The two parties came together two or three days afterwards, on the 4th of August, afterhaving passed through the gap of the Littlehorn Mountain. In company with Campbell'sconvoy was a trapping party of the Rocky Mountain Company, headed by Fitzpatrick;who, after Campbell's embarkation on the Bighorn, was to take charge of all the horses,and proceed on a trapping campaign. There were, moreover, two chance companionsin the rival camp. One was Captain Stewart, of the British army, a gentleman of nobleconnections, who was amusing himself by a wandering tour in the Far West; in thecourse of which, he had lived in hunter's style; accompanying various bands of traders,trappers, and Indians; and manifesting that relish for the wilderness that belongs to menof game spirit.
The other casual inmate of Mr. Campbell's camp was Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth; the self-sameleader of the band of New England salmon fishers, with whom we partedcompany in the valley of Pierre's Hole, after the battle with the Blackfeet. A few daysafter that affair, he again set out from the rendezvous in company with Milton Subletteand his brigade of trappers. On his march, he visited the battle ground, and penetratedto the deserted fort of the Blackfeet in the midst of the wood. It was a dismal scene.
The fort was strewed with the mouldering bodies of the slain; while vultures soaredaloft, or sat brooding on the trees around; and Indian dogs howled about the place, as ifbewailing the death of their masters. Wyeth travelled for a considerable distance to thesouthwest, in company with Milton Sublette, when they separated; and the former, witheleven men, the remnant of his band, pushed on for Snake River; kept down the courseof that eventful stream; traversed the Blue Mountains, trapping beaver occasionally bythe way, and finally, after hardships of all kinds, arrived, on the 29th of October, atVancouver, on the Columbia, the main factory of the Hudson's Bay Company.
He experienced hospitable treatment at the hands of the agents of that company; buthis men, heartily tired of wandering in the wilderness, or tempted by other prospects,refused, for the most part, to continue any longer in his service. Some set off for theSandwich Islands; some entered into other employ. Wyeth found, too, that a great partof the goods he had brought with him were unfitted for the Indian trade; in a word, hisexpedition, undertaken entirely on his own resources, proved a failure. He losteverything invested in it, but his hopes. These were as strong as ever. He took note ofevery thing, therefore, that could be of service to him in the further prosecution of hisproject; collected all the information within his reach, and then set off, accompanied bymerely two men, on his return journey across the continent. He had got thus far "byhook and by crook," a mode in which a New England man can make his way all overthe world, and through all kinds of difficulties, and was now bound for Boston; in fullconfidence of being able to form a company for the salmon fishery and fur trade of theColumbia.
The party of Mr. Campbell had met with a disaster in the course of their route from theSweet Water. Three or four of the men, who were reconnoitering the country inadvance of the main body, were visited one night in their camp, by fifteen or twentyShoshonies. Considering this tribe as perfectly friendly, they received them in the mostcordial and confiding manner. In the course of the night, the man on guard near thehorses fell sound asleep; upon which a Shoshonie shot him in the head, and nearlykilled him. The savages then made off with the horses, leaving the rest of the party tofind their way to the main body on foot.
The rival companies of Captain Bonneville and Mr. Campbell, thus fortuitously broughttogether, now prosecuted their journey in great good fellowship; forming a joint camp ofabout a hundred men. The captain, however, began to entertain doubts that Fitzpatrickand his trappers, who kept profound silence as to their future movements, intended tohunt the same grounds which he had selected for his autumnal campaign; which lay tothe west of the Horn River, on its tributary streams. In the course of his march,therefore, he secretly detached a small party of trappers, to make their way to thosehunting grounds, while he continued on with the main body; appointing a rendezvous, atthe next full moon, about the 28th of August, at a place called the Medicine Lodge.
On reaching the second chain, called the Bighorn Mountains, where the river forced itsimpetuous way through a precipitous defile, with cascades and rapids, the travellerswere obliged to leave its banks, and traverse the mountains by a rugged and frightfulroute, emphatically called the "Bad Pass." Descending the opposite side, they againmade for the river banks; and about the middle of August, reached the point below therapids where the river becomes navigable for boats. Here Captain Bonneville detacheda second party of trappers, consisting of ten men, to seek and join those whom he haddetached while on the route; appointing for them the same rendezvous, (at theMedicine Lodge,) on the 28th of August.
