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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-
