The Adventures of Captain Bonneville

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Long before sunrise the news of this calamity spread like wildfire
through the different encampments. Captain Bonneville, whose own horses
remained safe at their pickets, watched in momentary expectation of an
outbreak of warriors, Pierced-nose and Flathead, in furious pursuit
of the marauders; but no such thing--they contented themselves with
searching diligently over hill and dale, to glean up such horses as
had escaped the hands of the marauders, and then resigned themselves to
their loss with the most exemplary quiescence.

Some, it is true, who were entirely unhorsed, set out on a begging visit
to their cousins, as they called them, the Lower Nez Perces, who inhabit
the lower country about the Columbia, and possess horses in abundance.
To these they repair when in difficulty, and seldom fail, by dint of
begging and bartering, to get themselves once more mounted on horseback.

Game had now become scarce in the neighborhood of the camp, and it was
necessary, according to Indian custom, to move off to a less beaten
ground. Captain Bonneville proposed the Horse Prairie; but his Indian
friends objected that many of the Nez Perces had gone to visit their
cousins, and that the whites were few in number, so that their united
force was not sufficient to Venture upon the buffalo grounds, which were
infested by bands of Blackfeet.

They now spoke of a place at no great distance, which they represented
as a perfect hunter's elysium. It was on the right branch, or head
stream of the river, locked up among cliffs and precipices where there
was no danger from roving bands, and where the Blackfeet dare not enter.
Here, they said, the elk abounded, and the mountain sheep were to be
seen trooping upon the rocks and hills. A little distance beyond it,
also, herds of buffalo were to be met with, Out of range of danger.
Thither they proposed to move their camp.

The proposition pleased the captain, who was desirous, through the
Indians, of becoming acquainted with all the secret places of the land.
Accordingly, on the 9th of December, they struck their tents, and moved
forward by short stages, as many of the Indians were yet feeble from the
late malady.

Following up the right fork of the river they came to where it entered
a deep gorge of the mountains, up which lay the secluded region so much
valued by the Indians. Captain Bonneville halted and encamped for three
days before entering the gorge. In the meantime he detached five of
his free trappers to scour the hills, and kill as many elk as possible,
before the main body should enter, as they would then be soon frightened
away by the various Indian hunting parties.

While thus encamped, they were still liable to the marauds of the
Blackfeet, and Captain Bonneville admonished his Indian friends to be
upon their guard. The Nez Perces, however, notwithstanding their recent
loss, were still careless of their horses; merely driving them to some
secluded spot, and leaving them there for the night, without setting any
guard upon them. The consequence was a second swoop, in which forty-one
were carried off. This was borne with equal philosophy with the
first, and no effort was made either to recover the horses, or to take
vengeance on the thieves.

The Nez Perces, however, grew more cautious with respect to their
remaining horses, driving them regularly to the camp every evening, and
fastening them to pickets. Captain Bonneville, however, told them that
this was not enough. It was evident they were dogged by a daring and
persevering enemy, who was encouraged by past impunity; they should,
therefore, take more than usual precautions, and post a guard at night
over their cavalry. They could not, however, be persuaded to depart from
their usual custom. The horse once picketed, the care of the owner was
over for the night, and he slept profoundly. None waked in the camp but
the gamblers, who, absorbed in their play, were more difficult to be
roused to external circumstances than even the sleepers.

The Blackfeet are bold enemies, and fond of hazardous exploits. The band
that were hovering about the neighborhood, finding that they had such
pacific people to deal with, redoubled their daring. The horses being
now picketed before the lodges, a number of Blackfeet scouts penetrated
in the early part of the night into the very centre of the camp. Here
they went about among the lodges as calmly and deliberately as if at
home, quietly cutting loose the horses that stood picketed by the lodges
of their sleeping owners. One of these prowlers, more adventurous than
the rest, approached a fire round which a group of Nez Perces were
gambling with the most intense eagerness. Here he stood for some time,
muffled up in his robe, peering over the shoulders of the players,
watching the changes of their countenances and the fluctuations of
the game. So completely engrossed were they, that the presence of this
muffled eaves-dropper was unnoticed and, having executed his bravado, he
retired undiscovered.

Having cut loose as many horses as they could conveniently carry off,
the Blackfeet scouts rejoined their comrades, and all remained patiently
round the camp. By degrees the horses, finding themselves at liberty,
took their route toward their customary grazing ground. As they emerged
from the camp they were silently taken possession of, until, having
secured about thirty, the Blackfeet sprang on their backs and scampered
off. The clatter of hoofs startled the gamblers from their game. They
gave the alarm, which soon roused the sleepers from every lodge. Still
all was quiescent; no marshalling of forces, no saddling of steeds
and dashing off in pursuit, no talk of retribution for their repeated
outrages. The patience of Captain Bonneville was at length exhausted. He
had played the part of a pacificator without success; he now altered his
tone, and resolved, if possible, to rouse their war spirit.

Accordingly, convoking their chiefs, he inveighed against their craven
policy, and urged the necessity of vigorous and retributive measures
that would check the confidence and presumption of their enemies, if
not inspire them with awe. For this purpose, he advised that a war party
should be immediately sent off on the trail of the marauders, to follow
them, if necessary, into the very heart of the Blackfoot country, and
not to leave them until they had taken signal vengeance. Beside this, he
recommended the organization of minor war parties, to make reprisals to
the extent of the losses sustained. "Unless you rouse yourselves from
your apathy," said he, "and strike some bold and decisive blow, you will
cease to be considered men, or objects of manly warfare. The very squaws
and children of the Blackfeet will be set against you, while their
warriors reserve themselves for nobler antagonists."

This harangue had evidently a momentary effect upon the pride of the
hearers. After a short pause, however, one of the orators arose. It was
bad, he said, to go to war for mere revenge. The Great Spirit had given
them a heart for peace, not for war. They had lost horses, it was true,
but they could easily get others from their cousins, the Lower Nez
Perces, without incurring any risk; whereas, in war they should lose
men, who were not so readily replaced. As to their late losses, an
increased watchfulness would prevent any more misfortunes of the kind.
He disapproved, therefore, of all hostile measures; and all the other
chiefs concurred in his opinion.

Captain Bonneville again took up the point. "It is true," said he, "the
Great Spirit has given you a heart to love your friends; but he has
also given you an arm to strike your enemies. Unless you do something
speedily to put an end to this continual plundering, I must say
farewell. As yet I have sustained no loss; thanks to the precautions
which you have slighted; but my property is too unsafe here; my turn
will come next; I and my people will share the contempt you are bringing
upon yourselves, and will be thought, like you, poor-spirited beings,
who may at any time be plundered with impunity."

The conference broke up with some signs of excitement on the part of
the Indians. Early the next morning, a party of thirty men set off in
pursuit of the foe, and Captain Bonneville hoped to hear a good account
of the Blackfeet marauders. To his disappointment, the war party came
lagging back on the following day, leading a few old, sorry, broken-down
horses, which the free-booters had not been able to urge to sufficient
speed. This effort exhausted the martial spirit, and satisfied the
wounded pride of the Nez Perces, and they relapsed into their usual
state of passive indifference.




13.

Story of Kosato, the Renegade Blackfoot.

IF the meekness and long-suffering of the Pierced-noses grieved the
spirit of Captain Bonneville, there was another individual in the camp
to whom they were still more annoying. This was a Blackfoot renegado,
named Kosato, a fiery hot-blooded youth who, with a beautiful girl of
the same tribe, had taken refuge among the Nez Perces. Though adopted
into the tribe, he still retained the warlike spirit of his race,
and loathed the peaceful, inoffensive habits of those around him. The
hunting of the deer, the elk, and the buffalo, which was the height of
their ambition, was too tame to satisfy his wild and restless nature.
His heart burned for the foray, the ambush, the skirmish, the scamper,
and all the haps and hazards of roving and predatory warfare.

The recent hoverings of the Blackfeet about the camp, their nightly
prowls and daring and successful marauds, had kept him in a fever and
a flutter, like a hawk in a cage who hears his late companions swooping
and screaming in wild liberty above him. The attempt of Captain
Bonneville to rouse the war spirit of the Nez Perces, and prompt them
to retaliation, was ardently seconded by Kosato. For several days he
was incessantly devising schemes of vengeance, and endeavoring to set
on foot an expedition that should carry dismay and desolation into the
Blackfeet town. All his art was exerted to touch upon those springs
of human action with which he was most familiar. He drew the listening
savages round him by his nervous eloquence; taunted them with recitals
of past wrongs and insults; drew glowing pictures of triumphs and
trophies within their reach; recounted tales of daring and romantic
enterprise, of secret marchings, covert lurkings, midnight surprisals,
sackings, burnings, plunderings, scalpings; together with the triumphant
return, and the feasting and rejoicing of the victors. These wild tales
were intermingled with the beating of the drum, the yell, the war-whoop
and the war-dance, so inspiring to Indian valor. All, however, were
lost upon the peaceful spirits of his hearers; not a Nez Perce was to be
roused to vengeance, or stimulated to glorious war. In the bitterness
of his heart, the Blackfoot renegade repined at the mishap which had
severed him from a race of congenial spirits, and driven him to take
refuge among beings so destitute of martial fire.

The character and conduct of this man attracted the attention of Captain
Bonneville, and he was anxious to hear the reason why he had deserted
his tribe, and why he looked back upon them with such deadly hostility.
Kosato told him his own story briefly: it gives a picture of the deep,
strong passions that work in the bosoms of these miscalled stoics.

"You see my wife," said he, "she is good; she is beautiful--I love her.
Yet she has been the cause of all my troubles. She was the wife of
my chief. I loved her more than he did; and she knew it. We talked
together; we laughed together; we were always seeking each other's
society; but we were as innocent as children. The chief grew jealous,
and commanded her to speak with me no more. His heart became hard toward
her; his jealousy grew more furious. He beat her without cause and
without mercy; and threatened to kill her outright if she even looked at
me. Do you want traces of his fury? Look at that scar! His rage against
me was no less persecuting. War parties of the Crows were hovering
round us; our young men had seen their trail. All hearts were roused for
action; my horses were before my lodge. Suddenly the chief came, took
them to his own pickets, and called them his own. What could I do? he
was a chief. I durst not speak, but my heart was burning. I joined no
longer in the council, the hunt, or the war-feast. What had I to do
there? an unhorsed, degraded warrior. I kept by myself, and thought of
nothing but these wrongs and outrages.

"I was sitting one evening upon a knoll that overlooked the meadow where
the horses were pastured. I saw the horses that were once mine grazing
among those of the chief. This maddened me, and I sat brooding for a
time over the injuries I had suffered, and the cruelties which she I
loved had endured for my sake, until my heart swelled and grew sore, and
my teeth were clinched. As I looked down upon the meadow I saw the chief
walking among his horses. I fastened my eyes upon him as a hawk's; my
blood boiled; I drew my breath hard. He went among the willows. In an
instant I was on my feet; my hand was on my knife--I flew rather than
ran--before he was aware I sprang upon him, and with two blows laid him
dead at my feet. I covered his body with earth, and strewed bushes over
the place; then I hastened to her I loved, told her what I had done, and
urged her to fly with me. She only answered me with tears. I reminded
her of the wrongs I had suffered, and of the blows and stripes she had
endured from the deceased; I had done nothing but an act of justice. I
again urged her to fly; but she only wept the more, and bade me go. My
heart was heavy, but my eyes were dry. I folded my arms. ''Tis well,'
said I; 'Kosato will go alone to the desert. None will be with him but
the wild beasts of the desert. The seekers of blood may follow on his
trail. They may come upon him when he sleeps and glut their revenge; but
you will be safe. Kosato will go alone.'

"I turned away. She sprang after me, and strained me in her arms. 'No,'
she cried, 'Kosato shall not go alone! Wherever he goes I will go--he
shall never part from me.'

"We hastily took in our hands such things as we most needed, and
stealing quietly from the village, mounted the first horses we
encountered. Speeding day and night, we soon reached this tribe. They
received us with welcome, and we have dwelt with them in peace. They
are good and kind; they are honest; but their hearts are the hearts of
women."

Such was the story of Kosato, as related by him to Captain Bonneville.
It is of a kind that often occurs in Indian life; where love elopements
from tribe to tribe are as frequent as among the novel-read heroes and
heroines of sentimental civilization, and often give rise to bloods and
lasting feuds.




14.

The party enters the mountain gorge--A wild fastness among
hills--Mountain mutton--Peace and plenty--The amorous
trapper-A piebald wedding--A free trapper's wife--Her gala
equipments--Christmas in the wilderness.

ON the 19th of December Captain Bonneville and his confederate Indians
raised their camp, and entered the narrow gorge made by the north fork
of Salmon River. Up this lay the secure and plenteous hunting region so
temptingly described by the Indians.

Since leaving Green River the plains had invariably been of loose sand
or coarse gravel, and the rocky formation of the mountains of primitive
limestone. The rivers, in general, were skirted with willows and bitter
cottonwood trees, and the prairies covered with wormwood. In the hollow
breast of the mountains which they were now penetrating, the surrounding
heights were clothed with pine; while the declivities of the lower hills
afforded abundance of bunch grass for the horses.

As the Indians had represented, they were now in a natural fastness of
the mountains, the ingress and egress of which was by a deep gorge, so
narrow, rugged, and difficult as to prevent secret approach or rapid
retreat, and to admit of easy defence. The Blackfeet, therefore,
refrained from venturing in after the Nez Perces, awaiting a better
chance, when they should once more emerge into the open country.

Captain Bonneville soon found that the Indians had not exaggerated the
advantages of this region. Besides the numerous gangs of elk, large
flocks of the ahsahta or bighorn, the mountain sheep, were to be
seen bounding among the precipices. These simple animals were easily
circumvented and destroyed. A few hunters may surround a flock and kill
as many as they please. Numbers were daily brought into camp, and the
flesh of those which were young and fat was extolled as superior to the
finest mutton.

Here, then, there was a cessation from toil, from hunger, and alarm.
Past ills and dangers were forgotten. The hunt, the game, the song, the
story, the rough though good-humored joke, made time pass joyously away,
and plenty and security reigned throughout the camp.

Idleness and ease, it is said, lead to love, and love to matrimony,
in civilized life, and the same process takes place in the wilderness.
Filled with good cheer and mountain mutton, one of the free trappers
began to repine at the solitude of his lodge, and to experience the
force of that great law of nature, "it is not meet for man to live
alone."

After a night of grave cogitation he repaired to Kowsoter, the
Pierced-nose chief, and unfolded to him the secret workings of his
bosom.

"I want," said he, "a wife. Give me one from among your tribe. Not a
young, giddy-pated girl, that will think of nothing but flaunting and
finery, but a sober, discreet, hard-working squaw; one that will share
my lot without flinching, however hard it may be; that can take care of
my lodge, and be a companion and a helpmate to me in the wilderness."
Kowsoter promised to look round among the females of his tribe, and
procure such a one as he desired. Two days were requisite for the
search. At the expiration of these, Kowsoter, called at his lodge, and
informed him that he would bring his bride to him in the course of
the afternoon. He kept his word. At the appointed time he approached,
leading the bride, a comely copper-colored dame attired in her Indian
finery. Her father, mother, brothers by the half dozen and cousins by
the score, all followed on to grace the ceremony and greet the new and
important relative.

The trapper received his new and numerous family connection with proper
solemnity; he placed his bride beside him, and, filling the pipe, the
great symbol of peace, with his best tobacco, took two or three whiffs,
then handed it to the chief who transferred it to the father of the
bride, from whom it was passed on from hand to hand and mouth to mouth
of the whole circle of kinsmen round the fire, all maintaining the most
profound and becoming silence.

After several pipes had been filled and emptied in this solemn
ceremonial, the chief addressed the bride, detailing at considerable
length the duties of a wife which, among Indians, are little less
onerous than those of the pack-horse; this done, he turned to her
friends and congratulated them upon the great alliance she had made.
They showed a due sense of their good fortune, especially when the
nuptial presents came to be distributed among the chiefs and relatives,
amounting to about one hundred and eighty dollars. The company soon
retired, and now the worthy trapper found indeed that he had no green
girl to deal with; for the knowing dame at once assumed the style and
dignity of a trapper's wife: taking possession of the lodge as her
undisputed empire, arranging everything according to her own taste and
habitudes, and appearing as much at home and on as easy terms with the
trapper as if they had been man and wife for years.

We have already given a picture of a free trapper and his horse, as
furnished by Captain Bonneville: we shall here subjoin, as a companion
picture, his description of a free trapper's wife, that the reader
may have a correct idea of the kind of blessing the worthy hunter in
question had invoked to solace him in the wilderness.

"The free trapper, while a bachelor, has no greater pet than his horse;
but the moment he takes a wife (a sort of brevet rank in matrimony
occasionally bestowed upon some Indian fair one, like the heroes of
ancient chivalry in the open field), he discovers that he has a still
more fanciful and capricious animal on which to lavish his expenses.

"No sooner does an Indian belle experience this promotion, than all her
notions at once rise and expand to the dignity of her situation, and the
purse of her lover, and his credit into the bargain, are taxed to the
utmost to fit her out in becoming style. The wife of a free trapper to
be equipped and arrayed like any ordinary and undistinguished squaw?
Perish the grovelling thought! In the first place, she must have a horse
for her own riding; but no jaded, sorry, earth-spirited hack, such as
is sometimes assigned by an Indian husband for the transportation of his
squaw and her pappooses: the wife of a free trader must have the
most beautiful animal she can lay her eyes on. And then, as to his
decoration: headstall, breast-bands, saddle and crupper are lavishly
embroidered with beads, and hung with thimbles, hawks' bells, and
bunches of ribbons. From each side of the saddle hangs an esquimoot,
a sort of pocket, in which she bestows the residue of her trinkets and
nick-nacks, which cannot be crowded on the decoration of her horse or
herself. Over this she folds, with great care, a drapery of scarlet and
bright-colored calicoes, and now considers the caparison of her steed
complete.

"As to her own person, she is even still more extravagant. Her hair,
esteemed beautiful in proportion to its length, is carefully plaited,
and made to fall with seeming negligence over either breast. Her
riding hat is stuck full of parti-colored feathers; her robe, fashioned
somewhat after that of the whites, is of red, green, and sometimes
gray cloth, but always of the finest texture that can be procured.
Her leggings and moccasins are of the most beautiful and expensive
workman-ship, and fitted neatly to the foot and ankle, which with the
Indian woman are generally well formed and delicate. Then as to jewelry:
in the way of finger-rings, ear-rings, necklaces, and other female
glories, nothing within reach of the trapper's means is omitted that can
tend to impress the beholder with an idea of the lady's high estate. To
finish the whole, she selects from among her blankets of various dyes
one of some glowing color, and throwing it over her shoulders with a
native grace, vaults into the saddle of her gay, prancing steed, and
is ready to follow her mountaineer 'to the last gasp with love and
loyalty.'"

Such is the general picture of the free trapper's wife, given by Captain
Bonneville; how far it applied in its details to the one in question
does not altogether appear, though it would seem from the outset of her
connubial career, that she was ready to avail herself of all the pomp
and circumstance of her new condition. It is worthy of mention that
wherever there are several wives of free trappers in a camp, the keenest
rivalry exists between them, to the sore detriment of their husbands'
purses. Their whole time is expended and their ingenuity tasked by
endeavors to eclipse each other in dress and decoration. The jealousies
and heart-burnings thus occasioned among these so-styled children of
nature are equally intense with those of the rival leaders of style and
fashion in the luxurious abodes of civilized life.

The genial festival of Christmas, which throughout all Christendom
lights up the fireside of home with mirth and jollity, followed hard
upon the wedding just described. Though far from kindred and friends,
Captain Bonneville and his handful of free trappers were not disposed
to suffer the festival to pass unenjoyed; they were in a region of good
cheer, and were disposed to be joyous; so it was determined to "light
up the yule clog," and celebrate a merry Christmas in the heart of the
wilderness.

On Christmas eve, accordingly, they began their rude fetes and
rejoicings. In the course of the night the free trappers surrounded the
lodge of the Pierced-nose chief and in lieu of Christmas carols, saluted
him with a feude joie.

Kowsoter received it in a truly Christian spirit, and after a speech, in
which he expressed his high gratification at the honor done him, invited
the whole company to a feast on the following day. His invitation was
gladly accepted. A Christmas dinner in the wigwam of an Indian chief!
There was novelty in the idea. Not one failed to be present. The banquet
was served up in primitive style: skins of various kinds, nicely dressed
for the occasion, were spread upon the ground; upon these were heaped up
abundance of venison, elk meat, and mountain mutton, with various bitter
roots which the Indians use as condiments.