68 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



We next find La Bont6 and his companion one 

 Luke, better known as Grey-Eye, one of his eyes having 

 been "gouged" in a mountain fray at Independence, 

 a little town situated on the Missouri, several hundred 

 miles above St Louis, and within a short distance of 

 the Indian frontier. 



Independence may be termed the " prairie port" of 

 the western country. Here the caravans destined for 

 Santa Fe, and the interior of Mexico, assembled to 

 complete their necessary equipment. Mules and oxen 

 are purchased, teamsters hired, and all stores and out- 

 fit laid in here for the long journey over the wide 

 expanse of prairie ocean. Here, too, the Indian 

 traders and the Rocky-Mountain trappers rendezvous, 

 collecting in sufficient force to ensure their safe passage 

 through the Indian country. At the seasons of depar- 

 ture and arrival of these bands, the little town presents 

 a lively scene of bustle and confusion. The wild and 

 dissipated mountaineers get rid of their last dollars in 

 furious orgies, treating all comers to galore of drink, 

 and pledging each other, in horns of potent whisky, to 

 successful hunts and "heaps of beaver." When every 

 cent has disappeared from their pouches, the free 

 trapper often makes away with rifle, traps, and animals, 

 to gratify his "dry" (for your mountaineer is never 

 "thirsty"); and then, "hos and beaver" gone, is 

 necessitated to hire himself to one of the leaders of big 

 bands, and hypothecate his services for an equipment 

 of traps and animals. Thus La Bonte picked up three 

 excellent mules for a mere song, with their accompany- 



