At Present We Shall Stop With Him At Cantonment
Leavenworth, The Frontier Post Of The United States; Where He
Arrived On The 27th Of September.
Here his first care was to have his Nez Perce Indian, and his
half-breed boy, Baptiste, vaccinated.
As they approached the
fort, they were hailed by the sentinel. The sight of a soldier in
full array, with what appeared to be a long knife glittering on
the end of a musket, struck Baptiste with such affright that he
took to his heels, bawling for mercy at the top of his voice. The
Nez Perce would have followed him, had not Wyeth assured him of
his safety. When they underwent the operation of the lancet, the
doctor's wife and another lady were present; both beautiful
women. They were the first white women that they had seen, and
they could not keep their eyes off of them. On returning to the
boat, they recounted to their companions all that they had
observed at the fort; but were especially eloquent about the
white squaws, who, they said, were white as snow, and more
beautiful than any human being they had ever beheld.
We shall not accompany the captain any further in his Voyage; but
will simply state that he made his way to Boston, where he
succeeded in organizing an association under the name of "The
Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company," for his original
objects of a salmon fishery and a trade in furs. A brig, the May
Dacres, had been dispatched for the Columbia with supplies; and
he was now on his way to the same point, at the head of sixty
men, whom he had enlisted at St. Louis; some of whom were
experienced hunters, and all more habituated to the life of the
wilderness than his first band of "down-easters."
We will now return to Captain Bonneville and his party, whom we
left, making up their packs and saddling their horses, in Bear
River Valley.
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