A TRAMP IS '49 TO THE GOLDEN WEST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2210, 9 July 1896, Page 50

A TRAMP IS '49 TO THE GOLDEN WEST.

The Indians were not so troublesome dnring the great overland journeys to the gold region in 1819. The great numbers of the emigrants filled- them -with astonishment, and thej only ventured to attack small parties or solitary hunters, The gold-seekers fewd it neceiiarj to form large parties, sa

from 150030 lto 8000dol ; iiarnes?, SOOdol to i 6O0dol; mules, 500dol to lOOOiol a pair. [ The coat of au outfit would often exceed 5000dol. When night came tho waggons would be placed ia a .circle,. or,. if the stop happened to be near a river, in a semicircle on the bank, within whioh the animals would be turned loose to graze and rest. The women would cook a savoury meal, and in these gatherirg? there would sure to be some good Btory-tellers and sweet-voiced singers of song and chorus who would enliven the after-supper hour. One of the songs the emigrants were in the habit of singing while they journeyed toward the land of gold was sung to the tune of " Oh, Susanna," a popular minstrel melody of that daj. ' Here, is one of the verses : — I soon shall be in 'Frisco, And thou I'll look all 'round, And when I see the gold lumps there I'll pick 'em off the ground ; I'll scrape the mountains clean, roy boys, I'll drain tho rivers dry, A pocket full of rocks bring home,-^-So, brothers, don't you cry. Oh ! California t That's the land for me ; I'm bound for San Francisco With my wash-bowl on my knee. As the fire dies out, the company gradually break op for the night, the sentinels go on I guard, and by 4 o'clock in the morning the travellers are breakfasting and making toady for another day's journey towards the golden goal. But before the long pilgrimege was finished many of the emigrants succumbed -to the hardships which they encountered in the Platte country and the Sier a Nevada Mountains, where, to ease the! r worn-out oxen and horses, they would have to throw away one portion of their effects after another. Many of them turned back, though they had gone so far on the journey, bidding farewell to their golden dreams, which were turning out to be leaden realities, and returning to their old homes in the Bast, where they wets Urine happy and contented

officer's way of saying that there was as little trouble or prospect of trouble in Gilgit as in Simla.

In the winter came the news of the seige of Chitral— how the natives had risen and bad cooped in the little British garrison, and would massacre them as soon as the fort was taken. Colonel Kelly commanded the relief expedition that marched from Gilgit over the Shandur Pass to Ohitral, and this young lieutenant was on Kelly's staff.

If you take np this book, whioh describes the march, expecting to read a piece of literature, you will be disappointed. If you expect to find a serious and solemn account of battles, aeigee, and dangers, yon will seek in vain. This book is just such a story as you would like to hear a man tell after dinner at the club. And it is told exactly as one man would tell suoh a storyto another. It has all the defects, all the omissions, all the diffuseness, and also the charm of an after-dinner tale. He rambles on, treats hardships of a truly appalling character as a joke, talks of tho fights and ambushes as one might describe a play, and seeks to give you the impression that such little matters are everyday occurrences, as indeed they are in the life of an officer on the Indian frontier or the Egyptian frontier or any other lien of Bzitisb ontposts.

The die tan oe from Gilgit to Chitral is about 250 miles. The road runs through the Shandur Pass, which is 12,000 ft above the Bea, in and out among the foothills of the Himalayas, through a country , that then gwarmed with bos tile, natives. The journey over the Shandur Pass was made at the most difficult season of the year, with the snow just as, heavy as in the depth of winter, but very "soft, with icy winds blowing and literally cutting the skin off the face, with an intense and blinding glare from the smooth white surface, stretcbiog inimitably in every direction, Atd they bad to take the monn-

But B9ynon and his men did manage to get around the enemy's seemingly impregnable position, although Beynon did part of the climbing and scrambling and leaping with one foot, bare, because he lost a shoe. The fight was a pretty savage business, but you have some difficulty in seeing it in that light when the young offioer is so oheerful about it. "It was as pretty a sight as one could wish for," says he, " and I felt as if I should have been in a stall at Drary lane." And this is always his light-hearted way. It is not bravado, but an excess of spirits and a perfect mania for excitement.

The next fight was at Nisa Gol, and when tbey had again turned the enemy's position thay had a bit of rare fun. " The result was like rabbit-shootinpr," remarks the cheery lieutenant. " You'd see a man jump from the sangar and bolt across the shale slope, slipping and scrambling as he went. Then there would be a volley, and you'd see the dust fly all around him. Perhaps he'd drop, perhaps he wouldn't. Then there would be another volley, and you'd see him chuck forward, amid a laugh from the Sepoys, and he'd roll over and over till he'd fe'Ch up against a rock and lie still. Sometimes'two or three would bolt at once. One ortwo would drop at each volley and go rolling, limp and shapeless, down the elope until theywere all down."

A* you readyou k^ep thinking of that old epigram npon the Eoglish character — " It's a flue day. Let's go out and kill something." In times of p2ace these ra9tless Britith are killing the largest and fiercest game they o*n kill legally. In time of war they_ are. devoutly thankful for the preserves of bigger and fresher game that are then opened for legal Bhooting. You cannot wonder that the British Empire grows, You do wonder how these happy-go-lucky young officers ever allow a moment's peacs on the frontiers.

in this way they could batter guard and move .their camps, and, by their numbers, overawe the red men. The travellers from the different eastern States would meet at St. Joseph or Independence, on the Missouri River, coming on" foot, on horseback, some with vehicles; horses, and oxen, and some without. Probably a more heterogeneous mass of humanity never met on the f aoe of the earth, for the crowd literally represented all nationalities and all sorts and conditions of men and women. The number of people who made the overland journey at this time was enormous, and especially remarkable when we consider the wild character of the country over which they had to travel. One procession wbich started in May from Fort Laramie,- Nebraska, numbered 20,000 persons. Almost every town and village oi consequence in the eastern States was represented. The unbroken stream of humanity as it journeyed slowly acros3 ths plains was miles in length. The barren country was settled for the time being, and a man oould have journeyed a thousand miles and been as near to good and decent lodgings as he would have been in the rural districts of the eastern Statßß. One man says he counted 4.59 teams in nine miles. A ferryman speaks of having crossed 900 team?, and said he judged there were 1500 more coming. In beginning the long journey the travellers enjoyed themselves. The experience was novel and more or lass excitiDg. There was plenty of chaff and chat and repartee among the poorer pedestrians as they trudged \ along, and the drivers of the big " prairie i schooners," and the foitanate horsemen, who, wbilo their aniumU held out, wero the beat i provided of all. Toe prairie schooners used j by the emigrants carried loads weighing | from 50001b to 16,0001b, and required sometimes a dozen yoke of oxen or mule*. Some of these waggons measured 6*t in depth and 17ft in length on top. Their cost'ranged

before the gold.fever took - possession of them. Then the- cholera broke out.— lt had been nging in the cities on the Atlantic coast. When it reached the Mississippi River, it caught the emigrants about the time they were commencing their journey arid followed them to the. mountain region beyond "Fort Laramie. Newly-made graves oould be seen for hundreds of miles along the roads, and it is estimated that 5000 perished by the disease, many of them being the heads of families. Some of the- more devout looked upon the visitation as a judgment from Heaven, sent down npon them because of their unnatural thirst for gold. . One party one day saw in the distance what seemed to be a funeral procession in the clonds. The forms of men oould be plainly outlined • they were carrying a coffin. With people dying about them every day, it was a startling sight, although it turned oat to be a mirage, and was the reflection of a funeral procession taking place some miles beyond. Those emigrants who withstood the natural fatigue of the journey and survived the' cholera soourge ware compelled to pass through the Valley of D.;atb, where there was death in the very atmosphere; where the sun was broiling hot, and the poor horses and cattle Bank to their bellies in the treacherous, soft earth, while clonds of blinding dust choked mail and beast. Water was scarce, much of it, in alkaline pools, drinking which only Increased the misery of the weak and thirsty travellers. • » ♦ The Indians on the plains at this time made their living principally by warring among themselves, or, what was more pleas* ing an 3 profitable to them, by warring against the whites. ' The men having oharge of the mail were daring frontiersmen, thoroughly familiar with the country through which they travelled, and were always armed to the teeth. Detachments of soldiers and citizens generally accompanied the mail coach over the most dangerous portions of the route. In 1854, on the journey between Sin Antonio and ftl Paso, when the contractor was furnishing his route - with the necessary supplies, he was accompanied by 10 Uaited States soldiers and nins i citizens. There wore two six-borse coacheß, such as are now used in the White Mountains two extra mules for. each man, and 12 animals to be used as relays for the coach team. The Indians often appeared in considerable numbers to attack the coaching party, but they had men of nerve to deal with who were used to their tactics and who were plentifully supplied with srros and &n>munibion. The savages called the long-rat- g« gtms used by the whites " Bhoot-em-fu«," while small arms tbey designated as " sboot-em-short9." If they did not sucoeed in v capturing the mail stage, or rather the provisions and horses, wbich wen really what they wanted, they wonl'3 do some act of mischief along the route calculated to annoy and harass the travellers. They would throw' dead skunks into the water at the springs where the stage would have to stop to obtain a fresh supply. Onoe they shot red-hot metal arrows into the hay covering the stable, for the purpose of setting them on fire. During one fight with the mail agents they riddled the water kegß of their opponents with bullets, and on another occasion. they threw in a well, for the purpose of poisoning the water, the bodiea of those they had killed. The gold fever, which resulted in quickly increasing the population of California, and in forming settlements ia other partß of the Far West, created a demand for more rapid transportation of the in alls than, that afforded by the water route via Panama. On April 1, 1848, a courier was despatched specially by the people of San ' Francisco to carry letters, and to circulate in the eastern States copies of the California Star, containing a series of articles on the prospects of California, with a view to stimulating emigration. In 1851 there was a monthly mail between Sacramento and Silt Lake City, a distance of 750 miles, the mail bags being carried on the backs of mules. la the »priog of 1853, special messengers cro3sed the Sierra on foot, using Canadian snowshoes.—Cosmopolitan.

— " Young man," said the merchant to the prospective office boy, " are yon fairly well educated V "I be," replied the boy proudly.

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