As The Party Were Proceeding Up The Columbia, Near The Mouth Of
The Wallah-Wallah River, Several Indian Canoes Put Off From The
Shore To Overtake Them, And A Voice Called Upon Them In French
And Requested Them To Stop.
They accordingly put to shore, and
were joined by those in the canoes.
To their surprise, they
recognized in the person who had hailed them the Indian wife of
Pierre Dorion, accompanied by her two children. She had a story
to tell, involving the fate of several of our unfortunate
adventurers.
Mr. John Reed, the Hibernian, it will be remembered, had been
detached during the summer to the Snake River. His party
consisted of four Canadians, Giles Le Clerc, Francois Landry,
Jean Baptiste Turcot, and Andre La Chapelle, together with two
hunters, Pierre Dorion and Pierre Delaunay; Dorion, as usual,
being accompanied by his wife and children. The objects of this
expedition were twofold: to trap beaver, and to search for the
three hunters, Robinson, Hoback, and Rezner.
In the course of the autumn, Reed lost one man, Landry, by death;
another one, Pierre Delaunay, who was of a sullen, perverse
disposition, left him in a moody fit, and was never heard of
afterwards. The number of his party was not, however, reduced by
these losses, as the three hunters, Robinson, Hoback, and Rezner,
had joined it.
Reed now built a house on the Snake River, for their winter
quarters; which being completed, the party set about trapping.
Rezner, Le Clerc, and Pierre Dorion went about five days' journey
from the wintering house, to a part of the country well stocked
with beaver. Here they put up a hut, and proceeded to trap with
great success. While the men were out hunting, Pierre Dorion's
wife remained at home to dress the skins and prepare the meals.
She was thus employed one evening about the beginning of January,
cooking the supper of the hunters, when she heard footsteps, and
Le Clerc staggered, pale and bleeding, into the hut. He informed
her that a party of savages had surprised them, while at their
traps, and had killed Rezner and her husband. He had barely
strength left to give this information, when he sank upon the
ground.
The poor woman saw that the only chance for life was instant
flight, but, in this exigency, showed that presence of mind and
force of character for which she had frequently been noted. With
great difficulty, she caught two of the horses belonging to the
party. Then collecting her clothes and a small quantity of beaver
meat and dried salmon, she packed them upon one of the horses,
and helped the wounded man to mount upon it. On the other horse
she mounted with her two children, and hurried away from this
dangerous neighborhood, directing her flight to Mr. Reed's
establishment. On the third day, she descried a number of Indians
on horseback proceeding in an easterly direction. She immediately
dismounted with her children, and helped LeClerc likewise to
dismount, and all concealed themselves. Fortunately they escaped
the sharp eyes of the savages, but had to proceed with the utmost
caution. That night they slept without fire or water; she managed
to keep her children warm in her arms; but before morning, poor
Le Clerc died.
With the dawn of day the resolute woman resumed her course, and,
on the fourth day, reached the house of Mr. Reed. It was
deserted, and all round were marks of blood and signs of a
furious massacre. Not doubting that Mr. Reed and his party had
all fallen victims, she turned in fresh horror from the spot. For
two days she continued hurrying forward, ready to sink for want
of food, but more solicitous about her children than herself. At
length she reached a range of the Rocky Mountains, near the upper
part of the Wallah-Wallah River. Here she chose a wild lonely
ravine, as her place of winter refuge.
She had fortunately a buffalo robe and three deer-skins; of
these, and of pine bark and cedar branches, she constructed a
rude wigwam, which she pitched beside a mountain spring. Having
no other food, she killed the two horses, and smoked their flesh.
The skins aided to cover her hut. Here she dragged out the
winter, with no other company than her two children. Towards the
middle of March her provisions were nearly exhausted. She
therefore packed up the remainder, slung it on her back, and,
with her helpless little ones, set out again on her wanderings.
Crossing the ridge of mountains, she descended to the banks of
the Wallah-Wallah, and kept along them until she arrived where
that river throws itself into the Columbia. She was hospitably
received and entertained by the Wallah-Wallahs, and had been
nearly two weeks among them when the two canoes passed.
On being interrogated, she could assign no reason for this
murderous attack of the savages; it appeared to be perfectly
wanton and unprovoked. Some of the Astorians supposed it an act
of butchery by a roving band of Blackfeet; others, however, and
with greater probability of correctness, have ascribed it to the
tribe of Pierced-nose Indians, in revenge for the death of their
comrade hanged by order of Mr. Clarke. If so, it shows that these
sudden and apparently wanton outbreakings of sanguinary violence
on the part of the savages have often some previous, though
perhaps remote, provocation.
The narrative of the Indian woman closes the checkered adventures
of some of the personages of this motley story; such as the
honest Hibernian Reed, and Dorion the hybrid interpreter. Turcot
and La Chapelle were two of the men who fell off from Mr. Crooks
in the course of his wintry journey, and had subsequently such
disastrous times among the Indians. We cannot but feel some
sympathy with that persevering trio of Kentuckians, Robinson,
Rezner, and Hoback, who twice turned back when on their way
homeward, and lingered in the wilderness to perish by the hands
of savages.
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