The Backwoodsman; Or, Life on the Indian Frontier

In a week we crossed the valley by short stages and again reached the loftier mountains. One afternoon we arrived at a stream where we resolved to pass the night, as we did not...

I felt very comfortable in my pretty house, and Tiger informed me with great satisfaction that no one had been in his tent during our absence, in accordance with a promise I gav...

We hastened up the river for five days, during which time we crossed a number of small streams which fell into it. Then we reached the eastern spurs of the Medicine Mountains, i...

Lasar and I were occupied for several weeks on the settlement of Messrs. Clifton and MacDonnell and a Mr. Wilson. The latter had arrived from Georgia with a considerable fortune...

Our route ran from here through the most pleasing and rich countries, crossed by numerous streams running eastward. Generally this country had the character of the prairie; it w...

The next morning we followed the river for some hours, and then entered a path which ran northward through a lateral valley. We had done a good day's march, and were busy prepar...

Tiger advised us to saddle at once, while he and Owl carefully removed everything that could betray our recent presence here. All the logs were carried into the stream in a deer...

I had already made up my mind to spend the night here, so I got about my supper at an early hour, and soon carried a good stock of wood to my camp with which to keep up my fire...

At about five o'clock I was awakened by the sun, whose oblique beams were able to reach me through the trees. I felt refreshed and strong, made Czar get up, saddled, and followe...

Shortly after the occurrence on Turkey Creek, I was sitting one afternoon in the verandah before my house and drinking coffee, when I saw a long way down the prairie a cloud of...

I was the first to rise from my bed when day broke, and went forth to enjoy the cooling breeze. Czar was not yet awake, and merely raised his head a little from the ground, gazi...

We left our camp at a rather early hour, and soon found below it numerous signs of beaver trees, a foot and a half in diameter, lay with a great number of smaller ones along the...

It was now the busiest time in the fields. The storms had blown down a great number of huge dried trunks standing in the fields, which had to be cut up and rolled away, which bu...

A few months had passed since my Alabama friends left me, and I had heard nothing more of them, when one morning the watchman told me, with great joy, that a long train of men,...

We now reached open plains, where only here and there an isolated musquito tree or a thickly foliaged elm offers a little shade on the boundless glowing surface, and the sky for...

It was near noon, and I had generally walked fast. I looked around me, and tried to recollect the numerous windings I had made, but soon saw it was impossible to recall them, as...

One day after dinner, when we had drunk coffee, my sentry shouted that a party of Indians were coming up the river, and I perceived through my telescope that they must belong to...

We had been going for several days through the mountains with considerable difficulty, when one afternoon we reached a splendid pasturage, where we resolved to let our cattle re...

My route led me from here through a very fine country, consisting of undulating plateaux, covered with splendid mosquito grass, and picturesquely broken up by post oaks; here an...

We had a good day's journey to our next bivouac, and I was acquainted with the country so far. We rode rather sharply in spite of the tall grass, and at mid-day reached another...

For about a week we traversed this extensive plain, first northward, following the base of the hills we had crossed, and then westward, towards the more western ranges. Everywhe...

The departure of the unfortunate Warden, who had fallen a victim to passions which had not been held in restraint at an early age, was very painful to me, and the evenings, whic...

On the third evening we approached the western mountain chain, which bordered the northern end of the plain we were crossing. Our road slowly rose, while we steered toward a gap...

Years had passed since the first establishment of my settlement, but it was still the greatest rarity to see a strange white face among us; and though I visited the nearest town...

It was on a bright healthy morning in November that I, accompanied by Tiger and Trusty, left the fort, and rode down the river toward the Rio Grande Mountains. I had never made...

It is scarce possible to form an idea of the abundance of game with which the country near me was blessed in those days. It really seemed to be augmented with every year of my r...

The summer passed away amid sporting pleasures which, though they always consist of very monotonous events and results, still do not lose their charm for the man who feels a tru...

As I mentioned, my fort stood on the south side of the Leone river, and in front of it lay one of the richest and most fertile prairies, which ran to the bank of Mustang Creek,...

The summer passed away in hunting, farm-work, building houses, and other business, and during this period I had frequently visited the ponds. One evening I rode to them again in...

My blockhouse was built at the foot of the mountain chain of the Rio Grande, on the precipitous banks of the River Leone. On three sides it was surrounded by a fourteen feet sto...