Part 19 (1/2)

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Departure for the rendezvous--A war party of Blackfeet--A ers of a night attack--A panic as--Awith buffaloes--A buffalo bait--Arrival at the rendezvous-- Meeting of various bands

AFTER THE TWO DAYS of festive indulgence, Captain Bonneville broke up the encampment, and set out with his motley crew of hired and free trappers, half-breeds, Indians, and squaws, for thehis course up the Blackfoot River, he soon reached the hills a which it takes its rise Here, while on the march, he descried from the brow of a hill, a war party of about sixty Blackfeet, on the plain ireater part of his people were dispersed in various directions Still, to betray hesitation or fear would be to discover his actual weakness, and to invite attack He assuerent tone; ordered the squaws to lead the horses to a srove of ashen trees, and unload and tie thereat bustle to behither and thither, and vociferating with all theirunder way for an attack

To keep up the deception as to his force, he ordered, at night, a nuilant watch His men were all directed to keep themselves prepared for instant action In such cases the experienced trapper sleeps in his clothes, with his rifle beside him, the shot-belt and powder-flask on the stock: so that, in case of alarm, he can lay his hand upon the whole of his equipment at once, and start up, completely armed

Captain Bonneville was also especially careful to secure the horses, and set a vigilant guard upon theer of a night attack The grandthe horses In such cases one horse frightens another, until all are alarreat nuht alar of the horses that have broken loose; the snorting, sta of dogs; the yelling of Indians; the scauns; the overturning of lodges, and trahting up forether inable In this way, so to several hundred will be frightened off in a single night

The night passed off without any disturbance; but there was no likelihood that a war party of Blackfeet, once on the track of a camp where there was a chance for spoils, would fail to hover round it The captain, therefore, continued toout scouts in the advance, and on every rising ground

In the course of the day he arrived at the plain of white clay, already s, called Beer Springs, by the trappers Here thehad its jovial knot of hard drinkers, with tin cup in hand, indulging in ajokes, singing drinking songs, and uttering peals of laughter, until it seee, and cheated them into a fit of intoxication Indeed, in the exciteant in their co it above every beverage produced froular and fantastic scene; suited to a region where everything is strange and peculiar:--These groups of trappers, and hunters, and Indians, with their wild costuayety, and reckless air; quaffing, andfountains; while beside them lay their weep ons, ready to be snatched up for instant service Painters are fond of representing banditti at their rude and picturesque carousels; but here were groups, still more rude and picturesque; and it needed but a sudden onset of Blackfeet, and a quick transition from a fantastic revel to a furious melee, to have rendered this picture of a trapper's life complete

The beer frolic, however, passed off without any untoward circu bouts, left neither headache nor heartache behind Captain Bonneville now directed his course up along Bear River; a the buffalo, hich the country was covered So his repose in a prairie, he would steal along a ravine, until close upon him; then rouse him from his meditations with a pebble, and take a shot at him as he started up Such is the quickness hich this anis, that it is not easy to discover the muscular process by which it is effected The horse rises first upon his fore legs; and the domestic cow, upon her hinder limbs; but the buffalo bounds at once from a couchant to an erect position, with a celerity that baffles the eye Though froait, he does not appear to run with much swiftness; yet, it takes a stanch horse to overtake hiround; and a buffalo cow is still fleeter in herthe Indians and half-breeds of the party, were several admirable horserotesque kind of buffalo bait Whenever they found a huge bull in the plains, they prepared for their teasing and barbarous sport Surrounding hie their arrows at hi him to make an attack; which, with a dexterous movement of the horse, they would easily avoid In this way, they hovered round hied about, until he was bristled all over like a porcupine When they perceived in hier be provoked to make battle, they would dis hi hith fro eyes and a hoarse bellowing, upon any eneht; but in a little while, his transient exciteround, and expire The arroere then plucked forth, the tongue cut out and preserved as a dainty, and the carcass left a banquet for the wolves

Pursuing his course up Bear River, Captain Bonneville arrived, on the 13th of June, at the Little Snake Lake; where he encaht examine its shores and outlets The latter, he found extreed to construct canoes of rushes, hich to explore them The mouths of all the streams which fall into this lake from the west, are marshy and inconsiderable; but on the east side, there is a beautiful beach, broken, occasionally, by high and isolated bluffs, which advance upon the lake, and heighten the character of the scenery

The water is very shallow, but abounds with trout, and other s finished his survey of the lake, Captain Bonneville proceeded on his journey, until on the banks of the Bear River, soher up, he came upon the party which he had detached a year before, to circumambulate the Great Salt Lake, and ascertain its extent, and the nature of its shores They had been encareatly rejoiced atoncebeen separated The first inquiry of Captain Bonneville was about the result of their journey, and the information they had procured as to the Great Salt Lake; the object of his intense curiosity and ambition The substance of their report will be found in the following chapter

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Plan of the Salt Lake expedition--Great sandy deserts-- Sufferings froes--Thefts at night--A trapper's revenge-- Alaruilty conscience--Athe--Pacific--Arrival at--Monterey--Account of the place and neighborhood--Lower-- California--Its extent--The Peninsula--Soil--Climate-- Production--Its settlements by the Jesuits--Their sway over the Indians--Their expulsion--Ruins of a missionary establishment--Sublime scenery--Upper California Missions-- Their power and policy--Resources of the country--Designs of foreign nations

IT WAS ON THE 24TH of July, in the preceding year (1833), that the brigade of forty men set out from Green River valley, to explore the Great Salt Lake They were toon all the streams which should fall in their way, and to keep journals and e of the lake and the surrounding country All the resources of Captain Bonneville had been tasked to fit out this favorite expedition The country lying to the southwest of thedown to California, was as yet ale, it was untraversed by the trapper, who preferred those parts of the wilderness where the roaave him comparatively an abundant and luxurious life Still it was said the deer, the elk, and the bighorn were to be found there, so that, with a little diligence and econo food As a precaution, however, the party halted on Bear River and hunted for a few days, until they had laid in a supply of dried buffalo meat and venison; they then passed by the head waters of the Cassie River, and soon found themselves launched on an immense sandy desert Southwardly, on their left, they beheld the Great Salt Lake, spread out like a sea, but they found no strea into it A desert extended around them, and stretched to the southwest, as far as the eye could reach, rivalling the deserts of Asia and Africa in sterility There was neither tree, nor herbage, nor spring, nor pool, nor running strea but parched wastes of sand, where horse and rider were in danger of perishi+ng

Their sufferings, at length, becareat that they abandoned their intended course, andin the north, where they hoped to find water After a ti directly towards thesethirst, and refreshed the this strea fed by nu the mountains, it took a sweep toward the southwest, and the travellers still kept along it, trapping beaver as they went, on the flesh of which they subsisted for the present, husbanding their dried meat for future necessities

The stream on which they had thus fallen is called by soden's River, fro and intrepid leader of the Hudson's Bay Coion through which the travellers were passing, is wandered over by hordes of Shoshokoes, or Root Diggers, the forlorn branch of the Snake tribe They are a shy people, prone to keep aloof froer The travellers frequentlyin various parts of the vast landscape, so that they knew there were great nuhborhood, but scarcely ever were any of thean to have vexatious proofs that, if the Shoshokoes were quiet by day, they were busy at night The ca, but various articles werecould be seen of the marauders What particularly exasperated the hunters, was to have their traps stolen froe character, discovering that his traps had been carried off in the night, took a horrid oath to kill the first Indian he shouldwith his coers, seated on the river bank, fishi+ng Advancing upon the his bleeding body into the stream The other Indian fled and was suffered to escape Such is the indifference hich acts of violence are regarded in the wilderness, and such the immunity an armed ruffian enjoys beyond the barriers of the laws, that the only punishment this desperado met with, was a rebuke from the leader of the party The trappers now left the scene of this infaedy, and kept on ard, down the course of the river, which wound along with a range of ht hand, and a sandy, but somewhat fertile plain, on the left As they proceeded, they beheld colu, as before, in various directions, which their guilty consciences now converted into alarnals, to arouse the country and collect the scattered bands for vengeance

After a tian to make their appearance, and sometimes in considerable numbers, but always pacific; the trappers, however, suspected them of deep-laid plans to draw theet possession of their ca conspiracies, which, it is probable, never entered into the heads of the poor savages In fact, they are a simple, timid, inoffensive race, unpractised in warfare, and scarce provided with any weapons, excepting for the chase Their lives are passed in the great sand plains and along the adjacent rivers; they subsist sometimes on fish, at other times on roots and the seeds of a plant, called the cat's-tail They are of the same kind of people that Captain Bonneville found upon Snake River, and whom he found so mild and inoffensive

The trappers, however, had persuaded theh a hostile country, and that i round their ca for an opportunity to surprise theth, one day they caden's River, which they were obliged to ford Here a great number of Shoshokoes were posted on the opposite bank Persuaded they were there with hostile intent, they advanced upon them, levelled their rifles, and killed twenty five of them upon the spot The rest fled to a short distance, then halted and turned about, howling and whining like wolves, and uttering the s The trappers chased them in every direction; the poor wretches made no defence, but fled with terror; neither does it appear from the accounts of the boasted victors, that a weapon had been wielded or a weapon launched by the Indians throughout the affair We feel perfectly convinced that the poor savages had no hostile intention, but had h motives of curiosity, as others of their tribe had done when Captain Bonneville and his co Snake River

The trappers continued down Ogden's River, until they ascertained that it lost itself in a great swae They then struck directly ard, across the great chain of Californiabetween these interior plains and the shores of the Pacific

For three and twenty days they were entangled aes of which are in many places covered with perpetual snow Their passes and defiles present the wildest scenery, partaking of the sublihtful precipices The sufferings of the travellers ae mountains were extreth, they h them, and caion extending along the coast, with nificent forests, verdant savannas, and prairies that looked like stately parks Here they found deer and other game in abundance, and indemnified themselves for past fa numerous small bands of natives, posted upon various streae and post of Monterey

This is a s about two hundred houses, situated in latitude 37 north It has a capacious bay, with indifferent anchorage

The surrounding country is extremely fertile, especially in the valleys; the soil is richer, the further you penetrate into the interior, and the cli Indeed, all California, extending along the Pacific Ocean from latitude 19 30' to 42 north, is represented as one of the ions in North Ath about seven hundred reat peninsula, which crosses the tropics and terminates in the torrid zone

It is separated from the mainland by the Gulf of California, soulf empties the Colorado of the West, the Seeds-ke-dee, or Green River, as it is also sometimes called