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Show 156 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. bodies lay piled up together under the preCipiCe. Not a Blackfoot made his escape. As Paul finished his story we came in sight of Richard's fort. It stood in the middle of the plain ; a disorderly crowd of men around it, and an emigrant camp a little in front. 'Now, Paul,' said I, 'where are your Minnicongew lodges?' 'Not come yet,' said Paul, 'may be come to-morrow.' Two large village~ of a band of Dahcotah had come three hundred miles from the Missouri, to join in the war, and they were expected to reach Richard's that morning. There was as yet no sign of their approach ; so pushing through a noisy, drunken crowd, I entered an apartment of logs and mud, the largest in the fort : it was full of men of various races and complexions, all more or less drunk. A company of California emigrants, it seemed, had made the discovery at this late day that they had encumbered themselves with too many supplies for their journey. A part therefore they had thrown away or sold at great loss to the traders, but had determined to get rid of their very copious stock of Missouri whisky, by drinking it on the spot. Here were maudlin squaws stretched on piles of buffalorobes; squalid Mexicans, armed with bows and arrows; Indians sedately drunk; long-haired Canadians and trappers, and American backwoodsmen in brown homespun; the wellbeloved pistol and bowie-knife displayed openly at their sides. In the middle of the room a tall, lank man, with a dingy broadcloth coat, was haranguing the company in the style of the stump orator. With one hand he sawed the air, and with the other clutched firmly a brown jug of whisky, which he applied every moment to his lips, forgetting that he had drained THE WAR PARTIES. 157 the contents long ago. Richard formally introduced me to this personage ; who was no less a man than Colonel R , once the leader of the party. Instantly the Colonel seizing me, in the absence of buttons, by the leather fringes of my frock, began to define his position. His men, he said, had mutinied and deposed him ; but still he exercised over them the influence of a superior mind ; in all but the name he was yet their chief. As the Colonel spoke, I looked round on the wild assemblage, and could not help thinking that he was but ill qualified to conduct such men across the deserts to California. Conspicuous among the rest stood three tall young men, grandsons of Daniel Boone. They had clearly inherited the adventurous character of that prince of pioneers ; but I saw no signs of the quiet and tranquil spirit that so remarkably distinguished him. Fearful was the fate that months after overtook some of the ·members of that party. General Kearny, on his late return from California, brought in the account how they were interrupted by the deep snows among the mountains, and maddened by cold and hunger, fed upon each other's flesh! I got tired of the confusion. 'Come, Paul,' said I, ' we will be off.' Paul sat in the sun, under the wall of the fort. He jumped up, mounted, and we rode toward Fort Laramie. When we reached it, a man came out of the gate with a pack at his back and a rifle on his shoulder ; others were gathering about him, shaking him by the hand, as if taking leave. I thought it a strange thing that a man should set out alone and on foot for the prairie. I soon got an explanation. Perrault -this, if I recollect right, was the Canadian's name-had quarrelled with the bourgeois, and the fort was too hot to hold |