Breaking up of winter quarters -- Move to Green River -- A trapper and his rifle -- An arrivalin
camp -- A free trapper and his squaw in distress -- Story of a Blackfoot belle.
THE winter was now breaking up, the snows were melted, from the hills, and from the lowerparts
of the mountains, and the time for decamping had arrived. Captain Bonneville dispatched a partyto
the caches, who brought away all the effects concealed there, and on the 1st of April (1835) , thecamp was broken up, and every one on the move. The white men and their allies, the Eutaws andShoshonies, parted with many regrets and sincere expressions of good-will; for their intercoursethroughout the winter had been of the most friendly kind.
Captain Bonneville and his party passed by Ham's Fork, and reached the Colorado, or GreenRiver,
without accident, on the banks of which they remained during the residue of the spring. Duringthis
time, they were conscious that a band of hostile Indians were hovering about their vicinity,watching
for an opportunity to slay or steal; but the vigilant precautions of Captain Bonneville baffled alltheir
manoeuvres. In such dangerous times, the experienced mountaineer is never without his rifleeven
in camp. On going from lodge to lodge to visit his comrades, he takes it with him. On seatinghimself in a lodge, he lays it beside him, ready to be snatched up; when he goes out, he takes itup
as regularly as a citizen would his walking-staff. His rifle is his constant friend and protector.
On the 10th of June, the party was a little to the east of the Wind River Mountains, wherethey halted
for a time in excellent pasturage, to give their horses a chance to recruit their strength for a longjourney; for it was Captain Bonneville's intention to shape his course to the settlements; havingalready been detained by the complication of his duties, and by various losses and impediments,far
beyond the time specified in his leave of absence.
While the party was thus reposing in the neighborhood of the Wind River Mountains, asolitary free
trapper rode one day into the camp, and accosted Captain Bonneville. He belonged, he said, to aparty of thirty hunters, who had just passed through the neighborhood, but whom he hadabandoned
in consequence of their ill treatment of a brother trapper; whom they had cast off from theirparty,
and left with his bag and baggage, and an Indian wife into the bargain, in the midst of a desolateprairie. The horseman gave a piteous account of the situation of this helpless pair, and solicitedthe
loan of horses to bring them and their effects to the camp.
The captain was not a man to refuse assistance to any one in distress, especially when therewas a
woman in the case; horses were immediately dispatched, with an escort, to aid the unfortunatecouple. The next day they made their appearance with all their effects; the man, a stalwartmountaineer, with a peculiarly game look; the woman, a young Blackfoot beauty, arrayed in thetrappings and trinketry of a free trapper's bride.
Finding the woman to be quick-witted and communicative, Captain Bonneville entered intoconversation with her, and obtained from her many particulars concerning the habits and customsof her tribe; especially their wars and huntings. They pride themselves upon being the "best legsof
the mountains," and hunt the buffalo on foot. This is done in spring time, when the frosts havethawed and the ground is soft. The heavy buffaloes then sink over their hoofs at every step, andare
easily overtaken by the Blackfeet, whose fleet steps press lightly on the surface. It is said,however,
that the buffaloes on the Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains are fleeter and more active than onthe
Atlantic side; those upon the plains of the Columbia can scarcely be overtaken by a horse thatwould
outstrip the same animal in the neighborhood of the Platte, the usual hunting ground of theBlackfeet.
In the course of further conversation, Captain Bonneville drew from the Indian woman her wholestory; which gave a picture of savage life, and of the drudgery and hardships to which an Indianwife
is subject.
"I was the wife," said she, "of a Blackfoot warrior, and I served him faithfully. Who was sowell
served as he? Whose lodge was so well provided, or kept so clean? I brought wood in themorning,
and placed water always at hand. I watched for his coming; and he found his meat cooked andready.
