The Adventures of Captain Bonneville | Page 4

to
New-York, the great focus of American enterprise, where there are
always funds ready for any scheme, however chimerical or romantic.
Here he had the good fortune to meet with a gentleman of high
respectability and influence, who had been his associate in boyhood,
and who cherished a schoolfellow friendship for him. He took a general
interest in the scheme of the captain; introduced him to commercial
men of his acquaintance, and in a little while an association was formed,
and the necessary funds were raised to carry the proposed measure into
effect. One of the most efficient persons in this association was Mr.
Alfred Seton, who, when quite a youth, had accompanied one of the
expeditions sent out by Mr. Astor to his commercial establishments on
the Columbia, and had distinguished himself by his activity and
courage at one of the interior posts. Mr. Seton was one of the American
youths who were at Astoria at the time of its surrender to the British,

and who manifested such grief and indignation at seeing the flag of
their country hauled down. The hope of seeing that flag once more
planted on the shores of the Columbia, may have entered into his
motives for engaging in the present enterprise.
Thus backed and provided, Captain Bonneville undertook his
expedition into the Far West, and was soon beyond the Rocky
Mountains. Year after year elapsed without his return. The term of his
leave of absence expired, yet no report was made of him at head
quarters at Washington. He was considered virtually dead or lost and
his name was stricken from the army list.
It was in the autumn of 1835 at the country seat of Mr. John Jacob
Astor, at Hellgate, that I first met with Captain Bonneville He was then
just returned from a residence of upwards of three years among the
mountains, and was on his way to report himself at head quarters, in the
hopes of being reinstated in the service. From all that I could learn, his
wanderings in the wilderness though they had gratified his curiosity
and his love of adventure had not much benefited his fortunes. Like
Corporal Trim in his campaigns, he had "satisfied the sentiment," and
that was all. In fact, he was too much of the frank, freehearted soldier,
and had inherited too much of his father's temperament, to make a
scheming trapper, or a thrifty bargainer.
There was something in the whole appearance of the captain that
prepossessed me in his favor. He was of the middle size, well made and
well set; and a military frock of foreign cut, that had seen service, gave
him a look of compactness. His countenance was frank, open, and
engaging; well browned by the sun, and had something of a French
expression. He had a pleasant black eye, a high forehead, and, while he
kept his hat on, the look of a man in the jocund prime of his days; but
the moment his head was uncovered, a bald crown gained him credit
for a few more years than he was really entitled to.
Being extremely curious, at the time, about every thing connected with
the Far West, I addressed numerous questions to him. They drew from
him a number of extremely striking details, which were given with
mingled modesty and frankness; and in a gentleness of manner, and a

soft tone of voice, contrasting singularly with the wild and often
startling nature of his themes. It was difficult to conceive the mild,
quiet-looking personage before you, the actual hero of the stirring
scenes related.
In the course of three or four months, happening to be at the city of
Washington, I again came upon the captain, who was attending the
slow adjustment of his affairs with the War Department. I found him
quartered with a worthy brother in arms, a major in the army. Here he
was writing at a table, covered with maps and papers, in the centre of a
large barrack room, fancifully decorated with Indian arms, and trophies,
and war dresses, and the skins of various wild animals, and hung round
with pictures of Indian games and ceremonies, and scenes of war and
hunting. In a word, the captain was beguiling the tediousness of
attendance at court, by an attempt at authorship; and was rewriting and
extending his travelling notes, and making maps of the regions he had
explored. As he sat at the table, in this curious apartment, with his high
bald head of somewhat foreign cast, he reminded me of some of those
antique pictures of authors that I have seen in old Spanish volumes.
The result of his labors was a mass of manuscript, which he
subsequently put at my disposal, to fit it for publication and bring it
before