-
"About Two O'clock We Collected Our Horses And Set Out,
Accompanied By Weahkoonut, With Ten Or Twelve Men And A Man
Who Said He Was The Brother Of Twisted-Hair.
At four miles
we came to a single house of three families, but could not
procure provisions of any
Kind; and five miles further we
halted for the night near another house, built like the rest,
of sticks, mats, and dried hay, and containing six families.
It was now so difficult to procure anything to eat that our
chief dependence was on the horse which we received yesterday
for medicine; but to our great disappointment he broke the rope
by which be was confined, made his escape, and left us supperless
in the rain."
Next day they met an Indian who brought them two canisters of powder,
which they at once knew to be some of that which they had buried last autumn.
The Indian said that his dog had dug it up in the meadow by the river,
and he had restored it to its rightful owners. As a reward for his honesty,
the captains gave him a flint and steel for striking fire; and they regretted
that their own poverty prevented them from being more liberal to the man.
They observed that the Rocky Mountains, now in full sight,
were still covered with snow, and the prospect of crossing them
was not very rosy. Their Chopunnish guide told them that it would
be impossible to cross the mountains before the next full moon,
which would be about the first of June. The journal adds:
"To us, who are desirous of reaching the plains of the Missouri -
if for no other reason, for the purpose of enjoying a good meal -
this intelligence was by no means welcome, and gave no relish
to the remainder of the horse killed at Colter's Creek, which formed
our supper, as part of which had already been our dinner."
Next day, accordingly, the hunters turned out early in the morning,
and before noon returned with four deer and a duck, which,
with the remains of horse-beef on hand, gave them a much more
plentiful stock of provisions than had lately fallen to their lot.
During the previous winter, they were told, the Indians suffered
very much for lack of food, game of all sorts being scarce.
They were forced to boil and eat the moss growing on the trees,
and they cut down the pine-trees for the sake of the small nut
to be found in the pine-cones. Here they were met by an old friend,
Neeshnepahkeeook and the Shoshonee, who had acted as interpreter
for them. The journal says: -
"We gave Neeshnepahkeeook and his people some of our game and horse-beef,
besides the entrails of the deer, and four fawns which we found
inside of two of them. They did not eat any of them perfectly raw,
but the entrails had very little cooking; the fawns were boiled whole,
and the hide, hair, and entrails all consumed.
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