USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 11
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The characteristic result of this preparation will appear in the sequel.
I was greatly rejoiced to hear of it. I had come into the country almost exclusively with a view of observing the Indian character. Having from childhood felt a curiosity 5 on this subject, and having failed completely to gratify it by. reading, I resolved to have recourse to observation. I wished to satisfy myself with regard to the position of the Indians among the races of men; the vices and the virtues that have sprung from their innate character and from their Io modes of life, their government, their superstitions, and their domestic situation. To accomplish my purpose it was necessary to live in the midst of them, and become, as it were, one of them. I proposed to join a village, and make myself an inmate of one of their lodges; and henceforward 15 this narrative, so far as I am concerned, will be chiefly a record of the progress of this design, apparently so easy of accomplishment, and the unexpected impediments that opposed it.
We resolved on no account to miss the rendezvous at La 20 Bonté's camp. Our plan was to leave Deslauriers at the fort, in charge of our equipage and the better part of our horses, while we took with us nothing but our weapons and the worst animals we had. In all probability jealousies and quarrels would arise among so many hordes of fierce impul- 25 sive savages, congregated together under no common head, and many of them strangers, from remote prairies and moun- tains. We were bound in common prudence to be cautious how we excited any feeling of cupidity. This was our plan, but unhappily we were not destined to visit La Bonté's 30 camp in this manner; for one morning a young Indian came to the fort and brought us evil tidings. The newcomer was a dandy of the first water. His ugly face was painted with vermilion; on his head fluttered the tail of a prairie cock (a large species of pheasant, not found, as I have heard, 35 eastward of the Rocky mountains); in his ears were hung pendants of shell, and a flaming red blanket was wrapped around him. He carried a dragoon sword in his hand, solely for display, since the knife, the arrow, and the rifle are the arbiters of every prairie fight; but as no one in this 40 country goes abroad unarmed, the dandy carried a bow
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and arrows in an otter-skin quiver at his back. In this guise, and bestriding his yellow horse with an air of extreme dignity, The Horse, for that was his name, rode in at the gate, turning neither to the right nor the left, but casting 5 glances askance at the groups of squaws who, with their mongrel progeny, were sitting in the sun before their doors. The evil tidings brought by The Horse were of the following import: The squaw of Henry Chatillon, a woman with whom he had been connected for years by the strongest ties Io which in that country exist between the sexes, was danger- ously ill. She and her children were in the village of The Whirlwind, at the distance of a few days' journey. Henry was anxious to see the woman before she died, and provide for the safety and support of his children, of whom he was 15 extremely fond. To have refused him this would have been gross inhumanity. We abandoned our plan of joining Smoke's village, and of proceeding with it to the rendezvous, and determined to meet The Whirlwind, and go in his com- pany.
20 I had been slightly ill for several weeks, but on the third night after reaching Fort Laramie a violent pain awoke me, and I found myself attacked by the same disorder that occasioned such heavy losses to the army on the Rio Grande.º In a day and a half I was reduced to extreme 25 weakness, so that I could not walk without pain and effort. Having within that time taken six grains of opium, without the least beneficial effect, and having no medical adviser, nor any choice of diet, I resolved to throw myself upon Providence for recovery, using, without regard to the dis- 30 order, any portion of strength that might remain to me. So on the twentieth of June we set out from Fort Laramie to meet The Whirlwind's village. Though aided by the high-bowed "mountain saddle," I could scarcely keep my seat on horseback. Before we left the fort we hired another 35 man, a long-haired Canadian, with a face like an owl's, contrasting oddly enough with Deslauriers' mercurial coun- tenance. This was not the only reinforcement to our party. A vagrant Indian trader, named Reynal, joined us, together with his squaw Margot, and her two nephews, 40 our dandy friend, The Horse, and his younger brother, The Hail Storm. Thus accompanied, we betook ourselves
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to the prairie, leaving the beaten trail, and passing over the desolate hills that flank the bottoms of Laramie creek. In all, Indians and whites, we counted eight men and one woman.
Reynal, the trader, the image of sleek and selfish com- 5 placency, carried The Horse's dragoon sword in his hand, delighting apparently in this useless parade; for, from spending half his life among Indians, he had caught not only their habits but their ideas. Margot, a female animal of more than two hundred pounds' weight, was couched in Io the basket of a travail, such as I have before described; besides her ponderous bulk, various domestic utensils were attached to the vehicle, and she was leading by a trail-rope a packhorse, who carried the covering of Reynal's lodge. Deslauriers walked briskly by the side of the cart, and 15 Raymond came behind, swearing at the spare horses, which it was his business to drive. The restless young Indians, their quivers at their backs and their bows in their hands, galloped over the hills, often starting a wolf or an antelope from the thick growth of wild-sage bushes. Shaw and I 20 were in keeping with the rest of the rude cavalcade, having in the absence of other clothing adopted the buckskin attire of the trappers. Henry Chatillon rode in advance of the whole. Thus we passed hill after hill and hollow after hol- low, a country arid, broken, and so parched by the sun that 25 none of the plants familiar to our more favored soil would flourish upon it, though there were multitudes of strange medicinal herbs, more especially the absanth,º which cov- ered every declivity, and cacti were hanging like reptiles at the edges of every ravine. At length we ascended a high 30 hill, our horses treading upon pebbles of flint, agate, and rough jasper, until, gaining the top, we looked down on the wild bottoms of Laramie creek, which far below us wound like a writhing snake from side to side of the narrow interval, amid a growth of shattered cotton-wood and ash trees. 35 Lines of tall cliffs, white as chalk, shut in this green strip of woods and meadow land, into which we descended and encamped for the night. In the morning we passed a wide grassy plain by the river; there was a grove in front, and beneath its shadows the ruins of an old trading fort of logs. 40 The grove bloomed with myriads of wild roses, with their
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sweet perfume fraught with recollections of home. As we emerged from the trees, a rattlesnake, as large as a man's arm, and more than four feet long, lay coiled on a rock, fiercely rattling and hissing at us; a gray hare, double the 5 size of those of New England, leaped up from the tall ferns; curlew were screaming over our heads, and a whole host of little prairie dogs sat yelping at us at the mouths of their burrows on the dry plain beyond. Suddenly an antelope leaped up from the wild-sage bushes, gazed eagerly at us, Io and then, erecting his white tail, stretched away like a greyhound. The two Indian boys found a white wolf, as large as a calf, in a hollow, and giving a sharp yell, they galloped after him; but the wolf leaped into the stream and swam across. Then came the crack of a rifle, the bullet 15 whistling harmlessly over his head, as he scrambled up the steep declivity, rattling down stones and earth into the water below. Advancing a little, we beheld on the farther bank of the stream a spectacle not common even in that region; for, emerging from among the trees, a herd of some two hun- 20 dred elk came out upon the meadow, their antlers clattering as they walked forward in a dense throng. Seeing us, they broke into a run, rushing across the opening and disap- pearing among the trees and scattered groves. On our left was a barren prairie, stretching to the horizon ; on our right, 25 a deep gulf, with Laramie creek at the bottom. We found ourselves at length at the edge of a steep descent ; a narrow valley, with long rank grass and scattered trees stretching before us for a mile or more along the course of the stream. Reaching the farther end, we stopped and encamped. 30 An old huge cotton-wood tree spread its branches horizon- tally over our tent. Laramie creek, circling before our camp, half inclosed us; it swept along the bottom of a line of tall white cliffs that looked down on us from the farther bank. There were dense copses on our right; the cliffs, 35 too, were half hidden by shrubbery, though behind us a few cotton-wood trees, dotting the green prairie, alone impeded the view, and friend or enemy could be discerned in that direction at a mile's distance. Here we resolved to remain and await the arrival of The Whirlwind, who would 40 certainly pass this way in his progress toward La Bonté's camp. To go in search of him was not expedient, both ou
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account of the broken and impracticable nature of the country and the uncertainty of his position and move- ments; besides, our horses were almost worn out, and I was in no condition to travel. We had good grass, good water, tolerable fish from the stream, and plenty of smaller 5 game, such as antelope and deer, though no buffalo. There was one little drawback to our satisfaction - a certain ex- tensive tract of bushes and dried grass, just behind us, which it was by no means advisable to enter, since it sheltered a numerous brood of rattlesnakes. Henry Chatillon again 10 dispatched The Horse to the village, with a message to his squaw that she and her relatives should leave the rest and push on as rapidly as possible to our camp.
Our daily routine soon became as regular as that of a well-ordered household. The weather-beaten old tree was 15 in the center; our rifles generally rested against its vast trunk, and our saddles were flung on the ground around it; its distorted roots were so twisted as to form one or two convenient arm-chairs, where we could sit in the shade and read or smoke; but meal-times became, on the whole, the 20 most interesting hours of the day, and a bountiful provision was made for them. An antelope or a deer usually swung from a stout bough, and haunches were suspended against the trunk. That camp is daguerreotyped on my memory ; the old tree, the white tent, with Shaw sleeping in the shadow 25 of it, and Reynal's miserable lodge close by the bank of the stream. It was a wretched oven-shaped structure, made of begrimed and tattered buffalo hides stretched over a frame of poles; one side was open, and at the side of the opening hung the powder horn and bullet pouch of the owner, to- 30 gether with his long red pipe, and a rich quiver of otter-skin, with a bow and arrows; for Reynal, an Indian in most things but color, chose to hunt buffalo with these primitive weapons. In the darkness of this cavernlike habitation, might be dis- cerned Madame Margot, her overgrown bulk stowed away 35 among her domestic implements, furs, robes, blankets, and painted cases of par' flèche,º in which dried meat is kept. Here she sat from sunrise to sunset, a bloated impersona- tion of gluttony and laziness, while her affectionate pro- prietor was smoking, or begging petty gifts from us, or telling 40 lies concerning his own achievements, or perchance engaged
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in the more profitable occupation of cooking some prepara- tion of prairie delicacies. Reynal was an adept at this work; he and Deslauriers have joined forces, and are hard at work together over the fire, while Raymond spreads, by 5 way of tablecloth, a buffalo hide, carefully whitened with pipeclay, on the grass before the tent. Here, with ostenta- tious display, he arranges the teacups and plates; and then, creeping on all fours, like a dog, he thrusts his head in at the opening of the tent. For a moment we see his round owlish Io eyes rolling wildly, as if the idea he came to communicate had suddenly escaped him; then collecting his scattered thoughts, as if by an effort, he informs us that supper is ready, and instantly withdraws.
When sunset came, and at that hour the wild and deso- 15 late scene would assume a new aspect, the horses were driven in. They had been grazing all day in the neigh- boring meadow, but now they were picketed close about the camp. As the prairie darkened we sat and conversed around the fire, until becoming drowsy we spread our saddles ro on the ground, wrapped our blankets around us and lay down. We never placed a guard, having by this time become too indolent; but Henry Chatillon folded his loaded rifle in the same blanket with himself, observing that he always took it to bed with him when he camped in that 25 place. Henry was too bold a man to use such a precaution without good cause. We had a hint now and then that our situation was none of the safest; several Crow war parties were known to be in the vicinity, and one of them, that passed here some time before, had peeled the bark from a 30 neighboring tree, and engraved upon the white wood certain hieroglyphics, to signify that they had invaded the territories of their enemies, the Dahcotahs, and set them at defiance. One morning a thick mist covered the whole country. Shaw and Henry went out to ride, and soon came back with 35 a startling piece of intelligence; they had found within rifle- shot of our camp the recent trail of about thirty horsemen. They could not be whites, and they could not be Dahcotahs, since we knew no such parties to be in the neighborhood; therefore they must be Crows. Thanks to that friendly 40 mist, we had escaped a hard battle; they would inevitably have attacked us and our Indian companions had they
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seen our camp. Whatever doubts we might have enter- tained, were quite removed a day or two after, by two or three Dahcotahs, who came to us with an account of hav- ing hidden in a ravine on that very morning, from whence they saw and counted the Crows; they said that they fol- 5 lowed them, carefully keeping out of sight, as they passed up Chugwaterº; that here the Crows discovered five dead bodies of Dahcotahs, placed according to the national cus- tom in trees, and flinging them to the ground, they held their guns against them and blew them to atoms.
If our camp were not altogether safe, still it was com- fortable enough; at least it was so to Shaw, for I was tor- mented with illness and vexed by the delay in the accom- plishment of my designs. When a respite in my disorder gave me some returning strength, I rode out well-armed 15 upon the prairie, or bathed with Shaw in the stream, or waged a petty warfare with the inhabitants of a neighboring prairie-dog village. Around our fire at night we employed ourselves in inveighing against the fickleness and incon- stancy of Indians, and execrating The Whirlwind and all 20 his village. At last the thing grew insufferable.
"To-morrow morning," said I, "I will start for the fort, and see if I can hear any news there." Late that evening, when the fire had sunk low, and all the camp were asleep, a loud cry sounded from the darkness. Henry started up, 25 recognized the voice, replied to it, and our dandy friend, The Horse, rode in among us, just returned from his mis- sion to the village. He coolly picketed his mare, without saying a word, sat down by the fire and began to eat, but his imperturbable philosophy was too much for our patience. 30 Where was the village ? about fifty miles south of us; it was moving slowly and would not arrive in less than a week; and where was Henry's squaw ? coming as fast as she could with Mahto-Tatonka, and the rest of her brothers, but she would never reach us, for she was dying, and asking every 35 moment for Henry. Henry's manly face became clouded and downcast; he said that if we were willing he would go in the morning to find her, at which Shaw offered to accompany him.
We saddled our horses at sunrise. Reynal protested 40 vehemently against being left alone, with nobody but the
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two Canadians and the young Indians, when enemies were in the neighborhood. Disregarding his complaints, we left him, and coming to the mouth of Chugwater, sepa- rated, Shaw and Henry turning to the right, up the bank 5 of the stream, while I made for the fort.
Taking leave for a while of my friend and the unfortunate squaw, I will relate by way of episode what I saw and did at Fort Laramie. It was not more than eighteen miles distant, and I reached it in three hours; a shriveled little 10 figure, wrapped from head to foot in a dingy white Canadian capote, stood in the gateway, holding by a cord of bull's hide a shaggy wild horse, which he had lately caught. His sharp prominent features, and his little keen snakelike eyes, looked out from beneath the shadowy hood of the 15 capote, which was drawn over his head exactly like the cowl of a Capuchin friar.º His face was extremely thin and like an old piece of leather, and his mouth spread from ear to car. Extending his long wiry hand, he welcomed me with something more cordial than the ordinary cold salute of an 20 Indian, for we were excellent friends. He had made an exchange of horses to our mutual advantage; and Paul, thinking himself well-treated, had declared everywhere that the white man had a good heart. He was a Dahcotah from the Missouri, a reputed son of the half-breed inter- 25 preter, Pierre Dorion, so often mentioned in Irving's "Astoria."º He said that he was going to Richard's trading house to sell his horse to some emigrants who were encamped there, and asked me to go with him. We forded the stream together, Paul dragging his wild charge behind him. As 30 we passed over the sandy plains beyond, he grew quite com- municative. Paul was a cosmopolitan in his way; he had been to the settlements of the whites, and visited in peace and war most of the tribes within the range of a thousand Iniles. He spoke a jargon of French and another of English, 35 yet nevertheless he was a thorough Indian; and as he told of the bloody deeds of his own people against their enemies, his little eye would glitter with a fierce luster. He told how the Dahcotahs exterminated a village of the Hohays on the Upper Missouri, slaughtering men, women, and children ; 40 and how an overwhelming force of them cut off sixteen of the brave Delawares, who fought like wolves to the last,
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amid the throng of their enemies. He told me also another story, which I did not believe until I had heard it confirmed from so many independent sources that no room was left for doubt. I am tempted to introduce it here.
Six years ago a fellow named Jim Beckwith, a mongrel 5 of French, American, and negro blood, was trading for the fur company, in a very large village of the Crows. Jim Beckwith was last summer at St. Louis. He is a ruffian of the first stamp; bloody and treacherous, without honor or honesty; such at least is the character he bears upon the Io prairie. Yet in his case all the standard rules of character fail, for though he will stab a man in his sleep, he will also perform most desperate acts of daring; such, for instance, as the following: While he was in the Crow village, a Black- foot war party, between thirty and forty in number, came 15 stealing through the country, killing stragglers and carrying off horses. The Crow warriors got upon their trail and pressed them so closely that they could not escape, at which the Blackfeet, throwing up a semicircular breastwork of logs at the foot of a precipice, coolly awaited their approach. 20 The logs and sticks, piled four or five feet high, protected them in front. The Crows might have swept over the breast- work and exterminated their enemies; but though out- numbering them tenfold, they did not dream of storming the little fortification. Such a proceeding would be al- 25 together repugnant to their notions of warfare. Whooping and yelling, and jumping from side to side like devils in- carnate, they showered bullets and arrows upon the logs; not a Blackfoot was hurt, but several Crows, in spite of their leaping and dodging, were shot down. In this childish 30 manner the fight went on for an hour or two. Now and then a Crow warrior in an ecstasy of valor and vainglory would scream forth his war song, boasting himself the bravest and greatest of mankind, and grasping his hatchet, would rush up and strike it upon the breastwork, and then as he re- 35 treated to his companions, fall dead under a shower of ar- rows; yet no combined attack seemed to be dreamed of. The Blackfeet remained secure in their intrenchment. At last Jim Beckwith lost patience.
"You are all fools and old women," he said to the Crows; 40 ' "come with me, if any of you are brave enough, and I will show you how to fight."
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He threw off his trapper's frock of buckskin and stripped himself naked like the Indians themselves. He left his rifle on the ground, and taking in his hand a small light hatchet, he ran over the prairie to the right, concealed 5 by a hollow from the eyes of the Blackfeet. Then climb- ing up the rocks, he gained the top of the precipice behind them. Forty or fifty young Crow warriors followed him. By the cries and whoops that rose from below he knew that the Blackfeet were just beneath him; and running Io forward, he leaped down the rock into the midst of them. As he fell he caught one by the long loose hair and drag- ging him down tomahawked him; then grasping another by the belt at his waist, he struck him also a stunning blow, and gaining his feet, shouted the Crow war-cry.
15 He swung his hatchet so fiercely around him that the astonished Blackfeet bore back and gave him room. He might, had he chosen, have leaped over the breastwork and escaped; but this was not necessary, for with devilish yells the Crow warriors came dropping in quick succession 20 over the rock among their enemies. The main body of the Crows, too, answered the cry from the front, and rushed up simultaneously. The convulsive struggle within the breastwork was frightful; for an instant the Blackfeet fought and yelled like pent-up tigers; but the butchery 25 was soon complete, and the mangled bodies lay piled up together under the precipice. Not a Blackfoot made his escape.
As Paul finished his story we came in sight of Richard's fort. It stood in the middle of the plain; a disorderly 30 crowd of men around it, and an emigrant camp a little in front.
"Now, Paul," said I, "where are your Winnicongew lodges ?"
"Not come yet," said Paul, "may be come to-morrow."
35 Two large villages of a band of Dahcotahs had come three hundred miles from the Missouri, to join in the war, and they were expected to reach Richard's that morning. There was as yet no sign of their approach; so pushing through a noisy, drunken crowd, I entered an apartment 40 of logs and inud, the largest in the fort; it was full of men of various races and complexions, all more or less drunk.
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A company of California emigrants, it seemed, had made the discovery at this late day that they had encumbered themselves with too many supplies for their journey. A part, therefore, they had thrown away or sold at great loss to the traders, but had determined to get rid of their very 5 copious stock of Missouri whisky, by drinking it on the spot. Here were maudlin squaws stretched on piles of buffalo robes; squalid Mexicans, armed with bows and arrows; Indians sedately drunk; long-haired Canadians and trappers, and American backwoodsmen in brown homespun, the well- Io beloved pistol and bowie knife displayed openly at their sides. In the middle of the room a tall, lank man, with a dingy broadcloth coat, was haranguing the company in the style of the stump orator. With one hand he sawed the air, and with the other clutched firmly a brown jug of whisky, 15 which he applied every moment to his lips, forgetting that he had drained the contents long ago. Richard for- mally introduced me to this personage, who was no less a man than Colonel R., once the leader of the party. In- stantly the colonel seizing me, in the absence of buttons, 20 by the leather fringes of my frock, began to define his position. His men, he said, had mutinied and deposed him; but still he exercised over them the influence of a superior mind; in all but the name he was yet their chief. As the colonel spoke, I looked round on the wild assem- 25 blage, and could not help thinking that he was but ill qualified to conduct such men across the desert to California. Conspicuous among the rest stood three tall young men, grandsons of Daniel Boone. They had clearly inherited the adventurous character of that prince of pioneers; but 30 I saw no signs of the quiet and tranquil spirit that so remarkably distinguished him.
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