A Crowd Of Visitors Awaited Their Appearance,
All Eager For A Smoke And A Talk.
The pipe was immediately
lighted, and constantly replenished and kept alive until the
night was far advanced.
As usual, the utmost eagerness was
evinced by the guests to learn everything within the scope of
their comprehension respecting the Americans, for whom they
professed the most fraternal regard. The captain, in his replies,
made use of familiar illustrations, calculated to strike their
minds, and impress them with such an idea of the might of his
nation, as would induce them to treat with kindness and respect
all stragglers that might fall in their path. To their inquiries
as to the numbers of the people of the United States, he assured
them that they were as countless as the blades of grass in the
prairies, and that, great as Snake River was, if they were all
encamped upon its banks, they would drink it dry in a single day.
To these and similar statistics, they listened with profound
attention, and apparently, implicit belief. It was, indeed, a
striking scene: the captain, with his hunter's dress and bald
head in the midst, holding forth, and his wild auditors seated
around like so many statues, the fire lighting up their painted
faces and muscular figures, all fixed and motionless, excepting
when the pipe was passed, a question propounded, or a startling
fact in statistics received with a movement of surprise and a
half-suppressed ejaculation of wonder and delight.
The fame of the captain as a healer of diseases, had accompanied
him to this village, and the great chief, O-push-y-e-cut, now
entreated him to exert his skill on his daughter, who had been
for three days racked with pains, for which the Pierced-nose
doctors could devise no alleviation. The captain found her
extended on a pallet of mats in excruciating pain. Her father
manifested the strongest paternal affection for her, and assured
the captain that if he would but cure her, he would place the
Americans near his heart. The worthy captain needed no such
inducement. His kind heart was already touched by the sufferings
of the poor girl, and his sympathies quickened by her appearance;
for she was but about sixteen years of age, and uncommonly
beautiful in form and feature. The only difficulty with the
captain was, that he knew nothing of her malady, and that his
medical science was of a most haphazard kind. After considering
and cogitating for some time, as a man is apt to do when in a
maze of vague ideas, he made a desperate dash at a remedy. By his
directions, the girl was placed in a sort of rude vapor bath,
much used by the Nez Perces, where she was kept until near
fainting. He then gave her a dose of gunpowder dissolved in cold
water, and ordered her to be wrapped in buffalo robes and put to
sleep under a load of furs and blankets. The remedy succeeded:
the next morning she was free from pain, though extremely
languid; whereupon, the captain prescribed for her a bowl of
colt's head broth, and that she should be kept for a time on
simple diet.
The great chief was unbounded in his expressions of gratitude for
the recovery of his daughter. He would fain have detained the
captain a long time as his guest, but the time for departure had
arrived. When the captain's horse was brought for him to mount,
the chief declared that the steed was not worthy of him, and sent
for one of his best horses, which he presented in its stead;
declaring that it made his heart glad to see his friend so well
mounted. He then appointed a young Nez Perce to accompany his
guest to the next village, and "to carry his talk" concerning
them; and the two parties separated with mutual expressions of
good will.
The vapor bath of which we have made mention is in frequent use
among the Nez Perce tribe, chiefly for cleanliness. Their
sweating houses, as they call them, are small and close lodges,
and the vapor is produced by water poured slowly upon red-hot
stones.
On passing the limits of O-push-y-e-cut's domains, the travellers
left the elevated table-lands, and all the wild and romantic
scenery which has just been described. They now traversed a
gently undulating country, of such fertility that it excited the
rapturous admiration of two of the captain's followers, a
Kentuckian and a native of Ohio. They declared that it surpassed
any land that they had ever seen, and often exclaimed what a
delight it would be just to run a plough through such a rich and
teeming soil, and see it open its bountiful promise before the
share.
Another halt and sojourn of a night was made at the village of a
chief named He-mim-el-pilp, where similar ceremonies were
observed and hospitality experienced, as at the preceding
villages. They now pursued a west-southwest course through a
beautiful and fertile region, better wooded than most of the
tracts through which they had passed. In their progress, they met
with several bands of Nez Perces, by whom they were invariably
treated with the utmost kindness. Within seven days after leaving
the domain of He-mim-el-pilp, they struck the Columbia River at
Fort Wallah-Wallah, where they arrived on the 4th of March, 1834.
34.
Fort Wallah-Wallah Its commander Indians in its
neighborhood Exertions of Mr. Pambrune for their
improvement Religion Code of laws Range of the Lower Nez
Perces Camash, and other roots Nez Perce horses Preparations for
departure Refusal of supplies Departure A laggard and glutton
FORT WALLAH - WALLAH is a trading post of the Hudson's Bay
Company, situated just above the mouth of the river by the same
name, and on the left bank of the Columbia. It is built of
drift-wood, and calculated merely for defence against any attack
of the natives.
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