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Show 14 dim, and tears course down the cheeks of the old. veterans, as they thus fought their battles o'er again, and recalled their sufferings during the struggles they had passed through. My youthful mind was vividly impressed with the stirring scenes depicted by those old soldiers; but tin1e and subsequent hardship have obliterated most of their narratives from my memory. One incident I recollect, ho·wever, related by my father, vvhen he formed one of a stonning party in the attack on Stony Point made under General Wayne. When I was but about seven or eight years of age, my father ren1oved to St. Louis, Missouri, taking with him all his family and twenty-two negroes. He selected a section of land between the forks of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, tvvelve miles below St. Charles, which is to this day known as "Beckwourth's Settlement." At this. early period of our history (1805-6) the ·whole r~?~on o~ country arou~d was a "howling wiltlerness, Inhabited only by Wild beasts and merciless savages. St. Louis, at that time, was but a small town, its inhabitants consisting almost wholly of French. and. Spanish s~ttlers, who were engaged in trafficlnng With the I nd1ans the con1modities of civilizatio. n7 such as ji1·e-water, beads, blankets, arms, ammunition, &c., for peltry . . For protection against the Indians, who were at that time very troublesome and treacherous, it became necessary for the whites to construct block-houses at convenient distances. rrhese block-houses were built by the united exertions of the settlers, who began to gather from all quarters since the "Jefferson Purchase" had been effected from the French government. The JAl\l:ES P. BECKWOUR'fH. 15 settlers or inhabitants of four adjoining sections would unite and build a block-house in the centre of their possessions, so that in case of alarm they could all repair to it as a place of refuge from the savages. It was necessary to keep a constant guard on the plantations, and while one portion of the men vvere at work, the others, with their arrns, were on the alert watching the wily Indian. Those days are still fresh in my memory, and it was then that I received, yo~ng as I was, the rudiments of my knowledge of the Indian character, which has been of such inestimable value to me in my subsequent adventures among them. There were constant alarms in the neighborhood of some of the block-houses, and hardly a day passed "\vithout the inhabitants being compelled to seek thern for protection. As an illustration of our n1ode of l~fe, I will relate an incident that befell me when about nine years old. · One day my father called me to him, and inquired of me whether I thought myself man enough to carry a sack of corn to the mill. The idea of riding a horse, and visiting town, possessed attractions which I could not resist, and I replied with a hearty affirmative. A sack of corn was accordingly deposited on the back of a gentle horse selected for the purpose, and " Young Jim" (as I was called) was placed upon the sack, and started for the mill two miles distant. About mid,vay to the mill lived a neighbor having a large fan1ily of children, with ~hom I frequently joined in boyish sports. On my way I rode joyously up to the l~ttle fence ·which separated the house from the road, thinking to pass a word with n1y little play~ates. . Wh~t -vv~as my horror at discovering all the children, eight In number, from one to fourteen years Gf age, lying in |
