 | CHAPTER III. The Shoshonee Valley |  |
3. CHAPTER III.
He turned to that sequestered vale;
And there he found, at least in thought,
The very refuge, that he sought.
Nature's broad path he sought to scan,
In wilds, untrodden yet by man;
Where virgin plants their leaves unfold;
Where unknown warblers tune their song;
And unnamed rivers roll along;
From nameless mountains, to behold
Plain after plain beneath them rolled;
Where, since the birth of infant time,
In silent boundlessness sublime,
Nature hath reared her awful throne,
And reigned majestic and alone.
M. P. F.
The second white family, established in the vale
of the Shoshonee, was that of Trader Hatch. This
man was a descendant of one of the ancient Dutch
`residenter' families, in New-York, in person square-shouldered,
short-necked, thick-headed, and every
way Dutch built. He had a round red face, apparently
fashioned in contour to the model of a full
rising moon; with bushy yellow whiskers, red hair,
little deep set grey eyes, that twinkled with a certain
degree of shrewdness and good nature, and keen and
close fisted love of money getting. Indeed his coat
of arms bore the Dutch family motto, which reads in
English `money is the main chance.' In morals he
was a voluptuary, of a coarseness of appetite, which
heeded not so much the quality, as the amount of gratification.
He was generally clad in a roundabout
jacket and pantaloons of that substantial fabric, called
Fearnought, and everything to match; and the expression
of his countenance usually wore a half grin of joyousness,
chiefly compounded of insensibility. He was
seldom seen drunk; but constantly kept himself up
eating and smoking occupied twelve hours of the day;
and he slept or dozed through the rest.
Such was the man, who arrived in the Oregon
from New-York, with a capital of ten thousand dollars
invested in Indian goods, of which the half was
in the substantial articles of whiskey and rum. Never
had so many barrels of that article been rolled out
upon the soil of the North West coast. It happened,
that a party of Shoshonee and Shienne were there;
and they raised at the sight a whoop of joy, that made
strong work for echo among the forests. These Indians
were engaged to carry the liquid joy up the
stream to their country; and all the periogues were
accordingly put in requisition. Trader Hatch, placed
in the bow of the rear periogue of the squadron,
smoked most profoundly, during the passage, made
many enquiries touching the value of furs and peltries
which the country could furnish, and the amount of
goods it would probably consume. He was particular,
too, in hunting up information in relation to the
probable chances of competition from any other quarter.
When he saw fine prairies, he regretted, that
so much grass should be produced to no purpose; and
that the gypsum, lime stone and coal could find no
market, when he was called to admire the noble bluffs.
The terrific mountains, he exclaimed with an oath,
were fine—for they kept back traders, and furnished
beaver streams. The Sewasserna was not without
charms in his eye, for it yielded immense supplies of
salmon. The awful piles of Rock fort at the gap
were matter of eulogy, for they would make, he said,
an admirable trader's fort, where a few men could
defy the besieging of a whole tribe. Such were the
reflections, with which Trader Hatch made the interesting
voyage from the mouth of the Oregon to
the vale of the Shoshonee.
The arrival of this great supply of goods, and ardent
spirits, made an era in the annals of the tribe.—
Gladly would Ellswatta have committed all the liquid
poison to the flames. But he knew, that in his government
popular sentiment was every thing, and that
he might as soon have thought to arrest one of his native
mountain torrents, as resist the introduction of
the ardent spirits among them. Yielding, therefore,
quietly to what he could not safely resist, he made
the necessary arrangements for the joyful reception
of Trader Hatch, which, he foresaw, the impulse of
the united tribes would exact. The chief English
interpreter, William Weldon's half-breed domestic,
was put in requisition, and in no great length of time,
the mass of the two tribes was on the banks of the Sewasserna,
to welcome the arrival of a fixed trader
among them, who would furnish regular and inexhaustible
supplies of spirits. After consulting with
the trader, the interpreter informed the crowd, that
the `pale face' trader, as by a considerable stretch of
figure he called Hatch, had come to domiciliate himself
among them, and claimed adoption into the tribe.
They were instructed, that he had brought a great
supply of guns, traps, powder, lead, beads, looking
glasses, vermilion, blue and scarlet strouding, blankets,
and in short, a general assortment of Indian
goods and arms, together with a full cargo of the element
of joy; and that they were not, henceforth, to
have a desultory and irregular supply; but a constant
and uninterrupted replenishing, as the present stock
was exhausted; and that all these things would be
sold by the trader, out of his particular fondness for
the Indians, cheaper, than they had ever obtained
such things before; that is to say, for about six times
their fair value. To all this Ellswatta added, in a
few words, that the pale face was a great and a rich
man, possessing a large amount of the white medicine
would be cautious in the use of the medicine
drink, which, if used in excess, they could not but
know, was poison, fire and ruin; and that they would
now adopt him, as a son of the noble Shoshonee, according
to the ancient ceremonial, and with all the
due demonstrations of joy.
Accordingly the adoption took place, after the most
brilliant and approved ancient rites. The details are
not material. In general, it may be said, that the
medicine men strove to look severely terrible—that
the old men laboriously beat their drums; and that
the young men, painted in their gayest, and danced
the kettle and dog dance, in unusually grand style.
When to this it is added, that three barrels of rum
were distributed in energetic drams among all the
males, and most of the women, that no one refused to
partake, but William Weldon's and Ellswatta's family,
it need not be remarked, that a happier festival
had never dawned upon the vale. Most of the Indians,
by the secret measures of Ellswatta, were kept
short of the limits of gross intoxication. But nine-tenths
of them were glorious, and happy;—and saw
the mountains reel, and had visions of paradise and a
double sun. A greater amount of whooping, songs
and dancing certainly was never before achieved
there in one day; and never had Trader Hatch been
caressed with such energetic marks of affection.
To settle all the circumstances of citizenship at
once, and to identify him as soon as possible with the
tribe, as the sun began to decline, Ellswatta announced,
that the trader wished immediately to take
him a wife from the Shoshonee, submitting it entirely
to the council-chiefs, to select such a one as they in
their wisdom might deem proper for him. A few
match-making squaws, of matronly and approved prudence
in such transactions, were consulted on the
ten minutes, this important choice was made with
that prompt celerity which distinguishes most Indian
decisions. A fine young squaw of sixteen, daughter
of a sub-chief, was consulted, and after whispering a
moment with some of her confidential damsels, and
surveying the exhilarated trader with a scrutiny evidently
favorable to him, she declared herself `nothing
loath.' She was therefore presented, as the wife who
had been selected for him by the proper authorities.
The happy young animal would have blushed above
her burnished copper complexion, had not her perfectly
circular cheeks been rouged too highly with
vermillion. The club of black, straight hair, skewered
on the centre of her crown, was of the thickness
of a man's wrist. For costume, her chief article was
a scarlet cloth petticoat, hooped out after the fashion
of the whites, at the commencement of the last century.
At present, she was only a little glorious. But
it was deemed an omen and a promise of future
courtesy to his bride, that Trader Hatch, when she
was led up to him, after taking a copious dram himself,
offered the cup to her. Report had it, that her
eyes soon afterwards first sparkled, and then became
maudlin; and that after cutting a few capers of extraordinary
flourish, she laid herself quietly down
upon the green grass, requiring strong efforts to awaken
her, when the hour for retiring with the bride-groom
was announced.
The annals of the Shoshonee recorded this day, as
having witnessed the most powerful dances, and the
loudest acclamations, that had yet been seen, or heard
in the valley. As the night came over the scene of
enjoyment, the stars blinked; the moon reeled, as she
rode down the firmament; the dances became more
and more confused and mazy; and even the favorite
kettle song and dance gradually died away. Trader
awake and duly sober, to the end of the carouse. He
was thus enabled, with due courtesy, to support his
young bride to the stranger's cabin, or tent, assigned
to him on the upper terrace.
In less than a year, Trader Hatch was quietly domiciliated
in a second house, after the American fashion,
under the bluff alcove, and thriving apace in the line
of acquiring beaver, peltries, money and wide influence
among the Shoshonee. The annals of the nation
record, at this period, the arrival of two other
white people, who were destined to occupy a conspicuous
place among the characters and incidents of
this history. They were Elder Wood, a Baptist
minister from Kentucky, and Baptiste Dettier, from
Canada. St. Pierre has said, that the most opposite
natures and incongruous habits are the most likely to
consort, and form attachments. No partnership
could have been selected more strongly in point, to
verify the maxim of the French philosopher, than the
companionship, which existed between these two men.
No two beings could be imagined more unlike each
other, both in nature and education. They were
never known to agree in any point, except that of
hunting, marching, and tending their traps. They
differed in nation, religion, temperament, form, person,
likes and dislikes. Yet all this notwithstanding,
if, in the bitterness of some of their altercations, they
separated for a day or two, they were soon seen
lovingly hunting, and trapping together again.
Dettier was a spruce, slim, erect Canadian Frenchman,
so perpendicular, that his inclination, if he had
any, was backwards. He was habited in Indian
dressed deer skin, in the form of a close jacket, with
a collar and facings of red hunting shirt fringe; and
notwithstanding the material and form smacked
strongly of Indian costume, his whole dress struck the
his national and personal character. His nice cap of
sable fur was always garnished in front, during the
summer, with a bouquet of roses; and in winter with
a knot of pink ribbands. A nervous and jerky bow,
but still graceful and winning, was at the service of
every one who passed or spoke to him; and he was always
gay and on the alert, either for good or mischief.
From innate propensity a coureur du bois, he
had wandered from Montreal to the lakes, and from
the lakes to the Missouri, where his star brought him
in contact with Elder Wood.
Elder Wood was a Baptist clergyman, a native of
Kentucky, and when he joined the Shoshonee with
Baptiste, turned of forty years. He was a tall, muscular,
square man of the largest dimensions, a little
stooping, with bushy hair, slightly sprinkled with snow,
and curling canonically on his shoulders. His deep,
keen, black eye, his high, bold forehead, and that tout
ensemble of countenance, which the eye comprehends
in a moment, indicated no small amount of what is
commonly called genius, compounded with a dogged
pertinacity of adherence to his opinions, that told you
at once to save all the breath of argument, touching all
opinions, in which you differed from him. He had been
a firm and well principled, as he was a talented preacher
in his own country. With strong passions, he possessed
a rude and undisciplined, but energetic and impressive
native eloquence. Devotion to the peculiar tenets
of his profession was conscientiously incorporated with
his convictions. But, though a Baptist by profession,
and a stern Calvinist in doctrine, he was at once too
much enlarged in intellect, and too free from bigotry
and hypocrisy, to go all lengths in bitterness and denunciation.
Along with his other qualities of mind
and heart, he had no small admixture of earthly vanity
and ambition; and a desire for fame and distinction,
by himself. But with these endowments, which,
he could not but feel, placed him above most of his
brethren, and notwithstanding reputation and fame, as
a preacher, followed him, wherever he preached, the
wished consummation of an adequate settlement followed
not. He often troubled the waters of popularity,
and was the instrument of starting various revivals,
while another availed himself of the movement,
and stepped into the place. Nothing is more certain,
than that there are doomed outcasts from the smiles
of fortune, and he was one of them. For the first two
or three disappointments in this way, he affected with
his religious friends an air of meek and resigned submission;
and said, in the customary phrase, that it
was the will of God, and that he had received better
than he deserved. Another and another moving of
the water, and stepping in before him occurred. His
temper gradually acquired a certain smack of disappointment
and acidity. He still continued to anoint
his sore feelings with the proper unction, that it was a
righteous discipline, to try him. But, like many others,
who salve over their wounded feelings with these
seeming saintlike saws, and appliances, he felt keenly,
and as another man, that even among the pious, piety
has much less to do, than human intrigue, in arranging
and settling these matters. He was intrinsically too
virtuous and noble minded to give himself up to the
baseness of malignant misanthropy. Because he had
been wronged, and supplanted, he did not declare war
against human nature; or allow either his faith or his
principles to relax. On the contrary, there remained
to him a heroism equally compounded of principle,
unwavering pertinacity of character, and stubbornness
of disappointed ambition, which on the proper emergency
would no doubt have sustained him to the point
of martyrdom.
Thinking that this ill fortune might be peculiar to
his position in Kentucky, he accepted a mission from
a missionary society to Missouri. Here he labored,
`in season and out of season;' and fame followed him,
as before. `A great preacher this,' they said; but
no society made any movement to settle him. He
was engaged to an amiable woman, whom he sincerely
loved, and who waited only to see him settled in
the ministry, to marry him. This circumstance added
not a little to his impatience to be settled. Two or
three times, the boon mocked him, by seeming just
within his grasp. But he found, in Napoleon's phrase,
that his destiny followed him. Still it was his lot, in
his phrase, to shake the bush, and see others catch the
game. Preach as powerful sermons as he would,
play the popular and amiable as he might, whatever
fame as a talented and pious man, followed him, some
meeker brother came after him, gained the favor of
the ladies, and reaped the fruit of his labors.
Money for the supply of even his individual wants
ran low. He underwent a long acclimation of fever
and ague in a remote frontier cabin, with sordid and
ignorant inmates; and he would have died unwept,
and unsolaced upon his straw, had he not possessed a
Herculean constitution. Meantime, his beloved, tired
of waiting for him, had married another minister, and
proved a thrifty house-wife, and began to rear a family.
He could easily number a dozen contemporary ministers,
in advantages and talents, natural and acquired,
infinitely his inferiors, with warm and snug houses,
with loving wives, who reared children and made
cheeses in peace and privacy, while their husbands
saw revivals in their societies; and he, meanwhile
tossed, an isolated, unconnected being, without local
habitation, or official dignity, on the sea of popular
discussion, to be weighed in the scales by old ladies
and wiseacres, without other than the barren meed
of being called a great preacher.
Such were his sad ruminations, as he arose from
the terrible discipline of the ague every other day,
for a hundred days in succession. His poney had
died, during his illness. His physician's and his host's
bills would swallow up his last dollar, his books, every
article of his clothes, which he did not wear, and his
manuscripts into the bargain. Alas! he rated them at
a thousand dollars; and he had said of them, as he
turned them over, `here is fame. No heart can resist
this. Is not this great Babylon, which I have
built?' He gave up even his manuscripts, the result
of his treasured learning, deep thoughts and perennial
fame. The rustic auctioneer made the most ludicrous
faces imaginable, as in backwoods phrase, he
extolled the inestimable worth of a barrel of manuscripts,
skeleton sermons of Elder Wood. The
whole lot, however, went off under the hammer, to a
sleek young divine, for nine dollars and fifty cents.
It was too much for even Elder Wood's humility.
He admitted in his own phrase, that this was `a mighty
heavy judgment, almost too severe to be borne.'
He had a missionary journey before him to the savages,
far up the river Platte. When he should have
performed this duty, he would have a claim for two
hundred dollars, which he was to receive in an order
upon the Indian agent at that place. Still feeble,
and only partially recovered from his late illness, his
mind overcast at once with physical dejection and the
gloom of his circumstances, his last black suit getting
threadbare, his shoes `old and clouted,' the Kentucky
minister set forth on his tour of two hundred leagues
up the uninhabited prairies of the Platte, on foot and
alone.
On a gloomy March morning, he left the last American
cabin; and emerged from the deep Missouri
bottom forest upon a prairie, where the eye traced
no limits before him, but the western horizon. To a
The heart of the feeble and solitary minister
sunk within him, as his eye vainly strove to descry
some traces of woods in the distance. He sighed,
wiped the cold sweat from his brow, and said to himself,
`God is every where. I shall see trees again.'
As he said this to himself, Baptiste Dettier emerged
from another point of the forest, mounted on the same
conveyance with Elder Wood. But the heart and
the heels of the Frenchman were alike light. He
moved on, humming a boat song, as straight as an
arrow, and as brisk as a hare. `Bon jour, Monsieur
etranger,' cried Baptiste. The sight of a man on
the verge of such a prairie operated as a cordial upon
the heart of Elder Wood, and with more than his
wonted vivacity, he responded in the customary American
French, boo joo! No contrasts could have been
selected seemingly more whimsically unlike each
other, than the straight, buoyant Frenchman, and the
gloomy, broad shouldered, and stooping minister, in
whose dress, port and countenance `hands off' struck
the quick eye of the Frenchman at a glance. They
entered into conversation, and learned that they were
both bound to the same place. As they walked on,
each cheered with having found a companion in the
other, and continued to communicate thoughts, they
began to unfold to each other strong points of community
of feeling. In a hidden nook of his brain,
Elder Wood had a hunter's and trapper's protuberance
strongly developed. It had been fostered by
the circumstances of his birth and residence. From
infancy his ear had drunk in the tales, exploits and
fortunes of frontier's men, and men who had hunted
and sojourned among the Indians. Tedious and interminable
stories of boating, trapping, hunting and
Indian incidents displayed the ruling propensity of
Baptiste. A kindred string was harped in each mind;
The morning had been cloudy and the western horizon
obscured by fogs. The effulgence of the sun at
length burst from the clouds on the wide plain. In
the farthest verge of the western horizon, pencilled
along from north to south, the dark blue ridges of the
Rocky mountains showed in the grand relief of mirage.
`Voila mon pays,' cried Baptiste, pointing in
exultation to the west. All the Kentucky hunter
mustered in the heart of Elder Wood. His imagination
soared beyond the hills, and he inly exclaimed,
`O that I had the wings of a dove, that I might fly
away' to them. There must be glorious hunting
there, beyond doubt, exclaimed Elder Wood, as his
eye kindled. `Superbe,' responded Baptiste, and began
to chatter about his plans and intentions for the
future. The customary French English, which he
spoke, was a dialect familiar to the ear of Elder
Wood, and he learned that Baptiste had started alone
to hunt, and that among the Rocky mountains, and
was making his way there through the country of the
Pawnee Loups, where the mission of Elder Wood
terminated, and where he had a countryman, whom
he hoped to persuade to join him. One must travel
on these wide deserts, where the traveller may pass
fifty leagues without finding water, and over a plain
inhabited only by wild beasts and savages, to feel the
full value of companionship. The garrulity of the
Frenchman matched the taciturnity of the minister,
like groove and screw. Their hunter protuberances
brought them into closer affinity. The French trapper
commenced upon his inexhaustible narrative, in
his wonted loquacious buoyancy. His adventures by
wood, flood, lake and prairie, sunk down concentered
into the wandering development of the Kentuckian,
and ever and anon the minister looked wistfully towards
the blue mountains, looming in the horizon,
was not slow to discover, what string he had touched.
Without a thought or a desire to obtain the partnership
of the Kentuckian, and prompted only by native
vivacity and disposition to talk, he had imprinted
upon the minister's imagination a vivid picture of the
mingled profit, boundless range and adventurous pleasure
of a trapper's life. `I am weary of the past,' said
Elder Wood in his heart with a sigh—and he added
audibly, `I have the heart of a hunter and trapper
also. Prove two things to me, that I can earn money
by this way of life, and that I can serve God in it,
and I will join you.' Baptiste almost recoiled from
the thought of such an associate. But vanity, politeness
and loquacity urged him on; and the crafty
Frenchman proved by a host of arguments, that it
was a short and sure route to wealth; that in a few
years, they might both become so rich, as to return
to the old settlements with the ability to live, as they
would. As to the other matter, Baptiste shrewdly
remarked, `that he was now on the way, as it appeared,
to preach to the savages. What would hinder
preaching to the numerous tribes, dwelling on
the borders of the mountains?' Elder Wood stated
the preliminary difficulty, of not knowing their language.
The other demonstrated, that it would only
be necessary to reside among the Indians a few weeks,
to be able to preach to them in their own speech.
`If you wish,' he continued, `to preach to Indians, why
go to these miserable people half way between the
Indians and whites? Why not become an apostle
among people, who have never heard any thing about
the Christian religion? There will be so much the
more honor in being the first apostle among such a
people.' He added, that he had every where seen
Messieurs Sauvages fond of becoming des bons catoliques
to a passion.
Baptiste here unconsciously hit another nail on the
head. The word Apostle conjured images of the highest
glory and fame in the brain of Elder Wood, that
operated almost like the exhilarating gas. An Apostle!
the very word entered his imagination in a halo
of glory. His eye kindled, and he said with unwonted
vivacity, `my friend, you have almost persuaded
me to ask you, to receive me as a partner. My
father before me was a hunter. I incline to think,
that I inherit something of his skill, courage and endurance.
Indeed, it would be a glorious thought,
that of converting the savages of the Rocky Mountains.
Verily, it occurs to me now, that I have read,
that the Indians are easily converted to the catholic
worship. If they can be brought over to a false,
fabulous and idolatrous religion, how much easier
must it be, to persuade whole tribes to the perfect
truth of our church?'
Baptiste, with all his reckless levity of character,
and ignorance of religion in the abstract, was as rigid
a devotee to the catholic ceremonial, as the other
was to the baptist faith. The unfeeling bigotry of
Elder Wood scandalized him, and he shrugged twice,
as he meditated a purpose of replying in the same
strain. French civility prevailed. He passed by
the offensive reference to his worship, and, without
clearly feeling his own motive, ran over anew the
pleasures and advantages of the expedition. In one
of those moods and hours, which determine the color
of the future, Elder Wood said, `that if he so consented,
he would throw in his two hundred dollars to the
common stock, and join him to the Rocky mountains,
for better or for worse.' Baptiste smiled internally
at the idea of such a strange associate, so easily attached
to his fortunes; but no Frenchman would have
had the rudeness to refuse a partnership, so offered.
He shrugged, bowed, said, `you do me trop d'honneur,'
good for hunt. In a leet time, me learn you to
trap, too, comme un diable! But, sare,' he continued,
`please take notice, dat I hab noting to do with your
dem religion.' The minister as little liked this profane
allusion to his profession, as the other had his
notion of the catholic faith; but he said internally,
`I shall be able to bring him, also, out of heathenish
darkness;' and thus their contrarieties neutralized,
and balanced each other.
The partnership was formed. The Frenchman
remained among the Pawnee Loups, until the services
of Elder Wood were completed, and he had received
his order. The Pawnee Frenchman declined leaving
that tribe; and the two partners set forth alone, with
such equipments, as were necessary, towards the
Rocky mountains. In a more extended and intimate
acquaintance, the two strange partners found, that
they were made for each other, and the union, which
commenced by accident, and in caprice and vanity,
was cemented alike by the points, in which they
agreed, and in which they differed. They pushed
on, with stout hearts, beguiling the long way with
stories and disputes. And not unfrequently, while the
Frenchman chattered on for hours in mere babble of
words, the minister was musing about hunting, exploring,
gaining wealth by trapping, converting whole
tribes of Indians, and returning in ease, affluence and
honor to his own people and kindred, with the title of
Apostle of the tribes of the Rocky mountains. Last,
though not least, he saw himself in the future invited
to religious gatherings, to relate in presence of those,
who had supplanted him, and the truant spouse of
his reverend friend, what he had seen, suffered and
achieved. Still beyond all that, he raised himself a
monument more durable than brass, in working the
whole into a book, that should go down, and with it
The Omniscient only knoweth all the movements of
the human heart; and He, doubtless, saw, that the
views of the minister were as unmixed and pure, as
usually appertain to those, who lay much higher
claims to disinterested sanctity.
They made their way from mountain to valley, and
from valley to mountain, hunting and trapping, and
enduring, and encountering much; but growing every
day more firmly attached to their wandering and
dangerous mode of life, until they reached the vale
of the Shoshonee; and, struck with its beauty, and
facility for their pursuits, they requested, and obtained
domestication among that primitive people.
They received not the boisterous welcome of Trader
Hatch, for they brought no spirits with them. But
Baptiste was directly a favorite with the women, and
the common and more trifling class of the people,
from the civility and inexhaustible gaiety of his nature,
and his talent at playing among the females the
part of general gallant.
Elder Wood could not be said to be popular. He
became a considerable hunter and trapper; and in a
most memorable and fierce encounter with a grizzly
bear, recommended himself to the tribes as a man of
undoubted courage. He wore in his general deportment
a silent and solemn reserve, a trait always
held in high homage among the Indians. The deep
seriousness of his physiognomy spoke a language, alike
understood by them and Christians. With their keen
tact and instinctive perception of character, they soon
discovered, that he was genuine and real, and exactly
what he professed to be. Thus, if he gained not that
poor estimation, designated by the term popular, he
had the deeper hold of their feelings, which consists
in unqualified respect. As soon as he had acquired
enough of their language to understand, and be understood,
chiefs to commence missionary labors among them.
They listened to him with that apparent seriousness
and earnestness of attention, which missionaries
among the Indians generally witness. This happens,
partly from the indulgent liberality, with which they
listen to new religious opinions; partly from strong
native decorum; partly from curiosity, and, more than
all, from an indifference to every thing, that is not
tangible, visible and in immediate prospect. They saw,
with unequivocal respect, the singleness of his views
and the sanctity of his character, compared with that
of his frivolous and unprincipled companion, and the
avaricious Trader Hatch. His peculiar dress, the
earnestness of his prayers, his upward look, a cast of
deportment, growing out of the general tenor of his
thoughts, gradually acquired among a people strangely
prone to superstition, something of their prescribed
veneration for a medicine man, or one who holds communications
with the Wah-con-dah. Thus Elder
Wood became a privileged character among the Shoshonee.
But, though in many respects he found himself
pleasantly situated, he every day saw much to
vex, and discipline his righteous spirit. He rebuked
the licentious excesses of his trapping companion, and
of Trader Hatch, to little more effect, than to be ridiculed,
the moment he was out of sight. If he was
sometimes deceived by the grave and decorous attention
of the Indians to his discourses, into the belief,
that they were on the verge of conversion, he was
soon vexatiously enlightened to his real progress, by
perceiving, that they expected, and almost exacted
from him the same credibility for their wild fictions,
touching the Master of Life and the little white men
of the mountains.
In the family of William Weldon he felt himself at
home. Every thing in this quiet and regulated abode
books. Here he partook of most of the comforts of
civilized life. Yensi and her daughter equipped him
anew with a full suit of solemn black, made after the
fashion, which he brought with him. William Weldon,
it is true, held not to his Calvinistic interpretations
of the Christian religion. But he saw, and respected
the purity of his life, and the dignity and uprightness
of his motives. For Jessy he early contracted
an absorbing and parental fondness; and she
repaid it by listening with untiring attention to his
exposition of the scriptures, and a filial confidence
bounding on veneration. As William Weldon was in
circumstances of comparative affluence, constantly
increasing, he found no inconvenience, in fitting up
an apartment for Elder Wood, at his own house, so
that, when not absent on trapping excursions with his
companion, he enjoyed here a society, infinitely more
congenial, than that of Baptiste and Trader Hatch,
from whom he gradually withdrew himself.
| CHAPTER III. The Shoshonee Valley | |