Francis Parkman 237 



fanatical outcasts were groping their way across 

 the plains to seek an asylum from Gentile persecu- 

 tion ; but we did not imagine that the polygamous 

 hordes of Mormons would rear a swarming Jeru- 

 salem in the bosom of solitude itself. We knew 

 that more and more, year after year, the trains of 

 emigrant wagons would creep in slow procession 

 towards barbarous Oregon or wild and distant 

 California ; but we did not dream how Commerce 

 and Gold would breed nations along the Pacific, 

 the disenchanting screech of the locomotive break 

 the spell of weird, mysterious mountains, woman's 

 rights invade the fastnesses of the Arapahoes, and 

 despairing savagery, assailed in front and rear, 

 veil its scalp locks and feathers before triumphant 

 commonplace. We were no prophets to foresee 

 all this ; and .had we foreseen it, perhaps some per- 

 verse regret might have tempered the ardour of 

 our rejoicing. 



"The wild tribe that defiled with me down the 

 gorges of the Black Hills, with its paint and war 

 plumes, fluttering trophies and savage embroidery, 

 bows, arrows, lances, and shields, will never be seen 

 again. Those who formed it have found bloody 

 graves, or a ghastlier burial in the maws of wolves. 

 The Indian of to-day, armed with a revolver and 

 crowned with an old hat, cased possibly in trou- 



