Chapter 32

32.

Nez Perce camp A chief with a hard name The Big Hearts of the

East Hospitable treatment The Indian guides Mysterious

councils The loquacious chief Indian tomb Grand Indian

reception An Indian feast Town-criers Honesty of the Nez

Perces The captain's attempt at healing.

FOLLOWING THE COURSE of the Immahah, Captain Bonneville and his

three companions soon reached the vicinity of Snake River. Their

route now lay over a succession of steep and isolated hills, with

profound valleys. On the second day, after taking leave of the

affectionate old patriarch, as they were descending into one of

those deep and abrupt intervals, they descried a smoke, and

shortly afterward came in sight of a small encampment of Nez

Perces.

The Indians, when they ascertained that it was a party of white

men approaching, greeted them with a salute of firearms, and

invited them to encamp. This band was likewise under the sway of

a venerable chief named Yo-mus-ro-y-e-cut; a name which we shall

be careful not to inflict oftener than is necessary upon the

reader This ancient and hard-named chieftain welcomed Captain

Bonneville to his camp with the same hospitality and loving

kindness that he had experienced from his predecessor. He told

the captain he had often heard of the Americans and their

generous deeds, and that his buffalo brethren (the Upper Nez

Perces) had always spoken of them as the Big-hearted whites of

the East, the very good friends of the Nez Perces.

Captain Bonneville felt somewhat uneasy under the responsibility

of this magnanimous but costly appellation; and began to fear he

might be involved in a second interchange of pledges of

friendship. He hastened, therefore, to let the old chief know his

poverty-stricken state, and how little there was to be expected

from him.

He informed him that he and his comrades had long resided among

the Upper Nez Perces, and loved them so much, that they had

thrown their arms around them, and now held them close to their

hearts. That he had received such good accounts from the Upper

Nez Perces of their cousins, the Lower Nez Perce-s, that he had

become desirous of knowing them as friends and brothers. That he

and his companions had accordingly loaded a mule with presents

and set off for the country of the Lower Nez Perces; but,

unfortunately, had been entrapped for many days among the snowy

mountains; and that the mule with all the presents had fallen

into Snake River, and been swept away by the rapid current. That

instead, therefore, of arriving among their