XIV
_THE SHINING MOUNTAINS_
Ascending the highest summit of the hills on the north side of theriver, on Sunday, the 26th of May, Captain Lewis first caught adistant view of "the Rock mountains--the object of all our hopes, andthe reward of all our ambition."
"When I viewed--I felt a secret pleasure,--but when I reflected on thedifficulties which this snowy barrier would most probably throw in myway to the Pacific, and the sufferings and hardships of myself andparty in them, it in some measure counterbalanced the joy."
Bold and bolder grew the river shores. The current now became toorapid for oars, too deep for poles. Nothing but the tow-line coulddraw the boats against the swift flow of the mountain torrent.Struggling along shore with the rope on their shoulders, the men losttheir moccasins in the clinging clay and went barefoot. Sometimesknee-deep, they waded, sometimes waist-deep, shoulders-deep, in theicy water, or rising on higher benches walked on flinty rocks that cuttheir naked feet.
Leaping out of the mountains, came down a laughing sparkling river,the clearest they had yet seen. Its valley seemed a paradise of ashand willow, honeysuckles and wild roses. Standing on its bank Clarkmused, "I know but one other spot so beautiful. I will name this riverfor my little mountain maid of Fincastle, the Judith."
Could he then foresee that Judith would become his wife, or that theverdant Judith Basin would be the last retreat of the buffalo?
Big horned mountain sheep were sporting on the cliffs, beaver builttheir dams along its shores, and up the Judith Gap the buffalo had hismountain home. The Indian, too, had left there the scattered embers ofa hundred fires.
Lewis picked up a moccasin.
"Here, Sacajawea, does this belong to your people?"
The Bird Woman shook her head. "No Shoshone." She pointed to the northwhere the terrible Blackfeet came swooping down to shoot and scalp. Itwas time to hasten on.
Valley succeeded valley for miles on miles, and between valleys arosehills of sandstone, worn by suns and storms into temples of desolatedmagnificence; ruins of columns and towers, pedestals and capitals,parapets of statuary, sculptured alcoves and mysterious galleries.Sheer up from the river's side they lifted their heads like oldVenetian palaces abandoned to the bats.
June 3 the river forked.
"Which is the true Missouri?"
"De nort'ern branch. See it boil and roll?" said Cruzatte. "See decolour? Dat de true Meessouri. De ot'er ees but one leetle stream fromde mountain."
But the Captains remembered the advice of the Minnetarees.
"The Ah-mateah-za becomes clear, and has a navigable current into themountains."
Parties were sent up both branches to reconnoitre. Lewis and Clarkascended the high ground in the fork and looked toward the sunset.Innumerable herds of buffalo, elk, and antelope were browsing as faras the eye could reach, until the rivers were lost in the plain.
Back came the canoes undecided. Then the Captains set out. Clark tookthe crystal pebbly southern route. Lewis went up the turbid northernbranch fifty-nine miles.
"This leads too far north, almost to the Saskatchewan," he concluded,and turned back. In the summer sunshine robins sang, turtle doves,linnets, the brown thrush, the goldfinch, and the wren, filled theair with melody.
"I will call it Maria's River, for my beautiful and amiable cousin,Maria Wood of Charlottesville," thought Lewis, with a memory of otherJunes in old Virginia.
When Lewis drew up at camp, Clark was already there, anxious for hissafety. The main party, occupied in dressing skins and resting theirlame and swollen feet, looked eagerly for the decision. To theirsurprise both Captains agreed on the southern route.
"But Cruzatte," exclaimed the men, "he thinks the north stream is thetrue river, and Cruzatte is an experienced waterman. We may be lost inthe mountains far from the Columbia."
"True. Everything depends on a right decision. Captain Clark, if youwill stay here and direct the deposit of whatever we can spare, I willgo ahead until I know absolutely."
At dawn Lewis set out with Drouillard, Gibson, Goodrich, and JoeFields.
Under Captain Clark's direction, Bratton, the blacksmith, set up hisforge at the mouth of Maria's River and Shields mended all the brokenguns. The rest dug a _cache_, a kettle-shaped cellar, on a dry spotsafe from water. The floor was covered with dry sticks and a robe.Then in went the blacksmith's heavy tools, canisters of powder, bagsof flour and baggage,--whatever could be spared. On top was thrownanother robe, and then the earth packed in tight and the sod refittedso that no eye could detect the spot.
The red pirogue was drawn up into the middle of a small island at themouth of Maria's River and secured in a copse.
"Boys, I am very ill," said Captain Lewis, when they camped for dinneron the first day out. Attacked with violent pains and a high fever,unable to proceed, he lay under some willow boughs.
No medicine had been brought. Drouillard was much concerned. "I wellremember," he said, "when a flux was epidemic at Chillicothe among dewhite settlers, my fader, Pierre Drouillard, administer on de sickwit' great success."
"What did he use?"
"A tea of de choke-cherry."
"Prepare me some," said the rapidly sinking Captain.
With deft fingers Drouillard stripped off the leaves of a choke-cherrybough, and cut up the twigs. Black and bitter, the tea was brought toLewis at sunset. He drank a pint, and another pint an hour afterward.By ten o'clock the pain was gone, a gentle perspiration ensued, thefever abated, and by morning he was able to proceed.
The next day, June 12, the mountains loomed as never before, risingrange on range until the distant peaks commingled with the clouds.Twenty-four hours later Lewis heard the roaring of a cataract, sevenmiles away, and saw its spray, a column of cloud lifted by thesouthwest wind. Like Hiawatha he had--
"Journeyed westward, westward, Left the fleetest deer behind him, Left the antelope and bison, Passed the mountains of the Prairie, Passed the land of Crows and Foxes, Passed the dwellings of the Blackfeet, Came unto the Rocky Mountains, To the kingdom of the West-Wind."
Hastening on with impatient step he came upon the stupendouswaterfall, one of the glories of our continent, that hidden here inthe wilderness had for ages leaped adown the rocky way. Overwhelmedwith the spectacle Lewis sat down "to gaze and wonder and adore." "Oh,for the pencil of Salvator Rosa or the pen of Thompson, that I mightgive to the world some idea of this magnificent object, which from thecommencement of time has been concealed from the view of civilisedman."
Joe Fields was immediately dispatched to notify Clark of the discoveryof the Falls. Lewis and the other men went on up ten miles, gazing atcataract after cataract where the mighty Missouri bent and paused, andgathering its full volume leaped from rock to rock, sometimes wildand irregularly sublime, again smooth and elegant as a painter'sdream.
Lewis, impatient to see and know, hurried on past the rest until nightovertook him alone near the head of the series of cataracts. On thehigh plain along the bank a thousand buffalo were feeding on the shortcurly grass. Lewis shot one for supper, and leaning upon his unloadedrifle watched to see it fall.
A slight rustle attracted his attention. He turned. A bear wasstealing upon him, not twenty steps away. There was no time forreloading, flight alone remained. Not a bush, not a tree, not a rockwas near, nothing but the water. With a wild bound Lewis cleared theintervening space and leaped into the river. Turning, he presented his_espontoon_. The bear, already at the bank, was about to spring, butthat defiant _espontoon_ in his face filled him with terror. He turnedand ran, looking back now and then as if fearing pursuit, anddisappeared.
Clambering out of the water, Lewis started for camp, when, sixty pacesin front of him, a strange animal crouched as if to spring. Lewisfired and a mountain lion fled. Within three hundred yards of thespot, three enraged buffalo bulls left the herd, and shaking theirshaggy manes, ran pawing and bellowing, full speed upon him. Eludingthe bulls, Lewis hurried to camp.
Worn out, he fell asleep, only toawaken and find a huge rattlesnake coiled around the tree above hishead! Such was earth primeval!
The Great Falls of the Missouri was the rendezvous for all wild lifein the country. Thousands of impatient buffaloes pushed each otheralong the steep rocky paths to the water. Hundreds went over thecataract to feed the bears and wolves below.
Captain Clark soon arrived with the main body and went into camp at asulphur spring, a favourite resort of buffaloes.
"This is precisely like Bowyer's sulphur spring of Virginia,--it willbe good for Sacajawea," said Lewis, bringing her a cup of thetransparent water that tumbled in a cascade into the Missouri.
Sacajawea was sick, very sick, delirious at times as she lay on hercouch of skins. The journey had been difficult. The hungry little babywas a great burden, and Sacajawea was only sixteen, younger even thanShannon, the boy of the party.
Clark directed his negro servant, York, to be her constant attendant.Charboneau was cautioned on no account to leave her. Several othersemi-invalids guarded the tent to keep the buffaloes away. Every day,and twice a day, the Captains came to see her and prescribe as bestthey could.
Now came the tedious days of portaging the boats and baggage aroundthe Falls. A cottonwood tree, nearly two feet in diameter, was sawedinto wheels. The white pirogue was hidden in a copse and its mast wastaken for an axletree.
Opposite the spot where the waggons were made was an island full ofbears of enormous size. Their growling and stealthy movements went onday and night. All night the watchful little dog kept up incessantbarking. The men, disturbed in their slumbers, lay half-awake withtheir arms in hand, while the guard patrolled with an eye on theisland. Bolder and bolder grew the bears. One night they came to thevery edge of the camp and ran off with the meat hung out forbreakfast.
At last the rude waggons were done. The canoes were mounted and filledwith baggage. Slowly they creaked away, tugged and pushed and pulledup hills that were rocky and rough with hummocks where the buffaloestrod. Prickly-pears, like little scythes, cut and lacerated, eventhrough double-soled moccasins. At every halt, over-wearied and wornout by night watching, the toilers dropped to the ground and fellasleep instantly.
A whole month was spent in making the carriages and transporting thebaggage the eighteen miles around the Falls. In another _cache_ at thesulphur spring, they buried Lewis's writing desk, specimens of plantsand minerals, provisions, the grindstone brought from Harper's Ferry,books and a map of the Missouri River. The blunderbuss was hid underrocks at the foot of the Falls.
Sacajawea, recovered from her illness, began to look for familiarlandmarks. One day Clark took her, together with Charboneau and York,to look at the Falls. He had surveyed and measured the Black Eagle,Crooked Rainbow, and Great Falls. "Come," he said, "Charboneau, bringSacajawea. Let us go up and look at the Black Eagle." High above thecataract the bird had built its nest in the top of a cottonwood tree.
A dark cloud was rising. Under a shelving rock they took refuge in aravine, Captain Clark still figuring at his notes.
A few drops of rain fell,--in an instant a torrent, a cloud-burst,rolled down the ravine.
Clark saw it coming. Snatching his gun and shot-pouch, he pushedSacajawea and the baby up the cliff, while Charboneau above waspulling her by the hand. Up to Clark's waist the water came. Fifteenfeet it rose behind him as he climbed to safety.
Compass and umbrella were lost in the scramble. Charboneau had lefthis gun, tomahawk, and shot-pouch. Sacajawea had just snatched herbaby before its cradle went into the flood. After the storm they camedown into the plain, to find York in affright lest they had been sweptinto the river.
On account of the great heat, the men at the waggons had laid asidetheir leather hunting shirts, when down upon their bare backs came ashower of huge hailstones. Bruised, battered, and bleeding as from abattle, they straggled into camp. Kind-hearted Lewis set to work withlinens and medicine, bandaging up their wounds.
The next morning Captain Clark sent two men to look for the articleslost at the Falls. They found the ravine filled with rock, buthappily, half-hid in mud and sand, the precious compass was recovered.
Within view of the camp that day Clark estimated not less than tenthousand buffalo. And beyond, rimmed on the far horizon, ran the whiteline of the mountain crest that is to-day the western boundary ofMontana.
The 4th of July dawned, the second since they had left the States. Inthe hills they heard strange booming, as of a distant cannonade. Italmost seemed as if the Rocky Mountains were reverberating back thejoyous guns of Baltimore and Boston. The men listened in amaze.
"What can it be?"
"Een de mountain," answered Cruzatte. "De vein of silver burst. DePawnee and de Rickara hear eet een de Black Hill."
"Ah, yes, the Minnetarees talked of a noise in the mountains. Wethought it was superstition."
Again through long silence came the great cannonade. UnconsciouslyLewis and Clark trod on closed treasure houses, future mines ofunwashed tons of gold and silver. Had they brought back gold then whatmight have been the effect upon the restless, heaving East? But, no,the land must wait and grow. Other wars must be fought with theEnglishman and the Indian, armies of trappers must decimate the bearsand wolves, and easier methods of transportation must aid in openingup the great Montana-land.