Part 14 (1/2)
Without any further alarm, they made their way to the head waters of Wind River, and reached the neighborhood in which they had appointed the rendezvous with their companions It ithin the precincts of the Crow country; the Wind River valley being one of the favorite haunts of that restless tribe After , Captain Bonneville came upon a trail which had evidently been made by his main party It was so old, however, that he feared his people hborhood; driven off, perhaps by some of those war parties which were on the prowl He continued his search with great anxiety, and no little fatigue; for his horses were jaded, and alh rocky defiles
On the following day, about noon, Captain Bonneville came upon a deserted camp of his people, from which they had, evidently, turned back; but he could find no signs to indicate why they had done so; whether they had met with one He was now,day, he resu anxiety The feet of his horses had by this time become so worn and wounded by the rocks, that he had to make moccasons for them of buffalo hide About noon, he came to another deserted careat search, he oncethe eastern bases of the Wind River Mountains, which towered to the right He now pushed forith all possible speed, in hopes of overtaking the party At night, he slept at another of their camps, from which they had but recently departed When the day dawned sufficiently to distinguish objects, he perceived the danger thatthe heels of his main party All about the ca about it at the tiht there; and whoabout thereat distance, he mounted a scout on the best horse, and sent hier, and to order them to halt, until he should rejoin thereat joy, he , with six co fresh horses for his acco day (September 25th), all hands were once more reunited, after a separation of nearly three weeks Theirwas hearty and joyous; for they had both experienced dangers and perplexities
Thetheir course up the Wind River valley, had been dogged the whole way by a war party of Crows In one place, they had been fired upon, but without injury; in another place, one of their horses had been cut loose, and carried off At length, they were so closely beset, that they were obliged to ade move, lest they should be surprised and overcome This was the movement which had caused such perplexity to Captain Bonneville
The whole party now reive repose to both men and horses Some of the trappers, however, pursued their vocations about the neighboring strea his traps, he heard the tra up, beheld a party of Crow braves reat distance, with a considerable cavalcade The trapper hastened to conceal hies With whoops and yells, they dragged hi-place, flourished over his head their to-knives, and for a tiave himself up for lost Fortunately, the Croere in a jocose, rather than a sanguinary mood They amused themselves heartily, for a while, at the expense of his terrors; and after having played off divers Crow pranks and pleasantries, suffered him to depart unhar his horse, another his gun, a third his traps, a fourth his blanket, and so on, through all his accoutre, until he was stark naked; but then they generously made him a present of an old tattered buffalo robe, and dishter When the trapper returned to the cahter from his comrades and seemed more mortified by the style in which he had been dis with his life A circuave soht into the cause of this extreme jocularity on the part of the Crows They had evidently had a run of luck, and, like winning ga twenty-six fine horses, and sonized a nuade, when they parted cohorn It was supposed, therefore, that these vagabonds had been on his trail, and robbed hi this affair, three Crows came into Captain Bonneville's cainable; walking about with the imperturbable coolness and unconcern, in which the Indian rivals the fine gentleman As they had not been of the set which stripped the trapper, though evidently of the same band, they were not molested Indeed, Captain Bonneville treated the theht there At the same time, however, he caused a strict watch to be ht, stationed an arainst the latter being armed This only made the captain suspect them to be spies, who meditated treachery; he redoubled, therefore, his precautions At the sauests, that while they were perfectly welcome to the shelter and comfort of his ca the night, they would certainly be shot; which would be a very unfortunate circumstance, and much to be deplored To the latter remark, they fully assented; and shortly afterward co tiave their friends, whoround the caht passed aithout disturbance In thethat Captain Bonneville and his party should accompany them to their ca their invitation, Captain Bonneville took his departure with all possible dispatch, eager to be out of the vicinity of such a piratical horde; nor did he relax the diligence of his march, until, on the second day, he reached the banks of the Sweet Water, beyond the limits of the Crow country, and a heavy fall of snow had obliterated all traces of his course
He now continued on for some few days, at a slower pace, round the point of the mountain toward Green River, and arrived once more at the caches, on the 14th of October
Here they found traces of the band of Indians who had hunted the lost all trace of them on their way over the mountains, they had turned and followed back their trail down the Green River valley to the caches One of these they had discovered and broken open, but it fortunately contained nothing but fragments of old iron, which they had scattered about in all directions, and then departed In exa their deserted camp, Captain Bonneville discovered that it numbered thirty-nine fires, and hadescaped the clutches of such a formidable band of freebooters
He now turned his course southward, under cover of the e's Ford, a tributary of the Colorado, where he came suddenly upon the trail of this same war party, which had crossed the stream so recently that the banks were yet ith the water that had been splashed upon thee from their tracks, they could not be less than three hundred warriors, and apparently of the Crow nation
Captain Bonneville was extre force should come upon him in so himself promptly He now moved toward Hane's Fork, another tributary of the Colorado, where he encae cloud of smoke to the south, he supposed it to arise from some encampment of Shoshonies, and sent scouts to procure infore It was, in fact, a band of Shoshonies, but with them were encamped Fitzpatrick and his party of trappers That active leader had an eventful story to relate of his fortunes in the country of the Crows After parting with Captain Bonneville on the banks of the Bighorn, he ue Rivers He had between twenty and thirty e a cavalcade could not pass through the Crow country without attracting the attention of its freebooting hordes A large band of Croas soon on their traces, and came up with theue River The Crow chief careat appearance of friendshi+p, and proposed to Fitzpatrick that they should enca any faith in Crows, declined the invitation, and pitched his camp three miles off He then rode over with two or three reat apparent cordiality In thebraves, who considered them absolved by his distrust from all scruples of honor, made a circuit privately, and dashed into his encampment Captain Stewart, who had rereat spirit; but the Croere too nuot possession of the ca off all the horses On their way back theyto his ca hiotiation now took place between the plundered white ement Fitzpatrickupon the Crow chieftain to return hiether with his rifles and a few rounds of ammunition for each man He then set out with all speed to abandon the Crow country, before he should meet with any fresh disasters
After his departure, the consciences of some of thesuffered such a cavalcade to escape out of their hands Anxious to wipe off so foul a stigma on the reputation of the Crow nation, they followed on his trial, nor quit hovering about him on his march until they had stolen a number of his best horses and mules It was, doubtless, this saie, and generously gave hie for his rifle, his traps, and all his accoutrements With these anecdotes, we shall, for present, take our leave of the Crow country and its vagabond chivalry
28
A region of natural curiosities--The plain of white clay-- Hot springs--The Beer Spring--Departure to seek the free trappers--Plain of Portneuf--Lava--Chasullies-- Bannack Indians--Their hunt of the buffalo--Hunter's feast-- Trencher heroes--Bullying of an absent foe--The dakiss--His adventures--Poordevil Indians--Triumph of the Bannacks-- Blackfeet policy in war
CROSSING AN ELEVATED RIDGE, Captain Bonneville now came upon Bear River, which, from its source to its entrance into the Great Salt Lake, describes the figure of a horse-shoe One of the principal head waters of this river, although supposed to abound with beaver, has never been visited by the trapper; rising a barricadoed [sic] by fallen pine trees and tre down this river, the party encamped, on the 6th of Nove, and froes of mountains, and connected with Bear River by an iuish it froreat one of salt water
On the 10th of Novehborhood which is quite a region of natural curiosities An area of about half a mile square presents a level surface of white clay or fuller's earth, perfectly spotless, rese snow The effect is strikingly beautiful at all times: in summer, when it is surrounded with verdure, or in autuht ie Seen from a distant eminence, it then shi+nes like a mirror, set in the brown landscape Around this plain are clustered nus of various sizes and te heat, boils furiously and incessantly, rising to the height of two or three feet In another place, there is an aperture in the earth, from which rushes a coluround for some distance around sounds hollow, and startles the solitary trapper, as he hears the tra the sound of a ulf below, a place of hidden fires, and gazes round him with awe and uneasiness
The ion, is the Beer Spring, of which trappers give wonderful accounts They are said to turn aside froh the country to drink of its waters, with as erness as the Arab seeks some famous well of the desert
Captain Bonneville describes it as having the taste of beer His hts It did not appear to him to possess any medicinal properties, or to produce any peculiar effects
The Indians, however, refuse to taste it, and endeavor to persuade the whiteso
We have heard this also called the Soda Spring, and described as containing iron and sulphur It probably possesses some of the properties of the ballston water
The tio in quest of the party of free trappers, detached in the beginning of July, under the cokiss, to trap upon the head waters of Salmon River
His intention was to unite the, that all ly, on the 11th of Nove a rendezvous on Snake River, and, accompanied by three men, set out upon his journey His route lay across the plain of the Portneuf, a tributary stream of Snake River, called after an unfortunate Canadian trapper h which he passed bore evidence of volcanic convulsions and conflagrations in the olden time Great masses of lava lay scattered about in every direction; the crags and cliffs had apparently been under the action of fire; the rocks in some places seemed to have been in a state of fusion; the plain was rent and split with deep chasullies, some of which were partly filled with lava
They had not proceeded far, however, before they saw a party of horse full tilt toward them They instantly turned, and made full speed for the covert of a woody strea the trees The Indians came to a halt, and one of them came forward alone He reached Captain Bonneville and hisand about to post themselves A feords dispelled all uneasiness It was a party of twenty-five Bannack Indians, friendly to the whites, and they proposed, through their envoy, that both parties should encaether, and hunt the buffalo, of which they had discovered several large herds hard by Captain Bonneville cheerfully assented to their proposition, being curious to see their ether on a convenient spot, and prepared for the hunt The Indians first posted a boy on a small hill near the camp, to keep a look-out for enemies The ”runners,” then, as they are called, mounted on fleet horses, and armed with bows and arrows,as ht, in hollows and ravines When within a proper distance, a signal was given, and they all opened at once like a pack of hounds, with a full chorus of yells, dashi+ng into the ht and left The plain seemed absolutely to shake under the tra panic, the bulls furious with rage, uttering deep roars, and occasionally turning with a desperate rush upon their pursuers Nothing could surpass the spirit, grace, and dexterity, hich the Indians hted herd, and launching their arroith unerring aim In the midst of the apparent confusion, they selected their victi at the fattest of the cows, the flesh of the bull being nearly worthless, at this season of the year In a few minutes, each of the hunters had crippled three or four cows A single shot was sufficient for the purpose, and the animal, once maimed, was left to be completely dispatched at the end of the chase Frequently, a coas killed on the spot by a single arrow In one instance, Captain Bonneville saw an Indian shoot his arrow coround beyond The bulls, however, are not so easily killed as the cows, and always cost the hunter several arrows; so theh severely wounded, with the darts still sticking in their flesh
The grand sca over, the Indians proceeded to dispatch the ani up the carcasses, they returned with loads ofbefore large fires, and a hunters'