Early the next morning, a party of thirty men set off in
pursuit of the foe, and Captain Bonneville hoped to hear a good account
of the Blackfeet marauders. To his disappointment, the war party came
lagging back on the following day, leading a few old, sorry, broken-down
horses, which the free-booters had not been able to urge to sufficient
speed. This effort exhausted the martial spirit, and satisfied the
wounded pride of the Nez Perces, and they relapsed into their usual
state of passive indifference.
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.
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