features.

CHAPTER XIX

PASSAGE OF THE MOUNTAINS

When I took leave of Shaw at La Bonte's Camp, I promised that I would
meet him at Fort Laramie on the 1st of August. That day, according to my
reckoning, was now close at hand. It was impossible, at best, to fulfill
my engagement exactly, and my meeting with him must have been postponed
until many days after the appointed time, had not the plans of the
Indians very well coincided with my own. They too, intended to pass
the mountains and move toward the fort. To do so at this point was
impossible, because there was no opening; and in order to find a passage
we were obliged to go twelve or fourteen miles southward. Late in the
afternoon the camp got in motion, defiling back through the mountains
along the same narrow passage by which they had entered. I rode in
company with three or four young Indians at the rear, and the moving
swarm stretched before me, in the ruddy light of sunset, or in the deep
shadow of the mountains far beyond my sight. It was an ill-omened spot
they chose to encamp upon. When they were there just a year before, a
war party of ten men, led by The Whirlwind's son, had gone out against
the enemy, and not one had ever returned. This was the immediate cause
of this season's warlike preparations. I was not a little astonished
when I came to the camp, at the confusion of horrible sounds with which
it was filled; howls, shrieks, and wailings were heard from all the
women present, many of whom not content with this exhibition of grief
for the loss of their friends and relatives, were gashing their legs
deeply with knives. A warrior in the village, who had lost a brother
in the expedition; chose another mode of displaying his sorrow. The
Indians, who, though often rapacious, are utterly devoid of avarice, are
accustomed in times of mourning, or on other solemn occasions, to give
away the whole of their possessions, and reduce themselves to nakedness
and want. The warrior in question led his two best horses into the
center of the village, and gave them away to his friends; upon which
songs and acclamations in praise of his generosity mingled with the
cries of the women.

On the next morning we entered once more among the mountains. There was
nothing in their appearance either grand or picturesque, though they
were desolate to the last degree, being mere piles of black and broken
rocks, without trees or vegetation of any kind. As we passed among them