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CHAPTER 37
Departure for the rendezvous - A war party of Blackfeet - A mock bustle - Sham fires at night - Warlike precautions - Dangers of a night attack - A panic among horses - Cautious march - The Beer Springs - A mock carousel - Skirmishing with buffaloes - A buffalo bait - Arrival at the rendezvous - Meeting of various bands
AFTER THE TWO DAYS of festive indulgence, Captain Bonneville
broke up the encampment, and set out with his motley crew of
hired and free trappers, half-breeds, Indians, and squaws, for
the main rendezvous in Bear River valley. Directing his course up
the Blackfoot River, he soon reached the hills among which it
takes its rise. Here, while on the march, he descried from the
brow of a hill, a war party of about sixty Blackfeet, on the
plain immediately below him. His situation was perilous; for the
greater part of his people were dispersed in various directions.
Still, to betray hesitation or fear would be to discover his
actual weakness, and to invite attack. He assumed, instantly,
therefore, a belligerent tone; ordered the squaws to lead the
horses to a small grove of ashen trees, and unload and tie them;
and caused a great bustle to be made by his scanty handful; the
leaders riding hither and thither, and vociferating with all
their might, as if a numerous force was getting under way for an
attack.
To keep up the deception as to his force, he ordered, at night, a
number of extra fires to be made in his camp, and kept up a
vigilant watch. His men were all directed to keep themselves
prepared for instant action. In such cases the experienced
trapper sleeps in his clothes, with his rifle beside him, the
shot-belt and powder-flask on the stock: so that, in case of
alarm, he can lay his hand upon the whole of his equipment at
once, and start up, completely armed.
Captain Bonneville was also especially careful to secure the
horses, and set a vigilant guard upon them; for there lies the
great object and principal danger of a night attack. The grand
move of the lurking savage is to cause a panic among the horses.
In such cases one horse frightens another, until all are alarmed,
and struggle to break loose. In camps where there are great
numbers of Indians, with their horses, a night alarm of the kind
is tremendous. The running of the horses that have broken loose;
the snorting, stamping, and rearing of those which remain fast;
the howling of dogs; the yelling of Indians; the scampering of
white men, and red men, with their guns; the overturning of
lodges, and trampling of fires by the horses; the flashes of the
fires, lighting up forms of men and steeds dashing through the
gloom, altogether make up one of the wildest scenes of confusion
imaginable. In this way, sometimes, all the horses of a camp
amounting to several hundred will be frightened off in a single
night.
The night passed off without any disturbance; but there was no
likelihood that a war party of Blackfeet, once on the track of a
camp where there was a chance for spoils, would fail to hover
round it. The captain, therefore, continued to maintain the most
vigilant precautions; throwing out scouts in the advance, and on
every rising ground.
In the course of the day he arrived at the plain of white clay,
already mentioned, surrounded by the mineral springs, called Beer
Springs, by the trappers. Here the men all halted to have a
regale. In a few moments every spring had its jovial knot of
hard drinkers, with tin cup in hand, indulging in a mock carouse;
quaffing, pledging, toasting, bandying jokes, singing drinking
songs, and uttering peals of laughter, until it seemed as if
their imaginations had given potency to the beverage, and cheated
them into a fit of intoxication. Indeed, in the excitement of the
moment, they were loud and extravagant in their commendations of
"the mountain tap"; elevating it above every beverage produced
from hops or malt. It was a singular and fantastic scene; suited
to a region where everything is strange and peculiar:--These
groups of trappers, and hunters, and Indians, with their wild
costumes, and wilder countenances; their boisterous gayety, and
reckless air; quaffing, and making merry round these sparkling
fountains; while beside them lay their weep ons, ready to be
snatched up for instant service. Painters are fond of
representing banditti at their rude and picturesque carousels;
but here were groups, still more rude and picturesque; and it
needed but a sudden onset of Blackfeet, and a quick transition
from a fantastic revel to a furious melee, to have rendered this
picture of a trapper's life complete.
The beer frolic, however, passed off without any untoward
circumstance; and, unlike most drinking bouts, left neither
headache nor heartache behind. Captain Bonneville now directed
his course up along Bear River; amusing himself, occasionally,
with hunting the buffalo, with which the country was covered.
Sometimes, when he saw a huge bull taking his repose in a
prairie, he would steal along a ravine, until close upon him;
then rouse him from his meditations with a pebble, and take a
shot at him as he started up. Such is the quickness with which
this animal springs upon his legs, that it is not easy to
discover the muscular process by which it is effected. The horse
rises first upon his fore legs; and the domestic cow, upon her
hinder limbs; but the buffalo bounds at once from a couchant to
an erect position, with a celerity that baffles the eye. Though
from his bulk, and rolling gait, he does not appear to run with
much swiftness; yet, it takes a stanch horse to overtake him,
when at full speed on level ground; and a buffalo cow is still
fleeter in her motion.
Among the Indians and half-breeds of the party, were several
admirable horsemen and bold hunters; who amused themselves with a
grotesque kind of buffalo bait. Whenever they found a huge bull
in the plains, they prepared for their teasing and barbarous
sport. Surrounding him on horseback, they would discharge their
arrows at him in quick succession, goading him to make an attack;
which, with a dexterous movement of the horse, they would easily
avoid. In this way, they hovered round him, feathering him with
arrows, as he reared and plunged about, until he was bristled all
over like a porcupine. When they perceived in him signs of
exhaustion, and he could no longer be provoked to make battle,
they would dismount from their horses, approach him in the rear,
and seizing him by the tail, jerk him from side to side, and drag
him backward; until the frantic animal, gathering fresh strength
from fury, would break from them, and rush, with flashing eyes
and a hoarse bellowing, upon any enemy in sight; but in a little
while, his transient excitement at an end, would pitch headlong
on the ground, and expire. The arrows were then plucked forth,
the tongue cut out and preserved as a dainty, and the carcass
left a banquet for the wolves.
Pursuing his course up Bear River, Captain Bonneville arrived, on
the 13th of June, at the Little Snake Lake; where he encamped for
four or five days, that he might examine its shores and outlets.
The latter, he found extremely muddy, and so surrounded by swamps
and quagmires, that he was obliged to construct canoes of rushes,
with which to explore them. The mouths of all the streams which
fall into this lake from the west, are marshy and inconsiderable;
but on the east side, there is a beautiful beach, broken,
occasionally, by high and isolated bluffs, which advance upon the
lake, and heighten the character of the scenery. The water is
very shallow, but abounds with trout, and other small fish.
Having finished his survey of the lake, Captain Bonneville
proceeded on his journey, until on the banks of the Bear River,
some distance higher up, he came upon the party which he had
detached a year before, to circumambulate the Great Salt Lake,
and ascertain its extent, and the nature of its shores. They had
been encamped here about twenty days; and were greatly rejoiced
at meeting once more with their comrades, from whom they had so
long been separated. The first inquiry of Captain Bonneville was
about the result of their journey, and the information they had
procured as to the Great Salt Lake; the object of his intense
curiosity and ambition. The substance of their report will be
found in the following chapter.
Content of CHAPTER 37 [Washington Irving's book: The Adventures of Captain Bonneville]
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