Their further progress was checked by an unexpected crisis. One
day they came upon an encampment of the dreaded Snake Indians
which had been abandoned in great haste. This, the Bow Indians
thought, could only mean that the Snakes had hurriedly left their
camp in order to slip in behind the advance guard of the Bows and
massacre the women and children left in the rear. Panic seized
the Bows and they turned homeward in wild confusion. Their chief
could not restrain them. "I was very much disappointed," writes
one of the brothers, "that I could not climb the
mountains"--those mountains from which he had been told that he
might view the Western Sea.
There was nothing for it but to turn back through snowdrifts over
the bleak prairie. The progress was slow for the snow was
sometimes two feet deep. On the 1st of March the brothers parted
with their Bow friends at their village and then headed for home.
By the 20th they were encamped with a friendly tribe on the banks
of the Missouri. Here, to assert that Louis XV was lord of all
that country, they built on an eminence a pyramid of stones and
in it they buried a tablet of lead with an inscription which
recorded the name of Louis XV, their King, and of the Marquis de
Beauharnois, Governor of Canada, and the date of the visit.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155