The Conservative.
"Wo , the jury , find the defendant
guilty iu manner and form as charged
in the indictment , and fix his punish
ment at a restoration of the stolen
money and imprisonment at hard labor
for the term of nineteeu-thousand
years. "
A murmur of applause arose from the
vast crowd of delighted spectators ,
which soon swelled into a tumult of
joyful shouts that suddenly awoke me.
Los Angeles ( Oal. ) Saturday Post.
OTOE COUNTY IN 1831.
We have the pleasure of offering our
readers herewith an account of certain
adventures of an army oflicer in this
vicinity , seven years before Colonel
Kearney and Captain Booue observed
the advantages of the later site of Neb
raska City , and fifteen years before the
old block-house was built. This officer
was Colonel Philip St. George Cooke ,
later of the dragoons ; Kearney and
Boone were also dragoon officers , it will
be remembered. The western frontier
posts were garrisoned at first with in
fantry regimentsreplaced af terwards by
the dragoon regiment , which was organ-
i'/cd in 1883 from the companies of
mounted rangers that wore formed after
the Black Hawk war.
Colonel Cooke is best known as the
commander of the Mormon battalion ,
which was recruited at the present
Council Bluffs , from Mormons on their
way to Salt Lake , and which formed a
part of Colonel Kearney's force with
which he invaded California. Besides a
report on this expedition , there is a book
of Colonel Cooke's extant , from which
the following extract is taken. It is en
titled "Scenes and Adventures in the
Army ; or Romance of Military Life. "
It is an oddly personal book , giving one
a good idea of the solitary life that an
officer led on the old frontier ; it runs
from 1827 to 1845 , and .becomes a kind
of "Sentimental Journey" towards the
last. It was published in Philadelphia
in 1857.
Colonel Cooke , it may be mentioned ,
speaks of Daniel Boone as "the sure of
our worthy captain of dragoons. " THE
CONSERVATIVE has stated once or twice
that Captain Nathan was a grandson of
Daniel , and believes this to be the case ,
as its information comes from a gentle
man , Judge J. W. Eaton , who was
brought up among the descendants of the
Boone family in Missouri.
"In the summer of 1831 , " says the
colonel , who was stationed at that time
at Fort Leavenworth ' to
, 'wishing extend -
tend my knowledge of the country , and
weary of inactivity , I obtained Xeave of
absence , in order to accompany an officer
of the Indian Department on an official
visit to the villages of the Otto and
Omaha Indians , and the Old Council
Bluff in their vicinity. " ( Who this
official may have been I do not know.
One Henry L. Ellsworth was sent on
such an errand in 1833 , and the book des
cribing his journey gives the greater
part of the existing information ton-
corning the Otoo Indians. )
"The first day we rode but a few miles ,
our hired man being veay drunk , as is
usual with these fellows on such occa
sions , when their services are most
needed. He fell from his horse on some
tin-cups , and mashed them nearly flat.
. . Next day we got along more com
fortably. Our course lay altogether
over prairiesbut in view generally of the
timber of the river , and always of some
small tributary. This night we camped
on one of the miry creeks , very difficult
to cross , which here abound , indicating
a country as rich as it is beautiful.
This was about 56 miles above Fort
Leavenworth. " ( Very likely , there
fore , Walnut Creek , near Hiawatha. )
"Tuesday , Juno 14th. We got over the
boggy stream by 6 o'clock ; after riding
about twelve miles over rolling prairie ,
we suddenly beheld before us the beau
tiful valley of the Grand Nemehaw ; far
below us stretched out , a mile and a half
in width , the level prairie bottom , stud
ded with numberless flowers of every
brillant color ; the margin of the river
was fringed and relieved by stately trees ;
five elks , disturbed by our approach ,
slowly galloped away along the hillside. ' '
They crossed the river on a large tree
that had been felled across ( showing
that white men had been there ) and im
mediately encamped on the bluff to es
cape an approaching storm ; but it
rained with such fury that the water
rose upon them in the night , and they
came near losing their lives in the dark
ness. The river had risen twenty feet
perpendicular by morning , he says ; "the
cries of drowning fawns were heard the
whole forenoon , and many deer swam
out iu our neighborhood. " They were
delayed a couple of days , all the creeks
being out of their banks.
" 17th. Passed three hours in making
a third and successful attempt to cross
this vile stream" some branch "in a
new place. Went E. of N. , and soon
came in sight of the Little Nemehaw
River , " ( near Auburn ? ) "which in its
scenery most strikingly resembles its
'Grand' namesake , though we thought ,
after wading our horses for a mile
through its rich bottom , that it was a
'little' larger.
"This is a beautiful country between
the Nemehaws , about 25 miles over ; a
strip of it , ton miles wide , along the
Missouri , has been appropriated as a
reserve for the Otto and Omaha half-
breeds.
"In two hours we had crossed this
stream , in the same manner as the other ,
and were in motion to the N. W. , on a
fine prairie ridge , and did not reach
'wood and water' and a suitable camp
ing ground until 9 o'clock at night.
This was probably a short distance
I * .
northwest of Nebraska City , and they
no doubt followed the ridges thence to
Ashland , taking the route of the later
"Emigrant" or "California" trail.
" 18th. Proceeded early a little N. of
W. , crossing an endless succession of
prairie hills , between which were gener
ally gutters filled with clear water , with
vertical sides , and so deep that the
horses had to leap them. After two
hours' rest at noon , we ascended the
'divide1 between the waters of the
Nemehaws ( or Missouri ) and the Great
Platte River. This , the highest ground
between two mighty rivers , is an im
mense prairie of Jable land , impressing
the senses with the idea of an elevation
far greater perhaps than the reality ,
owing to the extraordinary circumstance
of there being no higher object visible
no distant mountain , hill , or inequality ,
not even a tree , to restore by comparison
a juster estimate. I was thus , for the
first time , out of sight of woods ; far
away , in every direction , not even a
shrub was to be seen a green sea wav
ing iu the breeze ! " Then the colonel
quotes poetry and moralizes on the fallen
state of the red man. Also he mentions
byname the "great American Desert ;
which , " he says further , ' -caravans of
weary pilgrims will soon penetrate , to
seek now homes on the Columbia and
the Pacific. " A singular statement :
for is it understood that the Oregon
emigration was in sight in 1831 ?
"June 19. Pursued a W. N. W.
course , and in a few hours came in
sight of the Great Platte River , and
made a halt at the little Saline ; " ( Salt
Creek : ) "it is twenty yards wide ; a
shallow stream , running swiftly over a
rocky bottom : the water is brackioh.
We remounted at 12 o'clock , and fol
lowing up the course of the river , passed
over a low , sandy sterile district. There
were many trails leading to the Otto
villages. The Indians , moving like the
buffalos , in single file , make , like them ,
deep paths. We passed , in succession ,
the 'Old Village' and the 'Lower Vil
lage , ' oppressed by heat and thirst , and
somewhat sorrowful that all signs , or
absence of signs , indicated that the In
dians had all gone on the summer hunt.
At sunset we reached the Upper Village ,
which , accordingly , we found utterly
deserted.
"These dwellings of the Indian are
more comfortable than the common
houses in the frontier states. Around a
circular excavation about three feet
deep , and forty in diameter , a conical
edifice of poles rests upon a strong
framework ; this is covered three or four
feet thick with wattled bushes , etc. , and
earth leaving at the apex about 25 feet
from the floor , a small opening for
light and the escape of smoke ; in the
centre of the hard dirt floor the fire is
made ; a stout stick is planted , with an
inclination over it , to hold the kettle ;
around the wall are veiy comfortable
I
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