ON THE 25TH of July, Captain Bonneville struck his tents, and set out on his route for
the Bighorn, at the head of a party of fifty-six men, including those who were to embark
with Cerre. Crossing the Green River valley, he proceeded along the south point of the
Wind River range of mountains, and soon fell upon the track of Mr. Robert Campbell's
party, which had preceded him by a day. This he pursued, until he perceived that it led
down the banks of the Sweet Water to the southeast. As this was different from his
proposed direction, he left it; and turning to the northeast, soon came upon the waters
of the Popo Agie. This stream takes its rise in the Wind River Mountains. Its name, like
most Indian names, is characteristic. Popo, in the Crow language, signifies head; and
Agie, river. It is the head of a long river, extending from the south end of the Wind
River
Mountains in a northeast direction, until it falls into the Yellowstone. Its course is
generally through plains, but is twice crossed by chains of mountains; the first called the
Littlehorn; the second, the Bighorn. After it has forced its way through the first chain, it
is called the Horn River; after the second chain, it is called the Bighorn River. Its
passage through this last chain is rough and violent; making repeated falls, and rushing
down long and furious rapids, which threaten destruction to the navigator; though a
hardy trapper is said to have shot down them in a canoe. At the foot of these rapids, is
the head of navigation; where it was the intention of the parties to construct boats, and
embark.
Proceeding down along the Popo Agie, Captain Bonneville came again in full view of
the "Bluffs," as they are called, extending from the base of the Wind River Mountains
far away to the east, and presenting to the eye a confusion of hills and cliffs of red
sandstone, some peaked and angular, some round, some broken into crags and
precipices, and piled up in fantastic masses; but all naked and sterile. There appeared
to be no soil favorable to vegetation, nothing but coarse gravel; yet, over all this
isolated, barren landscape, were diffused such atmospherical tints and hues, as to
blend the whole into harmony and beauty.
In this neighborhood, the captain made search for "the great Tar Spring," one of the
wonders of the mountains; the medicinal properties of which, he had heard
extravagantly lauded by the trappers. After a toilsome search, he found it at the foot of
a sand-bluff, a little east of the Wind River Mountains; where it exuded in a small
stream of the color and consistency of tar. The men immediately hastened to collect a
quantity of it, to use as an ointment for the galled backs of their horses, and as a
balsam for their own pains and aches. From the description given of it, it is evidently the
bituminous oil, called petrolium or naphtha, which forms a principal ingredient in the
potent medicine called British Oil. It is found in various parts of Europe and Asia, in
several of the West India islands, and in some places of the United States. In the state
of New York, it is called Seneca Oil, from being found near the Seneca lake.
The Crow country has other natural curiosities, which are held in superstitious awe by
the Indians, and considered great marvels by the trappers. Such is the Burning
Mountain, on Powder River, abounding with anthracite coal. Here the earth is hot and
cracked; in many places emitting smoke and sulphurous vapors, as if covering
concealed fires. A volcanic tract of similar character is found on Stinking River, one of
the tributaries of the Bighorn, which takes its unhappy name from the odor derived from
sulphurous springs and streams. This last mentioned place was first discovered by
Colter, a hunter belonging to Lewis and Clarke's exploring party, who came upon it in
the course of his lonely wanderings, and gave such an account of its gloomy terrors, its
hidden fires, smoking pits, noxious streams, and the all-pervading "smell of brimstone,"
that it received, and has ever since retained among trappers, the name of "Colter's
Hell!"
Resuming his descent along the left bank of the Popo Agie, Captain Bonneville soon
reached the plains; where he found several large streams entering from the west.
Among these was Wind River, which gives its name to the mountains among which it
takes its rise. This is one of the most important streams of the Crow country. The river
being much swollen, Captain Bonneville halted at its mouth, and sent out scouts to look
for a fording place. While thus encamped, he beheld in the course of the afternoon a
long line of horsemen descending the slope of the hills on the opposite side of the Popo
Agie. His first idea was that they were Indians; he soon discovered, however, that they
were white men, and, by the long line of pack-horses, ascertained them to be the
convoy of Campbell, which, having descended the Sweet Water, was now on its way to
the Horn River.
The two parties came together two or three days afterwards, on the 4th of August, after
having passed through the gap of the Littlehorn Mountain. In company with Campbell's
convoy was a trapping party of the Rocky Mountain Company, headed by Fitzpatrick;
who, after Campbell's embarkation on the Bighorn, was to take charge of all the horses,
and proceed on a trapping campaign. There were, moreover, two chance companions
in the rival camp. One was Captain Stewart, of the British army, a gentleman of noble
connections, who was amusing himself by a wandering tour in the Far West; in the
course of which, he had lived in hunter's style; accompanying various bands of traders,
trappers, and Indians; and manifesting that relish for the wilderness that belongs to men
of game spirit.
The other casual inmate of Mr. Campbell's camp was Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth; the self-same
leader of the band of New England salmon fishers, with whom we parted
company in the valley of Pierre's Hole, after the battle with the Blackfeet. A few days
after that affair, he again set out from the rendezvous in company with Milton Sublette
and his brigade of trappers. On his march, he visited the battle ground, and penetrated
to the deserted fort of the Blackfeet in the midst of the wood. It was a dismal scene.
The fort was strewed with the mouldering bodies of the slain; while vultures soared
aloft, or sat brooding on the trees around; and Indian dogs howled about the place, as if
bewailing the death of their masters. Wyeth travelled for a considerable distance to the
southwest, in company with Milton Sublette, when they separated; and the former, with
eleven men, the remnant of his band, pushed on for Snake River; kept down the course
of that eventful stream; traversed the Blue Mountains, trapping beaver occasionally by
the way, and finally, after hardships of all kinds, arrived, on the 29th of October, at
Vancouver, on the Columbia, the main factory of the Hudson's Bay Company.
He experienced hospitable treatment at the hands of the agents of that company; but
his men, heartily tired of wandering in the wilderness, or tempted by other prospects,
refused, for the most part, to continue any longer in his service. Some set off for the
Sandwich Islands; some entered into other employ. Wyeth found, too, that a great part
of the goods he had brought with him were unfitted for the Indian trade; in a word, his
expedition, undertaken entirely on his own resources, proved a failure. He lost
everything invested in it, but his hopes. These were as strong as ever. He took note of
every thing, therefore, that could be of service to him in the further prosecution of his
project; collected all the information within his reach, and then set off, accompanied by
merely two men, on his return journey across the continent. He had got thus far "by
hook and by crook," a mode in which a New England man can make his way all over
the world, and through all kinds of difficulties, and was now bound for Boston; in full
confidence of being able to form a company for the salmon fishery and fur trade of the
Columbia.
The party of Mr. Campbell had met with a disaster in the course of their route from the
Sweet Water. Three or four of the men, who were reconnoitering the country in
advance of the main body, were visited one night in their camp, by fifteen or twenty
Shoshonies. Considering this tribe as perfectly friendly, they received them in the most
cordial and confiding manner. In the course of the night, the man on guard near the
horses fell sound asleep; upon which a Shoshonie shot him in the head, and nearly
killed him. The savages then made off with the horses, leaving the rest of the party to
find their way to the main body on foot.
The rival companies of Captain Bonneville and Mr. Campbell, thus fortuitously brought
together, now prosecuted their journey in great good fellowship; forming a joint camp of
about a hundred men. The captain, however, began to entertain doubts that Fitzpatrick
and his trappers, who kept profound silence as to their future movements, intended to
hunt the same grounds which he had selected for his autumnal campaign; which lay to
the west of the Horn River, on its tributary streams. In the course of his march,
therefore, he secretly detached a small party of trappers, to make their way to those
hunting grounds, while he continued on with the main body; appointing a rendezvous, at
the next full moon, about the 28th of August, at a place called the Medicine Lodge.
On reaching the second chain, called the Bighorn Mountains, where the river forced its
impetuous way through a precipitous defile, with cascades and rapids, the travellers
were obliged to leave its banks, and traverse the mountains by a rugged and frightful
route, emphatically called the "Bad Pass." Descending the opposite side, they again
made for the river banks; and about the middle of August, reached the point below the
rapids where the river becomes navigable for boats. Here Captain Bonneville detached
a second party of trappers, consisting of ten men, to seek and join those whom he had
detached while on the route; appointing for them the same rendezvous, (at the
Medicine Lodge,) on the 28th of August.
All hands now set to work to construct "bull boats," as they are technically called; a
light, fragile kind of bark, characteristic of the expedients and inventions of the
wilderness; being formed of buffalo skins, stretched on frames. They are sometimes,
also, called skin boats. Wyeth was the first ready; and, with his usual promptness and
hardihood, launched his frail bark, singly, on this wild and hazardous voyage, down an
almost interminable succession of rivers, winding through countries teeming with
savage hordes. Milton Sublette, his former fellow traveller, and his companion in the
battle scenes of Pierre's Hole, took passage in his boat. His crew consisted of two white
men, and two Indians. We shall hear further of Wyeth, and his wild voyage, in the
course of our wanderings about the Far West.
The remaining parties soon completed their several armaments. That of Captain
Bonneville was composed of three bull boats, in which he embarked all his peltries,
giving them in charge of Mr. Cerre, with a party of thirty-six men. Mr. Campbell took
command of his own boats, and the little squadrons were soon gliding down the bright
current of the Bighorn.
The secret precautions which Captain Bonneville had taken to throw his men first into
the trapping ground west of the Bighorn, were, probably, superfluous. It did not appear
that Fitzpatrick had intended to hunt in that direction. The moment Mr. Campbell and
his men embarked with the peltries, Fitzpatrick took charge of all the horses, amounting
to above a hundred, and struck off to the east, to trap upon Littlehorn, Powder, and
Tongue rivers. He was accompanied by Captain Stewart, who was desirous of having a
range about the Crow country. Of the adventures they met with in that region of
vagabonds and horse stealers, we shall have something to relate hereafter.
Captain Bonneville being now left to prosecute his trapping campaign without rivalry, set
out, on the 17th of August, for the rendezvous at Medicine Lodge. He had but four men
remaining with him, and forty-six horses to take care of; with these he had to make his
way over mountain and plain, through a marauding, horse-stealing region, full of peril
for a numerous cavalcade so slightly manned. He addressed himself to his difficult
journey, however, with his usual alacrity of spirit.
In the afternoon of his first day's journey, on drawing near to the Bighorn Mountain, on
the summit of which he intended to encamp for the night, he observed, to his disquiet, a
cloud of smoke rising from its base. He came to a halt, and watched it anxiously. It was
very irregular; sometimes it would almost die away; and then would mount up in heavy
volumes. There was, apparently, a large party encamped there; probably, some ruffian
horde of Blackfeet. At any rate, it would not do for so small a number of men, with so
numerous a cavalcade, to venture within sight of any wandering tribe. Captain
Bonneville and his companions, therefore, avoided this dangerous neighborhood; and,
proceeding with extreme caution, reached the summit of the mountain, apparently
without being discovered. Here they found a deserted Blackfoot fort, in which they
ensconced themselves; disposed of every thing as securely as possible, and passed
the night without molestation. Early the next morning they descended the south side of
the mountain into the great plain extending between it and the Littlehorn range. Here
they soon came upon numerous footprints, and the carcasses of buffaloes; by which
they knew there must be Indians not far off. Captain Bonneville now began to feel
solicitude about the two small parties of trappers which he had detached, lest the
Indians should have come upon them before they had united their forces. But he felt
still more solicitude about his own party; for it was hardly to be expected he could
traverse these naked plains undiscovered, when Indians were abroad; and should he
be discovered, his chance would be a desperate one. Everything now depended upon
the greatest circumspection. It was dangerous to discharge a gun, or light a fire, or
make the least noise, where such quick-eared and quick-sighted enemies were at hand.
In the course of the day they saw indubitable signs that the buffalo had been roaming
there in great numbers, and had recently been frightened away. That night they
encamped with the greatest care; and threw up a strong breastwork for their protection.
For the two succeeding days they pressed forward rapidly, but cautiously, across the
great plain; fording the tributary streams of the Horn River; encamping one night among
thickets; the next, on an island; meeting, repeatedly, with traces of Indians; and now
and then, in passing through a defile, experiencing alarms that induced them to cock
their rifles.
On the last day of their march hunger got the better of their caution, and they shot a fine
buffalo bull at the risk of being betrayed by the report. They did not halt to make a meal,
but carried the meat on with them to the place of rendezvous, the Medicine Lodge,
where they arrived safely, in the evening, and celebrated their arrival by a hearty
supper.
The next morning they erected a strong pen for the horses, and a fortress of logs for
themselves; and continued to observe the greatest caution. Their cooking was all done
at mid-day, when the fire makes no glare, and a moderate smoke cannot be perceived
at any great distance. In the morning and the evening, when the wind is lulled, the
smoke rises perpendicularly in a blue column, or floats in light clouds above the tree-tops, and
can be discovered from afar.
In this way the little party remained for several days, cautiously encamped, until, on the 29th of August, the two detachments they had been expecting, arrived together at the rendezvous. They, as usual, had their several tales of adventures to relate to the captain, which we will furnish to the reader in the next chapter.