Chapter 13

13.

Story of Kosato, the Renegade Blackfoot.

IF the meekness and long-suffering of the Pierced-noses grieved

the spirit of Captain Bonneville, there was another individual in

the camp to whom they were still more annoying. This was a

Blackfoot renegado, named Kosato, a fiery hot-blooded youth who,

with a beautiful girl of the same tribe, had taken refuge among

the Nez Perces. Though adopted into the tribe, he still

retained the warlike spirit of his race, and loathed the

peaceful, inoffensive habits of those around him. The hunting of

the deer, the elk, and the buffalo, which was the height of their

ambition, was too tame to satisfy his wild and restless nature.

His heart burned for the foray, the ambush, the skirmish, the

scamper, and all the haps and hazards of roving and predatory

warfare.

The recent hoverings of the Blackfeet about the camp, their

nightly prowls and daring and successful marauds, had kept him in

a fever and a flutter, like a hawk in a cage who hears his late

companions swooping and screaming in wild liberty above him. The

attempt of Captain Bonneville to rouse the war spirit of the Nez

Perces, and prompt them to retaliation, was ardently seconded by

Kosato. For several days he was incessantly devising schemes of

vengeance, and endeavoring to set on foot an expedition that

should carry dismay and desolation into the Blackfeet town. All

his art was exerted to touch upon those springs of human action

with which he was most familiar. He drew the listening savages

round him by his nervous eloquence; taunted them with recitals of

past wrongs and insults; drew glowing pictures of triumphs and

trophies within their reach; recounted tales of daring and

romantic enterprise, of secret marchings, covert lurkings,

midnight surprisals, sackings, burnings, plunderings, scalpings;

together with the triumphant return, and the feasting and

rejoicing of the victors. These wild tales were intermingled with

the beating of the drum, the yell, the war-whoop and the

war-dance, so inspiring to Indian valor. All, however, were lost

upon the peaceful spirits of his hearers; not a Nez Perce was to

be roused to vengeance, or stimulated to glorious war. In the

bitterness of his heart, the Blackfoot renegade repined at the

mishap which had severed him from a race of congenial spirits,

and driven him to take refuge among beings so destitute of

martial fire.

The character and conduct of this man attracted the attention of

Captain Bonneville, and he was anxious to hear the reason why he

had