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.