Civilization in the Wilderness
A Tale of Adventure on the American Frontier
Read Chapters One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six.
Chapter Seven
They departed without any fanfare. It was cold in the morning when they set out, especially for that time of year. There had been a little rain that night and the ground was damp, although the road had not turned to mud.
The four of them said very little that morning. Mr. Edwards led the way, taking them northwest along what roads there were, never halting, taking smaller and smaller tracks and little-known byways until they were further and further from any signs of habitation. They halted briefly for a meal at noon and then continued on until dark. Mr. Edwards wanted to make good time, and neither Daniel nor Sagamore wanted to spend any more time inside the state of Kentucky than they had to.
That night they had no campfire, but they sat around for a while before falling asleep. Each man was to take turns taking the watch. Daniel was first, but the others showed no sign of wanting to fall asleep. They spoke amongst themselves, and Mr. Edwards said they ought to elect officers. The others pointed out that it was his expedition and he was the leader, but he insisted. The other three unanimously elected him captain, and after that they mostly referred to him as the captain, although Robert sometimes called him uncle.
Edwards said there ought to be a second in command, a man to lead on in case he was killed, and they unanimously selected Sagamore for this duty. Then they turned in.
In those early days, they often saw signs of other men. There were the telltale markings that certain trappers left behind, and the unmistakable broken brush where hunters had passed through. Occasionally, they saw smoke from a campfire, and once Sagamore said he knew they were being watched. When they asked him by whom, he told them the name of a tribe local to that area. They asked him how he knew which tribe they hailed from, but he just said he had ways of knowing.
They killed plenty of game, and often had meat for dinner other than the salt pork and dried beef they’d brought along in their packs. Edwards had brought along three bows and a quiver of arrows. He and Sagamore knew how to shoot a bow, and his nephew had used one before. The captain pointed out that they would run out of ammunition faster than they would run out of arrows, because both he and Sagamore could make more arrows.
And they did. When they were walking during the day, the captain and Sagamore kept an eye out for stones which could be used for arrowheads and saplings which could be cut. Late in the evening, before turning in, the two of them would fashion these into arrows. Once, Daniel told them, “Seems mighty tedious, this business of knocking two stones together.”
“It’s called flint-knapping,” said the captain.
“Seems mighty tedious.”
Neither man was inclined to give this a response, so Daniel watched them for a little longer before turning in. He had the second watch that night and he wanted to get some sleep before he had to be up again. Sagamore and Robert stayed awake for another half hour. The captain had the first watch and he continued making arrowheads throughout his shift.
They rarely saw large predators in those early days. Perhaps they were too far east, or perhaps the trappers and hunters had scared all the bears and wolves away from the area.
Within the first two weeks, the four travelers fell into a predictable rhythm. Captain Edwards set the pace and called the halts. Sagamore would start the day with them, but soon disappear off into the woods ahead, sometimes appearing again hours later behind them. He and the captain spent some evenings in consultation, and they had agreed that – being the fastest and quietest traveler, and the one with the greatest skill in woodcraft – Sagamore should act as a scout for their band. This suited him well, because he seemed to possess uncanny endurance which even the captain marveled at. Sagamore never seeming to fatigue, and often appeared restless, as though the long miles he traveled each day didn’t tired him. The new arrangement allowed him to go where he pleased and when he pleased, while Robert and Daniel trudged along behind Captain Edwards.
Sometimes, Daniel or Robert fell further back. Each of them took turns carrying the heaviest pack, as they were the biggest. But even when he wasn’t carrying the heaviest pack, each of them tired more quickly. Edwards took the second-heaviest pack and never complained nor slackened his pace, although sometimes when he called a halt, Robert could see signs of strain on his uncle’s face.
Robert found himself hungrier than usual most nights, and after a week the captain said that he would have to limit his eating unless he killed more game. After that, Robert finished most meals slightly hungry, except for the nights when he had brought down some fowl or a couple of squirrels and could therefore feel comfortable gorging himself. One night when Robert finished supper looking particularly hungry, Sagamore told him this was for the best anyway. He said that one should never eat until full, and that if one wanted to remain alert, one should always stop eating while still hungry. Robert supposed this was why the man was whipcord lean.
Still, all four of them ate heartily. Edwards had intentionally provisioned the journey for five, knowing that a hard pace would generate a hard appetite. On those days when they brought down a deer, they would feast themselves and smoke the remaining meat to take with them. The captain was willing to call a halt in the middle of the day when this happened.
They made what seemed to Robert and Daniel like good progress, but after a month neither had much way of knowing how far they had gone. Sagamore rarely said anything other than, “We have passed out of Kentucky and into the Louisiana Territory,” when asked, and the captain only told them that they were making exactly the progress he had expected to make. A week in, Robert found that his weariness didn’t fade overnight and that he began each day with some fatigue left over from the previous day. After a month, he had grown used to this. It never built more than a tolerable amount, and he almost didn’t notice his constant fatigue.
Chapter Eight
The days grew warmer and longer, and the captain wanted to spend more time on the trail, which meant that they had less time to sleep. Robert found that most nights he no longer wanted to stay up talking, but spent every minute between eating and his watch – unless he had the first watch – asleep. The captain now had to rouse him in the morning, for he wasn’t waking on his own.
Robert wondered how his uncle seemed to get by on so little sleep. He and Sagamore both awoke before dawn, and before the fourth watch had ended. Neither had trouble rousing himself for a watch, or staying awake throughout it. Robert had to pinch his arm and slap himself in the face to stay awake during most watches. He struggled to pass the time and never knew how long had passed since his watch began, or how much longer he had. It seemed to always be the case that no time at all had passed, and that all the time in the world remained, and that this single moment would stretch on into eternity until all of a sudden his watch was over and it was time to rouse the next man. When he sat the fourth watch, he was always surprised to find the light beginning to come into the world again when the first rays peeked over the horizon, although he found that Sagamore and his uncle were usually up by this time and moving about, even with the days growing longer.
Robert had lost track of the days, only that the solstice was coming, and that soon the days would be growing shorter again. At night, he sometimes tried to count in his head the days they had been on the road. He never counted correctly to his satisfaction, but it kept him awake. His uncle told him not to let his mind wander, though. He needed to keep watchful lest any men or large animals come near the camp.
Many nights, Robert thought he heard something, but inevitably this would turn out to be an owl or a squirrel or his imagination. Once, he thought he heard a man, but this turned out to be a deer.
One day, long after Robert had lost count, but close to the solstice, the four travelers came upon a wide river. They had been heading northwest for some time, and now stumbled out onto the banks of a very wide and very deep and very fast river. For some time as they approached the river, they could hear it, but it wasn’t until they were practically on top of it that they could see it.
It was late morning and Robert and Daniel had been keeping close behind the captain, when all of a sudden the trees ended and they found Sagamore standing on above flowing water which stretched away to the north and south as far as they could see. The other side was lightly wooded. It lay perhaps a quarter mile from them, but they knew it would take many hours at least to travel that short distance.
Sagamore was squatting on his heels, waiting for them to arrive. He had clearly been thinking. Edwards called a halt as soon as they saw Sagamore.
“I’ve been up and down at least a mile in each direction,” he said. “There is no good place to cross.”
The captain slung his pack on the ground and pulled out his maps. He and Sagamore poured over them while Daniel and Robert sat down on the ground and stretched their legs out. Robert began to wonder why his uncle hadn’t decided to make a riverine voyage in the first place like the Corps of Discovery. They would have made better time, he thought. Boats would have come in handy about now. Robert knew, though, that his uncle hadn’t wanted to portage the boats, even if it would have meant they could carry more provisions.
“Aha,” said his uncle, pointing to a spot on one of the maps. “I thought we would come out here. We must be up about four miles north of that.”
“I told you we were going too far north,” said Sagamore.
“You were right. We’ll need to go south along the bank until we reach the ford.”
Robert came over to inspect the map, and he could see that they had already traveled a great distance. This wasn’t the first river they had crossed, but the others had been smaller and shallower, at least at the points where they’d crossed them. He could see now that this river before them was the Mississippi.
They turned south and traveled along the bank for several hours, but still they hadn’t reached the shallow area where the captain had said they could ford. Eventually, he let Sagamore go on ahead again. That night, Sagamore returned after they had made camp. He said that there weren’t any good places to ford and he suspected that there wouldn’t be any.
“I’ve forded the Mississippi before,” said the captain, but it had been a few years since he had done so.
“Much rain this spring,” said Sagamore.
The captain nodded. “Fair,” he said. “Are there any places we might do it, even at a risk?”
“Yes. One just below us. Much risk, though.”
“We will have to try it.”
None of them slept very well that night, and they were stiff in the morning when they set out. This time, Sagamore did not leave them, but instead took the other three directly to the place he’d said could be forded, although with some difficulty. When they arrived, they found a muddy bank leading down into some shallow water. The current had slowed here and the water was still and calm. Since this didn’t necessarily mean it was safe to cross, Sagamore struck out ahead of them. The river was too wide for him to carry a rope – the longest they had reached barely ten yards.
All of them could swim, but Sagamore was the strongest swimmer and he carried the lightest pack. He waded out into the river until he grew small and the water reached up around his waist. Somewhere around the halfway mark, he stumbled, but he righted himself and kept going. The water never reached above his waist, and since he was shorter than the others this was a good sign.
After he’d made it to the other side, Sagamore dropped his pack and waded back into the middle of the river. He went to the deepest point and stood there, waiting for the others to come along. They had already started, and though they were slow getting into the middle of the river, within minutes the captain was close enough for Sagamore to shout to him, “it drops off just below from me. Don’t come any further downstream.”
The captain made it to Sagamore without incident, although Sagamore could see that his face was tight and his eyes were wide. Daniel headed up the rear, being the least affected by the current of any of them. The captain stopped just beyond Sagamore and turned to look back. Robert was just drawing near to the Wampanoag man and the water was rushing hard around him and soaking the bottom of his pack. Robert’s clothes were dark, even at his shoulders. He’d splashed the water a couple of times with his hands to catch his balance.
Just as Robert reached Sagamore, he slipped on something. His legs went out from under him and he started to tumble down the river. Sagamore grabbed his hand, but the combined weight of Robert and the pack jerked him off his feet. He scrabbled at the bottom of the river with his feet, struggling to find purchase. Robert, too, was kicking in vain, trying to get his feet under him again. The captain lunged towards them and slipped. Now he, too, was tumbling downriver.
“Don’t,” the captain yelled to Daniel, to keep him from coming after them. “Keep going. Get to the other side.”
He, too, sought in vain for the bottom. A branch tumbled down the river towards them, no doubt having fallen in somewhere upstream. It swept by and in ducking it the captain lost his chance to put his feet down. He floated into the deeper patch of water, where Sagamore had said it dropped off.
Robert finally found purchase on a submerged log and he and Sagamore caught themselves. Slowly, carefully, they made their way back to where Daniel was. From there, they watched as the captain cut loose his pack, having decided that his only option was to swim. He struck out for the far shore, making a southwest transit, yelling something to them about meeting him on the other side.
The other three started back across. It took some time, for they went slowly, but eventually they were crawling up on the bank where Sagamore had left his pack. They’d lost sight of the captain.
As soon as they were out of the water, Sagamore darted downstream, running towards the point where they’d last seen the captain floundering his way towards the western bank. Daniel agreed to stay with the packs and Robert followed the Wampanoag man. Soon, Sagamore was out of his sight.
Robert found Sagamore and his uncle on a sandy part of the bank nearly a mile south of where he’d left Daniel. Captain Edwards was unhurt, but was in a foul mood for the loss of his pack, which had contained the rest of their salt pork and dried beef, much of their water, their arrows, two bows, and all of their medical supplies – mostly purgatives and bandages.
Captain Edwards cursed the loss as they walked back upstream to meet Daniel. They would go hungry that night. A dark mood descended upon the party and they spoke little after being reunited. Their clothes dried slowly and they made their way slowly west, making little progress, having lost their desires to travel hard. The captain called a halt early, after they made what distance they were going to make. They turned in early without anything for supper.
Chapters Nine and Ten will be out in January.