We Have Again To Admire The Perfect
Decency And Propriety Of The Indians; For Though So Numerous,
They Do Not
Attempt to crowd round our camp or take anything
which they see lying about, and whenever they borrow knives
or
Kettles or any other article from the men, they return them
with great fidelity."
Captain Lewis anxiously wished to push on to meet Clark, who, as we have seen,
was then far down on the Salmon River. Lewis was still at the forks
of Jefferson River, it should be borne in mind; and their objective point
was the upper Shoshonee village on the Lemhi River, across the divide.
While on the way over the divide, Lewis was greatly troubled by the freaks
of the Indians, who, regardless of their promises, would propose
to return to the buffalo country on the eastern side of the mountains.
Learning that Cameahwait and his chiefs had sent a messenger over to the
Lemhi to notify the village to come and join an expedition of this sort,
Captain Lewis was dismayed. His journal says: -
"Alarmed at this new caprice of the Indians, which, if not counteracted,
threatened to leave ourselves and our baggage on the mountains, or even if we
reached the waters of the Columbia, to prevent our obtaining horses to go
on further, Captain Lewis immediately called the three chiefs together.
After smoking a pipe he asked them if they were men of their word, and if we
could rely on their promises. They readily answered in the affirmative.
He then asked if they had not agreed to assist us in carrying our baggage over
the mountains. To this they also answered yes. `Why, then,' said he, `have
you requested your people to meet us to-morrow where it will be impossible
for us to trade for horses, as you promised we should? If,' he continued,
`you had not promised to help us in transporting our goods over the mountains,
we should not have attempted it, but have returned down the river;
after which no white men would ever have come into your country. If you
wish the whites to be your friends, to bring you arms, and to protect you
from your enemies, you should never promise what you do not mean to perform.
When I first met you, you doubted what I said, yet you afterward saw that I
told you the truth. How, therefore, can you doubt what I now tell you?
You see that I divide amongst you the meat which my hunters kill, and I
promise to give all who assist us a share of whatever we have to eat.
If, therefore, you intend to keep your promise, send one of the young men
immediately, to order the people to remain at the village till we arrive.'
The two inferior chiefs then said that they had wished to keep their word
and to assist us; that they had not sent for the people, but on the contrary
had disapproved of that measure, which was done wholly by the first chief.
Cameahwait remained silent for some time; at last he said that he knew
he had done wrong, but that, seeing his people all in want of provisions,
he had wished to hasten their departure for the country where their wants
might be supplied. He, however, now declared that, having passed his word,
he would never violate it, and counter-orders were immediately sent
to the village by a young man, to whom we gave a handkerchief in order
to ensure despatch and fidelity. . . .
"This difficulty being now adjusted, our march was resumed with an
unusual degree of alacrity on the part of the Indians. We passed
a spot where, six years ago, the Shoshonees had suffered a very severe
defeat from the Minnetarees; and late in the evening we reached
the upper part of the cove, where the creek enters the mountains.
The part of the cove on the northeast side of the creek has
lately been burned, most probably as a signal on some occasion.
Here we were joined by our hunters with a single deer,
which Captain Lewis gave, as a proof of his sincerity,
to the women and children, and remained supperless himself.
As we came along we observed several large hares, some ducks,
and many of the cock of the plains: in the low grounds of the cove
were also considerable quantities of wild onions."
Arriving at the Shoshonee village on the Lemhi, Captain Lewis
found a note from Captain Clark, sent back by a runner,
informing him of the difficulty and impossibility of a water
route to the Columbia. Cameahwait, being told that his white
friends would now need twenty more horses, said that he would
do what he could to help them. The journal here adds: -
"In order not to lose the present favorable moment, and to keep the Indians
as cheerful as possible, the violins were brought out and our men danced,
to the great diversion of the Indians. This mirth was the more welcome
because our situation was not precisely that which would most dispose us
to gayety; for we have only a little parched corn to eat, and our means
of subsistence or of success depend on the wavering temper of the natives,
who may change their minds to-morrow. . . .
"The Shoshonees are a small tribe of the nation called the Snake Indians,
a vague appellation, which embraces at once the inhabitants of the southern
parts of the Rocky Mountains and of the plains on either side.
The Shoshonees with whom we now were amount to about one hundred warriors,
and three times that number of women and children. Within their own
recollection they formerly lived in the plains, but they have been
driven into the mountains by the Pahkees, or the roving Indians of
the Sascatchawan, and are now obliged to visit occasionally, and by stealth,
the country of their ancestors. Their lives, indeed, are migratory.
From the middle of May to the beginning of September they reside on
the headwaters of the Columbia, where they consider themselves perfectly
secure from the Pahkees, who have never yet found their way to that retreat.
During this time they subsist chiefly on salmon, and, as that fish disappears
on the approach of autumn, they are driven to seek subsistence elsewhere.
They then cross the ridge to the waters of the Missouri, down which they
proceed slowly and cautiously, till they are joined near the Three Forks
by other bands, either of their own nation or of the Flatheads, with whom
they associate against the common enemy.
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