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Show 140 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. it from one to another till the bowl was empty. This done, we took our leave without farther ceremony, knocked at the gate of the fort, and after making ourselves known, were admitted. One morning, about a week after reaching Fort Laramie, we were holding our customary Indian levee, when a bu tle in the area below announced a new arrival ; and looking down from our balcony, I saw a familiar red beard and moustache in the gateway. They belonged to the Captain, who with his party had just crossed the stream. We met him on the stairs as he came up, and congratulated him on the safe arrival of himself and his devoted companions. But he remembered our treachery, and was grave and dio-nified aecordino-ly; a tendency which increased as he observed on our part a di position to laugh at him. After remaining an hour or two at the fort, he rode away with his friends, and we have heard nothing of him since. As for R , he kept carefully aloof. It was but too evident that we had the unhappinrss to have forfeited the kind regards of our London fellow-traveller. NOTE. Somewhat more than a year from this time Shaw happened to be in New York, and coming one morning down the steps of the Astor House, encountered a small newsboy with a bundle of penny papers under his arm, who screamed in his ear, "Another great battle in Mexico !" Shaw bought a paper, and having perm::ecl the glorious intelligence, was looking over the remaining columns, when the following paragraph attracted his notice : ENGLISH TRAVELLING SPORTSMEN.-Among the notable arrivals in town ar~ two English gentlemen, William and John C. , Esqrs., at the C!mton Hotel, on their return home after an extended Buffalo hunting tour SCENES AT FORT LARAMIE. 141 in Oregon and the wild West. Their party crossed the continent in March, 1846, since when our travellers have seen the wonders of our great West, the Sandwich Islands, and the no less agreeable Coast of Western Mexico, California, and Peru. With the real zeal of sportsmen they have pursued adventure whenever it has offered, and returned with not only a correct knowledge of the West, but with many a trophy that shows they have found the grand sport they sought. The account of " Oregon," given by those observing travellers, is most glowing, and though upon a pleasure trip, the advantages to be realized by commercial men have not been overlooked, and they prophecy for that "Western State," a prosperity not exceeded at the east. The fish eries are spoken of as the best in the country, and only equalled by the rare facilities for agriculture. A trip like this now closed is a rare undertaking, but as interesting as rare to those who are capable of a full appreciation of all the wonders that met them in the n1agnificent region they have traversed. In some admiration at the heroic light in which Jack and the Captain were here set forth, Shaw pocketed the newspaper, and proceeded to make "inquiry after his old fellow-travellers. Jack was out of town, but the Captain was quietly established at his hotel. Except that the red moustache was shorn away, he was in all respects the same man whom we had left upon the South Fork of the Platte. Every recollection of former differences had vanished fi·om his mind, and he greeted his visitor most cordially. " Whe1·e is R--- ?" asked Shaw. H Gone to the devil," hastily replied the Captain," that is, Jack and I parted from him at Oregon City, and haven't seen him since." He next proceeded to give an account of his journeyings after leaving us at Fort Laramie. No sooner, it seemed, had he done so, than he and Jack began to slaughter the buffalo with unrelenting fury, but when they reached the other side of the South Pass their rifles were laid by us useless, since there were neither Indians nor game to exercise them upon. From this point the journey, as the Captain expressed it, was a great bore. When they reached the mouth of the Columbia, he and Jack sailed for the Sandwich Islands, whence they proceeded to Panama, across the J sthmus, and came by sea to New Orleans. Shaw and our friend spent the evening together, and when they finally separated at two o'clock in the morning, the Captain's ruddy face was ruddier than ever. |
