A winter camp in the wilderness--Medley of trappers,
hunters, and Indians--Scarcity of game--New arrangements in
the camp--Detachments sent to a distance--Carelessness of
the Indians when encamped--Sickness among the Indians--
Excellent character of the Nez-Perces--The Captain's effort
as a pacificator--A Nez-Perce's argument in favor of war--
Robberies, by the Black feet--Long suffering of the Nez-
Perces--A hunter's Elysium among the mountains--More
robberies--The Captain preaches up a crusade--The effect
upon his hearers.

FOR the greater part of the month of November Captain Bonneville
remained in his temporary post on Salmon River. He was now in the full
enjoyment of his wishes; leading a hunter's life in the heart of the
wilderness, with all its wild populace around him. Beside his own
people, motley in character and costume--creole, Kentuckian, Indian,
half-breed, hired trapper, and free trapper--he was surrounded by
encampments of Nez Perces and Flatheads, with their droves of horses
covering the hills and plains. It was, he declares, a wild and bustling
scene. The hunting parties of white men and red men, continually
sallying forth and returning; the groups at the various encampments,
some cooking, some working, some amusing themselves at different games;
the neighing of horses, the braying of asses, the resounding strokes of
the axe, the sharp report of the rifle, the whoop, the halloo, and the
frequent burst of laughter, all in the midst of a region suddenly roused
from perfect silence and loneliness by this transient hunters' sojourn,
realized, he says, the idea of a "populous solitude."

The kind and genial character of the captain had, evidently, its
influence on the opposite races thus fortuitously congregated together.
The most perfect harmony prevailed between them. The Indians, he says,
were friendly in their dispositions, and honest to the most scrupulous
degree in their intercourse with the white men. It is true they were
somewhat importunate in their curiosity, and apt to be continually in
the way, examining everything with keen and prying eye, and watching
every movement of the white men. All this, however, was borne with great
good-humor by the captain, and through his example by his men. Indeed,
throughout all his transactions he shows himself the friend of the poor
Indians, and his conduct toward them is above all praise.

The Nez Perces, the Fl