"Oh! you darned fool," interposed a mountaineer, "the dead men's ghosts will be after you if you use them lariats--wagh! They'll make meat of you sartain." "Well, I don't care if they do. I'm in government service; and if them picket-halters was gone, slap down goes a dollar apiece. Money's scarce in these diggin's, and I'm going to save all I kin to take home to the old woman and boys." CHAPTER IX. FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. On the summit of one of the highest plateaus bordering the Missouri River, surrounded by a rich expanse of foliage, lies Independence, the beautiful residence suburb of Kansas City, only ten miles distant. Tradition tells that early in this century there were a few pioneers camping at long distances from each other in the seemingly interminable woods; in summer engaged in hunting the deer, elk, and bear, and in winter in trapping. It is a well-known fact that the Big Blue was once a favourite resort of the beaver, and that even later their presence in great numbers attracted many a veteran trapper to its waters. Before that period the quaint old cities of far-off Mexico were forbidden to foreign traders, excepting to the favoured few who were successful in obtaining permits from the Spanish government. In 1821, however, the rebellion of Iturbide crushed the power of the mother country, and established the freedom of Mexico. The embargo upon foreign trade was at once removed, and the Santa Fe Trail, for untold ages only a simple trace across the continent, became the busy highway of a relatively great commerce. In 1817 the navigation of the Mississippi River was begun. On the 2d of August of that year the steamer _General Pike_ arrived at St. Louis. The first boat to ascend the Missouri River was the _Independence_; she passed Franklin on the 28th of May, 1819, where a dinner was given to her officers. In the same and the following month of that year, the steamers _Western Engineer Expedition_ and _R. M. Johnson_ came along, carrying Major Long's scientific exploring party, bound for the Yellowstone. The Santa Fe trade having been inaugurated shortly after these important events, those engaged in it soon realized the benefits of river navigation--for it enabled them to shorten the distance which their wagons had to travel in going across the plains--and they began to look out for a suitable place as a shipping and outfitting point higher up the river than Franklin, which had been the initial starting town.