OUT OF BIG BEAR'S CAMP.
Monday morning, May 31st, was ushered in dark and gloomy, foggy and
raining, but it proved to be the happiest day we had spent since the
31st of March. As the night was passing, I felt its oppressiveness, I
shuddered with the thought of what another day might bring forth; but
deliverance it seems was not far away; it was even now at hand. When the
light of day had swallowed up the blackness of darkness, the first words
that greeted my ears was Pritchard saying "I am going to watch my chance
and get out of the camp of Big Bear." Oh! what we suffered, Oh! what
we endured, during those two long months, as captives among a horde of
semi-barbarians. And to think that we would elude them, just when I was
giving up in despair. It is said that the darkest hour is that which
preceedes dawn; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning. So with me, in my utter prostration, in the act of giving way,
God heard my prayer, and opened a way of deliverance, and we made the
best of the opportunity.
"No foe, no dangerous path we lead,
Brook no delay, but onward speed."
Some of the Indians it seems had come across General Strange's scouts
the night before, and in consequence, all kinds of rumors were afloat
among the band. They were all very much frightened, for it looked as if
they were about to be surrounded. So a move, and a quick one, was made
by them, at an early hour, leaving the half-breeds to follow on. This
was now the golden opportunity, and Pritchard grasped it, and with him,
five other half-breed families fled in an opposite direction, thereby
severing our connection with the band nominally led by Big Bear.
We cut through the woods, making a road, dividing the thick brush,
driving across creeks and over logs. On we sped. At one time hanging on
by a corner of the bedding in order to keep from falling off the waggon.
Another time I fell off the waggon while fording a stream; my back
got so sore that I could not walk much. On we went roaming through the
forest, not knowing where we were going, until the night of June 3rd the
cry was made by Mrs. Pritchard with unfeigned disgust, "that the police
were coming." Mrs. Delaney was making bannock for the next morning's
meal, while I with cotton and crochet needle was making trimming for the
dresses of Mrs. Pritchards nine half-breed babies.
I threw the trimming work to the other end of the tent, and Mrs. Delaney
called upon Mrs. Pritchard to finish making the bannocks herself, and we
both rushed out just as the scouts galloped in.