第115章 Irving’s Bonneville - Chapter 41(2)

of it whenever an occasion offers. Indeed, though Indians are generally very lofty, rhetorical, andfigurative in their language at all great talks, and high ceremonials, yet, if trappers and tradersmay

be believed, they are the most unsavory vagabonds in their ordinary colloquies; they make nohesitation to call a spade a spade; and when they once undertake to call hard names, the famouspot

and kettle, of vituperating memory, are not to be compared with them for scurrility of epithet.

To escape the infliction of any compliments of this kind, or the launching, peradventure, ofmore

dangerous missiles, Wyeth landed with the best grace in his power and approached the chief ofthe

band. It was Arapooish, the quondam friend of Rose the outlaw, and one whom we have alreadymentioned as being anxious to promote a friendly intercourse between his tribe and the whitemen.

He was a tall, stout man, of good presence, and received the voyagers very graciously. Hispeople,

too, thronged around them, and were officiously attentive after the Crow fashion. One took agreat

fancy to Baptiste the Flathead boy, and a still greater fancy to a ring on his finger, which hetransposed to his own with surprising dexterity, and then disappeared with a quick step amongthe

crowd.

Another was no less pleased with the Nez Perce lad, and nothing would do but he mustexchange

knives with him; drawing a new knife out of the Nez Perce's scabbard, and putting an old one inits

place. Another stepped up and replaced this old knife with one still older, and a third helpedhimself

to knife, scabbard and all. It was with much difficulty that Wyeth and his companions extricatedthemselves from the clutches of these officious Crows before they were entirely plucked.

Falling down the river a little further, they came in sight of the second band, and sheered tothe

opposite side, with the intention of passing them. The Crows were not to be evaded. Somepointed

their guns at the boat, and threatened to fire; others stripped, plunged into the stream, and cameswimming across. Making a virtue of necessity, Wyeth threw a cord to the first that came withinreach, as if he wished to be drawn to the shore.

In this way he was overhauled by every band, and by the time he and his people came out ofthe busy

hands of the last, they were eased of most of their superfluities. Nothing, in all probability, butthe

proximity of the American trading post, kept these land pirates from making a good prize of thebull

boat and all its contents.

These bands were in full march, equipped for war, and evidently full of mischief. Theywere, in fact,

the very bands that overran the land in the autumn of 1833; partly robbed Fitzpatrick of hishorses

and effects; hunted and harassed Captain Bonneville and his people; broke up their trappingcampaigns, and, in a word, drove them all out of the Crow country. It has been suspected thatthey were

set on to these pranks by some of the American Fur Company, anxious to defeat the plans oftheir

rivals of the Rocky Mountain Company; for at this time, their competition was at its height, andthe

trade of the Crow country was a great object of rivalry. What makes this the more probable, is,that

the Crows in their depredation seemed by no means bloodthirsty, but intent chiefly on robbingthe

parties of their traps and horses, thereby disabling them from prosecuting their hunting.

We should observe that this year, the Rocky Mountain Company were pushing their way upthe

rivers, and establishing rival posts near those of the American Company; and that, at the verytime

of which we are speaking, Captain Sublette was ascending the Yellowstone with a keel boat,laden

with supplies; so that there was every prospect of this eager rivalship being carried to extremes.

The last band of Crow warriors had scarcely disappeared in the clouds of dust they hadraised, when

our voyagers arrived at the mouth of the river and glided into the current of the Yellowstone.

Turning down this stream, they made for Fort Cass, which is situated on the right bank, aboutthree

miles below the Bighorn. On the opposite side they beheld a party of thirty-one savages, whichthey

soon ascertained to be Blackfeet. The width of the river enabled them to keep at a sufficientdistance,

and they soon landed at Fort Cass. This was a mere fortification against Indians; being a stockadeof about one hundred and thirty feet square, with two bastions at the extreme corners. M'Tulloch,an agent of the American Company, was stationed there with twenty men; two boats of fifteentons

burden were lying here; but at certain seasons of the year a steamboat can come up to the fort.

They had scarcely arrived, when the Blackfeet warriors made their appearance on theopposite bank,

displaying two American flags in token of amity. They plunged into the river, swam across, andwere kindly received at the fort. They were some of the very men who had been engaged, theyear

previously, in the battle at Pierre's Hole, and a fierce-looking set of fellows they were; tall andhawk-nosed, and very much resembling the Crows. They professed to be on an amicable errand,to make

peace with the Crows, and set off in all haste, before night, to overtake them. Wyeth predictedthat

they would lose their scalps; for he had heard the Crows denounce vengeance on them, forhaving

murdered two of their warriors who had ventured among them on the faith of a treaty of peace. Itis

probable, however, that this pacific errand was all a pretence, and that the real object of theBlackfeet

braves was to hang about the skirts of the Crow band, steal their horses, and take the scalps ofstragglers.

At Fort Cass, Mr. Wyeth disposed of some packages of beaver, and a quantity of buffalorobes. On

the following morning (August 18th), he once more launched his bull boat, and proceeded downthe

Yellowstone, which inclined in an east-northeast direction. The river had alluvial bottoms,fringed