In A
Little While, They Made Signals From A Distance That All Was
Friendly.
By this time the cloud of dust had swept on as if
hurried along by a blast, and a band of wild horsemen came
dashing at full leap into the camp, yelling and whooping like so
many maniacs.
Their dresses, their accoutrements, their mode of
riding, and their uncouth clamor, made them seem a party of
savages arrayed for war; but they proved to be principally
half-breeds, and white men grown savage in the wilderness, who
were employed as trappers and hunters in the service of the
Hudson's Bay Company.
Here was again "high jinks" in the camp. Captain Bonneville's men
hailed these wild scamperers as congenial spirits, or rather as
the very game birds of their class. They entertained them with
the hospitality of mountaineers, feasting them at every fire. At
first, there were mutual details of adventures and exploits, and
broad joking mingled with peals of laughter. Then came on
boasting of the comparative merits of horses and rifles, which
soon engrossed every tongue. This naturally led to racing, and
shooting at a mark; one trial of speed and skill succeeded
another, shouts and acclamations rose from the victorious
parties, fierce altercations succeeded, and a general melee was
about to take place, when suddenly the attention of the
quarrellers was arrested by a strange kind of Indian chant or
chorus, that seemed to operate upon them as a charm. Their fury
was at an end; a tacit reconciliation succeeded and the ideas of
the whole mongrel crowd whites, half-breeds and squaws were
turned in a new direction.
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