{"product_id":"2940013874800","title":"THE OREGON TRAIL","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI     THE FRONTIER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eII    BREAKING THE ICE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIII   FORT LEAVENWORTH\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIV    \"JUMPING OFF\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eV     \"THE BIG BLUE\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVI    THE PLATTE AND THE DESERT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVII   THE BUFFALO\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVIII  TAKING FRENCH LEAVE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIX    SCENES AT FORT LARAMIE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eX     THE WAR PARTIES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXI    SCENES AT THE CAMP\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXII   ILL LUCK\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXIII  HUNTING INDIANS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXIV   THE OGALLALLA VILLAGR\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXV    THE HUNTING CAMP\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXVI   THE TRAPPERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXVII  THE BLACK HILLS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXVIII A MOUNTAIN HUNT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXIX   PASSAGE OF THE MOUNTAINS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXX    THE LONELY JOURNEY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXXI   THE PUEBLO AND BENT'S FORT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXXII  TETE ROUGE, THE VOLUNTEER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXXIII INDIAN ALARMS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXXIV  THE CHASE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXXV   THE BUFFALO CAMP\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXXVI  DOWN THE ARKANSAS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXXVII THE SETTLEMENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE FRONTIER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLast spring, 1846, was a busy season in the City of St. Louis. Not only\u003cbr\u003ewere emigrants from every part of the country preparing for the journey\u003cbr\u003eto Oregon and California, but an unusual number of traders were making\u003cbr\u003eready their wagons and outfits for Santa Fe. Many of the emigrants,\u003cbr\u003eespecially of those bound for California, were persons of wealth and\u003cbr\u003estanding. The hotels were crowded, and the gunsmiths and saddlers\u003cbr\u003ewere kept constantly at work in providing arms and equipments for the\u003cbr\u003edifferent parties of travelers. Almost every day steamboats were leaving\u003cbr\u003ethe levee and passing up the Missouri, crowded with passengers on their\u003cbr\u003eway to the frontier.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn one of these, the Radnor, since snagged and lost, my friend and\u003cbr\u003erelative, Quincy A. Shaw, and myself, left St. Louis on the 28th of\u003cbr\u003eApril, on a tour of curiosity and amusement to the Rocky Mountains. The\u003cbr\u003eboat was loaded until the water broke alternately over her guards. Her\u003cbr\u003eupper deck was covered with large weapons of a peculiar form, for\u003cbr\u003ethe Santa Fe trade, and her hold was crammed with goods for the same\u003cbr\u003edestination. There were also the equipments and provisions of a party\u003cbr\u003eof Oregon emigrants, a band of mules and horses, piles of saddles and\u003cbr\u003eharness, and a multitude of nondescript articles, indispensable on\u003cbr\u003ethe prairies. Almost hidden in this medley one might have seen a small\u003cbr\u003eFrench cart, of the sort very appropriately called a \"mule-killer\"\u003cbr\u003ebeyond the frontiers, and not far distant a tent, together with a\u003cbr\u003emiscellaneous assortment of boxes and barrels. The whole equipage was\u003cbr\u003efar from prepossessing in its appearance; yet, such as it was, it was\u003cbr\u003edestined to a long and arduous journey, on which the persevering reader\u003cbr\u003ewill accompany it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe passengers on board the Radnor corresponded with her freight. In her\u003cbr\u003ecabin were Santa Fe traders, gamblers, speculators, and adventurers\u003cbr\u003eof various descriptions, and her steerage was crowded with Oregon\u003cbr\u003eemigrants, \"mountain men,\" negroes, and a party of Kansas Indians, who\u003cbr\u003ehad been on a visit to St. Louis.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThus laden, the boat struggled upward for seven or eight days against\u003cbr\u003ethe rapid current of the Missouri, grating upon snags, and hanging for\u003cbr\u003etwo or three hours at a time upon sand-bars. We entered the mouth of\u003cbr\u003ethe Missouri in a drizzling rain, but the weather soon became clear,\u003cbr\u003eand showed distinctly the broad and turbid river, with its eddies, its\u003cbr\u003esand-bars, its ragged islands, and forest-covered shores. The Missouri\u003cbr\u003eis constantly changing its course; wearing away its banks on one\u003cbr\u003eside, while it forms new ones on the other. Its channel is shifting\u003cbr\u003econtinually. Islands are formed, and then washed away; and while the old\u003cbr\u003eforests on one side are undermined and swept off, a young growth springs\u003cbr\u003eup from the new soil upon the other. With all these changes, the water\u003cbr\u003eis so charged with mud and sand that it is perfectly opaque, and in\u003cbr\u003ea few minutes deposits a sediment an inch thick in the bottom of a\u003cbr\u003etumbler. The river was now high; but when we descended in the autumn\u003cbr\u003eit was fallen very low, and all the secrets of its treacherous shallows\u003cbr\u003ewere exposed to view. It was frightful to see the dead and broken trees,\u003cbr\u003ethick-set as a military abatis, firmly imbedded in the sand, and all\u003cbr\u003epointing down stream, ready to impale any unhappy steamboat that at high\u003cbr\u003ewater should pass over that dangerous ground.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn five or six days we began to see signs of the great western movement\u003cbr\u003ethat was then taking place. Parties of emigrants, with their tents and\u003cbr\u003ewagons, would be encamped on open spots near the bank, on their way to\u003cbr\u003ethe common rendezvous at Independence. On a rainy day, near sunset, we\u003cbr\u003ereached the landing of this place, which is situated some miles from\u003cbr\u003ethe river, on the extreme frontier of Missouri.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47069354361072,"sku":"2940013874800","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013874800_p0.jpg?v=1763596457","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013874800","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}