THE LAND OF GOLD.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4241, 23 October 1874, Page 3

THE LAND OF GOLD.

(From the Mew Fork Herald.) Rocky Mountains, August 25, 1874. The reported discovery of gold in the Black Hills by Custer’s expedition is occasioning great excitement along the Dpper Missouri, especially in the vicinity of Bismarck, where the existence of rich mines in the Black Hills has long been believed in. Although the existence of precious metals in the Black Hills is now for the first time definitely announced to the world, the fact has long been known to soldiers, trappers, guides and hunters. Our,; army officers have frequently spoken of them and exhibited specimens of gold brought into the forts by Indians. As early as 1862 am Indian from the Black Hills visited Fort Laramie, bringing with him a considerable quantity of gold dust and a number of FINE NUGGETS. _ So many persons were anxious to get his gold, that the Indian became alarmed and threw it into the Platte River. - Crow chief gave to Major Burt, at I ort Phil Kearny, on the Powder River, a spicula of pure gold as thick and almost as long as a Faber lead pencil. In the same year, soldiers found gold in many places along Powder River, Big Horn, Clear Fork, Piney, Goose, Wolf, Trout Creeks and Tongue, and Little Horn rivers. In 1864, it is related, Mr, Bullock, a post trader, through some private arrangement with a chief of the Black Hills, established a trade in gold, and got 20,000d015. out of the Indians in a short time. During 1869, two Indians frequently brought gold to the forts and sold it. When pressed to discover where they obtained it, they said Gerry s Creek, a place in the Black Hills, above I 1 ort Laramie. Some white men bribed these Indians to show them the place, and the party started out; but in the night the Indians deserted and the white men had to return. Two Indians, now at Whestone Agency, say they know of a place in a creek, not far from Laramie, where the bed of the stream is lined with yellow shale rock, filled with gold. The rock is so rotten, they state, that they have often picked out pieces of gold with their butcher knives. It is a well known fact that several years ago an Indian brought into Fort Laramie about a quart of rotten shale rock tied up in a dh'ty cloth, and upon examination it was found to contain over S2OO worth of gold. He would not tell where he got it, but the shale showed water marks and had evidently been dug from the bottom of a stream. THE BIG HORN EXPEDITION. _ In January, 1870, the famous “ Big Horn Gold Searching Expedition” was organised. Fully 500 persons enrolled, but less than 150 started. Your correspondent saw this expedition at Fort Steele, Wyoming Territory, dune, 1870, and it was thoroughly provisioned, equipped, and provided with every means of locomotion and defence. It became he subject of Congressional action, and a determined effort was made to abrogate the Sioux treaty of 1860, that it might march through Bed Cloud’s hinds. The Government warned the leaders of the expedition that it ■would be unlawful for them to pursue the route they had marked out ; but the expedition started, and had marched over 350 miles when General Auger ordered his cavalry to pursue the “ Big Horners ” and compel them to return. They were overhauled on Grey Bull River, a tributary of the Big Horn and distant about 250 miles north of Bryan station, on the Union Pacific Railroad. Some of the explorers pushed on through to Montana and came out at Fort Ellis, but the body of the expedition returned with the troops to Fort Brown, in the Wind River valley, and marched thence to South Pass, where the men w-ere disbanded. The exploration produced great excitement in the West at the time and came near causing a general Indian w r ar, RETICENCE OF THE INDIANS. It is almost impossible to get Indians to tell of the existence of gold in their country, and it is rarely they can be soared or bribed into showing white men w-here it is to be found. Old John, for a bottle of whisxy, discovered the White Pine mines to Captain Collier, and Natty Gamo, for a keg of the same stuff, showed white men the Sweetwater gold mines, but these are isolated instances. Long ago the famous Catholic priest, Father de Smet, who spent most of his life among the wild Indian tribes of the West, told the Sioux if the white men found out there was gold in their country they would come, drive out the game and take possession of the land. The Father to have a very high opinion of Yankee enterprise, for he told the Crows, “So much do the pale faces love gold that to possess it they will kill one another, cross mountains and rivers—yea, go through fire and risk their souls salvation or sell themselves outright to the devil to obtain it.” The Indians have remembered the teachings of the old priest, and not one of them to this day will show a white man where there are gold and silver’ mines. In some tribes it is made A PENALTY OF DEATH to discover the presence of precious metals, and no Indian could live if through any act of his a horde of miners were brought into a country belonging to the Indians. His tribe would certainly kill him. That vast quantities of gold exist in the Black Hills there is not a doubt, and that it will soon be found and made subservient to the wants and conveniences of man is equally certain. Professor Agassiz declared that there were only three great deposits of gold in the world—one in Africa, one in Australia, and the other somewhere in the basin of tbe Rocky Mountains. James Garder Austin said :—“ One day such vast quantities of gold will bo found in the Rocky Mountains of America as almost to shake the value of that most precious of all metals. I have been in the Rocky Mountain country since 1868, and all my experience goes to convince me that the mines of Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming are but TUB OUTLYING SPURS of a great central deposit. Just where it will be found of course it is impossible to tell, but I believe it exists either along the base of Big Horn Mountains or in the Black Hills, and if in the Black Hills, Custer would he as likely to strike it as any one. The Rocky Mountains proper have been pretty thoroughly explored, and so have their outlying branches, except the Big Horn and Black Hills. In the explored regions no great deposit of gold has been found, and in one of tbe tivo small unexplored tracts Custer now is with his column.