E-text prepared by Greg Bergquist, Cathy Maxam, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 39465-h.htm or 39465-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/39465/pg39465-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39465/39465-h.zip) [Illustration: ENGLISH TOURISTS' CAMP--DOUBTFUL FRIENDS.] ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER. by FRANCES F. VICTOR. Also A History of the Sioux War, and a Life of Gen. George A. Custer with Full Account of His Last Battle. Illustrated by Engravings and Maps. Published by Subscription Only. Columbian Book Company, Hartford, Conn. 1877. Copyright by Columbian Book Company. 1877. PART I. MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES AND FRONTIER LIFE. INTRODUCTION. When the author of this book has been absorbed in the elegant narratives of Washington Irving, reading and musing over _Astoria_ and _Bonneville_, in the cozy quiet of a New York study, no prescient motion of the mind ever gave prophetic indication of that personal acquaintance which has since been formed with the scenes, and even with some of the characters which figure in the works just referred to. Yet so have events shaped themselves that to me Astoria is familiar ground; Forts Vancouver and Walla-Walla pictured forever in my memory; while such journeys as I have been enabled to make into the country east of the last named fort, have given me a fair insight into the characteristic features of its mountains and its plains. To-day, a railroad traverses the level stretch between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, along which, thirty years ago, the fur-traders had worn a trail by their annual excursions with men, pack-horses, and sometimes wagons, destined to the Rocky Mountains. Then, they had to guard against the attacks of the Savages; and in this respect civilization is behind the railroad, for now, as then, it is not safe to travel without a sufficient escort. To-day, also, we have new Territories called by several names cut out of the identical hunting-grounds of the fur-traders of thirty years ago; and steamboats plying the rivers where the mountain-men came to set their traps for beaver; or cities growing up like mushrooms from a soil made quick by gold, where the hardy mountain-hunter pursued the buffalo herds in search of his winter's supply of food.