Quincy A. Shaw was Parkman's cousin. The fourth and subsequent editions have contained the following dedication: ΤΟ THE COMRADE OF A SUMMER AND THE FRIEND OF A LIFETIME, QUINCY ADAMS SHAW. guards, the two side extensions of the deck of a river steamboat, frequently reaching as far as the outside of the paddleboxes. Oregon emigrants. As the treaty with England fixing the Northwest boundary was not made until later in the year, Oregon still meant the whole country west of the Rocky Mountains from Mexico (California) to parallel 54° 40′ (Alaska). 6. "mountain men," trappers and hunters of the Rocky Mountains and the prairie eastward. "No man, unless he be a sailor, carries a warmer heart and stronger arm for those who need him and honorably trust him, than these rough mountain men."-William Barrows' Oregon. Kansas. The Kansa, or Kaw, Indians dwelt in the valley of the river which bears their name. From the Kansas River, the state of Kansas and Kansas City are named. abattis, in military affairs, a defense formed by felled trees which have their branches sharpened and directed towards the enemy. great western movement. It has been estimated that by the close of 1846 seven thousand emigrants had passed over the Oregon Trail. 7. Independence. Franklin, Missouri, was the first outfitting point for the overland trade. As the town was gradually washed into the Missouri River, the steamboats landed farther up the stream at Independence, 'which from about 1827 rose to the first rank. Within a few years the river had destroyed the landing at Independence and the traffic moved farther up stream to Westport Landing, and Westport became the startingpoint for the Oregon and Santa Fé trails. Kansas, i.e., Kansas Landing, also called Westport Landing, in the heart of what is now Kansas City, Missouri. my good friend, Colonel Chick. W. M. Chick, in the year of Parkman's trip, became an organizer of the first town company of Kansas City. 7 and 8. Sacs and Foxes. These tribes united and took possession of the Upper Mississippi. After the Black Hawk War, 1832, they were removed southwest to what was known by the indefinite term Indian Country. 8. Shawanoes, a wandering tribe hard to identify with any one place. At the time of Parkman's visit they were located on a reservation south of the site of Kansas City. Their name, also spelled Savanna and Shawnee, means "Southerners." Delawares, a tribe which had been pushed by successive stages from the Delaware River to the Indian Country west of the Missiouri. Wyandots, called Hurons by the French, in 1846, occupied the site of Wyandotte, one of the four cities which united to form Kansas City, Kansas. The great number of Indians here mentioned by Parkman is explained when we remember that until the organization of Kansas as a territory, 1854, it was one vast Indian Territory containing as many as twenty tribes, most of whom had been removed thither from the eastward. Captain C. and Mr. R. Why are these names not written in full? trail-rope, a rope for leading and picketing horses. 11. the dragoons. See Chapter IV, second paragraph. shaft-mule, one to draw a cart, as distinguished from the pack-mule, mentioned in the following chapter. 12. Daniel Boone, from the time he crossed the Alleghanies in 1769, was the leader of the frontiersmen of Kentucky. They were farmers, trappers, and Indian fighters combined. CHAPTER II 13. Indian apple, the May apple. patois (pà-twä'), illiterate, provincial speech. "Sacré enfant de garce." Sacré, the usual French word of profanity, is here coupled with a vile epithet. In Chapter XXVI Parkman humorously calls the expression "a Canadian title of honor, made doubly emphatic by being usually applied together with a cut of the whip, to refractory mules and horses." 14. Jean Baptiste, a servant, as John the Baptist, who referred to his Master as "He that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose." Among the fur-traders of the Rockies the servants were mostly French Canadians, and Jean Baptiste came to mean a Canadian. bourgeois (boor zwhä'), master, governor, employer, or "boss.' Fur Company, the American Fur Company. See note p. 94. 15. Anglo-American, a member of the English race in America. lope," colloquial for gallop. 16. Pawnee. They rivaled the Comanches as terrors to the traders and emigrants. 17. Methodist Shawnee Mission, in what has since become a part of Kansas City. Several denominations had missions ́in Kansas and Nebraska, which were then an Indian reservation. slaves. Parkman's visit was nearly ten years prior to "Bleeding Kansas." Lower Delaware Crossing, over the Kansas River near its confluence with the Missouri. 18. hobbled, legs tied together in such a way as to prevent freedom of motion. Pontiac. "The diary of 1845 shows that he had now focussed his ambitions on a definite work, the Conspiracy of Pontiac. -Farnham's Life of Parkman. Ogillallah, a tribe of the Teton branch of the Dakota Indians. They traded at Fort Laramie. Crows, a large tribe in Montana continually at war with the Dakota. rafting, transporting the horses on a ferry made of logs. CHAPTER III 21. General Kearney. Stephen W. Kearney was one of the three leading generals of the Mexican War. block-house, a square military structure of two stories, with loopholes for musketry. rumors of war. The Mexican War began in May, 1846. 22. expedition against Santa Fé, one of the three principal expeditions of the Mexican War, commanded by General Kearney. Kickapoo, a tribe which had removed from the Ohio Valley to Kansas. This particular division gave their name to the present town of Kickapoo, where they were located when Parkman visited them. 23. pukwi, Pottawattamies (properly Potewatmik). In 1846 the two bodies of this tribe were united on a reservation in southern Kansas. In A Half Century of Conflict, Parkman describes their lodges as structures of bark, very high, very long, and arched like garden arbors." 66 Creole, of French or Spanish descent, and living in what was formerly Louisiana Territory. The Creoles were a mixed race. CHAPTER IV 25. sixteen to the pound calibre. This means that the rifle carried bullets of a pound in weight. "Avance donc!" The meaning of this French expression is repeated in the English immediately following. Blackstone's Commentaries. Sir William Blackstone (1723– 1780) is noted chiefly for his Commentaries on the Laws of England, still recognized as an indispensable preparation for admission to the bar. Expedition under Colonel Kearney, 1845, to treat with and impress the Indians. grand trail of the Oregon emigrants up the Platte. After 316 miles across country, the Oregon Trail reached the Platte about twenty miles below the head of Grand Island. As the Platte marked the division between the upper and lower Missouri River, it was sometimes spoken of as the Equator. It has als heen called "the most magnificent and the most useless of rivers"; but it is more significantly described as "a thousand miles long and six inches deep." Cf. The Expedition of Lewis and Clark, Vol. I, Chapter I. Mazeppa, the hero of Byron's poem of the same name, was tied to the back of a wild horse, which was then turned loose in the Russian wilderness. 26. tent-pickets, tent stakes. 27. sacrés, oaths. slough (pronounced sloo with this meaning, common in the western part of the United States), a long, shallow ravine, or an open creek. 29. "Great American Desert." In spite of the ridicule of late years, the early geographers were not wrong when they placed such a desert their maps. But the many exceptions to the ruling character of the region upset all early predictions in regard to the future of the "desert." See the location given p. 60. It should have been located farther west, and given a still greater latitude. 32. vidette (or vedette), a sentinel, usually a horseman. 34. village of the Iowa Indians, on the west bank of the Missouri, between the mouths of the Wolfe and Great Nemaha rivers, where they still live. St. Joseph's trail, the middle one of the three northern "feeders" of the Oregon Trail. CHAPTER V 34. Latter Day Saints, the Mormons. 35. 66 Gentiles,” used here from the Mormon point of view to designate all outside the Mormon church. 38. "dor-bug," the dor-beetle. 39. in the classic mode, without chairs. 41. "Voulez vous du souper, tout de suite?" Do you want some supper at once? "sous la charette," under the cart. 45. Oakum complexion, tow-colored, the color of old rope. Bond Street, London, between Oxford Street and Piccadilly, though now filled with shops, was formerly a fashionable promenade. 46. Macaulay's Lays. Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, published in 1842, made a very favorable impression, notwithstanding the lament of the poet Leigh Hunt that the Lays "do not have the true poetic aroma which breathes from 'The Faerie Queene.' Eothen, a series of letters "From the East," written by Kinglake, was published anonymously in 1844. Milnes, Richard Monckton (1809-85), an English poet, was created Baron Houghton in 1863. His lyric poetry is of a high order. Kinglake, Alexander William (1809–90), an English historian, was the author of Eothen and the History of the Invasion of the Crimea. Borrow, The Bible in Spain. George Borrow, after his travels in Spain as agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society, wrote the interesting account entitled The Bible in Spain, published in 1843. Judge Story. Joseph Story, bridge in 1845. 47. "The livelong day..." Stanza XIII. 48. lariette, a lariat, or lasso. jurist and author, died at Cam See Scott's Marmion, Canto III, pent-house, a shed, a lean-to. Cf. Merchant of Venice, Act. II, scene 6: "This is the pent-house under which Lorenzo Desired us to make stand." Hibernian, Irish. 49. Big Blue," a large branch of the Kansas River, rising very near the Platte. 50. Mahomet and the refractory mountain. Mahomet, to prove his power, commanded the mountain to come to him. When it remained unmoved, he said, "If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the mountain." vapor, to talk idly. CHAPTER VI 51. the old legitimate trail of the Oregon emigrants, i.e., the trail from Independence. The trail from St. Joseph came in eight miles beyond the Big Blue, near the present Ballard Falls. 52. a piece of plank. There is now (1910) a bill before Congress appropriating $50,000 for the purpose of erecting suitable monuments marking the Oregon Trail-a remarkable contrast to the poverty of these earliest memorials. common occurrence. "A highway of desolation, strewn with abandoned property, the skeletons of horses, mules, and oxen, and, alas! too often, with freshly made mounds and headboards that told the pitiful tale of sufferings too great to be endured. If the Trail was the scene of romance, adventure, pleasure, and excitement, so it was marked in every mile of its course by human misery, tragedy, and death."-Chittenden, History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West. 56. oui, oui, Monsieur; yes, yes sir. 58. their villages on the Platte, i.e., upon the Loup Fork of the Platte, where the Pawnees lived and carried on agriculture to some extent. There were four distinct villages. the civilized accomplishment of barking. See Mr. Jack London's stories, The Call of the Wild and White Fang. Dahcotah, or Dakota, the name by which these Indians preferred to be called. The name means "Allies." They were also called the "League of the Seven Council Fires." Sioux, the French designation, is the term by which they are generally |