, 1862-09-13

these Indians Chabonneau's wife, who for long
years had been absent from her native hills, and
had been regarded as lost and numbered with the
dead, was no less e person than the sister Of the
principal Chief of this tribe and instead of enc
mics, he found in Lewis and Clark the friends and
ransomers of hs sister, who, after the first tears of
joy shed at so unexpected meeting had been
dried up, not tardy in narrating the details,
objects and anticipated results of this movement
in their midst. 1t was matter Of minor difficult
ty, therefore, for Lewis and Clark to ay before
the Chief his wants and requests, which, when
once known, were willingly and cbeerfully ac-
quiesced in.
Thus, once more equipped ,lad mounted on the
best horses of the country, with their small pack
ages of barter, and still smaller packages of a
scanty supply, (having made small caches for the
return trip,) they abandoned the boats the com
panions Of long pgrimage-and once more
were in quest Of the sources of the Columbia-
Doubt and uncertainty still annoyed them regard
ing their steps for the advance the imperfect
knowledge of the Indians themselves of the coun-
try tended but little to determine their minds as
to whether they should travel to find the best pass
through the Rocky and Bitter Root mountains to
reach the waters of the Columbia.
They attempted to pass by the head of Salmon
river but so difficult and dangerous did it prove
that retracing their steps, they passed down the
beautiful valley of the Bitter Root to one of its
larger tributaries, which, after long, tedious and
eventfu Journey they appropriately called "Trav-
eler's Rest Creek and now known as Lo-los
Fork. Here they halted to recruit the men and
animals for the difficult mountain pnssage which
still lay beyond. They had by this time, howev-
er, reached the waters of the Columbia by one of
its main branches, which Capt. Lewis, in honor of
the commander, called "Clark's River" and which
name it will ever bear as long as the English Ian
guage shall transmit to remoter ages the record
of the tolls of so bold traveller.
The autumn of 1906 was now upon them their
supplies nearly exhausted, forced to barter furs
with Indians who timd and poor, their pros
poets for once were indeed gloomy and disheart-
ening. During the past many months they had
travelled through country abundant in game and
where the unerring rifle had bountifuly supplied
every want. The country through which they had
up to this time passed was mostly prairie region,
easily traversed but now high rugged mountains
with craggy slopes and snow-capped peaks, formed
the panorama before them where the Journey of
day began at the base of rugged spur, and at
night ended upon its bleak and desolate summit !;
and the picture of the morrow was still dreary
mountains in advance, piled mountain high. and
where the next days journey closed as the first
began.
Their men were nearly all on foot, and by wear
and by tear their garments had become so thor
oughly shredded that the cold and piercing winds
Of the mountains soon told upon their already re-
duced systems deep despondency and gloom per-
vaded the party. Cases of sickness yielded read
ly to well-timed doses of Rushs Pills" which
had now become to be regarded a sovereign rem
edy for the most of their maladies yet the men
tai gloom OF the men could not be readily reached
A larder, well stored when starting, had become
well nigh exhausted; the last ounce of corn-meal
pound of veniso1 eaten and the feast for to-mor-
row could only be supplied by the weakest and
poorest of their horses, The slaughter of which
had now been determined upon. The steaks of
well cooked horse-fesh was found palatabe to
such an extent, however, that when the meat of
the first slaughtered was consumed second was
killed, and their repugnance to horsef flesh disap-
peared with its instant use.
But as great as were the suferngs and priva-
tions of Lewis and Clark at that date, they did
not equal that of those who followed in their foot
steps across the broad expanse of mountain and
prairie extending from here to the Missouri from
tier. They were not called upon to witness a
sight from which humanity, in scalding tears. to-
day turns its head. No mother with them was
forced to eat her first born babe No grieftorn
wife was compelled to sustain life from the flesh
of her partner and husband, whose life is laid down
in the vain endeavor to protect her from her cruel
captors No grieEmaddened father was COM
PEELED TO permit his chaste daughter to barter, in
his own sight, her virtue for her life, with savage
devils las the sad massacre of the emigrants at
Fort Boise, in 1860, but too sadly tells u.s. May
the memory of these atrocities be forever kept
fresh by our military authorities, to awaken them
to a sense of their past shameful neglect as well
as to their future imperative duty.
The cares and anxieties of Lewis and Clark, as
the primitive explorers in a region unknown to
the world-their gloom of mind-the detection of
their men-fear and apprehension for the future
these became the daily notations Of their Journal
Of all the sections of the Bitter Root mountain
chain, there is no doubt in my own mind that
Lewis and Clark crossed by the most difficult sec
ton. The whole region for miles in every direc-
ton is one immense sea of rugged, frowning noun
tains; and once in them, your condition is well
lkened to that of the sea wrecked mariner, tossed
from one mountain wave to another, till gloom
and despair of ever extrcating yourself seizes hold
of you, and which are only disspated by the glad
some sight of beautiful haven, which IS here
the ocean Of prairis bordering its western limit
have often asked myself, "Why it was that
Lewis and Clark took this pass through the noun
tans in preference to others and better in tie
range" eau only satisfactorily account for it
by supposing that the other passes were not either
known or travelled or the pass they took being
the most direct on a westwardly line, and leading
direct to the country of the Nez Perces, certain
Indians of which tribe accompanied them; that
they pursued this route not from any superior ad-
vantages it was supposed TO possess but solely
followed at the instgation of the Indians For it
has been pronounced by all explorers who have
since retraced their steps to be by far the worst
pass in the whole mountain system.