Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THIRTY-ONE YEARS ON THE PLAINS AND IN THE MOUNTAINS OR, THE LAST VOICE FROM THE PLAINS. AN AUTHENTIC RECORD OF A LIFE TIME OF HUNTING, TRAPPING, SCOUTING AND INDIAN FIGHTING IN THE FAR WEST BY CAPT. WILLIAM F. DRANNAN, WHO WENT ON TO THE PLAINS WHEN FIFTEEN YEARS OLD. PREFACE. In writing this preface I do so with the full knowledge that the preface of a book is rarely read, comparatively speaking, but I shall write this one just the same. In writing this work the author has made no attempt at romance, or a great literary production, but has narrated in his own plain, blunt way, the incidents of his life as they actually occurred. There have been so many books put upon the market, purporting to be the lives of noted frontiersmen which are only fiction, that I am moved to ask the reader to consider well before condemning this book as such. The author starts out with the most notable events of his boyhood days, among them his troubles with an old negro virago, wherein he gets his revenge by throwing a nest of lively hornets under her feet. Then come his flight and a trip, to St. Louis, hundreds of miles on foot, his accidental meeting with that most eminent man of his class, Kit Carson, who takes the lad into his care and treats him as a kind father would a son. He then proceeds to give a minute description of his first trip on the plains, where he meets and associates with such noted plainsmen as Gen. John Charles Fremont, James Beckwith, Jim Bridger and others, and gives incidents of his association with them in scouting, trapping, hunting big game, Indian fighting, etc. The author also gives brief sketches of the springing into existence of many of the noted cities of the West, and the incidents connected therewith that have never been written before. There is also a faithful recital of his many years of scouting for such famous Indian fighters as Gen. Crook, Gen. Connor, Col. Elliott, Gen. Wheaton and others, all of which will be of more than passing interest to those who can be entertained by the early history of the western part of our great republic. This work also gives an insight into the lives of the hardy pioneers of the far West, and the many trials and hardships they had to undergo in blazing the trail and hewing the way to one of the grandest and most healthful regions of the United States. W. F. D. CHICAGO, August 1st, 1899. CONTENTS. CHAPTER 1. A Boy Escapes a Tyrant and Pays a Debt with a Hornet's Nest--Meets Kit Carson and Becomes the Owner of a Pony and a Gun CHAPTER 2. Beginning of an Adventurous Life--First Wild Turkey-- First Buffalo--First Feast as an Honored Guest of Indians--Dog Meat CHAPTER 3. Hunting and Trapping in South Park, Where a Boy, Unaided, Kills and Scalps Two Indians--Meeting with Fremont, the "Path-finder"