Commerce of the Prairies: Or, The Journal of a Santa Fé Trader, During Eight Expeditions Across the Great Western Prairies, and a Residence of Nearly Nine Years in Northern Mexico ...H.G. Langley, 1845 - 320 pages Dr. Josiah Gregg joined with the traders on this Trail and spent the next ten years in the same territory. This is his account of those years and of those intrepid American traders who made the hazardous journeys across the Trail that spanned from Independence, Missouri, into country that eventually became Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. |
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Common terms and phrases
Abiquiú aborigines abundance adventurers alcalde American ancient Pueblo animals Apaches appear Arkansas Arkansas river Armijo Azteques band blow-flies buffalo cache Calabozo called camp capital Capt Captain caravan Chihuahua Cibolero Cimarron Cimarron river coarse Comanches Council Grove creek distance dollars doubt encamped entirely fact feet frequently fueros gold Governor Gros Ventres ground horse-fly horses hundred miles Indians inhabitants insurgents kind known labor latter least massacre ment merchandise Mexi Mexican Mexico mines mountains mules nearly never night Northern Mexico occasion once oxen papooses party passed perhaps plain population prairie present principal province Pueblos quently rain rancheros ranchos rarely regions remain Rio del Norte river route Santa Fé savages scarcely seems seen seldom settlements sheep sometimes soon Spaniards Spanish species stream supply tains Taos tilma tion town traders travellers tribes usually valley vaqueros village wagons warriors wild
Popular passages
Page 109 - La entrada de la caravana!" were to be heard in every direction; and crowds of women and boys flocked around to see the newcomers ; while crowds of leperos hung about as usual to see what they could pilfer. The wagoners were by no means free from excitement on this occasion. Informed of the "ordeal...
Page 42 - ... at which the respective claims of the different 'aspirants to office' were considered, leaders selected, and a system of government agreed upon, — as is the standing custom of these promiscuous caravans. One would have supposed that electioneering and 'party spirit' would hardly have penetrated so far into the wilderness: but so it was. Even in our little community we had our 'office-seekers' and their 'political adherents,' as earnest and as devoted as any of the modern school of politicians...
Page 107 - This mountain section of the road, even in its present unimproved condition, presents but few difficult passes, and might, with little labor, be put in good order. A few miles before reaching the city, the road again emerges into an open plain. Ascending a table ridge, we spied in an extended valley to the northwest, occasional groups of trees, skirted with verdant corn and wheat fields, with here and there a square block-like protuberance reared in the midst. A little further, and just ahead of...
Page 238 - She there became a constant attendant on one of those pandemoniums where the favorite game of monte was dealt pro bono publico. Fortune, at first, did not seem inclined to smile upon her efforts, and for some years she spent her days in lowliness and misery.
Page 100 - crack, crack" of the wagoners' whips, resembling the frequent reports of distant guns, almost made one believe that a skirmish was actually taking place between two hostile parties ; and a hostile engagement it virtually was to the poor brutes, at least; for the merciless application of the whip would sometimes make the blood...
Page 26 - Just as the funeral ceremonies were about to be concluded, six or seven Indians appeared on the opposite side of the Cimarron. Some of the party proposed inviting them to a parley, while the rest, burning for revenge, evinced a desire to fire upon them at once. It is more than probable, however, that the Indians were not only innocent but ignorant of the outrage that had been committed, or they would hardly have ventured to approach the caravan. Being...
Page 287 - ... ambuscade. The valiant corps, utterly unconscious of the reception that awaited them, soon came jogging along in scattered groups, indulging in every kind of boisterous mirth; when the war-whoop, loud and shrill, followed by several shots, threw them all into a state of speechless consternation. Some tumbled off their horses with fright, others fired their muskets at random : a terrific panic had seized everybody, .and some minutes elapsed before they could recover their senses sufficiently to...
Page 46 - ... should have ventured across the prairies under such forlorn auspices. Those who accompanied us, however, were members of a Spanish family who had been banished in 1829 in pursuance of a decree of the Mexican congress and were now returning to their homes in consequence of a suspension of the decree. Other females, however, have crossed the prairies to Santa Fe at different times, among whom I have known two respectable French ladies, who now reside in Chihuahua. The wild and motley aspect of...
Page 31 - ... traders. Even subsequently to 1831, many wagons have been fitted out and started from this interior section. But as the navigation of the Missouri river had considerably advanced towards the year 1831, and the advantages of some point of debarkation nearer the western frontier were very evident, whereby upwards of a hundred miles of troublesome land-carriage, over unimproved and often miry roads, might be avoided, the new town of INDEPENDENCE, but twelve miles from the Indian border and two or...
Page 50 - After fifteen miles' progress, we arrived at the ' Diamond Spring' (a crystal fountain discharging itself into a small brook), to which, in later years, caravans have sometimes advanced, before ' organizing.' Near twentyfive miles beyond we crossed the Cottonwood fork of the Neosho, a creek still smaller than that of Council Grove, and our camp was pitched immediately in its further valley. When caravans are able to cross in the evening...