Superfluous baggage, and
all the books and papers scattered around; the holes were then
carefully closed up, and all traces of them effaced. And here we
have to record another instance of the indomitable spirit of the
western trappers. No sooner did the trio of Kentucky hunters,
Robinson, Rezner, and Hoback, find that they could once more be
fitted out for a campaign of beaver-trapping, than they forgot
all that they had suffered, and determined upon another trial of
their fortunes; preferring to take their chance in the
wilderness, rather than return home ragged and penniless. As to
Mr. Miller, he declared his curiosity and his desire of
travelling through the Indian countries fully satisfied; he
adhered to his determination, therefore, to keep on with the
party to St. Louis, and to return to the bosom of civilized
society.
The three hunters, therefore, Robinson, Rezner, and Hoback, were
furnished, as far as the caches and the means of Mr. Stuart's
party afforded, with the requisite munitions and equipments for a
"two years' hunt;" but as their fitting out was yet incomplete,
they resolved to wait in this neighborhood until Mr. Reed should
arrive; whose arrival might soon be expected, as he was to set
out for the caches about twenty days after Mr. Stuart parted with
him at the Wallah-Wallah River.
Mr. Stuart gave in charge to Robinson a letter to Mr. Reed,
reporting his safe journey thus far, and the state in which he
had found the caches. A duplicate of this letter he elevated on a
pole, and set it up near the place of deposit.
All things being thus arranged, Mr. Stuart and his little band,
now seven in number, took leave of the three hardy trappers,
wishing them all possible success in their lonely and perilous
sojourn in the wilderness; and we, in like manner, shall leave
them to their fortunes, promising to take them up again at some
future page, and to close the story of their persevering and ill-
fated enterprise.
CHAPTER XLV.
The Snake River Deserts.- Scanty Fare.- Bewildered Travellers -
Prowling Indians- A Giant Crow Chief.- A Bully Rebuked- Indian
Signals.- Smoke on the Mountains.- Mad River.- An Alarm.- An
Indian Foray- A Scamper.- A Rude Indian joke.- A Sharp-Shooter
Balked of His Shot.
0N the 1st of September, Mr. Stuart and his companions resumed
their journey, bending their course eastward, along the course of
Snake River. As they advanced the country opened. The hills which
had hemmed in the river receded on either hand, and great sandy
and dusty plains extended before them. Occasionally there were
intervals of pasturage, and the banks of the river were fringed
with willows and cottonwood, so that its course might be traced
from the hilltops, winding under an umbrageous covert, through a
wide sunburnt landscape.
