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Show 346 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF The trip we had just accomplished was a severe one, especially for the wounded, and none but Indians could have lived through such torment; but they all ~nally 1·ecovered. They begged to be left upon the road, urging that they must inevitably· die, and it was a folly to impede our flight and jeopardize our lives; but I was determined, if possible, to get them in alive ; for, had I lost but one, the village would again have gone into mourning, and that I was desirous to avoid. CHAPTER XXV. Visit of the whole Crow Nation to the Fort.-Seven Days' Trading and Rejoicing.-Separation of the Villages.-Expedition to the Camanches.- Narrow Escape from their Village.- Battle with the Black Feet.-The Whites assist us with their Cannon.-Captured by the Black Feet.~Recaptured by the Crows.-Final Victory. HAVING now quite a respectable amount of peltry on hand, both of our villages started for the fort to purchase winter supplies. We carried upward of forty packs of beaver, and two thousand four hundred packs of robes, with which we were enabled to make quite an extensive trading. We loitered seven days in the vicinity of the fort; then the villages separated, for the purpose of driving the buffalo back to theY ell ow Stone, where they would keep in good condition all winter. This required a considerable force of men, as those animals abounded by the thousand at that time where they are now comparatively scarce, and it is a conclusion forced upon my mind that within half a century the race of buffaloes will be extinguished on this continent. Then farewell to the Red Man! for he must also become extinct, unless he applies himself to the • JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. I. • '· 347 cultivation of the soil, which is beyond the bound of probability. The incessant demand for robes has slain thousands of those noble beasts of the prairie, until the Indians themselves begin to grow uneasy at the manifest diminution, and, as a means of conservation, each nation has adopted the policy of confining to itself the right of hunting on its own ground. They consider that the buffalo belongs to them as their exclusive property; that he was sent to them by the Great Spirit for their subsistence; and when he fails them, what shall they resort to? Doubtless, when that time arrives, much of the land which they now roam over will be under the white man's cultivation, which will extend inland from both oceans. Where then shall the Indian betake himself? There are no more Mississippis to drive him beyond. Unquestionably he will be taken in a surround, as he now surrounds the buffalo; and as he can not assimilate with civilization, the Red Man's doom is apparent. It is a question of time, and no very long time either ; but the result, as I view it, is a matter of certainty. The territory claimed by the Crows would make a larger state than Illinois. Portions of it form the choicest land in the world, capable of producing any thing that will grow in theW estern and Middle States. Innumerable streams, now the homes of the skillful beaver, and clear as the springs of the Rocky Mountains, irrigate the plains, and would afford power for any amount of machinery. Mineral springs of every degree of temperature abound in the land. The country also produces an inconceivable amount of wild fruit of every variety, namely, currants, of every kind; ,_~spberries, black and red; strawberries, blackberries, cherries; plums, of delicious flavor and in great abun- ) ..' . |
