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CHAPTER 42
Departure of Captain Bonneville for the Columbia - Advance of Wyeth - Efforts to keep the lead - Hudson's Bay party - A junketing - A delectable beverage - Honey and alcohol - High
carousing - The Canadian "bon vivant" - A cache - A rapid move - Wyeth and his plans - His travelling companions - Buffalo hunting - More conviviality - An interruption.
IT was the 3d of July that Captain Bonneville set out on his
second visit to the banks of the Columbia, at the head of
twenty-three men. He travelled leisurely, to keep his horses
fresh, until on the 10th of July a scout brought word that Wyeth,
with his band, was but fifty miles in the rear, and pushing
forward with all speed. This caused some bustle in the camp; for
it was important to get first to the buffalo ground to secure
provisions for the journey. As the horses were too heavily laden
to travel fast, a cache was digged, as promptly as possible, to
receive all superfluous baggage. Just as it was finished, a
spring burst out of the earth at the bottom. Another cache was
therefore digged, about two miles further on; when, as they were
about to bury the effects, a line of horsemen with pack-horses,
were seen streaking over the plain, and encamped close by.
It proved to be a small band in the service of the Hudson's Bay
Company, under the command of a veteran Canadian; one of those
petty leaders, who, with a small party of men, and a small supply
of goods, are employed to follow up a band of Indians from one
hunting ground to another, and buy up their peltries.
Having received numerous civilities from the Hudson's Bay
Company, the captain sent an invitation to the officers of the
party to an evening regale; and set to work to make jovial
preparations. As the night air in these elevated regions is apt
to be cold, a blazing fire was soon made, that would have done
credit to a Christmas dinner, instead of a midsummer banquet. The
parties met in high good-fellowship. There was abundance of such
hunters' fare as the neighborhood furnished; and it was all
discussed with mountain appetites. They talked over all the
events of their late campaigns; but the Canadian veteran had been
unlucky in some of his transactions; and his brow began to grow
cloudy. Captain Bonneville remarked his rising spleen, and
regretted that he had no juice of the grape to keep it down.
A man's wit, however, is quick and inventive in the wilderness; a
thought suggested itself to the captain, how he might brew a
delectable beverage. Among his stores was a keg of honey but
half exhausted. This he filled up with alcohol, and stirred the
fiery and mellifluous ingredients together. The glorious results
may readily be imagined; a happy compound of strength and
sweetness, enough to soothe the most ruffled temper and unsettle
the most solid understanding.
The beverage worked to a charm; the can circulated merrily; the
first deep draught washed out every care from the mind of the
veteran; the second elevated his spirit to the clouds. He was,
in fact, a boon companion; as all veteran Canadian traders are
apt to be. He now became glorious; talked over all his exploits,
his huntings, his fightings with Indian braves, his loves with
Indian beauties; sang snatches of old French ditties, and
Canadian boat songs; drank deeper and deeper, sang louder and
louder; until, having reached a climax of drunken gayety, he
gradually declined, and at length fell fast asleep upon the
ground. After a long nap he again raised his head, imbibed
another potation of the "sweet and strong," flashed up with
another slight blaze of French gayety, and again fell asleep.
The morning found him still upon the field of action, but in sad
and sorrowful condition; suffering the penalties of past
pleasures, and calling to mind the captain's dulcet compound,
with many a retch and spasm. It seemed as if the honey and
alcohol, which had passed so glibly and smoothly over his tongue,
were at war within his stomach; and that he had a swarm of bees
within his head. In short, so helpless and woebegone was his
plight, that his party proceeded on their march without him; the
captain promised to bring him on in safety in the after part of
the day.
As soon as this party had moved off, Captain Bonneville's men
proceeded to construct and fill their cache; and just as it was
completed the party of Wyeth was descried at a distance. In a
moment all was activity to take the road. The horses were
prepared and mounted; and being lightened of a great part of
their burdens, were able to move with celerity. As to the worthy
convive of the preceding evening, he was carefully gathered up
from the hunter's couch on which he lay, repentant and supine,
and, being packed upon one of the horses, was hurried forward
with the convoy, groaning and ejaculating at every jolt.
In the course of the day, Wyeth, being lightly mounted, rode
ahead of his party, and overtook Captain Bonneville. Their
meeting was friendly and courteous; and they discussed, sociably,
their respective fortunes since they separated on the banks of
the Bighorn. Wyeth announced his intention of establishing a
small trading post at the mouth of the Portneuf, and leaving a
few men there, with a quantity of goods, to trade with the
neighboring Indians. He was compelled, in fact, to this measure,
in consequence of the refusal of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company
to take a supply of goods which he had brought out for them
according to contract; and which he had no other mode of
disposing of. He further informed Captain Bonneville that the
competition between the Rocky Mountain and American Fur Companies
which had led to such nefarious stratagems and deadly feuds, was
at an end; they having divided the country between them,
allotting boundaries within which each was to trade and hunt, so
as not to interfere with the other.
In company with Wyeth were travelling two men of science; Mr.
Nuttall, the botanist; the same who ascended the Missouri at the
time of the expedition to Astoria; and Mr. Townshend, an
ornithologist; from these gentlemen we may look forward to
important information concerning these interesting regions. There
were three religious missionaries, also, bound to the shores of
the Columbia, to spread the light of the Gospel in that far
wilderness.
After riding for some time together, in friendly conversation,
Wyeth returned to his party, and Captain Bonneville continued to
press forward, and to gain ground. At night he sent off the sadly
sober and moralizing chief of the Hudson's Bay Company, under a
proper escort, to rejoin his people; his route branching off in a
different direction. The latter took a cordial leave of his host,
hoping, on some future occasion, to repay his hospitality in
kind.
In the morning the captain was early on the march; throwing
scouts out far ahead, to scour hill and dale, in search of
buffalo. He had confidently expected to find game in abundance,
on the head-waters of the Portneuf; but on reaching that region,
not a track was to be seen.
At length, one of the scouts, who had made a wide sweep away to
the head-waters of the Blackfoot River, discovered great herds
quietly grazing in the adjacent meadows. He set out on his
return, to report his discoveries; but night overtaking him, he
was kindly and hospitably entertained at the camp of Wyeth. As
soon as day dawned he hastened to his own camp with the welcome
intelligence; and about ten o'clock of the same morning, Captain
Bonneville's party were in the midst of the game.
The packs were scarcely off the backs of the mules, when the
runners, mounted on the fleetest horses, were full tilt after the
buffalo. Others of the men were busied erecting scaffolds, and
other contrivances, for jerking or drying meat; others were
lighting great fires for the same purpose; soon the hunters began
to make their appearance, bringing in the choicest morsels of
buffalo meat; these were placed upon the scaffolds, and the whole
camp presented a scene of singular hurry and activity. At
daylight the next morning, the runners again took the field, with
similar success; and, after an interval of repose made their
third and last chase, about twelve o'clock; for by this time,
Wyeth's party was in sight. The game being now driven into a
valley, at some distance, Wyeth was obliged to fix his camp
there; but he came in the evening to pay Captain Bonneville a
visit. He was accompanied by Captain Stewart, the amateur
traveller; who had not yet sated his appetite for the adventurous
life of the wilderness. With him, also, was a Mr. M'Kay, a
half-breed; son of the unfortunate adventurer of the same name
who came out in the first maritime expedition to Astoria and was
blown up in the Tonquin. His son had grown up in the employ of
the British fur companies; and was a prime hunter, and a daring
partisan. He held, moreover, a farm in the valley of the
Wallamut.
The three visitors, when they reached Captain Bonneville's camp,
were surprised to find no one in it but himself and three men;
his party being dispersed in all directions, to make the most of
their present chance for hunting. They remonstrated with him on
the imprudence of remaining with so trifling a guard in a region
so full of danger. Captain Bonneville vindicated the policy of
his conduct. He never hesitated to send out all his hunters,
when any important object was to be attained; and experience had
taught him that he was most secure when his forces were thus
distributed over the surrounding country. He then was sure that
no enemy could approach, from any direction, without being
discovered by his hunters; who have a quick eye for detecting the
slightest signs of the proximity of Indians; and who would
instantly convey intelligence to the camp.
The captain now set to work with his men, to prepare a suitable
entertainment for his guests. It was a time of plenty in the
camp; of prime hunters' dainties; of buffalo humps, and buffalo
tongues; and roasted ribs, and broiled marrow-bones: all these
were cooked in hunters' style; served up with a profusion known
only on a plentiful hunting ground, and discussed with an
appetite that would astonish the puny gourmands of the cities.
But above all, and to give a bacchanalian grace to this truly
masculine repast, the captain produced his mellifluous keg of
home-brewed nectar, which had been so potent over the senses of
the veteran of Hudson's Bay. Potations, pottle deep, again went
round; never did beverage excite greater glee, or meet with more
rapturous commendation. The parties were fast advancing to that
happy state which would have insured ample cause for the next
day's repentance; and the bees were already beginning to buzz
about their ears, when a messenger came spurring to the camp with
intelligence that Wyeth's people had got entangled in one of
those deep and frightful ravines, piled with immense fragments of
volcanic rock, which gash the whole country about the head-waters
of the Blackfoot River. The revel was instantly at an end; the
keg of sweet and potent home-brewed was deserted; and the guests
departed with all speed to aid in extricating their companions
from the volcanic ravine.
Content of CHAPTER 42 [Washington Irving's book: The Adventures of Captain Bonneville]
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