This is from Chapter VIII of George Catlin’s book, Life Amongst the Indians, which he wrote for young readers. George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American painter, author and traveler who specialized in portraits of Indians. He also wrote about the many tribes and their culture.
SEATED in a light and frail canoe in front of the American Fur Company's Fort, at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, Jean Ba'tiste, a Frenchman, Abraham Bogard, a Mississippian, and I took leave of M'Kenzie and his little colony, for a voyage to St. Louis, which, by the winding course of the Missouri, was but about two thousand miles ; and the whole of that way without other habitations than the occasional villages of the wild Indians ; and without inhabitants, excepting wild men and the wild animals that roamed over and through it.
We three, then the two first of whom with good rifles, and knowing well how to use them; and myself with a good double-barrelled fowling-piece, for ducks, and geese, and prairie hens, and a first-rate rifle for long range, and a belt with two side pistols for nearer quarters took our seats in our little bark ; the first in the bow, the second in the centre, and myself in the stern, with my steering-paddle, with which I steered it in safety, but not without some accidents, amid snags, and sand-bars, and sawyers, and rocks, to the wharf in St. Louis, whilst the boiling current swept us along, and Ba'tiste and Bogard, and most of the time all three, paddled.
We had powder and ball in abundance laid in, and our fishing tackle ; some good robes to sleep upon and under ; a tin kettle, a coffee-pot, a frying-pan, plenty of ground coffee, of sugar, and salt ; each man a spoon, a knife, and a tin cup ; and though we had no bread or butter, the little reader, whose imagination is pretty strong, will easily see we had a tolerable chance for enough to eat, and that there was a glorious prospect for the indulgence of my sportive passion.
At our starting, we had another " compagnon du voyage," which I had almost forgotten to mention. Mr. M'Kenzie had made me a present of a full-grown, domesticated war-eagle, the noble bird which the Indians so much esteem for its valour, and the quills of which they so much value to adorn the heads of chiefs and warriors. I had a perch erected for it some six or eight feet high, over the bow of the canoe, on which it rested in perfect quietude, without being fastened, silently surveying all that we passed above and below ; thus forming for our little craft the most picturesque and appropriate figure-head that could be imagined.
From day to day we thus passed on, surveying the beautiful shores ; the grassy and rounded bluffs rising in groups, sometimes hundreds on hundreds, appearing in the distance as if green carpets of velvet were spread over them ; sometimes speckled with herds of buffaloes grazing on their sides.
The sand-bars in the distance sometimes seemed as if they were covered with snow, from the quantities of pelicans and white swans that were grouped upon them. The white wolves that were looking at us from the banks got an occasional pill from one of our rifles, and sometimes the terrible grizzly bear, that trace the water's edge for the carcasses of dead fish, and the buffaloes often left fastened in the mud, where large herds have been crossing the river.
We went ashore every afternoon a little before sunset, where we could discover dry wood enough to make a fire with, cooked and ate our supper ; and then, leaving our fire, paddled on till some time after dark, hauling our buffalo-skins out, and, scarcely knowing what was around us, quietly spreading our beds upon the grass, lest prowling war-parties might be attracted by the smoke of our fires, and strike a blow upon us in their sudden way, mistaking us for their enemies or for some of the fur traders, against more or less of whom these people have long and just causes of complaint, and for which we are, in such cases, liable to pay the forfeit.
We were generally off again at daybreak, and usually stopped at eight or nine in the morning, to make and to take our breakfast.
Our noble and beautiful pet was a picture to look at : he held to his perch, and could not have been made to leave us. He was well fed with fresh buffalo meat, and sometimes with fish. His eagle eyes gazed upon all around him, and he seemed to be owner and commander of the expedition. We always found him on his stand in the morning ; and during the day, as we were gliding along, when he became tired of his position, he would raise himself upon his long and broad wings, and spreading them over us, would hover and soar for miles together, a few feet above our heads, and in precise progress with the canoe, looking down upon us, and fanning us at times with fresh air, and at other times shading us from the rays of the sun !
Birds of all kinds and wild fowl, as they flew over, this monarch of the air would gaze at from his perch ; and whenever he discovered one of his own species soaring in the sky, or even in the clouds, which was sometimes the case, he commenced a chattering of recognition, which they invariably answered. He knew them, and could easily have gone to them in a moment, but the perch that he clenched in his feet he preferred, for there he was sure of his daily food.
One day, while we were passing through what is called the Grand Detour, a deep gorge through which the river passes, with precipitous clay banks, some hundreds of feet in height, on each side, our royal guest rose suddenly, and unusually high from his perch, and flapping his long wings, flew back some distance, and kept rising, when we all of one accord exclaimed, " He has gone ! he has taken final leave ! " but he made a circuit or two in the air, and then a stoop, just grazing the side of the ragged clay bluff, from which he lifted a huge snake, that was writhing and twisting in his deadly grasp as he was coming towards the boat. "Sonnette! sonnette!" exclaimed poor Ba'tiste, as the snake, when the eagle was on his perch, was to hang right over his head !
It happened, luckily perhaps, not to be a rattle-snake, but a harmless reptile, probably better known to eagles than to us, which the eagle's eyes had discovered basking in the sun as we had passed, and which he had gone back for, and now on his perch, directly over poor Ba'tiste's head, was making a delicious meal of. Ba'tiste soon got over his fright, and admitted that "it was all right, that we were all hunters and adventurers together."
Annoyed to agony, and sometimes almost to death, by the mosquitoes that infest the shores of that river in some places, we generally selected a barren sand-bar or sandy beach as the place of our bivouac, for they generally fly only as far as the grass extends.
Having one night selected such a beach, and drawn our canoe well on to it, we spread our robes on the soft sand, and got a comfortable night's rest ; and a little after daylight in the morning, I heard Ba'tiste exclaim" Voila, Mr. Caltin ! voila Caleb !" I raised myself up, and found Bogard and Ba'tiste rising gradually, with their hands on their rifles, and their attention fixed upon a monster of a grizzly bear, sitting a few rods from us on the slope of the prairie, reconnoitring us ; and at a little distance farther, the female with her two cubs; we three would have furnished a comfortable breakfast for them, for which they were no doubt, with some impatience, waiting.
They had been waiting for us to wake up, for it is a curious saying of the country, and probably a true one, that that grizzly bears will not attack a man when he is asleep, although they are sure to attack him if they meet him on his feet. We all alike knew the motto of the country, yet I believe none of us were quite disposed to go to sleep for our protection.
A council of war was the first thing that was necessary ; and as we discovered, on looking around, that these terrible beasts had been in our canoe and hauled every article out of it on to the beach, and pawed them open, and scattered them about ; and that our poor eagle was gone, and swallowed, no doubt ; and knowing the danger of attacking them, we agreed that our canoe was the first thing ; the scattered remnants of our property the next preferring to have our battle afterwards. We simultaneously arose, moved our canoe into the water, and got our paddles into it, and our guns safe in our hands.
The animals made no move towards us in the mean time, and we began to gather our robes and other things which were strewed in all directions.
We had three or four days' supply of fresh meat laid in, and some delicious dried buffalo tongues, and a quantity of pemican, all of which were devoured. My paint-box was opened, and nothing left in it, the brushes were scattered over the beach, and many of the bladders with colours tied in them, chewed, and the contents scattered and daubed, in strange mixtures of red, and green, and all colours, over everything. Two packs of Indian dresses, safely tied with thongs, were as regularly untied as if done by human hands ; and shirts, and leggings, and head-dresses, and robes, were daubed in the mud and spread out upon the beach as if to dry, or to be disposed of in lots at an auction sale.
In taking up our sleeping robes, the enormous footprints sinking two or three inches into the hard sand, showed us that these stupid and terrible beasts had passed many times around and between our beds, which were not more, perhaps, than two or three feet apart. Was not here enough to shake one's nerves a little ?
Our things thrown in confusion into our canoe for a better arrangement at a more agreeable place, we pushed out a little from the shore, and felt again at ease, knowing that the grizzly bear will never enter the water for anything.
The moment our canoe was afloat, with the accustomed flappings of his wings, the long and yellow legs of our illustrious passenger were reaching down for their perch, whilst he was drawing in his long wings, and seemingly shrugging his shoulders with satisfaction at being back to his old stand, and out of danger, as he was casting his piercing eyes around and over the gathered wreck, which he seemed to be aware of. From what hill-top or ledge this noble creature descended, or where he got his night's lodging, no one had the least knowledge.
Now we were ready for the attack. Bogard and I levelled at the male he being the nearest to us Ba'tiste reserving his fire, which he gave to the female as she came, in all fury and with horrid growls, to the water's edge ; she received his ball in her breast, and, galloping off, followed her companion, which had got our two rifle balls, and entered a thicket of high grass and weeds.
We were now floating down stream again, and though I urged my two companions to go back with me and complete the engagement, they both had fears, and most likely very prudent ones, of following those creatures into a thicket ; so we left them to die, or to cure their wounds if they could, in their own way.
This is just the beginning of their adventure. They obviously made it all the way to St. Louis because he lived to finish and print the story as part of his book.
