At the outset of the fight Kosato, the renegade, fought with fury rather than valor, animating the others by word as well as deed.  A wound in the head from a rifle ball laid him senseless on the earth.  There his body remained when the battle was over, and the victors were leading off the horses.  His wife hung over him with frantic lamentations.  The conquerors paused and urged her to leave the lifeless renegade, and return with them to her kindred.  She refused to listen to their solicitations, and they passed on.  As she sat watching the features of Kosato, and giving way to passionate grief, she thought she perceived him to breathe.  She was not mistaken.  The ball, which had been nearly spent before it struck him, had stunned instead of killing him.  By the ministry of his faithful wife he gradually recovered, reviving to a redoubled love for her, and hatred of his tribe.

As to the female who had so bravely defended her husband, she was elevated by the tribe to a rank far above her sex, and beside other honorable distinctions, was thenceforward permitted to take a part in the war dances of the braves!

17.

Opening of the caches—­Detachments of Cerre and Hodgkiss Salmon River Mountains—­Superstition of an Indian trapper—­ Godin’s River—­Preparations for trapping—­An alarm—­An interruption—­A rival band—­Phenomena of Snake River Plain Vast clefts and chasms—­Ingulfed streams—­Sublime scenery—­A grand buffalo hunt.

Captain Bonneville found his caches perfectly secure, and having secretly opened them he selected such articles as were necessary to equip the free trappers and to supply the inconsiderable trade with the Indians, after which he closed them again.  The free trappers, being newly rigged out and supplied, were in high spirits, and swaggered gayly about the camp.  To compensate all hands for past sufferings, and to give a cheerful spur to further operations, Captain Bonneville now gave the men what, in frontier phrase, is termed “a regular blow-out.”  It was a day of uncouth gambols and frolics and rude feasting.  The Indians joined in the sports and games, and all was mirth and good-fellowship.

It was now the middle of March, and Captain Bonneville made preparations to open the spring campaign.  He had pitched upon Malade River for his main trapping ground for the season.  This is a stream which rises among the great bed of mountains north of the Lava Plain, and after a winding course falls into Snake River.  Previous to his departure the captain dispatched Mr. Cerre, with a few men, to visit the Indian villages and purchase horses; he furnished his clerk, Mr. Hodgkiss, also, with a small stock of goods, to keep up a trade with the Indians during the spring, for such peltries as they might collect, appointing the caches on Salmon River as the point of rendezvous, where they were to rejoin him on the 15th of June following.