le
made his final arrangements. Leaving Montero with a brigade of trappers
to open another campaign, he put himself at the head of the residue
of his men, and set off on his return to civilized life. We shall not
detail his journey along the course of the Nebraska, and so, from point
to point of the wilderness, until he and his band reached the frontier
settlements on the 22d of August.

Here, according to his own account, his cavalcade might have been taken
for a procession of tatterdemalion savages; for the men were ragged
almost to nakedness, and had contracted a wildness of aspect during
three years of wandering in the wilderness. A few hours in a populous
town, however, produced a magical metamorphosis. Hats of the most ample
brim and longest nap; coats with buttons that shone like mirrors, and
pantaloons of the most ample plenitude, took place of the well-worn
trapper's equipments; and the happy wearers might be seen strolling
about in all directions, scattering their silver like sailors just from
a cruise.

The worthy captain, however, seems by no means to have shared the
excitement of his men, on finding himself once more in the thronged
resorts of civilized life, but, on the contrary, to have looked back
to the wilderness with regret. "Though the prospect," says he, "of once
more tasting the blessings of peaceful society, and passing days and
nights under the calm guardianship of the laws, was not without its
attractions; yet to those of us whose whole lives had been spent in
the stirring excitement and perpetual watchfulness of adventures in
the wilderness, the change was far from promising an increase of that
contentment and inward satisfaction most conducive to happiness. He who,
like myself, has roved almost from boyhood among the children of the
forest, and over the unfurrowed plains and rugged heights of the western
wastes, will not be startled to learn, that notwithstanding all the
fascinations of the world on this civilized side of the mountains, I
would fain make my bow to the splendors and gayeties of the metropolis,
and plunge again amidst the hardships and perils of the wilderness."

We have only to add that the affairs of the captain have been
satisfactorily arranged with the War Department, and that he is actually
in service at Fort Gibson, on our western frontier, where we hope he may
meet with further opportunities of indulging his peculiar tastes, and of
collecting graphic and characteristic