Misadventures of Matthieu and his party—Return to the caches at Salmon River—Battle between Nez Perces and Black feet—Heroism of a Nez Perce woman—Enrolled among the braves.
ON the 3d of February, Matthieu, with the residue of his band, arrived
in camp. He had a disastrous story to relate. After parting with Captain
Bonneville in Green River Valley he had proceeded to the westward,
keeping to the north of the Eutaw Mountains, a spur of the great Rocky
chain. Here he experienced the most rugged travelling for his horses,
and soon discovered that there was but little chance of meeting the
Shoshonie bands. He now proceeded along Bear River, a stream much
frequented by trappers, intending to shape his course to Salmon River to
rejoin Captain Bonneville.
He was misled, however, either through the ignorance or treachery of
an Indian guide, and conducted into a wild valley where he lay encamped
during the autumn and the early part of the winter, nearly buried in
snow and almost starved. Early in the season he detached five men, with
nine horses, to proceed to the neighborhood of the Sheep Rock, on Bear
River, where game was plenty, and there to procure a supply for the
camp.
They had not proceeded far on their expedition when their trail was
discovered by a party of nine or ten Indians, who immediately commenced
a lurking pursuit, dogging them secretly for five or six days. So long
as their encampments were well chosen and a proper watch maintained
the wary savages kept aloof; at length, observing that they were badly
encamped, in a situation where they might be approached with secrecy,
the enemy crept stealthily along under cover of the river bank,
preparing to burst suddenly upon their prey.
They had not advanced within striking distance, however, before they
were discovered by one of the trappers. He immediately but silently
gave the alarm to his companions. They all sprang upon their horses and
prepared to retreat to a safe position. One of the party, however, named
Jennings, doubted the correctness of the alarm, and before he mounted
his horse wanted to ascertain the fact. His companions urged him to
mount, but in vain; he was incredulous and obstinate. A volley of
firearms by the savages dispelled his doubts, but so overpowered his
nerves that he was unable to get into his saddle. His comrades, seeing
his peril and confusion, generously leaped from their horses to protect
him. A shot from a rifle brought him to the earth; in his agony he
called upon the others not to desert him. Two of them, Le Roy and Ross,
after fighting desperately, were captured by the savages; the remaining
two vaulted into their saddles and saved themselves by headlong flight,
being pursued for nearly thirty miles. They got safe back to Matthieu's
camp, where their story inspired such dread of lurking Indians that the
hunters could not be prevailed upon to undertake another foray in quest
of provisions. They remained, therefore, almost starving in their camp;
now and then killing an old or disabled horse for food, while the
elk and the mountain sheep roamed unmolested among the surrounding
mountains.
The disastrous surprisal of this hunting party is cited by Captain
Bonneville to show the importance of vigilant watching and judicious
encampments in the Indian country. Most of this kind of disasters to
traders and trappers arise from some careless inattention to the state
of their arms and ammunition, the placing of their horses at night,
the position of their camping ground, and the posting of their night
watches. The Indian is a vigilant and crafty foe, by no means given
to hair-brained assaults; he seldom attacks when he finds his foe
well prepared and on the alert. Caution is at least as efficacious a
protection against him as courage.
The Indians who made this attack were at first supposed to be Blackfeet;
until Captain Bonneville found subsequently, in the camp of the
Bannecks, a horse, saddle, and bridle, which he recognized as having
belonged to one of the hunters. The Bannecks, however, stoutly denied
having taken these spoils in fight, and persisted in affirming that the
outrage had been perpetrated by a Blackfoot band.
Captain Bonneville remained on Snake River nearly three weeks after the arrival of Matthieu and his party. At length his horses having recovered strength sufficient for a journey, he prepared to return to the Nez Perces, or rather to visit his caches on Salmon River; that he might
take thence goods and equipments for the opening season. Accordingly,
leaving sixteen men at Snake River, he set out on the 19th of February
with sixteen others on his journey to the caches.
Fording the river, he proceeded to the borders of the deep snow, when he
encamped under the lee of immense piles of burned rock. On the 21st he
was again floundering through the snow, on the great Snake River
plain, where it lay to the depth of thirty inches. It was sufficiently
incrusted to bear a pedestrian, but the poor horses broke through the
crust, and plunged and strained at every step. So lacerated were they by
the ice that it was necessary to change the front every hundred yards,
and put a different one in advance to break the way. The open prairies
were swept by a piercing and biting wind from the northwest. At night,
they had to task their ingenuity to provide shelter and keep from
freezing. In the first place, they dug deep holes in the snow, piling
it up in ramparts to windward as a protection against the blast. Beneath
these they spread buffalo skins, upon which they stretched themselves
in full dress, with caps, cloaks, and moccasins, and covered themselves
with numerous blankets; notwithstanding all which they were often
severely pinched with the cold.
On the 28th of February they arrived on the banks of Godin River. This
stream emerges from the mountains opposite an eastern branch of the
Malade River, running southeast, forms a deep and swift current about
twenty yards wide, passing rapidly through a defile to which it gives
its name, and then enters the great plain where, after meandering about
forty miles, it is finally lost in the region of the Burned Rocks.
On the banks of this river Captain Bonneville was so fortunate as to
come upon a buffalo trail. Following it up, he entered the defile, where
he remained encamped for two days to allow the hunters time to kill and
dry a supply of buffalo beef. In this sheltered defile the weather was
moderate and grass was already sprouting more than an inch in height.
There was abundance, too, of the salt weed which grows most plentiful
in clayey and gravelly barrens. It resembles pennyroyal, and derives its
name from a partial saltness. It is a nourishing food for the horses
in the winter, but they reject it the moment the young grass affords
sufficient pasturage.
On the 6th of March, having cured sufficient meat, the party resumed
their march, and moved on with comparative ease, excepting where they
had to make their way through snow-drifts which had been piled up by the
wind.
On the 11th, a small cloud of smoke was observed rising in a deep part
of the defile. An encampment was instantly formed and scouts were
sent out to reconnoitre. They returned with intelligence that it was a
hunting party of Flatheads, returning from the buffalo range laden with
meat. Captain Bonneville joined them the next day, and persuaded them
to proceed with his party a few miles below to the caches, whither he
proposed also to invite the Nez Perces, whom he hoped to find somewhere
in this neighborhood. In fact, on the 13th, he was rejoined by that
friendly tribe who, since he separated from them on Salmon River, had
likewise been out to hunt the buffalo, but had continued to be haunted
and harassed by their old enemies the Blackfeet, who, as usual, had
contrived to carry off many of their horses.
In the course of this hunting expedition, a small band of ten lodges
separated from the main body in search of better pasturage for their
horses. About the 1st of March, the scattered parties of Blackfoot
banditti united to the number of three hundred fighting men, and
determined upon some signal blow. Proceeding to the former camping
ground of the Nez Perces, they found the lodges deserted; upon which
they hid themselves among the willows and thickets, watching for some
straggler who might guide them to the present "whereabout" of their
intended victims. As fortune would have it Kosato, the Blackfoot
renegade, was the first to pass along, accompanied by his blood-bought
bride. He was on his way from the main body of hunters to the little
band of ten lodges. The Blackfeet knew and marked him as he passed; he
was within bowshot of their ambuscade; yet, much as they thirsted for
his blood, they forbore to launch a shaft; sparing him for the moment
that he might lead them to their prey. Secretly following his trail,
they discovered the lodges of the unfortunate Nez Perces, and assailed
them with shouts and yellings. The Nez Perces numbered only twenty men,
and but nine were armed with fusees. They showed themselves, however,
as brave and skilful in war as they had been mild and long-suffering in
peace. Their first care was to dig holes inside of their lodges; thus
ensconced they fought desperately, laying several of the enemy dead upon
the ground; while they, though Some of them were wounded, lost not a
single warrior.
During the heat of the battle, a woman of the Nez Perces, seeing her
warrior badly wounded and unable to fight, seized his bow and arrows,
and bravely and successfully defended his person, contributing to the
safety of the whole party.
In another part of the field of action, a Nez Perce had crouched behind
the trunk of a fallen tree, and kept up a galling fire from his covert.
A Blackfoot seeing this, procured a round log, and placing it before
him as he lay prostrate, rolled it forward toward the trunk of the
tree behind which his enemy lay crouched. It was a moment of breathless
interest; whoever first showed himself would be in danger of a shot.
The Nez Perce put an end to the suspense. The moment the logs touched he
Sprang upon his feet and discharged the contents of his fusee into the
back of his antagonist. By this time the Blackfeet had got possession of
the horses, several of their warriors lay dead on the field, and the Nez
Perces, ensconced in their lodges, seemed resolved to defend themselves
to the last gasp. It so happened that the chief of the Blackfeet party
was a renegade from the Nez Perces; unlike Kosato, however, he had no
vindictive rage against his native tribe, but was rather disposed, now
he had got the booty, to spare all unnecessary effusion of blood. He
held a long parley, therefore, with the besieged, and finally drew off
his warriors, taking with him seventy horses. It appeared, afterward,
that the bullets of the Blackfeet had been entirely expended in the
course of the battle, so that they were obliged to make use of stones as
substitute.
At the outset of the fight Kosato, the renegade, fought with fury rather
than valor, animating the others by word as well as deed. A wound in the
head from a rifle ball laid him senseless on the earth. There his body
remained when the battle was over, and the victors were leading off the
horses. His wife hung over him with frantic lamentations. The conquerors
paused and urged her to leave the lifeless renegade, and return with
them to her kindred. She refused to listen to their solicitations, and
they passed on. As she sat watching the features of Kosato, and giving
way to passionate grief, she thought she perceived him to breathe. She
was not mistaken. The ball, which had been nearly spent before it struck
him, had stunned instead of killing him. By the ministry of his faithful
wife he gradually recovered, reviving to a redoubled love for her, and
hatred of his tribe.
As to the female who had so bravely defended her husband, she was
elevated by the tribe to a rank far above her sex, and beside other
honorable distinctions, was thenceforward permitted to take a part in
the war dances of the braves!
