It Was Not, However, Till After
Dark That The Whole Party Was Collected; And Then, As It Rained
And We
Had killed nothing, we passed an uncomfortable night.
The party had been too busily occupied with the horses to make
Any hunting excursion; and though, as we came along Fish Creek,
we saw many beaver-dams, we saw none of the animals themselves."
The Indian guide appears here to have lost his way;
but, not dismayed, he pushed on through a trackless wilderness,
sometimes travelling on the snow that now covered the mountains.
On the fourth of September, the party came upon a large
encampment of Indians, who received them with much ceremony.
The journal says: -
"September 5, we assembled the chiefs and warriors, and informed them
who we were, and the purpose for which we had visited their country.
All this was, however, conveyed to them through so many different languages,
that it was not comprehended without difficulty. We therefore
proceeded to the more intelligible language of presents, and made four
chiefs by giving a medal and a small quantity of tobacco to each.
We received in turn from the principal chief a present consisting
of the skins of a blaireau (badger), an otter, and two antelopes,
and were treated by the women to some dried roots and berries.
We then began to traffic for horses, and succeeded in exchanging seven
and purchasing eleven, for which we gave a few articles of merchandise.
"This encampment consists of thirty-three tents, in which
were about four hundred souls, among whom eighty were men.
They are called Ootlashoots, and represent themselves as one band
of a nation called Tushepaws, a numerous people of four hundred
and fifty tents, residing on the head-waters of the Missouri
and Columbia rivers, and some of them lower down the latter river.
In person these Indians are stout, and their complexion lighter
than that common among Indians.
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