In narrating the unhappy death of the Prince, I have stated that the
Crows bore no good-will to the white men established among the
Shoshones. That feeling, however, was not confined to that tribe; it
was shared by all the others within two or three hundred miles from the
Buona Ventura river, and it was not surprising! Since our arrival, the
tribe had acquired a certain degree of tactics and unity of action,
which was sufficient in itself to bear down all their enemies,
independent of the immense power they had obtained from their quantity
of fire-arms and almost inexhaustible ammunition. All the other nations
were jealous of their strength and resources, and this jealousy being
now worked up to its climax, they determined to unite and strike a great
blow, not only to destroy the ascendancy which the Shoshones had
attained, but also to possess themselves of the immense wealth which
they foolishly supposed the Europeans had brought with them to the
settlement.
For a long time previous to the Crow and Umbiqua expedition, which I
have detailed, messengers had been passing between tribe and tribe, and,
strange to say, they had buried all their private animosities, to form a
league against the common enemy, as were considered the Shoshones. It
was, no doubt, owing to this arrangement that the Crows and Umbiquas
shewed themselves so hardy; but the prompt and successful retaliation of
the Shoshones cooled a little the war spirit which was fomenting around
us. However, the Arrapahoes having consented to join the league, the
united confederates at once opened the campaign, and broke upon our
country in every direction.
We were taken by surprise; for the first three weeks they carried every
thing before them, for the majority of our warriors were still hunting.
But having been apprised of the danger, they returned in haste, and the
aspect of affairs soon changed. The lost ground was regained inch by
inch. The Arrapahoes having suffered a great deal, retired from the
league, and having now nothing to fear from the South, we turned against
our assailants on our northern boundaries. Notwithstanding the
desertion of the Arrapahoes, the united tribes were still three times
our number, but they wanted union, and did not act in concert. They
mustered about fifteen thousand warriors, from the Umbiquas, Callapoos,
Cayuses, Nez-perces, Bonnaxes, Flat-heads, and some of the Crows, who
had not yet gained prudence from their last "brushing." The superiority
of our arms, our tactics, discipline, and art of intrenchment, together
with the good service of two clumsy old Spanish four-pounders, enabled
us not only in a short time to destroy the league, but also to crush and
annihilate for ever some of our treacherous neighbours. As it would be
tedious to a stranger to follow the movements of the whole campaign, I
will merely mention that part of it in which I assisted.
The system of prairie warfare is so different from ours, that the
campaign I have just related will not be easily understood by those
acquainted only with European military tactics.
When a European army starts upon an expedition, it is always
accompanied by waggons, carrying stores of provisions and ammunition
of all kinds. There is a commissariat appointed for the purpose of
feeding the troops. Among the Indians there is no such thing, and
except a few pieces of dried venison, a pound weight of powder, and a
corresponding quantity of lead, if he has a rifle, but if not, with
his lance, bow, arrows, and tomahawk, the warrior enters the war-path.
In the closer country, for water and fuel, he trusts to the streams
and to the trees of the forests or mountains; when in the prairie, to
the mud-holes and chasms for water, and to the buffalo-dung for his
fire. His rifle and arrows will always give him enough of food.
But these supplies would not, of course, be sufficient for a great
number of men; ten thousand, for example. A water-hole would be
drained by the first two or three hundred men that might arrive, and
the remainder would be obliged to go without any. Then, unless
perchance they should fall upon a large herd of buffaloes, they would
never be able to find the means of sustaining life. A buffalo, or
three or four deer, can be killed every day, by hunters out of the
tract of an expedition; this supply would suffice for a small
war-party, but it would never do for an army.
Except in the buffalo ranges, where the Comanches, the Apaches, and
the Southern Shoshones will often go by bands of thousands, the
generality of the Indians enter the path in a kind of _echelonage_
that is to say, supposing the Shoshones to send two thousand men
against the Crows, they would be divided into fifteen or twenty bands,
each commanded by an inferior chief. The first party will start for
reconnoitring. The next day the second band, accompanied by the great
chiefs, will follow, but in another track; and so on with a third,
till three hundred or three hundred and fifty are united together.
Then they will begin their operations, new parties coming to take the
place of those who have suffered, till they themselves retire to make
room for others. Every new comer brings a supply of provisions, the
produce of their chase in coming, so that those who are fighting need
be in no fear of wanting the necessaries of life. By this the reader
will see that a band of two thousand warriors, only four or five
hundred are effectually fighting, unless the number of warriors agreed
upon by the chiefs prove too small, when new reinforcements are sent
forward.
We were divided into four war-parties: one which acted against the
Bonnaxes and the Flat-heads, in the north-east; the second, against the
Cayuses and Nez-perces, at the forks of the Buona Ventura and Calumet
rivers; the third remained near the settlement, to protect it from
surprise; while the fourth, a very small one, under my father's command,
and to which I was attached, remained in or about the boat-house, at the
fishing station. Independent of these four parties, well-armed bands
were despatched into the Umbiqua country both by land and sea.
In the beginning, our warfare on the shores of the Pacific amounted
merely to skirmishes, but by-and-by, the Callapoos having joined the
Umbiquas with a numerous party, the game assumed more interest. We not
only lost our advantages in the Umbiqua country, but were obliged little
by little to retire to the Post; this, however, proved to be our
salvation. We were but one hundred and six men, whilst our adversaries
mustered four hundred and eighty, and yet full one-fifth of their number
were destroyed in one afternoon, during a desperate attack which they
made upon the Post, which had been put into an admirable state of
defence.
The roof had been covered with sheets of copper, and holes had been
opened in various parts of the wall for the use of the cannon, of our
possession of which the enemy was ignorant. The first assault was
gallantly conducted, and every one of the loopholes was choked with
their balls and arrows. On they advanced, in a close and thick body,
with ladders and torches, yelling like a million of demons. When at the
distance of sixty yards, we poured upon them the contents of our two
guns; they were heavily loaded with grape-shot, and produced a most
terrible effect. The enemy did not retreat; raising their war-whoop, as
they rushed, with a determination truly heroical.
The guns were again fired, and also the whole of our musketry, after
which a party of forty of our men made a sortie. This last charge was
sudden and irresistible; the enemy fled in every direction, leaving
behind their dead and wounded. That evening we received a reinforcement
of thirty-eight men from the settlement, with a large supply of buffalo
meat and twenty fine young fat colts. This was a great comfort to us,
as, for several days, we had been obliged to live upon our dried fish.
During seven days we saw nothing of the enemy; but our scouts scoured in
every direction, and our long-boat surprised, in a bay opposite George
Point thirty-six large boats, in which the Callapoos had come from their
territory. The boats were destroyed, and their keepers scalped. As the
heat was very intense, we resolved not to confine ourselves any more
within the walls of the Post; we formed a spacious camp, to the east of
the block-house, with breastworks of uncommon strength. This plan
probably saved us from some contagious disease; indeed, the bad smell of
the dried fish, and the rarefied air in the building, had already begun
to affect many of our men, especially the wounded.
At the end of a week, our enemy re-appeared, silent and determined.
They had returned for revenge or for death; the struggle was to be a
fearful one. They encamped in the little open prairie on the other side
of the river, and mustered about six hundred men.
The first war-party had overthrown and dispersed the Bonnaxes, as they
were on their way to join the Flat-heads; and the former tribe not being
able to effect the intended junction, threw itself among the Cayuses and
Nez-perces. These three combined nations, after a desultory warfare,
gave way before the second war-party; and the Bonnaxes, being now
rendered desperate by their losses and the certainty that they would be
exterminated if the Shoshones should conquer, joined the Callapoos and
Umbiquas, to make one more attack upon our little garrison.
Nothing could have saved us, had the Flat-heads held out any longer; but
the Black-feet, their irreconcilable enemies, seizing the opportunity,
had entered their territory. They sued to us for peace, and then
detachments from both war-parties hastened to our help. Of this we were
apprised by our runners; and having previously concerted measures with
my father, I started alone to meet these detachments, in the passes of
the Mineral Mountains. The returning warriors were seven hundred
strong, and had not lost more than thirteen men in their two
expeditions; they divided into three bands, and succeeded, without
discovery, in surrounding the prairie in which the enemy were encamped;
an Indian was then sent to cross the river, a few miles to the east, and
carry a message to my father.
The moon rose at one in the morning. It was arranged that, two hours
before its rising, the garrison of the block-house, which had already
suffered a great deal, during four days of a close siege, were to let
off the fire-works that I had received from the Mexicans at Monterey,
and to watch well the shore on their side of the river; for we were to
fall upon the enemy during their surprise, occasioned by such an unusual
display. All happened as was intended. At the first rocket, the
Bonnaxes, Callapoos, and Umbiquas were on the alert; but astonishment
and admiration very soon succeeded their fear of surprise, which they
knew could not be attempted from their opponents in front. The bombs
burst, the wheels threw their large circles of coloured sparks, and the
savages gazed in silent admiration. But their astonishment was followed
by fear of supernatural agency; confusion spread among them, and their
silence was at last broken by hundreds of loud voices!! The moment had
now come, the two Shoshone war-parties rushed upon their terrified
victims, and an hour afterwards, when the moon rose and shone above the
prairie, its mild beams were cast upon four hundred corpses. The whole
of the Bonnax and Umbiqua party were entirely destroyed. The Callapoos
suffered but little, having dispersed, and run toward the sea-shore at
the beginning of the affray.
Thus ended the great league against the Shoshones, which tradition will
speak of in ages yet to come. But these stirring events were followed
by a severe loss to me. My father, aged as he was, had shown a great
deal of activity during the last assault, and he had undergone much
privation and fatigue: his high spirit sustained him to the very last of
the struggle; but when all was over, and the reports of the rifles no
longer whizzed to his ears, his strength gave way, and, ten days after
the last conflict, he died of old age, fatigue, and grief. On the
borders of the Pacific Ocean, a few miles inland, I have raised his
grave. The wild flowers that grow upon it are fed by the clear waters
of the Nu eleje sha wako, and the whole tribe of the Shoshones will long
watch over the tomb of the Pale-face from a distant land, who was once
their instructor and their friend.
As for my two friends, Gabriel and Roche, they had been both seriously
wounded, and it was a long time before they were recovered.
We passed the remainder of the summer in building castles in the air for
the future, and at last agreed to go to Monterey to pass the winter.
Fate, however, ordered otherwise, and a succession of adventures, the
current of which I could not oppose, forced me through many wild scenes
and countries, which I have yet to describe.