![]() ![]() In the height ofthe migration, from four thousand to five thousand immigrantsdied of this pestilence and if there was a half-mile which theIndians had failed to punctuate with a grave, the cholera tookcare to remedy the omission. In the fifties the Asiatic choleracrawled in upon the Plains, and like a gray wolf followed thewagon-trains from the River to the Rockies. ![]() REIGN OF THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER its worst, with Indian massacres, thirst, snows, tenderfootedness,and disease, it was one of the ghastliest highways in history.The worst chapter of cannibalism in our national record wasthat of the Donner Party, snowed in from November to March,1849-50 in the Sierra Nevada. At its best,it was an itinerary untranslatable to the present generation at (174) A historic party of five French-men pushed a hand-wagon from the Missouri to the Coast andone man trundled his possessions in a wheelbarrow. Powder, lead, food-stufifs, house-hold goods, wives, sisters, mothers, and babies rode in the Osna-burg-sheeted prairie schooners, or whatsoever wheeled convey-ance the emigrant could secure, up from ancient top-buggiesto new Conestogas while the men rode their horses or mules,or trudged beside the caravans. ![]() The era wasone of national hard times and not only the professional failures,but ministers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, and farmers, withtheir families, caught the new yellow fever, and betook them-selves to a journey fifty times as long and hard as the averageof them had ever taken before. Its pathless distance, its inevitable hardships, and its fre-quent savage perils, reckoned with the character of the men,women, and children concerned, it stands alone. Title: The great plains the romance of western American exploration, warfare, and settlement, 1527-1870Ĭontributing Library: The Library of CongressĬlick here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Identifier: greatplainsroman01parr ( find matches) ![]()
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