This Peculiarity Is Not Confined To The Blackfeet.
Among the
Osages, says Captain Bonneville, when a warrior falls in battle,
his comrades, though they may have fought
With consummate valor,
and won a glorious victory, will leave their arms upon the field
of battle, and returning home with dejected countenances, will
halt without the encampment, and wait until the relatives of the
slain come forth and invite them to mingle again with their
people.
29.
Winter camp at the Portneuf Fine springs The Bannack
Indians Their honesty Captain Bonneville prepares for an
expedition Christmas The American Falls Wild scenery Fishing
Falls Snake Indians Scenery on the Bruneau View of volcanic
country from a mountain Powder River Shoshokoes, or Root
Diggers Their character, habits, habitations, dogs Vanity at its
last shift
IN ESTABLISHING his winter camp near the Portnenf, Captain
Bonneville had drawn off to some little distance from his Bannack
friends, to avoid all annoyance from their intimacy or
intrusions. In so doing, however, he had been obliged to take up
his quarters on the extreme edge of the flat land, where he was
encompassed with ice and snow, and had nothing better for his
horses to subsist on than wormwood. The Bannacks, on the
contrary, were encamped among fine springs of water, where there
was grass in abundance. Some of these springs gush out of the
earth in sufficient quantity to turn a mill; and furnish
beautiful streams, clear as crystal, and full of trout of a large
size, which may be seen darting about the transparent water.
Winter now set in regularly. The snow had fallen frequently, and
in large quantities, and covered the ground to a depth of a foot;
and the continued coldness of the weather prevented any thaw.
By degrees, a distrust which at first subsisted between the
Indians and the trappers, subsided, and gave way to mutual
confidence and good will. A few presents convinced the chiefs
that the white men were their friends; nor were the white men
wanting in proofs of the honesty and good faith of their savage
neighbors. Occasionally, the deep snow and the want of fodder
obliged them to turn their weakest horses out to roam in quest of
sustenance. If they at any time strayed to the camp of the
Bannacks, they were immediately brought back. It must be
confessed, however, that if the stray horse happened, by any
chance, to be in vigorous plight and good condition, though he
was equally sure to be returned by the honest Bannacks, yet it
was always after the lapse of several days, and in a very gaunt
and jaded state; and always with the remark that they had found
him a long way off. The uncharitable were apt to surmise that he
had, in the interim, been well used up in a buffalo hunt; but
those accustomed to Indian morality in the matter of horseflesh,
considered it a singular evidence of honesty that he should be
brought back at all.
Being convinced, therefore, from these, and other circumstances,
that his people were encamped in the neighborhood of a tribe as
honest as they were valiant, and satisfied that they would pass
their winter unmolested, Captain Bonneville prepared for a
reconnoitring expedition of great extent and peril. This was, to
penetrate to the Hudson's Bay establishments on the banks of the
Columbia, and to make himself acquainted with the country and the
Indian tribes; it being one part of his scheme to establish a
trading post somewhere on the lower part of the river, so as to
participate in the trade lost to the United States by the capture
of Astoria. This expedition would, of course, take him through
the Snake River country, and across the Blue Mountains, the
scenes of so much hardship and disaster to Hunt and Crooks, and
their Astorian bands, who first explored it, and he would have to
pass through it in the same frightful season, the depth of
winter.
The idea of risk and hardship, however, only served to stimulate
the adventurous spirit of the captain. He chose three companions
for his journey, put up a small stock of necessaries in the most
portable form, and selected five horses and mules for themselves
and their baggage. He proposed to rejoin his band in the early
part of March, at the winter encampment near the Portneuf. All
these arrangements being completed, he mounted his horse on
Christmas morning, and set off with his three comrades. They
halted a little beyond the Bannack camp, and made their Christmas
dinner, which, if not a very merry, was a very hearty one, after
which they resumed their journey.
They were obliged to travel slowly, to spare their horses; for
the snow had increased in depth to eighteen inches; and though
somewhat packed and frozen, was not sufficiently so to yield firm
footing. Their route lay to the west, down along the left side of
Snake River; and they were several days in reaching the first, or
American Falls. The banks of the river, for a considerable
distance, both above and below the falls, have a volcanic
character: masses of basaltic rock are piled one upon another;
the water makes its way through their broken chasms, boiling
through narrow channels, or pitching in beautiful cascades over
ridges of basaltic columns.
Beyond these falls, they came to a picturesque, but
inconsiderable stream, called the Cassie. It runs through a level
valley, about four miles wide, where the soil is good; but the
prevalent coldness and dryness of the climate is unfavorable to
vegetation. Near to this stream there is a small mountain of mica
slate, including garnets. Granite, in small blocks, is likewise
seen in this neighborhood, and white sandstone. From this river,
the travellers had a prospect of the snowy heights of the Salmon
River Mountains to the north; the nearest, at least fifty miles
distant.
In pursuing his course westward, Captain Bonneville generally
kept several miles from Snake River, crossing the heads of its
tributary streams; though he often found the open country so
encumbered by volcanic rocks, as to render travelling extremely
difficult.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 67 of 117
Words from 67242 to 68266
of 118673