We performed the horse-dance that night, though I danced without owning one. During the amusement I conveyed word to the wife of Big Rain that I should go out again the next night, and should expect her company, appointing her to meet me at the same place as before. She returned a favorable answer. My little wife hauled me over the coals for stealing a married woman, when there were enough maidens in the village that I could select. I told her that I wished to have the Handsomest woman in the village for my lodge.
The appointed hour arrived, and Big Rain’s wife was faithful to her promise. We started off with only seventeen warriors. We were gone four days, and returned with three scalps. We met a war-party of nine warriors, six of whom outstripped us and escaped. On my return I was again seized, and received another such a flogging as the first, laid on with equal good-will.
After my dressing, I retired to my lodge, when a woman approached me bearing some burden in her arms. She addressed me: “Here is something will gladden your heart; he will make as great a brave as his father: his name is Black Panther. Here, look at your child.”
Sure enough, my little wife had presented me with a son, who is at this present time (1855) first counselor of the Crow nation.
Two nights afterward, I started on a third expedition with a party of sixty-three warriors, my new wife accompanying me for the third time. We took a southerly course toward the country of the Black Feet, and captured near two hundred head of horses, with which we returned home by way of the fort. On arriving at the fort, I found that my services were required, and that they were about to dispatch a courier after me on business of great importance. I told the commander that I must go home with my party, but that I would return to the fort with the least possible delay. Accordingly we started on. On the road we fell in with a small party of trappers, who were under the conduct of an old schoolmate of mine, David Adams. They seemed greatly dejected, and I inquired of them the cause. Adams then related that he had been robbed of everything he possessed by some of his men confederated with a number of my Indians, and that they had sent him off in the forlorn condition in which I now saw him. I asked him to describe the appearance of the Indians who took part in robbing him.
“One of the party,” said he, “was not an Indian, but a mulatto.”
“There was no mulatto when I left,” I answered, “and you must be mistaken.”
“No,” he replied, “I am not. You will find him there on your return.”
“Well,” said I, “get up and return to the village with me; I will sift this matter to the bottom.”
He declined to accompany me. “They told me, if I returned,” he urged, “that they would kill us all; and I dare not go back.”
“Come with me,” I said. “If there is any killing to be done, I will have a hand in it.”
He at length consented to return with me. On gaining the village, I rode up to my father’s lodge, and said, “How is this? You allow white men to be robbed in the village, directly under your eyes! Do you wish to call down the vengeance of the great white chief upon the Crows? Do you wish them to be made poor and miserable, like the other tribes? Have I not often told you of the immense number of white warriors; that they were like the sand of the prairie — as the leaves of the forest?”
“Hold, my son! I had nothing to do in the matter. My heart was sorrowful when I heard of the crime. It was High Lance who committed it.”
“Then I will go and kill him, or be killed myself,” said I; and away I sped to the lodge of High Lance.
“Go with him — go with him!” exclaimed my father to all my brothers and relatives around. “He is mad; go and protect him.”
I advanced to High Lance, who was standing at his lodge, who, on seeing me approach, stepped in and shut his door. I dismounted, and tore his door down in an instant, and demanded of him what he had been doing. I remarked that his lodge was extremely well supplied with goods.
“High Lance,” said I, in an authoritative tone, “restore to these men their horses without one moment’s delay.”
“I have taken no horses,” said he, sullenly. “Send for them in an instant,” said I.
By, this time my Dog Soldiers, the bravest men in the nation, were surrounding me.
“What does our chief want?” demanded they.
I told them that I wanted all the goods taken out of the lodge of High Lance, for that he had assisted to steal them from a white man, who was my friend. Instantly the lodge was hoisted, and torn into a thousand pieces, and High Lance, the mulatto, and eleven white men, were exposed to plain view.
I then accosted the mulatto: “What are you doing here, you black velvet-headed scoundrel? You come here in my absence to put the devil into the heads of the Indians, who are bad enough already? I will have your scalp torn off, you consummate villain!”
The poor fellow was frightened almost to death, and trembled in every joint. He replied, “The Crows gave me liberty to stay here and trap in their country, and —”
“Not another word,” interrupted I; “though I will hang you, at any rate.”
Then, turning to the eleven renegade white men, I said, “I give you just five minutes to leave the village; if you are longer in going, I will order my warriors to scalp every one of you. You assume to be white men, and yet think no more of yourselves than to enter an Indian village and set such an example to the savages; whereas, if they were to treat you in such a manner, you would think death too light a punishment. You rob your own race, and forbid their return to the village under pain of death, allying yourselves with the worst Indian in the tribe. After stripping your victim, you forcibly deprive him of his few trusty followers, and bid him go through these trackless wilds, filled with murderous savages, who, had they come across him, would have murdered him before he reached the fort.”
I rated them thus soundly, but not one offered to lift his hand. The stolen horses were very quickly forthcoming, and the purloined property was readily produced. I restored it to my friend before them.
“Now,” I said, addressing the gang, “you can return to the fort with Mr. Adams; but if I hear that you offer to molest him in any way, your scalps shall pay for it.”
Then, turning to the mulatto, I said, “You have instigated all this mischief, and I should only be doing my duty to put my threat into execution, and hang you as I promised. However, you can go to the fort with these men. I shall be there about as soon as you will, and I will attend to your case then. I’ll see if I cannot teach you better than to come among the Crows again.”
Mr. Adams belonged to Captain Bonneville’s company, and was leader of a party of about twenty men; he had come into the Crow country for the purpose of trading and trapping. The mulatto had arrived previously, and had brought a Canadian with him: the mulatto could speak the Crow language tolerably well. He had become acquainted with High Lance, who was a bad Indian, and had relations as bad as himself; and through this clique he had obtained permission to stay and trap in the country. On the arrival of Mr. Adams, the mulatto made himself very familiar with his men, representing to them that they were fools to travel for hire, when they could stay among the Crows with him and do so much better. By these arguments he induced eleven of Mr. Adams’s party to desert him, when, with the participation of High Lance and other bad Indians, they stripped him of all his goods. Mr. Adams expressed his warmest thanks to me for my interference. I told him I had only done my duty, as I always had done in like cases, and should continue to do as long as I remained with the Crows.
This business settled, I received a third sound thrashing from my new wife’s husband and relatives for again making free with his wife.
After the lapse of three days I left for the fort, again taking my friend’s lady. Her husband, finding that I was incorrigible, grew furious, and declared he only wished to have me in his power once more. My Dog Soldiers said to him, “You have whipped him three times, and you shall whip him no more, neither shall you do him any farther harm. Red Cherry loves h
im, and she does not love you; she will always go with him. You might as well try to turn Big Horn back to its mountain sources as to attempt to separate them, unless you kill them. You would not be so cowardly as to spill the blood of the pretty Red Cherry because she loves our chief. If you should fight him, he will kill you; and if you should assassinate him, we would avenge his death. No, no! Big Rain must not hurt our chief. But we will buy your claim to the Red Cherry, and give her to Red Arm for his own. You, a great chief, should despise to want a woman who loves another warrior better than you!”
Big Rain drooped his head on finding the Dog Soldiers were against him, and gave way to deep reverie. He loved the Red Cherry as children love the delicious fruit bearing the same name. After weighing the matter well, he reluctantly acceded to the offer, and consented to resign all interest and title in Mrs. Big Rain for the consideration of one war-horse, ten guns, ten chiefs’ coats, scarlet cloth, ten pairs of new leggins, and the same number of moccasins.
The stipulation was forthwith produced by my faithful Dog Soldiers, and I had the exclusive right to the Red Cherry, without the fear of a drubbing every time I returned.
Such acts are as common among the Rocky Mountain tribes as they have been among the whites in California since the discovery of gold there, though in the latter place, the penalty is frequently more severe than among the wild tribes of the mountains and prairies.
My new wife was the perfection of symmetry. Few of the Caucasian race could boast of handsomer features, and nothing but the rich olive color of the skin betrayed her Indian origin. Big Rain always regarded me with an evil eye after the transaction, and several times attempted to induce the lady to return to him. Many warriors, whose wives had played truant, had cut off their noses to deprive them of their attractions. I told Red Cherry that if ever she should return to Big Rain, he would surely serve her so. She never manifested any disposition to leave me; and my engagement to the American Fur Company enabled me to dress my wives better than any other woman in the whole nation.
It was now early spring, and I started for the fort. Before I left, I told the Crows what time I wished them to follow me with their peltry.
On my arrival, I was informed that a Mr. Johnson Gardner had bought quite a large lot of goods, which he had taken to his camp, eighteen miles down the river. The morning after my arrival, three men were dispatched from the fort to acquaint him that I had come. I had two hundred warriors with me; and on the night of our arrival we formed a camp and turned out the horses, not apprehending any danger. Early in the morning one of my followers went out to fetch up the horses, when he found them all missing, and the trail visible on which they had been taken away. The alarm was instantly given, and I ran to the top of the hill to take a general survey. I saw two objects on the ice, which appeared to me to be men; and this excited my apprehensions that they were two of the men dispatched from the fort, as they lay in the direction which they had taken. I collected my warriors instantly for the pursuit, placing all our women and children in the fort. I ordered some of the white men down on the ice to bring in the supposed bodies. Alas! my suspicions proved too true! All three men had been butchered, and when we rode up their bodies were scarcely cold. The eyes of the warriors flashed fire, and, without delaying a moment, on we swept in pursuit of revenge. We traveled about thirty miles (each man leading his war-horse), and our saddle-horses were beginning to tire, and we saw nothing of the enemy. Darkness would close over us, we feared, before we could overtake them. We then mounted our war-horses, which were as swift as the wind, and, leaving the saddle-horses behind, on we went faster than ever. Darkness was already upon us, when we came in sight of a large fire in the distance.
“Now, boys, we have them!” cried I.
We rode on until we neared the camp of the enemy, as we supposed, and then I examined their position previous to the onset. Just as I was about to give the order to charge, I heard a voice from the camp saying, “Throw them in! D—n them, throw them in!”
I then saluted the camp, shouting at the top of my voice, “Halloo the camp! Don’t shoot, boys; we are Crows! I am Jim Beckwourth!”
I then rode up with my whole party, and found that they had taken two prisoners from the very party we were in pursuit of, and under the following circumstances: The pursued party rode up to the camp, and several of them dismounted, among whom was Antoine Garro (a Canadian half-breed), well known in St. Louis. Garro could speak tolerably good English.
He accosted Gardner with “How d’do? You have got a good fire.”
“Who are you,” inquired Gardner, “that you speak English?”
“My name is Garro.”
“What Indians are those with you?”
“Oh, they are good Indians; they will not hurt you.”
Gardner discovered that too many were dismounting and crowding round his camp; and he perceived that many of them rode in the direction of his horses, and he became alarmed, as he well might be at his situation.
“Garro,” said he, again, “tell me, what Indians are these?”
“They are Re-ka-ras,” said he; “they have borrowed your horses, but they will bring them back again.” He said this as he saw Gardner look in the direction of his horses.
“Re-ka-ras!” repeated Gardner. “To your guns, men; seize them!”
Old Garro stepped away with an accelerated pace, and two only of the Indians were arrested.
Garro stood off at a safe distance, and demanded the two Indians.
“You cannot have them until you bring me my horses,” said Gardner.
“Then we will have the tops of your heads,” threatened the old rascal.
“Yes, you would have the tops of our heads; but come and take them, if you can.”
They rode off, taking every horse that Gardner possessed; and if he had not been on the alert, they would have taken a few scalps as well.
These were the two prisoners that were in question when we rode up. They had bound them with trap-chains, and were in the act of throwing them into a tremendous log fire that was burning in the camp. They opened the logs on the top of the fire, and, swinging the two victims into the flames, rolled back the burning logs. There was a terrible struggle for a moment; then all was still. A blue flame towered high above the pile, and quickly subsided. My Indians begged the privilege of scalping them before they were burned; but Gardner told them he wished to burn them up clean. “You are going after their companions,” he said, “and you can get plenty more scalps.”
“Yes,” they replied, “we will get plenty, and bring your horses back besides.”
I really felt proud of my warriors in seeing them animated with so true a spirit. We breathed our horses for a few minutes, for they were in a perfect foam, and then started after them again in hot pursuit.
By next morning, we came within two gunshots’ distance of the enemy without being perceived, as a roll in the prairie hid us from their view. We rested for a few moments, to refresh our horses and prepare them for the charge. We heard a continual firing, as if kept up by the enemy, and then a terrific explosion, which made the earth tremble; yells of the savages succeeded to this, and I then learned that there had been a battle between the Indians and traders, and that the whole stock of the traders’ powder had exploded.
Now, thought I, is the time to charge; and I gave the word to my impatient warriors. We were among them like a thunder-bolt, even before they had time to mount their horses; for they had not yet recovered from the fright of the explosion. We cut down one hundred and seventy-two of them before they had time to fire twenty shots. The whole force of the enemy amounted to four hundred men, and those who remained unhurt scattered in all directions. We did not pursue them, as our horses were so badly jaded.
Pine Leaf, who charged gallantly by my side, was wounded with a bullet, which broke her left arm just below the elbow. Placing her wounded arm in her bosom, she grew more desperate than ever, and three of the enemy met their death from the point of her l
ance after she received her wound. Becoming faint from loss of blood, she was constrained to retire. We had twelve others wounded.
We recovered all our own horses, and recaptured those belonging to Gardner, besides a great number in the possession of the enemy. For spoils we gathered near two hundred scalps, and a vast amount of firearms and other equipments. After this signal victory we returned to Gardner’s camp, reaching there the same evening.
Before leaving, however, we took three blackened and disfigured bodies, the remains of the trappers who had so heroically defended themselves, and who, to all appearance, had blown themselves up rather than fall into the hands of the enemy. This supposition was warranted by the appearance of the ground. Evidently the savages had set fire to the grass all round, thinking to burn them out; but it had not reached them. I surmised that the Indians had charged on them in a body, and, when near to the trappers, had been scattered with the ignition of three kegs of powder in the possession of the trappers, for some of the carcasses of the Indians were badly scorched.
Our reception at the camp of Gardner was enthusiastic. “Beckwourth and his brave warriors forever!” rent the air in acclamations. They joined us, and went on to the fort with us. When we came in sight of the place we formed all in line, and displayed our scalps on the ends of sticks, and discharged our guns, and sung at the top of our voices. This brought every person out of the fort to look at us. We then opened our column, and I requested Gardner to drive all the horses with full speed to the fort. Just before he reached there we spurred our horses on to the front, and encircled the fort several times, still displaying our scalps, and singing the scalp-dance burden louder and louder, while all the occupants of the post joined in. There were hilarious times round the fort that night.
We had sent word to the village to summon the Crows to the trading-post, to help us mourn for the three white men who had recently been killed on the ice, and who were yet unburied. I omitted to mention in proper place that Glass’s body was found near the fort — probably on his retreat after he had discovered the Indians. The whole village, accordingly, started to join us, while I and my party went out to meet them and acquaint them with our success. In consideration of my distinguished services, I was elevated to second counselor of the nation.
The Life and Adventures of James P Beckwourth Page 20
