As
They Enjoy Their Favorite State Of Hostility With All These
Tribes, Their Expeditions Are Prone To Be Conducted In
The most
lawless and predatory style; nor do they hesitate to extend their
maraudings to any party of white men
They meet with; following
their trails; hovering about their camps; waylaying and dogging
the caravans of the free traders, and murdering the solitary
trapper. The consequences are frequent and desperate fights
between them and the "mountaineers," in the wild defiles and
fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains.
The band in question was, at this time, on their way homeward
from one of their customary visits to the Arapahoes; and in the
ensuing chapter we shall treat of some bloody encounters between
them and the trappers, which had taken place just before the
arrival of Captain Bonneville among the mountains.
6
Sublette and his band Robert Campbell Mr. Wyeth and a band of
"down-easters" Yankee enterprise Fitzpatrick His adventure with
the Blackfeet A rendezvous of mountaineers The battle of Pierre's
Hole An Indian ambuscade Sublette's return
LEAVING CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE and his band ensconced within their
fortified camp in the Green River valley, we shall step back and
accompany a party of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in its
progress, with supplies from St. Louis, to the annual rendezvous
at Pierre's Hole. This party consisted of sixty men, well
mounted, and conducting a line of packhorses. They were commanded
by Captain William Sublette, a partner in the company, and one of
the most active, intrepid, and renowned leaders in this half
military kind of service. He was accompanied by his associate in
business, and tried companion in danger, Mr. Robert Campbell, one
of the pioneers of the trade beyond the mountains, who had
commanded trapping parties there in times of the greatest peril.
As these worthy compeers were on their route to the frontier,
they fell in with another expedition, likewise on its way to the
mountains. This was a party of regular "down-easters," that is to
say, people of New England, who, with the all-penetrating and
all-pervading spirit of their race, were now pushing their way
into a new field of enterprise with which they were totally
unacquainted. The party had been fitted out and was maintained
and commanded by Mr. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, of Boston. This
gentleman had conceived an idea that a profitable fishery for
salmon might be established on the Columbia River, and connected
with the fur trade. He had, accordingly, invested capital in
goods, calculated, as he supposed, for the Indian trade, and had
enlisted a number of eastern men in his employ, who had never
been in the Far West, nor knew anything of the wilderness. With
these, he was bravely steering his way across the continent,
undismayed by danger, difficulty, or distance, in the same way
that a New England coaster and his neighbors will coolly launch
forth on a voyage to the Black Sea, or a whaling cruise to the
Pacific.
With all their national aptitude at expedient and resource, Wyeth
and his men felt themselves completely at a loss when they
reached the frontier, and found that the wilderness required
experience and habitudes of which they were totally deficient.
Not one of the party, excepting the leader, had ever seen an
Indian or handled a rifle; they were without guide or
interpreter, and totally unacquainted with "wood craft" and the
modes of making their way among savage hordes, and subsisting
themselves during long marches over wild mountains and barren
plains.
In this predicament, Captain Sublette found them, in a manner
becalmed, or rather run aground, at the little frontier town of
Independence, in Missouri, and kindly took them in tow. The two
parties travelled amicably together; the frontier men of
Sublette's party gave their Yankee comrades some lessons in
hunting, and some insight into the art and mystery of dealing
with the Indians, and they all arrived without accident at the
upper branches of the Nebraska or Platte River.
In the course of their march, Mr. Fitzpatrick, the partner of the
company who was resident at that time beyond the mountains, came
down from the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole to meet them and hurry
them forward. He travelled in company with them until they
reached the Sweet Water; then taking a couple of horses, one for
the saddle, and the other as a pack-horse, he started off express
for Pierre's Hole, to make arrangements against their arrival,
that he might commence his hunting campaign before the rival
company.
Fitzpatrick was a hardy and experienced mountaineer, and knew all
the passes and defiles. As he was pursuing his lonely course up
the Green River valley, he described several horsemen at a
distance, and came to a halt to reconnoitre. He supposed them to
be some detachment from the rendezvous, or a party of friendly
Indians. They perceived him, and setting up the war-whoop, dashed
forward at full speed: he saw at once his mistake and his
peril - they were Blackfeet. Springing upon his fleetest horse,
and abandoning the other to the enemy, he made for the mountains,
and succeeded in escaping up one of the most dangerous defiles.
Here he concealed himself until he thought the Indians had gone
off, when he returned into the valley. He was again pursued, lost
his remaining horse, and only escaped by scrambling up among the
cliffs. For several days he remained lurking among rocks and
precipices, and almost famished, having but one remaining charge
in his rifle, which he kept for self-defence.
In the meantime, Sublette and Campbell, with their fellow
traveller, Wyeth, had pursued their march unmolested, and arrived
in the Green River valley, totally unconscious that there was any
lurking enemy at hand. They had encamped one night on the banks
of a small stream, which came down from the Wind River Mountains,
when about midnight, a band of Indians burst upon their camp,
with horrible yells and whoops, and a discharge of guns and
arrows.
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