IN THE OLD WEST 101 



— 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 des- 

 tined for Santa Fe, and the interior of Mexico, 

 assemble to complete their necessary equipment. 

 Mules and oxen are purchased, teamsters hired, 

 and all stores and outfit 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 suffi- 

 cient force to insure their safe passage through 

 the Indian country. At the seasons of departure 

 and arrival of these bands, the little town pre- 

 sents 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 dis- 

 appeared 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, "boss and beaver" 

 gone, is necessitated to hire himself to one of the 

 leaders of big bands, and hypothecate his serv- 

 ices for an equipment of traps and animals. Thus 

 La Bonte picked up three excellent mules for a 

 mere song, with their accompanying pack-saddles, 



