LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER VI.

      BETWEENS—INCIDENTS AND NOTES.

      FORT Laramie, next in size after Fort Leaven- worth, and the first post garrisoned in the section now constituting the State of Wyoming, is full of romantic and tragic interest, possessing more his- toric incidents than any other military post at the West. Built by Robert Campbell, its first com- mander, in 1834, for a trading-post, it was destined in the succeeding fifty years to become an important fur-trade centre, and the theatre of great military events. Laramie was named for James Laramie, a Canadian, who also gave his name to Laramie River, Laramie Plains, Laramie Peak, Laramie County, and Laramie City. Laramie himself was well worthy to have his name commemorated, and is described as a man of resolute character, manly in conduct and kindly in disposition. His associates regarded him as absolutely honest, and his courage was never questioned. His conduct toward the Indians was such as to command both their respect and good will. Every act of his life commended him as worthy the friendship of both white men and red men. And yet he met his death at the hands of Indians. A sketch of his life is told in story by Mr. Coutant, the Wyoming Historian,* if not in song.

      Francis Parkman visited Fort Laramie in 1846,

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      * Coutant's History of Wyoming, vol. i, chap, xxiii.

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      accompanied by the Honorable Quincy Shaw of Boston, and remained several months, hunting buffalo with the Indians, and meeting many traders and trappers, among others three grandsons of Daniel Boone. It seems to me that when the trapper changed the canoe for a horse one might begin the material for a great American epic, and very pos- sibly have for its theme "Winning the West," so felicitously chosen by President Roosevelt for his volume with that title.

      Suggestive of the theme is the expedition of Fremont, who, when upon the summit of a lofty, snow-clad mountain, forced a ramrod into the crevice of a rock, and unfurled our national banner to wave in the breeze where the flag never waved before ; and on Independence Kock placed the cross, the symbol of the Christian Faith. He says of that occasion, "Not unmindful of the custom of early travellers and explorers in our country, I engraved the symbol of the Christian Faith. Among the thickly inscribed names I made on the hard granite the impression of a large cross, which I covered with a preparation of India rubber, well calculated to resist the influence of wind and rain." It stands amidst the names of many who have long since found their way to the grave, and for whom the huge rock is a giant gravestone. And with the heroes of canal, foot, and wave, we recall also those of dis- covery, those of the fur-trade, and the heroes of missions, that host of worthies who formed the van- guard of civilization and religion, of Ashley and Parkman, of Whitman, the Christian doctor, none

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      the less a patriot, a very Nestor among men, who carried within his own devoted soul the destiny of an empire for his mission, and made it the outpost of Oregon, now an American State.

      Almost one hundred and twenty years before his day, Bishop Berkley had sung with prophetic soul :

      " There shall be another golden age,

       The first four acts already past;

      A fifth shall close the drama with her days,

       Time's noblest offering is the last.

      " Not such as Europe breeds in her decay,

       Such as she had when fresh and young,

      When Heavenly flame did animate her clay,

       By poet shall be sung.

      " Westward the course of empire takes its way,

       The first four acts already past,

      A fifth shall close the drama with the day,

       Time's noblest offering is the last."

      Whitman travelled with his little party up the North Platte on July 3, 1836, and paused long enough to celebrate American Independence Day. Taking from his wagon a national flag and a Bible, spreading a blanket upon the ground, placing a Bible upon it, and taking the flag-staff in his hand, he said "Let us pray." Then and there he took possession of the territory, not unlike the Patriarch Noah of old, and fervently prayed for his country and the cause of Christ, Mrs. Whitman leading in a patriotic hymn.

       The recent attempts to cast doubt upon the his- torical accuracy of the generally accepted words and

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      deeds of Whitman in the settlement of the Oregon dispute, reminds one of the famous Bacon-Shake- speare controversy.

      One author, writing upon Indian characteristics, says, " There are plenty of well-authenticated in- stances of Indian chivalry. The romance of war and the chase has always been theirs. If you want the romance of love, a thousand elopements in the face of deadly peril will supply you with Lochin- vars! If you want the romance of friendship, you may find it in the companion warriors of the prairie rivals for Damon and Pythias! If you want the romance of grief, take that magnificent Mandan Wah-ta-ta-pa (Four Bears), who starved himself to death because of the ravages of small-pox in his tribe, or Har-won-ge-ta, the Minneconjou Chief (One Horn), who was so maddened by the death of his son that he swore to kill the first living thing that crossed his path. Armed with only a knife, he attacked a buffalo bull and perished on the horns of the infuriated animal. If you seek pure knight- errantry, I commend you to the young Pawnee hero, Pe-ta-la-sha-ra, who at the risk of his life freed a Comanche girl from the stake, and returned un- harmed to his people, and who afterwards saved a Spanish boy from a similar fate by offering a ran- som, and interposed his own life to force the release. If you desire the grander chivalry of strength of mind and nobility of soul, I will put Chief Joseph (the Nez Perces Chief) against any barbarian that ever lived.

      "Perchance some Indian may arise to the height

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      of this great argument and invoke the poetic muse to adventurous song, but as an untamed, or wild Indian, he has had no speech or literature through which he might appeal.

      "There may yet be found among the Six Nations the famous 'Iroquois Confederacy,' which, accord- ing to Parkman, would have controlled the American continent if the white man had a little longer delayed his advent, either in the descendants of Cornplanter, the personal friend of Washington, or of Handsome Lake, and Bed Jacket, the coming type of the Epic poet, since in their devotion to the Great Father of American Liberty, ever a friend of the Red Man, and up to the date of the Eleventh

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