PAYMENT OPTIONS

Forthcoming titles

(Book titles are subject to change)

A Royal Engineer in the Low Countries

A Cavalry Surgeon at Waterloo

With the Third Guards during the Peninsular War

The First and Last Campaigns of the Great War

Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Vincent O'Sullivan

Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Algernon Blackwood

Narratives of the Anglo-Zulu War

and many others

Towards the Far Horizons: Two Famous American Mountain Men, Explorers & Trappers

enlarge Click on image to enlarge
enlarge Mouse over the image to zoom in
Towards the Far Horizons: Two Famous American Mountain Men, Explorers & Trappers
Qty:     - OR -   Add to Wish List

Author(s): James O. Pattie, Timothy Flint & Zenas Leonard
Date Published: 2014/12
Page Count: 360
Softcover ISBN-13: 978-1-78282-388-9
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-78282-387-2

A special two-books-in-one edition containing two classic accounts of the early Westerners

This good value Leonaur edition combines the personal narratives of two of those unique early Americans who explored the interior of the North American continent when it was still a vast untamed wilderness occupied only by its wild creatures and tribes of indigenous Indians. Zenas Leonard was born in 1801 in Pennsylvania. In 1831 he joined a trapping and trading brigade which launched him into a lifelong career as a ‘mountain man.’ Leonard fought at the Battle of Pierre’s Hole,’ explored the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada and roamed the Crow country along the Yellowstone. This highly regarded classic is partnered here by James Ohio Pattie’s riveting account of his experiences in the South-West. In 1824 the Pattie’s embarked on a trapping and trading expedition that would bring hardship, imprisonment and, for some of the party, death. This is an account of adventure, of hunting, of fights with native Indians, bandits and of collisions with Mexican authorities. Whilst some have accused Pattie of telling tall tales, there can be no doubt that his is an essential narrative for all those interested in this fascinating history of frontier America.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

We advanced slowly onward, until the 15th, without meeting any Indians. At daybreak of this day, our sentinels apprised us, that savages were at hand. We had just time to take shelter behind the trees, when they began to let their arrows fly at us. We returned them the compliment with balls, and at the first shot a number of them fell. They remained firm and continued to pour in their arrows from every side. We began to find it exceedingly difficult to dodge them, though we gave them some rounds before any one of our men was struck. At length one man was pierced, and they rushed forward to scalp him. I darted from behind my tree to prevent them. I was assailed by a perfect shower of arrows, which I dodged for a moment, and was then struck down by an arrow in the hip. Here I should have been instantly killed, had not my companions made a joint fire at the Indians, who were rushing upon me, by which a number of them were laid dead. But the agony of my pain was insupportable, for the arrow was still fast in my hip.
A momentary cessation of their arrows enabled me to draw out the arrow from my hip, and to commence re-loading my gun. I had partly accomplished this, when I received another arrow under my right breast, between the bone and the flesh. This gave me less pain than the other shot, and finding I could not by any effort extract the arrow, I snapped it off, and finished loading my gun. The Indian nearest me fell dead, and I hobbled off, glad to be once more sheltered by a tree. My companions were not slow in making their rifles crack, and in raising mutual cheers of encouragement. The Indians were vastly our superiors in numbers, and we found it convenient to slip under the river bank. We were now completely sheltered from their arrows. After we had gained this security, they stood but a few shots more, before they fled, leaving their dead and wounded at our mercy. Truth is, we were too much exasperated to show mercy, and we cut off the heads of all, indiscriminately.
Our loss was one killed, and two wounded, another beside myself though neither of us dangerously. The Indians had 28 killed. Luckily our horses were on an island in the river, or we should have lost every one of them. Our only loss of property was a few blankets, which they took, as they fled by our camp. During the 20 minutes that the contest lasted, I had a fragment of an arrow fast in my breast, and the spike of the other in my hip. I suffered, it may be imagined, excruciating pain, and still severer pain during the operation of extraction. This operation, one of my companions undertook. He was some minutes in effecting it. The spike could not be entirely extracted from my hip, for being of flint, it had shivered against the bone.
The Indians that attacked us, were a tribe of the Muscallaros, a very warlike people, although they have no other arms except bows and arrows, which are, however, the most powerful weapons of the kind. They are made of an elastic and flexible wood, backed with the sinews of a buffalo or elk. Their arrows are made of a species of reed grass, and are very light, though easily broken. In the end is stuck a hard piece of wood, which is pointed by a spike of flint an inch in length, and a quarter of an inch in width, and ground to the sharpest point. The men, though not tall, are admirably formed, with fine features and a bright complexion inclining to yellow. Their dress is a buckskin belt about the loins, with a shirt and moccasins to match. Their long black hair hangs in imbraided masses over their shoulders, in some cases almost extending to the heels. They make a most formidable appearance, when completely painted, and prepared for battle.
On the 16th, having made our arrangements for departure, I applied my father’s admirable salve to my two severe wounds, and to my companion’s slight wound in the arm, and we both felt able to join our companions in their march. We travelled all this day and the following night a west course, and the following day, without stopping longer than was necessary to take a little food. After this we stopped and rested ourselves and horses all night. I need not attempt to describe the bitter anguish I endured, during this long and uninterrupted ride. It will be only necessary to conceive my situation to form a right conception of it. Our grand object had been to avoid another contest with the Muscallaros. In the evening we fell in with a party of the Nabahoes, who were now out on an expedition against the Muscallaros, who had recently killed one of their people, and against whom they had sworn immediate revenge. We showed the manifest proof of the chastisement they had received from us.
Never had I seen such frantic leaps and gestures of joy. The screams and yells of exultation were such as cannot be imagined. It seemed as though a whole bedlam had broke loose. When we told them that we had lost but one man, their screams became more frantic still. Their medicine man was then called, and he produced an emollient poultice, the materials of which I did not know but the effect was that the anguish of our wounds was at once assuaged. By the application of this same remedy, my wounds were quite healed in a fortnight.
The scalps, which some of our number had taken from the Muscallaros, were soon erected on a pole by the Nabahoes. They immediately commenced the fiercest dancing and singing I had yet seen, which continued without interruption three days and nights. During all this time, we endured a sort of worship from them, particularly the women. They were constantly presenting us with their favourite dishes, served in different ways, with dried berries and sweet vegetables, some of which, to people in our condition, were really agreeable.
You may also like