blessings of peaceful society, and passing days and nights under the calm guardianship of thelaws,
was not without its attractions; yet to those of us whose whole lives had been spent in the stirringexcitement and perpetual watchfulness of adventures in the wilderness, the change was far frompromising an increase of that contentment and inward satisfaction most conducive to happiness.
He who, like myself, has roved almost from boyhood among the children of the forest, and over theunfurrowed plains and rugged heights of the western wastes, will not be startled to learn, thatnotwithstanding all the fascinations of the world on this civilized side of the mountains, I wouldfain
make my bow to the splendors and gayeties of the metropolis, and plunge again amidst thehardships
and perils of the wilderness."
We have Only to add that the affairs of the captain have been satisfactorily arranged with theWar
Department, and that he is actually in service at Fort Gibson, on our western frontier, where wehope
he may meet with further opportunities of indulging his peculiar tastes, and of collecting graphicand
characteristic details of the great western wilds and their motley inhabitants.
We here close our picturings of the Rocky Mountains and their wild inhabitants, and of thewild life
that prevails there; which we have been anxious to fix on record, because we are aware that thissingular state of things is full of mutation, and must soon undergo great changes, if not entirelypass
away. The fur trade itself, which has given life to all this portraiture, is essentially evanescent.
Rival
parties of trappers soon exhaust the streams, especially when competition renders them heedlessand
wasteful of the beaver. The furbearing animals extinct, a complete change will come over thescene;
the gay free trapper and his steed, decked out in wild array, and tinkling with bells and trinketry;the
savage war chief, plumed and painted and ever on the prowl; the traders' cavalcade, windingthrough
defiles or over naked plains, with the stealthy war party lurking on its trail; the buffalo chase, thehunting camp, the mad carouse in the midst of danger, the night attack, the stampede, thescamper,
the fierce skirmish among rocks and cliffs -- all this romance of savage life, which yet existsamong
the mountains, will then exist but in frontier story, and seem like the fictions of chivalry or fairytale.
Some new system of things, or rather some new modification, will succeed among theroving people
of this vast wilderness; but just as opposite, perhaps, to the inhabitants of civilization. The greatChippewyan chain of mountains, and the sandy and volcanic plains which extend on either side,are
represented as incapable of cultivation. The pasturage which prevails there during a certainportion
of the year, soon withers under the aridity of the atmosphere, and leaves nothing but drearywastes.
An immense belt of rocky mountains and volcanic plains, several hundred miles in width, mustever
remain an irreclaimable wilderness, intervening between the abodes of civilization, and affordinga last refuge to the Indian. Here roving tribes of hunters, living in tents or lodges, and followingthe
migrations of the game, may lead a life of savage independence, where there is nothing to temptthe
cupidity of the white man. The amalgamation of various tribes, and of white men of every nation,will in time produce hybrid races like the mountain Tartars of the Caucasus. Possessed as theyare
of immense droves of horses should they continue their present predatory and warlike habits,they
may in time become a scourge to the civilized frontiers on either side of the mountains, as theyare
at present a terror to the traveller and trader.
The facts disclosed in the present work clearly manifest the policy of establishing militaryposts and
a mounted force to protect our traders in their journeys across the great western wilds, and ofpushing the outposts into the very heart of the singular wilderness we have laid open, so as tomaintain some degree of sway over the country, and to put an end to the kind of "blackmail,"levied
on all occasions by the savage "chivalry of the mountains." [Return to Contents].
