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.
Pages:
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193