CROSSING AN ELEVATED RIDGE, Captain Bonneville now came upon Bear River,
which, from its source to its entrance into the Great Salt Lake, describes the figure of a
horse-shoe. One of the principal head waters of this river, although supposed to
abound with beaver, has never been visited by the trapper; rising among rugged
mountains, and being barricadoed [sic] by fallen pine trees and tremendous precipices.
Proceeding down this river, the party encamped, on the 6th of November, at the outlet
of a lake about thirty miles long, and from two to three miles in width, completely
imbedded in low ranges of mountains, and connected with Bear River by an impassable
swamp. It is called the Little Lake, to distinguish it from the great one of salt water.
On the 10th of November, Captain Bonneville visited a place in the neighborhood which
is quite a region of natural curiosities. An area of about half a mile square presents a
level surface of white clay or fuller's earth, perfectly spotless, resembling a great slab of
Parian marble, or a sheet of dazzling snow. The effect is strikingly beautiful at all times:
in summer, when it is surrounded with verdure, or in autumn, when it contrasts its bright
immaculate surface with the withered herbage. Seen from a distant eminence, it then
shines like a mirror, set in the brown landscape. Around this plain are clustered
numerous springs of various sizes and temperatures. One of them, of scalding heat,
boils furiously and incessantly, rising to the height of two or three feet. In another place,
there is an aperture in the earth, from which rushes a column of steam that forms a
perpetual cloud. The ground for some distance around sounds hollow, and startles the
solitary trapper, as he hears the tramp of his horse giving the sound of a muffled drum.
He pictures to himself a mysterious gulf below, a place of hidden fires, and gazes round
him with awe and uneasiness.
The most noted curiosity, however, of this singular region, is the Beer Spring, of
which
trappers give wonderful accounts. They are said to turn aside from their route through
the country to drink of its waters, with as much eagerness as the Arab seeks some
famous well of the desert. Captain Bonneville describes it as having the taste of beer.
His men drank it with avidity, and in copious draughts. It did not appear to him to
possess any medicinal properties, or to produce any peculiar effects. The Indians,
however, refuse to taste it, and endeavor to persuade the white men from doing so.
We have heard this also called the Soda Spring, and described as containing iron and
sulphur. It probably possesses some of the properties of the Ballston water.
The time had now arrived for Captain Bonneville to go in quest of the party of free
trappers, detached in the beginning of July, under the command of Mr. Hodgkiss, to
trap upon the head waters of Salmon River. His intention was to unite them with the
party with which he was at present travelling, that all might go into quarters together for
the winter. Accordingly, on the 11th of November, he took a temporary leave of his
band, appointing a rendezvous on Snake River, and, accompanied by three men, set
out upon his journey. His route lay across the plain of the Portneuf, a tributary stream of
Snake River, called after an unfortunate Canadian trapper murdered by the Indians.
The whole country through which he passed bore evidence of volcanic convulsions and
conflagrations in the olden time. Great masses of lava lay scattered about in every
direction; the crags and cliffs had apparently been under the action of fire; the rocks in
some places seemed to have been in a state of fusion; the plain was rent and split with
deep chasms and gullies, some of which were partly filled with lava.
They had not proceeded far, however, before they saw a party of horsemen, galloping
full tilt toward them. They instantly turned, and made full speed for the covert of a
woody stream, to fortify themselves among the trees. The Indians came to a halt, and
one of them came forward alone. He reached Captain Bonneville and his men just as
they were dismounting and about to post themselves. A few words dispelled all
uneasiness. It was a party of twenty-five Bannack Indians, friendly to the whites, and
they proposed, through their envoy, that both parties should encamp together, and hunt
the buffalo, of which they had discovered several large herds hard by. Captain
Bonneville cheerfully assented to their proposition, being curious to see their manner of
hunting.
Both parties accordingly encamped together on a convenient spot, and prepared for the
hunt. The Indians first posted a boy on a small hill near the camp, to keep a look-out for
enemies. The "runners," then, as they are called, mounted on fleet horses, and armed
with bows and arrows, moved slowly and cautiously toward the buffalo, keeping as
much as possible out of sight, in hollows and ravines. When within a proper distance, a
signal was given, and they all opened at once like a pack of hounds, with a full chorus
of yells, dashing into the midst of the herds, and launching their arrows to the right and
left. The plain seemed absolutely to shake under the tramp of the buffalo, as they
scoured off. The cows in headlong panic, the bulls furious with rage, uttering deep
roars, and occasionally turning with a desperate rush upon their pursuers. Nothing
could surpass the spirit, grace, and dexterity, with which the Indians managed their
horses; wheeling and coursing among the affrighted herd, and launching their arrows
with unerring aim. In the midst of the apparent confusion, they selected their victims
with perfect judgment, generally aiming at the fattest of the cows, the flesh of the bull
being nearly worthless, at this season of the year. In a few minutes, each of the hunters
had crippled three or four cows. A single shot was sufficient for the purpose, and the
animal, once maimed, was left to be completely dispatched at the end of the chase.
Frequently, a cow was killed on the spot by a single arrow. In one instance, Captain
Bonneville saw an Indian shoot his arrow completely through the body of a cow, so that
it struck in the ground beyond. The bulls, however, are not so easily killed as the cows,
and always cost the hunter several arrows; sometimes making battle upon the horses,
and chasing them furiously, though severely wounded, with the darts still sticking in
their flesh.
The grand scamper of the hunt being over, the Indians proceeded to dispatch the
animals that had been disabled; then cutting up the carcasses, they returned with loads
of meat to the camp, where the choicest pieces were soon roasting before large fires,
and a hunters' feast succeeded; at which Captain Bonneville and his men were
qualified, by previous fasting, to perform their parts with great vigor.
Some men are said to wax valorous upon a full stomach, and such seemed to be the
case with the Bannack braves, who, in proportion as they crammed themselves with
buffalo meat, grew stout of heart, until, the supper at an end, they began to chant war
songs, setting forth their mighty deeds, and the victories they had gained over the
Blackfeet. Warming with the theme, and inflating themselves with their own eulogies,
these magnanimous heroes of the trencher would start up, advance a short distance
beyond the light of the fire, and apostrophize most vehemently their Blackfeet enemies,
as though they had been within hearing. Ruffling, and swelling, and snorting, and
slapping their breasts, and brandishing their arms, they would vociferate all their
exploits; reminding the Blackfeet how they had drenched their towns in tears and blood;
enumerate the blows they had inflicted, the warriors they had slain, the scalps they had
brought off in triumph. Then, having said everything that could stir a man's spleen or
pique his valor, they would dare their imaginary hearers, now that the Bannacks were
few in number, to come and take their revenge--receiving no reply to this valorous
bravado, they would conclude by all kinds of sneers and insults, deriding the Blackfeet
for dastards and poltroons, that dared not accept their challenge. Such is the kind of
swaggering and rhodomontade in which the "red men" are prone to indulge in their
vainglorious moments; for, with all their vaunted taciturnity, they are vehemently prone
at times to become eloquent about their exploits, and to sound their own trumpet.
Having vented their valor in this fierce effervescence, the Bannack braves gradually
calmed down, lowered their crests, smoothed their ruffled feathers, and betook
themselves to sleep, without placing a single guard over their camp; so that, had the
Blackfeet taken them at their word, but few of these braggart heroes might have
survived for any further boasting.
On the following morning, Captain Bonneville purchased a supply of buffalo meat from
his braggadocio friends; who, with all their vaporing, were in fact a very forlorn horde,
destitute of firearms, and of almost everything that constitutes riches in savage life. The
bargain concluded, the Bannacks set off for their village, which was situated, they said,
at the mouth of the Portneuf, and Captain Bonneville and his companions shaped their
course toward Snake River.
Arrived on the banks of that river, he found it rapid and boisterous, but not too deep to
be forded. In traversing it, however, one of the horses was swept suddenly from his
footing, and his rider was flung from the saddle into the midst of the stream. Both horse
and horseman were extricated without any damage, excepting that the latter was
completely drenched, so that it was necessary to kindle a fire to dry him. While they
were thus occupied, one of the party looking up, perceived an Indian scout cautiously
reconnoitring them from the summit of a neighboring hill. The moment he found himself
discovered, he disappeared behind the hill. From his furtive movements, Captain
Bonneville suspected him to be a scout from the Blackfeet camp, and that he had gone
to report what he had seen to his companions. It would not do to loiter in such a
neighborhood, so the kindling of the fire was abandoned, the drenched horseman
mounted in dripping condition, and the little band pushed forward directly into the plain,
going at a smart pace, until they had gained a considerable distance from the place of
supposed danger. Here encamping for the night, in the midst of abundance of sage, or
wormwood, which afforded fodder for their horses, they kindled a huge fire for the
benefit of their damp comrade, and then proceeded to prepare a sumptuous supper of
buffalo humps and ribs, and other choice bits, which they had brought with them. After
a hearty repast, relished with an appetite unknown to city epicures, they stretched
themselves upon their couches of skins, and under the starry canopy of heaven,
enjoyed the sound and sweet sleep of hardy and well-fed mountaineers.
They continued on their journey for several days, without any incident worthy of notice,
and on the 19th of November, came upon traces of the party of which they were in
search; such as burned patches of prairie, and deserted camping grounds. All these
were carefully examined, to discover by their freshness or antiquity the probable time
that the trappers had left them; at length, after much wandering and investigating, they
came upon the regular trail of the hunting party, which led into the mountains, and
following it up briskly, came about two o'clock in the afternoon of the 20th, upon the
encampment of Hodgkiss and his band of free trappers, in the bosom of a mountain
valley.
It will be recollected that these free trappers, who were masters of themselves and their
movements, had refused to accompany Captain Bonneville back to Green River in the
preceding month of July, preferring to trap about the upper waters of the Salmon River,
where they expected to find plenty of beaver, and a less dangerous neighborhood.
Their hunt had not been very successful. They had penetrated the great range of
mountains among which some of the upper branches of Salmon River take their rise,
but had become so entangled among immense and almost impassable barricades of
fallen pines, and so impeded by tremendous precipices, that a great part of their
season had been wasted among these mountains. At one time, they had made their
way through them, and reached the Boisee River; but meeting with a band of Bannack
Indians, from whom they apprehended hostilities, they had again taken shelter among
the mountains, where they were found by Captain Bonneville. In the neighborhood of
their encampment, the captain had the good fortune to meet with a family of those
wanderers of the mountains, emphatically called "les dignes de pitie," or Poordevil
Indians. These, however, appear to have forfeited the title, for they had with them a fine
lot of skins of beaver, elk, deer, and mountain sheep. These, Captain Bonneville
purchased from them at a fair valuation, and sent them off astonished at their own
wealth, and no doubt objects of envy to all their pitiful tribe.
Being now reinforced by Hodgkiss and his band of free trappers, Captain Bonneville put
himself at the head of the united parties, and set out to rejoin those he had recently left
at the Beer Spring, that they might all go into winter quarters on Snake River. On his
route, he encountered many heavy falls of snow, which melted almost immediately, so
as not to impede his march, and on the 4th of December, he found his other party,
encamped at the very place where he had partaken in the buffalo hunt with the
Bannacks.
That braggart horde was encamped but about three miles off, and were just then in high
glee and festivity, and more swaggering than ever, celebrating a prodigious victory. It
appeared that a party of their braves being out on a hunting excursion, discovered a
band of Blackfeet moving, as they thought, to surprise their hunting camp. The
Bannacks immediately posted themselves on each side of a dark ravine, through which
the enemy must pass, and, just as they were entangled in the midst of it, attacked them
with great fury. The Blackfeet, struck with sudden panic, threw off their buffalo robes
and fled, leaving one of their warriors dead on the spot. The victors eagerly gathered up
the spoils; but their greatest prize was the scalp of the Blackfoot brave. This they bore
off in triumph to their village, where it had ever since been an object of the greatest
exultation and rejoicing. It had been elevated upon a pole in the centre of the village,
where the warriors had celebrated the scalp dance round it, with war feasts, war songs,
and warlike harangues. It had then been given up to the women and boys; who had
paraded it up and down the village with shouts and chants and antic dances;
occasionally saluting it with all kinds of taunts, invectives, and revilings.
The Blackfeet, in this affair, do not appear to have acted up to the character which has
rendered them objects of such terror. Indeed, their conduct in war, to the inexperienced
observer, is full of inconsistencies; at one time they are headlong in courage, and
heedless of danger; at another time cautious almost to cowardice. To understand these
apparent incongruities, one must know their principles of warfare. A war party, however
triumphant, if they lose a warrior in the fight, bring back a cause of mourning to their
people, which casts a shade over the glory of their achievement. Hence, the Indian is
often less fierce and reckless in general battle, than he is in a private brawl; and the
chiefs are checked in their boldest undertakings by the fear of sacrificing their warriors.
This peculiarity is not confined to the Blackfeet. Among the Osages, says Captain Bonneville, when a warrior falls in battle, his comrades, though they may have fought with consummate valor, and won a glorious victory, will leave their arms upon the field of battle, and returning home with dejected countenances, will halt without the encampment, and wait until the relatives of the slain come forth and invite them to mingle again with their people.