37.
Departure For The Rendezvous A War Party Of Blackfeet A Mock
Bustle Sham Fires At Night Warlike Precautions Dangers Of A Night
Attack A Panic Among Horses Cautious March The Beer Springs A
Mock Carousel Skirmishing With Buffaloes A Buffalo Bait Arrival
At The Rendezvous Meeting Of Various Bands
AFTER THE TWO DAYS of festive indulgence, Captain Bonneville
broke up the encampment, and set out with his motley crew of
hired and free trappers, half-breeds, Indians, and squaws, for
the main rendezvous in Bear River valley.
Directing his course up
the Blackfoot River, he soon reached the hills among which it
takes its rise. Here, while on the march, he descried from the
brow of a hill, a war party of about sixty Blackfeet, on the
plain immediately below him. His situation was perilous; for the
greater part of his people were dispersed in various directions.
Still, to betray hesitation or fear would be to discover his
actual weakness, and to invite attack. He assumed, instantly,
therefore, a belligerent tone; ordered the squaws to lead the
horses to a small grove of ashen trees, and unload and tie them;
and caused a great bustle to be made by his scanty handful; the
leaders riding hither and thither, and vociferating with all
their might, as if a numerous force was getting under way for an
attack.
To keep up the deception as to his force, he ordered, at night, a
number of extra fires to be made in his camp, and kept up a
vigilant watch. His men were all directed to keep themselves
prepared for instant action. In such cases the experienced
trapper sleeps in his clothes, with his rifle beside him, the
shot-belt and powder-flask on the stock: so that, in case of
alarm, he can lay his hand upon the whole of his equipment at
once, and start up, completely armed.
Captain Bonneville was also especially careful to secure the
horses, and set a vigilant guard upon them; for there lies the
great object and principal danger of a night attack. The grand
move of the lurking savage is to cause a panic among the horses.
In such cases one horse frightens another, until all are alarmed,
and struggle to break loose. In camps where there are great
numbers of Indians, with their horses, a night alarm of the kind
is tremendous. The running of the horses that have broken loose;
the snorting, stamping, and rearing of those which remain fast;
the howling of dogs; the yelling of Indians; the scampering of
white men, and red men, with their guns; the overturning of
lodges, and trampling of fires by the horses; the flashes of the
fires, lighting up forms of men and steeds dashing through the
gloom, altogether make up one of the wildest scenes of confusion
imaginable. In this way, sometimes, all the horses of a camp
amounting to several hundred will be frightened off in a single
night.
The night passed off without any disturbance; but there was no
likelihood that a war party of Blackfeet, once on the track of a
camp where there was a chance for spoils, would fail to hover
round it.
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