The wandering whites who mingle for any length of time with the savages haveinvariably a proneness to adopt savage habitudes; but none more so than the freetrappers. It is a matter of vanity and ambition with them to discard everything that maybear the stamp of civilized life, and to adopt the manners, habits, dress, gesture, andeven walk of the Indian. You cannot pay a free trapper a greater compliment, than topersuade him you have mistaken him for an Indian brave; and, in truth, the counterfeitis complete. His hair suffered to attain to a great length, is carefully combed out, andeither left to fall carelessly over his shoulders, or plaited neatly and tied up in otterskins, or parti-colored ribands. A hunting-shirt of ruffled calico of bright dyes, or ofornamented leather, falls to his knee; below which, curiously fashioned legging,ornamented with strings, fringes, and a profusion of hawks' bells, reach to a costly pairof moccasons of the finest Indian fabric, richly embroidered with beads. A blanket ofscarlet, or some other bright color, hangs from his shoulders, and is girt around hiswaist with a red sash, in which he bestows his pistols, knife, and the stem of his Indianpipe; preparations either for peace or war. His gun is lavishly decorated with brass tacksand vermilion, and provided with a fringed cover, occasionally of buckskin, ornamentedhere and there with a feather. His horse, the noble minister to the pride, pleasure, andprofit of the mountaineer, is selected for his speed and spirit, and prancing gait, andholds a place in his estimation second only to himself. He shares largely of his bounty,and of his pride and pomp of trapping. He is caparisoned in the most dashing andfantastic style; the bridles and crupper are weightily embossed with beads andcockades; and head, mane, and tail, are interwoven with abundance of eagles' plumes,which flutter in the wind. To complete this grotesque equipment, the proud animal isbestreaked and bespotted with vermilion, or with white clay, whichever presents themost glaring contrast to his real color.
Such is the account given by Captain Bonneville of these rangers of the wilderness, andtheir appearance at the camp was strikingly characteristic. They came dashing forwardat full speed, firing their fusees, and yelling in Indian style. Their dark sunburned faces,and long flowing hair, their legging, flaps, moccasons, and richly-dyed blankets, andtheir painted horses gaudily caparisoned, gave them so much the air and appearanceof Indians, that it was difficult to persuade one's self that they were white men, and hadbeen brought up in civilized life.
Captain Bonneville, who was delighted with the game look of these cavaliers of themountains, welcomed them heartily to his camp, and ordered a free allowance of grogto regale them, which soon put them in the most braggart spirits. They pronounced thecaptain the finest fellow in the world, and his men all bons garçons , jovial lads,and swore they would pass the day with them. They did so; and a day it was, of boast, andswagger, and rodomontade. The prime bullies and braves among the free trappers hadeach his circle of novices, from among the captain's band; mere greenhorns, menunused to Indian life; mangeurs de lard , or pork-eaters; as such new-comers aresuperciliously called by the veterans of the wilderness. These he would astonish anddelight by the hour, with prodigious tales of his doings among the Indians; and of thewonders he had seen, and the wonders he had performed, in his adventurousperegrinations among the mountains.
In the evening, the free trappers drew off, and returned to the camp of Fontenelle,highly delighted with their visit and with their new acquaintances, and promising toreturn the following day. They kept their word: day after day their visits were repeated;they became "hail fellow well met" with Captain Bonneville's men; treat after treatsucceeded, until both parties got most potently convinced, or rather confounded, byliquor. Now came on confusion and uproar. The free trappers were no longer sufferedto have all the swagger to themselves. The camp bullies and prime trappers of the partybegan to ruffle up, and to brag, in turn, of their perils and achievements. Each now triedto out-boast and out-talk the other; a quarrel ensued as a matter of course, and ageneral fight, according to frontier usage. The two factions drew out their forces for apitched battle. They fell to work and belabored each other with might and main; kicksand cuffs and dry blows were as well bestowed as they were well merited, until, havingfought to their hearts' content, and been drubbed into a familiar acquaintance with eachother's prowess and good qualities, they ended the fight by becoming firmer friendsthan they could have been rendered by a year's peaceable companionship.
While Captain Bonneville amused himself by observing the habits and characteristics ofthis singular class of men, and indulged them, for the time, in all their vagaries, heprofited by the opportunity to collect from them information concerning the differentparts of the country about which they had been accustomed to range; the characters ofthe tribes, and, in short, everything important to his enterprise. He also succeeded insecuring the services of several to guide and aid him in his peregrinations among themountains, and to trap for him during the ensuing season. Having strengthened hisparty with such valuable recruits, he felt in some measure consoled for the loss of theDelaware Indians, decoyed from him by Mr Fontenelle. [Return to Contents].
