They Remonstrated With Him On
The Imprudence Of Remaining With So Trifling A Guard In A Region
So Full Of Danger.
Captain Bonneville vindicated the policy of
his conduct.
He never hesitated to send out all his hunters,
when any important object was to be attained; and experience had
taught him that he was most secure when his forces were thus
distributed over the surrounding country. He then was sure that
no enemy could approach, from any direction, without being
discovered by his hunters; who have a quick eye for detecting the
slightest signs of the proximity of Indians; and who would
instantly convey intelligence to the camp.
The captain now set to work with his men, to prepare a suitable
entertainment for his guests. It was a time of plenty in the
camp; of prime hunters' dainties; of buffalo humps, and buffalo
tongues; and roasted ribs, and broiled marrow-bones: all these
were cooked in hunters' style; served up with a profusion known
only on a plentiful hunting ground, and discussed with an
appetite that would astonish the puny gourmands of the cities.
But above all, and to give a bacchanalian grace to this truly
masculine repast, the captain produced his mellifluous keg of
home-brewed nectar, which had been so potent over the senses of
the veteran of Hudson's Bay. Potations, pottle deep, again went
round; never did beverage excite greater glee, or meet with more
rapturous commendation. The parties were fast advancing to that
happy state which would have insured ample cause for the next
day's repentance; and the bees were already beginning to buzz
about their ears, when a messenger came spurring to the camp with
intelligence that Wyeth's people had got entangled in one of
those deep and frightful ravines, piled with immense fragments of
volcanic rock, which gash the whole country about the head-waters
of the Blackfoot River.
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