A Half-Century of Conflict, vol 2 | Page 7

fine prairie
country," writes Bourgmont, "with hills and dales and clumps of trees
to right and left." Sometimes the landscape quivered under the sultry
sun, and sometimes thunder bellowed over their heads, and rain fell in
floods on the steaming plains.
Renaudière, engineer of the party, one day stood by the side of the path
and watched the whole procession as it passed him. The white men
were about twenty in all. He counted about three hundred Indian
warriors, with as many squaws, some five hundred children, and a
prodigious number of dogs, the largest and strongest of which dragged
heavy loads. The squaws also served as beasts of burden; and, says the
journal, "they will carry as much as a dog will drag." Horses were less
abundant among these tribes than they afterwards became, so that their
work fell largely upon the women.
On the sixth day the party was within three leagues of the river Kansas,
at a considerable distance above its mouth. Bourgmont had suffered
from dysentery on the march, and an access of the malady made it
impossible for him to go farther. It is easy to conceive the regret with
which he saw himself compelled to return to Fort Orléans. The party
retraced their steps, carrying their helpless commander on a litter.
First, however, he sent one Gaillard on a perilous errand. Taking with
him two Comanche slaves bought for the purpose from the Kansas,
Gaillard was ordered to go to the Comanche villages with the message
that Bourgmont had been on his way to make them a friendly visit, and
though stopped by illness, hoped soon to try again, with better success.

Early in September, Bourgmont, who had arrived safely at Fort Orléans,
received news that the mission of Gaillard had completely succeeded;
on which, though not wholly recovered from his illness, he set out
again on his errand of peace, accompanied by his young son, besides
Renaudière, a surgeon, and nine soldiers. On reaching the great village
of the Kansas he found there five Comanche chiefs and warriors, whom
Gaillard had induced to come thither with him. Seven chiefs of the
Otoes presently appeared, in accordance with an invitation of
Bourgmont; then six chiefs of the Iowas and the head chief of the
Missouris. With these and the Kansas chiefs a solemn council was held
around a fire before Bourgmont's tent; speeches were made, the pipe of
peace was smoked, and presents were distributed.
On the 8th of October the march began, the five Comanches and the
chiefs of several other tribes, including the Omahas, joining the
cavalade. Gaillard and another Frenchman named Quesnel were sent in
advance to announce their approach to the Comanches, while
Bourgmont and his followers moved up the north side of the river
Kansas till the eleventh, when they forded it at a point twenty leagues
from its mouth, and took a westward and southwestward course,
sometimes threading the grassy valleys of little streams, sometimes
crossing the dry upland prairie, covered with the short, tufted
dull-green herbage since known as "buffalo grass." Wild turkeys
clamored along every watercourse; deer were seen on all sides, buffalo
were without number, sometimes in grazing droves, and sometimes
dotting the endless plain as far as the eye could reach. Ruffian wolves,
white and gray, eyed the travellers askance, keeping a safe distance by
day, and howling about the camp all night. Of the antelope and the elk
the journal makes no mention. Bourgmont chased a buffalo on
horseback and shot him with a pistol,--which is probably the first
recorded example of that way of hunting.
The stretches of high, rolling, treeless prairie grew more vast as the
travellers advanced. On the 17th, they found an abandoned Comanche
camp. On the next day as they stopped to dine, and had just unsaddled
their horses, they saw a distant smoke towards the west, on which they
set the dry grass on fire as an answering signal. Half an hour later a

body of wild horsemen came towards them at full speed, and among
them were their two couriers, Gaillard and Quesnel, waving a French
flag. The strangers were eighty Comanche warriors, with the grand
chief of the tribe at their head. They dashed up to Bourgmont's bivouac
and leaped from their horses, when a general shaking of hands ensued,
after which white men and red seated themselves on the ground and
smoked the pipe of peace. Then all rode together to the Comanche
camp, three leagues distant. [Footnote: This meeting took place a little
north of the Arkansas, apparently where that river makes a northward
bend, near the 22d degree of west longitude. The Comanche villages
were several days' journey to the southwest. This tribe is always
mentioned in the early French narratives as the Padoucas,--a