第35章 Irving’s Bonneville - Chapter 12(1)

A winter camp in the wilderness--Medley of trappers, hunters, and Indians--Scarcity ofgame--New

arrangements in the camp--Detachments sent to a distance--Carelessness of the Indians whenencamped--Sickness among the Indians--Excellent character of the Nez Perces--The Captain'seffort

as a pacificator--A Nez Perce's argument in favor of war--Robberies, by the Black feet--Longsuffering of the Nez Perces--A hunter's Elysium among the mountains--More robberies--TheCaptain preaches up a crusade--The effect upon his hearers.

FOR the greater part of the month of November Captain Bonneville remained in histemporary post

on Salmon River. He was now in the full enjoyment of his wishes; leading a hunter's life in theheart

of the wilderness, with all its wild populace around him. Beside his own people, motley incharacter

and costume--creole, Kentuckian, Indian, half-breed, hired trapper, and free trapper--he wassurrounded by encampments of Nez Perces and Flatheads, with their droves of horses coveringthe

hills and plains. It was, he declares, a wild and bustling scene. The hunting parties of white menand

red men, continually sallying forth and returning; the groups at the various encampments, somecooking, some working, some amusing themselves at different games; the neighing of horses, thebraying of asses, the resounding strokes of the axe, the sharp report of the rifle, the whoop, thehalloo, and the frequent burst of laughter, all in the midst of a region suddenly roused fromperfect

silence and loneliness by this transient hunters' sojourn, realized, he says, the idea of a "populoussolitude."

The kind and genial character of the captain had, evidently, its influence on the oppositeraces thus

fortuitously congregated together. The most perfect harmony prevailed between them. TheIndians,

he says, were friendly in their dispositions, and honest to the most scrupulous degree in theirintercourse with the white men. It is true they were somewhat importunate in their curiosity, andapt

to be continually in the way, examining everything with keen and prying eye, and watchingevery

movement of the white men. All this, however, was borne with great good-humor by the captain,and

through his example by his men. Indeed, throughout all his transactions he shows himself thefriend

of the poor Indians, and his conduct toward them is above all praise.

The Nez Perces, the Flatheads, and the Hanging-ears pride themselves upon the number oftheir

horses, of which they possess more in proportion than any other of the mountain tribes within thebuffalo range. Many of the Indian warriors and hunters encamped around Captain Bonnevillepossess from thirty to forty horses each. Their horses are stout, well-built ponies, of great wind,and

capable of enduring the severest hardship and fatigue. The swiftest of them, however, are thoseobtained from the whites while sufficiently young to become acclimated and inured to the roughservice of the mountains.

By degrees the populousness of this encampment began to produce its inconveniences. Theimmense droves of horses owned by the Indians consumed the herbage of the surrounding hills;while to drive them to any distant pasturage, in a neighborhood abounding with lurking anddeadly

enemies, would be to endanger the loss both of man and beast. Game, too, began to grow scarce.

It

was soon hunted and frightened out of the vicinity, and though the Indians made a wide circuitthrough the mountains in the hope of driving the buffalo toward the cantonment, their expeditionwas

unsuccessful. It was plain that so large a party could not subsist themselves there, nor in any oneplace throughout the winter. Captain Bonneville, therefore, altered his whole arrangements. Hedetached fifty men toward the south to winter upon Snake River, and to trap about its waters inthe

spring, with orders to rejoin him in the month of July at Horse Creek, in Green River Valley,which

he had fixed upon as the general rendezvous of his company for the ensuing year.

Of all his late party, he now retained with him merely a small number of free trappers,with

whom he intended to sojourn among the Nez Perces and Flatheads, and adopt the Indian mode ofmoving with the game and grass. Those bands, in effect, shortly afterward broke up theirencampments and set off for a less beaten neighborhood. Captain Bonneville remained behindfor

a few days, that he might secretly prepare caches, in which to deposit everything notrequired for

current use. Thus lightened of all superfluous encumbrance, he set off on the 20th of Novemberto

rejoin his Indian allies. He found them encamped in a secluded part of the country, at the head ofa

small stream. Considering themselves out of all danger in this sequestered spot from their oldenemies, the Blackfeet, their encampment manifested the most negligent security. Their lodgeswere

scattered in every direction, and their horses covered every hill for a great distance round,grazing

upon the upland bunch grass which grew in great abundance, and though dry, retained itsnutritious

properties instead of losing them like other grasses in the autumn.

When the Nez Perces, Flatheads, and Pends Oreilles are encamped in a dangerousneighborhood, says Captain Bonneville, the greatest care is taken of their horses, those primearticles

of Indian wealth, and objects of Indian depredation. Each warrior has his horse tied by one footat

night to a stake planted before his lodge. Here they remain until broad daylight; by that time theyoung men of the camp are already ranging over the surrounding hills. Each family then drivesits

horses to some eligible spot, where they are left to graze unattended. A young Indian repairsoccasionally to the pasture to give them water, and to see that all is well. So accustomed are thehorses to this management, that they keep together in the pasture where they have been left. Asthe