nd.

THE horror and indignation felt by Captain Bonneville at the excesses
of the Californian adventurers were not participated by his men; on
the contrary, the events of that expedition were favorite themes in the
camp. The heroes of Monterey bore the palm in all the gossipings among
the hunters. Their glowing descriptions of Spanish bear-baits and
bull-fights especially, were listened to with intense delight; and had
another expedition to California been proposed, the difficulty would
have been to restrain a general eagerness to volunteer.

The captain had not long been at the rendezvous when he perceived, by
various signs, that Indians were lurking in the neighborhood. It was
evident that the Blackfoot band, which he had seen when on his march,
had dogged his party, and were intent on mischief. He endeavored to keep
his camp on the alert; but it is as difficult to maintain discipline
among trappers at a rendezvous as among sailors when in port.

Buckeye, the Delaware Indian, was scandalized at this heedlessness of
the hunters when an enemy was at hand, and was continually preaching up
caution. He was a little prone to play the prophet, and to deal in signs
and portents, which occasionally excited the merriment of his white
comrades. He was a great dreamer, and believed in charms and talismans,
or medicines, and could foretell the approach of strangers by the
howling or barking of the small prairie wolf. This animal, being driven
by the larger wolves from the carcasses left on the hunting grounds by
the hunters, follows the trail of the fresh meat carried to the camp.
Here the smell of the roast and broiled, mingling with every breeze,
keeps them hovering about the neighborhood; scenting every blast,
turning up their noses like hungry hounds, and testifying their
pinching hunger by long whining howls and impatient barkings. These are
interpreted by the superstitious Indians into warnings that strangers
are at hand; and one accidental coincidence, like the chance fulfillment
of an almanac prediction, is sufficient to cover a thousand failures.
This little, whining, feast-smelling animal is, therefore, called among
Indians the "medicine wolf;" and such was one of Buckeye's infallible
oracles.

One morning early, the soothsaying Delaware appeared with a gloomy
countenance. His mind was full of dismal presentiments, whether from
mysterious dreams, or the intimations of the medicine wolf, does not
appear. "Danger," he