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Show • 320 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF bated, so much to the derangement of my nervous system that I was fain to retire from the village and seek some less dolorous companionship. My bosom friend and myself therefore started offunnoticed, and traveled on without stopping until we came to a hill· some seven or eight miles distant. He was pre-eminently a great brave, at all times self-possessed and unobtrusive. I always considered him as endowed with the most solid sense, and possessing the clearest views of any Indian in the nation. His spirits were generally somewhat dejected, but that I attributed to the loss of all his relatives. When I wished to enjoy a little converse or sober meditation, he always was my chosen companion, as there were qualities in his character which interested me and assimilated with my own. He never craved popularity, never envied the elevation of others, but seemed rather to rejoice at another person's success. He would listen to me for an entire day when I spoke of my residence with the whites, and told of their great battles, where tho1:1sands were slain on both sides ; when I described their ships carrying immense guns capable of sweeping hundreds of men away at a discharge; and when I depicted to him their forts, to which our forts for size or strength were but as ant-hills. I then would tell him of the great Atlantic Ocean, and the millions of white men living beyond it ; of countries where there was no summer and others where there was no winter, and a thousand' other marvels, of which I never spoke to other warriors, as their minds were too limited to comprehend me. After listening to me with the deepest attention until I would gTow tired of talking, he would seem to be perfect! y amazed, and would be lost in a deep reverie for ~orne time, as though endeavoring to raise his ideas to 0 .. . JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 321 a level with the vast matters he had been listening to. Occasionally he would tell me of the traditions handed down fr01n generation to generation in the Indian race, in which he was " elegantly learned." He told me of the mighty tribes of men who had once inhabited this vast continent, but were now exterminated by internecine wars; that their fathers had told them of a great flood, which had cover~d all the land, except t.he highest peaks of the mountains, where some of the Inhabitants and the buffaloes resorted, and saved themselves from destruction. We were on a hill, as before mentioned, some seven or eight miles from the village, engaged in one of t~ese long cosmographical discussions, ~hen my co~panwn, chancing to turn his head, descned some obJect at a great distance. Pointing it ou.t to me with his ~nger, " There is a people," he exclaimed. I looked 1n the direction indicated, and saw a small party of Black Feet approaching. "Sit still," said I, "and let us see where they encamp ; we will have every one of them to-night." We watched them until they halted at a couple of small Indian forts, with which the country abounds, and we saw they were soon joined by four or five others who came from another direction, and who were evidently scouts. From the direction which they came, I saw they had not discovered our village . . " Now," said I, " let us return ; we will have that party. We will collect a few trusty warriors, and not mention our discovery to a living soul, not even telling our warriors the errand we are upon until we get within sight of the camp-fires of the enemy. Then we yill return with their scalps, and put an end to this howling that deafens my ears." 02 |
