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CHAPTER 7
Retreat of the Blackfeet Fontenelle's camp in danger Captain
Bonneville and the Blackfeet Free trappers Their character,
habits, dress, equipments, horses Game fellows of the mountains
Their visit to the camp Good fellowship and good cheer A
carouse A swagger, a brawl, and a reconciliation
THE BLACKFEET WARRIORS, when they effected their midnight retreat
from their wild fastness in Pierre's Hole, fell back into the
valley of the Seeds-ke-dee, or Green River where they joined the
main body of their band. The whole force amounted to several
hundred fighting men, gloomy and exasperated by their late
disaster. They had with them their wives and children, which
incapacitated them from any bold and extensive enterprise of a
warlike nature; but when, in the course of their wanderings they
came in sight of the encampment of Fontenelle, who had moved some
distance up Green River valley in search of the free trappers,
they put up tremendous war-cries, and advanced fiercely as if to
attack it. Second thoughts caused them to moderate their fury.
They recollected the severe lesson just received, and could not
but remark the strength of Fontenelle's position; which had been
chosen with great judgment.
A formal talk ensued. The Blackfeet said nothing of the late
battle, of which Fontenelle had as yet received no accounts; the
latter, however, knew the hostile and perfidious nature of these
savages, and took care to inform them of the encampment of
Captain Bonneville, that they might know there were more white
men in the neighborhood. The conference ended, Fontenelle sent a
Delaware Indian of his party to conduct fifteen of the Blackfeet
to the camp of Captain Bonneville. There was [sic] at that time
two Crow Indians in the captain's camp, who had recently arrived
there. They looked with dismay at this deputation from their
implacable enemies, and gave the captain a terrible character of
them, assuring him that the best thing he could possibly do, was
to put those Blackfeet deputies to death on the spot. The
captain, however, who had heard nothing of the conflict at
Pierre's Hole, declined all compliance with this sage counsel. He
treated the grim warriors with his usual urbanity. They passed
some little time at the camp; saw, no doubt, that everything was
conducted with military skill and vigilance; and that such an
enemy was not to be easily surprised, nor to be molested with
impunity, and then departed, to report all that they had seen to
their comrades.
The two scouts which Captain Bonneville had sent out to seek for
the band of free trappers, expected by Fontenelle, and to invite
them to his camp, had been successful in their search, and on the
12th of August those worthies made their appearance.
To explain the meaning of the appellation, free trapper, it is
necessary to state the terms on which the men enlist in the
service of the fur companies. Some have regular wages, and are
furnished with weapons, horses, traps, and other requisites.
These are under command, and bound to do every duty required of
them connected with the service; such as hunting, trapping,
loading and unloading the horses, mounting guard; and, in short,
all the drudgery of the camp. These are the hired trappers.
The free trappers are a more independent class; and in describing
them, we shall do little more than transcribe the graphic
description of them by Captain Bonneville. "They come and go,"
says he, "when and where they please; provide their own horses,
arms, and other equipments; trap and trade on their own account,
and dispose of their skins and peltries to the highest bidder.
Sometimes, in a dangerous hunting ground, they attach themselves
to the camp of some trader for protection. Here they come under
some restrictions; they have to conform to the ordinary rules for
trapping, and to submit to such restraints, and to take part in
such general duties, as are established for the good order and
safety of the camp. In return for this protection, and for their
camp keeping, they are bound to dispose of all the beaver they
take, to the trader who commands the camp, at a certain rate per
skin; or, should they prefer seeking a market elsewhere, they are
to make him an allowance, of from thirty to forty dollars for the
whole hunt."
There is an inferior order, who, either from prudence or poverty,
come to these dangerous hunting grounds without horses or
accoutrements, and are furnished by the traders. These, like the
hired trappers, are bound to exert themselves to the utmost in
taking beaver, which, without skinning, they render in at the
trader's lodge, where a stipulated price for each is placed to
their credit. These though generally included in the generic name
of free trappers, have the more specific title of skin trappers.
The wandering whites who mingle for any length of time with the
savages have invariably a proneness to adopt savage habitudes;
but none more so than the free trappers. It is a matter of vanity
and ambition with them to discard everything that may bear the
stamp of civilized life, and to adopt the manners, habits, dress,
gesture, and even walk of the Indian. You cannot pay a free
trapper a greater compliment, than to persuade him you have
mistaken him for an Indian brave; and, in truth, the counterfeit
is complete. His hair suffered to attain to a great length, is
carefully combed out, and either left to fall carelessly over his
shoulders, or plaited neatly and tied up in otter skins, or
parti-colored ribands. A hunting-shirt of ruffled calico of
bright dyes, or of ornamented leather, falls to his knee; below
which, curiously fashioned legging, ornamented with strings,
fringes, and a profusion of hawks' bells, reach to a costly pair
of moccasons of the finest Indian fabric, richly embroidered with
beads. A blanket of scarlet, or some other bright color, hangs
from his shoulders, and is girt around his waist with a red sash,
in which he bestows his pistols, knife, and the stem of his
Indian pipe; preparations either for peace or war. His gun is
lavishly decorated with brass tacks and vermilion, and provided
with a fringed cover, occasionally of buckskin, ornamented here
and there with a feather. His horse, the noble minister to the
pride, pleasure, and profit of the mountaineer, is selected for
his speed and spirit, and prancing gait, and holds a place in his
estimation second only to himself. He shares largely of his
bounty, and of his pride and pomp of trapping. He is caparisoned
in the most dashing and fantastic style; the bridles and crupper
are weightily embossed with beads and cockades; and head, mane,
and tail, are interwoven with abundance of eagles' plumes, which
flutter in the wind. To complete this grotesque equipment, the
proud animal is bestreaked and bespotted with vermilion, or with
white clay, whichever presents the most glaring contrast to his
real color.
Such is the account given by Captain Bonneville of these rangers
of the wilderness, and their appearance at the camp was
strikingly characteristic. They came dashing forward at full
speed, firing their fusees, and yelling in Indian style. Their
dark sunburned faces, and long flowing hair, their legging,
flaps, moccasons, and richly-dyed blankets, and their painted
horses gaudily caparisoned, gave them so much the air and
appearance of Indians, that it was difficult to persuade one's
self that they were white men, and had been brought up in
civilized life.
Captain Bonneville, who was delighted with the game look of these
cavaliers of the mountains, welcomed them heartily to his camp,
and ordered a free allowance of grog to regale them, which soon
put them in the most braggart spirits. They pronounced the
captain the finest fellow in the world, and his men all bons
gar‡ons, jovial lads, and swore they would pass the day with
them. They did so; and a day it was, of boast, and swagger, and
rodomontade. The prime bullies and braves among the free trappers
had each his circle of novices, from among the captain's band;
mere greenhorns, men unused to Indian life; mangeurs de lard, or
pork-eaters; as such new-comers are superciliously called by the
veterans of the wilderness. These he would astonish and delight
by the hour, with prodigious tales of his doings among the
Indians; and of the wonders he had seen, and the wonders he had
performed, in his adventurous peregrinations among the mountains.
In the evening, the free trappers drew off, and returned to the
camp of Fontenelle, highly delighted with their visit and with
their new acquaintances, and promising to return the following
day. They kept their word: day after day their visits were
repeated; they became "hail fellow well met" with Captain
Bonneville's men; treat after treat succeeded, until both parties
got most potently convinced, or rather confounded, by liquor. Now
came on confusion and uproar. The free trappers were no longer
suffered to have all the swagger to themselves. The camp bullies
and prime trappers of the party began to ruffle up, and to brag,
in turn, of their perils and achievements. Each now tried to
out-boast and out-talk the other; a quarrel ensued as a matter of
course, and a general fight, according to frontier usage. The two
factions drew out their forces for a pitched battle. They fell to
work and belabored each other with might and main; kicks and
cuffs and dry blows were as well bestowed as they were well
merited, until, having fought to their hearts' content, and been
drubbed into a familiar acquaintance with each other's prowess
and good qualities, they ended the fight by becoming firmer
friends than they could have been rendered by a year's peaceable
companionship.
While Captain Bonneville amused himself by observing the habits
and characteristics of this singular class of men, and indulged
them, for the time, in all their vagaries, he profited by the
opportunity to collect from them information concerning the
different parts of the country about which they had been
accustomed to range; the characters of the tribes, and, in short,
everything important to his enterprise. He also succeeded in
securing the services of several to guide and aid him in his
peregrinations among the mountains, and to trap for him during
the ensuing season. Having strengthened his party with such
valuable recruits, he felt in some measure consoled for the loss
of the Delaware Indians, decoyed from him by Mr Fontenelle.
Content of CHAPTER 7 [Washington Irving's book: The Adventures of Captain Bonneville]
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