even the inevitable sage-brush and grease-wood dis- 
 dained to grow ; or, if they grew at all, only eked out a 
 miserable existence. Once across this high " divide," 
 however, we struck the valley of the Boise, which soon 
 introduced us to an excellent region again, and as we 
 neared Boise City we found ranches and farms every- 
 where thickening up. Horses and cattle were out 
 grazing by the roadside in considerable numbers, and 
 down in the bottoms frequent squads of stacks indicated, 
 that goodly crops of hay and grain had been cut and 
 harvested. Wagons now appeared again on the road, as 
 beyond Bear River, (we had not met a single one since 
 leaving there), and people flocked to the doors and 
 windows as the stage rolled by. Once across the " divide" 
 between the Snake and Boise, the whole country sloped 
 gently to the Boise, and we spun along and down these 
 descending grades at a splendid gait. We made one 
 hundred and twenty miles, in the last twenty-two hours 
 out from Boise City, and rolled up to the Overland 
 House with our last team as fresh and gamey as stallions. 
 
 Our general ride from Bear River, however, was 
 hardly an enviable one. There were but three of us 
 Mr. Halsey, myself, and L. We had mattrasses 
 along, which we carried on top by day, and at night 
 arranged into a passable bed. So, too, we had india-
 
 220 A ROUGH BIDE 
 
 rubber pillows, and robes and blankets in abundance. 
 But the weather was very disagreeable, even for the sea- 
 son, and though convalescent I vet found myself far from 
 strong. "We left Bear Kiver about 10 p. M., in an ugly 
 storm of rain and sleet, well tucked in for a night's ride ; 
 but in an hour or so were roused up by the stage coming 
 to a dead-halt, and the driver singing out it sounded 
 half-maliciously " Good place to walk, gents ! Bad 
 place ahead ! " Out we got for a dismal walk of a mile 
 or more, through a soft and yielding bottom, where the 
 horses could hardly pull the empty coach through, and 
 then in again with muddy boots and disgusted feelings 
 generally. Just before daybreak, we struck a long and 
 steep " divide," where the sleet had thickened into snow, 
 without stiffening the ground enough to bear the coach 
 up, and here again we had another cheerful walk of a 
 couple of miles or so, to relieve the blown horses. At 
 King Hill, the last serious " divide" before reaching 
 Boise, we had another promenade ot a mile or two, 
 through five or six inches of snow, just after midnight ; 
 but I managed to stick by the stage. The weather con- 
 tinued raw and cold, rainy and sleety, by turns, and we 
 found it necessary to keep well wrapped up, except in 
 the middle of the day. At night our mattrasses proved 
 too narrow for three, after all, and Halsey's shoulders or 
 knees were constantly punching into either L. or me. He 
 and L. usually slept right along all night, but I got scarcely 
 a genteel wink from Bear River to Boise. By sunrise 
 ordinarily we were up, and then came a general smoke and 
 talk over the night's experience. By nine or ten A. M. we 
 halted for breakfast, which usually consisted of chicory 
 coffee, stringy beef or bacon, and saleratus-biscuit. Some- 
 times we got fried potatoes in addition which helped 
 the meal out somewhat but not often. Late at night
 
 HARD BILL OF FARE 221 
 
 we stopped for dinner (only two meals a day), which was 
 generally only a poor edition of breakfast over again, 
 with the courses perchance reversed. Bilious and aguish 
 with that accursed mountain-fever still hanging about 
 me, I need scarcely say, I had little relish for such a bill 
 of fare, and indeed scarcely ate a " square meal " from 
 Bear River to Boise. Fortunately, among other extras, 
 Mr. Halsey had had the forethought to lay in a half a 
 bushel of apples, just fresh from the tree at Salt Lake, 
 and these we all munched ad libitum as we journeyed 
 along. They were always juicy and cool, piquant and 
 delicious, when nothing else was palatable ; and for my 
 part, I really don't see, how I would have got through 
 without them. We were three days and three nights on 
 the road continuously, never stopping except forty min- 
 utes or so* at a time for meals. The last twenty-four 
 hours out, the weather was raw and cold even for 
 November; and as we rolled into Boise, with every joint 
 aching, the lights of a town never seemed more winning 
 and welcome. At the Overland House, they were 
 already full. But they gave us a good hot supper, fol- 
 lowed by a " shake-down" in the parlor, and every com- 
 fort at their disposal. 
 
 A word more about kind Mr. Halsey. A New 
 Yorker by birth, he drifted west when a boy, and at an 
 early age became clerk on a Mississippi steamer. Sub- 
 sequently, he followed the Army in 1857 to Utah, and 
 was engaged for awhile in the Q. M. Dep't. at old Camp 
 Floyd. Then he passed into Mr. Holladay's employ, and 
 now for several years had been his general superintendent 
 at Salt-Lake, with a handsome salary of course. He was 
 a quick, sharp man, about thirty-five, devoted to business, 
 and sure to make money anywhere, if there was money 
 to be made. Slightly conservative, he was still a strong
 
 222 STALWART MR. HALSEY. 
 
 Union man, and especially proud of Grant and Sherman, 
 whom he had known before the war. He was a robust 
 and hardy man, of the kind that can chew cast-iron or 
 digest pebble-stones (and hence, Idaho pies and biscuit !), 
 but with a heart as big and tender as a woman's. In the 
 spring of '65, he attempted to stage it from Atchison to 
 Salt Lake, but had to walk most of the way, because of 
 the execrable roads that season. Day after day, he and a 
 single companion pushed on ahead of the coach, fre- 
 quently fording streams up to their arm-pits, especially 
 among the Mountains, where they must have been icy 
 cold, and never even changed their clothes the whole 
 way. They were never dry, or even comfortably warm, 
 for a day together ; and yet they reached Salt Lake all 
 right, and he said, never seemed to mind it. It is of 
 such men, that the Border is made up, and these are the 
 ones that accomplish such miracles out there. Such men 
 are always the pioneers of the race, and the rightful 
 founders of empire. " Natural Selection," I suppose, 
 steps in and duly provides them, by the " survival of the 
 fittest." We were indebted to him for many courtesies, 
 in various ways, and would duly acknowledge this here. 
 Afterwards we met him in San Francisco, and subse- 
 quently, I believe, he settled in New York. Stalwart, 
 go-ahead, whole-souled Mr. Halsey, good fortune attend 
 you, wherever you may go !
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 BOISE CITY TO THE COLUMBIA. 
 
 TDAHO, one of the latest of our new Territories, was 
 JL formed by lopping off the eastern prolongations of 
 Oregon and Washington, and calling the incipient state 
 by that euphoneous name. Lewiston, the head of navi- 
 gation then, via the Columbia, was originally its capital ; 
 but the " shrieks of locality" demanded a more central 
 position, and so Boise City secured the honor. "We 
 found it (Nov., I860) a mushroom town of log and frame 
 buildings, but thoroughly alive every way. Three years 
 before, there was nothing there but the Boise bottoms, 
 and a scattered ranch or two. Now she boasted three 
 thousand inhabitants, two daily newspapers, stage-lines 
 in all directions, and ebullient prosperity. A hotel, of 
 large capacity, that was to " take the shine" out of all 
 the rest, was just being completed. The Episcopalians 
 and Presbyterians already had their churches up, and the 
 Methodists were expecting soon to build theirs, though 
 then worshipping temporarily in the Court House. Ex- 
 cellent free-schools, to accommodate all the children and 
 more, abounded, and the sermon we heard on Sunday 
 was chiefly a " pitching into" Brigham Young, largely 
 for the want of these. The preacher had been down to 
 Salt Lake, spying out the land for missionary purposes, 
 and had returned filled with hearty unction against the 
 whole system of Mormonism. Boise City was then the 
 10*
 
 221 BOISE CITY ITSELF 
 
 centre of the mining regions of Idaho, though not of 
 them like Denver, as related to Colorado. The mines 
 were chiefly miles away, at Owyhee, Ruby, Idaho City, 
 and Silver City ; but all business sprang from and con- 
 verged here at Boise, as the most central point, all things 
 considered, and most of the " bricks" dropped first into 
 her lap. Mining operations were mostly over for that 
 season, and the streets and saloons of Boise were 
 thronged with rough miners, en route for the Columbia, 
 or even California, to winter and return. They claimed 
 they could save money by this temporary exodus the 
 price of living was so high in Idaho and at the same 
 time escape the rigor of the climate. With expansive 
 hats, clad chiefly in red-shirts, and " bearded like a pard," 
 every man carried his bowie-knife and revolver, and 
 seemed ready for any emergency. They were evidently 
 a rougher crowd, than the Colorado miners, and in talking 
 with them proved to be from California, Arizona, Nevada, 
 Oregon, Frazer's River, Montana, and about everywhere 
 else, except Alaska. Tour true miner is a cosmopolite, 
 who has " prospected" everywhere, from the British 
 Dominion to Mexico, and he is always ready to depart for 
 any new " diggings," that promise better than where he 
 is, on half a day's notice, no matter how far. His 
 possessions are small, soon bundled up or disposed of, 
 and he mocks at the old maxim, " A rolling stone gathers 
 no moss," though usually he is a good exemplification 
 of it. 
 
 The chief business of Boise, just then, seemed to be 
 drinking whiskey, and gambling. The saloons were the 
 handsomest buildings in town, and were thronged at all 
 hours of the day and night. The gamblers occupied 
 corners of these, and drove a brisk trade unmolested by 
 anybody. The restaurants were also important points
 
 JOHN CHINAMAN 225 
 
 of interest, and gave excellent meals at not unreasonable 
 prices, all things considered. Here at Boise, our U. S. 
 greenbacks for the first ceased to be " currency," and 
 the precious metals became the only circulating medium. 
 It did one's eyes good to see our old gold and silver coins 
 in use once more, though gold and silver " dust" was 
 also a recognized medium of exchange. All the stores, 
 restaurants, and saloons kept a delicate pair of scales, 
 and their customers carried buck-skin or leather bags of 
 " dust," from which they made payment, and into which 
 they returned their change. Disputes now and then 
 arose, from the " dust" offered not being up to the stand- 
 ard ; but these were usually settled amicably, unless the 
 " dust" proved basely counterfeit, and then the saloons 
 sometimes flashed with bowie-knives, or rung with 
 revolvers. 
 
 Here, also at Boise, for the first, we met John China- 
 man. Quite a number of the Celestials had already 
 reached Idaho from California, via the Columbia, and 
 were scattered through the towns, as waiters, cooks, laund- 
 erers, etc. A few had sought the mines, but not many, as 
 they preferred the protection of the towns. Along with 
 the rest, these Chinese miners were also migrating to the 
 Columbia and beyond ; and as they paid their stage- 
 fare and rode, while many others footed it to the 
 "River," of course, we augured well of them. The 
 imbecile, brutal, and barbarous laws of the whole Pacific 
 Coast, where Chinamen are concerned, it appeared, how- 
 ever, were still in force in Idaho. A good illustration of 
 their practical workings had just occurred over in Owy- 
 hee, or somewhere there, and should be recorded here. 
 Three or four ruffians over there, it appears, had set 
 upon an unoffending Chinaman at work in the mines, 
 and had first abused and insulted him, and then robbed
 
 IDAHO 8 MIXES 
 
 and killed him. Other miners, hearing of the circum- 
 stances, arrested the murderers and took them before an 
 Idaho Dogberry, who promptly liberated them on the 
 ground, that no Anglo-Saxon was present at the transac- 
 tion, and that the Chinamen (who were) were incompe- 
 tent as witnesses, as against white men ! This was good 
 Idado Law and Justice, no doubt. But it was too strong 
 for the indignant miners, and the same day Judge Lynch 
 amended it, by hanging all the miscreants in the nearest 
 gulch. This was rude law, and rough justice, no doubt ; 
 but was it not infinitely better, than the absurd and inhu- 
 man code of the Pacific Coast ? 
 
 Idaho, as a whole, seemed then to be at a stand-still, 
 and her merchants, as a rule, were sighing for the flush 
 times of '63 and '64, when our miners were on the rush 
 there. Her total yield of the precious metals for '66 
 was computed at about $5,000,000, against Montana's 
 $15,000,000. Ross Browne, indeed, with " conspicu- 
 ous inexactness," reported Idaho at 15,000,000 that 
 year ; but nearly everybody seemed to think this at 
 least three times too much Mr. Halsey, who was a 
 good judge, especially. Her " placer " mines, or " dig- 
 gings," it was thought, were already well exhausted, and 
 her quartz-mining will always prove very expensive, 
 because of the scarcity of fuel, and the heavy cost of 
 transportation. Railroads, it was hoped, would cheapen 
 both of these items in the future, but as yet they seemed 
 distant. From the Columbia to Boise City, was only about 
 three hundred miles, and yet the charge then for trans- 
 portation over this short distance was more than half the 
 charge from the Missouri to Salt Lake, some twelve hun- 
 dred miles. This was explained, as one result of their 
 coin basis, and of the high price of wages, and everything
 
 A LUCKY PAYMASTER 227 
 
 else in Idaho. But the fact remained, as an ugly circum- 
 stance, for Boise to digest. 
 
 Fort Boise, on the outskirts of the town, was head- 
 quarters of military affairs in Idaho, but had ceased to 
 be of much importance. The Territorial Legislature 
 had already applied to the proper Department at Wash- 
 ington, for the post buildings, for use of the Territorial 
 Government, and the troops were ready to vacate any 
 day. "We stopped there a week, studying Idaho affairs 
 generally, and were delightfully entertained by the post- 
 officers. One of them had been stationed in California, 
 at Benicia Barracks, when the war broke out, and he 
 gave us an interesting account of the attempted Rebel 
 movement there, which the sudden arrival of Gen. Sumner 
 on the Coast so effectually squelched. Another was a 
 Baltimorean, who by reading the Tribune had become a 
 staunch Republican, and was one of the intensest Union 
 men I ever met. One day a Paymaster happened along, 
 whose baggage a fortnight before had been robbed of 
 $65,000 in greenbacks, and an equal amount in vouchers, 
 while he was taking supper at Fort Boise. At first, he 
 was paralyzed to lose such an amount, in that wild region. 
 But subsequently he struck a " lead," and followed it up 
 with the pertinacity of a sleuth-hound, until he recovered 
 most of the money and vouchers, and arrested all the 
 thieves. His success was simply wonderful for Idaho, 
 and his story sounded more like romance than sober 
 reality, as he told of the long chase and final capture, 
 with the finding of his greenbacks in carpet-bags, knap- 
 sacks, etc., buried by the roadside, and some even under 
 the ruts of the very roadway. "While halting there, the 
 news also reached us by telegraph of the November 
 elections East, and the final outcome of Mr. Johnson's 
 " Swinging round the circle ! " Army officers though.
 
 228 THE COUNTRY GENERALLY 
 
 we were, we could not repress a mild hurrah, and how 
 intensely proud we felt of the loyal North ! Surely we 
 were a great and noble people, after all. Step by step 
 nulla vestigia retrorsum we had overcome all obstacles, 
 in the name of Humanity and Justice ; and now, evidently, 
 our reactionary leaders had better take care how they 
 trifled with the Republic ! "We talked it all over among 
 ourselves, as we sat around the camp-fires, at that distant 
 post in Idaho ; and thanked God for America, and that 
 there was " life in the old land yet ! " 
 
 Recruited up again pretty well by our stay at 
 Boise, we left there Nov. 19th for Umatilla and the 
 Columbia. Stages ran three times a week, but they 
 were going so crowded, and the roads were reported so 
 heavy, that I deemed it more advisable to proceed by 
 ambulance. It was three hundred miles, and by ambu- 
 lance it would take three times as long ; but this would 
 give me an opportunity of resting at night, and I feared 
 to venture on otherwise, anxious as we were to reach 
 the Columbia before winter set in. Our route lay 
 substantially down the valley of the Boise, and other 
 tributaries of the Snake, to the Snake at Farewell Bend, 
 and thence across the Blue Mountains to the Umatilla, 
 and down that to the Columbia. The chief tributaries 
 of the Snake just there were the Boise, Pratt's River, 
 Burnt River, and Powder River, and we traversed the 
 valleys of each of these successively. These valleys were 
 all substantially alike, and consisted usually of bottoms 
 from two to three miles wide, very fertile throughout, 
 but all requiring irrigation, except for grass which grew 
 tolerably well without this. Here and there irrigation 
 had been resorted to, to some extent, with fine crops in 
 return ; but only a very little of the land had yet been 
 brought under cultivation. Generally, beyond these
 
 VALLEY OF THE SNAKE 229 
 
 bottoms, on either side, were elevated benches or plateaus, 
 from five to six miles in width, extending back to the 
 outlying bluffs or mountains. These were covered 
 chiefly with the inevitable sage-brush and grease-wood ; 
 but the soil looked fat and fertile enough, and evidently 
 required only patient irrigation, to become as prolific as 
 the fields of Utah. "Water for this might be supplied in 
 part from the rivers mentioned, and in part perhaps from 
 the neighboring canons, if they be not dry canons. The 
 chief drawback of the country to the Snake, indeed, 
 seemed to be the scarcity of timber, for fencing and 
 building purposes. For fuel, coal had been discovered, 
 both at Farewell Bend and near Boise City ; but timber 
 for other purposes was everywhere scarce and dear. In 
 the valley -of the Boise, " Shanghai " fences were frequent, 
 such as we had seen in eastern Kansas ; but the Idahoans 
 used thongs instead of nails, to fasten the boards or 
 rails to the posts hides evidently being cheaper there, 
 than hardware. 
 
 The valley of the Snake, most sinuous of rivers, as 
 its name well indicates, proved scarcely better, than 
 where we had crossed it several hundred miles farther up, 
 a fortnight or so before. But the Snake itself had now 
 swelled into a broad and majestic river. "We travelled 
 down its banks for ten or twelve miles, and found its 
 rocky and precipitous bluffs came quite down to the 
 river generally ; and where this was not the case, there 
 were often only great banks of sand, whirled into such 
 sheltered places by the winds of ages. Indifferent timber 
 appeared here and there, but not much to speak of. 
 The road wound along close to the bluffs, and was often 
 quarried out of them, without room for more than one 
 team to pass at a time. We passed one such place by 
 moonlight, with the bluff high above and the river deep
 
 230 SNAKE EIVEE AGAIN 
 
 below, but fortunately got through safely. "We reasoned, 
 that the usual trains would have gone into camp by 
 sundown, and took the chances for any accidental travel- 
 lers like ourselves. It was a beautiful night, with the moon 
 out in all her glory, walking a cloudless sky and filling the 
 canon of the Snake with a flood of light ; but we were 
 not sorry when we heard the lowing of the cattle, and the 
 wee-hawing of the mules, belonging to the trains in camp 
 beyond. It was eight p. M., (Nov. 20th), when we 
 reached Farewell Bend, and here crossed the Snake again 
 on a stout ferry-boat propelled by the current. 
 
 Farewell Bend a hamlet of half a dozen houses is 
 so called, because here the Snake makes a sudden turn 
 north, and goes off in a wide circuit through the moun- 
 tains of Idaho and Oregon, instead of keeping straight 
 on to the Columbia, as it seems it should have done. 
 Here, too, is where the great Emigrant Trail, from the 
 Missouri to the Columbia, finally leaves the Snake, and 
 hence also perhaps the name to this bend. The 
 Snake, or Lewis' Fork of the Columbia, as it is sometimes 
 called, altogether is a right noble stream by far the 
 largest in all that region and it seemed would yet be 
 made available for navigation, though now badly beset 
 with reefs and rapids. A steamboat had already been 
 built at Farewell Bend, to run up to the neighborhood of 
 Boise and beyond ; but that was her first season, and the 
 results were yet to be seen. It was said, that by starting 
 early in the season, she could reach a point within about 
 two hundred miles of Salt Lake, and thus communicate 
 with a vast region there, then comparatively isolated. 
 A fine vein of good bituminous coal had just been 
 opened in the overhanging bluff at Farewell Bend, and 
 here was fuel cheap for all the country up the Snake. 
 Below Farewell Bend there were rapids that would have
 
 BAKER CITY 231 
 
 to be circumvented by slack- water navigation or railroad 
 portages, the same as on the Columbia. But with this 
 done, the Snake had long stretches of navigable waters, 
 that needed only population and business to make them 
 teem with commerce. The same Company, that made 
 the Columbia navigable, also built the boat at Farewell 
 Bend, and doubtless intended to push the enterprise, 
 though what they have since accomplished I can not 
 say. 
 
 The Snake is the western boundary of Idaho, and, 
 having crossed it at Farewell Bend, we were now fairly 
 in Oregon. We soon struck the valley of Burnt River, 
 and followed it up for many miles. At first, it abounded 
 in wild and rocky canons, that seemed to have no 
 outlet ; but farther on, it widened out, and frequent 
 ranches dotted its broad and fertile bottoms. Powder 
 River valley, the next beyond, was more promis- 
 ing still. This contained thousand of acres of rich 
 grass lands, and hundred of settlers had already pre- 
 empted homes there. Cattle and sheep were grazing 
 along the bottoms in considerable numbers, and the 
 adjacent mountains, we were told, abounded in timber 
 for all necessary purposes. At Baker City, in the heart 
 of Powder River valley, we halted one day for dinner, 
 and found a brisk little town of perhaps five hundred 
 inhabitants or so. It contained two quite respectable 
 hotels, and at one of them we got a plain but excellent 
 dinner. Just in the suburbs, we found a ten stamp 
 quartz-mill in full blast, much to our surprise, yielding 
 it was said a clear profit of $4,000 in coin per month. 
 The ores came from a silver mine, ten or twelve miles 
 away in the mountains, and the mill was located here to 
 take advantage of Powder River, which was here really 
 a fine stream.
 
 232 GRANDE KONDE VALLEY 
 
 Farther on, after a long and tedious drive up and across 
 a stony " divide," we came suddenly out on Grande Ronde 
 valley, and were amazed at its beauty and fertility. At 
 first view, it seemed almost circular, and looked like a 
 vast bowl hollowed out of the mountains there. Moun- 
 tains bristling with pine or fir-trees rimmed it in on all 
 sides, while in their midst the valley reposed, as if a 
 dried up lak-e. Some thirty miles in length, by twenty- 
 five in width, it contains over six hundred square miles 
 of the very washings of the mountains the whole as rich 
 and fertile as a garden. Cedar, fir, pine, and oak abound 
 in the embracing mountains ; but the valley itself is as 
 bare of timber, as an Illinois prairie. Numberless 
 springs burst out of the mountain sides, and coalescing 
 into streams gridiron the valley uniting at last in Grande 
 Ronde River, which flows thence to the Snake. In 
 places, we were told, there are hot mineral springs also, 
 but we saw none of these. The edges of the valley seem- 
 ingly like the rim of a plate were already sprinkled 
 well with ranches, while horses, cattle, and sheep by the 
 thousand were grazing off in the bottoms. But few 
 houses appeared in the bottoms yet the settlers appa- 
 rently preferring to hug the mountains. The wheat crop 
 of the valley that year alone was computed at half a 
 million of bushels, and large quantities of oats, barley, 
 potatoes etc., had been raised besides. Indian corn, or 
 maize, however, had never flourished well, and it was 
 doubted if it would it being so far north. Even here, 
 though, irrigation had to be resorted to for most summer 
 crops, but down in the bottoms grass grew luxuriantly 
 without this. Grande Ronde, indeed, resembles the great 
 parks of Colorado, only her soil is far finer, and if culti- 
 vated to the full, along with Powder River and Burnt 
 River, would alone supply Idaho with pretty much all
 
 LB GRANDE 233 
 
 she needs. We met old settlers there, who years before 
 had emigrated thither from Missouri and Illinois, 
 tempted by the wondrous beauty and fertility of the 
 place, and one could not wonder at their choice of a 
 home. In all that region we saw nothing like Grande 
 Ronde, and indeed but few places to compare with it 
 from the Missouri to the Columbia. Its only drawback 
 seemed to be the severe winds, which prevail there much 
 of the year. It appeared strange, that a valley so 
 embosomed in mountains should be troubled so with 
 winds. But it seemed to be a sort of funnel, and they 
 said the winds were often fierce and continuous there, 
 for long periods together. Nevertheless, unless these ap- 
 proximate to hurricanes or tempests, we could only say, 
 " Blessed be the man who dwells in Grande Ronde ! " 
 
 Le Grande, the county-seat, we found to be a thriving 
 town of a thousand or so inhabitants, and the largest and 
 busiest place by far since leaving Boise. At the foot of 
 the Mountains, where the road from the Columbia 
 debouches into Grande Ronde, it caught a large amount 
 of trade and travel that way, and also did considerable 
 business with several gold and silver mines in the adja- 
 cent mountains. These mines, it seemed, were not 
 believed to amount to much ; but they helped to sustain 
 and build up Le "Grande, and so were welcomed. Just 
 then the town was discouraged somewhat, by the 
 recent transfer of the mail-route to Uniontown. But as 
 the county-seat, with two weekly papers, and Grande 
 Ronde to back her, she would evidently continue to pros- 
 per, notwithstanding her loss of the stages. A smart 
 church, and a really fine public-school-house, graced the 
 plateau beyond the town both of which spoke volumes 
 for Le Grande. The main street, however, was almost 
 impassable for the deep and unctuous mud ; but by keep-
 
 234: A SLOW TEAM VS. A GOOD ONE 
 
 ing straight ahead, and a little careful manoeuvring, we 
 managed to reach " Our House," the most respectable 
 looking hotel, at last. Here they gave us excellent 
 accommodations for the night, and the next morning we 
 started to cross the Blue Mountains. 
 
 We had left Boise with a four-mule team, but at the 
 end of the first day our lead-mules gave out, and we had 
 to hire a pair of ponies to take their places. These 
 ponies the only animals we could secure were bright 
 and active little nags, and with them at the head we 
 posted along, at the rate of forty or fifty miles per day 
 very readily. But at Powder River, one of them becom- 
 ing lame, we were compelled also to drop the other, and 
 this reduced us to only our original wheel-mules a pair 
 of large, but antiquated, and sorry-looking donkeys, 
 that entertained grave constitutional objections to any 
 gait faster than a walk. When we struck a bit of extra 
 good road especially if a little down hill our dri- 
 ver usually managed, by much pounding and profanity, 
 to persuade them into a mild trot. But when we reached 
 the bottoms, or if a " divide" appeared, they speedily 
 gravitated again into their natural creep. We were all day 
 long making our last twenty-six miles out from Le Grande, 
 and it was clear we would never get over the Blue 
 Mountains with this pokey team, if the roads were as 
 reported. Fortunately, at Le Grande, we succeeded in 
 hiring a fresh team, of four fine and spirited horses, and 
 with these we swung out of the town (Nov. 24th) on a 
 good round trot a delightful contrast to our snail-like 
 pace on coming in. We had sighted the Blue Mountains 
 the northern prolongation of the Sierra Nevadas two 
 days before, soon after leaving Baker City, and all along 
 had got ugly accounts of the condition of the roads there. 
 Their bald summits already showed snow here and there,
 
 THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 235 
 
 and for a day or two another snow-storm had been low- 
 ering in the sky, much to our anxiety. But as we rolled 
 out of Le Grande, the sun came out bright and clear, and 
 with our ambulance stout and strong, and our high-step- 
 ping steeds, all the auspices seemed to change in our 
 favor. We soon struck the Le Grande river, and follow- 
 ed this up for several miles, through wild and pictur- 
 esque canons, or along the shelving sides of the moun- 
 tains, where often two teams could hardly pass. The 
 Le Grande carried us well up and into the Mountains, and 
 every hour the scenery became grander and wilder. 
 Grande Ronde valley soon passed out of sight ; but, as we 
 ascended, from various points we caught exquisite views 
 of the wide-stretching ranges and valleys beyond. Far- 
 ther up, -we became environed with hills and gorges, 
 covered thick with gigantic fir-trees, though here and 
 there a clump of cedars or pines appeared. All along we 
 met the wild snow-drop, loaded down with its berries, and 
 in sheltered nooks saw the wild currant, with here and 
 there harebells, though these were rare. The mountain- 
 laurel also occurred frequently ; but the great predomi- 
 nating growth was the Oregon fir, from the size of a bam- 
 boo cane to the leafy monarch, " fit to be the mast of 
 some great admiral." The road was constructed on the 
 cork-screw principle much around to get a little ahead 
 but after countless twistings and turnings, we at length 
 reached the summit, long after noon. Here we found a 
 comparatively level plateau, some two or three miles in 
 width, with only a few scattered fir-trees, swept keenly 
 by the wind, from which we slowly descended over the 
 remains of a once corduroyed road to " Meacham's." 
 "We arrived at " Meacham's" about 4 r. M. only twenty- 
 six miles from Le Grande, after all ; but as it was still 
 twelve miles to "Crawford's," the next ranch, at the
 
 A HARD ROAD TO TRAVEL 
 
 northern foot of the Mountains, it seemed imprudent to 
 venture on that day. 
 
 As to the wagoning, I need scarcely say, it well 
 exemplified, with abounding emphasis, " Jordan's a hard 
 road to travel ! " The roads, indeed, as a whole, after 
 we got up into the Mountains, were simply execrable, 
 and our ride in that respect anything but romantic. All 
 along the route, we found freight-trains, bound for Boise 
 City and the Mines, hopelessly " stalled." Some of the 
 wagons with a broken wheel or axle, had already been 
 abandoned. Others were being watched over by their 
 drivers, -stretched on their blankets around huge fires by 
 the roadside, smoking or sleeping, patiently awaiting 
 their comrades, who had taken their oxen or mules to 
 double-up on some team ahead, and would return with 
 double teams for them to-morrow or next day, or the 
 day after whenever they themselves got through. 
 Snow had already fallen on the Mountains, once or twice 
 that season ; we found several inches of it still in various 
 places, and the air and sky both threatened more, as the 
 day wore on. Yet these rough freighters looked upon 
 the " situation " very philosophically, and appeared quite 
 indifferent whether they got on or stayed. If it snowed, 
 the forest afforded plenty of/ wood, their wagons plenty 
 of provisions, and their wages went on just the same ; 
 BO where was the use of worrying ? This seemed to be 
 about the way they philosophized, and accustomed to 
 the rude life of the Border, they did not mind " roughing 
 it" a little. An old army friend used often to parade 
 a pet theory of his, that a man could not associate 
 much with horses, without directly deteriorating. " The 
 horse," he would say, " may gain largely, but it will 
 only be at the expense of the man. Our cavalry and 
 artillery officers always were the wickedest men in the
 
 TEAMSTERS, AS A CLASS 237 
 
 service, and all because of their equine associations. 
 The animals, indeed, become almost human ; but in 
 the same proportion, the men become animals ! " I 
 always thought him about half-right ; but if this be true 
 as to intimacy with horses, what must be the effect on 
 men of long and constant association with mules or oxen ! 
 I thought I saw a good deal of this in mule-drivers in 
 the army, in Virginia and Tennessee ; but a harder or 
 rougher set, than the ox-men or " bull-whackers" (as they 
 call themselves) of the Plains and Mountains, it would 
 be difficult perhaps to liiid, or even imagine. On the 
 road here in the Blue Mountains, with their many- 
 yoked teams struggling through the mud and rocks, 
 of course, they were in their element. Out/re, red- 
 shirted, big-booted, brigand-looking ruffians, with the 
 inseparable bowie-knife and revolver buckled around 
 their waists, they swung and cracked their great whips 
 like fiends, and beat their poor oxen along, as if they 
 had no faith in the law of kindness here, nor belief in a 
 place of punishment hereafter. And when they came 
 to a really bad place in crossing a stream, or when 
 they struck a stump or foundered in a mud-hole it is 
 hard to say whether their prodigious, multiplied, and 
 many-headed oaths were more grotesque or horrible. 
 To say " they swore till all was blue," would be but a 
 feeble comparison ; the whole Mountains corruscated with 
 sulphur ! Some few of the trains consisted only of horse 
 and mule teams ; but ox-teams seemed most in favor, and 
 slow as they were, we took quite a fancy to them they 
 appeared so reliable. When the roads were good, they 
 averaged ten or twelve miles per day, and subsisted by 
 grazing ; when they became bad, they managed to flounder 
 through any how some way or other. At extra bad 
 places, the teams were doubled or trebled up, and then
 
 238 OX-TEAMS RELIABLE 
 
 the wagon was bound to come, if the wood and iron only 
 held together. Twenty or thirty yoke of oxen straining 
 to the chains, with the "bull-whackers" all pounding 
 and yelling like mad, their huge whip-lashes thick as 
 one's wrist cracking like pistols, was a sight to see 
 " muscular," indeed, in all its parts. The noise and con- 
 fusion, the oaths and thwacks and splashing of the 
 mud, made it indeed the very hell of animals ; but, for 
 all that, the wagon was sure to reach terra, forma at last, 
 no matter how heavily loaded, or pull to pieces. "We had 
 great sympathy for the patient, faithful oxen, and wished 
 for Mr. Henry Bergh and his Cruelty-Prevention Society 
 many a time that day. Here, indeed, was some explana- 
 tion of the high rates of freight from the Columbia to 
 Boise ; and Idaho would find it to her interest to improve 
 such routes of transportation forthwith. 
 
 I need scarcely add, it was a hard day on our noble 
 horses, but they carried us through bravely. Our ambu- 
 lance was a light spring carriage, with only L. myself 
 and the driver, and could not have weighed over fifteen 
 hundred pounds, baggage and all; yet it was just as 
 much as the four gamey horses wanted to do to haul 
 us along. It was a steady, dragging pull throughout, 
 after we were well into the Mountains, with scarcely any 
 let-up ; up-hill, of course, most of the way, with deep 
 mud besides ; chuck-holes abounding, and quagmires fre- 
 quent; in and out, and around freight-trains " stuck " in the 
 road ; and on arriving at " Meacham's," our gallant team, 
 though by no means exhausted, yet seemed very willing 
 to halt for the night. How we congratulated ourselves 
 on securing them, before quitting Le Grande ! Had we 
 started with our pair of dilapidated donkeys, we would 
 never have got through ; but would probably have had to 
 camp out in the Mountains over night, and send back for
 
 AN ANXIOUS DRIVE 239 
 
 another team, after all. Once in rounding a rocky hill- 
 side, above a yawning chasm, our " brake " snapped 
 short -off', early in the forenoon ; and again, in one of the 
 worst quagmires, our drawing-rope by which the leaders 
 were attached broke, and we would no doubt have been 
 hopelessly ship-wrecked, had it not been for our fore- 
 thought on leaving Le Grande. Fortunately, accustomed 
 to army roads on the Peninsula and in Tennessee, we 
 laid in a supply of rope and nails there, with a good 
 stout hatchet, and these now stood us in excellent stead. 
 With these we soon repaired all damages satisfactorily, 
 and went on our way not exactly rejoicing ; but rather 
 with grave apprehensions lest we should break down 
 entirely, far away from any human habitation, and have 
 to pass a supperless night by the roadside, or around a 
 roaring fire, with wolves, bears, and such like " varmints " 
 perhaps uncomfortably near about us. 
 
 So, it was, we were glad to be safe at " Meacham's," 
 at last, and to sit down to the generous cheer he gave us 
 at nightfall. Though 8,000 feet or more, above the sea, 
 and built wholly of logs, it was the cleanest, cheeriest, 
 and best public-house we had yet seen in either Oregon 
 or Idaho, outside of Boise City ; and even the " Over- 
 land" there indeed set no better table, if as good. We 
 did ample justice to the luscious venison, sausage, and 
 pumpkin-pies, that they gave us for dinner at 6 p. M. 
 having breakfasted at 6 A. M., and eaten nothing since. 
 Mr. Meachain himself, our genial host, was a live Ore- 
 gonian, who had come thither from Illinois several years 
 before, and with his brother now owned this ranch, and 
 the road over the Blue Mountains such as it was. Bad 
 as it was just then, it had cost them a good deal of 
 money, first and last ; and being the shortest road from 
 navigation on the Columbia to Idaho and Montana, it
 
 240 AT "MEACHAM'S" 
 
 had paid well in other years, when there was a " rush" 
 of miners to those regions. But the emigration thither 
 had now fallen much oif, and besides a competing road 
 had been opened from Wallula on the Columbia flank- 
 ing the Mountains in part to Unioutown in Grande 
 Ronde valley, and so beyond, which it was believed would 
 hurt the Meacham Road seriously. The mail now went 
 this new road, and trade and travel it was thought would 
 be apt to follow the stage-coaches. Yet Mr. Meacham 
 was not discouraged. He was a plucky, wide-awake 
 man, some forty years of age, with brown hair and stub- 
 born-looking beard, and in general looked like a person 
 who could take care of himself well, travel or no travel. 
 His wife was a really interesting lady, with several well- 
 bred children ; and in the evening, when we asked for 
 something to read, he surprised us by producing a file 
 of the N. Y. Times, Greeley's American Conflict, and 
 Raymond's Abraham Lincoln. He had been a candidate 
 for the Oregon Legislature at the recent election, and 
 though running much ahead of his ticket, had been 
 beaten by a small majority. He explained, that " the 
 left wing of Price's army" was still encamped in that 
 part of Oregon, and that the Oregon democracy general- 
 ly were only a step removed from Gov. Price and Jef- 
 ferson Davis. The early settlers there, he said, had 
 been mostly " Pikes" from Missouri, and they still 
 clung to their old pro-slavery (and therefore Confed- 
 erate) ideas. In '61, many of them had indeed favored 
 secession, and later in the war when Price's forces were 
 finally routed in Missouri, hundreds of his soldiers 
 deserted and made for Oregon, where they already had 
 acquaintances or friends. We had heard something of 
 this before, and now understood what was meant by the 
 popular expression even at Salt Lake that " the left
 
 A LIVE OREGONIAN 241 
 
 wing of Price's army was encamped" in Idaho and 
 Oregon! Later in the evening, he gathered his little 
 ones about us, and would have us talk about army 
 experiences, during the war and afterwards, and affairs 
 East generally. In return, he gave us his experiences 
 West and incidents of border-life, by the hour together. 
 Thus we spun yarns by his ample fire-side, until the 
 " wee sma' hours" and after the fir-logs blazing and 
 roaring welcome up his wide-throated chimney when 
 he showed us to a cosy room, and an excellent bed, 
 clean and sweet beyond expectation even. 
 
 During the night, I was awakened by the rain patter- 
 ing on the roof, just over our heads ; but this soon ceased, 
 and the next morning we had several inches of snow, with 
 huge flakes still falling. This was a bad outlook ; nev- 
 ertheless, we decided to go on, as it was impossible to say 
 how long the storm would last, or how severe it would 
 become. We did not want to be "snow-bound " there, 
 and besides we thought we could reach " Crawford's" 
 anyhow, as it was but twelve miles or so, and that would 
 take us well out of the Mountains. We left " Meacham's" 
 accordingly at 7 A. M., with our horses fresh and keen 
 after their night's rest, and got along pretty well for a 
 couple of miles or so, when suddenly, in drawing out of a 
 chuck-hole, one of our wheels struck a stump, and "smash" 
 went our king-bolt. Down came the ambulance kerchuck 
 in the snow and mud ; out went the driver over the dash- 
 board a la bull-frog, but still clinging to the ribbons ; 
 while L. and I sat wrapped in our great-coats and robes on 
 the back seat, at an angle of forty-five degrees or so. 
 Here was a pretty predicament, surely ! On top of the 
 Blue Mountains, broken down in a quagmire, the snow 
 falling fast, and no house nearer than " Meacham's ! " 
 Fortunately, our gamey horses did not frighten and ruu 
 ii
 
 24:2 A BREAK-DOWN 
 
 away, or we would have been infinitely worse off. Tum- 
 bling out, we presently ascertained the extent of our dam- 
 ages, and all hands set to work to repair them. !Now it 
 was, that our forethought at La Grande again handsome- 
 ly vindicated itself. With our hatchet we cut props for the 
 ambulance, and lifted it up on these ; and then found, that 
 though part of the king-bolt was broken off and the bal- 
 ance badly bent, it could yet be hammered into shape 
 sufficiently to carry us forward again, with careful driv- 
 ing. It took an hour or more of sloppy and hard work, 
 before we got the bolt back again into its place and every 
 thing " righted up ;" and then, as an additional precaution, 
 with our good rope we lashed the coupling-pole fast to 
 our fore axle-tree besides. Altogether it made a rough 
 looking job, but it appeared stout and strong, and we 
 decided to venture it anyhow. The rest of the way out 
 of the Mountains, however, we proceeded very cautious- 
 ly. The snow continued to fall right along, and con- 
 cealed the bad places, so that the roads were even 
 worse, than the day before, if possible. At all extra- 
 bad spots, or what seemed so, L. and I got out and 
 walked ; and even when riding, we tried to help the dri- 
 ver keep the best track, by a sharp lookout ahead and on 
 either side. Our ambulance, however, rolled and pitched 
 from quagmire to chuck-hole, like an iron-clad at sea ; 
 and repeatedly when out walking I stopped deliberately, 
 just to see how beautifully she would capsize, or else col- 
 lapse in a general spill, like a " One-Horse Shay ! " 
 All around us was the dense forest : all about us, that 
 unnatural stillness, that always accompanies falling 
 snow ; no human being near ; no sound, but our pant- 
 ing horses and floundering ambulance ; no outlook, but 
 the line of grim and steely sky above us. " There she 
 goes ! This time sure ! See what a hole ! " And yet
 
 A FINE LANDSCAPE 243 
 
 by some good luck, she managed to twist and plunge 
 along through and out of it all, in spite of the mud and 
 snow ; and at last landed us safely on the high bald knob, 
 that overlooks " Crawford's," and the valley of the Uma- 
 tilla. We had about ten miles of this execrable travel- 
 ling, expecting any moment to upset or break down ; and 
 when at last we got fairly " out of the wilderness," it 
 was a great relief. "We had an ugly descent still, of two 
 miles or more, before we reached the valley ; but this 
 was comparatively good going, being downhill, and 
 besides the snow above had been only rain here. 
 
 The view from this bald knob or spur, as we de- 
 scended, was really very fine. Just as we rounded its 
 brow the clouds broke away, and the sun came out for 
 awhile quite brilliantly. Far beneath us, vast plateaus, 
 like those between Bear River and Boise City, stretched 
 away to the Columbia ; and in the distance, the whole 
 region looked like a great plain or valley. To the north- 
 east, we could follow for miles the road or trail to Walla- 
 Walla, as it struck almost in a straight line across the 
 plateaus ; to the northwest, we could mark in the same 
 way the route to Umatilla. At our feet, and far away 
 to the west and north, we could trace the Umatilla itself, 
 as it flowed onward to the Columbia. Beyond all these, 
 to the north and west still, a hundred and fifty miles 
 away, sharp against the sky, stood the grand range of the 
 Cascade Mountains, with their kingliest peaks, Adams, 
 Hood, St. Helens, and Rainier, propping the very heavens. 
 On a bright, clear day, this view must be very fine ; as 
 it was, we caught but a glimpse or two of it, just enough 
 to make us hunger for more, when the clouds shut in 
 again, and we hastened on. Now that we were out of 
 the forest, the wind blew strong and keen in our faces, 
 with no fir-trees to break it, and for a half hour or so
 
 244 WELLS' SPRINGS 
 
 we shivered with the cold ; but it also spurred up our 
 gallant horses, and we were soon whirling out of the 
 foot-hills, at a rapid rate. We drew up at " Crawford's" 
 at 1 P. M., and here halted to lunch and to bait our ani- 
 mals well satisfied, after all, with our morning's work. 
 
 An hour afterwards we started again, and now bowled 
 along famously. Our route lay down the valley of the 
 Umatilla, and as the road was a little sandy, the rain 
 had made it just good for travelling. L. and I, with our 
 baggage and driver, were no load at all for four such 
 gamey nags, especially over a descending grade, and soon 
 after dark we rolled into " Wells' Springs" 42 miles 
 from " Meacham's." Here we encountered a motley 
 crowd of teamsters, miners, and others, all very rough, 
 en route to Idaho and Montana. " Wells' Springs" was 
 a shabby ranch, and we had no intention of stopping 
 there, but were unable to go on one of our horses 
 becoming suddenly sick. The house was dirty, and the 
 supper poor and badly cooked; so that we could readily be- 
 lieve the slouchy, slatternly landlady, when in the course 
 of the meal she remarked to one of her rough guests, " O, 
 we never care for puttin' on style here ! Only for raal 
 substantial ! " Supper over, there was a general smoke 
 and talk, and how those rough fellows did talk ! At 
 bedtime, we were put into a little closet, partitioned off 
 from the rest, while the main crowd quartered around 
 " loose" on the floor outside. The last thing we heard, 
 two " bull-whackers" were disputing as to who I was 
 one insisting I was Gen. Grant, and the other contend- 
 ing I was only Inspector-General U. S. A ! We soon 
 went heavily to sleep ; the next morning, when I awoke, 
 the same chaps were, disputing still ! 
 
 Next morning, our sick horse was better, but still 
 not himself. We left "Wells' Spring," however, at
 
 OREGON INDIAN.
 
 THE UMATILLA. 245 
 
 7 A. M. on a walk, but soon achieved a trot, and 
 were getting on quite satisfactorily again, when our 
 ambulance struck a stone and smash went one of the 
 rear springs. Two of its leaves showed old breaks, and 
 it was a mystery how it ever stood the rough and tumble 
 drive across the Mountains. Again our Le Grande 
 rope came into play, and breaking a box to pieces we 
 happened to have along, we soon succeeded in splicing up 
 the spring, so as to make it hold. An hour's drive more, 
 however, over a descending road, took us into Umatilla 
 without further accident, and we hauled up at the Me- 
 tropolitan, at 11 A. M. having come eighteen miles. 
 We were just too late for the tri-weekly boat, down the 
 Columbia to Portland, which we had been aiming at for 
 a week she having left an hour or so before. If it had 
 not been for our break-down in the Mountains, or for our 
 sick horse, we would have made Umatilla either early in 
 the morning, or late the night before, and thus saved two 
 days. As it was, there was no use lamenting it we had 
 done our best and besides a little time for rest and 
 writing was not unwelcome. 
 
 After emerging from the Blue Mountains at " Craw- 
 ford's," our route thence to the Columbia was chiefly down 
 the valley of the Umatilla. This was not over a mile or two 
 in width usually, with high outlying plateaus, that showed 
 only sand, sage-brush and grease-wood, with here and 
 there a rocky butte. Population was very scarce, though 
 we passed a few fine ranches along the Umatilla, that looked 
 to be doing well, and off on the plateaus we saw several 
 large flocks of sheep thousands in number grazing 
 under their shepherds. Just beyond " Crawford's," 
 the Umatilla and Walla- Walla Indians have a Reserva- 
 tion twenty miles square, of the best lands in the valley, 
 and the government has agents there, teaching them to
 
 246 INDIAN RESERVATION 
 
 farm, raise stock, etc. Their farming did not seem to 
 amount to much, but their horses, cattle, and sheep, by 
 the thousand, all looked well. Both of these tribes 
 together now numbered only about a thousand souls, and 
 were said to be steadily decreasing. "We saw scores of 
 them on the road, scurrying along on their little ponies 
 all of them peaceable and friendly. They were larger 
 and stouter, than our Ute friends on the Rio Grande ; 
 but did not seem endowed with half their fierceness and 
 'grit. The whole district, from Crawford's to the Columbia, 
 lacked regular rains in summer, and hence farming to be 
 successful required irrigation, as much as in Utah. For 
 this, the Umatilla itself might be made to suffice, a thou- 
 sand fold more than it did. Draining a wide region of 
 country, it rushed with a rapid descent to the Columbia, 
 and hereafter should be utilized not only to irrigate 
 largely, but also to drive numerous mills and factories, 
 that ought then to throng its banks. Long before reaching 
 the Columbia, it is but little better than a broad race- 
 way; and for miles, as we drove along, it seemed the 
 beau-ideal of a natural water-power. Some day, in the 
 not distant future, when all that region settles up, an 
 Oregon Lowell will yet hum with spindles there, and its 
 woolen-cloths and blankets become world-renowned. 
 
 It will be seen, we were seven days and a half in get- 
 ting through from Boise City, though expecting to make 
 it in six. The stages advertised to make it in three, but 
 the last one had been out five, with the passengers walking 
 much of the way at that, A party of Irish miners we 
 overtook on the road, footing it from Montana to the 
 Columbia, indeed, raced with us for several days, follow- 
 ing us sharply into Le Grande and beating us into 
 " Meacham's ;" but after that, we distanced them. At 
 Umatilla, people said, we would have found a better road
 
 JOHN WILFUL 24:7 
 
 and made quicker time, if we had come by Uniontown, 
 instead of crossing the Mountains ; but our driver insisted 
 " Meacham's" was the best road, and we had been guided 
 of course by his superior wisdom. 
 
 This driver of ours, by the way, was something of a 
 character. An Ohioan, so long ago as '49, he had joined 
 the first rush to California, and soon succeeded in picking 
 up $30,000, or so. Thence he went to Frazer River, on 
 the first wave, and in a few months sunk pretty much all 
 he had previously made. Then he mounted a mule, and 
 with pick-axe and wash-pan " prospected " all over the 
 Pacific Coast, landing at last in Idaho. Here he had 
 again picked up a few thousands, and had just concluded 
 a freight contract with a mining company at Owyhee, that 
 he thought was going to " pay big." But it did not com- 
 mence until spring, and meanwhile he was trying his 
 hand at the livery business in Boise. While on the 
 coast he had lived in California, Nevada, British America, 
 "Washington, Oregon, and now Idaho; had camped out 
 in the mining regions ; shot grizzlies in the Sierra Ne- 
 vadas ; trapped beaver on the Columbia ; wandered with 
 the Indians for months together ; and " roughed it" gen- 
 erally. He had but one eye had lost the other, he said, 
 in a battle with the Indians, one arrow hitting him there, 
 and another passing through his body ; yet he rode seven- 
 ty miles afterwards on a mule, supported by his com- 
 rades the pure air of that region and his Buckeye grit 
 carrying him through. This was his story, without its 
 embellishments. But he was a person of fine Western im- 
 agination ; and somewhat, I fear, addicted to "romancing." 
 But, good-bye, driver John Wilful, well-named! 
 Good-bye, mustangs and donkeys ! Good-bye, stage- 
 coaches and ambulances ! Two thousand four hundred 
 miles of their drag and shake, of their rattle and bang,
 
 248 GOOD-BYE, STAGE-COACHING. 
 
 across the Plains and over the Mountains, had given us 
 our till of them. We had had runaways, we had had break- 
 downs, and about every stage experience, except a genuine 
 upset, and how we happened to escape that will always re- 
 main a mystery. Our romance of stage-coaching, I must 
 say, was long since gone. There before us now lay the 
 lordly Columbia, with visions of steamboats and locomo- 
 tives. And looking back on our long jaunt, with all its 
 discomforts and dangers, it seemed tor the moment as if 
 nothing could induce us to take it again. Hereafter, we 
 felt assured, we should appreciate the comfort and speed 
 of eastern travel more, and pray for the hastening of all 
 our Pacific Railroads. With a grand trunk line now 
 overland, through Utah, it can not be long before a 
 branch will be thrown thence to the Columbia, substan- 
 tially by the route we travelled ; and when that is done, 
 the ride from Salt Lake to Umatilla will be soon accom- 
 plished. The region nowhere presents any serious obsta- 
 cle to a railroad, except the Blue Mountains; and a 
 Latrobe, or a Dodge, would soon flank or conquer these.
 
 CHAPTEK XV. 
 
 DOWN THE COLUMBIA. 
 
 ~| FMATILLA was then a river town, of two or three 
 ^J hundred houses, mostly frame. It was still the 
 chief point of departure from the Columbia for Idaho 
 and Montana, though Wallula 25 miles farther up was 
 beginning to compete for this. Trade and travel that 
 season had not been large, and the whole region there com- 
 plained of dullness and stringency. The Metropolitan 
 was a fair hotel, with a goodly supply of eastern and Cali- 
 fornia papers, and seemed like a palace after our long 
 " roughing it " from the Missouri to the Columbia. It 
 was well patronized, especially by babies ; and I do think 
 they were the worst enfans terribles I ever saw. One 
 doting mamma asked L. if he did not think her red- 
 eyed, puffy-faced youngster " a dear little cherub ;" and 
 though he smiled approvingly, of course, he subsequently 
 vowed he should think better of King Herod hereafter. 
 The town already boasted one weekly newspaper, a public 
 school-house, and two young churches, with a goodly 
 complement of saloons and restaurants. Of course, the 
 patent-medicine venders had long since reached it. " S. 
 T. 1860 X. Drake's Plantation Bitters, " was emblazoned 
 on every dead-wall, " in characters of living light," as it 
 had been from New York there. The year before I 
 had observed it all through the South, in over ten 
 thousand miles of travel there ; and here it was again,
 
 250 A BOSTON MICA WEEK 
 
 mysterious and blatant, at the head of navigation on the 
 Pacific Coast. So, we had found it all through the 
 Rocky Mountains, at Salt Lake, and Boise, as inevitable 
 as the stage-station and post-office ; and the design was 
 the same huge cabalistic characters always. Another 
 advertisement accompanied us regularly across the Plains 
 to the Rocky Mountains ; but " S. T. 1860 X. etc.," fol- 
 lowed us to the Columbia and beyond, and everywhere 
 seemed as universal as the air as omnipresent as sunlight. 
 
 Indians were seen on the streets occasionally, but they 
 were usually in the last stages of dissipation and degrada- 
 tion. They ought to be forbidden all such border towns, 
 as their life there ends only in ruin. The white popula- 
 tion consisted chiefly of Oregonians and Californians, of 
 every shade of character. The Micawber type, of course, 
 was not* wanting. One afternoon, while writing in my 
 room, a seedy individual, whom we had met at Wells' 
 Springs, sauntered in, and, after some conversational 
 skirmishing, solicited, " the loan of five dollars." He had 
 been keeping a "hotel," he said, up in Owyhee, but the 
 miners hadn't paid up their board-bills, and he was now 
 " dead-broke," on his way back to Puget Sound. He 
 would give his due-bill, and would certainly remit to 
 me at San Francisco, but really couldn't tell exactly 
 when ! He claimed to be " a son of old Massachusetts, 
 sir," and from Boston at that. But as he was odorous 
 afar of " needle-gun" whiskey, the Hub, I suspect, would 
 have haughtily repudiated him ! 
 
 Ding! Dong! Puff! Puff! The steamer had eome, 
 and Nov. 28th, we at length embarked for down the 
 Columbia. She was a little stern-wheel boat, scarcely 
 longer than your finger, called Nez Perce Chief, Capt. 
 Stump, master. Her fare to Fort Vancouver or Portland, 
 including railroad-portages, was $18 in coin, which at
 
 OREGON STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY 251 
 
 rates then current was equivalent to $25 in greenbacks. 
 Meals were extra, at a cost of $1,50 each, in currency, 
 besides. The distance to Portland was about 200 miles ; 
 to the mouth of the Columbia, 100 or so more. We 
 found Capt. Stump a very obliging Oregonian, and 
 obtained much interesting information from him. His 
 boat was part of a line belonging to the Oregon Steam 
 Navigation Company, a gigantic corporation that con- 
 trolled all the navigable waters of the Columbia, and 
 with' far-reaching enterprise was now seeking to connect 
 them with the headwaters of the Missouri. He said, 
 their boats could ascend to Umatilla all the year round, 
 except in mid-winter, when the Columbia sometimes 
 froze over for several weeks together, though not usually. 
 With good water, they could go up to Wallula, at the 
 mouth of the Walla- Walla, 25 miles farther, which they 
 usually did six months in the year. With very high 
 water, they could run up to Lewiston, at the junction of 
 the Snake and Clearwater, about 175 miles more, three 
 months in the year making about 500 miles from the 
 sea in all. Above Lewiston, there was a bad canon in 
 the Snake, with shoals and rapids for a hundred miles or 
 so to Farewell Bend ; but after that, he thought, a light- 
 draught steamer might get up at least three hundred 
 miles farther, or within about 200 miles of Salt Lake, as 
 stated heretofore. 
 
 Clark's Fork of the Columbia, or the Columbia 
 proper, makes a sharp bend north at Wallula, and for 
 300 miles, he said, was unnavigable, until you reach Fort 
 Colville near the British line, when it trends east and 
 south, until it disappears in the far off wilds of Montana. 
 Just above Fort Colville, it became navigable again, and 
 a small boat was then running up to the Great Bend 
 region, over 200 miles farther, where good placer mines
 
 252 THE COLUMBIA AND ITS BRANCHES 
 
 had been discovered (Kootenay) and worked a little 
 This boat could connect with another, already plying on 
 Lake Pond Oreille (a part of Clark's Fork), and this with 
 still another then building, that it was believed with short 
 portages would extend navigation some 200 miles more, 
 or into the very heart of Montana, within two or three 
 hundred miles only of Fort Benton the head of naviga- 
 tion on the Missouri. These were weighty facts, marrying 
 the Pacific to the Atlantic ; but Captain Stump thought 
 the O. S. N. company could accomplish them, or any- 
 thing else, indeed, it seriously undertook. Just now it 
 was bending its energies in that direction, and he said 
 would beat the Northern Pacific Railroad yet. No 
 doubt we have a fine country up there, near the British 
 America line, abounding in lakes and threaded with 
 rivers, and roomy enough for all enterprises, whether 
 railroad or steamboat. 
 
 Puff! Puff! And so we were off down the Columbia, 
 at last. How exquisitely pleasant, how cosy and delight- 
 ful, our little steamer seemed, after 2,400 miles of jolting 
 and banging by stage-coach and ambulance ! The state- 
 rooms were clean and tidy, the meals well-cooked and 
 excellent, and we went steaming down the Columbia 
 without thought or care, as on " summer seas." Occa- 
 sionally rapids appeared, of a serious character ; but as a 
 rule the river was broad and deep, majestic in size and 
 volume. On the banks were frequent Indian villages, 
 with their hardy little ponies browsing around appa- 
 rently on nothing but sage-brush and cobble-stones. 
 These Indians fancied spotted or " calico" horses, as the 
 Oregonians called them, and very few of their ponies 
 were of a single color. They spend the summer mostly 
 in the Mountains, making long excursions in all direc- 
 tions ; but as winter approaches, they return to the
 
 KAPID8 OF THE COLUMBIA 
 
 Columbia, and eke out a precarious subsistence by fishing, 
 etc., till spring conies. Timber was scarce, and frequently 
 we saw numbers of them in canoes, paddling up and 
 down the river in search of drift-wood, for their winter's 
 supply of fuel. Past Owyhee rapids and the seething 
 caldron of Hell-Gate, we reached Celilo, eighty-five miles 
 from Umatilla, with its long warehouse (935 feet), and 
 its mosquito fleet of five or six pigmy steamers, that 
 formed the up-river line. Here we disembarked, and 
 took the Railroad around the " chutes " or rapids, some 
 fourteen miles, to still water again below. The shrill 
 whistle of the locomotive and the rattle of the cars were 
 delightful sounds, after our long exile from them, and 
 soon convinced us we were on the right road to civilization 
 again. This portage had formerly been made by pack- 
 mules, and then by wagons ; but recently a railroad had 
 been constructed, after much hard blasting and costly 
 wall-work, and now " Riding on a rail,*' there, with the 
 Columbia boiling and roaring at your side, like the Rap- 
 ids above Niagara, was exhilarating and superb. At very 
 high water, these " chutes" or rapids somewhat disappear, 
 though they still continue very dangerous. No attempt 
 had been made to ascend them with a steamer ; but the 
 spring before, Capt. Stump had safely descended them, 
 much against his will. It was high water in the Colum- 
 bia, with a strong current, and his boat drifting near the 
 rapids was suddenly sucked in, before he knew it. 
 Clearly, escape was impossible ; so he put on all steam, 
 to give her steerage- way, and then headed down stream 
 neck or nothing. There was a good deal of bumping 
 and thumping it was a toss and a plunge, for awhile 
 and everybody he feared was pretty badly scared; but 
 his gallant little boat ran the rapids for all that, and 
 reached still water below safely at last. It was a daring
 
 254 CELILO AND THE DALLES 
 
 feat, and worthy of this brave Oregoman. Just now, the 
 Columbia was very low, rocks and reefs showing all 
 through the rapids among, around, and over which the 
 waters boiled and rushed like a mill-race. 
 
 The locomotive carried us to the Dalles, at the foot 
 of the Rapids, a town of some two thousand inhabitants, 
 with a maturer civilization than any we had seen since 
 leaving Salt Lake. It was but five or six years old ; yet 
 it was already in its decrepitude. A " rush" of miners a 
 few years before, to alleged fine " diggings" near there, 
 had suddenly elevated it from an obscure landing into 
 quite a town ; but the mines did not justify their prom- 
 ise, and the Dalles was now at a stand-still, if not some- 
 thing worse. . " Mining stock' 5 and " corner lots" had 
 gone down by the run, during the past year or two, and 
 her few merchants sat by their doors watching for cus- 
 tomers in vain. The enterprise of the town, however, 
 deserved a better fate. At the Urnatilla House they gave 
 us an excellent supper, at a moderate price, and the hotel 
 itself would have been a credit to a much larger town 
 anywhere. The mines on John Day River, and other 
 dependencies of the Dalles, had formerly yielded $2,000,- 
 000 per year, and Congress had then voted a U. S. Mint 
 there. We could but sincerely hope it would be much 
 needed, some day or other. 
 
 Halting at the Dalles over night, the next morning 
 we took the side-wheel steamer Idaho, and ran down to 
 Upper Cascades some fifty miles through the heart of 
 the Cascade Mountains. Here we took the railroad 
 again for six miles to flank more rapids and at Lower 
 Cascades embarked on the W. G. Hunt, a large and ele- 
 gant side-wheel steamer, that some years before had come 
 " round the Horn," from New York. The Columbia, 
 soon issuing from the Mountains, now became a broad
 
 THKOUGH THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS 255 
 
 and majestic river, with good depth of water to the ocean 
 all the year round, and larger vessels even than the W. 
 Cr. Hunt might readily ascend to Lower Cascades, if 
 necessary. Our good boat, however, bore us bravely on 
 to Fort Vancouver, ainidst multiplying signs of civiliza- 
 tion again ; and as we landed there, we realized another 
 great link of our journey was over. 
 
 To return a little. Our sail down the Columbia, 
 and through the Cascade Mountains, altogether was a 
 notable one, and surpassed everything in the way of wild 
 and picturesque river-scenery, that we had seen yet. 
 Some have compared the Columbia to the Hudson $ but 
 it is the Hudson many times magnified, and infinitely 
 finer. It is the Hudson, without its teeming travel, its 
 towns and villas, its civilization and culture ; but with 
 many times its grandeur and sublimity. The noble 
 Palisades, famed justly throughout the world, sink into 
 insignificance before the stupendous walls of the Cascade 
 Range, which here duplicate them but on a far vaster 
 scale, for many miles together. Piled along the sky on 
 either side, up two or three thousand feet, for fifty miles 
 at a stretch, with only a narrow gorge between, the 
 Columbia whirls and boils along through this, in supreme 
 mightiness and power; while from the summit of the 
 great walls little streams here and there topple over, run 
 like lace for a time, then break into a million drops, and 
 finally come sifting down as mist, into the far depths 
 below. Some of these tiny cascades streaked the cyclo- 
 pean walls, like threads of silver, from top to bottom. 
 Others seemed mere webs of gossamer, and these the 
 wind at times caught up and swaye"d to and fro, like veils 
 fit for goddesses. These Mountains, all through the canon 
 of the Columbia, abound with such fairy cascades; 
 whence their name. Just below Lower Cascades, where
 
 256 CASTLE-ROCK 
 
 the river-bottoms open out a little, stands Castle Rock, a 
 huge red boulder of comparatively moderate dimensions 
 at the base, but seven hundred feet high. Its walls are 
 so perpendicular they seem inaccessible, and on top it is 
 covered with a thick growth of fir-trees. Its alleged 
 height appeared incredible at first, but on comparing it 
 with the gigantic firs at the base, and those on the 
 summit, the estimate seemed not unreasonable. All 
 along, the vast basaltic walls of the oanon are shaped and 
 fashioned into domes and turrets, ramparts and battle- 
 ments ; and surely in point of picturesque grandeur and 
 effect, the Columbia would be hard to beat. We had 
 not seen the Yoseinite yet. But already, we felt, the 
 Columbia compensated us for all our fatigue and danger, 
 in crossing the Continent ; and it is not too much to say, 
 that all true lovers of the sublime and beautiful in nature 
 will yet wonder and worship here. 
 
 Before reaching the Dalles, and afterwards, we had 
 several superb views of glorious Mt. Hood. All good 
 Oregonians claim Hood is the highest peak in the United 
 States; but Californians boast their Shasta equals, while 
 Whitney out-tops it. A party of savans had recently 
 ascended Hood, and they reported the general range, of 
 which Hood is a part, as 4,400 feet above the sea ; above 
 which Hood still shot up 13,000 feet. ' The summit proved 
 to be crescent-shaped, half a mile long, by from three feet 
 to fifty wide. The north front was a precipice, of naked 
 columnar rock, falling sheer down perpendicularly a 
 mile or more at a jump. On the west side was an 
 ancient crater, a thousand feet in depth from which 
 clouds of sulphurous smoke- still issued occasionally. On 
 the flanks were true glaciers, with terminal and lateral 
 moraines, the same as among the Alps. Smoke 
 about his summit, just before we reached the Dalles,
 
 MOUNT HOOD 257 
 
 heralded a smart shock of earthquake there, and 
 no doubt he is the safety-valve of all that region. We 
 had caught a glimpse or two of Mt. Hood in descending 
 the Blue Mountains, and again from Umatilla ; but it 
 was only for a moment, and usually with his night-cap 
 on. But in threading the canon of the Columbia, one 
 morning as we rounded a rocky bastion, suddenly, a hun- 
 dred miles away, Hood stood before us, a vast pyra- 
 midal peak, snow-clad from base to summit, resting in sol- 
 itary grandeur on a great mountain range itself black 
 with firs and pines. From the apparent level or slight 
 undulation of the general Cascade Kange, Hood quickly 
 shoots up loftily into the sky, individual and alone, and 
 serene and unapproachable dominates the far-stretch- 
 ing landscape. From all points of view, whether 
 descending the Columbia, where the canon often frames 
 him in like a picture, or at Fort Vancouver, where he 
 stands superb and glorious against the sapphire sky, 
 Hood always gives you the impression of vast loftiness, 
 of serene majesty, of heaven-kissing superiority and 
 power, and Oregonians may well be proud of him. 
 Butman's two pictures of Hood are both good, but neither 
 does justice to his great merits. The White Mountains 
 and the Alleghanies are well enough in their way. The 
 Rocky Mountains are indeed noble and majestic. But 
 once see Hood, and all these pall upon the mind, and he 
 alone rules the memory and imagination afterwards. Up 
 the Columbia and down, off at sea, and pretty much all 
 over Oregon, Hood is a great and magnificent landmark ; 
 and, of itself, is well worth a trip across the continent. 
 
 Past the Cascade Mountains, we came suddenly out 
 into a new region, and a totally different climate. From 
 Umatilla to the Mountains we had the same clear atmo- 
 sphere and perfect sky, that we had found everywhere
 
 258 CHANGE FROM DRY TO WET 
 
 from the Plains to the Columbia, substantially. The 
 country naturally was the same barren and sterile region 
 as at Salt Lake, abounding only in sage-brush and grease- 
 wood ; and, indeed, the whole internal basin of the conti- 
 nent, from the llocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevadas, 
 and from British America down to Mexico, appeared to 
 be of this same general character from want of regular 
 rains in Bummer. Over most of this vast region, there 
 had been no rains for weeks, or indeed months ; and for 
 days together as we journeyed along, we had never seen 
 a cloud or mist even, to mar the absolute ultramarine of 
 those perfect skies. But now, in descending the Colum- 
 bia, as we approached the Mountains, we descried the 
 clouds on their western slope ever trying to float over, 
 but never apparently succeeding, their white discs gleam- 
 ing in the sun ; and when we drew nearer, we beheld a 
 fleecy mist drifting up the Columbia, and streaming 
 eastward like a pennon. Nearer still, we encountered a 
 stiff breeze sweeping through the canon, as through a 
 funnel ; and when we got well down into the jaws of the 
 gorge, it needed all our steam, as well as the strong west- 
 ward current to carry us forward. Sometimes, it was 
 said, the Columbia just here becomes so rough, because 
 of this conflicting wind and current, as to cause real sea- 
 sickness on the boats, and occasionally indeed they have 
 to cast anchor, unable to descend. Farther down, this 
 mist thickened into rain, and when we got fairly through 
 and out of the Mountains, (it raining most of the way), we 
 debouched into the Coast Region, where it was still rain- 
 ing steadily, as it had been for many days, and continued 
 to for weeks together afterwards. As soon as we struck 
 the rain, trees and herbage at once made their appearance, 
 clothing the mountains and bottoms everywhere ; lichens 
 and mosses again decorated all the rocks ; and when we
 
 OREGON RAINS AND FOGS 259 
 
 got well out of the Mountains, behold such forests of fir, 
 pine, cedar, oak, etc., as never appear East. In half a 
 day, you may thus pass from a comparatively rainless to 
 a thoroughly rainy region ; and in winter from a severely 
 cold, to a comparatively moderate climate. The contrast 
 is very striking, and you soon feel it keenly in every 
 sense. Your eyes glaze, your skin becomes moist, and if 
 there is a weak spot about your lungs, you will find it 
 out very quickly. The proximity of the Pacific, of 
 course, explains it all the warm, humid winds from 
 which sweep up against the Cascade Range, but find in 
 their lofty crest an insurmountable barrier. If light 
 enough to ascend, their wealth of moisture is condensed 
 as rain or snow along the mountain sides or summit, by 
 the cold of the upper regions, as with your hand you 
 squeeze a sponge ; and, consequently, they topple over the 
 Range dry and clear to curse a vast region beyond with 
 their sterility. If unable to ascend, they career along 
 the western slope of tho Mountains, and hover over the 
 Coast Region generally, literally deluging Western Ore- 
 gon and Washington, at certain seasons of the year, with 
 rains and fogs. The year before, at Fort Vancouver, 
 they had had one hundred and twenty consecutive days 
 of rain, in one year, without counting the intervening 
 showers ; and they said, it wasn't " much of a year for rain" 
 either ! Another year, they didn't see the sun there for 
 eighty days together, without reckoning the occasional 
 fogs. No wonder the Oregonians are called " Web-Feet." 
 They do say, the children there are all born web-footed, 
 like ducks and geese, so as to paddle about, and thus get 
 along well in that amphibious region. Perhaps this is 
 rather strong, even for Darwinism ; but I can safely 
 vouch for Oregon's all-sufficing rains and fogs, whatever 
 their effects on the species.
 
 260 WEB-FOOTED CHILDREN. 
 
 Our fellow-passengers down the Columbia were chiefly 
 returning miners, going below to winter and recruit ; but 
 rough as they were and merry at times, they were, as a 
 rule, self-respecting and orderly. Our Fenian friends, 
 who had raced with us down Powder River and Grande 
 "Ronde Yalleys and across the Blue Mountains, turned 
 up here again " Shanks," " Fatty," and all and subse- 
 quently embarked on the same steamer with us at 
 Portland for San Francisco. A few Chinamen also were 
 on board; but they behaved civilly, and were treated 
 kindly.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FORT VANCOUVER TO SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 VANCOUVER is an old Government Post, 
 -L established in 1849, when Washington Territory 
 was still a part of Oregon, and all the great region there 
 was yet a wilderness. The village of Vancouver, a 
 parasite on its outskirts, had grown up gradually ; but 
 had long since been distanced by Portland, across the 
 Columbia in Oregon. A tine plateau, with a bold shore, 
 made the Post everything desirable; but back of the 
 post-grounds, the unbroken forest was still everywhere 
 around it. It was now Headquarters of the Department 
 of the Columbia, and the base for all military operations 
 in that section. Here troops and supplies were gathered, 
 for all the posts up the Columbia and its tributaries ; 
 though Portland, rather, seemed to be the natural brain 
 of all that region. So, too, it controlled and supplied 
 the forts at the mouth of the Columbia and the posts on 
 Puget Sound ; and, indeed, was of prime importance to 
 the Government in many ways. 
 
 Gen. Steele, in command of the Department, was an 
 old Regular officer, who during the war commanded first 
 in Missouri, afterwards around Vicksburg, then in 
 Arkansas, and always with ability. He is now no more 
 (dying in 1868), but some things he related in speaking 
 of the war seem worth preserving. He said, Gen. Sher- 
 man was undoubtedly a great soldier; but he owed
 
 262 SOMETHING ABOUT VICKSBUEG 
 
 much to the rough schooling of his first campaigns, 
 and improved from year to year. He said, Sherman 
 in '62 was "scary" about Price's movements in Mis- 
 souri and cited as an instance, that he once ordered 
 the depot at Holla broken up and the troops withdrawn, 
 for fear Price would " gobble up " everybody and every- 
 thing. He (Steele) then a Colonel, but in command at 
 Holla, appealed to Gen. Halleck, and was allowed to 
 remain ; and subsequently Sherman, with his customary 
 frankness, admitted his mistake. So, he said, Sherman 
 in '63, when campaigning around Yicksburg, had little 
 confidence in Grant's famous movement to the rear, via 
 Grand Gulf and the Big Black, though the results were 
 so magnificent. He said Sherman was somewhere up 
 the Yazoo, with Porter and the gun-boats, and from there 
 wrote him (Steele), in command of the Corps during 
 Sherrnan's absence, that the proposed movement was 
 perilous, and would probably fail, ruining them all ; but, 
 " nevertheless," he added, right loyally, " "We must sup- 
 port Grant cordially and thoroughly, dear Steele, what- 
 ever happens." Subsequently, after they had landed at 
 Grand Gulf repulsed Pemberton and hurled him back 
 on Vicksburg cleaned Joe Johnston out of Jackson 
 and chased him out of the country and were crossing 
 the Big Black in triumph, the movement now apparently 
 a sure thing, Sherman and he were lying down to rest a 
 little, at a house near the bridge, while the troops were 
 filing over. Presently, an orderly announced Gen. 
 Grant and staff riding by, when Sherman instantly 
 sprang up, and rushing out of the house bareheaded 
 seized Grant by the hand, and shaking it very warmly ex- 
 claimed, "I congratulate you, General, with all my heart, 
 on the success of your movement. And, by heaven, 
 sir, the movement is yours, too ; for nobody else would
 
 GEN. STEEUE 263 
 
 endorse it ! " He added, he never heard of Sherman's 
 "protesting." against the movement, as reported after- 
 wards in the newspapers, and didn't believe he ever had 
 " was too soldierly, by far, for that" but he (Steele), 
 knew all the facts at the time, and the above was about 
 the Truth of History. 
 
 Poor Steele ! He was a true Army bachelor, fond of 
 horses and dogs, and a connoisseur in both. He was 
 besides a man of fine intelligence, and after dinner told a 
 camp-story capitally. I remember several he told, with 
 great gusto, while we shared his cosy quarters at Van- 
 couver ; but have not space for them here. Afterwards, 
 we met him again in San Francisco, on leave of absence, 
 the beloved of all army circles, and the favorite of society. 
 May he rest in peace ! 
 
 But to return to Fort Yancouver. We spent several 
 days there very pleasantly, getting the bearings of things 
 from there as a centre, and were loath to leave its hospi- 
 table quarters. It was now the first week in December ; 
 but the grapes were still hanging on the vines at 
 Maj. N.'s quarters, and all about the post the grass was 
 springing fresh and green, as in April in the East. 
 "We had fog or rain, or both together, about every day ; 
 no heavy down-pours, however, but gentle drizzles, as if 
 the Oregon-Washington sky was only a great sieve, with 
 perpetual water on 'tother side. They said, this was 
 their usual weather from fall to spring, and then they 
 had a delightful summer ; though sometimes occasional 
 snow-storms, sweeping down from the Mountains in Jan- 
 uary or February, gave them a taste of winter. Such 
 snows, however, were light, and never lasted long. It 
 seems, the Gulf Stream of the Pacific, sweeping up from 
 the tropics, bears the isothermal lines so far north on this 
 coast, that here at Fort Yancouver in the latitude of
 
 264: A MILD CLIMATE 
 
 Montreal, they have the climate of the Carolines in win- 
 ter, with little of their excessive heats in summer. 
 Walla-Walla, in latitude 46, boasts the range of Wash- 
 ington, D. C. in 39 ; and San Francisco, on the line of 
 New York, claims the climate of Savannah. One even- 
 ing while there, after a day of weary rain, the clouds 
 suddenly broke away, and just at sunset we caught 
 another noble view of Mount Hood again. A thin, veil- 
 like cloud enrobed his feet, extending much of the 
 way up ; but above, his heaven-kissing head rose right 
 regally, and his snowy crown became transfigured 
 through all the changes from pink to purple, and into 
 night as the day faded out. He looked still loftier 
 and grander, than we had yet seen him, as if piercing 
 the very sky, and was really superb. Aye, superbus. 
 Haughty, imperial, supremely proud which is about what 
 the Romans meant, if I mistake not. 
 
 A ride of six miles down the Columbia, on the little 
 steamer Fanny Troiip, and then twelve miles up the 
 Willamette, landed us at Portland, Oregon, the metrop- 
 olis of all that region. The distance from Fort Yancou- 
 ver, as the crow flies, is only about six miles, but by 
 water it is fully eighteen, as above stated. Here we found 
 a thrifty busy town, of eight or ten thousand people, with 
 all the eastern evidences of substantial wealth and pros- 
 perity. Much of the town was well built, and the rest was 
 rapidly changing for the better. Long rows of noble 
 warehouses lined the wharves, many of the stores were 
 large and even elegant, and off in the suburbs handsome 
 residences were already springing up, notwithstanding 
 the abounding stumps nearly everywhere. The town 
 seemed unfortunately located, the river-plateau was so 
 narrow there ; but just across the Willamette was East 
 Portland, a growing suburb, with room plenty and to
 
 PORTLAND 
 
 spare. A ferry-boat, plying constantly, connected the 
 two places, and made them substantially one. Portland 
 already boasted water, gas, and Nicholson pavements ; 
 and had more of a solid air and tone, than any city we 
 had seen since leaving the Missouri. The rich black soil, 
 on which she stands, makes her streets in the rainy 
 season, as then, sloughs or quagmires, unless macadamised 
 or Nicholsoned ; but she was at work on these, and 
 they promised soon to be in good condition. Several 
 daily papers, two weekly religious ones, and a fine 
 Mercantile Library, all spoke well for her intelligence 
 and culture, while her Public School buildings and her 
 Court-House would have been creditable any where. The 
 New England element was noticeable in many of her 
 citizens, and Sunday came here once a week, as regularly 
 as in Boston or Bangor. The Methodists and Presby- 
 terians both worshipped in goodly edifices, and the 
 attendance at each the Sunday we were there was large 
 and respectable. 
 
 Being the first city of importance north of San 
 Francisco, and the brain of our northwest coast, Port- 
 land was full of energy and vigor, and believed thor- 
 oughly in her future. The great Oregon Steam Naviga- 
 tion Company had their headquarters here, and poured 
 into her lap all the rich trade of the Columbia and its 
 far-reaching tributaries, that tap Idaho, Montana, and 
 even British America itself. So, also, the coastwise 
 steamers, from San Francisco up, all made Portland their 
 terminus, and added largely to her commerce. Back of 
 her lay the valley of the Willamette, and the rich heart 
 of Oregon ; and her wharves, indeed, were the gateways 
 to thousands of miles of territory and trade, in all direc- 
 tions. Nearer to the Sandwich Islands and China, by 
 several hundred miles, than California, she had already 
 
 12
 
 266 BRAIN OF THE NORTH-WEST 
 
 opened a brisk trade with both, and' boasted that she 
 could sell sugars, teas, silks, rice, etc., cheaper than San 
 Francisco. Yictoria, the British city up on Puget Sound, 
 had once been a dangerous rival ; but Portland had 
 managed to beat her out of sight, and claimed now she 
 would keep her beaten. It was Yankee Doodle against 
 John Bull ; and, of course, in such a contest, Yictoria 
 went to the wall ! 
 
 It seemed singular, however, that the chief city of 
 the northwest coast should be located there a hundred 
 miles from the sea, and even then twelve miles up the 
 little Willamette. Your first thought is, Portland has 
 no right to be at all, where she now is. But, it ap- 
 pears, she originally got a start, from absorbing and 
 controlling the large trade of the Willamette, and when 
 the Columbia was opened up to navigation rapidly grew 
 into importance, by her heavy dealings in flour, wool, 
 cattle, lumber, etc. The discovery of mines in Idaho 
 and Montana greatly invigorated her, and now she had 
 got so much ahead, and so much capital and brains were 
 concentrated here, that it seemed hard for any new place 
 to compete with her successfully.* Moreover, we were 
 told, there are no good locations for a town along the 
 Columbia from the ocean up to the Willamette, nor on 
 the Willamette up to Portland. Along the Columbia, 
 from the ocean up, wooded hills and bluffs come quite 
 down to the water, and the whole back country, as a 
 rule, is still a wilderness of pines and firs; while the 
 Willamette up to Portland, they said, was apt to over- 
 flow its banks in high water. Hence, Portland seemed 
 secure in her supremacy, at least for years to come, 
 though no doubt at no distant day a great city will rise 
 
 Though since scourged severely by fire, (1873), she has vindi 
 cated herself well by prompt and general rebuilding, like Chicago.
 
 PUGET SOUND 267 
 
 on Puget Sound, that will dominate all that coast, up to 
 Sitka and down to San Francisco. From want of time, 
 we failed to reach the Posts on Puget's Sound ; but all 
 accounts agreed, that land-locked by Yancouver's and 
 San Juan islands we there have one of the largest and 
 most magnificent harbors in the world. With the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad linking it to Duluth and the 
 great lakes, commerce will yet seek its great advantages ; 
 and the Boston, if not the New York, of the Pacific will 
 yet flourish where now are only the wilds of "Washing- 
 ton. The Sound already abounded in saw-mills, and the 
 ship-timber and lumber of "Washington we subsequently 
 found famed in San Francisco, and throughout California. 
 She was then putting lumber down in San Francisco, 
 cheaper than the Californians could bring it from their 
 own foot-hills, and her magnificent forests of fir and 
 pine promised yet to be a rare blessing to all the Pacific 
 Coast. 
 
 The Portlanders, of course, were energetic, go-ahead 
 men, from all parts of the North, with a good sprinkling 
 from the South. Outside of Portland, however, the Ore- 
 gonians appeared to be largely from Missouri, and to have 
 retained many of their old Missouri and so-called " con- 
 servative" ideas still. All through our Territories, in- 
 deed, Missouri seemed to have been fruitful of emigrants. 
 Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, were everywhere well repre- 
 sented ; but Missouri led, especially in Idaho and Oregon. 
 This fact struck us repeatedly, and was well accounted 
 for by friend Meacham's remark (top of the Blue Moun- 
 tains), " the left wing of Price's army is still encamped 
 in this region." The tone of society, in too many places, 
 seemed to be of the Nasby order, if not worse. No 
 doubt hundreds of deserters and draft-sneaks, from both 
 armies, had made their way into those distant regions ;
 
 268 OBEGONIANS GENERALLY 
 
 and then, besides, the influence of our old officials, both 
 civil and military, had long been pro-slavery, and this 
 still lingered among communities, whom the ^var had not 
 touched, and among whom school-houses and churches 
 were still far too few. Of course, we met some right noble 
 and devoted Union men everywhere, especially in Colo- 
 rado ; but elsewhere, and as a rule, they did not strike 
 us as numerous, nor as very potential. In saying this, I 
 hope I am not doing the Territories injustice ; but this is 
 how their average public opinion impressed a passing 
 traveller, and other tourists we met en route remarked the 
 same thing. 
 
 Here at Portland, John Chinaman turned up again, 
 and seemed to be behaving thoroughly well. At Boise, 
 we found these heathen paying their stage-fare, and rid- 
 ing down to the Columbia, while many Caucasians were 
 walking, and here at Portland they appeared alike thrifty 
 and prosperous. Their advent here had been compara- 
 tively recent, and there was still much prejudice against 
 them, especially among the lower classes ; but they were 
 steadily winning their way to public favor by their sobri- 
 ety, their intelligence and thrift, and good conduct gen- 
 erally. Washing and ironing, and household service gen- 
 erally, seeined to be their chief occupations, and nearly 
 everybody gave them credit for industry and integrity. 
 Mr. Arrigoni, the proprietor of our hotel (and he was 
 one of the rare men, who know how to " keep a hotel "), 
 spoke highly of their capacity and honesty, and said he 
 wanted no better servants anywhere. One of them, not 
 over twenty-one, had a contract to do the washing and 
 ironing for the Arrigoni House, at a hundred dollars per 
 month, and was executing it with marked fidelity. He 
 certainly did his work well, judging by what we saw of 
 the hotel linen. In walking about the town, we occa-
 
 MT8. HOOD AND ST. HELENS 269 
 
 sionally came upon their signs, over the door of some 
 humble dwelling, as for example, " Ling & Ching, Laun- 
 dry ; " " Hop Kee, washing and ironing ; " " Ching 
 Wing, shoemaker ; " " Chow Pooch, doctor ; " etc. As 
 far as we could see, they appeared to be intent only on 
 minding their own business, and as a class were doing 
 more hearty honest work by far, than most of their big 
 oted defamers. We could not refrain from wishing 
 them well, they were so sober, industrious, and orderly ; 
 for, after all, are not these the first qualities of good citi- 
 zenship the world over ? 
 
 We left Portland, Dec. llth, on the good steamer 
 Oriflamme, for San Francisco. For a wonder, it was a 
 calm clear day, with the bracing air of our Octobers in 
 the east, and as we glided out of the Willamette into 
 the noble Columbia, we had a last superb view of Mts. 
 Jefferson, Hood, Adams and St. Helens all at the same 
 time. Sometimes Rainier also is visible from here, but 
 ordinarily only Hood and St. Helens appear. We 
 thought this the finest view of these splendid snow-peaks 
 that we had had yet, and it seemed strange no artist had 
 yet attempted to group them all in one grand landscape, 
 from the mouth of the Willamette as a stand-point. 
 Or, if he could not get them all in, he might at least com- 
 bine Hood and St. Helens. The breadth and scope, 
 the grandeur and sublimity of such a picture, with the 
 Columbia in the foreground, and the great range of the 
 Cascade Mountains in the perspective, would make a 
 painting, that would live forever. We watched them all, 
 with the naked eye and through the glass, until we were 
 far down the Columbia, and to the last, Hood was the same 
 
 " Dread ambassador from earth to heaven I " 
 How he soared and towered, beyond and above every-
 
 270 ASTOEIA 
 
 thing, as if communing with the Almighty ! Lofty as 
 were the rest, they seemed small by his majestic side. 
 St. Helens, however, though not so imperial, was per- 
 haps more simply and chastely beautiful. An unbroken 
 forest of fir, deep green verging into black, girt her feet, 
 while above she " swelled vast to heaven," a perfect snow 
 sphere rather than cone, whose celestial whiteness daz- 
 zled the eye. She looked like a virgin's or a nun's white 
 breast, unsullied by sin, and standing sharply out against 
 the glorious azure of that December sky, seemed indeed 
 a perfect emblem of purity and beauty. Farther down the 
 river, we detected a light smoke or vapor, drifting 
 dreamily away from her summit, and Capt. Conner of 
 the Oriflamme said this was not unusual, though St. 
 Helens was not rated as a volcano. He thought it steam 
 or vapor, caused by internal heat melting the snow, 
 rather than smoke ; but the effect was about the same. 
 
 We reached the mouth of the Columbia, the same 
 evening ; but Capt. Conner thought it risky to venture 
 over the bar, until morning. The next morning early, 
 we lifted anchor, and steamed down to Astoria a 
 higgledy-piggledy village, of only four or five hundred 
 inhabitants still, though begun long before prosperous 
 Portland. Her anchorage seemed fair; but ashore the 
 land abounded in a congeries of wooded bluffs and ridges, 
 that evidently made a town or farms there difficult, if not 
 impossible. A short street or two of straggling houses, 
 propped along the hillsides, was about all there was of 
 Astoria ; and yet she was a port of entry, with a custom- 
 house and full corps of officials, while Portland with all 
 her enterprise and commerce was not, and could not get 
 to be. What her custom-officials would have to do, 
 were it not for the business of Portland, it seemed 
 pretty hard to say. A venture of John Jacob Aster's a
 
 THE BAR OP THE COLUMBIA 271 
 
 half century before, as a trading post with the Indians, 
 she had never become of much importance, because 
 lacking a good back country ; and it appeared, had no 
 future now, because wanting a good town-site. This 
 was unfortunate perhaps for Oregon, and the whole 
 Columbia region ; but over it Portland rejoiced, and con- 
 tinued to wax fat. 
 
 Of course, it had begun to rain again, and by the 
 time we had passed the ordeal of the custom-house at 
 Astoria, the weather had thickened up into a drizzly fog, 
 that caused Capt. C. much anxiety especially, when he 
 observed the barometer steadily going down. The bar 
 of the Columbia, always bad, is peculiarly rough in 
 winter, and only the voyage before the Oriftamme had 
 to lay to here, nearly a week, unable to venture out. 
 Her provisions became exhausted, and she had to " clean 
 out " Astoria, and all the farm-houees up and down the 
 river for miles, before she finally got away. Our 
 company of four hundred passengers had no fancy for an 
 experience of this sort, and " dirty " as the weather 
 promised to be, Capt. C. at last decided to try the bar, 
 even if we had to return, hoping to find better skies 
 when fairly afloat in blue water. Our engines once in 
 motion, we soon ran down past Forts Stevens and Cape 
 Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia, on the 
 Oregon and "Washington sides respectively, with the black 
 throats of their heavy cannon gaping threateningly at us. 
 Both forts seem necessary there, as they completely com- 
 mand the mouth of the Columbia, and so hold the key 
 to all that region. But life in them must be an almost 
 uninterrupted series of rains and fogs, with the surf for- 
 ever thundering at your feet, and one can but pity the 
 officers and men really exiled there. Gathered about 
 the flag-staff or lounging along the ramparts, they gazed
 
 BEA-SICKNESS 
 
 wistfully at us as we steamed past ; and already in the 
 distance we could see the white-caps, racing in over the 
 dreaded bar. Heading for the north channel, we put all 
 steam on, and once out of the jaws of the Columbia were 
 soon fairly a-dancing on the bar. The wind and tide 
 both strong, were both dead ahead, which made our 
 exit about as bad, as could well be. The sea went 
 hissing by, or broke into huge white-caps all about 
 us. The engines creaked and groaned, and at times 
 seemed to stand still, as if exhausted with the struggle. 
 The good ship Oriflamme pitched and tossed, battling 
 with the waves like a practiced pugilist, yet ever 
 advanced, though sometimes apparently drifting shore- 
 ward. At one period, indeed, Capt. C. feared we would 
 have to about ship and run for the Columbia we pro- 
 gressed so slowly ; but something of a lull in the wind 
 just then helped us on, and at last we saw by the reced- 
 ing head-lands, that we were fairly over the bar and out 
 into the broad Pacific. We congratulated ourselves in 
 thus getting speedily to sea ; but our tussle on the bar 
 had been too much for the majority of our passengers, 
 and soon our bulwarks were thronged with scores " cast- 
 ing up their accounts " with Father Neptune. Sea-sick- 
 ness, that deathliest of all human ailments, had set in, 
 and our " rough and tumble " with the waves had been 
 BO sharp, that many began to suffer from it, who declared 
 they had never been attacked before. A notable New 
 Yorker, a brawny son of .zEsculapius at that, bravely 
 protested, that sea-sickness was " Only a matter of the 
 imagination. Anyone can overcome it. It only requires 
 a vigorous exercise of the will." But, unfortunately for 
 his theory, soon afterwards he himself became the sickest 
 person on board, not excepting the ladies. My own 
 experience ended with a qualm or two ; but the majority
 
 THE VOYAGE GENERALLY 273 
 
 of our passengers suffered very much, for several days. 
 Our steamer really had accommodations for only about one 
 hundred passengers ; but some four hundred had crowded 
 aboard of her at Portland, mostly miners eager to get 
 " below" to winter, and those who had no state-rooms 
 now " roughed it " pitiably. They lay around loose on 
 deck, in the cabin, in the gang-way, everywhere the 
 most disconsolate-looking fellows I ever saw, outside of a 
 yellow-fever hospital. The few ladies aboard were even 
 sicker; but these all had state-rooms, and kept them 
 mostly for the voyage. 
 
 The weather continued raw and the sea rough, most of 
 the way down the coast, and our voyage of eight hun- 
 dred miles from Portland to San Francisco, as a whole, 
 could hardly be called agreeable. We-had fog, and rain, 
 and head-winds all the way down, and with the exception 
 of a day or two, it was really cold and uncomfortable. 
 The steam-heating apparatus of the vessel was out of 
 order, and the only place for us all to warm was at a 
 register in the Social Hall a narrow little cabin on deck, 
 that would not accommodate over thirty persons at the 
 farthest. There was a similar place for the ladies, but 
 they usually filled this themselves. Groups huddled 
 here all day, smoking and talking, and when the weather 
 permitted also swarmed about the smoke-stacks. And 
 then, besides, as already stated, our ship was badly 
 overcrowded. Of our 400 passengers, less than a quar- 
 ter had state-rooms, and the rest were left to shift for 
 themselves. After the sea-sickness began to abate, we 
 filled two or three tables every meal ; and when bed-time 
 came, mattrasses thronged the cabin from end to end 
 How it was down in the steerage, where the miners and 
 Chinamen mostly congregated, one need not care to ima- 
 gine. Fortunately great-coats and blankets abounded, or 
 
 12*
 
 274 THE GOLDEN GATE 
 
 many would have suffered much. "We found many 
 choice spirits aboard, and in spite of wind and weather 
 enjoyed ourselves, after all, very fairly. When it did not 
 rain too hard, we walked the deck and talked for hours ; 
 and when everything else failed, we always found some- 
 thing of interest in the gulls that followed us by hun- 
 dreds, and the great frigate-birds with their outstretched 
 pinions, and the ever-rolling boundless sea. Our table- 
 fare was always profuse and generally excellent, especially 
 the Oregon apples and pears they gave us for dessert ; 
 and had it not been for our broken heating apparatus, 
 no doubt we would have got along very satisfactorily 
 after all, all things considered. 
 
 "We arrived off the Golden Gate, late at night, Dec. 
 14th, only four days out from Portland ; but the sea was 
 still so rough, that we feared to venture in. Next morning, 
 however, when the mist broke away a little, we up steam 
 and headed again for San Francisco. We had a tough 
 time getting in, nearly as bad as getting out of the Colum- 
 bia. We had to combat a strong wind dead-ahead, and 
 to wrestle with a heavy sea. But, nevertheless, our good 
 ship held on her course bravely ; and at last, weathering 
 Point Reyes, and rounding Fort Point, we steamed up 
 past frowning Alcatraz, and with booming cannon drop- 
 ped anchor at the Company's wharf. The storm we had 
 encountered was reported as one of the worst known on 
 the coast for years, and we were glad once more to touch 
 terra firma, and strike hands with a live civilization. In 
 a half hour we were ashore and at the Occidental, a hos- 
 telry worthy of San Francisco or any other city. 
 
 And so, wt, had reached California at last. All hail, 
 the Golden Gate ! And 'Frisco, plucky, vain young 
 metropolis, hail ! Bragging, boasting, giddy as you are, 
 there is much excuse for you. Surely, with your mar-
 
 'FBISCO. 275 
 
 vellous growth, and far-reaching schemes, you have a 
 right to call yourself the New York of the Pacific Coast, 
 if that contents you !
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 EOGRAPHY demonstrates the matchless position 
 of San Francisco, as metropolis of the Pacific 
 coast, and assures her supremacy perhaps forever. The 
 Golden Gate, a strait six miles long by one wide, with 
 an average depth of twenty-four fathoms seven fathoms 
 at the- shallowest point is her pathway to the Pacific. 
 At her feet stretches her sheltered and peerless bay, 
 fifty miles long by five wide, with Oakland as her 
 Brooklyn just across it. Beyond, the Sacramento and 
 the San Joaquin empty their floods, the drainage of the 
 Sierra Nevadas, and afford channels for trade with much 
 of the interior. Her system of bays San Pablo, Sui- 
 sun, and San Francisco proper contain a superficial area 
 of four hundred square miles, of which it is estimated, 
 eight feet in depth pour in and out of the Golden Gate 
 every twenty -four hours. On all that coast, for thousands 
 of miles, she seems to be the only really great harbor ; and 
 then, besides, all enterprise and commerce have so centred 
 here, that hereafter it will be difficult, if not impossible, to 
 wrest supremacy from her. Until we reached Salt-Lake, 
 New York everywhere ruled the country, and all business 
 ideas turned that way ; but from there on, the influence 
 of Gotham ceased, and everything tended to " 'Frisco," 
 as many lovingly called her. This was her general name, 
 indeed, for short, all over the Pacific coast ; though the
 
 HER LOCATION 277 
 
 Nevadans spoke of her, as " the Bay" still. The city 
 itself stands on a peninsula of shifting dunes or sand- 
 hills, at the mouth of the harbor, much the same as if 
 New York were built at Sandy Hook. It was a great 
 mistake, that its founders did not locate it at Benicia, or 
 Yallejo, or somewhere up that way, where it would have 
 been out of the draft of the Golden Gate, had better 
 wharfage, and been more easily defended. But, it seems, 
 when the gold fever first broke out, in 1849, the early 
 vessels all came consigned to Yerba Buena, as the little 
 hamlet was then called ; and as their charter-parties would 
 not allow them to ascend the Bay farther, their cargoes 
 were deposited on the nearest shore, and hence came San 
 Francisco. It took a year or more then to hear from 
 New York or London, and before further advices were 
 received, so great was the rush of immigrants, the town 
 was born and the city named. Benicia tried to change 
 things afterwards; but 'Frisco had got the start, and 
 kept it, in spite of her false location. Her military de- 
 fences are Fort Point at the mouth of the Golden Gate, 
 Fort San Jose farther up the harbor, and Alcatraz on an 
 island square in the entrance, which with other works 
 yet to be constructed would cross-fire and command all 
 the approaches by water, thus rendering the city fairly 
 impregnable. 
 
 From the first, she seems to have had a fight with 
 the sand-hills, and she was still pluckily maintaining it. 
 She had cut many of them down, and hurled them into 
 the sea, to give her a better frontage. Her " made " land 
 already extended out several blocks, and the work was still 
 going on. With a great penchant for right-angles, as if 
 Philadelphia was her model city, she was pushing her 
 streets straight out, in all directions, no matter what 
 obstacles intervened. One would have thought, that
 
 278 HER SAffD HILLS 
 
 with an eye to economy, as well as the picturesque, 
 she would have flanked some of her sand-hills by leading 
 her streets around them ; but no ! she marched straight 
 at and over them, with marvellous audacity and courage, 
 like the Old Guard at "Waterloo, or the Boys in Blue at 
 Chattanooga. Some were inaccessible to carriages ; 
 still she pushed straight on, and left the inhabitants to 
 clamber up to their eyrie-like residences, as best they 
 could. Many of these hills were still shifting sand, and 
 in places lofty fences had been erected as a protection 
 against sand-drifts ; just as our railroads East sometimes 
 build fences, as a protection against snow-drifts. The 
 sand seemed of the lightest and loosest character, and 
 when the breeze rose filled the atmosphere at all exposed 
 points. And yet, when property irrigated, it really 
 seemed to produce about everything abundantly. While 
 inspecting one of the harbor forts, I saw a naked drift 
 on one side of a sand-fence, and on the other a flower- 
 garden of the most exquisite character, while just beyond 
 was a vegetable and fruit-garden, that would have aston- 
 ished people East. A little water had worked the miracle, 
 and this a faithful wind-mill continued to pump up, from 
 time to time as needed. Towards the south, the sand- 
 hills seemed less of an obstruction, and thither the 
 city was now drifting very rapidly. Real- estate there 
 was constantly on the rise, and houses were springing 
 up as if by magic in a night. The city-front, heretofore 
 much confined, was now extending southward accord- 
 ingly. It was about decided to build a sea-wall of solid 
 granite, all along the front, two miles or more in length, 
 at a cost of from two to three millions of dollars. This 
 expenditure seemed large ; but, it was maintained, was 
 not too great for the vast and growing commerce of the 
 city.
 
 HER COMMERCE AND WEALTH 279 
 
 But a few years before, it was a common thing for 
 ships to go East empty or in ballast, for want of a return 
 cargo; but in 1867 San Francisco shipped grain alone to 
 the amount of thirteen millions of dollars, and of man- 
 ufactures about as much more. Here are some other 
 statistics that are worth one's considering. In 1849, 
 then called Yerba Buena, she numbered perhaps 1,000 
 souls, all told ; in 1869, nearly 200,000. In 1868, 59,000 
 passengers arrived by sea, and only 25,000 departed, 
 leaving a net gain of 34,000. The vessels which entered 
 the bay that year, numbered 3,300, aud measured over 
 1,000,000 tons. She exported 4,000,000 sacks of wheat 
 that year, and half a million barrels of flour. Her 
 total exports of all kinds were estimated at not less than 
 $70,000,000, and her imports about the same. Her sales 
 of real-estate aggregated $27,000,000, and of mining 
 and other stocks $115,000,000, on which she paid over 
 $5,000,000 of dividends. The cash value of her real and 
 personal property was estimated at $200,000,000. She 
 sent away six tons of gold, and forty tons of silver every 
 month, and in all since 1849 had poured into thecoifers of 
 the world not less than $1,030,000,000.* Her net-work 
 of far-reaching and gigantic enterprises already embraced 
 the whole Pacific Coast, northward to Alaska and south- 
 ward to Panama, while beyond she stretched out her invisi- 
 ble arms to Japan and China, and shook hands with the 
 Orient. 
 
 One cloudless morning, after days of dismal drizzle, 
 an enthusiastic Forty-Niner took me up Telegraph Hill, 
 and bade me " view the landscape o'er ! " I remembered 
 when a school-boy reading Dana's <; Two Years be- 
 fore the Mast," in which he speaks so contemptuously 
 of Yerba Buena, and its Mexican Rip Yan Winkles. 
 * See Appendix.
 
 2SO THE VIEW FROM TELEGRAPH HILL 
 
 What a change here since then ! Off to the west rolled the 
 blue Pacific, sea and sky meeting everywhere. Then 
 came Fort Point, with its formidable batteries, command- 
 ing the Golden Gate ; and then the old Presidio, with 
 the stars and stripes waving over it. Farther inland 
 were the stunted live-oaks and gleaming marbles of Lone 
 Mountain Cemetery, with the Broderick Monument rising 
 over all. Then came the live, busy, bustling, pushing city, 
 with its quarter of a million of inhabitants nearly, soon to 
 be a million, its wharves thronged with the ships of all 
 nations, but with harbor-room to spare sufficient to float 
 the navies of the world. Beyond, lay Oakland, loveliest of 
 suburbs, smiling in verdure and beauty, with Mount 
 Diabolo towering in the distance his snow-crowned 
 summit flashing in the sunlight. The Sacramento and 
 Stockton boats, from the heart of California were already 
 in. Past the Golden Gate, and up the noble bay, with 
 boom of welcoming cannon, came the Hong Kong 
 steamer fresh from Japan. The Panama steamer, with 
 her fires banked and flag flying, was just ready to cast off. 
 While off to the south, a long train of cars, from down 
 the bay and San Jose, came thundering in. A hundred 
 church spires .pierced the sky ; the smoke from number- 
 less mills and factories, machine-shops and foundries, 
 drifted over the harbor ; the horse-car bells tinkled on 
 every side the last proofs of American progress and 
 all around us were the din and boom of Yankee energy, 
 and thrift, and go-ahead-ative-ness, in place of the old 
 Rip Yan Winkleism. I don't wonder, that all good 
 Pacific Coasters believe in San Francisco, and expect to 
 go there when they die ! Her hotels, her school-houses, 
 her churches, her Bank of California, her Wells-Fargo 
 Express, her Mission Woollen Mills, her lines of ocean 
 steam-ships, and a hundred other things, all suggest great
 
 HER CLIMATE GENERALLY 281 
 
 wealth and brains ; and yet they are only the first fruits 
 of nobler fortune yet to come. She is what Carlyle 
 might call an undeniable fact, a substantial verity ; and, 
 in spite of her " heavy job of work," moves onward to 
 empire with giant strides. She contained already fully 
 a third of the population of the whole state of California, 
 and was " lifting herself up like a young lion " in all 
 enterprises at all times and everywhere on the Pacific 
 slope. 
 
 Her faulty location, however, gives her a climate, 
 that can scarcely be called inviting, notwithstanding all 
 that Californians claim for their climate generally. It is 
 true, the range of the thermometer there indicates but a 
 moderate variation of temperature, with neither snow 
 nor frost, usually. But her continual rains in winter, 
 and cold winds and fogs in summer, must be very trying 
 to average nerves and lungs. We found it raining on 
 our arrival there in December, with the hills surround- 
 ing the bay already turning green ; and it continued to rain 
 and drizzle right along, pretty much all the time, until 
 we departed for Arizona in .February. Sometimes it 
 would break away for an hour or two, and the sun would 
 come out resplendently, as if meaning to shine forever ; 
 and then, suddenly, it would cloud over, and begin to 
 drizzle and rain again, as if the whole heavens were 
 only a gigantic sieve. Really, it did rain there some- 
 times the easiest of any place I ever saw not excepting 
 Fort Vancouver. Going out to drive, or on business, 
 we got caught thus several times, and learned the wis- 
 dom of carrying stout umbrellas, or else wearing bang- 
 up hats and water-proof coats, like true Californians. 
 Once, for a fortnight nearly, it rained in torrents, with 
 but little intermission, and then the whole interior 
 became flooded bridges were washed away, roads sub-
 
 282 WINTER BAINS AND SUMMER WINDS 
 
 merged, etc. In the midst of this, one night, we had a 
 sharp passage of thunder and lightning a phenomenon 
 of rare occurrence on that coast followed by a slight 
 earthquake, and then it rained harder than ever. But 
 at last, the winter rains came to an end, as all things 
 must, and then we had indeed some superb weather, 
 worthy of Italy or Paradise. Californians vowed their 
 winter had been an unusual one; that their January was 
 usually good, and their February very fine ; but, of 
 course, things must be reported as we found them. As 
 a rule, nobody seemed to mind the perpetual drizzle, so 
 to speak ; but with -slouched hats and light overcoats, or 
 infrequent umbrellas, everybody tramped the streets, as 
 business or pleasure called, and the general health of the 
 city continued good. The few fair days we had in Jan- 
 uary and early February were as soft and balmy, as our 
 May or June, and all 'Frisco made the most of them. 
 The ladies literally swarmed along Montgomery street, 
 resplendent in silks and jewelry, and all the drives about 
 the city especially the favorite one to the Cliff-House 
 and sea-lions were thronged with coaches and buggies. 
 Meanwhile, the islands in the harbor and the surround- 
 ing hills and country, so dead and barren but a few 
 weeks before, had now become superbly green, and the 
 whole bay and city lay embosomed in emerald. 
 
 We left there the middle of February for Arizona, and 
 did not get back until late in May. Then, when we returned 
 we found the rains long gone, the vegetation fast turning to 
 yellow grain ripening in the fields strawberries and 
 peas on the table and the summer winds and fogs in 
 full vogue. At sunrise, it would be hot, even sultry, and 
 you would see persons dressed in white linen. By nine 
 or ten A. M , the wind would rise a raw damp wind, 
 sometimes with fog, sweeping in from the Pacific and
 
 HER EARTHQUAKES 283 
 
 in the evening, you would see ladies going to the Opera 
 with full winter furs on. How long this lasted, I cannot 
 Bay ; but this was the weather we experienced, as a rule, 
 late in May and early in June. Heavy great-coats, 
 doubtless, are never necessary there. And so, on the 
 other hand, thin clothing is seldom wanted. Many in- 
 deed said, they wore the same clothing all seasons of the 
 year, and seldom found it uncomfortable either way. 
 The truth seemed to be, that for hardy persons the 
 climate was excellent the air bracing and stimulating 
 but invalids were better off in the interior. Consump- 
 tives could not stand the winds and fogs at all ; and it was 
 a mooted question, as to whether the large percentage of 
 suicides just then, was not due in part to climatic influen- 
 ces. The really healthy, however, appeared plump and 
 rosy, and the growing children promised well for the 
 future. Had 'Frisco been built at Benicia, or about there, 
 she would have escaped much of her climatic misery. 
 Even across the bay, at Oakland, they have a much 
 smoother climate. But she would " squat" on a sand- 
 spit, at the mouth of the Golden Gate, where there is a 
 perpetual suck of wind and fog from the ocean, into 
 the bay, and up the valley of the Sacramento and now 
 must make the most of her situation. 
 
 Montgomery Street is the Broadway or Chestnut 
 Street of San Francisco, and California her Wall Street. 
 Her hotels, shops, and banking-houses are chiefly here, 
 and many of them are very handsome edifices. The 
 Occidental, Cosmopolitan, and Lick-House hotels, the new 
 Mercantile Library, and Bank of California, are stately 
 structures, that would do credit to any city. Their 
 height, four and five stories, seemed a little reckless, con- 
 sidering the liability of the Coast to earthquakes ; but the 
 people made light of this, notwithstanding some of their
 
 284 HER HOUSES AND GARDENS 
 
 best buildings showed ominous cracks " from turret to 
 foundation stone." So long as they stood, everything 
 was believed secure ; and commerce surged and roared 
 along the streets, as in New York and London. Brick, 
 well strengthened by iron, seemed to be the chief build- 
 ing material in the business parts of the city, though 
 stone was coming into use, obtained from an excellent 
 quarry on Angel Island. The Bank of California had 
 been constructed of this, and was much admired by 
 everybody. The private residences, however, seemed 
 chiefly frame, and were seldom more than two and a half 
 stories high. Doubtless more heed is given to earth- 
 quakes here, though your true Californian would be slow 
 to acknowledge this. Nevertheless, deep down in his 
 heart at " bed-rock," as he would say his household 
 gods are esteemed of more importance, than his com- 
 mercial commodities. In the suburbs, Mansard roofs 
 were fast coming into vogue, and everywhere there was a 
 general breaking out of Bay-Window. Brown seemed 
 to be the favorite color, doubtless to offset the summer 
 sand-storms, and the general prevalence of bay-windows 
 may also be due partly to these. Convenience and com- 
 fort often elegance and luxury appeared everywhere, 
 and to an extent that was surprising, for a city so young 
 and raw. Shade-trees were still rare, because only the 
 native scrubby live-oaks, with deep penetrating roots, 
 can survive the long and dry summers there. But 
 shrubbery and flowers, prompted by plentiful irrigation, 
 appeared on every side, and the air was always redolent of 
 perfume. The most unpretending homes had their gems 
 of flower-gardens, with evergreens, fuchsias, geraniums, 
 pansies, and the variety and richness of their roses were 
 a perpetual delight. A rill of water, with trickling side 
 streams, made the barren sand-hills laugh with verdure
 
 REPRESENTATIVE CALIFOENIAN8 285 
 
 and beauty, and gaunt wind-mills in every back-yard 
 kept up the supply. The wind-mill in California rises 
 to the dignity of an institution, and is a godsend to 
 the whole coast. In winter, of course, they are not 
 needed. But throughout the long and rainless summer, 
 when vegetation withers up and blows away, the steady 
 sea-breeze keeps the wind-mills going, and these pump 
 up water for a thousand irrigating purposes. The vege- 
 table gardens about the city, and California farmers gen- 
 erally, all patronize them, more or less, and thus grow 
 fruits and vegetables of exquisite character, and almost 
 every variety, the year round. The markets and fruit- 
 stands of San Francisco, groaning with apples, pears, 
 peaches, plums, pomegranates, oranges, grapes, straw- 
 berries, etc., have already become world-renowned, and 
 the Pacific Railroad now places them at our very doors. 
 Montgomery street repeats Broadway in all but its 
 vista, but with something more perhaps of energy and 
 dash. The representative New Yorker always has a trace 
 of conservatism somewhere ; but your true Californian 
 laughs at precedent, and is embodied go-ahead-ativeness. 
 In costume, he is careless, not to say reckless, insisting 
 on comfort at all hazards, and running greatly to pockets. 
 Stove-pipe hats are an abomination to him, and tight 
 trowsers nowhere ; but beneath his slouch-hat are a keen 
 eye and nose, and his powers of locomotion are something 
 prodigious. Cleaner-cut, more wide-awake, and energetic 
 faces are nowhere to be seen. Few aged men appear, but 
 most average from twenty-five to forty years. Resolute, 
 alert, jaunty, bankrupt perhaps to-day, but to-morrow 
 picking their flints and trying it again, such men mean 
 business in all they undertake, and carry enterprise and 
 empire in the palms of their hands. The proportion of 
 ladies on Montgomery street, however, usually seemed
 
 286 JEWISH SYNAGOGUE 
 
 small, and the quality inferior to that of the sterner sex. 
 Given to jewelry and loud colors, and still louder man- 
 ners, there was a fastness about them, that jarred upon 
 one's Eastern sense, though some noble specimens of 
 womanhood now and then appeared. Doubtless, the 
 hotel and apartment-life of so many San Franciscans had 
 something to do with this, as it is fatal to the more 
 modest and domestic virtues ; but it must be doubted, 
 whether this will account for it entirely. Evidently, 
 California is still " short " of women, at least of the 
 worthier kind, and until she completes her supply will 
 continue to over-estimate and spoil what she has. At 
 least, this is the impression her Montgomery street dames 
 make upon a stranger, and unfortunately there is much 
 elsewhere to confirm it. 
 
 Respect for the Sabbath seemed to be a growing virtue, 
 but there was still room for much improvement. Many 
 of the stores and shops on Montgomery and Kearney 
 streets were open on Sunday, the same as other days ; 
 and it seemed to be the favorite day for pic-nics and 
 excursions, to Oakland and San Mateo. Processions, with 
 bands of music, were not infrequent, and at Hayes' Park 
 in the Southern suburbs the whole Teuton element 
 seemed to concentrate on that day, for a general saturna- 
 lia. On the other hand, there was a goodly array of well- 
 filled churches, and their pastors preached with much 
 fervency and power. The Jewish Synagogue is a mag- 
 nificent structure, one of the finest in America, and 
 deserves more than a passing notice. It is on Sutter 
 street, in a fine location overlooking the city, and cost 
 nearly half a million of dollars. The gilding and deco- 
 ration generally inside, viewed from the organ-loft, are 
 superb. But few of the large choir were Jews, and 
 scarcely any could read the old Hebrew songs and chants
 
 OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 287 
 
 in the original; so these were printed in English, as 
 the Hebrew sounds, and thus they maintained the ancient 
 custom of singing and chanting only in Hebrew ! Their 
 music, nevertheless, was grand and inspiring, and it 
 would be well for our Gentile churches, to emulate it. 
 This was called the Progressive Synagogue. The con- 
 gregation had recently shortened the ancient service from 
 three hours to an hour and a half, by leaving out some of 
 the long prayers " vain repetitions," it is presumed 
 and the consequence was, a split in this most conserva- 
 tive of churches. The good old conservative brethren, 
 of course, could not stand the abbreviation. They were 
 fully persuaded, they could never get to Paradise, with 
 only an hour and a half 's service. So, they seceded, and 
 set up for themselves. Yery prosperous and wealthy are 
 the Jews of San Francisco ; and, indeed, all over the Pacific 
 Coast, our Hebrew friends enjoy a degree of respectabil- 
 ity, that few attain East. They number in their ranks 
 many of the leading bankers, merchants, lawyers, etc., of 
 San Francisco ; and more than one of them sits upon the 
 Bench, gracing his seat. Poor Thomas Starr King's 
 church is a model in its way, and the congregation that 
 assembles there one of the most cultivated and refined 
 on the Pacific Coast. Their pastor, Dr. Stebbins, though 
 not equal to his great predecessor, in some respects, is a 
 man of marked thought and eloquence ; and, by his broad 
 Christian charity, was doing a noble work in San Fran- 
 cisco. So, Dr. Stone, formerly of Boston, was preaching 
 to large audiences, and declaring " the whole counsel of 
 God," without fear or favor. His church is plain but 
 large and commodious, and was always thronged with 
 attentive worshippers. Dr. Wadsworth, lately of Phila- 
 delphia, was not attracting the attention he did East ; but 
 his church was usually well-filled, and he was exerting
 
 THINGS IMPROVING RELIGIOUSLY. 
 
 an influence and power for good much needed. The 
 Methodists, our modern ecclesiastical sharp-shooters, did 
 not seem as live and aggressive, as they usually do else- 
 where ; but we were told they were a great and growing 
 power on the Coast, for all that, and everybody bade 
 them God speed. The Episcopalians, as a rule, I regret 
 to say, appeared to make but little impression, and were 
 perhaps unfortunate in their chief official. The Catholics, 
 embracing most of the old Spanish population and much 
 of the foreign element, were vigorous and aggressive, and 
 made no concealment of the fact, that they were aiming 
 at supremacy. In this cosmopolitan city, the Chinese, 
 too, have their Temples, or Josh-Houses ; but they were 
 much neglected, and John Chinaman, indeed, religious- 
 ly considered, seemed well on the road to philosophic 
 indifference. 
 
 During the past decade, however, things on the 
 whole had greatly improved, morally and religiously, as 
 the population had become more fixed and settled ; and 
 all were hoping for a still greater improvement, with the 
 completion of the Railroad, and the resumption of old 
 family ties East. The drinking-saloons were being more 
 carefully regulated. The gambling-hells, no longer per- 
 mitted openly, were being more and more driven into 
 obscurity and secrecy. Law and order were more rigidly 
 enforced. The vigilance committees of former years still 
 exerted their beneficent example. The Alia, Bulletin, 
 and Times, then the three great papers of the city and 
 Coast, all noble journals, were all open and pronounced 
 in behalf of good morals and wholesome government ; and 
 it is not too much to say, that the prospect for the future 
 was certainly very gratifying, not to say cheering. 
 " Forty-Niners," (Bret Harte's Argonauts) and other early 
 coiners, declared themselves amazed, that they were get-
 
 IKON-CLAD CHRISTIANS. 
 
 ting on, as well as they did. " Yes," said one of the 
 best of them, a man of great shrewdness and ability, " I 
 grant, we Californians have been pretty rough customers, 
 and have not as many religious people among us yet, as 
 we ought to have ; but then, what we have are iron-clad, 
 you bet ! " I suspect that is about so. A man, who is 
 really religious in California, will likely be so anywhere. 
 The severity of his temptations, if he resist them, will 
 make him invulnerable ; and all the " fiery darts of the 
 wicked one," elsewhere, will fall harmless at his feet. 
 Faithful Monitors are they, battling for Jesus; and in the 
 end, we know, will come off more than conquerors. With 
 all our hearts, let us bid them God speed ! 
 13
 
 CHAPTEK XVIII. 
 
 SAN FEANCISCO (continued). 
 
 HERE in San Francisco, our National greenbacks 
 were no longer a legal tender, but everything was 
 on a coin basis. Just as in New York, you sell gold and 
 buy greenbacks, if you want a convenient medium of 
 exchange, so here we had to sell greenbacks and buy gold. 
 A dime was- the smallest coin, and "two bits" (twenty- 
 five cents) the usual gratuity. A newspaper cost a dime, 
 or two for twenty-five cents the change never being 
 returned. Fruits and vegetables were cheap, but dry- 
 goods, groceries, clothing, books, etc., about the same in 
 gold, as East in greenbacks. The general cost of living, 
 therefore, seemed to be about the same as in New York, 
 plus the premium on gold. California and the Pacific 
 slope generally had refused to adopt the National 
 currency, and it was still a mooted question whether they 
 had lost or gained by this. At first, they thought it a 
 great gain to be rid of our paper dollars; but public 
 opinion had changed greatly, and many were getting to 
 think they had made a huge mistake, in not originally 
 acquiescing in the national necessity. The prosperity of 
 the East during the war, and the pending sluggishness 
 of trade on the Coast (still continuing), were much com- 
 mented on, as connected with this question of Coin vs. 
 Greenbacks ; but it was thought too late to remedy the 
 matter now. This hostility to our Greenbacks did not
 
 COIN VS. GREENBACKS 291 
 
 eeem to arise from a want of patriotism, so much as from 
 a difference of opinion, as to the necessity or propriety 
 of their using a paper currency, when they had all the 
 gold and silver they wanted, and were exporting a surplus 
 by every steamer. If there was a speck of Secession 
 there 'at first, California afterwards behaved very nobly, 
 especially when she came with her bullion by the many 
 thousands to the rescue of the Sanitary Commission ; and 
 Starr King's memory was still treasured everywhere, as 
 that of a martyr for the Union. The oncoming Pacific 
 Railroad was constantly spoken of, as a new ""bond of 
 union," to link the Coast to the Atlantic States as with 
 " hooks of steel ;" and, evidently, nothing (unless it may 
 be the Chinese Question) can disturb the repose of the 
 Republic there, for long years to come. The people 
 almost universally spoke lovingly and tenderly of the 
 East, as their old " home," and thousands were awaiting 
 the completion of the Railroad to go thither once again. 
 Their great passion, however, just then, was for 
 territorial aggrandizement. Mr. Seward had just an- 
 nounced his purchase of Alaska, and of course, every- 
 body was delighted, as they would have been if he had 
 bought the North Pole, or even the tip end of it. Next 
 they wanted British Columbia and the Sandwich Islands, 
 and hoped before long also to possess Mexico and down 
 to the Isthmus. The Sitka Ice Company, which for 
 some years had supplied San Francisco and the Coast 
 with their only good ice, was proof positive, that there 
 was cold weather sometimes in Alaska ; nevertheless, 
 they claimed, the Sage of Auburn had certainly shown 
 himself to be a great statesman, by going into this Real 
 Estate business, however hyperborean the climate. It 
 was soon alleged to be a region of fair fields and dimpled 
 meadows, of luscious fruits and smiling flowers, of
 
 292 ALASKA CHEISTMAS AND NEW YEAR 
 
 magnificent forests and inexhaustible mines, as well as 
 of icebergs and walrusses; and straightway a steamer 
 cleared for Sitka, with a full complement of passengers, 
 expecting to locate a " city" there and sell " corner lots," 
 start a Mining Company and " water" stock, or initiate 
 some other California enterprise. 
 
 Christmas and New Year in San Francisco were 
 observed very generally, and with even more spirit than 
 in the East. The shops and stores had been groaning 
 with gifts and good things for some time, and on Christ- 
 mas Eve the whole city seems to pour itself into Montgom- 
 ery street. Early in the evening, there was a scattering 
 tooting of trumpets, chiefly by boys ; but along toward 
 midnight, a great procession of men and boys drifted to- 
 gether, and traversing Montgomery, Kearney, and adja- 
 cent streets, made the night hideous with every kind of 
 horn, from a dime trumpet to a trombone. New Year 
 was ushered in much the same way, though not quite so 
 elaborately. On both of these winter holidays there hap- 
 pened to be superb weather, much like what we have East 
 in May, with the sky clear, and the air crisp, and the whole 
 city with his wife and child seemed to be abroad. The 
 good old Knickerbocker custom of New Year calls was 
 apparently everywhere accepted, and thoroughly enjoyed. 
 Every kind of vehicle was in demand, and " stag " parties 
 of four or five gentlemen out calling on their lady 
 friends were constantly met, walking hilariously along, 
 or driving like mad. Quite a number of army officers 
 happened to be in San Francisco just then, and their 
 uniforms of blue and brass made many a parlor gay. 
 Of names known east, there were Generals Halleck, 
 McDowell, Allen, Steele, Irvin Gregg, French, King, 
 Fry, etc., and these with their brother officers were 
 everywhere heartily welcomed. Indeed, army officers
 
 AEMY LIFE ON THE COAST 
 
 are nowhere more esteemed or better treated, than on 
 the Pacific Coast, and all are usually delighted with their 
 tour of duty there. In former years, many of them mar- 
 ried magnificent ranches encumbered, however, with 
 native senoritas and here and there we afterwards 
 met them, living like grand seignors on their broad and 
 baronial acres. Ranches leagues in extent, and maintain- 
 ing thousands of cattle and sheep, are still common in 
 California, and some of the best of these belong to ex-army 
 officers. Their owners, however,, do but little in the way 
 of pure farming, and are always ready to give a quarter 
 section or so to any stray emigrant, who will settle down 
 and cultivate it especially to old comrades. 
 
 The great feature of San Francisco, of course, is her 
 peerless bay. Yet noble as it is for purposes of commerce, 
 it avails little for pleasure excursions ; and 'Frisco, indeed, 
 might be better oflf in this respect. A trip to Oakland 
 is sometimes quite enjoyable, and the ride by railroad 
 down the peninsula, skirting the bay, to San Jose, is 
 always a delight. But the bay itself is fickle and morose 
 in winter, and in summer must be raw and gusty. The 
 suck of wind, from the Pacific into the interior, through 
 the Golden Gate, as through a funnel, always keeps the 
 bay more or less in a turmoil ; and during the time we 
 were there, it seemed quite neglected, except for busi- 
 ness purposes. One day, in the middle of January, 
 however, we had duties that took us to Alcatraz and 
 Angel Island, and essayed the trip thither in a little 
 sloop. On leaving the Occidental, the sky was over- 
 cast, and we had the usual drizzle of that winter ; but 
 before we reached Meigg's Wharf, it had thickened 
 into a pouring rain, and as we crossed to Alcatraz squalls 
 were churning the outer bay into foam in all directions. 
 After an hour or two there, on that rocky fortress, the
 
 294 A SAIL ON THE BAT 
 
 key of San Francisco, with the wind and rain dashing 
 fitfully about us, we took advantage of a temporary lull 
 to re-embark for Angel Island. We had hardly got off, 
 however, before squall after squall came charging down 
 upon us; and as we beat up the little strait between 
 Angel Island and Socelito, the sloop careening and the 
 waves breaking over us, it seemed at times as if we were 
 in a fair way of going to the bottom. Just as we round- 
 ed the rocky point of the Island, before reaching the land- 
 ing, a squall of unusual force struck us athwart the bows, 
 wave after wave leaped aboard, and for awhile our gallant 
 little craft quivered in the blast like a spent race-horse, as 
 she struggled onward. An abrupt lee shore was on one 
 side, the squall howling on the other ; but we faced it out, 
 and in a lull, that soon followed, shot by the landing (it 
 being too rough to halt there), and weathering the next 
 point dropped anchor in a little cove behind it, just in 
 time to escape another squall even fiercer than the 
 former. Had we been off either point, or out in the 
 bay, when this last one struck us, no doubt we would 
 have gone ashore or to Davy Jones' locker ; and altogether, 
 as our Captain said, it was a "nasty, dirty day," even for 
 San Francisco. Returning, we had skies less treacher- 
 ous and a smoother run ; but were glad to reach the grate- 
 ful welcome and spacious halls of the Occidental, best of 
 hotels, again. It may be, that the bay was a little ruder 
 that day, than usual ; but it bears a bad name for sudden 
 gnsts and squalls, and San Franciscans give it a wide 
 berth generally. Sometimes, in summer, it is afflicted by 
 calms as well as squalls ; we heard some amusing stories 
 of parties becalmed there until late at night, unable to 
 reach either shore ; so that, altogether, however useful 
 otherwise, it can hardly be regarded as adding much per 
 se to the pleasures of a life in 'Frisco.
 
 CLIFF-HOUSE AND SEA-LIONS 295 
 
 As an offset to this, however, all orthodox San Fran- 
 ciscans, swear by the Cliff-House and the sea-lions. To 
 " go to the Cliff," is the right thing to do in San Fran- 
 cisco, and not to go to the Cliff-House is not to see or 
 know California. In the summer, people drive there in 
 the early morning, to breakfast and return before the 
 sea-breeze rises, and then hundreds of gay equipages 
 throng the well-kept road. Even in winter, at the right 
 hour, you are always sure to meet many driving out or 
 in. Of course, we went to the "Cliff" wouldn't have 
 missed going there for anything. Past Lone Mountain 
 Cemetery, that picturesque city of the dead, the fine 
 graveled road strikes straight through the sand-hills, for 
 five or six miles, to the Pacific ; and when you reach the 
 overhanging bluff, on which the hotel perches like an 
 eagle's nest, you have a grand view of the Golden Gate 
 and the far-stretching sea beyond. On the very verge 
 of the horizon hang the Farallones, pointing the way to 
 Japan and China, and the white sails of vessels beating 
 in or out the harbor dot the ocean far and near. Just in 
 front of the hotel are several groups of high shelving 
 rocks, among which the ocean moans and dashes cease- 
 lessly, and here the seals or " sea-lions," as 'Frisco lov- 
 ingly calls them, have a favorite rendezvous and home. 
 The day we were there, there appeared to be a hundred 
 or more of them, large and small, swimming about the 
 rocks or clambering over them, while pelicans and gulls 
 kept them company. Some were small, not larger than 
 a half-grown sturgeon, while others again were huge 
 unwieldy monsters, not unlike legless oxen, weighing 
 perhaps a thousand pounds or more. " Ben Butler" was 
 an immense, overgrown creature, as selfish and saucy, 
 apparently, as he could well be ; and another, called " Gen. 
 Grant," was not much better. They kicked and cuffed
 
 296 BEN. BUTLER AND GEN. QKANT 
 
 the rest overboard quite indiscriminately, though now 
 and then they were compelled to take a plunge them- 
 selves. Many contented themselves with merely gambol- 
 ing around the water's edge ; but others had somehow 
 managed slimily to roll and climb forty or fifty feet up 
 the rocks, and there lay sunning themselves in supreme 
 felicity, like veteran politicians snug in office. Some- 
 times two or three would get to wrangling about the 
 same position, as if one part of the rocks were softer 
 than another, and then they would bark and howl at 
 each other, and presently essay to fight in the most 
 clumsy and ludicrous way. " Ben Butler," or " Gen. 
 Grant," would usually settle the squabble, by a harsh 
 bark, or by flopping the malcontents overboard, and then 
 would resume his nap with becoming satisfaction. Un- 
 couth, and yet half-human in their way, with a cry that 
 sometimes startled you like a distant wail, we watched 
 their movements from the piazza of the hotel with much 
 interest, and must congratulate 'Frisco on having such a 
 first-class " sensation." May her " sea-lions" long remain 
 to her as a " lion" of the first water, and their numbers 
 and renown never grow less ! In former years, they 
 were much shot at and annoyed, by thoughtless visitors. 
 But subsequently the State took them under her pro- 
 tection, and now it was a penal offence to injure or 
 disturb them. This is right, and California should be 
 complimented, for thus trying to preserve and perpetuate 
 this interesting colony of her original settlers. 
 
 Returning, we had a superb drive down the beach, 
 with the surf thundering at our wheels ; and thence, by 
 a winding road over and through the hills, reached the 
 city again. It was a glorious day in February, after a 
 fortnight of perpetual drizzle a June day for beauty, but 
 toned by an October breeze the sun flashing overhead like
 
 UPS AND DOWNS OF CALIFORNIANS 297 
 
 a shield of gold ; the road, over and between the hills, 
 gave us from time to time exquisite glimpses of -the sea 
 or bay and city ; every sense seemed keyed to a new life 
 and power of enjoyment ; and the memory of that " drive 
 to the Cliff," is something wonderfully clear and charm 
 ing still. It would be surprising, if Californians did not 
 brag considerably about it. They are not famed for 
 modesty, and would be heathens, if they kept silence. 
 
 Californians are proverbial for their ups and downs, 
 and we heard much of their varying fortunes. You will 
 scarcely meet a leading citizen, who has not been down 
 to " hard-pan" once or twice in his career, and everybody 
 seems to enjoy telling about it. In former years, many 
 had been rich in " feet" or " corner-lots," who yet had 
 not enough " dust" to buy a " square-meal ;" and men 
 with Great Expectations, but small cash in hand, were 
 still not infrequent. I ran foul of an old school-mate 
 one day, who arrived in California originally as captain 
 of an ox-team, which he had driven across the Plains. 
 But now he was deep in mining-stocks, and twenty-vara 
 lots, and was rated as a millionaire. I met another who 
 for years lost all he invested in " feet." But luckily, at 
 last, he went into Savage and Yellow Jacket, and now 
 he owned handsome blocks on Montgomery and Califor- 
 nia streets, and lived like a prince at the Occidental. 
 Another still, named O., an eccentric genius, came 
 out to California early, and his uncle (already there) 
 secured him a place in a dry-goods house. In a few 
 months, the house failed, and O. fell back on his uncle's 
 hands again. Then he was given a place in a silk- 
 house, but in a short time this also failed. A fatality 
 seemed to accompany the poor fellow. "Wherever he 
 went, the houses either failed, closed up, or burned out ; 
 and thus, time after time, he came back to his uncle, like
 
 298 A SHLKING EXAMPLE 
 
 a bad penny. Once he was reduced so low, he went to 
 driving a dray, glad to get even that ; and again, turned 
 chiffonier, and eked out a precarious living by collecting 
 the old bones, scraps of tin, sheet-iron, etc., that lay scat- 
 tered about the suburbs. Finally, he wisely concluded 
 he had " touched bottom," and that California was no 
 place for him. So, his kind-hearted uncle bought him 
 a ticket home by the " Golden City," and supposed when 
 he bade him good-bye on her gang-way, that that would 
 be the last he would see of O. in California. But a 
 week or so afterwards, early one Sunday morning, he was 
 roused up by some one rapping lustily at the door, and 
 opening it lo! there was his hopeful nephew again 
 " large as life and twice as natural ! " It seems, the ill- 
 fated steamer, when two or three hundred miles down 
 the Coast, had caught tire and been beached, with the 
 loss of many lives ; but O., strange to say, had escaped 
 scot-free, and now was on hand again. He now tried 
 two or three more situations, thinking his " luck" per- 
 haps had turned, but failed in all of them or they soon 
 failed ; and finally set out for the East again, but this 
 time across the Plains, driving a " bull-team." He got 
 safely back to New York, and taking hold of his father's 
 business grain and flour for a wonder, made it pros- 
 per. He pushed ahead with this swimmingly for awhile, 
 until he had made fifty thousand dollars or so, when he 
 concluded to go into a flour speculation on his own account. 
 He did so, buying largely, when suddenly the bottom 
 dropped out of the market, leaving O. penniless again, 
 with a large deficit he meanwhile, disappearing. Some 
 years afterwards he turned up in Minnesota, where he 
 had married a border maiden, and gone to farming, and 
 at the last accounts was doing tolerably well again. 
 
 Californians will spin you such "yarns" by the evening
 
 BETTER THINGS AHEAD. 299 
 
 half humorous, half pathetic and it is upon such 
 romantic histories, that the Golden State has advanced to 
 empire. 
 
 But the day of her adventurers is passing away, and 
 society there is fast settling down to its normal conditions. 
 Fewer and still fewer of her people return East, to spend 
 their hard-earned fortunes ; and the generation now grow- 
 ing up there regard the Coast as their natural home, and 
 love it dearly. Proud of the soil and enamored of the 
 climate, they expect great things of the future, and surely 
 all the world should wish them well. There are no 
 better or braver men, than our citizens there generally, 
 and the Pacific slope is safe in their hands and brains, 
 beyond peradventure. " Who helps himself, God helps," 
 is a wise old French maxim ; and California believes in 
 it, fully and thoroughly, from the Sierras to the sea.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 s AN FBANCISCO (Concluded). 
 
 ChiDese Question, we had an opportunity of 
 -L looking into considerably, first and last, and here are 
 some conclusions. Striking the orientals at Boise City, 
 in Idaho, we had followed them down the Columbia and 
 the Coast to San Francisco, and here endeavored to learn 
 all we could about them. We found them everywhere 
 on the streets and in the houses, in pretty much all oc- 
 cupations except the very highest, and were constantly 
 amazed at their general thrift and intelligence. Out of 
 the hundred thousand or so on the Coast, perhaps half 
 were massed in San Francisco and its suburbs ; so here 
 was the place to see and study John Chinaman in 
 America, if anywhere. All wore the collarless Chinese 
 blouse, looped across the breast, not buttoned that of 
 the poorer classes of coarse blue stuff, but of the richer of 
 broadcloth. Otherwise, they dressed outwardly chiefly 
 as Americans. Here and there a Chinese hat, such as 
 you see in the tea-prints, appeared, but not often the 
 American felt-hat being the rule, stove-pipes never. A 
 Chinaman with a stove-pipe hat on would truly be an 
 anomaly, a violation of all the unities and proprieties at 
 once. A good many still wore the Chinese shoe, 
 wooden-soled, with cotton uppers ; but the American 
 boot and shoe were fast supplanting this, especially 
 among the out-door classes, such as mechanics and laborers.
 
 THE HEATHEN CHINEE 301 
 
 Pig-tails were universal, generally hanging down, but 
 often coiled around the head, under the hat, so as to be 
 out of the way and attract less attention. In features, 
 of course, they were all true Mongolians ; but here and 
 there were grand faces, worthy of humanity anywhere. 
 Their food consists chiefly of fish and rice ; but the 
 wealthier classes indulge freely in poultry and beef, and 
 the Chinese taste for these was constantly on the increase. 
 The old stories of their dog and rat diet are evidently 
 myths, at least here in America, and no doubt are equally 
 so in China, except in very rare instances, among the 
 poorest classes, and even then only under the direst neces- 
 sity. Intelligent CaHfornians laugh at such reports as 
 antediluvian, and say their Chinese neighbors are only too 
 glad to eat the very best, if they can only get it. Every- 
 body gave them credit for sobriety, intelligence, and thrift, 
 the three great master qualities of mankind, practically 
 speaking ; and without them the industry of the Pacific 
 Coast, it was conceded, would soon come to a stand-still. 
 All are expert at figures, all read and write their own 
 tongue, and nearly all seemed intent on mastering Eng- 
 lish, as quickly and thoroughly as possible. When not at 
 work or otherwise occupied, they were usually seen with 
 a book in their hands, and seemed much given to reading 
 and study. Their chief vices were gambling, and opium- 
 smoking ; but these did not seem to prevail to the extent 
 we had heard, and appeared really less injurious, than 
 the current vices of other races on the Coast, all things 
 considered. The statistics of the city and Coast somehow 
 were remarkably in their favor, showing a less percent- 
 age of vagrancy and crime among these heathens, than 
 any other part of the population, notwithstanding the 
 absurd prejudices and barbarous discriminations against 
 them. Their quickness to learn all American ways, even
 
 302 PIGEON-ENGLISH 
 
 when not able to speak our tongue, was very surprising 
 They engaged in all household duties, ran errands, worked 
 at trades, performed all kinds of manual labor, and yet 
 as a rule, their only dialect was a sort of chow-chow or 
 " Pigeon English," of which the following is a good spe- 
 cimen. It is Longfellow's " Excelsior" done into Pigeon. 
 English, and speaks for itself. 
 
 "TOPSIDE GALAH. 
 
 " That nightee teem he come chop chop, 
 One young man walkee, no can stop ; 
 Colo maskee, icee mgekee ; 
 He got flag ; chop b'long welly culio, see 
 Topside Galah ! 
 
 " He too muchee solly ; one piecee eye, 
 Lookee sharp so fashion alia same mi ; 
 He talkee largee, talkee etlong, 
 Too muchee culio ; alia same gong 
 Topside Galah ! 
 
 " Inside any housee he can see light, 
 Any piecee loom got fire all light ; 
 He look see plenty ice more high, 
 Inside he mouf he plenty cly 
 Topside Galah ! 
 
 " ' No can walkee ! ' olo man speakee he ; 
 ' Bimeby lain come, no can see ; 
 Hab got water, welly wide ! 
 Maskee, mi must go topside 
 
 Topside Galah I 
 
 " ' Man-man,' one galo talkee he ; 
 ' What for you go topside look-see ? ' 
 Nother teem/ he makee plenty cly ; 
 Maskee, alia teem walkee plenty high- 
 Topside Galah I
 
 NO MAKEE BOBBEBY 303 
 
 "' Take care that spilum tlee, young man ; 
 Take care that icee ! ' he no man-man ; 
 That coclie chin-chin he good night ; 
 He talkee, ' mi can go all light ' 
 Topside Galah ! 
 
 " Joss pidgin man chop chop begin, 
 Morning teem that Joss chin-chin, 
 No see any man, he plenty fear, 
 Cause some man talkee, he can hear- 
 Topside Galah ! 
 
 " Young man makee die : one largee dog see, 
 Too muchee bobbery, findee he ; 
 Hand too muchee colo, inside can stop ; 
 Alia same piecee flag, got culio chop- 
 Topside Galah 1 " 
 
 " Pigeon" is said to be the nearest approach a China- 
 man can make to " business" and hence " Pigeon 
 English" really means business English. Most of the 
 above words are English, more or less distorted ; a few, 
 however, are Chinese Anglicised. They always use I 
 for r thus lice for " rice ;" mi for " I ," etc.; and abound 
 in terminal " ee's" Chop-chop means " very fast ;" 
 maskee, " don't mind ;" Topside Galah, "JZxcelsior, 
 hurrah ! " If you call on a lady, and inquire of her Chi- 
 nese servant, " Missee have got ? " He will reply, if she 
 be up and about, " Missee hab got topside ;" or, if she 
 be still asleep, " Missee hab got, wakee sleepee." Not 
 wishing to disturb her, you hand him your card, and go 
 away with, " Maskee, maskee ; no makee bobbery ! " 
 
 We had seen a good deal of the Chinese generally, 
 but on the evening of Dec. 31st were so fortunate as to 
 meet most of their leading men together. The occasion 
 was a grand banquet at the Occidental, given by the mer- 
 chants of San Francisco, in honor of the sailing of the
 
 304 JOHN AS A MERCHANT 
 
 Colorado, the first steamer of the new monthly line to 
 Hong-Kong. All the chief men of the city merchants, 
 lawyers, clergymen, politicians were present, and among 
 the rest some twenty or more Chinese merchants and 
 bankers. The Governor of the State presided, and the 
 military and civil dignitaries most eminent on the Coast 
 were all there. The magnificent Dining-Room of the 
 Occidental was handsomely decorated with festoons and 
 flowers, and tastefully draped with the flags of all nations 
 chief among which, of course, were our own Stars and 
 Stripes, and the Yellow-Dragon of the Flowery Empire. 
 A peculiar feature was an infinity of bird-cages all about 
 the room, from which hundreds of canaries and mocking- 
 birds discoursed exquisite music the livelong evening. 
 The creature comforts disposed of, there were eloquent 
 addresses by everybody, and among the rest one by Mr. 
 Fung Tang, a young Chinese merchant, who made one of 
 the briefest and most sensible of them all. It was in fair 
 English, and vastly better than the average of post-pran- 
 dial discourses. This was the only set speech by a China- 
 man, but the rest conversed freely in tolerable English, 
 and in deportment were certainly perfect Chesterfields of 
 courtesy and propriety. They were mostly large, dignified, 
 fine-looking men, and two of them Mr. Hop Kee, a 
 leading tea-merchant, and Mr. Chy Lung, a noted silk- 
 factor had superb heads and faces, that would have 
 attracted attention anywhere. They sat by themselves ; 
 but several San Franciscans of note shared their table, 
 and everybody hob-nobbed with them, more or less, 
 throughout the evening. These were the representatives 
 of the great Chinese Emigration and Banking Compa- 
 nies, whose checks pass current on 'Change in San Fran 
 cisco, for a hundred thousand dollars or more any day, 
 and whose commercial integrity so far was unstained.
 
 JOHN AS A BANKEB AND EXPRESSMAN 305 
 
 There are five of these Companies in all, the Yung-Wo, 
 the Sze-Yap, the Sam-Yap, the Yan-Wo, and the Ning- 
 Yung. They contract with their countrymen in China 
 to transport them to America, insure them constant 
 work while here at fixed wages, and at the expiration of 
 their contract return them to China again, dead or alive, 
 if so desired. They each have a large and comfortable 
 building in San Francisco, where they board and lodge 
 their members, when they first arrive, or when sick, or 
 out of work, or on a visit from the interior. Chinese beg- 
 gars are rare on the Coast, and our public hospitals con- 
 tain no Chinese patients, although John before landing 
 has always to pay a " hospital-tax" of ten dollars. This is 
 what it is called out there ; but, of course, it is a robbery 
 and swindle, which the Golden State ought promptly to 
 repeal. These great Companies also act, as express- 
 agents and bankers, all over the Coast. In all the chief 
 towns and mining districts, wherever you enter a Chi- 
 nese quarter or camp, you will find a representative of 
 one or more of them, who will procure anything a Chi- 
 naman needs, from home or elsewhere ; and faithfully 
 remit to the Flowery Kingdom whatever he wants to 
 send, even his own dead body. Both parties appear to 
 keep their contracts well a breach of faith being 
 seldom recorded. Here, surely, is evidence of fine tal- 
 ent for organization and management the best tests of 
 human intellect and capacity and a hint at the existence 
 of sterling qualities, which the English-speaking nations 
 are slow to credit other races with. Such gigantic 
 schemes, such far-reaching plans, such harmonious work- 
 ings, and exact results, imply a genius for affairs, that 
 not even the Anglo-Saxon can afford to despise, and 
 which all others may ponder with profit. A race that 
 can plan and execute such things as these, must have
 
 306 JOHN AS AN OPERATIVE 
 
 some vigor and virility in it, whatever its pther peculiar- 
 ities. 
 
 Some days after the Banquet, we were driven out to 
 the Mission Woolen Mills, where Donald McLennan, a 
 Massachusetts Scotch- Yankee, was converting California 
 wool into gold. The climate being so favorable to sheep, 
 the wool-product of the coast was already large, and 
 every where rapidly increasing. In 1867, California alone 
 yielded ten million pounds, and the rest of the coast 
 fully two millions more. Of this amount, about one-half 
 was consumed on the Pacific Coast, and the balance 
 exported to New York and Liverpool. The average 
 price per pound in San Francisco was about seventeen 
 cents, coin ; but this was lower, than it had usually been. * 
 There were several other Woolen Mills on the Coast ; 
 but the Mission-Mills were the largest, and had a great 
 reputation for honest work. They were then doing a 
 business of about a million dollars per year, coin, in 
 cloths, cassimeres, blankets, flannels, shawls, etc., and the 
 demand for their goods was constantly on the increase. 
 Their work, on the whole, was of a superior character, 
 and Californians were justly very proud of it. They 
 were supplying all the Army blankets in use on the Coast, 
 and what a contrast they were to the " shoddy " webs, 
 issued to our Boys in Blue east during the war ! The 
 troops transferred from the east now threw their old Army 
 blankets away, on arriving in San Francisco, and gladly 
 furnished themselves with these Mission blankets, at 
 their own expense, before leaving for the wilds of Wash- 
 ington and Arizona. Some extra specimens, intended 
 for the Paris Exposition, as white as new-fallen snow 
 and soft as satin, had the American and French coats of 
 
 * In 1873, she yielded 36,000,000 pounds, which she sold for about 
 twenty cents per pound, or say $7,000,000.
 
 JOHN AS A KAILBOAD-BUILDER 307 
 
 arms embroidered very handsomely on them. Another 
 pair, meant for General Grant, were lustrous with the 
 Stars and Stripes, and traditional eagle, and now no 
 doubt help to furnish the White House. A pair sent to 
 Gen. M. in the east, a noted connoisseur in blankets, he 
 declared the finest he ever saw, and added, " My daugh- 
 ter would make one of them into an opera-cloak, they 
 are so elegant, if she hadn't one already." I mention all 
 these things thus particularly, in order to emphasize the 
 fact, that out of the 450 persons then employed about 
 these Mills, 350 were Chinamen. For the heavier 
 work, Americans or Europeans were preferred ; but the 
 more delicate processes, we were assured, Chinamen 
 learned more quickly and performed more deftly, besides 
 never becoming drunk, or disorderly, or going on a 
 " strike." We saw them at the looms, engaged in the 
 most painstaking and superb pieces of workmanship, and 
 they could not have been more attentive and exact, if 
 they had been a part of the machinery itself. And yet, 
 these one hundred Anglo-Saxons were paid $2,95 per 
 day, coin, while the three hundred and fifty Chinamen 
 received only $1,10 per day, coin, though the average 
 work of each was about the same. Without this cheap 
 labor of John Chinaman, these Mills would have had to 
 close up ; with it, they were run at a profit, and at the 
 game time were a great blessing and credit to the Pacific 
 Coast in every way. So, also, the Central Pacific Rail- 
 road was then being pushed through and over the Sierra 
 Nevadas, by some ten thousand Chinamen, working for 
 one dollar per day each, in coin > and finding themselves, 
 when no other labor could be had for less than two dol- 
 lars and a half per day, coin. It was simply a ques- 
 tion with the Central directors, whether to build the 
 road or not. Without John, it was useless to attempt
 
 308 JOHN AS AN ACTOR 
 
 it, as the expense would have bankrupted the company, 
 even if other labor could have been had, which was prob- 
 lematical. With him, the road is already a fact accom- 
 plished ; and in view of possible contingencies, nationally 
 and politically, who shall say we have completed it an 
 hour too soon ? Here are practical results, not shadowy 
 theories of such a character, too, as should give one 
 pause, however anti-Chinese, and ought to outweigh a 
 world of prejudices. 
 
 Not long afterwards, we were invited to join a party 
 of gentlemen, and make a tour of the Chinese quarter. 
 Part were from the East, like ourselves, bent on informa- 
 tion, and the rest Pacific- Coasters. We started early in 
 the evening, escorted by two policemen, who were 
 familiar with the ins and outs of Chinadom, and did not 
 reach the Occidental again until long after midnight. 
 We went first to the Chinese Theatre, an old hotel on 
 the corner of Jackson and Dupont streets, that had 
 recently been metamorphosed into an Oriental play- 
 house. We found two or three hundred Chinese here, 
 of both sexes, but mainly males, listening to a play, that 
 required eighty weeks or months our informants were 
 not certain which to complete its performance. Here 
 was drama for you, surely, and devotion to it ! It was a 
 history of the Flowery Kingdom, by some Chinese 
 Shakespeare half -tragedy, half-comedy, like most human 
 history and altogether was a curious medley. The 
 actors appeared to be of both sexes, but we were told 
 were only men and boys. Their dresses were usually 
 very rich, the finest of embroidered silks, and their acting 
 quite surprised us. Their pantomime was excellent, 
 their humor irresistible, and their love-passages a good 
 reproduction of the grand passion, that in all ages " makes 
 the world go round." But it is to be doubted, if the
 
 JOHN AS A GAMBLER 309 
 
 Anglo-Saxon ear will ever become quite reconciled to 
 John's orchestra. This consisted of a rough drum, a 
 rude banjo or guitar, and a sort of violin, over whose 
 triple clamors a barbarous clarionet squeaked and squealed 
 continually. Japanese music, as rendered by Risley's 
 troupe of " Jugglers," is much similar to it ; only John's 
 orchestra is louder, and more hideous. Much of the 
 play was pantomime, and other much opera ; some, how- 
 ever, was common dialogue, and when this occurred, 
 the clash and clang of the Chinese consonants was some- 
 thing fearful. Every word seemed to end in " ng," as 
 Chang, Ling, Hong, Wung ; and when the parts became 
 animated, their voices roared and rumbled about the 
 stage, like Chinese gongs in miniature. The general 
 behavior of the audience was good ; everybody, however, 
 smoked the majority cigars and cigarritos, a very few 
 opium. Over the theatre was a Chinese lottery-office, 
 on entering which the proprietor tendered you wine 
 and cigars, like a genuine Californian. He himself was 
 whiffing away at a cigarrito, and was as polite and politic, 
 as a noted New York ex-M. C, in the same lucrative 
 business. Several Chinamen dropped in to buy tickets, 
 while we were there; and the business seemed to be 
 conducted on the same principle, or rather want of 
 principle, as among Anglo-Saxons elsewhere. 
 
 Next we explored the famous Barbaiy Coast, and 
 witnessed scenes that Charles Dickens never dreamed of, 
 with all his studies of the dens and slums of London and 
 Paris. Here in narrow, noisome alleys are congregated 
 the wretched Chinese women, that are imported by the 
 ship-load, mainly for infamous purposes. As a class, they 
 are small in stature, scarcely larger than an American 
 girl of fourteen, and usually quite plain. Some venture 
 on hoops and crinoline, but the greater part retain the
 
 310 THE BARBABY COAST 
 
 Chinese wadded gown and trousers. Their chignons are 
 purely Chinese huge, unique, indescribable and would 
 excite the envy even of a Broadway belle. They may 
 be seen on the street any day in San Francisco, bonnet- 
 less, fan in hand, hobbling along in their queer little 
 shoes, perfect fac-similles of the figures you see on 
 lacquered ware imported from the Orient. They are not 
 more immodest, than those of our own race, who ply the 
 same vocation in Philadelphia and New York ; and their 
 fellow-countrymen, it seemed, behaved decently well even 
 here. But here is the great resort of sailors, miners, 
 'long-shoremen, and the floating population generally of 
 San Francisco, and the brutality and bestiality of the 
 Saxon and the Celt here all comes suddenly to the surface, 
 as if we were fiends incarnate. Here are the St. Giles 
 of London and the Five Points of New York, magnified 
 and intensified (if possible), both crowded into one, and 
 what a hideous example it is for Christendom to set to 
 Heathendom ! San Francisco owes it to herself, and to 
 our boasted civilization, to cleanse this Augean stable 
 to obliterate, to stamp out this plague-spot to purge it, 
 if need be, by fire and she has not a day to lose in doing 
 it. It is the shameful spectacle, shocking alike to gods 
 and men, of a strong race trampling a weaker one 
 remorselessly in the mud ; and justice will not sleep 
 forever, confronted by such enormities. 
 
 The same evening we took a turn through the Chi- 
 nese gambling-houses, but did not find them worse than 
 similar institutions elsewhere. Indeed, they were rather 
 more quiet and respectable, than the average of such 
 " hells" in San Francisco. They were frequented solely 
 by Chinamen, and though John is not averse to " fight- 
 ing the tiger," he proposes to do it in his own dolce far 
 niente way. They seemed to have only one game, which
 
 JOHN AS A HOLIDAY-KEEPER 311 
 
 consisted in betting whether in diminishing steadily a 
 given pile of perforated brass-coins, an odd or even num- 
 ber of them would at last be left. The banker with a 
 little rod, drew the coins, two at a time, rapidly out of 
 the pile towards himself, and when the game was ended 
 all parties cheerfully paid up their losses or pocketed their 
 gains. The stakes were small, seldom more than twenty- 
 five or fifty cents each, and disputes infrequent. A rude 
 idol or image of Joss, with a lamp constantly burning 
 before it, appeared in all these dens, and indeed was uni- 
 versal throughout the Chinese quarter. 
 
 The Chinese New Year comes in February, and is an 
 occasion of rare festivities. It began at midnight on the 
 4th that year, and was ushered in with a lavish discharge 
 of fire-crackers and rockets, to which our usual Fourth of 
 July bears about the same comparison as a minnow to a 
 whale. The f usilade of crackers continued, more or less, 
 for a day or two, until the whole Chinese quarter was lit- 
 tered with their remains. It takes them three days to 
 celebrate this holiday, and during all this period there 
 was a general suspension of business, and every China- 
 man kept open house. Their leading merchants welcomed 
 all " Melican" men who called upon them, and the Celes- 
 tials themselves were constantly passing from house to 
 house, exchanging the compliments of the season. I 
 dropped in upon several, whom I had met at the Banquet, 
 and now have lying before me the unique cards of Mr. 
 Hop Kee, Mr. Chy Lung, Mr. Fung Tang, Messrs. Tung 
 Fu and Co., Messrs. Kwoy Hing and Co., Messrs. Sun 
 Chung Kee and Co., etc. Several of these understood and 
 spoke English very well, and all. bore themselves becom- 
 ingly, like well-to-do gentlemen. Like the majority of 
 their countrymen, many were small ; but some were full- 
 sized, athletic men, scarcely inferior, if at all, to our aver-
 
 312 JOHN AS A LEGISLATOR 
 
 age American. Their residences were usually back of 
 their stores, and here we everywhere found refreshments 
 set out, and all invited to partake, with a truly Knicker- 
 bocker hospitality. Tea, sherry, champagne, cakes, 
 sweetmeats, cigars, all were offered without stint, but 
 never pressed unduly. For three days the whole Chi- 
 nese quarter was thus given up to wholesale rejoicing, 
 and hundreds of Americans flocked thither, to witness the 
 festivity and fun. John everywhere appeared in his best 
 bib and tucker, if not with a smile on his face, yet with a 
 look of satisfaction and content ; for this was the end of 
 his debts, as well as the beginning of a new year. At 
 this period, by Chinese custom or law, a general settle- 
 ment takes place among them, a balance is struck between 
 debtor and creditor, and everybody starts afresh. If una- 
 ble to pay up, the debtor surrenders his assets for the 
 equal benefit of his creditors, his debts are sponged out, 
 and then with a new ledger and a clean conscience he 
 "picks his flint and tries it again." This is the merciful, 
 if not sensible, Bankrupt Law of the Chinese, in force 
 among these heathen for thousands of years "for a 
 time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the 
 contrary" and its humane and wise provisions suggest, 
 whether our Christian legislators, after all, may not have 
 something to learn, even from Pagan codes. 
 
 The Chinese temple, synagogue, or " Joss -House," 
 of which we had heard such conflicting reports, stands 
 near the corner of Kearney and Pine streets, in the 
 heart of the city. It is a simple structure of brick, two 
 or three stories high, and would attract little or no 
 attention, were it not for a plain marble slab over the 
 entrance, with "Sze-Yap Asylum" carved upon it, in 
 gilt letters, and the same repeated in Chinese characters. 
 It was spoken of as a " Heathen Synagogue," a " Pagan
 
 JOHN AS A HEATHEN 313 
 
 Temple," etc., and we had heard much ado about it, from 
 people of the "William ISTye school chiefly, long before 
 reaching San Francisco. But, in reality, it appeared to 
 be only an asylum or hospital, for the unemployed and in- 
 firm of the Sze-Yap Emigration Company ; with a small 
 " upper chamber," set apart for such religious services, as 
 to them seemed meet. The other companies all have simi- 
 lar hospitals or asylums, but we visited only this one. The 
 first room on the ground-floor seemed to be the business- 
 room or council-chamber of the company, and this was 
 adorned very richly with crimson and gold. Silk- hang- 
 ings were on the walls, arm-chairs elaborately carved 
 along the sides, and at the end on a raised platform stood 
 a table and chair, as if ready for business. The room 
 adjoining seemed to be the general smoking and loung- 
 ing room of the members of the company. Here several 
 Chinamen lay stretched out, on rude but comfortable 
 lounges, two smoking opium, all the rest only cigarritos 
 taking their afternoon siesta. Back of this were the 
 dining-room, kitchen, etc., but we did not penetrate 
 thither. A winding stairs brought us to the second floor, 
 and here was the place reserved for religious purposes, 
 an "upper chamber" perhaps twenty by thirty feet, or 
 even less. Its walls and ceiling were hung with silk, and 
 here and there were placards, inscribed with moral 
 maxims from Confucius and other writers, much as we 
 suspend the same on the walls of our Sunday-school 
 rooms, with verses on them from our Sacred writings. 
 These mottoes, of course, were in Chinese; but they 
 were said to exhort John to virtue, fidelity, integrity, the 
 veneration of ancestors, and especially to admonish the 
 young men not to forget, that they are away from home, 
 and to do nothing to prejudice the character of their coun- 
 try in the eyes of foreigners. A few gilded spears and 
 14
 
 314: A CHEAP EELIGIOX 
 
 battle-axes adorned either side, while overhead hung 
 clusters of Chinese lanterns, unique and beautiful. 
 Flowers were scattered about quite profusely, both 
 natural and artificial the latter perfect in their way. 
 At the farther end of the room, in " a dim religious light," 
 amid a barbaric array of bannerets and battle-axes, stood 
 their sacred Joss simply a Representative Chinaman, 
 perhaps half life-size, with patient pensive eyes, long 
 drooping moustaches, and an expression doubtless meant 
 for sublime repose or philosophic indifference. Here all 
 orthodox Chinamen in San Francisco, connected with 
 the Sze-Yap company, were expected to come at least 
 once a year, and propitiate the deity by burning a slip 
 of paper before his image. There was also some praying 
 to be done, but this was accomplished by putting printed 
 prayers in a machine run by clock-work. Tithes there 
 were none at least worth mentioning. Altogether, this 
 seemed to be a very easy and cheap religion ; and yet, 
 easy as it was, John did not seem to trouble himself 
 much about it. The place looked much neglected, as if 
 worshippers were scarce, and devotees infrequent. A 
 priest or acolyte, who came in and trimmed the ever- 
 burning lamp, without even a bow or genuflection to 
 Josh, was the only person about the " Temple," while 
 we were there. The dormitories and apartments for the 
 sick and infirm, we were told, were on this same floor 
 and above; but we did not visit them. This Joss- 
 worship, such as it is, seemed to be general among the 
 Chinese, except the handful gathered into the various 
 Christian churches ; but it did not appear to be more 
 than a ceremony. The truth is, John is a very practical 
 creature, and was already beginning to understand, that 
 he is in a new land and among new ideas. Surely, our 
 vigorous, aggressive California Christians stand in nc
 
 CHINA'S NECESSITY 315 
 
 danger from such Pagan "Temples," and our all- 
 embracing nationality can well afford to tolerate them, 
 as China in turn tolerates ours. The hospital and 
 asylum part of them, we might well imitate ; and as for 
 the rest, is it not Emerson, who says : 
 
 " We are owners of the sphere, 
 Of the seven stars and solar year, 
 Of Caesar's hand and Plato's brain, 
 Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain ? " 
 
 Our own religion and civilization are too potent, or 
 ought to be, to be affected by such a worship ; and if its 
 simple rites comfort or content John in his rough transi- 
 tion to the nineteenth century, let him practice them in 
 peace. If treated wisely, it will not be long before he 
 discards them forever. 
 
 So much for the Chinese in San Francisco. Else- 
 where, throughout California and Nevada, subsequently, 
 we saw them at work in vineyards, on farms, in the 
 mines, and their industry, fidelity, and skill were con- 
 ceded substantially by everybody. This Chinese Prob- 
 lem, of course, has its embarrassments ; but it is already 
 looming into importance, and must be met. Already we 
 have nearly a hundred thousand of these almond-eyed 
 strangers on the Pacific Coast, and the number swells 
 monthly. In spite of obstructions and discouragements, 
 this yellow stream sets steadily in, and seems as irresistible 
 as the tide, if not as inexhaustible. China, with her teem- 
 ing population of four hundred millions of souls, or one- 
 third of the human family, has already overflowed into all 
 the countries adjacent to her, and now seeks further outlet 
 here in America. To her, it is simply a question of 
 increase and subsistence. And here, fortunately, from 
 Alaska to the Isthmus, we have room enough and to
 
 316 AMERICA'S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 spare, for all her surplus millions. "With her, labor is a 
 drng, the cheapest article she has, and so she exports 
 it. With us, it is largely in demand, and everywhere 
 rising in value. The Pacific slope, and the great internal 
 basin of the continent/ to-day absolutely need millions of 
 cheap workers men, who can deftly handle the pick-axe 
 and the spade, the plow and the hoe, the shuttle and the 
 loom, and, it is plain, must get them from Asia, or not 
 get them at all; for the Atlantic slope, and our great 
 "West, stand ready to absorb all Europe can spare, and 
 more. With John, their mines will be opened, their 
 forests cleared, their fields irrigated and tilled, their rail- 
 roads built, their cotton and woollen-mills erected and 
 run, and in short every avenue of industry and trade made 
 busy and prosperous. Without John, a vast expanse 
 of matchless territory there must remain practically a 
 wilderness and a desert, for long years to come. Is it 
 wise, then, would it be humane and sensible to turn 
 aside from and reject these patient, industrious, orderly, 
 frugal, labor-seeking, business-loving strangers, whom 
 Providence just now seems to tender us, as a mighty 
 means for subduing and civilizing the continent ; or 
 should we not, rather, accept them thankfully, as God's 
 instruments for good, and make the most of their brain 
 and muscle ? The inexorable, all-prevailing law of sup- 
 ply and demand, it would seem, has already settled this 
 question, or is in a fair way to settle it ; and it but remains 
 to consider, what we shall do with them. 
 
 In the first place, John nowhere aspires to vote, nor 
 even to be a citizen. So far, his sole claim has been for 
 the right to work, and to receive " a fair day's wages for 
 a fair day's work." With the imperturbability of fate, 
 he has settled down on this, and calmly awaits our 
 answer, not doubting the result. If you object, that he
 
 GIVE JOHN A CHANCE 317 
 
 persists in being a foreigner, all expecting some day to 
 return to China, his answer is all immigrants to a new 
 country are more or less of that mind ; and, besides, as yet 
 nothing has been done to induce him to Americanize 
 himself. Their leading men said, no doubt many of their 
 countrymen would bring their wives and children here, 
 and settle down among us, if they could be sure of safety 
 and protection ; but that now California was " no place 
 for a China woman hardly safe for a Chinaman / " 
 They said, they had found America very good for 
 work, and "muchee" good for business; but they had 
 to pay odious taxes, not exacted of other persons 
 were not permitted to testify in court, except for or 
 against each other were abused and maltreated from one 
 end of the Coast to the other were at the mercy of white 
 ruffians, who might rob and even kill them, with im- 
 punity, unless Caucasians were present and, in short, 
 that as yet Chinamen here " had no rights that Melican 
 men were bound to respect." Now, I say, let us change 
 all this. Let us do justice, even to the poorest and hum- 
 blest of God's children. Let us give John, too, " a fair 
 start and an equal chance in the race of life," the same as 
 every other human being on American soil ; and we shall 
 soon check the re-flow to the Flowery Kingdom, and 
 build up an empire on the Pacific Coast, worthy of our 
 matchless soil and climate there. Existing labor and 
 skill might suffer somewhat at first, as in all industrial 
 changes ; but, in the end, they would become employers, 
 and supply the brains to guide the Mongolian hand and 
 foot. The first generation passed away, the next de- 
 Chinaized, Americanized, and educated, would soon be- 
 come absorbed in the national life, and known only as 
 model artisans and workers. As the ocean receives all 
 rains and rivers, and yet shows it not, so America
 
 318 GOV. LOW'S SPEECH 
 
 receives the Saxon and the Celt, the Protestant and the 
 Catholic, and can yet receive Sambo and John, and absorb 
 them all. The school-house and the church, the news- 
 paper and the telegraph, can be trusted to work out their 
 logical results ; and time, our sure ally, would shape and 
 fashion even these into keen American citizens. 
 
 There were indications, that the Coast had fallen to 
 thinking seriously of all this, and somehow meant to 
 deal more justly with the Chinese hereafter. The anti- 
 Chinese mobs in the cities and towns were passing away, 
 and even among the mining-camps Yigilance Commit- 
 tees were beginning to execute rough justice on thieves 
 and murderers, when their treatment of John became too 
 flagrant and notorious.* Capital, always keen-sighted, 
 was getting to see the necessity for their labor and skill, 
 and the culture and conscience of the Coast were already 
 on their side. Gov. Low, (since Minister to China, most 
 fittingly) presided at the Occidental Banquet, and in his 
 remarks there took strong ground in their favor. He 
 said, among other good things : 
 
 " We must learn to treat the Chinese who come to live 
 among us decently, and not oppress them by unfriendly 
 legislation, nor allow them to be abused, robbed and 
 murdered, without extending to them any adequate remedy. 
 
 " I am a strong believer in the strength of mind and 
 muscle of the Anglo-Saxon race, which will win in the 
 contest for supremacy with any people, without the aid of 
 unequal and oppressive laws ; and the man, who is afraid 
 to take his chances on equal terms with his opponents, is a 
 coward and unworthy the name of an American. 
 
 " Were I to sum up the whole duty imposed upon us, I 
 should say, let us be honest, industrious and frugal, be 
 persevering and progressive, and remember Raleigh's 
 * See p. 225.
 
 GOOD MISSIONARY GROUND 319 
 
 maxim, that "Whoever commands the sea commands the 
 trade of the world, and whoever commands the trade of 
 the world commands the riches of the world, and conse- 
 quently the world itself." 
 
 So, the pulpit, and the press, as a rule, omitted no oppor- 
 tunity to speak a kind word for them, and to denounce 
 the barbarism, and absurdity, of existing statutes against 
 them. In San Francisco, a public-school had been 
 established for their benefit, and was crowded day and 
 night with adult Chinamen striving to learn English. 
 The public-school fund running short that year, (1867) 
 the Chinese merchants promptly volunteered to eke out 
 the appropriation, rather than have the Board of Educa- 
 tion close the school. Since then the Rev. Dr. Gibson, 
 (formerly a Methodist missionary to China, and a man of 
 great energy and force), has started his Sunday-Schools, 
 expecting to plant them all over the Coast, and there 
 seems a marked uprising in John's behalf generally. 
 True, Mr. Senator Casserly, himself a catholic foreigner 
 and the negro-hating democracy, are just now essaying 
 a crusade against them ; but this is because the XYth 
 Amendment has ended the " nigger," and they are sadly 
 in want of political capital. Our churches have certainly, 
 now and here, a noble opportunity for effective and val- 
 uable missionary work. Instead of having to go half 
 round the globe, across the sea, into malarious regions, 
 among Pagan influences, to seek out the lost sheep of 
 the House of Israel, we here have the heathen at our 
 back-door, and ought to unfurl the Banner of the Cross 
 to them, in every town and from every hillside. The 
 story of the Yankee, who gave a missionary-collector a 
 quarter of a dollar, and when he was leaving called him 
 back, and gave him a dollar more, " to send that quarter
 
 320 LET US OCCUPY IT 
 
 along," has it not some grains of truth in it ? Here the 
 whole dollar and a quarter may be made immediately 
 effective, and our missionary money should be forthcom- 
 ing without stint. Not only would we thus more readily 
 and cheaply evangelize the Chinese on our shores, but 
 their returning thousands in turn would evangelize their 
 countrymen at home ; and we would thus accomplish a 
 hundredfold more for China, than our missionaries there 
 now seem to be doing, judging by their statistics, 
 all put together. And not only do our Chinese them- 
 selves call for this, but the harmony and purity of the 
 national life demand it, and may our churches awake to 
 their great responsibility. Here is their true field for 
 instant and aggressive missionary work, and they should 
 occupy it overwhelmingly. 
 
 From a full survey of this qucBstio vexata, I must 
 conclude, if " God made of one blood all the nations of 
 men to dwell upon the earth," if we are children of a com- 
 mon Father, redeemed by a common Saviour, and bound 
 for a common eternity ; if the good old rule, " whatso- 
 ever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even 
 so unto them," (which the Chinese had in a negative 
 form a thousand years before the Sermon on the Mount), 
 is not yet effete ; if we believe with Thomas Jefferson, 
 that " all men are created equal, and endowed by their 
 Creator with the inalienable rights of life and liberty ;" 
 then, we are bound as a nation to accord justice and fair- 
 play even to these poor Mongolians, yellow-skinned, pig- 
 tailed, and heathen though they be. Now, as heretofore, 
 and always, we shall find our reward as a people in right- 
 doing. Right is always politic. Justice is never wrong. 
 And let us as a nation do right, even to the humblest of 
 God's creatures, and leave the consequences with Him, 
 who holds in his hands the destinies alike of individuals
 
 FIAT JU8TITIA. 321 
 
 and of races. This is not always an easy road ; but the 
 Republic has already travelled it so far, and so coura- 
 geously, we can not now afford to depart from it. Justice, 
 if the sky falls. But, we may be sure, it will not fall. 
 Rather, it will stand all the firmer and broader, for the 
 Justice done and Humanity saved. 
 14*
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO TO LOS ANGELOS. 
 
 ~T"TT"E left San Francisco, Feb. 9th, on the good ship 
 VV 'Orizaba, for southern California and Arizona. 
 She was a first-class side-wheel steamer, with good 
 accommodations, and belonged to the California Steam 
 Navigation Company a corporation that then monopo- 
 lized or controlled all the navigable waters of California, 
 besides running coast-wise lines North and South. She 
 was one of a line, that ran semi-monthly to San Diego 
 and return, touching at Santa Barbara and San Pedro, 
 and seemed to be paying very well. We might have 
 gone southward from San Francisco to San Jose by rail- 
 road, and thence by stage to Los Angelos and Fort 
 Yuma; but our long stage-rides, from the Missouri to 
 Salt Lake and thence to the Columbia, had worn the 
 romance off of stage-coaching, and we infinitely preferred 
 to proceed by steamer. It was a superb day, with sea 
 and sky both " darkly, deeply, beautifully blue" a day 
 of the kind Californians always mean, when they brag 
 about their climate as we flung off our lines at San 
 Francisco, and steamed down the harbor broadside with 
 the Golden Age en route for Panama. "We passed by 
 Alcatraz and through the Golden Gate neck and neck, 
 with the decks of both vessels crowded with excited 
 passengers ; but once across the bar, the Orizaba drew 
 steadily ahead, and long before sunset we left the Golden
 
 A DELIGHTFUL VOYAGE 323 
 
 Age hull down astern. I don't say this was a race, 
 indeed. Perhaps their leaving together was quite 
 accidental. But the Orizaba soon showed her mettle, 
 all hands were eager and excited, and her officers were 
 in ecstacies at the results. 
 
 Once fairly at sea, our steamer turned her prow 
 sharply south, and all the way down followed the coast 
 from -headland to headland. Usually we steamed along 
 some five or six miles off shore, with the land itself 
 always in view, and the ocean everywhere like a mill- 
 pond. From the Columbia to the Golden Gate in 
 December, we had found the Pacific to belie its name ; 
 but now steaming farther south, we saw it in its calmness 
 and beauty, and felt like christening it anew. Most of 
 the way, the sky was magnificently clear, the weather 
 moderate, the air bracing and stimulating, while the 
 whole Coast was a shifting panorama of beauty and 
 grandeur. The ocean too smooth for sea-sickness, we 
 strolled about the deck by twos and fours, or lolled for 
 hours on the settees, inhaling life and vigor at every 
 breath, until we almost seemed to be navigating fabled 
 seas or voyaging into paradise. The Coast itself, never 
 out of sight, rose generally in abrupt hills or mountains, 
 and these were now green and gold to their summits. 
 In places, whole hillsides seemed alive with wild-flowers 
 of every hue, while here and there flocks and herds 
 dotted the landscape far and near. Now and then an 
 adobe house gleamed out of some sheltered nook ; but, 
 as a rule, houses were infrequent, and trees and shrub- 
 bery very scarce. A few stunted oaks and cedars fringed 
 the ravines here and there, but as a forest they were 
 nothing to speak of. The Coast Mountains lifted them- 
 selves everywhere, smooth to the summit as if shaven, 
 with no glory of trees to shelter or crown them ; and in
 
 324: SANTA BARBARA 
 
 summer, when their verdure dries up and blows away, 
 they must seem very bald and desolate. 
 
 At Santa Barbara, some three hundred miles down 
 the Coast, we touched for an hour or two, and put ashore 
 several passengers, and some thirty tons of freight. 
 While discharging the latter, we sauntered up into the 
 town, and found it to be a pleasant place of some fifteen 
 hundred inhabitants county-seat to a county of the same 
 name. The buildings were mostly adobe, of course, and 
 all quite old ; but the town had an appearance of com- 
 fort and respectability, if not of thrift, and the few 
 Americans we met were sanguine of its future. The 
 Santa Barbara plains, just back of the town, consist of a 
 broad and beautiful valley, enclosed by two imposing 
 mountain ranges, that here jut obliquely into the ocean, 
 and they have a climate that is no doubt seldom equalled 
 even on the Pacific Coast. As a sanatorium, Santa Bar- 
 bara was already being much resorted to by invalids, and 
 doubtless will become more so when better known. 
 With great evenness of temperature the year round,* 
 without either snow or frost, or intense heat, the grape, 
 fig, orange, peach, pomegranate, olive, all flourish here 
 in the open air ; and Nature is so prodigal of her gifts, 
 the Santa Barbarans appear exempted from the pri- 
 mal curse, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
 bread, etc." Mountain streams from the neighboring 
 ranges, they had, however, trained into irrigating ditches, 
 and by these cultivated a considerable breadth of land. 
 They said, they had water sufficient to irrigate thousands 
 of acres more, and needed only capital and population 
 to build up a prosperous and thriving community. In 
 old times " before the flood," as a Forty-Niner would 
 say the Jesuit Fathers had one of their most flourishing 
 * See Appendix.
 
 SAN DIEGO 325 
 
 Missions here, and their old Mission Church on a plateau 
 back of the town was still standing, though now used 
 chiefly as a school. Dr. O. formerly of the Army, 
 but now married to a. senorita and settled at Santa 
 Barbara, escorted us through the town, and after- 
 wards regaled us with wine from his own vineyard, 
 of an excellent brand. He pronounced Santa Barbara, 
 with its fruits and its flowers, a second paradise, the only 
 place fit to live in where one would about never die 
 and half persuaded some of us to the same way of think- 
 ing. The petroleum wells near there, as yet, had pro- 
 duced but little ; but there seemed no doubt of the petro- 
 leum being there in large quantities. We had noticed 
 it floating on the sea for miles before reaching Santa 
 Barbara ; and, if it issues beneath the sea sufficient for 
 this purpose, it ought to be struck somewhere in that 
 vicinity in paying quantities. The Santa Barbarans 
 by no means despaired of doing this yet, and thus hoped 
 to add another item to their already large and growing 
 products. 
 
 At San Pedro, the seaport of Los Angelos, a hundred 
 iniles or so farther down the Coast, we put off' some four 
 hundred tons of freight, and parted with the bulk of our 
 passengers. Of this place, more hereafter. Thence, past 
 Anaheim, a settlement of German wine-growers, we 
 steamed on down a hundred miles farther, and halted 
 at last at San Diego. A stiff" breeze, freshening into 
 a gale, and a rough swell, followed us into San Diego ; 
 but once inside the jaws of the harbor, we found the 
 bay almost unruffled, while all outside was wild and 
 threatening. The harbor, indeed, is quite land-locked, 
 and after San Francisco is the finest on the Pacific 
 Coast, below Puget Sound. But a few hundred 
 yards in width at the entrance, it soon spreads out into
 
 326 THE JESUITS' MISSIONS 
 
 a broad and handsome bay, one or two miles wide by ten 
 or twelve long, and with a depth of water close in shore 
 sufficient to float the largest vessels. A bold promontory 
 running obliquely into the sea, as all the headlands on 
 this coast do, shelters the harbor perfectly from all north 
 and northwest winds, and contributes much to make San 
 Diego what it is. In the old Mexican times, before the 
 days of '49, San Diego was a leading Mission on the 
 Coast, and the chief seaport of California, whence she 
 shipped wool, hides, etc., and where she received sup- 
 plies. San Francisco, gushing young metropolis now, 
 was then only sterile Yerba Buena, and practically 
 nowhere.* When the rush of miners to California came 
 in '49, San Diego still held her own for awhile, quite 
 courageously. The Panama steamers then touched here 
 in going and coming. A large city was projected, and 
 built on paper, with " water-fronts," " corner-lots," and 
 the like, quite in extenso. But there was no sufficient 
 back country no mines or agricultural resources to speak 
 of to support a town, and so in the end San Diego 
 incontinently collapsed. Poor Derby of the engineers, 
 
 * In those days, it appears, the Jesuits had over a score of Missions 
 in California, and some thirty thousand half civilized-Indians living 
 in their communities. Their horned cattle numbered four hundred 
 and twenty-four thousand ; their horses, mules, and asses, besides 
 the wild ones that scoured the plains in troops, sixty-two thousand 
 five hundred ; their sheep, goats, and swine, three hundred and 
 twenty-one thousand ; and the wheat, barley, maize, and other grains 
 they raised measured one hundred and twenty -two thousand five 
 hundred bushels annually. The richest in cattle and horses, and the 
 greatest grain-producer, was San Gabriel, now a modest hamlet 
 Next to it in everything else, and ahead of it in sheep, was San 
 Luis Rey, now even modester, which also had the most Indians. The 
 Mission Dolores, now San Francisco, stood low on the list, with its 
 five hundred Indians shivering in the wind and fog, five thousand 
 horned cattle, sixteen hundred horses and mules, four thousand 
 sheep and swine, and other things in proportion.
 
 OLD SAN DIEGO 327 
 
 immortal as John Phoenix, flourished here in those days, 
 and afterwards used to say in his own inimitable style, 
 he " Thanked heaven his lot was not cast in San Diego ; 
 it had been, but was sold for taxes ! " We anchored off' 
 the old wharf, then fallen to decay, where in other days 
 the Panama steamers had floated proudly, and after 
 rowing well in were carried ashore on the shoulders of 
 Mexican peons. The U. S. barracks and corral, now 
 empty and without a watchman even, and a score or so 
 of other buildings, were grouped near the lauding, con- 
 stituting New San Diego ; but the main town, or Old 
 San Diego, was three miles off up the bay. A rickety 
 old ambulance, once U. S. property, but long since con- 
 demned and sold, carried us up to the town, where we 
 spent several hours. Formerly numbering two or three 
 thousand inhabitants, and a pretty stirring place, it now 
 had only about two or three hundred, and was a good 
 illustration of some of California's changes. Its build- 
 ings, of course, were all one-story adobe, but partly 
 inhabited, and these were grouped about a squalid, 
 Plaza, that reminded one of Mexico or Spain, rather than 
 the United States. Being the county-seat, of course, it 
 had a court-house and a jail the one, a tumble-down 
 adobe the other, literally a cage, made of boiler-iron, 
 six or seven feet square at the farthest. The day we 
 were there three men were brought in, arrested for horse- 
 stealing, or something of the sort ; but as the jail would 
 accommodate only two crowded at that the judge dis- 
 charged the third, with an appropriate reprimand. At 
 least, we supposed it " appropriate ;" but as it was in Cal- 
 ifornice, and the judge a native, we could make nothing 
 of it. In hot weather, this iron jail-cage must be a min- 
 iature tophet ; but, no doubt, it remains generally empty. 
 On a hill just back of the town, commanding it and tho
 
 328 HER FINE CLIMATE 
 
 harbor, were the remains of Fort Stockton, which our 
 Jersey commodore of that name built and garrisoned 
 with his gallant Jack-Tars, during the Mexican war, and 
 held against all comers. Beyond it still, were the ruins 
 of the old Mexican Presidio, with palm and olive trees 
 scattered here and there, but all now desolate and forsaken. 
 The general broken-down, dilapidated, " played out" ap- 
 pearance of the town, was certainly most forlorn. And 
 yet, the San Diegoans, like all good Californians, had 
 still a profound faith in their future, and swore by their 
 handsome bay as stoutly as ever. They knew San Diego 
 would yet be the western terminus of the Southern Pacific 
 Kailroad, whenever this got itself built ; and with this, 
 they fondly believed, would come population, prosper- 
 ity, power (the three great p's of modern civilization), 
 and come to stay. With the exception of a handful of 
 Americans and Jews, engaged chiefly in merchandizing, 
 the inhabitants consisted mainly of native Californians, 
 in all stages of impecuniosity. Being steamer-day, sev- 
 eral Americans most of them ex-army officers had gal- 
 loped in from their neighboring ranches, some coming 
 ten and twenty miles for this purpose, and all were as 
 hospitable and warm-hearted, as men leading such a life 
 usually are. They laughed and chatted over their Cali- 
 fornia experiences, predicted great things for San Diego 
 yet, arid offered a hundred acres or more from their 
 leagues-square ranches, to any American who would 
 come and settle among them. All united in pronouncing 
 the climate simply perfect, though a little warm in sum- 
 mer ; and, I must say, it really seemed so, when we were 
 there. They declared the thermometer never varied 
 more than twenty degrees the year round, and main- 
 tained people never died there, except from the knife or 
 bullet. "When reminded of a Mr. S. who had died that
 
 HER SPLENDID HAEBOE 329 
 
 morning, they replied, he came there too late a con- 
 firmed consumptive ; otherwise, he would have got well, 
 and in the end have shrivelled up and evaporated, like 
 the rest of their aged people. 
 
 As to business, the town really seemed to have none, 
 except a little merchandizing and whiskey-drinking, and 
 these only gave signs of life, because it was " steamer- 
 day." The country immediately about the town was 
 dull and barren, from want of water to irrigate and 
 cultivate it. The great ranches were at a distance, and 
 these depended on streams from the Coast Range, that 
 mostly disappeared before reaching the harbor. Here 
 horses, cattle, and sheep were raised in considerable num- 
 bers ; but the breadth of valuable land was not consid- 
 ered large, and the population of the section seemed to 
 be on the stand-still, if not decrease. A railroad from 
 the Atlantic States, and another north to San Francisco, 
 would of course soon change all this ; but these were 
 yet in the future. The splendid harbor, however, is 
 there the second as I have said, on the California Coast 
 and it will be passing strange, if the future does not 
 evolve something, that will give it vitality and impor- 
 tance. Its noble waters, surely, cannot lie idle forever. 
 With its superb anchorage and far-stretching shores, it 
 seemed already the prophecy of great things to come, 
 and I sincerely trust the San Diegoans may speedily 
 realize them.* 
 
 Down by the mouth of the harbor, were several 
 fishermen's huts, whose owners, it was said, gained a 
 precarious living by whaling. Off the harbor, for miles 
 
 * Since the above was written, I believe, the Panama steamers 
 have resumed their calls at San Diego, and doubtless the town is 
 again looking up. So, also, the Arizona trade and travel now start 
 mainly from here, and a railroad to the Colorado at least seems inev. 
 itable.
 
 330 SAN PEDRO 
 
 up and down the coast, we noticed a heavy growth of 
 kelp or sea-weed, and this we were told the whales 
 frequented in certain seasons of the year, as a feeding 
 ground. "We kept a sharp lookout for them, both com- 
 ing down and returning ; but were rewarded by seeing 
 only a single dead one, which had been harpooned and 
 left floating near shore, with a buoy attached. Capt. 
 Thorne, of the Orizaba, reported these whales as quite 
 numerous off the coast sometimes, and thought this 
 business might readily be made much more lucrative, 
 than it was. 
 
 Here at San Diego, we were about five hundred 
 miles south of San Francisco, and less than one hundred 
 and fifty from Fort Yuma. We had expected to find a 
 stage thence to Fort Yuma ; but the line had recently 
 been withdrawn,* from want of business, and we were 
 compelled to return again up the coast to San Pedro and 
 Los Angelos. On the evening of Feb. 14th, we accord- 
 ingly bade good-bye to San Diego, and the next morn- 
 ing, when we came on deck, found the Orizaba at anchor 
 again off San Pedro. This, as I have before said, is the 
 old seaport or landing for Los Angelos, and all the 
 country about there, whence supplies were then wagoned 
 into Arizona, Southern Nevada, and even Utah. The 
 Salt Lake merchants, then barred from the East in 
 winter by the heavy snows on the Rocky Mountains, 
 were in the habit of eking out their stocks by purchases 
 in San Francisco, which they shipped 400 miles down 
 the coast to San Pedro, and from here wagoned them 
 via San Bernardino and Cajon Pass, through Southern 
 Nevada, 800 miles more to Great Salt Lake. Of course, 
 the completion of the Pacific Railroad has changed all 
 this. San Pedro itself, unfortunately, has no harbor, but 
 * See foot-note page 329.
 
 WILMINGTON AND GEN. BANNING 331 
 
 is a mere open roadstead, where vessels may ride at 
 anchor in fine weather, but when storms come must slip 
 to sea. From here a slough or gut of the sea sets up to 
 Wilmington, some six miles through a tide-water marsh, 
 where we found a Mr. Phineas Banning doing his " level 
 best " and it was a big " best " to build up a nascent 
 city. Formerly, everything was lightered ashore at San 
 Pedro ; but recently, Mr. Banning had introduced steam- 
 tugs, and with these at high tide he carried everything to 
 Wilmington, where he had wharves, store-houses, shops, 
 stages, wagon-trains, and about everything else, on a 
 large scale. He was an enterprising Delawarean, but 
 without much regard for " the eyes of Delaware ; '' 
 had failed two or three times, but was still wide- 
 awake and keen for business ; had come to Califor- 
 nia a common stage-driver, but now ran lines of stages 
 and freight-wagons of his own all over southern Cal- 
 ifornia and Arizona, for eight hundred and a thousand 
 miles ; had married a native senorita, with several 
 leagues of land, and made her a good husband ; was now 
 state senator on the Republican side, and talked of for 
 governor ; and, in short, was a good second edition of 
 Mr. Ben Holliday, yet without his bad politics. His 
 town of Wilmington consisted of a hundred or two 
 frame buildings, in true border style, with perhaps five 
 hundred inhabitants, all more or less in his service, or 
 employed at Drum Barracks, the U. S. military post there. 
 A man of large and liberal ideas, with great native force 
 of character and power of endurance, he was invaluable to 
 Southern California and Arizona, and both of these sec- 
 tions owe him a debt of gratitude, which they never can 
 repay. His " latch-string" was always out to all strangers 
 in that latitude ; there was no public interest with which 
 he was not prominently identified ; and from San Pedro
 
 332 A REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN 
 
 to Tucson, and back again, via Prescott and Fort Mojave, 
 through some fifteen hundred miles of border travel, 
 there was scarcely a day in which we did not see his 
 teams or stages, or touch his enterprises somewhere. 
 
 Here at Wilmington, in the village barber, we found 
 another good illustration of the adaptativeness of the 
 average American. Originally from Independence, Mo., 
 he had emigrated thence to Oregon, thence to San Fran- 
 cisco, and thence to Wilmington. In Missouri, he was 
 a farmer by occupation ; in Oregon, a cattle-drover ; in 
 San Francisco, a teamster ; in Wilmington, he was now 
 regularly a barber, but occasionall} 7 cobbled shoes, or 
 worked as a blacksmith, and on a pinch also practiced 
 medicine. He had not preached, or edited a newspaper 
 yet ; but doubtless would have had no objection to trying 
 his hand at either or both of these, should opportunity 
 offer or necessity occur! But such men, after all, 
 are our Representative Americans real pioneers of 
 empire and champions of civilization and history will 
 not forget to recognize and respect them accordingly. 
 
 Back of Wilmington, some thirty miles wide by sev- 
 enty-five long, from the Pacific to the Mountains, stretch 
 the great Los Angelos plains, than which there are few 
 finer sights on the Coast, at the proper season. Just now 
 they were green with herbage and gemmed with wild 
 flowers in all directions, from the Mountains to the 
 ocean, a perfect sea of verdure, with flocks and herds roam- 
 ing over them at will, under the guidance of native 
 rancheros. The latter, mounted on gamey little horses, full- 
 blooded mustangs, with saddles that nearly covered their 
 steeds, and tinkling spurs that almost swept the ground, 
 galloped hither and yon as occasion needed, or lolled for 
 hours on the ground, basking in the sun, while their cat- 
 tle and sheep fed peacefully about them. The landscape
 
 LOS ANGELOS PLAIN'S 333 
 
 one day, when Gen. Banning drove us over to Los Ange- 
 los, to see the vineyards and orange-groves there, with 
 the Pacific rolling in the distance, the Mountains tower- 
 ering before us, and the Plains stretching all about us, in 
 green and purple and gold, was a perfect idyllic scene, 
 which lingers in my memory yet, as gne of the fairest 
 recollections of a life-time. Just then, the marshes about 
 Wilmington, and the Plains beyond, were a halting place 
 for vast flocks of wild-geese, on their annual migration 
 north, and they thronged the country in countless thou- 
 sands. Off on the Plains, where they were feeding on 
 the young and succulent grass, they whitened the ground 
 sometimes for acres, and were so careless of danger, you 
 might knock them over with a club. Gen. Banning 
 said, they were even more numerous in former years, but 
 even as they were, we had never seen anything to equal 
 them. As we drove along, they rose up by the roadside 
 in flocks of thousands, and fairly deafened the air with 
 their multitudinous konkings. Further on, we found 
 the grass rank and luxuriant, and it seemed impossible 
 to believe, that when summer came, all this wealth of 
 vegetation would wither up, and substantially blow away. 
 Yet this seemed to be the fact these broad and beauti- 
 ful Plains, beneath their then rainless sky, becoming 
 everywhere a barren desert, save where acequias (Mexi- 
 can for " water-ditches") regularly irrigate and vitalize 
 them. 
 
 "We struck the acequias several miles out from Los 
 Angelos, and followed them into the town, our road 
 winding about among and crossing them several times. 
 They are simply water-ditches, four or five feet wide 
 by one deep, the same as those at Salt Lake, but most 
 of them far older. They were begun a century ago, by 
 the old Spanish Jesuits, who formerly had one of then
 
 334 THEIR ACEQUIA8 
 
 largest and most flourishing Missions here, and are kept 
 in repair and regulated by the city corporation the water 
 being farmed out, at fixed rates. Their source of supply 
 is the Los Angelos river, a little stream that issues from 
 the Coast Range some miles away, and sinks again, I 
 believe, before reaching the ocean. If husbanded prop- 
 erly, with the same care exercised at Salt Lake, it might 
 be made to irrigate many times the present breadth of 
 land, it would seem ; but as it is, it suffices to vitalize 
 hundreds, if not thousands, of acres about the town, 
 where they grow wheat, barley, oats, the grape, the 
 orange, the lemon, citron, olive, peach, pear, and almost 
 everything else, in great profusion and of the finest char- 
 acter. Along the road, and skirting all the main ace- 
 quias, willows have been planted, and these growing 
 rapidly serve for both fencing and fuel. Here and there 
 wild flowers also have been planted, or have sprung up 
 naturally among the hedges, and these shower their 
 wealth of bloom and fragrance almost the year round. 
 The robin, the blue-bird, the oriole, abounded here ; and 
 the whole air seemed vocal with song, as we whirled 
 along through the suburbs, and up into the town. 
 
 Los Angelos itself proved to be a brisk and thriving 
 town. It is the county-seat of a large county of the 
 same name, and probably contained then some five thou- 
 sand inhabitants about one-third Americans and Euro- 
 peans, and the balance native Californians and Indians. 
 The Americans seemed to own most of the houses and 
 lands, the Europeans chiefly Jews to do the business, 
 the native Californians to do the loafing, and the Indians 
 to perform the labor. It had mail communication with 
 San Francisco twice a week by stage, and twice a month 
 by steamer via San Pedro, and telegraphic communica- 
 tion via San Francisco with the whole coast and country.
 
 LOS ANGELOS ITSELF 335 
 
 It boasted two or three very fair hotels, a fine old 
 Spanish church, and quite a number of brick and frame 
 residences, that would have been called creditable any- 
 where. The town seemed steadily increasing in wealth 
 and population, as more and more of the surrounding 
 Plains were brought under cultivation, and already had 
 a substantial basis for prosperity in its vineyards and 
 fruit-orchards, aside from its flocks and herds. It was also 
 doing a considerable business with Utah, Arizona, and 
 Southern California, for all which regions it was then 
 largely a mart and entrepot. Its climate was mild and 
 equable, reminding one more of Italy and the Levant, 
 than America, and already it was quite a resort for 
 invalids from all parts of the Coast. Then in February, 
 and again in May, when we returned there from Arizona, 
 the air really seemed like the elixir of life, and quickened 
 every sense into new life and power of enjoyment. As 
 in all Spanish American towns, however, Sunday seemed 
 to be the chief day for business and pleasure. A few 
 stores and shops were closed; but the majority kept 
 open, the same as any other day. The native Cailfornian 
 and Indian population of the surrounding country flocked 
 into town that day, in holiday attire and, after a brief 
 service at the old church (dedicated "To the Queen 
 of the Angels,") assembled in the Plaza, to witness their 
 customary cock-fights. There were several of these, 
 which men and women, priests and people alike eager 
 and excited all seemed to enjoy ; but to us, Eastern- 
 bred, they seemed cruel and barbarous. The poor fowls 
 pecked away at each other, until some fell dead, and 
 others dropped exhausted, when the survivors were 
 borne away in triumph. 
 
 A ride across the breezy Plains, ten miles to the 
 south, brought us to the ranch and vineyard of Mr.
 
 336 DON BENITO WILSON 
 
 Ben. D. Wilson, noted over all the Coast for his excellent 
 fruits and wines. " Don Benito " Wilson, he is called 
 out there, and the name is a good one. Without 
 much urban polish, he is nevertheless one of nature's 
 noblemen, and a fine Representative Californian. A 
 Tennessean by birth, long before the acquisition of 
 California, he had hunted and trapped across the 
 continent, living for years among the Utes and Apa- 
 ches, and finally marrying a California sefiorita, with 
 three leagues square of land, had settled down here. 
 His noble ranch lies at the foot of the Coast Range of 
 mountains, with their snow-clad summits towering above, 
 the Los Augelos plains in front stretching away to the 
 ocean, while an intervening roll of hills shuts out the 
 raw winds and fogs of the summer and autumn. Two 
 or three dashing rivulets, that issue from the mountains 
 like threads of silver, have been caught up and carried 
 by acequias all along the slopes, whence they are distrib- 
 uted wherever the thirsty soil in summer needs them. 
 Here he has orange, lemon, peach, olive, almond, and 
 English walnut groves, by the many acres, while beyond 
 are his vineyards by the hundred acres part planted 
 by himself, but many a half century ago by the Jesuit 
 Fathers. Just now, his vineyards, trimmed closely as they 
 were, looked for all the world like a Delaware or Jersey 
 field of old peach-trees, with the tops sawn off, as we 
 sometimes see them here. Without trellis or support of 
 any kind, these aged vines stood stiff and gnarled, 
 in rows five or six feet apart, themselves about as many 
 inches thick ; but in summer, they throw out runners, 
 that form a leafy wilderness, loaded down with the pur- 
 pling clusters. In addition, he had great herds of horses, 
 and cattle, and flocks of sheep by the thousand, that 
 roamed over his outlying broad acres and the Los Angelos
 
 HIS ORANGE GROVES AND VINEYARDS 337 
 
 plains at will. In sauntering through his orange-groves, 
 he showed us trees, from which he had gathered twenty- 
 five dollars' worth of the golden fruit each, that season, 
 and one that yielded him forty dollars' worth. A few of 
 his oranges, dead ripe, were still gleaming amid the rich, 
 deep green of the'ir peculiar foliage, and we had some of 
 these fresh and luscious on the table each meal we took 
 with him. In his wine-cellars, back of the mansion, he 
 showed us two hundred thousand gallons of wine, the 
 product of that year's vintage alone, and it hadn't been 
 much of a year for wine either. This he reported to be 
 worth only fifty cents a gallon then, but as increasing in 
 price, of course, with age. He made both white and red 
 wine, of a superior brand, and had branch houses in San 
 Francisco and New York, that disposed of the bulk of it 
 at fair figures. It all had the peculiar sharpness and 
 alcoholic qualities of the California wines generally ; 
 but, he thought, with more careful culture, and increas- 
 ing age, their wines would improve in this respect. He 
 computed the wine-product of California then, at not less 
 than three millions of gallons annually, and rapidly 
 increasing. The Mission grape was the one mostly 
 grown, as yet; but he thought some foreign varieties, 
 of a finer quality, would gradually supplant this. The 
 white wines were the pure juice of the grape ; the red the 
 same, but with the color of the skins added. Farther 
 North, the Sonoma and Sacramento wines were lighter 
 and milder, resembling claret and hock ; but these Los 
 Angelos wines were heavy and strong, with a body like 
 those of Spain, whence no doubt the Mission vines ori- 
 ginally came. The expressed juice was first put into 
 large casks, holding a hundred and forty gallons or more 
 each, whence after due fermentation it was bottled and 
 sent to market. He said at the end of a year and a half, 
 15
 
 338 CALIFORNIA WINES GENERALLY. 
 
 the wine usually became clear and less alcholie ; but it 
 continued to mellow and soften with age for twenty 
 years, when its delicacy of flavor and oiliness of consist- 
 ency culminated. Brandy was made from indifferent 
 or miscellaneous grapes, skins and all, and from what we 
 saw of its effects, was as fierce and fiery a liquid, surely, 
 as Jersey lightning, or Nebraska needle-gun. 
 
 Mr. Wilson lived rather plainly, in anything but a 
 palatial mansion ; but he had a fine library, well-selected, 
 and took most of the leading magazines and newspapers, 
 from San Francisco to Boston. We were really surprised 
 at the extent and variety of his periodical literature. He 
 said he had been intending for years to build himself a 
 new house, on a grander scale ; but the old one was very 
 roomy and comfortable, and he had never found time to 
 pull it down. We found him a very bright and intelli- 
 gent old gentleman, well versed in the world's affairs, 
 with an eye keenly alive to passing events both at home 
 and abroad, notwithstanding his seclusion. He was 
 a warm friend of Gen. Banning's; for they naturally 
 comprehended, and appreciated each other, to the full. 
 
 Land just about Los Angelos, and adjacent to the 
 acequias, was held at a good figure; but a few miles 
 from the town, it was selling, at only five and ten dollars 
 per acre, and a great stock or fruit ranch, it would seem, 
 could be built up here, at small expense, in a few years. 
 The soil and climate are certainly all anybody could 
 desire ; the chief drawbacks seemed to be the absence of 
 good schools and churches. These, however, will come 
 with time and sufficient Yankees ; and it is not too much 
 to say, that the Plains and City of the Angels will yet 
 become widely known, and well-peopled. California, 
 rich in so many things, may yet well be vain of them.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 WILMINGTON TO FORT YUMA. 
 
 "TTTE had intended to go by stage from Los Angelos 
 VV to Fort Yuma, to save time, though we knew it 
 would be a "weariness to the flesh;" but the route 
 had just been changed there from San Diego, and 
 as it would take a fortnight to transfer the stock, and get 
 things to working smoothly again, we decided to pro- 
 ceed by ambulance. To this end, we returned to 
 Wilmington, or Drum Barracks, the military post there, 
 whence we left for Arizona, Feb. 19th. Our " outfit," 
 furnished by the quartermaster there, consisted of a 
 substantial vehicle, half-ambulance and half-Jersey 
 wagon, loaned for the trip by Gen. Banning, equipped 
 with four stout mules and a plucky driver. A fifth 
 mule was also added, to meet contingencies ; but this 
 was only as a led mule. The vehicle was a contri- 
 vance of Gen. Banning's own, with a boot before and 
 behind, capacious boxes under the seats, pockets for 
 books and periodicals, slings for rifles, pistols, etc., which 
 he was accustomed to use in his own long trips through 
 Southern California and Arizona, looking after his widely 
 extended business. Originally, we designed using this 
 only as far as Fort Yuma ; but afterwards it proved to be 
 our home for two months, through fifteen hundred miles or 
 more of long and desolate land-travel. A gentleman from 
 San Francisco, connected with the Post-Office depart-
 
 340 ANAHEIM 
 
 ment, (Hon. B. T.), accompanied me, and relieved the 
 tedium, of many an hour bj his rare wit and humor. 
 Our baggage consisted only of a light valise and roll of 
 blankets each, a box of writing-materials and official 
 orders, a sack or two of barley and oats, and some pack- 
 ages of canned fruits and vegetables. For lodgings and 
 provisions generally, we decided to depend on the 
 scattered ranches and stage-stations, notwithstanding 
 vague rumors we would be likely to " rough it," in doing 
 eo. With " Adios ! " and " Good luck to you ! " from 
 broad-shouldered, big-hearted Gen. Banning, we rolled 
 out of Wilmington one day toward noon ; and crossing 
 numerous sloughs and quicksands, past countless flocks 
 of wild-geese, arrived the same evening at Anaheim. 
 
 Here we found quite a settlement of Germans, fresh 
 from Rhineland, engaged chiefly in wine-making. It 
 appears, they had clubbed together in San Francisco, 
 and bought a thousand acres of the Los Angelos Plains, 
 bordering on the Santa Anna river, whose waters they 
 now used for irrigating purposes. This they divided 
 into twenty-acre lots, with a town-plot in the centre and 
 convenient streets, each lot-holder being also owner of a 
 town-lot of half an acre besides. Here were some five 
 hundred or more Germans, all industriously engaged, and 
 exhibiting of course their usual sagacity and thrift. 
 They had constructed acequias, and carried the hitherto 
 useless Santa Anna river everywhere around and 
 through their lots, and past every door ; they had hedged 
 their little farms with willows, and planted them with 
 vines, orange, lemon, and olive trees ; and the once bar- 
 ren plains in summer were now alive with perpetual foliage 
 and verdure. Of course, there had consequently been a 
 great rise in values. The land had cost them only two 
 dollars per acre in 1857 ; but now in 1867, it was rated
 
 A BIT OF GERMANY 341 
 
 at one hundred and fifty dollars, with none to sell. We 
 drove through the clean and well-kept avenues or streets, 
 scenting Rhineland on every side ; and, indeed, this 
 Anaheim itself is nothing but a bit of Germany, dropped 
 down on the Pacific Coast. It has little in common 
 with Los Angelos the dirty, but the glorious climate and 
 soil, and was an agreeable surprise every way. We 
 halted at the village-inn, which would have passed very 
 well for a Wein-Haus in Fatherland, and were enter- 
 tained very nicely. The proprietor was also the village- 
 schoolmaster, and his frau was one of the brightest and 
 neatest little house-keepers, we had seen on the Coast. 
 They gave us bologna sausage and native wine for sup- 
 per, as well as excellent tea ; and when bed time came, we 
 were conducted to apartments unimpeachable every way. 
 In the course of the evening, half the village seemed to 
 drop in for a sip of wine or glass of beer (they kept 
 both, of course), and the guest-room became so thick with 
 smoke, you could have cut it with a knife. The next 
 morning they gave us some wine for our trip, five years 
 old, that had lost much of its alcoholic properties, 
 and so soft and oily, it would have passed for tolera- 
 ble Hockheimer, or even Johannisberger, almost any- 
 where. 
 
 Here we bade good-bye to civilization, and at last 
 were fairly off for Arizona. The distance from Wilming- 
 ton to Yuma is about three hundred miles, and we 
 hoped to make it in ten days at the farthest. We got an 
 early start from Anaheim, and crossing the Santa Anna 
 river through a congeries of quicksands rode all day, with 
 the Coast Range to the right of us, and another serrated 
 ridge ten or twelve miles off to the left, through what 
 was mostly an arid and sterile plain, though here and 
 there it was broken up into ravines and " arroyas," or
 
 342 LAGUNA GBANDE 
 
 dry water-courses, abounding in cotton wood and live- 
 oaks. Just at sunset, we crossed a divide, and before us 
 lay a sheet of water, five miles long by two wide, 
 reposing like a sea of silver, skirted by wide plateaus, and 
 these in turn flanked by outlying ranges of mountains. 
 This was Laguna Grande, the pet lake of all that region. 
 Draining a wide extent of country, it always remains a 
 large body of water, though in summer much of it dis- 
 appears, and the balance becomes brackish from alkali. 
 It continues palatable, however, for horses and cattle, 
 and accordingly here we found a great hacienda, one of 
 the largest south of Los Angelos. The proprietors were 
 two brothers Machado, who here owned leagues square 
 of land, from the summit of one mountain range to the 
 other, including the Laguna. They lived in a rude 
 adobe hut, with three rooms, that no common laborer 
 East would think of inhabiting; but they numbered 
 their live-stock by the thousand, and esteemed their rude 
 home a second paradise. They raised a little barley and 
 some beans on a few acres, bordering on the lagoon ; but 
 devoted the great bulk of their broad acres to stock- 
 raising. Sefior Dolores Machado met us at the door, as 
 we drove up ; but as he could speak no English, and we 
 no Spanish, there seemed to be a predicament. Before 
 leaving Los Angelos, we had anticipated this, knowing 
 the old Mexican or Spanish-speaking population still 
 prevailed over most of Southern California and Arizona, 
 and had provided ourselves with "Butler's method of 
 learning to speak Spanish quickly," accordingly. "We 
 had conned this over several days, selecting the phra&es 
 that would apparently be most useful, and now assailed 
 Sefior Machado with everything we could summon. 
 Imagine our disgust, when he looked wild at our 
 attempted Spanish, and responded to every phrase, " No
 
 BUENA VISTA VALLEY 343 
 
 Babe, Seiiors ! " Our driver, Worth, at last came to our 
 rescue, with some mongrel Spanish he had picked up, 
 when soldiering formerly down in Arizona ; and when 
 Seiior M. understood we only wanted entertainment for 
 the night, he smilingly replied, " O, Si ! Sefiors ! Si ! Si ! " 
 " Yes ! Yes ! " with true Castilian grace, and invited us 
 into his abode. He gave us a rough but substantial 
 meal, of coffee, frejoles, and mutton ; and when bedtime 
 came, allowed us the privilege of spreading our blankets 
 on the softest part of the only board floor in the house. 
 He and his wife occupied a rude bed in one corner of 
 the same room, while his brother slept on one in another. 
 There was not, and never had been, a pane of glass in 
 the house, notwithstanding they were such large-landed 
 proprietors. The breeze stole in at the broken shutter, 
 that closed the only window in the room, and all night 
 long we could count the stars through the dilapidated 
 roof. 
 
 Thence to Buena Yista, we passed through a succes- 
 sion of small valleys, between the same general mountain 
 ranges before mentioned. Though wanting in water, 
 yet these all had small streams of some sort flowing 
 through them, which if carefully husbanded could be 
 made to irrigate thousands of fertile acres all through 
 here. Cottonwoods occurred frequently, and along many 
 of the bottoms there was a goodly growth of scrubby live- 
 oaks, that looked particularly green and inviting amidst 
 those arid landscapes. Buena Yista valley seemed to be 
 the outlet of several others, all of which might be largely 
 reclaimed, with proper industry and effort. The soil is 
 rich, the water there, and the climate matchless appa- 
 rently the year round. Warner's Ranch stands in the 
 midst of Buena Vista valley, and consists only of an 
 adobe hut or two, that answer for grocery and road-side
 
 344 vTLLAcrro 
 
 inn. We were detained here a day, by a severe rain 
 that set in at nightfall, just after our arrival, and con- 
 tinued for twenty-four hours ; but as it gave us and our 
 team a bit of rest, we did not greatly regret it. Thence 
 to Villacito, the valley opened broader and wider, and 
 the grand San Bernardino peak which day after day 
 had dominated the landscape off to the north its out- 
 lines sharply defined against that exquisite sky dropped 
 gradually out of sight. 
 
 Here we struck the southern California or great 
 Colorado Desert, and thence on to Yuma one hundred 
 and fifty miles we might as well have been adrift on 
 the Great Sahara itself. Until we reached this point, 
 the country consisted chiefly of arid plains, it is true ; 
 but broken, more or less, into ravines and valleys, with 
 some semblance of* life, or at least capacity for support- 
 ing life hereafter, should sufficient intelligence and labor 
 ever drift that way. But as we approached the Desert, 
 all this ceased, and the very genius of desolation seeoned 
 to brood over the landscape. We descended into it 
 through a narrow rocky canon, so rough and precipitous, 
 that T. and I both got out and walked down, leaving the 
 driver to navigate the empty ambulance to the foot, the 
 best he could. Jolting and jumping from rock to gully, 
 now half upset, with wheels spinning in the air, and now 
 all right again, he got down safe and whole at last, and 
 we augured well of our wheels and springs, after such a 
 rugged experience. 
 
 Quitting Villacito, we found the road sandy and 
 heavy, the air sultry and hot, and the nearest water 
 eighteen miles off at Carissa Creek. The country was 
 one dreary succession of sand and gravel, barren peaks 
 and rocky ridges, with arroyas now and then, but no 
 signs of humidity anywhere. It was not, however, such
 
 JACK-RABBITS AND QUAILS 345 
 
 a perfect desert, as we had anticipated ; for here and 
 there were clumps of chemisal, mescal, and cactus, and 
 these somewhat relieved the general dreariness of the 
 landscape, poor apologies as they are for trees and shrub- 
 bery. The chemisal grows in clumps, something like 
 our alder-bushes east, but with rods straighter and 
 slenderer, bearing a pale-green leaf. The mescal seems 
 to be a bastard variety of aloes, much similar to what is 
 popularly known as Eve's Thread, though on a larger 
 scale. The Mexicans and Indians distil a villain- 
 ous liquor from it, which they also call " Mescal," that 
 is worse in its effects than even fusil-oil or strychnine- 
 whiskey. The cacti appeared to be of several varieties 
 many the same as we have in conservatories east, but all 
 vastly larger here. The flora, as we proceeded south- 
 ward, constantly became sparser and thornier; but the 
 fauna continued about the same the chief species being 
 jack-rabbits and California quails the latter a very 
 handsome variety, with top-knots, never seen east. 
 The rabbits were numerous, and the quails whirred 
 across our road in coveys quite frequently, until we were 
 well into the Desert, when both mainly disappeared. We 
 reached Carissa Creek, with its welcome though brack- 
 ish water, about 2 p. M. ; but as it was thirty-three miles 
 yet to the next certain water, at Laguna, with only un- 
 certain wells between (dug by the Government), con- 
 cerning which we could get no definite information, we 
 concluded to halt there till morning. 
 
 From there on, the first few miles were about the 
 same as the day before. Then we ascended an abrupt 
 bluff, that looked in the distance like an impassable cas- 
 tellated wall, and suddenly found ourselves on an elevated 
 mesa or table-land, the very embodiment of dreariness 
 and desolation. On all sides, it was a vast, outstretched 
 15*
 
 34:6 THE COLORADO DESEET 
 
 plain, of coarse sand and gravel, without tree, or shrub, 
 or living thing even the inevitable mescal and cactus 
 here disappeared. Behind us, to the north and east, there 
 was a weird succession of grand terraces and castellated 
 mountains, reminding one of portions of "Wyoming. On 
 our right, to the west, the ever-present Coast Range 
 loomed along the landscape, barren and ghostly. To the 
 south, all was a dead level, panting and quivering 
 beneath the sun, as he neared the zenith, except where 
 here and there a heavy mirage obscured the view, or 
 vast whirlwinds careered over the desert, miles away 
 their immense spirals circling upward to the very sky. 
 These last, on first sight, we took for columns of smoke, 
 so erect and vast were they. But soon they rose all 
 along the southwestern horizon, one after another, like 
 mighty genii on the march, and our driver bade us look 
 out for a Yuma sand-storm. We had already here and 
 there found the sand drifted into ridges, like snow-banks, 
 where sand-storms had preceded us, and had heard ugly 
 accounts of them before leaving Wilmington ; but, for- 
 tunately, we escaped this one the whirlwinds keeping 
 away to the southwest, where they hugged the Coast 
 Range, and in the course of the afternoon obscured the 
 whole landscape there. This was now the Colorado or 
 Yuma Desert in earnest, without bird, or beast, or bush, 
 or sign of life anywhere nothing, in fact, but barrenness 
 and desolation, as much as any region could well be. 
 A large portion of it is so low, that the overflow of the 
 Colorado often reaches it during spring freshets, and 
 remains for weeks. In travelling over this portion, now 
 baked dry and hard beneath the sun, we had frequent 
 exhibitions of mirage, on a magnificent scale. One day 
 in particular, we had been driving since early morning, 
 over a heavy sandy road, with the sun blazing down upon
 
 THE LAGUNA 34:7 
 
 us like a ball of fire, with no water since starting, our 
 poor mules panting with heat and thirst, when long after 
 noon we observed apparently a mile or so ahead what 
 seemed like a great outspread pond or lake, with little 
 islands here and there, their edges fringed with bushes, 
 whose very images appeared reflected in the water. The 
 scene was so perfect, that the driver and T. both insisted 
 it must be water ; however, I inclined to believe it mi- 
 rage, as it afterwards turned out, but the optical illusion 
 was so complete in this and other instances, that when 
 later in the day we really did approach a veritable sheet 
 of water at the Laguna, we all of us mistook this for 
 mirage also. Here, however, we found a body of water 
 a mile long by half a mile wide, surrounded by a rank 
 growth of coarse grass, and covered with water-fowl 
 a perfect oasis in the desert. This was also a part of the 
 overflow of the Colorado, there being a depression in 
 the Desert just here, which holds the water like a cup. 
 The quantity is so large, that it lasts for two seasons ; 
 but after that, is apt to dry up, if the overflow does not 
 come. But as this usually happens every year, this 
 Laguna (Spanish for lagoon or lake) becomes a perfect 
 god-send to the traveller here. On its southern margin, 
 a Mr. Ganow from Illinois had established a ranch, and 
 already was acquiring a comfortable home. His horses 
 and cattle found ample subsistence in the brakes, on the 
 borders of the lagoon, and the passing travel to and from 
 California and Arizona made him considerable patronage 
 in the course of the year. 
 
 Thence past Alamo to Pilot Knob, where we rounded 
 the corner of the mountains, and struck the valley 
 proper of the Colorado, the country continued more or 
 less an unbroken desert. The roads were heavy and 
 dusty, the air hot and stifling, the landscape barren and
 
 348 ALAMO PILOT KNOB 
 
 monotonous ; and when, at last, we made Pilot Knob 
 and struck the river, eight or ten miles below Fort Yuma, 
 we rejoiced heartily, that the first stage of our tour was 
 so nearly over. The Colorado flowed by our side, red 
 and sluggish, but of goodly volume ; the breeze came to 
 us cool and moist across its broad bosom ; and as we 
 neared the post, the garrison-flag floating high in air 
 seemed to beckon us onward, and welcome us beneath its 
 folds. Starting long before daylight, and lying by in 
 the middle of the day, we had driven fifty-three miles 
 that day, over a country that equals, if it does not sur- 
 pass Bitter Creek itself (see p. 150-3) ; and when at last 
 we drew rein at Fort Yuma, we were thoroughly jaded 
 ourselves, and our poor animals quite fagged out. We 
 had made the distance from Wilmington in nine driving 
 days, instead of ten ; but they seemed the longest we had 
 ever driven. 
 
 Of the intervening country as a whole, especially 
 from Villacito, it may justly be said, not only is it prac- 
 tically a desert, but even what streams it has seem to be 
 slowly but surely disappearing. There were evidences 
 frequently, that the country had formerly been much better 
 watered than now, and the population sparse as it was 
 appeared to be diminishing. After leaving Anaheim, 
 there was only a scattered ranch here and there, every ten 
 or twelve miles apart, of the rudest character sometimes 
 not even these where coarse groceries, canned fruits and 
 vegetables, and whiskey and mescal, were kept for sale to 
 Indians and passing travellers. These had mostly been 
 stage-stations on the great Butterfield Overland Route 
 before the war, and when this broke that up, these 
 ranchmen still remained, hoping something would " turn 
 up." The station at Carissa Creek was a good repre- 
 sentative of this, and likewise of many others. " Carissa
 
 CARISSA. CREEK 
 
 Creek " itself is one of southern California's " blind " 
 streams, like so many in Arizona, beginning and ending 
 nowhere in particular without either source or mouth 
 apparently. Issuing from a sand-heap, it terminates in 
 another a few miles away ; but just here at the sta- 
 tion is a shallow creek a few yards wide, by six inches 
 deep tainted, of course with alkali. The station itself 
 is the adobe remains of an old stage-station, whose roof 
 was all gone, and as a substitute the enterprising pro- 
 prietor had thrown some poles across, and covered them 
 with willows and coarse grass. This turned the sun 
 somewhat, and the easy-going proprietor said, " 'Twer'nt 
 no use, no how, to roof agin rain ; 'cause, you bet, stran- 
 ger, no rain ever gits yer ! " His forlorn structure, part 
 of which was used for a chicken-roost, also served its 
 owner as bar-room, grocery, kitchen, parlor, bed-room, 
 etc., and yet contained only one rude apartment, alto- 
 gether. 
 
 " Mine host " here was a Texan, who somehow had 
 strayed away out here, and dropped down at Carissa 
 Creek he hardly knew how. He " didn't think it much 
 of a place, that's a fact ; no how, stranger ! But then, 
 you see, I'm yer ; and it's a heap of trouble to move 
 elsewhar! Besides, yer know, I couldn't recommend 
 nobody else to buy me out, no how ! Somebody has got 
 to live at Carissa Creek, anyhow ; and why not me ? " 
 His philosophy, under the circumstances, seemed deli- 
 cious, worthy of Mr. Mark Tapley himself, and, of course, 
 we had not the heart to disturb it. 
 
 For meals and lodgings en route, we did indeed have 
 to " rough it " pretty generally, nearly everywhere 
 especially after passing Yillacito. Salt pork fried, sale- 
 ratus biscuit hot, and coffee plain, came again into vogue, 
 as in the famous Bitter Creek region ; but we supple-
 
 350 DIEGANO INDIANS 
 
 mented them this time with some excellent canned 
 fruits and vegetables, that we had the foresight to bring 
 along. Our evenings usually ended in long " yarns," after 
 which, spreading our blankets in the hay-corral, or on a 
 sand-heap, we went cosily to sleep beneath the stars. We 
 always slept with our revolvers under our heads, and our 
 rifles by our sides ; and though a bit nervous sometimes 
 when we reflected how much we were at the mercy of 
 the rough customers we met en route, yet we slept well, 
 and went through safely. 
 
 At Porte de la Cruz, before reaching the Desert, we 
 passed an Indian village ; but they all seemed quiet and 
 peaceable. They belonged to the Dieganos, a tribe 
 extending from the Coast Range to the Colorado, and 
 wandering over much of the country we had passed 
 through. A score or more of them lay basking in the 
 sun, as we drove by, and they seemed to be about as 
 helpless and idiotic a people, as human nature could well 
 furnish. They are said to subsist chiefly on snakes, 
 lizards, grasshoppers, mescal, etc., and appeared to be 
 worse off than any Red Skins we had encountered yet. 
 At Laguna, in the midst of the Desert, we chanced 
 upon another party of them. As we drove up to Mr. 
 Ganow's, the station-keeper there, we observed quite a 
 crowd of them running around the corner of the lagoon, 
 and making for the station. We supposed, at first, that 
 our arrival was the sensation that attracted them ; but as 
 they drew nearer, we saw they were angry and excited, 
 and Mr. Ganow presently explained, that one of them 
 had been robbed of a knife and a silver dollar by a white 
 man at Indian Wells some four miles farther on and, 
 when afterwards he remonstrated, the white man had tied 
 him up and flogged him. The poor wretch, still bruised 
 and bleeding, now came with twenty or thirty of his
 
 A BOKDEE OUTBAGE 351 
 
 comrades, from their camp beyond the Laguna, to Mr. 
 Ganow to report the outrage and seek redress. Ganow 
 said the white man referred to was a mean fellow, bad 
 enough for anything, who made a living chiefly by 
 gambling with the Indians, and selling them mescal and 
 needle-gun whiskey, and that he kept the countryside in 
 a constant turmoil. He advised his copper-colored friends 
 to return to the Wells, and demand their property again, 
 and say a II. S. officer was at his ranch, and would be 
 along next day and look after him, if he did not give it 
 up. This seemed to satisfy them, and they all started 
 off on a long trot, kicking a ball before them as they 
 ran, and were soon out of sight. One of them, rejoicing 
 in the name of Charley, was dressed in cast-off army- 
 clothing, and spoke broken-English pretty well. We gave 
 him a handful of cigarritos and matches, in return for 
 his broken talk, and he went trotting off with the rest. 
 
 That night we spread our blankets as usual, in the 
 corral, at the foot of a hay-stack, and before going to 
 sleep fell to talking about this affair, and its possible con- 
 sequences perhaps even to Ganow and his family them- 
 selves. He had a smart wife and two bright children, 
 and it seemed strange a man like him would expose 
 them thus, in such a remote and dangerous locality. 
 From this we strayed to other topics, and talked far into 
 the night, as was often our wont on this trip the stars 
 were so brilliant, and the night-air so inviting. Near 
 midnight, while T. was spinning one of his longest yarns, 
 and I was lazily listening on my back, with my hands 
 under my head, and knees at an angle suddenly an In- 
 dian, half naked, loomed up just at our feet, with 
 bow and arrows in hand, and a revolver at his waist. 
 To seize my Spencer was the work of an instant, and 
 the next I demanded :
 
 352 A RISKY ADVENTURE 
 
 " Who's there ? What do you want this time of 
 night ? " 
 
 T. stopped talking, and quickly fished up his revolver 
 from the hay, not seeing the Red Skin till after I chal- 
 lenged him. Back jumped the Indian, exclaiming excit- 
 edly : 
 
 " Ugh ! No shoot ! Me friend ! Me Charley ! " 
 
 " Well, what are you doing here at this hour ? What 
 do you want now ? " 
 
 " Me been down to Indian Wells. 'Tother fellow 
 got him knife and dollar. Good ! Dieganos much friend 
 to Gen-e-ral. Heap ! " 
 
 " Well, then, Charley, why don't you go home, with 
 the others ? What are you loafing here for ? " 
 
 ' Me been playin' cards, till now ! Charley gamble a 
 heap! Mucho! OmuimucJio! Lost all. Coat, hat, shirt, 
 all gone. Me beggar now ; got nothing. Charley want 
 Gen-er-al and fat friend (T. was a little stout) give him 
 one dollar. Win um all back, quick ! Heap more ! " 
 
 We pitied the poor fellow, but bade him leave till 
 morning. He still lingered, reluctant to go, but pres- 
 ently walked slowly off muttering to himself, and we 
 both became uneasy, as we knew there were a hundred 
 savages close within his call. However, after lying 
 awhile undisturbed, we concluded there was no use bor- 
 rowing trouble, and T. agreed to keep watch, if I would 
 try to sleep. Once or twice he woke me up with a " hist," 
 and we fancied we heard the stealthy tread of Red 
 Skins about us; but none molested us, and morning 
 broke at last much to our relief. We breakfasted and 
 were off too early for Indian habits, so that Charley missed 
 his u dollar," after all ; but we left him a plentiful supply 
 of matches and "smoke-tobacco," which doubtless served 
 him far better. This experience, altogether, was rather
 
 LIBERALS VS. IMPERIALISTS 353 
 
 exciting at the time ; and it is not too much to say, that 
 our friend Charley just escaped getting a bullet or two 
 through him. 
 
 As to travel, we met but little, and this was chiefly 
 Mexicans en route to California. At Carissa Creek, as 
 we drove up, we found quite a party of these, resting 
 there during the heat of the day. The men were loung- 
 ing about the station, or sleeping in the sand ; the 
 women, washing clothes in the little creek. Their ani- 
 mals a heterogeneous herd of horses, mules, and bron- 
 chos were browsing by the roadside, on chemisal, mes- 
 cal, or whatever they could pick up. The entire party 
 consisted of imperialists, who were now fleeing from the 
 vengeance of the just triumphant liberals in Sonora. 
 When Maximilian first came, the liberals had to leave ; 
 but now Juarez was in the ascendant, and the imperial- 
 ists had Hobson's choice of emigration or the halter. 
 Our host there said, that in the past four months about 
 twelve hundred imperialists had passed California-ward, 
 while during the same period only about two hundred 
 liberals had returned Sonora-ward ; so that California 
 seemed to be the gainer, by this exodus. "We essayed 
 some talk with the party, in our hobbling Spanish, which 
 daily improved, and one who seemed to be the leader 
 responded, as follows : 
 
 " Si, Senor ! Imperialists we, all ; Maximiliani ! 
 Sonora no good place for imperialists now, Jesu, no ! 
 Liberals just take one knife, this way (and he drew his 
 hand significantly across his throat) ; or one lariat, this 
 way (and he twirled his fingers around his head) ; or else, 
 one carabina bang ! Carahu ! "We vamose to Califor- 
 nia!" 
 
 He said this, with such wild grimaces and mad ges- 
 ticulations, as only a Mexican can achieve ; and presently,
 
 354. INSIDE VS. OUTSIDE. 
 
 to our delight, the whole banditti cut-throat looking 
 crew moved off, with a friendly chorus of " Adios ! 
 Senors ! Adios ! " 
 
 The few Americans we met en route but a handful 
 all reported themselves as going " inside," and smiled 
 at us bound "outside." By inside, of course, they 
 meant California and civilization ; by outside, Arizona 
 and something else ! Of all the Borderisms we had 
 heard yet, these seemed the strangest, until we got well 
 " outside " ourselves, and thoroughly comprehended 
 them ; and then they appeared the aptest, indeed, of any. 
 How much so, this chapter suggests in part already; 
 and others will further disclose, when we get well into 
 Arizona. "Inside" and paradise, "outside" and purga- 
 tory these were the opposing ideas constantly expressed, 
 and we learned not to wonder at them.
 
 CHAPTER XXH. 
 
 FOBT YUMA TO TUCSON. 
 
 TT^ORT YUMA is popularly believed to be in Arizona, 
 JL 1 but is in reality in the extreme southeastern corner 
 of California. The fort itself stands on a high bluff, on 
 the west bank of the Rio Colorado, which alone separates 
 it from Arizona, and is usually occupied by two or three 
 companies of U. S. troops. Directly opposite, on the 
 east bank of the Colorado, stands Arizona City, a 
 straggling collection of adobe houses, containing then 
 perhaps five hundred inhabitants all told. Here and at 
 Yuma are located the government store-houses, shops, 
 corrals, etc., as the grand depot for all the posts in 
 Arizona. Hence, considerable business centres here; 
 but it is chiefly of a military nature, and if the post and 
 depot were removed, the " City " as such would speedily 
 subside into its original sand-hills. Being at the junction 
 of the Gila and Colorado, where the main route of travel 
 east and west crosses the latter, it is also the first place 
 of any importance on the Colorado itself; and hence 
 would seem to be well located for business, if Arizona 
 had any business to speak of. The distance to the 
 mouth of the Colorado is one hundred and fifty miles, 
 whence a line of schooners then connected with San 
 Francisco two thousand miles away via the Gulf of 
 California. From the head of the Gulf, light-draught 
 stern-wheel steamers ascend the Colorado to Yuma, and
 
 356 THE EIO COLORADO 
 
 occasionally to La Paz, and Fort Mojave or Hardyville 
 one hundred and fifty, and three hundred miles, farther 
 up respectively. Sometimes they had even reached Call- 
 ville, some six hundred miles from the Gulf, but this 
 was chiefly by way of adventure, as there was no popula- 
 tion or business sufficient to justify such risks ordinarily. 
 The Bio Colorado itself, or the great Red River of the 
 west, although rising even beyond Fort Bridger, in the 
 very heart of the continent, and draining with its 
 tributaries the whole western slope of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains for two thousand miles, was yet pronounced an 
 unnavigable stream, after the first few hundred miles, 
 and rather a hard river to navigate even that distance. 
 Much of the way it runs through a comparatively rain- 
 less region in summer, and the last few hundred miles it 
 ploughs its course along through a sandy alluvium, where 
 its channel is constantly shifting, and sand-bars every- 
 where prevail. The tiny river-steamers reported the 
 channel never in the same place for a week together, 
 and they always tied up when night came, for fear of 
 running ashore or grounding in the darkness. The 
 current, moreover, was usually very swift; so that 
 between the sand and water together, voyaging on the 
 Colorado was regarded generally as a slow kind of busi- 
 ness. These boats usually took from three days to a 
 week, to make the one hundred and fifty miles, from the 
 mouth of the river to Arizona City, and from ten to 
 twenty days more to ascend to Hardyville three hun- 
 dred miles farther whence, however, they descended 
 to the Gulf again, with water and sand both to help 
 them, in a tithe of the time. In all, there were three 
 boats then on the Colorado, supported chiefly by a 
 contract they had to transport government stores. "With- 
 out this, there was not enough travel or freight, appa-
 
 COSTLY TRANSPORTATION 357 
 
 rently, to keep even one running, though it was hoped 
 the development of mines in Arizona would soon make 
 business more brisk. 
 
 As a means of a water communication, from the Gulf 
 of California into the very heart of the continent, it would 
 seem, that this great river ought to have become more 
 useful to cizilization, than it has. But the difficulties 
 of navigating it, even to Callville, were reported great ; 
 and beyond that, was the insuperable obstacle of the 
 Big Canon of the Colorado, which nobody then knew 
 anything about, except as a geographical nrj-stery, but 
 which Prof. Powell has since explored so gallantly. At 
 Yuma, the river was a turbid, rolling flood, broad and 
 deep ; and, judging by what we saw of it there, it would 
 seem, that steamers of proper draught and build ought 
 to be able to stem its current, and be of great service 
 hereafter to all the upper country. The rates then cur- 
 rent on the river were as follows : From the mouth of 
 the Colorado to Yuma or Arizona City, 150 miles, twenty- 
 dollars per ton, coin ; to La Paz, 300 miles, forty dollars 
 per ton ; to Fort Mojave or Hardyville, 450 miles, sixty 
 dollars per ton. The rates from San Francisco to the 
 mouth of the river, some 2000 miles, were then from 
 twelve to fifteen dollars per ton, coin, besides ; so that 
 every load of freight put down at Arizona City or 
 Hardyville, cost say thirty-five dollars and seventy-five 
 dollars per ton, coin, respectively, for transportation 
 alone. This may have been good business for the trans- 
 portation companies; but it was death to mining, and 
 other private enterprises, and operated practical!}' as a 
 prohibition to business, over most of the country there, 
 It made Arizona substantially inaccessible, to population 
 and trade, by this route (and there was no other so 
 advantageous), and the whole country was hoping against
 
 358 A YUMA 6AND-STOEM 
 
 hope, with prayers without ceasing, for a sometime on- 
 coming railroad. 
 
 March 2d, while still at Arizona City, inspecting the 
 depot there, we saw something of a Tuma sand-storm. 
 The whirlwinds we had observed in the distance, when 
 crossing the Colorado Desert a day or two before, seemed 
 to have been only its precursors. It struck Yum a on 
 the 2d, and promised to be only a passing blow, lulling 
 away at eventide ; but on the 3d, it resumed its course, 
 with increased violence, and all day long rolled and 
 roared onward furiously. "We had heard much of these 
 Yuma sand-storms, and on the whole were rather glad 
 to see one, disagreeable as it proved. The morning 
 dawned, hot and sultry, without a breath of air any- 
 where. Along about 9 A. M., the wind commenced 
 sweeping in from the Desert, and as it increased in power 
 uplifted and whirled along vast masses of sand, that 
 seemed to trail as curtains of tawny gossamer from the 
 very sky. As yet, it was comparatively clear at Yuma, 
 and we could see the sweep and whirl of the storm off 
 on the Desert, as distinctly as the outlines of a distant 
 summer shower. But, subsequently, the Desert itself 
 seemed to be literally upborne, and sweeping in, on the 
 wings of the wind. The heavens became lurid and 
 threatening. The sun disappeared, as in a coppery fog. 
 The landscape took on a yellowish, fiery glare. The 
 atmosphere became suffocating and oppressive. Towards 
 noon, the wind rose to a hurricane ; the sand, if possible, 
 came thicker and faster, penetrating into every nook and 
 cranny ; the air became absolutely stifling, until neither 
 man nor beast could endure it passably. People kept 
 within doors, with every window closed, and animals 
 huddled in groups with their noses to the ground, as if 
 the only place to breathe. As night approached, the
 
 FORT YTJMA ITSELF 359 
 
 tempest gradually ceased, as if it had blown itself out ; 
 but it followed us on a minor scale, for a day or two 
 afterwards, as we journeyed up the Gila. The ill-defined 
 horror, and actual suffering of such a day, must be expe- 
 rienced to be appreciated. Out on the Desert, in the midst 
 of the storm, the phenomenon no doubt would amount 
 much to the same thing as -the simooms of the Sahara. 
 Travellers or troops caught in these sand-storms have to 
 stop still, and instances are not rare where persons have 
 lost their lives, in attempting to battle with them. They 
 obliterate all signs of a road, where they- actively prevail, 
 whirling the sand into heaps and ridges, like New Eng- 
 land snow-drifts; and the next travellers, who chance 
 along, have either to go by the compass, or employ a 
 guide, who understands the lay of the mountains, and 
 country generally. Col. Crittenden, of the 32d Infantry, 
 who crossed the Desert with a portion of his command 
 some time after, was detained two days by such a storm, 
 and his men suffered greatly, especially for want of water. 
 These sand-storms, it appears, are pretty much the 
 only storms they ever get at Yuma, and they would not be 
 unwilling there to dispense with even these. In the spring 
 and summer, they frequently prevail there, sweeping in 
 from the south and southwest, and it is not too much 
 to say, that they are simply execrable. They have done 
 much to make the name of Fort Yuma proverbial on the 
 Pacific Coast, as the hottest place in the Union ; and in 
 San Francisco there was a story current about a soldier, 
 who died at Yuma in a customary spree, and of course 
 went to tophet. Subsequently, however, the story ran, 
 his ghost came back for his blankets, because as alleged 
 he had found the climate there much colder than Yuma 
 a sort of Alaska to California ! The Post stands on a 
 high gravel bluff, facing to the east and south, exposed to
 
 360 THE YTJMA IXDDTAS 
 
 the blazing sun throughout the day ; and, consequently, 
 becoming saturated through and through with heat, 
 retains it for months together. Hence, in the summer 
 months, for weeks together, the thermometer there ranges 
 from 100 to 125 in the shade, and the chief end of the 
 garrison becomes an effort to keep cool, or even tolerably 
 so. A tour of duty there was commonly regarded on the 
 Coast, as a kind of banishment to Botany Bay ; and yet 
 we found the officers a very clever set of gentlemen, and 
 spent some days there quite delightfully. Col. W., the 
 commandant, proved to be an old acquaintance of the 
 Army of the Potomac ; and Dr. J., the surgeon, an old 
 school-mate. 
 
 The Post here was established about 1857 to overawe 
 the Yurnas, then a stalwart and numerous tribe of Indians, 
 occupying both banks of the Colorado for a hundred 
 miles or more. Though much reduced, they still num- 
 bered over a thousand souls ; and physically speaking, were 
 the finest specimens of aborigines we had seen yet. 
 They cultivate the river-bottoms to some extent, and 
 raise barley, wheat, beans, melons etc. for their surplus 
 of which, when any, they find a ready market at Fort 
 Yuma and Arizona City. Some chop wood for the 
 river -steamers, and others indeed we found employed 
 on the steamers themselves, as deck-hands, firemen, etc. 
 Altogether, these Yumas seemed to have more of the 
 practical about them, than any savages we had met yet, 
 and no doubt they might be- saved to the race for gene- 
 rations to come, were proper efforts made to protect and 
 care for them. They had been peaceable for years, and 
 scores of them thronged the Post and the depot, every 
 day we were there. The men wore only a breech-cloth, 
 with long ends fluttering fore and aft ; the women but 
 little more, though some of them affected a rude
 
 OLD PASQUOL 361 
 
 petticoat. Both sexes, as a rule, were naked from the 
 waist up, and many of each were superb specimens of 
 humanity ; but all seemed corrupted and depraved, 
 by contact with the nobler white race. The open 
 and unblushing looseness and licentiousness of the 
 riff-raff of Arizona City, with these poor Indians, was 
 simply disgusting, and it is a disgrace to a Christian 
 government to tolerate such orgies, as frequently occur 
 there, under the very shadow of its flag. Great blame 
 attaches to the army, in former years, for ever admitting 
 these poor creatures within the precincts of the Post 
 there at all. Some time before, it was said, the com- 
 manding officer sent for Pasquol, their head-chief, and 
 bade him order his squaws away. 
 
 " My squaws ? " he indignantly responded ; " no my 
 squaws now ! White man's squaws ! Before white man 
 come, squaws good stay in wigwam cook fish work 
 in field gather barley heap good. But now squaws 
 about Fort all day City all night and Yumas no want 
 'em. White man made squaws a heap bad. White 
 man keep 'em ! " 
 
 And with this, old Pasquol, a stately old savage, 
 wrapped his blanket about his shoulders, and strode 
 haughtily away. As far as we could learn, there had 
 never been a missionary, or teacher of any kind, among 
 these poor Yumas ; and to all who feel a call in that 
 direction, we would suggest the place as a superb field, 
 for earnest missionary work. Will not some of our 
 religious organizations, now that they have got the Red 
 Man so fully in their hands, make a note of this, and try 
 to look a little after these splendid savages, degraded 
 though they be, as well as the Cheyenncs and Sioux, and 
 other more eastern tribes ? 
 
 At Fort Yuma we overhauled Gov. McCormick and 
 16
 
 GOV. MCOOKMICK 
 
 wife, who had left San Francisco in advance of us, and 
 who were now about to leave for Prescott, then the capi- 
 tal of Arizona. On reflection, however, rather than lose 
 such good company, they decided to journey with us to 
 Tucson, and thence somewhat back to Prescott ; whence 
 we designed returning to Los Angelos again, via Fort 
 Mojave. Accordingly, we left Arizona City, March 4th, 
 our route lying up the Gila easterly two hundred miles 
 to Maricopa Wells, and thence southerly one hundred 
 miles to Tucson, the oldest and most considerable town 
 in the Territory, and now again the capital. Much as 
 we had "roughed it," while en route from Wilmington 
 to Fort Yuma, according to all reports we would have 
 to rough it much worse before reaching Tucson, if we 
 trusted to the wayside ranches; and, therefore, before 
 setting out, we secured a joint cook, and provided our- 
 selves with a tolerable larder. Our "outfit" consisted 
 of two four-mule ambulances, into which and outside we 
 stowed and strapped ourselves, baggage, rations, forage, 
 cooking utensils, etc., as best we could. Expecting to 
 "camp-out" at night, we also took along two extra 
 wagon-sheets, to pitch as tents, if necessary ; but never 
 found occasion to use them, except as beds, beneath those 
 exquisite skies. There was no cavalry then at Yuma, and 
 the road as far as Maricopa Wells being reported com- 
 paratively safe, we decided to proceed thither without 
 escort, depending upon our own courage and vigilance. 
 Nevertheless, we took the precaution before starting to 
 arm our cook and both drivers with Springfield muskets, 
 while we ourselves were equipped with a Spencer or 
 Remington rifle apiece, as well as our revolvers. 
 
 With a host of " adios " and " good-byes," from our 
 Yuma friends, we swung out of Arizona City late that 
 morning, through sand knee-deep, and thus were fairly
 
 GILA CITY CASTLE DOME 
 
 off for Tucson. The roads proved heavy all that day, 
 and the remains of the sand-storm kept us company ; yet 
 we succeeded in making thirty-one miles, and went into 
 camp before night-fall on the banks of the Gila. Some 
 twenty miles out we passed Gila City, consisting of two 
 adobe huts and an abandoned mine, then famous as 
 the spot where Gen. McD., and some San Francisco 
 friends, had recently made rather " permanent invest- 
 ments." Thence on to Maricopa Wells, indeed all 
 the way from Arizona City, the road ascends the south 
 bank of the Gila, and confines itself pretty closely 
 to it, except here and there where it strikes across 
 the mesas, to avoid some bend in this most tortuous of 
 streams. The Gila itself ordinarily is an insignificant 
 river, apparently famed more for quicksands than water ; 
 but just now its banks were full with the spring freshet, 
 and its usual fords dangerous if not impassable. Its 
 valley is of uncertain breadth, from one to five miles, 
 though its river bottoms its only really valuable land 
 are of course much narrower. Beyond the valley, on 
 either side, are high mesas or plateaus, covered often with 
 barren volcanic rocks, like the table-lands of Idaho ; and, 
 beyond these still, are substantial mountain-ranges. The 
 range on the north, day after day, was a constant wonder 
 and delight. Instead of ridges and peaks, it seemed to 
 be rather a succession of domes, and towers, and castel- 
 lated ramparts, sharp and well-defined against a peerless 
 sky, chief among which was Castle Dome a superb 
 dome-like mountain, that dominated the landscape for 
 two or three days together. These dome-shaped moun- 
 tains are a feature of Arizona, and abound everywhere 
 in the Territory, especially in the northern part of it. 
 
 As already intimated, we found the Gila very high 
 and still rising. In several places, it had just washed the
 
 364 VALLEY OF THE GILA 
 
 banks away, destroying the road, and we had to pick our 
 way across the bottoms, through the chemisal and mes- 
 quite, to the connecting part, the best we could. In this 
 way, it seems, its channel is constantly shifting, and this 
 was said to be one of the chief drawbacks to construct- 
 ing acequias, and cultivating its fine bottom lands by 
 irrigation. The head of an acequia to-day, tapping the 
 river well, a month hence may be three feet or more out 
 of water, and then all the work of excavating ditches, 
 damming the river, etc., has to be done over again. The 
 bed of the Gila itself, in the main, seeins to be pure 
 quicksand. At one point, a station-keeper showed us 
 where a year before piles had been driven down fifty 
 feet, in making a wing-dam to divert a portion of the 
 river into an acequia; but at the first freshet, the cross 
 currents had underbored everything, and left the head of 
 the acequia high and dry. ~No doubt the river-bottoms 
 are all exceedingly fertile, and would produce well, if 
 irrigated ; but not otherwise. Of these, there is a con- 
 siderable breadth, at many points along the Gila, and, 
 here and there, there had been some attempts at cultiva- 
 tion, but scarcely any worth mentioning. 
 
 These bottoms nearly everywhere abound with bunch- 
 grass and mesquite-tiinber the one the delight of horses 
 and cattle, the other invaluable in that treeless region. 
 The mesquite has but little height ; but its trunk is often 
 two and three feet in diameter, though only about as many 
 high, from which point it throws out great, sturdy, black, 
 gnarled limbs for a distance of thirty or forty feet all 
 around. We saw many of them, that I think could not 
 have been more than five or six feet in height, the bend 
 of the branches included ; nevertheless, with their 
 crooked and gnarled limbs, they sprawled over the 
 ground for a diameter of fully seventy-five or one hun-
 
 BITNCH-GBASS AND MESQUITE 365 
 
 dred feet. At first they strike you as dwarfs, puny in 
 aspect and purpose ; but afterwards, as stunted giants, 
 massive in strength and power, writhing in very anguish, 
 because unable to tower higher. For lumber purposes, 
 the mesquite amounts to but little ; but for fuel, it is 
 invaluable, and the future settlers on the Gila will prize 
 it highly. It occurs pretty much all through Arizona, 
 on the best river- bottoms, and everywhere seems a prov- 
 idential institution. It makes a fire-wood scarcely in- 
 ferior to oak or hickory, and bears a bean besides, which 
 constitutes a large part of the subsistence of the Mexi- 
 cans and the Indians there. These mesquite beans make 
 a very sweet and palatable dish, and horses, mules, cattle, 
 etc. are especially fond of them. The Mexicans we 
 met en route to California, were subsisting upon them 
 almost entirely, and subsequently in wandering through 
 a Pimo village, we found them in every storehouse. A 
 Pimo belle, for a bundle of cigarritos, cooked us a 
 dish of them, and we have eaten worse things in New 
 York and "Washington. Said an old Arizonian one day, 
 " Wherever you see mesquites, strangers, look out for 
 good land, you bet ! " and we found it so invariably. 
 Indeed, with a moderate amount of enterprise, and a 
 small amount of capital, we saw no good reason why the 
 valley of the Gila should not eventually be dotted with 
 excellent farms. The land is all there, and plenty of water 
 to irrigate it (if only the Gila can be subdued, and surely 
 it can), and the climate the year round must be delicious. 
 But, as a rule, we found the country desolate and for- 
 saken, with the exception of a starving ranch here 
 and there, whose dirty and dilapidated proprietor cared 
 more to swear at his snarling half-cayote dogs, and sell 
 an occasional glass of mescal or whiskey, than to do an 
 honest hard day's work. The truth is, the most of these
 
 366 MAKICOPA DESERT 
 
 settlers, as well as too many throughout Arizona gen- 
 erally, were exiles or emigrants from Arkansas and Texas, 
 with little in them of the kind of stuff that founds states 
 and builds empires. They knew how to drink, and swear, 
 and " shoot a Red Skin, sir, on sight ;" but were strangers 
 to honest toil and steady industry, and therefore missed 
 their logical and golden fruits prosperity and thrift. Of 
 course, like all such everywhere, they were opposed to 
 Chinese cheap labor;" and, like the good William 
 Nye, hated the " Heathen Chinee," even worse than 
 the negro. 
 
 At Gila Bend, some fifty miles from Maricopa Wells, 
 the river makes a sharp curve north, and the road leaves 
 it, for a direct course across the Bend to Maricopa Wells. 
 This embraces what is known mainly as the Maricopa 
 Desert a wide circuit of level country, practically a 
 waterless desert, though with some good land here and 
 there. In wet seasons and during rainy months, water 
 remains in a few holes near the middle of the Desert; 
 but we found all long since dry. The distance is usually 
 made in two stages, water being carried along for drink- 
 ing and cooking purposes ; but our " outfit " was light, 
 and taking an early start and driving late, we pushed 
 through in one. The Desert itself, as level as a house- 
 floor, is covered with a sort of fine gravel, that makes 
 an excellent road, over which our wheels rolled easily. 
 Near its eastern borders, a range of barren mountains 
 crosses the Desert from north to south, apparently block- 
 ing the way ; but the road climbs along through a narrow 
 canon, that opens as you approach, and makes the plains 
 beyond very readily. This canon is a noted resort of 
 the dread Apaches, and several attacks had recently 
 occurred here. Before leaving Fort Yuina we had been 
 told we would find hostile Indians here, if anywhere. But
 
 PAINTED ROCKS 367 
 
 we took the precaution to dismount from our ambulances, 
 and skirmish through on foot ; and consequently, Senors 
 Apaches failed to show themselves, if there. Our expe- 
 rience was the same all the way to Tucson. Subsequently, 
 while en route thither, we passed several other places, 
 where we had been warned to look out for Apaches, espe- 
 cially at Picacho, where the mountains crowd down to the 
 road, and form something like a canon again. But a 
 prudent vigilance by day, and a few simple precautions by 
 night, carried us safely through ; and we were more than 
 ever convinced, that the great majority of Indian attacks 
 come from carelessness and neglect, on the part of the 
 attacked. 
 
 A few miles west of Gila Bend, between Berk's 
 Station and Oatman's Flat, we passed a group of rocks, 
 that interest everybody, but which nobody seemed to 
 know much about. They stand near the roadside, and 
 consist of smooth red porphyry, or some such stone, 
 curiously carved with figures of men, birds, beasts, fishes, 
 etc. Many of the figures are now quite indistinct, but 
 sufficient remain to show what they were, and their very 
 indistinctness coupled with the hardness of the stone 
 proves their great antiquity. The rocks themselves, 
 when struck, ring like genuine clink-stones ; and, it would 
 seem, only the sharpest and hardest instruments could 
 make much impression on them. The place is called 
 " Painted Kocks," and we had only time for a cursory 
 examination ; but the sculpturing seemed too remote for 
 Spanish times, and was generally attributed to the days 
 of the Aztecs. However this may be, they appeared to 
 be there as a species of hieroglyphics, and doubtless 
 have a story to tell, that some future Champollion may 
 unfold. It may be, that the ancient travel for Mexico 
 left the Gila here, or about here, and struck across the
 
 368 COLUMNAR CACTUS 
 
 country for the Santa Cruz and so south, flanking the 
 Maricopa Desert, and that these sculptured rocks record 
 the place as the starting-point as a sort of finger-board 
 or mile-stone. This is only a conjecture ; but here, at 
 least, is work for the archaeologist and antiquarian, as 
 well as at so many other points in Arizona. 
 
 With the exception of some mesquite, iron-wood, 
 and palo-verde trees, scattered here and there along the 
 Gila and its bottoms, the whole country from Tuma to 
 Tucson is practically treeless, and must continue so from 
 want of rains. Sage-brush and grease- wood abound, as 
 in Utah and Idaho, and throughout the great internal 
 basin of the continent generally ; and on the uplands, 
 you find the great columnar cactus in full vigor and 
 maturity. Indeed, from the time we struck the Colo- 
 rado Desert, we were fairly into the cactus region of the 
 continent, but the varieties were few, and the size 
 moderate, till we got well into Arizona. Here they 
 increased in height and bulk, until we reached the Mari- 
 copa Desert, where we found them thirty and forty feet 
 high, by two or three feet in diameter, with perpendicular 
 branches halfway up, nearly half as large as the main 
 stem. This variety is a green fluted column, with its 
 edges armed with semi-circular thorns, and bears a cluster 
 of apples on top, from which the Indians extract a rude 
 molasses or sugar. Inside, it is a frame-work of reedy 
 poles, that serve many useful purposes in that woodless 
 region. These immense cacti dot the country over to 
 Tucson, and beyond indeed, down to Mexico, and largely 
 through it and are a leading feature of southern 
 Arizona. Sometimes you miss them altogether ; but, as 
 a rule, they occur more or less on the mesas or plateaus 
 nearly everywhere, and seem in the distance like monu- 
 mental columns. Their clustering groups and varying
 
 MARICOPAS AND PIMOS 369 
 
 heights, when seen from afar, have all the effect of a 
 rural cemetery ; only here the shafts are emerald green, 
 instead of marble white. In fights with the Indians, 
 they often prove of value as a defence, and their huge 
 trunks secrete a fluid much akin to water, that has saved 
 the life of many a thirsty traveller, when lost amid these 
 arid wastes. How such a gigantic vegetable or immense 
 plant can thus flourish here, where nothing else compara- 
 tively will grow, is a continuing mystery and perpetual 
 astonishment. It would seem more fit for a luxuriant 
 soil and a tropical climate. Yet here it is, magnum opus, 
 mocking the naturalist apparently to scorn. 
 
 At Maricopa Wells, and thence up the Gila, we found 
 a large settlement of the Maricopa and Pimo Indians. 
 The Maricopas, it seems, are an offshoot of the Yumas, 
 and number less than a thousand souls. The Pimos foot 
 up five or six thousand, and from them are sprung the 
 Papagos a great tribe dominating all southern Arizona. 
 The Maricopas and Pimos have a Reservation here 
 together, som e twenty-five miles long by four or five wide, 
 embracing both sides of the Gila, and live in twelve dif- 
 ferent villages scattered over it. Two of these are occu- 
 pied wholly by Maricopas the rest, by Pimos. Both 
 tribes are a healthy, athletic, vigorous-looking people, 
 and they were decidedly the most well-to-do aborigines 
 we had yet seen. Unlike most Indians elsewhere, these 
 two tribes are steadily on the increase ; and this is 
 not to be wondered at, when one sees how they have 
 abandoned a vagabond condition, and settled down to 
 regular farming and grazing. They have constructed 
 great acequias up and down the Gila, and by means of 
 these take out and carry water for irrigating purposes, 
 over thousands of acres of as fine land as anybody 
 owns. Their fields were well fenced with willows, they 
 16*
 
 370 OUR OLD INDIAN POLICY 
 
 had been scratched a little with rude plows, and already 
 (March 9th) they were green with the fast springing 
 wheat and barley. In addition, they raise corn, beans, 
 melons, etc., and have horses and cattle in considerable 
 numbers. One drove of their live stock, over two thou- 
 sand head, passed down the road just ahead of us, subse- 
 quently when en route to Tucson, and we were told they 
 had many more. The year before, these Indians had 
 raised and sold a surplus of wheat and corn, amounting 
 to two millions of pounds, besides a large surplus of bar- 
 ley, beans, etc. The most of this was bought by Indian 
 traders, located at Maricopa Wells and Pimo villages, at 
 from one to two cents per pound, coin, in trade ; and then 
 resold to the government, for the use of troops in Arizona, 
 at from six to seven cents per pound, coin, in cash. This 
 is a specimen of the way in which the old Indian Ring 
 fleeced both the Indians and the government, and I give it 
 as a passing argument in favor of the new policy. These 
 Indians, it appears, have practiced agriculture somewhat 
 from time immemorial, and they should be encouraged 
 iu it, as there is no surer way of " pacifying " or civilizing 
 them. During the rebellion, they furnished two compa- 
 nies to the Union volunteers in Arizona, and the most 
 of these had just re-enlisted, to serve as scouts against the 
 Apaches. These wore a mongrel uniform, half Indian, 
 half soldier ; but the rest, only the traditional breech- 
 cloth. 
 
 Their wigwams are oval-shaped, wicker-work lodges, 
 made of poles, thatched with willows and straw, and this 
 in turn overlaid with earth. An inverted wash-bowl, 
 on an exaggerated scale, would not be a bad representa- 
 tion of one of them. They are usually five or six feet 
 high in the centre, by fifteen or twenty in diameter, and 
 would be very comfortable dwellings, were it not for
 
 FISH-HOOKS VS. OX-CABTS, ETC. 371 
 
 their absurd doors. These are only about thirty inches 
 high, by perhaps twenty wide, and consequently the only 
 mode of entrance is on your hands and knees. While 
 halting at the Pimo villages for a day, we managed to 
 crawl into one, for the sake of the experience ; but the 
 smoke and the dirt soon drove us out. There was a dull 
 fire in the centre, but with no means of exit for the smoke, 
 except the low doorway. Rush or willow mats covered 
 the rest of the floor, and on these three or four Pimos 
 lay snoozing, wrapped in hides and blankets. Yarious 
 articles of rude pottery, made by themselves, were 
 stowed away under the eaves of the roof ; and at the 
 farther side, suspended from a roof-pole in a primitive 
 cradle, was a pretty papoose sound asleep. As we 
 crawled in, the venerable head of the family, raising him- 
 self on his elbow, saluted us with : 
 
 "Ugh! White man?" 
 
 To which, we, in true Arizona dialect, responded : 
 
 " How ! Buenos dias, Sefior ! " 
 
 His dignified and elegant answer was : 
 
 " Heap good ! 'Bacco ? Matches ? " 
 
 We gave him some of each, and shook hands all 
 round, when the aged aborigine was pleased to add : 
 " Pimos ! Americanos ! Much friends ! Mui Mucfw ! " 
 
 These Indians had long been quiet and peaceable, 
 and it would seem are already on the road to civilization. 
 What they need is school-houses and religious teach- 
 ers. They had an Agent, an ex-officer of volunteers, 
 who seemed honest and capable. But his hands were 
 tied, as to many essential things, and as a rule he was 
 powerless for good. The Indian Bureau, with its then 
 accustomed wisdom, continued to send him fishing-lines 
 and fish-hooks, although there was not a palatable fish in 
 the Gila I suppose, because the Indians formerly on the
 
 372 THE KEGION GENERALLY 
 
 Ohio and the Mississippi needed these ; but persistently 
 refused him carts and wagons, although these were con- 
 stantly called for, to enable them to haul their crops and 
 fuel. As it was, we found the poor squaws gathering 
 their scanty fuel as best they could often miles away- 
 and lugging it home to their villages, on their backs and 
 heads, from far and near. A single cart or wagon to a 
 village would be invaluable to these poor creatures, and 
 would do more to ameliorate their condition, than a car- 
 load of fish-hooks, or a cargo of trinkets and blankets. 
 Religiously, their ideas seemed confused and vague, 
 except that they believed, in a general way, in some sort 
 of a supreme being, whom they call Montezuma. On 
 the mountains to the west of them, clear-cut against 
 their azure sky, is a gigantic human profile, which they 
 claim is Montezuma asleep. It bears, indeed, a striking 
 resemblance to our own Washington, and is a marked 
 feature of the landscape for many miles. 
 
 Thence on to Tucson, nearly a hundred miles south, 
 we found the country much the same as up the Gila, and 
 across the Maricopa Desert. There was a great want of 
 water everywhere, and often we would travel for twenty 
 and thirty miles, before we came to a stream or spring. 
 Our road was almost a dead level, generally free from 
 sand, along which our teams trotted gaily, and it really 
 seemed, as if specially designed for a natural highway here 
 forever. A railroad could want no better route ; and here 
 is surely the predestined pathway of our future Arizona 
 Southern, or some such road, into Sonora. Of population 
 there was even less than on the Gila, until we struck the 
 Santa Cruz near Tucson, when ranches again thickened 
 up, and flocks and herds on a moderate scale were not 
 infrequent. The chief characteristic of the country 
 everywhere was the columnar cactus, the gigantic species
 
 APACHE INDIANS. 373 
 
 spoken of on page 368. The farther we got south, the 
 larger it grew and the more it branched out, until it 
 became indeed quite a tree, after a clumsy sort. Sage- 
 brush and grease-wood, of course, constantly occurred, 
 and here and there superb bunch-grass abounded, which 
 will prove invaluable hereafter for grazing purposes, when 
 the country settles up. The mountains usually gave us a 
 wide berth ; occasionally, however, they crowded quite 
 down to the road, as at Picacho and Point of Mountains, 
 and as we neared Tucson they shot up into a bold, 
 castellated front off to the east, that would be very sur- 
 prising outside of Arizona. Here, however, such dome- 
 like peaks, and castellated walls, are frequent features 
 of the scenery. 
 
 The weather proved delicious all the way down, and 
 our ride throughout a delightful one. We heard of 
 Apaches at one or two points, but it was always a fort- 
 night before or several miles ahead, and we went 
 through unmolested. Before leaving Maricopa Wells, 
 we were warned of Apaches en route, and as a prudent 
 precaution accepted an escort of three infantry-men, 
 whom we mounted on our ambulances there being no 
 cavalry on hand. These stood guard in turn at night, 
 and were vigilant by day. But we saw no enemy, and 
 their only service was to arrest an insubordinate and 
 drunken teamster, who afterwards escapedfrom them, but 
 the next morning returned and resumed his mules. He 
 was a queer genius, indigenous to the Border ; but, sub- 
 sequently, proved himself a brave and gallant fellow one 
 of the best teamsters I ever knew.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 TUCSON TO PKESCOTT. 
 
 we found to be a sleepy old town, of a 
 JL thousand or so inhabitants, that appeared to be 
 trying its best to take things easy, and succeeds in 
 doing so. It was formerly, and is now again, the capital 
 of Arizona, and the largest town in the territory. It is 
 reputed to be some two hundred years old, and its 
 appearance certainly justifies its reputation. It sort of 
 half awoke from its lethargy one day, when news arrived 
 that our party were en route, at Point of the Mountains, 
 and would reach Tucson next morning. Arrangements 
 were hastily made to organize a procession, and give 
 their distinguished visitors a grand reception, with music, 
 speeches, etc. No doubt it would have been a curious 
 performance, all things considered. But while its pro- 
 jectors were agitating, and discussing, and deciding 
 what hour to start, lo ! our dusty and jaded teams trotted 
 into town, and Tucson missed one of its biggest sensa- 
 tions. No doubt the honorable Committee and their 
 selected orator were much put out; but others, it is 
 certain, secretly rejoiced. 
 
 The town itself is built wholly of adobe, in thorough 
 Mexican or Spanish style, and its population fluctuated. 
 During the rule of Maximilian in Mexico, there was a 
 considerable influx of Liberals here from Sonora, so 
 that the town at one time numbered perhaps fifteen
 
 TUCSON ITSELF 375 
 
 hundred souls. But with his " taking off," and the rise 
 again of Jaurez, many had returned thither ; so that the 
 population was then only about a thousand or so, as 
 above stated, of whom fully two-thirds or more were 
 Mexicans, originally or by descent. Its streets are un- 
 paved, and all slope to the middle as a common sewer, 
 as in Spain. It boasted several saloons, one rather 
 imposing, and some good stores ; but had no bank, news- 
 paper, school- house, or church, except a rude adobe 
 structure, where a Mexican padre officiated on Sunday 
 to a small audience, with much array of lights, images, 
 drums and violins, and afterwards presided at the cus- 
 tomary cock-fight. As specimens of ruling prices, grain 
 (barley and wheat) sold at $3 per bushel, hay at $40 per 
 ton, lumber at $250 per thousand, all coin, and other 
 things in proportion. The lumber came from the 
 Santa Rita Mountains, fifty miles away, and was poor 
 and scarce at that. 
 
 The basis of Tucson's existence, it appears, is the 
 little Santa Cruz river, which flows along just at the 
 edge of the town, and irrigates some hundreds of sur- 
 rounding acres, green just then (March 13th-18th), 
 with wheat, barley, oats, etc. There is a good breadth 
 of fine land here, and near here, and the river ought 
 to be made to irrigate the whole valley. No doubt 
 with proper husbanding and utilizing of the little 
 stream, thousands of acres might be cultivated, and 
 the whole region, both above and below Tucson, be 
 made to produce largely. Peach-trees were in bloom 
 down by the river side when we were there ; the grape, 
 the orange, and the olive appeared in many gardens ; 
 and both climate and soil seemed all the most fastidious 
 could wish. But Tucson lacks energy and capital, and 
 besides, it seemed, the Apaches claim original, and pretty
 
 376 KATHEB KIP VAN WINKLE-ISH 
 
 much undisputed, jurisdiction over most of the country 
 there. Merchants complained that the Apaches raided 
 on their teams and trains en route, and ranchmen that 
 the wily rascals levied contributions regularly on their 
 live stock, as soon as it was worth anything, and did not 
 hesitate to scalp and kill, as well as steal, if it came in 
 their way. Farming or grazing under such circum- 
 stances, it must be conceded, could hardly be called 
 very lucrative or enticing, and the Tucsoniaus are enti- 
 tled to the benefit of this explanation. 
 
 The livest and most energetic things, however, that we 
 saw about Tucson were its innumerable blackbirds, that 
 thronged the few trees about the streets, and awoke us 
 every morning with their multitudinous twittering and 
 chattering. How those birds did chatter and sing, from 
 daylight well on into the morning ; and what a relief they 
 were to the dull and prosy old town ! The men and 
 women, wrapped in their scrapes or blankets, sunned 
 themselves by the hour in the doorways. The dogs and 
 cats, the goats and pigs, slept on in the streets, or 
 strolled lazily about at will. But these plucky birds 
 sung on and on, with all the heartiness and abandon of 
 the robin or mocking-bird in the East ; and Tucson should 
 emulate their intrepidity, and zeal. She should shake 
 off somewhat of the spirit of Rip Yan Winkle, and 
 remember she is under Yankee Government now, and in 
 the latter half of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Tucson already drove a considerable trade with 
 Souora, and expected to increase this much, now that 
 Maximilian had subsided. Its main importance, how- 
 ever, just then, arose from its being the headquarters of 
 the Military District there, and the chief depot for the 
 several posts comprising said District. The stores for 
 Camps Lovell, Cameron, "Wallen, Bowie, Goodwin, and
 
 COSTLY TRANSPORTATION 377 
 
 Grant, were all received here from Fort Yuma by 
 contractors' trains, and then re-distributed by army teams 
 to these posts, respectively, as needed. This made con- 
 siderable business, first and last, and rendered the 
 Quartermaster at Tucson quite an important personage. 
 The route was by sailing-vessels, semi-occasionally, down 
 the Pacific Coast and up the stormy Gulf of California 
 to the mouth of the Colorado; thence by cockle-shell 
 steamers up the aggravating Colorado River to Fort 
 Yuma ; and thence by contractors' teams to Tucson at 
 a total cost, from San Francisco, of about twenty cents 
 per pound, in coin, for every load of Government 
 freight thus put down at Tucson. The time consumed 
 was anywhere from two to four months, depending 
 on the head-winds and " borers" * in the uncertain 
 Gulf, the amount of water or sand in the Colorado 
 River, and the condition of the roads and Indians 
 generally up the valley of the Gila. Private freight, of 
 course, largely followed the same route, ex necessitate, 
 and the rates were simply ruinous to Tucson. Mer- 
 chants and freighters there claimed, that the same work 
 could be done, via either Libertad or Guaymas, instead 
 of Yuma, at a cost of not exceeding seven or eight cents 
 per pound, coin, and in not more than from twenty to 
 thirty days, from San Francisco, at the farthest. This, of 
 course, meant steamers from San Francisco to the Gulf; 
 but a coast-wise line already touched semi-monthly at 
 Guaymas, and it was thought would also put in at Libertad, 
 if inducement offered. Libertad lies two hundred miles 
 off, to the southwest of Tucson, on the Gulf of California, 
 and is a port not equal to San Francisco or San Diego, in- 
 deed ; but yet it is not much behind San Pedro or Santa 
 Barbara, and it seems is of sufficient advantages most of 
 * Huge tide- waves at the head of the Gulf.
 
 378 LIBERT AD AND GUAYMAS ROUTES 
 
 the year round. It is an open roadstead like the latter, but 
 is well sheltered from all but southwest winds, and when 
 these come, there is the broad Gulf for an offing. Guay- 
 mas, farther south, and a hundred miles farther away, is 
 one of the best ports on the Pacific Coast ; and the roads 
 to both are excellent natural highways, unsurpassed as 
 such in America. 
 
 True, both of these ports are in Mexican territory, 
 which was one of the blunders of our treaty .of ces- 
 sion there ; but the Mexican authorities, it was said, 
 were willing and anxious to have us make use of 
 them, and now that the Imperialists had left Sonora, 
 there was no difficulty in traversing the country, except 
 from occasional Indians. Individuals, it was said, 
 already travelled everywhere alone there, camping out at 
 night with safety; and a train of teams, with armed 
 teamsters, it was believed, would be invincible against 
 any aborigines, that would be likely to turn up. At 
 least, this was Tucson's oft-told story, and the burden of 
 her griefs, when we were there. What she wanted was 
 to get "inside," or secure access to civilization, cheap 
 and quick. She had rich copper mines and fair silver 
 ones, as we ourselves witnessed, only a few miles off; 
 but these were now all lying idle, because of Apaches, 
 and the excessive cost and slowness of transportation. 
 This last item, of course, was the chief one. For cheap 
 and quick transportation would bring population, stimu- 
 late enterprise, develop the country, re-open her mines, 
 "pacify" or extirpate the Apaches, and release the 
 military for duty elsewhere. What she specially wanted, 
 just then, was to get the Government contractors' teams 
 to select either the Libertad or Guaymas route, instead 
 of via Fort Yuma and the Gila she did not care much, 
 which. The wagons returning thither would take her
 
 SAN XAVIER DEL BAC 379 
 
 ores, and surplus grain and wool, down to the coast " and 
 a market" cheap, rather than go back empty ; and thus 
 solve the problem of her prosperity and growth. Of 
 course, she looked forward to a transcontinental railroad 
 in time ; but, as yet, this was in the dim future. The 
 chief object of my trip thither was to look well into 
 these facts, and they were duly reported to the proper 
 Department at Washington, for its information and 
 action. This change of routes, it really seemed, would 
 result in a saving of at least two hundred thousand dollars, 
 in coin, to the Government annually; but it may not 
 have been thought advisable, notwithstanding that, to 
 trupt our line of supplies thus to foreign soil. 
 
 South of Tucson, some ten miles, on the road to 
 Tubac and Mexico, on the banks of the Santa Cruz 
 still, is the famous church of San Xavier Del Bac, a 
 venerable relic of the former Spanish rule in Arizona. 
 The road thither leads through dense mesquite and palo 
 verde bottoms, with water enough in the Santa Cruz to 
 irrigate them all ; but, as yet, they were unbroken by the 
 husbandman. The church itself seems to have been 
 built about a hundred years ago, and, though abandoned, 
 is still in a good state of preservation. It is not of adobe, 
 but of large, red, kiln-burnt brick, rough-coated with a 
 yellowish cement, that seems well-nigh indestructible. 
 It is cruciform in style, with thick and solid walls, and 
 its antique front and towers have originally been pro- 
 fusely decorated with saints, angels, griffins, etc., in niche 
 or bas-relief, though many of these are now mutilated or 
 destroyed. Inside it is handsomely frescoed, and was no 
 doubt once rich in paintings, ornaments, relics, etc., though 
 these have now mostly disappeared. Its roof seems to be 
 a sort of asphaltum or concrete, and appears as tight and 
 firm, as when first laid. In one of the towers, there is
 
 380 PAPAGO INDIANS 
 
 still a fine chime of bells, that came no doubt originally 
 from Castile or Arragon. The age of this church is vari- 
 ously reported, but from a cursory examination it appeared 
 to have been erected about the year 1797, although we 
 were shown a mutilated register of marriages, births, 
 deaths, etc., that began in 1752. This last, however, 
 seemed to antedate the church, as if it had been in use 
 by the Spanish settlement here in early times, before 
 they were able to achieve such an edifice. This church 
 was no doubt a link in the chain of Spanish Missions, 
 that the Jesuits a century or more ago established, from 
 the City of Mexico to Northern California, and was 
 abandoned like the rest of them, with the subsequent 
 collapse of their priestly power. No doubt, in its time, 
 it was the centre of a considerable community there ; 
 but now, only a squalid village of Papago Indians 
 crouches at its feet, who regard the aged structure with 
 a superstitious reverence, and will not permit its fine 
 chime of bells to be removed to Tucson, for fear of Our 
 Lady's displeasure. The padre at Tucson comes down 
 and says mass occasionally, and baptizes their young 
 children ; but he cannot cajole them out of their bells, 
 and doubtless they would fight, rather than lose them. 
 Altogether, this church is now the best and oldest civ- 
 ilized structure to be found in Arizona. Yery slight 
 repairs would fit it for occupancy and worship again ; 
 but, unfortunately, there are no inhabitants there now to 
 occupy and worship in it, except the Papagos aforesaid 
 and as specimens of good clean Christians, they don't 
 amount to much now-a-days, whatever they were once. 
 
 From Tucson, we retraced our steps to Maricopa 
 "Wells, reaching there again March 21st, en route to 
 Prescott ; and here had every prospect of being detained 
 a month or more, by the spring freshets in the Gila and
 
 A GILA FllESHET 381 
 
 Salado. "While down at Tucson, there had been heavy 
 rains, and a great melting of snows, on the mountains to 
 the east ; and the usually sluggish, half-dry rivers were 
 now all alive, and booming. The Gila, especially, had 
 overflowed its banks, and its whole valley below in many 
 places was inundated. Ranch after ranch had been 
 swept away, and in several instances the scant inhabitants 
 had barely escaped with their lives, from its treacherous 
 waters. The fine' rnesquite bottom at Gila Bend was 
 reported four feet under water, and Mr. James' house, 
 corral, etc. there the finest we saw coming up the Gila 
 were all gone. The freshet was said to be the highest 
 known there for years, and inflicted a loss on the Gila 
 valley alone, it was alleged, of many thousands of dol- 
 lars. The road was submerged or washed out in many 
 places, and all travel to and from Yuma was interrupted 
 for weeks, except such as could make its way around 
 over the hills and mesas, by the old Indian trails. Col. 
 Crittenden, with a column of three hundred men, en 
 route to Tucson and Southern Arizona, succeeded in 
 getting through to Maricopa Wells in fifteen days, though 
 we had made it in five. Ee was accompanied by his 
 wife, a brave lady and true-hearted Kentuckian, who 
 deserved and received much praise, for the long and 
 arduous trip she was thus making, rather than separate 
 from her gallant husband. 
 
 These two rivers, the Gila and Salado, lay directly 
 across our path to Fort Whipple and Prescott, for which 
 we were now bound Gov. McCormick and wife to 
 return to their home there, and T. and I to look 
 after U. S. post-office and military affairs there gen- 
 erally. They were both, swollen and turbid ; nobody 
 had forded them, for a month; and they were still 
 at freshet height, and rising without bridge or ferry.
 
 3S2 FLOOD-STAYED 
 
 As nothing better could be. done, we decided to halt 
 at Maricopa Wells for a few days, as we could neither 
 get forward to Prescott nor backward to Yuma, though 
 the delay was most vexatious at such an out-of-the- 
 world place, where the mail was so intermittent, and 
 their freshest newspaper more than a month old. We 
 spent the time in writing up our note-books, and in study- 
 ing the Pimas and Maricopas ; but the days wore heavily 
 on, with small prospect of the waters subsiding. Finally, 
 after waiting nearly a week, chafing at the delay, we 
 heard of a little row-boat owned by a German, down at 
 the McDowell crossing of the Gila, which it was reported 
 would suffice to ferry us over, if we took our ambulances 
 well to pieces. We would then have to mount the boat 
 on a wagon and transport it thirty miles or so, overland 
 to the Salado. and there repeat the operation ; but this 
 was better, than halting indefinitely at the Wells. We 
 had been told, there was no boat, available for such a 
 purpose ; but I determined to see what we could do, with 
 this one. Of course, it would be slow \vork, and per- 
 haps dangerous, ferrying over two swollen rivers, by 
 piecemeal thus. But it seemed better, than being 
 embargoed and flood-stayed here practically five hun- 
 dred miles away from everywhere and with no news 
 from "inside" or civilization, for over a month now. 
 As to whether we would succeed, we could only say 
 nous verrons, or guien sdbe ; but meant to try, anyhow. 
 Accordingly, early March 25th, we said " adios" to 
 our good friends at the Wells, and, with many thanks for 
 their hospitality and kind wishes, drove down to the 
 Gila, some six miles away. We found it at freshet 
 height, perhaps a hundred yards wide, by ten or twelve 
 feet deep, and running like a mill-race its tawny waters 
 tossing and whirling, hither and yon, and overflowing its
 
 CROSSING THE GILA AND 8ALADO 383 
 
 thither bank for a long distance. Now and then, as if to 
 enliven the scene further, a floating mesquite or an uproot- 
 ed cottonwood would come rushing by, sweeping all before 
 it. Altogether, I confess, the Gila was not a very inviting 
 stream, just then, to navigate. But Louis Heller was 
 there, with his little boat ; Prescott was before, and the 
 "Wells behind us ; and we resolved to venture over, if 
 possible. His boat was a mere cockle-shell aifair at best, 
 a rude canoe, ten feet long by three wide, and clumsy at 
 that ; but Louis, nevertheless, with true German grit and 
 skill, managed to make it ferry both us and our " outfit" 
 safely across, in the course of the day. First, went our 
 baggage and forage, with the Governor and his lady ; 
 then the vehicles, after being taken well to pieces ; then, 
 with much hallooing and shouting, we forced the mules 
 into the stream, and made them swim for it. Only two 
 or three got across at first, though the boat led with a 
 mule swimming behind it, held by a lariat ; but these 
 served as decoys, and the next trip the rest ventured 
 over. There was a great struggling and whee-haw-ing in 
 the water for awhile, and now and then a donkey would 
 whirl over or go under, and some landed far down 
 stream ; nevertheless, we lost none, and soon after we 
 ourselves got safely across. The little tub of a canoe 
 tossed and tumbled very shakily, when she got out into the 
 current, and for a few minutes shot wildly down stream ; 
 but the strong arm of our sturdy Teuton mastered the 
 wild waters, and at last brought us safely ashore. 
 
 It was nightfall, before we got over, and our ambu- 
 lances together again. The next morning early, we put 
 Louis and his boat on a wagon, and started for the 
 McDowell Crossing of the Salado, some thirty-five miles 
 away. The Prescott Crossing, several miles below, was 
 reported impracticable, even with the boat, because of
 
 384 FORT M'DOWELL 
 
 the wide overflow of the banks there ; but we hoped to 
 get over at the McDowell Crossing, and then follow 
 down the north bank of the Salado, until we struck the 
 Prescott road again. It was late in the afternoon 
 when we reached the McDowell Crossing, and the 
 condition of the Salado there was anything but en- 
 couraging. We found it at least three times the size 
 of the Gila, and with its waters even more swollen and 
 turbulent. Nevertheless, it was perceptibly falling, and 
 Louis predicted a much better state of things next morn- 
 ing. This proved to be true; so, early on the 27th, 
 we began to ferry over again, as at the Gila. But it 
 was a tedious and delicate operation. The river, as I 
 have said, was three or four times as wide, and the 
 swollen flood so swift, that the boat usually landed a 
 quarter of a mile or more below where it went in. Then 
 we had to drag and pole it back along the opposite bank, 
 half a mile or so above, whence we could row it diago- 
 nally across to the place of starting again. 
 
 It took us two days, to cross the Salado thus, and I 
 need scarcely say, they were long and anxious ones. We 
 were now in a region infested by Apaches, and we had 
 to be constantly on the alert to guard against surprise. 
 Late in the afternoon of the second day, leaving our 
 teamsters and little escort to get the ambulances together 
 and repack them, we proceeded up the Salado to Fort 
 McDowell the commandant there having heard of our 
 approach, and sent an ambulance to bring us. It was 
 some fifteen miles, part of the way through a dreaded 
 Apache canon ; but we passed safely on, though we did 
 not reach the post until after nightfall. We found the 
 post the largest and finest in Arizona short of 
 rations, and wholly out of forage, as it had been for 
 several weeks, because of the spring freshets, as it was
 
 WANTED A BOAD 385 
 
 alleged, though there was plenty at Maricopa Wells, 
 which it would seem might have been got there, if we 
 could. This was suggested to the officer in charge, 
 and no doubt was well heeded. We remained there 
 until the next afternoon, inspecting the post and its 
 bearings (it seemed admirably located for its work, 
 well into the Apache country, protecting the valley of 
 the Salado and the Gila), and then returned to our 
 ambulances at the Crossing. The next morning, by 
 sunrise, we were up and off, for the Prescott road if we 
 could find it. At Fort McDowell, they told us, we could 
 never reach it. Some said it was thirty miles off others 
 claimed it was fifty or sixty, with an impassable country 
 between. The only thing known definitely was, that 
 there was no road at all down the north bank of the 
 Salado, though we were sure to strike the regular Pres- 
 cott road, if we kept along down that bank of the river 
 far enough, and could get through. We might meet 
 Apaches anywhere, they said, for it was one of their 
 favorite tramping grounds, or we might go through 
 unmolested, depending on circumstances. We had 
 expected to get an escort of a dozen cavalry-men here, to 
 accompany us to Prescott ; but six cavalry-men, and six 
 mounted infantry-men, were all the post could spare. 
 The horses of these, though the best on hand, were so 
 broken down for want of forage, that part were sent back 
 before we got three miles out ; and of the balance, only 
 five went through to Prescott with us, by extra care and 
 regular feeding with the grain, which we had taken the 
 precaution to bring along, from Maricopa Wells. An 
 army wagon, with a six-mule team, also from Fort 
 McDowell, furnished transportation for our escort, as the 
 cavalry-horses successively gave out. 
 
 For the first fifteen miles or BO, after leaving the
 
 386 EXPLORING THE COUNTE? 
 
 Crossing, we found a well-broken road, used the year 
 before as a hay-road from the river-bottoms to Fort 
 McDowell. But, ultimately, this ended in a bend of 
 the Salado, and from there on all was wild and un- 
 broken a veritable terra incognita. We found the 
 Salado crookeder than a ram's horn, or a mesquite tree, 
 or anything else that is most crooked and involved. 
 Laying our course partly by the compass, and partly 
 by the Salado's fringe of cottonwoods, we struck across 
 from bend to bend of the river, sure only of one thing, 
 and that was keeping near to water. We found the 
 river bottoms, as a rule, thick with chemisal, relieved 
 here and there by dense mesquite groves, looking in the 
 distance like old orchards, through which it was almost 
 impossible to penetrate with ambulance or wagon. Now 
 and then we had to flank a slough, or flounder through a 
 quicksand, and sundown still found us pushing along 
 through these bottoms, though we had made fully thirty 
 miles since morning. We went into camp by the river- 
 side just at dusk, thoroughly worn out, and not without 
 a degree of anxiety, as we had crossed a number of 
 Indian trails during the day, though none seemed fresh. 
 Our animals were well blown, especially the cavalry 
 horses, and the best we could do for them was a bite of 
 corn, as we had no hay along, of course, and it was too 
 late to graze them. 
 
 The night passed wearily away, but without cause 
 for alarm, and early next morning we were again on the 
 move. A drive, or rather struggle, of three miles or so 
 through the mesquite and chemisal, brought us out to an 
 ill-defined track, bearing away in the supposed direction 
 of Wickeuburg (and so to Prescott), and we resolved to 
 take that, though certain it was not the regular road. We 
 had heard .of a " cut-off," or by-road somewhere there,
 
 AGUA FEIO HASSAYAMPA 387 
 
 made by a Lt. Du Bois some months before, and we con- 
 cluded this must be his road. At all events, we were 
 desperately tired of struggling through the mesquite and 
 chemisal, and concluded we would follow this track up 
 for a while anyhow. It was lucky we did ; for, after 
 rather too much easting for the first few miles, it finally 
 struck directly across the Agua Frio, and came into the 
 true Prescott road near White Tanks. This Agua Frio, 
 usually one of Arizona's " dry rivers," we found with 
 three feet of water in it, and bad quicksands beneath 
 that. However, we discovered a practicable crossing, 
 and soon after nightfall reached the vicinity of White 
 Tanks, some thirty miles, since morning. 
 
 Here we camped by the roadside, glad to have struck 
 the regular Wickenburg or Prescott road at last, and went 
 supperless to sleep for fear our fire, if made, might dis- 
 close us to the Indians. We could find no water for our 
 poor animals, and the next morning would have missed 
 our accustomed coffee even, had we not taken the precau- 
 tion to keep our water-kegs well filled. Of course, we 
 broke camp early, and moved wearily on to the Hassay- 
 ampa, some ten or twelve miles, where we halted to water 
 up and lunch. This Hassayampa, ordinarily, is another 
 " dry river," like the Agua Frio, but we found three feet 
 or more of water in it, and bottomless quicksands nearly 
 everywhere. Our road, then the only road from South- 
 ern to Northern Arizona, ran directly up the Hassay- 
 ampa, for some twelve or fifteen miles here, using the 
 river-bed as a roadway, as the only practicable route 
 through the mountains, and nobody had ventured through 
 for a month or more. 
 
 The Hassayampa itself flows through a wild and 
 rocky canon, with high precipitous walls on either side ; 
 and it was soon apparent, that our only alternative was
 
 388 ARIZONA QUICKSANDS 
 
 either to flounder through its quicksands, or retrace om 
 steps to Maricopa Wells. The latter was out of the 
 question, as our rations and forage were both about ex- 
 hausted, and, besides, our improvised ferry-boat had 
 returned to the Gila; so that the only thing left for 
 us was to try the Hassayampa, and get through, some- 
 how, at all hazards. We had heard of a trail, across the 
 ridge and over the mountains, by the Vulture Mine, 
 and so into Wickenburg, by a roundabout course; but 
 a careful reconnoissance revealed no trace of it. We 
 called a " council of war," and discussed the " situa- 
 tion," pro and con, with due gravity, and finally decided 
 that there was nothing for us to do, but to ascend the 
 Hassayampa ; and so, into it we plunged. And, verily, 
 it was & plunge. Nothing but a prolonged flounder, and 
 plunge, from ten A. M. to six p. M. ! Now into the 
 stream ; now out on a sand-bank ; now deep into a quick- 
 sand ; crossing and recrossing, from side to side, to take 
 advantage of any land not less than fifteen or twenty 
 times in the course of the twelve miles ! Sometimes a 
 cavalry-man on horseback, " prospecting" the way for the 
 ambulances, would go down, until it seemed impossible 
 to extricate him and his horse. Again, an infantry -man, 
 on foot, would, suddenly sink in to his armpits, and call 
 out to his comrades to come and rescue him. Then an 
 ambulance would slip to one side, and half of it com- 
 mence sinking, while the other half remained on solid 
 ground. Then our six-mule team would go in, and half 
 of the mules would flounder over the tongue, or turn a 
 summerset out of the harness, and, perhaps, come near 
 drowning, before they could be extricated, while the rest 
 would be all right. Now we would be all ashore, clam- 
 bering along the rocky walls of the canon, to give the 
 ambulances a better chance ; and now, all hands would
 
 ROADS AND BRIDGES WANTED. 389 
 
 be out into the water, to start a stalled team, and then 
 such a whooping and shouting, such a whipping and tug- 
 ging at the wheels, one seldom sees equalled. I cam- 
 paigned with McClellan, on the Peninsula ; I was with 
 Burnside in his Mud Campaign, after Fredericksburg ; we 
 had bad roads down in Tennessee and Georgia, when 
 after Joe Johnston and Hood. But this tedious and toil- 
 some drive, through the caiion and quicksands of the 
 Hassayampa, beat all these ; and we never would have got 
 through, had we not had light loads, and skilful, plucky, 
 magnificent drivers. 
 
 As it was, we just managed by good luck to struggle 
 through, and got into Wickenburg about dusk, with 
 our animals thoroughly blown, and ourselves pretty well 
 used up. It had taken us just a week, to come through 
 from Maricopa Wells, usually a drive of a day or two 
 or three, at the farthest. But the Gila and Salado 
 were still unfordable, and we would have been de- 
 tained at the Wells, probably, for a fortnight or more yet, 
 had it not been for Louis' boat. We found we were the 
 first party through in a month, and nobody was expected 
 to venture the Hassayampa either way, for a month or so 
 to come. Of course, with such rivers and roads rivers 
 without either bridges or ferries, and roads that follow the 
 beds of rivers our only conclusion was, that Arizona was 
 in no hurry, for either population or business ; and, I judge, 
 this is about so. She must bridge her streams, and con- 
 struct good substantial roads at least between all chief 
 points before she can expect to grow and prosper. This 
 is fundamental in all civilized communities, and she 
 would have recognized it long since, had her population 
 been more from the busy North, than from the indolent, 
 happy-go-lucky South.
 
 CHAPTEK XXIV. 
 TUCSON TO PBEscoTT (contimtecfy. 
 
 "TTTICKElSrBURG, much longed for and at last 
 V V reached, we found to be an adobe hamlet, of per- 
 haps one or two hundred inhabitants, depending chiefly 
 on the Yulture Mine. We were all so thoroughly jaded 
 and worn out, by our rough ride through the country, 
 from Maricopa "Wells, that we decided to halt there for 
 a day or two to rest and recruit. This afforded us an 
 opportunity to visit the Mine, which we gladly em- 
 braced, as we had heard so much about it. It is really a 
 fine mine of gold-bearing quartz, oif in the mountains, 
 some fifteen miles west of Wickenburg, whence the ore 
 was then wagoned to the mill, on the Hassayampa at 
 Wickenburg. It consists of a fine vein of free quartz, 
 from five to fifteen feet wide, and mostly devoid of sul- 
 phurets, or other refractory substances. Seventy or 
 eighty men half of them or more Mexicans were hard 
 at work, sinking shafts and getting out ore ; and already 
 a large amount of work had been done there. One shaft 
 was already down a hundred feet, and another half as 
 far it being intended to connect the two by a lateral 
 gallery, to insure ventilation, etc. Unfortunately, no 
 water could be found near the mine, and all used there 
 then was transported from Wickenburg, at a cost of ten 
 cents per gallon. So, all the ore taken out had to be 
 wagoned, from the mine to the mill at Wickenburg,
 
 THE VULTURE MINE AND MILL 391 
 
 at a cost of ten dollars per ton. The cost of everything 
 else was about in the same proportion. Nevertheless, we 
 were told the mine paid, and that handsomely, and I 
 sincerely trust it did. 
 
 The mill at Wickenburg, belonging to the same com- 
 pany, was a fine adobe structure, roofed with shingles, and 
 had just gone into operation. They had previously had a 
 small five-stamp mill, which paid very well ; but this new 
 mill ran twenty stamps, and would crush forty tons of 
 quartz per day, when worked to its full capacity. Their 
 ore was reputed to average from fifty to seventy dollars per 
 ton, though of course " assaying" much more, and we were 
 assured would pay for working, if it yielded only from 
 twenty to thirty dollars per ton. If so, we thought, 
 stock in the Yulture Company must be a " gilt-edged " 
 investment ; and their noble mine certainly was the best- 
 looking enterprise, we had yet seen in Arizona. It 
 appeared, however, to be a sort of "pocket" vein, as 
 prospecting on either side of it, as yet, had failed to dis- 
 cover other points worth working. Fine as it was, the 
 mine was embarrassed by financial difficulties, and was 
 then in the hands of creditors, authorized to work it 
 until their claims were met, though these troubles it was 
 thought would soon end. 
 
 Thence on to Prescott, via Skull Valley, some eighty- 
 four miles, we passed without further mishap. "We made 
 the distance in two and a-half days, and rolled into the 
 capital, just as the last rays of the setting sun were pur- 
 pling the triple peaks of the distant San Francisco 
 Mountains. The road generally was naturally a good 
 one, but here and there developed a peculiarity seldom 
 seen elsewhere. For example, on a perfectly good road, 
 apparently, even dry and dusty, suddenly a mule would 
 go in to his girth or a wheel to the hub, and there
 
 SKULL VALLEY AND THE INDIANS 
 
 seemed no bottom to the execrable quicksands. In other 
 places, there had been surface-water or mud, that served 
 as a warning. But between Skull Yalley and Prescott, 
 when trotting along as usual, we often struck spots, 
 where the dust was blowing, and yet when we ventured 
 on, our vehicles seemed bound for China or Japan, rather 
 than Prescott. Skull Yalley itself proved to be a nar- 
 row little vale, of perhaps a thousand or two acres, but 
 devoid of timber, and inaccessible in all directions, except 
 over bad mountains. A few ranches had been started 
 here, and a petty Military Post was there to protect 
 them; but this last had already been ordered away, the 
 location was so faulty, and with its departure, Skull 
 Yalley, as a settlement, seemed likely to collapse. 
 
 Here and at Wickenburg were the only settlements, 
 and, indeed, the only population, we found between Mari- 
 copa Wells and Prescott a distance of nearly three hun- 
 dred miles, by the way we came. The whole intervening 
 country, as a rule, was barren and desolate, and absolutely 
 without population, except at the points indicated, until 
 you neared Prescott. There were not even such scattered 
 ranches, or occasional stations, as we found in crossing 
 the Colorado Desert, and ascending the Gila ; but the 
 whole district seemed given over, substantially, to the 
 cayote and the Indian. The Apaches and Tavapais are 
 the two main tribes there, and were said to infest the 
 whole region, though we saw nothing of them. In the 
 valley of the Hassayampa, and across the Aztec 
 Mountains, they certainly had an abundance of ugly- 
 looking places, that seem as if specially made for ambus- 
 cades and surprises. If they had attacked us in the 
 canon of the Hassayampa, while floundering through 
 the quicksands there, they would have had things pretty 
 much their own way at least, at first, vigilant as
 
 BELL'S CANON 393 
 
 we were. They had killed a wandering Mexican there, 
 only a few days before ; but we did not know it, until 
 we reached Wickenburg, and came through ourselves 
 unscathed. 
 
 Perhaps the worst place was Bell's Canon, a long, 
 tortuous, rocky defile diabolical in every respect 
 a few miles south of Skull Valley. Here a Mr. Bel] 
 and others had been killed by Apaches, some two years 
 before ; and here also the Indian Agent, Mr. Levy, and 
 his clerk, had lost their lives, but a few weeks previously. 
 For miles there, the rocks have been tossed about in the 
 wildest possible confusion, and their grouping in many 
 instances is very extraordinary. A small band of Indians 
 there, ensconced among the rocks, would be able to make 
 a sharp fight, and nothing but cool heads and steady cour- 
 age would be likely to dislodge them. From the peaks 
 on either side, they can descry travellers a long way off, 
 through the clear atmosphere of that rainless region ; 
 and should they decide to attack, nothing would be easier 
 than to conceal themselves behind the massive boulders, 
 that bristle along the canon. We expected trouble here, 
 if anywhere in Arizona, and, as we approached it, 
 " governed ourselves accordingly." But the " noble Red 
 men" allowed their " Pale-face brothers" to pass in peace. 
 Arizonians spoke of this villanous-looking place, as 
 rather dangerous, and didn't care to venture through it 
 alone; but parties of two and three travelled it fre- 
 quently, and it seemed safe enough, if they went well 
 armed, and kept a sharp look out. The trouble is, 
 travellers in Arizona, and in all Indian districts, as a rule, 
 see no Indians, and so after a few days believe there are 
 none become careless, wander on ahead, or straggle 
 along behind, without their arms when presto ! sud- 
 denly arrows whiz from behind gigantic rocks or down 
 17*
 
 394 THE COUNTRY GENERALLY 
 
 shadowy canons, and men are found dead in the road, 
 with their scalps gone. In all such regions, the only 
 safe rule is the rule of our western Borderers, to wit : 
 "Never unbuckle your six-shooter, and never venture 
 from your camp or train without your Spencer or 
 Henry ! " 
 
 As I have already said, we found the intervening 
 country substantially unsettled, and much of it will 
 never amount to anything for agricultural purposes. Its 
 mineral resources may be great ; but, as a rule, it lacks 
 both wood and water, and much of it is a barren desert, 
 given over forever to chemisal and grease-wood. On 
 the Agua Frio and Hassayampa, however, there are 
 considerable bottoms, that might be successfully irri- 
 gated ; and between the Gila and the Salado there is 
 a wide district, that deserves some further notice. 
 As you come up out of the Gila bottoms, you pass 
 through scattered rnesquite trees, and at length enter 
 on a broad mesa (Spanish for "table-land"), ten or 
 fifteen miles wide by thirty or forty long, which bears 
 every evidence of having once been well cultivated, 
 and densely populated. Instead of mesquite, you here 
 find clumps of chemisal two or three feet high, and bits 
 of broken pottery nearly everywhere. Farther on, 
 some eight or ten miles from the Salado, you find 
 immense ruins in various places, and soon strike a huge 
 acequia winding up from the Salado, in comparison with 
 which all the acequias we had yet seen in Utah or Cal- 
 ifornia were the veriest ditches. It must be, I should 
 think, thirty feet wide by ten or twelve deep, and seems 
 like a great canal of modern times. Just where the road 
 to Fort McDowell crosses this, it subdivides into three 
 or four lesser acequias, and these branch off over the 
 mesa indefinitely. This great acequia heads just above
 
 ANCIENT KUINS 395 
 
 where we crossed the Salado. The river has a con- 
 siderable descent or " rapids " there, and the ancient 
 constructors of this gigantic water-course, apparently, 
 knew well how to take advantage of this. They have 
 tapped the river there by three immense mouths, all 
 leading into one common channel ; and this they have 
 coaxed along down the bottoms, and gently up the bluff, 
 until at a distance of miles away it at last gained the 
 level of the mesa, and there distributed abroad its fer- 
 tilizing waters. So, there are other ancient acequias, 
 furrowing the bottoms of the Salado on either side, 
 though we observed none so large as this. 
 
 The ruins of ancient buildings, thoroughly disin- 
 tegrated, are scattered widely along these bottoms, and 
 in some places there must certainly have been large 
 cities. The rectilinear courses of the walls, and the 
 dividing lines of the rooms, are all plainly visible still, 
 though nothing remains but the cobble-stones and 
 pebbles, out of which they seem to have been mainly 
 constructed, and here and there a bit of cement or 
 mortar. The ancient builders and occupiers of these 
 could not have been our present Indians there, because 
 they use different forms and materials. They could not 
 have been Mexicans or Spaniards, because they invari- 
 ably use brick or adobe. Who they were, where they 
 came- from, when they disappeared and why these are 
 knotty problems for the antiquarian, which it is to be 
 hoped time will soon solve. One thing is certain, these 
 ancient builders Aztecs (as popularly believed) or who- 
 ever they were were at least good architects and engi- 
 neers, and they must have peopled much of Arizona 
 with an industrious and dense population, such as it will 
 not see again I was going to say for centuries to come. 
 But the Salado, in those days, must have been a larger
 
 396 WANTED A RAILROAD. 
 
 river than it is now, or probably ever will be again ; 
 because two or three of these old acequias would carry- 
 off all its present waters, and leave none for the others, 
 whose remains yet furrow the country there everywhere. 
 However, the larger acequias may have been used only 
 as receiving reservoirs, to husband the spring freshets, 
 and for this purpose they might soon be utilized again. 
 However this may be, there are fine lands all along the 
 bottoms of the Salado, and enough water flowing there 
 yt to irrigate many thousands of acres. Indeed, the 
 best lands we saw in Arizona are here in the heart of it, 
 on the Gila and Salado, and in time no doubt there will 
 be flourishing settlements there. What the region 
 needs, is a railroad to connect it with " inside," or civ- 
 ilization ; and this the " Texas and Pacific," it seems, will 
 eventually furnish. Now, like so much of Arizona, it is 
 inaccessible, or practically five hundred miles across a 
 desert from about everywhere. A railroad will remedy 
 all this, and stimulate Arizona wonderfully in many 
 ways. The whistle of the locomotive will end her Indian 
 troubles, and many others, and may she hear it echoing 
 and re-echoing among her mountains and canons very 
 soon ! A railroad, indeed, is a great blessing everywhere ; 
 but in our western territories it means civilization as 
 well, and without one Arizona will evidently continue 
 to slumber on, as she hs for so many years.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 PBESCOTT, THE APACHES, ETC. 
 
 1P)RESCOTT had been described to us, as resembling 
 -L very much a " New England village." We were told 
 so in San Francisco. It was repeated at Fort Yuma. It 
 was hinted at Tucson. Well, perhaps, it did, except as 
 regards school-houses and churches, white paint and 
 green blinds, general thriftiness, and a wholesome respect 
 for law and order. Eliminating these, Prescott, perhaps, 
 was quite New-Englandish ; but, otherwise, it resembled 
 rather some country cross-roads in Missouri, or Arkansas. 
 In brief, there was not a school-house, or church, or bank, 
 in the place. Business we found at a general stand-still, 
 because of absolute stagnation among the mines. And 
 the peaceable and quiet population had just shown their 
 New-Englandlike disposition, by robbing and beating a 
 squad of United States soldiers a part of those recently 
 sent out better to protect that region mortally wounding 
 one, and severely injuring several others. Of course, the 
 Blue-Coats were off duty, or the cowards wouldn't have 
 assailed them. 
 
 Said I to an old acquaintance I met, an ex-Army of 
 the Potomac officer : 
 
 "I hear you have quite a New England village 
 here?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed, it is very New-Englandlike ! Last 
 night I was in our billiard-saloon here. A game of
 
 398 PRESCOTT 
 
 monte was going on in one corner, brag-poker in another, 
 and a couple of dogs were having a free fight under the 
 billiard-table. I lived in Boston once for some time, but 
 have no recollection of seeing anything exactly like 
 that!" 
 
 " But you have a good class of population, have you 
 not, as a general thing ? " 
 
 " O yes ! Excellent ! Less than five hundred, alto- 
 gether ! But we have ten drinking-saloons, and a dozen 
 gambling-hells, more or less ! "What kind of a population 
 that implies, judge for yourself! " 
 
 I think my friend was, perhaps, somewhat prejudiced. 
 He had, probably, invested in mining " feet," and found 
 out he had made a ''permanent investment," with slight 
 prospect of " dividends." Nevertheless, Prescott had 
 been much overrated and bepraised, and, consequently, 
 suffered somewhat in the estimation of strangers. We 
 found it well laid-out, on a scale of Magnificent Distances, 
 like its illustrious prototype, the National Capital, and 
 lacking only buildings and people to be a fine city. Its 
 site, though nearly six thousand feet above the sea, is a 
 good one, along the undulating bottoms of Granite 
 Creek, about a mile or so from Fort W hippie, then the 
 chief military-post in northern Arizona. Its houses were 
 grouped mostly around a spacious plaza, after the old 
 Spanish custom, though a few straggled off into ragged 
 streets either way. They were chiefly of logs and rough 
 lumber, and guiltless of paint, though some brick and 
 adobe structures appeared here and there. The popula- 
 tion seemed to be between four and five hundred. The 
 autumn previous, it had been largely increased by a no- 
 table immigration from Montana, which came to Prescott 
 with the expectation of finding rich placer mines, from 
 what they had seen published about the region. But
 
 HEK MINING PROSPECTS 399 
 
 the most of these had alreadj 7 left, cruelly disappointed, 
 and others would follow, if they had the means. The 
 barber, who shaved me one day, proved to be a Montan- 
 ian, from Helena City. I asked him, casually, what he 
 thought of Arizona. 
 
 " Why, you see, stranger, I pays for this yer room 
 eight dollars a month, in " dust." For a room in Helena 
 City, of the same size, I paid last summer seventy-five 
 dollars per month." 
 
 " You mean that for a fair comparison of Arizona, 
 with Montana ? " 
 
 " Sartin ! Thet's about it naow, you bet ! Our fellers, 
 who come down yer with me last fall, most all gone ; 
 others leavin' every week. I'm goin' to vamose, too, 
 'fore long, you bet ! " 
 
 These placer mines were scattered over a district of 
 ten or twelve miles around Prescott, and the truth 
 seemed to be, that as a general thing they had produced 
 poorly. It appeared, there were two or three hundred 
 men, in all, engaged in them still, but these were making 
 only indifferent wages, and many were quite discouraged. 
 The quartz mines covered a much wider area, and beyond 
 question were very rich in the precious metals ; but the 
 ores were sulphurets, of the most refractory character, 
 and there was no known "process" to work them at a pro- 
 fit. Eleven mills, of from five to twenty stamps each, 
 had been erected, at mines whose ores assayed from one 
 hundred to two hundred or more dollars per ton an 
 excellent yield, of course. But, of all these, only one 
 five-stamp mill was then running the Ticonderoga 
 and that was reported as only about paying expenses. 
 Instead of two hundred dollars, or more, per ton, as per 
 assay, the mills in fact could only stamp out and save 
 from ten to twenty dollars per ton ; and this was a losing
 
 400 POPULATION GENERALLY 
 
 business. A new " process " was just being tried at the 
 
 Eureka Mill, which did excellently well, as per assay in 
 
 the laboratory ; but it was uncertain what would be the 
 
 result, when applied to large quantities of ore in the 
 
 mill. The Bully-Bueno and Sterling lodes seemed to be 
 
 the most in favor. Specimens from the Sterling, that 
 
 were shown, were indeed wonderful in richness, and 
 
 there seemed to be no doubt that the ledges around 
 
 Prescott abound in mines, which will yield very largely, 
 
 if only a process can be found to treat successfully such 
 
 obstinate and refractory sulphurets. For the present, 
 
 however, mining operations about Prescott were very 
 
 " sick," with poor prospect of speedy recovery. The 
 
 region had indeed two advantages, very rare in Arizona, 
 
 to wit, good fuel, and sufficient water. The breadth of 
 
 timber here, however, had been much overstated. An 
 
 area of ten miles square or so embraced the bulk of the 
 
 pine, which was an exceptional growth just there ; the 
 
 rest consisted chiefly of scrawny juniper and scraggly 
 
 cedar, fit only for fuel and fencing. 
 
 The Territorial capital was still at Prescott, but its 
 permanent location was yet to be decided on. Maricopa 
 "Wells and Tucson were both contending for the honor, 
 and the latter it seems has since won it. Ultimately, 
 however, it is probable, the Territory will divide on the 
 line of the Gila, and Prescott again become the capital 
 of the northern part of it. Arizona naturally and 
 geographically subdivides on that line, and the interests 
 of the two sections are usually quite divergent. The 
 population of the territory was variously computed at 
 from three to four thousand only, of whom the major por- 
 tion by far were Mexicans and their descendants. The 
 other whites were mainly Arkansans and Texans, many of 
 them no doubt exiles from the East, " for their country's
 
 THE APACHES 401 
 
 good." Of course, this was not a very promising basis 
 for a commonwealth, and the Territory, it appeared, was 
 about at a stand-still. As evidence of this, there was 
 not then a bank, or banking-house, or free-school, or 
 Protestant church, or missionary even, throughout the 
 whole of Arizona a region some four or five times as 
 large as the great State of New York. The Indian popu 
 lation was estimated at about twenty thousand, of whom 
 ten thousand were regarded as friendly, five thousand as 
 hostile, and five thousand as half and half that is, some- 
 times friendly, and sometimes hostile, depending on cir- 
 cumstances. To offset and antagonize these, the Gov- 
 ernment had then about twenty-five hundred regular 
 soldiers in Arizona, which would seem sufficient, if well 
 handled, though the people of course were clamoring for 
 more. The great controlling tribe in Arizona, and 
 extending into New Mexico, and the terror of the 
 Mexican border, were the Apaches. Those that we saw 
 gave one the impression of a fierce, sinewy, warlike 
 race, very different from the Plains Indians, and it was 
 plain there would be no peace in Arizona, nor much 
 hope for its development, until these Apaches received a 
 thorough chastisement. This they had never yet had, 
 from either Mexicans or Americans, and consequently they 
 despised and hated the Pale Faces, as we hate (or ought 
 to hate) Satan himself. They inhabited the mountains 
 chiefly, though they often descended into the plains, and 
 in bands of two or three, or more, scoured the country 
 far and near, as it suited them. About Tucson and 
 Tubac they stole stock, and occasionally killed travellers, 
 often within a mile or two of the towns. Sometimes, 
 for months together, they would leave a road unmolested, 
 and then, suddenly, attacking it at different points, clean 
 out all the ranches. A lew miles from Camp McDowell,
 
 4:02 THEIR DAEING EXPLOITS 
 
 on the road between there and Maricopa Wells, they 
 infested a rocky canon on the Rio Salado, and mock- 
 ingly defied all attempts to expel them. A fortnight 
 before we reached Maricopa Wells, en route to Tucson, 
 a party of them crossed the Salado and Gila, and 
 stole ten head of stock from a ranch only three miles 
 from the Wells. About the same time, another party 
 of three lurked around the station at Blue Water, on the 
 road to Tucson, some fifty miles south of the Wells, 
 and, failing to find anything they could steal, vented 
 their spleen by shooting an arrow into a valuable horse 
 that was stabled safely from their reach. This done, 
 the same night they struck across the country, some 
 fifteen or twenty miles, to the peaceable Pimo settle- 
 ments on the Gila, where they each stole a couple of 
 horses apiece, and made good their escape with them to 
 the mountains. 
 
 Some of their exploits were very amusing, as well as 
 very daring, worthy of the best days of Osceola or 
 Tecumseh. We heard one of a party, that had just pre- 
 ceded us in Arizona. They camped at a station for the 
 night, and thought their animals thoroughly secure, 
 when they had put them into an adobe corral, with a 
 wall four or five feet high by two thick, and then lay 
 down themselves across the only entrance, with their 
 rifles by their sides. The stealthy Apaches waited 
 until their pale-face friends were well asleep, and then 
 with a piece of dry cow-hide, hard and thin, sawed out 
 a section of the adobe wall, at the other end of the cor- 
 ral, and in the morning Los Americanos found them- 
 selves horseless and muleless. We may " fancy their 
 feelings," when they discovered the opening ! Just then, 
 I fear, they would have made poor Peace Commissioners ! 
 Especially, as they had to foot it fifty miles, back to the 
 next station, for new animals !
 
 THEIR SHREWDNESS AND CUNNING 403 
 
 There was another story told of a gallant army officer, 
 who had been out on a scout the year before, and was 
 determined not to lose a favorite horse he had along. 
 The Apaches were about thick, and the night before had 
 stolen several animals, in spite of the utmost vigilance. 
 To guard against what he supposed even the possibility 
 of loss, the officer picketed his horse with a lariat to a 
 troe, and then spreading his blankets camped down under 
 the tree at the same time posting a sentinel over his 
 horse, with strict orders to watch faithfully. Toward 
 morning the sentry thought the horse was a little farther 
 from the tree than he should be ; still, as he saw nothing 
 suspicious, he supposed he must be mistaken as to the 
 length of the lariat. After walking a few more beats, 
 he thought the horse was still farther off ; but it seemed 
 so little, and the horse was so quiet, he did not think it 
 right to make an alarm. A few beats more, however, 
 convinced him that something must be wrong, as the 
 horse was evidently still farther away. But now, simul- 
 taneously with his challenge, lo ! an Apache sprang 
 lithely upon the steed, and in a twinkling he was gallop- 
 ing off through the chaparral and cactuses, with a yell 
 of defiance at the astonished Blue Coat ! Creeping 
 stealthily up in the dark, with a more than cat-like 
 caution and silence, he had severed the lariat, and edged 
 the horse off little by little, until at last his capture was 
 sure. 
 
 If a party were strong, or not worth cleaning out, or 
 killing, the Apaches usually gave them a wide berth. 
 But woe to those whom they marked for their prey, if 
 not well armed, and ceaselessly vigilant. They would 
 dog a party for days, with the tireless energy of the 
 sleuth-hound, watching for an unguarded moment in 
 which to attack, and then suddenly pounce upon them,
 
 404 A SCOUT AFTER APACHES 
 
 like fiends, as they were. As a rule, they used bows and 
 arrows still ; but many had fire-arms, and knew how to 
 handle them with deadly effect. We were shown several 
 of their children, captured in different fights, and they 
 were the wiriest, fiercest little savages imaginable. Sul- 
 len, dogged, resolute little Red Skins, they lacked only 
 maturity and strength to " make their mark " on some- 
 body's head ; and this they seemed quite likely to do yet, 
 unless their Apache natures were thoroughly " recon- 
 structed." They had a peculiar and pleasant penchant 
 for setting fire to hay-stacks and ranches, and on the 
 whole were a species of population, that nobody but an 
 Arizonian would care much to fancy. They were held 
 as servants in different families, and their service in too 
 many instances approximated to downright slavery so 
 much so, indeed, that the attention of the Territorial 
 authorities was already being directed to the matter. 
 
 As if to give us some proof of their enterprise and 
 audacity, a band of these Apaches made a raid near 
 Prescott, the very day we arrived there. They attacked 
 a ranch only three miles east of " this !N"ew-England- 
 like " village, and seized several cattle and drove them 
 off. A mounted scout was at once sent out from Fort 
 Whipple, and though they marched seventy-five miles in 
 twenty-four hours, they failed to come up with the Red 
 Skins. The officer in command reported the bold marau- 
 ders as strong in numbers, and fleeing in the direction of 
 Hell Canon an ugly, diabolical-looking place, some forty 
 miles east of Prescott. Gen. Gregg, then commanding 
 the District of Prescott, immediately ordered out two 
 fresh companies of cavalry, and, himself at their head, 
 made a forced march by night, in order to surprise them 
 in their reported stronghold. Next morning at daybreak, 
 he was at Hell Cafion, but no Apaches were found there,
 
 HELL CASfON 405 
 
 nor any traces of them. After a brief halt, he ordered 
 the cavalry to follow down the canon to its junction with 
 the Yerde, and after scouring all the canons centering 
 there, to return by a wide detour to Fort W hippie. The 
 General himself now returned to Prescott, and I cheer- 
 fully bear witness to his vigor and chagrin, having 
 accompanied him out and back. A detachment of the 
 cavalry, a day or two afterwards, succeeded in finding a 
 rancheria of Apaches in a villainous canon, miles away to 
 the southwest of the Yerde a thin curling smoke in the 
 mountains revealing their presence. The troops pushed 
 boldly in, and came suddenly on the rancheria, or village, 
 before they were discovered. Dismounting from their 
 horses, they poured in a rapid volley from their Spencer 
 carbines, that killed five Apaches, and wounded twice as 
 many more. The rest fled, but in a few minutes bravely 
 rallied, and soon came swarming back, down the canon 
 and along its rocky cliffs, in such numbers and with such 
 spirit, that the officer in command deemed it prudent to 
 fall back on the main column. This he succeeded in 
 doing, but it required a march of several miles, as the 
 column had moved on ; and when he rejoined, it was 
 thought best for the whole command to return to Fort 
 Whipple, as their rations and forage were about exhausted. 
 Subsequently, Gregg sent them out again, and this time 
 they succeeded in damaging the Apaches very considera- 
 bly ; but it was not long before they were lurking about 
 the country again. 
 
 The rough ride to Hell Canon and back, despite 
 occasional snow-squalls, was not unpleasant, and not with- 
 out its interest. Our route in the main was down the 
 valley of Granite Creek, and past the site of old Fort 
 Whipple, now called Postle's Ranch. Here was a fine 
 plateau of several hundred acres, with acequias and a
 
 406 A TYPICAL EMIGRANT 
 
 petty grist-mill, the whole used formerly by the troops; 
 but occupied now by only a family or two. The truth 
 is, population was too sparse, and the Apaches too plenty, 
 to make farming an agreeable occupation just there. "We 
 saw several men at work in the fields, as we rode along, 
 all with rifles slung across their backs, and the infrequent 
 settlers protested they meant to quit the country, as soon 
 as their harvests matured. The last ranch eastward 
 the one most remote from Prescott, and, consequently, 
 the very edge of the frontier there was owned and occu- 
 pied by what may justly be called a typical American 
 emigrant. Born in New Jersey, the nephew of an 
 eminent minister there, he early emigrated to Canada, 
 and thence to Michigan. Here he married, and soon 
 afterwards emigrated to Illinois. Thence he went to 
 Kansas, and thence to New Mexico. Subsequently, he 
 emigrated to California, and when he grew weary there, 
 as he could "go west" no farther, concluded to remove 
 to Arizona. Here lie had been for two years, with his 
 family, on the very edge of the border ; but was now 
 tired of the West, and meditating a return East. He said 
 his children were growing up, and needed school-houses 
 and churches, and he meant to sell out and leave as soon 
 as practicable. 
 
 The country as a whole proved barren and sterile, 
 like so much of Arizona elsewhere, though here also the 
 Aztecs (or whoever the ancient population were) bad 
 left their marks, as on the Salado and Gila. The 
 remains of edifices, or fortifications, and acequias, were 
 still quite visible in various places, and no doubt the 
 ancient settlers had followed up the rivers, and their 
 tributaries, nearly everywhere. They seem to have been 
 a pushing, progressive people, bent on conquest and 
 civilization, after their kind, and doubtless swayed the-
 
 FOKT WHIPPLE 407 
 
 whole interior of the continent. At Point of Rocks, on 
 Willow Creek, we halted for an hour or two, to explore 
 the wonderM rock-formations there ; and subsequently 
 dined with a settler on a wild turkey, that stood four 
 feet high and weighed forty-three pounds, when first 
 shot, and about thirty pounds dressed. "We were tired 
 and hungry, from long riding and light rations, and you 
 may be sure enjoyed our meal to the full. 
 
 Fort Whipple, already alluded to several times, was 
 situated on Granite Creek, a mile and a half east of Pres- 
 cott, near the centre of a Reservation there a mile 
 square. It consisted of a rude stockade, enclosing the 
 usual log quarters and barracks of our frontier posts, 
 and was then Headquarters of all the district north of 
 the Gila. Its garrison was small, and dependencies few 
 and petty; but the cost of maintaining it seemed 
 something enormous. Here are a few of the prices 
 then current at the post : hay cost about sixty dollars 
 per ton ; grain, about twelve dollars per bushel ; lumber, 
 from fifty to seventy-five dollars per thousand ; freight 
 on supplies, from San Francisco (and about everything 
 had to come from there via the Gulf of California and 
 the Colorado), two hundred and fifty dollars per ton ; 
 and these all in coin. The flag-staff alone, quite a 
 respectable "liberty-pole," was reported to have cost ten 
 thousand dollars ; and District Headquarters a one-and- 
 a-half story frame house, surrounded by verandas, but 
 barely comfortable and genteel was said to have cost 
 one hundred thousand dollars. This last, plain as 
 it was, was then about the best modern edifice in 
 Arizona, but was used as the Post Hospital Gen. 
 Gregg (" Cavalry Gregg " of the Army of the Potomac) 
 in the true spirit of a soldier, declining to occupy it, 
 until his sick and disabled men were first well sheltered,
 
 408 GEN. IBVIN GBEGG. 
 
 and provided for. Himself and staff, as yet, shared the 
 log cabins of the Post proper, through whose open 
 crannies the wind and rain had free course to run and be 
 glorified, during every storm. We were there during a 
 wild tempest of rain and hail, as well as for a week or 
 more besides, and learned well how to appreciate their 
 infelicities and miseries. All honor to this chivalrous 
 and gallant Pennsylvanian, for his courtesy and human- 
 ity. A Bayard and a Sydney combined, surely he 
 deserves well of his country ; and the Army may justly 
 be proud of such a representative soldier.
 
 CHAPTER XXYI. 
 
 PBESCOTT TO LOS ANGELOS. 
 
 ""TyRESCOTT, as already intimated, was not Paradise, 
 -L and we left there April 13th, for Los Angelos, via 
 Hardjville and Fort Mojave, on our return " inside," 
 with real rejoicing. Our first stage was to Fort Mojave, 
 on the Colorado, distant one hundred and sixty miles, 
 and this we made in five days. Of course, we travelled 
 by ambulance, and " camped out " every night, as else- 
 where mostly in Arizona. The road was a toll-road, but 
 its general condition was hardly such, as to justify the 
 collection of tolls ordinarily. As a whole, it was 
 naturally a very fair road, though there were some bad 
 points, as at Juniper Mountain and Union Pass, where 
 considerable work had been required to carry the grades 
 along. At Williamson's Valley, twenty miles out from 
 Prescott, we found one of the best agricultural and graz- 
 ing districts, that we had yet seen in Arizona. There 
 were but two or three settlers there then, though there 
 were apparently several thousands of acres fit for farms. 
 The hills adjacent abounded in scattered cedars and juni- 
 pers, that would do for fencing and fuel, and game 
 seemed more abundant near there, than in any place we 
 had yet been. Quails, found everywhere in Arizona to 
 some extent, here soon thickened up ; the jack-rabbits 
 bounded more numerously through the bushes ; even 
 pigeons and wild-turkeys were heard of; and as we 
 18
 
 4:10 WILLIAMSON'S VALLEY, ETC. 
 
 rattled down through a rocky glen, at the western side 
 of the valley, a herd of likely deer cantered leisurely 
 across the road the first we had seen in Arizona, or 
 indeed elsewhere in the "West. 
 
 Thence across Juniper Mountain to Rock Springs, some 
 fifty miles, the country was wild and desolate, with a 
 scraggy growth of cedars and junipers much of the way. 
 A few scattered oaks and pines grew here and there, but 
 they could scarcely be called good timber, or much of it. 
 At Rock Springs was a fine bottom of several hundred 
 acres, but not a single inhabitant. Thence on to Hardy- 
 ville, through Cottonwood Canon, past Hualapai Springs, 
 Beale's Springs, etc., for nearly a hundred miles, there were 
 no ranches, and no cultivable lands, indeed, worth men- 
 tioning. The country, as a whole, seemed a vast volcanic 
 desert of mountains, canons, and mesas and what it 
 was ever made for, except to excite wonder and astonish- 
 ment, is a mystery to the passing traveller. Even at the 
 high elevation we were travelling, usually four or five 
 thousand feet above the sea, the sun was already in- 
 tensely hot by day, though the air grew bitingly cold at 
 night, before morning. The principal growth, after 
 leaving Rock Springs, was sage-brush and grease-wood, 
 and in many places it proved difficult to secure sufficient 
 for fires of even these. Water was found only at dis- 
 tances of ten and twenty miles apart, and in the dry 
 summer months it must be still scarcer. Our poor animals 
 suffered greatly, and one day we came near losing several 
 two of them continuing sick far into the night. Now 
 and then we found an Indian trail crossing the road, but 
 the Red Skins either did not see us, or else kept them- 
 selves well under cover, intimidated by the half-dozen 
 cavalrymen, that accompanied us as escort. 
 
 The prevailing hues of the landscape were a dull red
 
 DANTES INFEKNO 
 
 and brownish gray, and these produced at times some very 
 singular and striking effects. The one thing, that relieved 
 our ride from, utter dullness and monotony, was the 
 weird and picturesque forms, in which nature has there 
 piled up her rocks, and chiseled out her mountains. 
 Domes, peaks, terraces, castles, turrets, ramparts all 
 were sculptured against the cloudless sky ; and we fell to 
 interesting ourselves sometimes for hours, as we rode 
 along, in tracing out the strange resemblances to all sorts 
 of architecture and animals, ancient and modern, that 
 nature, in her silent sublimity, has perpetrated there. 
 At sunset, when parting day lingered and played upon 
 the surrounding or distant mountains, it bathed their 
 rock-ribbed sides and summits in the most gorgeous tints 
 of purple and maroon, and filled the imagination with 
 all that was most sublime and mysterious. What Milton 
 must have thought of in portraying Hell, or Dante im- 
 agined in delineating the weird and sombre landscapes 
 of his awful Inferno, may well be realized in passing 
 through this singular region, where Desolation seems to 
 have outstretched her wings, and made up her mind to 
 brood gloomily forever. 
 
 At Union Pass, we crossed the last mountain range, 
 at an elevation of fully five thousand feet, whence we 
 caught welcome sight again of the ruby waters of the 
 Colorado. Debouching into the valley, we presently 
 struck the river at Hardyville. Here it winds its 
 sinuous course, through a broad valley of volcanic mesas 
 and mountains, and has no bottoms worth mentioning, 
 except those occupied of old by the Mojave Indians. 
 These are fertilized by the annual overflow of the Col- 
 orado, like the bottoms of the Nile, and no doubt might 
 be made to produce very largely. As it was, the 
 Mojaves scratched them a little, so as to plant some corn
 
 412 MOJAVE INDIANS 
 
 and barley, and raise a few beans, vegetables, etc., the 
 surplus of which they sold chiefly at Hardy ville, for Mr. 
 Hardy to re-sell to the Government again of course, at 
 a profit. It seemed, on the whole, that they did not 
 usually raise enough, off of all their broad acres, to feed 
 and clothe themselves comfortably ; and we were told 
 they would often go hungry, were it not for the gratu- 
 itous issues of flour, meal, and other supplies occa- 
 sionally made to them by the commanding officer at 
 Fort Mojave. We rode through their villages one 
 evening, while halting at Fort Mojave, and found they 
 numbered about a thousand or so just there ; but farther 
 down the Colorado, at La Paz, there was said to be 
 another branch of them, even more numerous. They 
 were usually a shapely, well-made race, and seemed to 
 take life even more easy, if possible, than their red 
 brethren elsewhere. Their women made a rude pottery 
 ware, that seemed in general use among them, and the 
 men themselves sometimes labored commendably, in gath- 
 ering drift-wood for fuel for the petty steamers, that occa- 
 sionally ascended to Hardy ville. These Mojaves had been 
 quiet and peaceable for years, and it seemed very mod- 
 erate efforts would put them on the road to civilization, 
 as readily as the Choctaws and the Cherokees. But 
 they complained, and quite justly, that the Government 
 did not furnish them implements, tools, seeds, etc., to 
 enable them to work their lands and support themselves, 
 while the savage Hualapais, Pai-Utes, and other hostile 
 tribes, were being constantly bribed with presents and 
 annuities. This, however, was only another instance 
 of the stupidity and blundering of our Indian Depart- 
 ment at that time, whose policy, or rather impolicy, 
 seemed to be to neglect friendly Indians, and exhaust its 
 money and efforts on hostile ones, under the plea of
 
 FORT MOJAVE AND HAEDYVILLE 413 
 
 " pacifying " them ! As if " gifts " and " annuities " 
 ever really pacified or civilized a Red Skin yet, or ever 
 will ! No ; the only true policy with our Indians, then 
 as now, is to encourage and reward the friendly, in 
 every right way ; while the hostile ones should be turned 
 over to the Army, for chastisement and surveillance, 
 to the uttermost, until they learn the hard lesson, that 
 henceforth they must behave themselves. 
 
 Fort Mojave, some four miles or so below Hardy- 
 ville, on the east bank of the Colorado, was a rude post, 
 most uncomfortable every way. It had been established 
 originally in 1860, abandoned in 1861, but re-occupied 
 in 1864, and maintained since then. We found it hot, 
 and dusty, and miserable, even in April ; and could well 
 imagine what it must be in July and August. At Pres- 
 cott, we were some six thousand feet above the sea ; but 
 here we had got down to only about eleven hundred, and 
 the change was most perceptible. Here were a handful 
 of troops, and two or three officers, all praying for the 
 day when they might be ordered elsewhere, assured that 
 fortune could send them to no worse post, outside of 
 Alaska. One officer had his wife along, a lady delicately 
 bred, from Pittsburg, Pa., and this was her first experi- 
 ence of Army life. When we first arrived, she tried to 
 talk cheerily, and bore up bravely for awhile ; but before 
 we left, she broke down in tears, and confessed to her 
 utter loneliness and misery. No wonder, when she was 
 the only white woman there, no other within a hundred 
 miles or more ; and no newspaper or mail even, except 
 once a month or fortnight, as things happened to be. 
 
 Hardy ville itself was then more of a name than place, 
 consisting chiefly of a warehouse and quartz-mill, with 
 a few adobe shanties. Near Hardyville, some ten or 
 twenty miles away in the outlying mountains, there
 
 414: ARIZONA'S CHIEF DRAWBACK 
 
 were several mines gold, silver, and copper of more 
 or less richness, and the mill was located here to take 
 advantage of the two great essentials, wood and water. 
 The mill, however, was standing idle, like most enter- 
 prises in Arizona, and but little was doing in the 
 mines. Mr. Hardy himself, a hard-working energetic 
 man, and the Ben Holliday or Gen. Banning of that 
 region, controlling all its business, including Govern- 
 ment contracts, from the Colorado to Prescott and 
 beyond, was getting out some ore, and specimens we 
 saw at his store were certainly very handsome. He said 
 there were "leads" in the neighboring mountains of 
 exceeding richness, and indeed here and at other similar 
 points along the Colorado, as at La Paz, Aubrey City, 
 El Dorado Canon, etc., there seemed the best chances 
 for mining of anywhere in Arizona. Here were wood 
 (drift-wood, in which the Colorado abounds) and water, 
 the two great needs, usually wanting elsewhere in 
 Arizona ; and the Colorado itself, it would seem, ought 
 to afford reasonably cheap and quick transportation, if 
 the steamboats^ on it were constructed and run with 
 proper enterprise and efficiency. 
 
 The great drawback to Arizona then, overshadowing 
 perhaps all others, not excepting the Apaches, was the 
 perfectly frightful and ruinous cost of transportation. 
 To reach any mining-district there from California, 
 except those along the Colorado, you had to travel from 
 three to five hundred miles through what are practically 
 deserts ; and for every ton of freight carried into or out 
 of the Territory, you were called on to pay from three 
 to five cents per pound, per hundred miles, in coin. Gol- 
 conda, itself, could not flourish under such circumstances, 
 much less Arizona which is scarcely a Golconda. The 
 patent and palpable remedy for all this, was either a rail-
 
 KIO COLORADO AGAIN 415 
 
 road or the speedy and regular navigation of the Colorado. 
 It seemed nonsense to say that the Colorado could not 
 be navigated, and that too at rates reasonably cheap. It 
 looked no worse than the Ohio and the Missouri, and like 
 western rivers ordinarily ; and there appeared but small 
 hope for Arizona very speedily, until she availed herself 
 to the full of its actual advantages. With the alleged 
 mines along the Colorado, from Ft. Yuma to El Dorado, 
 in good operation, her population, as it increased, would 
 naturally overflow to other districts ; and, in the end, arid 
 Arizona would become reasonably prosperous. But, like 
 all other commonwealths, she must have a base to stand 
 on and work from. That base seemed naturally and 
 necessarily the Colorado River, indifferent as it was. 
 And all attempts to develop herself, except from that, in 
 the absence of a railroad, seemed likely to end like the 
 efforts of the man, who tried to build a pyramid with the 
 apex downward. History declares it was not a " success." 
 
 Bidding good-bye to our friends at Fort Mojave, we 
 crossed the Colorado on a rude flat-boat, on the evening 
 of April 18th, and proceeded three miles to Beaver Lake 
 where we camped for the night, in order to get a 
 good start next day. "We dismissed our escort at Fort 
 Mojave, as no longer necessary ; and, Gov. McCormick 
 and wife having left us at Prescott, our little party 
 was now reduced to two and our drivers. Col. Carter, 
 Secretary of the Territory, had accompanied us from 
 Prescott to Mojave; but here he left us for a trip up 
 the Colorado, intending to push into the Big Caiion, 
 if possible. Subsequently, I learned, he failed in doing 
 this ; but the fault was not his, and, for the present, we 
 bade him speedy success and a safe return. 
 
 From Fort Mojave, on the Colorado, to Los Angeloa 
 was still about three hundred miles, and this we accom-
 
 416 CHANGES OF ELEVATION 
 
 plished in eight days. The valley or great basin 
 of the Colorado extends most of the distance, and of the 
 intervening country, as a whole, the most that can be 
 said of it is, that it is an absolute desert of extinct volca- 
 noes and outstretched sand-plains, fit only for tarantulas 
 and centipedes, rattlesnakes and Indians. As far as 
 could be seen, I think this a fair and truthful statement 
 of pretty much all that region to Cajon Pass, and don't 
 see how it can well be objected to, by any honest mind. 
 Its changes of elevation are, indeed, something very 
 curious. At Fort Mojave, on the banks of the Colorado, 
 you are only about a thousand feet above the sea. 
 Thence, for ten or twelve miles, you steadily ascend, 
 until you get where the view of the Colorado Valley pro- 
 per becomes something really sublime a barren ocean, 
 a sea of desolation, with a line of living green meander- 
 ing through the centre and at Pai-Ute Hill, only some 
 thirty miles from the Colorado, you reach an elevation 
 of some four thousand feet. At Government Holes, 
 indeed, you get up to 5,204 feet ; but at Soda Lake, 
 about a hundred miles from Fort Mojave, you descend 
 again to 1,075 feet, or seventy-four feet lower than the 
 Colorado itself.* From here you climb back to 1,852 
 feet at Camp Cady, some forty miles from Soda Lake ; 
 2,678 feet at Cottonwood Ranch, some eighty miles 
 from Soda Lake ; and gradually get up again to 5,000 
 feet at Cajon Pass, about one hundred and twenty miles 
 from Soda Lake. These ascents and descents usually 
 are not sudden, nor indeed much perceptible ; but grad- 
 ually you roll up and down over avast desert region, 
 
 * Hence the recent proposition to turn the Colorado thither and 
 convert all this district, including the Yuma or Colorado Desert, into 
 a great lake or inland sea. It seems hardly feasible in this genera- 
 tion ; but, possibly, may happen in the future.
 
 RATTLESNAKES, CENTIPEDES, ETC. 417 
 
 where the sun was already (in April) intensely hot by 
 day, and getting to be fairly warm at night. 
 
 In the long drives by day, sometimes forty and fifty 
 miles to reach water the heat and glare from the 
 sand became terrible to the eyes, and twice we drove all 
 night, lying by in the day, to avoid this. By day, we 
 usually saw no live thing, except here and there a stray 
 buzzard, or scampering lizard, or horned toad. By night, 
 we would hear the rattlesnakes hiss and rattle, as we 
 drove along our " outfit " as we rattled by, I suppose, 
 disturbing their quiet siestas, or moonlight promenades. 
 It was too early in the season, however, to be troubled 
 much with such interesting acquaintances as rattlesnakes, 
 tarantulas, centipedes, etc. They were but just begin- 
 ning to come out of their holes, and we were glad to 
 escape from the country before they ventured forth much. 
 We saw, indeed, some centipedes, and killed several 
 rattlesnakes. One night one of the party woke up, and 
 found something reposing snugly on the outside of his 
 blankets. Giving it a kick and sling from underneath, it 
 proved to be a snake, and answered him back from the place 
 where it landed, with the usual inevitable hiss and defiant 
 rattle. Another night, at Soda Lake, while sleeping by 
 the rocks there, a rattlesnake crawled under the bottom 
 blankets, and in the morning when the owner of them 
 began to yawn and stretch himself, preparatory to getting 
 up, his snakeship from beneath hissed, and rattled, and 
 protested, as badly as a northern copperhead or a south- 
 ern rebel at the Proclamation of Emancipation, or the 
 Reconstruction measures of Congress. Of course, we 
 all slept on the ground every night, ex necessitate / but, 
 after this, we usually retired with all our clothes and 
 tallest boots on ! 
 
 Pai-Ute hill, so-called (before spoken of), is really a 
 18*
 
 4:18 PAI-UTE HILL 
 
 sharp and ugly little mountain, up which we toiled slowly 
 and wearily. In rounding an angle of the road, soon 
 after beginning the ascent, one of our ambulances slid- 
 ing struck a rock, and soon like the famous " One Hoss 
 Shay," ended in a "general spill ! " There could hardly 
 have been a more thorough collapse of spokes and felloes 
 everything seemed to go to pieces and it could hardly 
 have occurred in a worse place. It was a wild and des- 
 olate canon, barren and rocky, miles away from every 
 human habitation ; yet there was nothing for it, but to 
 leave the driver in charge, and the rest of us proceed on 
 to Camp Rock Springs, whence we sent an army-wagon 
 back to gather up the remains and bring them on. 
 Camp Rock Springs itself was a forlorn military post, 
 consisting of one officer and perhaps a dozen men, guard- 
 ing the Springs and the road there. The officer was , 
 quartered in a natural cave in the hillside, and his men 
 had " hutted " themselves out on the sand the best they 
 could. No glory there, nor much chance for military 
 fame ; but true patriots and heroes were they, to submit 
 to such privations. Too many of our frontier posts are 
 akin to this, and little do members of Congress east, who 
 know only " the pomp and circumstance of glorious war," 
 imagine what army-life out there really is. It is a poor 
 place for fuss and feathers, gilt epaulets and brass buttons ; 
 and our " Home Guard," holiday Militia east, so fond of 
 parading up and down our peaceful streets, with full 
 rations and hotel quarters, would soon acquire for soldier- 
 ing there only a rare and infinite disgust. Yet these are 
 the nurseries of the Army, and from such hard schools 
 we graduated a Grant and Sherman, Sheridan and 
 Thomas. 
 
 Soda Lake, already mentioned, is simply a dried- up 
 lake, or sea, whose salts of soda effloresce and whiten the
 
 SODA LAKE 419 
 
 ground, like enow, for miles in every direction. The 
 country there is a vast basin, rimmed around with deso- 
 late hills and mountains, and during the rainy season a 
 considerable body of water, indeed, collects here. Sjon, 
 however, evaporation does its work, and the Lake proper 
 subsides to little or nothing, worth speaking of. When 
 we were there, it was said to be twenty miles long, by 
 four or five wide, though of course everywhere very 
 marshy or shallow. Skirting the borders of it, we 
 reached a rocky bluff on (I think) the northern shore, 
 and there found a noble spring of excellent water, well- 
 ing up of from unknown depths, within a stone's throw 
 of the soda deposits. Here was the usual halting-place, 
 and as we had driven all night, we went into camp on 
 arriving there, soon after sunrise. It was Sunday, April 
 21st ; there was no house or even hut there ; no person 
 or living thing ; and what with the heat, and glare, and 
 awful desolation our weariness, fatigue, and sense of 
 isolation I think it was about the most wretched and 
 miserable day I ever spent anywhere. To crown all, 
 during the night before, while jogging along, we had 
 descried what we supposed to be an Indian camp-fire, off' 
 to the south of the road some distance ; we had driven 
 quietly but hastily on, getting the utmost out of our 
 jaded mules ; but whether the Red Skins were asleep, or 
 had discovered and were now dogging us, awaiting their 
 opportunity, we were blissfully ignorant. We passed 
 the hours away, as best we could, sleeping and watching 
 in turn ; but the next morning, bright and early, we were 
 up and off for Camp Cady. We would have departed, 
 indeed, by night ; but the route lay largely up the dis- 
 gusting canon of the Mojave, and was impracticable in 
 the dark. This was the only sign of hostile Indians we 
 saw en route from the Colorado. We could hardly call it
 
 420 MOJAVE RIVER 
 
 a genuine " scare ; " and yet were not greatly grieved, 
 when we found they had given us a wide berth. 
 
 Some fifteen or twenty miles beyond Soda Lake, we 
 struck the Mojave River, so-called, which there runs for 
 several miles through a narrow and rocky canon, much 
 similar to that of the Hassayampa, though its walls are not 
 so high. The road itself leads up this canon, for lack of a 
 better route over and through the mountains there, and 
 on first view, it promised to be the Hassayampa over 
 again ; but, fortunately, the bottom is chiefly gravel and 
 rock, and therefore has not the same disagreeable habit 
 of " dropping out," when you venture over it. We 
 found from one to two feet of water in the Mojave here, 
 and crossed it, I suppose, at least thirty or forty times 
 between there and Camp Cady within say twenty 
 miles. Two days afterward, when we crossed it for the 
 last time, farther up, at what is called the Upper Cross- 
 ing of the Mojave, we found it two feet deeper than it 
 had been a hundred miles below, and with more than 
 twice the volume of water. Our famous Pathfinder, in 
 one of his great expeditions, struck it near here, at 
 freshet height, and it is said reported the Mojave as 
 " an important tributary of the Colorado, navigable 
 for light-draft steamboats several months in the year." 
 He would have been partly right, perhaps, if the Mojave 
 indeed continued on to the Colorado. But unfortunately, 
 it sinks in the desert, long before it gets there ; and the 
 enthusiastic explorer's " light-draft steamboats " would 
 have to go paddling across a broad expanse of sand and 
 rock, if they wanted to voyage from the Mojave to the 
 Colorado, or vice versa ! The Mojave, in fact, although 
 draining the snow-capped San Bernardino Mountains, 
 and a wide stretch of country there, is only another of 
 the many strange anomalies that one meets with in
 
 A DISMAL RANCHMAN 421 
 
 Southern California and Arizona. Said a ranchman in 
 that region : 
 
 " Dis yer's a quar country, stranger, you bet ! All 
 sorts of quar things out yer. Folks chop wood with a 
 sledge-hammer, and mow grass with a hoe. Every bush 
 bears a thorn, and every insect has a sting. The trees 
 is pretty nigh all cactuses. The streams haint no water, 
 except big freshets. The rivers get littler, the furder 
 they run down. No game but rabbits, and them's big as 
 jackasses. Some quails, but all top-knotted, and wild as 
 greased lightning. No frost ; no dew. Nobody kums 
 yer, unless he's runnin' away. Nobody stays, unless he 
 has to. Everybody ' vamoses the ranch,' ' cuts stick,' 
 ' absquatulates,' as soon as he kin raise nutf ' dust ' to 
 ' git up and git ' with. You bet ye ! Sure ! " 
 
 ft is due to truth to say, that our friend had just got 
 up from the " break-bone " fever, and was still troubied 
 with the " shakes." His mine had " petered out," and 
 his " outfit " was about " gone up." In fact, he looked, 
 and I have no doubt felt, slightly dismal not to put too 
 tine a point upon it. But I give his opinion, as he gave 
 it to us ; and the reader must take it cum grano salis 
 as much or little as he chooses. In truth, we have a vast 
 region there, that as a whole is simply barren and worth- 
 less, and that will never be utilized or seriously amount 
 to much, until the rest of the continent is well occupied 
 and settled up. We may, of course, regret it ; but that 
 is about the truth of things, and emigrants thither soon 
 discover it. 
 
 Beyond Camp Cady, another rude post, much like Rock 
 Springs, we found a few ranches scattered here and there 
 along the Mojave ; but they were importing grain and hay 
 fifty and a hundred miles, from San Bernardino and Los An- 
 gelos, for sale to passing teams and travellers, which looked
 
 422 CAJON PASS 
 
 as if their prospects were not very flattering. There ought, 
 however, to be some good farms there, if the Mojave 
 were properly utilized ; and doubtless this will be done 
 soon, if it has not been already. 
 
 At Cajon Pass, through the lofty Coast Kange, you 
 quickly run down from five thousand feet above the sea> 
 to about one thousand feet at San Bernardino, or even 
 less. The descent is through a wild and picturesque 
 canon, that almost equals in grandeur and sublimity the 
 far-famed Echo Canon of Utah. We camped all night 
 near the foot of the Pass, sleeping so soundly that several 
 mounted deserters * from Fort Mojave passed us un- 
 heeded, and the next morning, bright and early, we rolled 
 into San Bernardino. Here was a well-laid out and tol- 
 erably built town, of a thousand or so inhabitants, with a 
 newspaper, telegraph, and most modern improvements. 
 It reminds one of Salt Lake City, and was, indeed, pat- 
 terned after that gem of the mountains, being settled 
 originally by the Mormons many years ago, when they 
 planned a route through here to the Pacific at San Diego. 
 "We remained here but a few hours, and, as the weather 
 was already becoming warm, started the same evening for 
 Los Angelos, some sixty miles north, where we arrived 
 late next morning. 
 
 The country just now (April 26th), between Cajon 
 Pass and Los Angelos, was beautiful and glorious beyond 
 description. I scarcely know how to speak of it in fit- 
 ting terms, but I remember well how it impressed us at 
 the time. The Los Angelos Plains, seventy miles long by 
 thirty wide, were one wild sea of green and yellow, pink 
 
 * They were our escort from Prescott, whom we had dismissed 
 at Mojave, with orders to return as soon as rested. But, it seems, 
 the poor fellows were tired of Arizona, and as they were so far on 
 their way " inside," concluded to continue thither 1
 
 LOS ANGELOS PLAINS 423 
 
 and violet herbage and flowers everywhere. Thousands 
 of lusty cattle and contented sheep roamed over them 
 at will ; but not one herd or flock, where there ought to 
 be a score or hundred. The vineyards were all putting 
 forth their leafy branches, and preparing for their purple 
 clusters. The fields were heavy with barley and wheat. 
 The olive and walnut orchards were clad in foliage of 
 densest green. The orange groves were everywhere 
 filling the air with their delicate and delicious fragrance, 
 so exquisitely sweet and ethereal it seemed as if distilled 
 from heaven. Ten thousand " beautiful birds of song " 
 flitted and twittered, from bush to tree, as we drove along. 
 On the west rolled the blue Pacific ; on the east rose the 
 noble Coast Range ; and over all, like a celestial bene- 
 diction, hung the California sky a superb sapphire we 
 never see East. The setting sun lit up the distant hills, 
 as we gazed, and now clothed with crimson and gold 
 an ineffable glory of splendors the snow-clad peaks, 
 that towered to the north and east. Up there was the 
 frozen zone, most of the year round ; but down on the 
 Plains, the balmy zephyrs of the tropics, and nature 
 literally one wild scene of beauty and of glory. 
 
 The transition from the Mojave Desert, and Arizona 
 generally, to this delightful region, Avas like coming into 
 Eden seemed like " Paradise Regained," in very truth. 
 As we emerged from the mountains at Cajon Pass, and 
 drove down into it, we could scarcely refrain from shout- 
 ing for joy. Our animals whinnied, pricked up their 
 ears, and, jaded as they were, trotted along with a new- 
 found speed. Poor beasts, faithful donkeys, we had driven 
 some of them fully fifteen hundred miles, "outside" and 
 " inside," forth and back. Just to think of it once, plenty 
 of good water, fresh green grass, and a moist and fragrant 
 atmosphere once more ! No more blazing sun ; no
 
 424 OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 more glaring sand ; no more alkali streams ; no more 
 thorny mesqnite and prickly cactus ; no more Apaches 
 and Hualapais, Pai-Utes and Chemehuevis ; no more scan- 
 ning every bush and rock by day, and listening intently 
 to every sound by night ; no more riding with rifles in 
 our hands, no more sleeping on our arms ; no more 
 bottomless quicksands ; no more fear of rattlesnakes 
 and centipedes ; no more freshets, and no more sand- 
 storms. No ! The long drag of fifteen hundred miles 
 was over, and once more we struck hands with civiliza- 
 tion and school-houses touched steam-ships and tele- 
 graphs. 
 
 Yerily, we had a right to sing " Out of the Wilder- 
 ness," and " Home again." with infinite gusto ; and it 
 is not surprising, that with these and other jolly airs 
 we did, indeed, make the welkin ring. Once more we 
 had the newspapers we hadn't seen one in a month 
 before that is, less than a month old and to fair and 
 hospitable Los Angelos, ever and truly the City of the 
 Angels, we were welcomed as ones from the desert, if 
 not from the dead. We had, indeed, been reported 
 several times, as waylaid and captured by the Indians ; 
 but here we were in propriis personis, brown and 
 hearty, though dusty and fatigued. Our good friend 
 Banning and Don Benito Wilson were among the first to 
 congratulate us ; and their kindness and courtesy during 
 the next three days, and until we left by steamer for San 
 Francisco (April 30th), when shall we forget I
 
 CHAPTER XXVH. 
 
 SAN FKANCI8C5O TO VIRGINIA CITY. 
 
 A SOJOURN" of a fortnight or so, at San Francisco, 
 sufficed for rest and bringing up back Reports, and 
 on the evening of May 16th, we took the good boat, 
 Chrysopolis for Sacramento, and thence on to Virginia 
 City. There were posts in Nevada I was ordered to 
 inspect, and this was then the best route to reach them. 
 The weather was raw at San Francisco, but when we got 
 well up the bay and past Benicia, the air became mild 
 and June-like, and the evening was passed delightfully 
 on deck, under such star-lit skies as only California and 
 the Far West can boast. "We had a full complement of 
 passengers, of all grades from New York cockneys to 
 Nevada miners ; but the proportion of ladies was small, 
 as usually on the Coast. The few children aboard 
 seemed general pets, and many eagerly seized a moment's 
 chat with them. I saw a rough-looking miner, tall, and 
 " bearded like a pard," entice two of them to his side, and, 
 subsequently wander all over the boat with them, talking 
 with the little folks by the hour, about the machinery 
 and whatever else excited their curiosity. At supper, we 
 had a substantial and excellent meal ; at bed-time, we 
 found the berths clean and sweet ; and the conduct of 
 the boat in general was all that could be desired. 
 
 The Sacramento itself is a noble stream, of which
 
 426 THE SACRAMENTO AND ITS VALLEY 
 
 any commonwealth might well be proud. To Benicia, 
 and beyond, it is navigable for first-class sea-going vessels, 
 and here upon the bold shores and by the deep waters 
 thereabouts, San Francisco ought really to have been 
 built, as elsewhere intimated. But, unfortunately, the 
 metropolis got itself camped down on the sand-hills, near 
 the Golden Gate, and now will remain there forever. 
 
 We reached Sacramento City, one hundred and 
 twenty miles from San Francisco, about 2 A. M. next day, 
 and after an early breakfast and a short walk through the 
 town, took the train at 6 A. M. for Cisco, then the 
 advance station on the Central Pacific Railroad. This 
 ride, of about a hundred miles, was first up the rich 
 valley of the Sacramento, and then through the foot-hills, 
 and up the Sierra Isevadas. At Sacramento the river 
 was still broad and deep, but with low banks that neces- 
 sitated levees to guard against overflows. Once a clear 
 mountain stream, fresh from the Sierras, it was now 
 tawnier than the yellow Tiber, with the results of mining 
 on its head-waters and tributaries, and, it was reported, 
 was steadily filling up. Sacramento, indeed, may well 
 have an eye to this ; but what she can do to correct or 
 prevent it, it seems difficult to say. 
 
 As we advanced, the valley of the Sacramento steadily 
 narrowed, but everywhere appeared rich and fertile. 
 Broad farms stretched out on every side, and clumps of 
 live-oaks, with their deep green foliage, everywhere 
 relieved the golden yellow of the ripening wheat-fields. 
 The general lack of timber continued noticeable, but 
 these scattered live-oaks, sturdy and defiant, relieved the 
 landscape, and they seemed preserved with commendable 
 care. As we approached the foot-hills, the soil grew 
 thinner, the lordly wheat-fields gave place to extensive 
 vineyards, and soon the dense pines of the Sierras made
 
 HYDRAULIC MINING 427 
 
 their appearance. Here, too, we struck the mines, and 
 on all sides saw evidences of the spade and rocker. In 
 many places, there were only old placers abandoned, with 
 the hills ragged and torn, and the earth generally topsy- 
 turvy with past operations cabins empty, ditches dry, 
 sluice-ways falling to pieces ; but, in others, the washings 
 were still in full operation, and the hills and streams 
 seemed alive with human industry and energy. Little 
 mining hamlets were perched, here and there, on the edge 
 of mountain torrents ; and, where the water did not suffice, 
 broad ditches, improvised for the locality, brought it from 
 some far-off point and carried it wheresoever wanted. 
 
 Some of these water-ditches are among the wonders 
 of the Pacific Coast, and deserve more than a passing 
 notice. With surprising engineering, they wind down 
 and around and among the mountains, leaping ravines, 
 crossing ridges, and everywhere following the miner, 
 like faithful servants of his will. Wherever necessary, 
 the miner taps them, and either uses the water in his 
 ordinary sluice-way, or else by his hydraulic pipes 
 hurls it against the hills, and literally washes them to 
 the plain. This hydraulic mining seemed to be most in 
 favor there, and the power developed by some of these 
 streams was immense. The momentum acquired by the 
 water in its long descent, sufficed to melt huge hills of 
 clay and gravel very quickly ; and instances were reported 
 where men, and mules even, had been killed by being 
 struck by the water, as it issued from the pipes or hose. 
 The men engaged in mining were rough and hirsute, as 
 miners everywhere are ; but they looked bright and keen, 
 and as if they believed in California and her future, come 
 what might. 
 
 The change in the climate, as we plunged into the 
 foot-hills, and felt our way up into the Sierras, was
 
 428 CISCO AND THE SNOWS 
 
 very apparent, and soon became disagreeably so. At 
 Sacramento, the weather was close and warm ; but hour 
 by hour, as we ascended, the thermometer went down, 
 and long before reaching Cisco, only about a hundred 
 miles or so, we were shivering in winter garments. As 
 I have said, this was then the "jumping off" place or ter- 
 minus of the Central Pacific road, and is well up into the 
 mountains. We reached there soon after noon, and I must 
 say were surprised at the general excellence, as well as 
 audacity of the road. Some of its grades are over a 
 hundred feet to the mile,* and in many places it literally 
 springs into the air, over immense trestle-work bridges 
 or along the dizzy edge of precipices, that seem fraught 
 with peril and destruction ; but we reached Cisco safe 
 and sound, and sat down to a smoking dinner, with the 
 snow-drifts still up to the eaves of the roofs of the hotel, 
 and the houses round-about. 
 
 Cisco was then a scattered village, of frame tenements, 
 only a few months old ; but as the terminus of the road, 
 and depot of supplies for all Nevada, it was bustling with 
 business. The Overland Mail, for Virginia City and the 
 East, left here daily, on the arrival of the train ; and, after 
 a hurried dinner, we were off again with the mail. It was 
 now May 17th, and though the advancing summer had 
 melted the snow in the regular roadway, so that wagoning 
 was practicable for some distance, yet the old snow still lay 
 six and eight feet deep on the general level, and our road 
 ran between solid walls of it. We set off from Cisco in 
 
 * Above Dutch Flat, the maximum grade of 116 feet per mile 
 has been resorted to, for over ten miles. From Owl Gap to the 
 Summit, a distance of twenty-four and a half miles, the average 
 grade is 81, and the maximum 85 feet per mile. From the Summit 
 to the Truckee, the average is 84, and the maximum 90 feet per 
 mile ; but down the Truckee, the grades average less than 40 feet 
 per mile.
 
 THE SNOW-GALLEKIES 429 
 
 stage-coaches (mountain mud-wagons), but soon had to 
 surrender these for sleighs ; and then came a long and 
 dreary pull, through slush and mud and ice, for several 
 miles, till we got well across the summit of the Sierras, 
 when we again took coaches and rattled down to Donner 
 Lake, where we arrived at 8-J p. M., having made only 
 eighteen miles since noon. The most of us walked a 
 good part of the way, and found it altogether rather a 
 fatiguing march. The depth of the snow still left on the 
 summit seemed surprising ; but a gentleman I met in 
 San Francisco assured me, that when he crossed the 
 Sierras in December previous, he found the telegraph 
 poles, even, in many places snowed under. The stage- 
 people reported the snow as having been fifteen and 
 twenty feet in depth on the level generally, and we could 
 see where they had set up poles and " shakes " long be- 
 fore, to mark out the general course of the road itself. 
 
 It was these huge vast snows that the Central Pacific 
 folks had mainly to provide against, and the problem 
 would have appalled most men. But they quietly set to 
 work to board the snows out, and since then have liter- 
 ally housed their road in for thirty miles or more. The 
 surrounding forests furnished them cheap timber, and 
 portable saw-mills shifted from point to point soon con- 
 verted this into the required lumber. But what a 
 herculean job it really was ! These great snow-sheds or 
 snow-galleries consumed in all nearly forty-five million 
 feet, board measure, of sawed timber, and over a million 
 and a quarter feet of round timber, equivalent in the 
 aggregate to fifty-two and a half million feet, board 
 measure, of sawed timber ; and nearly a thousand tons 
 of iron and spikes. Two general styles of construction 
 were adopted one intended for localities where the 
 weight of the snow only had to be supported, and the
 
 430 THE HEATHEN CHINEE AGAIN 
 
 other for such places as were exposed to " slides," and 
 the slower but almost irresistible u glacial movement " of 
 the snow, as on the steep and rocky slopes near the sum- 
 mit. These galleries have proved a great success, and 
 though frequently covered with drifted snow to a depth 
 of ten or twenty feet, and in some places of more than 
 fifty feet, they afford a safe passage for trains at all 
 seasons, without noticeable detentions. 
 
 Near the summit, we came upon John Chinaman 
 again, in all his glory. Here was the " Heathen Chinee," 
 five thousand strong, burrowing and tunnelling a way 
 for the road, through the back-bone of the Sierras. It 
 was a huge piece of work, nearly half a mile long, through 
 the solid granite ; but John was patiently pegging away 
 at it, from four different faces, and soon afterwards com- 
 pleted it successfully. They all wore their pig-tails, the 
 same as in San Francisco, but usually had these sacred 
 appendages twisted well around their heads, instead of 
 dangling at their heels ; and, with the exception of the 
 universal blue blouse, were dressed like ordinary navvies 
 or laborers. Of course, they had American or English 
 superintendents and foremen of gangs ; but these all 
 spoke well of the almond-eyed strangers, and praised 
 them, especially, for their docility and intelligence. A 
 more industrious or orderly set of workingmen, were never 
 seen ; and though railroad-building was a new employ- 
 ment for Asiatics, they seemed to take to it very kindly. 
 Subsequently, they pushed the Central down the moun- 
 tains, and through to Ogden City ; and the day is not 
 distant, when they will push such roads, with their 
 thousand civilizing influences, all through the Flowery 
 Kingdom. 
 
 We crossed the summit just at sunset, and from that 
 proud altitude seven thousand two hundred feet above
 
 DONNER LAKE 431 
 
 the sea gazed down upon that gem of the Sierras, Don- 
 ner Lake a body of crystalline water, five miles long by 
 over half a mile wide, in the very heart of the mountains. 
 The crest of the Sierras lifts itself boldly along the west, 
 but elsewhere the ridges slope down to the Lake, and the 
 hoary peaks and cliffs seem to hold it in their lap, like a 
 sleeping infant. The sunset itself, that evening, was 
 superb. The clouds became gold, the snow burnished sil- 
 ver, while a purple haze sifted down from the sky, and 
 soon veiled exquisitely the lake and its far-stretching 
 canons. As the night gathered deeper, the lights and 
 shadows became grandly sublime ; and then, as a fitting 
 sequel, came one of those glorious skies, ablaze with stars, 
 for which the Coast is so famed. It was blackest marble, 
 gemmed with silver. It seemed to uplift itself into 
 eternity. The whole scene fixed itself indelibly in the 
 memory, and though we saw Lake Tahoe afterwards I 
 preferred this view of Conner Lake. 
 
 In the midst of the falling shadows, we passed the 
 snow-limit, and again betook ourselves to mountain mud- 
 wagons, which farther down we again exchanged for 
 Concord coaches. About 9 p. M. we halted for supper, 
 but were soon on the road again, and striking the 
 Truckee, followed it down until long after sunrise. 
 Once out of the mountains, its valley rapidly broadened ; 
 but here was the rainless region, and sage-brush again 
 prevailed, as in Idaho and Arizona. Here and there, we 
 passed some fair farms ; but irrigation was the secret, 
 and without this, agriculture in Nevada, as elsewhere 
 in the great basin of the continent, will seldom amount 
 to much. The air continued raw and chilly, well 
 into the morning ; but the roads had become dusty 
 and superb, and we bowled along down the mountains 
 and up the wonderful Geiger grade, at a swinging pace,
 
 432 VIRGINIA CITY 
 
 that brought us into Virginia City seventy miles or 
 more from Cisco at about 10 A. M. Here we stopped at 
 the International, then the " swell " house of Virginia 
 City, and found excellent cheer, for the hungry and the 
 weary. 
 
 The next day was Sunday, and though many of the 
 business houses continued open, yet the mines and mills 
 as a rule were silent, and the proportion of church-goers 
 was larger than we expected. Virginia already boasted 
 several creditable churches, and in one of these a noted 
 revivalist from the East (Rev. Mr. E.) was attracting 
 crowds by his zeal and earnestness. His discourse that 
 day was bald to plainness, but direct and searching ; and 
 when, at its close, he invited penitents to rise, a score or 
 more stood up many of them rough and burly men, 
 bathed in tears. He had crossed our path in Oregon in 
 December, and subsequently we had heard of him again 
 in San Francisco, where the press were divided as to his 
 merits. But here in Nevada, he was regarded as a great 
 evangelist, and one enthusiastic journalist asserted that 
 he had added more to the church, during his brief tour 
 on the Coast, than all their parsons before all put together. 
 Some days after, when about to depart for other fields, 
 he was presented with a silver "brick" or two, as appro- 
 priate evidence of Nevada appreciation. 
 
 As a mining town, Virginia City impresses one very 
 favorabty, and her growth seemed steady and real. She 
 already possessed many excellent buildings, and others 
 were fast going up. She sits high and dry, on the side 
 of a silver mountain, six thousand feet above the sea, 
 with a population of some eight or ten thousand souls, 
 with other mountains shouldering away beneath and 
 above her ; and, of course, would never have been at all, 
 had it not been for the lucky discovery of the Comstock
 
 THE OOMSTOCK LODE 433 
 
 Lode. This is the great lode of Nevada, from which the 
 bulk of her silver has been taken, and few of her min- 
 ing operations elsewhere were then paying for themselves. 
 White Pine had not then been discovered (May, '67), and 
 the great enterprises of Nevada, such as Gould & Curry, 
 Yellow Jacket, Ophir, Savage, Crown Point, etc., were all 
 located on the Comstock Lode. This ran along the moun- 
 tain-side, beneath the town, for two or three miles, varying 
 in width from fifty to one hundred feet, and of unknown 
 depth. The Gould & Curry Company had sunk a shaft 
 nearly a thousand feet, and the argentiferous deposits 
 still appeared, more or less richly. Less than a third of 
 the companies then at work on this great lode, however 
 (some thirty in all), were then paying dividends, and the 
 general product of the State, it was conceded, was falling 
 off. One company had spent over a million dollars, in 
 " developing " its property, without striking "pay-ore," 
 and others were following in its footsteps. But others, 
 again, had paid very handsomely. The Gould & Curry, 
 on an investment of less than two hundred thousand 
 dollars from its stockholders, had paid them back four 
 millions in dividends, and altogether had produced over 
 twelve millions in bullion. In one year, it had yielded 
 nearly five millions, with a clear profit of over one 
 million ; but in 1867, it was not promising so well. It 
 had spent vast sums in mining and improvements, with 
 something here and there that looked like extravagance, 
 if not worse. Its magnificent mill, of eighty-stamp 
 power, cost over a million of dollars, and was said to be 
 the largest and finest quartz-mill in the world. This 
 company owned twelve hundred feet of the Comstock 
 Lode, and had dug down nearly a thousand feet in depth, 
 and back and forth fifty times. Its shafts and tunnels 
 measured over two miles under ground, and it had used 
 19
 
 434: THE SUTBO TUNNEL 
 
 more lumber in strengthing its walls, it was said, than 
 was embraced in the whole of Virginia City overhead. 
 We spent an afternoon wandering through its drifts and 
 galleries, part of the time nine hundred and fifty feet 
 beneath the surface, and were amazed at the work that 
 had been done. 
 
 Another, the Yellow Jacket, had yielded over two 
 millions of dollars, and paid its stock-holders nearly 
 four hundred thousand dollars, or fifty thousand more 
 than all their subscriptions and assessments. The 
 Savage had taken out six millions of bullion, and the 
 Ophir over twelve millions; but, as yet, the stock- 
 holders had realized but little, because of bad manage- 
 ment and expensive experiments, that proved failures. 
 This Comstock ore averaged less than forty dollars per 
 ton, more usually only twenty-five to thirty ; but it was 
 less refractory than most American ores, and required 
 only to be crushed and amalgamated to extract the bullion. 
 Better " processes " were continually being looked for, as 
 in Colorado, with which it was hoped much poorer ores 
 would pay well. Selected ores, such as averaged a thou- 
 sand dollars per ton or so, were still shipped to Swansea, 
 Wales, for treatment, though this seemed absurd, con- 
 sidering the distance and expense, and our vast deposits 
 of coal at home. The famous Sutro Tunnel, in behalf 
 of which Congress has since been so earnestly memorial- 
 ized, is a magnificent scheme to tap this great lode at 
 lower levels, where it may be drained and worked at 
 much better advantage ; and, if ever realized, will no 
 doubt result in the Comstock turning out fabulous sums 
 again.* 
 
 The most of the mining capital seemed to be fur- 
 nished by California, and the best-informed people 
 * See Appendix.
 
 MINING GENERALLY. 435 
 
 thought, notwithstanding the large yield of many mines, 
 that she had not yet received back the amount of money 
 she had actually invested. A fair estimate was, that she 
 had put fully a hundred millions into Nevada mines and 
 mills, and had taken out only about sixty millions, leav- 
 ing a balance of forty millions on the wrong side of the 
 ledger yet ; but then there were the shafts and tunnels, 
 the mills and machinery, with large added experience, 
 and 'Frisco capitalists were still hopeful of the future. 
 
 The fluctuations of mining stocks were great and fre- 
 quent, and we watched them with interest while on the 
 Coast. A lucky " strike," probably in some rich " pocket," 
 would send Savage or Yellow Jacket high upon the list 
 for a few days or weeks, when the vein would "peter 
 out," and again it would drop to its former figures or 
 below. Our conclusion was, that silver-mining, after all, 
 is a very risky business. There may be money in it, for 
 superintendents and directors ; but for stockholders, as a 
 rule, very little. The Mexicans have an adage, and they 
 are old and experienced miners, that " it takes a mine 
 to work a mine ; " and that seemed to be about the 
 opinion of the best minds we met with. Miners and 
 mining-life, are much the same everywhere ; and if the 
 reader wants to know more about them, let him turn to 
 Chapter Y., p. 58.
 
 CHAPTER XXYIH. 
 
 VIRGINIA CITY TO STOCKTON. 
 
 AFTER concluding my duties at Fort Churchill, 
 some thirty miles east on the road to Austin, we - 
 returned again to Yirginia City, and on the morning of 
 May 22d took the coach for California again. As we 
 had come over by Cisco and Donner Lake, we decided 
 to return by Lake Tahoe and Placerville, and thus see as 
 much of the country both ways as possible. Our route 
 lay first through Carson City and Genoa, and thence 
 across the Sierras by Lake Tahoe to Placerville. The 
 sun shone clear, but cool, as we swung out of the Silver 
 City, amidst rolling clouds of dust ; but when we 
 reached the grease-wood and sage plains, it speedily grew 
 warmer. We found Carson a diminutive " city," noted 
 chiefly for its penitentiary, and pushed rapidly ahead 
 all day. We threaded the valley of the Carson, and 
 striking the Sierras skirted their base for miles; but 
 finally turned square west, and zigzagged over the first 
 range, by a splendid turnpike, that is unsurpassed any- 
 where. The range was so abrupt, and the road so sharp, 
 that the summit seemed higher than it really was ; but 
 when we reached there, we were repaid by a magnificent 
 view of the valley of the Carson, and the far-stretch- 
 ing sage and alkali plains of Nevada. So far, we had 
 encountered no snow ; but when we approached the 
 second range, or Mother Ridge of the Sierras, we found
 
 KOUQH STAGE-CO A.CHING 437 
 
 it snow-crowned still, and prepared ourselves for the 
 worst. 
 
 At Yank's Station, where we changed horses just at 
 nightfall, they reported the road ahead as not good enough 
 for sleighs, and too bad for coaches ; but concluded, 
 on the whole, we had better risk a coach. So, after a 
 hearty supper, we set off in a Concord coach, being the 
 first one over the Placerville route that spring. We had 
 a full load nine passengers inside and four outside, in- 
 cluding two ladies and three children ; but our six horses 
 were fresh and gamey, and for a time we swung along 
 at a spanking pace. Halfway up the range, however, 
 we struck the ice and slush, and soon came to a dead 
 halt, with a request from the driver for all to get out and 
 walk, except the ladies and children. With only these 
 on board, the coach forged ahead for a mile or so more, 
 when again it halted, and these, too, were ordered out. 
 Two of the children were small, only four or five years 
 of age, and these the rest of the passengers chivalrously 
 agreed to shoulder and carry by turns. The road was 
 itself quite steep ; its bed, mingled ice and slush ; while 
 on either side were still four or five feet of snow, 
 as on the Donner Lake route. It ascended the range 
 by long zigzags, and some who attempted a " short cut " 
 across these, trusting the snow, soon found themselves 
 up to their waists or shoulders in it. It was slow and 
 painful travelling at best, especially with a child on your 
 back ; but the coach progressed still slower, and often 
 we heard it floundering along far below us, or wholly 
 stalled in some villainous chuck-hole, worse than the rest. 
 
 Reaching the summit at last, near midnight, by such 
 long and toilsome climbing, we there found a rough 
 station, where we dried our feet and clothes, and got 
 fresh horses, after which wp pushed on again now,
 
 438 GERTRUDE JANE 
 
 however, sticking by the coach, and helping to lift it 
 out, and urge it along from time to time as needed. 
 Sometimes, it seemed hopelessly stalled, especially when 
 it got wedged in, besides, against one of the snow-walls ; 
 but by lifting and prying, and much faithful shouting, 
 we always managed somehow to pull out, and at last 
 struck terra firma again along toward morning. But we 
 were six mortal hours, in making less than ten miles, 
 across this range ; and what with trudging through the 
 slush, helping the ladies forward, and carrying the child- 
 ren, it was altogether one of the worst night-journeys I 
 ever experienced. If anybody thinks differently, let 
 him try his hand at carrying fifty pounds of childhood, 
 up a slushy road, six miles more or less across a moun- 
 tain, through the chilly night air, about midnight and after. 
 When happily we regained the coach, after passing the 
 enow, we supposed our troubles about over; but an 
 ambitious mother from Virginia City, en route to San 
 Francisco, left her Gertrude Jane unselfishly to me, 
 while she herself sank gracefully into a corner of the 
 coach, and went deliberately to sleep. It was, perhaps, 
 characteristic of her sex on the Coast, where women are 
 BO few, they are over-appreciated ; but to the Eastern 
 mind, I confess, it seemed somewhat too much of a good 
 thing, considering the premises. 
 
 Once out of the snow, we struck comparatively good 
 roads again, and whirled along down and out of the 
 mountains at a magnificent rate. Our general pace was 
 a good square trot, but we swung around the zigzags 
 usually at a sharp gallop, and often shaved the edge of 
 cliffs so closely, that it made the goose-flesh come and go, 
 or one's hair about stand on end. "With the first break 
 of day, I sought the outside of the coach, and revelled 
 in the ride through the breezy pines of the Sierras
 
 LAKE TAHOE 439 
 
 monster coiiiferae, teii and twelve feet through, and run- 
 ning up straight as an arrow by the hundred feet and 
 BO down the range to Lake Tahoe. This (Tahoe) is the 
 gem of the Sierras, par excellence, according to all good 
 Californians ; and one scarcely wonders at their immense 
 pride in it. Itself six thousand feet above the sea, 
 skirted with primeval forests, rimmed about with snow- 
 clad peaks, it stretches wide for ten or twelve miles, and 
 its waters are so pure and clear, that trout may be seen at 
 all depths in it. It had already become a popular resort 
 for all the Pacific Coast, and waited only for the com- 
 pletion of the railroad, to welcome visitors from the 
 East. Here was the limpid heart of the Sierras ; and the 
 wild, the picturesque, and the sublime, all combined to 
 enhance its conceded beauty. California herself, ever 
 alive to her own interests, was also entertaining some very 
 utilitarian views with regard to it. A long-headed, 
 broad-minded German engineer proposed to tap it, by 
 tunnelling through the Sierras, and conducting its crystal 
 waters across the State first utilizing them as water- 
 power and a grand irrigating canal en route as wanted, 
 and at the terminus supplying Sail Francisco with un- 
 impeachable water. It was a gigantic project, involving 
 many millions ; but was already much talked of, and was 
 just the kind of scheme to interest the minds, and lighten 
 the pockets, of good Californians. 
 
 Past Lake Tahoe, we whirled over and down the 
 mountains at a telling pace by the side of rushing 
 torrents, amidst aromatic pines, along the dizzy edge of 
 precipices it was the very romance of stage-coaching 
 and drew up at Shingle Station, on the Placerville and 
 Sacramento Railroad, at 11 A. M., having come 116 miles 
 since leaving Virginia City, only the day before, despite 
 the snow on the summit. At Placerville, we struck tho
 
 440 PLACERVILLE SACRAMENTO 
 
 original gold-fields of California, and saw abundant 
 evidences of past washings on all sides of us. These 
 were now mostly abandoned, except by the Chinese, 
 who here and there were still patiently at work, content 
 to glean what Americans despised. Placerville itself, in 
 the then early spring, was one mass of perfect roses and 
 foliage. The balmy breath of summer seemed every- 
 where at work, and the climate reminded one rather of 
 Charleston or Savannah in May or June. Her ragged 
 hillsides, abandoned by the miner, were everywhere 
 changing into vineyards and orchards, while skillful 
 irrigation was rapidly converting her waste lands into 
 productive farms. Once out of the foot-hills, we again 
 struck the lordly wheat-fields, and thence on to Sacra- 
 mento we were never out of sight of broad acres of 
 waving grain. 
 
 At Sacramento, we found hearty welcome, and good 
 hotels, and tarried there for a day or so. It was then a 
 city of fifteen or twenty thousand people, and though not 
 prospering as in former years, as capital of the State and 
 the centre of a magnificent farming district, was yet cer- 
 tain of its future. Here, as at Placerville, the wealth 
 of roses was something surprising, and indeed the whole 
 city seemed to be a wilderness of color and perfume. It 
 is difficult for one residing on the Atlantic slope, to real- 
 ize how richly California is endowed with flowers. To 
 us, here, they were a constant wonder and delight, 
 though this may have partly come from our sudden 
 transition from the snows of the Sierras. 
 
 From Sacramento, we rode over to Stockton, some 
 fifty miles, leaving at 6 A. M. and reaching there at 1 P. 
 M. As there were but few passengers, we had the coach 
 pretty much to ourselves, and the ride proved delightful, 
 barring the dust. Our route lay mainly down the valley
 
 THE WHEAT-FIELDS 441 
 
 of the Sacramento proper, and we found the country a 
 dead level or gently rolling, not unlike an Illinois prairie, 
 though diversified here and there with groups of live- 
 oaks, festooned with Spanish moss. Now and then these 
 oaks thickened into respectable groves, but nowhere did 
 they seem to amount to much as timber. The soil was 
 everywhere black and deep, all a farmer's heart could 
 wish, and there appeared to be literally no end to the 
 wide-stretching wheat-fields. They skirted the road for 
 miles, on every side, and our driver was continually 
 pointing out to us this hundred or that thousand acre 
 wheat-field. Wheat seemed too much their main crop, 
 though vineyards and fruit-orchards were not infrequent, 
 and on the " divides " we here and there saw some large 
 flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, quietly feeding under 
 their native rancheros. Evidently their breadth of wheat- 
 land was constantly extending. When California first 
 began to grow wheat, for several years it was thought 
 the bottom-lands were the only ones worth cultivating. 
 But it was found that good crops could also be grown 
 on her uplands, and year by year more of these were 
 now being reclaimed and sown. Unlike other crops, her 
 wheat nowhere requires irrigation ; but, sown late in the 
 fall or early winter, it germinates beneath the December 
 rains, grows rapidly all winter, and by May is ready to 
 harvest. Her long and rainless summer affords ample 
 leisure to gather and market it no granaries or barns 
 being required ; and the reported yield 50 to 80 bushels 
 to the acre seems fabulous to any one, but a Californian. 
 Her fruit and vegetable fields require regular irriga- 
 tion, the same as in Colorado and Utah ; and wherever 
 these appeared, long-armed windmills wearily beat the 
 air, pumping water to the surface. The steady sea- 
 breeze of the long summer renders these very reliable, 
 19*
 
 442 STOCKTON. 
 
 and California everywhere had been quick to adopt them. 
 All about Stockton, they stood gaunt and skeleton-like 
 against the sky, like a cordon of ghostly sentinels ; but 
 they seemed to serve their purpose admirably well, and 
 this was the main thing. The water they lifted to the 
 surface was conducted by troughs and ditches hundreds 
 of yards away, as needed, everywhere converting the 
 parched and arid earth into bountiful fields and gardens. 
 Stockton seemed literally embosomed in these, foliage 
 and flowers abounding on all sides, and her climate 
 appeared perfect even for California. At the head of 
 steamboat navigation on the San Joaquin, she gathered 
 into her lap the trade and travel of a wide district there, 
 and was already a busy and thriving town of several 
 thousand inhabitants. Of course, she has no great and 
 magnificent future, like San Francisco ; but as an impor- 
 tant inland city, doubtless she will continue to grow and 
 prosper for many years to come.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 STOCKTON TO THE TOSEMITE. 
 
 TT'ERE at Stockton, I had expected to find friends 
 -LJL from San Francisco, to go through to the Yosemite 
 with me, and return. ( Yo-Sem-i-te, big-grizzly bear.) 
 But, instead, I found letters, begging off, on the plea, 
 that it was yet too early in the season to venture there. 
 It was, indeed, rather later than usual ; but the previous 
 winter had been a severe one, and in San Francisco, they 
 said, the snow was still too deep on the mountains, to 
 reach the far-famed valley. This was all very well for 
 them, being residents on the Coast. But my official duties 
 there were now substantially over ; there was only about 
 a fortnight or so left, before the steamer sailed on which 
 I had engaged passage ; and the question with me was, 
 whether now, or perhaps never, to see California's (if 
 not the world's) chiefest wonder. I inquired at the 
 Stockton hotels, but could find no one en route to the 
 Yosemite ; and finally concluded I must go alone, or not 
 at all.* At last, however, I heard of two Englishmen 
 who had just returned, declaring the route practicable 
 via, Coulter ville ; but alleging they were the only ones, 
 who had been in and out that season. This decided me, 
 
 * Perhaps I should add, my friend Dr. M. had already returned 
 East, via Hong Kong and Calcutta, around the world ; and L. was in 
 San Francisco, suffering from the ague.
 
 444 OFF FOE THE TOSEMITE 
 
 especially as I preferred to be on the move, rather than 
 idling in San Francisco until my steamer sailed. 
 
 Accordingly, I took the stage early next morning 
 (May 25th) for Coulterville, and reached there the same 
 evening. My design was to go in by the Coulterville 
 route, and come out by the Mariposa, so as to visit the 
 Mariposa Grove of Big Trees also, if possible ; but, fail- 
 ing that, to return by Coulterville. The first twenty-five 
 miles of the road from Stockton was through a- sea of 
 lordly wheat-fields, like the ride from Sacramento ; but, 
 after that we struck the more barren foot-hills, and 
 settlements soon became fewer and poorer. Our general 
 course was up the valley of the San Joaquin and its 
 tributaries the Stanislaus and the Tuolomne with the 
 country gradually rising, and the Coast Range looming 
 always grandly against the west. The latter half of the 
 way was dreary and desolate, the arid hills and plains 
 stretching on all sides around ; and we hailed with joy 
 the lovely view of the Merced Valley, that betokened 
 our approach to Coulterville. We had several passengers 
 thus far, evidently men intent on mines or other local 
 business, and Coulterville gave us a kindly evening 
 welcome. 
 
 The next morning a guide was found, who guaran- 
 teed to take me into the valley and back, if I could 
 stand a little rough riding and walking ; and after an 
 early dinner we set cheerily out. He could not promise 
 to bring me out by the Mariposa trail, but he would 
 do the best he could, and in this I had faith. The dis- 
 tance to the Yosemite was still some fifty-five miles, too 
 much for one day's journey, and we decided to go no far- 
 ther than Black's, some eighteen miles on, the first day. 
 The wagon-road terminated practically at Coulterville, 
 and from here we proceeded on horseback, over a wan-
 
 BOWER CAVE BLACK 's 445 
 
 dering mountain trail, that seemed specially designed to 
 bring out all the finest views in the country. My horse 
 was a mustang pony, named Punty, small but sure of 
 foot, and as brave and faithful a little creature as ever 
 lived. The day was glorious. The sky was without a 
 cloud. The atmosphere seemed, indeed, like "wine of 
 airy gold." The pines of the foot-hills and mountains 
 perfumed every breeze, and every sense seemed satisfied 
 and full. As we had ample time, we allowed our horses 
 to take their " own sweet will," and whiled the afternoon 
 away in chat and song. My guide, Capt. Coulter, was a 
 companionable young fellow, who had seen something 
 of army life among the California Volunteers, and we 
 got on together very well. 
 
 At Bower Cave, halfway or so along, we halted to 
 give the horses a brief rest, and meanwhile explored 
 the little bijou of a cave there, which is quite perfect 
 in its way. It is a natural cave, several hundred feet in 
 extent, in a limestone bluff there, with a pool of water 
 in one corner, forty feet deep, and clear as crystal. At 
 the bottom of the cave are several petrified trees, while 
 from its mouth uprises a group of stately maples, that 
 spread their umbrageous branches like a canopy over all. 
 At a little distance, they quite conceal the entrance to 
 the cave ; but down in the cave, looking up, the light 
 breaks through their multitudinous leaves, and illuminates 
 the cave and pool to the very bottom. Thence, we pro- 
 ceeded on to Black's, in a sheltered nook, well among 
 the mountains, where we found plain but excellent 
 entertainment, and went early to bed, with the roses 
 crowding about our windows, and the irrigating streams 
 that gave life to them murmuring in our ears. Here, as 
 elsewhere in California, irrigation was still essential ; but 
 Mr. Black had caught and tamed a mountain rivulet led
 
 446 A FINE HORSEBACK BIDE 
 
 it indeed everywhere and wherever it went, it worked 
 wonders, in that virgin soil and matchless climate. 
 
 The next morning, we were up bright and early, 
 though withal a little stiff and sore, and at 6 A. M. were 
 off for the Yoseraite again. Like the day before, only 
 hourly more and more so, the trail still wound up, and 
 along, and over the ridges and mountains now through 
 deep forests of primeval pines, that would be monsters 
 anywhere else, where our horses sank to their fetlocks in 
 mosses of emerald green, and now along some rocky 
 bluff, naked and barren, whence we could gaze for miles 
 on miles across ravine and ridge, wooded mountain and 
 arid plain, to the purple Coast Range beyond. Often I 
 reined Punty in, and gazed with delighted eyes over such 
 glorious scenes and far-away landscapes, as we are never 
 permitted to see East. There was a purity and clearness 
 about the air, that lent long range to the vision ; and 
 besides, our elevation above the sea had now become so 
 great, that the foot-hills seemed merged into the plains. 
 At times, there came'a feeling of loneliness only two of 
 us thus together, adrift among the Sierras ; but the ever- 
 changing landscape soon banished this again, and through- 
 out the day every sense seemed tilled to the utmost. 
 This magnificent horseback ride, through the foot-hills 
 and up the Sierras, over and along their flanks and sum- 
 mits, alone repaid me for all the toil and fatigue of the 
 trip ; and then, there was the Yosemite, and other experi- 
 ences besides. 
 
 When we got within five or six miles of the Yose- 
 mite, however, we struck the snow, and the remainder of 
 our ride became chiefly a plunge and flounder. The 
 snow still lay several feet in depth, over most of this dis- 
 tance, completely hiding the trail in many places, so that 
 my guide frequently became lost. A pocket-compass,
 
 FIRST VIEW OF THE TOSEM1TE 447 
 
 and his own keen eye for topography, however, usually 
 soon put us right again, and so we floundered on deter- 
 mined to get through, if possible. In places, the snow had 
 a stout crust, which bore both us and the horses up, and 
 here we would mount and ride along quite gayly. But, 
 in an unguarded moment, when we were thinking the 
 worst was over, or that we were almost out of the snow- 
 limit, suddenly our mustangs would go in to their saddle- 
 girths ; and then, there was nothing left for us but to dis- 
 mount (if we were not already sprawling in the snow), and 
 coax them forward the best we could. This kind of travel- 
 ling told quickly upon our animals, and severely ; how- 
 ever, we got along better than we expected, and late in the 
 afternoon, emerging from the snow and pines, we rounded 
 a rocky bluff, and before us in a moment yawned the 
 Yosemite. At our feet lay the wonderful valley how 
 sublime and glorious ! Before us swayed the Bridal Veil, 
 in all its grace and beauty. To the left was El Capitan, 
 looming up in solemn grandeur. Beyond stood Sentinel 
 Peak, piercing the clouds ; and still beyond, the great 
 South Dome, propping the very sky. We reined our 
 horses in for a while, feasting our eyes on the general 
 view ; but soon hastened on again, as the day was waning, 
 and the descent into the valley yet to be accomplished. 
 
 Soon we struck a brace of foaming torrents, that shot 
 across our pathway like feathery arrows, and sped to join 
 the lovely Merced in the far valley below. Ordinarily, 
 these were but mountain rivulets ; but now they were 
 fierce and swollen, because of the melting snows, and as 
 they were unbridged, the only way was to ford them. 
 We tried the usual ford, but found it so deep and swift, 
 and rocky withal, that we were afraid to venture it. 
 Finally, Capt. Coulter suggested, that if I would cross by 
 some fallen trees farther up, that nearly met and made a
 
 448 A PLUCKY PONT 
 
 sort of foot-bridge there, he thought he could make Punty 
 swim the streams, swollen and rocky as they were, when 
 the other horse would be likely to follow suit. So, taking 
 off his saddle and bridle, and shouldering these and my 
 roll of blankets, I cautiously made my way over the 
 tangled trees, and presently succeeded in reaching the 
 other side in safety. From here, I called to Punty to 
 come over, while Capt. O. urged him in. At first, he 
 whinnied, as if he knew what was wanted of him ; then 
 ventured into the icy water, and shrank out again, as if 
 uncertain of himself. But, finally, with more coaxing 
 and urging, the plucky little fellow plunged courageously 
 in, and though the current bore him considerably down, 
 and the rocks bruised him cruelly, at length he reached 
 my side in safety. He walked up to me, a wet and 
 dripping thing, but eager for the biscuit with which I 
 rewarded him ; and, as he munched it, rubbed his nose 
 familiarly against my shoulder, as if to testify his good- 
 will. An exchange of whinnies, now, soon brought the 
 other horse over, after a little urging ; and Capt. C. cross- 
 ing also by the trees, we quickly saddled up, and were off 
 again. A long and rather perilous descent, over a rocky 
 and precipitous trail, not yet repaired after the spring 
 washings, brought us at last down into the valley ; and 
 soon after 6 p. M. we reached Hutchings'. In truth, it 
 was a hard day's ride, after all. We had been twelve 
 hours in the saddle, first and last ; but had come thirty- 
 seven miles, over an ugly road, and were the first 
 Americans of the season in the Yosemite. 
 
 Here, at Hutchings', I spent three days in the Yose- 
 mite ; but scarcely know where to begin, or how to speak 
 about it. They were all perfect days in point of weather, 
 and with Mr. Hutchings usually as guide, I made the 
 most of them. He was then one of the only two settlers
 
 AT HUTCHINGS' 449 
 
 in the Toseraite, and bis house the only real place of 
 entertainment there. An artist and an author himself of 
 considerable merit, more than a man of business, he had 
 chosen the Yosemite out of all the Pacific Coast, as the 
 best place to live and die in ; and was content to be shut 
 up here, from October to June of each year, without even 
 a newspaper or a word from the outside world, during 
 that period. From June to the last of September, he 
 always had more or less company, the influx of sight-seers 
 being pretty steady and constant; but, after that, the 
 snows interfered with travel, and with his family he 
 hibernated there the rest of the year. With rare taste 
 for the picturesque and the sublime, he had located his 
 house only a rough shanty then, but meant to grow into 
 something better in the very heart of the valley, with 
 huge and massive El Capitan in front, the incomparable 
 Yosemite Falls to the right, and the spire-like Sentinel 
 Peak just off to the left. Standing on his lawn, you take 
 all these grand and majestic features in at one view, and 
 at the same time obtain a general view of the valley from 
 there, I think, unsurpassed elsewhere down in it. 
 
 The first day, we took horses and rambled leisurely 
 through the valley, crossing and recrossing from side to 
 side, as the views were finest ; and, much as had been an- 
 ticipated, I confess, I was overwhelmed with admiration 
 and delight. The valley itself, running about east and 
 west, is some five miles long by a half-mile wide, and 
 seems to be a fissure or crevice in the heart of the Sierras 
 there ; or rather, as if the bottom had here dropped out of 
 the mountains, and the lofty Sierras had sunk to a level 
 with the plain. The sharp, almost perpendicular, sides of 
 the valley give you this impression further, and it is hard 
 to account for its features otherwise, though some claim 
 it all as the work of erosion, like the glen at "VVatkins, or
 
 4:50 THE SOUTH DOME, AND WALLS 
 
 the gorge at Niagara. Its walls are often quite perpen- 
 dicular, half a mile or more in height ; and its wonderful 
 South Dome, rearing its crest six thousand four hundred 
 feet above the level of the valley, or a mile and a quarter 
 high, seems split half in two, as if one half had suddenly 
 disappeared, with its northern face so sharp, that a stone 
 dropped from its edge would fall to the bottom without 
 striking. This had never yet been ascended, and proba- 
 bly never will be its remaining half-dome is so smooth 
 and globular. 
 
 The general color of the walls is a grayish yellow, but 
 here and there they are mottled with green and black ; 
 and usually in every niche and crevice, where a tree can 
 gain a foothold, great spruces and pines grow luxuriantly. 
 In many places, however, its walls stand sheer and bare, 
 great masses of honest granite, from half a mile to a mile 
 perpendicularly ; and, perhaps, I can't give a better 
 impression of them, than by saying, that if either of them 
 was toppled over, in many instances it would fill the 
 valley and more. Up above, on the summit of the range, 
 enow lies more or less the year round ; but down below, 
 in the heart of the valley, you have the general climate 
 of California outside, but without its aridity, for here 
 showers prevail in summer, as in the East. When I was 
 there, the snow still lay five and six feet deep on top of 
 the walls and domes ; but below, the valley was a June 
 meadow, rich with herbage, with groves of pine and fir 
 scattered here and there, shooting up two and three 
 hundred feet into the air, but dwarfed into saplings 
 apparently by the majestic walls. Birch, willow, and 
 dogwood lined the streams ; the primrose, violet, and 
 other early flowers dotted the lawns ; the bluebird, the 
 robin, and the bobolink
 
 BKIDAL VEIL AND YOSEMITE FALLS 451 
 
 " June's bridesman, poet o' the year, 
 Gladness on wings " 
 
 twittered among the trees ; and on every side, wherever 
 we walked or rode, the wild strawberries were ripening 
 in the grass, and perfuming the breeze. 
 
 Here and there, plunging over the lofty walls, were 
 waterfalls of surpassing beanty, some a mere line of mist, 
 tossed hither and yon by the passing wind, like a veil of 
 gauze, and others thundering down with a voice approach- 
 ing even Niagara's. Later in the season, when the snows 
 measurably disappear, these falls of course become much 
 shrunken in size, and visitors behold them then shorn in 
 part of their beauty and sublimity. But just then, so 
 early in the season, they gave one full greeting, and I 
 counted a score or more from different points thundering 
 in chorus. "We rode to the foot of the Bridal Veil, 
 usually a sheet of misty gauze, but now a roaring cata- 
 ract, and gazed up nine hundred feet, to where it leaped 
 from the southern wall. Then we crossed to El Capitan, 
 a massive bastion or angle in the northern wall, of solid 
 granite, rising sheer into the air for three-quarters of a 
 mile without a break, except a niche one-third of the 
 way up, where a tall fir has gained a foothold, and will 
 never be molested by hand of man. Thence, we turned 
 and rode up the valley, to where the Yosemite Fall 
 plunged boldly out from the northern wall, like a thing 
 of life, and thundered headlong down twenty-six hundred 
 feet, or fifteen times the height of Niagara. Above, 
 where it leaped from the cliff, and afterwards, it seemed 
 a goodly river ; but long before it reached the bottom, 
 it became a column of mist, which the wind swayed to 
 and fro at will, but whose thunder yet shook the valley. 
 From there, we rode back to Hutchings' ; and that night, 
 when the moon rose and from a cloudless sky flooded the
 
 452 NORTH DOME AND SOUTH FORK 
 
 valley with her silver light, Nature seemed to be en- 
 deavoring to out-do herself in our behalf. 
 
 The next day, we rode up the Merced River, which 
 winds through the valley and drains it a stream ten or 
 twelve feet deep by twice as many } r ards in width, so pure 
 and clear you may everywhere count the pebbles at the 
 bottom to the Lake, and Domes. The former is a small 
 sheet of water, of wonderful clearness, that reflects the 
 surrounding mountains and falls, like a mirror ; the lat- 
 ter are dome-like masses of naked rock, peculiar to the 
 Coast scenery, crowning the Sierras just there. Of the 
 South Dome, I have already spoken ; the North Dome 
 is inferior in size and height, but is complete as a dome, 
 and wonderful to behold. A dozen such domes as crown 
 the capitol at Washington could readily be put inside 
 of it, and there would be room for several more. From 
 here, turning an angle of the South Dome, we caught a 
 superb view of the South Fork of the Merced, as it came 
 tumbling over the mountain wall, a mile or more away, 
 an unbroken mass of foam. At that distance, it seemed a 
 sheet of fleecy whiteness purest lamb's wool hundreds 
 of feet in height, and the rocks and trees framed it in 
 as a picture. Returning, we rode again to the grand 
 Tosemite Fall, and tying our horses, started to climb to 
 the foot of the fall, which seemed not very far above us ; 
 but again California air deceived us, and after toiling for 
 two or three hours up the mountain-side, from bush to 
 bush and rock to rock, without reaching it, we were 
 forced to retrace our steps by the approach of evening, 
 
 The next morning, we saw a thin smoke curling 
 above the trees in the lower part of the valley, and after 
 breakfast had the pleasure of greeting Professor Whit- 
 ney and party, of the State Geological Survey. They 
 had been out for weeks, geologizing along the Sierras
 
 CASCADES AND VERNAL FALL 453 
 
 Bouth of the Yosemite, and had entered the valley the 
 evening before by the Mariposa trail, to repeat some tri- 
 angulations and surveys they were not quite certain of. 
 They reported the Mariposa route as rather rough, but 
 practicable, and this was good news, as they were the 
 pioneers of the season that way. There were five or six 
 in the party, all active, athletic men, as keen to walk and 
 climb as to analyze and cipher. They travelled with a 
 pack-train, and " camped out " invariably, and their Bed- 
 ouin habits had made them all as brown as berries. Greet- 
 ings over, our horses were soon at the door, and presently, 
 we all set off together for the Yernal and Nevada Falls. 
 A mile or so above Hutchings', we struck the main branch 
 of the Merced, and turning up its bank soon found the as- 
 cent too difficult for horses. Dismounting and turning our 
 animals loose to graze, we proceeded on foot by a narrow 
 trail, that wound along beneath umbrageous pines and 
 firs, just on the margin of the river, which here foamed 
 and roared at our feet a rushing cascade for a mile or 
 more. Hounding a shoulder of the canon, the spray 
 from the Yernal Fall suddenly wet us to the skin ; but 
 exquisite rainbows, perfect in form and color, began to 
 flame and circle around us, until it almost seemed as if 
 you could put their many-colored ends in your pockets. 
 Rainbows quadrants and semi-circles may often be 
 seen elsewhere ; but these were perfect circles, whirling 
 around and about us, and most intense in color. Moist 
 as we were, w r e all stopped to enjoy the scene, and were 
 reluctant to move onward. 
 
 Here, at the Yernal Fall, the whole mass of the Mer- 
 ced drops 350 feet, without a brt-ftk, and the volume of 
 water just then was very great. Stairways and ladders 
 carry you to the top, and here a natural wall or breast- 
 work of solid granite enables you to lean out and overlook
 
 4:54 NEVADA FALL, ETC. - 
 
 the Fall, and Cascades, and wild canon beyond, without a 
 tremor. Above, the river comes shooting like an arrow, 
 over half a mile of polished granite, from the base of the 
 upper or Nevada Fall. There the Merced makes another 
 leap, of seven hundred feet in all ; but half-way down, the 
 rock shelves just sufficiently to keep the water on the flow, 
 whence it pours in hurrying sheets of lace-like foam to 
 the bottom. The water here seemed really instinct with 
 life and motion ; the long lines of gauzy foam circled ever 
 downward and onward ; and the whole seemed like one 
 vast drapery of living lace, which Nature was here ever 
 weaving to deck the Yosemite. Valenciennes and point- 
 lace capes and collars, were never so airy and exquisite ; 
 but here they fell, and flowed, and circled, in snowiest 
 tracery, by the million. 
 
 Returning by Mt. Broderick, we rode down to Senti- 
 nel Peak and Cathedral Rock, with Prof. Whitney and 
 party, having much interesting and delightful talk by 
 the way, and reached Hutchings' again at nightfall. The 
 day had been a fatiguing one, so much of the route was 
 wild and rocky ; and I retired early, foot-sore and leg- 
 weary. Altogether, however, the day was very rich and 
 enjoyable ; and I look back upon it now, as one of the 
 noblest and best I spent on the Coast. The views of the 
 Yosemite were everywhere sublime and picturesque ; and 
 at sunset, we beheld " parting day " still playing among 
 the Sierras, while the Merced and meadows down below 
 were already in shadowy twilight. In fact, down in the 
 valley, looking up, you never see but a mere ribbon-like 
 line of sky at best, flanked on either side by mountains ; 
 and hi winter, for half the morning and half the after- 
 noon, the sun is never visible from Hutchings' at all. 
 The Yosemite is simply an open tunnel, so to speak, 
 half a mile or more deep, in the heart of the Sierras,
 
 THE TOSEMITE IN WINTEB. 455 
 
 and in winter -time the sunlight cannot have much 
 chance there, except about mid-day. Doubtless the 
 snow and ice there then must be something gorgeous, 
 and sublime glaciers trailing from the walls, and ava- 
 lanches now and then thundering from the heights 
 above, to the far depths below.
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 THE YOSEMITE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 THE next morning (May 31st), I bade good-bye to 
 Mr. Hntchings, most hospitable of hosts and gra- 
 cious of guides, and started to return ma Mariposa. In 
 addition to Capt. Coulter, I now had Mr. Galen Clark 
 also, who had piloted Prof. Whitney in from the Mari- 
 posa Grove of Big Trees. Trotting down through the 
 meadow-like valley, we reached the Professor's camp, and 
 found them just packing up, for their return via Coulter- 
 ville. With a hearty hand-shake all around and mutual 
 promises to meet again at Stockton, if possible, we 
 parted, and continued on down the valley, past El Capi- 
 tan, sublimest of mountains, the Three Brothers, and 
 Bridal Yeil Fall ; and, at length, turning to the left, 
 struck the Mariposa trail. One would naturally suppose, 
 that an exit might be found by following the river down ; 
 but the Merced passes out between perpendicular walls 
 of vast height, miles in extent, so that the only way 
 into or out of the valley then was by the old Indian 
 trails to Coulterville or Mariposa.* 
 
 The Mariposa trail runs by sharp zigzags up the south- 
 ern wall, taking advantage of every rock and bush where 
 an Indian could find a foot-hold, and we found it a long and 
 
 * Now, I believe, a carriage-road has been blasted out, following 
 the Merced. But what it adds in comfort, it must lose in scenery.
 
 INSPIEATION POINT 457 
 
 toilsome climb, before we got to the top. We were over 
 an hour by the watch ; but when, at last, we rounded 
 the last bend, and stood perspiring and breathless on the 
 jutting ledge of Inspiration Point, what a view opened 
 before us ! From here, you get, perhaps, the best general 
 view of the Yosemite, as a whole, that can be had ; and 
 as the eye sweeps over its peaks and domes, its battle- 
 ment and towers its massive walls, its flashing streams, 
 its foaming cataracts its fragrant groves and sleeping 
 meadows the soul swells with unutterable joy; or, 
 rather, your whole being bows down in reverence and 
 awe. To the right, the exquisitely beautiful Bridal 
 Veil Fall descends, wreathed in mists and rainbows. 
 Beyond, the Three Brothers and Sentinel Peak pierce 
 the heavens. To the left, in solemn and awful grandeur, 
 stands El Capitan, severe and self-centred monarch of 
 the vale dominating all. Beyond, the incomparable 
 Yosemite Fall, as if pouring from the clouds, leaps and 
 sways and thunders its mist at times streaming like a 
 gorgeous pennon, its deep-toned base a perpetual Te 
 Deurn. While farther still, towering above all, clear 
 cut and distinct against the sapphire sky, the great 
 South Dome rears its awful front, as if the visage of the 
 Almighty, and bids the universe bow down and wor- 
 ship. Clinging to a gnarled and stunted tree, out-grown 
 from the very granite, we crept far out upon the rocky 
 ledge, and there seemed literally enfolded by the In- 
 finite. 
 
 The overwhelming sublimity, the awful loneliness 
 and desolation of the scene its solemn beauty and 
 grandeur were simply unutterable. It was a place 
 to make one feel the littleness of all -human achieve- 
 ments, and to lead a man out of himself up to God. 
 It was the confrontal of God, face to face, as in 
 
 20
 
 458 THE HERMITAGE 
 
 moments of great danger, or in solemn and sndden 
 death. It was the perilous edge of battle. It was storm 
 and shipwreck. It was Niagara, many times magnified. 
 It was Switzerland, condensed into a coup cToeil. I had 
 stood on the Rocky Mountains ; I had descended the 
 Columbia ; I had crossed the Sierras. But the Yose- 
 mite was all of these, and more, compressed into one 
 view ; and, surely, our planet has not its equal. Most 
 fittingly has Congress set the Yosemite apart from the 
 public domain, and consecrated it to mankind, as a 
 National Park and pleasure-ground forever. Let it 
 n-ever be degraded to lower uses. So far it was yet 
 free from debasing associations, and California, as its 
 natural guardian, must keep it so. Beyond the necessary 
 paths and bridges, it had so far escaped our so-called 
 " improvements ; " and hereafter, as heretofore, it is to 
 be hoped, Nature will be allowed to work her own sweet 
 will there, unchecked by the hand of man. 
 
 But our stay there was over, and lifting our hats we 
 bade the Yosemite a reverent good-bye, and mounting 
 our horses, turned our faces towards Mariposa. A short 
 ride along the well-defined trail, over crackling pine 
 leaves and gigantic cones, brought us to the Hermitage 
 a huge sugar-pine, ten or twelve feet in diameter, 
 hollow in the centre, where a Calif ornian aforetime had 
 made his home, closing the entrance with a rude door. 
 It afforded him a goodly-sized room, much better than 
 many of the border cabins ; and here, in the midst of 
 the gigantic pines, miles away from any human habita- 
 tion, as he swung his axe or boiled his pot, he musthaTe 
 had Solitude to his heart's content. 
 
 Passing on, we soon struck the snow, and for five or 
 six miles again, as when coming into the valley, we again 
 had a decidedly " hard road to travel." To plunge and
 
 A GKIZZLY BEAR AND CUBS 459 
 
 flounder along so, through snow-field after snow-field, 
 was tedious and toilsome in the extreme ; but there was 
 no help for us, and we struggled on. A mile or so from 
 Inspiration Point, in crossing an open glade, where the 
 snow had melted into a pool, we caught sight of grouse 
 and deer ; but they were off before Clark, an experi- 
 enced hunter, could get a shot at them. Some two miles 
 farther on, we came out into a larger opening, and as 
 we lifted our eyes from the blinding snow saw, right 
 across our trail, a hundred yards or so ahead, a huge she- 
 grizzly and two young cubs. We were all on foot, lead- 
 ing our horses over the snow the best we could Capt. 
 Coulter behind, Clark and I some yards ahead abreast of 
 each other our only weapons our trusty revolvers, and 
 a long single-barrelled rifle of Clark's. My own good 
 Spencer carbine (seven-shooter), that I had carried so 
 faithfully across the continent, and through Arizona, 
 without occasion to use it, I had left in San Francisco, 
 not thinking it necessary in California. How I wished 
 for it now, with its seven good balls ready for instant 
 use ! 
 
 Simultaneously with our sight of her, Madame 
 Grizzly also descried us, and Clark at once frankly said 
 we were in great danger, if she showed fight. For a 
 minute or two, she stood with her head raised, snuffing 
 the air, as if calculating the chances, and then delibe- 
 rately wheeling in her tracks, shuffled off into the forest 
 her cubs gambolling by her side, like clumsy kittens. 
 Clark instantly threw me his bridle, and decided to try 
 a shot, if he could sight her heart ; but she kept herself 
 well under cover, as she moved off, and he was afraid to 
 fire, unless certain of killing her. He said if he missed 
 or only wounded her, we would have to take to the trees, 
 as the attack would make her savage and ferocious ; and
 
 46C THE SILENCE OF THE SIERRAS 
 
 also, that if her cubs happened to turn and run toward 
 us in play, as they often did, we would have to run or 
 clirnb for it, as she would take this also for a hostile 
 movement, and assault us fiercely. Under the circum- 
 stances, clearly discretion was the better part of valor ; 
 nevertheless, Clark wanted the brace of cubs, and when 
 she waddled off through the slush and snow, he followed 
 cautiously after, resolved to try his luck, if she gave him 
 a decent chance. From bush to bush, and tree to tree, 
 for quite a considerable distance, he dodged along after 
 her; but presently returned, without firing, declaring the 
 risk was too great for such a venture, and we were not 
 sorry to be well rid of her. She was, in truth, as big 
 as a small cow, and altogether would have been an ugly 
 customer to deal with, if not killed at the first shot. 
 
 Clark said, grizzlies were now rare on this route, 
 although formerly frequently encountered. And indeed 
 on both routes, and in all our travel among the Sierra 
 Nevadas, I was struck with the general absence of ani- 
 mal life as I had also been among the Rocky Moun- 
 tains. I doubt whether in either of these ranges, there 
 is anywhere such variety and extent of animal life, as 
 we always find East, in unfrequented forests and moun- 
 tains. The solemn stillness, the glad silence, the perfect 
 peace and rest of the Sierras, seemed everywhere pro- 
 found ; and nowhere and never more so, than during this 
 day's ride in general. 
 
 Once well out of the snow, we remounted our gamey 
 little steeds, and the rest of the day the trail led down 
 and over the ranges through magnificent forests of pine 
 and spruce, cedar and fir where to ride along was itself a 
 luxury and delight. The prevailing tree was the Cali- 
 fornia sugar-pine, so called because the Indians obtain a 
 rude sugar from boiling down its sap. These sugar-
 
 THE SUGAR-PINES GALEN CLARK 461 
 
 pines frequently grow ten and twelve feet in diameter, 
 and shoot up two hundred and fifty, and three hundred 
 feet in height. The} r bear a gigantic cone, four inches 
 in diameter, by sixteen inches in length usually ; and 
 lest this may seem like a " California story," perhaps I 
 should add, I myself picked up one, as we rode along, 
 measuring over eighteen inches in length, and have it now 
 in my private cabinet. Their dead leaves carpeted the 
 ground thickly under foot, and often our horses ambled 
 almost noiselessly along. Overhead, their dense shade 
 excluded the sun, which hourly became more uncom- 
 fortable, as we descended the range; while the moun- 
 tain air was everywhere resinous with their perfume. 
 
 Late in the afternoon, we crossed the last ridge, and, 
 descending into the valley of the South Merced, halted at 
 "Clark's," the house of our new guide. "We had come 
 twenty-two miles since leaving Hutchings' ; and here 
 found excellent accommodations for the night. Mr. Clark 
 himself was from the East, I believe Pennsylvania, but 
 was now an enthusiastic Californian. He said he had 
 come to California years before, a confirmed consumptive ; 
 but once among the Sierras, inhaling their resinous breath, 
 his lungs soon healed, and here now he meant to abide 
 the remainder of his days. He could not live in San Fran- 
 cisco at all, the air was so raw and sharp there ; but here 
 among the Sierras, he was well and strong, and he looked 
 indeed as rugged as the mountains themselves. His 
 house contained several comfortable rooms, and already 
 the tide of Yosemite travel was setting that way, and 
 paying him well. 
 
 Six miles from Clark's, on the border of Mariposa 
 and Fresno Counties, is the Mariposa grove of Big Trees. 
 We visited them next morning (June 1st), under the 
 guidance of Clark himself, who regards them as his
 
 462 MARIPOSA BIG TREES 
 
 special wards. They number in all some five or six hun- 
 dred, scattered over perhaps a mile square, but usually in 
 clumps together. You ride up to them, through an open 
 forest of huge sugar-pines and cedars, that would be 
 regarded as sylvan monsters elsewhere ten and twelve 
 feet over ; but these Big Trees dwarf even such giants, 
 into pigmies. Many of them, indeed, measure twenty- 
 five and thirty feet in diameter, and run up three hun- 
 dred feet or more in height the first hundred feet or so 
 without a limb, and scarcely diminishing in size. Six of 
 them are over thirty feet in diameter, and from ninety to a 
 hundred feet in circumference ; fifty are over sixteen feet 
 in diameter ; and two hundred over twelve feet. The 
 " Grizzly Giant," the largest, is thirty-three feet in diam- 
 eter, and its first limb ninety feet from the ground is 
 itself six feet through. Another, still standing erect and 
 vigorous, but hollowed out by fire, three of us rode into 
 on horseback, one behind the other, and there was still 
 room for more. Another, prone on the ground, and with 
 its heart eaten out by fire reduced to a huge shell we 
 rode through on horseback, for a hundred feet or more, 
 and then passed out by a small knot-hole ! 
 
 Among them were some young trees, still coming 
 forward, mere saplings ; but as a rule, these Big Trees 
 (Sequoia Gigantea, I believe the botanists call them) 
 impress you with their great age, and hoary vene- 
 rability. With many the mountain-fires in other years 
 have made sad havoc, scarring and half -consuming some 
 of them ; but these are now stopped, the Mariposa Grove 
 being also included in the Congressional grant, which sets 
 apart the Yosemite as a National Park and pleasure- 
 ground forever. Their bark, often eighteen and twenty 
 inches thick, is of a pure cinnamon-color, and fluted up 
 and down like a Corinthian column. Their wood is of a
 
 THEIK VENERABLE AGE 463 
 
 deep red, and much resembles that of the great red-wood 
 trees, that are found everywhere in the Coast Range. 
 Their foliage and cones are much like those of our ordi- 
 nary yellow-pines East, though their leaves are somewhat 
 smaller. 
 
 The trees here are of the same species as those in the 
 Calaveras Grove, though I believe a few of the latter 
 are rather bigger. They are also found elsewhere, along 
 the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas, in scattered 
 groves or clumps ; but the whole number is not large. 
 Evidently, they are the lingering survivors of some former 
 geologic period, and no doubt will soon become extinct. 
 Many of them are regarded, as already two thousand years 
 old some say six thousand ; but Professor Whitney as- 
 sured me, that he had made a very careful inquiry into 
 their age, counting their annual rings and otherwise, and 
 he doubted if any were older than the Christian era. But, 
 at least, here are trees, that were wooing the air, and re- 
 joicing in the sun, when the babe was first laid in the 
 manger at Bethlehem. They have been growing in 
 beauty and majesty ever since, through all the sunshine 
 and storms of nineteen centuries. And to-day, they stand 
 as matchless pillars in God's great temple, to testify of 
 His skill and power a fit part of 
 
 " That cathedral, boundless as our wonder, 
 Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply ; 
 Its choir, the wind and waves ; its organ, thunder ; 
 Its dome, the sky." 
 
 Truly marvels in themselves, in one sense these Big 
 Trees of California are the greatest natural curiosity in 
 the world, because no other country possesses any trees 
 like them. If not really sui generis, their like, at least, 
 I believe, has not yet been found. California, at her 
 own request, has been appointed their lawful guardian ;
 
 464 MAEIP08A ITSELF 
 
 and the nation and mankind expect, that she will watch 
 them well. It would seem like sacrilege, indeed, to raise 
 one's hand against them ; and the penitentiary, surely, 
 would be small punishment, for such a miscreant. 
 
 Returning to Clark's, we left there at noon, and the 
 same evening reached Mariposa, twenty-five miles dis- 
 tant. The scenery most of the way was superb, vista 
 after vista opening constantly before us, as we descended 
 the mountains ; but the sun had already acquired a June 
 fierceness, and the heat seemed doubly oppressive to one 
 just fresh from the snows of the Sierras. We rode up 
 to the Mariposa House, dusty and jaded, travel-stained 
 and weary ; but it was now Saturday night, and the most 
 inveterate cynic will concede, the week had been well 
 spent. 
 
 We found Mariposa to be a straggling village, of a 
 few hundred inhabitants, with uncertain prospects. It 
 is the centre of what was once Gen. Fremont's magnifi- 
 cent estate seventy miles square, in the heart of Mari- 
 posa County and formerly was much noted for its 
 mining operations. But its placer-mines were now 
 mostly abandoned, except by John Chinaman ; and its 
 famous quartz-mill, that cost over one hundred thousand 
 dollars perhaps the finest in California was standing 
 idle. The Mariposans, however, had great faith in their 
 mining resources still, and were expecting their fine mill 
 to resume operations soon. In the interim, the town 
 dozed along, in the Micawberish way common to stag- 
 nant mining centres ; and welcomed my arrival, as the 
 advance guard of the Yosemite travel, for that summer. 
 
 Here, I bade good-bye to Punty, ever-faithful pony, 
 and kindly Capt. Coulter, my companions for a week 
 (good luck to them both ! ), and took the stage for Stock- 
 ton again, via Honitos. This was a ride of a hundred
 
 MT. DIABOLO THE OCCIDENTAL AGAIN. 465 
 
 miles, through varying landscapes across the divides and 
 down the valleys of the Merced, Tuolomne, Stanislaus, 
 and San Joaquin rivers and, though hot and dusty, was 
 yet thoroughly enjoyable. In crossing the ridge at Bear 
 Valley, you catch a superb view of the Coast Range and 
 Mt. Diabolo, a hundred miles away ; and for the rest of 
 the ride, Diabolo's lofty crest is almost always in view. 
 Much of the way was barren and uncultivated, but the 
 ranches and settlements were yearly pushing farther and 
 farther into the foot-hijls; and as we neared Stockton 
 again, the illimitable wheat-fields were everywhere about 
 us. 
 
 At Stockton, I had the pleasure of again meeting 
 Prof. Whitney and party, and further comparing notes 
 about California and the Coast generally. Thence, tak- 
 ing the steamer together for San Francisco, we reached 
 there again June 4th myself somewhat jaded and dilapi- 
 dated, indeed, but richly repaid for all my toil and fatigue 
 in going to the Yosernite. Kind friends welcomed my 
 arrival, and the fine fare and downy beds of the Occidental 
 seemed doubly luxurious. Its proprietor, of course, was 
 a Leland one of that family of brothers, who beyond all 
 other Americans, know excellently well " how to keep a 
 hotel ; " and his thoughtful attentions, his genuine kind- 
 ness and courtesy to everybody, were the constant re- 
 mark of strangers on the Coast. 
 
 20*
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW YORK. 
 
 A RIDE down the bay (June 8th), through San Mateo 
 .xjL and Melno Park, some fifty miles to San Jose, com 
 pleted my wanderings on the Pacific Coast. The air at 
 San Francisco, fresh from the ocean, was raw and rasp- 
 ing ; but at San Jose, sheltered by the Coast Range, the 
 thermometer measured over twenty degrees warmer, and 
 the valley there seemed sleeping in summer. The whole 
 ride by railroad is through farms and gardens, and San 
 Jose itself we found embowered in roses and foliage. 
 Here are old Spanish convents and churches, with their 
 surroundings of vineyards, fig-trees, orange-groves, etc., 
 as at Santa Barbara and Los Angelos only better pre- 
 served and the ride thither is a favorite excursion for 
 San Franciscans and strangers. The sleepy old town is 
 in vivid contrast, with the rush and whirl of the Golden 
 Gate ; and its soft and delicious air proves a soothing 
 balm, to the invalid and the weak. A fair hotel fur- 
 nished good entertainment, and the place seemed indeed 
 like a haven of rest, after " roughing it " so in the interior. 
 Returning to San Francisco, the last farewells were 
 said, and June 10th, at 11 A. M., the good steamer Consti- 
 tution bore us away for Panama. "We had spent six 
 months on the Coast, and would fain have remained 
 longer, especially to visit the " Geysers." But my official
 
 VOYAGE DOWN THE COAST 467 
 
 work was ended ; and besides, I was in receipt of private 
 letters, that required my presence East. The 10th was 
 " steamer-day " still a recognized event in San Francisco. 
 All business ended then ; and from then, began again. 
 There was a bustle about the hotels, and an air of import- 
 ance everywhere. Hundreds thronged the vessel and 
 wharf, to see their friends off, and tarried till the last mo- 
 ment. But, prompt to the minute, the Constitution, cast 
 loose, and rounding into the stream, was soon heading 
 down the bay, for the Golden Gate and the Pacific. Past 
 Alcatraz and Angel Island, past Fort San Jose and Fort 
 Point, we reached the bar, and crossed it in a chopping 
 sea, that soon sent most of the passengers to their berths. 
 In San Francisco, the sun shone bright as we steamed 
 away, but the air was raw and chilly like our later 
 autumn ; * and once out at sea, we found an overhanging 
 mist, that often deepened into a winter fog. This un- 
 comfortable weather continued for a day or two, keeping 
 most of the passengers below deck many of them sea- 
 sick; but as we passed down the coast, the weather 
 gradually moderated, and soon we were sailing beneath 
 perfect skies, over, indeed, " summer seas." The rest of 
 the way down, what a superb voyage it really was ! Look- 
 ing back on it now, it seems rather a grand picnic excur- 
 sion, than a lonafide journey by sea. The ocean, in the 
 main, proved itself truly Pacific. We were very seldom 
 out of sight of land by day. The purple, and crimson, 
 and golden hues of the Coast Range, were a perpetual, 
 wonder and delight. Schools of porpoises, and now and 
 then a vagrant whale enlivened the day ; and the phos- 
 phorescent waves, wide-spreading from our wake, made 
 our track a blaze of fire by night. 
 
 * The evening before, I saw ladies at the opera, with their winter 
 furs on.
 
 468 THE STEAMER CONSTITUTION 
 
 And what skies those were! By day, "deeply, 
 darkly, beautifully blue;" by night, one blaze of 
 flaming stars. It was the very luxury of travel the 
 ^ery poetry of locomotion. Sometimes I would lie for 
 hours on deck, breathing in the balmy air, watch- 
 ing the gulls and frigate-birds as they hovered in our 
 wake, or gazing on far-off hill and mountain, as the 
 shore opened up before us losing all sense of thought 
 and action, content solely with being. Even novel- 
 reading sometimes seemed a task, and writing a great 
 burden. And when evening came, we would sit and 
 talk far into the night; or, leaning over the guards, would 
 watch the stream as of liquid fire, that boiled, and curled, 
 and rippled away beneath us. 
 
 As we got farther down the coast, the climate became 
 warmer ; but blue-flannels and white-linens in place of 
 winter-woolens, rendered this endurable, and indeed the 
 change from temperate to tropic from latitude 38 to 
 7 did not seem so great after all, barring the first day 
 or two out from San Francisco. Some, however, who 
 had not provided themselves with such changes of 
 clothing, complained bitterly of the heat and lassitude, 
 though most of us got on very well. We had a thunder- 
 storm one night, and a stiff rain next day, when well 
 down the Mexican coast; but otherwise were favored 
 with uninterruptedly fine weather. 
 
 From San Francisco to Panama is somewhat over 
 three thousand miles, and we were fifteen days in mak- 
 ing it. Our steamer was a fine specimen of her class, 
 with a burden of 3,500 tons, and a carrying capacity of 
 eleven hundred passengers, besides freight. She meas- 
 ured three hundred and forty feet in length, by forty-five 
 feet in beam, and her great deck morning and evening 
 was a rare promenade. Of passengers, we had only
 
 CAPE ST. LUCAS MANZANILLO 469 
 
 about four hundred ; so that all had state-rooms, and to 
 spare. "We carried our own beef, and mutton, and 
 poultry, to be slaughtered as wanted ; and our fare, as a 
 whole, was excellent and generous. Our company, it 
 must be confessed, was rather heterogeneous, but alto- 
 gether was social and enjoyable. We had army officers 
 and their wives, going east, on leave or transfer ; a U. 
 S. Consul from the Sandwich Islands, en route to "Wash- 
 ington, on public business ; Englishmen from Hong 
 Kong, bound for New York or London ; merchants, 
 bankers, and gamblers from San Francisco ; red-shirted 
 miners from Nevada and Arizona; and women of all 
 sorts, from fine ladies and true mothers, to dulcineas of 
 dubious character. The general decorum, however, was 
 above criticism ; and on Sundays, when a San Francisco 
 divine held service, all were attentive listeners, notwith- 
 standing his High-Church absurdities. The morning 
 promenade on deck, and the evening smoke on the 
 guards, were the great occasions for conversation, and all 
 enjoyed them to the full. 
 
 Our first stopping-place was at Cape St. Lucas, the 
 extreme point of Southern California, where we put off 
 two passengers, and took on none. Thence, we crossed 
 the mouth of the Gulf of California, and halted at Man- 
 zanillo, Mexico a little hamlet of two or three hundred 
 souls, the sea-port of the fine town of Colima, some 
 seventy-five miles inland. Here we put oft' a hundred 
 tons of freight, intended for the interior, and spent several 
 hours. Eight days out, we reached Acapulco, the chief 
 Mexican port on the Pacific Coast, and world-famous in 
 other days, when Spain bore rule here. The harbor is 
 perfectly land-locked, with bold islands off the mouth 
 and deep water close in shore, and here ought to be a 
 great and puissant city. From San Francisco down, not
 
 4:70 ACAPULCO 
 
 counting San Diego, this is the first really good harbor ; 
 and here is the great route for trade and travel, across 
 Mexico, via the capital and Vera Cruz, to the Atlantic. 
 Yet we found only a squalid town of two or three 
 thousand inhabitants, mostly half-negro and half-Indian, 
 with a trace of the Spaniard here and there mixed in. 
 A handful of Americans and Germans controlled the 
 business of the town ; and as for the rest they seemed 
 to be a lotus-eating, inert race, not inaptly denominated 
 "greasers." A general look of decadence prevailed 
 everywhere ; and if this be a sample of Mexican civiliza- 
 tion, after a trial of two centuries, or more, alas for its 
 future ! Not a single wagon-road led from the town in- 
 land, in any direction ; and the only means of transit, to or 
 from the interior, was by horse or mule-back, over wind- 
 ing mountain-trails, the same as in the days of Cortez. 
 
 We reached there June 18th, soon after breakfast ; 
 and had scarcely rounded to, before the Philistines were 
 not exactly upon, but around us. They swarmed 
 about our vessel in bum-boats and dug-outs, of all shapes 
 and sizes, tendering oranges, limes, bananas, shells, etc., 
 for a consideration sending them up the ship's sides by 
 a cord and tiny basket, trusting us to return the agreed- 
 for coin. When these failed to please, they paraded 
 their skill as swimmers and divers, plunging under like 
 ducks when a coin was tossed overboard, and sure to 
 catch it before it reached the bottom. With little or no 
 clothing, except about the loins, and often not that, they 
 seemed to be an amphibious sort of creatures equally at 
 home on land, or sea. 
 
 As we were to spend several hours here, taking in 
 coal and water to last to Panama, many of us embraced 
 the opportunity to go ashore and see something of the 
 town. When we touched the beach, comely maidens of
 
 MEXICAN LIFE AND MANNERS 4:71 
 
 coffee-colored complexion met us, with baskets and strings 
 of shells, to any of which we were heartily welcome, 
 provided we paid well for them. They always tender 
 their wares as a " gift," a trick of Acapulco's, as also of 
 Manzanillo's and Panama's ; but they invariably expect 
 more than their real value, in return. Passing on, we 
 found the town to consist of one-story adobes, with 
 streets hardly more spacious than good foot-pavements 
 East, and with little business to speak of, except what the 
 tri-mouthly steamers supplied. The stores were chiefly 
 baskets or boxes on the side- walks or street-corners, and 
 even these were in charge of women, while the lazy- 
 looking men " loafed " or lounged in the shade, sipping 
 their aguardiente or whiffing their cigarritos with infinite 
 content. The flocks of children, from infants to half- 
 grown youths, were usually guiltless of raiment, and all 
 seemed supremely happy, if only sucking an orange or 
 munching a banana. 
 
 All gazed at Los Americanos with good-natured 
 curiosity, and a score were eager to show us to the 
 U. S. Consulate, which was already well-designated by 
 the Stars and Stripes drooping idly from its staff. The 
 Consul himself, unfortunately, was absent ; but his 
 deputy, Mr. Sutter, gave us kindly welcome, and we 
 spent an instructive hour, listening to his stories of 
 Mexican life and manners. From there, we went to the 
 rude church or "cathedral," on the plaza; and found in 
 its tawdry ornaments and doll-like images its wax-figure 
 Christs, its tissue-paper angels, and pewter amulets an 
 easy explanation of the ignorance, and squalor, and 
 stagnation of this people. The fat and jolly priest sus- 
 pended his devotions, to sell us pewter charms (he 
 swore, by the Virgin, they were silver !) that would 
 insure us against fever and shipwreck on the voyage ; and
 
 472 CENTRAL AMERICA 
 
 afterwards he invited us round to ta^e a sip of aguardiente 
 and see his favorite game-cock. Thence, we strolled 
 down the beach, between rows of palms and bananas, to 
 the old Spanish fort, and found it a solid and substantial 
 structure still, though a century or two old. True, it 
 would not stand long before one of our modern monitors ; 
 but it was a fine work in its day, and showed well yet. 
 A company or two of dirty and ragged soldiers consti- 
 tuted the garrison their uniforms heterogeneous, and 
 their arms really worthless. We sent our compliments 
 to the commanding officer, hoping to gain an entrance ; 
 but he was absent, and his pompous subordinate declined 
 to admit such Northern barbarians. 
 
 Returning to the Constitution, late in the afternoon 
 we bade good-bye to Acapulco ; and thence, following 
 the trend of the continent, across the gulf of Tehuante- 
 pec, by Guatemala, by San Salvador, by Nicaragua, by 
 Costa Rica, and finally by New Granada, at last, on the 
 morning of June 25th, we cast anchor at Panama. During 
 all of this week's sail, we were hardly ever out of sight of 
 land, and usually were so near, that we could note the flocks 
 and herds, the houses and trees, and rich luxuriance of 
 this tropical coast generally, as we glided by. Lofty 
 mountain-ranges and cone-shaped peaks old volcanoes 
 now extinct, rising thirteen thousand and fourteen thou- 
 sand feet above the sea were generally in view by day ; 
 and at night fitful lightnings, playing apparently from 
 peak to peak, often lit up the whole heavens. 
 
 Here at Panama, the key of two continents and two 
 oceans, we again struck the busy currents of modern 
 life, though but little belonged to the natives there. The 
 broad bay itself, with its shapely islands of perpetual 
 green, crowned with the ever-graceful palm and banana, 
 was a delightful scene, tropical thoroughly ; br t here also
 
 PANAMA 473 
 
 were lines of busy steamers, from Chili and Australia, as 
 well as California, and the old harbor gave multiplied signs 
 of life and energy. The railroad to Aspinwall, costly as it 
 was, both in life and treasure, opened up a pathway across 
 the Isthmus to the commerce of the world, and Panama 
 stands at the gate. In another land, or with a better 
 people, she would soon become a mighty metropolis. 
 But we found her much like Acapulco, though with 
 broader streets, better houses, and more population. I 
 believe she claimed four or five thousand inhabitants 
 then ; but they were chiefly a mixed race, in which the 
 most of what is really valuable in humanity seemed to 
 be dying out. They had no public schools, and scarcely 
 knew what popular education meant. Their churches, 
 venerable only for their age, but in this dating back to the 
 Spanish conquest, were crumbling to ruins. Their relig- 
 ion was only an ignorant superstition or savage fanaticism. 
 And their government, so-called, was in a state of chronic 
 revolution, so that nobody seemed to know when it was up 
 or down. Of course, the real business of the town was 
 in the hands of foreigners chiefly Americans, Germans, 
 and English and these " pushed things," with much of 
 their wonted skill and energy, notwithstanding the 
 climate. The natives, as a rule, contented themselves 
 with driving a petty traffic in parrots and shells, oranges 
 and bananas ; and literally swarmed around us, until we 
 were weary alike of their clamor and dirt. 
 
 We reached Panama, as I have said, early in the 
 morning, but did not get off for Aspinwall until about 
 noon. All this time was spent in disembarking passen- 
 gers, with their baggage, and fast freight ; but, at last, 
 the impatient locomotive whistled " up brakes," and we 
 moved slowly off. The ride across the Isthmus is fifty 
 miles, and is usually made in two or three hours ; but
 
 THE ISTHMUS AND EAILEOAD 
 
 half-way across, a baggage-car broke down, and we were 
 detained four hours in an impenetrable jungle. It had 
 rained that morning at Panama, and the sun was still 
 obscured ; but the air was dense with heat and moisture, 
 that hung as if in strata and folds about you, without a 
 breath to disturb them and to say we steamed and swel- 
 tered, during those four long hours there, would only half 
 express our perspiring experience. All along the road, 
 there was a tropical luxuriance and splendor, which no 
 word-painting can describe, and here in this jungle both 
 seemed to culminate. What we in a sterner clime grow 
 in hot-houses and conservatories, as rare exotics, there 
 rioted In the open air, as well they might, and all nature 
 seemed bursting with exuberance and richness. Under- 
 neath, grasses and shrubbery so dense, that only the 
 machete could clear the way, or keep them under. 
 Overhead, the lordly palm and gracious banana, with 
 flowering vines, pendent, interlacing, creeping, and twin- 
 ing everywhere. Bread-fruit and bananas hung every- 
 where, in clusters as big as half-bushel baskets ; and here 
 and there, birds of brilliant plumage flitted to and fro, fit 
 denizens with the chattering monkeys, and screaming 
 parrots, of such a wilderness. The whole ride, indeed, 
 through the heart thus of the tropics, after all, was a rare 
 experience ; and the transition from the steamer to the 
 railroad, notwithstanding the heat, a welcome change. 
 
 The railroad itself seemed well built, and fairly man- 
 aged. It was said, indeed, to rest literally on human 
 bodies, so many poor fellows perished in the deadly 
 miasmas, while constructing it. The ties and sleepers 
 were of lignum- vitae, and. the telegraph poles of terra-cotta 
 or cement, as nothing else would withstand the insects 
 and moisture of the Isthmus. The stations were well 
 apart, and seemed maintained solely for the conveni-
 
 ASPINWALL, ETC. 475 
 
 ence of the road, as hardly a passenger got off or on, 
 except employes of the company. We could see - the 
 natives, as we passed along, lolling in their hammocks, 
 or stretched out on mats, in their rude huts of poles and 
 palm-leaves ; and their herds of children ran everywhere 
 at will, as naked as when born. Sometimes, a few of the 
 inhabitants clustered about a station ; but as a rule, this 
 required too much effort, and they preferred to take 
 their dolcefar niente in their huts. The taint of the 
 Spaniard seemed to be over them all ; or, else, nature 
 was too kindly to them, removing all incentive to exer- 
 tion, by omitting the necessity for it. 
 
 We ran into Aspinwall at 6 p. M., and remained there 
 until 8 p. M. We spent the time in exploring the town, 
 but found little to interest any one. It had no storied 
 past, like Panama ; and its future depended on Pacific 
 Mail. Some found cheap linens, wines, and cigars, as 
 Aspinwall was a free port, and laid in a stock for future 
 consumption, to the damage of our Customs Revenue. 
 But the most of us were sated and weary, with the day's 
 rare experiences, and were glad when the steamer's bell 
 rang " All aboard ! " Our High-Church chaplain proved 
 to be our only really useful man, at Aspinwall, after all. 
 He married a couple, while we halted there ; and would 
 have married another, had there been time. Both had 
 been waiting several weeks, much-enduring souls Aspin- 
 wall, it seems, not affording a minister. 
 
 Our complement of passengers had been swelled, by ac- 
 cessions from Valparaiso and Melbourne ; and hence, from 
 Aspinwall to New York, we were rather overcrowded. 
 Our good ship Rising Star was staunch and sea-worthy ; 
 but without the roomy accommodations of the Constitu- 
 tion, or her thorough appointments. Her beef and mutton 
 were all brought from New York on ice, to last for a
 
 476 HOME AGAIN 
 
 twenty-day's voyage to Aspinwall and back ; and, before 
 we reached New York, were not like Caesar's wife above 
 suspicion. But, on the whole, there was little to com- 
 plain of; and the ship's officers certainly did their utmost, 
 to make everybody content and comfortable. 
 
 Our route to New York, distant about two thou- 
 sand miles, lay across the Caribbean Sea, and thence 
 off the eastern terminus of Cuba, through the West 
 Indies, home. We had some rough weather, with con- 
 tinuous thunder and lightning, as it seemed, for a day 
 or two, while crossing the Caribbean. But, once past 
 that, we entered a region of blue skies and balmy breezes, 
 and sighted New York in eight days from Aspinwall. 
 We passed Cuba so near, that her green hills and moun- 
 tains seemed within a stone's throw ; and, threading the 
 West Indies, struck the Gulf Stream, whence both steam 
 and current hurried us forward. We reached Sandy 
 Hook at sundown, July 3d, where they quarantined us 
 till morning, much to our disgust. But the 4th broke 
 gloriously, over city and bay ; and amid ringing bells, and 
 firing cannon, and fluttering bunting, we steamed proudly 
 up the harbor it never seemed so magnificent before 
 and touching the pier, thus ended our journey. 
 
 To land on such a day seemed a fit conclusion, to such 
 a twelve-month's ramble, across the continent and over 
 the seas ; and that evening at home, surrounded by loving 
 friends, seemed doubly dear from the long absence and safe 
 return. How much we had seen of the Great Republic 
 only a little can be told hero ! How it enlarged, and digni- 
 fied, one's conception of the Fatherland ! What a mag- 
 nificent country we really have washed by two oceans, 
 crowned with mountains, and gemmed with lakes ; and 
 yet, evidently, it is only a prophecy of that Greater Amer- 
 ica, when we shall occupy the continent, from the Arctic
 
 " ADIOS." 477 
 
 down to the Isthmus, with teeming millions, and convert 
 the Pacific practically into a Yankee sea. Well might 
 Whittier, our truest seer, melodiously sing : 
 
 " I hear the tread of pioneers, 
 
 Of nations yet to be ; 
 The first low wash of waves, where soon 
 Shall roll a human sea." 
 
 And, best of all, over all this broad land, there shall then 
 be but one flag and one freedom,* one law and one liberty, 
 one Eight and one Justice, for us and for all men 
 wherever born and of whatever faith, however poor or 
 however humble. And to this end, and for this purpose, 
 let us, and all who love the English-speaking race, if not 
 mankind, sincerely pray, God save the Republic! 
 
 In conclusion, let me add, to the many fnends we met 
 everywhere en route, for their numberless kindnesses 
 and unstinted courtesies, we were much indebted; and I 
 would gratefully record my sense of this here. Nobler 
 souls, more generous spirits, than most of the people we 
 encountered, especially in Colorado and California, never 
 breathed ; and here is good fortune to them, one and all, 
 wherever they may chance to be! Surely, they have 
 fought a good fight, in their rough life on the border, 
 preparing the way for civilization, and deserve well of 
 their country and their kind. 
 
 But, all things must end this trip included ; and so, 
 O reader, in the vernacular of the Coast, "Adios" and 
 good-bye ! I will simply add to this volume a chapter 
 of advice to emigrants and settlers, which I trust may 
 prove of value to those who would seek a new life in 
 the GKEAT WEST.
 
 478 GO WEST, YOUNG MAN. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS AND SETTLERS. 
 
 
 
 HOKACE GREELEY'S sage advice to a needy 
 office-seeker was, " Go West, young man, go 
 "West ! " It was sound advice, and doubtless many peo- 
 ple have taken it. Since my return, I myself have often 
 repeated it, and have usually been met with the inquiry, 
 "But where shall I go ? Where is the best region to 
 locate the best place to settle ? " To all such in- 
 quiries, my answer has been and is, that will depend on 
 circumstances and no one answer will meet - all cases. 
 Generally, I would say: 
 
 1. If you intend to lead a city-life, the chief points 
 now are Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake, Portland, San Fran- 
 cisco, Sacramento, and Virginia City, and these seem 
 destined to remain the chief centres of population and 
 business for many years to come. These are all large 
 and growing cities already, and he who settles there now 
 and maintains himself, will of course grow and prosper 
 with them. The conditions of life there are not greatly 
 different, from what they are in most of our eastern 
 cities. There is less respect paid, however, to " old fami- 
 lies "and "blue blood." But little inquiry is made as 
 to one's antecedents. The chief touchstone is success. 
 All stand upon an equality, and the " best man " is he 
 who comes to the front oftenest and farthest on the va- 
 rious lines of life he is pursuing. As a consequence,
 
 CITY-LIFE OK FARMEE. 479 
 
 young men largely predominate in positions, where only 
 old and middle-aged men are found in the East. For 
 mechanics and laboring men, there is always an open 
 door in 'all these places, with chances for promotion as 
 the years roll by. For lawyers, physicians, merchants, 
 bankers, etc., of course, the competition is keen and 
 sharp, with an asperity perhaps beyond the east ; but 
 there is always room for men of worth and mettle, and 
 these are about the only ones that succeed anywhere. 
 
 2. If you prefer a country-life, and mean to be a 
 farmer, then your best region is Kansas, Colorado, or 
 California. For general farming purposes, the Platte 
 Yalley is too far north, as likewise is the most of Dakota, 
 Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. But there is no finer 
 country in the world than Southern Kansas (and the val- 
 ley of the Arkansas generally), the eastern slope of the 
 Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and the Western slope of 
 the Sierra Nevadas in California. The climate here is 
 almost perfect, and along all the rivers and streams are 
 fertile bottoms and uplands, where you have only to 
 " tickle the earth with a hoe, and she will laugh at you 
 back with a harvest." Corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, 
 etc., all flourish here, though in California irrigation is 
 generally necessary to grow corn well. So the valley 
 of the Willamette, in Oregon, and other localities there 
 are very inviting ; but as a rule, Oregon, the home of 
 the " web-footers," indulges in too much rain, to be popu- 
 lar with emigrants. So, too, in Utah and Arizona, are 
 many very fertile districts, particularly in Arizona, along 
 the Colorado and Gila, and their affluents ; but the rain- 
 less summers there necessitate irrigation, and this is a 
 slow and costly process. The climate, especially in Ari- 
 zona, is generally superb, and the old irrigating canals 
 of the extinct Aztecs still remain there, and doubtless
 
 480 , FRUIT-FARMER OR GRAZIER. 
 
 will be utilized by thrifty Anglo-Saxons, when the much 
 needed " Texas and Pacific Kailway " penetrates thither. 
 
 3. If you want to be a fruit-farmer, go to Utah for 
 apples, peaches, and plums; to Oregon for apples and 
 pears ; and to California for oranges, grapes, strawber- 
 ries, olives, and almost everything. California abounds 
 in fruits of all kinds, except apples, and when her mines 
 u peter out," as they ultimately will, she is destined to 
 become chiefly a vast wheat-field and fruit farm. Her 
 grapes and wines are already a great feature, and her 
 capacity for increasing these is practically unlimited. 
 Her vineyards and fruit orchards are already spreading 
 all along her foot-hills, with neither snows, nor frosts, 
 nor intense heats to menace them, and what can be 
 more charming than life in such a region ? What Ari- 
 zona may yet become, in this respect, it is too soon to 
 say ; but we saw thrifty old peach trees in bloom at Tuc- 
 son, in March, and doubtless she has many districts well- 
 adapted to the orange, the olive, the grape, etc. 
 
 4. If you intend to be a grazier, and raise horses, 
 cattle, sheep, etc., then your best localities are "Western 
 Texas, Eastern Colorado, and Southern California and 
 Arizona. Of all these, Texas without doubt is the best, 
 as she is free from snows, has regular rains, and her soil 
 is deep and rich. Her prairies are unsurpassed on the 
 continent for stock-feeding purposes ; her rivers and 
 streams are abundant ; and she has more timber, than most 
 of the prairie states. Her chief industry now is cattle- 
 raising, and this has already assumed gigantic proportions. 
 She has large settlements of thrifty Germans, and a steady 
 stream of northern emigrants is also setting that way. 
 Though a Southern State, slavery never had much foot- 
 hold there, and her proportion of the African race is 
 very small. She is the paradise of the mustang and the
 
 RAISING CATTLE AND SHEEP. 4:81 
 
 steer, and the typical Texan is said to eat and sleep, live 
 and die on horseback ! 
 
 In Colorado, much attention is also being given to 
 stock-raising, and a good deal has already been accom- 
 plished there in this line. See p. 487 to 493, where very 
 interesting facts are given. Doubtless this business will 
 succeed well there in most years, but sometimes the win- 
 ters prove severe, and then her stock suffers greatly. In 
 this respect, Texas is better off. But here, in Colorado, 
 on the Great Plains, is the old Buffalo Range of the 
 continent; and where buffalo once flourished, cattle 
 ought to do well, and as a rule will. Her grass is not 
 the long, luxuriant, prairie grass of Texas, but the coarse 
 grass of her river bottoms, and the short " buffalo grass " 
 of her plains. She has much land, that will never 
 amount to much for general farming purposes, from 
 want of regular rains in summer. But the grazier has a 
 wide field there, and even in the " Parks " of the Rocky 
 Mountains the very heart of them they are said to 
 graze horses and cattle all seasons of the } r ear. 
 
 In Southern California and Arizona, there are many 
 districts well adapted to stock-raising, but which as yet 
 are almost unoccupied. The climate here is excellent, 
 but there is sometimes a lack of water. The grass is 
 largely the " bunch-grass " of that region, which cures 
 upon the ground, and can always be found ready for use. 
 For sheep, especially, it is very excellent and nutritious, 
 and California already has vast flocks of these. In the 
 rainy season, she grazes these on the plains ; when the 
 dry months come, she withdraws them to the river-bot- 
 toms, or sends them into the foot-hills, where they find 
 good pasture until the rains come again. Arizona ought 
 to raise sheep by the millions. She has hundreds of 
 square miles admirably adapted to them. And if she 
 21
 
 482 THE MINER AND HIS WORK. 
 
 ever gets herself settled up, her wool-clip will be enor- 
 mous. The climate there resembles more the climate of 
 the Orient, and sheep should everywhere abound. 
 
 5. If you mean to be a miner, of course, you will go 
 to Colorado or Utah, Nevada, California, or Arizona. 
 Colorado and Nevada are perhaps the most promising of 
 these. California is at a "stand-still," in the mining- 
 business, and Utah is too much married to suit ordinary 
 people. But Colorado and Nevada are intensely alive 
 with every human energy, and are progressing at a rate, 
 that will soon push them far ahead of our other mining 
 regions. Arizona, too, abounds in the precious metals, 
 with mines of extraordinary richness, and the day is not 
 distant when she will produce very heavily. All she 
 needs is a Railroad, for access to and exit from her. 
 The truth is, our Western mountains, both the Rocky 
 and the Sierra Nevadas, everywhere abound with gold 
 and silver, copper and iron, more or less, and the ques- 
 tion of the future there is chiefly how to reduce their 
 ores, so as to make it pay to work them. Here is a wide 
 field for the active, intelligent, energetic young man, and 
 the future there belongs chiefly to him. Chemistry, 
 metallurgy, geology, all these and their kindred sciences 
 he wants to know, and then set to work to unlock the 
 secret of the " sulphurets." The key is somewhere, and 
 it will be given to him, who thinks the most, studies the 
 hardest, works the best. 
 
 6. In conclusion, let me add, if you go West, if pos- 
 sible, don't go empty-handed. It is no place for the 
 poor man, any more than the East hardly so good ; 
 for it lacks rich people with surplus incomes, and organ- 
 ized charities. If possible, have enough to stock your 
 ranche, or start your farm, or begin your store, and to 
 carry you through the first year, however pinchingly.
 
 IF YOU GO STICK! 483 
 
 Enthusiastic westerners will, perhaps, tell you this is non- 
 sense, and recount instances where men have made 
 money from the start ; but they forget to tell you of the 
 many cases where men have become disheartened, and 
 would give anything to return East again. Remember, 
 it is the first year that costs. Weather that success- 
 fully and courageously, and usually the future is secure. 
 If you have a family, leave them East, and go out 
 and try it one year alone. Then, if you like it, send 
 for the wife and babies. If you have a friend or ac- 
 quaintance there, settle where he is, rather than else- 
 where ; for his experience and friendship will prove of 
 value to you. Avoid the " grasshopper " regions. Keep 
 clear of the malarial districts. Decide on some honest 
 occupation or business, and stick to it. Above all, don't 
 believe more than half the rose-colored romances you 
 hear and read of the "Rocky Mountain," "Big In- 
 dian," and " California " stories and then you will get 
 somewhere near the truth !
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ON page 51, 1 speak of the Plains as the great stock-raising and 
 dairy region of America, in the future. As some evidence of how 
 fast this prophecy is becoming fact, I append the following extracts 
 from an article by Dr. H. Latham, in the Omaha, Herald of June 5, 
 1870: 
 
 " Demonstrated Facts. The season of 1870 has been a memorable 
 one in the stock business on the Plains. It commenced in doubt, but 
 closes with unlimited confidence in the complete practicability and 
 profits of stock-growing and winter grazing. 
 
 " Increase of Cattle in the West. The number of cattle in the 
 country west of the Missouri River and east of the Snowy Range, is 
 now double, if not four times larger than in 1869. Its present mag- 
 nitude and future prospects entitle it to a full share of public atten- 
 tion. 
 
 " Shipments of Beef to Eastern Markets. Two years ago our beef 
 and cattle were brought from the East. To-day, cattle-buyers from 
 Chicago and New York are stopping at every station on our railroads, 
 and buying cattle in all our valleys for Eastern consumption. It is 
 safe to predict that 15,000 head of beeves will be shipped from our 
 valleys East the present season. During the past week I have 
 visited some of the great herds on the Plains, and will give your 
 readers an account of them. 
 
 " The Great Herds. The herds of Edward Creighton, Charles 
 Hutton, and Thomas Alsop, are grazed on the Big Laramie, which is 
 a tributary of the North Platte. The Laramie Valley is between 
 the Black Hills and the Medicine-Bow Range. It is about one 
 hundred miles long and thirty miles wide. It is about midway in 
 this valley, and six miles from the railroad station af, Laramie, that 
 these gentlemen have located their stock ranches. They have 
 extensive houses, stables, and corrals. As we leave the station on a 
 beautiful August morning (which is characterized by the clearest of 
 blue skies and golden sunlight), you see Mount Agassiz directly in 
 21
 
 488 APPENDIX. 
 
 front of you, while Mount Dix and Mount Dodge, with snow-covered 
 tops, are respectively on the right and left. 
 
 " We follow up the Laramie on a smooth road, which is like roll- 
 ing the wheels over a floor. We follow the windings of the stream, 
 which is clear as crystal, and pure as the snow from which its 
 waters have just come. We first come to a herd of 4,000, half and 
 three-quarter, breed cows ; that is, there are none more than one-half 
 Texan, and many only one-fourth. They are known among cattle 
 dealers as short-horned Texas cattle. There are 3,600 calves in this 
 herd, that are from three-eighths to one-half Durham. These cowa 
 have been here on the Plains one winter and two summers. All the 
 dry cows are exceedingly fat, and many of the cows, with calves by 
 their sides, are good beef. In this herd are many two- year-olds and 
 yearlings, all fat for the butcher, so far as their condition is con- 
 cerned. In all this herd there are as many as 9,000 head of cattle 
 4,000 cows, 3,600 calves, 1,000 two-year-olds, and 500 yearlings. 
 
 " Their Habits. They range over a country fifteen by twenty 
 miles. The cows and calves run together the year around, and, in 
 fact, are never separated, but run in families of four, generally, cow, 
 calf, yearling, and two-year-old. They are to be found on the river 
 bottoms in the middle of the day, where they had come about 11 
 o'clock for water. They return about 4 o'clock in the afternoon to 
 the high grounds, where the rich bunch and the nutritious gramma 
 grasses are abundant, and feed till night, and lie down on the warm 
 Bandy soil till next morning, when they feed till the heat of the day 
 It is interesting to see the habits of these cattle when unrestrained 
 by herders. They travel back and forth to the water and grazing- 
 ground in families and little herds, in single file, like their prede- 
 cessors of the soil, the buffalo, forming deep paths, or trails, like 
 them. After having spent three or four hours looking at this herd, 
 we pass up the river to the beef herd, which consists of 3,500 fat 
 Texas cattle, in the very highest order at which grass-fed cattle 
 arrive in this world. These cattle have been here one or two seasons, 
 and will weigh, upon an average, live weight, 1,300 pounds. They 
 could all be sold to-day for Eastern markets at good figures. They 
 have yet three months of good weather to fatten this season, when, 
 with 5,000 more, bought by these enterprising men, and on their 
 way here, they will be sold East, or slaughtered and sent East in the 
 quarter. 
 
 " There is, still higher up the stream, and nearer the mountains, 
 a stock herd of yearlings and two-year-olds, that occupy our time for 
 an hour or two.
 
 APPENDIX. 489 
 
 "Blooded Stock Cattle. Then we cross over to Sand Creek, a 
 small branch of the Laramie, and see the herd of American cattle, 
 which, including Button's and Alsop's, numbers 400, mostly cows. 
 They are as fine stock as can be found anywhere. Among this herd 
 are several fine-graded Durham bulls, and two thoroughbreds that 
 were bought in Ohio at high prices. These parties are owners of 
 300 blooded bulls, from which the finest calves are being raised by 
 the cross between them and the graded Texan cow. It is interest- 
 ing for the stock man to see these calves, which show the Durham 
 BO clearly in every instance another proof of the general law that 
 the stronger and better blooded of the two races will give form and 
 impress to the progeny. This fact is remarkably illustrated in these 
 herds the second and third crosses leaving no trace of the Texan 
 blood. 
 
 " Here, on this ranch, are 300 brood mares, and some young stock, 
 yearling and two-year-old colts, which have been raised here, and 
 have never been fed nor sheltered. They are as large and fine colts 
 as are raised anywhere. These brood mares and colts are herded, 
 but never stabled nor fed winters. 
 
 " Sheep. We next proceed to these flocks of sheep, which in all 
 number more than 10,000 head, besides the lambs of these there 
 are 3,000 making in all 13,000. Some of these are from New 
 Mexico, but the great majority are from Iowa, and are fine Merino 
 sheep. They will average fully five pounds of wool per head. 
 Ample shelters have been provided them in case of storm. Much 
 the larger number of these flocks are ewes. The owners expect to 
 raise 6,000 lambs, and to shear 65,000 pounds of wool next year. 
 
 " These parties have about five miles of fence, inclosing hay 
 grounds, pastures for riding stock, and other purposes. They have, 
 in all, more than $300,000 invested here, which is a sufficient com- 
 mentary upon their enterprise, foresight, and courage. They are the 
 great stock princes of the mountains. Of all living men they have 
 done most to solve this question of winter grazing. 
 
 " We next proceed to the Little Laramie, where Messrs. Mautle 
 & Bath have 400 head of American and half-breed stock ; they are 
 at the old stage-road crossing, and have some fine blooded stock. 
 Above them, behind Sheep Mountain, directly under the white top 
 of Mount Dodge, named after General Dodge, on the head of the 
 Little Laramie, is a valley twenty miles long and ten miles wide, 
 divided about equally by the north, middle, and south forks of that 
 stream. These are rapid running streams that never freeze in win - 
 ter. They have groves of timber on their banks and bcUon> laud*
 
 490 APPENDIX. 
 
 furnishing shade in summer and shelter in winter. This valley is a 
 pocket in the mountains, having only one point of ingress, and no 
 egress but by the same way. Here are 2,900 cattle owned by Lam- 
 bard & Gray, of New York, Captain Coates of the Army, and the 
 subscriber. Three men are able to herd them, from the nature of 
 the valley, and it is certainly a cattle paradise. Of this herd, 1,200 
 are cows, 700 two-year-olds, 300 yearlings, and 700 calves. This 
 stock is short-horned Texan, and a good lot of stock cattle. 
 
 " lliff't Herds on Crow Creek. After leaving this herd, we take a 
 three-hours' run on the railroad, which takes us across the Black 
 Hills to Cheyenne, which is the headquarters of J. W. Iliff. His 
 cattle range is down Crow Creek to the Platte, twenty to thirty 
 miles. On this grazing ground he has 6,700 cattle, classed as fol- 
 lows : 3,500 beeves, 2,000 cows, and 1,200 calves. The stock cattle 
 are half-breeds, except yearlings and calves, which he has raised, 
 and which show the Durham cross. The beeves are heavy, fat 
 cattle, ranging in live weight from 1,200 to 1,400 pounds. This 
 whole range down Crow Creek, from Cheyenne to the Platte, affords 
 the best of grasses, and the creek bluffs shelter the stock completely 
 from storms. Mr. Iliff has been the owner of great herds of cattle 
 in the last twelve years, and is firm in the faith that this is the 
 place to raise beef for Eastern markets. His cattle have sold in 
 Chicago market from five to six cents per pound, live weight, this 
 season. The whole 3,500 head of beeves will be shipped East this 
 fall. Mr. Iliff is another of those who have demonstrated to the 
 world that WC have winter grazing, and in so doing he has made a 
 fortune. Long may such men live to enjoy their fortunes ! 
 
 " On the other side of the Platte, on the Bijou, are the herds of 
 the Patterson Brothers, Reynolds, and John Hitson. These herds 
 number 8,000 head of cattle, 6,000 of them being beef-cattle. The 
 Patterson Brothers are great cattle-raisers and dealers. They own 
 ranches on the Arkansas River, at Bent's Old Fort, and on the Pecos 
 River, below Fort Sumner, in New Mexico. They have handled 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of cattle in the last five 
 years. 
 
 "John Hitson is another of the great cattle-raisers and dealers in 
 New Mexico. His herds are numbered by the thousands. His 
 operations are transferred to Colorado now, and so are those of the 
 Patterson Brothers. On Box-Elder Creek, which is a branch of the 
 Cache la Poudre, is the ranch and stock range of Mr. Whitcombe, 
 an old settler of Colorado. He has 2,000 stock cattle and some fine 
 blooded bulls. This range and shelter are perfect.
 
 APPENDIX. 491 
 
 " Reed & Wyatt, on the Platte, nearer Denver, have 1,000 head 
 of stock and beef cattle. They are about adding largely to their 
 number 
 
 " Farwell Brothers, Greeley, have 200 head of fine American 
 cattle. 
 
 " Baily, on the south side of the Platte from Greeley, has 400 
 head of Durham and Devon stock, and 2,000 sheep. 
 
 " Geary, on the Platte, has 300 head of American cattle. 
 " The Lemons, at Greeley, have 400 head of American stock. In 
 this neighborhood, Ashcraft has 400 head of American cattle ; Mun- 
 Bon has 800 head of cattle and 5,000 sheep. Up the Cache la Poudre 
 are twenty large stock-raisers. 
 
 " On the Big and Little Thompson's there are some five herds of 
 blooded stock. 
 
 " After you leave Evans and go south towards Denver, the whole 
 country seems one pasture covered with stock. I travelled over 
 this same ground in 1869, and I am sure there are fully three times 
 as many cattle here now as then. There are hundreds of farmers 
 on the Lone-Tree Creek, Cache la Poudre, Big and Little Thomp- 
 son's Creeks, St. Vrain's, and many other streams which flow from 
 the mountains to the Platte, who have from one hundred to one 
 thousand head of cattle, a description of whose herds and grazing 
 grounds would take too much space in an article of this kind. 
 
 " Shipments of Cattle West. Colorado has sold an immense num- 
 ber of cattle this season to Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. It is 
 safe to say that Montana will receive twenty thousand head of 
 cattle during the season of 1870, four-fifths of which are from Colo- 
 rado. Many have gone to Utah, Nevada, and Idaho from the same 
 source, and yet, ten years ago, the commercial and stock-growing 
 people of the East did not know that Colorado contained a thousand 
 acres of grass land. To-day they have no idea of the magnitude of 
 her grazing resources. 
 
 " Leaving Colorado, we find some herds along the base of the 
 Black Hills. 
 
 " North of Cheyenne. H. Kelly, on the ' Chug,' has 500 stock 
 cattle. He sold 100 head of American beeves at $70 per head. 
 
 " Messrs. Ward & Bullock, at Fort Laramie, have 200 head of 
 American cattle. 
 
 " Adolph Cluny, so long a resident on the - North Platte, has a 
 herd of 1,000 stock cattle between Forts Laramie and Fetterman. 
 
 " Between Cheyenne and Sidney, on the line of the railroad, 
 there are several small herds. At Sidney are the Moore Brothers,
 
 492 APPENDIX. 
 
 who have 12,000 sheep and lambs, and 1,400 cattle ; 400 of the latter 
 are American and very fine. The sheep sheared an average of five 
 pounds of wool per head last spring. They are graded Merinos, and 
 are in fine condition. There is no disease among them. The Moore 
 Brothers were ranchmen on the South Platte, prior to the day of 
 railroads, and are about returning to that stream for grazing. Their 
 place is the Valley Station of olden fame on the stage road. Above 
 them, on the Platte, at the old ' Junction,' Mr. Mark Boughton has 
 2,500 stock cattle. He has as fine a cattle range as there is in the 
 world, not excluding the Pampas of South America nor table-lands 
 of Australia. 
 
 " Farther down the Platte, at O'Fallon's Bluffs, on the north side 
 of the South Platte, Creighton & Parks have 3,500 stock cattle, 
 400 of which are Durhams. They range twenty miles up and down 
 the Platte. Near them, below, is the herd of Mr. Keith, of North 
 Platte Station, who has about 1,000 head. 
 
 " Mr. M. H. Brown has 500 head of stock cattle and beeves near 
 the same place. 
 
 " Across the Platte, in the neighborhood of Fort McPherson, the 
 Bent Brothers have 1,000 head of stock cattle, and will add another 
 1,000 the present season. 
 
 " Messrs. Carter & Coe have a large herd near there, which 
 numbers near a thousand. 
 
 "Mr. Benjamin Gallagher has 1,200 head at the old Oilman 
 ranch, twelve miles from McPherson. 
 
 " Progress this Season. More real progress has been made in 
 stock matters west of the Missouri this season than in all time 
 before. We have not only added to the numbers of our herds and 
 flocks, but we have given confidence to all our stock -growers and to 
 Eastern people in the permanency and profit of grazing in the Trans- 
 Missouri country. 
 
 " We are now in easy reach of Eastern markets. The railways 
 are landing the heaviest cattle in Chicago from the Rocky Moun- 
 tains at $9 and $10 per head ; we can sell thousands and tens of 
 thousands annually to the Pacific slope, and there is still an all- 
 absorbing home demand to stock our thousands of valleys. 
 
 " The future. As every country in the West receives a new 
 emigrant, and his plow turns the grass under, that corn and wheat 
 may grow in its stead, the range of the stock-grower is that much 
 contracted, and the area of grazing lessened. By reason of the high 
 value of lands for grain-growing purposes the people of the country 
 east of the Mississippi River are already coming to us for beef and
 
 APPENDIX. 493 
 
 mutton. Chicago and New York people are enjoying the juicy 
 steaks from cattle fattened on our nutritious grasses that grow in 
 our valleys and on our mountain-sides, close up to the perpetual 
 snows of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 " As immigration takes up more and more of the pastures east 
 of us for grain, drovers will be obliged more and more to come to us 
 for beef. Texas, the great hive of cattle, has received three hun- 
 dred thousand settlers this season. The grazing area of that State 
 has been lessened at least a million acres thereby. Everywhere 
 events point to this Trans-Missouri country as the future depend- 
 ence of the East for wool, beef, mutton, and horses." 
 
 PAGE 60. The following article, clipped from the New-York 
 Times, contains so much valuable information, bearing on the ques- 
 tion of Irrigation, as related to the Plains and the great Internal Basin 
 of the Continent, that I venture to insert it here. It seems to be a 
 careful resume of the facts that were brought before the notable 
 Convention of Governors and others, that met in Denver in the 
 autumn of '73, to consider the question of a general and comprehen- 
 ive system of irrigation for all that region : 
 
 WATER SUPPLY FOR THE GREAT PLAINS REQUIRED. 
 
 Correspondence of the Ntw-Tork Times. 
 
 DENVER, Colorado, Friday, Oct. 17, 1873. 
 
 It is a fact, perhaps not generally considered, that the ninety 
 ninth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, the meridian of 
 Fort Kearney on the Platte, and Fort Hays, marks a division line in 
 the physical geography of the continent. Here the prairies merge 
 into the great plains, and the abundant rain-fall of eastern meridians 
 ceases. West of this line lies one-half of the area of the United 
 States, all of which, excepting a small strip on the shores of the 
 Pacific, is without sufficient rain-fall for the cultivation of the soil. 
 This great arid region comprises more than two-thirds of Kansas 
 and Nebraska, a large portion of California, Oregon, Washington, 
 and Texas, and nearly all of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, 
 Idaho, Montana, Arizona, Nevada, and Dakota. Here are one million 
 square miles* of barren country, and the question is, What shall we 
 do with it ?
 
 494 APPENDIX. 
 
 The keen interest felt in this matter has been evident from the 
 large attendance upon this convention, and the mass of information 
 and argument presented. Whatever has been done thus far toward 
 reclaiming any portion of these waste lands has been by individual 
 enterprise, except in Utah and New Mexico a system of irrigation 
 has been enforced by legislative enactments. In New Mexico the 
 acequias are the most important features of the country. The sub- 
 sistence of the people depends upon them, and the laws protecting 
 them fill many pages of the statute books. An overseer of acequias 
 is selected in every precinct, who fixes the number of laborers to be 
 furnished by each land-owner, apportions their work, and distributes 
 the water. Yet not over 300 square miles is under cultivation in 
 that Territory. In Utah, where there is in operation the most com- 
 plete and successful system of irrigation in this country, only about 
 140,000 acres are under cultivation. By legislative enactment the 
 counties have power to build canals just as they build roads. Water 
 commissioners are chosen at regular elections, in each county, and 
 their services are paid out of the general tax levy, and they give 
 bonds for the faithful performance of their duties. Subordinate 
 commissioners, or water masters, are selected by neighborhoods, 
 cities, and towns, and they are paid by assessments on the land. 
 There are now over 1,200 miles of irrigating canals in Utah, with a 
 capacity for watering 100,000 acres. The population of the Terri- 
 tory is upward of 150,000. It has 190 prosperous towns and cities. 
 Its farm products are shipped into the neighboring Territories, and 
 even into the Missouri Valley. In Colorado there has been no gen- 
 eral plan of irrigation. Private corporations build canals and sell 
 the water therefrom to the ranchmen. Several of the towns are 
 supplied in this way. The colonies have also done much in this 
 respect. But no general system has been adopted in that Territory, 
 nor has the legislature ever taken cognizance of the situation. The 
 same may be said of the other States and Territories interested in 
 this movement. Irrigation has been limited. The few acres that 
 have been reclaimed in the immediate vicinity of the streams and 
 canons, near the mountains, bear no comparison to the vast body 
 of plain and desert stretching hundreds of miles in every direc- 
 tion. 
 
 The cost of constructing irrigating canals varies according to 
 the character of the country. The average in Colorado has been $7 
 per acre. It is thought by competent engineers that in a general 
 system of canals for the Plains, east of Denver, the cost must run 
 from $10 to $15 per acre. According to careful estimates, Colorado
 
 APPENDIX. 495 
 
 has a water supply sufficient to irrigate 6,000,000 acres, an arable 
 area which, in Egypt, in the times of the Ptolemies, supplied food 
 for 8,000,000 people. The Plains, extending from the foot-hills of 
 the Rocky Mountains eastward nearly 300 miles, comprise about 
 25,000,000 acres. Of this vast tract there are 1,500,000 acres belong- 
 ing to the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, lying south of the 
 Platte River, and which a canal from the Platte Canon to the head- 
 waters of the Republican will cover. Such a canal, 12 feet wide 
 and 3 feet deep, will cost $1,000 per mile. It will make lands 
 that now go a-begging at $2.50 per acre worth from $10 to $15. 
 
 The want of water is the one and only drawback to the settle- 
 ment of the Trane-Missouri country. Farming along the streams 
 has been carried on enough to show that the soil is not only fertile, 
 but extremely so, insuring, with plenty of water, crops surpassing 
 those of the best farming districts elsewhere. The average yield, 
 year in and year out, through the Rocky Mountain region, when- 
 ever irrigation is employed, has been found to be as follows : Wheat, 
 27 bushels per acre ; oats, 55 ; potatoes, 150 to 200 ; onions, 250 ; 
 barley, 33. This is far above the average of Illinois or Ohio. It is 
 believed that the mountain streams, if turned into proper channels, 
 will irrigate the greater part of the Plains, both east and west of the 
 Mountains. This is particularly true of Western Kansas and 
 Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico. The great 
 rivers of the Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande, and Colorado could be 
 divided at or near their source in the mountains, and made to cover 
 vast quantities of land. In Utah, it is proposed to take out canals 
 from the Jordan, Weber, and Bear rivers, diminishing the supply 
 in Great Salt Lake, and distributing it over other adjacent portions 
 of the territory. And in California, engineers have been sent out to 
 turn the Colorado River into the desert of Arizona, and Southern 
 California. 
 
 PAGE 279. Her statistics (San Francisco) for 1873 are equally sig- 
 nificant, and foot up about as follows : In that year over 70,000 peo- 
 ple arrived there, by land and sea, and less than half that number 
 departed. Nearly 4,000 vessels entered her harbor, measuring about 
 2,000,000 tons. She exported 10,000,000 sacks of wheat, and nearly 
 1,000,000 barrels of flour; and Californians claimed, it wasn't much 
 of a year for " wheat **, either ! The total wheat crop of the State, 
 which mostly sought her wharves, was estimated as worth fully 
 
 21*
 
 496 APPENDIX. 
 
 $26,000,000, or nearly $10,000,000 more than in 1872 prices being 
 higher; the wool-clip, say, $7,000,000 ; the wine product, $2,000,000. 
 Her total exports, of all kinds, was estimated at about $80,000,000 ; 
 and, best of all, while her exports had largely increased, her imports 
 had considerably decreased. Real estate had been dull for a year or 
 two, and yet her Bales that year aggregated about $15,000,000 ; 
 while her mining stocks sold for $150,000,000, and paid dividends 
 about $14,000,000, as against less than half that amount in 1872. 
 The cash value of her property was estimated at $250,000,000 and 
 of the State at about $600,000,000. 
 
 California's yield of the precious metals in 1873 was estimated at 
 about $18,000,000, which was some two millions less than in 1872, 
 and was already surpassed by her magnificent wheat crop of 
 $26,000,000. Her total agricultural products for '73 were believed 
 to aggregate $80,000,000 ; while all her mines and manufactures 
 produced only about $70,000,000, though employing nearly double 
 the number of people. Evidently, with her vast area of 120,000,000 
 acres of land, of which fully 40,000,000 are fit for the plow, our 
 farmers there have a brilliant future before them, notwithstanding 
 they will have to irrigate to raise some crops. 
 
 PAGE 324. The following is a table of mean temperature at 
 Santa Barbara for the year 1870-1 : 
 
 April, average of the three daily observations 60 62 
 
 May, " " " 62.35 
 
 June, " " " 65.14 
 
 July, " " " 71.49 
 
 Aug., " " " 72.12 
 
 Sept., " " 68.08 
 
 Oct., " " " 65.96 
 
 Nov., " " " 61.22 
 
 Dec., " " " 52.12 
 
 Jan., " " " 54.51 
 
 Feb., " " " 53.35 
 
 March, " " " 58.42 
 
 Average temperature for the year, 60.20.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 497 
 
 COLDEST DAT. 
 
 April 12th 60 
 
 May 15th 66 
 
 June 1st 69 
 
 July 26th 76 
 
 Aug. llth 77 
 
 Sept. 23d 66 
 
 Oct. 23d 60 
 
 Nov. 7th 64 
 
 Dec. 15th 52 
 
 Jan. llth 56 
 
 Feb. 22d 42 
 
 March 13th.. . .56 
 
 WARMEST DAT. 
 
 April 16th 74 
 
 May 23d 77 
 
 June 3d 80 
 
 July llth 84 
 
 Aug. 8th 86 
 
 Sept. 27th 90 
 
 Oct. 20th 92 
 
 Nov. 20th 87 
 
 Dec. 28th 71 
 
 Jan, 3d 76 
 
 Feb. 28th 71 
 
 March 27th... . 83 
 
 Coldest day in the year, Feb. 22d 42 
 
 Warmest day in the year, Oct. 20th ' 92 
 
 Variation 50 
 
 Compare these with the average temperature of the Atlantic 
 Coast, say at Trenton or New York, and what a paradise for invalidi 
 Santa Barbara must be ! 
 
 PAGE 434. Our yield of the precious metals for 1873 was excep- 
 tionally fine, and the following table of the total for that year, from 
 the districts west of the Missouri River, gave immense satisfaction 
 on the Pacific Coast : 
 
 California $18,025,722 
 
 Nevada 35,254,507 
 
 Oregon 1,376,389 
 
 Washington 209,395 
 
 Idaho 2,343,654 
 
 Montana 3,892,810 
 
 Utah 4,906,337 
 
 Arizona 47,778 
 
 Colorado 4,083568 
 
 Mexico 868,798 
 
 British Columbia. 1,250,035 
 
 Grand total $72,258,693
 
 498 APPENDIX. 
 
 The total yield for 1872 was only $62,236,913 ; so that here is a gain 
 of $10,000,000 or so in one year. This extra increase, however, was 
 chiefly from Nevada, whose total product, it will be seen, about 
 equals that of all the others ; and it must be credited mainly to the 
 great Coinstock Lode, whose ores, it is now about demonstrated, 
 grow richer and better, the deeper you go down, like the best mines 
 of Mexico and Peru. In 1871 they averaged only $27 per ton ; in 
 1872 they increased to $32 ; and in 1873 to $40. 
 
 These figures well sustain Mr. Sutro's theories, and his Great Tun- 
 nel now well under way will soon become a fixed fact. This Tunnel 
 will be several miles in length, when completed, and in both concep- 
 tion and execution must be regarded as one of the greatest triumphs 
 of engineering in America. The famous "Bonanza" silver mines 
 are mainly located on the Comstock Lode, and this tunnel will prove 
 of immense advantage to them, increasing their yield very largely. 
 
 Our yield of the precious metals for 1876, from the region west of 
 the Missouri River, was still better than in 1873, and the gain is so 
 marked as to challenge the attention of everybody. The following 
 figures, it is believed, are substantially correct : 
 
 California $18,615,817 
 
 Nevada 49,280,764 
 
 Oregon 1,500,000 
 
 Washington...'. 300,000 
 
 Idaho 2,038,000 
 
 Montana 4,230,000 
 
 Utah 5,850,000 
 
 Arizona 1,540,000 
 
 Colorado 7,292,000 
 
 Mexico 2,213,748 
 
 British Columbia 1,441,566 
 
 New Mexico 350,294 
 
 Total $94,652,189 
 
 Here is a gain of $22,393,496 over the product of 1873, or an in- 
 crease of over 30 per cent., which certainly must be very gratifying 
 to our mine-owners, if to nobody else. It is surely a very handsome 
 addition to the world's wealth. California, Oregon, Washington and 
 British Columbia, it will be seen, made a very slight increase over 
 their yield for 1873 ; but Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, 
 and Arizona all ran largely ahead, especially Colorado and Nevada. 
 Arizona also has done well, and doubtless will do better.
 
 APPENDIX. 499 
 
 The total yield it will be observed was $94,652,189, comprising of 
 coarse both gold and silver. Of this amount, however, nearly one 
 lialf was silver, derived as follows : 
 
 California $ 577,500 
 
 Nevada 26,525,000 
 
 Montana 1,155,000 
 
 Idaho 1,000,000 
 
 Utah 5,775,000 
 
 Colorado 4,042,000 
 
 Arizona 1,000,000 
 
 Total $40,074,500 
 
 Here surely is some basis for Resumption. If the product of our 
 mines continues to increase at the same rate, we shall certainly soon 
 be on the safe road to Specie Payments, and the sooner we reach that 
 shining goal the better. 
 
 PAGES 279 and 489. The statistics of San Francisco for 1876 still 
 show a steady growth and increase, that must be very gratifying to 
 the average Californian. In that year about 90,000 persons arrived 
 there, by land and sea, and only about half that number departed, 
 showing a gain of over 40,000 population by immigration alone, to 
 be distributed thence over California and the Pacific coast generally. 
 In 1875 her actual gain was 66,172, and in 1874 it was 67,688 ; but 
 these were exceptional and extra good years. 
 
 The total wheat crop of the State in 1876 was estimated as worth 
 $36,000,000, or a gain of about $10,000,000 over that of 1873. Her 
 wool-clip was computed to be worth $8,200,000 ; her wine-product 
 $4,000,000. Her total exports, of all kinds, doubtless approximated 
 $100,000,000. Her sales of real-estate footed up $25,000,000 ; her 
 mining-stocks paid dividends $35,000,000, as against $14,000,000 in 
 1873. The cash value of her property was estimated at $300,000,000, 
 and of the State at about $700,000,000. 
 
 California's yield of the precious metals in 1876 was only 
 $18,077,500, as against $18,025,722 in 1873, so that in this respect she 
 seems to have come to a standstill. But this was more than offset by 
 her enormous wheat crop of $36,000,000. Her total farm products 
 for 1876 were thought to aggregate over $100,000,000. The follow- 
 ing statement of the receipts of domestic produce at San Francisco, 
 for the periods indicated, is very significant and speaks for itself :
 
 500 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 July 1, 1875, July 1, 1876, 
 
 to Jan. 8, 1876. to Jan. 6, 1877. 
 
 Flour, qrsks 1,031,441 1,233,925 
 
 Wheat, 100-fi) sks 4,662,583 8,825,018 
 
 Barley, 100-ft sks 707,729 1,296,161 
 
 Oats, sks 181,653 178,391 
 
 Potatoes, sks 442,879 474.532 
 
 Corn, sks 97,995 113,094 
 
 Rye, sks 10,141 17,951 
 
 Buckwheat, sks 1,180 6,232 
 
 Beans, sks 78,036 80,507 
 
 Bran, sks 83,033 142,364 
 
 Hay, tons 37,088 49,252 
 
 Salt, tons 5,010 4,441 
 
 Wool, bales 59,965 80,685 
 
 Hides, No 84,677 111,640 
 
 Raisins, 20-tt> bxs 16,836 23,818 
 
 Quicksilver, flasks 30,412 37,272 
 
 Hops, bales 6,584 
 
 Here, it will be observed, is a marked increase in every item, except 
 oats and salt. 
 
 The wool-clip of 1876, as I have said, was estimated to be worth 
 $8,200,000. Her wool interest has developed very rapidly, during 
 the past decade or so, and promises to have a brilliant future. Prior 
 to 1867, her wool-product was less than 9,000,000 pounds ; but it had 
 increased from 1,100,000 pounds in 1857, to nearly 9,000,000 pounds 
 in 1865 a gain of about 800 per cent. Since then, there has been 
 a steady growth and a gain of about 460 per cent in the total product. 
 Her exports of wool for the pa.st decade foot up about as follows : 
 
 Years. Pounds. 
 
 1867 7,048,000 
 
 1868 13,225,000 
 
 1869 13,274,000 
 
 1870 19,010,000 
 
 1871 22,323,000 
 
 1872 23,430,000 
 
 1873 30,144,100 
 
 1874 36,088,700 
 
 1875 48,183,000 
 
 1876 .... 52,588,300 
 
 Value. 
 $1,215,000 
 2,420,000 
 2,454,000 
 3,506,000 
 6,697,000 
 8,185000 
 6,450,000 
 8,120,000 
 8,450,000 
 8,200,000 
 
 Totals 265,314,100 
 
 $55,697,000
 
 APPENDIX. 501 
 
 The growth of her export trade in late years, as compared with 
 previous decades, is as follows : 
 
 Pounds. Value. 
 
 18S7-66 41 ,052,000 $7,481,000 
 
 1867-76 263,314,100 55,697,000 
 
 Total for 20 years 306.366,100 $63,178,000 
 
 PAGES 396 and 415. On these pages, allusion has been made to the 
 importance of railroad connections East and West, for Arizona par- 
 ticularly ; but the remarks apply equally to New Mexico and Texas. 
 Such connections the " Texas and Pacific Railway " has been designed 
 to furnish, and it will be a blessed day for all that region when its 
 last rail is laid, and the whistle of its locomotives wakes the echoes . 
 of the mountains and canons there. By reference to the Map, it 
 will be seen, that this proposed road with its connections extends 
 from San Francisco South, through Los Angelos to Fort Yuma; 
 thence up the Gila via Tucson east, across Arizona to Mesilla and 
 El Paso ; thence across New Mexico and Western Texas east, to Fort 
 Worth ; and thence by diverging branches to St. Louis, Memphis, 
 Vicksburg, New Orleans and Qalveston. At Galveston and New 
 Orleans, it would connect with ships and steamers, via the Gulf of 
 Mexico to all parts of the world by sea ; at Vicksburg and Memphis 
 with the sea-coast and midland great railroad routes to the north; 
 and at St. Louis with the Pennsylvania Railroad and its great through 
 connections to Chicago, Philadelphia, New^York, and the East gen- 
 erally. Its total length, I suppose, from San Francisco say to the 
 Mississippi is about 2300 miles. The western end has already been 
 pushed down nearly to Fort Yuma, by the Southern Pacific Railroad, 
 of California, which is understood to be practically the same as the 
 Central Pacific, and the eastern end or branches have been completed, 
 either by the Texas and Pacific or allied companies, to Fort Worth 
 in Western Texas ; so that the work yet to be done is practically the 
 gap of 1200 miles, between Fort Yuma and Fort Worth, or about 
 two-thirds of the whole distance. 
 
 The route lies mainly over rolling prairies, high plateaus, and 
 easy mountain grades, and through a region free from obstructing 
 snows at all seasons of the year. The highest elevation on the 
 whole road is only about 5000 feet, at a pass in the Hueca Moun- 
 tains, just east of El Paso, with a grade of only 66 feet to the mile
 
 502 APPENDIX. 
 
 while the total length of grades between 80 and 105 feet, it is thought 
 will not exceed 45 miles. On the contrary, the Union Pacific, where 
 it crosses the Rocky Mountains, has to climb up to 8,235 feet, and 
 the Central Pacific only gets over the Sierra Nevadas by a climb of 
 7,042 feet. 
 
 A glance at the Map will show the high character, and in- 
 deed supreme importance, of such a railroad to all our vast empire 
 there, now practically inaccessible to population and trade, and des- 
 tined to remain so, until the iron horse opens a way thither. It will 
 open up all Western Texas, with its great flocks and herds, to the 
 East and a market. It will tap New Mexico and Arizona, with their 
 rich mines of gold and silver, copper and iron, and pour into their 
 mining regions an active and busy population. It will shake hands 
 with California again across the continent, through a far better 
 region, and furnish another highway for the trade and travel of China 
 and Japan. Nay, more, at El Paso, or somewhere there, it will ulti- 
 mately connect with a great trunk line into Old Mexico via Chihuahua 
 and the City of Mexico south, and thus rejuvenate and rehabilitate 
 that sick Republic, by bringing her too into harmony with the rail- 
 road system the business and ideas, the activities and energies of 
 the American Union. In short, it means trade and travel develop- 
 ment, population, civilization to all that great region to the west and 
 southwest of us. It means the speedy and thorough solution of the 
 Indian Question, and of pretty much all other questions out there. 
 It means another "bond of union," safe and strong, binding the 
 Pacific slope to the Atlantic States. It means prosperity to the 
 south, over which it would pour its streams of wealth. It means 
 another arm of defence/. sure and steadfast, in case of foreign war. 
 All these are practical results, certain to follow from the construc- 
 tion of such a road, and their magnitude and significance are simply 
 incalculable. 
 
 Of course, such a railroad will cost money, and a good deal of it, 
 both to build and e'quip, to operate and maintain it. Its original 
 cost is estimated anywhere, from $75,000,000 to $100,000,000. To 
 provide for this in part, the road already has a land-grant of some 
 13,376,000 acres of superb land in Texas, 14,387,200 acres in New 
 Mexico and Arizona, and 3,456,000 acres in Southern California, mak- 
 ing in all, nearly 32,000,000 acres. All of this is valuable for farm 
 ing or grazing purposes, and much of it is immensely rich in mine 
 rals of all sorts, as stated repeatedly in my chapters on Arizona. 
 Ultimately, as the road advances, and settlers, and miners pour in, 
 this magnificent endowment, this princely domain, will prove of very
 
 APPENDIX. 503 
 
 great value to the company ; but it is not now materially available, 
 and the burning question with the road is, how to secure present 
 funds. 
 
 To this end, in view of the National character of the road, and 
 the great results sure to flow from it, the company hopes for aid 
 from Congress, pleading the precedents of the Union Pacific, the 
 Central Pacific, and the Northern Pacific railroads, all of which were 
 helped in some way, directly or indirectly. But it asks not actual 
 money, or even the endorsement of its bonds, as some or all of them, 
 more or less did ; but only a guarantee of the interest on its bonds, 
 for a stated period, in return for which it offers the government a 
 first mortgage on the road and equipment, and all its lands and 
 franchises the whole of its net income, both from sale of lands, 
 and operation of the road, and a proportion of its bonds per mile as 
 issued, until said mortgage is extinguished and further to provide a 
 sinking fund to meet the bonds as they mature. These terms seem 
 fair on their face, but Congress naturally hesitates, and the country 
 doubts, in view of the hard times, and our picturesque, not to say 
 romantic, experiences with the Credit Mobilier and otherwise. 
 
 Of course, the other Pacific roads are hostile to it, because it 
 would break down their monopoly across the continent, and introduce 
 the healthful principle of legitimate competition. But notwith- 
 standing this, it seems clear, that eventually it will secure National 
 aid, to some extent, in some shape or other, and that not distantly. 
 But, however this may be, it is pretty sure to get itself built, and 
 will then certainly prove a mighty instrument for progress in all 
 that region. Bold hands and skillful brains have conceived and exe- 
 cuted the project thus far, with consummate ability. That great 
 railroad king, or rather emperor, Thomas Scott, of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad, a man of imperial grip and boundless resources, is now at 
 the head of it, and should he live, nothing seems more certain, than 
 that he will carry the enterprise speedily through. A greater boon 
 he could not confer upon the Great Southwest, and hardly upon the 
 country generally.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 AOAFOLCO 470 
 
 " people of 470 
 
 cathedral 471 
 
 fort 472 
 
 Acequias ; 82, 333, 487 
 
 Across the Mountains 150 
 
 " Adios " 477 
 
 Adventure among Utes 120-3 
 
 " Dieganos 351-2 
 
 " on bay of San Fran- 
 cisco 294 
 
 " with grizzly bear 459 
 
 Advice to Emigrants 478 
 
 ^Esculapius, a son of. 272 
 
 AguaFrio . 287 
 
 Age of Big Trees 463 
 
 Alkali region 150-3 
 
 Alaska 291 
 
 Alcatraz 293 
 
 Alamo 347 
 
 American eagle 109 
 
 " FallsofSnake 218 
 
 " a Kepresentative 332 
 
 Antelope 37, 51, 149 
 
 Ancantash 115, 125 
 
 Angel Island 293 
 
 Anaheim 340 
 
 Ancient ruins in Arizona 395 
 
 Anomalies in Arizona, etc 421 
 
 Arkansas, the 82 
 
 " Valley of. 82-104 
 
 " Little 104 
 
 Argonauts, Bret Harte's 288 
 
 Army Life on Pacific Coast 293 
 
 " -lady in Arizona 413 
 
 " nurseries of the 418 
 
 Arizona City 355 
 
 Arizona generally 372, 394 
 
 her quicksands 388 
 
 her cnief drawback 414 
 
 her anomalies 421 
 
 her ancient ruins 395 
 
 her quails and rabbits. .409-21 
 her mines 378, 399, 414 
 
 PA9B 
 
 Assays, mining 68 
 
 Astoria ." 270 
 
 Asylums, Chinese 812-14 
 
 Aspinwall 475 
 
 Autocrat of Utah 179 
 
 Aubrey City 414 
 
 Average Westerner 43, 98 
 
 " Coloradoan 98 
 
 Aztecs 367, 395, 406 
 
 BAKEB'S Ranch 55 
 
 Bailie, a Mexican 91-3 
 
 Bartering with Indians 131-2 
 
 Baker City 231 
 
 Banquet at Denver 62 
 
 Bar of the Columbia 271 
 
 Banquet at San Francisco 304 
 
 Barbary Coast, " 310 
 
 Bankrupt Law of Chinese 312 
 
 Banning, Gen. P 331-39-40 
 
 " Bed-rock " 78 
 
 Belvidere Apollo 218 
 
 Bear River 214 
 
 Bee-Hive House 175 
 
 Better things ahead 299 
 
 Bell's Canon.. 393 
 
 Beale's Springs 410 
 
 Beaver Lake 415 
 
 Bear Valley 465 
 
 Bergh, Mr. Henry 238 
 
 " Big Injun " stories 38 
 
 Bierstadt's skies 105 
 
 Bitter Creek 150 
 
 " " country 150-3 
 
 Bill of Fare, a hard 221 
 
 Big Trees of California 462 
 
 Black Hawk 64 
 
 Black-Butte Station 152 
 
 Blue Mountains 234-6 
 
 Blackbirds at Tucson 376 
 
 " Black's " 445 
 
 Boys in Blue * 28 
 
 Border missionary, a 39 
 
 bishop, a 59
 
 506 
 
 HvDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bogus mining companies 69 
 
 Boise", valley of. 219 
 
 Bois^ City 223-6 
 
 " Borers r ' 377 
 
 Bower Cave 445 
 
 Bradford's Hill 110-12 
 
 Brent, John 84 
 
 Bridger's Pass 150 
 
 Bridger, Jim 158 
 
 Brigadier-Generals abundant 173 
 
 Brigham City 212 
 
 Breakdown, a 241 
 
 Breakdown, another 246 
 
 Browne, Boss- J 70, 226 
 
 Brain of the Northwest 266 
 
 Broderick monument 280 
 
 Building stone, fine 27 
 
 Buchser, M 43 
 
 Buffalo region 50 
 
 " grass 50 
 
 " as engineer 52 
 
 " Bull-drivers" 54-237 
 
 Butte region 78 
 
 Buckskin Joe 107 
 
 Burt, Maj 158 
 
 Burnt Biver 228 
 
 Bunch-grass 365 
 
 CAVALTEB and Corncracker 23 
 
 Camping-out. .35, 76, 88, 349, 362, 419 
 " near summit of Bocky 
 
 Mountains 102 
 
 Cafiou City 81 
 
 Canon, Echo 159 
 
 " ofColumbia. 255 
 
 Castle Kock 78,256 
 
 Castle Dome 363 
 
 Carson, Kit (see K) 
 
 Carson City 436 
 
 Carter, Judge 159 
 
 Carter, Colonel 415 
 
 Cannon, George Q 168 
 
 Calico horses 252 
 
 Cascade Mountains, passage of. . . 255 
 
 Cascades, Lower 255 
 
 California at last 274 
 
 her growth 279, 489 
 
 wines generally 338 
 
 natives 293, 328, 342 
 
 mines 427 
 
 live-oaks 426, 441 
 
 wheat-fields 426, 441 
 
 wind-mills 441 
 
 statistics 279,489 
 
 Caion Pass 422 
 
 Calaveras Big Trees 463 
 
 Cape St. Lucas 469 
 
 Cactus, columnar 368 
 
 Carissa Creek 849 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Caribbean Sea 476 
 
 " Cavalry Gregg " 407 
 
 Cayotes, or wolves 216 
 
 Central City and mines 62-4 
 
 Celilp 253 
 
 Centipedes 417 
 
 Central Pacific Railroad 428 
 
 its grades 428 
 
 snow-sheds 429 
 
 Central America 432 
 
 Chicago 23 
 
 Cherry Creek 58, 65 
 
 CMvington massacre 139 
 
 Church Butte 153 
 
 Children of Brigham Young 180 
 
 Chinaman, John 225, 268 
 
 Change from dry to wet 258 
 
 Churches of San Francisco 287 
 
 Christmas in San Francisco 292 
 
 Chinese Question, the 300-21 
 
 " merchants 304 
 
 " New Year 311 
 
 " bankrupt law 312 
 
 " temple or Josh-house.... 312 
 
 " religion 314 
 
 China's necessity America's op- 
 portunity 315-16 
 
 Chemisal 345 
 
 Charley, Diegano 351 
 
 Changes of elevation 416 
 
 Cincinnati 23 
 
 Cisco 428 
 
 Clear Creek 63-64 
 
 Claims, mining 66 
 
 Clawson, Brig.-Gen 175 
 
 Climate of Colorado 76. 100, 148 
 
 " Oregon and Washing- 
 ton. 263 
 
 " San Francisco 281,467 
 
 " Santa Barbara 324,490 
 
 " SanDiego 328 
 
 ." Los Angelos 334 
 
 " of Mexican Coast 468 
 
 " Isthmus of Panama. . . 474 
 
 Cliff House and sea-lions 295-6 
 
 "Clarke's" 461 
 
 Clarke, Galen 461 
 
 Coming man 70 
 
 Companies, bogus 69 
 
 Compagrums du voyage 33 
 
 Costly supplies 49, 375, 407 
 
 Coal, etc 68, 153, 229 
 
 Copper, etc 63, 378 
 
 Colorado ores 68 
 
 " mineral resources 69-71 
 
 " Springs 80 
 
 " City 8i 
 
 " farming 82 
 
 " desert... 344-46
 
 INDEX. 
 
 607 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Coloradoan, an average 98 
 
 Corkscrew creek, a 87 
 
 Costello, Judge 107 
 
 Council, Indian 114-16 
 
 Councils of war 160 
 
 " Ciiveon 160 
 
 Cox, Jack 132 
 
 Courts, U. S., in Utah 193-6 
 
 Columbia River, etc 251 
 
 41 Clarke's Fork of. 251 
 
 " barof 271 
 
 Conner, Capt 270-3 
 
 Commerce and wealth of San 
 
 Francisco 279, 489 
 
 Comstock Lode 433, 492 
 
 Coin vs. Greenbacks 290 
 
 Conclusion as to Chinese 820 
 
 Cock-fights 335, 471 
 
 Cottonwood Canon ' . 410 
 
 Constitution steamer. 468 
 
 Colima 469 
 
 Costa Rica 472 
 
 Conclusion 477 
 
 Coulterville 444 
 
 " Crawford's " 244 
 
 Crossing the Rocky Mountains..84, 150 
 
 " the Blue Mountains 234 
 
 " bar of the Columbia.... 271 
 
 " Gila and Salado 383 
 
 " Sierra Nevadas 428, 437 
 
 Cruelty Prevention Society 
 
 wanted 238 
 
 Gumming, Gov 61 
 
 " his speech to Utes 126 
 
 Currants, wild 63 
 
 Culebra 90 
 
 Cuba, 476 
 
 DAXCIKG people, a 92 
 
 Dance with Indians, a 133 
 
 Dacotah 150 
 
 Danites or Thugs 189 
 
 Dalles, the '254 
 
 Darwinism 259 
 
 Dante's Inferno 411 
 
 Denver. .*. . . 58 
 
 " her growth, etc 60 
 
 " reception of Sherman, etc. 62 
 
 Desert of the Mountains 150 
 
 Deer 41 
 
 Desolation, genius of. 411 
 
 Deserters 422 
 
 Departure from San Francisco. . . 467 
 
 " Divides " 35, 73 
 
 " Diggings " 65, 107 
 
 Dirty Woman's Kanch 78 
 
 Diabolo, Mt 465 
 
 Divine, a High-Church 469, 475 
 
 Dodge, Gen 144, 248 
 
 Dogberry, an Idaho 226 
 
 Donkeys, dilapidated 234-8 
 
 Down the Columbia 249 
 
 Donner Lake 431 
 
 Down the Sierras 438 
 
 Drive, an anxious 239 
 
 Drake's Plantation Bitters 249 
 
 Dry to wet 258 
 
 Duck-shooting 106-9 
 
 Duluth 267 
 
 EAGLE, a plucky 10& 
 
 Echo Canon 159 
 
 Election imbroglio 61 
 
 Elk 149 
 
 El Dorado Canon 414 
 
 Elevation, changes of. 416 
 
 Empire City 107 
 
 Emigrant trail 215 
 
 " a typical 406 
 
 English capital 62 
 
 Englishman, a sturdy 67 
 
 Englishmen, enterprising 443 
 
 Enforce the laws 205 
 
 Enfant terribles 249 
 
 Ene .Railroad 21 
 
 Exasperated teamster 43 
 
 Exaggeration, Western 98 
 
 Example, a shining 298 
 
 Exploring the country 386 
 
 Exploits of Apaches 402 
 
 FALL-LEAF 29 
 
 his theology SO 
 
 " his bravery 31 
 
 Fancy Creek 38 
 
 Fair Play, Col 106 
 
 Falls of Snake River 218 
 
 Fare, hard bill of. 221 
 
 Farewell Bend 230 
 
 Farrallones 295 
 
 Fatherland, our 476 
 
 Fellow-passengers 43 
 
 Fenian friends 260 
 
 Fellow-passengers home 469 
 
 Fiat Justitla 321 
 
 Fish-hooks vs. ox-carts 371 
 
 Flood-stayed 382 
 
 Fluctuations of mining stocks. . . . 435 
 
 Forethought 239 
 
 Fourth of July 476 
 
 Fort Alcatraz 277, 294 
 
 Benton 252 
 
 BoisS 227 
 
 Bowie 376 
 
 Bridger 227 
 
 Cameron 376 
 
 Cape Disappointment 271 
 
 Camp Cady 421
 
 508 
 
 I^TDEX. ' 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fort Camp Douglas 170 
 
 " Colville 
 
 Churchill 4;;6 
 
 Garland 89, 114 
 
 Goodwin 376 
 
 Grant 377 
 
 Halleck 148 
 
 Kearney 40 
 
 Laramie 115 
 
 Leavenworth 29, "3 
 
 Lovell 376 
 
 McDowell 8^4 
 
 Mojave 413 
 
 Morgan 75 
 
 McPherson 48 
 
 Point 277 
 
 Biley 21, S3 
 
 BOCK Springs 41 8 
 
 San Jose 4 277 
 
 Sedgwick 49 
 
 Stevens 271 
 
 Stockton 323 
 
 Vancouver 201 
 
 Wallen 376 
 
 Whipple 407 
 
 Wicked f>4 
 
 Yuma.. $55 
 
 Eraser's River 224 
 
 Freezing-out C9 
 
 Fremont's old trail 77 
 
 " 'Frisco " 274-6 
 
 Frigate-birds 274, 463 
 
 Fruit of Mormon teachings 1S8 
 
 Fun, a little 113 
 
 GAMBLEBS.. 59,224 
 
 Gale, Judge 59 
 
 Gate City 63 
 
 Garden of the Gods 79 
 
 Game, lack of. 103-4, 4(;0 
 
 " Ganow's " 3. r ,l 
 
 Germany, a bit of. 841 
 
 Germans 24 
 
 " a frightened 56 
 
 " enterprising 100 
 
 " a plucky 883 
 
 Getting under way 84 
 
 Georgetown 71 
 
 Geiger grade 4-' 1 
 
 Genoa 4: (j 
 
 Gertrude Jane 488 
 
 Gila City 863 
 
 " Eiver 364 
 
 " valley of the 364 
 
 " Bend 3^6 
 
 " freshet in 3*1 
 
 Give John a chance 317 
 
 Good grazing region iiO 
 
 Golden City 60, 63 
 
 PAGH 
 
 Golden Gate 276 
 
 Gold mines 66 
 
 Gold and silver, our yield of 1873. 491 
 
 Gooseberries, wild 63 
 
 Good missionary ground 319, 361 
 
 Gov. Low on Chinese 318 
 
 Grasshoppers 36 
 
 Granite Creek 398 
 
 Grande Eonde Valley 232 
 
 Great West, the 22 
 
 " American Desert 51 
 
 " Salt Lake 209 
 
 " American Falls 218 
 
 " Bend region 251 
 
 Gregory Gulch 64 
 
 " Consolidated 66 
 
 Greenhorn Eiver 82 
 
 Green River 150-3 
 
 Gregg, Gen. Irvin 407-8 
 
 " Greasers " 470 
 
 Gri/zly bear and cubs 459 
 
 Guaymas 378 
 
 Guatemala 472 
 
 Gulls 274, 468 
 
 Gulf Stream 476 
 
 HAPPY FAMILY, a 37 
 
 Halsey, Mr. Supt 221 
 
 Hardy ville 413 
 
 Hardy, Mr 414 
 
 Hassayampa 387 
 
 Hermann 25 
 
 Hercules of the Plains 29 
 
 Hell Gate 253 
 
 Hell Canon 405 
 
 Heller, Louis 383 
 
 " Heathen Chinee " 301, 430 
 
 Hermitage, the 458 
 
 Hiucklin's, Zan, estate 83-4 
 
 High Council of Mormon 
 
 Church 196-8 
 
 Homan's Park 99 
 
 Hoosiers 22 
 
 Holliday's Overland Stages. . . 41, 207 
 
 Holliday, Ben 41, 152, 207 
 
 Holmes' One-Hoss Shay 242, 418 
 
 Home again 476 
 
 Honitos 465 
 
 Hood, Mt 256, 264, 269 
 
 Horse philosophy 236-7 
 
 Horses, a fine team of. 234 
 
 How not to do it 160 
 
 Huerfano Eiver 83 
 
 Hunt, Indian Agent 116, 131 
 
 Hualapai Springs 410 
 
 "Hutchings"' 449 
 
 Hydraulic mining 427 
 
 IDAHO SPRINGS 71
 
 INDEX. 
 
 509 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Idaho City 224 
 
 Idaho 223-6 
 
 " minesof. 226 
 
 " Dogberry 226 
 
 Illinois and Indiana 22 
 
 Indians, Apache 401 
 
 " Arrapahoe 54 
 
 " Cheyenne 115,127 
 
 Chemehuevi 424 
 
 Comanche .. ..115, 127 
 
 Delaware 30 
 
 Diegano 350 
 
 Hualapai 412 
 
 Maricopa 369 
 
 Mojave 412 
 
 Oregon 252 
 
 Pai-Utes 412 
 
 Papago 330 
 
 Pawnee 38 
 
 Pimo 369 
 
 Pottawatomie 82 
 
 Shoshone 158 
 
 Sioux 55 
 
 Umatilla 245 
 
 Ute 114,135 
 
 Walla- Walla 246 
 
 Yavapai 392 
 
 Ind an corn 27 
 
 Point 28 
 
 idea of steam 30 
 
 " telegraph 30 
 
 rumors 38, 55-7, 77 
 
 council 114, 116 
 
 treaty.... 113-36 
 
 ponies 116 
 
 costumes 117 
 
 village 118 
 
 dogs 118 
 
 profanity 119 
 
 speeches 127-9 
 
 a sharp 129 
 
 bartering with 131-2 
 
 dance 133 
 
 squaws 135 
 
 generally 135-6 
 
 trophies 143 
 
 scare 146, 419 
 
 exploits of Apaches 402 
 
 their cunning 403 
 
 policy of Brigham Young. 212 
 
 << our old 370,412 
 
 " our true 413 
 
 " Inside " m. " Outside " 354 
 
 Inspiration Point 457 
 
 Interview with Brigham Young. 176-9 
 " " U. S. Judge at Salt 
 
 Lake 189-98 
 
 Irish miners 246 
 
 " Iron clad " Christians 289 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Iron mines 63 
 
 Irrigation 60, 487 
 
 Isothermal lines 263 
 
 Isthmus of Panama 474 
 
 " " people 475 
 
 JACKSON, Gen 29 
 
 Jack Cox 132-3 
 
 Jack-rabbits and quail 345 
 
 Jesus, Don 92 
 
 Jerked beef. 118 
 
 Jewish synagogue 286 
 
 Jews on Pacific Coast 287 
 
 Jesuit missions 326 
 
 Johnston, Albert Sydney 159-60 
 
 John Day River 254 
 
 John as a merchant 304 
 
 " a banker, etc 305 
 
 " an operative 306 
 
 " a railroad builder 307 
 
 " an actor 308 
 
 " a gambler 309 
 
 " a holiday keeper 311 
 
 " a legislator 312 
 
 " a heathen 813-15 
 
 " give him a chance 317 
 
 John Phoenix 827 
 
 " Jordan is a hard road," etc 236 
 
 Josh-house, Chinese 312-14 
 
 Judge Costello 107 
 
 " Gale 59 
 
 " Lynch 59,62,226 
 
 " Carter 159 
 
 " abrave 198 
 
 Julesburg 49, 53 
 
 Junction City 26 
 
 Juniper Mountain 409 
 
 Juries, Mormon 190 
 
 KANSAS Pacific Railroad 21 
 
 Kansas generally 27 
 
 Kaolin 68 
 
 "Kate," mule 87, 112 
 
 Kaw, the 32 
 
 Kerber's ranch 100 
 
 Kimball, Heber C, 167-75 
 
 Kit Carson 96-7, 114 
 
 his services 136 
 
 personal appearance. . . 137 
 
 adventures 137 
 
 Sherman on 138 
 
 Indians on 138 
 
 his opinion of Indians.138-9 
 Kootenay 252 
 
 LAWRENCE 26 
 
 Landscapes, superb.. 72, 84-6, 243, 446 
 
 Landscape, a tropical 478 
 
 Laramie Plains 14.3
 
 510 
 
 ISDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Laclede 152 
 
 Latrobe 248 
 
 Lake Pond Oreille 252 
 
 Laguiia Grande 342 
 
 Laguna 347 
 
 Lady, an army, in Arizona 413 
 
 LaPaz 414 
 
 Lake Tahoe 439 
 
 Leavenworth 25 
 
 Lead, etc 63 
 
 Leutze's painting 105 
 
 Leave Utah or drown 184 
 
 Lewiston 223 
 
 La Grande 233 
 
 " mines near 233 
 
 " river 235 
 
 Leland, a 465 
 
 Little Blue 38 
 
 Live mining- town 65 
 
 Lincoln on our mines 70 
 
 Life in a stage-coach . .155-7 
 
 Lieut. Genl. Utah Militia 173 
 
 Little Arkansas 104 
 
 Liberals m Imperialists 353 
 
 Libertad 377 
 
 Live-oaks of California 426, 441 
 
 Long's Peak 75 
 
 Lost among Indians 120-4 
 
 " Lo ! the poor Indian " 55, 135 
 
 Lone Mountain Cemetery. . . .280, 295 
 
 Los Angelos Plains 333, 423 
 
 " itself. 334-5 
 
 Lumber, costly 49, 375, 407 
 
 Lynch, Judge 59, 62, 226 
 
 MANHATTANVU.LE 32 
 
 Marysville 34 
 
 Mantilini, Mr 67 
 
 Machinery, mining 67 
 
 Manitou, Col 80 
 
 Mark Tapley's philosophy 122 
 
 Massacre, Sand Creek 139 
 
 Malade 215 
 
 Machado's, Kanch, Sefior 842 
 
 Maricopa Desert 366 
 
 Mariposa Trail 4-56 
 
 BigTrees 462 
 
 " itself. 464 
 
 Manzanillo 469 
 
 McCormick, Gov 362 
 
 McDowell Crossing 333 
 
 Meals en route 42 
 
 Medicine Man, a 77 
 
 Mexican peons 83 
 
 " bailie 91 
 
 " beds 93 
 
 emigrants 86, 89, 353 
 
 " life and manners 471 
 
 Mexican vs. Yankee 106 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Menace to U. States 175 
 
 " Meacham's " 239 
 
 Mescal 345 
 
 Mesquite 365 
 
 Merced River 452 
 
 Meluo Park 466 
 
 Missouri 24 
 
 Missouri River 25 
 
 Mining town, a live 65 
 
 Mining, placer. 66 
 
 Mining " processes " 68 
 
 Mining Companies, bogus 69 
 
 Mining as a business 435 
 
 Mines, yield of. 70 
 
 Mines, our, total yield of 1873. . . 491 
 
 Miners' slang 72 
 
 Miners returning East 146 
 
 Mines at Baker City 231 
 
 Mines of Colorado 63-71 
 
 " Idaho 226 
 
 " Oregon 254 
 
 " California 279, 427 
 
 " Arizona 378,399,414 
 
 Mines of Nevada 432-5 
 
 " U. S. generally 490-1 
 
 Mills, stamp 67 
 
 Mill City 71 
 
 Miami Valley 22 
 
 Micawber, Mr 68 
 
 Micawber, a Boston 250 
 
 Militia, Utah 172-5 
 
 Mission Mills 306 
 
 Milton's Hell 411 
 
 Mirage 846 
 
 Moral, a 124 
 
 Mormon woman 152 
 
 " tabernacle 166 
 
 " preacher 167 
 
 " asharp 168 
 
 " sermons 169 
 
 " militia-muster 172 
 
 " outrages, etc 183 
 
 " murder of Dr. Robin- 
 son 184-7 
 
 " Mountain Meadow Mas- 
 sacre 191 
 
 " juries, etc 190 
 
 " sobriety and thrift..... 200 
 
 " Bishops 201 
 
 " Brigham Young 174-9 
 
 Mormonism in general 199 
 
 Mormon Church, as immigration 
 
 agency 202 
 
 Mountain city, a .64 
 
 Mountain scenery, effect of. 86 
 
 Mountain mud-wagons 144 
 
 Mountain Fever 170 
 
 Montgomery street 285 
 
 " dames.. .. 286
 
 INDEX. 
 
 511 
 
 Montana emigrants 398 
 
 Mojave River 420 
 
 Mother, an ambitious 438 
 
 Monument Creek 79 
 
 Mountains, Alleghany 58 
 
 Rocky 75, 113 
 
 Wahsatch 158- 
 
 Blue 234, 244 
 
 Cascade 255 
 
 Aztec 392 
 
 Ban Bernardino 420 
 
 Sierra Nevadas..427, 437-8 
 
 Mt. Long's Peak 75 
 
 Pike's Peak 75-79 
 
 Hood... 256, 264-9 
 
 St. Helen's 270 
 
 Shasta 256 
 
 San Bernardino 344 
 
 San Francisco 391 
 
 Mule teams 54 
 
 " Kate 87 
 
 Muncbausen, Baron 57, 89 
 
 Mustang team 157 
 
 Mysteries and miseries of stage- 
 coaching 156 
 
 NASBY people 267 
 
 New England 22 
 
 " village 397 
 
 Newspapers again 108, 424 
 
 New Mexico, etc 140 
 
 New Granada 472 
 
 New York 476 
 
 Nevada, agriculture in 431 
 
 " mines in 433,491 
 
 " alkali plains of 436 
 
 Nez Perce Chief. 250 
 
 Nicaragua 472 
 
 North Platte 148 
 
 " Clear Creek 66 
 
 " No makee bobbery " 303 
 
 Nurseries of -the army 418 
 
 OCEAN, a Pacific 323 
 
 Off for the Pacific 144 
 
 " Los Angeles 322 
 
 " Ft. Yuma 339 
 
 " Yosemite 444 
 
 Ogden City 210 
 
 Ohio 22 
 
 Old Chief 63 
 
 Omaha 40, 58 
 
 Ooray 115, 125 
 
 " his speeches at treaty 126-9 
 
 Ophir mine 434 
 
 Ores, Colorado 68 
 
 " Arizona 899 
 
 " Nevada 432 
 
 Oregonian, a Uve 240 
 
 PAG* 
 
 Oregon Steam Nav. Co 251 
 
 " Indians 252 
 
 " rains and fogs 259 
 
 Oregonians generally 268 
 
 Orizaba, the 322 
 
 "Out West" 22 
 
 Outrage, a border 851 
 
 Outrages, Mormon 183 
 
 " Out of the Wilderness " 424 
 
 Outside on a coach 44 
 
 " Outfit " ." 72 
 
 Overland route 35 
 
 " stages 41,206 
 
 Owyhee 224 
 
 " Eapids 253 
 
 Ox-trains 54, 238 
 
 ' ' PAY-ORB " 66 
 
 Pav-streak 73 
 
 "Panned-out" 73 
 
 Pacific Railroad, Union 40, 71, 80 
 
 Central 428,430 
 
 Northern 252 
 
 " Texas 396 
 
 Pass, Sangre del Christo 84-6 
 
 " Poncho 102 
 
 Parks, Rocky Mt 95 
 
 Parley's Canon 161 
 
 Paymaster, a lucky 227 
 
 Pasquol, old 361 
 
 Painted Rocks, 367 
 
 Pai-UteHill 417 
 
 Paradise Regained 423 
 
 " for invalids 491 
 
 Panama 472 
 
 Peat 49 
 
 Peons, Mexican 83 
 
 Petroleum 153 
 
 Personal appearance of Brigham 
 
 Young 178-9 
 
 Pennsylvania Dutchman, a. ..... 39 
 
 Phosphorescent waves 467-8 
 
 Pike's Peak 75, 79 
 
 Pigeon English 302 
 
 Pilot Knob 348 
 
 Picacho 373 
 
 Platte River 36, 48 
 
 " Valley 47, 49 
 
 Placer Mining 65-66 
 
 Plains, the 50, 52, 72,111 
 
 " as stock-raising and dairy 
 
 region 51, 481 
 
 Placerville 439 
 
 Poncho Pass .... 102 
 
 " Creek 103 
 
 Pocket-knives as weapons 122 
 
 Polygamy, its workings 192-3 
 
 bad results generally.. 203 
 " a barbarism. . . . . 204
 
 512 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Polygamy, laws against, should 
 
 be enforced 204-5 
 
 Portland 264-8 
 
 Powder River 228 
 
 Powell, Prof. 357 
 
 Postle's ranch 405 
 
 Pony, a plucky 448 
 
 Porpoises 467 
 
 Prospect Ridge 28 
 
 "Prospecting" 66 
 
 Prairie schooners 26, 34, 54 
 
 " chickens 36,53 
 
 " dogs 37 
 
 Praying machines of Chinese 314 
 
 " Processes," mining 68 
 
 Process, a new, wanted 68 
 
 Preacher, Mormon 167 
 
 Pratt's River 228 
 
 Price's Army, left wing of 240, 267 
 
 Press of California 288 
 
 Prescott Crossing 383 
 
 " road 385 
 
 " itself. 397 
 
 44 her mining prospects ... 399 
 
 41 population 400 
 
 Precious metals, our yield of for 
 
 1873 491 
 
 Project, a California. 439 
 
 Punty 445-8 
 
 QUABTZ mines, etc 66 
 
 Quicksands of Arizona 388 
 
 " execrable 392 
 
 RANCHMEN and their homes 53 
 
 Ranches 73 
 
 " in California. 293 
 
 Ranchman, a dismal 421 
 
 Randall. Bishop 59 
 
 Railroad, Union Pacific 40, 71, 80 
 
 44 Northern...: 252 
 
 44 Central 428, 430 
 
 44 Texas 396 
 
 44 across the Isthmus 474 
 
 Rather exciting situation 121 
 
 Rapids of the Columbia 253 
 
 Rams and fogs 259 
 
 Rains and winds of San Fran- 
 cisco 281-2 
 
 Racing steam-ships 322 
 
 Rattlesnakes 417 
 
 Reception of Gen. Sherman, etc. . 62 
 
 Red Rupert 144 
 
 Regions, barren 215, 345, 410 
 
 Representative Californians 285 
 
 Religion in California. 287-9 
 
 Revivalist, a noted 432 
 
 Ride by stage-coach 44 
 
 Ride alter antelope 51 
 
 Ride by muleback 84-7 
 
 44 a rough 220 
 
 44 a fine horseback 446 
 
 Rio Grande 96-7 
 
 41 bottoms 98 
 
 Rio Colorado 150, 35i,, 415 
 
 Rip Van Winkles 279, 376 
 
 Ruing Star Steamer 475 
 
 River Terraces 28 
 
 Rocky Mountains 75, 143 
 
 41 parks of. 95 
 
 Roads, mountain 110, 439 
 
 Road-agents 166 
 
 Robinson, Dr., murder of 184-7 
 
 Romancing 247 
 
 Rough stage-coaching 437 
 
 Roses in California 440 
 
 Rock Springs 410 
 
 Russel's Ranch 98 
 
 Ruby City 224 
 
 Rule, the only safe among 
 
 Indians 394 
 
 SACBASTENTO RIVEK 425 
 
 44 Valley 4ii6 
 
 44 City 440 
 
 Saratoga of Colorado 71 
 
 Sangre del Christo 84-6 
 
 Saddle animals 87 
 
 San Luis Park 96 
 
 Saw-mills 110 
 
 Safe at last 124 
 
 Sage-hens 158 
 
 Salt Lake City 164-6 
 
 House 164 
 
 Theatre 179 
 
 audience generally 182 
 
 Vidette 183 
 
 Mormon outrages at . 183, 198 
 what a U. 8. Judge 
 thinks of affairs 
 
 there 189-98 
 
 44 itself. 209 
 
 (See Mormon.) 
 
 Sand Creek massacre. 139 
 
 Sand-storm, a Yuma 358 
 
 San Francisco 276 
 
 her location 277 
 
 sand-hills 278 
 
 commerce, etc 279 
 
 climate 281-2 
 
 earthquakes 283 
 
 hotels 283 
 
 houses and gardens. 284 
 fruits and flowers. . 284 
 
 churches 237-8 
 
 her Christmas and 
 
 New Year. 292 
 
 statistics 279, 489
 
 INDEX. 
 
 613 
 
 PAGE 
 
 San Francisco, Barbary Coast .... 310 
 
 Chinese 301, 321 
 
 sail on Bay of 294 
 
 Santa Barbara 324 
 
 " her climate 490-91 
 
 San Diego 325-9 
 
 " court-house and jail.... 327 
 
 climate 328 
 
 " neighboring ranches... 329 
 
 " harbor 329 
 
 San Pedro 330 
 
 Santa Anna River 340-1 
 
 Santa Cruz River 372-5 
 
 San Xavier del Bac 379 
 
 San Bernardino 422 
 
 San Joaquin River 444 
 
 San Mateo 466 
 
 San Jose" 466 
 
 San Salvador 472 
 
 Scare, an Indian 146-7 
 
 Scott's Marmion 159 
 
 Scout after Apaches 404 
 
 Segrist, Mr 39 
 
 Seiiors and Senoritas 92 
 
 Sermons, Mormon 169 
 
 Sea-sickness 272 
 
 Sea-lions 295-6 
 
 " Shanghai " fences 36, 229 
 
 Sherman, Gen 61, 114 
 
 " on Kit Carson 138 
 
 " New Mexico, etc 140-1 
 
 " personally 142 
 
 "Shebang" 72 
 
 Sha-wa-she-wit 125 
 
 Shauno 125 
 
 Shingle Station 439 
 
 Silvers, Rev. Mr 39 
 
 Sibley tents 55, 118 
 
 Silver-mining 66,432-5 
 
 Silver City 224 
 
 Sierra Blanca 98 
 
 Nevadas .... 427 
 
 " summit of. 430 
 
 " snows on 428, 437 
 
 " silence of 460 
 
 " sugar-pines of. .... 461 
 
 Skull Valey 392 
 
 Smoky Hill River 28, 50 
 
 Snowy Range 63, 76, 105 
 
 Snow-squalls 81, 89, 98 
 
 Snow-storm, in a 162, 241 
 
 Snow galleries 429 
 
 Snows on Sierra Nevadas... .428, 437 
 
 Snake River 216 
 
 " bottoms 217 
 
 station 217 
 
 " valley generally.... 229 
 
 Sooelito 294 
 
 Soda Springs, Col 80 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Soda Lake 419 
 
 Soldier, a true 408 
 
 Something about smoking 157 
 
 " " Vicksbifrg 261-2 
 
 South Platte 58, 65, 107 
 
 " Clear Creek 71 
 
 " Park 105 
 
 Spanish Peaks 85 
 
 " attempts to speak 342 
 
 Specimen settlers 39, 406 
 
 " Square meal " 72 
 
 Squaws, Indian 135 
 
 Stage-horses 41 
 
 ' stations 41 
 
 drivers 42, 54 
 
 staging it " outside " 44 
 
 coaching generally 155, 206 
 
 good-bye 248 
 
 across the Sierra Ne- 
 vadas 428,437 
 
 Stampedes 147 
 
 Stamp Mills 67 
 
 Statistics of Stock-raising on 
 
 Plains 481-7 
 
 Statistics of San Francisco, 
 
 etc 279, 489-90 
 
 " gold and silver pro- 
 duct. 1873 491 
 
 Stanislaus 444 
 
 Steam navigation on the Colum- 
 bia 251 
 
 " " on the Col- 
 orado 414-15 
 
 Steele, Gen 261-3 
 
 Stockton 442 
 
 " her windmills, etc 442 
 
 Stormy Divide 77 
 
 St. Louis 23 
 
 St. Helen's 270 
 
 Stump, Capt 251 
 
 "S. T. I860, X., etc." 249 
 
 Sulphurets 68, 399 
 
 Sulphur Springs, hot 171, 209 
 
 Sunsets 45 
 
 Sunset, a magnificent 46 
 
 Superintendent of Mines 67 
 
 Sugar-pines of California 461 
 
 " Swinging round the circle ".. . . 227 
 
 Swiss artist, a 43 
 
 " Swop " and " no swop " 131 
 
 " TAXINGS " 68 
 
 Tabernacle, Mormon 166 
 
 Tahoe, Lake 439 
 
 Taylor, Bayard 25 
 
 Teamsters, as a cliiss 237, 244 
 
 Telegraph Hill 279 
 
 Tehauntepec, Gull of 472 
 
 Texan Emigrant 849
 
 514 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Texas and Pacific Railroad. . .396, 501 
 Tip-top of Rocky Mountains ..... 85 
 
 - Topeka. ........................ 26 
 
 Tobacco, some defence of. ....... 157 
 
 Transportation, costly ........ 357, 377 
 
 Transition, a welcome ........... 423 
 
 Treaty with Ute Indians ..... 113, 136 
 
 Trophies, Indian ............... 143 
 
 Trout-fishing ................... 88 
 
 Trout-broiling ................ 88, 102 
 
 Trout streams .................. 97 
 
 Truckee River .................. 431 
 
 Tucson. ........................ 374 
 
 " her high prices .......... 375 
 
 " business ................ 376 
 
 " costly transportation ..... 877 
 
 Tucson's griefs ................. 378 
 
 " mines ................. 378 
 
 Tuolomne River ................ 444 
 
 Turkey, a fine wild ............. 407 
 
 Typical emigrant .............. 406 
 
 .'. . . 245-6 
 " City .................. 249 
 
 Unjontown ..................... 233 
 
 Union Pass .................... 411 
 
 Union Pacific Railroad .......... 40 
 
 Ups and downs of Califoruians.. 297-9 
 Up the Sierras .................. 428 
 
 Utah militia ................... 172-5 
 
 autocrat of ................ 179 
 
 Judge, opinion of ...... 189, 198 
 
 U.S. Courts in ........... 193-6 
 
 laws in, enforce ............ 205 
 
 (See Mormon.) 
 Ute Indians .................. 77, 212 
 
 council ................... 114-16 
 
 treaty .................. 116, 136 
 
 princess.. . . ................ 117 
 
 village ..................... 118 
 
 lost among ................. 120 
 
 chiefs ................ 114-15, 125 
 
 dance ...................... 133 
 
 generally ................... 134 
 
 squaws .................... 135 
 
 VAIXBY of the Platte ............. 48 
 
 Boisd ............. 219 
 
 " Burnt, Powder, and 
 
 Pratt's rivers ____ 228 
 
 " Snake ........... 229-30 
 
 " Grande Ronde.... 232 
 
 Umatilla .......... 247 
 
 Weber ............ 161 
 
 " Salt Lake ......... 165 
 
 " Columbia ........ 252 
 
 " Gila .............. 864 
 
 " Salado ............ 395 
 
 Colorado ....... 355,411 
 
 Valley of the Sacramento 426 
 
 Valley of the Yosemite 447, 454 
 
 Vicksburg, something about 261-2 
 
 Victoria 266 
 
 View from Telegraph Hill 280 
 
 Villacito 344 
 
 Virginia Dale, 145 ; Virginia City 432 
 Voyage from Portland to San 
 
 Francisco 273 
 
 a delightful 323 
 
 " up the Sacramento/ . . . 425 
 
 " home 467 
 
 Vulture mine and mill. . . . . 891 
 
 WAGox-trains and teamsters 54 
 
 Ward, Artemus 180 
 
 Water-ditches 82, 487 
 
 Walla Walla 243, 251 
 
 Wallula 249, 251 
 
 Wanted a road 385 
 
 " roads and bridges 389 
 
 " a railroad ... 396 
 
 Westerner, specimen of a 55 
 
 Western exaggerations 96-7 
 
 Wellington, young chief. 123-4 
 
 Weber Valley 161 
 
 West, Bishop 4 175, 211 
 
 Wells, Lt. General 175 
 
 Wells Springs 244 
 
 " Web-footed " children 259 
 
 West Indies 476 
 
 Whales 467 
 
 Whirlwinds 346 
 
 White Pine 438 
 
 Whitney. Prof 452, 456 
 
 Whittiers prophecy 477 
 
 Wheat-fields of California. . . .426, 441 
 
 " yield of 441 
 
 Wickenburg 390 
 
 Wildcat Creek 39 
 
 Wind-storm, a 45 
 
 Willow Springs 146 
 
 Wilful, John 247 
 
 Willamette River 266 
 
 Wilmington, etc 331 
 
 Wilson, Don Benito 336 
 
 " his noble ranch 336 
 
 orange groves 337 
 
 vineyards 337 
 
 his home 338 
 
 Williamson's Valley 409 
 
 Wind-mills 278 
 
 " " in California 285, 441 
 
 Winds and rains of San 
 
 Francisco 281-2 
 
 Wines, California 338 
 
 Wood and lumber scarce 49 
 
 Wolves or cayotes 216
 
 INDEX. 
 
 515 
 
 PAGE 
 
 YANXJCB-LAKD 22 
 
 Yankee hand and brain 71 
 
 Yank's Station 437 
 
 Yerbo Buena 279 
 
 Yellow-jacket mine 434 
 
 "Jim bet" 73-74 
 
 Yosemite Valley 443 
 
 " first view of. .... 447 
 
 ' South Dome and 
 
 walls 450 
 
 *" Bridal Veil and 
 
 Yosemite Falls. 451 
 
 " ElCapitan 451 
 
 ** by moonlight... 451 
 
 North Dome, etc. 452 
 
 Lake and South 
 
 Fork 452 
 
 ** Cascades and 
 
 Vernal Falls.. 458 
 
 ** rainbows in 453 
 
 Nevada Falls... 454 
 
 PACK 
 
 Yoaemite Valley, Sentinel Peak.. 454 
 Mt. Broderick.. 454 
 Cathedral Kock. 454 
 
 in winter 455 
 
 ' from Hutchings'. 449 
 
 ' from Inspiration 
 
 Point 457 
 
 Yomra chief Wellington 123-4 
 
 Young, Brigham 175-9 
 
 i; wives of, 180 ; children of 181 
 
 shrewd dodge of. 187 
 
 success of. 195 
 
 Indian policy of. 212 
 
 Brigadier General 175 
 
 Colonel 175 
 
 Joseph 211 
 
 (See Mormon.) 
 
 ZAU HXNCKLIN'B ranch 83-4 
 
 Zig-zags, mountain 48t 
 
 " swinging the 488 
 
 THE END.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
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 LOS ANGELES 
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