The trackless wilderness, the arid deserts, mountains, and plains are to-day as an open book through the work of just such pioneers of the star of empire as is Buffalo Bill.
They have solved the mysteries of the unknown land of the setting sun as it was half a century ago, and then sprang into existence as educators, and having done their work well are awaiting the last call to that great terra incognita beyond the river of death.
Their like will never be seen again on this earth, for there are no new lands to explore.
As Columbus was the pilot across the seas to discover a new world, such heroes as Boone, Fremont, Crockett, Kit Carson, and last, but by no means least, Cody, were the guides to the New World of the mighty West, and their names will go down in history as
“Among the few, the immortal names
That were not born to die.”
CHAPTER XXII.
THE WILD WEST AT SEA.
The Wild West visited many of the principal cities of this country, played a winter season in New Orleans, a summer season at Staten Island, and the winter of 1886–87 in Madison Square Garden in New York. But with the immortal bard who wrote “ambition grows with what it feeds on,” Colonel Cody and Mr. Salsbury had an ambition to conquer other nations. The importance of the undertaking was fully realized, but nothing daunted by all that would have to be undergone to reach a foreign land and give exhibitions, the owners of the Wild West boldly made the venture.
The writer went abroad and arranged to play a season of six months in London, as an adjunct of the American exhibition. All arrangements being made, the Indians were secured, the representative types of the Sioux, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Pawnees, and Ogalallas, and a number of prominent chiefs.