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[Illustration: Captain William F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts.]
As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the
Wild West of Fifty Years Ago.
Copiously Illustrated by E. BERT SMITH.
1910
The kindly interest with which the public has received my first book,"Thirty-one Years on the Plains and in the Mountains," has tempted meinto writing this second little volume, in which I have tried to portraythat part of my earlier life which was spent in piloting emigrantand government trains across the Western Plains, when "Plains" meantwilderness, with nothing to encounter but wild animals, and wilder,hostile Indian tribes. When every step forward might have speltdisaster, and deadly danger was likely to lurk behind each bush orthicket that was passed.
The tales put down here are tales of true occurrences,—not fiction.They are tales that were lived through by throbbing hearts of men andwomen, who were all bent upon the one, same purpose:—to plow onward,onward, through danger and death, till their goal, the "land of gold,"was reached, and if the kind reader will receive them and judge themas such, the purpose of this little book will be amply and generouslyfulfilled.
[Illustration: The Attack Upon the Train.]
Captain W.F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts
With the exception of Carson, we were all scared
As soon as they were gone, I took the Scalp off the dead Chief's head
The first thing we knew the whole number that we had first seen wereupon us
Waving my hat, I dashed into the midst of the band
Fishing with the girls
They raced around us in a circle
The mother bear ran up to the dead cub and pawed it with her feet
The next morning we struck the trail for Bent's Fort
I took the lead
I bent over him and spoke to him, but he did not answer
[Illustration: With the exception of Carson, we were all scared.]
At the age of fifteen I found myself in St. Louis, Mo., probably fivehundred miles from my childhood home, with one dollar and a half inmoney in my pocket. I did not know one person in that whole city, and noone knew me. After I had wandered about the city a few days, trying tofind something to do to get a living, I chanced to meet what proved tobe the very best that could have happened to me. I met Kit Carson, theworld's most fam