With Stealthy Quiet, They
Were Brought Up And Saddled; And In A Few Moments He And His
Prize Were Careering Over The Snow, With Which The Whole Country
Was Covered.
In the eagerness of escape, they had made no
provision for their journey; days must elapse before they could
reach their haven of safety, and mountains and prairies be
traversed, wrapped in all the desolation of winter.
For the
present, however they thought of nothing but flight; urging their
horses forward over the dreary wastes, and fancying, in the
howling of every blast, they heard the yell of the pursuer.
At early dawn, the Shoshonie became aware of his loss. Mounting
his swiftest horse, he set off in hot pursuit. He soon found the
trail of the fugitives, and spurred on in hopes of overtaking
them. The winds, however, which swept the valley, had drifted the
light snow into the prints made by the horses' hoofs. In a little
while he lost all trace of them, and was completely thrown out of
the chase. He knew, however, the situation of the camp toward
which they were bound, and a direct course through the mountains,
by which he might arrive there sooner than the fugitives. Through
the most rugged defiles, therefore, he urged his course by day
and night, scarce pausing until he reached the camp. It was some
time before the fugitives made their appearance. Six days had
they traversed the wintry wilds. They came, haggard with hunger
and fatigue, and their horses faltering under them. The first
object that met their eyes on entering the camp was the Shoshonie
brave. He rushed, knife in hand, to plunge it in the heart that
had proved false to him. The trapper threw himself before the
cowering form of his mistress, and, exhausted as he was, prepared
for a deadly struggle. The Shoshonie paused. His habitual awe of
the white man checked his arm; the trapper's friends crowded to
the spot, and arrested him. A parley ensued. A kind of crim. con.
adjudication took place; such as frequently occurs in civilized
life. A couple of horses were declared to be a fair compensation
for the loss of a woman who had previously lost her heart; with
this, the Shoshonie brave was fain to pacify his passion. He
returned to Captain Bonneville's camp, somewhat crestfallen, it
is true; but parried the officious condolements of his friends by
observing that two good horses were very good pay for one bad
wife.
48.
Breaking up of winter quarters Move to Green River A trapper
and his rifle An arrival in camp A free trapper and his squaw
in distress Story of a Blackfoot belle.
THE winter was now breaking up, the snows were melted, from the
hills, and from the lower parts of the mountains, and the time
for decamping had arrived. Captain Bonneville dispatched a party
to the caches, who brought away all the effects concealed there,
and on the 1st of April (1835) , the camp was broken up, and
every one on the move. The white men and their allies, the Eutaws
and Shoshonies, parted with many regrets and sincere expressions
of good-will; for their intercourse throughout the winter had
been of the most friendly kind.
Captain Bonneville and his party passed by Ham's Fork, and
reached the Colorado, or Green River, without accident, on the
banks of which they remained during the residue of the spring.
During this time, they were conscious that a band of hostile
Indians were hovering about their vicinity, watching for an
opportunity to slay or steal; but the vigilant precautions of
Captain Bonneville baffled all their manoeuvres. In such
dangerous times, the experienced mountaineer is never without his
rifle even in camp. On going from lodge to lodge to visit his
comrades, he takes it with him. On seating himself in a lodge, he
lays it beside him, ready to be snatched up; when he goes out, he
takes it up as regularly as a citizen would his walking-staff.
His rifle is his constant friend and protector.
On the 10th of June, the party was a little to the east of the
Wind River Mountains, where they halted for a time in excellent
pasturage, to give their horses a chance to recruit their
strength for a long journey; for it was Captain Bonneville's
intention to shape his course to the settlements; having already
been detained by the complication of his duties, and by various
losses and impediments, far beyond the time specified in his
leave of absence.
While the party was thus reposing in the neighborhood of the Wind
River Mountains, a solitary free trapper rode one day into the
camp, and accosted Captain Bonneville. He belonged, he said, to a
party of thirty hunters, who had just passed through the
neighborhood, but whom he had abandoned in consequence of their
ill treatment of a brother trapper; whom they had cast off from
their party, and left with his bag and baggage, and an Indian
wife into the bargain, in the midst of a desolate prairie. The
horseman gave a piteous account of the situation of this helpless
pair, and solicited the loan of horses to bring them and their
effects to the camp.
The captain was not a man to refuse assistance to any one in
distress, especially when there was a woman in the case; horses
were immediately dispatched, with an escort, to aid the
unfortunate couple. The next day they made their appearance with
all their effects; the man, a stalwart mountaineer, with a
peculiarly game look; the woman, a young Blackfoot beauty,
arrayed in the trappings and trinketry of a free trapper's bride.
Finding the woman to be quick-witted and communicative, Captain
Bonneville entered into conversation with her, and obtained from
her many particulars concerning the habits and customs of her
tribe; especially their wars and huntings. They pride themselves
upon being the "best legs of the mountains," and hunt the buffalo
on foot.
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