ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 75 



life ; and if I had been at home, lying on a feather bed instead of 

 the cold ground, I should probably have fancied myself an inva- 

 lid for weeks.* 



22d. — We are now lying at the rendezvous. W. Sublette, 

 Captains Serre, Fitzpatrick, and other leaders, with their com- 

 panies, are encamped about a mile from us, on the same plain, 

 and our own camp is crowded with a heterogeneous assemblage 

 of visitors. The principal of these are Indians, of the Ncz 

 Perce, Banneck and Shoshone tribes, who come with the furs 

 and peltries which they have been collecting at the risk of their 

 lives during the past winter and spring, to trade for ammunition, 

 trinkets, and " fire water." There is, in addition to these, a 

 great variety of personages amongst us; most of them calling 

 themselves white men, French-Canadians, half-breeds, &c., 

 their color nearly as dark, and their manners wholly as wild, as 

 the Indians with whom they constantly associate. These peo- 

 ple, with their obstreperous mirth, their whooping, and howling, 

 and quarrelling, added to the mounted Indians, who are con- 

 stantly dashing into and through our camp, yelling like fiends, 

 the barking and baying of savage wolf-dogs, and the incessant 

 cracking of rifles and carbines, render our camp a perfect bed- 

 lam. A more unpleasant situation for an invalid could scarcely 

 be conceived. I am confined closely to the tent with illness, and 

 and am compelled all day to listen to the hiccoughing jargon of 

 drunken traders, the sacre and foutre of Frenchmen run wild, 

 and the swearing and screaming of our own men, who are 

 scarcely less savage than the rest, being heated by the detestable 

 liquor which circulates freely among them. 



It is very much to be regretted that at times like the present, 

 there should be a positive necessity to allow the men as much 

 rum as they can drink, but this course has been sanctioned and 



* I am indchtcil to the kindness of my companion and friend, Frofessoi- Nuttajl, 

 for supplying, in a great measure, tiic deficiency occasioned by the loss of my 

 journal. 



