Part 8 (1/2)
These tidings struck dismay into the camp Captain Bonneville endeavored to reassure histhe position of their encampment, and its capability of defence He then ordered the horses to be driven in and picketed, and threw up a rough breastwork of fallen trunks of trees and the vegetable rubbish of the wilderness Within this barrier was ht, which passed aithout alar plain, to discover whether any eneht; not a foot-print, however, was to be discovered in the coarse gravel hich the plain was covered
Hunger now began to causeene a few miles they enca buffalo It was not until the next day that they discovered a pair of fine bulls on the edge of the plain, a now been two days and a half without a mouthful of food, they took especial care that these animals should not escape them While some of the surest h ground, four of the best mounted horsemen took their stations in the plain, to run the bulls down should they only beflight The half-faround, but succeeded in driving them on the ice, where they slipped and fell, and were easily dispatched The hunters loaded themselves with beef for present and future supply, and then returned and encahts's fire Here they passed the re with a voracity proportioned to previous starvation, forgetting in the hearty revel of the ers hich they were environed
The cravings of hunger being satisfied, they now began to debate about their further progress The men were much disheartened by the hardshi+ps they had already endured Indeed, tho had been in the rear guard, taking advantage of their position, had deserted and returned to the lodges of the Nez Perces The prospect ahead was enough to stagger the stoutest heart They were in the dead of winter As far as the eye could reach the wild landscape rapped in snohich was evidently deepening as they advanced Over this they would have to toil, with the icy wind blowing in their faces: their horses e, and they themselves must expect intervals of horrible famine like that they had already experienced
With Captain Bonneville, however, perseverance was aundertaken this enterprise, nothing could turn hih he declares that, had he anticipated the difficulties and sufferings which attended it, he should have flinched fro
Onward, therefore, the little band urged their way, keeping along the course of a stream called John Day's Creek The cold was so intense that they had frequently to dismount and travel on foot, lest they should freeze in their saddles The days which at this season are short enough even in the open prairies, were narrowed to a few hours by the high mountains, which allowed the travellers but a brief enjoyenerally at least twenty inches in depth, and in many places much more: those who disht ood day's journey The horses were ale was covered by the deep snow, so that they had nothing to subsist upon but scanty wisps of the dry bunch grass which peered above the surface, and the ss of frozen s and ood
In this way they urged their slow and painful course to the south down John Day's Creek, until it lost itself in a swa stiffened here they were obliged to beat down and clear away the snow to procure pasturage for their horses
Hence they toiled on to Godin River; so called after an Iroquois hunter in the service of Sublette, as murdered there by the Blackfeet
Many of the features of this remote wilderness are thus named after scenes of violence and bloodshed that occurred to the early pioneers It was an act of filial vengeance on the part of Godin's son Antoine that, as the reader ht on the recent battle at Pierre's Hole
From Godin's River, Captain Bonneville and his followers came out upon the plain of the Three Butes, so called froular and isolated hills that rise froreat desert of Snake River, one of the most remarkable tracts beyond the mountains
Could they have experienced a respite fros and anxieties, the immense landscape spread out before them was calculated to inspire adlories as well as summer; and Captain Bonneville had the soul to appreciate them
Far away, says he, over the vast plains, and up the steep sides of the loftywhiteness: and whenever the sun eiant peaks, or burst forth frolazed rock and frosted tree, glowed and sparkled with surpassing lustre The tall pines seemed sprinkled with a silver dust, and the s, studded with ht to mind the fairy trees conjured up by the caliph's story-teller to adorn his vale of diamonds
The poor wanderers, however, nearly starved with hunger and cold, were in no h they stamped pictures on their enial situations
Enca at the west Bute, they found a place swept by the winds, so that it was bare of snow, and there was abundance of bunch grass Here the horses were turned loose to graze throughout the night Though for once they had ae, yet the keen winds were so intense that, in the athered round and mourned over him as over a cherished friend They feared their half-famished horses would soon share his fate, for there seeh left in their veins to withstand the freezing cold To beat the way further through the snoith these enfeebled anian to creep over their hearts, when, fortunately, they discovered a trailparty
Into this they immediately entered, and proceeded with less difficulty
Shortly afterward, a fine buffalo bull caht down by the hunters A fire was soon blazing and crackling, and an ample repast soon cooked, and sooner dispatched; after which they ress and then encamped One of the ood cheer and a blazing fire gradually restored life, and put his blood in circulation
Having now a beaten path, they proceeded the nextwith more facility; indeed, the snow decreased in depth as they receded from the mountains, and the temperature became more mild In the course of the day they discovered a solitary horse at a distance before them on the plain They spurred on to overtake him; but he was better mounted on a fresher steed, and kept at a wary distance, reconnoitring them with evident distrust; for the wild dress of the free trappers, their leggings, blankets, and cloth caps garnished with fur and topped off with feathers, even their very elf-locks and weather-bronzed coave them the look of Indians rather than white men, and made him mistake them for a war party of so, the wild horseht to a parley; but even then he conducted hi prowler of the prairies Dis hiun across his back, and, thus prepared for defence like a wary cruiser upon the high seas, he per distance
He proved to be an Indian of the Banneck tribe, belonging to a band at no great distance It was so with a party of white men and induced to lay aside his reserve and join theence that there were two cohborhood
This was cheering news to Captain Bonneville; who hoped to find in one of the forward, therefore, with renovated spirits, he reached Snake River by nightfall, and there fixed his enca (13th January, 1833), diligent search was hborhood for traces of the reported parties of white men
An encampment was soon discovered about four miles farther up the river, in which Captain Bonneville to his great joy found two of Matthieu's men, from whom he learned that the rest of his party would be there in the course of a few days It was a ratulation to Captain Bonneville that he had thus accomplished his dreary and doubtful enterprise; and he determined to pass some time in this encaive needful repose to ible and delightful wintering grounds in that whole range of country The Snake River here wound its devious way between low banks through the great plain of the Three Butes; and was bordered by wide and fertile meadows It was studded with islands which, like the alluvial bottoroves of cotton-wood, thickets of , tracts of good lowland grass, and abundance of green rushes The adjacent plains were so vast in extent that no single band of Indians could drive the buffalo out of theive any serious inconvenience
Indeed, during the sojourn of Captain Bonneville in this neighborhood, which was in the heart of winter, he found the weather, with the exception of a few cold and storht but invariably thaith theweather in the e of the Three Tetons, those great land away to the north and west of the great plain of Snake River, and the mountains of Salt River and Portneuf toward the south, catch the earliest falls of snow Their white robes lengthen as the winter advances, and spread the the buffalo in herds to the banks of the river in quest of food; where they are easily slain in great nues of this winter encas and plunderings of any petty band of roving Blackfeet, the difficulties of retreat rendering it unwise for those crafty depredators to venture an attack unless with an overpowering force
About tenabout one hundred and twenty lodges They are brave and cunning warriors and deadly foes of the Blackfeet, whom they easily overcoeful and enterprising in warfare, however; seldo war parties to attack the Blackfeet towns, but contenting the their own territories and house About one third of their warriors are armed with fusees, the rest with bows and arrows
As soon as the spring opens they ht bank of Snake River and encamp at the heads of the Boisee and Payette Here their horses wax fat on good pasturage, while the tribe revels in plenty upon the flesh of deer, elk, bear, and beaver They then descend a little further, and are met by the Lower Nez Perces, hoe beaver, buffalo, and buffalo robes Hence they strike upon the tributary streams on the left bank of Snake River, and encamp at the rise of the Portneuf and Blackfoot streah of the Nez Perce breed, are inferior to the parent stock froht when but two years old and immediately put to hard work They have fewer horses, also, than ratory tribes