Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
The Hunters' Feast Conversations Around the Camp Fire By: Mayne Reid (1818-1883) |
---|
![]()
The story starts in the city of St Louis, towards the end of the summer
of some year in the nineteenth century. Reid collects together a group
of six men who would pay to take part in an expedition, camping and
hunting, into the prairies. They take with them a couple of paid men,
professionals who would give them very necessary guidance. They all
make a pact that they would each tell a round of tales around the camp
fire, such stories to be amusing and instructive. Reid himself is something of a naturalist, as we can learn from his many
other books. We are given these tales just as they are told, in good
English if told by an educated man, and in the dialect of the less
educated ones. This latter arrangement makes the checking of the OCR
transcriptions a little difficult, but never mind. What people may find a little tedious is Reid's habit of giving the
naturalists' Latin names for the various animals and plants described.
THE HUNTERS' FEAST, BY CAPTAIN MAYNE REID. CHAPTER ONE. A HUNTING PARTY. On the western bank of the Mississippi, twelve miles below the
embouchure of the Missouri, stands the large town of Saint Louis,
poetically known as the "Mound City." Although there are many other
large towns throughout the Mississippi Valley, Saint Louis is the true
metropolis of the "far west" of that semi civilised, ever changing belt
of territory known as the "Frontier." Saint Louis is one of those American cities in the history of which
there is something of peculiar interest. It is one of the oldest of
North American settlements, having been a French trading port at an
early period. Though not so successful as their rivals the English, there was a degree
of picturesqueness about French colonisation, that, in the present day,
strongly claims the attention of the American poet, novelist, and
historian. Their dealings with the Indian aborigines the facile manner
in which they glided into the habits of the latter meeting them more
than half way between civilisation and savage life the handsome
nomenclature which they have scattered freely, and which still holds
over the trans Mississippian territories the introduction of a new race
(the half blood peculiarly French) the heroic and adventurous
character of their earliest pioneers, De Salle Marquette, Father
Hennepin, etcetera their romantic explorations and melancholy fate all
these circumstances have rendered extremely interesting the early
history of the French in America. Even the Quixotism of some of their
attempts at colonisation cannot fail to interest us, as at Gallipolis on
the Ohio, a colony composed of expatriated people of the French court;
perruquiers, coachbuilders, tailors, modistes , and the like. Here, in
the face of hostile Indians, before an acre of ground was cleared,
before the slightest provision was made for their future subsistence,
the first house erected was a large log structure, to serve as the
salon du Lal ! Besides its French origin, Saint Louis possesses many other points of
interest. It has long been the entrepot and depot of commerce with
the wild tribes of prairie land. There the trader is supplied with his
stock for the Indian market his red and green blanket his beads and
trinkets his rifles, and powder, and lead; and there, in return, he
disposes of the spoils of the prairie collected in many a far and
perilous wandering. There the emigrant rests on the way to his
wilderness home; and the hunter equips himself before starting forth on
some new expedition. To the traveller, Saint Louis is a place of peculiar interest. He will
hear around him the language of every nation in the civilised world. He
will behold faces of every hue and variety of expression. He will meet
with men of every possible calling. All this is peculiarly true in the latter part of the summer season... Continue reading book >>
|
Genres for this book |
---|
Adventure |
Fiction |
Literature |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – Mayne Reid |
Wikipedia – The Hunters' Feast Conversations Around the Camp Fire |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|