Lost Lenore: The Adventures of a Rolling Stone. Reid Mayne
of a thick head of hair, while his countenance looked like a map of North America, with the lakes and rivers indicated in red ink.
It was not until the captain had gone down – and given the passengers a fine specimen of the language and manners of the skipper of an Atlantic liner in a rage – that the body was allowed to be brought up, and consigned to its last resting place in the sea.
I landed in New York, with the determination of trying to do something on shore, for I was by this time convinced, that a fortune was not to be made by following the occupation of a common sailor.
I did not remain long in New York. Too many emigrants from Europe were constantly arriving there; and continuing that same struggle for existence, which had forced them into exile.
I had every reason to believe, that a young man like myself was not likely to command his full value, where there were so many competitors; and I determined to go on to visit the West.
Is it true, a life on the sea might have been preferable to the hardships, that were likely to be encountered beyond the borders of civilisation; but Lenore was not to be won by my remaining a common sailor, nor would such a profession be likely to afford me either time or opportunity for prosecuting the search after my lost relations. I knew not whether I was acting prudently or not; but I directed my course westward; and did not bring to, until I had reached Saint Louis, in the State of Missouri. There I stopped for a time to look about me.
On acquaintance with it I did not discover much in this western city to admire. A person of sanguine hopes, and anxious to accomplish great things in a very little time, is, perhaps, not in a fit frame of mind to form correct conclusions; and this may account for my being discontented with Saint Louis.
I could not obtain a situation in a city where there was but little to be done, and no great wages for doing it. I was told that I might find employment in the country – at splitting rails, cutting wood, and other such laborious work; but in truth, I was not in the vein to submit myself to this kind of toil. I was disappointed at finding, that in the great West I should have much more work to do than I had previously imagined.
It chanced that at this time there was a grand commotion in Saint Louis. Gold had been discovered in California – lying in great quantities in “placers,” or gold washings; and hundreds were departing – or preparing to depart – for the land where fortunes were to be made in a single day.
This was precisely the sort of place I was looking for; but to reach it required a sum of money, which I had not got. I had only the poor satisfaction of knowing that there were many others in a similar situation – thousands of them, who wished to go to California, but were prevented by the same unfortunate circumstances that obstructed me.
Many were going overland – across the prairies and mountains; but even this manner of reaching the golden land required more cash than I could command. A horse, and an outfit were necessary, as well as provisions for the journey, which had to be taken along, or purchased by the way.
I regretted that I had not shipped in New York, and worked my passage to California round the Horn. It was too late now. To get back to any seaport on the Atlantic, would have required fifteen or twenty dollars; and I had only five left, of all that I had earned upon the liner. I spent these five dollars, before I had succeeded in discovering any plan by which I might reach California. I felt convinced that my only chance of finding my relatives, and making myself worthy of Lenore, lay in my getting across, to the Pacific side of America.
While thus cogitating, I was further tantalised by reading in a newspaper some later accounts from the diggings. These imparted the information that each of the diggers was making a fortune in a week, and spending it in a day. One week in California, was worth ten years in any other part of the world. Any one could get an ounce of gold per diem – merely for helping the giver to spend the money he had made!
Should I – the Rolling Stone – stay where I could find employment at nothing better than splitting rails, while Earth contained a country like California?
There was but one answer to the interrogation: No.
I resolved to reach this land of gold, or perish in the attempt.
Volume One – Chapter Seventeen.
On Horseback Once More
The same newspaper that had imparted the pleasing intelligence, supplied me with information of another kind – which also produced a cheering effect upon my spirits.
The emigrants proceeding overland to California, required protection from the Indians – many hostile tribes of whom lived along the route. Military stations, or “forts” as they were called, had to be established at different points upon the great prairie wilderness; and, just then, the United States’ Government was enlisting men to be forwarded to these stations.
Most of the men enrolled for this service, were for its cavalry arm; and after my last quarter of a dollar had been spent, I became one of their number. My former experience in a dragoon saddle – of which I could give the proofs – made it no very difficult matter for me to get mounted once more.
Enlisting in the army, was rather a strange proceeding for a man who was anxious to make a fortune in the shortest possible time; but I saw that something must be done, to enable me to live; and I could neither hold a plough, nor wield an axe.
At first, I was not altogether satisfied with what I had done, for I knew that my mother was not to be found in the wilds of America; and that, after remaining five years in the ranks of the American army, I would be as far as ever from Lenore.
There was one thought, however, that did much to reconcile me to my new situation; and that was, that our line of march would be towards California!
Three weeks after joining the cavalry corps, we started for a station lying beyond Fort Leavenworth.
Our march was not an uninteresting one: for most of my comrades were young men of a cheerful disposition; and around our camp-fires at night, the statesman, philosopher, or divine, who could not have found either amusement or instruction, would have been a wonderful man.
Our company was composed of men of several nations. All, or nearly all, of them were intelligent; and all unfortunate: as, of course, every man must be, who enters the ranks as a common soldier.
Man is the creature of circumstances, over which he has no control. The circumstances that had brought together the regiment to which I belonged, would probably make a volume much more instructive and interesting than any “lady novel,” and this, judging from the taste displayed by the majority of readers of the present day, is saying more than could be easily proved.
Many European officers would have thought there was but slight discipline in the corps to which I was attached; but in this opinion, they would be greatly in error.
The efficiency of our discipline consisted in the absence of that pretty order, which some French and English martinets would have striven to establish; and which would have been ill-suited for a march over the sterile plains, and through the dense forests encountered in the line of our route. This absence of strict discipline did not prevent us from doing a good day’s march; and yet enabled us to have plenty of game to cook over our camp-fires by night.
We had no duty to trouble ourselves with, but what the common sense of each taught him to be necessary to our safety and welfare; and we were more like a hunting party seeking amusement, than like soldiers on a toilsome march.
For all this, we were proceeding towards our destination, with as much speed as could reasonably be required.
We had one man in the company, known by the name of “Runaway Dick” – a name given to him after he had one evening, by the camp-fire, entertained us with a narration of some of the experiences of his life.
He had run away from home, and gone to sea. He had run away from every ship in which he had sailed. He had started in business several times, and had run away each time in debt. He had married two wives, and had run away from both; and, before joining our corps, he had run away from the landlord of a tavern – leaving Boniface an empty trunk as payment for a large bill.
“Runaway Dick”