Chapter 4

An alarm Crow Indians Their appearance Mode of approach Their

vengeful errand Their curiosity Hostility between the Crows and

Blackfeet Loving conduct of the Crows Laramie's Fork First

navigation of the Nebraska Great elevation of the country Rarity

of the atmosphere Its effect on the wood-work of wagons Black

Hills Their wild and broken scenery Indian dogs Crow trophies

Sterile and dreary country Banks of the Sweet Water Buffalo

hunting Adventure of Tom Cain the Irish cook

WHEN ON THE MARCH, Captain Bonneville always sent some of his

best hunters in the advance to reconnoitre the country, as well

as to look out for game. On the 24th of May, as the caravan was

slowly journeying up the banks of the Nebraska, the hunters came

galloping back, waving their caps, and giving the alarm cry,

Indians! Indians!

The captain immediately ordered a halt: the hunters now came up

and announced that a large war-party of Crow Indians were just

above, on the river. The captain knew the character of these

savages; one of the most roving, warlike, crafty, and predatory

tribes of the mountains; horse-stealers of the first order, and

easily provoked to acts of sanguinary violence. Orders were

accordingly given to prepare for action, and every one promptly

took the post that had been assigned him in the general order of

the march, in all cases of warlike emergency.

Everything being put in battle array, the captain took the lead

of his little band, and moved on slowly and warily. In a little

while he beheld the Crow warriors emerging from among the bluffs.

There were about sixty of them; fine martial-looking fellows,

painted and arrayed for war, and mounted on horses decked out

with all kinds of wild trappings. They came prancing along in

gallant style, with many wild and dexterous evolutions, for none

can surpass them in horsemanship; and their bright colors, and

flaunting and fantastic embellishments, glaring and sparkling in

the morning sunshine, gave them really a striking appearance.

Their mode of approach, to one not acquainted with the tactics

and ceremonies of this rude chivalry of the wilderness, had an

air of direct hostility. They came galloping forward in a body,

as if about to make a furious charge, but, when close at hand,

opened to the right and left, and wheeled in wide circles round

the travellers, whooping and yelling like maniacs.

This done, their mock fury sank into a calm, and the chief,

approaching the captain, who had remained warily drawn up, though

informed of the pacific nature of the maneuver, extended to him

the hand of friendship. The pipe of peace was smoked, and now all

was good fellowship.

The Crows were in pursuit of a band of Cheyennes, who had

attacked their village in the night and killed one of their

people. They had already been five and twenty days on the track

of the marauders, and were determined not to return home until

they had sated their revenge.

A few days previously, some of their scouts, who were ranging the

country at a distance from the main body, had discovered the

party of Captain Bonneville. They had dogged it for a time in

secret, astonished at the long train of wagons and oxen, and

especially struck with the sight of a cow and calf, quietly

following the caravan; supposing them to be some kind of tame

buffalo. Having satisfied their curiosity, they carried back to

their chief intelligence of all that they had seen. He had, in

consequence, diverged from his pursuit of vengeance to behold the

wonders described to him. "Now that we have met you," said he to

Captain Bonneville, "and have seen these marvels with our own

eyes, our hearts are glad." In fact, nothing could exceed the

curiosity evinced by these people as to the objects before them.

Wagons had never been seen by them before, and they examined them

with the greatest minuteness; but the calf was the peculiar

object of their admiration. They watched it with intense interest

as it licked the hands accustomed to feed it, and were struck

with the mild expression of its countenance, and its perfect

docility.

After much sage consultation, they at length determined that it

must be the "great medicine" of the white party; an appellation

given by the Indians to anything of supernatural and mysterious

power that is guarded as a talisman. They were completely thrown

out in their conjecture, however, by an offer of the white men to

exchange the calf for a horse; their estimation of the great

medicine sank in an instant, and they declined the bargain.

At the request of the Crow chieftain the two parties encamped

together, and passed the residue of the day in company. The

captain was well pleased with every opportunity to gain a

knowledge of the "unsophisticated sons of nature," who had so

long been objects of his poetic speculations; and indeed this

wild, horse-stealing tribe is one of the most notorious of the

mountains. The chief, of course, had his scalps to show and his

battles to recount. The Blackfoot is the hereditary enemy of the

Crow, toward whom hostility is like a cherished principle of

religion; for every tribe, besides its casual antagonists, has

some enduring foe with whom there can be no permanent

reconciliation. The Crows and Blackfeet, upon the whole, are

enemies worthy of each other, being rogues and ruffians of the

first water. As their predatory excursions extend over the same

regions, they often come in contact with each other, and these

casual conflicts serve to keep their wits awake and their

passions alive.

The present party of Crows, however, evinced nothing of the

invidious character for which they are renowned. During the day

and night that they were encamped in company with the travellers,

their conduct was friendly in the extreme. They were, in fact,

quite irksome in their attentions, and had a caressing manner at

times quite importunate. It was not until after separation on the

following morning that the captain and his men ascertained the

secret of all this loving-kindness. In the course of their

fraternal caresses, the Crows had contrived to empty the pockets

of their white brothers; to abstract the very buttons from their

coats, and, above all, to make free with their hunting knives.

By equal altitudes of the sun, taken at this last encampment,

Captain Bonneville ascertained his latitude to be 41 47' north.

The thermometer, at six o'clock in the morning, stood at

fifty-nine degrees; at two o'clock, P. M., at ninety-two degrees;

and at six o'clock in the evening, at seventy degrees.

The Black Hills, or Mountains, now began to be seen at a

distance, printing the horizon with their rugged and broken

outlines; and threatening to oppose a difficult barrier in the

way of the travellers.

On the 26th of May, the travellers encamped at Laramie's Fork, a

clear and beautiful stream, rising in the west-southwest,

maintaining an average width of twenty yards, and winding through

broad meadows abounding in currants and gooseberries, and adorned

with groves and clumps of trees.

By an observation of Jupiter's satellites, with a Dolland

reflecting telescope, Captain Bonneville ascertained the

longitude to be 102 57' west of Greenwich.

We will here step ahead of our narrative to observe that about

three years after the time of which we are treating, Mr. Robert

Campbell, formerly of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, descended

the Platte from this fork, in skin canoes, thus proving, what had

always been discredited, that the river was navigable. About the

same time, he built a fort or trading post at Laramie's Fork,

which he named Fort William, after his friend and partner, Mr.

William Sublette. Since that time, the Platte has become a

highway for the fur traders.

For some days past, Captain Bonneville had been made sensible of

the great elevation of country into which he was gradually

ascending by the effect of the dryness and rarefaction of the

atmosphere upon his wagons. The wood-work shrunk; the paint boxes

of the wheels were continually working out, and it was necessary

to support the spokes by stout props to prevent their falling

asunder. The travellers were now entering one of those great

steppes of the Far West, where the prevalent aridity of the

atmosphere renders the country unfit for cultivation. In these

regions there is a fresh sweet growth of grass in the spring, but

it is scanty and short, and parches up in the course of the

summer, so that there is none for the hunters to set fire to in

the autumn. It is a common observation that "above the forks of

the Platte the grass does not burn." All attempts at agriculture

and gardening in the neighborhood of Fort William have been

attended with very little success. The grain and vegetables

raised there have been scanty in quantity and poor in quality.

The great elevation of these plains, and the dryness of the

atmosphere, will tend to retain these immense regions in a state

of pristine wildness.

In the course of a day or two more, the travellers entered that

wild and broken tract of the Crow country called the Black Hills,

and here their journey became toilsome in the extreme. Rugged

steeps and deep ravines incessantly obstructed their progress, so

that a great part of the day was spent in the painful toil of

digging through banks, filling up ravines, forcing the wagons up

the most forbidding ascents, or swinging them with ropes down the

face of dangerous precipices. The shoes of their horses were worn

out, and their feet injured by the rugged and stony roads. The

travellers were annoyed also by frequent but brief storms, which

would come hurrying over the hills, or through the mountain

defiles, rage with great fury for a short time, and then pass

off, leaving everything calm and serene again.

For several nights the camp had been infested by vagabond Indian

dogs, prowling about in quest of food. They were about the size

of a large pointer; with ears short and erect, and a long bushy

tail--altogether, they bore a striking resemblance to a wolf.

These skulking visitors would keep about the purlieus of the camp

until daylight; when, on the first stir of life among the

sleepers, they would scamper off until they reached some rising

ground, where they would take their seats, and keep a sharp and

hungry watch upon every movement. The moment the travellers were

fairly on the march, and the camp was abandoned, these starving

hangers-on would hasten to the deserted fires, to seize upon the

half-picked bones, the offal and garbage that lay about; and,

having made a hasty meal, with many a snap and snarl and growl,

would follow leisurely on the trail of the caravan. Many attempts

were made to coax or catch them, but in vain. Their quick and

suspicious eyes caught the slightest sinister movement, and they

turned and scampered off. At length one was taken. He was

terribly alarmed, and crouched and trembled as if expecting

instant death. Soothed, however, by caresses, he began after a

time to gather confidence and wag his tail, and at length was

brought to follow close at the heels of his captors, still,

however, darting around furtive and suspicious glances, and

evincing a disposition to scamper off upon the least alarm.

On the first of July the band of Crow warriors again crossed

their path. They came in vaunting and vainglorious style;

displaying five Cheyenne scalps, the trophies of their vengeance.

They were now bound homewards, to appease the manes of their

comrade by these proofs that his death had been revenged, and

intended to have scalp-dances and other triumphant rejoicings.

Captain Bonneville and his men, however, were by no means

disposed to renew their confiding intimacy with these crafty

savages, and above all, took care to avoid their pilfering

caresses. They remarked one precaution of the Crows with respect

to their horses; to protect their hoofs from the sharp and jagged

rocks among which they had to pass, they had covered them with

shoes of buffalo hide.

The route of the travellers lay generally along the course of the

Nebraska or Platte, but occasionally, where steep promontories

advanced to the margin of the stream, they were obliged to make

inland circuits. One of these took them through a bold and stern

country, bordered by a range of low mountains, running east and

west. Everything around bore traces of some fearful convulsion

of nature in times long past. Hitherto the various strata of rock

had exhibited a gentle elevation toward the southwest, but here

everything appeared to have been subverted, and thrown out of

place. In many places there were heavy beds of white sandstone

resting upon red. Immense strata of rocks jutted up into crags

and cliffs; and sometimes formed perpendicular walls and

overhanging precipices. An air of sterility prevailed over these

savage wastes. The valleys were destitute of herbage, and

scantily clothed with a stunted species of wormwood, generally

known among traders and trappers by the name of sage. From an

elevated point of their march through this region, the travellers

caught a beautiful view of the Powder River Mountains away to the

north, stretching along the very verge of the horizon, and

seeming, from the snow with which they were mantled, to be a

chain of small white clouds, connecting sky and earth.

Though the thermometer at mid-day ranged from eighty to ninety,

and even sometimes rose to ninety-three degrees, yet occasional

spots of snow were to be seen on the tops of the low mountains,

among which the travellers were journeying; proofs of the great

elevation of the whole region.

The Nebraska, in its passage through the Black Hills, is confined

to a much narrower channel than that through which it flows n the

plains below; but it is deeper and clearer, and rushes with a

stronger current. The scenery, also, is more varied and

beautiful. Sometimes it glides rapidly but smoothly through a

picturesque valley, between wooded banks; then, forcing its way

into the bosom of rugged mountains, it rushes impetuously through

narrow defiles, roaring and foaming down rocks and rapids, until

it is again soothed to rest in some peaceful valley.

On the 12th of July, Captain Bonneville abandoned the main stream

of the Nebraska, which was continually shouldered by rugged

promontories, and making a bend to the southwest, for a couple of

days, part of the time over plains of loose sand, encamped on the

14th on the banks of the Sweet Water, a stream about twenty yards

in breadth, and four or five feet deep, flowing between low banks

over a sandy soil, and forming one of the forks or upper branches

of the Nebraska. Up this stream they now shaped their course for

several successive days, tending, generally, to the west. The

soil was light and sandy; the country much diversified.

Frequently the plains were studded with isolated blocks of rock,

sometimes in the shape of a half globe, and from three to four

hundred feet high. These singular masses had occasionally a very

imposing, and even sublime appearance, rising from the midst of a

savage and lonely landscape.

As the travellers continued to advance, they became more and more

sensible of the elevation of the country. The hills around were

more generally capped with snow. The men complained of cramps and

colics, sore lips and mouths, and violent headaches. The

wood-work of the wagons also shrank so much that it was with

difficulty the wheels were kept from falling to pieces. The

country bordering upon the river was frequently gashed with deep

ravines, or traversed by high bluffs, to avoid which, the

travellers were obliged to make wide circuits through the plains.

In the course of these, they came upon immense herds of buffalo,

which kept scouring off in the van, like a retreating army.

Among the motley retainers of the camp was Tom Cain, a raw

Irishman, who officiated as cook, whose various blunders and

expedients in his novel situation, and in the wild scenes and

wild kind of life into which he had suddenly been thrown, had

made him a kind of butt or droll of the camp. Tom, however, began

to discover an ambition superior to his station; and the

conversation of the hunters, and their stories of their exploits,

inspired him with a desire to elevate himself to the dignity of

their order. The buffalo in such immense droves presented a

tempting opportunity for making his first essay. He rode, in the

line of march, all prepared for action: his powder-flask and

shot-pouch knowingly slung at the pommel of his saddle, to be at

hand; his rifle balanced on his shoulder. While in this plight, a

troop of Buffalo came trotting by in great alarm. In an instant,

Tom sprang from his horse and gave chase on foot. Finding they

were leaving him behind, he levelled his rifle and pulled [the]

trigger. His shot produced no other effect than to increase the

speed of the buffalo, and to frighten his own horse, who took to

his heels, and scampered off with all the ammunition. Tom

scampered after him, hallooing with might and main, and the wild

horse and wild Irishman soon disappeared among the ravines of the

prairie. Captain Bonneville, who was at the head of the line, and

had seen the transaction at a distance, detached a party in

pursuit of Tom. After a long interval they returned, leading the

frightened horse; but though they had scoured the country, and

looked out and shouted from every height, they had seen nothing

of his rider.

As Captain Bonneville knew Tom's utter awkwardness and

inexperience, and the dangers of a bewildered Irishman in the

midst of a prairie, he halted and encamped at an early hour, that

there might be a regular hunt for him in the morning.

At early dawn on the following day scouts were sent off in every

direction, while the main body, after breakfast, proceeded slowly

on its course. It was not until the middle of the afternoon that

the hunters returned, with honest Tom mounted behind one of them.

They had found him in a complete state of perplexity and

amazement. His appearance caused shouts of merriment in the

camp,--but Tom for once could not join in the mirth raised at his

expense: he was completely chapfallen, and apparently cured of

the hunting mania for the rest of his life.