The History of Minnesota and Tales of the FrontierFlandrau, Charles E. (Charles Eugene)
History
The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier
Flandrau, Charles E. (Charles Eugene)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota; Minnesota -- History
Our course lay down the valley of the Truckey river to its big bend,
where Rose was to leave us and go to Pyramid lake for Win-ne-muc-ca. We
accomplished this part of the journey, a distance of about one hundred
miles, in three days, without any special incident, except on one
occasion, when we were rounding a projecting point in the river, on a
ledge of rocks, some driftwood got entangled with the legs of our
leading mules, and came very near dumping us all into the boiling and
rushing current, which would inevitably have drowned the whole party;
but we reached our destination safely. At the big bend, which is now one
of the principal stations on the Central Pacific Railroad, we found a
spacious piece of bottom land, well supplied with grass for our animals,
and a clump of six tall stately cottonwood trees, presenting an inviting
place to camp, which we accepted as our resting place.
The next morning Rose mounted his pony and started for the lake, saying
he would return in a couple of days with the chief, who would guide us
to the mine--and fortune. The government agent was an old friend of
mine, a California forty-niner, and a most companionable fellow. The
Mormons were excellent cooks, and most efficient camp men. We had
abundant camp supplies, supplemented with fine fish brought to us by the
Indians, so we settled down for a delightful rest. Every night the men
would make a cheerful crackling fire of dry driftwood from the river,
hobble the mules, and fall asleep for the night, leaving us to enjoy the
soft summer air and brilliant moonlight, while discussing our future
plans when possessed of the boundless wealth that only awaited the
coming of Rose and the chief. Before retiring for the night, which only
meant lying down on a blanket, we usually reclined each against a tree,
with a demijohn between us, and by the time sleep overcame us the
fortunes of Croesus, Astor and Vanderbilt combined were mere trifles
compared with our anticipated wealth, for were we not to be soon endowed
with the magic touch of Midas!
We revelled in our repose, seasoned with the exaltation of hope and the
demijohn, until about four days had glided away, when even such delights
began to pall, and became a little monotonous, and still no Rose and no
Win-ne-muc-ca. The fifth, and even the sixth day passed, and yet they
came not, and we were driven to the conclusion that either Rose had been
victimized by the Piutes, or we had been victimized by Rose. So nothing
was left for us but to pull up stakes and wend our weary way back to
Carson. Here we found Rose, with the excuse that Win-ne-muc-ca had told
him that he dared not give up the secret of the mine for fear his band
would kill both Rose and himself, and that he had not dared to return to
the camp for fear the Indians would follow him and destroy us all. And
so ended our venture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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