CARAVAN TRAINS.

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souri, Kansas City on the border, and Leavenworth, are all made use of as the entrepôts of this trade; and few things can be imagined more strangely picturesque than the sight which these cities present when, in the spring or early summer, their streets are filled with scores of long, cumbrous-looking covered waggons, and hundreds of oxen and mules; while a noisy crew of light-hearted adventurers-Missourian, Spanish, half-breed, and Indian-dressed in every variety of romantic costume, are busied in fitting out their train for its many weeks' journeying over the rolling grassy plains of the Western prairies.

CHAPTER XIV.

Traffic with the Indians.-How it is carried on.-Business and Pleasure.-Good Per-centage.--Busy Appearance of Leavenworth.-Necessaries of civilized Life.-Steamboats.-Railroads.-The Electric Telegraph.--Squatter-life.-Land without a Title.-The "Claim."-Division of new Lands.-A "Bee."—" Log-rolling."-Squatter Sovereignty." Tomahawk Rights."-"Entering," or "Pre-empting."—Abuses of the System.--" Jumping."-" Foundations."-A "Caution."-Right of Suffrage.

An important item in the commerce of Leavenworth is that which is brought to it by the Red Rovers of the prairie.

The traffic with the Indians is a feature by itself, and one of not inconsiderable importance, in the trade of Kansas. It rests almost exclusively, however, in the hands of one or two parties, who, having been known by the Indian tribes for years, are able to monopolize the trade. The chief mode of carrying it on is

the following:

Every quarter of a year the Indian tribes to

TRAFFIC WITH THE INDIANS.

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which allowances are due receive their payment from the Government agent. On the day of payment a grand feast is prepared by the merchant, and notice is sent to the various Indian tribes of the hospitalities to which they are invited. The entertainment is often very costly; the more costly the more profitable. On quarter's day the Indians come down, after long journeying, men, women, and children, often to the number of three or four hundred, to receive their pay and to make their purchases of white men's manufacture. With their pockets full, they sit down to the feast; eat, drink, and are merry; at the same time are forgetful ordinarily of the rules of prudence. The result is a large sale, and the next day the tribes are seen returning, the men with their hatchets and knives and accoutrements of all sorts; and the squaws with their shawls and blankets, and beads and trinkets, often to the value of thou sands of dollars. One Indian trader sells annually about $10,000. At a recent sale the amount expended by the Indians reached $3,000. The account might be analyzed as follows:

Many of the articles yield 200 per cent. profit; but 150 per cent. is probably a fair average. In the traffic with the Indians generally there are more tact and shrewdness manifested by the traders than fair dealing. In fact, honour, honesty, morality, all that is good, is lamentably rare in the Western border-land. The frontiersman has a manliness and generosity of his own which all must admire, but these qualities spring from the peculiarities of his position on the outskirts of civilization. There is little, it is to be feared, of higher motive. For the rest, the Western borderer is almost as untutored as a savage. He thinks little about his maker, God; as a consequence it comes, also, that he thinks and cares little about his fellow

man.

With a commerce thus extended, the quays

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of Leavenworth present a busy appearance, and had not peaceful industry been diverted by the turbulence of evil passions into other channels, the newly-settled Territory would have been blessed already with a large measure of prosperity. As it is, large steamers daily pass up and down, and find active employment in the transport of goods and passengers. The imports of manufactured goods are very large ; and, while some of what we should deem the necessaries of civilized life are but beginning to be introduced, I have observed, as a contrast, one or two piano-fortes being landed, to supply the wants, no doubt, of some refined denizen of the Eastern States.

The size and number of the steamboats on the Missouri would occasion surprise to one unaccustomed to the rapid progress the Western world exhibits in all that furthers the building up of cities and the extension of commerce. I counted upon its waters from ten to fifteen large steamboats, each capable of accommodating, on the average, a hundred passengers at the least, and in effect carrying many more, in addition to their cargo, besides a much larger