Fine scarlet blankets, bells, and beads,
Gay ribbons, jingling anklets, bright,
Soft silken kerchiefs for their heads,
With arms designed for their lords' use,
And white men's unrestrained abuse.
"These bateaux, with their pulsing oars,
That 'gainst a mighty current beat;
That glided betwixt murmurous shores,
And moved with plashings low and sweet,
Were then the river craft that plied
Between St. Louis and Bellevue,
Bringing each year, their freight beside,
Such travelers as the mountains drew—
Artists, and students, those who find
In wildest wastes food for the mind.
"To meet them came long laden trains,
Mules, Indian ponies, packed with spoil
Of dammed-up streams, and marshy plains
Made populous by the beavers' toil;
With skins of otter, and the hides
Of the great hump-backed buffalo;
White traders, and their dusky brides,
Decked out with gay barbaric show,
And half-caste babes, whose bold black eyes
Ne'er shrank in terror or surprise."
44
