This year, in the absence of Smith and Jackson, a considerable party was dispatched,
under Milton Sublette, brother of the Captain, and two other free trappers and traders,
Frapp and Jervais, to traverse the country down along the Bighorn River. Captain
Sublette took a large party, among whom was Joe Meek, across the mountains to trap
on the Snake River, in opposition to the Hudson's Bay Company. The Rocky Mountain
Fur Company had hitherto avoided this country, except when Smith had once crossed
to the head-waters of the Snake with a small party of five trappers. But Smith and
Sublette had determined to oppose themselves to the British traders who occupied so
large an extent of territory presumed to be American; and it had been agreed between
them to meet this year on Snake River on Sublette's return from St. Louis, and Smith's
from his California tour. What befel Smith's party before reaching the Columbia, has
already been related; also his reception by the Hudson's Bay Company, and his
departure from Vancouver.
Sublette led his company up the valley of the Wind River, across the mountains, and
on to the very head-waters of the Lewis or Snake River. Here he fell in with Jackson, in
the valley of Lewis Lake, called Jackson's Hole, and remained on the borders of this
lake for some time, waiting for Smith, whose non-appearance began to create a good
deal of uneasiness. At length runners were dispatched in all directions looking for the
lost Booshway.
The detachment to which Meek was assigned had the pleasure and honor of
discovering the hiding place of the missing partner, which was in Pierre's Hole, a
mountain valley about thirty miles long and of half that width, which subsequently. was
much frequented by the camps of the various fur companies. He was found trapping
and exploring, in company with four men only, one of whom was Black, who with him
escaped from the Umpqua Indians, as before related.
Notwithstanding the excitement and elation attendant upon the success of his party,
Meek found time to admire the magnificent scenery of the valley, which is bounded on
two sides by broken and picturesque ranges, and overlooked by that magnificent group
of mountains, called the Three Tetons, towering to a height of fourteen thousand feet.
This emerald cup set in its rim of amethystine mountains, was so pleasant a sight to the
mountain-men that camp was moved to it without delay, where it remained until some
time in September, recruiting its animals and preparing for the fall hunt.
Here again the trappers indulged in their noisy sports and rejoicing, ostensibly on
account of the return of the long-absent Booshway. There was little said of the men
who had perished in that unfortunate expedition. "Poor fellow! out of luck; " was the
usual burial rite which the memory of a dead comrade received. So much and no more.
They could indulge in noisy rejoicings over a lost comrade restored; but the dead one
was not mentioned. Nor was this apparently heartless and heedless manner so
irrational or unfeeling as it seemed. Everybody understood one thing in the mountains
-- that he must keep his life by his own courage and valor, or at the least by his own
prudence. Unseen dangers always lay in wait for him. The arrow or tomahawk of the
Indian, the blow of the grizzly bear, the mix-step on the dizzy or slippery height, the
rush of boiling and foaming floods, freezing cold, famine--these were the most
common forms of peril, yet did not embrace even then all the forms in which Death
sought his victims in the wilderness. The avoidance of painful reminders, such as the
loss of a party of men, was a natural instinct, involving also a principle of self
defence--since to have weak hearts would be the surest road to defeat in the next
dangerous encounter. To keep their hearts " big," they must be gay, they must not
remember the miserable fate of many of their one-time comrades. Think of that, stern
moralist and martinet in propriety! Your fur collar hangs in the gas-lighted hall. In your
luxurious dressing gown and slippers, by the warmth of a glowing grate, you muse upon
the depravity of your fellow men. But imagine yourself, if you can, in the heart of an
interminable wilderness. Let the snow be three or four feet deep, game scarce, Indians
on your track: escaped from these dangers, once more beside a camp fire, with a roast
of buffalo meat on a stick before it, and several of your companions similarly escaped,
and destined for the same chances to-morrow, around you. Do you fancy you should
give much time to lamenting the less lucky fellows who were left behind frozen, starved,
or scalped? Not you. You would be fortifying yourself against to-morrow, when the
same terrors might lay in wait for you. Jedediah Smith was a pious man; one of the few
that ever resided in the Rocky Mountains, and led a band of reckless trappers; but he
did not turn back to his camp when he saw it attacked on the Umpqua, nor stop to
lament his murdered men. The law of self preservation is strong in the wilderness.
"Keep up your heart to-day, for to-morrow you may die," is the motto of the trapper.
In the conference which took place between Smith and Sublette, the former insisted
that on account of the kind services of the Hudson's Bay Company toward himself and
the three other survivors of his party, they should withdraw their trappers and traders
from the western side of the mountains for the present, so as not to have them come in
conflict with those of that company. To this proposition Sublette reluctantly consented,
and orders were issued for moving once more to the east, before going into winter
camp, which was appointed for the Wind River Valley.
In the meantime Joe Meek was sent out with a party to take his first hunt for beaver as
a hired trapper. The detachment to which he belonged traveled down Pierre's fork, the
stream which watered the valley of Pierre's Hole, to its junction with Lewis' and Henry's
forks where they unite to form the great Snake River. While trapping in this locality the
party became aware of the vicinity of a roving band of Blackfeet, and in consequence,
redoubled their usual precautions while on the march.
The Blackfeet were the tribe most dreaded in the Rocky Mountains, and went by the
name of " Bugs Boys," which rendered into good English, meant "the devil's own." They
are now so well known that to mention their characteristics seems like repeating a
"twice-told tale; " but as they will appear so often in this narrative, Irving's account of
them as he had it from Bonneville when he was fresh from the mountains, will, after all,
not be out of place. " These savages," he says, " are the most dangerous banditti of the
mountains, and the inveterate foe of the trapper. They are Ishmaelites of the first order,
always with weapon in hand, ready for action. The young braves of the tribe, who are
destitute of property, go to war for booty; to gain horses, and acquire the means of
setting up a lodge, supporting a family, and entitling themselves to a seat in the public
councils. The veteran warriors fight merely for the love of the thing, and the
consequence which success gives them among their people. They are capital
horsemen, and are generally well mounted on short, stout horses, similar to the prairie
ponies, to be met with in St. Louis. When on a war party, however, they go on foot, to
enable them to skulk through the country with greater secrecy; to keep in thickets and
ravines, and use more adroit subterfuges and stratagems. Their mode of warfare is
entirely by ambush, surprise, and sudden assaults in the night time. If they succeed in
causing a panic, they dash forward with headlong fury; if the enemy is on the alert, and
shows no signs of fear, they become wary and deliberate in their movements.
Some of them are armed in the primitive style, with bows and arrows; the greater part
have American fusees, made after the fashion of those of the Hudson's Bay Company.
These they procure at the trading post of the American Fur Company, on Maria's River,
where they traffic their peltries for arms, ammunition, clothing, and trinkets. They are
extremely fond of spirituous liquors and tobacco, for which nuisances they are ready to
exchange, not merely their guns and horses, but even their wives and daughters. As
they are a treacherous race, and have cherished a lurking hostility to the whites, ever
since one of their tribe was killed by Mr. Lewis, the associate of General Clarke, in his
exploring expedition across the Rocky Mountains, the American Fur Company is
obliged constantly to keep at their post a garrison of sixty or seventy men."
"Under the general name of Blackfeet are comprehended several tribes, such as the
Surcies, the Peagans, the Blood Indians, and the Gros Ventres of the Prairies, who
roam about the Southern branches of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, together
with some other tribes further north. The bands infesting the Wind River Mountains,
and the country adjacent, at the time of which we are treating, were Gros Ventres of the
Prairies, which are not to be confounded with the Gros Ventres of the Missouri, who
keep about the lower part of that river, and are friendly to the white men."
"This hostile band keeps about the head-waters of the Missouri, and numbers about nine hundred fighting men. Once in the course of two or three years they abandon their usual abodes and make a visit to the Arapahoes of the Arkansas. Their route lies either through the Crow country, and the Black Hills, or through the lands of the Nez Perces, Flatheads, Bannacks, and Shoshonies. As they enjoy their favorite state of hostility with all these tribes, their expeditions are prone to be conducted in the most lawless and predatory style; nor do they hesitate to extend their maraudings to any party of white men they meet with, following their trail, hovering about their camps, waylaying and dogging the caravans of the free traders. and murdering the solitary trapper. The consequences are frequent and desperate fights between them and the mountaineers, in the wild defiles and fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains." Such were the Blackfeet at the period of which we are writing; nor has their character changed at this day, as many of the Montana miners know to their cost.