tumn, they are driven to seek
subsistence elsewhere. They then cross the ridge to the waters of the
Missouri, down which they proceed slowly and cautiously, till they are
joined near the Three Forks by other bands, either of their own nation
or of the Flatheads, with whom they associate against the common enemy.
Being now strong in numbers, they venture to hunt the buffalo in the
plains eastward of the mountains, near which they spend the winter, till
the return of the salmon invites them to the Columbia. But such is their
terror of the Pahkees, that, so long as they can obtain the scantiest
subsistence, they do not leave the interior of the mountains; and, as
soon as they have collected a large stock of dried meat, they again
retreat, thus alternately obtaining their food at the hazard of their
lives, and hiding themselves to consume it.

"In this loose and wandering life they suffer the extremes of want; for
two thirds of the year they are forced to live in the mountains, passing
whole weeks without meat, and with nothing to eat but a few fish and
roots. Nor can anything be imagined more wretched than their condition
at the present time, when the salmon is fast retiring, when roots are
becoming scarce, and they have not yet acquired strength to hazard an
encounter with their enemies. So insensible are they, however, to these
calamities, that the Shoshonees are not only cheerful, but even gay; and
their character, which is more interesting than that of any Indians
we have seen, has in it much of the dignity of misfortune. In their
intercourse with strangers they are frank and communicative; in their
dealings they are perfectly fair; nor have we, during our stay with
them, had any reason to suspect that the display of all our new and
valuable wealth has tempted them into a single act of dishonesty. While
they have generally shared with us the little they possess, they have
always abstained from begging anything from us. With their liveliness
of temper, they are fond of gaudy dresses and all sorts of amusements,
particularly games of hazard; and, like most Indians, delight in
boasting of their warlike exploits, either real or fictitious. In their
conduct towards us they have been kind and obliging; and though on one
occasion they seemed willing to neglect us, yet we scarcely knew how to
blame the treatment by which we were to suffer, when we recollected how
few civilized chiefs would have hazarded the comforts or the subs