They Asked High Prices For Their Horses, And Were So
Difficult To Deal With, That Mr. Clarke Was Detained Seven Days
Among Them Before He Could Procure A Sufficient Number.
During
that time he was annoyed by repeated pilferings, for which he
could get no redress.
The chief promised to recover the stolen
articles; but failed to do so, alleging that the thieves belonged
to a distant tribe, and had made off with their booty. With this
excuse Mr. Clarke was fain to content himself, though he laid up
in his heart a bitter grudge against the whole Pierced-nose race,
which it will be found he took occasion subsequently to gratify
in a signal manner.
Having made arrangements for his departure, Mr. Clarke laid up
his barge and canoes in a sheltered place, on the banks of a
small bay, overgrown with shrubs and willows, confiding them to
the care of the Nez Perce chief, who, on being promised an ample
compensation, engaged to have a guardian eye upon them; then
mounting his steed, and putting himself at the head of his little
caravan, he shook the dust off his feet as he turned his back
upon this village of rogues and hard dealers. We shall not follow
him minutely in his journey; which lay at times over steep and
rocky hills, and among crags and precipices; at other times over
vast naked and sunburnt plains, abounding with rattlesnakes, in
traversing which, both men and horses suffered intolerably from
heat and thirst.
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