He Then Rode
Over With Two Or Three Men, To Visit The Crow Chief, By Whom He
Was Received With Great Apparent Cordiality.
In the meantime,
however, a party of young braves, who considered them absolved by
his distrust from all scruples of honor, made a circuit
privately, and dashed into his encampment.
Captain Stewart, who
had remained there in the absence of Fitzpatrick, behaved with
great spirit; but the Crows were too numerous and active. They
had got possession of the camp, and soon made booty of every
thing - carrying off all the horses. On their way back they met
Fitzpatrick returning to his camp; and finished their exploit by
rifling and nearly stripping him.
A negotiation now took place between the plundered white men and
the triumphant Crows; what eloquence and management Fitzpatrick
made use of, we do not know, but he succeeded in prevailing upon
the Crow chieftain to return him his horses and many of his
traps; together with his rifles and a few rounds of ammunition
for each man. He then set out with all speed to abandon the Crow
country, before he should meet with any fresh disasters.
After his departure, the consciences of some of the most orthodox
Crows pricked them sorely for having suffered such a cavalcade to
escape out of their hands. Anxious to wipe off so foul a stigma
on the reputation of the Crow nation, they followed on his trial,
nor quit hovering about him on his march until they had stolen a
number of his best horses and mules. It was, doubtless, this same
band which came upon the lonely trapper on the Popo Agie, and
generously gave him an old buffalo robe in exchange for his
rifle, his traps, and all his accoutrements. With these
anecdotes, we shall, for present, take our leave of the Crow
country and its vagabond chivalry.
28.
A region of natural curiosities The plain of white clay Hot
springs The Beer Spring Departure to seek the free trappers Plain
of Portneuf Lava Chasms and gullies Bannack Indians Their hunt
of the buffalo Hunter's feast Trencher heroes Bullying of an
absent foe The damp comrade The Indian spy Meeting with
Hodgkiss His adventures Poordevil Indians Triumph of the
Bannacks Blackfeet policy in war
CROSSING AN ELEVATED RIDGE, Captain Bonneville now came upon Bear
River, which, from its source to its entrance into the Great Salt
Lake, describes the figure of a horse-shoe. One of the principal
head waters of this river, although supposed to abound with
beaver, has never been visited by the trapper; rising among
rugged mountains, and being barricadoed [sic] by fallen pine
trees and tremendous precipices.
Proceeding down this river, the party encamped, on the 6th of
November, at the outlet of a lake about thirty miles long, and
from two to three miles in width, completely imbedded in low
ranges of mountains, and connected with Bear River by an
impassable swamp. It is called the Little Lake, to distinguish it
from the great one of salt water.
On the 10th of November, Captain Bonneville visited a place in
the neighborhood which is quite a region of natural curiosities.
An area of about half a mile square presents a level surface of
white clay or fuller's earth, perfectly spotless, resembling a
great slab of Parian marble, or a sheet of dazzling snow. The
effect is strikingly beautiful at all times: in summer, when it
is surrounded with verdure, or in autumn, when it contrasts its
bright immaculate surface with the withered herbage. Seen from a
distant eminence, it then shines like a mirror, set in the brown
landscape. Around this plain are clustered numerous springs of
various sizes and temperatures. One of them, of scalding heat,
boils furiously and incessantly, rising to the height of two or
three feet. In another place, there is an aperture in the earth,
from which rushes a column of steam that forms a perpetual cloud.
The ground for some distance around sounds hollow, and startles
the solitary trapper, as he hears the tramp of his horse giving
the sound of a muffled drum. He pictures to himself a mysterious
gulf below, a place of hidden fires, and gazes round him with awe
and uneasiness.
The most noted curiosity, however, of this singular region, is
the Beer Spring, of which trappers give wonderful accounts. They
are said to turn aside from their route through the country to
drink of its waters, with as much eagerness as the Arab seeks
some famous well of the desert. Captain Bonneville describes it
as having the taste of beer. His men drank it with avidity, and
in copious draughts. It did not appear to him to possess any
medicinal properties, or to produce any peculiar effects. The
Indians, however, refuse to taste it, and endeavor to persuade
the white men from doing so.
We have heard this also called the Soda Spring, and described as
containing iron and sulphur. It probably possesses some of the
properties of the Ballston water.
The time had now arrived for Captain Bonneville to go in quest of
the party of free trappers, detached in the beginning of July,
under the command of Mr. Hodgkiss, to trap upon the head waters
of Salmon River. His intention was to unite them with the party
with which he was at present travelling, that all might go into
quarters together for the winter. Accordingly, on the 11th of
November, he took a temporary leave of his band, appointing a
rendezvous on Snake River, and, accompanied by three men, set out
upon his journey. His route lay across the plain of the Portneuf,
a tributary stream of Snake River, called after an unfortunate
Canadian trapper murdered by the Indians. The whole country
through which he passed bore evidence of volcanic convulsions and
conflagrations in the olden time. Great masses of lava lay
scattered about in every direction; the crags and cliffs had
apparently been under the action of fire; the rocks in some
places seemed to have been in a state of fusion; the plain was
rent and split with deep chasms and gullies, some of which were
partly filled with lava.
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