They Urged This Advice
With Great Earnestness; Declaring That Their Chief Would Be
Extremely Angry, And Treat Them Severely, Should Any Of The
Horses Of His Good Friends, The White Men, Be Lost, In Crossing
Under Their Guidance; And That, Therefore, It Was Good They
Should Not Attempt It.
Captain Bonneville sat smoking his pipe, and listening to them
with Indian silence and gravity.
When they had finished, he
replied to them in their own style of language.
"My friends," said he, "I have seen the pass, and have listened
to your words; you have little hearts. When troubles and dangers
lie in your way, you turn your backs. That is not the way with my
nation. When great obstacles present, and threaten to keep them
back, their hearts swell, and they push forward. They love to
conquer difficulties. But enough for the present. Night is coming
on; let us return to our camp."
He moved on, and they followed in silence. On reaching the camp,
he found the men extremely discouraged. One of their number had
been surveying the neighborhood, and seriously assured them that
the snow was at least a hundred feet deep. The captain cheered
them up, and diffused fresh spirit in them by his example. Still
he was much perplexed how to proceed. About dark there was a
slight drizzling rain. An expedient now suggested itself. This
was to make two light sleds, place the packs on them, and drag
them to the other side of the mountain, thus forming a road in
the wet snow, which, should it afterward freeze, would be
sufficiently hard to bear the horses.
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