A United States Senator on His Travels.
A United States Senator
on His Travels.

A UNITED STATES SENATOR ON HIS TRAVELS.

Hon. Lafayette S. Foster Gives an Account of His Journeyings.

From the New-Haven Palladium, Nov. 10

    According to announcement, Hon. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER visited the Merchants' Exchange last evening, and gave some account of his trip across the continent, in company with Speaker COLFAX and other gentlemen. The Exchange was well filled with prominent gentlemen of the town, many of whom were accompanied with ladies. Mr. FOSTER was introduced in an appropriate and elegant manner by Ex-Mayor TYLER, President of the Exchange, and proceeded at once to speak of his great journey. He left for the West, with Mr. COLFAX, in May, 1865. They were accompanied by a military escort and a wagon train. The main features of this journey have already been presented to our readers in our report of Mr. COLFAX'S lecture. It was, however, a journey fraught with so much interest that a few more facts in relation to it cannot but prove entertaining.
    The valley of no river is more beautiful than that of the Kansas. The air in the morning was laden with a fragrance so delicious that it seemed like the bowers of Paradise. The soil on both sides was very fertile and prolific with trees and shrubbery beautiful to look upon. Passing from Fort Riley, past Fort Ellsworth, they came to the Arkansas River. Here there was nothing particularly delightful. Passing up the valley of the river three or four hundred miles, they came in sight of the Spanish Peaks of the Rocky Mountains. The atmosphere for a number of hundred miles this side of the mountains is wonderfully clear and transparent. From the mountains they went to New-Mexico. Arriving at Fort Union, the principal depot of the Government in New-Mexico, they saw most beautiful scenery. At Fort Sumner they saw a tribe of Indians which had a year before been located there. The City of Santa F� presents a very peculiar aspect to a New-England eye. The buildings are constructed of sunburnt brick, and they have flat roofs. At a distance the town, from an eminence, looks like a vast collection of unburnt brick-kilns. The population numbers about 10,000. Near Fort Garland are three of the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains. They are believed to be something over fourteen thousand feet in height. These are eternally covered with snow. From Fort Garland the most striking scenery was in a pass leading to the Arkansas River. The scenery between Fort Garland and the Arkansas River is among the most beautiful in the world. It is picturesque, grand and sublime. It combines all the characteristics of landscape scenery. The flowers were most beautiful--great rarities to a New-England eye--and the grasses--even the grasses were perfectly beautiful. The Rocky Mountains would reach from Paris to Delhi, and have many miles to spare. The mind is overwhelmed as you contemplate their grandeur. In the gulches in the mining regions, not far from Denver, the sun shines about three hours per day, from 10 A. M, till 1 P. M. The springs of water in this region of the country are worthy of notice. One of a chalybeate character, between the Arkansas River and Fort Union discharges one or two gallons a minute. There were sulphur springs some fifty miles from Santa F�. These come to the surface of the ground and are so hot that the hand cannot be borne in them but a few seconds. There are some soda springs near Colorado City. These issued up from the rocks. They were in constant ebullition, and by putting a little tartaric acid in a tumbler and pouring some of the water upon it, it bubbles up furiously, as nice soda-water as you can find in New-Haven or New-York. These springs are destined to be very much resorted to by and by. The mining in Colorado is an attractive subject to travelers. Mr. FOSTER descended 400 feet into one of these mines. The miners were at work, and it was very interesting to see their mode of labor. The amount in value taken from the mines is about $16,000,000.
    A Buffalo hunt was another feature of interest to the travelers. They came upon the trail of a buffalo herd when about one hundred miles west of Fort Riley. In May, when they were journeying, they met the herd of buffaloes going from the South to the North. When the mules of their train saw the buffaloes, they all turned tail and made a grand stampede in an opposite direction from that which it was necessary to take. The party Mr. FOSTER was with killed several of these animals. The hunting is very dangerous. Mr. FOSTER, in company with Mr. RANDALL, an old hunter, chased a buffalo several miles. Mr. RANDALL did most of the business as Mr. FOSTER did not feel at home in the hunting. The buffalo turned upon Mr. RANDALL, and Mr. FOSTER thought it prudent to retreat as fast as possible. Finally, Mr. RANDALL killed the buffalo and then Mr. FOSTER cut the bullet out of the body. It had passed in under the foreshoulder, and through to the skin of the other foreshoulder. The creature weighed 1,200 pounds. Mr. FOSTER and his party saw the Delawares, the Potawattomies, the Apaches and another tribe of Indians. Some of them have children and school-houses. They do not like "white man civilisation," however, and move off us soon as white men come nigh. The Potawattomies are a fine tribe. Four Jesuit priests and some Catholic clergymen labor with these Indians. They have schools numbering one or two hundred boys, and as many girls. The labor of the missionaries was productive of great good. One of the Indians made a speech in a council with the party. This Indian wanted to know why Uncle Sam, after getting their lands by giving them "reservations," took away the reservations, and made them go away further and further.
    Mr. FOSTER had heard Black Hawk and other Indian orators, but he had heard no Indian oratory equal to that of a speaker of the Potawattomie tribe. Gen. McCOOK introduced Mr. FOSTER as the "second war chief of nation." Thereupon the "big Injuns" rushed up, and one by one embraced him. This was rather an unpleasant process to Mr. FOSTER, as the operation left a rather bad odor and color upon his clothes. He was astounded, however, soon. For when the men had got through, the women came up, and they one by one embraced him too, until he had been hugged by some thirty or forty of the Potawattomie young ladies and matrons. Mr. FOSTER now spoke of the future of the Indian race. It is doomed to extinction. It must pass away and be seen no more. Nations pass away. A race once apparently necessarily passes away. The Indians make very poor business of civilization. They do not take to it. They seem unfitted for it. They seem to be of very little use to the nation. The Indian race has performed its mission. Our race will in turn pass away. In regard to the treatment of these tribes, it is evident that they are being treated very rudely, very cruelly. Our brethren of the West seem to have no pity for them. They seem to want them all to die as soon as possible, and are always ready to help them to die under any circumstances. One instance of cruelty he narrated. The Cheyennes and the Arapahoes were living in Colorado. They had committed some depredations on trains. They had taken some prisoners and had murdered some of them. Major WYNCOOP, of Fort Lyon, with four or five hundred men, went out to try to recapture the prisoners still living. A thousand Cheyenne and Arapahoes, all armed, met them. Major WYNCOOP was alarmed, but put his men in order of battle. He then sent a flag of truce forward. The amount of this was that the Indians gave up the prisoners, saying that they did not want to fight with the United States. Afterward, Major WYNCOOP got these tribes to settle at a place about thirty miles from Fort Lyon. But the settlers said, "No, we must kill these Indians." The rebellion was now in full blast. The settlers, to get rid of going into the war, made out that they must fight the Indians and a regiment was raised accordingly. Col. CHIDDINGTON of this regiment now came into Command. He outranked Major WYNCOOP, He commanded Major WYNCOOP to bring his troops and go fight the Indians. Major WYNCOOP and his men went, but refused to fight, they knowing that it would be breaking the most solemn pledge to do so. But CHIDDINGTON and the Colorado Dragoons burst upon the peaceful Indian camp at daybreak, and slaughtered in the most hellish, brutal, loathsome manner some four hundred men, women and children, It was a most horrible outrage. Actually in the history of Indian barbarities, none of them were more revolting and inhuman than this slaughter. Mr. FOSTER and his party visited this field of slaughter, and saw the bodies lying all around, half eaten by wolves.
    Mr. FOSTER said that he could hardly find words to tell the barbarities committed on this occasion. And yet Col. CHIDDINGTON is going to be returned to Congress. He is a most popular man, and more on account of this villainous slaughtering than anything else, for which he ought to have been tried by court-martial and hung.
    Mr. FOSTER concluded with remarks upon the necessity of increased facilities of communication between the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky Mountains. The great work now to be attended to is the completion of the roads now under construction. This done, and vast benefits, political, social, and mercantile, would follow at once. It costs $15 to transport 100 pounds of flour to the mountains. Potatoes sold at sixty-cents a pound at Black Hawk, and had been selling at $63 a bushel. Hay was selling at Black Hawk at $200 a ton, and other things in proportion. Of course with these prices, business must be fabulously productive to enable a man to barely live.
    These facts show how necessary to the whole country is the opening of roads through to the far West.
    When cars run from San Francisco to St. Louis, goods from the Orient will be brought to Europe through the United States, and London loses its position as the great centre of the world's trade. This great result men now living will see. With the Atlantic telegraph and the trade of the Orient, what a future has our country before it.
    Mr. FOSTER concluded amid the applause of the audience, and his remarks were thoroughly interesting and enjoyed by all present. To express the thanks of the meeting for their treat, F. A. Beis(?), Esq., made a proper motion, which received the most hearty approval from all. The meeting then adjourned.


Source:

Unknown, "A United States Senator on His Travels. Hon. Lafayette S. Foster Gives an Account of His Journeyings," New York Times, Sunday, 11 November 1866, p. 2.

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