To wind up this unusually long Preface, into which honest admiration for the author has alone induced me, I wish to say that it affords me an ever-recurring delight to introduce GUSTAVE AIMARD'S works to English readers, while it causes me an extra pleasure, on this occasion, to be enabled to repeat that the present volume appears on this side of the Channel before it has been introduced to French readers. And, knowing as I do the number of editions through which AIMARD'S books pass in his own native land, I can appreciate the sacrifice he has made on this occasion at its full value.
DRAYTON TERRACE, WEST BROMPTON, _March_, 1862.
I. THE SIERRA OF THE WIND RIVER II. THE DEAD ALIVE III. THE COMPACT IV. THE TRAVELLERS V. THE FORT OF THE CHICHIMÈQUES VI. THE SURPRISE VII. THE EXPLANATION VIII. A DECLARATION OF WAR IX. MEXICO X. THE RANCHO XI. THE PASEO DE BUCARELI XII. A CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION XIII. DON MARTIAL XIV. THE VELORIO XV. THE CONVENT OF THE BERNARDINES XVI. THE CONFESSOR XVII. THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE XVIII. A VISIT XIX. ASSISTANCE XX. EL ZARAGATE XXI. AFTER THE INTERVIEW XXII. THE BLANK SIGNATURE XXIII. ON THE ROAD XXIV. A SKIRMISH XXV. LOS REGOCIJOS XXVI. THE PRONUNCIAMIENTO XXVII. THE CAPILLA
The Rocky Mountains form an almost impassable barrier between California and the United States, properly so called; their formidable defiles, their rude valleys, and the vast western plains, watered by rapid streams, are even to the present day almost unknown to the American adventurers, and are rarely visited by the intrepid and daring Canadian trappers.
The majestic mountain range called the Sierra of the Wind River, especially offers a grand and striking picture, as it raises to the skies its white and snow-clad peaks, which extend indefinitely in a north-western direction, until they appear on the horizon like a white cloud, although the experienced eye of the trapper recognizes in this cloud the scarped outline of the Yellowstone Mountains.
The Sierra of the Wind River is one of the most remarkable of the Rocky Mountain range; it forms, so to speak, an immense plateau, thirty leagues long, by ten or twelve in width, commanded by scarped peaks, crowned with eternal snows, and having at their base narrow and deep valleys filled with springs, streams, and rock-bound lakes. These magnificent reservoirs give rise to some of the mighty rivers which, after running for hundreds of miles through a picturesque territory, become on one side the affluents of the Missouri, on the other of the Columbia, and bear the tribute of their waters to the two oceans.