Western talesPage Military Academy, 1925 - Frontier and pioneer life |
Common terms and phrases
adobe ambulance Angeles animals arrived arrows asked attack Benjamin Swift Billy Williams blankets boys Brewerton Browne buffalo robes Camp Drum Camp Fletcher caravan Carson Carson City Carson's party cavalry CHAPTER coach coyotes cross crowded danger Deadman's Island desert dians distance dog villages ENCAMPMENT expedition father feet fire gold ground hand herd horses hundred hunter HUNTING BUFFALO hurried Indians journey killed Kit Carson legs Los Angeles Mexican miles mining morning mountain mules night pack trains passed picturesque pistol Placerville plains Pond Creek pony PRAIRIE DOG Pueblo reached ready revolvers riding rifle river road rocks route saddle San Francisco Santa Fe Santa Fe Trail scalp secure shot sight sleep snow sometimes soon squaws stage station stock tenders story Strawberry stream took trade trail turned village Virgin river Virginia City wagons walking wallow Washoe wolves wounded
Popular passages
Page 9 - ... (if we may be allowed to coin a word), thus giving to the houses an exceedingly grotesque appearance ; when the heat is extreme, pools of pitch are formed upon the ground. The adobe is a brick, made of clay, and baked in the sun. Walls built of this material, from the great thickness necessary to secure strength, are warmer in...
Page 37 - We were all too much affected by the sad feelings which the place inspired, to remain an unnecessary moment. The night we were obliged to pass there. Early in the morning we left it, having first written a brief account of what had happened, and put it in the cleft of a pole planted at the spring, that the approaching caravan might learn the fate of their friends. In commemoration of the event, we called the place Ague de Hernandez — Hernandez's spring. By observation, its latitude was 35= 51
Page 8 - The Pueblo de Los Angeles has a population of several hundred souls ; and boasts a church, a padre, and three or four American shops ; the streets are narrow, and the houses generally not over one story high, built of adobes, the roofs flat and covered with a composition of gravel mixed with a sort of mineral pitch, which the inhabitants say they find upon the sea-shore. This mode of roofing gives a perfectly water-proof covering, but has the rather unpleasant disadvantage of melting in warm weather,...
Page 60 - ... answer to which, I pointed first to Carson, and then to myself. Kit, who had been regarding him intently, but without speaking, now turned to me, and said: "I will speak to this warrior in Eutaw, and if he understands me it will prove that he belongs to a friendly tribe ; but if he does not, we may know the contrary, and must do the best we can : but from his paint and manner I expect it will end in a fight anyway.
Page 13 - Atole." The two articles last named are peculiarly Mexican, and worthy of a description. Atole is a kind of meal which when prepared forms a very nutritious dish not unlike " mush," both in taste and appearance.
Page 149 - Francisco, mounted on fancy horses; women, in men's clothes, mounted on mules or "burros"; Pike County specimens, seated on piles of furniture and goods in great lumbering wagons; whisky-peddlers, with their bar-fixtures and whisky on mule-back, stopping now and then to quench the thirst of the toiling multitude; organ-grinders, carrying their organs; drovers, riding, raving, and tearing away frantically through the brush after droves of self-willed cattle designed for the shambles; in short, every...
Page 149 - ... to quench the thirst of the toiling multitude ; organ-grinders, carrying their organs ; drovers, riding, raving, and tearing away frantically through the brush after droves of self-willed cattle designed for the shambles; in short, every imaginable class, and every possible species of industry, was represented in this moving pageant. It was a striking and impressive spectacle to see, in full competition with youth and strength, the most pitiable specimens of age and...
Page 34 - The time, place, object, and numbers considered, this expedition of Carson and Godey may be considered among the boldest and most disinterested which the annals of Western adventure, so full of daring deeds, can present.
Page 149 - ... wheeling their blankets, provisions, and mining implements on wheelbarrows; American, French, and German foot-passengers, leading heavily-laden horses, or carrying their packs on their backs, and their picks and shovels slung across their shoulders; Mexicans, driving long trains of pack-mules, and swearing fearfully, as usual, to keep them in order; dapper-looking gentlemen, apparently from San Francisco, mounted on fancy horses; women, in men's clothes, mounted on mules or "burros...
Page 60 - ... (a Spanish word generally used by the Indians to signify chief) ; in answer to which, I pointed first to Carson, and then to myself. Kit, who had been regarding him intently, but without speaking, now turned to me, and said : " I will speak to this warrior in Eutaw, and if he understands me...