Fremont: Explorer For A Restless Nation

8: The Road to India

..g( VIII ~.. The Road to India THE KINKS were not out of the expedition even though they were nine days on the trail and 174 miles away from Westport Landing. It was taking time to break the greenhorns of bad habits, to teach them the methods of survival beyond the frontier. Frederick Dwight was a long way from Harvard University . Law books didn't count for much. He had already lost one horse, but on this day his horse threw him and struck out for home carrying a good saddle and bridle and a pair of pistols. So that scholar of the wilderness Lucien Maxwell rode after Dwight's horse while the expedition moved ahead. The party started to cross a tree-lined creek when Maxwell came out of the distance at a full gallop. He was riding hard. Right behind him, closing the distance, was a party of about thirty warriors in close pursuit. Experienced hands in Fremont's party quickly got ready for action. Fitzpatrick and the others shouted orders to watch out for the horses and mules. Then in a last rush, Maxwell was among them. Almost at the same time, so were the Indians who had not seen the strength of the expedition. In and out of the camp, a blur of movement, shouts to watch the horses, and the Osage warriors -their heads shaved to the scalp locks-were on both sides of the creek. But some even stopped to shake hands and talk. As they did, others waved their red blankets against the Ranks of their mounts and were gone as fast as they had appeared. After a wild ride for his life, Maxwell was safe. But now more than one horse was missing. In the wild chase in and out of the startled party, the Osage warriors had spooked the horses enough to drive off a number of the best animals. The top riders in the party pursued the Indians, and after a hard ride of seven or eight miles they succeeded in getting back the stolen mounts. This was a bad break for the expedition, and Fremont was not happy about it. It caused "delay and trouble, and threatened danger and loss, and broke down some good horses at the start. . . ."1 The whole affair was a lesson to him. It did not pay to take greenhorns along. By June I4 they had reached an area in the valley of the Republican River 134 called Big Timbers by the Indians. On the south side of the river they made camp. The spring had been unusually wet, and between fording creeks and rivers and getting the carts through wet and muddy ground, the party was averaging only five or six miles of travel per day. This was much too slow for Fremont, and he decided something had to be done to speed up the expedition 's progress. I determined at this place to divide the party, and, leaving Mr. Fitzpatrick with 25 men in charge of the provisions and heavier baggage of the camp, to proceed myself in advance, with a light party of 15 men, taking with me the howitzer and the light wagon which carried the instruments.!! During the cold and miserable layover at the Big Timbers camp, preparations were made for the smaller party. Louis Zindel did some target practice with the mountain howitzer. He proved to be very good at his trade, for he was able to hit a post standing four feet high from a distance of almost a quarter of a mile. On a rainy Friday morning, June 16, Fremont and his men bid good-bye to the larger party and moved out. Still within present-day Kansas, Fremont noted the quality of the soil and the different types of grasses, such as bunch and buffalo grass. He tried to identify the profusion of wild Howers that ranged from a purplish-red wild rose to dwarf lupine, sweet William, daisy, foxglove, white Hax, anemone, and the ever-present buttercup; and he listed the different trees in this well-timbered prairie country-groves of ash, elm, cottonwood, and even an occasional oak. Now the party began to see plenty of game. There was no difficulty in killing an antelope for supper, and soon they began to see some buffalo. At first they saw only old bulls, stragglers from the main herds. But as the big herds came into view, the number of buffalo grazing in the open country...