xt7hhm52g78t https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7hhm52g78t/data/mets.xml Holland, Rupert Sargent, 1878-1952. 1913  books b92-233-31182819 English G.W. Jacobs & Co., : Philadelphia : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. United States History Anecdotes. Historic adventures  : tales from American history / by Rupert S. Holland. text Historic adventures  : tales from American history / by Rupert S. Holland. 1913 2002 true xt7hhm52g78t section xt7hhm52g78t 



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Historic Adventures

     Tales from American History



               By
     RUPERT S. HOLLAND
Author of "Historic hoyhoods," "Historic Girihoodf,"
        "Historic Inventio,7s" et,.



         PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE WV. JACOBS & COMPANY
          PUBLISHERS



I

I

 













    Copyright, 1913, by
GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
   Published October, I913



A41 rights reserved
Printed in U. S. A.

 









      To
Robert D. Jenks

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                 Contents


   I. THE LOST CHILDREN            .        9

   II. TIlE GREAT JOURNEY OF LEWNIS AND CLARK  21

 III. THE CONSPIRACY OF AARON BURR         59

 IV. How THE YOUNG REPUBLIC FOUGHT THE
         BARBARY PIRATES           .   .   80

  V. THE FATE OF LOVEJOY'S PRINTING-PRESS . I13

  VI. How MARCUS WHITZMAN SAVED OREGON    135

VII. How THE MORMONS CAME TO SETTLE UTAH  165

VIII. THE GOLDEN DAYS OF 'FORTY-NINE .  . 181

IX. HOW THE UNITED STATES MADE FRIENDS
         WITH JAPAN            .          203

  X. THE PIG THAT ALMOST CAUSED A WAR  . 222

  XI. JOHN BROWN AT HARPER'S FERRY      . 229

XII. AN ARCTIC EXPLORER   .              254
XIII. THE STORY OF ALASKA               . 264

XIV. HOW THE" MERRIMAC" WAS SUNK IN SAN-
         TIAGO HARBOR .    .   .          275

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                     Illustrations

Shooting tongues of smoke from their great black
    throats                                       Fr; nutspie rc

Sawquehanna seemed to remember the voice    Facing, page   i8

Decatur caught the Moor's arm                              C""       o

The last six hundred miles were the hardest   "              2

Nauvoo had handsome houses and public
    buildings  ..                            "         I    6

Wherever there was a stream explorers began
    to dig     .    .     ..i6

The teams, exhausted, began to fail   .    ."       "      o

Spanish boats pulled close to them."                      2z32

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I



           THE LOST CHILDREN

  THE valleys of Pennsylvania were dotted with log
cabins in the days of the French and Indian wars.
Sometimes a number of the little houses stood close
together for protection, but often they were built tar
apart. Wherever the pioneer saw good farm land
he settled. It was a new sensation for men to be
able to go into the country and take whatever land
attracted them. Gentle rolling fields, with wile
views of distant country through the notches of the
hills, shining rivers, splendid uncut forests, and rich
pasturage were to be found not far from the grov-
ing village of Philadelphia, and were free to any W,10
wished to take them. Such a land would have been
a paradise, but for one shadow that hung over it.
In the background always lurked the Indians, w- ho
might at any time. without rhyme or reason, stcal
own upon the lonely hamlet or cabin, and lay it
waste. The pioneer looked across the broad acres
of central Pennsylvania and found them beautiful.
Only when he had built his home and planted his
fields did he fully realize the constant peril that
lurked in the wooded mountains.
  English, French, and Spanish came to the new

 


0HISTORIC ADVENTURES



world, and the English proved themselves the best
colonists. They settled the central part of the At-
lantic Coast, but among them and mixed with them
were people of other lands. The Dutch took a liking
for the Island of Manhattan and the Hudson River,
the Swedes for Delaware, and into the colony of
William Penn came pilgrims from what was called
the Palatinate, Germans, a strong race drawn partly
by desire for religious freedom, partly by the reports
of the great free lands across the ocean. They
brought with them the tongue, the customs, and the
names of the German Fatherland, and many a valley
of eastern Pennsylvania heard only the German lan-
guage spoken.
  The Indian tribes known as the Six Nations
roamed through the country watered by the Susque-
hanna. They hunted through all the land south of
the Great Lakes. Sometimes they fought with the
Delawares, sometimes with the Catawbas, and again
they would smoke the calumet or pipe of peace with
their neighbors, and give up the war-path for months
at a time. But the settlers could never be sure of
their intentions. Wily French agents might sow
seeds of discord in the Indians' minds, and then the
chiefs who had lately exchanged gifts with the set-
tlers might suddenly steal upon some quiet village
and leave the place in ruins. This constant peril
was the price men had to pay in return for the right
to take whatever land they liked.
  In a little valley of eastern Pennsylvania a Ger-



TO

 

THE: LOST CHILDREN



man settler named John Hartman had built a cabin
in 1754. He had come to this place with his wife
and four children because here he might eat n a good
living from the land. He was a hard worker, and
his farm was prospering. He had horses and cattle,
and his wife spun and wove the clothing for the
family. The four children, George, Barbara, Regina,
and Christian, looked upon the valley as their home,
forgetting the German village over the sea. Not far
away lived neighbors, and sometimes the chilcren
went to play with other boys and girls, and somne-
times their friends, spent a holiday on John Hart-
man's farm.
  The family, like all farmers' families, rose early.
Before they began the day's work the father would
read to them from his big Bible, which he had
brought from his native land as his most valuable
possession. On a bright morning in the autumn of
I754 he gathered his family in the living-room of his
cabin and read them a Bible lesson. The doors and
windows stood open, and the sun flooded the little
house, built of rough boards, and scrupulously clean.
The farmer's dog, Wlasser, lay curled up asleep
just outside the front door, and a pair of horses, a!-
ready harnessed, stood waiting to be driven to the
field. Birds singing in the trees called to the chil-
dren to hurry out-of-doors. They tried to lister to
their father's voice as he read, and to pay atten-
tion. As they all knelt he prayed for their safety.
Then they had breakfast, and the father and mot'aer



I I

 

HISTORIC ADVENTURES



made plans for the day. Mrs. Hartman was to
take the younger boy, Christian, to the flour-mill
several miles away, and if they had time was to call
at the cabin of a sick friend. The father and George
went to the field to finish their sowing before the
autumn rains should come, and the two little girls
were told to look after the house till their mother
should return. Little Christian sat upon an old
horse, held on by his mother, and waved his hand
to his father and George as he rode by the field on
his way to the mill.
  The girls, like their mother, were good house-
keepers. They set the table for dinner, and at noon
Barbara blew the big tin horn to call her father and
brother. As they were eating dinner the dog
\Vasser came running into the house growling, and
acting as if he were very much frightened. Mr.
Hartman spoke to him, and called him to his side.
But the dog stood in the doorway, and then suddenly
leaped forward and sprang upon an Indian who came
around the wall.
  The peril that lurked in the woods had come.
John Hartman jumped to the door, but two rifle
bullets struck him down. George sprang up, only
to fall beside his father. An Indian killed the dog
with  his tomahawk.  Into the peaceful cabin
swarmed fifteen yelling savages. Barbara ran up a
ladder into the loft, and Regina fell on her knees,
murmuring " Herr Jesus ! Herr Jesus! " The In-
dians hesitated, then one of them seized her, and



12

 


THE LOST CHILDREN



made a motion with his knife across her lips to bid
her be silent.  Another went after Barbara and
brought her down from the loft, and then the Indians
ordered the two girls to put on the table all the ::ood
there was in the cabin.
  When the food was gone the savages plundered
the house, making bundles of what they wanted and
slinging them over their shoulders. They, took the
two little girls into the field. There another girl
stood tied to the fence. When she saw Barbara and
Regina she began to cry, and called in German for
her mother. While the three frightened girls stood
close together the Indians set fire to the cabin.
Very soon the log house that had cost John Hart-
man so much labor was burned to the ground.
When their work of destruction was completed the
Indians took the three children into the woods.
  At sunset Mrs. Hartman returned from the flour-
mill with little Christian riding his horse, but when
she came up the road it seemed as if her house had
disappeared. Yet the pine trees, the fences, the
plowed fields, and the orchard were still there. The
little boy cried, " Vhere is our house, mother  " and
the poor woman could not understand.
  The story of what had occurred was only too
plain to her a few minutes later. What had hap-
pened to many otier pioneers had happened to her
family. Clutching Christian in her arms she ran to
the house of her nearest neighbor. There she heard
that the Indians had left the same track of blood



I 3

 

HISTORIC ADVENTURES



through other parts of the valley; that farmers had
been slain ; their crops burned; and their children
carried off into the wilderness. The terrified settlers
banded together for protection. For weeks new
stories came of the Indians' massacres. If ever
there were heartless savages these were ! They did
not carry all the children to their wigwams; some
were killed on the way; and among them was little
Barbara Hartman. Word came from time to time
of some of the stolen children, but there w as no
word of Regina or Susan Smith, the daughter of the
neighboring farmer.

  Far in the forests of western New York was the
camp of a great Indian tribe. The wigwams stood
on the banks of a beautiful mountain stream, broken
by great rocks that sent the water leaping in cas-
cades and falls. In one of the wigwams lived the
mother of a famous warrior of the tribe, and with her
were two girls whom she treated as her daughters.
The name of the old squaw was She-lack-la, which
meant " the Dark and Rainy Cloud," a name given
her because at times she grew very angry and ill-
treated every one around her. Fortunately there
were two girls in her wigwam, and when the old
squaw was in a bad temper they had each other for
protection. The older girl had been given the name
of Saw-que-han-na, or "1 the White Lily," and the
other was known as Kno-los-ka, " the Short-legged
Bear." Like all the Indian girls they had to work



14

 

THE LOST CHILDREN



hard, grinding corn, cooking and keeping house for
the boys and men who were brought up to hunt and
fight. Sawquehanna was tall and strong, spoke the
language of the tribe, and looked very much like her
Indian girl friends.
  In the meantime many battles had been fought
through the country of the pioneers, and the English
colonists were beating the French and Indians, aid
driving the Frenchmen farther and farther north.
In 1765 the long war between the two nations
ended. Under a treaty of peace the English Colon e
Boquet demanded that all the white children who
had been captured by the Indian tribes should be
surrendered to the English officers.  So one daL
white soldiers came into the woods of western New
York and found the wigwams there. The children
were called out, and the soldiers took the two girls
from the old squaw Shelackla. Then they went on
to the other tribes, and from each they took all the
white children. They carried them to Fort Duquesne.
The Fort was in western Pennsylvania, and as socn
as it was known that the lost white children were
there, fathers and mothers all over the country hur-
ried to find their boys and girls. Many of the chil-
dren had been away so long that they hardly remem-
bered their parents, but most of the parents knew
their children, and found them again within the
walls of the fortress.
  Some of the children, however, were not claimec.
Sawquehanna and her friend Knoloska and nearly



I 5

 





HISTORIC ADVENTURES



fifty more found no one looking for them and
wondered what would happen to them. After they
had waited at Fort Duquesne eight days, Colonel
Boquet started to march with his band of children to
the town of Carlisle, in hopes that they might find
friends farther east, or at least kind-hearted people
who would give the children homes. He sent news
of their march all through the country, and from day
to day as they traveled through the mountains by
way of Fort Ligonier, Raystown, and Louden, eager
people arrived to search among the band of children
for lost sons and daughters. When the children
came to Carlisle the town was filled with settlers
from the East.
  The children stood in the market-place, and the
men and women pressed about them, trying to
recognize little ones who had been carried away by
Indians years before. Some people who lived in
the Blue Mountains were in the throng, and they
recognized the dark-haired Indian girl Knoloska as
Susan, the daughter of Mr. Smith, the farmer who had
lived near the Hartmans. Knoloska and Savque-
hanna had not been separated for a long time.
They had kept together ever since the white soldiers
had freed them from the old squaw's wigwam.
Sawquehanna could not bear to think of having her
comrade leave her, and Susan clung to her adopted
sister's arm and kissed her again and again. The
white people were much kinder than the old squaw
had been, and instead of beating the girls when they



16

 

THE LOST CHILDREN



cried, and frightening them with threats, the officers
told Sawquehanna that she would probably finid
some friends soon, and if she did not, that perhaps
Susan's family would let her live in their home.
But as nobody seemed to recognize her Sa'cawqL.e-
hanna felt more lonely than she had ever felt Le-
fore.
  Meanwhile Mrs. H-artman was living in the valley
with her son Christian, who had grown to be a
strong boy of fourteen. Neighbors told her that
the lost children were being brought across the
mountains to Carlisle, but there seemed little chance
that her own Regina might be one of them. She
decided, however, that she must go to the town ard
see. Travel was difficult in those days, but the
brave woman set outl over the mountains and across
the rivers to Carlisle, and at last reached the town
market-place.  She looked anxiously among tl e
girls, remembering her little daughter as she had
been on that autumn day eleven years before; but
none of the girls had the blue eyes, light yellow
hair and red cheeks of Regina. Mrs. Hartman
shook her head, and decided that her daughter was
not among these children.
  As she turned away, disconsolate, Colonel Boquet
said to her, " Can't you find your daughter  "
  " No," said the disappointed mother, " my daugh-
ter is not among those children."
  " Are you sure  " asked the colonel. "' Are there
no marks by which you might know her"



17

 

HISTORIC ADVENTURES



  " None, sir," she answered, shaking her head.
  Colonel Boquet considered the matter for a few
minutes. "Did you ever sing to her" he asked
presently. " Was there no old hymn that she was
fond of"
  The mother looked up quickly.    "Yes, there
was!" she answered. "I have often sung her to
sleep in rnry arms with an old German hymn we all
loved so well."
  " Then," said the colonel, "you and I will walk
along the line of girls and you shall sing that hymn.
It may be that your daughter has changed so much
that you wouldn't know her, but she may remember
the tune."
  Mrs. Hartman looked very doubtful. " There is
little use in it, sir," she said, " for certainly I should
have known her if she were here; and if I try your
plan all these soldiers will laugh at me for a foolish
old German woman."
  The colonel, however, begged her at least to try
his plan, and she finally consented. They walked
back to the place where the children were standing,
and Mrs. Hartman began to sing in a trembling
voice the first words of the (old hymn:

          " Alone, and yet not all alone, am I
              In this lone wiilerness. "

  As she went on singing every one stopped talking
and turned to look at her. The woman's hands

 








































































SAWNQUEHANNA SEEMED TO REMNEMIBER THE VOICE

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THE LOST CHILDREN



were clasped as if in prayer, and her eyes were
closed. The sun shone full upon h-r white hair and
upturned face. There was something very beautiful
in the picture she made, and there was silence in the
market-place as her gentle voice wvent on through
the words of the hymn.
  The mother had begun the second verse when
one of the children gave a cry. It wvas Sawque-
hanna, who seemed suddenly to have remembered
the voice and words. She rushed forward, and
flung her arms about the mother's neck, crying,
" Mother, mother I" Then, with her arms tight
about her, the tall girl joined in singing the words
that had lulled her to sleep in their cabin home.

          "Alone, and yet not all alone, am I
              In this lone wilderness,
            I feel my Saviour always nigh;
              Hie comes the weary hours to bless.
            I am with Him, and He with me,
              E'en here alone I cannot be."

  The people in the market-place moved on a3out
their own affairs, and the mother and daughter were
left together. Now Mrs. Hartman recognized the
blue eyes of Regina, and knew her daughter in
spite of her height and dark skin. Regina began
to remember the days of her childhood, and the
years she had spent among the Indians were for:rot-
ten. She was a white girl again, and happier now
than she had ever thought to be.



19

 
20        HISTORIC ADVENTURES

  Next day Knoloska, now Susan Smith, and Saw-
quehanna, or Regina Hartman, went back to their
homes in the valley. Many a settler there had
found his son or daughter in the crowd of lost
children at Carlisle.

 








II



THE GREAT JOURNEY OF LEWIS AND
                    CLARK

  FRENCH is still spoken in Quebec and New Or-
leans, reminders that the land of the lilies had much
to do with the settlement of North America. Many
of the greatest explorers of the continent were French-
men. Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence
River in 1534, and Champlain in I603 founded Nlew
France, and from  his small fortress at Quebec
planned an empire that should reach to Florida. In
i666 Robert Cavalier, the Sieur de La Salle, came to
Canada, and set out from his seikneuric near :he
rapids of Montreal to find the long-sought road to
China.  Instead Of doing that he discovered the
Ohio River, first of white men he voyaged across the
Great Lakes and sailed down the Mississippi to its
mouth.  Great explorer, he mapped the country
from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, from
the Mississippi to the Atlantic Ocean, and built fron-
tier-posts in the wilderness. He traveled thousands
of miles, and in i632 he raised the lilies of France
near the mouth of the Mississippi and named the
whole territory he had covered Louisiana, in honor
of King Louis XIV of France.

 

HISTORIC ADVENTURES



  The first colony on the Gulf was established seven-
teen years later at Biloxi by a Canadian seigneur
named Iberville. Soon afterward this se'g nezr's
brother, Bienville, founded New Orleans and attracted
many French pioneers there. The French proved to
be better explorers than farmers or settlers. In the
south they hunted the sources of the Arkansas and
Red Rivers, and discovered the little-known Pawnee
and Comanche Indians. In the north they pressed
westward and came in sight of the Rocky Mountains.
At that time it seemed as if France was to own at
least two-thirds of the continent. The English gen-
eral, Braddock, was defeated at Fort Duquesne in
1755, and the French commanded the Ohio as well
as the Mississippi ; but four years later the English
general, Wolfe, won the victory of the Plains of
Abraham near Quebec; and France's chance was
over. Men in Paris who knew little concerning the
new world did not scruple to give away their coun-
try's title to vast lands. The French ceded Canada
and all of lIa Salle's old province of Louisiana east
of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, to England.
Soon afteirward France, to outwit England, gave
Spain New Orleans and her claim to the half of the
Mississippi Valley west of the river to which the
name Louisiana now came to be restricted.
  The French, however, were great adventurers by
nature, and Napoleon, changing the map of Europe,
could not keep his fingers from North America. He
planned to win back the New France that had been



22

 

THE JOURNEY OF LEWIS AND CLARK .;;



given away. Spain wvas weak, and Napoleon traded
a small province in Italy for the great tract of Louisi-
ana. He meant to colonize and fortify this splendiL
empire, but before it could be done enemies gathered
against his eagles at home, and to save his European
throne he had to forsake his western colony.
  When Thomas Jefferson became President in i8oI,
he found the people of the So Uth and West disturbed
at France's repossessing herself of so much territory.
He sent Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe to,
Paris to try to buy New Orleans and the country
known as the Florid;as for 2,000,000. Instead Na-
poleon offered to sell not only New Orleans, but the
whole of Louisiana Territory extending as far west:
as the Rocky Mountains for 15,ooooo. Napoleon
insisted on the sale, and the envoys agreed. Jeflfer..
son and the people in the eastern United States were
dismayed at the price paid for what they considered
almost worthless land, but the West wvas delighted,
owning the mouth of the great Mississippi and with
the country beyond it free to them to explore. Ir
time this purchase of Louisiana, or the territory,
stretching to the Rocky Mountains, forming the
larger part of what are now thirteen of the states ol
the Union, was to be considered one of the greatest
pieces of good fortune in the country's history.
  Scarcely anything was known of Louisiana, except
the stories told by a few hunters. Jefferson decided
that the region musi: be explored, and asked his
young secretary, Meriwether Lewis, who had shown

 

HISTORIC ADVENTURES



great interest in the new country, to make a path
through the wilderness. Lewis chose his friend
William Clark to accompany him, and picked thirty-
two experienced men for their party. May 14, i804,
the expedition set out in a barge with sails and two
smaller boats from a point on the Missouri River
near St. Louis.
  The nearer part of this country had already been
well explored by hunters and trappers, and especially
by that race of adventurous Frenchmen who were
rovers by nature. These men could not endure the
confining life of towns, and were continually pushing
into the wilderness, driving their light canoes over
the waters of the great rivers, and often sharing the
tents of friendly Indians they met. Many had become
almost more Indian than white man,-had married
Indian wives and lived the wandering life of the na-
tive. Such a man Captain Lewis found at the start
of his journey, and took with him to act as inter-
preter among the Sioux and tribes who spoke a sim-
ilar language.
  The party traveled rapidly at the outset of their
journey, meeting small bands of Indians, and passing
one or two widely-separated frontier settlements.
They had to pass many difficult rapids in the river,
but as they were for the most part expert boatmen
they met with no mishaps. The last white town on
the Missouri was a little hamlet called La Charrette,
consisting of seven houses, with as many families
located there to hunt and trade for skins and furs.



2':1

 

THE JOURNEY OF LEWIS AND CLARK 25



As they went up the river they frequently met canoes
loaded with furs coming down. Day by day they took
careful observations, and made maps of the courtry
through which they were traveling, and when they
met Indians tried to learn the history and customS of
the tribe. Captain Lewis wrote down many of their
curious traditions. The Osage tribe had giv en their
name to a river that flowed into the Missouri a little
more than a hundred miles from its mouth. There
were three tribes of this nation: the Great Osages,
numbering about five hundred warriors; the Li-tle
Osages, who lived some six miles distant from the
others, and numbered half as many men; and the
Arkansas band, six hundred strong, who had left the
others some time before, and settled on the Vermil-
lio-n River. The Osages lived in villages and w-ore
good farmers, usually peaceful, although naturElI'
strong and tireless. Captain Lewis found a curious
tradition as to the origin of their tribe. The story
was that the founder of the nation was a snail, w ho
lived quietly on the banks of the Osage until a high
flood swept him down to the Missouri, and left him
exposed on the shore. The heat of the sun at length
ripened him into a man, but with the change in his na-
ture he did not forget his native haunts on the Osaixe,
but immediately bent his way in that direction. lHe
was, however, soon overtaken by hunger and fatiguie,
when happily the Great Spirit appeared, and giving
him a bow and arrow showed him how to kill and
cook deer, and cover himself with the skins. He

 

HISTORIC ADVENTURES



then pushed on to his home, but as he neared it
he was met by a beaver, who inquired haughtily who
he was, and by what authority he came to disturb
his possession. The Osage answered that the river
was his own, for he had once lived on its borders.
As they stood disputing, the daughter of the beaver
came, and having by her entreaties made peace be-
tween her father and the young stranger, it was pro-
posed that the Osage should marry the young
1)eaver, and share the banks of the river with her
family. The Osage readily consented, and from this
happy marriage there came the village and the na-
tion of the Wasbasha, or Osages, who kept a rever-
ence for their ancestors, never hunting the beaver,
because in killing that animal they would kill a
brother of the Osage. The explorers found, how-
ever, that since the value of beaver skins had risen
in trade with the white men, these Indians were
not so particular in their reverence for their rela-
tives.
  The mouth of the Platte River was reached on
July 2ist, and the next day Lewis held a council
with the Ottoes and Missouri Indians, and named the
site Council Bluffs. At each of these meetings be-
tween Lewis and the Indians the white man would
explain that this territory was now part of the United
States, would urge the tribes to trade with their new
neighbors, and then present them with gifts of
medals, necklaces, rings, tobacco, ornaments of all
sorts, and often powder and arms.



26

 


THE JOURNEY OF LEWIS AND CLARK .7



  The Indians were friendly and each day taught
the white men something new. Both Captain Lewis
and Lieutenant Clark had seen much of the red
men on the frontier, but now they were in a land
where they found them in their own homes. The X
grew accustomed ro the round tepees decorated
with bright-colored skins, the necklaces made Af
claws of grizzly be ars, the head-dresses of eagle
feathers, the tambourines, or small drums that fur-
nished most of their music, the whip-rattles made of
the hoofs of goats and deer, the white-dressed buffalo
robes painted with pictures that told the history of
the tribe, the moccasins and tobacco pouches em-
broidered with man) colored beads. Each tribe dif-
fered in some way from its neighbors. For the first
time the explorers found among the Rickarees eight-
sided earth-covered "lodges, and basket-shaped boa-s
made of interwoven boughs covered with buffalo
skins.
  Game was plentiful as they went farther up the
Missouri River. At first no buffaloes were found,
but bands of elk were seen, and large herds of goats
crossing from their summer grazing grounds in the
hilly region west of the Missouri to their winter
quarters. Besides these were antelopes, beaver;s,
bears, badgers, deer, and porcupines, and the river
banks supplied them with plover, grouse, geese,
turkeys, ducks, and pelicans. There were p!enty of
wild fruits to be had, and they lived well during the
whole of the summer. They traveled rapidly until

 

HISTORIC ADVENTURES



the approach of cold weather decided them to estate
lish winter quarters on October 27th.
  They pitched their camp, Mwhich they called Fort
Mandan, on the eastern shore of the Missouri, near
the present city of Bismarck. They built some
wooden huts, which formed two sides of a triangle,
and a row of pickets on the third side, to provide
them with a stockade in case of attack. They found
a trader of the Hudson's Bay Company near by, and
during the winter a dozen other traders visited them.
Although they appeared to be friendly, Captain
Lewis was convinced that the traders had no desire
to see this United States expedition push into the
country, and would in fact do all they could to
prevent its advance. The Indians in the neighbor-
hood belonged to the tribes of the Mandans,
Rickarees, and Minnetarees. The first two of these
tribes went to war early in the winter, but peace was
made through the efforts of Captain Lewis. After
that all the Indians visited the encampment, bringing
stores of corn and presents of different sorts, in
exchange for which they obtained beads, rings, and
c loth from the white men. Here Captain Lewis
learned a curious legend of the Mandan tribe.
T[hey believed that all their nation originally lived
in one large village underground near a subter-
ranean lake, and that a grape-vine stretched its roots
down to their home and gavze them a view of day-
light. Some of the more adventurous of the tribe
climbed up the vine, and were delighted with the



28

 

THE JOURNEY OF LEWIS AND CLARK _g



sight of the earth, which they found covered with
buffaloes and rich with all kinds of fruits. They
gathered some grapes and returned with them to
their countrymen, and told them of the charms of
the land they had seen. The others were very much
pleased with the story and with the grapes, and
men, women and children started to climb up the
vine. But when only half of them had reached the2
top a heavy woman broke the vine by her weight,
and so closed the road to the rest of the nation.
Each member of this tribe was accustomed to select a
particular object for his devotion, and call it his
medicine." To this they would offer sacrifices of
everv kind. One of the Indians said to Captain
Lewis, " I was lately the owner of seventeen horses;
but I have offered them all up to my ' medicine,' anci
am now poor." He had actually loosed all his
seventeen horses on the plains, thinking that in that
way he was doing honor to his god.
  Almost every day hunting parties left the camp
and brought back buffaloes. The weather grew
very cold in December, and several times the ther-
mometer fell to forty degrees below zero. As
spring advanced, however, the weather became very
mild, and as early as April 7, i805, they w-ere able
to leave their camp at Fort Manden and start on
again. The upper Mlissouri they found was too
shallow for the large barge they had used the
previous summer, so this was now sent back down the
river in charge of a party of ten men who carried let-

 
HISTORIC ADVENTURES



ters and specimens, while the others embarked in six
canoes and two large open boats that they had built
during the winter. So far the country through
which they had passed had been explored by a few
Hudson's Bay trappers, but as they now turned
w estward they came into a region entirely unknown,
which they soon found was almost uninhabited.
  The party had by this time three interpreters, one
a Canadian half-breed named Drewyer, who had
inherited from his mother the Indian's skill in wood-
craft, and who also knew the langu