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ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE.

CHAPTER XII.

A winter camp the wilderness—medley of trappers, hunters, and Indians—scarcity of game—new arrangements in the camp—detachments sent to a distance—carelessness of the Indians when encamped—sickness among the Indians—excellent character of the Nez Percés—the Captain's effort as a pacificator—a Nez Percé's argument in favor of war—robberies by the Blackfeet—long suffering of the Nez Percés—a hunter's Elysium among the mountains—more robberies—the Captain preaches up a crusade—the effect upon his hearers.

For the greater part of the month of November Captain Bonneville remained in his temporary post on Salmon River. He was now in the full enjoyment of his wishes; leading a hunter's life in the heart of the wilderness, with all its wild populace around him. Beside his own people, motley in character and costume—creole, Kentuckian, Indian, half-breed, hired trapper, and free trapper—he was surrounded by encampments of Nez Percés and Flatheads, with their droves of horses covering the hills and plains. It was, he declares, a wild and bustling scene. The hunting parties of white men and red men, continually sallying forth and returning; the groups at the various encampments, some cooking, some working, some amusing themselves at different games; the neighing of horses, the braying of asses, the resounding strokes of the axe, the sharp report of the rifle, the whoop, the halloo, and the frequent burst of laughter, all in the midst of a region suddenly roused from perfect silence and loneliness by this transient hunters' sojourn, realized, he says, the idea of a "populous solitude."

The kind and genial character of the captain had, evidently, its influence on the opposite races thus fortuitously congregated together. The most perfect harmony prevailed between them. The Indians, he says, were friendly in their dispositions, and honest to the most scrupulous degree in their intercourse with the white men. It is true they were somewhat importunate in

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