Cornwallis, The New El Dorado; or, British Columbia, continued

Chapter XXI:
A COLD CHOP AND A HOT STEAK.

We were up and moving soon after day-break; several went off prospecting up river, and for a mile or two inland, if the term may be used to denote an opposite direction to the river. The five-hundred dollar Kentuckian went "hard at it" on a small "bar" of the river, about five hundred yards higher up than where stood the tree under whose shelter he had been delighted with happy dreams, full of delicious prospects, and, to judge by his own vulgar account, perfectly heavenly and inspiring. The Western men set to work cutting down pine trees, and for the first time in that primitive region the sound of the axe was heard resounding through the forest, and the work of aboriginal destruction had commenced. I compared it with the foundation stone laying of some new building in the old world, with the difference of an augmented feeling of its being a great event, and instead of its being a mere solitary edifice, here was, perhaps, the foundation of a mighty city destined to flourish into a rapid existence, and live when those of Europe and to-day have crumbled into a second Pompeii, an Herculaneum, or a Bagdad. So much for my feelings on the subject of what one of the Yankees called "a cold chop" -- an old joke -- saying, that he should much prefer "a hot stake," or stake, it does not matter which, in accordance with which he gashed away with his bowie knife at some of the bear's flesh which we had purchased from the Indians, and throwing it gridiron fashion across a burning faggot, soon had it in convulsions, blubbering out an amount of bear's grease sufficient to have anointed the heads of the whole party. However, no one uses Macassar, nor yet any substitute therefore at the mines, so that it did not in its effect cause them to conjure up the same visions of pomatum pots and barber shops as possibly might have been.

We breakfasted promiscuously between six and seven o'clock, by which time the Indians were flocking down to us like so many geese to their pond. I enjoyed a refreshing bath in the river before taking that meal, the best part of which was the tea; a beverage which I felt almost as necessary to my existence as the Lascar does to opium. We also made some damper after the Australian mode, which was pronounced "fust rate." After breakfast the work of trimming the logs and washing the gold proceeded briskly till noon, when we assembled to dinner, which, instead of raw materials, consisted of a savoury dish of stewed squirrels, a "pan" half full of transmogrified deer's and bear's flesh, converted into a harricot with the assistance of wild vegetables, and some yam-like cereal called potatoes, grown and supplied by the Indians; all this had been dished up and man[oe]uvred by one of the Frenchmen, who, as it turned out, had been a ranch, or restaurant keeper near Downieville, in California. We appointed him forthwith to be inspector and purveyor-general of our commissariat, and entrusted him with all the duties and responsibilities of the cuisine, at a salary to be made up amongst us of ten dollars a-day, which, strange to say, he agreed to. So much for French enterprize [sic] -- the fact is, that Frenchmen love the comfortable, and consequently make bad pioneers -- the are better adapted for following in the wake of explorers than of constituting such themselves, and more often, like this hero, prefer cooking for them to sharing the risk, and more arduous undertakings which the English and Americans plunge after and rejoice in. I can compare them only, in the wilderness, to so many cats in a storm -- they are never happy until they get within doors. To-day I left my shirt and opossum rug tied up for safety from aboriginal touch in a deer skin, and in immediate proximity to the legs of our French cook, who sacré'd the Red men freely, and with all the gesticulations of his country tried to convince them that they were in his way, but in vain; the climax was only reached when they demolished a squirrel fricassée which he had been preparing, when, afraid to use his revolver against them, he sat down and wept despairingly. The Indians grinned and enjoyed this amazingly well, and just as much as I did myself, for I laughed at him to his face for the space of forty-five seconds without stopping, by the end of which time he looked as foolish as he felt savage. However, in addition to what I have before mentioned, he gave us bear à-la-mode, a newly prepared fricassée of the same animal, and a sort of grill of ditto, with grasshopper sauce, so that it was nearly all bear together, the prairie greens and yam potatoes excepted, as also a pudding stuffed with wild raspberries, and half-a-dozen other wild things which we did not at all expect, but which turned out very well, taking into consideration the Nebuchadnezzar-like quality of the fruit of which it was composed. I believe that if we had been "dead broke," as the term is, for provisions, that this said cook would have dished us up a very palatable pottage of landscape herbage, and made soup out of the few knife handles we were possessed of, or, better still, out of my persecuted opossum-skin rug. However, I am glad to say that we were not driven to any such extremities, so that his utmost skill in making something out of nothing was not called into requisition. He was an active, but pale, long-faced, emaciated-looking man, of slight frame, with a scanty supply of nearly black hair and a very weak moustache, covering, but not concealing his thin, restless lips, which denoted every passing sensation, and moved as expressively as the small black eyes which peered on either side of his sharp and well-defined nose. He spoke with great rapidity of utterance, and made it his study to anticipate every want of those about him during meal times. He was, moreover, nimble and highly excitable; in politics, of course, democratic, and on some points entertained such original views, that if he had branched out and suggested the conversion of a Red Indian into a new species of fricassée, or the giving us a feast of squaw à-la-mode, or devilled, I should have considered it quite in keeping with his character, and have laughed accordingly.

After dinner, which occupied about ten minutes, digging, or rather gold seeking, was actively resumed by all, the Missouri men and our French cook excepted, who merely interspersed their other avocations of log-hut building and bear-roasting with an occasional scrape for nuggets. All were ardent and impetuous in their eager pursuit of gold, save this our denominated "parley-voo," who displayed no excitement whatever, but went about his work calmly, and as cool as what is commonly called a cucumber; even the western men worked with almost superhuman energy; they threw their whole strength into the work of the house-building, in which the newly-cut timber of the forest, and a few nails which they had brought overland, were the only materials employed, and endeavoured by their unceasing toil to dispatch the "business" as quickly as possible.

The yield on this day was equally satisfactory with that of the previous day, but the novelty had died away, so that the men talked less about it, and "realized" their hundreds of dollars without making particular mention of the sum. There was plenty for us all, and tens of thousands beside, so that we had each equally good chances of making a "pile," and moreover a rather bulky one too. We slept, as usual, in the open air, and recommenced mining one by one, very early; the five-hundred dollar man whom I have already sketched being up and rousing the whole camp at three o'clock, just after day-break. I wished him to unmentionable places for breaking my slumber at such an unseasonable hour; but as under cover of the forest, he was in nobody's bedroom in particular, he had the privilege of making as much noise as he chose to trouble himself with. By noon our log house was built, which afforded sleeping room for us all on the ground floor that night.

The yield of gold still kept up, with no probability, as far as we could see, of its ever diminishing. The Indians still continued friendly, but we saw less of them than at first; they, however, furnished us with plenty of wild comestibles, which our so-called "parleyvoo" made it his chief study to transmogrify into various unrecognisable substances for the gratification of our universal appetites.

We had plenty of salmon, and a few small fish, so that we were not compelled to confine ourselves to squirrels and bear's-flesh unless our epicurean tastes -- query -- had induced us to prefer as food the wild animals of the wilderness the more sober salmon
     "That once did dart and dive,
     But now were split and dried."

I was now becoming rather impatient of this mode of life, and moreover felt a "desperate inclination" to breathe the air of more populous districts. Here there was just a sufficient amount of civilization to spoil the charm of aboriginalism, and no more. Besides, I had seen enough of the upper country to satisfy me as to its richness, and now felt a longing to observe life elsewhere. Accordingly, to be brief, I sold my share in the canoe, and set out alone, with two painted Indians, in a canoe belonging to their tribe, on the second day following the completion of the log hut. I wished to reach Victoria as quickly as possible, to see what was to be done; and being myself of a highly speculative turn of mind, was as much disposed to " invest" a few thousand dollars of the "dust" found, which, indeed, I felt it agreeably oppressive to carry, in anything "likely" -- land, for instance -- as I was to keep in under my own personal surveillance. We shot down the river like an arrow, passing by the rugged and the picturesque, and the respective bars of Canoe, La Fontaine, and Foster, and bivouacing for the night on the right bank of the river, where we made a portage, reached the "Forks," distant about one hundred and sixty miles from the river's mouth, and six miles below Mormon Bar, an hour before noon on the second day out. The mouth of the Thompson bears every sign of having been formed by volcanic agency, and traces of such about all over the country. The cactus, also, grows plentifully, a sure sign that the winters are not severe. Here the canoe and I parted, the Indians, according to our figurative understanding, being disinclined to descend further; I, however, succeeded in buying one for a hundred and twenty dollars from a party of Frenchmen at the Thompson River junction, in which I proceeded with another Indian down the river as far as Fort Yale, (which was then undergoing repairs) making a portage along the Cascade Mountains on the way, the river here running very narrow and rocky. There I had a bed made up for me in all manner of strange things, in a square tent-store kept by an Illinois man, measuring in six feet three inches, from the crown of his Panama hat to the under soles pegged boots, which were stamped with a pair of flaming red eagle.

"Eagles again!' I ejaculated to myself, "they outflap the stars." These boots are made by steam at large manufactories throughout the States, all of which are stamped with an impression of the national eagle, and an ace filled up with stars and stripes, hence their number; the peculiar distinctive mark being merely to please the Yankee taste. The yield here was very high, averaging a hundred, and in some cases two hundred dollars to the man per day, but rockers were required.

Tents were numerous, and wooden houses and stores were going up every day. The "dry diggings" being worked on a creek parallel with Hunter's Bar, a few miles further down on this side Fort Hope, were turning out very rich. I set out the next morning on my journey down river as far as Fort Hope, passing hundreds of boats and canoes on the way. This is a splendid site for a town, being at the head of steam navigation; and a land trail stretches direct from it to Thompson's River and the Forks, so avoiding the cañon two miles above Fort Yale as well as the other dangers of upper river navigation. Here I sold my canoe for a little more than half the amount I had given for it, which was nevertheless profitable in its way, seeing that it had carried me down from the Forks, which was all that I had bought it for. Here human life was more dense, and habitations more abundant than at Fort Yale. I paid twenty dollars, passage money, and left on the same day that I had arrived there, by the steamer.

Twelve miles below the fort we passed the steamer Sea-bird grounded on a bar. She had been there a couple of days, and consequently all her passengers had been landed. She looked very forsaken, and her captain, who "showed up" as we passed, looked just as extremely disgusted. He was calculating, no doubt, upon the awful loss of her services. When I left Victoria she was reported to be still in the same place, but as her stern was in deep water she was expected to be got off on the next day. We had very few passengers on board, so that things were a little better than I had found them during the up-trip by the Surprise. We stopped at Fort Langley, and took in two or three passengers, and passing by two or three heavily timbered islets, on the next day, at noon, rounded the straits of Juan De Fuca, and came to an anchor in the placid and baylike harbour of Esquimault [sic], surrounded by a panorama of rocks and pine trees.

"'Squimalt at last, I guess," exclaimed an Oregon man.

"Yes," said I.

We all took boat together for Victoria.

"Let's liquor," he ejaculated, as he made a plunge into the first store we came to.

We were bound in politeness to agree, and we did "liquor" -- a batch of thirty or so -- our Oregon friend standing treat all round. And so ran the custom of the country, while all around was bustle and excitement.