Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 5 Issue 3.djvu/83



He looked at me with blended pride and pain, and deliberately firing a doublebarreled volley of smoke at my breast, told me to make the best use of the discovery, gave me a written direction of the course and locality, and went out. In less than a week I was in the new mines with a cargo that sold for a dollar a pound before it was unpacked. This was I-da-hoe: the Indian name for this vast basin, or horseshoe, with its snowy crest, which interpreted, means "Gem of the Mountains."

Baboon Gulch—a little indention 'of not more than a hundred yards in length, dipping down the prairie to a larger gulch—was perhaps the richest spot of earth ever found. The gold lay beneath a thin turf, or peat, on a soft, granite bed-rock in a stratum of but one or two inches thick, and but a few inches wide. This stratum was often half gold. The oath of Baboon could be had. to-day, showing that the lightest day's yield was fourteen pounds of gold dust.

Having been the butt of the party, and having but little love or respect for his companions, when he left me at Lewiston he went into the streets, and, depending entirely on his interpretation of faces, made up a party of his own—all poor men—and before sunrise was on his return. I found, when I entered the camp, that he had one evening laid off a town and given it the name of the writer; but the next morning, those who had not procured lots, not feeling disposed to pay from $1,000 to $5,000 when there was so much vacant ground adjoining, went a few hundred yards farther on, and there, under the direction of Dr. Furber, formerly of Cincinnati, and author of "Twelve Months a Volunteer," laid off a town and named it Florence, after the Doctor's oldest daughter. The town laid out by my friend never received the distinction of a single building. However, with a singular tenacity, it retained its place in the maps

of Idaho, and there, at least, is as large and flourishing as its rival.

On the 3d day of December, in the fierce storm we read the prophecy of the fearful winter of 1862-3. Thousands of homeless and helpless men began to pour out over the horseshoe in the direction of Lewiston. Going into the camp late one night with the express, I met Baboon and his party quietly making their way over the mountain. Each man had a horse loaded with gold. Promising to return and overtake them, I rode on, and soon met a party headed by the notorious Dave English and Nelse Scott. They were all well-known robbers, and down on the books of the Expressmen as the worst of men;. but, as there was not a shadow of civil law, and Vigilantes had not yet asserted themselves, these men moved about as freely as the best incamp. Only a few days before had occurred an incident which gave rise to a new and still popular name for their Order. Scott and English had reached a station on the road with their horses badly jaded. They were unknown to the keeper of the station, who had the Express-horses in charge; and not wishing to do violence to get a change of horses, resorted to strategy. They talked loudly to each other concerning the merits of their stock, and quietly telling the keeper they were connected with the Express, and were stocking the road— acting as road agents—ordered him to saddle the two best horses at the station, and take the best possible care of theirs till their return. He did so, and when the Express arrived that night for its relays, the innocent keeper told the rider the "road agents" had taken them.

English was a thick-set, powerful man, with black beard and commanding manner. One of his gray eyes appeared to be askew, but, other than that, he was a fine-looking man. He was usually goodnatured; but when roused, was terrible.