While sketching what Miller called this “wild scene,” he watched with apprehension as Stewart and one of his companions rode to various points along the raging torrent, apparently looking for a good place to cross. When he returned, Miller asked Stewart if he intended to cross the stream, to which the Captain replied, “Yes.” “Not the slightest necessity existed for this,” Miller complained, “(except that [the] river looked a little in opposition), as we had to return again:–but this willfulness on the part of the torrent settled the question.” Recalling that one of his friends had been drowned in a similar attempt, Miller was not an enthusiastic participant, but when one of the trappers called out that “Allons nous en—mes amis! J’ai la trouvé la place,” [roughly translated, “let’s go, my friends. I have found a place.”] Stewart and Miller joined him and they plunged into the stream. Miller wrote,
The water rushed with such force that, although it was near his arm pit on one side, it was below his knee on the other, at the same time drifting him down the river, but we saw him reach the opposite shore in safety. Now our leader said to us, “Keep your horse’s nose out of the water and let him have his own way,” whereupon in he went and we after him;–the greatest danger was in drifting opposite a perpendicular bank on the other side, where the horses and riders would both infallibly have drowned,–but it carried us beyond it, and gave us a good landing. After a shake or two in the manner of a canine:–He said, “You swim, don’t you?” “No!” “Well (he remarked) neither do I, it will teach you self reliance, you know not what you can do until you have tried.” (Ross, 1968, text accompanying plate 120)
Ron Tyler
