Chapter 14

The party enters the mountain gorge A wild fastness among

hills Mountain mutton Peace and plenty The amorous trapper-A

piebald wedding-A free trapper's wife-Her gala equipments-

Christmas in the wilderness.

ON the 19th of December Captain Bonneville and his confederate

Indians raised their camp, and entered the narrow gorge made by

the north fork of Salmon River. Up this lay the secure and

plenteous hunting region so temptingly described by the Indians.

Since leaving Green River the plains had invariably been of loose

sand or coarse gravel, and the rocky formation of the mountains

of primitive limestone. The rivers, in general, were skirted

with willows and bitter cottonwood trees, and the prairies

covered with wormwood. In the hollow breast of the mountains

which they were now penetrating, the surrounding heights were

clothed with pine; while the declivities of the lower hills

afforded abundance of bunch grass for the horses.

As the Indians had represented, they were now in a natural

fastness of the mountains, the ingress and egress of which was by

a deep gorge, so narrow, rugged, and difficult as to prevent

secret approach or rapid retreat, and to admit of easy defence.

The Blackfeet, therefore, refrained from venturing in after the

Nez Perces, awaiting a better chance, when they should once more

emerge into the open country.

Captain Bonneville soon found that the Indians had not

exaggerated the advantages of this region. Besides the numerous

gangs of elk, large flocks of the ahsahta or bighorn, the

mountain sheep, were to be seen bounding among the precipices.

These simple animals were easily circumvented and destroyed. A

few hunters may surround a flock and kill as many as they please.

Numbers were daily brought into camp, and the flesh of those

which were young and fat was extolled as superior to the finest

mutton.

Here, then, there was a cessation from toil, from hunger, and

alarm. Past ills and dangers were forgotten. The hunt, the game,

the song, the story, the rough though good-humored joke, made

time pass joyously away, and plenty and security reigned

throughout the camp.

Idleness and ease, it is said, lead to love, and love to

matrimony, in civilized life, and the same process takes place in

the wilderness. Filled with good cheer and mountain mutton, one

of the free trappers began to repine at the solitude of his

lodge, and to experience the force of that great law of nature,

"it is not meet for man to live alone.''

After a night of grave cogitation he repaired to Kowsoter, the

Pierced-nose chief, and unfolded to him the secret workings of

his bosom.

"I want," said he, "a wife. Give me one from among your tribe.

Not a young, giddy-pated girl, that will think of nothing but

flaunting and finery, but a sober, discreet, hard-working squaw;

one that will share my lot without flinching, however hard it may

be; that can take care of my lodge, and be a companion and a

helpmate to me in the wilderness." Kowsoter promised to look

round among the females of his tribe, and procure such a one as

he desired. Two days were requisite for the search. At the

expiration of these, Kowsoter, called at his lodge, and informed

him that he would bring his bride to him in the course of the

afternoon. He kept his word. At the appointed time he approached,

leading the bride, a comely copper-colored dame attired in her

Indian finery. Her father, mother, brothers by the half dozen and

cousins by the score, all followed on to grace the ceremony and

greet the new and important relative.

The trapper received his new and numerous family connection with

proper solemnity; he placed his bride beside him, and, filling

the pipe, the great symbol of peace, with his best tobacco, took

two or three whiffs, then handed it to the chief who transferred

it to the father of the bride, from whom it was passed on from

hand to hand and mouth to mouth of the whole circle of kinsmen

round the fire, all maintaining the most profound and becoming

silence.

After several pipes had been filled and emptied in this solemn

ceremonial, the chief addressed the bride, detailing at

considerable length the duties of a wife which, among Indians,

are little less onerous than those of the pack-horse; this done,

he turned to her friends and congratulated them upon the great

alliance she had made. They showed a due sense of their good

fortune, especially when the nuptial presents came to be

distributed among the chiefs and relatives, amounting to about

one hundred and eighty dollars. The company soon retired, and now

the worthy trapper found indeed that he had no green girl to deal

with; for the knowing dame at once assumed the style and dignity

of a trapper's wife: taking possession of the lodge as her

undisputed empire, arranging everything according to her own

taste and habitudes, and appearing as much at home and on as easy

terms with the trapper as if they had been man and wife for

years.

We have already given a picture of a free trapper and his horse,

as furnished by Captain Bonneville: we shall here subjoin, as a

companion picture, his description of a free trapper's wife, that

the reader may have a correct idea of the kind of blessing the

worthy hunter in question had invoked to solace him in the

wilderness.

"The free trapper, while a bachelor, has no greater pet than his

horse; but the moment he takes a wife (a sort of brevet rank in

matrimony occasionally bestowed upon some Indian fair one, like

the heroes of ancient chivalry in the open field), he discovers

that he has a still more fanciful and capricious animal on which

to lavish his expenses.

"No sooner does an Indian belle experience this promotion, than

all her notions at once rise and expand to the dignity of her

situation, and the purse of her lover, and his credit into the

bargain, are taxed to the utmost to fit her out in becoming

style. The wife of a free trapper to be equipped and arrayed like

any ordinary and undistinguished squaw? Perish the grovelling

thought! In the first place, she must have a horse for her own

riding; but no jaded, sorry, earth-spirited hack, such as is

sometimes assigned by an Indian husband for the transportation of

his squaw and her pappooses: the wife of a free trader must have

the most beautiful animal she can lay her eyes on. And then, as

to his decoration: headstall, breast-bands, saddle and crupper

are lavishly embroidered with beads, and hung with thimbles,

hawks' bells, and bunches of ribbons. From each side of the

saddle hangs an esquimoot, a sort of pocket, in which she bestows

the residue of her trinkets and nick-nacks, which cannot be

crowded on the decoration of her horse or herself. Over this she

folds, with great care, a drapery of scarlet and bright-colored

calicoes, and now considers the caparison of her steed complete.

"As to her own person, she is even still more extravagant. Her

hair, esteemed beautiful in proportion to its length, is

carefully plaited, and made to fall with seeming negligence over

either breast. Her riding hat is stuck full of parti-colored

feathers; her robe, fashioned somewhat after that of the whites,

is of red, green, and sometimes gray cloth, but always of the

finest texture that can be procured. Her leggings and moccasins

are of the most beautiful and expensive workman-ship, and fitted

neatly to the foot and ankle, which with the Indian woman are

generally well formed and delicate. Then as to jewelry: in the

way of finger-rings, ear-rings, necklaces, and other female

glories, nothing within reach of the trapper's means is omitted

that can tend to impress the beholder with an idea of the lady's

high estate. To finish the whole, she selects from among her

blankets of various dyes one of some glowing color, and throwing

it over her shoulders with a native grace, vaults into the saddle

of her gay, prancing steed, and is ready to follow her

mountaineer 'to the last gasp with love and loyalty.' "

Such is the general picture of the free trapper's wife, given by

Captain Bonneville; how far it applied in its details to the one

in question does not altogether appear, though it would seem from

the outset of her connubial career, that she was ready to avail

herself of all the pomp and circumstance of her new condition. It

is worthy of mention that wherever there are several wives of

free trappers in a camp, the keenest rivalry exists between them,

to the sore detriment of their husbands' purses. Their whole time

is expended and their ingenuity tasked by endeavors to eclipse

each other in dress and decoration. The jealousies and

heart-burnings thus occasioned among these so-styled children of

nature are equally intense with those of the rival leaders of

style and fashion in the luxurious abodes of civilized life.

The genial festival of Christmas, which throughout all

Christendom lights up the fireside of home with mirth and

jollity, followed hard upon the wedding just described. Though

far from kindred and friends, Captain Bonneville and his handful

of free trappers were not disposed to suffer the festival to pass

unenjoyed; they were in a region of good cheer, and were disposed

to be joyous; so it was determined to "light up the yule clog,"

and celebrate a merry Christmas in the heart of the wilderness.

On Christmas eve, accordingly, they began their rude fetes and

rejoicings. In the course of the night the free trappers

surrounded the lodge of the Pierced-nose chief and in lieu of

Christmas carols, saluted him with a feude joie.

Kowsoter received it in a truly Christian spirit, and after a

speech, in which he expressed his high gratification at the honor

done him, invited the whole company to a feast on the following

day. His invitation was gladly accepted. A Christmas dinner in

the wigwam of an Indian chief! There was novelty in the idea. Not

one failed to be present. The banquet was served up in primitive

style: skins of various kinds, nicely dressed for the occasion,

were spread upon the ground; upon these were heaped up abundance

of venison, elk meat, and mountain mutton, with various bitter

roots which the Indians use as condiments.

After a short prayer, the company all seated themselves

cross-legged, in Turkish fashion, to the banquet, which passed

off with great hilarity. After which various games of strength

and agility by both white men and Indians closed the Christmas

festivities.