A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

1743.] THE SNAKE INDIANS. 31would make it a purgatory to any civilized whiteman.The Chevalier left his brother to watch over thebaggage of the part}% which was stored in the lodgeof the great chief, while he himself, with his twoCanadians, joined the advancing warriors. Theywere on horseback, marching with a certain order,and sending watchmen to reconnoitre the countryfrom the tops of the hills. ^ Their movements wereso slow that it was twelve days beforethey reachedthe foot of the mountains, which, says La Vdrendrye," are for the most part well wooded, and seem veryhigh."^ He longed to climb their great snowencumberedpeaks, fancying that he might then seethe Pacific,and never dreaming that more than eighthundred miles of mountains and forests still laybetween him and hisThrough the whole ofgoal.the present century the villagesof the Snakes were at a considerable distancewest of the Bighorn Range, and some of them wereeven on the upper waters of the Pacific slope. It islikely that they were so in 1743, in which case thewar-party would not have only reached theBighornMountains, but have pushed farther on to withinsight of the great Wind River Range.Be this as itmay, their scouts reached the chief winter camp of1 At least this was done by a band of Sioux witli whom theof the country ranged by these samewriter once traversed a partSnakes, who had lately destroyed an entire Sioux village.2 The Bighorn Eange, below the snow line, is in the main welltimbered with pine, fir, oak, and juniper.