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"Nebraska." All south of 40° as Kansas.' "" To settle up the region which will be known as Nebraska, except certain portions of it, will, we take it, be a work of time and circumstances. In a northern latitude, cold in climate, and with much sterile soil, whilst at the same time the range and habitation of some of the wildest and most savage of the nomadic tribes of Indians, but few at present look to it for immediate settlement. But, towards the rich and fertile region south of 40° squatters and speculators are alike looking with greedy eyes.

Listen to Fremont, describing (in 1842) a part of this region-that on the "little Blue" river.

"Our route lay in the valley, which, bordered by hills with graceful slopes, looked uncommonly green and beautiful. The stream was fringed with cotton-wood and willow, with frequent groves of oak, tenanted by flocks of wild turkeys. Elk were seen on the hills, and now and then an antelope bounded across our path, or a deer broke from the groves.'

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Captain Emory, of the Topographical Corps, describing another portion—that between Fort Leavenworth and the Pawnee Fork-says:

"The country is high rolling prairie, traversed by many streams. Trees are seen only along the margin of the streams, and the general appearance of the country is that of vast rolling fields inclosed with colossal hedges. The growth along these streams as they approach the eastern part of the section under consideration consists of burr oak, black walnut, chesnut oak, black oak, long leaved willow, sycamore, buckeye, hackberry, and sumach; towards the west, as you approach the 99th meridian of longtitude, the growth along the streams becomes almost exclusively cotton-wood. At meridian, 99 Greenwich, the country becomes almost entirely barren."

A tract of country extending 300 miles north and south along the state of Missouri, and about 40 miles wide, is set apart for the Indians under treaties heretofore entered into between them and the government. About twelve or fourteen thousand Indians occupy this whole section, but will soon be moved elsewhero by other treaties. The land thus occupied by them comprises some of the richest and most desirable portions of what is the proposed Kansas Territory.

When, during the session of 1853, leave was asked in the House of Representatives

to introduce a bill to organize "Nebraska," how few of us, comparatively, cared, or knew very definitely, what or where the proposed Territory was! True, we all had a vague sort of a notion that it lay somewhere away out west towards the Rocky Mountains, but it was then a matter that did not concern us very nearly. And now (6 Nebraska" has been echoed from the halls of Congress to the people, and from the people back to the halls of Congress. And more speeches have been made about it than could have been imagined six months ago. Nebraska has be come of a sudden a great name in our history, like that of a field made famous by a great battle.

Well do we remember-it was in the spring of 1851-how the monotonous life of the inhabitants of the various Missouri River towns was broken in upon by the advent among them of a mysterious looking individual, who travelled with a carpet-sack slung across his shoulders, and who paid his way wherever he went by "phrenological" lectures and examinations. At each place where he was wont to stop he made known the object of his visit out West, stating it to be to get up a company of explorers and settlers for Nebraska. He claimed to belong to the "vote-yourself-a-farm" party, and held that the Indians had no right to keep such fine lands as Nebraska was represented to contain. Wherever he went he lectured in private on the rights of property, and in public on the science of phrenology. Whilst just as certainly wherever he appeared the boys always treated him to a little of that peculiar game known out West as "rotten-egging." Such was the state of public opinion in regard to the Nebraska movement just three years ago. At the end of some months' unsuccessful efforts he finally started from Fort Leavenworth to accomplish his mission, attended by two or three followers half-equipped. A few days journeying took him as far as the Iowa Mission, at the Nemahaw agency; here he was seized with a fever, and died among the good folks of the Mission. He was buried in Nebraska, and with him his scheme.

The mysterious individual we have thus introduced to the reader was at one time of considerable notoriety; a native of New York, and one of the whilome Canadian Patriots," tried some years ago for engaging in the project of annexing John Bull's little strip of the Canadas to Brother Jonathan's broad domain. So

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* General Thomas Jefferson Southerland.

far as we are informed, he it was who was the first public advocate for, and overt actor in, the movement to organize and settle Nebraska. But the politicians have "stolen his thunder," whilst he in Nebraska sleeps the sleep that knows no waking.

There is a vague suspicion that the chairman of the committee on territories had it in contemplation in 1844 to introduce a bill for its organization. A claim has been put in for a distinguished senator, who is said to have had it in view again in 1850. But there was no "overt act"-as the lawyers say-and there it rested where it began, in the minds of those who had conceived it. No one was safely delivered of the grand idea.

Just one year after this effort, as we have narrated it, some of the Indian agents and government attachés at the various trading posts, along with the traders, commenced agitating the subject of organization, held a meeting or so, and shortly organized primary meetings for the selection of a delegate to go on to Washington. The thing was now seriously started. Half a score or more entered the lists as candidates, and finally, after the usual amount of electioneering and "treating,' a trader living happily among them was chosen to the honor of paying his own expenses on to Washington as Nebraska Delegate. This was in 1852. When the American Representatives met at Washington in "Congress assembled" the Nebraska Delegate was there among them to attend to the interests of his constituents.

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On the 2d of February, 1853, unanimous leave of the House of Representatives was asked and granted to introduce a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska." On the 10th of February this bill passed by a large majority, but was not brought to the vote in the Senate. The Territory embraced in this bill extended only from 36° 30' parallel north latitude to the 43d parallel, and from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains; bearing only a small proportion to that which is now proposed for organization.

In 1853, a new Delegate was chosenin fact two or more claimed the right to the post of honor-and, on the 4th of January, 1853, Douglass of Illinois introduced in the Senate his Nebraska bill; followed upon the 23d of the saine month with certain other amendments, bounding and subdividing the Territory substantially, as we have herein endeavored to set forth.

To sum up: Thus we have, in the spring of 1851, just three years ago, an

ex-Canadian "Patriot" first publicly agitating the subject and getting "rottenegged" for his pains. One year thereafter, the traders, agents, and missionaries, all told not over a hundred, electing a Delegate. Six months more, the first bill for organization passing the House of Representatives. In another six months, a new bill, substantially, passing the Senate, and perhaps ere this reaches the eye of the reader becoming the law of the land, or perhaps lying over to another Congress. Truly we live in a fast age!

Six months ago, on his return to Washington from Nebraska, where he had been looking into matters, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs declared that there were not three white men in the whole Territory, residents, other than Government attachés. It would be a matter of some curiosity could we lay before the reader a copy of the "poll books" used at the recent election for Delegate. There would be found on them some very euphonious and poetic names of half-breeds, and braves—in fact, perfect "jaw-break

ers.

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We would not startle our reader at all, but we are compelled to inform him, in vindication of the truth of history, that there is already a newspaper published semi-occasionally, bearing at its head in flourishing capitals "Nebraska City, Nebraska Ty." We are afraid, however, that he will be still more startled when we inform him that the city has its existence as yet only in imagination, and its only citizen a solitary army supernumerary in charge of the remnants of what once was old Fort Kearney. Sub rosa, we would whisper, that the thing isn't an impossibility at all. It is only "gotten up" and printed on the opposite side of the Missouri River, at a printing office in the State of Iowa, and there dated and purporting to be published in Nebraska. Possibly, at some future day it may become the official gazette, and receive some of the crumbs of patronage.

The peculiar physical formation and developments of the vast region we have been considering, have long excited the wonder, and engaged the study of men of science. Its celebrated mauvais terres -a sort of geographical sphinx among the scientific world-its vast plateaus of table land-the singular saline efflorescenses of its low lands, and the crustaceous formations and shells along the margins of its streams; have all been regarded with much interest by the eye of science.

Its broad Platte River, or Nebraska,

sweeping eastwardly through its centre, and the romantic Kaw or Kansas skirting its southern border, each with innumerable tributary streams, fringed with valleys luxuriant with vegetation, and set off with huge conical sand hills thrown up at some remote period from the bed of the streams by the action of the wind, and rising like tall towers to the view; its vast plains stretching out east and west between these rivers, covered with tall prairie grass, rolling like the sea; its climate cold in certain latitudes almost as the polar regions, in others mild and genial, and in summer fanned by breezes fresh from the ice-ribbed mountains! All impel us to pronounce Nebraska an intensely interesting region, and its settlement a vast acquisition to the trade and commerce of the great Mississippi Valley. Acquired by us originally by purchase

from a foreign Government, being one of the appendages to the celebrated "Louisiana purchase," our Government for the last half century has been unceasing in its efforts to acquire information concerning it. From the time when Lewis and Clarke were sent out on their memorable expedition, paddling their canoe up the mad Missouri, treating and trading with Indians on either side, we come down to the expeditions of Long, and of Bonneville, and still later to those of Fremont. Since the expeditions of the last, our information has been considerably added to, and the Government now has out, we believe, no less than four topographical parties, on as many different routes, collecting information, which, it is to be hoped, will be ready to be laid before the country previous to the adjournment of the present Congress.

THE ENCANTADAS, OR ENCHANTED ISLES.

SKETCH TENTH.

BY SALVATOR R. TARNMOOR.

(Concluded from page 355.)

HOOD'S ISLE AND THE HERMIT OBERLUS.

"That darkesome glen they enter, where they find
That cursed nan low sitting on the ground,
Musing full sadly in his sullein mind;
His griesly lockes long grouen and unbound,
Disordered hong about his shoulders round,
And hid his face, through which his hollow eyne
Lookt deadly dull, and stared as astound;

His raw-bone cheekes, through penuric and pine,
Were shronke into the jawes, as he did never dine.
His garments nought but many ragged clouts,
With thornes together pind and patched reads,
The which his naked sides he wrapt abouts."

SOUTHEAST of Crossman's Isle lies

Hood's Isle, or McCain's Beclouded Isle; and upon its south side is a vitreous cove with a wide strand of dark pounded black_lava, called Black Beach, or Oberlus's Landing. It might fitly have been styled Charon's.

It received its name from a wild white creature who spent many years here; in the person of a European bringing into this savage region qualities more diabolical than are to be found among any of the surrounding cannibals.

About half a century ago, Oberlus deserted at the above-named island, then, as now, a solitude. He built himself a den of lava and clinkers, about a mile from the Landing, subsequently called after him, in a vale, or expanded gulch, containing here and there among the rocks about two acres of soil capable of rude cultivation; the only place on the isle not too blasted for that purpose. Here he succeeded in raising a sort of degenerate potatoes and pumpkins, which from time to time he exchanged with needy whalemen passing, for spirits or dollars.

His appearance, from all accounts, was that of the victim of some malignant sorcercss; he seemed to have drunk of Circe's cup; beast-like; rags insufficient to hide his nakedness; his befreckled skin blistered by continual exposure to the sun; nose flat; countenance contorted, heavy, earthy; hair and beard unshorn, profuse, and of a fiery red. He struck strangers much as if he were a volcanic creature thrown up by the same convulsion which exploded into sight the isle. All bepatched and coiled asleep in his lonely lava den among the mountains, he looked, they say, as a heaped drift of withered leaves,

torn from autumn trees, and so left in some hidden nook by the whirling halt for an instant of a fierce night-wind, which then ruthlessly sweeps on, somewhere else to repeat the capricious act. It is also reported to have been the strangest sight, this same Oberlus, of a sultry, cloudy morning, hidden under his shocking old black tarpaulin hat, hoeing potatoes among the lava. So warped and crooked was his strange nature, that the very handle of his hoe seemed gradually to have shrunk and twisted in his grasp, being a wretched bent stick, elbowed more like a savage's war-sickle than a civilized hoe-handle. It was his mysterious custom upon a first encounter with a stranger ever to present his back; possibly, because that was his better side, since it revealed the least. If the encounter chanced in his garden, as it sometimes did-the new-landed strangers going from the sea-side straight through the gorge, to hunt up the queer green-grocer reported doing business here-Oberlus for a time hoed on, unmindful of all greeting, jovial or bland; as the curious stranger would turn to face him, the recluse, hoe in hand, as diligently would avert himself; bowed over, and sullenly revolving round his murphy hill. Thus far for hoeing. When planting, his whole aspect and all his gestures were so malevolently and uselessly sinister and secret, that he seemed rather in act of dropping poison into wells than potatoes into soil. But among his lesser and more harmless marvels was an idea he ever had, that his visitors came equally as well led by longings to behold the mighty hermit Oberlus in his royal state of solitude, as simply to obtain potatoes, or find whatever company might be upon a barren isle. It seems incredible that such a being should possess such vanity; a misanthrope be conceited; but he really had his notion; and upon the strength of it, often gave himself amusing airs to captains. But after all, this is somewhat of a piece with the well-known eccentricity of some convicts, proud of that very hatefulness which makes them notorious. At other times, another unaccountable whim would seize him, and he would long dodge advancing strangers round the clinkered corners of his hut; sometimes like a stealthy bear, he would slink through the withered thickets up the mountains, and refuse to see the human face.

Except his occasional visitors from the sea, for a long period, the only companions of Oberlus were the crawling tortoises; and he seemed more than degraded to their level, having no desires for a time

beyond theirs, unless it were for the stupor brought on by drunkenness. But sufficiently debased as he appeared, there yet lurked in him, only awaiting occasion for discovery, a still further proneness. Indeed the sole superiority of Oberlus over the tortoises was his possession of a larger capacity of degradation; and along with that, something like an intelligent will to it. Moreover, what is about to be revealed, perhaps will show, that selfish ambition, or the love of rule for its own sake, far from being the peculiar infirmity of noble minds, is shared by beings which have no mind at all. No creatures are so selfishly tyrannical as some brutes; as any one who has observed the tenants of the pasture must occasionally have observed.

"This island's mine by Sycorax my mother;" said Oberlus to himself, glaring round upon his haggard solitude. By some means, barter or theft-for in those days ships at intervals still kept touching at his Landing-he obtained an old musket, with a few charges of powder and ball. Possessed of arms, he was stimulated to enterprise, as a tiger that first feels the coming of its claws. The long habit of sole dominion over every object round him, his almost unbroken solitude, his never encountering humanity except on terms of misanthropic independence, or mercantile craftiness, and even such encounters being comparatively but rare; all this must have gradually nourished in him a vast idea of his own importance, together with a pure animal sort of scorn for all the rest of the universe.

The unfortunate Creole, who enjoyed his brief term of royalty at Charles's Isle was perhaps in some degree influenced by not unworthy motives; such as prompt other adventurous spirits to lead colonists into distant regions and assume political pre-eminence over them. His summary execution of many of his Peruvians is quite pardonable, considering the desperate characters he had to deal with; while his offering canine battle to the banded rebels seems under the circumstances altogether just. But for this King Oberlus and what shortly follows, no shade of palliation can be given. He acted out of mere delight in tyranny and cruelty, by virtue of a quality in him inherited from Sycorax his mother. Armed now with that shocking blunderbuss, strong in the thought of being master of that horrid isle, he panted for a chance to prove his potency upon the first specimen of humanity which should fall unbefriended into his hands.

Nor was he long without it. One day he spied a boat upon the beach, with one

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man, a negro, standing by it. Some distance off was a ship, and Oberlus immediately knew how matters stood. The vessel had put in for wood, and the boat's crew had gone into the thickets for it. From a convenient spot he kept watch of the boat, till presently a straggling company appeared loaded with billets. Throwing these on the beach, they again went into the thickets, while the negro proceeded to load the boat.

Oberlus now makes all haste and accosts the negro, who aghast at seeing any living being inhabiting such a solitude, and especially so horrific a one, immediately falls into a panic, not at all lessened by the ursine suavity of Oberlus, who begs the favor of assisting him in his labors. The negro stands with several billets on his shoulder, in act of shouldering others; and Oberlus, with a short cord concealed in his bosom, kindly proceeds to lift those other billets to their place. In so doing he persists in keeping behind the negro, who rightly suspicious of this, in vain dodges about to gain the front of Oberlus; but Oberlus dodges also; till at last, weary of this bootless attempt at treachery, or fearful of being surprised by the remainder of the party, Oberlus runs off a little space to a bush, and fetching his blunderbuss, savagely demands the negro to desist work and follow him. He refuses. Whereupon, presenting his piece, Oberlus snaps at him. Luckily the blunderbuss misses fire; but by this time, frightened out of his wits, the negro, upon a second intrepid summons drops his billets, surrenders at discretion, and follows on. By a narrow defile familiar to him, Oberlus speedily removes out of sight of the water.

On their way up the mountains, he exultingly informs the negro, that henceforth he is to work for him, and be his slave, and that his treatment would entirely depend on his future conduct. But Oberlus, deceived by the first impulsive cowardice of the black, in an evil moment slackens his vigilance. Passing through a narrow way, and perceiving his leader quite off his guard, the negro, a powerful fellow, suddenly grasps him in his arms, throws him down, wrests his musketoon from him, ties his hands with the monster's own cord, shoulders him, and returns with him down to the boat. When the rest of the party arrive, Oberlus is carried on board the ship. This proved an Englishman, and a smuggler; a sort of craft not apt to be over-charitable. Oberlus is severely whipped, then handcuffed, taken ashore, and compelled to make known his

habitation and produce his property. His potatoes, pumpkins, and tortoises, with a pile of dollars he had hoarded from his mercantile operations were secured on the spot. But while the too vindictive smugglers were busy destroying his hut and garden, Oberlus makes his escape into the mountains, and conceals himself there in impenetrable recesses, only known to himself, till the ship sails, when he ventures back, and by means of an old file which he sticks into a tree, contrives to free himself from his handcuffs.

Brooding among the ruins of his hut,

and the desolate clinkers and extinct volcanoes of this outcast isle, the insulted misanthrope now meditates a signal revenge upon humanity, but conceals his purposes. Vessels still touch the Landing at times; and by and by Oberlus is enabled to supply them with some vegetables.

Warned by his former failure in kidnapping strangers, he now pursues a quite different plan. When seamen come ashore, he makes up to them like a free-and-easy comrade, invites them to his hut, and with whatever affability his red-haired grimness may assume, entreats them to drink his liquor and be merry. But his guests need little pressing; and so, soon as rendered insensible, are tied hand and foot, and pitched among the clinkers, are there concealed till the ship departs, when finding themselves entirely dependent upon Oberlus, alarmed at his changed demeanor, his savage threats, and above all, that shocking blunderbuss, they willingly enlist under him, becoming his humble slaves, and Oberlus the most incredible of tyrants. So much so, that two or three perish beneath his initiating process. He sets the remainder-four of them to breaking the caked soil; transporting upon their backs loads of loamy earth, scooped up in moist clefts among the mountains; keeps them on the roughest fare; presents his piece at the slightest hint of insurrection; and in all respects converts them into reptiles at his feet; plebeian garter-snakes to this Lord Anaconda.

At last, Oberlus contrives to stock his arsenal with four rusty cutlasses, and an added supply of powder and ball intended for his blunderbuss. Remitting in good part the labor of his slaves, he now approves himself a man, or rather devil, of great abilities in the way of cajoling or coercing others into acquiescence with his own ulterior designs, however at first abhorrent to them. But indeed, prepared for almost any eventual evil by their

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