Chapter 23

Departure from Green River valley Popo Agie Its course The rivers

into which it runs Scenery of the Bluffs the great Tar

Spring Volcanic tracts in the Crow country Burning Mountain of

Powder River Sulphur springs Hidden fires Colter's Hell Wind

River Campbell's party Fitzpatrick and his trappers Captain

Stewart, an amateur traveller Nathaniel Wyeth Anecdotes of his

expedition to the Far West Disaster of Campbell's party A union

of bands The Bad Pass The rapids Departure of

Fitzpatrick Embarkation of peltries Wyeth and his bull

boat Adventures of Captain Bonneville in the Bighorn

Mountains Adventures in the plain Traces of Indians Travelling

precautions Dangers of making a smoke The rendezvous

ON THE 25TH of July, Captain Bonneville struck his tents, and set

out on his route for the Bighorn, at the head of a party of

fifty-six men, including those who were to embark with Cerre.

Crossing the Green River valley, he proceeded along the south

point of the Wind River range of mountains, and soon fell upon

the track of Mr. Robert Campbell's party, which had preceded him

by a day. This he pursued, until he perceived that it led down

the banks of the Sweet Water to the southeast. As this was

different from his proposed direction, he left it; and turning to

the northeast, soon came upon the waters of the Popo Agie. This

stream takes its rise in the Wind River Mountains. Its name, like

most Indian names, is characteristic. Popo, in the Crow

language, signifies head; and Agie, river. It is the head of a

long river, extending from the south end of the Wind River

Mountains in a northeast direction, until it falls into the

Yellowstone. Its course is generally through plains, but is twice

crossed by chains of mountains; the first called the Littlehorn;

the second, the Bighorn. After it has forced its way through the

first chain, it is called the Horn River; after the second chain,

it is called the Bighorn River. Its passage through this last

chain is rough and violent; making repeated falls, and rushing

down long and furious rapids, which threaten destruction to the

navigator; though a hardy trapper is said to have shot down them

in a canoe. At the foot of these rapids, is the head of

navigation; where it was the intention of the parties to

construct boats, and embark.

Proceeding down along the Popo Agie, Captain Bonneville came

again in full view of the "Bluffs," as they are called, extending

from the base of the Wind River Mountains far away to the east,

and presenting to the eye a confusion of hills and cliffs of red

sandstone, some peaked and angular, some round, some broken into

crags and precipices, and piled up in fantastic masses; but all

naked and sterile. There appeared to be no soil favorable to

vegetation, nothing but coarse gravel; yet, over all this

isolated, barren landscape, were diffused such atmospherical

tints and hues, as to blend the whole into harmony and beauty.

In this neighborhood, the captain made search for "the great Tar

Spring," one of the wonders of the mountains; the medicinal

properties of which, he had heard extravagantly lauded by the

trappers. After a toilsome search, he found it at the foot of a

sand-bluff, a little east of the Wind River Mountains; where it

exuded in a small stream of the color and consistency of tar. The

men immediately hastened to collect a quantity of it, to use as

an ointment for the galled backs of their horses, and as a balsam

for their own pains and aches. From the description given of it,

it is evidently the bituminous oil, called petrolium or naphtha,

which forms a principal ingredient in the potent medicine called

British Oil. It is found in various parts of Europe and Asia, in

several of the West India islands, and in some places of the

United States. In the state of New York, it is called Seneca Oil,

from being found near the Seneca lake.

The Crow country has other natural curiosities, which are held in

superstitious awe by the Indians, and considered great marvels by

the trappers. Such is the Burning Mountain, on Powder River,

abounding with anthracite coal. Here the earth is hot and

cracked; in many places emitting smoke and sulphurous vapors, as

if covering concealed fires. A volcanic tract of similar

character is found on Stinking River, one of the tributaries of

the Bighorn, which takes its unhappy name from the odor derived

from sulphurous springs and streams. This last mentioned place

was first discovered by Colter, a hunter belonging to Lewis and

Clarke's exploring party, who came upon it in the course of his

lonely wanderings, and gave such an account of its gloomy

terrors, its hidden fires, smoking pits, noxious streams, and the

all-pervading "smell of brimstone," that it received, and has

ever since retained among trappers, the name of "Colter's Hell!"

Resuming his descent along the left bank of the Popo Agie,

Captain Bonneville soon reached the plains; where he found

several large streams entering from the west. Among these was

Wind River, which gives its name to the mountains among which it

takes its rise. This is one of the most important streams of the

Crow country. The river being much swollen, Captain Bonneville

halted at its mouth, and sent out scouts to look for a fording

place. While thus encamped, he beheld in the course of the

afternoon a long line of horsemen descending the slope of the

hills on the opposite side of the Popo Agie. His first idea was

that they were Indians; he soon discovered, however, that they

were white men, and, by the long line of pack-horses, ascertained

them to be the convoy of Campbell, which, having descended the

Sweet Water, was now on its way to the Horn River.

The two parties came together two or three days afterwards, on

the 4th of August, after having passed through the gap of the

Littlehorn Mountain. In company with Campbell's convoy was a

trapping party of the Rocky Mountain Company, headed by

Fitzpatrick; who, after Campbell's embarkation on the Bighorn,

was to take charge of all the horses, and proceed on a trapping

campaign. There were, moreover, two chance companions in the

rival camp. One was Captain Stewart, of the British army, a

gentleman of noble connections, who was amusing himself by a

wandering tour in the Far West; in the course of which, he had

lived in hunter's style; accompanying various bands of traders,

trappers, and Indians; and manifesting that relish for the

wilderness that belongs to men of game spirit.

The other casual inmate of Mr. Campbell's camp was Mr. Nathaniel

Wyeth; the self-same leader of the band of New England salmon

fishers, with whom we parted company in the valley of Pierre's

Hole, after the battle with the Blackfeet. A few days after that

affair, he again set out from the rendezvous in company with

Milton Sublette and his brigade of trappers. On his march, he

visited the battle ground, and penetrated to the deserted fort of

the Blackfeet in the midst of the wood. It was a dismal scene.

The fort was strewed with the mouldering bodies of the slain;

while vultures soared aloft, or sat brooding on the trees around;

and Indian dogs howled about the place, as if bewailing the death

of their masters. Wyeth travelled for a considerable distance to

the southwest, in company with Milton Sublette, when they

separated; and the former, with eleven men, the remnant of his

band, pushed on for Snake River; kept down the course of that

eventful stream; traversed the Blue Mountains, trapping beaver

occasionally by the way, and finally, after hardships of all

kinds, arrived, on the 29th of October, at Vancouver, on the

Columbia, the main factory of the Hudson's Bay Company.

He experienced hospitable treatment at the hands of the agents of

that company; but his men, heartily tired of wandering in the

wilderness, or tempted by other prospects, refused, for the most

part, to continue any longer in his service. Some set off for the

Sandwich Islands; some entered into other employ. Wyeth found,

too, that a great part of the goods he had brought with him were

unfitted for the Indian trade; in a word, his expedition,

undertaken entirely on his own resources, proved a failure. He

lost everything invested in it, but his hopes. These were as

strong as ever. He took note of every thing, therefore, that

could be of service to him in the further prosecution of his

project; collected all the information within his reach, and then

set off, accompanied by merely two men, on his return journey

across the continent. He had got thus far "by hook and by crook,"

a mode in which a New England man can make his way all over the

world, and through all kinds of difficulties, and was now bound

for Boston; in full confidence of being able to form a company

for the salmon fishery and fur trade of the Columbia.

The party of Mr. Campbell had met with a disaster in the course

of their route from the Sweet Water. Three or four of the men,

who were reconnoitering the country in advance of the main body,

were visited one night in their camp, by fifteen or twenty

Shoshonies. Considering this tribe as perfectly friendly, they

received them in the most cordial and confiding manner. In the

course of the night, the man on guard near the horses fell sound

asleep; upon which a Shoshonie shot him in the head, and nearly

killed him. The savages then made off with the horses, leaving

the rest of the party to find their way to the main body on foot.

The rival companies of Captain Bonneville and Mr. Campbell, thus

fortuitously brought together, now prosecuted their journey in

great good fellowship; forming a joint camp of about a hundred

men. The captain, however, began to entertain doubts that

Fitzpatrick and his trappers, who kept profound silence as to

their future movements, intended to hunt the same grounds which

he had selected for his autumnal campaign; which lay to the west

of the Horn River, on its tributary streams. In the course of his

march, therefore, he secretly detached a small party of trappers,

to make their way to those hunting grounds, while he continued on

with the main body; appointing a rendezvous, at the next full

moon, about the 28th of August, at a place called the Medicine

Lodge.

On reaching the second chain, called the Bighorn Mountains, where

the river forced its impetuous way through a precipitous defile,

with cascades and rapids, the travellers were obliged to leave

its banks, and traverse the mountains by a rugged and frightful

route, emphatically called the "Bad Pass." Descending the

opposite side, they again made for the river banks; and about the

middle of August, reached the point below the rapids where the

river becomes navigable for boats. Here Captain Bonneville

detached a second party of trappers, consisting of ten men, to

seek and join those whom he had detached while on the route;

appointing for them the same rendezvous, (at the Medicine Lodge,)

on the 28th of August.

All hands now set to work to construct "bull boats," as they are

technically called; a light, fragile kind of bark, characteristic

of the expedients and inventions of the wilderness; being formed

of buffalo skins, stretched on frames. They are sometimes, also,

called skin boats. Wyeth was the first ready; and, with his usual

promptness and hardihood, launched his frail bark, singly, on

this wild and hazardous voyage, down an almost interminable

succession of rivers, winding through countries teeming with

savage hordes. Milton Sublette, his former fellow traveller, and

his companion in the battle scenes of Pierre's Hole, took passage

in his boat. His crew consisted of two white men, and two

Indians. We shall hear further of Wyeth, and his wild voyage, in

the course of our wanderings about the Far West.

The remaining parties soon completed their several armaments.

That of Captain Bonneville was composed of three bull boats, in

which he embarked all his peltries, giving them in charge of Mr.

Cerre, with a party of thirty-six men. Mr. Campbell took command

of his own boats, and the little squadrons were soon gliding down

the bright current of the Bighorn.

The secret precautions which Captain Bonneville had taken to

throw his men first into the trapping ground west of the Bighorn,

were, probably, superfluous. It did not appear that Fitzpatrick

had intended to hunt in that direction. The moment Mr. Campbell

and his men embarked with the peltries, Fitzpatrick took charge

of all the horses, amounting to above a hundred, and struck off

to the east, to trap upon Littlehorn, Powder, and Tongue rivers.

He was accompanied by Captain Stewart, who was desirous of having

a range about the Crow country. Of the adventures they met with

in that region of vagabonds and horse stealers, we shall have

something to relate hereafter.

Captain Bonneville being now left to prosecute his trapping

campaign without rivalry, set out, on the 17th of August, for the

rendezvous at Medicine Lodge. He had but four men remaining with

him, and forty-six horses to take care of; with these he had to

make his way over mountain and plain, through a marauding,

horse-stealing region, full of peril for a numerous cavalcade so

slightly manned. He addressed himself to his difficult journey,

however, with his usual alacrity of spirit.

In the afternoon of his first day's journey, on drawing near to

the Bighorn Mountain, on the summit of which he intended to

encamp for the night, he observed, to his disquiet, a cloud of

smoke rising from its base. He came to a halt, and watched it

anxiously. It was very irregular; sometimes it would almost die

away; and then would mount up in heavy volumes. There was,

apparently, a large party encamped there; probably, some ruffian

horde of Blackfeet. At any rate, it would not do for so small a

number of men, with so numerous a cavalcade, to venture within

sight of any wandering tribe. Captain Bonneville and his

companions, therefore, avoided this dangerous neighborhood; and,

proceeding with extreme caution, reached the summit of the

mountain, apparently without being discovered. Here they found a

deserted Blackfoot fort, in which they ensconced themselves;

disposed of every thing as securely as possible, and passed the

night without molestation. Early the next morning they descended

the south side of the mountain into the great plain extending

between it and the Littlehorn range. Here they soon came upon

numerous footprints, and the carcasses of buffaloes; by which

they knew there must be Indians not far off. Captain Bonneville

now began to feel solicitude about the two small parties of

trappers which he had detached, lest the Indians should have come

upon them before they had united their forces. But he felt still

more solicitude about his own party; for it was hardly to be

expected he could traverse these naked plains undiscovered, when

Indians were abroad; and should he be discovered, his chance

would be a desperate one. Everything now depended upon the

greatest circumspection. It was dangerous to discharge a gun, or

light a fire, or make the least noise, where such quick-eared and

quick-sighted enemies were at hand. In the course of the day they

saw indubitable signs that the buffalo had been roaming there in

great numbers, and had recently been frightened away. That night

they encamped with the greatest care; and threw up a strong

breastwork for their protection.

For the two succeeding days they pressed forward rapidly, but

cautiously, across the great plain; fording the tributary streams

of the Horn River; encamping one night among thickets; the next,

on an island; meeting, repeatedly, with traces of Indians; and

now and then, in passing through a defile, experiencing alarms

that induced them to cock their rifles.

On the last day of their march hunger got the better of their

caution, and they shot a fine buffalo bull at the risk of being

betrayed by the report. They did not halt to make a meal, but

carried the meat on with them to the place of rendezvous, the

Medicine Lodge, where they arrived safely, in the evening, and

celebrated their arrival by a hearty supper.

The next morning they erected a strong pen for the horses, and a

fortress of logs for themselves; and continued to observe the

greatest caution. Their cooking was all done at mid-day, when the

fire makes no glare, and a moderate smoke cannot be perceived at

any great distance. In the morning and the evening, when the wind

is lulled, the smoke rises perpendicularly in a blue column, or

floats in light clouds above the tree-tops, and can be discovered

from afar.

In this way the little party remained for several days,

cautiously encamped, until, on the 29th of August, the two

detachments they had been expecting, arrived together at the

rendezvous. They, as usual, had their several tales of adventures

to relate to the captain, which we will furnish to the reader in

the next chapter.