The patience
to collect; for he was so deeply grieved by the failure of his
plans, and so indignant at the atrocities related to him, that he
turned, with disgust and horror, from the narrators. Had he
exerted a little of the Lynch law of the wilderness, and hanged
those dexterous horsemen in their own lasos, it would but have
been a well-merited and salutary act of retributive justice. The
failure of this expedition was a blow to his pride, and a still
greater blow to his purse. The Great Salt Lake still remained
unexplored; at the same time, the means which had been furnished
so liberally to fit out this favorite expedition, had all been
squandered at Monterey; and the peltries, also, which had been
collected on the way. He would have but scanty returns,
therefore, to make this year, to his associates in the United
States; and there was great danger of their becoming
disheartened, and abandoning the enterprise.
40
Traveller's tales Indian lurkers Prognostics of Buckeye
Signs and portents The medicine wolf An alarm An ambush
The captured provant Triumph of Buckeye Arrival of supplies
Grand carouse Arrangements for the year Mr. Wyeth and his
new-levied band.
THE horror and indignation felt by Captain Bonneville at the
excesses of the Californian adventurers were not participated by
his men; on the contrary, the events of that expedition were
favorite themes in the camp. The heroes of Monterey bore the palm
in all the gossipings among the hunters. Their glowing
descriptions of Spanish bear-baits and bull-fights especially,
were listened to with intense delight; and had another expedition
to California been proposed, the difficulty would have been to
restrain a general eagerness to volunteer.
The captain had not long been at the rendezvous when he
perceived, by various signs, that Indians were lurking in the
neighborhood. It was evident that the Blackfoot band, which he
had seen when on his march, had dogged his party, and were intent
on mischief. He endeavored to keep his camp on the alert; but it
is as difficult to maintain discipline among trappers at a
rendezvous as among sailors when in port.
Buckeye, the Delaware Indian, was scandalized at this
heedlessness of the hunters when an enemy was at hand, and was
continually preaching up caution. He was a little prone to play
the prophet, and to deal in signs and portents, which
occasionally excited the merriment of his white comrades. He was
a great dreamer, and believed in charms and talismans, or
medicines, and could foretell the approach of strangers by the
howling or barking of the small prairie wolf. This animal, being
driven by the larger wolves from the carcasses left on the
hunting grounds by the hunters, follows the trail of the fresh
meat carried to the camp.
