Other editions of book A Tour On The Prairies

The productions of Washington Irving are deservedly held in high estimation, not so much, perhaps, for their intrinsic merits as literary compositions, although in this respect they hold no mean position, as for the inimitable tracings of adventurous life which they display through all their gradations and variety, and for the interest they keep alive in the reader, without outraging nature.Several hundred miles beyond the Mississippi extended a vast tract of uninhabited country, where there is neither to be seen the log-house of the white man nor the wigwam of the Indian. It consisted of large grassy plains, interspersed with forests and groves, and watered by the Arkansas, the Grand Canadian, the Red River, and all their tributary streams. Over these fertile and verdant wastes roamed the elk, the buffalo, and the wild horse, in all their native freedom—and these were, in fact, the hunting-grounds of the various inhabitants of the Far West. Thither repaired the Osage, the Creek, the Delaware, and other tribes, that had linked themselves with civilization, and lived within the vicinity of the white settlements; and here resorted also the Pawnees, the Comanches, and a variety of fierce and as yet independent rovers, the nomades of the prairies, or the inhabitants of the skirts of the Rocky Mountains.

The productions of Washington Irving are deservedly held in high estimation, not so much, perhaps, for their intrinsic merits as literary compositions, although in this respect they hold no mean position, as for the inimitable tracings of adventurous life which they display through all their gradations and variety, and for the interest they keep alive in the reader, without outraging nature. Several hundred miles beyond the Mississippi extended a vast tract of uninhabited country, where there is neither to be seen the log-house of the white man nor the wigwam of the Indian. It consisted of large grassy plains, interspersed with forests and groves, and watered by the Arkansas, the Grand Canadian, the Red River, and all their tributary streams. Over these fertile and verdant wastes roamed the elk, the buffalo, and the wild horse, in all their native freedom—and these were, in fact, the hunting-grounds of the various inhabitants of the Far West. Thither repaired the Osage, the Creek, the Delaware, and other tribes, that had linked themselves with civilization, and lived within the vicinity of the white settlements; and here resorted also the Pawnees, the Comanches, and a variety of fierce and as yet independent rovers, the nomades of the prairies, or the inhabitants of the skirts of the Rocky Mountains.

In 1832, Washington Irving, recently returned from seventeen years’ residence abroad and eager to explore his own country, embarked on an expedition to the country west of Arkansas set aside for the Indians. A Tour on the Prairies is his absorbing account of that journey, which extended from Fort Gibson to the Cross Timbers in what is now Oklahoma. First published in 1835, it has remained a perennial favorite, retaining its original freshness, vigor, and vividness to this day.

I found myself thus afloat, on the skin of a buffalo, in the midst of a wild river, surrounded by wilderness and towed along by a half savage whooping and yelling like the devil incarnate. A wild adventure on horseback beyond the Mississippi River into America s far west of 1832. Washington Irving, author of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, joined a group of inexperienced rangers, hunters and an assortment of colorful characters into the unexplored prairies with the goal of meeting Native Americans, hunting buffalo and getting in trouble. Until 1803, when Irving was 20 years old, the western limit of the United States was the Mississippi river. With the Louisiana Purchase, the US gained 828,000 square miles of land, extending west from the Mississippi river to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. It doubled the size of the United States. A great deal of this new territory was prairie land, meadows with high grasses, as well as rivers and settlements. By 1832, this area was still rough country and was considered the Far West. It was Washington Irving s intention to explore this new addition, which came into existence while he was a young man. This idea was forming in his mind while he crossed the Atlantic after living 17 years in Europe. On board ship, he made the acquaintance of the Swiss Count Albert de Pourtales, and an Englishman, Charles J. Latrobe. After landing in the United States, the three became traveling companions and, eventually, met Judge Henry L Ellsworth of Connecticut. Ellsworth had just been appointed by President Andrew Jackson as a Commissioner, tasked with the removal of Native Americans from their homes to new lands set aside for them. The Judge invited the three companions to accompany him west and they accepted resulting in this extraordinary adventure. Read by Andre Stojka 366 minutes

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1850. Excerpt: ... evaded his attack, capering and cutting all kinds of antics before him. We now made repeated shots at the buffalo, but they glanced into his mountain of flesh without proving mortal. He made a slow and grand retreat into the shallow river, turning upon his assailants whenever the)' pressed upon him ; and when in' the water, took his stand there as if prepared to sustain a siege. A rifle ball, however, more fatally lodged, sent a tremor through his frame. He turned and attempted to wade across the stream, but after tottering a few paces, slowly fell upon his side and expired. It was the fall of a hero, and we felt somewhat ashamed of the butchery that.had effected it; but after the first shot or two we had reconciled it to our feelings, by the old plea of putting the poor animal out of his misery. Two other buffaloes were killed this evening, but they were all bulls, the flesh of which is meagre and hard at this season of the year. A fat buck yielded us more savoury meat for our evening's repast. CHAPTER XXV. RINGING THE WILD HORSE. We left the buffalo camp about eight o'clock, and had a toilsome and harassing march of two hours, over ridges of hills, covered with a ragged, meagre forest of scrub-roots, and broken by deep gullies. Among the oaks I observed many of the most diminutive size ; some not above a foot high, yet bearing abundance of small acorns. The whole of the Cross Timber, in fact, abounds with mast. There is a pine-oak which produces an acorn pleasant to the taste, and ripening early in the season. About ten o'clock in the morning we came to where this line of rugged hills swept down into a valley, through -which flowed the north fork of the Red River. A beautiful meadow about half a mile wide, enamelled with yellow autumnal flowers, stretched for two or three miles al...

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Washington Irving (1783-1859) was an American author of the early 19th century. Best known for his short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip van Winkle, he was also a prolific essayist, biographer and historian. He spoke fluent Spanish, which served him well in his writings on that country, and he could read several other languages, including German and Dutch. His first book was A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809). He travelled on the Western frontier in the 1830s and recorded his glimpses of Western tribes in A Tour on the Prairies (1835). He spoke against the mishandling of relations with the Native American tribes by Europeans and Americans. He popularized the nickname "Gotham" for New York City, and is credited with inventing the expression "the Almighty dollar".