Chapter 7

Retreat of the Blackfeet Fontenelle's camp in danger Captain

Bonneville and the Blackfeet Free trappers Their character,

habits, dress, equipments, horses Game fellows of the mountains

Their visit to the camp Good fellowship and good cheer A

carouse A swagger, a brawl, and a reconciliation

THE BLACKFEET WARRIORS, when they effected their midnight retreat

from their wild fastness in Pierre's Hole, fell back into the

valley of the Seeds-ke-dee, or Green River where they joined the

main body of their band. The whole force amounted to several

hundred fighting men, gloomy and exasperated by their late

disaster. They had with them their wives and children, which

incapacitated them from any bold and extensive enterprise of a

warlike nature; but when, in the course of their wanderings they

came in sight of the encampment of Fontenelle, who had moved some

distance up Green River valley in search of the free trappers,

they put up tremendous war-cries, and advanced fiercely as if to

attack it. Second thoughts caused them to moderate their fury.

They recollected the severe lesson just received, and could not

but remark the strength of Fontenelle's position; which had been

chosen with great judgment.

A formal talk ensued. The Blackfeet said nothing of the late

battle, of which Fontenelle had as yet received no accounts; the

latter, however, knew the hostile and perfidious nature of these

savages, and took care to inform them of the encampment of

Captain Bonneville, that they might know there were more white

men in the neighborhood. The conference ended, Fontenelle sent a

Delaware Indian of his party to conduct fifteen of the Blackfeet

to the camp of Captain Bonneville. There was [sic] at that time

two Crow Indians in the captain's camp, who had recently arrived

there. They looked with dismay at this deputation from their

implacable enemies, and gave the captain a terrible character of

them, assuring him that the best thing he could possibly do, was

to put those Blackfeet deputies to death on the spot. The

captain, however, who had heard nothing of the conflict at

Pierre's Hole, declined all compliance with this sage counsel. He

treated the grim warriors with his usual urbanity. They passed

some little time at the camp; saw, no doubt, that everything was

conducted with military skill and vigilance; and that such an

enemy was not to be easily surprised, nor to be molested with

impunity, and then departed, to report all that they had seen to

their comrades.

The two scouts which Captain Bonneville had sent out to seek for

the band of free trappers, expected by Fontenelle, and to invite

them to his camp, had been successful in their search, and on the

12th of August those worthies made their appearance.

To explain the meaning of the appellation, free trapper, it is

necessary to state the terms on which the men enlist in the

service of the fur companies. Some have regular wages, and are

furnished with weapons, horses, traps, and other requisites.

These are under command, and bound to do every duty required of

them connected with the service; such as hunting, trapping,

loading and unloading the horses, mounting guard; and, in short,

all the drudgery of the camp. These are the hired trappers.

The free trappers are a more independent class; and in describing

them, we shall do little more than transcribe the graphic

description of them by Captain Bonneville. "They come and go,"

says he, "when and where they please; provide their own horses,

arms, and other equipments; trap and trade on their own account,

and dispose of their skins and peltries to the highest bidder.

Sometimes, in a dangerous hunting ground, they attach themselves

to the camp of some trader for protection. Here they come under

some restrictions; they have to conform to the ordinary rules for

trapping, and to submit to such restraints, and to take part in

such general duties, as are established for the good order and

safety of the camp. In return for this protection, and for their

camp keeping, they are bound to dispose of all the beaver they

take, to the trader who commands the camp, at a certain rate per

skin; or, should they prefer seeking a market elsewhere, they are

to make him an allowance, of from thirty to forty dollars for the

whole hunt."

There is an inferior order, who, either from prudence or poverty,

come to these dangerous hunting grounds without horses or

accoutrements, and are furnished by the traders. These, like the

hired trappers, are bound to exert themselves to the utmost in

taking beaver, which, without skinning, they render in at the

trader's lodge, where a stipulated price for each is placed to

their credit. These though generally included in the generic name

of free trappers, have the more specific title of skin trappers.

The wandering whites who mingle for any length of time with the

savages have invariably a proneness to adopt savage habitudes;

but none more so than the free trappers. It is a matter of vanity

and ambition with them to discard everything that may bear the

stamp of civilized life, and to adopt the manners, habits, dress,

gesture, and even walk of the Indian. You cannot pay a free

trapper a greater compliment, than to persuade him you have

mistaken him for an Indian brave; and, in truth, the counterfeit

is complete. His hair suffered to attain to a great length, is

carefully combed out, and either left to fall carelessly over his

shoulders, or plaited neatly and tied up in otter skins, or

parti-colored ribands. A hunting-shirt of ruffled calico of

bright dyes, or of ornamented leather, falls to his knee; below

which, curiously fashioned legging, ornamented with strings,

fringes, and a profusion of hawks' bells, reach to a costly pair

of moccasons of the finest Indian fabric, richly embroidered with

beads. A blanket of scarlet, or some other bright color, hangs

from his shoulders, and is girt around his waist with a red sash,

in which he bestows his pistols, knife, and the stem of his

Indian pipe; preparations either for peace or war. His gun is

lavishly decorated with brass tacks and vermilion, and provided

with a fringed cover, occasionally of buckskin, ornamented here

and there with a feather. His horse, the noble minister to the

pride, pleasure, and profit of the mountaineer, is selected for

his speed and spirit, and prancing gait, and holds a place in his

estimation second only to himself. He shares largely of his

bounty, and of his pride and pomp of trapping. He is caparisoned

in the most dashing and fantastic style; the bridles and crupper

are weightily embossed with beads and cockades; and head, mane,

and tail, are interwoven with abundance of eagles' plumes, which

flutter in the wind. To complete this grotesque equipment, the

proud animal is bestreaked and bespotted with vermilion, or with

white clay, whichever presents the most glaring contrast to his

real color.

Such is the account given by Captain Bonneville of these rangers

of the wilderness, and their appearance at the camp was

strikingly characteristic. They came dashing forward at full

speed, firing their fusees, and yelling in Indian style. Their

dark sunburned faces, and long flowing hair, their legging,

flaps, moccasons, and richly-dyed blankets, and their painted

horses gaudily caparisoned, gave them so much the air and

appearance of Indians, that it was difficult to persuade one's

self that they were white men, and had been brought up in

civilized life.

Captain Bonneville, who was delighted with the game look of these

cavaliers of the mountains, welcomed them heartily to his camp,

and ordered a free allowance of grog to regale them, which soon

put them in the most braggart spirits. They pronounced the

captain the finest fellow in the world, and his men all bons

gar�ons, jovial lads, and swore they would pass the day with

them. They did so; and a day it was, of boast, and swagger, and

rodomontade. The prime bullies and braves among the free trappers

had each his circle of novices, from among the captain's band;

mere greenhorns, men unused to Indian life; mangeurs de lard, or

pork-eaters; as such new-comers are superciliously called by the

veterans of the wilderness. These he would astonish and delight

by the hour, with prodigious tales of his doings among the

Indians; and of the wonders he had seen, and the wonders he had

performed, in his adventurous peregrinations among the mountains.

In the evening, the free trappers drew off, and returned to the

camp of Fontenelle, highly delighted with their visit and with

their new acquaintances, and promising to return the following

day. They kept their word: day after day their visits were

repeated; they became "hail fellow well met" with Captain

Bonneville's men; treat after treat succeeded, until both parties

got most potently convinced, or rather confounded, by liquor. Now

came on confusion and uproar. The free trappers were no longer

suffered to have all the swagger to themselves. The camp bullies

and prime trappers of the party began to ruffle up, and to brag,

in turn, of their perils and achievements. Each now tried to

out-boast and out-talk the other; a quarrel ensued as a matter of

course, and a general fight, according to frontier usage. The two

factions drew out their forces for a pitched battle. They fell to

work and belabored each other with might and main; kicks and

cuffs and dry blows were as well bestowed as they were well

merited, until, having fought to their hearts' content, and been

drubbed into a familiar acquaintance with each other's prowess

and good qualities, they ended the fight by becoming firmer

friends than they could have been rendered by a year's peaceable

companionship.

While Captain Bonneville amused himself by observing the habits

and characteristics of this singular class of men, and indulged

them, for the time, in all their vagaries, he profited by the

opportunity to collect from them information concerning the

different parts of the country about which they had been

accustomed to range; the characters of the tribes, and, in short,

everything important to his enterprise. He also succeeded in

securing the services of several to guide and aid him in his

peregrinations among the mountains, and to trap for him during

the ensuing season. Having strengthened his party with such

valuable recruits, he felt in some measure consoled for the loss

of the Delaware Indians, decoyed from him by Mr Fontenelle.