Edwin Bryant made the journey from Independence, Missouri to
California in the years 1846-47, through the southern pass of the Rocky
Mountains and across the desert. As a medical student, he became an
unofficial doctor along the way, and witnessed some gruesome scenes, like
the amputation of a little boy’s gangrenous leg, which he describes in
painful scientific detail. He is equally explicit when portraying the daily
life of the wagon trip, and his prose illuminates the trials of the
traveler:
During the process of cooking supper, it commenced
raining and blowing with great violence. Our fire was nearly extinguished
by the deluge of water from the clouds, and our dough was almost turned to
batter…We ate standing, with the rain falling, and our clothing
completely saturated with water. Our oxen become entangled in the ropes by
which we had secured them from straying during the night, and it was not
without much labor and difficulty that they were released. Jacob and
myself made our bed, or rather took shelter from the storm, among the
boxes in our wagon; McKinstry and Brownell bivouacked under the wagon, and
Curry and Nuttall under a large tree. The suspension of the fury of the
storm lasted until about 2 o'clock in the morning, when the rain
recommenced falling in torrents, accompanied by peals of crashing thunder
and flashes of lightning so brilliant, as to illuminate the whole vault of
the heavens. Notwithstanding all these inconveniences, we rested pretty
well.
Bryant intended his work to function as both entertainment
to the general reader and instruction for those planning to follow his path,
and the book is a repository of useful information, like distances, weather,
water source locations, and descriptions of plant life. As such, it is
invaluable to enthusiasts of Western history. It is also a really good
story, with entertaining sketches of camp life, Indians, and animals. Bryant’s
descriptions of the landscapes are particularly compelling:
The vast prairie itself soon opened before us in all
its grandeur and beauty...The view of the illimitable succession of green
undulations and flowery slopes, of every gentle and graceful
configuration, stretching away and away, until they fade from the sight in
the dim distance, creates a wild and scarcely controllable ecstasy of
admiration. I felt, I doubt not, some of the emotions natural to the
aboriginal inhabitants of these boundless and picturesque plains, when
roving with unrestrained freedom over them; and careless alike of the past
and the future, luxuriating in the blooming wilderness of sweets which the
Great Spirit had created for their enjoyment, and placed at their
disposal.
The variety of Bryant’s adventures is striking – in one
day he is present at a death, a wedding, a funeral, and a birth. He is often
nearly overwhelmed by the functions of nature going on around him, and is
particularly moved by the continuous presence of death:
One of our party who left the train to hunt through the
valley, brought into camp this evening a human skull. He stated that the
place where he found it was whitened with human bones. Doubtless this spot
was the scene of some Indian massacre, or a battle-field where hostile
tribes had met and destroyed each other. I could learn no explanatory
tradition; but the tragedy, whatever its occasion, occurred many years
ago. The bones of buffalo, whitened by the action of the atmosphere, are
seen every few yards…but none of the animals have yet been discovered.
It is probable that the large number of emigrants who have preceded us,
have driven the few buffaloes which descend the Platte so low as this,
into the hills. The bleaching skeletons of these animals are strewn over
the plain on all sides, ghastly witnesses deposited here, of a retreating
and fast perishing race.
What I Saw in California is the classic yet
remarkable adventure of a young man heading west, well-written and full of
historically useful information.
|
View Large