AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
185 
ticing them, for every moment they are trembling for the 
safety of their peltries, &c. , or for their lives, which are at 
the mercy of the yelling savages who inhabit this delight- 
ful country. 
One thousand miles or more of the upper part of the 
river was to my eye like “fairy land.” I was the whole 
time riveted to the deck of the boat, from which I beheld 
with rapture the changing scenes of every moment. I 
cannot so well describe with pen as with my pencil, and 
have therefore filled my Port Folio with sketches, which 
it may eventually amuse you to look over. The whole 
face of the country, from St. Louis to the Falls of the Mis- 
souri, (six hundred miles above the mouth of Yellow 
Stone,) is one continued prairie, except the bottoms form- 
ed along the river, and the streams which empty into it, 
which are covered with the most luxuriant growth of forest 
timber. The surface-level of the prairie is from 200 to 
300 feet above the level of the river, forming a valley the 
whole way for the river, varying in width from two to 
twenty miles. The river is alternately running from one 
bluff to another, which present themselves to its shores in 
all the most picturesque and beautiful shapes and colours 
imaginable. Some with their green sides gracefully slope 
down, in the most beautiful groups, to the water’s edge; 
whilst others, divested of their verdure, present them- 
selves in many masses of clay of different colours, some 
standing in the most perfect forms of huge domes, cupolas, 
turrets, towers, and ruined castles. In distance, some of 
those groups have the appearance of ancient cities in ruins, 
with solitary standing columns, falling domes, and ruined 
edifices. It is amidst these wild haunts that the moun- 
tain sheep and thefleet-bounding antelope sport in herds, se- 
cure in these rude places, which are inaccessible to their 
enemies. 
If any thing did ever literally “astonish the natives,” it 
was the approach of the steamboat alongside of their vil- 
lages. They were astonished, and thousands of them 
dropped themselves upon the shore, viewing it with won- 
der and astonishment. Some called it the “Fire Boat,” 
others called it the “ Medicine Boat, with eyes,” for they 
declared it saw its own way, and went along without 
help. At this place, from which I am writing, the Ame- 
rican Fur Company have a very strong fort, well piquet- 
ted, and protected with bastions mounting cannon. This 
fort was built by, and is now in charge of Mr. McKenzie, 
who receives all the trades of the northern and western 
Missouri Indians. This post, and the posts and Indian 
villages which I shall visit on my way down the river, 
will enable me to get my sketches of the most interesting 
tribes of Indians in North America, inasmuch as they are 
less known to the world, and more cleanly in their persons, 
A a a 
and more richly dressed than any other Indians on the con- 
tinent. This tour up the Mississippi presents to me the 
Sioux, Ricarees, Mandans, Gros-ventres or Miniaterees, 
Assinnaboins, Creeks, Ojibeways, Crows, Blackfeet, 
Snakes, Delawares, and Shawanoes. All these nations of 
Indians speak different languages, and most of them differ 
in their dress, domestic habits, amusements, &c.; and if 
my life is spared for a few years, my unwearied exertions 
will enable me to lay a pretty fair representation of them, 
together with the other tribes of North America, before 
the world. 
The splendid costume and elegant taste with which the 
Crows and Blackfeet dress and ornament themselves, can 
only be appreciated or realized by those who can see them. 
I shall devote a future letter entirely to the costume and 
domestic habits peculiar to each nation, where you will be 
able to get a detailed account, and form a correct idea of 
the beauty of their dress and deportment. 
As far as my travels have yet led me into the Indian 
country, I have more than realized my former predic- 
tions, “that those Indians who could be found most en- 
tirely in a state of nature, without the least knowledge of 
civilized society, would be found to be the most cleanly 
in their persons — elegant in their dress and manners, and 
enjoying life to the greatest perfection.” 
Every one of these red sons of the forest, (or rather the 
prairie,) is a knight, and a lord; his squaws are his slaves. 
The only thing which he deems worthy of his exertions, 
is to mount his snorting steed with his bow and quiver 
slung, his arrow shield upon his arm, and his long lance 
glistening in the war parade — or, divested of all his plumes 
and trappings, armed with his simple bow and quiver, to 
plunge his steed amongst the flying herds of buffaloes, and 
with his sinewy bow, which he never bends in vain, to 
dive deep in life’s fountain the whizzing arrow. The buf- 
falo herds which always graze upon these beautiful prairies 
in countless numbers, afford them abundance of meat; and 
so much is it preferred to all other, that the deer, the elk, 
and the antelope, sport upon the prairies in herds in the 
greatest security, as the Indians never kill them unless they 
want their skin for a dress. 
Whenever Mr. McKenzie’s ice-house is nearly empty 
of beef, he starts with three or four men on horseback, 
with two or three carts following at a distance, and often- 
times within view of the fort, if not within a mile or two, 
they will ride amongst a band of them, and in a few 
minutes kill ten or twelve of them, selecting the fattest of 
the herd. These scenes are exceedingly spirited and beau- 
tiful, furnishing decidedly the finest subjects for the pen- 
cil of any sporting scenes in the world. The horses in 
this country are all trained to it, and know exactly how 
