LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 97 



Singly, and in bands numbering from two to ten, the 

 trappers dropped into the rendezvous ; some with many 

 pack-loads of beaver, others with greater or less quantity, 

 and more than one on foot, having lost his animals 

 and peltry by Indian thieving. Here were soon con- 

 gregated many mountaineers, whose names are famous 

 in the history of the Far West. Fitzpatrick and 

 Hatcher, and old Bill Williams, well-known leaders of 

 trapping parties, soon arrived with their bands. Sub- 

 lette came in with his men from Yellow Stone, and 

 many of Wyeth's New Englanders were there. Cha- 

 bonard with his half-breeds, Wah-keitchas all, brought 

 his peltries from the lower country ; and half-a-dozen 

 Shawanee and Delaware Indians, with a Mexican from 

 Taos, one Marcelline, a fine strapping fellow, the best 

 trapper and hunter in the mountains, and ever first in 

 the fight. Here, too, arrived the " Bourgeois " traders of 

 the " North West " * Company, with their superior 

 equipments, ready to meet their trappers, and purchase 

 the beaver at an equitable value ; and soon the trade 

 opened, and the encampment assumed a busy appear- 

 ance. 



A curious assemblage did the rendezvous present, and 

 representatives of many a land met there. A son of 

 la belle France here lit his pipe from one proffered by 

 a native of New Mexico. An Englishman and a 

 Sandwich Islander cut a quid from the same plug of 

 tobacco. A Swede and an " old Virginian " puffed 



* The Hudson's Bay Company is so called by the American 

 trappers. 



G 



