The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark

  XXV

  _BEWARE THE BLACKFEET!_

  On the third of July, at the mouth of Lolo creek, the expeditionseparated, Lewis to cross to the Falls of the Missouri and exploreMarias River, Clark to come to the three forks and cross to theYellowstone.

  With nine men and five Indians Captain Lewis crossed the Missoula on araft, and following the Nez Perce trail along the River-of-the-Road-to-Buffalo, the Big Blackfoot of to-day, came out July 7, the firstof white men, on the opening through the main range of the Rockies nowknown as the Lewis and Clark Pass. A Blackfoot road led down to thechurning waters of the Great Falls.

  Pawing, fighting, ten thousand buffaloes were bellowing in onecontinuous roar that terrified the horses. The plain was black with avast and angry army, bearing away to the southwest, flinging the dustlike a simoom, through which deep-mouthed clangor rolled like thunderfar away. And at their immediate feet, Drouillard noted fresh tracksof Indians dotting the soil; grizzly bears, grim guardians of thecataract, emitted hollow growls, and great gray wolves hung in packsand droves along the skirts of the buffalo herds, glancing now andthen toward the little group of horsemen.

  In very defiance of danger, again Lewis pitched his camp beside theFalls, green and foamy as Niagara. Again buffalo meat, marrow bones,ribs, steaks, juicy and rich, sizzled around the blaze, and the hungrymen ate, ate, ate. They had found the two extremes--want on one sideof the mountains and abundance on the other.

  While Lewis tried to write in his journal, huge brown mosquitoes,savage as the bears, bit and buzzed. Lewis's dog howled with thetorture, the same little Assiniboine dog that had followed all theirfootsteps, had guarded and hunted as well as the best, had slept bythe fire at Clatsop and been stolen at the Dalles.

  Hurrying to their _cache_ at the Bear Islands, it was discovered thathigh water had flooded their skins and the precious specimens ofplants were soaked and ruined. A bottle of laudanum had spoiled achestful of medicine. But the charts of the Missouri remaineduninjured, and trunks, boxes, carriage wheels, and blunderbuss wereall right.

  "Transport the baggage around the Falls and wait for me at the mouthof Maria's River to the first of September," said Captain Lewis,setting out with Drouillard and the Fields boys. "If by that time I amnot there, go on and join Captain Clark and return home. But if mylife and health are spared, I shall meet you on the 5th of August."

  It was not without misgivings that Sergeant Gass and his comrades sawthe gallant Captain depart into the hostile Blackfoot country. Withonly three men at his back it was a daring venture. Already the fiveNez Perces, fearful of their foes, had dropped off to seek theirfriends the Flatheads. In vain Lewis had promised to intercede andmake peace between the tribes. Their terror of the Blackfeet surpassedtheir confidence in white men.

  "Look!"

  On the second day out Drouillard suddenly pointed, and leaning farover on his horse, examined a trail that would have escaped an eyeless keen than his. "Blackfeet!" the vicious and profligate roversthat of all it was most desirable not to meet!

  Hastily crossing the Teton into a thick wood, the party camped thatnight unmolested.

  On the eighth day Captain Lewis suddenly spied several Indians on ahilltop intently watching Drouillard in the valley. Thirty horses,some led, some saddled, stood like silhouettes against the sky.Kneeling they scanned the movements of the unconscious hunter below.

  "Escape is impossible. We must make the most of our situation. If theyattempt to rob us, we will resist to the last extremity. I wouldrather die than lose my papers and instruments."

  Boldly advancing with a flag in his hand, followed by the two Fieldsbrothers, Lewis drew quite near before the Indians perceived theseother white men. Terrified, they ran about in confusion. Evidentlywith them a stranger meant a foe.

  Captain Lewis dismounted, and held out his hand.

  Slowly the chief Blackfoot approached, then wheeled in flight. Atlast, with extreme caution, the two parties met and shook hands. Lewisgave to one a flag, to another a medal, to a third a handkerchief. Thetumultuous beating of the Indians' hearts could almost be heard. Thereproved to be but eight of them, armed with two guns, bows, arrows, andeye-daggs, a sort of war-hatchet.

  "I am glad to see you," said Lewis. "I have much to say. Let us camptogether."

  The Indians assented and set up their semi-circular tent by thewillows of the river. Here Drouillard, the hunter, skilled in the signlanguage of redmen, drew out their story.

  Yes, they knew white men. They traded on the Saskatchewan six days'march away.

  Yes, there were more of them, two large bands, on the forks of thisriver, a day above.

  What did they trade at the Saskatchewan? Skins, wolves, and beaver,for guns and ammunition.

  Then Lewis talked. He came from the rising sun. He had been to thegreat lake at the west. He had seen many nations at war and had madepeace. He had stopped to make peace between the Blackfeet and theFlatheads.

  "We are anxious for peace with the Flatheads. But those people havelately killed a number of our relatives and we are in mourning."

  Yes, they would come down and trade with Lewis if he built a fort atMaria's River.

  Until a late hour they smoked, then slept. Lewis and Drouillard laydown and slept with the Indians, while the two Fields boys kept guardby the fire at the door of the tent.

  "Let go my gun."

  It was the voice of Drouillard in the half-light of the tent atsunrise struggling with a Blackfoot. With a start Lewis awoke andreached for his gun. It was gone. The deft thieves had all butdisarmed the entire party.

  Chase followed. In the scuffle for his gun, Reuben Fields stabbed aBlackfoot to the heart.

  No sooner were the guns recovered than the horses were gone. "Leavethe horses or I will shoot," shouted Lewis, chasing out of breath to asteep notch in the river bluffs. Madly the Indians were tearing awaywith the horses. Lewis fired and killed a Blackfoot. Bareheaded, theCaptain felt a returning bullet whistle through his hair, but theIndians dropped the horses, and away went swimming across the Marias.

  Delay meant death. Quickly saddling their horses, Lewis and his menmade for the Missouri as fast as possible, hearing at every step inimagination the pursuing "hoo-oh! whoop-ah-hooh!" that was destined tomake Marias River the scene of many a bloody massacre by the vengefulBlackfeet.

  Expecting interception at the mouth of Marias River, the white menrode with desperation to form a junction with their friends. All day,all night they galloped, until, exhausted, they halted at two o'clockin the morning to rest their flagging horses.

  That forenoon, having ridden one hundred and twenty miles since theskirmish, they reached the mouth of Marias River, just in time to seeSergeant Gass, the fleet of canoes, and all, descending from above.Leaping from their horses, they took to the boats, and soon left thespot, seventy, eighty, a hundred miles a day, down the swift Missouri.