Messrs. Whitman and Spalding, with their wives, and a reinforcement for the Pawnee mission, made their way to Liberty Landing, on the Missouri River. At that place they were joined by a young man by the name of W. H. Gray, from Utica, New York, who was solicited by the agents of the American Board to join this expedition as its secular agent.
CHAPTER XIV
Missionary outfit. – On the way. – No roads. – An English nobleman. – A wagon taken along. – Health of Mrs. Spalding. – Meeting mountain men and Indians. – A feast to the Indians.
The mission party had brought with them a full supply of all the supposed et cæteras for a life and residence two thousand miles from any possible chance to renew those supplies when exhausted, having the material for a blacksmith shop, a plow, and all sorts of seeds, clothing, etc., to last for two years. Gray found his hands full in making calculations for the transportation of this large amount of baggage, or goods, as the trader would say. In a few days wagons, teams, pack-mules, horses, and cows, were all purchased in the county of Liberty, Missouri, the goods all overhauled, repacked, loaded into the two mission wagons, and an extra team hired to go as far as Fort Leavenworth. Spalding and Gray started with the train, three wagons, eight mules, twelve horses, and sixteen cows, two men, two Indian boys, and the man with the extra team. Dr. Whitman, having the ladies in charge, was to come up the Missouri River in the first boat, and await the arrival of the train having the greater portion of the goods with it. Boats on the Missouri River not being so numerous as at the present time, the Doctor and party did not reach Leavenworth till the train had arrived. They rearranged their goods, discharged the extra team, held a consultation, and concluded that the Doctor and ladies would keep the boat to Council Bluffs, the point from which the American Fur Company’s caravan was to start that year. Learning that the company was to start in six days, the conclusion was that the cattle and goods had better proceed as fast as possible.
The third day, in the morning, some forty miles from Fort Leavenworth, as we were about starting, a white boy, about sixteen years old, came into camp, having on an old torn straw hat, an old ragged fustian coat, scarcely half a shirt, with buckskin pants, badly worn, but one moccasin, a powder-horn with no powder in it, and an old rifle. He had light flaxen hair, light blue eyes, was thin and spare, yet appeared in good health and spirits. He said he had started for the Rocky Mountains; he was from some place in Iowa; he had been without food for two days; he asked for some ammunition; thought he could kill some game to get along; the rain the night previous had wet him quite effectually; he was really cold, wet, nearly naked, and hungry. He was soon supplied from our stores with all he wanted, and advised to return to his friends in Iowa. To this he objected, and said if we would allow him he would go with us to Council Bluffs, and then go with the fur company to the mountains. He agreed to assist all he could in getting along. He was furnished a horse, and made an excellent hand while he remained with the party, which he did till he reached Fort Hall, on Snake River. There he joined a party that went with the Bannock Indians, and became a member of that tribe, and, as near as we can learn, married a native woman (some say three), and is using his influence to keep the tribe at war with the United States. Of this we have no positive knowledge, though if such is the fact he may have been a deserter from Fort Leavenworth. His name was Miles Goodyear.
Within thirty miles of Council Bluffs a messenger overtook the missionary caravan, and stated that Mrs. Satterley, of the Pawnee mission, was dead; that Dr. Whitman and ladies were left at Fort Leavenworth; that they were coming on as fast as possible, with extra teams, to overtake us. Our party went into camp at once; the two wagons with horse teams started back to meet and bring up the balance of the party; wait two days at Omaha; fix one of the wagon boxes for a ferry-boat; Doctor and party arrive; cross all safe; get to camp late in the night. There was a slight jar in the feelings of some on account of haste, and slowness of movement, in others. However, as the fur company, with whom the mission party was to travel, was to start on a certain day, haste was absolutely necessary, and no time to be lost. Useless baggage overhauled and thrown away, cows started, mules and wagons loaded; Gray in charge of mules and cows, Spalding driver for a two-horse light wagon, Whitman the four-horse farm wagon. On goes the caravan; in two hours a message goes forward to Gray that Spalding has driven his wagon into a mud stream and broken his axletree; Gray goes back; soon repairs axletree by a new one; on Platte River; rains as it only can on that river, cold and almost sleet; nothing but a skin boat, that could carry but two trunks and one lady at a time; all day swimming by the side of the boat to get goods over; swim cattle, mules, and horses all over safe to north side.
Overhaul and lighten our baggage; Rev. Mr. Dunbar for pilot, three men, and two Indian boys, we hasten on to overtake fur company’s caravan. Second day, met one hundred Pawnee warriors on their way to Council Bluff agency. Mr. Dunbar being the missionary of the Pawnees, and understanding their language, we had no difficulty with them. Traveling early and late, we came up to the fur company at the Pawnee village, some two hours after their caravan had arrived and camped.
At this point the missionary menagerie was first exhibited, not that they attempted to make any display, or posted any handbills, or charged any fee for exhibiting, but the strange appearance of two white ladies in a caravan consisting of rough American hunters, Canadian packers with Indian women, with all the paraphernalia of a wild mountain expedition, drew the attention of all. The mission party had with them some fine cows, good horses and mules, and were tolerably well fitted out for their expedition, except a superabundance of useless things, causing much perplexity and hard labor to transport over the rough plains in 1836.
It will be borne in mind that at that early time there was no road, – not even a trail or track, except that of the buffalo; and those made by them were invariably from the river, or watering-places, into the hills or bluffs. Their trails being generally deep, from long use by the animal, made it quite severe and straining upon our teams, wagons, and the nineteen carts the fur company carried their goods in that year. The caravan altogether consisted of nineteen carts, with two mules to each, one in the shafts and one ahead, one light Dearborn wagon, two mules and two wagons belonging to an English nobleman, his titles all on, Sir William Drummond, K. B., who had come to the United States to allow his fortune to recuperate during his absence. He had been spending his winters in New Orleans with the Southern bloods, and his bankers in England complained that his income was not sufficient to meet his large expenditures; he was advised to take a trip to the Rocky Mountains, which would occupy him during the summer and sickly season, during which time he could only spend what he had with him, and could have a fine hunting excursion. This English nobleman with his party consisted of himself and a young English blood. I did not learn whether he was of the first, second, third, or fourth grade in the scale of English nobility; be that as it may, Sir William D., K. B., messed and slept in the same tent with this traveling companion of his, who, between them, had three servants, two dogs, and four extra fine horses, to run and hunt the buffalo. Occasionally, they would give chase to that swiftest of mountain animals, the antelope, which, in most instances, would, especially where the grass was short, leave them in the distance, when Sir William and his companion would come charging back to the train, swearing the antelope could outrun a streak of lightning, and offering to bet a thousand pounds that if he had one of his English ’orses he could catch ’em. The English nobleman, as a matter of course, was treated with great respect by all in the caravan; while in the presence of the ladies he assumed quite a dignified carriage, being a man (excuse me, your honor), a lord of the British realm, on a hunting excursion in North America, in the Rocky Mountains, in the year A. D. 1836. He was about five feet nine inches high. His face had become thin from the free use of New Orleans brandy, rendering his nose rather prominent, showing indications of internal heat in bright red spots, and inclining a little to the rum blossom, that would make its appearance from the sting of a mosquito or sand-fly, which to his lordship was quite annoying. Though his lordship