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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1902)
: L Cbe Conservative , INCIDENTS OF WESTERN HISTORY. V. The Overland Astorians. We como to the appearance of organ ized capital upon the scene. Along with , or a little in advance of , the gov ernment explorer , came the solitary ad venturer , with his rifle and knife for all resource ; and close behind them came the money of the eastern investor , wil ling to risk his wealth in the chances of this unknown world , and involuntarily hastening the break-up of the wilderness by means of that most powerful of chemical agents. The first great adventurer in this line was John Jacob Astor , the father of all the Asters. They are known the world over for their riches , gained through ownership of New York City land ; and many know the story also of the poor boy from Waldorf , on the Rhine , who came to New York in 1788 , and by 1809 was able to put a million dollars into the American Fur Company. Astor found a historian in Washington Irving ; and Irving's western books , long de spised except as literature , have lately risen in the estimation of historical critics ; for students who know both the times and the places , have found that Irving's statements may almost all be checked exactly. He proves to have been singularly well informed , though the atmosphere he throws over the plains and the mountains has still a dubious suggestion of romance and of Spain. Astor's plan was for tha founding of a second New York at the mouth of the Columbia. Astoria was the result , which had its ups and downs and died young , a complete loss. Ships failed to arrive and everything went wrong. But as a part of Astor's plan , a party made the journey to Astoria by land in 1811 , and another returned in the year following ; and the record of these par ties' wanderings , as preserved through the convenient Irving , will always be of extreme interest , because they opened up new country in each case. Both these parties have come to be known as the Overland Astorians. The first was led by Wilson Price Hunt , next largest stockholder in the company after Astor , and a New Jersey man by birth. Ho had lived in St. Louis and afterward returned thither. Ho was postmaster there in 1822. Hunt and his crow , composed largely of French Canadians , made their start in the fall of 1810 ; but they could no get far that year , so they camped foi the winter a short distance above the present city of St. Joseph , and their leader returned to St. Louis. He joined them again as early in the spring a practicable , with reinforcements , in eluding two English botanists , Messrs Bradbury and Nnttall. Here wo take up Irving's story. "On the 17th of April Mr. Hunt ar- ived with his party at the station nenr he Nodowa River , whore the main body had been quartered during the winter. "The weather continued rainy and mgenial for some days after Mr. Hunt's eturn to Nodowa ; yet spring was rap- dly advancing and vegetation was put- ing forth with all its early freshness and beauty. The snakes began to re- over from their torpor and crawl forth nto day ; and the neighborhood of the vintering house seems to have been much infested with them. Mr. Brad bury , in the course of his botanical re- earch , found a surprising number in a half-torpid state , under the flat stones upon the banks which overhung the cantonment , and narrowly escaped be- ng struck by a rattlesnake , which darted at him from a cleft in the rock , but fortunately gave him warning by us rattle. "The pigeons , too , were filling the voods in vast migratory flocks. It is almost incredible to describe the pro digious flights of these birds in the western wildernesses. They appear absolutely in clouds , and move with astonishing velocity , their wings mak ing a whistling sound as they fly. The rapid evolutions of these flocks , wheel- ng and shifting suddenly as if with one mind and one impulse ; the flashing changes of color they present , as their backs , their breasts , or the under part of their wings are turned to the spectator tater , are singularly pleasing. When ; hey alight , if on the ground , they cover whole acres at a time ; if upon trees , the branches often break beneath their weight. If suddenly startled while feeding in the midst of a forest , the no'se they make in getting on the wing is like the roar of a cataract or the sound of distant thunder. "A flight of this kind.like an Egyptian flight of locusts , devours everything that serves for its food as it passes along. So great were the numbers in the vicinity of the camp that Mr. Brad bury , in the course of a morning's ex cursion , shot nearly three hundred with a fowling-piece. He gives a curious , though apparently a faithful , acoounl of the kind of discipline observed in these immense flocks , so that each may have a chance of picking up food. As the front ranks must meet with the greatest abundance , and the rear ranks must have scanty pickings , the instant a rank finds itself the hindmost , it rises in the air , flies over the whole flock am takes its place in the advance. The next rank follows in its course , and thus the last is continually becoming first , and all by turns have a front place at the banquet. "The rains having at length subsided Mr , Hunt broke up the encampmen ml resumed his course up the Mis- ouri. . . "The party now consisted of nearly ixty persons. They embarked in four > oats , one of which was of a large size , mounting a swivel and two howitzers. All were furnished with masts and ails , to be used when the wind -was ufflciently favorable and strong to overpower the current of the river. Such vas the case for the first four or five days , when they were wafted steadily up the stream by a strong southeaster. "Their encampments at night were often pleasant and picturesque ; on some beautiful bank , beneath spreading .trees , which afforded them shelter and fuel. lhe ? tents were pitched , the fires made , and the meals prepared by the voya- jeurs , and many a story was told , and eke passed , and song sung round the evening fire. All , however , were asleep at an early hour. Some under the tents , others wrapped in blankets ) efore the fire , or beneath the trees ; and some few in the boats and canoes. "On the 28th , they breakfasted on one of the islands which lie at the mouth of the Nebraska or Platte River the lar gest tributary of the Missouriand about six hundred miles above its confluence with the Mississippi. This broad but shallow stream flows for an immense distance through a wide and verdant valley scooped out of boundless prairies. It draws its main supplies by several : orks or branches , from1 the Rocky Mountains. The mouth of this river is established as the dividing point be tween the upper and lower Missouri ; and the earlier voyageurs , in their toil some ascent , before the introduction of steamboats , considered one-half of their labors accomplished when they reached this place. The passing of the mouth of the Nebraska , therefore , was equiva lent among boatmen to the crossing of the line among sailors , and was cele brated with like ceremonials of a rough and waggish nature , practiced upon the uninitiated ; among which was the old nautical joke of shaving. The river deities , however , like thoso""bf jthe sea , were to be .propitiated by a bribe , and the infliction of these rude honors to be parried by a treat to the adepts. ' "At the mouth of the Nebraska new signs were met with of war. parties which had recently been in the vicinity. There was the frame of a skin canoe , in which the warriors had traversed the river. At night , also , the lurid reflec tion of immense fires hung in the sky , showing the conflagration of great tracts of the prairies. Such fires not being made by hunters so late in the season , it was supposed they wore caused by some wandering war parties. These often take the precaution to set the .prairies on fire behind them to con ceal their traces from their enemies. This is chiefly done when the party has been unsuccessful , and is on the re-
