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Show 144 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. easy of accomplishment, an d th e unexpected impediments that opposed it. d t ' L We tesolve d on no a ccount to miss the ren. ezvous a . a Bonte's Camp. , 0 ur P1a n was to leave Deloner at the fort~ .m charge of our eqm.p age an d the better part of our horses, w. h1le we took wi.t h us not h'm g b u t our weapons and the worst amma. ls we had. In a1 1 pi• o b a b1'l it.y J·ealousies and quarrels would arise among so many hordes of fierce impulsive savages, congregated toO'ether under no common head ' and many of them str.a ngers, 0 from remote pra.l n· es an d mountains . We were bound 1n. com-mon pru de nce to be ~autious how we excited any feelmg oft cupidity. This was our plan, but unhappily we were no desUned to visit ' La Bonte's Camp' in this manner ; for on.e morning a young Indian came to the fort and brought us ev~l tidings. The new-comer was a dandy of the ~rst water. His ugly face was painted with vermilion ; on hls head fluttered the tail of a prairie-cock, (a large species of pheasant, not ~ound, as I have heard, eastward of the Rocky Mounta·i ns; ) l·n h I sears were hung pendants of she 11 , an d a fl amm· b0' red blank. et was wrapped around him. He carried a dragoon-sword in h1.s han~l, solely for display, since the knife, the a~-row, and the nfle aie the arbiters of every prairie fight; but as no one in this comltl? aoes abroad unarmed, the dandy carried a bow and arrows lll 0a n otter-skin qui vcr at his back. In th1·s gui·s e, an d bestn'd 'w a~ his yellow horse with an air of extreme d1. gn1· ty, 'Th e Horse ' for that was his name, rode in at the gate, turning neither to the right nor the left, but casting glances askance at the groups of squaws who, with their mongrel progeny, were si· tt·w g in the sun before their doors. The evil tidings brought by 'The Horse' were of the following import : The squaw of Henry THE WAR PARTIES. 145 Chatillon, a woman with whom he had been connected for years by the strongest ties which jn that country exist between the sexes, was dangerously ill. She and her children were in the vnlage of the Whirl wind, 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 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 company. I had been slightly ill for several weeks, but on the third night after reaching Fort Laramie a violent pain a woke me, and I found myself attacked by the same disorder that occasioned such heavy losses to the army on the Rio Grande. In a day and a half I was reduced to extreme 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 disorder, 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 man, a long-haired Canadian, with a face like an owl's, contrasting oddly enough with Delorier's mercurial countenance. 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, our dandy friend, ' The ~Horse,' and his youncrer brother, ' The f-lail Storm.' Thus accom- 7 .. |
