g and mending the moccasins of the party. As we had
still some superfluous baggage which would be too heavy to carry across
the mountains, it became necessary to make a cache or deposit. For this
purpose we selected a spot on the bank of the river, three quarters of a
mile below the camp, and three men were set to dig it, with a sentinel
in the neighbourhood, who was ordered if the natives were to straggle
that way, to fire a signal for the workmen to desist and separate.
Towards evening the cache was completed without being perceived by the
Indians, and the packages prepared for deposit.

CHAPTER XVI.

Contest between Drewyer and a Shoshonee--The fidelity and honour of
that tribe--The party set out on their journey--The conduct of
Cameahwait reproved, and himself reconciled--The easy parturition
of the Shoshonee women--History of this nation--Their terror of the
Pawkees--Their government and family economy in their treatment of
their women--Their complaints of Spanish treachery--Description of
their weapons of warfare--Their curious mode of making a
shield--The caparison of their horses--The dress of the men and of
the women particularly described--Their mode of acquiring new
names.

Wednesday, August 21. The weather was very cold; the water which stood
in the vessels exposed to the air being covered with ice a quarter of an
inch thick: the ink freezes in the pen, and the low grounds are
perfectly whitened with frost: after this the day proved excessively
warm. The party were engaged in their usual occupations, and completed
twenty saddles with the necessary harness, all prepared to set off as
soon as the Indians should arrive. Our two hunters who were despatched
early in the morning have not returned, so that we were obliged to
encroach on our pork and corn, which we consider as the last resource
when our casual supplies of game fail. After dark we carried our baggage
to the cache, and deposited what we thought too cumbrous to carry with
us: a small assortment of medicines, and all the specimens of plants,
seeds, and minerals, collected since leaving the falls of the Missouri.
Late at night Drewyer, one of the hunters, returned with a fawn and a
considerable quantity of Indian plunder, which he had taken by way of
reprisal. While hunting this morning in the Shoshonee cove, he came
suddenly upon an Indian camp, at which were an o