Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-05-06

was all in vain.
The fires were scattered and only a
few red ashes remained, and we could
see that any attempt to land on our
part would mean a fight. So, calling
out that we were going away,we showed
of and commenced padding out into
the stream.
As we got about thirty yards from
land, bang! went gun in among the
trees and charge of shot whizzed past
us. followed almost Immediately by an
other report, and this time one of our
men was wounded in the thigh Glave
and were in the same canoe, and, with
our headmen Bionelo and Bakunn, two
Waugatta natives who carried extra
rifles of ours, we replied with our Ex-
press and Martini-Henry rifles, while the
other canoe, Of which Mongessi took
command, poured in a dropping fire
from four or five lint-locks. We were
out in the full light OF the moon, while
our foes were completely hidden in the
darkness of the forest bank. Loud
/ cries of derision and shouts from the
shore greeted our fusillade and, pad
ding slowly upstream, we gave another
/ broadside in the direction of the smol-
dering fires, which this time was re-
ceiyed in silence.
Feeling we could do nothing that
night, while If we remained near we
offered a capital aim to our hidden foes
we determined tc make for the opposite
/ bank of the channel, about three hun
dred yards across. A thick, floating
mass of interlacing sed~e grass clinging
{ fs, In ba, II tod III tb.
shore. Accordingly fastening our canoes
to this, we stepped out on to the grass,
which bore our weight, although it rose
and fell beneath each movement. We
promptly stretched ourselves out on
| this grassy couch, and although a leg
would sometimes break through and
reach the river flowing beneath we man
aged to keep aGoat and get some sort of
rest in spite of mosquitoes and
drilling shower Of rain. | had an india
rubber ground sheet with me- useful for
stretching on the floor of ones tent or
sleeping on at pinch, and this | now
( endeavored 20 rig into n shelter from
rain and mosquitoes bs throwing it over
my head and budding my knees up to
/ my chin while | could feel myself
slowly making a deeper impression in
the grass raft and gradually settling
down in the sedge until / expected
every moment to go through altogether
and take a plunge in the river
My comfort was of short duration for
( Mongessi objected to rain and mos
/ quitoes as much as did--and observing
that it was an unpleasant night for an
al ffeSc0 entertainment on floating
/ island, he, followed by his wife and two
or three Of the men, promptly crawled
under my extempore tent and huddled
( up close around me. | was banked in
/ by a solid mass of warm flesh and could
scarcely move a finger, and although
/ the mosquitoes were now effectually ex-
cluded from every square inch of my
/ person, | soon became aware of the
fact that there are things worse even
than mosquito bites in this world of
ours, and amongst them | was COM
PEELED TO reckon the atmosphere under
that ground sheet. | delicately limited
TO Mongessi in broken tones, that |
thought his wife very nice woman at
a distance, and that | should be de-
lighted TO see more of her and his com
panions on q fine day on shore When the
4
they were bearing weil to leeward of
me, but he only replied by digging me
in the ribs and asking me for some to-
bacco and match to lightup his pipe and
smoke ! abandoned the ground sheet
to this happy family and slowly the
night wore away, while Glavo and
dozed or chatted alternately Our
konki friends across the water having
relit their fires on our departure under
the shelter of one of the huts were now
dancing round them and singing wild
war-songs, brandishing spears and
knives as they hurled defiance at us
across the intervening channel.
With the earliest dawn we re-entered
our canoes, loaded every gun and rifle
and commenced padding across to re-
rew the fight, determined to punish
the Ronllis for their unprovol1ed attack
of the previous night. They saw us
coming, and removed their wild dance
and song, but AS we came within one
hundred yards or so of the shore they
/ one by one sidled off behind the tree
trunks aud into the forest, SO that by
the time our canoes grounded on their
beach we could not see a single foe. We
sent a Yolley i'll among the srees and
then landed. our natives promptly
seized all the huts, which contained only
i a few paddles and some fishing tackle,
and setting fire TO them we pushed off,
taking with us two canoes which we
/ found up little creek. These we sank
in mid-stream, and then catching sight
OF two big canoes full of men making
of mp river about eight hundred yards
+ above Ms we gave chase, thinking them
to Toe probably of the party which had
fired on MS. However, after half an
hours hard padding we found we were
no nearer, SO We contented ourselves
With seeing them tura up a side creek
and disappear from view in the thick
bushes of the island we had been
skirting, and feGling that, having dis
/ persed our enemies and sufficiently pun
+ ishcd their wantop attack by the capture
of the two canoes and the burning OF
the huts, we returned down stream and
continued our journey to the north bank
mainland, passing the scene of the con.
nagration. ON which the Ronkis were
beginning to reassemble to see what
damage we had done
We padded all that day under Il burn
ing sun until late IN tho afternoon be-
fore we reached the mainland of the
north shore. Camping for the night in
thick forest Glave shot a couple of
monkeys, which the men cooked for
their sumner and HuLunu haured a