If, however, my endeavours should
prove fruitless, as I should already have proceeded too far to return
alone, I was to continue on from Santa Fe with the fur traders,
returning to St. Louis, on the Mississippi, where I was to dispose of
some valuable jewels, hire men to form a strong caravan, and return to
the settlement by the Astoria trail.
As my adventures may be said but to commence at my departure upon this
commission, I will, before I enter upon my narrative, give the reader
some insight into the history and records of the Shoshones, or Snake
Indians, with whom I was domiciled, and over whom, although so young, I
held authority and command.
CHAPTER IV.
The Shoshones, or Snake Indians, are a brave and numerous people,
occupying a large and beautiful tract of country, 540 miles from east to
west, and nearly 300 miles from north to south. It lies betwixt 38 deg. and
43 deg. north latitude, and from longitude 116 deg. west of Greenwich to the
shores of the Pacific Ocean, which there extend themselves to nearly the
parallel of 125 deg. west longitude. The land is rich and fertile,
especially by the sides of numerous streams, where the soil is sometimes
of a deep red colour, and at others entirely black. The aspect of this
region is well diversified, and though the greatest part of it must be
classified under the denomination of rolling prairies, yet woods are
very abundant, principally near the rivers and in the low flat bottoms:
while the general landscape is agreeably relieved from the monotony of
too great uniformity by numerous mountains of fantastical shapes and
appearance, entirely unconnected with each other, and all varying in the
primitive matter of their conformation.
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