322 FOUR TERRITORIES-FOUR GREAT RIVERS. [1860. ten miles away, two little gems of lakes were set among the rugged mountains, holding shadows of the rocks and pines in their transparent waters. Far beyond, a group of tiny lakelets, 'eyes of the landscape,' glittered and sparkled in their dark surroundings like a cluster of stars.

Toward the north we could trace the timbers of the Platte for seventy miles, almost to Denver.

To the west, the South Park, and other amphitheaters of rich floral beauty-gardens amid the utter desolation of the mountains -were spread thousands of feet below us; and beyond, peak upon peak, until the pure white wall of the Snowy Range rose to the infinite blue of the sky.

North, south and west swept one vast wilderness of mountains, of diverse forms and mingling colors, with clouds of fleecy white sailing airily among their scarred and wrinkled summits.

We looked upon four Territories of the Union-Kansas, Nebraska, Utah and New Mexico; and viewed regions watered by four great rivers of the continent-the Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande and Colorado, tributaries respectively of the Missouri, the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California.

Upon the north side of the Peak, a colossal plowshare seems to have been driven fiercely down from the summit to the base, its gaping furrow visible seventy miles away, and deep enough in itself to bury a mountain of considerable pretension. Such enormous chasms must the armies of the Almighty have left in heaven when, to overwhelm Lucifer and his companions,

'From their foundations loosening to and fro,

They plucked the seated hills with all their load,
Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops
Uplifting, bore them in their hands.'

At the gorge's head, some enterprising fellow had posted a rail. way handbill, which with finger pointing directly down the gulf, asserted in glaring capitals: 'Shortest and best Route to the East.'

It seemed impossible to grow weary of the wonderful picture; but my companions, though wrapped in heavy blankets, were shivering with the cold. So we iced and drank a bottle of champagne which a Colorado friend had thrust into one of the

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packs; and then like more ambitious tourists, placed a record in the empty bottle, which was carefully re-corked and buried under a pile of stones.

We spent a few minutes in the school-boy pastime of snowballing. Then, after two hours upon the summit, we reluctantly commenced the descent; for living without eating was becoming a critical experiment.

Our guide, weakened by the hard journey, missed his foothold, falling upon a jagged rock. Fortunately the metallic case of his spy-glass saved him from a fractured rib; and after lying upon the rocks for a few minutes, he came limping down with the rest.

In descending, the rarity of the atmosphere did not retard us, but we found climbing down quite as exhausting as climbing up; and a raspberry diet is not invigorating. At five o'clock we reached the last night's camp, glad to break our twelve hours' fast with ample cups of tea and homeopathic fragments of bread and meat.

After a brief halt we hastened on down the ledges and over the tree-trunks. When we sat upon a log for a little rest, one of the ladies appeared utterly exhausted. We asked if we should not camp until morning that she might recruit? She could not articulate a single word; but shook her head with indignant vigor. Again pressing on, an hour later we kindled a fire, went to bed or rather to blanket, and were instantly asleep.

On the fifth morning when we awoke, only that expressive colloqualism which the fire companies have added to the vernacular could describe our condition. We were 'played out.' We swallowed our last provisions-a morsel of meat and a tablespoonful of crumbs each. The unfailing tea measureably restored us; but in our exigency we would gladly have exchanged it for the cup which cheers and does inebriate.

We descended by a new route over hill-sides crossed and recrossed by tracks of the grizzly bear, and through canyons surprising us constantly with a new wealth of beauty which we were hardly in condition to appreciate.

After journeying five or six hours, we experienced, not the gnawings of hunger, but that irresistible faintness which the Irishman so exactly described as 'a sense of goneness.' Endeavors to talk and

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EFFECTS OF THE FIVE-DAYS' TRIP.

[1860.

think of other matters were fruitless; the 'odorous ghosts of well remembered dinners' would stalk unbidden through the halls of memory; and in vain we sought to

'Cloy the hungry edge of appetite

By bare imagination of a feast.'

At noon we halted by the cascade which had so enchanted us on our first day's march, and slept for an hour under the shading pines. Then we shouldered our packs for the last time, and hobbled on down the canyon.

At four o'clock our guide, who was a few yards in advance, suddenly came upon our waiting carriage. Now that the strain was over the nerves of the ladies instantly relaxed. One received the intelligence with a shower of tears, the other with hysteric laughter. In a moment we were surrounded by Colorado City friends who, alarmed at our protracted absence, were out in several parties armed with stimulants and provisions, searching for us among the foot-hills.

Two hours later we reached the town. My companions with haggard cheeks and blood-shot eyes seemed but shadowy sugges tions of their former selves. Each of the ladies had lost just eight pounds of flesh in less than five days. One, whose shoes were cut through by sharp rocks early on the journey, had been walking for three days with portions of her bare foot striking upon the stones, gravel and snow.

We were soon clothed and in our right minds, and eating heartily. No lasting inconvenience was experienced from the trip, except the most ravenous and uncompromising hunger, which continued at intervals for the next two weeks. If he is well paid who is well satisfied' the journey was far the most remunerative any of us had ever taken.

On the sixth of November I left Denver for the States.' Our two coaches each contained six passengers, including successful explorers and miners, a prospector from Georgia, a banker from Atchison, a French-and-Indian trader from Leavenworth, and a lady whose husband had recently died in Denver, and who with two fatherless children was returning to her New York home. Ten days before, she was lying dangerously ill with typhoid fever, her

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face deathly pale and a flush, purple as ripe grapes, on each cheek. At starting she was still an invalid, and the ride of the first day and night left her hardly able to sit up. But in the inspiring, pure air of the plains she rallied, gained an enormous appetite; and before the end of the trying six days and nights her cheeks again wore the bloom of health. Another passenger seventy years old was also an invalid. For the first two days extreme weakness compelled him to have meals brought to the coach. But he too gained wonderful strength before reaching the river.

During the previous summer a pony express had been established from the Missouri to the Pacific. It was splendidly run, sometimes carrying let

The posts were twenty-five miles apart, and the steeds small, fleet, hardy Indian horses. The rider kept his pony on the full run, and when he reached a new station-whatever the hour of day or night-another messenger, ready mounted and waiting, took the little mail-sack, struck spurs into his steed, and was off like the wind.

Is there any thing new under the sun? Marco Polo relates that in the thirteenth century the great Khan of Tartary and China had post-stations 'twenty-five miles apart,' and stations for foot carriers three miles apart, on the chief routes through his dominions. Says that fascinating writer:

'His messengers sometimes ride three hundred miles in one day and night. They

326 THE TRANS.CONTINENTAL PONY EXPRESS. [1860. gallop at full speed from one station to the next, where they find two other horses fresh and ready harnessed; and continue on with the same rapidity. They stop not an instant day nor night and are thus enabled to bring news in so short a period.'

But the pony express was new on our continent; and was such a forerunner of the great railway that it excited quite an enthusiasm. The St. Joseph Democrat thus discoursed of it:

'Take down your map and trace his foot-prints from St. Joseph on the Missouri to San Francisco on the Golden Horn-from the last locomotive to the first steamshiptwo thousand miles-more than half across our boundless continent. Through Kansas, through Nebraska, by Fort Kearney, along the Platte, by Fort Laramie, past the Buttes, over the Rocky Mountains, through canyons, along the steep defiles-Utah, Fort Bridger, Salt Lake City—he witches Brigham with his swift ponyship. Through valleys, along grassy slopes, into the snow, into the sand, faster than Thor's Thialfi; away they go! rider and horse, did you see them? They are in California, leaping over its golden hills, treading its busy streets. The courser has unrolled the great American panorama, and allowed us to glance at the future home of a hundred millions of people. He has put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes. Verily his riding is like the riding of the son of Nimshi, for he rideth furiously. Take out your watch. We are eight days from New York, eighteen days from London. The race is to the swift.'

One November midnight, upon the plains, the little pony dashed by us on a full run.

'What's the news?' shouted our driver.

'Lincoln elected! New York gives him fifty thousand major. ity!' came back the cry through the darkness.

It woke up all our republicans who sent forth cheer upon cheer, while the democrats were sure that it must be a hoax.

When we reached St. Joseph there was some excitement; and Jeff Thompson, ex-mayor of the city, had issued a flaming proclamation urging the people to resist the 'northern minions.' After. ward as a guerrilla captain in southern Missouri and Arkansas he found ample opportunity for all the fighting he wanted.

St. Joseph, already containing ten thousand people, though in a slave State had given twice as many votes for Lincoln as for Breckinridge; and more than forty thousand copies of 'Helper's Im. pending Crisis' had been disposed of by its leading book-seller.

Now the Crisis was indeed impending; and for several years my western wanderings were interrupted.